The Post regularly compiles the best books released in the past month. In the meantime, take a look at our favorite titles released in the last year.
This week’s best new books
Real Americans: A novel
Rachel Khong (Knopf)
This social novel from the author of “Goodbye, Vitamin” examines social mobility. In the late 90s in New York City, Lily, a broke intern from Tampa, falls in love with Matthew, the East Coast heir to a pharmaceutical fortune. Years later, Lily is a single mom to a teenage son who starts asking questions about his father.
The New Menopause: Navigating Your Path Through Hormonal Change with Purpose, Power, and Facts
Mary Claire Haver (Rodale Books)
Haver, an OB/GYN and the author of “The Galveston Diet,” looks to empower middle-aged women with information for coping with hormonal changes.
The Demon of Unrest: A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War
Erik Larson (Crown)
The bestselling author of “The Splendid and the Vile” sheds a light on November 1860 to April 1861 — the months between Abraham Lincoln being elected and the start of the Civil War.
Did I Ever Tell You? A Memoir
Genevieve Kingston (Simon & Schuster)
When Kingston’s mother passed away from cancer when she was 11, she left her daughter gifts and letters for each milestone. But mom also left behind less heartwarming archives, namely unfiltered confessionals on video and a contact for her longtime therapist.
The Swans of Harlem: Five Black Ballerinas, Fifty Years of Sisterhood, and Their Reclamation of a Groundbreaking History
Karen Valby (Pantheon)
Before there was Misty Copeland, there was Lydia Abarca. At the height of the civil rights movement, she was a founding member of Dance Theater of Harlem, the first black woman to appear on the cover of Dance magazine and the first black prima ballerina for a major company.
ADHD is Awesome: A Guide To (Mostly) Thriving With ADHD
Penn and Kim Holderness (Harper Horizon)
The content creators and “Amazing Race” winners bring a new perspective on living with ADHD, born out of personal experience: Penn was diagnosed with the disorder in college. “Having ADHD doesn’t mean you can’t reach the top of your field,” they write. “The path you take to get there might not be the typical one — it will probably be a lot more interesting.”
Best new book releases from last week
Funny Story
Emily Henry (Berkley)
The rom-com master’s new book finds a woman named Daphne moving to a small Michigan town after being left by her fiance for another woman. She ends up meeting that woman’s ex, and they concoct a plan to make it seem like they’re having the best summer ever.
Extinction: A Novel
Douglas Preston (Forge Books)
The latest thriller from the bestselling author is drawing comparisons to Michael Crichton’s “Jurassic Park.” A massive resort in the Colorado mountains lets guests see woolly mammoths, giant sloths and other extinct creatures brought back to life. But then people start turning up dead. Authorities initially blame eco-terrorists, but a deeper, darker force may be to blame.
The Algebra of Wealth: A Simple Formula for Financial Security
Scott Galloway (Portfolio)
It’s not your father’s money book. The New York University Stern School of Business professor lays out a plan for personal finances in our age of inflation, climate change, labor shortages, housing challenges and retirement uncertainty.
Briefly Perfectly Human: Making an Authentic Life by Getting Real About the End
Alua Arthur (Mariner Books)
Arthur, one of the country’s foremost death doulas, reveals what she has learned caring for people in their final moments as they share secrets and regrets.
Shakespeare: The Man Who Pays the Rent
Judi Dench and Brendan O’Hea (St. Martin’s Press)
The 89-year-old acting legend dishes on every Shakespeare role she has played, from Lady MacBeth to Ophelia.
The Rulebreaker: The Life and Times of Barbara Walters
Susan Page (Simon & Schuster)
This look at the legacy of the late, groundbreaking journalist, who passed away in 2022, relies on some 150 interviews to paint a broad, nuanced view of Walters, her ambitions, accomplishments and shortcomings.
Best book releases from the week of April 7th
The Beach Boys
The Beach Boys (Genesis Publications)
The first and only autobiography of the iconic surf rock band tells of how the group went from the Wilsons’ California garage to international stardom. Never-before-scene photos and ephemera, along with recollections from everyone from Elvis Costello and Eric Clapton to Def Leppard and the Flaming Lips, add to the fun.
Just for the Summer
Abby Jimenez (Forever)
The bestselling romance author’s latest focuses on a seasonal fling that might be something more. Justin is notoriously cursed: After he breaks up with a girl, she finds her soulmate. But then he meets a traveling nurse named Emma.
