Settle into the now. As the leaves start to turn and the days get shorter and darker, it’s time to hibernate into your reading corner. These beautiful contemporary books will take you all over the world while centering you around the issues impacting people right now. Whether you’re a member of the “I’ll-read-anything-R.F. Kuang writes” club or long-time Elin Hilderbrand fan looking for that back-to-school, academic setting, we’ve got you covered. These are the best contemporary books releasing in Fall 2026.

Taipei Story by R.F. Kuang (9/8) 

What happens when the journey to find home leaves you more lost than when you started? Lily Chen is a Chinese-American student who has enrolled in a language program in Taipei to hopefully reconnect with her culture and her family. When one disaster follows another, Lily tries to cling onto hope that she can at least learn more about her family. Then, her grandfather dies. Now she’s left totally adrift in a part of the world unfamiliar to her and seemingly unknowable. Still, Lily continues forward in her self-discovery, coming to know herself more than she ever could have before. 

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Switzy by Emma Cline (9/8) 

David is on his way to his final destination in Zurich. As he makes his way through Europe to visit his daughter and estranged friends, his grip on the present keeps slipping away from him. First in little drops, now in crashing waves. He’s lived a long and accomplished life and the memories of that life are seeping in to obscure the present. This is David’s last journey. This, here at the end, is the reflection of all he’s accomplished throughout his life.  

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The Thoroughbreds by Elin Hilderbrand and Shelby Cunningham (9/15) 

In the second installment of The Academy series, Tiffin Academy has reached a boiling point. Charley and East’s relationship has hit a new low that threatens to shatter them, Pippa Sacks could destroy the entire social order, and the long-standing friendship between Hakeem and football idol Dub wears perilously thin. There is also the question of what’s hidden in Cinnamon Peters’ final email before her death. Beneath all of this, the fate of the school hangs in the balance as the Head of School Audre Robinson tries to save Tiffin and herself from a grievous error.  

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Hollow Bones by Jodi Piccoult (9/15) 

Molly Fitzgerald has made a successful career in avoiding and mitigating disaster as the head of the Rhode Island Department for Emergency Preparedness. Disaster has colored every corner of her life since she was an infant, having lost her mother in the September 11th attack in New York. She and her husband Jesse have found comfort in each other as they navigate the uncertainty and dangers of life up until revelations threaten to destroy the safety and the marriage they’ve both worked so hard to build together.  

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Hollywood, Ending by John Green (9/22) 

When the biopic Andy Warhol Never Gets Old soars in popularity, Kai Laramie and Juniper Castillo are finally rewarded with their big break into acting. Their lives become a whirlwind of change, love, and fame, and none of it is what they thought it would be. As they navigate these changes to their lives compared to the life of Warhol, John Green’s return to fiction is an addictive look at Hollywood behind the curtain.  

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Avalon, Rise by Madeline ffitch (9/22) 

In a small Appalachian town, the lives of its residents are woven together to form both its history and its future. For friends Woody and Leroi, two best friends who have begun to take drastically different paths in life, they continue to find themselves and each other at their local library. As Woody deals and does drugs behind the scenes of his art, Leroi is connecting with Sunday community groups. As Stasia begins to encroach on the town with her white nationalist ideals, it is up to the community that has taken root for decades to keep their lives from being destroyed.  

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The Radiance by Ayad Akhtar (9/29) 

After an accident that leaves his mind and body destroyed, a writer is desperate to cling onto any tie to salvation. His spiritual awakening that follows borders on the precipice of madness, only to be egged on by a colleague who draws him out into an enchanting academic escape. When they become more intertwined, secrets start to emerge and threaten them. The secrets uncovered on that campus and the secrets surrounding the accident may be just as intertwined as the two kindred spirits. 

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The True Confessions of First Lady Freeman by Deesha Philyaw (9/29) 

Scharisse Freeman has not yet begun to let the judgement of others within her community define her worth, and she has no plans of starting now. After marrying a megachurch pastor, she’s been given all the wealth and power that lifestyle provides– and she has used it to establish herself as a highly successful business woman. Despite the lack of acceptance from her church community as well as the rejection from loved ones in her past, Scharisse is determined to keep doing all she can to stay on top. When she is invited to join the First Lady USA pageant, it seems she may finally have found some camaraderie among the fellow pastors’ wives. When scandal breaks at the worst possible moment, Scharisse’s life is thrown into a tailspin and her previous life comes to douse her in shame, leaving her under the scandalized eye of the church community. 

