The past year gave us some damn good reads. Now, as we enter 2017, it’s time to look ahead at what the new year has in store for our reading pleasure. Alas, it seems there won’t be any drop off. While many more titles will be announced, here are the confirmed books we’re most excited about. You’ll probably find one or two on this list when we update it.
Reality Is Not What It Seems: The Journey to Quantum Gravity
Carlo Rovelli
Release Date: January 24
Carlo Rovelli had a bit of a breakout hit last year, as Seven Brief Lessons on Physics was championed as an entertaining and accessible look at modern physics. Yes, a topic that is more confusing than an episode Black Mirror was not only easy to dip your toes into; it was a joy to learn about. Now Rovelli is back with another title, Reality Is Not What It Seems: The Journey to Quantum Gravity. This time the author will tackle things like: What are time and space made of? Where does matter come from? What the hell is reality anyway? And he’ll do it all without boring you to tears. $17
Lincoln in the Bardo
George Saunders
Release Date: February 14
George Saunders is one of the preeminent short story writers of our time. Often balancing the bleak with the goofy, his stories delight while gut-punching you. In 2017, we get our first novel from the celebrated author. After the death of Willie Lincoln, Abraham Lincoln’s third son, at the young age of 12, the boy finds himself in the “bardo,” a sort of purgatory in Tibetan tradition. Saunders goes on to weave historical figures with ones from his imagination and to tell a tale that’s bold, creative, and completely Saunders. $24
Ill Will
Dan Chaon
Release Date: March 7
In 2013, Dan Chaon released Await Your Reply, a stunningly clever novel with multiple, intertwined protagonists that hummed along like a mass-market thriller. Now Chaon is back with Ill Will, a novel that hops between crimes separated by years. Advance praise already alludes to more Chaon brilliance and a haunting read you’ll blow through in a weekend. We can’t wait. $21
South and West: From a Notebook
Joan Didion
Release Date: March 7
Joan Didion is a living legend. At 82 years of age, it’s probably the time for reflection and Didion is giving us all a glimpse back at her career. South and West: From a Notebook is a collection of random musings, observations, and pieces of interview prep Didion jotted down in her notebooks over the years. Such a book won’t present the fully-formed beauty of something like Slouching Towards Bethlehem or The Year of Magical Thinking, but it will give you a unique look into the working mind of one of our most cherished writers. $16
Blitzed: Drugs in the Third Reich
Norman Ohler
Release Date: March 7
We’re all for some fiction writers who spin a most unbelievable yarn. What we dig more, on occasion, is a piece of nonfiction that seems equally crazy. Enter Blitzed, a look at drug use inside the Third Reich. Yes, you read that right. The insane book from Norman Ohler takes a deep look at the use of cocaine, opiates, and, most of all, methamphetamines in Nazi Germany. From Hitler’s personal drug cocktail to crystal meth as part of a soldier’s rations, you’ll be amazed at a piece of history your textbooks never mentioned. $20
Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI
David Grann
Release Date: April 18
If you need proof that Killers of the Flower Moon should be one of your nonfiction reads this year, just take a weekend (if you need that long) and read The Lost City of Z. David Grann’s last book, which is being made into a major motion picture, was one of the most captivating nonfiction reads of recent memory. Now the New Yorker staff writer is back. Killers of the Flower Moon takes you to 1920s Oklahoma, where a Native American tribe is slowly killed off for the incredible oil reserve their land covers. Based on years of tireless research, Grann shows you how badly the FBI flubbed the case. In typical Grann fashion, it doesn’t read anything like a history book. $22
Into the Water
Paula Hawkins
Release Date: May 2
In 2015, whether fairly or unfairly, Paula Hawkins was dubbed the next Gillian Flynn, as The Girl on the Train, Hawkins’s blockbuster thriller, possessed some similarities to Flynn’s smash hit Gone Girl. This year, Hawkins plans on showing she is no one-hit wonder. Into the Water, which will hit shelves and eReaders on May 2, is another mess-with-your-mind mystery. After a single mother turns up dead in a town’s river, the woman’s daughter is left to fend for herself and to take care of her mother’s sister, a woman who’s off from the jump. Consider this your beach read of 2017. $25
Men Without Women: Stories
Haruki Murakami
Release Date: May 9
Haruki Murakami’s books have been devoured for close to 40 years. But if 1Q84 and The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle are daunting in size, perhaps the Japanese’s authors latest work will be more up your alley. Men Without Women is a collection of seven short stories, all of which focus on lonely men. Packed with classic Murakami humor—which is never lost in translation—the stories will resonate with anyone who’s spent some time saddled up to a bar stool for weeks on end. $23
Theft by Finding: Diaries (1977-2002)
David Sedaris
Release Date: May 30
David Sedaris has gained a cult following for his unique perspective and ability to tell a tale. So it should come as no surprise that fans would love something as intimate as his diary. Ask and you shall receive. Theft by Finding: Diaries (1977-2002) is a collection of Sedaris’s favorite diary entries from the aforementioned years. As with everything Sedaris writes, they exist somewhere between hilarious and heart-breaking. $24
Blind Spot
Teju Cole
Release Date: June 27
You kinda hate a guy like Teju Cole. Not only is he a writer of tremendous skill—as demonstrated by one of our favorite books of the last few years, Open City—but, as it turns out, he’s also an immensely talented photographer. That’s just not fair. So while you curse the gods for giving someone else such abundant gifts, get angrier with Blind Spot, a book that finally brings his two passions together. Included are 150 full-color photographs taken by Cole accompanied by his prose. Drop it on your coffee table after it’s released in June to infuriate you ever time you sit on the couch. $31
