The Books We're Excited About in Early 2026

The Book Review

The New York Times

Books, Arts

4.0 • 3.9K Ratings

🗓️ 16 January 2026

⏱️ 46 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

A new year means new books are on the way! So many new books. On this week’s episode, host Gilbert Cruz talks with fellow Book Review editors Joumana Khatib and MJ Franklin about the upcoming fiction and nonfiction titles they’re most anticipating between now and April.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, I'm Gilbert Cruz.
0:09.1	I'm Jumanah Ketebe.
0:10.4	And I'm M.J. Franklin.
0:11.7	We are all editors at the New York Times Book Review, and it's January, which means there's an entire year of reading ahead of the three of us and ahead of all of you.
0:20.0	We are here this week to help guide you
0:22.5	through the first several months of 2026. We're going to be talking about a handful of titles
0:27.5	coming out between now and the end of March. Why specifically the end of March? Because in March,
0:34.9	we're going to have to do another one of these. A spring books preview.
0:40.2	We'll talk about what goes up until the summer then.
0:40.9	That is why.
0:42.5	Shumana and MJ, welcome.
0:46.6	How are you feeling now that it's a new year?
0:53.3	Before we get into like specifics, what do you have any reading goals that you set for yourself this year?
0:55.8	I really love the new year.
0:57.0	I feel optimistic.
1:00.2	Anytime I get to do like blank slate, restart.
1:04.6	So I feel like 2026, a whole bunch of new books that I'm excited to dive into.
1:06.9	I have a few goals.
1:10.0	One of them is to read more classics.
1:18.6	And I have a series of classics that I want to read that include Wuthering Heights and Anna Kornina, just things I really, I feel are so influential, but I never got around to.
1:28.3	And then one goal of mine is to slow down, and when I'm reading stuff, go back and find as many essays as I can find about that book,
1:33.1	not just read the book, but fill out my knowledge of the conversation, fill out the references,
	...

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