Dear 2023 Releases, We Can’t Wait to Read You
We’re one month into 2023 folks, which means now is the time for a look at forthcoming books we readers just can’t wait to get our hands on! It's gonna be a big bookish year: New Zadie Smith? And Anne Pachett? And… Jesymn Ward?! Our booksellers are all abuzz. Read on for our forthcoming faves and go on a pre-order shopping spree with our list of picks. Hop over to Instagram to share your top most anticipated picks for the new year, too.
Ally
I really liked the 2017 memoir Birds Art Life by Kyo Maclear. Creative, searching, a book about art and identity and … birds. (I love birds.) I’m excited to read Unearthing (out April 18), her latest memoir about inheritance, storytelling, and family.
Jenny Odell is another nonfiction writer (and bird nerd) with a new book coming soon. You probably heard about How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy, her book about art, creativity, writing and how withdrawing from a productivity mindset can help all those things blossom. Her new book is Saving Time: Discovering Life Beyond the Clock (out March 7), about trying to understand time as something other than money.
"Saving Time is my sincere effort to imagine an individual and collective relationship to time that is liberating, not deadening — and with it, a world alive with agency and meaning beyond the transactional." - Jenny Odell
I loved Odell's other book and also enjoyed the anti-productivity book Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Backerman. As someone who copes with anxiety by adding more projects, obligations, distractions... well, I appreciate the reminders to slow down.
On the fiction front, I've been reading spring and summer releases for our summer reading guide. My favorites so far are:
The Late Americans by Brandon Taylor (out May 23)
Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld (out April 4)
The Guest by Emma Cline (out May 16)
All very different books but ones I read and loved for various reasons - they're books I can't wait to share with friends.
If I were to encourage you to preorder one book, make it Brandon Taylor's, we have signed copies on order and the best way to snag one is by placing a preorder sooner than later. There's no guarantee preorders will all be signed, but it's a way to save your spot in line as we honor preorders first before putting signed copies out on the sales floor.
Athena
My #1 most anticipated read of the year is The Sunset Crowd by Karin Tanabe (out July 4). Tanabe somehow combined two of my all-time favorite books - The Great Gatsby and The Secret History - but set in 1970s Hollywood with an abundance of drama and a “will they/won’t they” friends to lovers romance. Mark my words, it deserves to be the book of the summer and I can’t wait for others to fall in love with it too! Highly recommend it for fans of Taylor Jenkins Reid and anyone looking for the perfect “pop in your bag for vacation” book.
Also who would I be if I didn’t mention my bestie (in my dreams) Emily Henry with her upcoming release Happy Place (out April 25). This book destroyed me. Like picture being squeezed to death but in the form of a hug by all those who love you AND your therapist. Henry outdid herself again with the perfect “will they/won’t they” second-chance romance with an adorable, laugh-out-loud funny, and so stinking sweet group of friends. It also wouldn’t be an Emily Henry book without lots of self reflection and incredible mental health rep with the struggles it brings to relationships.
Two other releases I’m extra excited for are:
Excavations by Kate Myers (out July 4) - Take a group of women and throw them on Greek islands - you know you're going to have a good time. Call me lame but I’m more into Greek art and architecture than mythology so the idea of a summer story following excavators who become friends is totally my cup of tea.
Sea Change by Gina Chung (out March 28) - Hop back on the octopi hype train because we’re getting another heart-tugging story about the bond between a human and an octopus. Sea Change follows a woman as her life is falling apart and comes to terms with her childhood trauma. She spends her evenings working at the local mall’s aquarium and grows a rooted connection to an octopus who gets sold to a wealthy investor. Will she let the octopus go if it’s her only connection left with her late father?
Rachel
My top 3 anticipated reads for 2023 are:
Play for Me by Libby Hubscher (out June 20): I'm excited for this for a few reasons: a woman in a professional sports athletic trainer role (at least initially), the New Girl vibes of the housing situation she finds herself in, and Libby's knack for great writing.
Better Hate than Never by Chloe Liese (out September 5): The second installment in the Wilmot Sisters series, a reimagining of Taming of the Shrew.
Wrapped With a Beau by Lillie Vale (out September 26): It's a Christmas romance and contains a great pun for a title. I love Lillie's writing and the set-up sounds great.
Kim
All three of my most anticipated releases from 2023 are from some of my favorite authors:
Mortal Follies (out June 6) mixes romance and fantasy with Alexis Hall's normal clever, funny writing (my catnip).
Codename Charming (out August 15) is Lucy Parker's newest release and no one does smart, witty romances better.
System Collapse (out November 14): Martha Wells is blessing us with another installment in her superb Murderbot Diaries, which if you haven't started yet please get on that!
Abby
The main 2023 release I'm really excited for is Yellowface by R.F. Kuang (out May 16). Equal parts modern satire, indictment of the publishing industry, and twisted ghost story, R.F Kuang’s first foray into literary fiction pulls no punches and will have you reading late into the night. I never read books digitally but I made an exception for this e-ARC and gobbled it up over the course of a few nights.
