Do you have another favorite author that has a birthday this month? Let us know in the comments.

Check out more recent blogs:
Readers' Favorite Books to Read Aloud
5 Famous Books Saved from the Dumpster
The 12 Most-Read New Books of the 2018 Reading Challenge

(*The exact date of Frederick Douglass' birthday is unknown, though sources claim he celebrated it on February 14.)

This post is sponsored by The Audible Romance Package. First month free for new subscribers.

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a reader in possession of a large library must be in want of a new book.

But not just any book will do. We know you've already read the classics and the bestsellers. We're here to help you uncover a hidden gem.

We took a look at books with fewer than 50,000 adds—for context, members have added Pride and Prejudice to their Goodreads shelves more than 3 million times—and selected only ones with a 4.0 or higher average rating. Then we broke down the results into recommendations for fans of Colleen Hoover, Jane Austen, J.R. Ward, E.L. James, and Diana Gabaldon. Add what catches your eye to your Want to Read shelf!

Need another excuse to go to the bookstore this week? We've got you covered. These are the top new books Goodreads members have added to their Want to Read shelves.

What catches your eye? Let's talk books in the comments!

Check out more recent blogs:
Camille Dungy's Necessary New Books by Black Writers
Here Are Books to Read for Every Groundhog Day Forecast
Readers' Favorite Books to Read Aloud

I put more planning into the books I take on tour than I do into my clothing (though this tour got more wardrobe prep than usual because I've lost some weight)! I am a fast reader. I have always been a fast reader. If the books are the size of regular mass market paperbacks, I can read two on my flight between my home in Syracuse and Atlanta; five between San Francisco and New York City.

I get the shakes if I run out of books I want to read. If I run out of books because I picked a couple of duds, I get the shakes and the sweats. That's why I used to carry seven books on a plane before the miracle of the iPad, and that's why my list is so long!

I was going to take Kristin Cashore's Jane, Unlimited, Philip Pullman's La Belle Sauvage, and Libba Bray's Before the Devil Breaks You. Instead, I am leaving them at home…because I got impatient and read them already. They're all great writers, and the books show readers, once again, why they attract so much attention.

Unfortunately, from where I sit, the better the book and the more I love it, the faster I read it. So I had to find other books to take their places on the road.

For the paper books that go with me, I have R.S. Belcher's The Shotgun Arcana, sequel to The Six-Gun Tarot. They're examples of what I have begun to call "cowboy fantasy," historical books with magic set in a version of the Wild West or the West Coast around the same time (e.g., Jaime Lee Moyer's Against the Brightening Sky, Lila Bowen's Wake of Vultures, Rae Dawn Carson's Walk on Earth a Stranger, and Erin Bowman's Vengeance Road and Retribution Rails). I have gotten very fond of this subgenre, and if you know any other titles I've missed, please tell me!

I also have Lindsay Faye's Seven for a Secret, set in New York City in 1846 at a fledgling police department (they just invented detectives!). I love historical fiction, and Timothy, the book's observer, is a sharp-minded, sharp-eyed narrator. Then comes Kate Milford's newest historical fantasy. The three I've read have been set in the late 1800s-early 1900s East Coast; this one takes place during the Napoleonic War at sea; though the main characters are Americans.

The last paper book (so far) is Keeper of the Lost Cities by Shannon Messenger, a writer previously unknown to me. It's a more straightforward fantasy, promising telepaths and secrets. I'm a sucker for both.

My main store of reads is on my iPad, which tells me I have over 400 books ready to go: new books, old ones, and favorites. First up is a contemporary teen novel written by (HURRAY!!!!) my first assistant, Sarah Jade Alan, titled A Messy, Beautiful Life. Main character Ellie is a smart, ambitious teenager with a divorced mother, a serious comedy improv habit, a company of friends to perform with, and the ambition to get into college. Then disaster in the form of a deadly illness strikes. I won't say more, but the characters are lively, funny, and REAL. I can't wait to see what Sarah does next!

