7 Books We Can’t Wait to Read in November

An abandoned restaurant on a hill off the highway in Western Massachusetts doesn't look like much. But to Rio, a young Black woman mourning the loss of her newborn child, it becomes more than a safe haven. She convinces her husband to help her construct a society underground, somewhere everyone can feel loved, wanted and accepted. After she locates a benefactor, their utopia begins to take shape, becoming a home to everyone from a young and disillusioned journalist to a former soccer player who’s lost his footing in society. But no matter how much these people yearn for meaning and a sanctuary, what happens if this new society can't actually work. For readers of Paul Beatty’s The Sellout and Jennifer Egan’s The Candy House, Bump’s (Everywhere You Don’t Belong) exciting new novel is about the search for love and connection in the 21st century.

A group of friends plot a daring heist to save the world from the tech giants whose greed threatens life as we know it in the latest from the bestselling, award-winning author of The Power. When Martha Einkorn fled her father’s isolated compound in Oregon, she never expected to find herself working for a powerful social media mogul hell-bent on controlling everything. But even though Martha left her father’s cult-ish compound, his apocalyptic warnings are starting to come true. Across the world, in a mall in Singapore, Zhen, an internet-famous survivalist, flees from an assassin. She’s cornered and desperate when a remarkable piece of software appears on her phone telling her exactly how to escape. Who made it? What is it really for? Martha and Zhen’s worlds are about to collide, and an explosive chain of events is set in motion. By turns thrilling, funny and tender, The Future highlights how power corrupts the few who have it and what it means to stand up to them.

It’s 1868 in Texas Hill Country when Benjamin Shreve, a 19-year-old tradesman, witnesses a stagecoach strand a passenger. When the stranded man, a treasure hunter, persuades Benjamin to help track down the vanished coach—and what he left aboard—Benjamin is drawn into drama he could never have imagined when he discovers that the coach’s passengers include Nell, a pregnant young woman, and her 4-year-old son, who are fleeing Nell’s brutal husband and his murderous brothers. Benjamin offers to deliver Nell and her son to the Gulf of Mexico, but on their journey, more dangerous as buried secrets, including a cursed necklace, emerge. Told in Benjamin’s voice, Texas-based author Crook’s (The Which Way Tree) latest novel is a thrilling story of three people sharing a hazardous and defining journey that will forever bind them together.

English writer Taylor’s debut is about two young women who embark on a surprising journey of self-discovery and modern love. Aisling and Maya’s connection is unexpected. Maya has recently returned to the University of Edinburgh, confident in her first real relationship. Aisling is a first-year student from Ireland, reeling from a break-up with her ex-girlfriend. She struggles to make friends until she joins the Poetry Society, where she meets Maya and everything changes. They grapple with their feelings separately, but even once Maya ends things with Ethan to pursue a relationship, Aisling must confront the abuse she's endured from her conservative Catholic mother. Throughout, Aisling and Maya’s connection exposes the fear, hope and longing of relationships, particularly when there’s so much you still don’t know about love, about life and about yourself.

Reproductive rights and women’s health reporter and editor Gina Rushton had little time to make the decision whether or not to have children. Her search for her own “yes” or “no” only uncovered more questions than it answered, so Rushton spoke to doctors, sociologists, economists and ethicists, along with parents and childless people of all ages and from around the world to attempt to figure out: How do we consider creating a new life on a planet facing catastrophic climate change? How do we reassess the gender roles we have been assigned at birth and by society? How do we balance ascending careers with declining fertility? In The Parenthood Dilemma, she explores policies, data and case studies to show how the process can be revelatory in discovering who we are and to start a dialogue about what we want from our lives and why.

At 26, life looked a certain way for travel writer Nikki Vargas. She’d settled in New York City, had landed in a promising advertising career and was newly engaged to her college sweetheart. Still, she couldn’t shake a deep underlying sense of imposter syndrome, so she bought a plane ticket. What starts out as a freelance travel writing assignment escalates into a whirlwind journey. Along the way, Vargas uncovers surprising truths about her family, comes face to face with a new love interest and more. Vargas’s candid memoir turns the familiar story of a woman going abroad to find herself into an exhilarating career path.

Hal Rubenstein is a longtime fashion director, consultant, media personality and author. His latest book is a gorgeously illustrated guide to the most influential fashion on television from the 1950s to today. Covering everything from Mary Tyler Moore's capri pants on The Dick van Dyke Show to Olivia Pope's trademark white trench on Scandal, this compendium highlights the ways TV’s most stylish shows have affected and often inspired ordinary Americans’ wardrobes. Illustrated with more than 175, full-color photographs, Dressing the Part shines spotlight on how we imitate and then adapt what we enjoy seeing on others.