Winter’s Must-Read New Releases
The Books Everyone Will Be Talking About
This season’s new releases are brimming with stories that speak directly to women who love a great read with substance and soul. From Margaret Atwood’s latest nonfiction reflections to binge-worthy historical fiction, gripping women’s suspense, and romances that feel refreshingly real, these titles deliver everything from heart to humor. Whether you’re curling up with a cup of tea or hosting your next book club night, these books are the kind that spark conversation, connection, and maybe even a little self-reflection.
Ready to find your next great read? Here are the new books that everyone’s buzzing about—and that you’ll want to add to your nightstand immediately.
100 Rules for Living to 100: An Optimist's Guide to a Happy Life
by Dick Van Dyke
On the eve of his 100th birthday, national treasure Dick Van Dyke brings us this autobiographical collection of stories, reflections, and life advice on how he's maintained a zest for life.
Dick Van Dyke danced his way into our hearts with iconic roles in Mary Poppins, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, and The Dick Van Dyke Show. Now, as he's about to turn 100 years old, Dick is still dancing and approaching life with the twinkle in his eye that we've come to know and love. In 100 Rules for Living to 100, he reveals his secrets for maintaining your joie de vivre and making the most out of the life you've been given.
And Then There Was You
by Sophie Cousens
She's found the perfect man . . . There's just one big twist.
Stuck in a Production Assistant job and living at home with her parents after a painful breakup, thirty-one-year-old Chloe Fairway isn't where she wants to be in life. The last thing she needs is to face the people who once voted her "most likely to succeed" at her upcoming ten-year college reunion. And she definitely doesn't want to see her former best friend, Sean Adler, who is now a hotshot film director living the life Chloe dreamed of. Desperate to make a splash--and to save face in front of the man who might be the one that got away--she turns to a mysterious dating service.
The Birdwatcher
by Jacquelyn Mitchard
A Zibby's Most Anticipated Book of Fall 2025!
From New York Times bestselling author Jacquelyn Mitchard comes a page-turning drama that explores the beauty of female friendship; the relationship between money, power, and sex; and the very human desire to protect the ones we love most.
When she is convicted of a double murder, Felicity Wild, a brilliant grad student turned high-priced escort, declares, "I may not be innocent, but I'm innocent of this."
Reenie Bigelow never doubted it. A jury may have given Felicity a life sentence, but Reenie knows that her childhood best friend is not capable of murder. And so Reenie, a journalist, decides to use her deep connections to Felicity's past to unravel the truth.
Boleyn Traitor
by Philippa Gregory
#1 New York Times bestselling author and "queen of royal fiction" (USA Today) Philippa Gregory returns with a dazzling historical novel of ambition, betrayal, and survival in the court of Henry VIII.
Jane Boleyn watches from the shadows of the Tudor court, where secrets are currency, every choice is dangerous, and even the faintest whisper can seal the fate of queens.
For Jane, survival demands playing every role required of her: a loving wife who conceals her doubts, a devoted sister to Anne Boleyn at the height of her power, and an obedient spy who carefully wields her words. But in a court ruled by ambition and a tyrant's sword, Jane must rely on her sharp wit and skillful maneuvering to outthink those around her, knowing that one wrong move could cost her everything.
Book of Lives: A Memoir of Sorts
by Margaret Atwood
How does one of the greatest storytellers of our time write her own life? The long-awaited memoir from the author of The Handmaid's Tale and The Testaments, one of our most lauded and influential cultural figures.
'Every writer is at least two beings: the one who lives, and the one who writes. Though everything written must have passed through their minds, or mind, they are not the same.'
Raised by ruggedly independent, scientifically minded parents - entomologist father, dietician mother - Atwood spent most of each year in the wild forest of northern Quebec. This childhood was unfettered and nomadic, sometimes isolated (on her eighth birthday: 'It sounds forlorn. It was forlorn. It
Far from the A-List
by Stephanie Burns
In this fresh, propulsive take on fame in the tabloid era of the '00s, a former child star struggles to figure out who she is beyond the characters she's played--on television and in relationships.
Former child star Michaela Turner is ready for her next big role--she just doesn't know what it is yet. As someone whose days were once filled with bright lights, never-ending rehearsals, and adoring fans from around the world, Michaela now struggles to define herself beyond the glitz and glamour of her past.
She tries hard to stay out of the tabloids, but fading into the background isn't quite as easy as it sounds. Not when her manipulative momager, Caroline, is dead set on launching her daughter's big comeback, no matter how many old wounds it tears open. And especially not when Michaela's attempts at "normal" relationships fail spectacularly at every turn, from the toxic ex she can't seem to escape to the nice guy she wishes she could see a future with.
Frostlines: A Journey Through Entangled Lives and Landscapes in a Warming Arctic
by Neil Shea
A sweeping exploration of the Arctic--and how it's being transformed by climate change--from National Geographic writer Neil Shea
As warming reshapes our planet, the Arctic--a region that once seemed unchangeable, beyond the reach of modern problems--is quickly coming undone. While the old cold world can still be glimpsed in the movements of caribou, the hidden lives of wolves, and the hunting skill of an Iñupiaq elder, look closer and you'll find a new Arctic appearing in its place.
The Heir Apparent
by Rebecca Armitage
An irresistible modern fairy tale about a British princess who must decide between her duty to her family--or to her own heart.
It's New Year's Day in Australia and the life Lexi Villiers has carefully built is working out nicely: she's in the second year of her medical residency, she lives on a beautiful farm with her two best friends Finn and Jack, and she's about to finally become more-than-friendly with Jack--when a helicopter abruptly lands.
