Fall brings books on secret crime rings, how the internet shapes reality, the gray area between business and politics, the aftereffects of murder, skyrocketing housing costs, and racism in education.
Top 10
All She Lost: The Explosion in Lebanon and the Story of a Nation’s Collapse
Dalal Mawad. Bloomsbury Continuum, Jan. 9 ($28, ISBN 978-1-399-40625-3)
CNN journalist Mawad interweaves the history of Lebanon with profiles of dozens of women who survived or were otherwise affected by the 2020 explosion in the port of Beirut.
Among the Bros: A Fraternity Crime Story
Max Marshall. Harper, Nov. 7 ($30, ISBN 978-0-06-309953-1)
Marshall’s investigation into Greek life at the College of Charleston uncovers an interstate drug-trafficking ring, a murder, and connections to the country’s elite power networks.
Disillusioned: Five Families and the Unraveling of America’s Suburbs
Benjamin Herold. Penguin Press, Jan. 23 ($32, ISBN 978-0-593-29818-3)
Journalist Herold examines how white flight decimated the U.S. education system and how communities in newly diversifying suburbs are reckoning with the damage.
Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror World
Naomi Klein. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Sept. 12 ($30, ISBN 978-0-374-61032-6)
Klein’s experience of being mistaken for author Naomi Wolf informs this survey of today’s fractured political parties, radicalized Facebook friends, and climate change–induced weather variations.
Egyptian Made: Women, Work, and the Promise of Liberation
Leslie T. Chang. Random House, Jan. 23 ($28.99, ISBN 978-0-525-50921-9)
Focusing on three women involved in Egypt’s textile industry, Chang demonstrates the difficult decisions working women face in a globalized economy and a repressive Egypt.
Endangered Eating: America’s Vanishing Foods
Sarah Lohman. Norton, Oct. 24 ($28.95, ISBN 978-1-324-00466-0)
The author of Eight Flavors travels across the country to document America’s disappearing culinary traditions and taste its heirloom foods in danger of extinction.
The Handover: How We Gave Control of Our Lives to Corporations, States, and AIs
David Runciman. Liveright, Nov. 14 ($30, ISBN 978-1-63149-694-3)
Like corporations and nation states, artificial intelligence is a technological advancement in administration and bureaucracy with the power to remake the world, according to Runciman.
Songs on Endless Repeat: Essays and Outtakes
Anthony Veasna So. Ecco, Dec. 5 ($28.99, ISBN 978-0-06-304996-3)
This posthumous essay collection from the Afterparties short story author showcases his insights into queer desire, second-generation refugee life, pop culture, race, and grief in America.
To Free the Captives: A Plea for the American Soul
Tracy K. Smith. Knopf, Nov. 7 ($27, ISBN 978-0-593-53476-2)
Pulitzer Prize–winning poet Smith blends archival history and personal experience to reflect on the distinction America makes between those who are free and those who have been freed.
Underground Empire: How America Weaponized the World Economy
Henry Farrell and Abraham Newman. Holt, Sept. 12 ($28.99, ISBN 978-1-250-84055-4)
U.S. corporations’ globe-spanning fiber-optic networks and payment-processing systems are being used to exert America’s political muscle abroad, argue the authors of Privacy and Power.
Politics & Current Events longlist
Algonquin
The Book of (More) Delights: Essays by Ross Gay (Sept. 19, $28, ISBN 978-1-64375-309-6). The author of The Book of Delights returns with more essays of the everyday, weaving political, ecological, and sociological observations into an expression of Black joy.
Amistad
Gray Areas: How the Way We Work Perpetuates Racism and What We Can Do to Fix It by Adia Harvey Wingfield (Oct. 17, $29.99, ISBN 978-0-06-307981-6) draws on more than 200 interviews with Black professionals conducted over the course of a decade to demonstrate how workplace cultural norms perpetuate inequality.
ASTRA HOUSE
Slow Down: The Degrowth Manifesto by Kohei Saito, trans. by Brian Bergstrom (Jan. 9, $27, ISBN 978-1-66260-236-8), contends that the deliberate slowing down of mass production and mass consumption, to be achieved through shorter working hours for all, is the only way to avert catastrophic climate change.
