The 43 Best New Book Releases: Fall 2024

Here are the 43 best new book releases of Fall, 2024. The air is crisp and clean, sunset arrives a little earlier each day, pumpkin spice is taking over the world and the holidays are fast approaching. You need books!

Here are my recommendations. I’ve personally chosen them from the thousands and thousands of titles released from September through the end of the year. (Some even come out December 31, just in time for a Happy New Year!) I choose these books for many reasons: because I’ve read and loved them, because the author is great, because they’re getting terrific early reviews from industry folk and readers like you on BookTok and GoodReads and in some cases because I’m adding them to my TBR (to-be-read) pile and what could be a better recommendation than that? If I’m dying to read it, maybe you will be too.

You’ll find books to read, books to tell your family and friends and co-workers about, books that make great gifts and books that you’ll just feel smarter knowing about. Say this after me: “Oh, I read about that on Parade. It sounds great!” See? But seriously, books come fluttering down in great piles, like leaves from a tree. And I’m here to help. So let’s get reading. At the head of the Parade are…

The 43 Best New Book Releases This Fall 2024

1. Heir by Sabaa Tahir
2. The Songbird & The Heart of Stone by Carissa Broadbent
3. The Last One by Rachel Howzell Hall

Romance and fantasy: romantasy! That’s the hot genre which is dominating the book world the way disco took over the airwaves in the 1970s. It’s just as fun and sexy as John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever, too.

Sabaa Tahir is the National Book Award-winning author of the An Ember in the Ashes series. Her book Heir starts a new cycle of intrigue, magic and, yes, romance with all new characters in that same world.

Blockbuster writer Carissa Broadbent returns to the Crowns of Nyaxia books, this time crossing Dante’s Inferno with star-crossed love for an epic fantasy about gods and mortals (does it ever work out?).

If you’re new to romantasy, maybe you’ll want to try debut romantasy author Rachel Howzell Hall. A bestseller with thrillers and mysteries, Hall dives into the genre with–no surprise–a mystery. Kai comes to consciousness in a wood, with no idea how she got there or who she is but with one overwhelming need: to get to the Sea of Devour. When a blacksmith who proves awfully skilled in combat offers to help her on the journey, she warily says yes. And the sparks that fly aren’t only from the anvil.

Heir by Sabaa Tahir ($21.99; G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books For Young Readers; Oct. 1) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

The Songbird & The Heart of Stone by Carissa Broadbent ($29.99; Bramble; Nov. 19) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

The Last One by Rachel Howzell Hall ($32.99; Entangled: Red Tower Books; Dec. 3) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

4. The Memoir Part One by Cher
5. Q: A Voyage Around The Queen by Craig Brown
6. Connie by Connie Chung

Three big biographies about three women who left their mark on the world.

Cher! Well, really, is there any need to say more? It’s hard to imagine Cher not being frank and forthcoming and generally having a blast as she lays it all out there. And her fat memoir is just part one, because she’s led that sort of life, hasn’t she?

English author Craig Brown made his bones in the UK with political satire, deft parodies he published here, there and everywhere. But his sideline in books is a fascinating one. Brown specializes in choosing a subject like the Beatles or famous people who crossed paths with one another and then reading everything he can about them and pulling the best bits together. I call it a magpie history. His work on the Beatles and Princess Margaret enjoyed tremendous acclaim. And now he’s done it with the late Queen Elizabeth II. My only disappointment with it is that it came out too late for me to read it to my mother, who would have loved it.

Broadcast Connie Chung covered the news and made it, wherever she went in her storied career. Now she tells her story and while she’s not Cher (who is), the early reviews say Chung too is frank and forthcoming about the challenges women faced (and face) in journalism and TV. If it’s up to her usual standards, it will be very good indeed.

The Memoir Part One by Cher ($36; Dey Street Books; Nov. 19) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org 

Q: A Voyage Around The Queen by Craig Brown ($35; Farrar, Straus and Giroux; Oct. 1) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

Connie by Connie Chung ($32.50; Grand Central Publishing; Sept. 17) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

Related: Best-Selling Author Jeffery Deaver on His New Series and His Favorite Books

7. The Message by Ta-Nehisi Coates

Do we still have public intellectuals, people known around the country who wore their learning lightly and illuminated the issues of the day for a wider audience? Of course we do, though that label is weirdly seen as somehow negative now. It applied to Clifton Fadiman and James Baldwin and Susan Sontag and it certainly applies to Ta-Nehisi Coates. With the game-changing success of his essay/memoir Between The World and Me, anything he writes will immediately command attention. Here he grapples with the power and danger of storytelling, the too easy way of shaping and softening reality. Coates travels to Africa, to South Carolina and–in the longest piece–Palestine to observe how rarely life as it is lived fits into the stories we want to tell ourselves.