Out steps her grandmother's right-hand-man, with the tragic news that her father and older brother have been killed in a skiing accident. Lexi's grandmother happens to be the Queen of England, and in addition to the shock and grief, Lexi must now accept the reality that she is suddenly next in line for the throne--a role she has publicly disavowed.
The Predicament: A Gabriel Dax Novel
by William Boyd
"Boyd is one of my favorite authors."--Kate Atkinson
From the internationally bestselling author, a thrilling novel starring the travel writer-turned-reluctant spy Gabriel Dax, who finds himself implicated in a dangerous conspiracy with global consequences
1963, Guatemala. The country is in turmoil, with a presidential election looming and a charismatic, left-wing ex-priest and trade union leader predicted to win. United Fruits, a giant American corporation responsible for a large percentage of the country's GNP, meanwhile, is not pleased by this prospect. Neither is the CIA. Amid the uncertainty, Gabriel Dax arrives on orders from his MI6 handler Faith Green, who has tasked him with assessing the fallout from the election.
Queen Esther
by John Irving
After forty years, John Irving returns to the world of his bestselling classic novel and Academy Award-winning film, The Cider House Rules, revisiting the orphanage in St. Cloud's, Maine, where Dr. Wilbur Larch takes in Esther--a Viennese-born Jew whose life is shaped by anti-Semitism.
Esther Nacht is born in Vienna in 1905. Her father dies on board the ship to Portland, Maine; her mother is murdered by anti-Semites in Portland. Dr. Larch knows it won't be easy to find a Jewish family to adopt Esther; in fact, he won't find any family who'll adopt her.
Shadow Ticket
by Thomas Pynchon
The new novel from Thomas Pynchon, bestselling and award-winning author of Gravity's Rainbow, The Crying of Lot 49, Vineland, and Inherent Vice.
Milwaukee 1932, the Great Depression going full blast, repeal of Prohibition just around the corner, Al Capone in the federal pen, the private investigation business shifting from labor-management relations to the more domestic kind. Hicks McTaggart, a onetime strikebreaker turned private eye, thinks he's found job security until he gets sent out on what should be a routine case, locating and bringing back the heiress of a Wisconsin cheese fortune who's taken a mind to go wandering. Before he knows it, he's been shanghaied onto a transoceanic liner, ending up eventually in Hungary where there's no shoreline, a language from some other planet, and enough pastry to see any cop well into retirement--and of course no sign of the runaway heiress he's supposed to be chasing. By the time Hicks catches up with her he will find himself also entangled with Nazis, Soviet agents, British counterspies, swing musicians, practitioners of the paranormal, outlaw motorcyclists, and the troubles that come with each of them, none of which Hicks is qualified, forget about being paid, to deal with.
Some Bright Nowhere
by Ann Packer
"Profound and moving and real."--Andrew Sean Greer
"Some Bright Nowhere is a novel that draws you in deeply and holds you there. Wonderful."--Meg Wolitzer
The bestselling, beloved author returns with her first novel in over a decade, an intimate and profoundly moving look at a long marriage and the ways in which a startling request can change a couple's understanding of who they are, together and apart.
Eliot and his wife Claire have been happily married for nearly four decades. They've raised two children in their sleepy Connecticut town and have weathered the inevitable ups and downs of a long life spent together. But eight years after Claire was diagnosed with cancer, the end is near, and it's time to gather loved ones and prepare for the inevitable.
The Tin Men
by Nelson DeMille - Alex DeMille
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
At a top-secret Army training facility in the Mojave Desert, Special Agents Scott Brodie and Maggie Taylor plunge into a deadly web of military intrigue, AI technology, and robot soldiers as they unravel the shocking murder of a senior scientist in this gripping thriller from New York Times bestselling authors Nelson DeMille and Alex DeMille.
Army CID Special Agents Scott Brodie and Maggie Taylor team up for their toughest assignment yet as they are dispatched to Camp Hayden to investigate the death of Major Roger Ames, the chief scientist in charge of the top-secret war games being conducted between a platoon of Army Rangers and a fleet of "lethal autonomous weapons." Brodie and Taylor find themselves at ground zero of the next generation of warfare, and must untangle the complex web of alliances, animosities, and secret agendas among the men and women of the isolated facility.
In a place cut off from the world and exposed to the harsh desert elements, everyone is a suspect--from the zealous camp commander who pushes his men to the limit, to the Rangers slipping into madness due to isolation, grueling training, and rampant abuse of performance-enhancing drugs, to the late Major Ames's own research colleagues. Brodie and Taylor must uncover layers of deception to find the hidden hand behind the murder of Major Ames, and the real purpose of the activities at Camp Hayden and its terrifying arsenal of next-generation weapons.
This gripping thriller, the final novel from the legendary Nelson DeMille, coauthored with his son Alex DeMille, is a masterful blend of suspense and cutting-edge technology. It is a page-turning and thought-provoking exploration of the implications of AI in modern warfare and is a must-read for fans of military thrillers.
Twice
by Mitch Albom
A GOOD MORNING AMERICA BOOK CLUB PICK - AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
When he is eight years old, Alfie Logan discovers the magical ability to get a second chance at everything. He can undo any moment and live it again. The one catch: he must accept the consequences of his second try--for better or worse.
He grows up correcting his mistakes and saving himself from adolescent embarrassments. He even takes foolishly dangerous risks, just to see what it's like to come close to death, before tapping back to safety.
Eventually, Alfie turns his gift to his love life, studying his crushes and going back to make himself more appealing. In time, he falls deeply in love with Gianna, the woman he believes is the one. He seems to find contentment.