With a third of the year—and one of publishing’s three seasons—behind us, the New York Times has named the best books of 2026 so far. There’s a little something for everybody among the selections.

Kin by Tayari Jones, which we named The It Book of February, leads the list of 13 titles with high praise from reviewer Radhika Jones: "When reading ‘Kin,’ I wanted nothing more than to keep reading it."

• With more than 60,000 copies sold since its release on February 24, Kin is the rare novel that is as popular with readers as it is with critics.

Romance fans will be delighted to see Cat Sebastian, whose historical romances have been widely celebrated, make an appearance with her first contemporary story.

• Star Shipped is a queer rivals-to-lovers about costars on a sci-fi TV show, and it sounds like a great time.

Tradwife thriller Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke is ev-er-y-where right now, from the GMA Book Club to the top tier of the bestseller list.

• Anne Hathaway is set to star in the adaptation from Amazon MGM Studios.

Nonfiction fans , there’s plenty for you on the Gray Lady’s list as well. Book Riot house fave Patrick Radden Keefe notches a spot for his latest, London Falling, and we’re delighted to see Namwali Serpell get her flowers for the excellent On Morrison.

📚 Check out the whole list.

You can almost hear Heidi Klum asking, "Are you in...or out?" within the pages of this week’s featured new releases.

• 👎 A young woman’s world crumbles when Harvard Law School rejects her for not being interesting enough in Canwen Xu’s Boring Asian Female.
• 🕵️‍♀️ Literary historian Laura B. McGrath delivers a data-filled examination of the evolution of modern American publishing and literary agents’ impacts on the industry
• ✍️ An aging writer finally tells the story of the teenage experience that shaped his life in Tom Perrotta’s new novel, Ghost Town.

Also hitting shelves this week: a standalone novel from T.J. Klune about a gay couple who head out on a road trip as a black hole threatens to end the world; historical fiction about Katherine Hepburn from Priya Parmar; and a cookbook to help you DIY famous dishes.

📤 Get ahead of the game with our (free) Book Radar newsletter, tracking exciting book deals and must-read forthcoming titles.

Practice makes poetry.​

This April, new subscribers to Poetry receive a free limited edition notebook designed for reflection, drafted lines, and poems only you can write.

Poetry has been celebrating the art form for more than 110 years. Now you can be a part of what comes next.

Here are some numbers for you:

• 📈 1.2% of books acquired annually are debut short story collections.
• 🏆 4 short story collections have won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in the last 50 years.
• 🥇 2 paperback originals have ever won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.
• 📚 15 million copies of Jhumpa Lahiri’s Pulitzer-winning debut short story collection Interpreter of Maladies have been sold since its publication in 1999

Interpreter of Maladies , a debut short story collection by an unknown writer, was the first paperback original to win the Pulitzer and became one of the most significant publishing successes of the 20th century. Exceptional and astonishing, generous and wise, it’s the kind of book that would be the capstone to other writers’ careers, but it’s how Lahiri came out of the gate.

It’s truly unforgettable stuff: the opening story, "A Temporary Matter," has been haunting us for decades now.

🎧 Hear our conversation about what makes Interpreter of Maladies so special and how it became a hit.

Stranger Things, Barbie, Star Wars, Five Nights at Freddie’s. These are but a few of the mega franchises which have seen their worlds adapted into young adult novels. Franchise novels have been a long-standing part of YA since the era of the 90s paperbacks, and they’ve continued to be a staple within the category. 

Diana Ma is among those authors bringing YA readers exciting franchise novels. She’s the author of Force of Chaos, the first in a Power Rangers series for YA readers. The second book in the series, Shatter the Universe, hits shelves on May 19. 

→ Ma says that “Writing a Young Adult Power Rangers novel from the perspective of Trini Kwan, the Yellow Ranger from the Mighty Morphin team, was a dream come true for me. Growing up, I was a superhero-loving fangirl, but I didn’t see many Asian American superheroes. Trini Kwan was one of those very few.”