The Wide Wide Sea: Imperial Ambition, First Contact and the Fateful Final Voyage of Captain James Cook
Hampton Sides (Doubleday)
The award-winning author of “Ghost Soldiers” delves into the great British explorer’s last journey — which ended with his being killed by natives on Hawaii — his larger legacy and the Age of Exploration.
Toxic Prey
John Sandford (G.P. Putnam’s Sons)
The latest “Prey” novel finds Letty and Lucas Davenport looking for a polarizing infectious disease doctor who has disappeared suddenly. Butter: A Novel of Food and Murder Asako Yuzuki This cult Japanese bestseller has recently been translated to English. It uses a real-life case — a gourmand femme fatale poisoned three of her boyfriends — to explore ideas around beauty standards and appetites.
Butter: A Novel of Food and Murder
Asako Yuzuki
This cult Japanese bestseller has recently been translated to English. It uses a real-life case — a gourmand femme fatale poisoned three of her boyfriends — to explore ideas around beauty standards and appetites.
Uncaged Summer
Colet Abedi (Post Hill Press)
Reeling from the end of a 13-year marriage to her high school sweetheart, a 30-something Los Angeles woman embarks on a summer of couch surfing and amusing first dates. Her traditional Persian American family wants her to find someone new to settle down with, but first she must find herself.
Best book releases from the week of March 31st
City in Ruins
Don Winslow (William Morrow)
In the third and final installment in the Danny Ryan trilogy — which also includes blockbusters “City of Dreams” and “City on Fire” — the Irish dockworker-turned-mobster is now a wealthy, respected casino owner with a beautiful family. But, when he tries to expand his Vegas empire, he starts a war with other power brokers — and his past comes back to haunt him.
A History of the World in Twelve Shipwrecks
David Gibbins (St. Martin’s Press)
Gibbins, an underwater archaeologist and the author of the Jack Howard novels, examines history through the lens of various key shipwrecks over the centuries — from a Viking warship in the 10th century to a British cargo steamship destroyed by Nazi U-boats during World War II.
Our Fight
Ronda Rousey (Grand Central Publishing)
The MMA fighter-turned-pro wrestler gives a candid account of the last decade of her life, from her surprise loss to Holly Holm in November 2015 to marriage, motherhood and switching to wrestling and joining the WWE.
The Sicilian Inheritance
Jo Piazza (Dutton)
The bestselling author’s latest finds a woman searching for herself in Sicily after divorce, professional setbacks and the death of a beloved aunt. But she finds more than gelato and Mediterranean breezes when she discovers that her Italian great-grandmother was murdered — and that she herself may be in danger.
Sociopath: A Memoir
Patric Gagne (Simon & Schuster)
Growing up, Gagne always felt different. She didn’t have the same reactions and emotions as her peers did, and seemed to have no emotions at all. In college, she learned she was a sociopath and feared what she might become. In her revealing memoir, she shares how she came to terms with her diagnosis, got a PhD in psychology and rekindled her relationship with a high school boyfriend.
Table for Two
Amor Towles (Viking)
The latest from the bestselling author of “A Gentleman in Moscow” and “The Lincoln Highway” is a collection of short stories. Six are set in New York City, while the seventh is a longer novella set in Hollywood’s golden age and featuring the Evelyn Ross character from Towles’ “Rules of Civility.”
Best book releases from the week of March 24th
The #1 Lawyer
James Patterson and Nancy Allen (Little, Brown and Company)
In this highly anticipated legal thriller, the top criminal defense attorney in Biloxi, Mississippi, suddenly becomes a murder suspect himself when his beautiful wife is killed.
The Divorcées: A Novel
Rowan Beaird (Flatiron Books)
In the mid-1900s, unhappy wives flocked to Reno, Nevada for quick and easy divorces. The state’s only requirement was six weeks of residency, which could be easily fulfilled with a stay at a “divorce ranch” resort. This buzzy debut is set on one of the ranches, as a prim midwestern housewife named Lois soaks in her new freedom and mingles with glamorous fellow guests.
Finding Margaret Fuller: A Novel
Allison Pataki (Ballantine Books)
The bestselling author’s latest work of historical fiction focuses on the pioneering journalist and woman’s rights advocate, charting her relationship with Ralph Waldo Emerson and the transcendentalists and far beyond.
