The Best New Book Releases Out December 5, 2023

Here’s another posthumous collection — following Afterparties — from an award-winning author who passed away just as his work was becoming more known. Apart from his short stories, Veasna So was also known for his nonfiction essays, which were published in publications like The New Yorker, n+1, and The Millions. This latest by him encompasses those essays — as well as a previously unpublished fictional short story — covering everything from pop culture to friendships to the lives of his refugee parents.

Two girls in Nigeria are at the precipice of great change. Treasure and her mother struggled after her father died, having to beg for scraps in the marketplace just to get by. Then, a man promises to solve her problems. But his feet are hovering above the ground, and salvation through him comes at a terrible price. Then there’s Ozoemena, whose father said that the itch at the middle of her back is part of a great honor. It means she will become a Leopard capable of defending her land and people, something that girls were never before able to do. But all she wants is to fit in at her new boarding school. As the two girls travel on these new trajectories, they become wilder and soon ask the question of what girls must do to make it in the world.

Okay, so first off, the title is doing what it needs to do. Secondly, though I grew up hearing about Romancing the Stone, I only just realized how much I appreciate the adventure rom-com genre because of last year’s The Lost City (starring Sandra Bullock and Channing Tatum). In other words, I’m saying this book — with its rivals-to-lovers setup — looks like the best of times. In it, Dr. Socorro Mejía is offered her dream job of leading an expedition into the Mexican jungle to find the remains of her ancestor Chimalli, an ancient Aztec warrior. But she soon finds out she has to share the role with her handsome rival, Dr. Ford Matthews, who has been aggravating her since grad school. The two will have to put petty squabbles aside once they realize it’s them against a thief, smugglers, the Mexican authorities, and even a few non-truths between them.

In this new thriller from the sister duo who gave us Someone Had to Do It, Simone reopens old wounds to find out who really killed her mother. When she was 13, her father was convicted of the crime, which catapulted her life from comfort in wealthy suburbia to barely making it. Now that she’s grown, she’s settled into a quiet life of writing book reviews, but when a true crime documentary maker hounds her for details and she runs into her childhood neighbor Hunter, the past comes flooding back. Turns out Hunter’s father and Simone’s mother were having an affair, and he stood to lose everything as a renowned judge. She sets out to find out the truth, but will she, or will her inquiries spell her undoing?

Habib looks at what it means to find joy in traveling in the wake of climate change, capitalism, and the long-lasting effects of colonialism. She considers travel from a colonialist mindset — referencing everything from passports to flowers — and the history of travel while grappling with who is afforded the luxury.

This debut, written by an author who holds talks on autism and literary narrative, follows autistic mother Sunday. When we meet her, Sunday is settled into her routine of living with her 16-year-old daughter Dolly, eating only white foods on quiet days, and keeping her book on etiquette handy. But then a glamorous London couple, Vita and Rollo, move in next door and shake up her world. Suddenly, she feels more welcomed than ever before, but a sinister thread lies just underneath it all — Vita has always wanted a beautiful daughter like Sunday’s brilliant Dolly.