What We Can’t Wait to Read

A new year brings new reads — lots and lots of them.

Already, TODAY has hosted two lookaheads for 2026 reads. And on her “Open Book with Jenna” podcast, Jenna Bush Hager and guest Isaac Fitzgerald discussed the books they were looking forward to reading in the new year.

His picks included “Lost Lambs” by Madeline Cash and “Rest of Our Lives” by Ben Markowitz. Jenna, meanwhile, said she couldn’t wait to read Chloe Benjamin’s “Under Story.”

Below, find some books to look forward to in 2026, but far from the only books.

The first Read With Jenna pick of the year is a memoir by Stefan Merrill Block. In the book, he describes the years his mother pulled him out of school for her homegrown curriculum, a combination of smothering and neglect.

“‘Homeschooled’ is a beautiful debut memoir. I loved its raw honesty and the very American story of one little boy growing up in a family where love is obvious but so is dysfunction,” Jenna says.

More books to read in January 2026:

• “Dandelion Is Dead” by Rosie Storey (Jan. 13): A woman goes on a dating app posing as her larger-than-life — and very much dead — sister. Read an excerpt here.
• “Lost Lambs” by Madeline Cash (Jan. 13): If acerbic and plot-filled family sagas are your thing, then check out this buzzy novel about a couple and their three daughters on the edge.
• “Woman Down” by Colleen Hoover (Jan. 13): An author goes into hiding after her book adaptation gets major backlash.
• “Scavengers” by Katherine Boland (Jan. 13): A mother and daughter go out in search of treasure in the style of Forrest Fenn’s real-life treasure.
• “The Future Saints” by Ashley Winstead (Jan. 20): Perfect for the music lover, a music executive stumbles upon a band of astronomical talent then has to contend with them against their own struggles.
• “Half His Age” by Jennette McCurdy (Jan. 20): Jennette McCurdy follows her hit memoir up with a book about a 17-year-old having an affair with her creative writing teacher.
• “The Infamous Gilberts” by Angela Tomaski (Jan. 20): Open the door to a dilapidated mansion and follow a truly dysfunctional British family over the years.
• “All the Little Houses” by May Cobb (Jan. 20): Author of “The Hunting Wives” returns with another book about a Texas friend group disrupted by a new arrival, this time in the 1980s.
• “The Seven Daughters of Dupree” by Nikesha Elise Williams (Jan. 27): Seven generations of one Black American family and how history reverberates — they might not know how they’re connected, but we will.
• “Vigil” by George Saunders (Jan. 27): On the evening of a wealthy oil mogul’s death, multiple spirits come to try to ferry him toward enlightenment.
• “We Who Have No Gods” by Liza Anderson (Jan. 27): Nonmagical heroine Vic insists on chaperoning her young brother, a witch, to his magical school and secret society, encountering plenty of monsters along the way.

Love triangles can take a long time to form, as this book — out from Jenna’s imprint, Thousand Voices — shows. Lily Webb’s world is thrown off-kilter when her high school loves comes back into her life, disrupting her marriage.

This work of historical fiction toggles between three people’s lives in the aftermath of WWII, focusing particularly on what happened after American GIs and German women met and had children.

More books to read in February 2026:

• “One & Only” by Maurene Goo (Feb. 3): The YA novelist’s first book of adult fiction follows a woman who knows who she’s destined for, thanks to her family’s magical matchmaking methods. But when will he show up?

• “This Is Not About Us” by Allegra Goodman (Feb. 10): Read With Jenna author of “Sam,” Allegra Goodman, who also wrote the hit 2025 book “Isola,” comes out with a book of short stories.
• “Kin” by Tayari Jones (Feb. 24): The author of “An American Marriage” returns with a saga of two best friends, both motherless daughters born in Louisiana, both itching to get out to forge their own futures.

The final installment in Tana French’s Cal Hooper series is out in March. Cal, an American former cop, moves to a rural Irish town, where local politics are as full of intrigue as the murder cases he finds there.

More books to read in March 2026:

• “Lake Effect” by Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney (March 3): A mother’s scandal, and a daughter’s reaction to it, take center stage in this book by the author of “The Nest.”
• “Little One” by Olivia Muenter (March 3): A woman is sent into turmoil when a journalist uncovers her past connections to a cult.
• “Island of Ghosts and Dreams” by Christopher Cosmos(March 3): A modern epic about six pivotal months on the Greek island of Crete during WWII, and one woman’s experience of them.
• “Nonesuch” by Francis Spufford (March 10): A young woman tries to stop a plot during the London Blitz in this book that combines magic with historical fiction.
• “Once and Again” by Rebecca Serle (March 10): Each of Rebecca’s Serle’s books features a slightly magical twist. This one follows three generations of women who can turn back time — but only once.
• “Beneath” by Ariel Sullivan (March 24): The sequel to “Conform” arrives, tracing how we end up at the book’s socially stratified society.

