Editors Select: September 2026

Miss Marple is back!

I've been a devoted Agatha Christie fan for as long as I can remember. There's something sacred about Miss Marple's quiet brilliance, the way she unravels the darkest human impulses while knitting in a corner. So, when I heard Lucy Foley was penning a brand-new Marple mystery, I instantly hit the pre-order button. Foley already writes like Christie's spiritual successor—she’s proved she understands locked-room tension and ensemble casts. Set in 1950, Murder at the Grand Alpine Hotel gives us everything: a snowbound Swiss setting, a gorgeous cast of suspects hiding wartime secrets, and Miss Marple watching from the shadows. With a full-cast audiobook narrated by Hayley Atwell, Lucy Boynton, and more, it feels like a gift sprinkled with poison and champagne. This is the collision of two brilliant minds I didn't know I needed.

The poetry is in the performance

National Book Award-winning author Elizabeth Acevedo makes a triumphant return to the Young Adult genre with Anger Is Only a Shadow. The book, written in poetry and prose, centers on Lil, a teenager recently out of juvenile detention who is now on probation and struggling to toe the line. This becomes increasingly difficult as her big brother Aldwin starts to behave more and more erratically. Lil is flawed and difficult, but it’s truly art the way Acevedo makes you care about her. For me, this is her best work (yes, even over The Poet X, or my—previous!—personal favorite, With the Fire on High). I love the interconnected poems that close out each chapter, but you can argue the true poetry is in Acevedo’s performance of the novel. She weaves her lyricism with humor and humanity, and I relished every minute of listening.

The Obama Reader

Before he was president, or senator, or a Harvard Law School student, or an adoring husband and father, former President Barack Obama was a reader. His biannual favorite reading lists are always filled with smart and unpredictable choices. Now, A Great Book takes it one step deeper, allowing us to join Obama as he and his special guests explore the ideas behind some of his favorite novels. Here we learn how the characters and stories shaped who he is and how he thinks about the world. It feels like the book club you always wanted to be invited to. Listening to Obama and his guests unpack such consequential books as James Baldwin’s The Fire Next Time and Marilynne Robinson’s Gilead (a personal favorite of mine) might just make you want to hit play on these titles all over again—or check out ones you’ve never quite gotten to before (adding Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy to my library now). It got me thinking about creating my own lists of great books and reflecting on how they’ve shaped me. This is a listen for those times when you need to hear smart people saying things that inspire you or give you hope. In other words, exactly what one of the world’s greatest readers does best.

Emily St. John Mandel has done it again

If you’re in the market for a book that digs into surveillance states, challenges the concept of linear time, and makes you question the very fabric of your own fragile humanity, you’re in luck! In her seventh novel, the (deservedly) revered Mandel takes us across three distinct times and locations as she tackles the depths of resilience, the root and strength of relationships, and the nature of time itself. Instead of trying to iron out clean answers, Mandel does what she does best: walks alongside her readers as she shines light on some of the most haunting questions of the modern American mind.

Kuang’s most personal yet

Sometimes the right listen finds you at exactly the moment you need it, and Taipei Story was that for me. Lily Chen arrives in Taipei hoping a summer language program will bring her closer to a culture and family history that have always felt slightly out of reach. R.F. Kuang explores grief, identity, and all the questions we wish we’d asked before it was too late, and with an emotional honesty that resonated with me deeper than I expected. Carolyn Kang’s brilliant performance deepened that connection even further, bringing so much sensitivity to Lily’s internal world. By the end, I didn’t feel like I had simply listened to Lily’s summer in Taipei. I felt like I had grown and grieved right alongside her, and maybe even learned a life lesson or two along the way.

New John Green alert!!

Summer turning to autumn feels so irresistibly nostalgic: I don’t even need to be enrolled in an academic institution to sense the predictable pull of a new school year urging me to buckle down and dig a little deeper into my goals and routines. What perfect timing, then, for John Green (who more than any other creator has supported my lifelong love of learning, from his CrashCourse videos carrying me through high school to Everything Is Tuberculosis providing a lively discussion for my book club not too long ago) to return to fiction, after nine years, with his adult debut. No memory could take me back to my adolescence quite like weeping over Looking for Alaska, and I am totally ready to chase that feeling. Tell me Julia Whelan and Zachary Chastain will provide dual narration? Say no more and sign me up (to probably cry) today.