There are a number of Regency romances, including some by my favorite, Georgette Heyer. There's no sex in a real Regency because the stories are set among the upper class during the early 19th century. Instead, there's intrigue, interesting people, the remains of the Napoleonic Wars, horses, and dogs. Heyer is the queen, but I keep looking for other writers as good as she is. She also wrote Georgian romances, set in the time of George III, with sword fights, intrigue, romance, spying between France and England, disguises, and very bad bad guys. Also, gorgeous outfits for the men as well as for the women.

I also have quite a few thrillers on my iPad—they keep me from thinking about how much longer I have on a flight. I have at least four Robert McCammon thrillers I haven't read. He's written sci-fi horror like Stinger and Swan Song, mysteries set in Colonial America, and now he's returned to modern thrillers. I'm also bringing two of my favorite Stephen King books, It and The Green Mile.

The biggest part of my book supply is fantasy and science fiction. I have absolute favorite books by absolute favorite writers: Barbara Hambly, Robin McKinley, Elizabeth Moon, Daniel Jose Older, N.K. Jemisin, Rachel Neumeier, and Nalo Hopkinson. I also have three unread books by my favorite science fiction writer, Ian McDonald.

And there's always what I pick up en route! I'll be at Escape Pod Comics before I get to New York City, and that means I'll get my hands on comics from all over the world, comics that aren't just superhero comics. (Though I will never say no to any work from Gail Simone, G. Willow Wilson, or Faith Erin Hicks.) I have been a comics fan since I was in sixth grade (not counting the newspaper funnies, of course), and I love seeing the explosion of women's work that's available now.

As you can see, I read a lot—on the road, in hotels, at home! After all, if I don't read, where will I get new ideas?


Be sure to add Tamora Pierce's's Tempests and Slaughter to your Want to Read shelf.

Check out more recent blogs:
Camille Dungy's Necessary New Books by Black Writers
Here Are Books to Read for Every Groundhog Day Forecast
Readers' Favorite Books to Read Aloud

When I think of the bookshelves of my youth, it seems they were filled with classics from times long past. Hardbound books with yellowed pages. Paperbacks with the covers creased or torn. But when they first appeared on those shelves, the books must have been bold new revelations, written by my parents’ and grandparents’ peers.

Gwendolyn Brooks, whose A Street in Bronzeville I remember borrowing from my grandparents’ house, was only a year older than my grandmother and lived in the same city at the same time. I remember how excited my mother was to buy her copy of Alice Walker’s A Color Purple. At the time, it hadn’t occurred to me that my mother and Alice Walker are nearly the same age, but when Octavia Butler’s prescient Parable of the Sower was published, I recognized immediately that, just like me, the book’s main character was 19. All the timelessly necessary literature must, at one time, have been new, written by vibrant young(ish) writers with their pulse on the needs of their times.

Here are some necessary new books by young(ish) black writers. I trust my daughter will one day discover these on my shelves and recognize their wonder. I trust she will love them at that future date as much as I love them right now.

Looking for your next novel? Dive into the heart-wrenchingly relevant An American Marriage by Tayari Jones. A tale of what might become of black love and black excellence in these times of mass incarceration, her fourth novel is one of the best I’ve read in years. And don’t miss What We Lose by Zinzi Clemmons, a debut rich in its explorations of migration, identity, loss, and love.

Are short stories your thing? Consider Desiree Cooper’s collection of taut flash fiction, Know the Mother. A journalist by training, Cooper efficiently delivers all that’s needed to move a reader. Or read Rion Amilcar Scott’s Insurrections: Stories. I stayed up late into the night devouring these richly drawn stories about a fictional but brightly rendered town.

Poetry was my first passion and remains my dear, great love, so it will be impossible for me to name all the recent books by young(ish) black writers that recently moved me.

Here are three: Eve L. Ewing’s Electric Arches made me burn my dinner because just after I put on a pot, I picked up her book and couldn’t put it down. In Derrick Austin’s Trouble the Water, every poem is songful, devotional, and joyful. He’s got a stellar sestina, where every line ends in the word “black,” and a really good villanelle, too. In the same way he fluently represents received forms, he speaks with urgency to the here and now. It’s this sort of ability to swivel between our deep history and a bright vision of our future that makes me include Simulacra, the debut collection by Yale Younger Prize-winning poet Airea D. Matthews on this list.