→ She adds that “I also wanted to tell a new story—what it meant for an Asian American teen to wrestle with racial stereotypes and come into her own, not only as the Yellow Ranger, but as a girl who learns to embrace her own cultural history and identity.”

For Ma, the franchise novel is an opportunity to “dive into the tantalizing gaps of the original franchise and unearth new tales.”

Among her favorite YA franchise novels? 

• Hex Girls: A Rogue Thorn (Scooby Doo and Friends) by Lily Meade
• Avatar Legends: City of Echoes by Judy I. Lin
• Ms. Marvel: Remnants of the Past by Saadia Faruqi

Read Ma’s full guest piece about thepower and fun of YA franchise novels, including additional favorites and what makes them so good - KJ

Celebrate Mom with the love of books. From April 28th to May 10th, buy a ThriftBooks e-Gift Card of $25 or more and receive a FREE Book Credit to enjoy later—because the best gifts keep on giving.

At long last, you will soon be able to borrow the Dungeon Crawler Carl ebook (and the many sequels) from your library. Libby struck a deal with author Matt Dinniman to make Libby the exclusive distributor of the wildly popular series, after years of being an Amazon exclusive.

Like so much of the Dungeon Crawler Carl story, Dinniman’s personal control over the book rights is unusual. When he was first approached by Ace Books to publish his increasingly popular web serial, he chose to retain digital rights (after all, he already had hundreds of thousands of internet readers).

Terms of the deal were not disclosed, and it is likely Dinniman is going to be making less from his Amazon sales, as Amazon generally gives you a better revenue split if you are exclusive to their platform.

• But making his ebooks available through libraries opens up a huge new pool of readers.
• There are millions of copies of the Dungeon Crawler Carl series in print, and more than three million audiobook sales (the audiobook rights remain exclusive to Audible as of now).
• There is no date for when they will be available to library patrons on the official announcement, so go check and see if you can grab it (or more likely join the hold line) now.

Brigid Washington is the author of Salt, Sweat & Steam: The Fiery Education of an Accidental Chef, out today from St. Martin’s Press. Below, she recommends three books that have influenced her food writing.

Tender at the Bone by Ruth Reichl: I recall reading this book in the rare free moments of culinary school and wishing that time would stop because the prose was so tremendously inviting and revelating. The memoir, a bright and bracing bildungsroman, is upbeat but also full of depth, candor, and practicality; the recipes are an unexpected gift. 

In Bibi’s Kitchen by Hawa Hassan: The reach of cookbooks is unimaginable. They are history, anthology, brilliant windows into the past, love letters, albums, encyclopedias, and also manifestos. What makes James Beard Award-winning In Bibi’s Kitchen singular and spectacular is that it easily embodies all of the aforementioned into one joyful read where the recipes not only work but fully reflect each and every one of the team’s collaborators.

Vintage Postcards from the African World: In the Dignity of Their Work and the Joy of Their Play by Dr. Jessica B Harris: This isn’t exactly a culinary memoir or cookbook or a tome on food history but it does offer a vivid and unique view—through archival postcards from Dr. Harris’s personal collection—of many of the scenes depicting agrarian life for women in Africa and the Caribbean. It’s one of those very rare books where the pictures are actually worth more than a thousand words, and one that I’ve consistently gleaned inspiration from. 

Bookish merch is the best merch.

Find the perfect expression of your reading life at Book Joy . Get exclusive designs on t-shirts, hoodies, sweatshirts, stickers, pins, mugs, and more. With sizes ranging from baby onesies to 4XL, Book Joy’s merch is printed on high-quality fabric you’ll actually want to wear. You won’t find these anywhere else.

Did you know? Harper Lee’s legal first name is Nelle (Full name Nelle Harper Lee), and it was her grandmother’s first name....backwards (Ellen).

🥔 Join the Mashed Potato May challenge and change your reading life.

🦁 Celebrate the finalists for the New York Public Library’s Young Lions Fiction Award.

😍 Gaze in wonder at a Beijing library that opens and shuts like a clam shell.

🤔 Ponder the real purpose of reading.

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