Book Riot’s Most Popular Posts of the Week
Here are the posts that readers read the most this week. Catch up—or revisit.
Fall is the biggest new release season in publishing, and there are so many exciting new books to preorder (or place your library holds on). Strangely, publishers can’t seem to agree on the definition of seasons, so for the purposes of this list, I’m including upcoming books out in September, October, and November. Some of the biggest titles are out this week, so you don’t have long to wait!
There are, however, some mysteries and thrillers that do spend more space to make the novel character-driven with emotional character arcs and relationships. These are what we’d call literary mysteries and thrillers. These types of books often lean more toward flowery prose, scenery descriptions, and make sure the characters are in the driver’s seat. Like with general literary fiction novels, these can be more introspective and reflective, spending time exploring the interiority of the character or humanity.
And, to get you fully, absolutely in an autumnal spirit, there are must-read new books coming out this fall that you can preorder, and some recent slashers. Keeping in that same horror vein, the YA category is doing some damage—there are demon deals and biting social commentary in Lamar Giles’ Ruin Road; and Tatiana Schlote-Bonne’s Such Lovely Skin also has a demon, this time a guilt-eating shape-shifting one from a video game.
Welcome back to our roundup of all the bestselling books of the week. Today we’re back to having no books that made it to all five bestseller lists. We do have one newcomer in Ketanji Brown Jackson’s memoir, which ranked in four of the five lists along with a CoHo title and a repeat showing from Hannah Grace. Overall it’s a pretty familiar story, though: lots of familiar titles from the folks you’re used to seeing on these lists.
It seems like horror, sci-fi, and fantasy have all been growing in popularity for the past decade—and what a wonderful thing that is! This list offers up some tantalizing new dark fantasy and horror books for you to peruse as fall ushers in longer nights perfect for snuggling up with some scary reads.
Stop the presses! This week’s roundup of the most-read books on Goodreads has some new titles! We’ve been seeing the same books slightly rearranged for months, so it’s nice to see some new covers in the mix. Both of them are romance books in popular series.
Like many of my fellow readers, I eagerly look forward to each change in season as a time to switch up my reading. For those who like to read seasonally, fall presents the opportunity to visit cozy bookstores, streets dusted with autumn leaves, and ancient castles, all through the power of books. Whether your fall reading leans toward cozy stories, campus novels, or horror, there’s something about the shift in the year that invites us to shift our reading as well and this can also mean changing up the decor in our homes and reading nooks.
The Booker Prize is awarded to a work of fiction written in English, from writers of any nationality, published in the UK or Ireland. At the end of July, a longlist of 13 titles was announced, which you can read here. Now the top contenders for the award have been narrowed down to a shortlist.