The Message by Ta-Nehisi Coates ($30; One World; Oct. 1) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

8. Intermezzo by Sally Rooney
9. Playground by Richard Powers 
10. Tell Me Everything by Elizabeth Strout

Three authors with nothing and everything to prove.

Sally Rooney is at the vanguard of the latest wave of talent to come out of Ireland, a country that always punches above its weight in literature. Her new novel Intermezzo finds two brothers reeling from the death of their father. Rooney herself may still be reeling from the outsize success of her first two books and the miniseries that brought her novel Normal People and actor Paul Mescal so much attention.

Richard Powers is surely only human so he must still be flying high from the extraordinary success of The Overstory, a novel with a tree as its main character. Yes, a tree. His new book Playground isn’t quite as playful in its conceit. It’s the near-future and humanity is hoping the ocean can be a habitable refuge now that they’ve mucked up pretty much all the land.

While Rooney and Powers constantly explore new ground, writer Elizabeth Strout is the sort who stays put and observes the quiet changes that take place in people and places over time. Her book Tell Me Everything returns to the town of Crosby and checks in on beloved (or at least memorable) characters like Olive Kitteridge, Lucy Barton when a terrible crime shatters their lives.

Intermezzo by Sally Rooney ($29; Farrar, Straus and Giroux) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

Playground by Richard Powers ($29.99; W.W. Norton and Company; Sept. 24) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

Tell Me Everything by Elizabeth Strout ($30; Random House; Sept. 10) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

11. Framed by John Grisham and Jim McCloskey
12. By The Fire We Carry by Rebecca Nagle
13. The Last Kilo by T.J. English

Three of the best true crime books of the year.

John Grisham teams up with Jim McCloskey, one of the prime movers in the “innocence movement.” Those are the volunteers who take on hopeless cases and prove person after person has been imprisoned and often sentenced to death for crimes they didn’t commit. Even when everyone knows a person is indeed innocent, getting them out can still be a monumental job. In a passionate work of muckraking in the best sense, Grisham and McCloskey tell numerous stories of injustice, highlighting the many ways our criminal justice system needs to be reformed.

Rebecca Nagle delivers a true life legal thriller with rare ambition and scope. By The Fire We Carry is being acclaimed as one of the best books of the year for weaving together so many storylines into a compelling hole. A murder in a small town in the 1990s sparks a remarkable court fight all the way to the Supreme Court, with Nagle bringing together the Trail of Tears, the history of the Muscogee peoples and other Indigenous folk, the ins and outs of tribal law and the Supreme Court ruling that would begin to offer some justice to those mistreated for so long.

T.J. English is one of the most acclaimed authors in the true crime genre. He’s got major inroads to the Cuban community as well, which led to bestsellers about how the mob took over Cuba and The Corporation, about the Cuban underworld in America. Now he tackles the Miami vice of the cocaine business, with a deep-dive into the 1980s world of Los Muchachos, the criminal enterprise that dominated the white powder biz in Florida. Forget Al Pacino: their most effective weapon wasn’t violence, it was bribery. (Great cover, too! They should use that for the film or miniseries.)

Framed by John Grisham and Jim McCloskey ($30; Doubleday; Oct. 15) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

By The Fire We Carry by Rebecca Nagle ($32; Harper; Sept 10) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

The Last Kilo by T.J. English ($32.50; William Morrow; Dec. 3) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

14. Pick-Up by Nora Dahlia
15. Counting Miracles by Nicholas Sparks
16. The Davenports: More Than This by Krystal Marquis

Nora Dahlia’s debut as a romance author is Pick-Up, a sexy spin on the rite of passage where parents trade chit-chat while waiting for little Billy and Betty to be dismissed from school. She’s earning praise from the likes of writer Meg Cabot and Publishers Weekly, which calls her book “a pitch-perfect rom-com.” It helps that the setting quickly switches from parked cars waiting in line to an island paradise where two parents are thrown together for work…and try to forget they’d each secretly rather play.

Best-selling author Nicholas Sparks writes love stories, not romances. As he says, some of the best love stories end sadly (Romeo & Juliet, anyone?), so don’t assume a happy ending. Military man Tanner Hughes is between postings when he tracks down the father he never knew. In that same town? Dr. Kaitlyn Cooper, a single mom that every fiber of his being says he should get to know, even if duty and his wanderlust will soon call him away. Can either of them count on miracles or should they make those miracles happen?