Avid Reader
These Walls: The Battle for Rikers Island and the Future of America’s Jails by Eva Fedderly (Oct. 24, $28, ISBN 978-1-982193-91-1) combines architectural history and on-the-ground reporting to analyze the decision to close Rikers Island prison and replace the existing structures with new prison buildings.
Beacon
No Meat Required: The Cultural History and Culinary Future of Plant-Based Eating by Alicia Kennedy (Aug. 15, $26.95, ISBN 978-0-8070-6917-2) tracks the evolution of the political and economic underpinnings of plant-based eating in the U.S., from the radical
communal farms of the 1970s to the mass-produced meat substitutes of today.
Broadleaf
What We Remember Will Be Saved: A Story of Refugees and the Things They Carry by Stephanie Saldaña (Sept. 12, $28.99, ISBN 978-1-5064-8421-1) chronicles the journeys of six Syrian and Iraqi refugees through the lens of the personal belongings they chose to carry with them when they fled their homes.
Chicago Review
Homesick: Why Housing Is Unaffordable and How We Can Change It by Brendan O’Brien (Sept. 19, $19.99 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-64160-969-2) posits that the steep rise in U.S. housing costs over the last several decades is due to the widespread notion that homes are investments rather than places for living.
Columbia Univ.
The New City: How to Build Our Sustainable Urban Future by Dickson D. Despommier (Sept. 26, $39.95, ISBN 978-0-231-20550-4). The author of 2010’s The Vertical Farm returns to assess the multibillion-dollar urban agriculture industry that flourished in that book’s wake, arguing that future cities must further integrate with nature to thrive.
Crown
The Great Wave: Chaos, Change, and the Rise of the Outsider by Michiko Kakutani (Jan. 30, $27, ISBN 978-0-525-57499-6) argues that we are at a historical inflection point characterized by populism and the ascendance of outsiders, pointing to examples in art, politics, and business.
Doubleday
Filterworld: How Algorithms Flattened Culture by Kyle Chayka (Jan. 16, $28, ISBN 978-0-385-54828-1) examines how a distinctive light and airy aesthetic, sleek and easy to photograph, has come to dominate the real world, arguing that the algorithmic control of online content is shaping taste.
Duke Univ.
The Bars Are Ours: Histories and Cultures of Gay Bars in America, 1960 and After by Lucas Hilderbrand (Nov. 21, $32.95 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-4780-2495-8) analyzes the past and present role of gay bars as hubs of local activism in cities across the U.S.
Dutton
Tired of Winning: Donald Trump and the End of the Grand Old Party by Jonathan Karl (Nov. 14, $32, ISBN 978-0-593-47398-6) reports on the ex-president’s activities since leaving office, tracking his legal woes and his relationships with his closest associates.
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
The Economic Government of the World: From 1933 to 2023 by Martin Daunton (Nov. 14, $45, ISBN 978-0-374-14641-2) demonstrates how over the past century the institutional structures that govern the global economy have been shaped and mismanaged by powerful Western countries, and argues for a fairer form of globalization.
Feiwel & Friends
Dolls of Our Lives: Why We Can’t Quit American Girl by Mary Mahoney and Allison Horrocks (Nov. 7, $28.99, ISBN 978-1-250-79283-9) explores American Girl fandom through the authors’ recollections, a trip to Colonial Williamsburg (which inspired the dolls’ creation), and interviews with fans, illuminating the brand’s impact on an entire generation that grew up in the 1990s.
Flatiron
Correction: Parole, Prison, and the Possibility of Change by Ben Austen (Nov. 7, $29.99, ISBN 978-1-250-75880-4) draws on the stories of two inmates convicted of murder to investigate the parole process, questioning what qualifies someone for a second chance.
Hachette
Among the Braves: Hope, Struggle, and Exile in the Battle for Hong Kong and the Future of Global Democracy by Shibani Mahtani and Timothy McLaughlin (Nov. 7, $30, ISBN 978-0-306-83036-5) profiles four pro-democracy protesters who played pivotal roles in the 2019 Hong Kong protests’ turn toward militancy.
