The 39 Best New Book Releases This Week: Sept 24-30, 2024

Here are the 39 best new book releases this week: September 24-30, 2024. I don’t know where you are reading this, but where I’m writing it the temperature today was 93 degrees, so it doesn’t feel like Fall! But leaves are falling, the days are getting shorter, I’m already giving serious thought to my Halloween costume and yes, I saw Christmas decorations on the shelves at WalMart. It’s not even October! That’s not right.

What is right is that Fall means lots of great books hit the stores. Just scroll down and you’ll find books grouped by category, so you can browse them easily, just like walking down the aisles of a bookstore, but faster! You’ll find favorite authors, books you’ve never heard of but suddenly can’t wait to read, great gifts, titles to share with your friends (hey, I think you’d love this!) and more. So let’s get reading. At the head of the Parade are…

The 39 Best New Book Releases This Week: Sept 24-30, 2024

1. Intermezzo by Sally Rooney
2. Playground by Richard Powers
3. A Golden Life by Ginny Kubitz Moyer

Sally Rooney! Mic drop. Richard Powers! Mic drop! Two major literary stars deliver new novels this week.

Rooney captures two very different brothers grappling with grief after the death of their father. Intermezzo is also a top pick at GoodReads, where fans made it the #1 "can't wait to read" title among all books coming out this week.

Powers is still grappling with nature and the earth and our place in it. In Playground, four different characters converge on an island in French Polynesia just as plans to launch floating, autonomous cities as our last best hope come to a crossroads. Playground is also a book eagerly awaited by the community at GoodReads, who highlighted seven titles they can't wait to dive into.

Whew! Relative newcomer Ginny Kubitz Moyer just wants to take you back to 1930s California where a newcomer to Hollywood becomes tangled up in negotiations to turn a reclusive stage star’s life into a splashy new melodrama.

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

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

A Golden Life by Ginny Kubitz Moyer ($17.99; She Writes Press) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

4. Final Cut by Charles Burns
5. Amazing Grapes by Jules Feiffer

Two of the best books of the year happen to be graphic novels. Charles Burns returns after his landmark 2005 work Black Hole. That was a weirdly disturbing and thrilling work about teens who become “disfigured” outcasts after catching a sexually transmitted disease. You’ve read nothing like it. Almost 20 years later, he’s returned with Final Cut, another work that focuses on young people screwing around. Brian is socially awkward, even more so when he skips his meds. But he loves movies and Brian and his pal Jimmy plan to make yet another homage to horror flicks and sci-fi. They recruit a handful of others, including a girl Brian would love to date but can barely bring himself to talk with. In telling this shy tale of camping and home movies and drinking and missed opportunities, Burns turns a tender eye to everyone involved. And his artwork is dazzling, offering up everything from gorgeous vistas to surreal imagery seen on Brian’s sketchpad to dream sequences, scenes from movies like Invasion of the Body Snatchers and The Last Picture Show, all of it to bring us right into the mind of this blooming artist/outcast. Burns touchingly shows when it comes to relationships and life we’d all love to have “final cut,” but will never get it.

Jules Feiffer is a legendary talent, from screenplays to stage comedies to picture books and of course decades as a path-breaking cartoonist at the Village Voice. Now he’s delivered a graphic novel. It’s pitched to kids but anyone can enjoy the Alice in Wonderland wordplay and Feiffer’s ecstatic, bursting imagery. It’s all in service of a story about a mom who might be suffering from depression, a dad who quickly takes off for good (leaving behind a few bucks for groceries) and two siblings that take matters into their own hands and venture to a strange, disturbing land to put things right. As usual with Feiffer, there’s nothing else like it.

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

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

6. Counting Miracles by Nicholas Sparks

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? Readers at GoodReads can't wait to find out: it made their list of "can't wait to read" titles coming out this week.

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

More great roundups to browse:

• The 49 Best New Book Releases This Week: Sept 16-23, 2024

• The 40 Best New Book Releases: September, 2024

• The 49 Best New Book Releases: Fall, 2024

7. Percy Jackson: Wrath of the Triple Goddess by Rick Riordan
8. Black Star by Kwame Alexander
9. Radar and the Raft by Jeff Lantos
10. The Flicker by H.E. Edgmon

Four great books for kids show why any adult who wants to keep up with what their children (or nieces and nephews or neighbors’ kids) are reading is in for a treat.

Rick Riordan offers up the seventh adventure for the now acknowledged son of Poseidon. That first book in 2005 has spun off other series, a movie or two and now a TV show. But Riordan takes his time with the mothership, here offering up Percy looking towards college and needing letters of recommendation from some of the gods (obviously, he won’t be attending Columbia University or NYU). So he agrees to pet sit for the goddess Hecate during Halloween. Haven’t we all been there?

