Narrowing Down the Goodreads New and Upcoming Debut Novels List
Plus: Book Club Next Week (February 3)!
This week I took part in a fun author Q&A with River Journal, which is available here. I’m also excited to share that Open Bar just made the Short List in the Somerset Book Awards for Literary and Contemporary Fiction (more info here).
I recently finished reading Ripe by Sara Rose Etter, which we’ll be discussing at next week’s Book Club (details below). I’m always searching for good novels to read next, and I often find helpful suggestions via Goodreads. I look at what friends are reading, check out the “Readers also enjoyed” section of books I’ve liked a lot, and search through the Goodreads periodic lists of anticipated books.
This week the latest Goodreads novels list came out: 57 New & Upcoming Debut Novels to Discover This Season. But 57 books is a lot, and I know you don’t have time to look through 57 book descriptions. I don’t either, but I did anyway you so you don’t have to.
Below are three books from the list that caught my eye. I haven’t read any of these yet, so please don’t hold me responsible if they fail to live up to expectations. But I’m hopeful this list includes some great new books.
Just Watch Me by Lior Torenberg
Goodreads description: Fleabag meets Big Swiss in this bold debut about a charismatic misfit who livestreams her life for seven days and nights to raise money to save her comatose sister—a poignant and darkly funny exploration of grief, forgiveness, and redemption.
My take: This description had me at Fleabag, one of the best shows I’ve ever watched, and Big Swiss, a 2023 novel by Jen Beagin that I really enjoyed. How can a novel inspired by those two works not be good? It sounds timely and original, and I’m generally drawn to stories that are “darkly funny.”
Release date: January 20, 2026
A Beast Slinks Towards Beijing by Alice Evelyn Yang
Goodreads description: A dark, magical realist debut family saga that moves through the Japanese occupation of Manchuria, the Cultural Revolution, and the present day to explore the effects of intergenerational trauma, the legacy of colonialism, and the inescapability of fate.
My take: I’ve long been fascinated by this period of history, and the tragic legacy that continues to this day. I generally don’t read much magical realism, but I’m looking forward to checking out this novel. The cover shows a mythical jackalope. Is there a requirement that all magical realism books need to involve a creature that looks like a Bunny? I’m asking any magical realism expert out there to please let me know.
Release date: January 27, 2026
Like This, But Funnier by Hallie Cantor
Goodreads description: TV writer Caroline Neumann is thirty-four and mired in professional envy and self-hatred. Even Harry, her usually supportive therapist husband, thinks it’s time for her to press pause on her career ambitions and focus on getting pregnant, despite Caroline’s serious ambivalence about having children. When Caroline accidentally stumbles on Harry’s patient session notes and offhandedly mentions what she finds in a meeting with a producer, the momentum of Hollywood takes over. Before she knows it—and unbeknownst to Harry—Caroline finds herself pitching a TV show about the deepest, darkest secrets of her husband’s favorite patient, a woman known to Caroline only as the Teacher.
My take: Whenever I read a great novel, I’m always curious about the real life experiences that inspired the author to create the story. My novels Final Table and Open Bar are both drawn from many actual personal and professional events. Like This, But Funnier’s premise obviously involves improperly crossing a major line, but the idea that the most interesting fiction originates from true life occurrences definitely intrigues me, and I’m curious to see how this novel plays out. Throw in an Amy Schumer endorsement on the cover and a clever title, and I’m certainly putting this on my TBR list.
Release date: April 7, 2026
Quote of the Week
“The only thing that would ever embarrass me would be something I would write that would be badly written.” - Gloria Vanderbilt
Next Book Club Selection
Our next Book Club will be via Zoom on Tuesday, February 3 at 8pm ET, when we’ll discuss Ripe by sarah rose etter. Registration is open here.
I just finished this novel and thought it was one of the best books I’ve read recently. It may not be for everyone, though. I’m really curious to see what others think of it. There’s definitely a lot to talk about. Here’s the Goodreads description:
A year into her dream job at a cutthroat Silicon Valley startup, Cassie finds herself trapped in a corporate nightmare. In addition to the long hours, toxic bosses, and unethical projects, she struggles to reconcile the glittering promise of a city where obscene wealth lives alongside abject poverty. Ivy League grads complain about the snack selection from a conference room with a view of unhoused people bathing in the bay. Startup burnouts leap into the paths of commuter trains, and men set themselves on fire in the streets.
Though isolated, Cassie is never alone. From her earliest memory, a miniature black hole has been her constant companion. It feeds on her depression and anxiety, its size changing in relation to her distress. The black hole watches, but it also waits. Its relentless pull draws Cassie ever-closer as the world around her unravels.
When her CEO’s demands cross an illegal threshold and she ends up unexpectedly pregnant, Cassie must decide whether the tempting fruits of Silicon Valley are really worth it. Sharp but vulnerable, funny yet unsettling, Ripe portrays one millennial woman’s journey through a late-capitalist hellscape and offers an incisive look at the absurdities of modern life.
Feel free to attend even if you don’t read the book, and please pass on the info to anyone else who might be interesting in joining!
Open Bar Info
My second novel Open Bar is published by SparkPress and distributed by Simon & Schuster. Based on my experience as a New York sex crimes prosecutor and a sexual misconduct investigator for educational institutions, Open Bar follows the chaotic fallout when a high-profile sexual misconduct scandal rocks a prominent university.
You can find more information and links to order here and here. Kirkus Reviews calls Open Bar “A timely and absorbing novel that asks what it costs to tell the truth” and says, “Schorr’s prose is clean, fast-moving, and often laced with dark humor” (full review here). The American Fiction Awards named Open Bar as this year’s Winner in the Thriller: Political category, and the Firebird Book Awards selected Open Bar as its Fiction Winner.
You can also listen to the first chapter of the Open Bar audiobook, narrated by Moniqua Plante.
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