September's Best New Books Hand-Picked for You
As the crisp autumn air begins to roll in (hopefully!), we look forward to football, chili and cozy weather that's perfect for reading. Book publishers seem to know this too because September is a huge month for new releases. It's also the perfect time to start looking for books that you might want to gift over the holiday season.
As usual, our editorial team has scoured the new release lists. We've looked at sales data, advance reviews, critical opinions and librarian recommendations to bring you the hottest, most popular and most deserving new book releases to your bookshelf. Let's take a look at what we found.
- John Green, the author of The Fault in Our Stars, brings us an emotionally charged story of love, friendship and grief starring two friends who are cast in a Andy Warhol biopic that's about to change their lives.
- Perfect for Bookworms and fans of historical fiction, The Lost Perfumes of Paris follows Élodie as she fights against all odds to follow in the footsteps of her mother, who was a master perfumer before WWII.
- From Antarctica to the Chilean coast, The Most Dangerous Games is a page-turning adventure created by James Patterson and internet sensation Mrbeast.
- Lucy Foley, the #1 bestselling author behind The Guest List and The Midnight Feast, has revived Agatha Christie's legendary Miss Marple series. We can't wait to see what mysteries lie within the luxurious Grand Alpine Hotel.
- The human body doesn't come with a user manual, until Andrew Huberman, the nueroscientist behind the Huberman Lab podcast created one. Protocols offers step-by-step, science-based hacks to improve seven key areas of health.
- From the author of Red Queen, The Tempest is a spellbinding romantasy with pirates and high-stakes adventures and a fierce female lead caught between two worlds.
Check out our top best-of six picks below, or dive deeper to see our book recommendations hand-picked for your Reader Type.
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Beach Reader
by Fern Michaels
A holiday trip to London becomes a journey of discovery when an ancestry test reveals a long-held family secret. As Ashley searches for the truth about her birth family, an unexpected connection across the ocean could change everything. A Season of Secrets is a warm, uplifting story about family, belonging and the surprising ways we find our way home.
Bookworm
by Alice Hoffman
Bestselling author of Practical Magic Alice Hoffman launches a brand-new series set in 1950s Cambridge, Massachusetts, where two brilliant young women become drawn into the mysterious Lilith Society, a secret group of witches at Radcliffe. Blending history, magic and intrigue, this spellbinding story explores friendship, ambition and the secrets that can change everything.
Dragon Slayer
by Geneva Lee
Magic, fate and forbidden attraction collide in Harbinger, an epic new romantasy from international bestselling author Geneva Lee. Arden Icaros expects to inherit her family’s earth magic and return quietly to farm life, but one fateful ceremony instead brands her an omen of war and puts assassins on her trail. Her only hope is Bishop, a ruthless and feared protector with dangerous secrets of his own. High-stakes intrigue, powerful magic and slow-burning tension launch a sweeping new fantasy adventure.
Galactic Guru
by Emily St. John Mandel
Award-winning Station Eleven author Emily St. John Mandel returns with Exit Party, a new novel of fractured timelines, shadow worlds and mysterious doubles. In a near-future Los Angeles emerging from civil war, Ari Waker attends a glittering party where an uncanny doppelgänger appears and the host suddenly vanishes. Her search for answers unfolds across continents, decades and even worlds in a genre-bending story about resilience, freedom and the price we pay for safety.
The Hobbyist
by Carla Hall, Lauren Chattman
Top Chef fan-favorite Carla Hall returns to her first culinary love, baking. With more than 80 sweet and savory recipes rooted in Southern traditions and inspired by her travels, Hall puts a playful spin on everything from biscuits and cookies to cakes, pastries and breads. Along the way, her approachable guidance takes the intimidation out of baking and encourages home cooks to experiment, get creative and have a little more fun in the kitchen.
Game Day Hero
by Dolph Lundgren
Action icon Dolph Lundgren, best known as Ivan Drago in Rocky IV, tells the remarkable story of the battles that shaped his life on screen and off. From his childhood in Sweden and early years as a chemical engineer to Hollywood stardom and his deeply personal fight with cancer, Fights Worth Fighting is a candid memoir about resilience, reinvention and what real strength looks like when the cameras stop rolling.
Leading Lady
by Nanako Hanada, Cat Anderson
An international bestseller comes to the U.S. with the true story of a Tokyo bookseller who discovers the remarkable power of putting the right book into someone’s hands. When her marriage falls apart, Nanako Hanada begins meeting strangers for 30-minute conversations, promising each one a recommendation for the book that could change their life. Warm, funny and wonderfully bookish, The Bookshop Woman is a charming memoir about finding connection and yourself through a shared love of reading.
Lifelong Learner
by Barbara Lazio
Neurosurgeon Barbara Lazio pulls back the curtain on the operating room in Off the Top of My Head, a humorous, heartfelt collection of stories from a career spent working with the human brain. Lazio offers a rare glimpse into a world where life can change in an instant. Warm, candid and surprisingly uplifting, it’s a fascinating look at the humanity behind the high-stakes drama of brain surgery.
