Paperback to the Future: Must-Read Paperbacks to Kick Off 2023

Hardcovers Now successful Paperback

The Boy with a Bird successful His Chest by Emme Lund (Atria, January 3)

A parent hides her lad from the satellite retired of love, acrophobic that helium volition beryllium taken distant if it’s discovered that helium has a vertebrate surviving successful his chest.

Don’t Cry for Me by Daniel Black (Hanover Square Press, January 10)

In this almighty novel, a Black begetter connected his deathbed writes letters to effort and marque amends with his cheery lad for the wounded helium has caused him.

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The Swimmers by Julie Otsuka (Anchor, January 24)

A beauteous meditation connected routine, family, and memory, successful this novel, readers travel Alice, an aged swimmer from the section assemblage excavation who has dementia.

How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi (One World, January 31)

This #1 New York Times Best Seller addresses ways to combat racism, by offering caller ways of seeing ourselves and each other, and examining the abstraction we inhabit successful the world.

Sankofa by Chibundu Onuzo (Catapult, February 7)

A middle-aged pistillate yet has the accidental to observe who her begetter is aft she finds his individuality among her mother’s things erstwhile she dies. But is she truly acceptable for the truth?

Secret Identity by Alex Segura (Flatiron Books, February 7)

A young pistillate hoping to interruption into the male-dominated satellite of comics sees her hopes dashed erstwhile her concealed comic publication collaborator is murdered.

Olga Dies Dreaming by Xochitl Gonzalez (Flatiron Books, February 7)

Brooklyn wedding planner Olga and her section person member Pedro brace for the upheaval of their lives erstwhile they larn their parent volition beryllium visiting from Puerto Rico. This was the victor of the Brooklyn Public Library prize.

Joan Is Okay by Weike Wang (Random House, February 7)

This concise, astute novel, astir a 30-something ICU doc who discovers she doesn’t person it each unneurotic aft her begetter dies, was longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie medal.

Booth by Karen Joy Fowler (G.P. Putnam’s Sons, February 7)

This epic, in-depth look astatine the celebrated and scandalous household of John Wilkes Booth, Abraham Lincoln’s assassin, was longlisted for the 2022 Booker Prize.

Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson (Random House, February 14)

The Pulitzer Prize–winning writer of The Warmth of Other Suns discusses the unspoken, unacknowledged caste strategy successful America that fosters part successful our lives.

What My Bones Know: A Memoir of Healing from Complex Trauma by Stephanie Foo (Ballantine Books, February 21)

Foo’s moving memoir is simply a look astatine the trauma and PTSD that has shaped her implicit the years, and however she seeks the answers and treatments to assistance reclaim her life.

Unlikely Animals by Annie Hartnett (Ballantine Books, February 28)

In this delightful, heart-squeezing novel, a young pistillate returns to her tiny New Hampshire hometown to assistance attraction for her dying begetter and instrumentality immoderate clip to fig retired what she truly wants.

True Biz by Sara Nović (Random House, February 28)

A fantastic communicative of disability, injustice, emotion and loss, this is astir 2 students and the headmistress astatine the River Valley School for the Deaf, whose lives are some analyzable and changed everlastingly by their clip there.

The Invisible Kingdom: Reimagining Chronic Illness by Meghan O’Rourke (Riverhead, February 28)

This 1 was a finalist for the 2022 National Book Award for nonfiction. It’s a riveting exploration of the emergence of chronic unwellness and autoimmune diseases, arsenic told done the lens of O’Rourke’s ain experiences.

Checkout 19 by Claire-Louise Bennett (Riverhead, February 28)

This is simply a dazzling abbreviated enactment astir a young miss successful London who fills up her notebooks and her beingness with stories. It was conscionable named 1 of the 5 champion novels of the twelvemonth by The New York Times.

The Book of Cold Cases by Simone St. James (Berkley, February 28)

A existent transgression podcaster gets the accidental to interrogation the reclusive fishy successful her town’s acold execution case. But volition she past to archer the story?

All My Rage by Sabaa Tahir (Razorbill, March 7)

This passionate, superb communicative of love, immigration, and forgiveness by the always-amazing Tahir was the 2022 victor of the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature.

Woman of Light by Kali Fajardo-Anstine (One World, March 7)

The debut caller from the award-winning writer of the communicative postulation Sabrina & Corina, this follows 5 generations of the Lopez family.

The Candy House by Jennifer Egan (Scribner, March 7)

More than a decennary aft A Visit from the Goon Squad won the Pulitzer Prize, Egan followed it up with this sequel. It was named 1 of the 5 champion novels of 2022 by the New York Times.

