I love a book that explores issues around mortality. Vigil , by the author of the strange, wonderful novel Lincoln in the Bardo , introduces fascinating elements such as fate, responsibility, and forgiveness, yet Saunders doesn't dig into them, which left me feeling unsatisfied with this slim book. Vigil has been one of my most-anticipated reads of 2026. In Lincoln in the Bardo , Saunders explored the worlds of characters existing in limbo between life and death. His novel V

Powers's novel is an exploration of the wonders of the ocean and also of the capacity of the human mind and imagination. The marching toward destruction of both of these makes for a nerve-racking, heartbreaking story. Playground 's final section held surprises I did not anticipate, and their exposure colors the entirety of the story that precedes them. We make things that we hope will be bigger than us, and then we’re desolate when that’s what they become. Four people are con

I loved the premise of Creation Lake , and I was captivated by the mocking, ruthless, fickle freelance spy "Sadie." But the story and...

Megan E. O'Keefe's first space opera in the Devoured Worlds series presents failing worlds filled with conflict, shifting loyalties,...

Alderman offers a dive into a future world that's crumbling due to greed, disregard for the environment, a loss of human connection, and...

I loved the futuristic space-mission capabilities, smart and strong all-woman crew, the mystery and suspicion, and most of all the...

Doerr's Cloud Cuckoo Land was a complex, heartbreaking, hope-filled, surprising, fascinating read. Forgetting, he is learning, is how the...

This literary fiction from Ash Davidson is wonderfully wrought, with lots of tense undercurrents, heartbreaking situations, and few, if...