Author Kwame Alexander is one of the most acclaimed writers in fiction for kids and young adults. With Black Star, Alexander focuses on a little girl determined to become the first female pitcher in professional baseball. A showdown against a rival bully doesn’t faze our hero Charley: she knows she can outpitch them. But a battle on the ballfield illuminates life in the Deep South during Segregation and the many small sparks like hers that led to the Great Migration. It’s history with a curveball.

Jeff Lantos offers up a combination of science and war that reviews say will spark an interest in both for readers. As it promises, Radar and the Raft captures both the development of radar and just one of its many uses: a thrilling rescue during World War II.

And the climate crisis looms large over The Flicker. In this dystopian adventure, a solar flare upends life as we know it. Two young, wary step-sisters are suddenly alone and desperate. They set off with their tiny baby brother and a loyal dog in hopes of finding their grandmother–a Seminole elder–and a new life. All they need to do is avoid marauding gangs like the Hive, wonder how much they can trust strangers…and how much they can trust each other.

Percy Jackson: Wrath of the Triple Goddess by Rick Riordan ($19.99; Disney Hyperion) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org 

Black Star by Kwame Alexander ($17.99; Little, Brown Books For Young Readers) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

Radar and the Raft by Jeff Lantos ($18.99; Charlesbridge) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org 

The Flicker by H.E. Edgmon ($9.99; Feiwel & Friends) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

11. The Last Dream by Pedro Almodóvar
12. The Road is Good by Uzo Aduba

Pedro Almodovar’s first book isn’t a memoir, even though he’s been asked to write one for many years. But it’s like a memoir of the mind, for Almodovar presents everything from childhood memories to short stories to ideas for films to enigmatic passages that might be any or all of these things. It’s typically tantalizing, melodramatic, unexpected and inevitably Almodovarian.

Actor Uzo Aduba of Orange is the New Black shares a beautiful tribute to her mother’s strength and the life Aduba achieved because of it. On her road to success, Aduba starts with her mom and the lessons she was taught, first and foremost pride in their Nigerian roots. Combining family history with the struggle to make it in Hollywood as her true self, Aduba centers not her considerable success as a Tony nominee and three time Emmy winner, but the family and the people that prepared her for that journey.

The Last Dream by Pedro Almodóvar; translated by Frank Wynne ($26; HarperVia) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

The Road is Good by Uzo Aduba ($30; Viking) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

13. Disney High by Ashley Spencer
14. Moguls by Michael Benson and Craig Singer
15. And The Roots of Rhythm Remain by Joe Boyd

Three books tackle pop culture from every angle.

Anyone who gorged on the Nickelodeon doc tell-all Quiet On The Set is primed for Disney High. This work examines the phenomenon of the Disney Channel, ranging from the missed opportunity of The New Mickey Mouse Club (it gathered one of the great casts of all time and let them become superstars…elsewhere) to a channel focused on exploiting a steady stream of tween talent like Miley Cyrus, Raven-Symoné, Zac Efron and the High School Musical phenom and the Jonas Brothers and on and on. Too often, exploit proves the right word. 

Moguls shines the spotlight on Hollywood and the underappreciated careers of Nicholas and Joseph Schenck. These two brothers began with nickelodeon parlors in New York City, parlayed that into an empire that included controlling stakes at one time or another in MGM, 20th Century Fox and United Artists. They even pioneered the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences! And yet their story is less familiar even to movie buffs. Not anymore.

Music gets its turn with And The Roots Of Rhythm Remain. Do I have to tell you that’s a line from the Paul Simon classic tune “Graceland?” Even if I don’t, most folk aren’t familiar with producer Joe Boyd. But he’s one of the greats; seeing Joe Boyd’s name on an album meant I could buy it without fear of disappointment. He worked with Richard and Linda Thompson, Pink Floyd and a host of other acts. Boyd founded Hannibal Records and sold it with one proviso: the albums of Nick Drake must always be in print and available to buy. This was before that Volkswagen ad that gave Drake an unlikely hit with "Pink Moon." He was the very definition of an obscure, cult act. What’s not to like about that? Ever curious, Boyd spent a decade exploring the history of music and how it ping pongs all over the world. No music is “pure” because all music is interconnected and cross-fertilized and one thing leads to another. Every artist knows this instinctively, but Boyd tells the story of “world music,” a term now considered passé. It’s the music of the world, the tango and the raga and the bossa nova and how what happened in Budapest and Kingston had as much impact on music as what happened in New Orleans and Liverpool. You’ll be downloading and listening to classic albums by the dozens while reading this.

