Top 10
Attention: Writing on Life, Art, and the World
Anne Enright. Norton, Apr. 7 ($29.99, ISBN 978-1-324-12988-2)
The Booker-winning novelist presents a career-spanning collection of essays about travel, politics, and literature that locate the personal in the political (and vice versa).
Famesick: A Memoir
Lena Dunham. Random House, Apr. 14 ($32, ISBN 978-0-593-12932-6)
In her second memoir, the Girls creator covers the past decade of her life, focusing especially on the tension between her whirlwind fame and her struggles with chronic illness.
Judy Blume: A Life
Mark Oppenheimer. Putnam, Mar. 10 ($35, ISBN 978-0-593-71444-7)
Drawing from interviews with Blume herself, journalist Oppenheimer recounts the bestseller’s 1950s upbringing, sexual awakening, and free speech advocacy.
Kids, Wait Till You Hear This!
Liza Minnelli. Grand Central, Mar. 10 ($36, ISBN 978-1-5387-7366-6)
The legendary entertainer gets candid about her multiple marriages, artistic triumphs, and long-standing challenges with substance abuse.
The Last Kings of Hollywood: Coppola, Lucas, Spielberg—and the Battle for the Soul of American Cinema
Paul Fischer. Celadon, Feb. 10 ($32, ISBN 978-1-250-87872-4)
Fischer profiles three titans of the 1970s New Hollywood movement, chronicling their friendships, rivalries, and artistic breakthroughs across the decades.
The Mixed Marriage Project: A Memoir of Love, Race, and Family
Dorothy Roberts. One Signal, Feb. 10 ($30, ISBN 978-1-6680-6838-0)
The sociologist recalls growing up in 1960s Chicago as the daughter of a Black immigrant mother and a white anthropologist father who collaborated on a major study of interracial marriages as far back as the 19th century.
My Mother’s Daughter: Finding Myself in My Family’s Fractured Past
Tracy Clark-Flory. Gallery, May 5 ($29, ISBN 978-1-6680-8332-1)
Dire Straights podcaster Clark-Flory follows up Want Me with an account of tracking down her long-lost half-sister after the death of their mother, when the author was in her 30s.
Push the Wall: Writing, Drawing and the Art of Storytelling
Frank Miller. Saga, July 14 ($35, ISBN 978-1-6680-6529-7)
The comics legend details coming to New York City in the 1970s and launching a storied career that took him to Hollywood and beyond.
Too L.A.: The Letters, Sent and Unsent, of Eve Babitz
Eve Babitz, edited by Lili Anolik. New York Review Books, May 12 ($17.95 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-68137-959-3)
Anolik, author of the dual biography Didion & Babitz, compiles letters that L.A. literary fixture Babitz sent to friends, enemies, colleagues, and love interests, including Annie Leibovitz, Steve Martin, and (yes) Joan Didion.
Trash! A Garbageman’s Story
Simon Paré-Poupart, trans. by Pablo Strauss. Melville House, June 16 ($18.99 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-68589-249-4)
Recounting his two decades of waste management work in Montreal, Paré-Poupart attempts to shed light on the grim conditions and peculiar excitements of a life spent picking up other people’s trash.
longlist
Akashic
AlphaPussy: How I Survived the Valley and Learned to Love My Boobs by Gina Gershon (Mar. 3, $26.95, ISBN 978-1-63614-281-4). The actor outlines how street smarts and brushes with danger helped her establish a strong survival instinct and sense of self.
Hey Yang, Where’s My Thousand Bucks? And Other True Stories of Staggering Depth by Andrew Yang (Feb. 3, $26.95, ISBN 978-1-63614-279-1) offers lighthearted musings on the former presidential candidate’s entrepreneurial background and the brokenness of contemporary politics, plus advice for staying positive in dark times.
Algonquin
It Wasn’t Meant to Be Perfect: A Memoir by Gaelynn Lea (Apr. 14, $30, ISBN 978-1-64375-643-1). Composer and disability advocate Lea, who won NPR’s Tiny Desk competition in 2016, discusses her lifelong love of the arts and experiences making music while living with a congenital condition that makes her bones extremely fragile.
