THE LAST DAYS OF GOOD PEOPLE de A.T. Sayre

A bittersweet science fiction novel for fans of Becky Chambers and Ted Chiang’s Arrival that contemplates civilization, determinism, and friendship as a scientist is forced to decide whether to intervene and help a dying species.

THE LAST DAYS OF GOOD PEOPLE
by A.T. Sayre
JAB Books, February 2025
(via JABberwocky)

On a small corner of a doomed world, where the capricious laws of nature can’t be reversed, a civilization arrives at the end of its days.

Warin is one of a small team charting the demise of the last few inhabitants of Retti 4, a distant planet in the throes of an extinction-level virus. It’s not Warin’s job to intervene in natural evolution or to question the whims of a cruel universe. He is only to observe and report. Until Warin actually steps foot on Retti 4.

Not the primitive species Warin believed them to be, the rettys are an industrious and ethical lot working together in a close-knit farming village. Lacking the human traits of fear, suspicion, and aggression, they are welcoming, curious, and eager to share their traditions—even in the shadow of a tragedy that they, and Warin, are powerless to stop.

As they embrace Warin into their fold, his compassion grows. So does his own self-discovery. For Warin, far away from Earth, comes a deeper understanding of friendship, civilization, and the true meaning of humanity. And above all, the peace and profound strength it takes to accept the inevitable.

A.T. Sayre has been writing in some form or other ever since he was ten years old. From plays to poems, teleplays to comic books, he has tried his hand at pretty much every medium imaginable. His work has appeared in Analog Science Fiction and Fact, Haven Speculative, Aurealis, Andromeda Spaceways, and StarShipSofa. His first short story collection, Signals in The Static, was published in May 2024 by Lethe Press.

ALL THE LITTLE HOUSES de May Cobb

From the author of The Hunting Wives comes a deliciously wicked new thriller about mean girls, mean moms, and the delicious secrets inside all the little houses.

ALL THE LITTLE HOUSES
by May Cobb
Sourcebooks Landmark, January 2026

Adults can behave badly too…

It’s the mid-1980s in the tiny town of Longview, Texas. Nellie Anderson, the beautiful daughter of the Anderson family dynasty, has burst onto the scene. She always gets what she wants. What she can’t get for herself… well, that’s what her mother is for. Because Charleigh Andersen, blond, beautiful, and ruthlessly cunning, remembers all too well having to claw her way to the top. When she was coming of age on the poor side of East Texas, she was a loser, an outcast, humiliated, and shunned by the in-crowd, whose approval she’d so desperately thirsted for. When a prairie-kissed family moves to town, all trad wife, woodworking dad, wholesome daughter vibes, Charleigh’s entire self-made social empire threatens to crumble.

Who will be left standing when the dust settles?

May Cobb is the bestselling author of The Hunting Wives, a series currently available on Netflix, as well as The Hollywood Assistant, My Summer Darlings, A Likeable Woman, and Big Woods. Her books have received attention from Book of The Month, The Today Show, O, The Oprah Magazine, and more. She has an M.A. from San Francisco State University and her essays and interviews have appeared in The Washington Post, Good Housekeeping, Texas Highways, and more. She lives in Austin with her family.

LIFE IN PERSPECTIVE de Tiago Forte

A proven, powerful practice for reclaiming perspective on your life, your values, and your future—from the Wall Street Journal bestselling author of Building a Second Brain and The PARA Method.

LIFE IN PERSPECTIVE:
The Art and Power of the Annual Review
by Tiago Forte
Simon & Schuster, November 2026
(via Writers House)

In our age of hyperconnectivity and information overload, something has become scarce: the ability to make sense of it all—to step back far enough to see the shape of your own life. You can feel it in ways large and small: achieving a goal but not being able to pause long enough to appreciate it. Watching the weeks and months pass in a blur without a sense of the bigger “why.” Making decisions that look right on paper but somehow feel wrong at a deeper level. How do we regain our sense of perspective on what matters?

In LIFE IN PERSPECTIVE, Wall Street Journal bestselling author Tiago Forte distills the ancient practice of the annual life review into a modern, step-by-step method—drawing on nearly twenty years of personal practice and the experience of teaching it to thousands of people worldwide. At its heart is the ARC Method, a three-stage process for Appreciating the Past, Reflecting on the Present, and Creating the Future. Through guided journaling, gratitude practices, visualization exercises, and other science-backed techniques—along with practical guidance on using technology as a tool for self-reflection—the book shows you how to transform what feels like a random string of experiences into a coherent story of growth, gain clarity on what you truly want rather than what you think you should want, and translate what you discover into concrete projects and plans for the year ahead. The past and present, Forte argues, are full of information—but they don’t communicate through analysis alone. They speak through what captures your attention, what moves you, what your body knows before your mind catches up.

