Top 10 Books To Get Excited About in 2018

You’ve probably heard of author Lisa Genova before; she’s a neuroscientist who wrote the hugely popular novel “Still Alice”; it was adapted into a film starring Julianne Moore, garnering the actress an Oscar win. That novel is about a woman dealing with Alzheimer's disease at a young age, and the author’s upcoming offering, “Every Note Played”, will tackle similar subject matter. The book follows the story of a renowned concert pianist whose body begins to deteriorate when he is diagnosed with ALS, leaving him unable to continue his work. “Every Note Played” will be released in March 2018 but you can preorder it now!

If one of your goals in 2018 is to sink your literary teeth into short stories, this may be the perfect place to start. Curtis Sittenfeld has written several popular novels, including a debut which took biting look at a New England private school, and “Eligible”, a very modern retelling of Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice”. For her latest work, she decided to focus on short fiction. The tales she spins here will no doubt be satirical and character-rich, featuring her uncanny ability to humanize her flawed fictional subjects.

If you haven’t already read some of David Sedaris’s hilarious memoirs, you are absolutely missing out. He writes the type of books that make you snort with laughter and garner you sidelong looks when you can’t help giggling while reading them in public. We don’t know much about his upcoming offering, “Calypso,” other than the fact that it shares a title with a short story that he wrote and published several years ago. The truth is though, it doesn’t really matter what he puts out because you just know it’s going to be good.

Meg Wolitzer has had a long and illustrious fiction career, starting with the publication of her first novel, in 1982. She became an even bigger name in the modern literary scene when she released the best-selling “The Interestings” in 2013, which was adapted into an hour-long Amazon pilot. She has written YA fiction in the last few years, but now returns to novels for grown-ups with “The Female Persuasion,” telling the story of a young college student who becomes enthralled by a famous feminist she meets at school. It comes out in April 2018, and will be the perfect summer read.

Author Dave Eggers is perhaps best known for his most notable book, “A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius”, but he has co-written the adapted screenplay for “Where the Wild Things Are” and a number of both fiction and nonfiction books that are worth checking out. His latest to soon hit the shelves is the non-fiction “The Monk of Mokha”, which tells the true story of Mokhtar Alkhanshali, a young Yemeni-American man living in San Francisco who becomes enthralled with the history of Yemeni coffee. The concept may sound like a strange one, but you can always trust Eggers to put out something brilliant.

In 2015, Lauren Groff’s novel “Fates and Furies” was on pretty much every “best books of the year” list you could find. President Barack Obama even called it his favorite novel of the year. That’s a pretty serious endorsement! So when it was announced that Groff would be publishing something new in 2018, anticipation started running high. This will be a book of short stories named after Groff’s home state of Florida. Each story in the collection is set in the often wild, weird and warped Sunshine State, but no matter where you’re from, you’ll undoubtedly want to pick this one up.

If you haven’t yet heard of JoJo Moyes, it probably means you haven’t entered a bookstore (or movie theater for that matter) in several years. Moyes breakout novel, “Me Before You”, earned itself a rabid fanbase after it was published, and was adapted into a successful Hollywood movie. Since fans were so desperate to hear more of Louisa’s story, Moyes continued with a sequel. And “Still Me,” which launches in January 2018, is the third installment in the series. If you want to see how Lou fares in the Big Apple, make sure to order this asap!

Kristin Hannah has written many novels in her decades-long career, but none made a bigger impact than 2015’s “The Nightingale”. The WWII story quickly became a book club favorite, and has been sold for a film adaptation set to come out in 2019, directed by Jennifer Kent, best-known for “The Babadook”.

While you’re waiting for that though, Hannah is publishing a follow-up in 2018 that you can grab as of February. “The Great Alone” is set in 1970s Alaska, and follows Ernt Allbright, an ex-POW who moves his family to the northernmost state, with inevitable adventure ensuing.

Tayari Jones may not currently be a household name, but after this novel is published, it’s doubtful that will stay that way for long. “An American Marriage” tells the story of a newly-married African-American couple, Celestial and Roy, who are torn apart early in their union when Roy is sent to jail for a crime he did not commit. The story follows each of them separately, as Celestial deals with being alone and looks for loving comfort with Andre, an old friend, while Roy manages the years-long ordeal of being wrongfully incarcerated. What then throws them all off-course entirely is when Roy is released early.





Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions.





“Creative Quest” by Questlove







“Look Alive Out There” by Sloane Crosley







“Feel Free: Essays” by Zadie Smith

Many celebrity memoirs don’t get too much attention these days, but we can bet this one will be the exception. Following the allegations of sexual misconduct against Harvey Weinstein and other big names in Hollywood and worldwide, the #metoo movement and the Time’s Up movement have thrived. One of the women at the center of it all is actress Rose McGowan, who starred in the supernatural show “Charmed” as well as numerous other films and TV projects, including 2007’s “Grindhouse”. This non-fiction book delves into McGowan’s childhood, and continues on to grapple with the sensational events that put her in the news in a big way in 2017.