2016 Most Anticipated

With 2015 coming to a close and hundreds of “Best of” lists having been posted, it’s time to talk about next year’s book releases! Quite a few have caught my eye, but I’ve narrowed it down to 24 of those I’m most excited about. I am separating them by 12 nonfiction and 12 fiction titles, listed in order of publish date. Merry Christmas Eve! My gift to you is new books to look forward to!

Nonfiction

White Walls: A Memoir About Motherhood, Daughterhood, and the Mess In Between by Judy Batalion

Batalion reflects on her own dysfunctional childhood to explore mother-daughter relationships. While I didn’t have a mother who was a hoarder or who escaped the Holocaust, I am betting she will touch on issues that complicate all families.

Release date: January 5 (NAL)

 

Spark Joy: An Illustrated Master Class on the Art of Organizing and Tidying Up by Marie Kondo

The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up has been on my TBR list since it blew up over the past year or so. While that book set the foundation for Kondo’s methods, this companion book sounds like it will help followers continue putting it into practice.

Release date: January 5 (Ten Speed Press)

 

A Thousand Naked Strangers: A Paramedic’s Wild Ride to the Edge and Back by Kevin Hazzard

From what I know, not just anyone has what it takes to become a paramedic on a whim, but that’s exactly what Hazzard did. He not only recounts specific incidences on the job, but he also looks at how people become their truest selves in the face of disaster.

Release date: January 5 (Scribner)

 

Lit Up: One Reporter. Three Schools. Twenty-four Books That Can Change Lives by David Denby

Insider info alert: I’ve taken some baby steps toward becoming a high school English teacher. In other words, I know what I need to do and it’s just a matter of finding the time to do it! Denby’s attempt to discover how to interest teenagers in reading fits right into my upcoming education on the subject.

Release date: February 2 (Henry Holt and Co.)

 

The Importance of Being Little: What Preschoolers Really Need from Grownups by Erika Christakis

This book also discusses education, but it interests me more as a parent than a teacher. I’m always on the lookout for books to help me understand the tiny person that is my sweet, though sometimes challenging, daughter.

Release date: February 9 (Viking)

 

A Mother’s Reckoning: Living in the Aftermath of Tragedy by Sue Klebold

If the author’s last name rings a bell, you may have devoured the details of Columbine the way I did in the months and years following the shooting. Being a young student when it happened, I found I wanted to understand what would make a person do such a thing. There’s no question that I will read this book by the mother of one of the Columbine killers, the proceeds of which go to research and charities focusing on mental health issues.

Release date: February 15 (Crown)

 

The Good Death: An Exploration of Dying in America by Ann Neumann

I loved reading Smoke Gets in Your Eyes by Caitlin Doughty, and I think this book will captivate me in a similar way. We often talk about living well, but what does it mean to die well? I can’t wait to find out (and I say that in a totally non-morbid way).

Release date: February 16 (Beacon Press)

 

Imbeciles: The Supreme Court, American Eugenics, and the Sterilization of Carrie Buck by Adam Cohen

It’s sometimes hard to believe the United States ever went through a eugenics phase in its not-so-distant past. Cohen’s book puts all of the disturbing details out in the open in his upcoming history of the dark topic.

Release date: March 1 (Penguin Press)

 

The Mommy Group: Freaking Out, Finding Friends, and Surviving the Happiest Time of Our Lives by Elizabeth Isadora Gold

Here is another parenting book I would like to read next year. This one focuses on mothers and our attempts to preserve our sanity by relating with others. I think that new motherhood is perhaps more isolating today than ever before, and this book should give more reason to connect with other new moms who probably need you as much as you need them.

Release date: March 1 (Atria Books)

How to Be Here: A Guide to Creating a Life Worth Living by Rob Bell

Rob Bell’s sometimes unconventional ways of thinking and describing Christian principles have always interested me. I look forward to his take on following passion to find joy and purpose.

Release date: March 8 (HarperOne)

 

 

Adulthood Is a Myth: A Sarah’s Scribbles Collection by Sarah Andersen

Sarah’s Scribbles comics tend to run in the same circles as Allie Brosh’s popular Hyperbole and a Half (who is also publishing another book next year). Classifying this as nonfiction based on the (possibly) autobiographical qualities of Andersen’s book is debatable. Regardless, as someone who is no good at “adulting,” I plan to check this out as soon as possible.

