Erica Ezeifedi, Associate Editor, is a transplant from Nashville, TN that has settled in the North East. In addition to being a writer, she has worked as a victim advocate and in public libraries, where she has focused on creating safe spaces for queer teens, mentorship, and providing test prep instruction free to students. Outside of work, much of her free time is spent looking for her next great read and planning her next snack.
Find her on Twitter at @Erica_Eze_.
Do you like unnerving true crime? Well, Book Riot writer Patricia Elzie-Tuttle has a suggestion for a book that had her shook. Also, if you haven’t already, now is the perfect time to subscribe to our Literary Activism newsletter, which will keep you up to date on all the book banning-related effery of this current administration (hint: there is a lot).
In new books, there is Authority: Essays, Andrea Long Chu’s collection of essays on authority and opinions; Wild and Wrangled, another most likely future bestselling Lyla Sage western romance; The Blacker the Berry by Wallace Thurman, a reprinting of a controversial Harlem Renaissance novel; and Nahia by Emily Jones, a prehistoric Europe-set romantic epic.
The featured new releases include a sexless Japan, a rich historical mystery set in Bombay, a rekindled uncertain London romance, and a Golden Girls mystery.
Vanishing World by Sayaka Murata, Ginny Tapley Takemori (Translator)
Here, the author of Convenience Store Woman imagines a Japan that is a little…less eventful. Basically, all sex between married couples has stopped, and kids are made through artificial insemination. It’s in this world that Amane grows up and eventually enters into an appropriately sexless marriage with Saku. Then she and Saku move to a mysterious new town called Paradise-Eden. In this new place, all children are expected to be raised communally, and men can become pregnant. Still, despite the taboo of sex, Amane can’t deny its allure.
New Books
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Six Days in Bombay by Alka Joshi
The author of The Henna Artist is back with a rich historical mystery about a nurse who embarks on a journey to prove her innocence when a famous painter dies under mysterious circumstances in her care. Mira Novak seemingly died of complications from a miscarriage, but if that’s true, why did she leave a note behind for her nurse, Sora, asking her to deliver three paintings to important people from her life? It’s almost as if she knew what was coming. That’s not enough to exonerate Sora, though. After leaving the hospital in disgrace, Sora ventures to Prague, Florence, Paris, and London to honor Mira’s last wishes. Along the way, she discovers the woman she befriended is far more complicated than she knew. But will she be able to uncover the truth of what really happened to Mira and clear her name, or has her life been upended for nothing? — Rachel Brittain
Things Left Unsaid by Sara Jafari
Just when Shirin is adrift in “a sea of slippery friendships” and is feeling used up by her publishing job, she runs into Kian at a house party in London. Years ago, the two of them were best friends who were torn apart painfully. Now that their friendship has resurfaced, the things left unsaid all those years ago may resurface, too.
A Palace Near the Wind: Natural Engines by Ai Jiang
First of all, this cover eats. Secondly, its comparison as a sci-fi novella to Nghi Vo’s The Empress of Salt and Fortune means it is very much a must-read. In it, the Wind Walkers are people who have bark faces, needle-thread hair, and braided branches for arms. They also, despite being able to control the wind, are ruled by humans. For the longest time, they have offered up their royal daughters to the human king for marriage to stop human encroachment on their lands. Well now it’s Liu Lufeng’s turn to get married, as the eldest daughter, but she plans to stop the sacrificial marriages once and for all.
Murder by Cheesecake: A Golden Girls Cozy Mystery by Rachel Ekstrom Courage
For fans of The Golden Girls and cozy mysteries!
Did you ever watch The Golden Girls and wish they were solving murders? Your wish has been granted! Rose’s St. Olaf family is in town for a wedding, and dead bodies aren’t on the gift registry, so when Dorothy’s date is found dead in the freezer, it’s a problem. Everyone is a suspect, and the ladies will have to name the killer quickly before the wedding–and more, cheesecake–is spoiled! — Jamie Canaves
Somadina by Akwaeke Emezi
Emezi dabbles in a whole lot, from adult novels to poetry to YA, and in their latest, we’re dropped into a fantastical West African world, where Somadina and her twin brother Jayaike live as best friends. They start off being virtually inseparable until their powers emerge once they come of age, and suddenly, everything is different. While Jayaike’s powers are enchanting and alluring, Somadina’s strikes fear in their neighbors. Then, Jayaike goes missing, and Somadina sets out to find him. She’ll have to brave a sacred forest, otherwordly traveling, and places where her soul may be separated from her body, all for the sake of her brother.
Other Book Riot New Releases Resources:
- All the Books, our weekly new book releases podcast, where Liberty and a cast of co-hosts talk about eight books out that week that we’ve read and loved.
- The New Books Newsletter, where we send you an email of the books out this week that are getting buzz.
- Finally, if you want the real inside scoop on new releases, you have to check out Book Riot’s New Release Index! That’s where I find 90% of new releases, and you can filter by trending books, Rioters’ picks, and even LGBTQ new releases!
The following comes to you from the Editorial Desk.
This week, we’re highlighting the best new poetry collections of 2025 (so far)! From the from deeply personal to powerfully political, many of these collections reflect the zeitgeist and introduce some fresh voices in poetry. Read on for an excerpt and become an All Access member to unlock the full post.
How is it that we’re already more than a quarter of the way through 2025? I’m ahead of my reading goals and still feel so far behind at the same time. I’ve packed in plenty of poetry, though, finding lots of wonderful and surprising voices emerging. It’s early, but totally time to check in with some of the best new poetry collections of 2025 so far.
It’s funny how timely these collections are. Keep in mind that publishing moves VERY SLOWLY, so books that have been released in the first quarter of 2025 were probably completed in late 2023 or early 2024, only seeing the light of day recently. So, these collections were written in the run-up to last year’s presidential election. Nevertheless, many of these collections feel like guttural reactions to the world right now. Amazing how prescient art and artists can be, huh?
These poetry collections run the gamut from deeply personal to powerfully political. Let’s face it, those two are often the same anyway, particularly when it comes to poetry. Most exciting to me are how many of these best new poetry collections of 2025 so far are fresh voices to the poetic scene. Let’s dig into those collections, shall we?
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