2021 has been an up-and-down year for the book publishing industry. Although book sales—especially print—were up during the first few months while people were still stuck at home, supply chain problems in the latter half of the year stunted deliveries and took a bit of shine away from the last (and usually, most lucrative) quarter.
However, certain genres—especially in fiction—continue to boom, and authors are starting to step away from Zoom cameras and can resume in-person book tours again, which should lead to even greater things in 2022. (Fingers crossed.)
Here is a sampling of nonfiction and fiction titles to consider reading as they will be published in the first half of 2022.
How We Eat: The Brave New World of Food and Drink by Paco Underhill
Available January 4
One thing that can be counted on every January: the deluge of content from books to how-to guides to think pieces on new year diets. How We Eat isn’t one of those books, but it might get you thinking (and changing) how you eat as more urban communities try to bring the farm not just to the table but to community gardens, rooftops, or just about any patch of unused, open space to cut back on mass-produced groceries harming not only ourselves but also the environment in the era of climate change.
Fiona and Jane by Jean Chen Ho
Available January 4
Set across Los Angeles, Taiwan, and New York, Jean Chen Ho’s debut novel explores a friendship between two Taiwanese American women as they break apart in their twenties and find their way back to each other 10 years later, their story told alternately from each woman’s point of view. While an intimate portrait of friendship, Fiona and Jane also tackles themes around sexuality, social class, immigration, family secrets, mental health, and Asian American identity.
Reckless Girls by Rachel Hawkins
Available January 4
New York Times bestselling novelist Rachel Hawkins scored with both lovers of thrillers and the classics last year with The Wife Upstairs, a modern retelling of Jane Eyre. This year, she’s going for the Agatha Christie fan base (or anyone who enjoyed HBO’s The White Lotus) with an island mystery involving a set of Gen Z adventure travelers. Naturally, the adventure spins out of control—and someone ends up dead in paradise.
The Lords of Easy Money: How the Federal Reserve Broke the American Economy by Christopher Leonard
Available January 11
Business journalist Christopher Leonard investigates the U.S. Federal Reserve to reveal how the mysterious agency’s policies over the past decade have accelerated income inequality, putting our country’s economic stability at risk.
Rise: My Story by Lindsey Vonn
Available January 11
Lindsey Vonn is the most decorated female skier of all time and one of the most celebrated female American athletes of this century. In her first memoir, Vonn shares information never before disclosed in interviews, including little-known details about her struggles with mental and physical health.
You Don’t Know Us Negroes and Other Essays by Zora Neale Hurston
Available January 18
Drawn from three decades of her work, this anthology traces Zora Neale Hurston’s development as a writer as she covered topics such as race, gender, and politics as well as African American art and culture from the height of the Harlem Renaissance to the early years of the Civil Rights movement. Celebrated literary critic, filmmaker, and professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. Provides the introduction to this collection from one of America’s most legendary authors.
Just Pursuit: A Black Prosecutor’s Fight for Fairness by Laura Coates
Available January 18
Recounting her time as a Black female prosecutor for the U.S. Department of Justice, CNN senior legal analyst Laura Coates investigates the bias in the justice system. Just Pursuit also serves as a memoir of a woman repeatedly torn between upholding her oath as a public servant and her lived experience as a Black woman and mother in the United States.
The Decameron Project: 29 New Stories From the Pandemic selected by the editors of the New York Times Magazine
Available January 18
For many readers, it might feel as if it’s too soon to read any books—fiction or nonfiction—about the pandemic lockdown, especially as the pandemic is ongoing. But this collection of short stories, including works by Margaret Atwood and National Book Award winner Charles Yu, commissioned at the start of the pandemic, will likely serve as a very precise time capsule years from now about a very chaotic moment in history.
The Last Slave Ship: The True Story of How Clotilda Was Found, Her Descendants, and an Extraordinary Reckoning
by Ben Raines
Available January 25
Fifty years after the Atlantic slave trade was outlawed, the Clotilda was the last ship in history to traffic kidnapped Africans to the United States. Journalist Ben Raines, who discovered the ship’s remains, tells the true story of the ship’s harrowing voyage, the town founded by survivors after emancipation, and the legacy their descendants carry with them to this day.
