18 Audiobooks to Pre-Order Before Spring

A chorus of extraordinary voices comes together to tell one of history’s great epics: the four-hundred-year journey of African Americans from 1619 to the present—edited by Ibram X. Kendi, author of How to Be an Antiracist, and Keisha N. Blain, author of Set the World on Fire.

A fresh cultural analysis of female monsters from Greek mythology, and an invitation for all women to reclaim these stories as inspiration for a more wild, more “monstrous” version of feminism.

For readers of Valeria Luiselli and Edwidge Danticat, this is an urgent and lyrical novel about a Colombian family fractured by deportation—offering an intimate perspective on an experience that so many have endured, and are enduring, right now.

From the celebrated author of the New York Times bestseller Behold the Dreamers comes a sweeping, wrenching story a small African village, an American oil company, and the real, human cost of environmental degradation.

Fragmentary and omniscient, incisive and sincere, No One Is Talking About This is at once a love letter to the endless scroll and a profound, modern meditation on love, language, and human connection from a singular voice in American literature.

This is the stunning and long-anticipated sequel to Sister Souljah’s million copy bestseller The Coldest Winter Ever. Find out what happens when Winter steps back into the spotlight to reclaim her throne.

Honey Girl is a timely and relatable debut novel about a young woman whose life plans fall apart when she meets her wife. When reality comes crashing in, Grace must face what she’s been running from all along—the fears that make us human, the family scars that need to heal and the longing for connection, especially when navigating the messiness of adulthood.

From the award-winning writer, who Roxane Gay calls “a consummate storyteller,” comes a cathartic novel about the life-changing weekend shared between two strangers and the love that forms between them. This Close to Okay is an uplifting, powerful story of two strangers brought together by wild chance at the moment they need it the most.

This stirring and powerful memoir from black cultural critic Rebecca Carroll recounts her painful struggle to overcome a completely white childhood in order to forge her identity as a Black woman in America. Intimate and illuminating, Surviving the White Gaze is a timely examination of racism and racial identity, and an extraordinarily moving portrait of resilience.

The bestselling author of the biographies Leonardo da Vinci and Steve Jobs returns with a gripping account of how Nobel Prize winner Jennifer Doudna and her colleagues launched a revolution that will allow us to cure diseases, fend off viruses, and have healthier babies.

From the Nobel laureate Kazuo Ishiguro—author of Never Let Me Go and the Booker Prize-winning The Remains of the Day—comes Klara and the Sun, a magnificent new novel that tells the story of an Artificial Friend.

A scathingly funny, erotic, and imaginative story about food, sex, and God from the acclaimed author of The Pisces and So Sad Today. Pairing superlative emotional insight with unabashed vivid fantasy, Broder tells a tale of appetites: physical hunger, sexual desire, spiritual longing, and the ways that we as humans can compartmentalize these so often interdependent instincts.

Kink is a groundbreaking anthology of literary short fiction exploring love and desire, BDSM, and interests across the sexual spectrum, edited by lauded writers R.O. Kwon and Garth Greenwell, and featuring a roster of all-star contributors including Alexander Chee, Roxane Gay, Carmen Maria Machado, and more.

For fans of Angie Thomas and Tommy Orange, debut author Angeline Boulley crafts a groundbreaking YA thriller about a Native teen who must root out the corruption in her community.

Healthy boundaries: we all know we should have them in order to achieve work/life balance, cope with toxic people, and enjoy rewarding relationships with partners, friends, and family. But what are “healthy boundaries,” and how can we successfully express our needs, say “no,” and be assertive without offending others?

The author of The Gravity of Us crafts another heartfelt coming-of-age story about finding the people who become your home. Perfect for fans of Becky Albertalli!

Check out our Author Interview with Phil Stamper.

From a star theoretical physicist, this is a journey into the world of particle physics and the cosmos, and a call for a more just practice of science. Dr. Chanda Prescod-Weinstein shares her love for physics—from the Standard Model of Particle Physics and what lies beyond it, to the physics of melanin in skin, to the latest theories of dark matter.

A deeply-reported examination of why “doing what you love” is a recipe for exploitation, creating a new tyranny of work in which we cheerily acquiesce to doing jobs that take over our lives. As Jaffe argues, understanding the trap of the labor of love will empower us to work less and demand what our work is worth.