The Best New Book Releases Out November 26, 2024

From the author of Beasts of a Little Land comes a novel set in 2019 in the ballet world of Russia. Prima Ballerina Natalia Leonova is back in St. Petersberg after a career-altering accident led her to substance abuse. She encounters old ghosts—both haunting and alluring—as she traverses her old stomping ground, and when she gets offered a way back to her former glory on stage by sus genius Dmitri, she’ll have to decide whether trying to reenter the world of ballet is worth its more cutthroat aspects.

This buzzy YA mystery gives The Inheritance Games teas a bit. I say that because it also involves a seemingly ordinary teenager chosen for a puzzle/game-heavy trial. Dia is the one chosen for a highly competitive internship at Darkly, a huge game-making company known for terrifying toys and games. Now that Darkly’s founder, Louisiana Veda, has died mysteriously, the company is kind of dead. But then there’s the internship, and once Dia starts it, she and her fellow interns find themselves in a world of hidden symbols and intrigue.

Angela Merkel was the Chancellor of Germany since I started paying attention to politics, and well after. Here, she looks at everything in her life that made her the kind of person to become the first woman to serve in her position in Germany. She looks at the two versions of Germany she grew up with—the German Democratic Republic and a reunified Germany—her childhood, youth, and “when the Wall fell and her political life began.” She also gets into her experience with having meetings with the world’s most powerful leaders, and what she thinks the world needs for freedom.

First things first: I love the art style of this cover! As for the contents, it is very much giving the classic good girl/bad boy trope, with its preacher’s daughter and grumpy, cussin’ tattoo artist. But, Aaliyah Montgomery might not be as good as the people around her would hope her to be (Alexa, play “Church Girl” by Beyoncé). She’s a runaway bride desperate to break out of her small town when she lands in Chicago. She gets a job as a nanny with Von Howard, and honestly, she’s terrible, but he’s just trying to hold it together after his divorce. But things get complicated because Aaliyah is thicker than cold peanut butter, and Von is high-key gorgeous.

Here, Mester uses cultural trends and personal stories to bring more of an emotional lens to the behemoth that is American consumerism. She looks at her experience with Costco family trips, a seasonal Ulta job, her grandmother’s abandoned Iowan hoard, and even her liberating teenage summer at fat camp, all to contend with the dysfunction and emotions at the root of our obsession with stuff.

Lovers of Greek mythology stay well-fed. With this latest reimagining, the women of Troy come alive. Andromache prepares for a possible change to her status as leader once she births the city’s male heir; Rhea is a Trojan spy who falls in love in an enemy camp; Helen tries to trade grief for healing; and Cassandra knows the fate of Troy—problem is, will anyone listen? Each of these women’s actions leads them closer to an eventful end.