Release date: March 8 (Andrews McMeel Publishing)

 

I Will Find You: A Reporter Investigates the Life of the Man Who Raped Her by Joanna Connors

I’m always drawn to the personal lives of journalists, having been a wannabe journalist once upon a time. But, judging by its description alone, I think this particular book is going to hit a lot of people pretty hard. I’ll be on the lookout for additional buzz surrounding this one after it comes out.

Release date: April 5 (Atlantic Monthly Press)

 

Fiction

This Is Where It Ends by Marieke Nijkamp

This indie YA offering tells of a school shooting, as it’s taking place, from four perspectives. Books tend to reflect current events and this situation has become far too common. I’m interested in seeing where Nijkamp takes the story.

Release date: January 5 (Sourcebooks Fire)

 

 

Only Love Can Break Your Heart: A Novel by Ed Tarkington

The description of this book gives just enough details to pull me in. Rocky is abandoned by his brother at age eight. The brother then disappears. Later, as a teen, Rocky’s affair with a neighbor turns ugly and a double murder shakes their small town. Wow, that’s a lot to take in!

Release date: January 5 (Algonquin Books)

 

Firsts: A Novel by Laurie Elizabeth Flynn

The main character is seventeen-year-old Mercedes, who provides teen guys with sexual experience so that they aren’t totally lost during their actual first times. As you can imagine, problems arise with this “business plan” in Flynn’s first novel, a young adult release.

Release date: January 5 (St. Martin’s Griffin)

 

American Housewife: Stories by Helen Ellis

This book is full of oddball stories that speak truths about the craziness of womanhood. I expect it to result in equal parts laughter and hoping I don’t end up like one of these gals.

Release date: January 12 (Doubleday)

 

 

 

The Big Rewind: A Novel by Libby Cudmore

They had me at “story about an aspiring music journalist.” But I’ll stay for the mysterious death of a friend and a mixtape that may help find the killer.

Release date: February 2 (William Morrow Paperbacks)

 

 

This Was Not the Plan: A Novel by Cristina Alger

A widower loses his job over a bad decision and is left to a life with his peculiar five-year-old son and his estranged father. Maybe reading about parents who just can’t get it right in a big way makes me feel a bit better about my occasional small mishaps!

Release date: February 2 (Touchstone)

 

I’m Glad About You by Theresa Rebeck

Alison and Kyle meet and fall in love while still in high school. Yet, they decide to go their separate ways to chase their dreams and only come back together after those dreams fall apart. I’m hoping I don’t get too frustrated with their bad decisions before I find out how their story ends.

Release date: February 23 (G.P. Putnam’s Sons)

 

Kill the Boy Band by Goldy Moldavsky

2016 is shaping up to be another big YA year, which I’m not complaining about. Moldavsky’s debut sounds like a laugh-out-loud boy band stalking gone very wrong.

Release date: February 23 (Scholastic Inc.)

 

 

 

Alice & Oliver: A Novel by Charles Bock

Alice and Oliver are new parents, which is a difficult enough situation. But when Alice learns she has cancer, they turn their focus to her survival. It sounds like a deeply moving portrait of a marriage that I’m ready to read.

Release date: April 5 (Random House)

 

 

Thirst by Benjamin Warner

What would happen if the world’s water supply just vanished? This book is about the summer day that it does and the chaos that ensues. Warner’s terrifying thriller is near the top of my reading list.

Release date: April 12 (Bloomsbury USA)

 

 

Every Exquisite Thing by Matthew Quick

I am most certainly a Matthew Quick fan. His next YA novel (about a rebellious teenager, of course) is already set to become a film and I have a feeling it might blow up, Silver Linings Playbook style.

Release date: May 10 (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers)

 

 

(As yet untitled) by Andy Weir

All I know about Andy Weir’s follow-up to The Martian is that it will take place on the moon and the central character is female. But there’s no way I could leave it off of this list. I can’t wait to read another book by him!

Release date: Late 2016 or early 2017 (Random House)