Amistad
Young King: The Making of Martin Luther King Jr. by Lerone Martin (May 5, $32.99, ISBN 978-0-06-334094-7) depicts the legendary civil rights leader as a gleefully social teenager with mediocre grades, and charts how King’s journey from the Jim Crow South to the Northeast helped shape his politics.
Blackstone
La Lucci by Susan Lucci and Laura Morton (Feb. 3, $29.99, ISBN 979-8-8748-6828-4). In her second memoir, the daytime TV star discusses her grief after the unexpected death of her husband.
Bloomsbury
The Art of Becoming a Citizen: A Memoir by Gail Godwin (June 9, $25.99, ISBN 978-1-63973-874-8). The novelist links her time as a political reporter during the 1960 presidential election to the chaos of Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign.
Catapult
Say Nephew: Boyhood, Unclehood, and Queer Mentorship by Steven Pfau (May 26, $27, ISBN 978-1-64622-291-9). Combining memoir and cultural critique, Pfau examines the role gay uncles play in mentoring young queer boys while recalling his own uncle, Bruce, a mustachioed Tennessean who lived in Manhattan at the dawn of the gay rights movement.
Diversion
Project Tiger: The Birth of Genius and the Price of Greatness by Gavin Newsham (Mar. 17, $29.99, ISBN 979-8-89515-094-8). Golf journalist Newsham covers Tiger Woods’s early years, including stories from his family, coaches, colleagues, and love interests.
Doubleday
In the Days of My Youth I Was Told What It Means to Be a Man: A Memoir by Tom Junod (Mar. 10, $32, ISBN 978-0-375-40039-1). The journalist attempts to understand his larger-than-life, adulterous father, and unpacks the dubious lessons the late man taught him about masculinity.
Dutton
Ike and Winston: World War, Cold War, and an Extraordinary Friendship by Jonathan W. Jordan (May 12, $38, ISBN 978-0-593-47313-9) examines the relationship between U.S. president Dwight Eisenhower and U.K. prime minister Winston Churchill as they led their respective countries through some of the most consequential events of the 20th century.
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Frog: And Other Essays by Anne Fadiman (Feb. 10, $26, ISBN 978-0-374-60874-3). This wide-ranging collection gathers Fadiman’s thoughts on such mundane subjects as her pet frog and antiquated technologies, tying them all together into a treatise on aging.
Grand Central
Adult Braces: Driving Myself Sane by Lindy West (Mar. 10, $29, ISBN 978-0-306-83183-6). The Shrill author details a cross-country road trip she embarked on to pull herself out of a debilitating depression.
Hanover Square
Rebel of the Regency: The Scandalous Saga of Caroline of Brunswick, Britain’s Uncrowned Queen by Ann Foster (Feb. 10, $32.99, ISBN 978-1-335-00063-7) illuminates the life of Caroline Amelia Elizabeth, who married George IV during the Regency era and became well-known for her eccentricity and independence—which ended up costing her the crown.
Harper
Don’t Tell the President: The Best, Worst, and Mostly Untold Stories from Presidential Advance by Jean Becker and Tom Collamore (Feb. 3, $32, ISBN 978-0-06-344677-9). Two former staffers for George H.W. Bush shine a light on the arduous work of preparing for the president’s public appearances, and interview people who’ve done that work for every president from LBJ to Obama.
Holt
Gowanus Crossing: A Brooklyn Boyhood by Vincent Coppola (June 9, $27.99, ISBN 978-1-250-90412-6). The journalist recalls growing up in Brooklyn’s Gowanus neighborhood in the 1960s, when the area was an Italian-American enclave dominated by the Mafia and the Catholic Church.
Little, Brown
You with the Sad Eyes: A Memoir by Christina Applegate (Mar. 3, $32, ISBN 978-0-316-59492-9) recounts the actor’s unstable childhood in Laurel Canyon, her partying at L.A.’s Viper Room in the 1990s, and her acting breakthrough as Kelly Bundy on Married... with Children.
Mariner
The Rough Side of the Mountain: A Memoir by Keisha Lance Bottoms (Apr. 21, $29.99, ISBN 978-0-06-342008-3). The former mayor of Atlanta details her Georgia childhood, early days in city government, and time in the spotlight during the 2020 George Floyd protests.
