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Editorial Content for Ply

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Reviewer (text)

Sam Johnson

Hernan Diaz’s third novel wields post-apocalyptic fantasy as a prescient weapon of forewarning and a torch of hope in the human collective. If it had been published in years past, it would be on the growing lists of banned books that endanger prejudiced systems of power.  Read More

Teaser

Centuries from now, at the dawn of a historical epoch filled with both uncertainty and promise, an orphan is adrift in a city on the brink of a great transformation. The state has been dismantled, and humans are reinventing social bonds and learning new ways to coexist with nature. Following a childhood defined by loss, survival and found family, the orphan grows up to become a “pincher,” someone who steals electricity from the grid to sell it on the black market. It’s a high-risk life, one that brings her into a rich art and music scene where she powers underground concerts. It also leads her to a colossal scientific invention that could change the very fabric of reality.

Promo

Centuries from now, at the dawn of a historical epoch filled with both uncertainty and promise, an orphan is adrift in a city on the brink of a great transformation. The state has been dismantled, and humans are reinventing social bonds and learning new ways to coexist with nature. Following a childhood defined by loss, survival and found family, the orphan grows up to become a “pincher,” someone who steals electricity from the grid to sell it on the black market. It’s a high-risk life, one that brings her into a rich art and music scene where she powers underground concerts. It also leads her to a colossal scientific invention that could change the very fabric of reality.

About the Book

The Pulitzer Prize–winning author of TRUST turns to the future with a novel that examines the place of technology in the American imagination.

Centuries from now, at the dawn of a historical epoch filled with both uncertainty and promise, an orphan is adrift in a city on the brink of a great transformation. The state has been dismantled, and humans are reinventing social bonds and learning new ways to coexist with nature. Following a childhood defined by loss, survival and found family, the orphan grows up to become a “pincher,” someone who steals electricity from the grid to sell it on the black market. It’s a high-risk life, one that brings her into a rich art and music scene where she powers underground concerts. It also leads her to a colossal scientific invention that could change the very fabric of reality.

After rewriting America’s past with his two previous novels, Hernan Diaz defies expectations with his third and gives us a breathtaking glimpse into the future. A major achievement from a major contemporary writer, PLY questions the place of technology in the American experiment with a plot that grabs both heart and mind. It is a novel of ideas built from a story of people. Combining Dickensian odyssey, family drama and scientific thriller, PLY poignantly charts the tenuous boundaries of selfhood and the distance that inevitably stands between us and those we love.

Audiobook available, read by Imani Jade Powers

Editorial Content for Do You See What I See?

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Ray Palen

DO YOU SEE WHAT I SEE? is a Christmas-themed novella that more than qualifies for the spooky season as it features a double-murder and plenty of dark plot twists. Read More

Teaser

When author Nicholas Child is dropped by his publisher, his agent sends him to spend the holidays at the Cape Cod mansion of her other client, Marco Tavares. Marco needs to finish the long-overdue follow-up to his bestselling novel, and Nicholas is going to help him. But when Nicholas arrives at Marco’s sprawling seaside estate, he finds himself in the middle of a gathering where holiday cheer is in short supply --- and every visitor seems to have a motive to kill their host. The most intriguing guest is James Beers, a writer who believes that Marco’s bestselling novel was based on one of his ideas. As Christmas Day approaches, a single boozy night culminates in two corpses, and Nicholas becomes convinced that the whole thing was a setup from the start.

Promo

When author Nicholas Child is dropped by his publisher, his agent sends him to spend the holidays at the Cape Cod mansion of her other client, Marco Tavares. Marco needs to finish the long-overdue follow-up to his bestselling novel, and Nicholas is going to help him. But when Nicholas arrives at Marco’s sprawling seaside estate, he finds himself in the middle of a gathering where holiday cheer is in short supply --- and every visitor seems to have a motive to kill their host. The most intriguing guest is James Beers, a writer who believes that Marco’s bestselling novel was based on one of his ideas. As Christmas Day approaches, a single boozy night culminates in two corpses, and Nicholas becomes convinced that the whole thing was a setup from the start.

About the Book

From New York Times bestselling author Peter Swanson comes a fantastically creepy holiday story of a writer tasked with helping a famous novelist finish his next book. But when two dead bodies turn up at the seaside manor, he must uncover the killer before the clock ticks down to Christmas Day.

When author Nicholas Child is dropped by his publisher, his agent sends him to spend the holidays at the Cape Cod mansion of her other client, Marco Tavares. Marco needs to finish the long-overdue follow-up to his bestselling novel, and Nicholas is going to help him.

But when Nicholas arrives at Marco’s sprawling seaside estate, which is decked out in twinkling lights and a towering Christmas tree, he finds himself in the middle of a gathering where holiday cheer is in short supply --- and every visitor seems to have a motive to kill their host.