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Bad Words by Rioghnach Robinson (10/6) 

Parker Navarro couldn’t have been more ready for his debut novel to finally release and change the trajectory of his life. It did, but not in the way he expected. Acclaimed critic Selina Chan caused it to fall utterly flat on its face with her scathing review. Like any author married to the craft, Navarro tried his hand again four years later, and so did Chan. As their rivalry blew up the publishing world, something else begins to bloom under the surface as they’re drawn together that makes them wonder about the real power behind their words.  

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Fail Sons by Adam Wilson (10/6) 

Typically, when someone asks you to move a body, the answer is usually “no.” For estranged brothers Scott and Nick, the body is their father who has been cryogenically frozen and the company maintaining him is going out of business. Now the two have to come together to lug the body cross-country from Arizona to Massachusets during a global pandemic all before the body thaws and before Scott’s wife goes into labor. The pair of brothers experience every corner of America together, and the pressure of the trip might be the final crack that shatters their relationship.  

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Fair Ones: A Double Novel by Lydia Millet (10/9) 

A story told by masterfully wielding the double-edged sword of grief, we follow the wake of Claire’s death in two novels, following two friends she left behind. Fair explores the world-stopping grief of the immediate aftermath through the eyes of Mara and Ones allows the reader to feel the dull ache that grief morphs into over time as Jen’s story picks up a year after the death. As both Mara and Jen tend to their wounds, they also explore their memories alongside how Claire’s presence–and absence– colors their relationships going forward.  

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The Brightness by Chad Harbach (10/27) 

Pella and Irma are two friends who walk similar paths but they could not have foreseen ending up at such starkly different locations. Pella is 27, engaged, and preparing for a quiet life up until her past comes knocking and detonates the carefully laid path, sending Pella scrambling to pick up the scraps of her life in New York City. Irma is 21 with a bright future ahead of her until a political prank flies off the handle and she loses control of its impact. As both best friends are thrown to the wind, they have to explore what their pasts have done to color their future, and what going forward without a map will lead to. 

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Don’t Stop Snowing by Gabriel Bump (11/10) 

David’s parents only want the best for him. After college, as he’s spinning aimlessly through life, they and his doctor believe that relocation might give him a fresh perspective and do him some good. Shipped off to Buffalo, New York and into the care of his cousin Flip, David comes to find that Flip is even more worse off than he is. Now the two have to learn to be there for each other while trying to stay afloat. As David adjusts to his new life, he considers that it may not be so bad.  

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The Squatters by Saba Brelvi (11/10) 

Dalia has a quiet home in Surrey where she and her husband embody the epitome of second-generation immigrant success. Still, something is amiss. Dalia can’t quite find herself in this cookie-cutter life. In an attempt to find what’s been lacking, Dalia begins volunteering at the non-profit Refugee Resettlement where she meets Hajira and her husband who are seeking asylum in the U.K., and Dalia begins to form a close bond with Hajira. In an attempt to help her new friends improve their dire circumstances, Dalia sparks outrage within her community. The aftermath of her actions threaten both her carefully-crafted life as well as her marriage, and Dalia has to measure out the risks and decide what is truly worth the sacrifice.  

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Revenge Plot by Stephanie Wrobel (11/10) 

What would you do to ensure your passion project gets made? For Arnie, he’s toiled for years and years over his craft, chasing his dream of being a published and successful author. Each one he produced carried flaws that made it no better than scrap paper, but still he persevered. Then, his perfect novel was completed. He already knows the perfect agent: the famous Claudia Conley, best in the business. The fact that she’s rejected his books before is a wound Arnie never fully allowed to heal. A simple query won’t do, not for this work of greatness. To ensure that Claudia sees the masterpiece for what it is, Arnie tracks down where Claudia is vacationing for the holidays and follows her there to pitch in person, and he won’t be taking no for an answer this time. There’s no reason she would want to reject the book, though, considering Arnie wrote it about her.  

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