Politics figures prominently in this debut novel by Elizabeth Harris, a journalist who covers the publishing industry for the New York Times. In How to Sleep at Night, Ethan and Gabe are a devoted couple whose marriage is tested when Ethan, a conservative, decides to run for Congress as a Republican—but only with the blessing of his progressive husband. Gabe struggles with supporting his husband’s dream while maintaining his liberal ideals. Meanwhile, suburban mom Nicole, feeling lost in an unhappy marriage to her husband, reconnects with an old flame: Kate, Ethan’s ambitious sister and a top political reporter—and Nicole’s ex. As Ethan begins his controversial congressional run, all characters find their lives entangled by politics and identity.  

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This nostalgic coming-of-age novel, set in 1975, follows 18-year-old Nicky DeMarco as he begins his freshman year at Boston University. Based loosely on the college experiences of author and alum Goldstein, the book follows Nicky’s journey of self-discovery as he navigates a life-changing love triangle with a girl named Lori and a boy named Joe. The book alternates between Nicky’s college days and his return to Boston 50 years later, where he and Joe are reunited. Goldstein calls the novel his “love letter to BU.”

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Best-selling novelist and poet Ocean Vuong (On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous) returns to fiction in his latest book, which follows 19-year-old Hai, who is on the verge of ending his life when a voice calls out to him from across the river. The voice belongs to Grazina, an elderly widow battling dementia, who convinces him to take another path. With nowhere else to turn, Hai becomes Grazina’s caretaker, and the two form an unlikely, but deeply moving bond. Vuong’s novel explores how love, labor, and loneliness are cornerstones of the American experience. The novel was recently selected by Oprah Winfrey for her eponymous book club. 

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In her thrilling YA debut, Braun-Arnold tells the story of Liz Flannery, a 17-year-old girl who has been left stranded in an abandoned bookstore in her suburban New Jersey town following a devastating climate disaster. But when news of another impending storm arrives, Liz’s world is upended once again. Enter Maeve, a mysterious out-of-towner who breaks into the bookstore in search of shelter. The two girls are forced into an uneasy alliance, and a bond begins to form—with a romantic spark. With the second storm approaching, the girls must deal with buried secrets and painful pasts as they fight for their lives and their love in a world that’s falling apart.

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Told across dual timelines and spanning multiple generations, The Manor of Dreams is a haunting novel of two love stories, set against a series of threatening supernatural events. When legendary Oscar-winning Chinese American actress Vivian Yin dies, her two daughters, Lucille and Rennie, expect to inherit the once-glamorous, now decaying Southern California estate where they were raised. But in a shocking turn of events, they discover their mother has left the mansion to the daughter of her long-serving housekeeper. With both sides determined to claim ownership, they all agree to share the house for a week, during which they must confront buried secrets and rising tensions. Yin’s daughters are desperate to fit together the puzzle pieces of their mother’s final weeks. After decades of silence, will the families unravel the painful truth? The Manor of Dreams offers an unforgettable exploration of two forbidden love stories. 

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The Three Lives of Cate Kay tells the story of the mysterious best-selling author behind a wildly popular trilogy and its blockbuster film adaptations, Cate Kay, but it turns out she isn’t real—she’s a carefully constructed persona, hiding the true identity the author has kept secret for years. Now, after a shocking revelation, Cate realizes that to find peace and reclaim her true self, she must confront the past she’s been running from. A meditation on love and friendship, the book is Fagan’s first work of fiction (she’s written several best-selling nonfiction books). Reese Witherspoon selected The Three Lives of Cate Kay for her book club earlier this year. One chapter, and you’ll know why.  

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A lyrical coming-of-age novel from Irish poet Seán Hewitt, Open, Heaven follows a year in the lives of two teenage boys whose connection to each other proves life-changing. Set in an isolated village in Northern England, 16-year-old James—who is struggling with his emerging sexuality—meets Luke, a slightly older boy, and his world is rocked. As the bond between the two boys grows, they must navigate their feelings for each other and the courage it takes to love freely. 