Writer Krystal Marquis follows her acclaimed debut with another story about the Davenports of Chicago. An esteemed and wealthy Black family–modeled on the real-life success of the Patterson & Son Carriage Company–the Davenports enjoy all the privileges of wealth…but are most assuredly not immune to the vagaries of romance. In More Than This, it’s 1910 and the four young women at the heart of the story are either marrying into the family, trying to establish their own path, forging ahead with plans for the family business (even if it means working with an infuriatingly handsome and reckless business partner) or doing all of the above, because why should a woman settle for less?

Pick-Up by Nora Dahlia ($18.99; Gallery Books; Dec 3) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

Counting Miracles by Nicholas Sparks ($30; Random House; Sept. 24) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

The Davenports: More Than This by Krystal Marquis ($19.99; Dial Books; Nov. 12) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

17. The Serviceberry by Robin Wall Kimmerer; illustrated by John Burgoyne)

Here is one of the most keenly anticipated books of the year. That’s a far cry from Robin Wall Kimmerer’s last book. Few were anticipating Braiding Sweetgrass in 2013. Kimmerer was a respected botanist and an enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. Her award-winning book Gathering Moss was notable. And then Braiding Sweetgrass became a genuine phenomenon, opening eyes to a new way of understanding nature and our relationship to it, all grounded in both Indigenous thinking and Western science.

Now she’s returned with another thoughtful work of nature and science and storytelling. The Serviceberry hopes to deepen our appreciation for the world and our place in it and how we are in it by focusing on the serviceberry. Where Western society is built around hoarding of resources, the trees bearing delicious berries symbolize reciprocity. They offer delicious berries and the other creatures in its world return the favor by spreading those seeds so the trees will live on and flourish. Imagine that! Kimmerer does, in a book brimming with insights and illustrations by John Burgoyne.

The Serviceberry by Robin Wall Kimmerer; illustrated by John Burgoyne ($20; Scribner; Nov. 19) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

18. The Hotel Balzaar by Kate DiCamillo; illustrated by Júlia Sardá
19. Impossible Creatures by Katherine Rundell
20. Kwame Crashes The Underworld by Craig Kofi Farmer

Kate DiCamillo is one of our best storytellers. She’s written beloved classics set in the modern world, from the best-selling Because of Winn-Dixie and Raymie Nightingale right up to this year’s sweet Ferris. She also writes…well, fables? Stories that are not quite in the modern world of cars and cell phones but aren’t quite full-blown fantasies either. Books like The Tale Of Despereaux and The Magician’s Elephant. And now she’s sharing what DiCamillo calls “Tales of Norendy.” Norendy is an almost mythical, but quite real setting (somewhere near Ruritania, I imagine). It’s tinged by magic and stories are just better there. Last year brought an instant classic with The Puppets Of Spelhorst. Now DiCamillo has done it again with The Hotel Balzaar, a charming tale about a little girl in a big hotel, a talking parrot, a sad mother, a missing father (the war, you know, will do that at times, misplace people), a wealthy countess, a kind bellman and the stories they tell. It’s a delight.

UK author Katherine Rundell is already the author of several acclaimed books, like 2015’s Rooftoppers. But her newest novel Impossible Creatures arrives in the US on a wave of praise akin to that for Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials series. (He loves her writing, too.) It’s a stand-alone fantasy about a mythical realm called the Archipelago where all the impossible creatures we assume are imaginary actually go to thrive. But the griffins and unicorns and dragons and so many others face extinction unless two young people can work together to save both that world…and ours. Classic storytelling.

Craig Kofi Farmer makes his debut with Kwame Crashes the Underworld, an adventure story with all sorts of Percy Jackson vibes. But instead of Greek gods, 12 year old Kwame faces the not-so-mythical forces found in the Ghanian underworld known as Asamando. Kwame must tussle with angry gods, save the world above…and learn how to say goodbye to the grandmother he loves so dearly. So once you’re done with Percy Jackson’s latest, Kwame Powell is waiting.

