We’ve got a lot of reading to do in 2022!
There are so many exciting books coming out in 2022 that I don’t know how I’ll find time to read them all. I should really just plunk myself down on the couch on January 1 and read straight through until 2023 (it sounds lovely, doesn’t it? But, we all know by now…moms don’t have that much time to read books!).
I’ve already compiled my reading list for 2022, filled with the books I intend on tearing through as soon as they’re out. The books I’m most excited about are by authors I adore, all of whom have been or will be on my podcast, Moms Don’t Have Time to Read Books, with new books coming out.
And if you’re looking for some great bookstores to buy them in, check out my #22in22 initiative from Zibby Books, which encourages readers to visit bookstores in person 22 times in 2022. We have a lot of our to-do lists already. Let’s get going.
Must-Read New Books Coming Out In 2022, According to Zibby Owens
Must-Read Books Coming Out In January
1/4: Laura Lippman, Seasonal Work: Stories
Bestselling author Laura Lippman’s latest book is a collection of stories using the psychological suspense she employs in her books like Dream Girl and Lady in the Lake.
1/4: Jen Mann, Midlife Bites: Anyone Else Falling Apart, Or Is It Just Me?
Jen Mann is leading the movement to just be honest. Middle age is hard. Full stop. Even when life seems perfect, midlife raises all sorts of existential questions. Mann is open about all the indignities of midlife in a way that makes the rest of us feel less alone.
Beloved writing teacher and bestselling author of memoir Five Men Who Broke My Heart and many others, Susan Shapiro spills all in this guidebook to getting published by a traditional house.
1/11: Jami Attenberg, I Came All This Way To Meet You: Writing Myself Home
A memoir from New York Times bestselling author Jami Attenberg takes us into her creative life in a funny memoir about a life spent on the road.
1/11: Alafair Burke, Find Me
Internationally bestselling author of 18 books, Alafair Burke returns with a chilling tale about a woman who has forgotten everything and rebuilt her life, and what happens when she and her best friend uncover something that was supposed to remain hidden.
1/11: Julia Cameron, Seeking Wisdom: A Spiritual Path to Creative Connecting
Remember The Artist’s Way, that iconic book helping us all find our creative powers and the power of morning pages? Well, Julia Cameron is now searching for wisdom in her latest book in the power of creative prayer.
1/11: Hanya Yanagihara, To Paradise
How to top A Little Life? This historical novel rethinks life in 1893 where New York is part of the Free States. In 1993, the AIDS crisis looms larger for another couple. And in 2093, a scientist wrestles with his granddaughter’s issues. At its heart, the novel is about the drive to protect those we love when we can not.
1/15: Claire Messud, A Dream Life
The author of The Emperor’s Children writes a slim novel about an ex-pat family in Australia via New York, where lies and self-deception mix.
1/18: Lisa Gardner, One Step Too Far
No. 1 bestselling author Lisa Gardner takes us to Wyoming in a search of a missing person, but then the search team gets threats themselves. Another Frankie Elkin novel and follow-up to the memorable middle-aged detective thriller Before She Disappeared, One Step Too Far will haunt you.
1/18: Colleen Hoover, Reminders of Him
No. 1 bestselling author and BookTok sensation Colleen Hoover spins a tale about a mother who has just served her five-year prison term and is estranged from her daughter and thrown into the arms of a local bartender.
1/18: Jacquelyn Mitchard, The Good Son
No. 1 bestselling author of The Deep End of the Ocean, an Oprah’s Book Club pick from 1996, Jacquelyn Mitchard returns with an “emotionally gripping” novel about a mother who has to help her son after he has been convicted of a crime.
Must-Read Books Coming Out In February
2/1: Jayne Allen, Black Girls Must Be Magic
In the quick follow-up to Jayne Allen’s debut novel, Black Girls Must Die Exhausted, Tabitha Walker is back — and pregnant. Becoming a “single mother by choice,” Tabitha manages her network job while prepping for a baby until her ex shows up. Will her “village” of girlfriends and her grandmother’s friends provide enough support?
2/1: Brenda Janowitz, The Liz Taylor Ring
A jet-setting couple in 1978 loses their 11-carat diamond engagement ring, which only reappears after they’ve passed away and their three kids are tasked with determining the meaning — and what their parents’ life was really like. Author of The Grace Kelly Dress, a beautiful historical novel, Brenda Janowitz is a master at the family drama.
2/15: Allison Pataki, The Magnificent Lives of Marjorie Post
Bestselling and prolific author Allison Pataki has taken a larger-than-life character — American royalty, if you will — and condensed her life into a gorgeously-written story. Marjorie, the heir to the Post Cereal fortune, had many successes but was unlucky in love, marrying four times. This will be quite the Valentine’s Day read!