“Read With Jenna” author Jessica George returns with another book, this time exploring the deep and lasting effects that friendship can have on a person’s life. Remy publishes a book about her friends to instant success. When her friends move away, though, she is adrift, and so is her creative inspiration. Can a new friendship save her?

More books to read in April 2026:

• “My Dear You” by Rachel Khong (April 7): Read With Jenna author Rachel Khong’s latest is a series of short stories that have a twinge of sci-fi and “Black Mirror,” thought-provoking and moving.
• “Into the Blue” by Emma Brodie (April 7): A decades-spanning love story about a Hollywood dynasty’s scion and a small town girl who met years ago before reconnecting on a TV show where they are both cast as actors.
• “American Fantasy” by Emma Straub (April 7): Members of a ‘90s boy band and the women who love them go on a cruise. What could go wrong?
• “Cherry Baby” by Rainbow Rowell (April 14): Cherry’s husband Tom is getting rich by turning her into a character in his movie — and he’s leaving her. How can she get her story back?
• “Liar’s Dice” by Juliet Faithfull (April 28): A girl in Brazil wakes up to find her sister missing.

In Carley Fortune’s next romance novel, two best friends are at a crossroads. Frankie is getting married. George is supposed to be the best man. Can he handle it?

More to read in May 2026:

• “John of John” by Douglas Stuart (May 5): Author of Booker Prize-winning hit “Shuggie Bain” returns with a book about a young man who returns to the Scottish island where he’s from after attending art school.
• “The Things We Never Say” by Elizabeth Strout (May 5): Elizabeth Strout moves from Maine to Massachusetts to tell a story about a high school teacher.
• “Seek the Traitor’s Son” by Veronica Roth: (May 12): Veronica Roth’s latest dystopia follows a soldier in a futuristic world chosen to hear a prophecy, alongside a ruthless general.
• “The Shippers” by Katherine Center (May 19): Sign up for a romance novel that combines a wedding, a long-lost best friend and a cruise.
• “The Midnight Train” by Matt Haig (May 26): First came “The Midnight Library.” Now, another magical read from Matt Haig about a train that lets you re-live the past.

Master of fiction Ann Patchett’s latest is about a woman who reconnects with her stepfather during a chance encounter at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, allowing them to revisit what happened to rupture their family all those years ago.

More to read in June 2026:

• “The Children” by Melissa Albert (June 2): A dark fairy tale about the children of a famous author, who wrote about her kids in her books.
• “Daughters of Sun and Moon” by Lisa See (June 2): Three Chinese women arrive to Los Angeles in 1870, carrying baggage from their pasts and all facing major challenges in their violent and often hostile new home.
• “Land” by Maggie O’Farrell (June 2): Tomás and his son, Liam, create a map of Ireland in 1865 in the wake of the famine.
• “Villa Coco” by Andrew Sean Greer (June 9): Andrew Sean Greer, author of “Less,” writes another transportive book, but this time set in an Italian villa where a man takes a job as an assistant to an eccentric older woman.
• “The Missed Connection” by Tia Williams (June 16): Tia Williams’ “Seven Days in June” was a hit. Her latest romance follows a casting agent who hires a detective to track down the stranger she met on an airplane.
• “Abby Offsides” by Anna McCallie (June 23): After a broken engagement, an American moves to the UK, lands a job for a football team and finds a connection with an athlete. The issue? He’s married.

The author of “Pineapple Street” returns with a book about a group of friends in Massachusetts and what happens when two longtime on-again, off-again friends become pregnant.

More books to read in July 2026:

• “The Intrigue” by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (July 14): A con artist in 1940s Mexico finds a target in an elderly woman. But she might be more up to the task of defying him than he thinks.
• “Cool Machine” by Colson Whitehead (July 21): The final volume of Colson Whitehead’s Harlem Trilogy is a heist.

A plane crashes in Montana carrying a 20-something and her boyfriend, who was flying. She finds shelter in an abandoned town and uncovers the crimes and history there, all while fighting for her own survival.

More books to read in August:

• “The Woman in White” by Sarah Pekkanen (Aug. 4): Four young women scientists vanish mysteriously. Years later, a woman takes a job as a caretaker for someone who still believes it’s the 1960s. Could the two be connected?

In the wake of the “Heated Rivalry” TV adaptation’s massive success, author Rachel Reid continues Shane and Ilya’s story with a third book about the hockey couple.

More books to read in September 2026:

• “Under Story” by Chloe Benjamin (Sept. 1): Lives converge, and so do timelines, at a remote Antarctic base in this sweeping novel about family, loss, love and time from the author of “The Immortalists.”

• “Agrippa” by Robert Harris (Sept. 1): The author of “Conclave” writes a novel set in the hours after Julius Caesar is murdered.

• “Exit Party” by Emily St. John Mandel (Sept. 16): America, 2031. The Civil War is almost over. But what is the new world taking its place?