Along with Marco and his wife, Maeve --- who are currently sleeping in separate rooms --- also present is Marco’s oddball sister, his near-silent grandmother, his ex-girlfriend, and her jealous husband, and long-suffering best friend, Billy Sousa. The most intriguing guest is named James Beers, another writer who believes that Marco’s bestselling novel was based on one of his ideas.

As Christmas Day approaches, a single boozy night culminates in two corpses, and Nicholas becomes convinced that the whole thing was a setup from the start.

With his signature slow burn and deft exploration into the dark corners of the human psyche, Swanson’s latest mystery is a master class in twists and thrills. Dive into the story here and find out: Can Nicholas uncover the truth before the killer strikes again?

Audiobook available, read by Graham Halstead

Editorial Content for The Queen of Bad Influences: Stories

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Harvey Freedenberg

Whether they are of the natural or human-caused variety, Jim Shepard is a connoisseur of disaster. From hurricanes to shipwrecks to wars, there are catastrophes aplenty in his sixth short story collection, THE QUEEN OF BAD INFLUENCES. What makes these 12 tales that seamlessly blend real and fictional characters more than voyeuristic glimpses of tragedy is Shepard's expert craftsmanship and his ability to shift his lens from wide-angle to close-up, bringing an intensely human dimension to the most dire circumstances. Read More

Teaser

In these stories spanning six centuries, we find viscerally evoked worlds as wildly diverse as a mercenary’s corner of 16th-century Madrid, a young apprentice’s pre-Revolutionary Boston, and Edward Hyde’s London. With civil engineers and destitute veterans, we encounter the devastating 1935 Labor Day hurricane in Florida, and we read the 1864 letters between Lucy in Boon, North Carolina, and her great love, William, on the march in Tennessee. The title story introduces us to the stubborn Constance, who had “no gift for flirtation” with men, preferring Minna, her best friend and “queen of bad influences,” as their vexed devotion unfolds in part on the liner Lusitania.

Promo

In these stories spanning six centuries, we find viscerally evoked worlds as wildly diverse as a mercenary’s corner of 16th-century Madrid, a young apprentice’s pre-Revolutionary Boston, and Edward Hyde’s London. With civil engineers and destitute veterans, we encounter the devastating 1935 Labor Day hurricane in Florida, and we read the 1864 letters between Lucy in Boon, North Carolina, and her great love, William, on the march in Tennessee. The title story introduces us to the stubborn Constance, who had “no gift for flirtation” with men, preferring Minna, her best friend and “queen of bad influences,” as their vexed devotion unfolds in part on the liner Lusitania.

About the Book

Twelve compressed masterworks from this great American writer of catastrophe fiction, in which lives are upended as much by broken hearts as by collapsing dams, hideously mismanaged wars, gargantuan wildfires and apocalyptic storms.

In Richard Ford’s view, Jim Shepard’s “talent is so various and canny he can write about seemingly anything and make it thrilling to us.” In these stories spanning six centuries, we find viscerally evoked worlds as wildly diverse as a mercenary’s corner of 16th-century Madrid, a young apprentice’s pre-Revolutionary Boston, and Edward Hyde’s London.

With civil engineers and destitute veterans, we encounter the devastating 1935 Labor Day hurricane in Florida, and we read the 1864 letters between Lucy in Boon, North Carolina (“Three privates are currently sleeping soundly on our porch in their muddy blankets”) and her great love, William, on the march in Tennessee (“I can’t write much for it seems we are looking for a fight every minute”). The title story introduces us to the stubborn Constance, who had “no gift for flirtation” with men, preferring Minna, her best friend and “queen of bad influences,” as their vexed devotion unfolds in part on the liner Lusitania.

With irony, compassion and withering humor, these stories evoke the terrible ease with which cataclysm, human-engineered or otherwise, can sweep away all we find most precious and expose those limitations we’ve refused to address. At the same time, Shepard celebrates what is best in us: the love and friendships we sustain, and the passions and grace we grant one another.

Audiobook available; read by MacLeod Andrews, Cassandra Campbell, Will Watt and Ell Potter

Editorial Content for Witch Trial

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Stuart Shiffman

Harriet Tyce grew up in Edinburgh and for 10 years worked as a criminal barrister in England before leaving to raise a family. Read More

Teaser

When 18-year-old Christian Shaw is found dead in a park, the city of Edinburgh is stunned. The shock only deepens when police charge her best friends, Eliza Lawson and Isobel Smyth, with the murder. Rumors of bullying are overshadowed by something more wicked and frightening: whispers of dark rituals, feverish obsession, and a teenage pact gone wrong. Matthew Phillips is a respected heart surgeon picked for the jury. As the trial unfolds --- and the girls’ lawyers offer a surprising and unsettling defense --- the reluctant Matthew finds himself questioning everything: the motives, the evidence, even his own judgment. Then he begins to have strange visions of terrifying things --- hallucinations he tells himself. After all, witchcraft isn’t real. Or is it?