Disney High by Ashley Spencer ($30; St. Martin’s Press) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org 

Moguls by Michael Benson and Craig Singer ($28; Citadel) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org 

And The Roots of Rhythm Remain by Joe Boyd ($50; ZE Books) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

16. Bad Liar by Tami Hoag
17. Black River by Nilanjana Roy
18. An Eye For An Eye by Jeffrey Archer

In Tami Hoag’s Louisiana thriller, two people are missing: a hometown hero gone hunting and a drug addict whose mother swears was turning his life around. Oh, and there’s a body that’s so mutilated it can’t be identified. Are either of them victims? Killers? And who is the worst liar in a story of intrigue two very different sheriff’s detectives will struggle to unravel?

In the UK, the Guardian, the Sunday Times and the Financial Times all named Black River one of the best books of the year. Set in India, it shows the murder of a small child inflaming tensions between Muslims and Hindus. Only two people can stop the violence from spinning out of control: Sub-Inspector Ombir Singh, the officer serving under him and the one working revolver they must share. But will the people of their village accept justice when what they really want is vengeance?

Writer Jeffrey Archer has more in common with John Le Carré than one might imagine: certainly their fathers would have gotten on like a house on fire. Like the spy novelist, Archer returns to characters again and again. His seven volume Clifton Chronicles was a soap opera of a tale spanning one man’s lifetime. Now Archer is seven volumes into the derring do’s of William Warwick. In this case, Warwick must untangle a wrongly convicted British citizen trapped on death row in the Middle East and the jeopardized estate of a blueblood, all without messing up a very valuable oil deal the British government is very keen on seeing through. All in a day’s work.

Bad Liar by Tami Hoag ($30; Dutton) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org 

Black River by Nilanjana Roy ($17.95; Pushkin Vertigo) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org 

An Eye For An Eye by Jeffrey Archer ($30; HarperCollins) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

19. America First by H.W. Brands
20. The Small and the Mighty by Sharon McMahon
21. Book and Dagger by Elyse Graham

H.W. Brands is the author of numerous acclaimed works of history. With America First, he focuses on the ideological battle between FDR (striving to prepare the US to take the fight to Hitler) and the Nazi-loving Charles Lindbergh (who was adamantly anti-Semitic and an isolationist). The fate of the world hung in the balance, literally, and it was a much closer call than we’d like to admit.

Sharon McMahon is a social media star on Instagram, where Sharon Says So is a source of factual information, the podcast Now Here’s Where It Gets Interesting and a history-focused newsletter The Preamble.. Now she’s got a book, bringing to light the lesser known stories of quiet Americans. These are the folk who made a difference in ways not always captured in history lessons that focus on the great and mighty.

Some stories aren’t well known because they’re, you know, hush hush. James Bond couldn’t chat away about work while sipping his martini, after all. So the spycraft of World War II continues to surprise and delight. In the case of Book and Dagger, we’re learning about the unsung machinations of the early days of the C.I.A. Then known as the O.S.S.–or the Office of Strategic Services, it sprang into being as World War II got going. Desperate for recruits, they turned to academia, which is how librarians and historians started hunting down Nazi spies, analyzing often confusing intel pouring in from around the world, and shaped the culture and practices of the U.S. intelligence community for generations to come.

America First by H.W. Brands ($35; Doubleday) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org 

The Small and the Mighty by Sharon McMahon ($32; Thesis) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org 

Book and Dagger by Elyse Graham ($30; Ecco) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

22. Darkside by Michael Mammay
23. I’m Starting To Worry About This Black Box of Doom by Jason Pargin
24. Space Oddity by Catherynne M. Valente

Sci-fi fun.

First some good old fashioned sci-fi, with a side of mystery and a chaser of action. In Darkside, the fourth in a series aficionados enjoy, Col. Carl Butler is determined to enjoy his retirement and not be drawn into another elaborate investigation. He certainly won’t return to the Moon, where the two companies overseeing mining operations have both tried to have Butler killed, for one reason or another. And yet back to the Moon he goes, seeking a missing archeologist at the behest of a 12 year old girl. (Could you say no?) But remember what Pink Floyd said: there’s no dark side of the Moon. It’s all dark.

