The Post regularly compiles the best books released in the past month. In the meantime, take a look at our favorite titles released in the last year.
This week’s best new books
The Ministry of Time
Kaliane Bradley (Avid Reader Press)
This spy romance thriller comedy is already set to be a six-part BBC series from top indie entertainment company A24. In the near future, a millennial civil servant takes on a new job that has her helping with a government time travel experiment — and falling in love with a Victorian explorer who initially died in 1845.
Think Twice
Harlan Coben (Grand Central Publishing)
The latest Myron Bolitar novel finds the temperamental-but-lovable sports agent investigating a longtime client — a star basketball coach-turned-murder suspect who may have faked his own death.
Wives Like Us
Plum Sykes (Harper)
The “Bergdorf Blondes” author sets her shrewd eyes on the wealthy set in the English countryside. An American divorcee, three wealthy wives and two tycoons mix and mingle in a sprawling Cotswold estate.
Good Energy: The Surprising Connection Between Metabolism and Limitless Health
Casey Means (Avery)
Means, a medical doctor and the co-founder of the buzzy glucose-monitoring service Levels, posits that metabolic health is the key to feeling better and preventing disease.
The End of Everything: How Wars Descend into Annihilation
Victor David Hanson (Basic Books)
The bestselling military historian and author of “The Case for Trump” looks at conquests through the ages — from Thebes to Tenochtitlán —that have ended in utter obliteration.
Very Bad Company: A Novel
Emma Rosenblum
In this satire of corporate culture from the bestselling author of “Bad Summer People,” a group of employees from a buzzy startup head to Miami for a fancy retreat. But, after the first night, a high-level executive vanishes, and everyone scrambles to pretend it’s all OK.
Best new book releases from last week
Five Broken Blades
Mai Corland (Red Tower Books)
This epic fantasy is expected to be another blockbuster for the publisher behind Rebecca Yarros’s hit “Empyrean” series. The first book in a trilogy, it’s inspired by Korean legend and told from the point of view of six different characters — five of them are assassins all trying to kill the same king.
24th Hour: Is This the End?
James Patterson and Maxine Paetro (Little, Brown and Company)
The latest “Women’s Murder Club” installment finds San Francisco police sergeant Lindsay Boxer and Co. investigating the murder of a prominent billionaire couple.
Shanghailanders: A Novel
Juli Min (Spiegel & Grau)
This debut starts in 2040 and works backwards to 2014 to tell the story of a sophisticated Chinese family headed by a wealthy Shanghai businessman and an elegant Japanese-French woman.
Chop Fry Watch Learn: Fu Pei-mei and the Making of Modern Chinese Food
Michelle T. King (W. W. Norton & Company)
Fu has been called “the Julia Child of Chinese food.” King traces her transformation from a Taiwanese housewife with only basic kitchen skills to global celebrity chef, whom many credit with bringing Chinese food to America.
Clive Cussler: The Heist
Jack Du Brul (G.P. Putnam’s Sons)
The 14th Isaac Bell adventure book is set in 1914, as Detective Bell investigates the link between an attack on Woodrow Wilson’s yacht, a dead heiress in Newport and a plan to steal billions from the Federal Reserve.
I Will Show You How It Was: The Story of Wartime Kyiv
Illia Ponomarenko (Bloomsbury)
Ponomarenko, a reporter for the Kviv Independent, was on the front lines when Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. He gives a personal account of the attacks and how Ukrainians united to fight back.
Best book releases from the week of April 21st
Real Americans: A novel
Rachel Khong (Knopf)
This social novel from the author of “Goodbye, Vitamin” examines social mobility. In the late 90s in New York City, Lily, a broke intern from Tampa, falls in love with Matthew, the East Coast heir to a pharmaceutical fortune. Years later, Lily is a single mom to a teenage son who starts asking questions about his father.
The New Menopause: Navigating Your Path Through Hormonal Change with Purpose, Power, and Facts
Mary Claire Haver (Rodale Books)
Haver, an OB/GYN and the author of “The Galveston Diet,” looks to empower middle-aged women with information for coping with hormonal changes.
The Demon of Unrest: A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War
Erik Larson (Crown)
The bestselling author of “The Splendid and the Vile” sheds a light on November 1860 to April 1861 — the months between Abraham Lincoln being elected and the start of the Civil War.
Did I Ever Tell You? A Memoir
Genevieve Kingston (Simon & Schuster)
When Kingston’s mother passed away from cancer when she was 11, she left her daughter gifts and letters for each milestone. But mom also left behind less heartwarming archives, namely unfiltered confessionals on video and a contact for her longtime therapist.