This business book from a trio of dynamos helps any small business owners with tricks of the trade and how to avoid common pitfalls with case studies and reflections on entrepreneurship.
2/22: Erica Katz, Fake
Author of The Boys’ Club, Erica Katz writes about a professional art forger whose commission from one wealthy man unravels in a sea of opulence and mystery.
2/22: Kelly McWilliams, Mirror Girls
Biracial twins get separated at birth in this thriller about race, loyalty, ghosts, and family. One twin is a Black organizer in Harlem while the other passes as white and is an heiress on a plantation. When they reunite, ghosts dance between them while one of their reflections vanishes from the mirror thanks to an old curse. Kelly McWilliams is biracial herself and is the daughter of beloved, bestselling author Jewell Parker Rhodes.
2/22: Ben Mezrich, The Midnight Ride
I love how Ben Mezrich writes: a mix of observational humor, cinematic descriptions, and detailed investigation. His bestselling books, like Bringing Down The House and The Antisocial Network, set the stage for his latest commercial thriller about a woman who finds a dead body when hiding from card sharks, the ex-convict who turned a new leaf and was supposed to meet the deceased, and a professor uncovering a mystery about the Revolutionary War.
2/22: Stephanie Wrobel, This Might Hurt
Stephanie Wrobel’s debut novel Darling Rose Gold was a smashing success. Now she’s back with a fictitious community called Wisewood, in which stays are mandatory for six months and all sorts of antics ensue.
Must-Read Books Coming Out In March
Sex. Art. Passion. Intrigue. The author of The Unbreakables pins a twisty tale about a lost artwork and the quest to recover it.
3/1: Jennifer Haupt, Come as You Are
Think Kurt Cobain, grunge, the 90s. A couple is thrown together after a tragedy strikes and must find their way through in this story from the author of In the Shadow of 10,000 Hills and Alone Together.
No. 1 bestselling author Sabaa Tahir has a new YA book coming out that takes place in Pakistan and California and touches on an arranged marriage, a fractured friendship, secrets, and one big fight.
3/1: Rosie Walsh, The Love of My Life
The author of Ghosted writes about a mother and wife who has lied about everything about herself. The truth only starts to emerge when she becomes seriously ill. And then what?
3/8: Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen, The Golden Couple
The No. 1 bestselling author duo tackles infidelity in couples therapy and the insidious way the therapist becomes involved.
3/8: Ladee Hubbard, The Last Suspicious Holdout: Stories
Ladee Hubbard wrote so vividly in The Rib King that I can still place myself in her story just thinking about it. She brings that same immediacy to these stories about the everyday life of Black America from the ‘80s to the Obama era.
3/15: Elena Ferrante, In the Margins: On the Pleasures of Reading and Writing
No one knows exactly who Italian novelist “Elena Ferrante” is, but that doesn’t stop us from loving her work. Author of seven novels, which include four New York Times bestsellers, Naples-based Ferrante turns to non-fiction in these four illuminating essays.
3/22: Emmanuel Acho, Saying Yes to a Life Without Limits
Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man was one of the most powerful reads of the past few years, written by the Emmy-winning sports commentator. In his second book, Emmanuel Acho writes about how everything he has achieved is actually illogical.
3/29: Kristy Woodson Harvey, The Wedding Veil
A woman panics on her wedding day and escapes to the Virgin Islands. Meanwhile, her grandmother mourns the loss of her husband and moves into a retirement community where she takes up with someone new. Also, back in 1914, a Vanderbilt socialite must contend with dwindling resources and trying to save the family fortune for her daughter. Bestselling author Kristy Woodson Harvey will undoubtedly knock this out of the park.
3/29: Lisa Scottoline, What Happened to the Bennetts
In this book by a No. 1 bestselling author, a dad drives his daughter to a lacrosse game. Everything changes. Suddenly this “normal” family is caught in a drug operation and has to go into the witness protection program, where they slowly descend into a familiar madness until the dad takes things into his own hands.
3/29: Kathleen West, Home or Away
Two former Olympic hopefuls and mothers pass their baggage to the next generation in this new look at the overly-competitive parenting culture in youth sports by the author of Are We There Yet? and Minor Dramas & Other Catastrophes.
Must-Read Books Coming Out In April
4/5: Rachel Barenbaum, Atomic Anna
Three generations of women have to work together to stop the Chernobyl disaster in this epic tale by the author of A Bend in the Stars, both of which show that science is for women.
4/5: Chelsea Bieker, Heartbroke
The author of Godshot writes about California’s Central Valley, where one woman steals a baby, a phone sex operator sees divine opportunity with a caller, two teenager girls play dangerous games online, and a mother and son duo sell dreamcatchers along the highway.
