The Curator: new release books I might actually read

plus a few that I won't.

Last year I went feral for new books to the detriment of my mental health, my bank account, and my backlist library. This year, I’m taking a more measured approach. The sheer number of new titles pushed out each year can be overwhelming¹, but reading is supposed to be fun, so I’m only allowing in what feels authentic.

One way I’m narrowing down my new book consideration list is by getting real real with myself². Perhaps a controversial opinion, but I do not believe new books are the place for risk-taking. I’m not saying don’t challenge yourself, but if you’ve never read a romance in your life, the newest unvetted level five chili pepper is not the place to start. My track record is top-notch when I align new book selections with my existing obsessions. While I greatly enjoy curating lists of books³, I am only seriously considering spending cash on those that are dark, moody, messy, literary, speculative, dystopian, or occultist.

If you are curious, here is a Bookshop.org list of all the 2025 titles that have caught my attention thus far, including everything mentioned here, and I will add new books throughout the year.

most anticipated 2025 reads - winter/spring

In putting this list together, I seem to have only selected the ladies for the most anticipated and quite a lot of horror for the rest. First, the top picks I’m most likely to actually make space for.

Code Noir by Canisia Lubrin - here’s the thing, this one is weird, I already know. It’s a book of linked fictions, each fronted with an original artwork that feels like the remains of an abandoned insane asylum. The stories range from historical realism to futuristic dystopias, with slavery in the French colonial empire as the connecting thread. Challenging, maybe a bit WTF, but what’s life without a little riot?

Sour Cherry by Natalia Theodoridou - not only is the cover Shel Silverstein coded, this debut is also about many things I love - manor houses, treacherous towns, murderous men, and a chorus of ghosts.

Bad Nature by Ariel Courage - All I had to read to convince me: “When Hester is diagnosed with terminal cancer on her fortieth birthday, she knows immediately what she must do: abandon her possessions and drive to California to kill her estranged father.” Let’s do this bro!

Exit Zero by Marie-Helene Bertino - now that I’m like a short story girly, this collection of “delightfully strange, haunting stories” with titles like “Can Only Houses be Haunted” sounds like a perfect follow up to my Daphne du Maurier experience (and perhaps perfect for spooky season!).

Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy - About a family on a remote island, a murder, and a bunch of secrets. Thus far, this one feels the closest to becoming this year’s The God of the Woods, and I cannot let a joy like that pass me by.

authors with a strong backlist

I’d really like to dive into these, but at the same time, each author’s backlist paperbacks are giving me the side eye. It’s easiest to get excited about authors you’ve heard of or read previously, but it’s also just as easy to forget that you already have their other unread books on your shelves, ahem…

• Audition by Katie Kitamura⁴

• The Labyrinth House Murders by Yukito Ayatsuji⁵

• The Staircase in the Woods by Chuck Wendig

• When the Wolf Comes Home by Nat Cassidy

• The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones

advanced copy status

These get their own category because a gratis book highly influences whether I will read it. Below a minor status update, including a few I’m not gonna fuk with.

• Deep Cuts by Holly Brickley (read it, liked it fine)

• Stoneyard Devotional by Charlotte Wood (read it, liked it fine)

• My Documents by Kevin Nguyen (feels like it might be heavy, need to finish Solenoid first)

• Dissolution by Nicholas Binge (got through like five pages and it felt gimmicky, might give it another shot)

• Luminous by Silvia Park (stared egalley, quickly lost interest)

• Twist by Colum McCann (sorry but this one is a 10% DNF)

• Major Arcana by John Pistelli (have not started, will read since John is a fellow Substacker!)

And just to be sassy, a few I won’t ever read even though I put them on the list.

• The Unworthy by Agustina Bazterrica - the opening starts with a girl putting cucarachas in someone’s pillow and I absolutely do not mess with that.

• Polybius by Collin Armstrong - this is 100% something I would be attracted to and then promptly let down by. It’s got a great ‘80s Stranger Things vibe, but reviews say the writing and plotting are not worth the read.

• Death Takes Me by Cristina Rivera Garza - I seriously considered this for a top anticipated read, but one preview page was enough to change my mind - the sentences are so staccato it makes your head hurt.

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Abra McAndrew

reminds us that Gatsby flopped.

One of the best pieces on “the vanishing white male writer” I’ve seen yet from

Naomi Kanakia

: Real power is better.

If you have ever felt aimless, upset with yourself for taking a winding path, please I beg you read this piece from

Haley Nahman

: Following your (non-specific) dreams.

LitHub and I share similar tastes in new books for 2025

Elle attempts to get a bunch of influencers to guess which books will be popular this year (are they right so far??)

It’s the LA Festival of Books this weekend. A bunch of hot book people will be there without me⁶.

The LA Times sneaky released a 30 best fiction books of the last 30 years list and there were a few surprises including The Hunger Games and Tomorrow x3, but otherwise it feels very safe and western. I appreciated the Redditor who called it the “soy video game book.”

I will be celebrating National Independent Bookstore Day, hopefully with a trip to The Last Bookstore LA. The selection is insane and you can wander the trippy hallways for hours.

Barnes & Noble will open more than 60 new stores this year thanks to a focus on “local booksellers.” Listen to your employees and community, and thee shall be rewarded.

📽️WHY IS MICHAEL B JORDAN SO HOT. Send a hose because I was sweating watching him in Without Remorse, a 2021 flick I somehow missed, even though it’s a Tom Clancy adaptation. Can’t wait to see Sinners next.

💰My skin has been feeling dull as hell lately, so I just ordered some prescription-strength retinoids thanks to CosmeticRX. I hate the fear-mongering beauty industry with its false promises re: aging, but I do want to love my skin. I will report back.

🧘‍♀️I’m a weight lifting fanatic, but sometimes when the cortisol sets in, it’s great to shake things up. I tried a CorePower hot yoga class thanks to a generous buddy pass system, and it healed me of my anxiety and malaise. It is so easy to forget the power of movement and gratitude.

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I’m all about that reading life balance, so while making it through max ten pages of Solenoid per day I flew through The Obelisk Gate (second in the Broken Earth Trilogy by NK Jemisin). I could instantly start the last in the series but there are so many other things I’d love to get into. The pull of a good series is addictive and bittersweet.

• what new books are you most excited for this year? have you read anything yet you’d put on a ballot for best of 2025?

• in honor of Indie Bookstore Day, tell us your favorite bookstore!

• what are you reading and is it any good?

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See you around the bookshelf!

1. can’t we ever just be whelmed?? (courtesy of Buzzfeed)

2. the greatest Chappelle Show moment of all time. Please watch

3. can lists be a love language?

4. this non-series series starts with A Separation, then Intimacies, then Audition which will probably be in paperback by the time I get there

5. I told myself I will read The Decagon House Murders first and by golly I will!

6. fun fact, I worked the festival one year as an unpaid intern for Red Hen Press. I think I was a terrible publicist because I never read any of our books.