Happy Leap Year! In honor of the shortest month of the year, we’ve compiled a list of upcoming releases sorted by publishing date for you to pre-order, borrow from your local library, etc. so that you can keep meeting your reading goals! To support your local bookstore and easily purchase from this list, click for the Bookshop list here.
February 6, 2024
I Hope This Doesn’t Find You by Ann Liang
If you’re a fan of To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, then I Hope This Doesn’t Find You was made for you. Sadie Wen is a model student and beloved by all. To keep her reputation intact, she writes angry email drafts to anyone that upsets her (especially to Julius Gong, her archnemesis) . But it’s okay, because she never presses the send button… right? Wrong. The emails are accidentally sent out one day causing a nightmarish storm. But one person surprises her amidst everything – her sworn enemy, Julius.
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The Things We Didn’t Know by Elba Iris Pérez
This debut novel is a bildungsroman based in 1950’s Puerto Rico and a small town in Massachusetts. Andrea and her brother Pablo are whisked away by their mother from the only home they’ve known and taken to Puerto Rico, where she promises she will come back for them. When they return to their small town, things have changed and they must learn to adjust as they make their way toward adulthood. An exploration of race, identity, and class, it’s no question why this one is hotly anticipated.
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Last Seen in Havana by Teresa Dovalpage
Part of a loose series but able to be read as a standalone novel, Last Seen in Havana goes back to Cuba, following a Cuban American woman who is searching for her mother. As she tries to uncover what happened to her mother, we also go back 33 years in time and read her mother’s perspective until the two stories collide. With two narratives, describing the Cuba of the 80’s and the Cuba of present-day, Dovalpage provides a nuanced look at the island she calls her part-time home.
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Aftershock by Zhang Ling (translated by Shelly Bryant)
In 1976, an earthquake rocks the city of Tangshan in China. In the terror and chaos, a young Xiaodeng is separated from her mother and brother. Three decades later, she is living in Canada, clueless as to the fate of her family on that day. Although she has built a new family, she realizes she still needs to heal and find closure – so she returns to Tangshan. Ling is an award-winning author, and we are beyond excited that this one has gotten an English translation
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Redwood Court by DéLana R. A. Dameron
Mika Tabor is the youngest of her Southern Black family in the 1990’s. She spends much of her time listening to the stories of her family members, collecting their tales and hearing their struggles, all the while learning important lessons. An exploration of one family in the deep south and their ambition to achieve the American dream, Dameron’s debut novel is one we are absolutely sure to devour.
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A Love Song for Ricki Wilde by Tia Williams
Ricki Wilde is the disappointing, impulsive, artistic daughter of an Atlantan dynastic family. When she gets the offer to move to Harlem, she jumps at the chance to leave behind her boring life to realize her dream of opening a flower shop. One evening, she meets a man who changes the course of her life. Williams is a bestselling author and this one is sure to be another breathtaking love story full of wit, romance, and Black excellence.
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February 13, 2024
At First Spite by Olivia Dade
Olivia Dade is back at it with a beautiful plus-sized protagonist named Athena who has recently had her engagement ended. Even worse, her fiancé’s brother was the one who convinced him to leave her. Worse still, she’s forced to be both brothers’ neighbors in the tiny home she built next to the house she once lived in with her ex. She takes the opportunity to be the worst neighbor she can be to punish the man who ruined her life – only to find out that maybe she was engaged to the wrong brother in the first place?
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Acts of Forgiveness by Maura Cheeks
Maura Cheeks’ debut novel imagines a United States that has just elected its first female president who enacts the Forgiveness Act, which will pay Black families up to $175,000 in reparations if they can prove they are the descendants of slaves. For single mother Willie Revel, the money could be life-changing. But as she begins to explore her family’s complicated ancestry and history, she isn’t sure if it’s worth unearthing after all.
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I Love You So Much It’s Killing Us Both by Mariah Stovall
I Love You So Much It’s Killing Us Both takes us inside the mind of Khaki Oliver, who has a dead-end job and a nearly empty apartment. One day, she receives an invitation from her estranged best friend inviting her to a celebration for her newly adopted daughter. Khaki is terrified of reconnecting and falling back into the unhealthily codependent friendship they once had. While deciding on her RSVP, she starts crafting a mixtape that spans the ages and brings up old memories. Perfect for music lovers, Stovall’s first novel is sure to be a good one.
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The Kamogawa Food Detectives by Hisashi Kashiwai (translated by Jesse Kirkwood)
The best-selling mystery series in Japan is finally getting an English translation. A father and daughter run a famous restaurant together in Kyoto. Not only is the food delicious, but the pair are “food detectives” – able to find and recreate lost recipes from patrons’ treasured memories. Full of “what if”s and the different paths lives can take, we learn about lives that are lost and lives that are found through the power of food.
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The Framed Women of Ardemore House by Brandy Schillace
Jo Jones is autistic, hyperlexic, and she’s a divorced American living in the English countryside. That was all troubling enough. Then came the body in her potentially haunted new home. Not only is she a suspect in this chilling murder, but she’s also afraid she’ll be the next victim. All that plus a missing painting in her home leads her to her own detective work.
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Medea by Eilish Quin
Quin’s debut takes on the retelling of Medea’s tale, a witch most hated in Greek mythology for killing her own children to exact revenge upon her husband Jason. But what if the story is more complicated than what we know? This upcoming novel tells the tale from Medea’s point of view.