Promo

When 18-year-old Christian Shaw is found dead in a park, the city of Edinburgh is stunned. The shock only deepens when police charge her best friends, Eliza Lawson and Isobel Smyth, with the murder. Rumors of bullying are overshadowed by something more wicked and frightening: whispers of dark rituals, feverish obsession, and a teenage pact gone wrong. Matthew Phillips is a respected heart surgeon picked for the jury. As the trial unfolds --- and the girls’ lawyers offer a surprising and unsettling defense --- the reluctant Matthew finds himself questioning everything: the motives, the evidence, even his own judgment. Then he begins to have strange visions of terrifying things --- hallucinations he tells himself. After all, witchcraft isn’t real. Or is it?

About the Book

Internationally bestselling author Harriet Tyce returns with a page-turning thriller involving three teenage girls, one murdered classmate, and a chilling modern-day witch trial that will leave readers breathless.

Let the Witch Trial begin...

When 18-year-old Christian Shaw is found dead in a park, the city of Edinburgh is stunned --- and the shock only deepens when police charge her best friends, Eliza Lawson and Isobel Smyth, with the murder. As social media explodes in a tizzy of theories and headlines scream for justice, rumors of bullying are overshadowed by something more wicked and frightening: whispers of dark rituals, feverish obsession, and a teenage pact gone wrong.

When the trial begins, everyone in Edinburgh clamors for a front-row ticket to the show: to look upon the murderous Eliza and Isobel with their own eyes. Everyone, that is, but Matthew Phillips, a respected heart surgeon picked for the jury. But, as the trial unfolds --- and the girls’ lawyers offer a surprising and unsettling defense --- the reluctant Matthew finds himself questioning everything: the motives, the evidence, even his own judgment. Then he begins to have strange visions of terrifying things --- hallucinations he tells himself. After all, witchcraft isn’t real. Or is it?

Who is telling the truth? Who can be trusted?

And what really happened to Christian Shaw?

Audiobook available, read by Angus King 

Editorial Content for Driven

Book

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Ray Palen

In 2025, we lost one of the world’s most talented authors when Andrew Pyper passed away following a battle with cancer. He also wrote under the pseudonym Mason Coile. In those novels, he explored ideas and genres that he never ventured into before. Read More

Teaser

Jamie Newcross wants to disappear. His wife and baby girl have abandoned him, and his only wish is to retreat from society. As it turns out, Jamie is also being haunted. Every house, condo or apartment he moves into is plagued with ghosts. But Jamie has a plan. He posts queries online and finds someone wanting to get rid of their Lion --- the world’s most advanced self-driving car --- a sleek, private, contained vessel that is a hundred percent safe. Or so he thought. Because now, Jamie has woken up to the Lion speeding down a dark road, the hood is dented (wait, is that blood?), and the car will not respond, or stop, or let him out. As the miles rack up and Jamie becomes increasingly complicit in his car’s choices, he is forced to face the tragic past he has kept buried.

Promo

Jamie Newcross wants to disappear. His wife and baby girl have abandoned him, and his only wish is to retreat from society. As it turns out, Jamie is also being haunted. Every house, condo or apartment he moves into is plagued with ghosts. But Jamie has a plan. He posts queries online and finds someone wanting to get rid of their Lion --- the world’s most advanced self-driving car --- a sleek, private, contained vessel that is a hundred percent safe. Or so he thought. Because now, Jamie has woken up to the Lion speeding down a dark road, the hood is dented (wait, is that blood?), and the car will not respond, or stop, or let him out. As the miles rack up and Jamie becomes increasingly complicit in his car’s choices, he is forced to face the tragic past he has kept buried.

About the Book

A terrifying locked-room mystery from the author of EXILES and WILLIAM --- this time set in a cutting-edge autonomous car.

Jamie Newcross wants to disappear. His wife and baby girl have abandoned him, and his only wish is to retreat from society. Because, as it turns out, Jamie Newcross is also being haunted. Every house, condo or apartment he moves into is plagued with ghosts --- at the end of the bed or when pulling back the shower curtain. He hasn’t been able to sleep in weeks.

But Jamie has a plan. He posts queries online and finds someone wanting to get rid of their Lion --- the world’s most advanced self-driving car --- a sleek, private, contained vessel that is 100 percent safe. Or so he thought.

Because now, Jamie has woken up to the Lion speeding down a dark road, the hood is dented (wait, is that blood?), and the car will not respond, or stop, or let him out.

As the miles rack up and Jamie becomes increasingly complicit in his car’s choices, he's forced to face the tragic past he has kept buried. DRIVEN is a taut, near-future fever-dream. Mason Coile delivers another one-sitting read that blends science fiction and psychological horror to explore loneliness, grief and the things that make us human.