The Cat Who Saved Books by Sosuke Natsukawa, Translated by Louise Heal Kawai (HarperVia, March 14)

In this planetary champion seller from Japan, a young antheral inherits his grandfather’s bookstore, and meets a feline who requests helium travel it connected a quest to prevention books.

To Paradise by Hanya Yanagihara (Anchor, March 21)

The long-awaited follow-up to Yanagihara’s A Little Life is acceptable successful 3 times periods successful an alternate mentation of the United States.

Disorientation by Elaine Hsieh Chou (Penguin Books, March 21)

This is simply a delightful assemblage field satire astir a PhD pupil who cannot hold to decorativeness her dissertation connected an aged poet. Then she finds an antithetic enactment successful a publication that changes everything.

The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles (Penguin Books, March 21)

From the writer of A Gentleman successful Moscow comes a riveting caller astir 3 wards of the authorities and an escapade crossed America successful the 1950s.

Young Mungo by Douglas Stuart (‎Grove Press, March 21)

Stuart’s debut novel, Shuggie Bain, won the Booker Prize. This much-lauded follow-up is simply a queer coming-of-age communicative acceptable a lodging property successful Glasgow.

Crying successful H Mart: A Memoir by Michelle Zauner (Vintage, March 28)

Zauner, writer and subordinate of the set Japanese Breakfast, looks backmost connected her beingness with her mother, successful which galore of their experiences and her memories impact food.

Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel (Vintage, March 28)

An utterly gorgeous, slim caller astir shifting time, a writer, a detective, and more, spanning 500 years from Canada to the moon.

Ten Steps to Nanette: A Memoir Situation by Hannah Gadsby (Ballantine Books, March 28)

Comedian and writer Gadsby’s archetypal memoir builds connected her stories of her beingness from her award-winning signifier amusement Nanette.

Tell Me I’m Worthless by Alison Rumfitt (Tor Nightfire, January 17)

This astonishing enactment of trans fabrication astir houses, hauntings, and horrors is going to beryllium the fearfulness publication everyone is discussing adjacent year.

The Red-Headed Pilgrim by Kevin Maloney (Two Dollar Radio, January 24)

A web developer embarks connected a travel of enlightenment and indulgence to find retired who helium truly is. A caller merchandise from the fantastic indie property Two Dollar Radio.

The Black Guy Dies First: Black Horror Cinema from Fodder to Oscar by Robin R. Means Coleman, Mark H. Harris (Gallery / Saga Press, February 7)

From the creators down the acclaimed documentary Horror Noire comes an introspection of Black roles successful fearfulness films, and the predominant tropes and stereotypes, arsenic good arsenic a look astatine modern Black fearfulness cinema.

Eastbound by Maylis De Kerangal, Translated by Jessica Moore (Archipelago, February 7)

Two strangers fleeing their lives go improbable soulmates, adjacent though they don’t talk the aforesaid language.

The Neighbor Favor by Kristina Forest (Berkley, February 28)

A shy publication person chats up her handsome neighbour successful the hopes of scoring a day to a wedding, unaware he’s the writer of her favourite phantasy series.

Fat Off, Fat On: A Big Bitch Manifesto by Clarkisha Kent (The Feminist Press astatine CUNY, March 7)

Cultural professional Clarkisha Kent has written a superb candid memoir astir her beingness arsenic a fat, Black, queer pistillate successful America, and however she freed herself of societal expectations.

The Fifth Wound by Aurora Mattia ‎(Nightboat Books, March 7)

A speculative trans roman à clef astir an interdimensional hunt for love, agency, and state from unit for trans people.

A Witch’s Guide to Fake Dating a Demon by Sarah Hawley (Berkley, March 7)

Mariel Spark discovers being the astir almighty witch successful generations travel with perks and problems. One occupation appears successful a signifier of a handsome demon who wants her psyche — who isn’t going to permission until helium gets it.

Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers by Jesse Q. Sutanto (Berkley, March 14)

From the writer of bestsellers specified arsenic Dial A for Aunties comes the communicative of an aged beverage store proprietor successful San Francisco’s Chinatown who finds a assemblage successful her store and decides to lick the lawsuit herself.

Bitter Medicine by Mia Tsai (Tachyon Publications, March 14)

A Chinese immortal and a French elf effort to marque their narration enactment successful this romanticist phantasy debut.

A Darker Wilderness: Black Nature Writing From Soil to Stars by Erin Sharkey (Milkweed Editions, February 14)

This is simply a postulation of idiosyncratic and lyric essays exploring quality and the lives of Black radical successful the United States implicit hundreds of years.

The Book of Eve by Carmen Boullosa, Translated by Samantha Schnee (Deep Vellum Publishing, March 20)

From the award-winning Mexican writer Boullosa comes a caller astir an apocryphal manuscript that alleges that the communicative of Adam and Eve successful the Garden of Eden was wrong.