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Convergence Problems by Wole Talabi
An established heavyweight in sci-fi and fantasy, Talabi’s latest is a collection of stories examining the role of technology and how it affects humanity now and in the future. With sixteen different short stories, this one will be both quick and profound. Plus, what a beautiful cover!
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Plastic by Scott Guild
Guild’s debut is a fresh take on how gun violence has unimaginable psychological, physical, and spiritual effects on our world. Following Erin, whose body is articulated every day into Tablet Town, where she sells even more Smartbodies. A dystopian fantasy, Guild is also releasing Plastic: The Album, in collaboration with Jeff Saltzman (who produced Mr. Brightside!).
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The Blueprint by Rae Giana Rashad
In a Texas where choice has been wrenched away, Solenne Bonet finds escape through writing about her ancestor Henriette who was an enslaved concubine in the 19th century. When an algorithm cruelly pushes her own life in the same direction, she must decide if and how to leave all she knows behind with the guidance of Henriette. A dual timeline format, The Blueprint is inspired by the lives of Sally Hemings and other enslaved Black girls and women.
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The Fortune Seller by Rachel Kapelke-Dale
Set in the early aughts, The Fortune Seller is a cutting examination of class. Rosie Mcalister is on the equestrian team at Yale and has tried very hard to fit in with her wealthy friends. When she returns from a year studying abroad, she finds that an enigmatic tarot reader named Annelise Tattinger has infiltrated her friend group. When money starts to go missing, all the girls turn against each other. After graduation, Rosie finds out Annelise’s true identity – can she make things right now? Or is it too late?
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The Fox Wife by Yangsze Choo
In 1908 Manchuria, a woman is found frozen to death. With the possibility of the fox gods having a hand in this, Detective Bao sets out to find out what happened. Then there’s the family who own a medicine shop that can cure any ailment – except their own, with all men in the family dying before the age of 24. A servant named Snow comes into their family and changes everything – but is it for better or for worse?
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February 20, 2024
Mrs. Gulliver by Valerie Martin
Valerie Martin is an accomplished author, coming out with a novel about two women – one who owns a high-end brothel and one who works at one – in 1954 on Verona Island. Lila Gulliver takes a chance and hires the beautiful blind woman Carità. When Carità falls in love with a rich client, Lila worries for her reckless employee’s safety.
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A Fire So Wild by Sarah Ruiz-Grossman
A wildfire looms on Berkeley and the incredibly disparate residents are each forced to contend with it. The haves and have-nots must reckon with the inequities and fragility of the lives they’ve built. Written by Huffpost Contributor Sarah Ruiz-Grossman, the book borrows from the very real-life threat of climate change.
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The Turtle House by Amanda Churchill
25-year-old Lia Cope and her grandmother Mineko have the opportunity to connect when they are both at crossroads in their lives, living in Curtain, TX. They grow close learning about one another and their histories and ambitions. When Lia’s family wants to enter Mineko into a facility, they come up with a plan to bring a lost place to life.
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Batshit Seven by Sheung-King
Batshit Seven follows a man named Glen Wu living through the Hong Kong protests and trying to figure out his own life. As he learns more about colonialism, he gets pulled deeper and deeper into drinking and darkness, ultimately ending in an act of violence.
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Ours by Phillip B. Williams
In Ours, a woman named Saint is a conjurer who destroys plantations and brings the people enslaved at them to a haven that can’t be breached by outsider. She calls it Ours. As her power begins to wane, the town is left unsafe. The novel takes place over four decades. Blending the historical with the magical, Ours is sure to be a must-read.
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Love and Hot Chicken by Mary Liza Hartong
In her debut, Hartong has woven a fascinating romance following two lesbians in the South. In Love and Hot Chicken, PJ Spoon goes home from her Ph.D. program for her father’s funeral. She doesn’t plan to stay long, but plans change, and she ends up taking a job at the local fried chicken joint, the Chickie Shak. While there, PJ falls for her coworker Boof. Together, they search for Boof’s biological mother.
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Island Witch by Amanda Jayatissa
Inspired by folklore, Island Witch takes place in 19th century Sri Lanka. Amara is the daughter of the village Capuwa, or demon-priest. She’s used to being an outcast, especially since people think she’s a witch herself. But when her father is accused of the mysterious attacks plaguing their village, she must do her best to clear his name once and for all.
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February 27, 2024
Green Dot by Madeleine Gray
24-year-old Hera is lost. When she begins an affair with a middle-aged man, her life finally feels exciting. A twist on the usual coming-of-age story, Gray writes about what it’s like entering into your twenties in the modern technological era. For those who love messy female protagonists, Hera is your girl and Green Dot is your book!
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Wandering Stars by Tommy Orange
You probably knew this one was coming up if you’re a fan of There There. In the follow-up to his debut, Wandering Stars investigates the legacy of the Sand Creek Massacre of 1864. He writes about three generations of a family in a tragic story that has residential schools, institutional violence, and generational trauma. Tommy Orange is a preeminent writer and this book is sure to live up to the excellence of his first.
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Whiskey Tender by Debora Taffa
Debora Taffa’s memoir follows her life as a mixed tribe Native girl and forging her own identity, beyond the one her family wants for her as an assimilated Indian. Taffa’s humor combined with historical analysis is reflective and gentle towards her family, while tearing apart the promise of the “melting pot”. Given a stamp of approval by Tommy Orange, Taffa’s memoir is sure to be unforgettable.
thank you for sharing these! I’m hoping to find some new interesting reads, and acts of forgiveness looks really promising (well, all of these do). keep up the good work, Lamia!