The legacy of Colin Kaepernick

Ten years after former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick first famously took a knee during the National Anthem, the author and activist is reflecting on the choice that changed the trajectory of his career. But this is not merely a memoir of that day. Kaepernick takes us back to his childhood in Turlock, CA, an adopted Black son raised by white parents, through his earliest playing days, college, his draft into the NFL, and beyond. We hear about racially charged struggles he endured, journey with him through his self-imposed education in activism, and relive a defining summer in American history and the Black Lives Matter movement. As a lifelong football fan, I was eager to get my hands on this memoir, and it exceeded every one of my expectations. I had to pick my jaw up off the floor when hearing Colin’s account of events vs. what the media had fed me over the years. The whole listening experience is elevated by news clips, archival audio from his draft, game commentary, sound design, and more. I haven’t heard anything quite like it, and I can’t wait for everyone to hear Colin in his own words.

Getting out of Dodge

How do I love Patrick deWitt’s writing? Let me count the ways. The man is a craftsman, his prose being of a timeless quality: clean and spare, funny and heartfelt. Dodge City is his sixth novel (priors include The Sisters Brothers, French Exit, The Librarianist). It follows Lee, a young man living in LA who decides to dodge the draft to Vietnam by fleeing to Canada—but not without first driving cross-country to visit his father, mother, brother, and sister, each of whom has a crisis of their own to share. The book feels like a meditation on free will—but always with a wink, never from a soapbox. Narrator Micky Shiloah understood the assignment, injecting his performance with the humor and youthful fortitude of Lee’s existential quest.

A tenderhearted gift of a memoir

When Ke Huy Quan accepted his Academy Award in 2023 for his exceptional performance in Everything Everywhere All at Once, he offered these words of advice: “To all of you out there, please keep your dreams alive.” His tremendously moving memoir, Never Say Die, underscores that sentiment, his lived experiences a testament to all that is possible in spite of insurmountable odds. Whether recounting his family’s harrowing escape from postwar Vietnam or the happenstance audition for Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom that launched him into child stardom, Quan paints each scene with vivid detail and a generosity of spirit that brings every emotion and every person he encountered along the way to life. It’s a memoir that makes your heart ache and sparkles with pure, incandescent joy—and it never wavers in its optimism and commitment to empathy. Needless to say, his narration is pure perfection: warm, earnest, and brimming with feeling, an ardor for storytelling apparent in every word.

Old Hollywood, old horrors

I devoured Tananarive Due’s 2023 novel The Reformatory, thanks in no small part to Joniece Abbott-Pratt’s lively and versatile narration—and what a treat to see these two talents team up again in a new horror novel. Like her last novel, Mazywood evokes one family's buried demons as Johnny Washington travels with his family to the remote and mysterious ski lodge built by his grandmother—the Black child actor turned ambitious star, Mazelle Washington. What they discover there shatters the illusion of Old Hollywood glamour and fame in every way. In many ways, this feels like the book Due was meant to write: she famously taught a course at UCLA on Black horror and Jordan Peele’s Get Out called “The Sunken Place: Racism, Survival, and Black Horror Aesthetic.” And Joniece Abbott-Pratt? The emotion she brings to her performances is spellbinding, from infectious joy to all-out terror.

The queen returns

Candice Carty-Williams brings back everyone's favorite hot-mess heroine in Queenie Is Working on It. It’s a joy to step back into her gloriously chaotic world, and narrator Shvorne Marks brings Queenie's inner voice to life. The character is 10 years older but refreshingly not "fixed" as she spirals through fertility freak-outs and situationship drama. The Jamaican British family commentary is truly something to experience in audio. It's laugh-out-loud funny, achingly real, and the perfect companion for anyone who can relate to the idea that we're all “just working on it.” Press play and reunite with your most lovable disaster of a friend.

Complex nuggets of wisdom from a beloved stand-up

Leave it to a skilled comedian to deliver some of the best analogies I’ve heard for panic attacks, mood disorders, and the pure bliss of pairing your comfort watch with the perfect snack during a traumatic stint of time. (Homework for those of us who took solace in Taylor Tomlinson’s breakout Netflix special during the pandemic: consider how your taste buds have evolved since your COVID snacking days, because as the title of this memoir suggests, it is totally okay—in fact, actually kind of cool—to admit you feel differently about something than you once did.) Throughout this listen, Tomlinson flexes the relatable hypervigilance that makes her stand-up so beloved, diving deeper into her neuroses while exploring how she feels about approaching the same age her mother was when she died. With sage one-liners on mental illness, trauma, sexuality, and more—plus a few tips for writing jokes—Actually, Nevermind offers complex nuggets of wisdom and several laughs, too.