Though it’s hard to narrow down my choices in nonfiction, I can tell you that I put down Aisha Sabatini Sloan’s Dreaming of Ramadi in Detroit and instantly wanted to pick it up again. The intelligence and expansiveness of this book of essays astounded me. Reading J. Drew Lanham’s The Home Place: Memoirs of a Colored Man’s Love Affair with Nature felt like entering a conversation with an old friend, and I was both hungry and satiated reading Michael W. Twitty’s The Cooking Gene: A Journey Through African American Culinary History in the Old South.

Let me not end this without mentioning a book that puts into focus so much of what is on my mind these days. With When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir, Patrisse Khan-Cullors has published an indispensable declaration for our times.

You should read these books. You’ll be grateful you did.


Be sure to add Camille T. Dungy's Guidebook to Relative Strangers: Journeys into Race, Motherhood, and History to your Want to Read shelf.

Check out more recent blogs:
Jesmyn Ward's Essential New Books from African American Writers
Six More Weeks of Winter? Here Are Books to Read for Every Groundhog Day Forecast
The 12 Most-Read New Books of the 2018 Reading Challenge

I count myself lucky to be alive and writing: It is an honor to join the chorus of African American writers at work.

Each writer on this list adds essential words to the conversation we're having about what it means to live and love and find joy and suffer grief in America right now. Every book we write broadens everyone's ideas about who we can be and what we are capable of. Here you will find worlds and people who will surprise you, anger you, bring you deep melancholy and sublime happiness. Each of the writers will subvert your ideas about humanity, America, and yourself.

You'll have to preorder a few of these, but they are worth the wait. Read and rejoice.

Be sure to add Jesmyn Ward's Sing, Unburied, Sing to your Want to Read shelf.

Check out more recent blogs:
Camille Dungy's Necessary New Books by Black Writers
Six More Weeks of Winter? Here Are Books to Read for Every Groundhog Day Forecast
The 12 Most-Read New Books of the 2018 Reading Challenge

Groundhog Day is here, readers! While there's not a lot of science involved in our tradition of letting a groundhog named Punxsutawney Phil deliver a seasonal forecast (his predictions have been correct 39% of the time), we like to embrace reading inspiration where we can find it.

A brief refresher for anyone who's a little rusty on their weather lore: Based on a Pennsylvania Dutch superstition, if a groundhog emerges from his burrow and sees his shadow on February 2, there will be six more weeks of winter. If he doesn't see his shadow, spring will arrive early.

Whatever the outcome of Phil's big day, we've got you covered with highly rated book recommendations to last you through the long(er) winter or early spring. Add the ones that catch your eye to your Want to Read shelves.

If Punxsutawney Phil sees his shadow...

If Punxsutawney Phil doesn't see his shadow...

If Punxsutawney Phil refuses to come out of his burrow...

What books would you recommend for readers with groundhogs and/or seasons on the mind? Tell us in the comments!

Check out more recent blogs:
Readers' Favorite Books to Read Aloud
5 Famous Books Saved from the Dumpster
7 Buzzy Books Hitting Shelves Today

(Top image credit: Groundhog Day)

This post is sponsored by The Audible Romance Package. First month free for new subscribers.

What’s your favorite Romance subgenre? Let us know in the comments!

Check out more recent blogs:
7 Buzzy Books Hitting Shelves This Week
8 Completed Series for Fantasy Fans to Devour
The 12 Most-Read New Books of the 2018 Reading Challenge

Happy World Read Aloud Day! We never need an excuse to crack open beloved books and share a few passages with those around us, but this annual event invites us to do it for a good cause. On this day, people from all around the globe are reading aloud and sharing stories to "advocate for literacy as a human right that belongs to all people."

Want to participate but need a few suggestions to get you started? We asked our followers on Twitter and Facebook to recommend the books they've loved reading aloud. Check out the top answers and find out more about World Read Aloud Day here.