Books

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2026 preview

23 Books We Can’t Wait to Read in 2026

 New Ben Lerner, George Saunders gets metaphysical, and Tayari Jones makes her big post–American Marriage return.
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must reads

8 New Books You Should Read This January

 A Faustian tale from Knausgaard, a debut novel from Forever Magazine’s Madeline Cash, and a memoir about homeschooling in Texas. By Emma Alpern and Jasmine Vojdani
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in conclusion

The Best Comedy Books of 2025

 They all share the same desire: to reckon with history, dig deeper, and explore why comedy matters so much. By Brian Boone
  1. author’s note
    Colleen Hoover Insists Her New Book Isn’t About HerselfWoman Down follows a “frustrated author” facing “viral backlash over her latest film adaptation.”
    By Jennifer Zhan
  2. announcements
    Book Gossip Is Going BiweeklyNew York’s newsletter about what the literati are really thinking is entering a new chapter.
    By Jasmine Vojdani
  3. book review
    Promising Young WomenBuzzy author Madeline Cash shows great potential in this morbidly funny debut novel.
    By Niela Orr
  4. score!
    There’s a New Heated Rivalry Book on the WayUnrivaled has a cover, a synopsis, and a 2026 release date.
    By Alejandra Gularte
  5. encounter
    Gluttons for PunishmentJustin McDaniel has developed a cult following for getting his students to read — as long as they follow his rules.
    By Lila Shapiro
  7. we could see boop
    Here’s What’s Entering the Public Domain in 2026If you want to make a dark and twisted Betty Boop slasher film, have at it.
    By Bethy Squires
  8. book gossip
    28 Book Industry Professionals Get Candid About The Year in Books“Nobody wants to write narrative anymore, but that’s where the fairy-monster-sex books are running laps around the litfic authors.”
    By Jasmine Vojdani
  9. international feature film
    Barack Obama Loved Neon’s Film Slate This YearAnd also Alex Warren’s “Ordinary,” for some reason.
    By Jason P. Frank
  10. must reads
    6 New Books You Should Read This DecemberIncluding a debut about an aging movie star, a midlife road-trip novel, and a new novel from Nobel Prize winner Olga Tokarczuk.
    By Emma Alpern and Jasmine Vojdani
  11. a long talk
    Anthony Jeselnik’s 2026 Resolution Is to Make Guys Read“I’d like to go a bit deeper than just holding up a book and saying, ‘This month we’re reading this,’ and then never mentioning it again.”
    By Kathryn VanArendonk
  12. rip
    Sophie Kinsella, Shopaholic Author, Dead at 55Born Madeleine Wickham, she wrote more than 30 novels over the course of three decades.
    By Rebecca Alter
  13. in conclusion
    The Best Novels of 2025, According to Anthony JeselnikThe stand-up comedian read 51 books this year. Here are his favorites.
    By Anthony Jeselnik
  14. vulture lists
    83 Book-to-Screen Adaptations to Add to Your 2025 Reading ListSydney Sweeney and Amanda Seyfried star in the film adaptation of The Housemaid to close out the year.
    By Emily Maskell
  15. in conclusion
    The Best Books of 2025Even in a fractured media landscape, these books held our attention.
    By Emma Alpern and Jasmine Vojdani
  16. obits
    Winter’s Bone Author Daniel Woodrell Dies at 72Woodrell coined the name “country noir” for his brand of rural crime stories.
    By Bethy Squires
  17. prequels
    Gregory Maguire Adds Another Book to the Wicked SagaThe Wicked prequels continue with Galinda: A Charmed Childhood.
    By Bethy Squires
  18. quality time
    What Mikey Day Watches (and Reads) With His SonThe Is It Cake? and SNL star is passing down the joy of quoting Airplane! to his 13-year-old.
    By Mikey Day
    As told to Marah Eakin
  19. vulture lists
    7 Great Audiobooks to Listen to This MonthBetween a full-cast Harry Potter audiobook and Cynthia Erivo narrating her memoir, it’s a big month for witches.
    By Marshall Heyman
  20. it ends with lawsuits
    Colleen Hoover Says the It Ends With Us Legal Drama Gave Her ‘PTSD’She’s now embarrassed by her most famous book.
    By Bethy Squires
  21. books
    Rabih Alameddine Wins National Book Award, Thanks Gastrointestinal Doctors“I guarantee I would not have been able to write a single word in the last ten years without their help.”
    By Emma Alpern
  22. encounter
    Tom Freston Misses MTV, TooThe media mogul who built the music network is now watching it get torn down.
    By Jake Nevins
  23. the cacophony society
    What Went Wrong With SantaCon?It started as a safe, experimental space to enjoy some self-destruction. Then the claimers arrived.
    By Chuck Palahniuk
  24. she knew
    David Szalay Wins Booker Prize for FleshDua Lipa featured the novel in her book club last month.
    By Alejandra Gularte
