If You're Looking For Something New To Read, Here Are 10 Amazing Suggestions

This folkloric, Africanfuturist (a term coined by the author) novella takes place in a near-future Ghana. When Fatima finds a mysterious seed under her favorite tree, she collects it, as any curious 7-year-old would do. But the seed transforms her, and when she’s hit by a car some time later, she glows a bright green, accidentally kills her family and village, and forgets her name due to the trauma. From then on, Fatima becomes Sankofa, who has the power to kill. She’d be all alone if it weren’t for her fox sidekick, who is unaffected by the green glow that emanates from Sankofa at will. Behind the inventive future Okorafor creates in this novella is an emotional gut-punch that sneaks up on you. I hope we get more stories set in this world. —Margaret Kingsbury

Wench is a lively feminist epic fantasy that subverts fantasy stereotypes of the tavern wench. Tanya is proud of her work at the tavern she calls home — no one can break up a bar fight faster than she can — but when her adopted father and the tavern’s owner unexpectedly dies, a group of soldiers claim the tavern for themselves and take all of its provisions. To win it back, she decides to travel with the soldiers to the capital and petition the queen. A magical object the soldiers protect, and which every brigand in the forest is after, complicates her quest. With spot-on snarky dialogue, a kickass bisexual main character, and lots of adventures and hijinks, Wench is a blast to read from beginning to end. —Margaret Kingsbury

This incredible book is told through prose, poetry, and illustration, and weaves together the stories of a mother and her daughter. Kiran flees from India to Canada after she is sexually assaulted by her fiancé’s brother, becomes pregnant, and isn’t believed by her family. Eighteen years later, her daughter Sahaara is trying to help Kiran when she faces deportation, leading to Sahaara learning the truth of her conception. But with her rapist now a popular political figure in Punjab, Kiran is hesitant to speak out. —Rachel Strolle

This immersive first book in a new epic fantasy series co-written by Marie Brennan and Alyc Helms has political intrigue, con artists, unsolved mysteries, and intricate world-building. Ren and her sister Tess are orphans whose past trauma has driven them to become con artists. They travel to the city of Nadezra, where Ren poses as the niece of the head of an aristocratic family. Little does she know that the family is not as well off as it seems. Meanwhile, Captain Grey Serrado is trying to investigate a series of kidnappings among Nadezra’s impoverished children when he’s ordered to keep a watch on Ren. And then there’s The Rook, a masked vigilante running loose in the city. With a large cast of characters and plots within plots within plots, The Mask of Mirrors is a feast to savor slowly. —Margaret Kingsbury

Malinda Lo is an absolute icon in the YA world, and her newest is an incredible historical fiction love story. Lily Hu is 17 years old in San Francisco’s Chinatown in 1954. The Red Scare paranoia means that Lily’s dad is under threat of deportation, while Lily finds herself building a friendship and falling in love with a girl named Kath, and discovering freedom within a lesbian bar called the Telegraph Club. —Rachel Strolle

An unsettling and dark tale of growing up in a family with dark secrets, From the Moon I Watched Her introduces us to the Walters, a pure, good, and churchgoing family in 1977 Texas — at least that’s how they seem from the outside. Family patriarch, Preacher Black, spits anti-abortion doctrine vehemently, but when his daughter’s mental health spirals and she begins telling ever-changing stories about a baby who died, the family’s skeletons threaten to come out. —Kirby Beaton

Ann Marie Walker’s latest romance follows professional organizer and bonafide perfectionist, Paige Parker, as she embarks on what’s supposed to be a self-care getaway to celebrate being single. She ends up staying at a bed and breakfast owned by a hot single dad who’s also done with love — and who, incidentally, was not planning to accept guests. They butt heads, they tease, they navigate the increasing tension, and the result is hilarious, romantic, and the perfect escapism. —Arianna Rebolini

In 1849, Elizabeth Blackwell became the first woman in the US to receive a medical degree; her younger sister, Emily, became the third in 1854. In The Doctors Blackwell, Janice P. Nimura explores their extraordinary lives, charting their achievements and setbacks throughout Europe and America. —Arianna Rebolini

Kristin Cashore returns to the immensely popular Graceling Realm series nine years after publishing the last installment, and it’s just as enthralling as the first three books. Four years after the events of Bitterblue, the novel opens with Giddon secreting away a family with a Graceling daughter from Estill (where Gracelings are considered the government’s property), and heading to Monsea, where Queen Bitterblue has decreed that Gracelings are free. When two of the Queen’s emissaries to Winterkeep die under mysterious circumstances, she travels with Giddon and Hava to Winterkeep herself to see what the problem is. When she’s kidnapped, it’s up to Giddon and Hava to solve the mystery of Winterkeep. —Margaret Kingsbury

In her debut novel, Angie Hockman tells the story of marketing manager Henley Evans and remote social media manager, Graeme Crawford-Collins, two employees at the same cruise line who happen to loathe each other. They also happen to be up for the same promotion. When their boss requires that they attend a company cruise to the Galápagos to figure out how to boost bookings to the island, they finally meet in person and realize maybe they don’t loathe each other at all. —Shyla Watson