4/5: Lian Dolan, Lost and Found in Paris
An escapist adventure read to France, this novel about a woman in the art world whose father perished on 9/11 follows what happens when her spouse reveals his secret children. Her subsequent random rebound relationship isn’t quite as random as it seems.
4/5: Jane Green, Sister Stardust
Jane Green, a goddess of an author with her swath of pink (OK, now gray) hair, has a new book set in 1960s London and Marrakesh about an oil heiress, drugs, and communal living.
4/12: Leigh Newman, Nobody Gets Out Alive
Leigh Newman, the author of the brilliant memoir Still Points North and co-founder of Zibby Books, wrote a searingly beautiful collection of short stories about women navigating the male-dominated landscape of Alaska, where Newman is from. Sometimes the fiercest predators in the wild don’t exist only in the woods, but also in the bedroom.
4/12: Mary Laura Philpott, Bomb Shelter: Love, Time, and Other Explosives
Nashville-based Mary Laura Philpott wrote a collection of essays, I Miss You When I Blink, that are all utterly fabulous. In Bomb Shelter, she tackles her son’s illness and tries to make sense of fearing the worst while trying to remain in the present.
4/12: Delia Ephron, Left on Tenth: A Second Chance at Life: A Memoir
Overcoming the loss of her internationally beloved sister and her husband, Delia Ephron wrote an op-ed that reconnected her with an old flame. Four months later she was diagnosed with leukemia. She takes us through her extreme highs and lows as she navigates new love and near-death reality.
4/26: Janelle Brown, I’ll Be You
Identical twins rarely apart thought they knew each other until one disappears years later and the other is left to pick up the pieces and figure out who they both really are.
4/26: Jenny Mollen, City of Likes
The debut novel from bestselling author Jenny Mollen tackles an unemployed copywriter in her 30s who meets an Instagram mom-fluencer. But is life really as perfect as it seems?
4/26: Adriana Trigiani, The Good Left Undone
Three Italian women’s legacies intertwine in a family who experiences grief and loss over the course of 100-plus years in Adriana Trigiani’s sweeping tale from World War II on.
Must-Read Books Coming Out In May
No. 1 bestselling author of Beach Read and People We Meet on Vacation returns next summer with Book Lovers, about a literary agent who heads home with her sister to North Carolina and confronts a brooding editor from the literary world.
5/3: Courtney Maum, The Year of the Horses: A Memoir
Author of Touch and Costalegre, Courtney Maum writes honestly and openly about confronting depression in her 30s and, when all else failed, taking up horseback riding again.
5/5: Judy Goldman, Child: A Memoir
Judy, a three-year-old Jewish girl in South Carolina, meets Mattie Culp, an African American who becomes her live-in maid and caregiver, leaving her own child, Minnie, with her extended family. Judy, now 80, reflects on that time in 1944 and the relationships that truly shaped her.
5/10: Chris Bohjalian, The Lioness
The bestselling author of Midwives and The Flight Attendant writes about a Hollywood starlet whose African safari goes amiss in Tanzania. Fame, race, love, and death collide in this thrilling read.
5/10: Jennifer Weiner, The Summer Place
No. 1 bestselling author Jennifer Weiner writes in her characteristic style about families and relationships, this time about a young woman newly engaged and her family’s response to the short engagement, going back to her mother who abandoned her at an early age. Set in Cape Cod during the pandemic, this novel will be immersive and poignant.
5/17: Natalie Jenner, Bloomsbury Girls
Three female bookstore employees take on their male manager in post-war London in this enticing tale by the internationally best-selling author of The Jane Austen Society.
5/24: Akwaeke Emezi, You Made a Fool of Death With Your Beauty
National Book Award finalist Akwaeke Emezi writes about a widow five years after losing the love of her life. Once she finds a new love and travels to the tropics, new people set off temptations that make her question all.
5/31: Emily Giffin, Meant to Be
The No. 1 bestselling author of Something Borrowed and many other bestsellers writes about a Kennedy-esque family and the woman, Cate, who crosses their path when she gets to know Joe, the scion. Can love transcend all?
5/31: Jean Hanff Korelitz, The Latecomer
The Plot was one of 2021’s best books. Jean Hanff Korelitz’s follow-up is about a set of triplets and what happens when a fourth appears thanks to a frozen embryo from long ago.
Must-Read Books Coming Out In June
6/14: Ali Brady, The Beach Trap
Two camp BFFs find out they’re really half-sisters in a Parent Trap-esque summer novel. It seems great until, 15 years later, their father’s home is up for grabs.