Ghost Town Living: Mining for Purpose and Chasing Dreams at the Edge of Death Valley
Brent Underwood (Harmony)
The entrepreneur and social media personality — his Ghost Town Living channel has more than 1.6 million followers on YouTube — shares his story of buying an abandoned silver mine and boom town and trying to bring them back to life.
James: A Novel
Percival Everett (Doubleday)
Everett’s 2020 novel “Telephone” was a Pulitzer finalist. His latest is a reimagining of “Huckleberry Finn” told from the point of view of Jim the escaped slave. It’s drawing comparisons to Barbara Kingsolver’s “Demon Copperhead.”
The Sniper: The Untold Story of the Marine Corps’ Greatest Marksman of All Time
Jim Lindsay, with a forward by Chuck Mawhinney (St. Martin’s Press)
Mawhinney hada 103 confirmed kills during the 16 months he served in Vietnam in his late teens, a record for the US Marines. His friend, Lindsay, tells his story, portraying him as both a hero and a man forever burdened by the weight of all the lives he’s taken.
Best book releases from the week of March 17th
Until August
Gabriel García Márquez (Knopf)
The Nobel Prize–winning Colombian author of “Love in the Time of Cholera” and “One Hundred Years of Solitude” died nearly a decade ago, but his final novel was locked away, unpublished, for years. Now it’s getting its due, with the blessing of Marquez’s son. The book follows a woman who visits an island annually on the anniversary of her mother’s death.
Reading Genesis
Marilynne Robinson (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
The acclaimed novelist, who won the Pulitzer Prize for “Gilead,” gives a surprising, thought-provoking analysis of the bible, focusing on it as a piece of literature.
The Formula: How Rogues, Geniuses, and Speed Freaks Reengineered F1 into the World’s Fastest-Growing Sport
Joshua Robinson and Jonathan Clegg (Mariner Books)
Two Wall Street Journal reporters look at how Formula One sped past NASCAR and IndyCar in the United States to lead the pack.
Soundtrack of Silence: Love, Loss, and a Playlist for Life
Matt Hay (St. Martin’s Press)
Hay was applying to college and falling in love for the first time when he learned he had a rare disease and was rapidly losing his hearing. This moving memoir details how music — one of the things he loved and missed the most — ultimately helped him to find a way to live with his disability.
The Deer Adventures of Timothee and Jimothee
Brett Gubitosi and Birdie Sander
This charming coming-of-age tale for readers of all ages follows two young deer brothers exploring the world beyond their hometown of Manitoba, Canada.
A Good Bad Boy: Luke Perry and How a Generation Grew Up
Margaret Wappler (Simon & Schuster)
It’s been five years since the actor, who played rebel-with-a-heart-of-gold “Dylan McKay on Beverly Hills 90210,” passed away. Wappler explores what made him a unique figure for Gen X and what his life and death really meant, weaving together anecdotes from those who knew Perry with bits from her own life.
Best book releases from the week of March 10th
After Annie: A Novel
Anna Quindlen (Random House)
The Pulitzer prize winner’s latest focuses on the aftermath of the sudden death of a beloved wife and mother. Her husband, friend and young children are lost without her but find their way by remembering all she taught them.
It’s Hard for Me to Live with Me: A Memoir
Rex Chapman, with Seth Davis (Simon & Schuster)
Chapman was a legend at the University of Kentucky and played 12 years in the NBA, but his life was undone by addiction to painkillers and gambling. He blew through his $40 million basketball fortune and ended up living in his car and feeding his drug habit by shoplifting. It was only when he was arrested that he decided to get clean.
Blank: A Novel
Zibby Owens (Little A)
In this witty, delightful debut, a forty-something mom and former literary “it” girl” struggles with writer’s block and a looming deadline — until she gives her life a plot twist.
The House of Hidden Meaning: A Memoir
RuPaul (Dey Street Books)
The drag icon opens up about growing up poor, black and queer in San Diego; getting sober and finding love with husband Georges LeBar.
The Hunter: A Novel
Tana French (Viking)
In this revenge tale from the bestselling writer of “The Searcher,” a retired Chicago police officer moves to a quiet Irish village and finds love and contentment with a local woman. But, then her daughter’s absentee father returns, disrupting the peace.
Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout
Cal Newport (Portfolio)
The bestselling author of “Digital Minimalism” and “Deep Work” advocates for a more old-fashioned approach to getting things done and looks to the habits and philosophies of Galileo, Isaac Newton, Jane Austen and Georgia O’Keefe.