Fall 2025’s Most Exciting Book Releases

This fall promises noteworthy reads across genres. In fiction, “Bunny” author Mona Awad is releasing her follow-up novel “We Love You, Bunny,” and Thomas Pynchon is releasing “Shadow Ticket,” his first novel in over a decade. Other notable releases include “The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny,” by former Booker prize winner Kiran Desai, and “The Eleventh Hour,” a collection of short stories by Salman Rushdie.

The nonfiction category is packed with big names. Journalist Andrew Ross Sorkin is recounting the 1929 stock market crash in aptly titled “1929,” out Oct. 14, while outgoing Ford Foundation president and philanthropist Darren Walker offers his take on economic inequality in “The Idea of America,” a collection of speeches and essays released on Sept. 3. In “Dirtbag Billionaire,” Reporter David Gelles offers a new biography of Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard, who donated his billion-dollar fortune to combat climate change.

This fall is also rich with nonfiction releases from cultural figures including Margaret Atwood, who releases her first memoir, “Book of Lives,” on Nov. 4, and Patti Smith, whose “Bread of Angels” arrives more than a decade after her pivotal “Just Kids.” Zadie Smith is also releasing a new collection of essays with “Dead and Alive,” out Oct. 25, and “Wicked” star Cynthia Erivo makes her literary debut with “Simply More,” a collection of “personal vignettes” which arrives Nov. 18, just in time for the “Wicked: For Good” finale. Tilda Swintonalso wrote her first book, “Ongoing,” focused on her collaborations with filmmakers and fashion figures. And also keep an eye out for new takes on two fashion icons this fall: “It Girl: The Life and Legacy of Jane Birkin,” a biography by Marisa Meltzer, and “The Look” by Michelle Obama, which traces the former first lady’s style evolution through photographs.