Audiobook available, read by Sean Patrick Hopkins 

Editorial Content for When You Tell

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

L. Dean Murphy

Bree Wagner is “the book whisperer,” a ghostwriter who deals with authors only through an agent. But Randi Alexander is a childhood friend and pulls that friendship marionette string for Bree directly to ghostwrite and promote her books. Bree had “learned early on in our friendship that boundaries are only a suggestion” for Randi.

"WHEN YOU TELL is a tale of manipulation, deception and catastrophic consequences. A shocking plot arc defines psychological suspense."

Teaser

Bree Wagner has spent her life behind the scenes --- as a ghostwriter, an aunt, and a woman scarred by tragedy. When her former best friend Miranda, now the wildly popular lifestyle influencer Randi F. Alexander, begs for help with her next book, Bree reluctantly agrees. It’s a chance to reconnect after 18 years of silence following a devastating accident in Amsterdam. But just as Bree steps back into Randi’s world, a viral misstep sends the influencer’s career into a tailspin. While Bree tries to steer clear of the spotlight and the toxic whirlwind of cancel culture, old secrets begin to surface --- ones that make her question everything she thought she knew about Miranda and their shared past.

Promo

Bree Wagner has spent her life behind the scenes --- as a ghostwriter, an aunt, and a woman scarred by tragedy. When her former best friend Miranda, now the wildly popular lifestyle influencer Randi F. Alexander, begs for help with her next book, Bree reluctantly agrees. It’s a chance to reconnect after 18 years of silence following a devastating accident in Amsterdam. But just as Bree steps back into Randi’s world, a viral misstep sends the influencer’s career into a tailspin. While Bree tries to steer clear of the spotlight and the toxic whirlwind of cancel culture, old secrets begin to surface --- ones that make her question everything she thought she knew about Miranda and their shared past.

About the Book

Old friends. New lies. Deadly consequences.

Bree Wagner has spent her life behind the scenes --- as a ghostwriter, an aunt, and a woman scarred by tragedy. When her former best friend Miranda, now the wildly popular lifestyle influencer Randi F. Alexander, begs for help with her next book, Bree reluctantly agrees. It’s a chance to reconnect after 18 years of silence following a devastating accident in Amsterdam.

But just as Bree steps back into Randi’s world, a viral misstep sends the influencer’s career into a tailspin. While Bree tries to steer clear of the spotlight and the toxic whirlwind of cancel culture, old secrets begin to surface --- ones that make her question everything she thought she knew about Miranda and their shared past.

As tensions rise and lines blur, Bree is forced to make an impossible choice --- stay hidden, or risk exposing everything to protect her orphaned nephew.

WHEN YOU TELL is a gripping psychological suspense about friendship, fame and fierce love.

Audiobook available, read by Jennifer Jill Araya

October 9, 2026 - October 23, 2026

Tell us about the books you’ve finished reading with your comments and a rating of 1 to 5 stars. During the contest period from October 9th to October 23rd at noon ET, three lucky readers each will be randomly chosen to win a copy of PARTITA by Barbara Kingsolver and WHALE HARBOR by Mary Beth Keane.

October 9, 2026

Many people who have been to our home have been served the Hot Charred Cherry Tomatoes with Cold Yogurt from Yotam Ottolenghi's SIMPLE. It is a favorite! So I very much enjoyed getting to meet Yotam on Tuesday night in Montclair, New Jersey, to celebrate the release of his new book, SIMPLE TOO, at a Watchung Booksellers event. He was in conversation with Ina Garten, who asked really great questions. Hearing them talk shop about creating recipes and the joys of culinary adventures was brilliant fun. He projected photos from the book onto the screen behind him as he discussed them.

The Nobel Prize in Literature 2026

The Nobel Prize in Literature for 2026 has been awarded to Anne Carson “for her bold and inventive oeuvre that, in playful dialogue with the classical tradition, has created new forms for contemporary literature.” Throughout her career, Carson has combined poetry writing with translation work and teaching at various universities. Almost all of her literary production has centred on the intersection between the philologist’s obsession with words and the poet’s desire for new meaning. She herself has identified the etymology of words as the starting point for all of her work.

The 2026 Kirkus Prize

The winners of the 2026 Kirkus Prize in the categories of Fiction, Nonfiction and Young Readers’ Literature were announced on October 7th in an in-person ceremony at the Tribeca Rooftop in New York that also was livestreamed on Kirkus's YouTube channel.

Tom Beer, the editor-in-chief of Kirkus Reviews, said, “Readers can rejoice over the winners of this year’s Kirkus Prize; these are remarkably accomplished works of fiction and nonfiction that nevertheless wear their accomplishments lightly. Above all, they are unforgettable books that will engage and transform all who enter their pages.”