Already Enough: A Path to Self-Acceptance by Lisa Olivera
Available January 25
Lisa Olivera, a practicing therapist with more than 467,000 followers on Instagram, might seem like someone who has it all figured out. But like anything on Instagram, looks can be deceiving, and it took a lot of work for Olivera to get onto the path to self-acceptance, starting from when she was abandoned in the woods by her birth mother at just a few hours old.
Finance for the People: Getting a Grip on Your Finances by Paco de Leon
Available February 1
Taking a more hands-on approach to personal finance, Finance for the People asks readers to reflect on their beliefs and experiences with money in a variety of exercises and includes more than 50 illustrations and diagrams to make the concepts accessible.
Sickening: How Big Pharma Broke American Health Care and How We Can Repair It by John Abramson
Available February 8
Dr. John Abramson, who has been a member of the faculty at Harvard Medical School for 25 years, has compiled multiple patient stories to demonstrate how the pharmaceutical industry’s financial interests have corrupted and diminished the American health care system, costing not only many Americans their entire bank accounts but also, for many, their lives.
Black American Refugee: Escaping the Narcissism of the American Dream by Tiffanie Drayton
Available February 15
Expanding on her New York Times feature of the same name, journalist Tiffanie Drayton reflects on her mother’s move to the U.S. In pursuit of the American dream, and how through personal experience and examination of race culture, the American dream has been repeatedly unrealistic for people of color.
After the Romanovs: Russian Exiles in Paris From the Belle Époque Through Revolution and War by Helen Rappaport
Available March 8
There is no shortage of books about the last royal family of Russia, and while many modern historical works still focus on the murders of the last tsar and his family, After the Romanovs focuses on extended family members and courtiers who managed to escape—specifically to Paris, where some finished out their aristocratic lifestyle and others rebuilt their lives from the ground up.
In the Margins: On the Pleasures of Reading and Writing by Elena Ferrante
Available March 15
Quite arguably Italy’s most lauded (and mysterious) contemporary writer, Elena Ferrante—author of the beloved Neapolitan Novels, The Lost Daughter, and The Lying Life of Adults—offers a rare peek into her life with four new essays about her literary influences, struggles, and formation as both a reader and a writer.
Women Talk Money: Breaking the Taboo edited by Rebecca Walker
Available March 15
This anthology of essays, edited by prominent feminist and writer Rebecca Walker, explores how money can impact women’s lives, from the power structures of their relationships to the kind of health care they can expect to receive, or lack thereof.
Dress Code: Unlocking Fashion From the New Look to Millennial Pink by Véronique Hyland
Available March 15
This essay collection challenges a number of standards and practices within the fashion industry—from dressing like a Frenchwoman as the epitome of style to what female politicians should wear—but whether or not you care about fashion, your wardrobe will always say something about you.
Cover Story by Susan Rigetti
Available April 5
Shonda Rhimes’s long-awaited Netflix miniseries about convicted scam artist Anna Delvey is set to debut in February, but for those viewers who can’t get enough of grifters in true crime stories, this epistolary novel follows a familiar trope in thrillers (aspiring young writer befriends magnetic but mysterious person without a past) and is set in some of the most glamorous hotspots in New York City.
The World According to Color: A Cultural History by James Fox
Available April 12
Art historian James Fox explores our connection to color—specifically the meanings and associations we have attached to color through culture and language over thousands of years.
The Memory Librarian: And Other Stories of Dirty Computer by Janelle Monáe
Available April 19
Singer and songwriter Janelle Monáe takes her Grammy-nominated album Dirty Computer to the next level with stories exploring race, queerness, gender plurality, and love.
This Time Tomorrow by Emma Straub
Available May 17
The New York Times bestselling author of The Vacationers is back with another witty travel-themed novel just in time for summer—except this one involves time travel.
Cult Classic by Sloane Crosley
Available June 7
Sloane Crosley is well known for her anthologies of humorous essays such as her 2008 debut, I Was Told There’d Be Cake. She is back with a second novel—a mystery set in the New York literary world—in which readers can expect Crosley’s signature droll style with a touch of surrealism.
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