The Hotel Balzaar by Kate DiCamillo; illustrated by Júlia Sardá ($17.99; Candlewick; Oct. 1) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

Impossible Creatures by Katherine Rundell ($19.99; Knopf Books For Young Readers; Sept. 10) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

Kwame Crashes The Underworld by Craig Kofi Farmer ($17.99; Roaring Brook Press; Sept. 10) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

21. Good Lookin’ Cookin’ by Dolly Parton & Rachel Parton George
22. America’s Test Kitchen 25th Anniversary Cookbook
23. Does This Taste Funny? by Stephen Colbert & Evie McGee Colbert

Family gatherings and gift giving mean this is the season for cookbooks. Dolly Parton and her sister Rachel share favorite recipes and the stories behind them. America’s Test Kitchen celebrates 25 years by gathering its greatest hits. And Stephen Colbert and his wife Evie share the family dinners they embrace when everyone is together. Expect a dash of humor.

Good Lookin’ Cookin’ by Dolly Parton & Rachel Parton George ($35; Ten Speed Press; Sept. 17) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

America’s Test Kitchen 25th Anniversary Cookbook ($45; America’s Test Kitchen; Sept. 17) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

Does This Taste Funny? by Stephen Colbert & Evie McGee Colbert ($35; Celadon Books; Sept. 17) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

24. The Blue Hour by Paula Hawkins
25. We Solve Murders by Richard Osman
26. The Grey Wolf by Louise Penny

Three top mysteries and thrillers.

Paula Hawkins is a blue chip thriller writer and she’s back with The Blue Hour. The author of The Girl on the Train now writes about the girl on the island. Eris lives on an isolated island off the coast of Scotland, unreachable much of the time. A scandal in the art world sends a visitor to Eris and a cat and mouse game of obsession, buried secrets and art quietly escalates.

Richard Osman is riding high. His book series The Thursday Murder Club–starring senior citizens who tackled cold cases–is being turned into a very starry film franchise. Now he’s taking a break from the elderly investigators to launch a new series. This time it’s a (retired) father and daughter team dealing with an island paradise spoiled by a difficult best-selling author, a bag of cash and a dead body.

Canadian legend Louise Penny offers the 19th entry in her acclaimed Inspector Gamache series. The tranquility of his hometown Three Pines is shattered by intrusive phone calls, tantalizing clues and a murder…but Gamache and his team soon realize the stakes are much higher than that in a case that might just impact Three Pines, Québec and indeed the entire country.

The Blue Hour by Paula Hawkins ($30; Mariner Books; Oct. 29) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

We Solve Murders by Richard Osman ($30; Pamela Dorman Books; Sept. 17) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

The Grey Wolf by Louise Penny ($30; Minotaur Books; Oct. 29) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

27. Amazing Grapes by Jules Feiffer
28. Final Cut by Charles Burns 
29. Sunday by Oliver Schrauwen 
30. Blue Sky Through The Window of a Moving Car by Jordan Bolton

Four books encompassing graphic novels and comics for kids, adults, horror fans, literary fiction and life–in short, doing what any good books do. 

Jules Feiffer is a protean talent: he's won the Pulitzer Prize, worked on Oscar-winning shorts, written classic films and stage plays, beloved picture books and of course his decades of pioneering work as a cartoonist for the Village Voice. Now he moves into graphic novels with a typically exuberant, quirky work about a mom seemingly in a chronic depression and her kids who must enter another dimension–squabbling all the way–to rescue her. Assuming she needs rescuing, that is. 

Charles Burns is the creator of the acclaimed Black Hole. Here he returns with another genre-breaking work encompassing the story of romantic obsession, friendship, a love of classic horror movies and especially the sci-fi masterpiece Invasion of the Body Snatcher. Certain to be one of the publishing events of the year. 

Belgian artist Oliver Schrauen makes like James Joyce and presents the ficitonalized day in the life of his cousin Thibault: obsessing over his girlfriend, sitting on the couch and watching The Da Vinci Code, agonizing over text messages and the like. In other words, life. 

Speaking of mundane moments, Jordan Bolton finds the poignancy and poetry in everything from staring out a car window to New Year's Eve rituals and the like. Each spread focuses quietly on details and emotions that often pass by without a second thought. Here they become sweet, sad and gently moving. 

Amazing Grapes by Jules Feiffer ($29.99; Michael di Capua Books; Sept. 24) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org 

Final Cut by Charles Burns ($34; Pantheon; Sept. 24) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

Sunday by Oliver Schrauwen ($39.99; Fantagraphics; Oct. 15) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

Blue Sky Through The Window of a Moving Car by Jordan Bolton ($19.99; Andrews McMeel Publishing; Nov. 12) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

31. Heartbreak is the National Anthem: How Taylor Swift Reinvented Pop Music by Rob Sheffield
32. Lost: Back To The Island by Emily St. James & Noel Murray
33. Fashion First by Diane Keaton

Three varied books perfect for anyone looking for just the right gift.