I have not read I’m Starting To Worry About This Black Box of Death by Jason Pargin. But every time I read the title, it makes me smile. Maybe it’s not even strictly sci-fi? Dude picks up a passenger for a cross country taxi ride that is gonna cost, but the guy is willing to pay with one condition: don’t talk about the black box and certainly don’t ask what’s inside it. Then all hell breaks loose and humanity is threatened and I’m pretty sure it’s somewhat sci-fi-ish rather than fantasy-ish or horror-ish but I’ll get back to you once I’ve read it.

Funny sci-fi? I’m in. Catherynne M. Valente follows her acclaimed and hilarious Space Opera with Space Oddity. Think Eurovision as a substitute for war and you’ll start to understand the stakes involved in the Metagalactic Grand Prix. Humans barely survived the last round and the rest of the universe seems determined to see them taken down a peg in round two. Silly, silly, silly and thank goodness.

Darkside by Michael Mammay ($18.99; Harper Voyager) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

I’m Starting To Worry About This Black Box of Doom by Jason Pargin ($30; St. Martin’s Press) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org 

Space Oddity by Catherynne M. Valente ($28.99; S&S/Saga Press) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

25. One On One by Jamie Harrow
26. Goldfinch by Raven Kennedy
27. A Fire In The Sky by Sophie Jordan

In One on One, author Jamie Harrow has more on her mind than the lovers to enemies to lovers storyline set against the backdrop of college basketball and March Madness. Oh that’s definitely on the agenda as Annie returns to her alma mater and the hot member of the coaching staff she dumped without explanation. Now they’re working together, the team is clicking..and issues of sexual misconduct, sexism and the like complicate what could be a Cinderella story for everyone involved. The trades and no less than Jodi Picoult highlight this as a cut above. 

Writer Raven Kennedy wraps up her very popular Plated Prisoner series with the sixth and final installment, Goldfinch. It may be a dark fantasy, but Auren and Slade are fated to be. Surely?

And romantasy author expands her Young Adult blockbuster Firelight series with this prequel. Jordan and her fans are growing up together, since this prequel is an adult romantasy set in the same world that made Jordan famous. It’s a seductive tale that reveals how the world of Firelight came to be. And yes, there are dragons. Fans at GoodReads who loved the Firelight series are on board: it made their list of the books they "can't wait to read" coming out this week. 

One On One by Jamie Harrow ($18; Dutton) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org 

Goldfinch by Raven Kennedy ($18.99; Bloom Books) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org 

A Fire In The Sky by Sophie Jordan ($30; Avon) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

28. 10/7: 100 Human Stories by Lee Yaron
29. Exvangelical + Beyond by Blake Chastain

Journalist Lee Yaron of the esteemed newspaper Haaretz tells the harrowing story of 10/7, when innocent people’s lives were overturned by a brutal assault from Hamas, the deadliest attack on the Jewish people since World War II and the Holocaust. Young people at a concert, families gathered at home, people on the way to or from work–all of it shattered in a moment. Yaron speaks to survivors and the bereaved and first responders. Then digs deeper to tell the stories behind these people, their families going back generations and where they came from, underlining the history behind them. That’s 100 stories out of the 1,175 massacred and some 3,400 wounded. The people range from left-wingers and peace activists to right wing radicals, from elderly Holocaust survivors to kids partying at a Burning Man-like event, from Israeli Arabs to Thai guest workers.

Writer Blake Chastain looks at the “exvangelical” movement, the generational shift as more and more people leave organized religion–especially the conservative Christian movement–and identify as agnostic, atheist or “spiritual but not religious.” Chastain walks the walk: he was raised evangelical, planned a life of ministry and then rejected the toxic culture he saw all around him. Coining the term “exvangelical,” he started a podcast, started listening and now chronicles what he’s discovered and what’s next.

10/7: 100 Human Stories by Lee Yaron ($30; St. Martin’s Press) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org 

Exvangelical + Beyond by Blake Chastain ($28; TarcherPerigee) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

30. The Hitchcock Hotel by Stephanie Wrobel
31. The Phantom Patrol by James R. Benn
32. A Grave in the Woods by Martin Walker
33. The Village Library Demon-Hunting Society by C.M. Waggoner

Four different mysteries for every taste. 

The Hitchcock Hotel pays homage to master of suspense with a murder mystery set in a hotel dedicated to cinema’s greatest director of murder in every gleeful form. And what better way to ensure a bloody outcome than invite all the former members of a cinema club that disbanded years ago amidst recriminations. And what do you mean you prefer the remake of The Man Who Knew Too Much to the original? That’s outrageous!

World War II is the backdrop for the ongoing investigations of Billy Boyle and his team in the dependable series from James R. Benn. Sure, there’s a war on, but folks can’t just go around committing crimes! There are rules. In this case, Boyle and friends track down art thieves and wind up trapped in the Battle of the Bulge. 

