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April 7, 2026

In this newsletter, you will find books releasing the weeks of April 6th and April 13th that we think will be of interest to Bookreporter.com readers, along with Bonus News, where we call out a contest, feature or review that we want to let you know about so you have it on your radar.

This week, we are calling attention to our Favorite Monthly Lists & Picks feature for April, which includes Indie Next, LibraryReads, the Barnes & Noble Book Club, the “Good Morning America” Book Club, the PBS Books Readers Club, the “Read with Jenna” Book Club, Reese's Book Club, and the Target Book Club.

April 7, 2026

Our latest Spring Reading newsletter spotlights Fredrik Backman's #1 New York Times bestseller, MY FRIENDS, which now has sold more than one million copies. This unforgettably funny, deeply moving novel is about four teenagers whose friendship creates a bond so powerful that it changes a complete stranger’s life 25 years later.

We are giving five readers the chance to win a copy of the book.

PLEASE NOTE: Typically our Spring Reading giveaways are open for just 24 hours, but we are extending the deadline of this contest to Thursday, April 9th at noon ET. That gives you an extra day to submit your entries!

Lily Brooks-Dalton, author of Ruins

Professor Ember Agni is a rising star in archaeology, trying to balance an unfulfilling career in academia and a crumbling marriage, all while pursuing her true passion: unearthing a lost empire that no one else believes existed. Just as she’s about to give up on the ambitious expedition she spent a decade trying to fund, a message arrives from overseas. A former student claims to have found something extraordinary --- an artifact that hints at the forgotten world lying beneath history’s tidy surface. With vindication finally within reach, Ember risks everything for the sake of discovery and undertakes an odyssey that will either make her name or ruin her. But as she journeys deep into an untouched wilderness, in dogged pursuit of a dead civilization, she collides with the wreckage of her own life.

Sue Aikens, author of North of Ordinary: How One Woman Left It All Behind for Wilderness and Wonder in Alaska's Frozen Frontier

In the raw, untamed wilds of Alaska, only a rare few figure out how to survive. Sue Aikens, the breakout star of National Geographic's long-running TV show “Life Below Zero,” is one of them. At her remote outpost 200 miles north of the Arctic Circle, she weathers more than just brutal winters and hungry bears. Sue battles isolation, injury and the ghosts of a turbulent past, forging a life in a place most people wouldn't last a day. Left to fend for herself as a child, Sue's fight to survive began long before she ever set foot in Alaska. In NORTH OF ORDINARY, she tells the unforgettable story of abandonment, grit and fierce independence --- from navigating deadly storms and surviving a horrific bear attack to learning how to build a life, a home and a sense of self where most would see only desolation.

Yann Martel, author of Son of Nobody

The Psoad is an Ancient Greek epic in free verse that follows a goatherd’s son, Psoas of Midea, who leaves his wife and family to fight with the Greeks at Troy. This commoner’s story was lost to time --- until Harlow Donne, a Canadian academic who has left his own wife and daughter behind to study at Oxford, discovers its relics nearly 30 centuries later. As sole translator and interpreter of The Psoad, Harlow dedicates the poem and its footnotes to his daughter, Helen. Under his gaze, a personal message to his beloved child appears in the ancient text, like a palimpsest. Despite the thousands of years and hundreds of miles that separate Psoas and Harlow, a thread hasn’t frayed: the universal song of homesickness and regret, of love, ambition and grief.

Colm Tóibín, author of The News from Dublin: Stories

Colm Tóibín is a master of short fiction as well as the novel, able to summon an extraordinary intensity of emotion in a brief tale. These 11 stories transport readers across continents and eras. In “The Journey to Galway,” a mother who has learned of the death of her son, a fighter pilot in World War I, travels to Galway to inform his wife and their three now fatherless children. “Sleep,” originally published in The New Yorker, explores the rift between two lovers as one of them cannot reckon with his grief and fear after the death of his brother. Death, again, is a central character in the title story, “The News from Dublin,” as Maurice Webster travels to Dublin to try to save his younger brother who is dying of tuberculosis. Maurice must petition the health minister for access to a new experimental drug, and this is the only hope.

Tana French, author of The Keeper

On a cold night in the remote Irish village of Ardnakelty, a girl goes missing. Sweet, loving Rachel Holohan was about to be engaged to the son of the local big shot. Instead, she’s dead in the river. In a close-knit small town, a death like this isn’t simple. It comes wrapped in generations-old grudges and power struggles, and it splits the townland in two. Retired Chicago detective Cal Hooper has friends here now, and he owes them loyalty. But his fiancée, Lena, wants nothing to do with Ardnakelty’s tangles. As the feud becomes more vicious, their settled peace starts to crack apart. And when they uncover a scheme that casts a new light on Rachel’s death and threatens the whole village, they find themselves in the firing line.

