The 38 Best New Book Releases This Week: Sept 3-9, 2024

Here are the 38 best new book releases this week of September 3-9, 2024. Ok, it’s fall and things are getting serious. From now until Black Friday (the day after Thanksgiving), a lot of books are coming out. For book lovers, it’s like your birthday at the bookstore, every week with all sorts of titles jostling for space and hoping to grab your attention as a gift, a stocking stuffer, a last minute idea or maybe the perfect little treat for yourself. That’s why I’ve suddenly got almost 40 new books to recommend this week alone.

Here’s how to use Parade’s weekly roundup. Scroll down like you’re browsing the aisles of your favorite indie bookstore. (And hey, grab this article and literally stroll down the aisles of your favorite bookstore while using it as a guide!) I’ve grouped books together by genre so when you spot a cover that catches your eye, chances are the other titles next to it will also interest. And keep your friends and family and coworkers in mind: it’s always fun to say “Hey, I saw a book I think you’d like” and hear back a few weeks later, “Wow, that book was great!”

This week I’ve found some cozy charmers followed by three high profile mysteries and then some gift ideas followed by three romances and then an offbeat book about the history of computer dating and then three thrillers and on and on until I end with books for teens, kids and some cool picture books. So let’s get reading! At the head of the Parade are…

The 38 Best New Book Releases This Week: Sept 3-9, 2024

1. The Life Impossible by Matt Haig
2. The Empress of Cooke County by Elizabeth Bass Parman
3. Where The Forest Meets The River by Shannon Bowring

Three charmers. Matt Haig follows up his smash hit The Midnight Library with another book dipped in magic realism. This time a retired math teacher heads to a Mediterranean island, which is already magic enough for me.

The stakes are always big in a small town. Author Elizabeth Bass Parman’s debut novel is cheered on by Fannie Flagg, so you know exactly what to expect (in a good way) from this 1960s set story of the Empress of Cooke County and her suddenly rebellious (and engaged!) daughter.

Everyday life is the focus of Shannon Bowring. Like Marianne Robinson and others, she finds grace in the ordinary details of living. Bowring’s The Road To Dalton was named one of the best books of 2023 and she returns to that town and its people for another acclaimed followup.

The Life Impossible by Matt Haig ($30; Viking) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

The Empress of Cooke County by Elizabeth Bass Parman ($18.99; Harper Muse) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

Where The Forest Meets The River by Shannon Bowring ($18.99; Europa Editions) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

4. Fatal Intrusion by Jeffery Deaver & Isabella Maldonado
5. Death at the Sign of the Rook by Kate Atkinson
6. Passions in Death by J.D. Robb
7. Guide Me Home by Attica Locke

Jeffery Deaver launches a new thriller series in a full partnership with fellow author Isabella Maldonado. It's a classic pairing of the by-the-book law enforcement officer with a rules-breaking outsider. But they're facing a ticking time bomb of a villain and hi-tech subterfuge, so the grudging mutual respect needs to come fast! 

The brilliant Kate Atkinson writes literary fiction and at the same time an engrossing series starring rumpled private eye Jackson Brodie. For a wonderful while, they came once every two years. Then we waited a torturous nine years for 2019’s Big Sky and a far more reasonable five years for the new Brodie, Death at the Sign of the Rook. So things are looking up!

J.D. Robb aka Nora Roberts never disappoints fans with her near-future crime novels starring homicide detective Eve Dallas. This time a hen party turns into a crime scene when the bride to be is murdered in a hotel room…the very same room Eve Dallas was assaulted in many years ago. Needless to say, she won’t rest until justice is served. Again.

Writer Attica Locke winds up her highly praised Highway 59 trilogy with a finale that does right by the standards set by Edgar-winning Bluebird, Bluebird and its follow-up. Detective Darren Matthews is dragged into a very complicated murder case involving an all-white sorority, a black female student who may or may not be missing and the person pushing the case on him who can be trusted least of all: his mother.