The Swans of Harlem: Five Black Ballerinas, Fifty Years of Sisterhood, and Their Reclamation of a Groundbreaking History
Karen Valby (Pantheon)
Before there was Misty Copeland, there was Lydia Abarca. At the height of the civil rights movement, she was a founding member of Dance Theater of Harlem, the first black woman to appear on the cover of Dance magazine and the first black prima ballerina for a major company.
ADHD is Awesome: A Guide To (Mostly) Thriving With ADHD
Penn and Kim Holderness (Harper Horizon)
The content creators and “Amazing Race” winners bring a new perspective on living with ADHD, born out of personal experience: Penn was diagnosed with the disorder in college. “Having ADHD doesn’t mean you can’t reach the top of your field,” they write. “The path you take to get there might not be the typical one — it will probably be a lot more interesting.”
Best book releases from the week of April 14th
Funny Story
Emily Henry (Berkley)
The rom-com master’s new book finds a woman named Daphne moving to a small Michigan town after being left by her fiance for another woman. She ends up meeting that woman’s ex, and they concoct a plan to make it seem like they’re having the best summer ever.
Extinction: A Novel
Douglas Preston (Forge Books)
The latest thriller from the bestselling author is drawing comparisons to Michael Crichton’s “Jurassic Park.” A massive resort in the Colorado mountains lets guests see woolly mammoths, giant sloths and other extinct creatures brought back to life. But then people start turning up dead. Authorities initially blame eco-terrorists, but a deeper, darker force may be to blame.
The Algebra of Wealth: A Simple Formula for Financial Security
Scott Galloway (Portfolio)
It’s not your father’s money book. The New York University Stern School of Business professor lays out a plan for personal finances in our age of inflation, climate change, labor shortages, housing challenges and retirement uncertainty.
Briefly Perfectly Human: Making an Authentic Life by Getting Real About the End
Alua Arthur (Mariner Books)
Arthur, one of the country’s foremost death doulas, reveals what she has learned caring for people in their final moments as they share secrets and regrets.
Shakespeare: The Man Who Pays the Rent
Judi Dench and Brendan O’Hea (St. Martin’s Press)
The 89-year-old acting legend dishes on every Shakespeare role she has played, from Lady MacBeth to Ophelia.
The Rulebreaker: The Life and Times of Barbara Walters
Susan Page (Simon & Schuster)
This look at the legacy of the late, groundbreaking journalist, who passed away in 2022, relies on some 150 interviews to paint a broad, nuanced view of Walters, her ambitions, accomplishments and shortcomings.
Best book releases from the week of April 7th
The Beach Boys
The Beach Boys (Genesis Publications)
The first and only autobiography of the iconic surf rock band tells of how the group went from the Wilsons’ California garage to international stardom. Never-before-scene photos and ephemera, along with recollections from everyone from Elvis Costello and Eric Clapton to Def Leppard and the Flaming Lips, add to the fun.
Just for the Summer
Abby Jimenez (Forever)
The bestselling romance author’s latest focuses on a seasonal fling that might be something more. Justin is notoriously cursed: After he breaks up with a girl, she finds her soulmate. But then he meets a traveling nurse named Emma.
The Wide Wide Sea: Imperial Ambition, First Contact and the Fateful Final Voyage of Captain James Cook
Hampton Sides (Doubleday)
The award-winning author of “Ghost Soldiers” delves into the great British explorer’s last journey — which ended with his being killed by natives on Hawaii — his larger legacy and the Age of Exploration.
Toxic Prey
John Sandford (G.P. Putnam’s Sons)
The latest “Prey” novel finds Letty and Lucas Davenport looking for a polarizing infectious disease doctor who has disappeared suddenly. Butter: A Novel of Food and Murder Asako Yuzuki This cult Japanese bestseller has recently been translated to English. It uses a real-life case — a gourmand femme fatale poisoned three of her boyfriends — to explore ideas around beauty standards and appetites.
Butter: A Novel of Food and Murder
Asako Yuzuki
This cult Japanese bestseller has recently been translated to English. It uses a real-life case — a gourmand femme fatale poisoned three of her boyfriends — to explore ideas around beauty standards and appetites.
Uncaged Summer
Colet Abedi (Post Hill Press)
Reeling from the end of a 13-year marriage to her high school sweetheart, a 30-something Los Angeles woman embarks on a summer of couch surfing and amusing first dates. Her traditional Persian American family wants her to find someone new to settle down with, but first she must find herself.