Eighteen January 2026 Book Releases You Need to Know About

The end of year gift-giving has vanished and, in its place, a bewildering assortment of books to get folks through dry January, including SF, thrillers, books on football, celebrity authors and a book about the future of the university!

1. The First Time I Saw Him — Laura Dave
   The sequel to the bestselling The Last Thing He Told Me, also now an Apple TV show, continues the suspenseful story of love, memory loss, and danger.
   Release Date: January 6, 2026
2. Halcyon Years — Alastair Reynolds
   A private investigator has to solve a death in space, so maybe a whodunit, maybe a what-dunit from a master of space opera.
   Release Date: January 27, 2026
3. Darkrooms — Rebecca Hannigan
   A haunting psychological story about disappearance and mystery in an Irish town. For you know, folks who like psychology and Ireland.
   Release Date: January 13, 2026
4. Half His Age — Jennette McCurdy
   A bold debut fiction outing from the star of iCarly and its spin-off, Sam & Cat, oh, and bestselling author of I’m Glad My Mom Died (also going to be on Apple TV), tackles desire, self-discovery, and cultural taboos.
   Release Date: January 20, 2026
5. The Future Saints — Ashley Winstead
   A novel for music lovers and fans of contemporary pop culture fiction, following a struggling band fighting to reclaim its sound. You know, in the days when people, not AI, made music.
   Release Date: January 20, 2026
6. Woman Down — Colleen Hoover
   A twisty thriller from a bestselling author about an author fighting creative collapse and online backlash — blending suspense with emotional stakes.
   Release Date: January 13, 2026
7. Vigil — George Saunders
   One of our most readable contemporary writers — and the Booker-winning author of Lincoln in the Bardo — gives us a rich, metaphysical novel set at the threshold between life and death.
   Release Date: January 27, 2026
8. How to Commit a Postcolonial Murder — Nina McConigley
   This will be my first book of the year. They say it is a bold and inventive debut where two sisters in Wyoming narrate their culpability in a family murder — sharp, funny, and unflinching. Sounds appealing!
   Release Date: January 20, 2026
9. Kokun: The Girl from the West — Nahoko Uehashi, trans. Cathy Hirano
   A sweeping ecological fantasy from a celebrated Japanese author of fantasy blends environmental themes with rich courtly intrigue. What most Uehashi readers don’t know, though, is she’s a Professor of Ethnology and her PhD was on an indigenous Australian people!
   Release Date: January 13, 2026
10. The Hitch — Sara Levine
    I find the cover offputting, but this is supposed to be an offbeat, comedic novel about coping with grief and the absurdities of life, described as quirky and unforgettable. If the postcolonial murder book didn’t exist and I didn’t hate the cover, this might be my palate cleanser first book of 2026.
    Release Date: January 13, 2026
11. The Legend of Wyatt Outlaw — Sylvester Allen & Belle Boggs
    A historical narrative tracing the life and tragic death of a pioneering Black leader in Reconstruction-era North Carolina. I read the available excerpt and it seems really inviting and fascinating.
    Release Date: January 27, 2026
12. Nine Goblins: A Tale of Low Fantasy and High Mischief — T. Kingfisher
    A delightful romp from a Hugo Award-winning fantasy author — perfect for readers who like humor and magical mischief. A love it or hate it book. If you’re a hater just move along!
    Release Date: January 20, 2026
13. The Last of Earth — Deepa Anappara
    From the acclaimed author of Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line, a novel set in nineteenth-century Tibet that blends historical adventure with sweeping world-building. If this is anything like Purple Line, worth reading.
    Release Date: January 13, 2026
14. Hemlock — Melissa Faliveno
    A gothic novel about returning home and confronting family legacies, blending atmosphere with queer themes. Gothic; queer, another love it or hate it I think.
    Release Date: January 20, 2026
15. The School of Night — A Novel — Karl Ove Knausgaard, trans. Martin Aitken
    Karl Ove is back!! A literary novel from the master of memoir. The plot is steeped in secrecy, obsession, and intellectual life, exploring how knowledge, ambition, and desire can blur into darkness. Atmospheric and cerebral, with strong crossover appeal for readers of campus fiction and psychological drama.
    Release Date: January 13, 2026
16. Football — Chuck Klosterman
    A sharp, unexpected novel using the world of football as a lens to examine masculinity, violence, loyalty, and collective identity. Timely, provocative, and formally ambitious. If you read Scott Galloway in 2025, Klosterman for 2026!
    Release Date: January 20, 2026
17. University: A Reckoning — Lee C. Bollinger
    A bracing work of nonfiction from the former president of Columbia University that confronts power, ideology, and institutional failure in higher education. An urgent examination of universities as cultural, political, and moral battlegrounds. Should be important.
    Release Date: January 20, 2026
18. Departure(s) — A Novel — Julian Barnes
    Now an elderly British novelist, Julian Barnes was one of the most playful and fun writers of the 1980s and 1990s. This is a poignant novel about leaving, return, and the emotional weight of movement across borders. As always, it’s intimate and this book is more reflective than ever.
    Release Date: January 20, 2026