There’s magic in the air

The ability to use magic is only available to a few in Basalton, but Ayana Gray’s Hawk & Sparrow is packed with so many fantastical adventures that I felt like I’d been touched by some bewitchment myself. Hawk & Sparrow boasts serious world-building that paints a picture of a society similar enough to real life while just different enough that you can easily get lost in it. The murder mystery at its heart reveals layers to this coming-of-age tale, presenting an unexpected treat at every turn. Narrator Renika Williams-Blutcher kept me smiling while masterfully maneuvering Vesper’s earnest timbre and Max’s confidently sly tones throughout their never-ending banter. Anyone who appreciates something a little more complicated than your standard love story will find true magic in Hawk & Sparrow.

The writer has awakened

As we approach the crisp leaves, cooler days, and misty aura of autumn, the time is nigh for settling in for a Twin Peaks rewatch, cherry pie and damn fine cup of coffee in tow. It’s fitting, then, that this month also marks the arrival of a memoir from the show’s star, cult icon Kyle MacLachlan. In this deft meditation on the craft of acting, the gift of collaboration, and the splintered identities wrought by fame and insecurity, MacLachlan recounts moments from his career (like mounting a sandworm under the sweltering Mexico sun while filming Dune) and his inner life (going toe-to-toe with the intrusions of an ego-driven internal naysayer he calls “Other Kyle”). In his own steady, endlessly listenable voice, MacLachlan’s memoir is a gem for film buffs, aspiring actors, and artists of all stripes. Peppered throughout, his recurring imitation of longtime collaborator David Lynch—a delivery MacLachlan aptly describes as “a clipped, flat Great Plains honk”—brims with humor and affection, a loving tribute that sings in audio.

La Salle’s laws

Things I’m looking forward to in September: cooler evenings, autumn leaves, pumpkin spice jokes, and Laws of Solomon, Eriq La Salle’s new installment in the Martyr Maker series. To tide me over in late August, I listened to Laws of Depravity and was blown away. It was so good, I went to the gym three days in a row. Every character is carefully curated and developed with great pathos. I can’t wait to meet Solomon and join him on his journey to a new and peaceful life, free of violence. Who is Gaby, the little boy who no doubt will challenge Solomon to his core as he tries to protect him? I’ll let La Salle, with his rich narration and deft storytelling skills, lead the way. Join me.

Reporting from inside a Russian cell

I remember the hush that blanketed our newsroom when Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich was arrested in Russia. It felt personal, because he was a fellow former news assistant, and attacks on journalists were growing more deadly the world over. What’s more, Evan was the first reporter for an American outlet arrested in Russia for spying since the Cold War. As his trial dragged on, we watched him, silent and cross-armed in a glass defendant’s cage, embodying a generational symbol of journalistic heroism. Through his 16 months in Moscow’s notorious Lefortovo Prison, Evan never stopped reporting. Now, he is sharing the stories he gathered while a pawn caught in a geopolitical chess game. Because of his rigor and deep connection to Russia—as the child of Soviet émigrés and a journalist on the ground for years—the real triumph is not just this profile of Evan's courage, but his loving reportage on the misunderstood people stuck under the boot of a powerful dictator.

Sobbing my way into September

It’s been an exceptionally sad start to fall (RIP, Dolly, Tim, and Gloria) and at this point, I guess I’m just going with it because Emma Cline, whose bleak beauty totally broke me in The Girls and The Guest, has written her most devastating book yet. Already longlisted for the Booker Prize, Switzy is a mind-bending and totally believable portrait of dementia. David, a wealthy exec whose former power is in slow but relentless retreat, travels to Zurich as he awaits the inevitable: the day he’d find “the contents of his brain had been excised with an ice cream scooper instead of these dainty little spoons, here and there.” Horrible—but, ah, those dainty little spoons! As David’s memories rise to the fore, Cline’s clever wordplay evokes his scrambled psyche, and we enter the profound liminal space between health and sickness, this world and the next. The brilliant Robert Petkoff narrates it all to haunting, hypnotic effect.