New Year, New Genre Staff Picks (1/28/26)

It’s a new year, and there’s no better time to try reading from a genre that you don’t normally pick up!

AMANDA’S PICK: WASP’S NEST BY KAT STODDARD

I don’t read a ton of contemporary fiction, but this one is too juicy to pass up.  This debut proves that true love triangles connect on all sides.  Tess wants nothing more than for her upcoming society wedding to overshadow the failure of her first marriage.  Peter hasn’t seen Tess in five years, so he’s shocked to receive an invitation to her wedding. But he’s moved on too, and it wouldn’t hurt to prove it by showing up with a handsome younger man, Mitch, as his plus-one.  What Mitch doesn’t bargain for is developing serious feelings for both Peter and Tess. But Peter and Tess have complex desires of their own, and Mitch is dangerously close to uncovering them.  In a modern, queer twist on the plot of the classic film The Philadelphia Story, the story centers on a complex love triangle of relationships, with the backdrop of a rich and layered family story, with all that juiciness perfect for book clubs.

EMILY’S PICK: GIRLS®: GENERATION Z AND THE COMMODIFICATION OF EVERYTHING BY FREYA INDIA

I admittedly don’t read a lot of nonfiction, but this one hooked me from the moment I heard about it. A bold investigation into the commodification of girlhood, GIRLS® dives into all of the pressures shaping young lives in today’s world. Each chapter focuses on a different anxiety in girls’ lives, but all centered around one thesis: while previous generations of women were relentlessly marketed products and procedures, today’s girls and young women have become the product. Whether it’s insecurities about bodies, reputation, friendships, or romantic relationships, girls’ anxieties are being commodified on social media, on dating apps, and in everyday life. Drawing from her own experience, India writes with honesty and insight, offering a powerful exploration of girlhood that will resonate with both her generation and older readers.

MARGO’S PICK: THE TRAVELER BY JOSEPH ECKERT

Although I’m a huge fantasy fan, I don’t pick up science fiction often enough—but this book instantly caught my attention and jumped to the top of my TBR when I heard about it. THE TRAVELER is a speculative novel that follows a man who inexplicably begins traveling forward in time at an exponential rate—at first he jumps forward 24 hours, then 48 hours, then 4 days, then 8 days, and so on. As days, weeks, and years pass him by, his then-seven-year old son, who will soon surpass his age, promises to save his father and bring him back, dedicating his life to becoming a scholar of quantum physics. There’s adventure, hope, and heartbreak wrapped in this tale of an extraordinary father-son dynamic that survives across millenia. If you liked The Martian, Interstellar, or The Time Traveler’s Wife (like me!), this will be right up your alley. Not to mention, this is a perfect book club book, and one that I’ll be making my own book club pick up!

HALLIE’S PICK: THE SUBTLE ART OF FOLDING SPACE BY JOHN CHU

I’ve decided to finally dive headfirst into sci-fi this year, and I couldn’t think of a better entry point than the Hugo and Nebula award winner John Chu. THE SUBTLE ART OF HOLDING SPACE, Chu’s full-length debut, feels like the perfect bridge for me because it captures that same wild, heartfelt energy of Everything Everywhere All at Once (a favorite of mine) mixed with Charles Yu’s HOW TO LIVE SAFELY IN A SCIENCE FICTIONAL UNIVERSE. As the universe falls apart, Ellie must confront her mother’s legacy and overcome her family’s generational trauma while trying to fix the bugs in the physics of this universe. It’s a story that beautifully weaves together family dynamics and quantum physics with a love of food and a dash of whimsy (and seriously, have you seen this cover?!).