Fatal Intrusion by Jeffery Deaver & Isabella Maldonado ($28.99; Thomas & Mercer) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

Death at the Sign of the Rook by Kate Atkinson ($30; Doubleday) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

Passions in Death by J.D. Robb ($30; St. Martin’s Press) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

Guide Me Home by Attica Locke ($29; Mulholland Books) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

Related: Bestselling Author Karin Slaughter Shares Her Favorite Books

8. Baking In The American South by Anne Byrn
9. Fashion First by Diane Keaton
10. The Joy of Quiet Places by Lonely Planet

Start thinking about gifts! It’s the holiday season. I’ll have roundups of the best books in all the big categories. But you’ll also want to consider the offbeat and unexpected. Cookbooks are always welcome and the well-reviewed Baking In The American South is brimming with recipes and backstories about each dish. If there’s a fashion or Diane Keaton fan in your life, her new book that shares her journey via the clothes she wore is a perfect fit. And Lonely Planet offers an intriguing guide to places you can visit that offer genuine quiet, which sounds a treat.

Baking In The American South by Anne Byrn ($44.99; Harper Celebrate) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

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

The Joy of Quiet Places by Lonely Planet ($27.99; Lonely Planet) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

11. The Book Swap by Tessa Bickers
12. The Cottage Around The Corner by D.L. Soria
13. Fall For Him by Andi Burke

Romance!

Book lovers will savor The Book Swap, with its story of two people accidentally connecting by leaving notes and commentary in used copies of their favorite books at the community library. That sounds delightful, but I would never write in a copy of a book, so I’m destined to be alone.

The romantasy The Cottage Around The Corner shows competing business owners pairing up to protect their community of Owl’s Corner. They’re not fending off developers…just supernatural forces. Which makes sense since Charlie Sparrow is a spunky witch and her rival Fitz is an admittedly handsome mage. Great for them, but I couldn’t even pull off a card trick, so again love won’t cast its spell on me.

Neighbors are always a great source of romantic possibility, especially if structural damage means your bedroom floor collapses and you wind up in the bed of the handsome fellow who lives right below you. That happens to Dylan, who lands almost in the lap of his ER nurse neighbor Derek. Which works for him, but not for me, since I live on the ground floor and the ceiling won’t cave in on this solidly constructed old building. At least I can blame the architects for still being single.

The Book Swap by Tessa Bickers ($27.99; Graydon House) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

The Cottage Around The Corner by D.L. Soria ($18.99; Del Rey) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

Fall For Him by Andi Burke ($18; St. Martin’s Griffin) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

14. Operation Match: Jeff Tarr and the Invention of Computer Dating by Patsy Tarr

Here’s a quirky little work of nonfiction about computer dating. Like the launch of Facebook, it takes place in the Ivy League. This time it’s 1962 and Jeff Tarr is a freshman at Harvard. He went from a dateless night with roomies tossing around casual ideas to developing an algorithm, designing a personality questionnaire and launching a revolution. Along the way, Tarr became a minor celebrity (appearing on network TV numerous times and–not coincidentally–getting a lot of dates. Here’s the kicker: the story is written by his wife Patsy. And no, computers weren’t involved at all.

Operation Match: Jeff Tarr and the Invention of Computer Dating by Patsy Tarr ($35; 2wice Books) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

15. The Night Guest by Hildur Knútsdóttir
16. Where They Last Saw Her by Marcie R. Rendon
17. The Many Lies Of Veronica Hawkins by Kristina Pérez

Three taunt thrillers.

The Night Guest comes from Iceland, where the protagonist is haunted by her lack of sleep. Doctors can’t help and it gets worse and worse until she does fall asleep…but walks 40,000 steps while seeming to snooze. (No, this is not a story of easy physical fitness.) It gets much scarier from there.