Two other books I'm excited for are:
1. The Shadow Cabinet by Juno Dawson (#2 in the HMRC Trilogy) (out June 13)
2. Bright Young Women by Jessica Knoll (out October 3)
Jen
The book I'm most excited for this year is Silver Nitrate by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (out July 18). It's got a little bit of everything; murder, magic, a creepy cult leader, laugh-out-loud dialogue, and a potential friends to lovers romance. Sci-fi and horror fans will enjoy Moreno-Garcia’s references to classic horror movies and her use of magical realism, but all readers will love these unique characters. I can’t wait for the July 18th release date!
Two other books I'm excited for are:
The Only One Left by Riley Sager (out June 20)
Vampires of El Norte by Isabel Canas (out August 29)
Nicole
My top 3 anticipated reads for 2023 are:
Let Us Descend by Jesmyn Ward (out October 3): Any time Jesmyn Ward graces us with a new masterpiece is cause for celebration. Easily my most anticipated book of the year by far.
Above Ground by Clint Smith (out March 28) - I have been trying to dip my toe into poetry & this collection from the author of How the Word is Passed is high on my list this year.
Family Lore by Elizabeth Acevedo (out August 1) - Love her YA and can't wait for her adult debut.
Su
My top 3 anticipated reads for 2023 are:
1. Yellowface by R.F. Kuang (out May 16). My introduction to R. F. Kuang was through Babel last year, and as soon as I finished the book I promptly went and ordered the Poppy War trilogy because it's now my most important life goal to read EVERYTHING she has written. Babel was her incredibly ambitious and unapologetic commentary on academia as an industry and space, so I can't wait to see what she does with the publishing industry next!
2. Rivermouth: A Chronicle of Language, Faith, and Migration by Alejandra Oliva (out June 20): Oliva is a Mexican-American justice activist who has chronicled her time working as a translator at the US-Mexican border. I was drawn to the description because it sounded like a really intimate, human-to-human account of a topic and situation that is often only talked about in the aggregate.
3. Shubeik Lubeik by Deena Mohamed (out January 10). The sentence that grabbed me: "Author, illustrator, and translator Deena Mohamed presents a literary, feminist, Arab-centric graphic novel that marries magic and the socio-political realities of contemporary Egypt." I'm excited to get back into the world of graphic novels as an adult reader!
Acacia
My top 3 anticipated reads for 2023 are:
1. Gwen & Art Are Not in Love by Lex Croucher (out November 28): A medieval rom-com that is every bit heartwarming and amusing. This book is a wonderful "pick-me-up" and you will be cheesing all the way through the delightful jests and banter.
2. The Deep Sky by Yume Kitasei (out July 18)
3. Talking at Night by Claire Daverley (out June 20)
Melissa
My #1 anticipated read for 2023 is Ann Patchett's Tom Lake (out August 8). Ann Patchett is an automatic buy for me. Her writing is the perfect blend of artistry and accessibility, like warming yourself in the presence of an aunt who's wise to the ways of the world. This new novel, set in Northern Michigan in 2020, is about family, love, and growing up, as three grown daughters discover their mother's complicated history with a theater company called Tom Lake.
Other anticipated reads for 2023:
Do Tell by Lindsay Lynch (out July 11): Debut! Lindsay is the adult buyer at Parnassus Books and I've been fangirling over her for years. This wry, provocative novel about the golden age of Hollywood -- already blurbed by Ann Patchett and Emma Straub, so you know it has to be good -- interrogates who actually gets to tell women's stories.
Family Lore by Elizabeth Acevedo (out August 1): This is the adult debut from the award-winning writer of some of the most gorgeous contemporary YA!
I Have Some Questions for You by Rebecca Makkai (out February 21)
Amanda
A 2023 new release that I'm excited about is The Writing Retreat by Julia Bartz (out February 21). The protagonist, Alex, is clearly a mess still from the fallout of her friendship with Wren, a seemingly otherworldly fashion editor, a year earlier. Friends in common avoid her, writer's block plagues her, and her job at an academic publisher is uninspiring. When Roza Vallo, an infamous feminist horror writer, extends an invite to Alex, and incidentally Wren, to a month-long writer's retreat at her secluded and mysterious home upstate, Alex feels awash of newfound life, even slight vindication for the wrongs of the past year. Knowing Wren is also part of this retreat does cloak Alex in substantial terror, but the excitement of the peer group is paramount. They are told they have until the end of the month to write a complete novel from a brand new idea. The winner gets one million dollars, a publisher, the whole book tour and accompanying fame. So, they aren't in camaraderie with supportive fellows, they're in competition. A paralyzing winter storm hits, a fellow writer goes missing, what seems like a concerned staff trying to save them is all but genuine. Alex and Wren must battle out their differences, admit to horrors of their own friendship's demise that led them there, and band together to save themselves from a psychotic woman who treats human lives as expendable. Dark, sexy, and terrifying, exactly what is needed to get through winter!
I'm also looking forward to:
The Society of Shame by Jane Roper (out April 4)
Vampires of El Norte by Isabel Canas (out August 29)
Happy Place by Emily Henry (out April 25)
A Spinster's Guide to Danger and Dukes by Manda Collins (out March 28)
Stay tuned for our summer reading guide, we'll go into more details about these and other staff picks soon! Make sure to give your most anticipated 2023 read a shoutout on Instagram, we'll be posting there about the literary riches of 2023 too.