In Clubland
A trio of October book club selections make their debuts on our hardcover fiction list.
#3 Mad Honey by Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Finney Boylan (Good Morning America Book Club)
“Picoult joins forces with novelist and transgender activist Boylan for a spellbinding yarn involving a teen’s trial for murder, according to our review. “Overall, it’s a fruitful collaboration.”
#5 Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng (Good Housekeeping Book Club, Reese’s Book Club)
“Ng’s remarkable dystopian latest depicts draconian family separation tactics and a normalizing of violence against Asians and Asian Americans in an alternate present,” per our starred review.
#17 The Whalebone Theatre by Joanna Quinn (Read with Jenna)
“The emotional upheaval of the interwar years in England is dramatized afresh in Quinn’s dazzling and imaginative debut,” we wrote in our starred review.
Beginning of the End
In the 2017 YA novel They Both Die at the End, Adam Silvera introduced Death-Cast, a corporation that can predict when a person will die. That book has since become a viral TikTok hit (see “Boon or Burden?,” for a look at the broader YA BookTok phenomenon). The First to Die at the End, his “heart-wrenching standalone prequel,” according to our starred review, sees “two queer teens make the most of the time they have left together.” With its “stunning and thought-provoking narrative that examines difficult existential questions without eschewing hope,” the book lands at #1 on our children’s fiction list.
Shine On
Yung Pueblo is a “meditator writer speaker” per his bio on Instagram, where he has 2.3 million followers. Lighter—his third book, first Harmony release, and first hardcover—is the #4 book in the country. It offers “inspiring if rose-colored musings on spiritual healing,” according to our review. “Pueblo’s fans will be grateful for the guidance.”
NEW & NOTABLE
CONFIDENCE MAN
Maggie Haberman
#1 Hardcover Nonfiction
#1 overall
“The shock of Donald Trump’s election and polarizing presidency was less sudden than it first appeared, according to this sprawling account from Pulitzer winner Haberman,” per our starred review. She’s “especially insightful on how his combative instincts and transactional worldview were forged in the cauldron of New York City’s racialized politics and cutthroat real estate market.”
PREPPY KITCHEN
John Kanell
#9 Hardcover Nonfiction
“With a vibrant assortment of recipes inspired by his eponymous blog, [Kanell] takes readers on a culinary jaunt through the seasons,” we wrote in our starred review. “For home cooks looking to entertain with exciting meals, this is indispensable.”
