Editors Select: January 2026

All bills come due

You give me a story about the ethereal unknown of death and its afterparties, tell me it’s written by George Saunders, and you have my full attention. Comparing Vigil to Lincoln in the Bardo, his first novel, at first seems easy and sure. But Vigil is entirely new and exists as its own bit of remarkability. In the context of Saunders’s career, this stands clearly in its own lane as the work of an author who has again figured out the right words to describe this cosmic pudding we live in, with humor for us and grace for his characters who need it the most.

Feeney strikes again!

I know when I hit play on a book by Alice Feeney, I’m in for a ride into an otherworldly kind of suspenseful story. I mean, shouldn’t it be “My Ex-Husband’s Wife”? So, I went along for the ride into another interesting town with a cast of characters going about their lives. Except for ... nah, I’m not going to tell you. I’m still rewinding this book in my mind to find the clues I missed. When you find them, let me know. Hint: It’s not over till it’s over.

Have you met the Newmans yet?

I’ll admit it: Meet the Newmans had me the moment I heard it was for fans of Lessons in Chemistry, one of my all-time favorites. Set in 1964, it follows America’s favorite (fictional) TV family at a moment when the world is shifting fast and their picture-perfect image no longer fits. When Del is suddenly gone, Dinah steps into unfamiliar territory, while her two sons, Guy and Shep, grapple with their own secrets behind the scenes. What surprised me the most was the relationship between Dinah and Juliet, the writer she hires to help with the final episode of the family’s series. They start out at odds and slowly start to trust each other more than anyone else, especially as their deadline closes in. Marin Ireland and Tim Campbell brought these characters to life so amazingly that I kept wishing Meet the Newmans was a real TV show I could watch.

Press play to pause

Here's a well-being listen that respects time-poor people with a desire for self-growth. If you ever feel like you're reacting instead of choosing, this is for you. In 10 Second Coach, Venita Dimos distills the most common worries of humanity—self-doubt, overwhelm, boundaries, procrastination, purpose—into bite-size explainers with simple ways to address them. She reminds us that we make thousands of decisions every day, most on autopilot, in microseconds. Dimos offers something refreshingly achievable: a 10-second pause. A small, intentional moment before you react, before you default to old patterns. Ten seconds to make change that lasts, to choose wisely. Your future self will thank you. —Emma R.

What year is it again?

Here I was, feeling disoriented after waking up with the realization that it’s already 2026. Meanwhile, try being George (a delightful exercise to imagine, thanks to Samuel Barnett’s fantastic narration). One moment he’s walking his dogs in modern-day London, the next he’s transported to the Middle Ages. Such a conundrum causes him to grapple with everything from physical torture to the vestigial chatter of his dumb modern anxieties (though it’s not all so bad, thanks to a chivalrous serf with dazzling curls who introduces a steamy, queer sub-plot). It’s clear that the author, who is also an avid knitter, has a knack for cozy, making the warm embrace of this quirky novel exactly what I needed to ease back into my listening routine.

The vibes that bind us

I must have exclaimed, “Fascinating!” 40 or 50 times while reading an advance copy of this book. It opened my eyes to the emerging field of social neuroscience and the study of “interpersonal synchrony.” It turns out that concepts like “vibes” or “being on the same wavelength” aren’t so much figurative idioms as literal descriptions of physiological phenomena. Behaviors and moods are highly contagious, and the human body is a finely tuned antenna designed to sync with other people—or not sync. Journalist Kate Murphy unpacks the relevance of these insights for our romantic lives, friendships, office dynamics, social movements, you name it. Why We Click feels like an essential manual for understanding humans, social animals that we are, and why we behave the way we do. Fascinating, indeed.

Secrets, lies, and the perfect alibi

On the heels of First Lie Wins, Ashley Elston has delivered again with Anatomy of an Alibi. I was drawn into the lives of Camille and Aubrey and the building tension around their 12-hour identity swap. Camille's desperation to escape her controlling husband felt so claustrophobic, and Aubrey's need for answers about her past gave the story raw emotion. The narration brought distinct voices to each character, and I could feel the paranoia and secrets building with every chapter. You think you know where it's going, but then Camille's husband ends up dead, and suddenly you're wondering which woman actually has the alibi and what really happened that night.

The trees know

This is a golden age for tree tomes (consider Peter Wohlleben's The Hidden Life of Trees and Richard Powers's The Overstory). Enter plant biologist Beronda L. Montgomery's When Trees Testify, offering nature-nerd facts while exploring how Black culture and botany are intertwined. Montgomery examines majestic pecans and shares her family ritual of making butter-pecan ice cream during scorching Arkansas summers. She tells of hollow sycamore trunks that once sheltered people running from slavery along the Underground Railroad. More disturbingly, she notes how poplars and other trees still bear physical scars from lynchings—much as Black Americans still carry the emotional weight and trauma. The trees know. They bear witness. They offer sustenance and security to all who take the time to know them. Montgomery has created a stunning natural and cultural history, a canopy of words that will move you to look anew at these glorious beings and the stories they keep.

Birds of a feather...

I love the premise of this story: three grieving siblings embark on a cross-country adventure to find their dead parents' escaped award-winning cockatoo, Coco. What starts as a bird hunt becomes an exploration of family dynamics as road-trip mishaps force the siblings to confront years of guilt, blame, and love. Author Farah Naz Rishi skillfully weaves adventure with internal healing. Narrator Kelsey Jaffer’s performance brings these complex sibling relationships to life, along with a few chapters told from Coco’s perspective. This is family drama at its finest, wrapped in an unexpectedly engaging quest that left me invested in both the bird and the bonds.