Down the Hill: My Descent into the Double Murder in Delphi by Susan Hendricks (Sept. 19, $29, ISBN 978-0-306-83024-2) recounts the author’s investigation into the unsolved 2017 killings of two girls in Delphi, Ind.
Harper
Beijing Rules: How China Weaponized Its Economy to Confront the World by Bethany Allen-Ebrahimian (Aug. 1, $32.99, ISBN 978-0-06-305741-8) studies how the Chinese Communist Party cajoles international companies and governments into accepting its political rules as a cost of doing business, warning that this “authoritarian capitalism” sets a dangerous precedent.
The Furies: Women, Vengeance, and Justice by Elizabeth Flock (Dec. 12, $32, ISBN 978-0-06-304880-5) examines the role of violence in female empowerment through profiles of three women in America, India, and Syria who achieved their goals through violent means.
HarperOne
Be a Revolution: How Everyday People Are Fighting Oppression and Changing the World by Ijeoma Oluo (Jan. 9, $26.99, ISBN 978-0-06-314018-9). The author of So You Want to Talk About Race highlights ways in which regular Americans are working to bring about racial equity within structurally unfair systems.
HAYMARKET
Environmentalism from Below: How Global People’s Movements Are Leading the Fight for Our Planet by Ashley Dawson (Jan. 16, $22.95 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-64259-970-1) spotlights grassroots movements fighting against climate change in countries and communities least responsible for carbon emissions, including Colombia, India, and Nigeria.
House of Anansi
The Age of Insecurity: Coming Together as Things Fall Apart by Astra Taylor (Sept. 5, $18.99 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-4870-1193-2) contends that under the current social order, disparate systems from policing to the wellness industry are designed to set people on a path of fruitless individual striving rather than one of collective action.
Ig
Everyday Something Has Tried to Kill Me and Has Failed: Notes from a Periracial America by Kim McLarin (Nov. 14, $18.95 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-63246-158-2) documents the author’s experiences as an older Black woman in support of the “weathering” hypothesis that the cumulative physiological effects of racism account for African Americans’ poor health outcomes.
Mariner
The Injustice of Place: Uncovering the Legacy of Poverty in America by Kathryn J. Edin, H. Luke Shaefer, and Timothy Nelson (Aug. 8, $29.99, ISBN 978-0-06-323949-4). The authors of $2 a Day claim that the poorest areas in the U.S.—rural communities in Appalachia, the South, and Texas—are treated like “internal colonies.”
MIT
The Abuse of Property by Daniel Loick, trans. by Jacob Blumenfeld (Aug. 1, $17.95 trade paper, ISBN 978-0-262-54550-1), examines the history of property as an idea, arguing that property rights are often harmful and that there are other legal frameworks by which to regulate the use of things.
Morrow
Devil’s Coin: My Battle to Take Down the Notorious OneCoin Cryptoqueen by Jennifer McAdam (Aug. 8, $28.99, ISBN 978-0-06-321918-2) recounts the author’s efforts to help the FBI take down OneCoin, a fraudulent cryptocurrency whose founders scammed her out of a £15,000 inheritance and stole an estimated $27 billion from people around the world.
Pandora’s Box: The Greed, Lust, and Lies That Upended Television by Peter Biskind (Nov. 7, $32.50, ISBN 978-0-06-299166-9). The author of Easy Riders, Raging Bulls draws on interviews with industry insiders to track the evolution of TV from the birth of HBO to now, revealing business secrets and new threats to streaming services.
New Press
American Purgatory: Prison Imperialism and the Rise of Mass Incarceration by Benjamin D. Weber (Oct. 3, $28.99, ISBN 978-1-62097-590-9) reveals how the history of mass incarceration in America is tied to the legacy of imperialism in the American West and such U.S. colonies as Puerto Rico and the Philippines, where prisons were used to subjugate conquered populations.
Paris Is Not Dead: Surviving Hypergentrification in the City of Light by Cole Stangler (Oct. 17, $27.99, ISBN 978-1-62097-782-8) reports on the working-class and immigrant neighborhoods of Paris where residents are being priced out, shedding light on the political and economic forces that endanger the vibrant character of cities everywhere.