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Ali is a publicist, and lesbian, who works with some of Hollywood’s biggest stars. Part of her job is to keep her gay clients’ sexual identities  under wraps—even as she’s grieving the loss of her own partner. When she’s assigned to work with rising gay starlet Cara Bisset, whose breakout role demands a straight public image, Ali is tasked with managing more than just a career. She must also navigate Cara’s defiance, vulnerability, and growing fame. As the two develop feelings for each other, they must decide what matters more: protecting a carefully curated image or daring to live—and love—openly. 

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This Love follows queer friends Ari and Mae from their college days to their adult lives. They make a pact: somehow, someday, they will have a child together—but the two soon realize that fulfilling that promise will not be as simple as they had hoped. Spanning 10 years, this poignant novel follows Mae and Ari through different jobs and relationships as well as new cities. The two redefine what it means to build a family.

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In 1940s Manhattan, Hattie James is a star, mesmerizing audiences at the Copacabana Club. Her life is upended, however, when she learns that her diplomat father has been arrested for aiding the Nazis. After his shocking escape, the FBI recruits Hattie to go undercover in Rio de Janeiro’s elite circles to uncover the truth behind her father’s alleged betrayal. Posing undercover as a singer at the Halo Club, owned by the enigmatic Maya Reyes, Hattie is enveloped in the city’s secrets and rising tensions. When Maya’s sister suddenly goes missing, Hattie unearths a shocking connection between her father and the mysterious SS leader Heinz Baumann that may put her—and others—in great danger. A mesmerizing tale of love, betrayal, and espionage, The Songbird will stay in your head long after you’ve finished the final page.  

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In this dystopian novel, set in the East London district of Hackney in 2233, a woman named Jones walks into a tattoo parlor, desiring an inked line to connect the vast array of tattoos across her body—each tattoo a portal to another existence, some previously led lives, others still in the future. As the tattoo artist gets to work, Jones tells them the story behind each tattoo, bringing the reader to different places and different moments in time, including the coal mines of 19th century Lancashire, and story lines involving a horde of vigilante sex workers, an incel murder, and the discovery of a plan to genetically modify female children. Each story brings the reader to a fuller understanding of Jones’ life, and how her life is connected with the woman tattooing her body.

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Bossiere’s powerful literary memoir Cactus Country recounts growing up gender-fluid in a working-class trailer park in Tucson, Ariz. As adolescence sets in, Zoë, who identifies as a trans boy, is forced to reckon with the rigid masculinity, violence, and systemic hardships threaded into the lives of the men around him. The author recounts how, despite adopting an androgynous style, they still have to navigate living in a gendered body. Bossiere’s story offers a probing exploration of class, identity, and masculinity. 

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This oral history offers a fascinating glimpse of some of the many people fighting for their sexual identities and rights in the United States. The author also traces the history behind the current trans and gender-expansive movements and contends that gender variance “has existed throughout history, in every society.” Based on hundreds of hours of interviews, the book pays tribute to a generation of Americans who lived through, and helped shape, a period of extraordinary changes in American culture, but who have largely been ignored in books about LGBTQIA history. 

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White, who died earlier this month at age 85, is considered one of the most influential chroniclers of gay life in the 20th and 21st centuries. Known as “the paterfamilias of queer literature,” White recounts some of the many sexual liaisons that shaped and inspired his fiction. Kirkus Reviews calls the book, White’s last, “an irreverent and unapologetically provocative scrapbook of an aging author’s sex life.”

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This biography of the influential 19th-century photographer and lesbian Alice Austen, best known today for her images of working-class and leisure-class New Yorkers, recounts how the artist used her camera to satirize gender norms. Yochelson’s book chronicles Austen’s relationships with women, in particular, Gertrude Tate, whom she met at age 31 and who would become her life partner. The author uses Austen’s photos to trace the history of photography and the history of sexuality in 19th-century American life. 

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