After having read the gorgeous and lilting sci-fi novella This Is How You Lose the Time War, I’ll read anything by Amal El-Mohtar. This collection is full of award-winning stories that get told through letters, folktales, poetry, and even diary entries. Each of them offers a peek into fairy tale worlds that have just enough bite. —Erica Ezeifedi

If you’ve never read Louise Erdrich, I envy you the joy of discovery wherever you start in her extensive catalog. If you have read Louise Erdrich, you know that her signature blend of the sacred, the mundane, and the mythic is unlike anything else in contemporary fiction. Erdrich’s stories are deeply human and real. Her writing is somehow both spare and lyrical. She’s a master of her craft with a Pulitzer and National Book Award under her belt, and she routinely shows up as someday-contender for the Nobel Prize for Literature. Wherever she wants to take me, I’m ready to go. —Rebecca Joines Schinsky

In January, the TV series His & Hers started airing, adapted from Alice Feeney’s book of the same name. A couple weeks later, Feeney’s new thriller released—so it’s no surprise it’s gotten a lot of attention. This follows a woman who returns to her home one day to find her key no longer fits the lock, and the woman who opens the door claims to be her husband’s wife. It promises to be a “mind-bending marriage thriller.” This was read by almost 16,000 Goodreads users this week and has a 4.1 average rating.

This baseball romance novel is a spin-off of Liz Tomforde’s popular Windy City series. It follows Reese, the first female team owner in Major League Baseball. Despite her qualifications, she’s endlessly questioned, including by field manager Emmett. He sees her as cold, caring more about the business than the team. The more games they spend side-by-side, though, the more sparks fly between them. 18,000 Goodreads users read it this week, and it has a 4.4 average rating.

This turned out to be the sleeper hit of 2025: it has kept growing in popularity, seemingly just from word-of-mouth recommendations. Recently, Katie Couric named it the first pick for her new book club. It’s about a woman who has written letters daily her whole life. When someone from her past writes back, she has to reevaluate a painful period in her life and find a way to forgive. This was read by 19,000 users this week and has a 4.5 average rating.

The latest McFadden thriller is about an advice columnist who has been guiding the women who write to her through dealing with their lackluster or even abusive husbands. When she loses her job and realizes her husband is keeping secrets from her, she decides it’s time for her to take her own advice and get revenge. 20,000 Goodreads users read it this week, and it has a 4.0 average rating.

This 2021 sci-fi novel from the author of The Martian is getting renewed interest thanks to the movie adaptation starring Ryan Gosling, out now. Like The Martian, Project Hail Mary is hard sci-fi about a man alone in space. Ryland Grace is a junior high teacher and former molecular biologist who becomes the unlikely last hope of life on Earth. It was read by 41,000 Goodreads users this week and has a 4.5 average rating.