Whether you turn to it as a yearly ritual or a trusted guide during pivotal moments, LIFE IN PERSPECTIVE is not a book about doing more. It is a book about seeing more clearly—and discovering that the biggest changes in life often begin not with a new plan, but with a new point of view.

Tiago Forte is the Wall Street Journal bestselling author of Building a Second Brain, The PARA Method, and Life in Perspective. His books have sold more than 500,000 copies worldwide and been published in more than twenty-five languages. He is the creator of the Building a Second Brain methodology, which has been adopted by readers around the world and inside organizations including Genentech, Toyota Motor Corporation, and the Inter-American Development Bank. His work has been featured in The New York Times, Harvard Business Review, Fast Company, and Time, among others. He lives in Valle de Bravo, Mexico, with his wife and children. Find out more at ForteLabs.com.

EVERY STORY IS A LOVE STORY de Imbolo Mbue

Imbolo Mbue’s long awaited epic new novel, about loss, sorrow, forgiveness, redemption and surviving unspeakable tragedy.

EVERY STORY IS A LOVE STORY
by Imbolo Mbue
Random House, Fall 2026
(via Writers House)

Credit: Kiriko Sano

Three years ago, Wolo’s pregnant wife was killed in a tragic car accident. In an instant, his great love was gone, and so was their shining future: the twins they were expecting, the PhD she was on the cusp of finishing, and all the plans they’ve had for a long, happy life. At times the loss seemed insurmountable, but with the help from his tight knit family Wolo has slowly rebuilt a semblance of a life, he goes to work, hangs out with a small circle of friends, and fends off the matchmaking efforts of the older women in his family. His sorrow never leaves him and neither does the anger towards Victoria, the woman who was behind the wheel that terrible day. His wife was not just the love of his life, she became the daughter his mother never had, beloved cousin to all members of his family, her loss has left them all devastated and angry.

Then one day a letter arrives, unbidden, threatening to upend his life once again. It is from Victoria. Wolo’s pastor tells him the letter is the work of the devil; his mother expressly forbids him from even reading it; his whole family is against it. But Wolo does read it and agrees to meet with the person who killed his wife. When he does, the compassion and deep remorse of the woman he meets surprises him. He is not the only person whose life was shattered by the accident and he begins to wonder if forgiving Victoria is the only road to healing for them both.

Moving, empathetic, insightful and compassionate EVERY STORY IS A LOVE STORY charts the uneven path from heartbreak to hope; from standing up to one’s own family and following one’s own path, to love lost and love found.

Imbolo Mbue is the author of the New York Times bestseller Behold the Dreamers, which won the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction and was an Oprah’s Book Club selection. Her second novel, How Beautiful We Were, about a fictional African village’s fight against an American oil company, was named by the New York Times as “One of the 10 Best Books” of 2021.

SHAZAM de Chris Barton

Written by the co-founder and first CEO of Shazam, the music identification app, this is the inside story of how an “impossible” idea became a global phenomenon. Moneyball meets Grit, this is a story of inspiration and perseverance that we think will have wide appeal.

SHAZAM: The Quest to Bring an Impossible Idea to Life
by Chris Barton
St. Martin’s Press, Winter 2028

Today, Shazam is one of the most iconic and widely used apps in the world, with a brand name so recognizable that it has become a verb. But what few people know is that it was invented before smartphones existed. Chris dreamed up Shazam in 1999, when people were still buying CDs and carrying around portable CD players with wired headsets. There was no Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and certainly no App Store. The closest thing to streaming music was the illegal sharing of digital files on platforms like Napster. There was no Facebook, Instagram, or even Myspace. Chris’s idea, that anyone, anywhere, could use their phone to identify a song playing in the background, sounded like science fiction. More than 100 experts told him it couldn’t be done, but Chris refused to give up. Instead, he assembled a dream team of brilliant minds—engineers, scientists, and business thinkers—who shared his vision (after some persuasion). United by a shared sense of purpose and determination, they set out to build the impossible from scratch. Together, they would develop the technology that would power the world’s first AI-driven consumer tool, years before anyone had even heard the word “app.” What followed was an eighteen-year odyssey marked by near-bankruptcy, groundbreaking innovation, sabotage, fierce competition with behemoths like Google and Sony, and bitter internal battles among team members. Through every setback and betrayal, Chris never gave up on his vision, and he continued to fight to keep Shazam on course. In the end, the idea that no one thought could work became a global phenomenon. This is more than a tech success story. It’s a deeply human, often emotional narrative about vision, grit, and the power of believing in the impossible.

This story will appeal to music lovers, business book readers, or anyone who likes a narrative about overcoming odds and finding success.

Chris Barton is the original co-founder and first CEO of Shazam, which he conceived the idea of as an MBA student at U.C. Berkeley. He was also a founding member of Google’s mobile partnerships team and later joined Dropbox as one of its first 100 employees. Barton has an active speaking platform, delivering keynote speeches to audiences all around the world.