Maverick
by Bill O'Reilly, Josh Hammer
Bill O’Reilly and Josh Hammer examine more than five decades of American history in Confronting America: What Has to Change, viewed through O’Reilly’s experiences as a journalist. Encounters with presidents, cultural icons and media legends provide the backdrop for previously unreported stories and O’Reilly’s perspective on politics, terrorism, crime, corruption and the challenges facing the country today.
Modern Romantic
by Julie Olivia
A brooding rock star and a joyful children’s TV producer find themselves sharing an unexpected spotlight in Love Felt Like This, a cozy small-town romance from USA Today bestselling author Julie Olivia. When Griffin, newly responsible for his 2-year-old daughter, and Beverly, determined to save her struggling children’s show, discover unexpected chemistry on live television, they retreat to her mountain hometown to create a little magic together.
Self-Starter
by Pamela Meyer
What if you could get better at spotting the signals that reveal what people are really thinking? Pamela Meyer explores the hidden cues that shape power, trust and influence in How to Read the Room. Using behavioral science, intelligence-agency techniques and real-world stories, Meyer offers a four-step approach to understanding motives, reading emotional undercurrents and recognizing subtle shifts in a room. It’s a practical guide to sharpening your social intelligence and becoming a more perceptive communicator.
Serial Reader
by Jessica Brody
In How to Write a Murder, bestselling author Jessica Brody turns the conventions of the genre into a wickedly clever whodunit when a prestigious writers’ conference is interrupted by an unexpected guest, a landslide and, naturally, a dead body. With everyone hiding something, the guest writers will have to solve the perfect murder before the killer writes another ending.
Spiritual Seeker
by Lea Korsgaard, Sherilyn Nicolette Hellberg
What begins as a simple New Year’s challenge becomes a yearlong journey into the wonders of the natural world. Award-winning journalist Lea Korsgaard sets out to find all 64 species of butterflies native to Denmark, following them through meadows, marshes and coastal landscapes. Part nature writing, part memoir and part meditation on transformation, this international bestseller explores what these fleeting creatures can teach us about beginnings, endings and the beauty of paying attention.
Stunt Double
by Rachel Harrison
The perfect wedding weekend turns into a bloody nightmare on repeat in Kiss Slay Replay, a wild new horror novel from New York Times bestselling author Rachel Harrison. Willa Sullivan is already dreading seeing her ex-fiancé at her best friends’ wedding when a masked killer crashes the celebration and leaves carnage in his wake. Then Willa wakes up on the morning of the wedding and realizes she’s trapped in a deadly time loop. Darkly funny, twisty and deliciously bloody, it’s a wedding she’ll have to survive again and again if she ever wants to make it home.
Time Traveler
by Ariel Lawhon
Born to the sea but bound by expectations, Grace O’Malley refuses to accept the life chosen for her in The Pirate Queen. New York Times bestselling author Ariel Lawhon reimagines the extraordinary life of the legendary 16th-century Irish sea captain as she fights for independence, commands her clan’s mighty fleet and defends her people against the growing power of Queen Elizabeth’s England.
The Trendsetter
by Danielle Steel
Power, privilege and ambition collide in Ruthless, a new novel from #1 New York Times bestselling author Danielle Steel. While vacationing in glamorous Saint Barts, journalist Charlotte Ramsay crosses paths with formidable shipping magnate John Randall Williams and finds herself pursuing a story he doesn’t want told. Moving from Manhattan’s corridors of power to luxury yachts in the Caribbean, this compelling novel explores the private lives of the wealthy and the secrets hiding behind carefully constructed facades.
Woke Up Like This
by Marlon James
In 1988 Kingston, Jamaica, eight gay men come together to rehearse a play in a society that refuses to accept them. When a brutal attack leaves one of them dead, the survivors must reckon with grief, rage and the choices they make to survive. Booker Prize-winning author Marlon James’s The Disappearers is a propulsive crime story and deeply human portrait of queer life, connection and resilience in 1980s and ’90s Jamaica.
World Traveler
by Lucy Worsley
Step inside Britain’s grandest palaces with historian Lucy Worsley as your guide. Drawing on more than two decades as Chief Curator for Historic Royal Palaces, Worsley revisits pivotal moments in British history, from Henry VIII’s break with Rome to Queen Victoria’s private world and her own lunch with Queen Elizabeth II. Rich with behind-the-scenes stories, royal intrigue and Worsley’s signature wit, it’s a fresh tour through centuries of monarchy.
Young at Heart
by Tom O'Donnell
Lucy Kline thought she’d solved her twin sister’s murder. Two years later, another girl who looks eerily like Louisa disappears, ghostly dreams begin haunting Lucy and the clues point toward something she never expected: necromancy. Blending true-crime thrills with supernatural chills, its a darkly funny, fast-paced mystery about sisterhood, grief and what happens when the dead refuse to stay silent.
Cool Mom/Dad
by Barbara Costello
Making your home happier, healthier and easier to manage is at the heart of this practical, feel-good guide from Barbara Costello, the New York Times bestselling author of Every Day with Babs. The internet’s favorite grandma shares more than 100 tried-and-true hacks for everything from quick cleaning routines and seasonal organizing to home maintenance, natural cleaners and getting the whole household involved.
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