Pantheon
This House of Grief: The Story of a Murder Trial by Helen Garner (Oct. 10, $27, ISBN 978-0-553-38743-8) delves into an Australian court case that became a national obsession: the trial of a father suspected of murder after his three sons died in a car crash while he was behind the wheel.
Penguin Press
I Love Russia: Reporting from a Lost Country by Elena Kostyuchenko, trans. by Bela Shayevich and Ilona Yazhbin Chavasse (Oct. 17, $30, ISBN 978-0-593-65526-9), documents life in Russia under Vladimir Putin, with a focus on those who are systemically abused by the government, including sex workers, queer people, and victims of the war in Ukraine.
Princeton Univ.
Investigating Families: Motherhood in the Shadow of Child Protective Services by Kelley Fong (Oct. 10, $32, ISBN 978-0-691-23571-4) draws on the author’s observations of Child Protective Services investigations and interviews with families to reveal how mothers are being unfairly targeted by a punitive system.
PublicAffairs
The Court at War: FDR, His Justices, and the World They Made by Cliff Sloan (Sept. 19, $32, ISBN 978-1-5417-3648-1) analyzes the Supreme Court under Franklin Roosevelt—who by 1941 had appointed seven of the nine justices—to demonstrate how justices with fealty to a patron are a problem for the nation’s highest court.
Sedition Hunters: How January 6th Broke the Justice System by Ryan J. Reilly (Oct. 17, $30, ISBN 978-1-5417-0180-9) reports on the legal fallout from the January 6 Capitol attack, tracking FBI agents and internet sleuths as they hunted for perpetrators and revealing a justice system straining to respond to a crisis of democracy.
Random House
Fear Is Just a Word: A Missing Daughter, a Violent Cartel, a Mother’s Quest for Vengeance by Azam Ahmed (Sept. 26, $28, ISBN 978-0-593-44841-0) narrates the saga of a Mexican mother who stalked her daughter’s drug-cartel killers and orchestrated their arrest, before she herself was murdered.
Some People Need Killing: A Memoir of Dying Democracy by Patricia Evangelista (Oct. 17, $30, ISBN 978-0-593-13313-2) uses firsthand observations and conversations with killers and survivors to report on extrajudicial murders committed under the auspices of former president Rodrigo Duterte’s drug war in the Philippines.
Scribner
The Future of Geography: How the Competition in Space Will Change Our World by Tim Marshall (Nov. 7, $28, ISBN 978-1-66803-164-3). The author of Prisoners of Geography returns to prognosticate the geopolitics of the future, suggesting that the struggle between the U.S., China, and Russia for control of outer space will shape human destiny.
Semiotext(e)
Artless: Fashion, Image, Media, New York 2014–2022 by Natasha Stagg (Oct. 24, $16.95 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-63590-190-0) explores the self-mythologizing and self-branding of New York City media workers (and media consumers) through a fragmentary collection of essays and real press releases.
Simon & Schuster
Extremely Online: The Untold Story of Fame, Influence, and Power on the Internet by Taylor Lorenz (Oct. 3, $29.99, ISBN 978-1-982146-86-3) surveys the history of the internet to demonstrate how average people innovating online have had a more lasting cultural impact on daily life than big tech brands.
Stanford Univ.
Free to Judge: The Power of Campaign Money in Judicial Elections by Michael S. Kang and Joanna M. Shepherd (Aug. 22, $28, ISBN 978-1-5036-2761-1) reveals how donations to state judiciary election campaigns influence judges’ decisions in favor of the donors.
St. Martin’s
Punished for Dreaming: How School Reform Harms Black Children and How We Heal by Bettina L. Love (Sept. 12, $29, ISBN 978-1-250-28038-1) critiques U.S. educational reform since the 1980s as structurally anti-Black, and argues in favor of reparations for harm done to Black children by a hostile school system.
Verso
Abortion Beyond the Law: Building a Global Feminist Movement for Self-Managed Abortion by Naomi Braine (Nov. 14, $24.95 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-80429-206-8) delineates how the tactics for supporting self-managed abortions spearheaded by feminist activists in Chile, Kenya, and other countries of the global South are now being exported to North America and Europe.