Martin Walker continues his delectable Bruno, Chief of Police series. Murder always comes with a mouth-watering series of dishes from the culinary minded Bruno. In this case, the courses are interrupted by an archeological dig that unearths some unpleasant truths.

Finally, everyone knows librarians are not to be messed with. (Shhhh!) Yes, sorry, I’ll type more quietly and tell you The Village Library Demon-Hunting Society is a cozy mystery that combines the warmth of Murder, She Wrote with the Hell Mouth of Buffy The Vampire Slayer. How else to explain why so many bodies piled up at Cabot Cove? (Or Midsomer, for that matter.)

The Hitchcock Hotel by Stephanie Wrobel ($29; Berkley) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org 

The Phantom Patrol by James R. Benn ($27.95; Soho Crime) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org 

A Grave in the Woods by Martin Walker ($29; Knopf) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org 

The Village Library Demon-Hunting Society by C.M. Waggoner ($19; Ace) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org 

Related: How To Read Best-Selling Author Emily Henry: All Her Books in Order

34. Graveyard Shift by M.L. Rio
35. Tiny Threads by Lilliam Rivera
36. The Hysterical Girls of St. Bernadette’s by Hanna Alkaf

Here’s a 144 page shivery tale you can read in one sitting from M.L. Rio. In Graveyard Shift, five workers cross paths every night when they each cut through the graveyard to and from their separate jobs. Nodding acquaintances, they band together when realizing the grave digger is up to no good–and might be behind a string of disturbing incidents in their town.  A scary, quick read? That sounds like a good idea to the fans at GoodReads: Graveyard Shift is on their list of the seven books they "can't wait to read" coming out this week.

You know the fashion world is obsessed with looks and probably a horror of an industry to work in, unless you too are rail thin and find food an annoying distraction from accessorizing. The deal with the devil that fashion makes becomes explicit in Tiny Threads, the story of a new employee at a house launching its new line. She starts hearing things and seeing things and fears she’s beginning to lose her mind over the stress…or maybe she’s losing her soul. 

Screaming is contagious. That’s the unfortunate reality at St. Bernadette’s, an all-girls school where attacks of screaming fits spread like wildfire. Two students aren’t ready to dismiss this as “hysteria,” the scientific word used by men for dismissing the complaints of women when they don't know what’s going on or can’t be bothered to find out. Instead, the two young women discover the screaming is an all too reasonable reaction to the spectre that has haunted the school for a hundred years and is poised to strike again.

Graveyard Shift by M.L. Rio ($16.99; Flatiron Books) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org 

Tiny Threads by Lilliam Rivera ($28; Del Rey) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org 

The Hysterical Girls of St. Bernadette’s by Hanna Alkaf ($19.99; Salaam Reads/Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

37. When The World Tips Over by Jandy Nelson
38. Pick The Lock by A.S. King

Jandy Nelson, the author of I’ll Give You The Sun, delivers her first new book in a decade! It's the tumultuous story of the Fall family children. Twelve year old Dizzy wants to be a romance heroine but seeing visions. Seventeen year old Miles is a hopeless romantic looking for the perfect guy. And 19 year old is a world-class violinist with smoldering looks that would sell out concert halls even if he couldn’t play a note. And their already precarious life is thrown into chaos by the arrival of a girl with rainbow colored hair who bewitches them all.

Do you want to buckle up and get on a wild ride? A.S. King’s latest is the story of Jane, a girl who misses her mom amidst the confines of her Victorian home, controlling father and constant monitoring. But then there’s a shape-shifting rat, pneumatic tubes, aTruman Show-like revelation…and so of course Jane composes a punk rock opera. Don’t take my word for it! The New York Times says King is one of the best YA writers working today and the trades compare it to The Stepford Wives and say this book “dazzles with its originality.”

When The World Tips Over by Jandy Nelson ($21.99; Dial Books) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org 

Pick The Lock by A.S. King ($19.99; Dutton Books For Young Readers) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

39. The Most Boring Book Ever words by Brandon Sanderson; pictures by Kazu Kibuishi

Acclaimed best-seller Brandon Sanderson and his picture-making friend Kazu Kibuishi have great fun with The Most Boring Book Ever, which–spoiler alert–is a lot more dangerous and exciting than it pretends to be. 

The Most Boring Book Ever words by Brandon Sanderson; pictures by Kazu Kibuishi ($19.99; Roaring Brook Press) Buy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org

Related: The 32 Best Romantasy Books of All Time