  25. close read
    A New Jewish PlotlineIn the wake of Gaza, should Jewish American writers be tackling different stories?
    By Andrew Ridker
  26. must reads
    7 New Books You Should Read This NovemberA queer thriller about ’70s Italian cinema, Salman Rushdie’s return to fiction, and an ambitious examination of sexual trauma.
    By Emma Alpern and Jasmine Vojdani
  27. chapters
    15 Years Capturing Lightning in a BottleFrank Ockenfels 3, longtime David Bowie collaborator, shares eight unseen photographs of the music legend from his new book.
    Edited by Morgan Baila
    Photographs by Frank Ockenfels 3
  28. you thought you knew
    7 Revealing Takeaways From Kevin Federline’s New MemoirOn Snoop Dogg, his partying, and, yes, when Britney Spears allegedly held a knife to their kids.
    By Fran Hoepfner
  29. america’s most hated
    Kevin Federline Wants to Be the HeroBritney Spears’s most infamous ex uses his new memoir to rebrand as a #BoyDad.
    By Fran Hoepfner
  30. book review
    Brandon Taylor’s Limited Notions of BlacknessHis Black characters treat whiteness as all-powerful but also blameless and beyond reproach.
    By Tembe Denton-Hurst
  31. scary stories
    The 16 Best Horror Books of 2025 (So Far)From techno-terrors to rural cannibalism, angelic visitations to squirmy alien sex, there is a new novel for every spooky vibe.
    By Neil McRobert
  32. encounter
    Susan Orlean Knows She’s Had a Charmed CareerBut the longtime New Yorker writer doesn’t want to dwell on journalism’s bygone days.
    By Madeline Leung Coleman
  33. chat room
    ‘I’ve Overshared Already, and I’m Bored of It’In his upcoming memoir, I Wrote This for Attention, Lukas Gage finds a new way to go viral.
    By Jason P. Frank
  34. spellcasting
    Harry Potter and the Next Generation of British CelebritiesThey’ve got John Lithgow’s Dumbledore casting an all-new spell: “Vamos a la playa!”
    By Rebecca Alter
  35. must reads
    7 New Books You Should Read This OctoberThomas Pynchon’s account of rising fascism, a millennial cheating novel, and a memoir from a James Beard winner.
    By Emma Alpern and Jasmine Vojdani
  36. book review
    Pynchon-heads, This One’s for UsShadow Ticket is about rising fascism. It’s his most urgent novel yet.
    By Jack Denton
  37. lawsuits
    Judge Dismisses Sexual Assault Lawsuit Against Neil GaimanA federal judge in Wisconsin ruled that the accuser’s suit should be refiled in New Zealand.
    By Bethy Squires
  38. take a look
    Reading Rainbow Is Back for a RereadMychal the Librarian takes over from LeVar Burton.
    By Jason P. Frank
  39. chapters
    ‘I Look in the Camera. And I Hump My Ass Off.’Penn Badgley on the art of filming a sex scene for You.
    By Penn Badgley
  40. famous families
    Priscilla Presley Describes the Night Lisa Marie Died in MemoirThe press tour for Softly, As I Leave You rejects the dark lawsuit against the once-matriarch of the Presley family.
    By Jason P. Frank
  41. book review
    Is Immigration Really So Lonely?Kiran Desai’s highly anticipated novel seems to think so, but it doesn’t quite cohere.
    By Sanjena Sathian
  42. book review
    Patricia Lockwood’s Pleasant Fever DreamWill There Be Ever Be Another You is a purposefully disorienting novel, studded with passages of extreme beauty.
    By Paul McAdory
  43. close read
    The Anxiety Plaguing Male Fiction WritersA recent batch of novels attempts to speak to the disaffected male reader, for better and for worse.
    By Robert Rubsam
  44. books
    The National Book Foundation’s 2025 Fiction LonglistFeaturing two debut novels and one story collection.
    By Emma Alpern
  45. chapters
    ‘The Moment Everything Changed’9/11 set the course of American history and politics — it also irrevocably shaped a generation.
    By Charlie Wells
  46. fall preview 2025
    Hopecore, Bad Dads, and Moms Gone MadTen trends happening across pop culture this fall.
  47. fall preview 2025
    10 Books We Can’t Wait to Read This FallFrom Thomas Pynchon’s return to a few long-awaited memoirs.
    By Tolly Wright and Tomi Obaro
  48. it was the ’80s
    Charlie Sheen’s Memoir Is Characteristically SleazyAll the stories about paid sex, tiger’s blood, and everything in between while he glosses over the most glaring allegations of wrongdoing.
    By Zoe Guy
  49. cooking the books
    The Worst Part of Tiny Bookshop Is Also the Most AccurateA new cozy management game is surprisingly close to the retail experience — for better and worse.
    By Fran Hoepfner
  50. chapters
    Axl Rose Stole My CoatZosia Mamet on her wayward years as a New York club kid.
    By Zosia Mamet
  51. chapters
    How Composer John Williams Saved Home AloneThe Star Wars composer’s last-minute score gave gravitas to the now-classic comedy.
    By Tim Greiving
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