6/14: Marcy Dermansky, Hurricane Girl
A woman settles on a beach town to restart her life when a hurricane destroys everything. She debates staying with an abusive cameraman, a doctor, or even her mother. A swimming pool plays a large role, as it did in Marcy Dermansky’s first book, Very Nice.
6/21: Jamie Brenner, Gilt
From Fifth Avenue to Provincetown, Gilt follows three women in the Pavlin family as one jewel bifurcates them and those remaining have to face the mistakes of the past.
6/21: Julie Clark, The Lies I Tell
The author of The Last Flight writes a domestic suspense story about two women who make us all reconsider what is really real.
6/21: Caitlin Macy, A Blind Corner
The author of Mrs. roars back with a collection of essays confronting niceness, morality, privilege, and class.
Must-Read Books Coming Out In July
7/1: Zibby Owens, Bookends: A Memoir of Love, Loss and Literature
OK. Shameless plug for my own upcoming memoir: Bookends is about the many losses I’ve experienced, starting with the terrorist murder of my best friend on 9/11, and how over the past 20 years and four kids, my life has been shaped by the many who have left, mostly in traumatic ways…and the books I’ve turned to along the way. It also tracks my own family history and shows why I’ve made books my life’s work. Finally, I share what it was like falling in love again at 40 with someone whose mandate — everything in life “will just unfold organically” — ended up changing my life.
7/5: Andrea Buchanan, Five-Part Invention
This debut novel from the New York Times bestselling author is about the rippling effects of trauma — and if love is enough to offset it. A pianist suffers a nervous breakdown and her husband confiscates her piano, leading to an existential panic and questioning of how trauma settles in.
7/5: KJ Dell’Antonia, In Her Boots
KJ Dell’Antonia, the author of The Chicken Sisters, writes about a 40-something woman whose recent tragedy makes her return to her family farm. She decides not to own up to her recent writing success under a pseudonym and convinces her friend to pretend she’d written her book. Yet when her mom decides to sell the farm, perhaps the truth needs to come out.
From the author of Eliza Starts a Rumor comes a story about family obligation and loss. Esme, on her way to New York, reroutes back home to care for her aging father. But during one month in August, she gets to experience life in someone else’s shoes.
7/19: Denise Williams, The Sweetest Connection
A romance novella by author Denise Williams, The Sweetest Connection centers on an airport candy store worker and an airport customer service agent who come together to solve the mystery of a love letter found at the store.
Must-Read Books Coming Out This Summer (Release Dates TBD)
Corie Adjmi, The Marriage Box
A novel based on Corie Adjmi’s teen years, The Marriage Box follows one girl’s reluctant move away from her cheerleader lifestyle in New Orleans into a Brooklyn yeshiva.
Lindsey Palmer, Reservations for Six
The author of Otherwise Engaged enwraps us into the lives of three couples who always celebrate their birthdays together once a year. But when one of them turns 40 and wants a divorce, the group fractures in this intimate tale.
Must-Read Books Coming Out This Fall (Release Dates TBD)
Sandra Cisneros, Woman Without Shame
Legendary author Sandra Cisneros of The House on Mango Street fame is releasing her first new book of poetry in 35 years, which is sure to be a delight to her legions of fans around the world. It will be translated into Spanish by her longtime collaborator Liliana Valenzuela.
Alena Dillon, Eyes Turned Skyward
The author of the memoir My Body is a Big Fat Temple writes a dual timeline novel about a Woman Airforce Service Pilot during World War II and her daughter 60 years later.
Alli Frank and Asha Youmans, Never Meant to Meet You
In the follow-up novel to Tiny Imperfections, this author duo writes another fabulous story about family and relationships.
Sally Koslow, The Real Mrs. Tobias
A woman deals with both her mother-in-law and daughter-in-law in Sally Koslow’s witty family dramedy, the next novel after Another Side of Paradise.
Lynda Cohen Loigman, The Matchmaker’s Gift
The author of The Wartime Sisters returns with a dual timeline novel about a 1920s matchmaker on the Lower East Side and her granddaughter, a young divorce attorney whose inherited matchmaking gift doesn’t exactly help in her chosen profession.
Catherine Newman, We All Want Impossible Things
A “sleazy hospice friendship romance” about two lifelong friends, one of whom is dying, is Catherine Newman’s latest novel after her super useful guidebook, How to Be a Person.
Dani Shapiro, Signal Fires
I can’t wait for this. Dani Shapiro is one of my favorite authors of all time and now, after 15 years, she’s returning to fiction. Her novel takes place in three discreet times: December of 2000, 2010, and 2020, and follows characters in a small town confronting, well, life.