Rob Sheffield of Rolling Stone tackled mix tapes in a memoir and the Beatles in an appreciation, both highly acclaimed books. Now he tackles Taylor Swift, choosing his title Heartbreak is the National Anthem from her song "New Romantics" (from her best album 1989, just sayin'). Fans will love the fact that he takes Swift seriously: this is about popular music and how she's shaped it as an artist and yes as a pop culture force to be reckoned with. And non-fans will enjoy learning just what all the fuss is about. 

Any fan of the landmark TV series Lost will be happy to head back to the island and dive into the intricacies of the show and its remarkable impact on TV.

If you know a fan of Diane Keaton or a clothes horse but especially if you know a fan of Diane Keaton’s who is also a clothes horse, then her memoir/history of Keaton’s quirky style is the ideal pick. 

Heartbreak is the National Anthem: How Taylor Swift Reinvented Pop Music by Rob Sheffield ($27.99; Dey Street Books; Nov. 12) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

Lost: Back To The Island by Emily St. James & Noel Murray ($30; Abrams Press; Sept 17) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

Fashion First by Diane Keaton ($55; Rizzoli; Sept. 3) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

34. The Great When by Alan Moore
35. The City and Its Uncertain Walls by Haruki Murakami; translated by Philip Gabriel
36. Wind and Truth by Brandon Sanderson
37. The Last Dangerous Visions edited by Harlan Ellison

Alan Moore is a legend in the world of comic books and graphic novels. It’s surprisingly rare for writers in that world to venture into non-visual works–you know, books. It’s even rarer for them to succeed, Neil Gaiman being the notable exception. But here he is and The Great When is a corker, filled with the tug of the Other London, the London of our dreams, perhaps the real London while we’re stuck in the prosaic everyday world. The wonderfully named young man Dennis Knuckleyard (!) might prefer that. But in post World War II England he finds himself dealing with a frightening landlady, magicians, gangsters, an imaginary book that he’s got hold of and can’t get rid and a propensity for slipping into the surreal, phantasmagorical and very dangerous Other London when he least expects it. Moore is entirely in charge here, confident and witty and pulling us along. The Great When is the first book in The Long London Quintet. If you read it, that fact will make you very happy indeed.

Haruki Murakami in the sci-fi and fantasy section? Why not? Oh he’s usually ensconced in the loftier realm of literary fiction. But The City and Its Uncertain Walls just as easily slots into this batch of books, just as Borges and Marquez and Calvino and others would. Murakami returns us to the Town, a place where a Dream Reader reads our dreams, where love can flourish (maybe) and libraries are celebrated, as well they should be.

Fantasy author Brandon Sanderson climaxes his Stormlight Archive with Wind and Truth, the fifth book in the arc, though you’ll also find two novellas. I would describe the plot but who am I kidding? You’d say, wha? You really need to start at the start with The Way of Kings and work forward. If you’ve already read it (as millions have), then you don’t need me to tell you anything other than it’s out December 6.

The fact that the third and final Dangerous Visions anthology is out seems remarkable all on its own. The late writer and editor Harlan Ellison rocked the literary world with the first two books Dangerous Visions in 1967 and Again, Dangerous Visions in 1972. They revolutionized sci-fi and fantasy and while many, many others contributed to the genre's “growing up” and tacking adult themes and generally being taken seriously, Dangerous Visions was a landmark, undeniable part of that. Ellison promised a third and final Dangerous Visions but it became as mythic as the Orson Welles original cut of the film The Magnificent Ambersons and other great lost or never-completed works of art. Ellison died six years ago…and now here it is? My mind is blown. It couldn’t possibly compare to the first two. And nothing could have their impact for the simple fact that their impact was so great. And yet the first story included is a corker. Maybe it will? Even if it does, the real prize here is TV creator and writer J. Michael Strczynski of Babylon 5 fame. He’s devoted himself to curating Ellison’s estate and life work, paused his own projects perhaps for good and birthed this impossible, never to be seen book. The introduction includes his detailed and remarkable story of their friendship, Ellison’s huge influence on him and a loving but no holds barred explanation of what the heck happened to both this book and Ellison’s career. It’s heartbreaking, absorbing, funny and does Ellison justice. Even the minor fact that Strczynski's name isn't on the cover (not even a "forward by" or something) even though he did the heavy lifting to pull it together moves me greatly. Alan Moore's novel revolves around a mythical book that shouldn't exist but then it does. What a crazy idea! But I never, ever expected to see The Final Dangerous Visions actually get published and yet here it is. 