Where They Last Saw Her doesn’t need the supernatural to conjure up the frights. The disappearance of Native American women and the indifference of everyone to the crisis is plenty. Quill is tired of accepting this reality without a fight, so fight she will when women continue to vanish from the Red Pine reservation in Minnesota. Have no doubt: all the critics call Marcie R. Rendon’s latest both a stirring call to justice and an excellent thriller.

From Iceland to the rez to…Hong Kong, where Martina is taken under the wing of the glamorous, plugged-in Veronica Hawkins. Life improves markedly…until Veronica falls of a yacht and dies, but none of the other people on the boat saw what happened? Really? Martina wants to track down the truth She owes Veronica everything, but does that include her life?

The Night Guest by Hildur Knútsdóttir; translated by Mary Robinette Kowal ($19.99; Tor Nightfire) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

Where They Last Saw Her by Marcie R. Rendon ($18; Bantam) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

The Many Lies Of Veronica Hawkins by Kristina Pérez ($27.95; Pegasus Crime) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

18. Category Five by Porter Fox

The oceans around the world are warming markedly and staying warmer for longer. Hurricanes and other storms feast off warmer waters. That means hurricane season is longer than ever and the hurricanes that form can become stronger and they can accelerate in intensity faster. In other words, it’s a disaster not in the making, but one you can see the impact of again and again, all over the world. Writer Porter Fox shares white-knuckle stories of sailing through dangerous waters and details how climate scientists are studying storms and their impacts in imaginative new ways. It’s a roundup of the latest news so concerning that Fox would be the first to clarify his book’s title might soon be out of date. Category 5 is the top rating for a hurricane, but to be clear, even a category 1 that moves slowly over land can do tremendous damage and upend lives. Oh, and storms are so much more intense and the oceans are warming up so quickly, many are calling for a new level: Category Six.

Category Five by Porter Fox ($30; Little, Brown and Company) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

19. Creation Lake by Rachel Kushner
20. Small Rain by Garth Greenwell
21. Colored Television by Danzy Senna

Fiction comes in many forms and with many tags. “Literary fiction” can be a thriller or a romance or a satire–it’s just so good that critics prefer to tag them as “literary” so you know the books get the stamp of approval from the gate keepers.

So author Rachel Kushner delivers a thriller about an American secret agent who calls herself Sadie. When she infiltrates an anarchist collective in France, Sadie seduces everyone around her. But the mysterious “Bruno”–who leads the group via email dispatches–might just be seducing her with his ideas. It’s enjoying tremendous acclaim, so the tag "thriller" is tossed aside and it’s called “literary.” But you can enjoy it either way.

The same for Garth Greenwell. His novel Small Rain is about a poet stricken by a mysterious illness and suddenly confined to a hospital bed and the U.S.’s mercurial healthcare system. Naturally, his world constricts but the poet’s mind expands with beauty and thought. A triumph over disease? No because it’s being raved about, so call it “literary.”

And Danzy Senna has a fun romp in Hollywood with Colored Television. A writer on sabbatical to finish what her husband calls “a mulatto War and Peace” takes a meeting with a Hollywood producer. ‘Nuff said. It all goes hilariously wrong, say the critics. But comedy is the least appreciated of attributes (just look at every Oscar winner, ever; comedy is scarce), so call it “literary.”

So treasure these three novels, all receiving plaudits. Worry about how to label them later (or not at all).

Creation Lake by Rachel Kushner ($29.99; Scribner)Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

Small Rain by Garth Greenwell ($28; Farrar, Straus and Giroux) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

Colored Television by Danzy Senna ($29; Riverhead Books) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

22. Cocaine & Rhinestones by Tyler Mahan Coe; illustrations by Wayne White
23. Lovely One by Ketanji Brown Jackson
24. How The World Made The West by Josephine Quinn

Three books of biography and history illuminate the world.

Country music legends George Jones and Tammy Wynette lived out their raucous romance on stage, on record and on the record. The hugely popular podcast Cocaine & Rhinestones told their story and the story of that era in country music with flair. Like many another podcast, they’ve turned to books to get it all down proper, abetted by engaging illustrations from Wayne White.

Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson tells her story about ascending to the highest court in the land. At the same time, she tells what it’s like to struggle and succeed when you’re often the only woman or only black person and almost always the only female black person in the room.

Author Josephine Quinn ranges wide with their broad survey of world history. The Oxford history professor shows how the West has always been remarkably global, detailing examples from the past 4000 years if you doubt it. Your high school teacher may have said it all began with Greece and Rome. But Greece and Rome knew how much they learned by interacting with the rest of the world. From Arabic scholarship (surely we all know their primacy in maths) to Assyrian irrigation, the countless examples of ideas beginning in one place and soon darting all over the world are fascinating.

Cocaine & Rhinestones by Tyler Mahan Coe; illustrations by Wayne White ($35; Simon & Schuster) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

Lovely One by Ketanji Brown Jackson ($35; Random House) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

How The World Made The West by Josephine Quinn ($38; Random House) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

25. What Time The Sexton’s Spade Doth Rust by Alan Bradley
26. Agnes Sharp and the Trip of a Lifetime by Leonie Swann

Two light-hearted mysteries that span the ages, literally (but share a fancy for shades of orange).

What Time The Sexton’s Spade Doth Rust is the latest installment in the chronicles of Flavia de Luce, our 12 year old heroine with irrepressible instincts for sleuthing out crime. Either you’re in or you’re out with her and I’m most definitely in.

At the other end of the spectrum is Agnes Sharp, who lives with her other octogenarian friends at a retirement center. They don’t fancy murders, so when a crime wave hits their town, the gang go on vacation…only to stumble on murder there just as their hotel is cut off from the rest of the world and the villain is looking for more victims. If only Flavia were around!

What Time The Sexton’s Spade Doth Rust by Alan Bradley ($28; Bantam) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

Agnes Sharp and the Trip of a Lifetime by Leonie Swann; translated by Amy Bojang ($27.95; Soho Crime) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

27. The Pumpkin Princess and the Forever Night by Steven Banbury
28. Immortal Dark by Tigest Girma
29. 5 More Sleeps ‘Til Halloween by Jimmy Fallon; illustrations by Rich Deas

Oh Halloween is most definitely coming. Waves and waves of horror books and pumpkin flavored books and Halloween-themed books are making their way to bookstores. (Pumpkin flavored books? Why not?) Here are just three of many more to come. And keep an eye out my roundup of Halloween-themed titles.

The Pumpkin Princess and the Forever Night is a middle grade story that captures that Tim Burton vibe to a t.

Immortal Dark combines the two hottest genres around: romantasy and dark academia. In this story, an orphaned heiress must head to school if she hopes to find her disappeared sister. The school? That’s where select humans and vampires learn to coexist and make a pact to increase both their powers…assuming they don’t kill each other first. It is not for the faint-hearted, say the early reviews.

If you need to calm down after that, Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon is here with another cheery picture book, this one promising there are just 5 More Sleeps ‘Til Halloween.

The Pumpkin Princess and the Forever Night by Steven Banbury ($8.99; Little, Brown Books For Young Readers) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

Immortal Dark by Tigest Girma ($19.99; Little, Brown Books For Young Readers) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

5 More Sleeps ‘Til Halloween by Jimmy Fallon; illustrations by Rich Deas ($19.99; Feiwel & Friends) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

Related: Author Jodi Picoult Shares Her Favorite Books Of All Time

30. A Second Chance On Earth by Juan Vidal
31. Our Beautiful Darkness by Ondjaki; illustrations by António Jorge Conçalves
32. Compound Fracture by Andrew Joseph White

Three young adult novels that cover everything from grief to the tough and the tender, often in the same book! 

