These are challenging times by any metric, but here’s something that’s also true: 2026 is shaping up to be a great year for books.
Some of our most talented writers are delivering novels, nonfiction and poetry in the coming months. If you want to lose yourself in a good book or just take a break from whatever it is you need a break from, rest easy knowing that there is a stellar lineup of titles coming to your local independent bookstore.
So, here are 12 books to put on your calendar and you can be assured of at least one thing: This represents just some of the titles I’m looking forward to reading and sharing with you as we approach spring. I’m already lining up picks for you through the rest of spring, summer and beyond, including upcoming releases by Jesmyn Ward, Ruth Ozeki, Colson Whitehead, Emily St. John Mandel and many more.
So let’s get started.
SEE ALSO: Where’s the nearest bookstore? See our map of 80+ SoCal bookshops
“A World Appears”
Author: Michael Pollan
Pollan has taken readers on all kinds of trips throughout his career, and this may be one of his most adventurous. In this nonfiction investigation, he attempts to figure out what human consciousness is, even as we face challenges from A.I. and ponder the question of what it means to be a person.
Publication Date: Out now
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“Kin”
Author: Tayari Jones
In this follow-up to her super-successful bestseller, “An American Marriage,” Jones returns with a novel about the divergent paths taken by two young women growing up without their mothers in the South. (The author will be talking to us about the book in an upcoming story.)
Publication Date: Out now
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“Brawler”
Author: Lauren Groff
Groff is so well known for her National Book Award-nominated novels “Fates & Furies” and “Matrix” that you could almost forget she is an exceptional short story writer. Her collection “Florida” was also a finalist for the National Book Award (that’s three nominations!) and it won The Story Prize, so you can expect “Brawler” to hit hard. (We have an interview upcoming with her, too.)
Publication Date: Out Now
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“Python’s Kiss”
Author: Louise Erdrich
In her new collection of short fiction, National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize winner Erdrich composes stories that deliver rich experiences in a variety of settings: a girl and her aunt discussing wedding dresses; a part-time school bus driver navigating a blizzard; an afterlife featuring unexpected holdovers from earth. Expect these pieces to delight, surprise and transport you. (And we’ll be speaking with her about this book, too.)
Publication Date: March 24
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“A Suit or a Suitcase”
Author: Maggie Smith
Known for her devastating poem, “Good Bones,” Smith has found success with her memoir, “You Could Make This Place Beautiful,” and nonfiction works on creativity and inspiration, “Dear Writer” and “Keep Moving.” This new book is a return to poetry, and its title piece alone has us excited to read more.
Publication Date: March 24
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“Son of Nobody”
Author: Yann Martel
In his first novel in a decade, the bestselling author of “Life of Pi” returns with a story about a scholar who finds a lost epic poem about the Trojan War, which has uncanny correlations to his own life as he works on translating it.
Publication Date: March 31
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“London Falling: A Mysterious Death in a Gilded City and a Family’s Search for Truth”
Author: Patrick Radden Keefe
Author of one of the best works of nonfiction of the 21st Century, “Say Nothing,” Keefe presents here what at first appears to be a work of true crime – the story of a young man who fell, jumped or was pushed from a high-rise apartment in London. But as the author investigates, a larger, more tangled story about money, crime, class and influence emerges.
Publication Date: April 7
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“Transcription”
Author: Ben Lerner
A poet and author of much-admired novels, including “The Topeka School” and “10:04,” returns with a work of fiction about a writer who travels to interview his aging mentor – only he’s without a recording device after dropping his phone in the hotel sink.
Publication Date: April 7
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“My Dear You”
Author: Rachel Khong
The author of the acclaimed “Real Americans” and “Goodbye, Vitamin,” which won the California Book Award for First Fiction, returns with a collection of short fiction that explores love, dating, race, capitalism and many other things.
Publication Date: April 7
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“The Palm House”
Author: Gwendoline Riley
Riley is the author of the much-praised novels “My Phantoms” and “First Love,” and this new one concerns the friendship between two Londoners, a writer and an editor, who meet up to discuss work, life and their parents.
Publication Date: April 14
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“Go Gentle”
Author: Maria Semple
The author of “Where’d You Go, Bernadette” returns with a new novel about a divorced Stoic philosopher named Adora Hazzard, whose well-ordered life and deeply considered existence get shaken up by a combination of sketchy art deals and her own shady past.
Publication Date: April 14
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“The Left and the Lucky”
Author: Willy Vlautin
I’m already on record as loving Vlautin’s previous novel, “The Horse,” and this new one sounds like a balm for difficult times. Divorced housepainter Eddie befriends Russell, his 8-year-old next-door neighbor; Russell’s mother has her hands full taking care of her aging mother and Russell’s troubled older brother. Everybody can use good friends – or a book about them, right?
Publication Date: April 14
