Books for the 'Ber Months

by Marlon James

Release Date: September 1, 2026 

Booker Prize winner, Marlon James, returns us to Jamaica, this time in the 1980s, to the aftermath of an anti-gay hate crime committed against 8 actors, and how the survivors work to move forward with their lives, if they can. James's writing is impeccable, and his books read like the best blend of crime and literary fiction. This one is sure to be on many of the aforementioned best-of-the-year lists. 

by Eli McCann

Release Date: September 8, 2026 

I wish I had some amazing quilting-related puns for this one, but my normal quilting consultant (my mother-in-law) is unavailable today (ironically, because she's at a quilting class in Ohio's Amish Country). This book takes place thousands of miles away from there, in Utah, where they are about to host their first national quilting competition, and the hometown heroes are determined to win. Get ready to be in stitches and enjoy great character building as they invite two new members, both gay men, into their club in the hopes that this will be the binding the need to take first place   

by Emily St. John Mandel

Release Date: September 15, 2026 

St. John Mandel could write her edition of a post-apocalyptic phone book (remember those?!?), and I would want to read it. In this case, she takes us to the near future, where the United States has collapsed, but when people are finally free of curfew, they still find themselves drawn to gather and celebrate like it was the before times. But things have changed everywhere and secrets, even the smallest, can still ebb and flow, like waves across the Pacific Ocean. This book will leave you thinking about the future, but also the present we are currently living in. 

by Lucy Foley

Release Date: September 22, 2026 

Agatha Christie fans rejoice! Even though the famous author has been gone for 50 years, her characters live on. And who better to take up the daunting task of returning Miss Marple to the page than current queen of the thriller, Lucy Foley. Fans of Christie and Foley will love this trip to the Swiss Alps to a secluded, exclusive hotel, loved by the rich and famous. But with only one way to access it, when a body is discovered, everyone becomes a suspect.  

by Rioghnach Robinson

Release Date: October 6, 2026 

I saw Rioghnach Robinson speak about this book at ALA in Chicago this summer, and I have been JAZZED about it ever since! In her first book for adults, Robinson writes about writers and those who write about them. Parker's first book was going to make him a literary phenomenon, that is until Selina reviewed and panned it, causing the book to flop hard. When, a decade later, Parker is again taken down by Selina, his star dims as hers rises. But while they are publicly feuding (something that the literary world loves), they are quietly talking to each other, and beginning to discover more about each other with every word. Perfect for those looking for a fresh take on enemies-to-lovers. 

by Bonnie Garmus

Release Date: October 13, 2026 

So many of us were charmed by the characters brought to life in Bonnie Garmus's Lessons in Chemistry, so I cannot wait to have her bring me behind-the-scenes in a new world. This time, we're going to the publishing world of the 1980s, when New York City is at its grittiest and Batter Gray, recent grad, is just trying to break through, while watching his friends all start their lives. When he gets a dream job at a poetry quarterly magazine, his life changes overnight, and he finds himself surrounded by cutthroat editors, too many secrets to count, and the never-ending quest to find the next best thing. 

by Stephen Graham Jones

Release Date: October 13, 2026 

Horror fans rejoice! October brings us back to the world built in Stephen Graham Jones's The Only Good Indians, where we are left with picking up the pieces of the wreckage. Nathan Yellow Tail, one of the survivors, is hospitalized after an accident nearly kills him and his best friend, and that is where he decides that he must take back his life. In order to find peace, he and three older Blackfeet set off in a camper van to find the bones of a boy who died at Carlisle Indian Industrial School and bring them back to his land. However, more than just bones wait for them. This book blends supernatural horror with the horrors that people can inflict on each other in the insightful way that readers have come to expect from Graham Jones. 

by Ina Garten

Release Date: October 20, 2026 

It's simply Ina. Need I say more?  

by John Scalzi

Release Date: November 3, 2026 

Ohioans are legally required to get excited about anything that mentions Ohio, even if it's a book about monsters taking over a small town. John Scalzi's books will make you laugh as much as they will give you goosebumps, so buckle up for this drive down a country road. In it, Mike finds himself returning to his hometown of Richland, Ohio, which is nearly as depressed and empty as he is. However, when he gets there, he discovers that many things have changed since he left, and that surviving might be the least of his worries. 

by LeVar Burton

Release Date: November 10, 2026 

Butterfly in the sky, this memoir will make you feel all the feeeeels! LeVar Burton's impact on generations cannot be discounted, with such diverse and important roles as Kunta Kinte in Roots to Geordi La Forge in Star Trek: The Next Generation to himself in Reading Rainbow. While we all feel like we know Burton, what we don't know will fascinate us and leave us wondering how we could possibly respect him more with each passing page. This is a must-read for those millennials like me who remember fondly watching him in their elementary school classrooms, who had no idea the depth of the man behind the voice of our favorite story times. 

by Nora Roberts

Release Date: November 17, 2026 

While November is technically past witchy season, Nora Roberts can release her books whenever she wants, and we'll continue to gobble them up! She's kicking off a new trilogy with this novel about the generations of witches that have lived on Peity Island and how the past and the present are linked forever. In the late 1600s, Niamh McShane learns she is a witch right before she dies. In the mid-20210s, a 13-year-old Neve McShane is told by her aunts that she is a witch, and that there is something dark threatening them all. As her powers grow, so do visions of the past and of a present in Ireland she has never known. Get ready to be swept away and wait less-than-patiently for the next two books!