A Second Chance On Earth is about Marcos, a 16 year old kid reeling from the unexpected death of his papi. Marcos finds hope again thanks to a trip to Colombia to spread his dad’s ashes, a new friend in 18 year old taxi driver Camilo and in his dad’s beat-up paperback copy of the classic novel One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

A blackout in Angola in the 1990s takes place amidst a civil war. But the darkness allows two teenagers sitting outside in the shadows to open up to each other in Our Beautiful Darkness, an intriguing and tenderly described story of (maybe?) first love. It’s one of many books translated into English for teens and kids, a once rare phenomenon that is becoming almost matter of fact today.

Author Andrew Joseph White calls their novel Compound Fracture. That and the bruised up kid on the cover let you know this won’t be a soft focus story about easy lives. Hardly! An autistic teen who’s just come out to their family as trans is also battling a corrupt sheriff and almost pays for it with their lives. Did I mention he’s a self-described anarchist? The Hardy Boys this ain’t.

A Second Chance On Earth by Juan Vidal ($18.99; Holiday House) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

Our Beautiful Darkness by Ondjaki; illustrations by António Jorge Conçalves; translated by Lyn Miller-Lachmann ($16.95; Unruly/Enchanted Lion) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

Compound Fracture by Andrew Joseph White ($19.99; Peachtree Teen) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

33. The Sherlock Society by James Ponti
34. Chronicles Of A Lizard Nobody by Patrick Ness; illustrated by Tim Miller
35. Knots by Colleen Frakes

Three books for kids and those who used to be one.

You can lure me into looking at your book just by mentioning Sherlock Holmes. In this case, it’s The Sherlock Society, the story of kids growing up in Miami (near where I grew up) pairing up with an old man (I’m quickly becoming an old man) to solve a crime a la Nancy Drew. (I read Nancy Drew, of course.) Plus it’s by the Edgar-award winning author James Ponti? I’m there. But they had me at Sherlock.

Patrick Ness is a terrific writer (A Monster Calls being the most famous example). Here he gets goofy (and sneakily thoughtful) with Chronicles of a Lizard Nobody. A monitor snake is made hall monitor at his new school, a place peopled with ostriches and zebras and pelicans and who can make friends when you’re the tattle tale hall monitor? Geez!

The graphic novel is hugely popular among kids and an art form in its own right. If you think kids should be reading a “real” book instead, then clearly you haven’t been reading graphic novels. Not all examples of their importance need to feel important–it’s not all about Art Spiegelman’s Maus after all. Take Knots, a breezy, funny, charming look at a sixth grader named Norah who is really responsible and can definitely take care of herself…until she can’t and needs to learn it’s ok to ask for help.

The Sherlock Society by James Ponti ($18.99; Aladdin) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

Chronicles Of A Lizard Nobody by Patrick Ness; illustrated by Tim Miller ($17.99; Walker Books US) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

Knots by Colleen Frakes ($15.99; HarperAlley) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

36. Still Life by Alex London; illustrated by Paul O. Zelinsky
37. Good Night Thoughts by Max Greenfield; illustrated by James Serafino
38. Hiro, Winter and Marshmallows by Marine Schneider; translated by Vineet Lal

Oh, I love picture books. Just look at the variety on display here.

Still Life is a witty, meta take on the still life art form, replete with in-jokes and insights into creating art. Actor Max Greenfield of The New Girl fame pairs with illustrator James Serafino to help kids tackle steamrolling anxiety when they can’t get to sleep. And Marine Schneider offers a gentle, quiet story of a bear who slips outside during hibernation, makes a friend, returns home and then Schneider sticks the landing with an amusing kicker at the end. The artwork by Vineet Lal is calming and sweet all by itself.

Still Life by Alex London; illustrated by Paul O. Zelinsky ($19.99; Greenwillow Books) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

Good Night Thoughts by Max Greenfield; illustrated by James Serafino ($18.99; G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books For Young Readers) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

Hiro, Winter and Marshmallows by Marine Schneider; translated by Vineet Lal ($18.99; Eerdmans Book for Young Readers) Buy now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

Related: The 32 Best Romantasy Books of All Time