Editorial Content for The Hired Man

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Pamela Kramer

Well-written, gripping historical fiction takes us back to another place and time and allows us to experience that setting through the eyes and usually meticulous research of the author.

THE HIRED MAN is set in 1937 Colorado during the Dust Bowl. Instead of rain falling from the sky, dirt blew in from neighboring states, blanketing the ground and covering everything with layers of dirt. Thanks to Sandra Dallas’ careful, detailed descriptions, we can almost feel the grit in our mouths and eyes during the storm. Read More

Teaser

1937. It’s been seven years since the dust storms started in Colorado. High school student Martha Helen Kessler and her family are luckier than most; they still eke out a living from the land. Even so, evidence of the Dust Bowl’s grim impact on families is everywhere. When Martha Helen’s compassionate mother insists they take in Otis Hobbs, a handsome drifter who saves a local boy from a vicious storm, she quickly discovers a darker side to their rural community. Suspicion, jealousy and prejudice grip their neighbors --- and emotions reach a frenzy after Martha Helen’s best friend, Frankie, disappears and is then found murdered. Ultimately, Martha Helen is forced to make sense of her conflicting feelings and loyalties in order to help find retribution and to reconcile the difference between the law and justice.

Promo

1937. It’s been seven years since the dust storms started in Colorado. High school student Martha Helen Kessler and her family are luckier than most; they still eke out a living from the land. Even so, evidence of the Dust Bowl’s grim impact on families is everywhere. When Martha Helen’s compassionate mother insists they take in Otis Hobbs, a handsome drifter who saves a local boy from a vicious storm, she quickly discovers a darker side to their rural community. Suspicion, jealousy and prejudice grip their neighbors --- and emotions reach a frenzy after Martha Helen’s best friend, Frankie, disappears and is then found murdered. Ultimately, Martha Helen is forced to make sense of her conflicting feelings and loyalties in order to help find retribution and to reconcile the difference between the law and justice.

About the Book

The Dust Bowl sweeps a handsome stranger into a small Colorado town to dangerous effect.

1937. It’s been seven years since the dust storms started in Colorado. Folks can barely remember a time when the clouds were filled with rain instead of dirt, and when the fields were green instead of brown. High school student Martha Helen Kessler and her family are luckier than most; they still eke out a living from the land. Even so, evidence of the Dust Bowl’s grim impact on families, especially on the women who bear the brunt of their husbands’ frustration and their children’s hunger, is everywhere.

When Martha Helen’s compassionate mother insists they take in Otis Hobbs, a handsome drifter who saves a local boy from a vicious storm, she quickly discovers a darker side to their rural community. Suspicion, jealousy and prejudice grip their neighbors --- and emotions reach a frenzy after Martha Helen’s best friend, Frankie, disappears and is then found murdered. Ultimately, Martha Helen is forced to make sense of her conflicting feelings and loyalties in order to help find retribution and to reconcile the difference between the law and justice.

Full of period detail and Sandra Dallas’ trademark focus on the lives of women, THE HIRED MAN entertains and ultimately surprises.

Audiobook available, read by Jesse Vilinsky

Editorial Content for Wolf Worm

Book

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Ray Palen

In my humble opinion, T. Kingfisher is producing gothic horror and fantasy in a class that includes Caitlin Starling and C. J. Cooke. I eagerly approach each of her novels with a level of expectation that is extremely high, and she never disappoints. That said, WOLF WORM may be her most chilling creation yet. Read More

Teaser

Sonia Wilson is a talented scientific illustrator, but she is only able to follow her dream because of her father’s reputation as a renowned scientist. Such is the lot in life for a woman in science in 1899. And after his death, she is left without work, prospects or hope. So when the reclusive Dr. Halder offers her a position illustrating his vast collection of insects, Sonia jumps at the chance to move to his North Carolina manor house. Once there, though, she encounters dark happenings in the Carolina woods, and even darker questions come to light. What happened to her predecessor? Why are animals acting so strangely, and what is behind the peculiar local whispers about “blood thieves”? With the aid of the housekeeper and a local healer, Sonia discovers that Halder’s entomological studies have taken him down a twisted road.

