13 New Books Coming Out This Week And Why You Should Read Them

May the fourth...and these books...be with you.

Alexa Fishman / Via BuzzFeed

Hello, book lovers! Each week, dozens and dozens of new releases hit the shelves. Below are some of the reads BuzzFeed Books writers and contributors loved the most:

Alexa Fishman / Via BuzzFeed

1. The Ones We're Meant to Find by Joan He

Roaring Brook Press

This dystopian YA sci-fi centers on the connection between two sisters, despite their separation. The novel opens with Cee marooned on an island with only an ancient android to keep her company. Her memories are mostly gone, but she does remember one thing: her sister Kasey and her desperate need to find her. Meanwhile, Kasey is disturbed by her seeming lack of grief at her sister’s disappearance and presumed death. She lives in an eco-city created by her father, a sanctuary to protect the Earth from humanity and where people live virtually as much as possible. She’s a STEM prodigy meant to help save the Earth — but when a blip briefly appears on her radar locating her sister, she wants to abandon everything to find her. The Ones We're Meant to Find is a stunning and compelling novel full of twists and an emotional pull that will make readers want to finish it in one go. —Margaret Kingsbury

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2. Sorrowland by Rivers Solomon

MCD

This riveting and harrowing novel follows Vern, a 15-year-old albino Black girl who’s escaped into the woods from an abusive husband and the leader of a Black pride cult called Cainland. Pregnant with twins, Vern gives birth and raises her sons in the forest by herself until they’re 4. Members of Cainland received experimental drugs in their food or water, which caused nightly hallucinations. Away from Cainland, Vern’s hallucinations turn into vivid hauntings, and slowly her body begins to transform into something else, something not quite human. This novel vividly portrays how Black bodies have been used for unethical experiments while it also celebrates queer love, motherhood, and vengeance. It’s gorgeously written and sure to be one of my favorite books of the year. —Margaret Kingsbury

3. Things We Lost to the Water by Eric Nguyen

Knopf Publishing Group

Things We Lost to the Water introduces an exquisite new voice in author Eric Nguyen; his debut novel is a luminous, balletic portrayal of an immigrant Vietnamese family in the US. When Huong arrives in New Orleans in 1978, she’s alone with her two sons, Tuan and Binh. Her husband, Cong, stays behind, and Huong is lost in the false hope of their eventual reunion. As years pass, it becomes clear that she, Tuan, and Binh are on their own. The trio grow and define themselves around their inherent absences — a lost father, partner, heritage, and home. They’re pulled farther apart from each other in their pursuits of meaning and identity until catastrophe draws them back together and tests their bonds. Nguyen navigates their multiple perspectives with dexterity and emotional clarity, aching but never maudlin. I loved every page. —Arianna Rebolini

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4. Arsenic and Adobo by Mia P. Manansala

Berkley

After breaking up with her food critic ex, Lila Macapagal moves back home to recover, helping to save her aunt's failing restaurant while she's there. When her ex turns up dead moments after a heated confrontation with him, Lila becomes the primary suspect. Determined to clear her name, Lila — with the help of her matchmaking aunts, barista best friend, and adorable dachshund — does whatever she has to do to solve the case. —Shyla Watson

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5. Pop Song by Larissa Pham

Catapult

Larissa Pham's nonfiction debut Pop Song is a meditation on falling in and out of love with people, places, art, and ideas, drawing on her personal experience and broad cultural fluency to explore how and why we make various connections in our search for meaning. It’s resonant and relatable. —Arianna Rebolini

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6. The Girl With Stars in Her Eyes by Xio Axelrod

Sourcebooks Casablanca

Antonia "Toni" Bennett always planned to use her guitar and love of music to help her escape her small town. And after she met Seb, she thought he'd be right there with her. But when Seb turned 18, he left her and their dreams behind without a second glance. Years later, Toni has put aside her heartbreak and steadily built a name for herself in Philadelphia's indie rock scene. When a friend convinces her to try out for one of the hottest new bands in the country, she's shocked to find that Seb is one of the decision-makers. She's also shocked to realize that her feelings for him aren't gone, as she had thought. —Shyla Watson