The Great When by Alan Moore ($29.99; Bloomsbury Publishing; Oct. 1) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

The City and Its Uncertain Walls by Haruki Murakami; translated by Philip Gabriel ($35; Knopf; Nov. 19) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

Wind and Truth by Brandon Sanderson ($39.99; Tor Books; Dec. 6) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

The Last Dangerous Visions edited by Harlan Ellison ($27.99; Blackstone Publishing Inc.; Oct. 1) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

Related: Exclusive Peek At Madeline Martin’s “The Booklover’s Library”

38. The Miraculous From The Material by Alan Lightman
39. What The Chicken Knows by Sy Montgomery
40. Vanishing Treasures by Katherine Rundell

Three very different works of popular science any lover of nature, the mysteries of the world around us or just good writing will enjoy.

Alan Lightman achieved fame forever with Einstein’s Dreams, a beguiling collection of short stories that enchanted while bringing to life the ideas embedded in physics and Einstein’s life work. It’s as if Italo Calvino wrote your high school science book. Now Lightman shares his boundless delight in the marvels of the universe in this beautifully designed book bursting with photographs and illustrations. Snowflakes and rainbows and the Rings of Saturn and spiderwebs are there to delight, if only you take a moment to observe them.

You probably don’t give the average, ordinary chicken much thought. But does it give any thought to you? Sy Montgomery has chickens in her backyard. She pays attention to them and tells you what she sees in this work by the author of the acclaimed book The Soul of an Octopus. Chickens recognize dozens of other chickens, chickens anticipate events, chickens remember the past and more. Plus, there are some 8 billion people on the planet but probably more than 9 billion chickens at any one time. So it might be polite to learn more about them, don’t you think?

Katherine Rundell is the author of one of the mostly highly touted and praised fantasy books of the year. Called Impossible Creatures, it’s about a boy who stumbles into the Archipelago, a place where creatures like the griffin and the unicorn survive and thrive away from most humans. But their very survival is threatened and the beasts are dying off, entire species lost forever. It’s one of the biggest books in years from the UK, a font of great fantasy literature. And it doesn’t read as a polemic at all. But here is Rundell with what is clearly a companion book. Unicorns aren’t dying off but countless real creatures are going extinct all the time due to humanity’s impact on the planet. Rundell celebrates and mourns the marvelous variety of creatures facing disappearance right now: everyone from the lemur to the sea horse and so many more are brought vividly to life in a desperate hope we might act before it’s too late. Has there ever been a similar one-two punch from an author of fantasy? I don’t think so.

The Miraculous From The Material by Alan Lightman ($36; Pantheon; Nov. 19) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

What The Chicken Knows by Sy Montgomery ($22.99; Atria Books; Nov. 5) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

Vanishing Treasures by Katherine Rundell ($26; Doubleday; Nov. 12) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

41. Mamá’s Magnificent Dancing Plantitas by Jesús Trejo; pictures by Eliza Kinkz
42. Museum In A Book by Hervé Tullet
43. Big Gorilla by Anthony Browne

Three excellent books perfect for reading, sharing and gifting.

Mama’s Magnificent Dancing Plantitas is all about a little boy who really, really wants to help…and finds it hard to ask for help when he’s in over his head. The breathless, adorable text is paired beautifully with vibrant pictures.

Hervé Tullet shot to fame with his ingenious picture book Press Here. Ever since he’s been encouraging creativity and imagination and art-making in a thousand ways, such as The Ideal Exhibition. Now he delivers an activity book second to none, a spur to anyone who’s feeling crafty. Using a four bold colors, a brush, scissors and paper, Tullet leads kids (and adults) into all sorts of fun-making projects.

The “opposites” genre is a biggie in picture books. I’d be hard pressed to detail exactly what makes one work so well compared to another. But when it does work, it works like a charm. The delightful Big Gorilla works perfectly, with illustrations shifting from “together” to “alone” and “happy” to “sad” and so on with engaging creatures bringing the concepts beautifully to life. Irresistible.

Mamá’s Magnificent Dancing Plantitas by Jesús Trejo; pictures by Eliza Kinkz ($18.99; Minerva; Sept. 10) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

Museum In A Book by Hervé Tullet ($24.99; Chronicle Books; Oct. 8) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

Big Gorilla by Anthony Browne ($17.99; Candlewick; Oct. 1) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

Related: The 32 Best Romantasy Books of All Time