Promo

Sonia Wilson is a talented scientific illustrator, but she is only able to follow her dream because of her father’s reputation as a renowned scientist. Such is the lot in life for a woman in science in 1899. And after his death, she is left without work, prospects or hope. So when the reclusive Dr. Halder offers her a position illustrating his vast collection of insects, Sonia jumps at the chance to move to his North Carolina manor house. Once there, though, she encounters dark happenings in the Carolina woods, and even darker questions come to light. What happened to her predecessor? Why are animals acting so strangely, and what is behind the peculiar local whispers about “blood thieves”? With the aid of the housekeeper and a local healer, Sonia discovers that Halder’s entomological studies have taken him down a twisted road.

About the Book

Something darker than the devil stalks the North Carolina woods in WOLF WORM, a new gothic masterpiece from New York Times bestselling author T. Kingfisher.

“I saw the devil in these woods.”

Sonia Wilson is a talented scientific illustrator, but she is only able to follow her dream because of her father’s reputation as a renowned scientist. Such is the lot in life for a woman in science in 1899. And after his death, she is left without work, prospects or hope.

So when the reclusive Dr. Halder offers her a position illustrating his vast collection of insects, Sonia jumps at the chance to move to his North Carolina manor house and put her talents to use.

Once there, though, she encounters dark happenings in the Carolina woods, and even darker questions come to light. What happened to her predecessor? Why are animals acting so strangely, and what is behind the peculiar local whispers about “blood thieves”?

With the aid of the housekeeper and a local healer, Sonia discovers that Halder’s entomological studies have taken him down a twisted road. His ground-breaking discoveries come with a cost --- one that Halder is paying with human flesh.

If Sonia can’t find a way to stop the monstrosity, she may be next under the knife.

Audiobook available, read by Mary Robinette Kowal 

Editorial Content for Two Kinds of Stranger

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Ray Palen

Steve Cavanagh has earned a reputation for producing crime and legal thrillers that are not afraid to show their dark side and always feature a battle between good and evil. TWO KINDS OF STRANGER is the latest in his Eddie Flynn series and finds the defense attorney up against the system and fighting to save his client from a truly depraved killer. Read More

Teaser

Social media influencer Elly Parker had the perfect life --- that is until she discovered her husband had been having an affair with her best friend. But as hurt, betrayed and unmoored as Elly is, she has made it her mission to help others in need. When Elly meets a man on the steps to the subway platform, crutches in one hand and a yellow suitcase by his feet, she can’t help but feel sorry for him. This small act of kindness sets off a chain of events more terrifying than anything she ever could imagine. To survive, Elly will need to convince the world that what happened to her was real. She needs a lawyer who can bend the rules to find the truth. Eddie Flynn and his team must find the stranger with the yellow suitcase. But little do they know this cunning killer is a master manipulator and is always one step ahead.

Promo

Social media influencer Elly Parker had the perfect life --- that is until she discovered her husband had been having an affair with her best friend. But as hurt, betrayed and unmoored as Elly is, she has made it her mission to help others in need. When Elly meets a man on the steps to the subway platform, crutches in one hand and a yellow suitcase by his feet, she can’t help but feel sorry for him. This small act of kindness sets off a chain of events more terrifying than anything she ever could imagine. To survive, Elly will need to convince the world that what happened to her was real. She needs a lawyer who can bend the rules to find the truth. Eddie Flynn and his team must find the stranger with the yellow suitcase. But little do they know this cunning killer is a master manipulator and is always one step ahead.

About the Book

Elly Parker helped a perfect stranger. She didn’t know he was the perfect killer...in another “unguessable and unputdownable” (Alex Michaelides, #1 New York Times bestselling author) psychological thriller from the author of WITNESS 8.

One offers a helping hand. The other is your worst nightmare.

Social media influencer Elly Parker had the perfect life --- until she discovered her husband had been having an affair with her best friend.

But as hurt, betrayed, unmoored as Elly is, she has made it her mission to help others in need. Even strangers.

When Elly meets a man on the steps to the subway platform, crutches in one hand and a yellow suitcase by his feet, she can’t help but feel sorry for him.

Just as he planned.

This small act of kindness sets off a chain of events more terrifying than anything she ever could imagine.

To survive, Elly will need to convince the world what happened to her was real. She needs a lawyer who can bend the rules to find the truth. Eddie Flynn and his team must find the stranger with the yellow suitcase. But little do they know this cunning killer is a master manipulator and is always one step ahead.

Audiobook available, read by Adam Sims