Go ahead and threaten me with a good time

I have to be careful when I listen to a mystery. I scare easily, and sometimes a thriller just isn’t worth the disruption to my psyche. But a contemporary retelling of Little Women in which Beth has been murdered? Thrill me. Terrorize me. I am all in. Katie Bernet’s debut will suck you in immediately with its campy cover and bold, declarative title: Beth Is Dead. Alternating between then (i.e., before the titular incident) and now, the clever narrative unfurls from the point of view of all four March sisters, brilliantly brought to life (and, ahem, death) by Caitlin Kelly, Emily Tremaine, Ferdelle Capistrano, and Piper Goodeve. I don’t know that I’ve ever enjoyed a retelling more. It’s witty, propulsive, layered, meta, and there are not one but two nested narratives that old and new acquaintances of the March sisters alike will relish.

American history you probably haven’t heard

We all know about America’s Founding Fathers, but as we approach the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, I don’t think there’s ever been a better time to explore the first American-born founder of a religious sect who also happened to be America’s first nonbinary minister: a self-proclaimed “genderless messenger from God” known as the Public Universal Friend. Historian Nina Sankovitch’s Not Your Founding Father explores the life, legacy, and impact of this lesser-known minister, alongside some of their radical ideas—from founding communities based on equality and without restrictions based on race, class, or gender, to embodying the ideals that helped fuel American revolutionaries and shape an early version of the American dream. What better way is there to celebrate America’s semiquincentennial than that?

’90s nostalgia with a hip-hop flair

"Black girls don't sell magazines." Fashion editor Nikki Rose has heard it one too many times. So when she's offered the chance to run a struggling hip-hop magazine, she walks away from a prestigious gig to bet on herself—and on the voices the industry refuses to amplify. But nothing in the sleek, sexy, cutthroat world of late-'90s New York comes easy in Amy DuBois Barnett's electrifying debut. The former editor-in-chief of Ebony, Honey, and Teen People infuses Nikki's story with the lived-in authenticity of someone who's been there, survived, and has the scars to prove it. For anyone who's ever had to work twice as hard for half the recognition, this one hits home.

Ghosts aren’t the only things haunting this family...

As a fan of fully fleshed-out characters, I was immediately captivated by Simone St. James’s newest ghost story, A Box Full of Darkness. The story follows the Esmie siblings—Vale, Violet, and Dodie—who are beckoned back to their hometown of Fell, New York, by their long-deceased brother, Ben, who’s taking them down a rabbit hole to unlock the mysteries that surround the weird accidents and tragedies that plague their town, including the one that contributed to his death. Even though all three siblings are still dealing with their own traumas, they return to confront these ghosts, literally. Narrated by heavy hitters Anna Caputo, Saskia Maarleveld, and Ari Fliakos, the performance ensnares you. Once you start, it’s hard to stop!

Busting the myth of the tortured artist

The myth persists that one must destroy oneself to make great art, and we have lost too many talented and creative people to addiction masked as a form of self-sacrifice. This is at the heart of author and Rolling Stone journalist Jonathan Bernstein’s book about Justin Townes Earle. A "millennial Woody Guthrie-type," Earle rose to prominence during the Americana resurgence in the wake of the Great Recession in the late 2000s with landmark songs such as “Mama’s Eyes” and “White Gardenias.” Tragically, Earle died from an overdose at the age of 38 in August 2020. Perhaps his version of "the myth" started with his name, which conjured two self-destructive Southern songwriters: Townes Van Zandt and alt-country rock star Steve Earle, Justin’s father. Bernstein received the full cooperation of the late artist's estate and Earle’s widow, Jenn Marie, to deliver a deeply researched and heartbreaking cautionary tale that others can hopefully learn from.

A genre-bending, feminist fairy tale

If you know me, you know I literally dance for joy the second I hear of a new Jeanette Winterson novel hitting the shelves (or, more accurately, my headphones). But when a fresh Winterson novel comes out that combines some of her trademark motifs, I get doubly excited. One Aladdin Two Lamps beautifully melds two of Winterson’s literary specialties: retelling classic tales (i.e., her respinning of Shakespeare's The Winter’s Tale in her iconic novel The Gap of Time) and genre-defying prose. As Winterson delves into a feminist retelling of the centuries-old fairy tale One Thousand and One Nights she is somehow both playful and deadly serious, funny and cutting, her words never failing to lodge themselves into my heart and mind.

Jennette McCurdy’s foray into fiction

As a fan of Jennette McCurdy’s bracing I’m Glad My Mom Died, I couldn’t wait for her debut novel. Half His Age, about a precocious teen who falls for her high school English teacher, is decidedly NOT Nickelodeon material. But despite the skin-crawling plot, I found myself rooting for Waldo (yes, Waldo) and even laughing at the comic moments. McCurdy writes short, propulsive chapters and cutting observations (my favorite, “The lemon verbena is a double-edged sword,” describes how Waldo’s mom’s preferred hand soap eats away at her spray tan), and her narration is at once matter-of-fact, sharp, sad, and funny. Like My Dark Vanessa for the anxious generation, Half His Age is set against a backdrop of frictionless tech and late-stage capitalism. At a lean 4.5 hours, it asks you to sit in discomfort—but no longer than necessary.

The forge awaits...

A Vow in Vengeance sank its claws into me fast and never really let go. It delivers everything I look for in a fantasy romance, from a magic system steeped in lore to high-stakes conflict and characters that feel layered and real. Rune and Draven had me completely obsessed. Their connection feels earned through pain, sacrifice, and growth, and I loved how both of them hold their own in every scene. What really sets this book apart is how emotionally rich it is, especially within the royal court and all its betrayals. The twists had me gasping out loud. I need the next book immediately!!