We asked our local booksellers for their favorite recent fiction releases; here’s what they recommend for your 2025 reading list.
Dangerous Play
Elise Hart Kipness
I’d recommend this book for anyone who loves crime, sports, and strong female protagonists. This is Kipness’ second novel (following her debut Lights Out in 2023), featuring sports reporter-turned-investigator Kate Black. Fast-paced and clever!
—Amy Hall, owner of Hudson Valley Books for Humanity, Ossining
Godwin
Joseph O’Neill
People read because people like O’Neill write books like Godwin. This is a rich story of brothers, that alternates between two very different characters, and lends insight on the complexities of modern immigration and emigration, in the context of modern relationships, the workplace, and complicated familial bonds.
—Kira Wizner, owner of Merritt Bookstore, Millbrook
The City and Its Uncertain Walls
Haruki Murakami
A new Murakami novel always excites and intrigues, and his latest (the first in six years) is a marvel. From a short story of the same name published in 1980, it’s a classic Murakami tale—magical realism, dreams, literature, mystery, surrealism—that stands as an ode or homage to the art of reading itself. The story opens with a character whose job is to read the dreams of others, which live on the shelf of a library guarded by a great wall and a guardian. All you need to know is that it gets weird and beautiful.
—Andrea Talarico and Mark Harris, co-owners of Stanza Books, Beacon
A Gorgeous Excitement
Cynthia Weiner
Weiner is an author here in Beacon. This novel fictionalizes the true crime known as “The Preppy Murder,” or the “Central Park Strangler,” that erupted on the Upper East Side social scene in the summer of 1986. Weiner gives us a story of Nina, a young Jewish woman trying out the WASP lifestyle in the scene at Flanagan’s bar, an obvious stand-in for the famous Dorian’s. Nina spends her summer flirting with high society darling and bad boy Gardner Reed, who hides a dark and violent streak as best he can—until he can’t. The story is relatable, gripping, and completely of its time.
—Andrea Talarico and Mark Harris
How to Read a Book
Monica Wood
You’d think a book with this title might be an attempt to capture indie shelf space, but it’s actually a gorgeous, absorbing story about friendship, relationships, and life.
—Gretchen Primack, bookseller at The Golden Notebook, Woodstock
Motheater
Linda H. Codega
A dense Appalachian gothic that I could not put down. Lyrically grounded, it walks the line between fantasy and horror, exploring what it means to love what you cannot understand and what it means to embrace destiny, whether forced, chosen, or found. This is for readers who like their witches hungry and their magic stained with blood and mud.
—Nicole Brinkley, bookseller at Oblong Books, Millerton and Rhinebeck
Passiontide
Monique Roffey
This is a groundbreaking novel with a powerful message and unforgettable characters, set on a fictional Caribbean island. You’ll be rooting for this group of outraged local women who come together to enact justice and find new ways to help one another. It’s a must-read for mystery enthusiasts seeking a paradigm-shifting world in which restitution is paramount.
—Sharon Weinberg, owner of Chatham Bookstore, Chatham
Queer Mythology: Epic Legends From Around the World
Guido A. Sanchez
Sanchez, a Catskill middle school teacher, does an excellent job retelling these international myths proving LGBTQIA+ people have existed throughout time. Gorgeously illustrated by James Fenner, the book is intended for young adults but is a valuable resource for all ages.
—James Conrad, owner of The Golden Notebook, Woodstock
Sister Snake
Amanda Lee Koe
Two sisters share a secret—they are actually thousand-year-old snakes. This novel is thrilling and sensual in its exploration of sisterhood and immortality. One of my favorites from 2024.
—Suzanna Hermans, co-owner of Oblong Books, Millerton and Rhinebeck
Tell Me Everything
Elizabeth Strout
Pulitzer Prize-winning author Elizabeth Strout’s complex and tender novel chronicles the lives of two old friends, novelist Lucy Barton and Bob Burgess the lawyer, in Crosby, Maine, as they navigate forbidden love for each other, share and record the townspeople’s stories, and become entangled in a murder mystery.
—Matthew Goldman, owner of The Common Good, Ellenville
Related: Where to Buy or Rent Skis and Snowboards in the Hudson Valley