7. Just Last Night by Mhairi McFarlane

William Morrow & Company

Eve, Justin, Susie, and Ed have been friends since they were teenagers. And over 15 years later, Eve is still secretly in love with Ed — who has a fiancé. Still, she can't help wondering what could've been, and she knows he thinks about it too. But all her fantasizing comes to an abrupt halt when tragedy strikes, affecting their friend group forever. Secrets come out, and Eve realizes that maybe she doesn't know her friends as well as she thought. But even through loss, grief, and betrayal, there may be love at the end of the tunnel. —Shyla Watson

8. Like Cats and Dogs by Kate McMurray

Sourcebooks Casablanca

Lauren Harlow has owned the Whitman Street Cat Cafe for a while now and doesn't appreciate when know-it-all veterinarian Caleb Fitch moves in next door and starts criticizing how she treats the cats in her care. She also doesn't appreciate her instant attraction to him, but that's a whole other thing. When a box of kittens is left on her doorstep, Caleb offers his help as a peace offering. As they nurture the kittens, they also nurture the relationship forming between them. But when a developer starts circling the block, they have to work together to save their business or risk losing it all. —Shyla Watson

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9. Ariadne by Jennifer Saint

Flatiron Books

Much like Madeline Miller’s Circe, Ariadne centers the lives of women characters from Greek mythology through the voices of Ariadne and her sister Phaedra. When her mother gives birth to the minotaur, Ariadne is the only one to help her; King Minos shuns his wife and the child. She and her mother take care of and feed the minotaur, and though her mother never bonds with her beastly child, Ariadne feels a love mixed with pity for her brother. This makes her later betrayal — after she falls in love with Theseus — that much harder. Beautifully written and nuanced, Ariadne explores the bonds between women and their epic quest for agency in patriarchal Greek society. —Margaret Kingsbury

10. Echo Tree by Henry Dumas

Coffee House Press

Hailed as "an absolute genius" by Toni Morrison, poet and short story writer Henry Dumas, at 33 years old, was shot and killed in 1968 by a police officer in a New York City subway station. Thankfully, due to Morrison and other Black writers and editors’ efforts, his writing remains in circulation, though under read. Echo Tree is a reissue of his fabulist short fiction. Using African mythology, folklore, and spiritualism, his vivid and surreal short stories depict Black life in America. Though his Africanfuturist stories are often destabilizing and rife with symbolism, they’re also grounded in the realities of racism and Black identity. His fiction is fascinating and powerful, and this collection is an excellent way for readers to discover his work. —Margaret Kingsbury

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11. Take What You Can Carry by Gian Sardar

Lake Union Publishing

Olivia is a secretary at a Los Angeles newspaper aspiring to be a photojournalist, so when her Kurdish boyfriend Delan is invited home to Iraq for a wedding, she sees tagging along as her chance to not only broaden her work, but to learn more about Delan's culture. In 1979, Iraq is plagued by war and when the trip proves to be even less safe than they anticipated, Olivia is confronted with a side of the world she's never experienced. But amid the war is beauty, family, and love — until Olivia captures a tragic moment and upends all of their lives. —Kirby Beaton

12. Tears of Amber by Sofía Segovia

Amazon Crossing

Translated from Spanish, this breathtaking novel follows the stories of three children caught in the midst of war. In the middle of Prussia's harsh winter, Ilse and her family must take part in the world's largest exodus in history if they want to survive. While fleeing the Soviet army, she has only the folklore stories of Janusz, her Polish friend, to keep her spirits up. Not far away, Arno and his mother hide in an abandoned mansion, hoping to stay out of the clutches of war. But all of their lives will collide in this story of war, hope, and resilience. —Kirby Beaton

13. The Most Beautiful Girl in Cuba by Chanel Cleeton

Berkley

In Gilded Age New York, William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer and their rival newspapers are the place to be. So when Grace Harrington gets a job working for Hearst, she's ready to do anything for her career, including jumping on the story of Evangelina Cisneros, a Cuban revolutionary unjustly locked in jail. With the help of a local rebel courier named Marina, Grace and Evangelina exchange messages, putting her cries for American intervention on the front pages. But with war brewing, all three women will have to risk everything for freedom in this heartbreaking story based on real events. —Kirby Beaton

For more new release recommendations from this month, click here, or catch up on all of our weekly favorites on Bookshop. What's the best book you read this week? Tell us in the comments!

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