This Is Not About Running: A Memoir by Mary Cain (Apr. 28, $29.99, ISBN 978-0-06-344188-0) charts Cain’s journey from a reluctant middle school runner to one of the fastest runners of her generation, then a whistleblower on the abusive conditions at the Nike Oregon Project, an elite training program.
Milkweed
Water in the Desert: An Ecography from the Edges by Gary Nabhan (June 20, $32, ISBN 978-1-57131-169-6). Arab American ethnobotanist Nabhan recalls how a childhood exploring the shores of Lake Michigan while grappling with neurodivergence shaped his eventual career.
Morrow
The Steps by Sylvester Stallone (May 5, $32.50, ISBN 978-0-06-344391-4). In his debut memoir, Stallone covers his lonely childhood, his earliest days in New York City, and his Oscar-winning role in Rocky.
One World
The Lady Imam by Carla Power (June 16, $30, ISBN 978-0-593-59535-0) catalogs the life of feminist Muslim leader and thinker Amina Wadud, who was born to a Methodist preacher in Maryland before converting to Islam as an adult.
Pantheon
Ugly: A Letter to My Daughter by Stephanie Fairyington (May 5, $28, ISBN 978-0-593-70188-1) unpacks the author’s physical insecurities, fears about subjecting her daughter to patriarchal beauty standards, and ambivalence about allowing her partner to carry their child instead of becoming pregnant herself.
Park Row
I Choose Me: Chasing Joy, Finding Purpose and Embracing Reinvention by Jennie Garth (Apr. 14, $32.50, ISBN 978-0-7783-0563-7) follows in the mold of Garth’s podcast of the same name, discussing the actor’s stint on Beverly Hills, 90210, as well as her thoughts on motherhood, aging, and her love life.
Penguin Press
The Frenchmen: Or, My Life in Theory by Emily Eakin (July 21, $32, ISBN 978-1-59420-632-0). The critic and essayist charts French philosophy’s takeover of American thought in the mid- to late 20th century while weaving in her own profound experiences with French theory as a budding intellectual.
Podium
Unburdened by Dorit Kemsley (Apr. 7, $28.99, ISBN 979-8-3470-2894-8). Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Kemsley serves up behind-the-scenes gossip about filming the Bravo reality series alongside revealing disclosures about her bumpy life
off camera.
Princeton Univ.
James Joyce: A Political Life by Frank Callanan (Feb. 3, $45, ISBN 978-0-691-22797-9). The Irish historian unpacks Joyce’s ideological views, connecting the novelist’s complicated Irish nationalism to his rebellious literary style.
Random House
The Cost by Draymond Green (July 7, $30, ISBN 978-0-593-73050-8). The NBA All-Star and Olympic gold medalist reflects on his decorated athletic career and discusses his preparations to retire from the spotlight.
Nonviolent: A Memoir of Resistance, Agitation, and Love by James Lawson and Emily Yellin (Feb. 17, $36, ISBN 978-0-593-59624-1) delves into civil rights leader Lawson’s activism, including the many antisegregation campaigns he headed or participated in during the mid-20th century and his labor fights in the 21st.
Reaktion
Auden by Peter Ackroyd (June 5, $30, ISBN 978-1-83639-172-2). This critical biography of poet W.H. Auden analyzes his work in the context of his intellectual promiscuity and experiences as a gay man living in the repressive early 20th century.
Riverhead
Scavenging Beauty: A Memoir in Walks by Angelica Glass (July 7, $30, ISBN 978-0-593-85534-8). Social worker Glass recounts her yearslong project to walk every street in her California county, and shares her resulting insights about nature and her body.
Seven Stories
I Still Am a Woman, Pissed Off & Curious by Su Friedrich (Feb. 10, $50 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-64421-500-5). With the aid of more than 100 photos and drawings, avant-garde filmmaker Friedrich describes a transformative trip she took through North Africa and West Africa in 1976.
Simon & Schuster
Lifeguard: A Love Story by Janet Fash and Clio Chang (June 23, $28, ISBN 978-1-6682-0661-4). Fash recalls her 1970s tenure as the first female lifeguard chief at New York City’s Rockaway Beach, combining a coming-of-age memoir with a tender look at how the relationships she formed on the job have endured.
St. Martin’s
Delusions: Of Grandeur, of Romance, of Progress by Cazzie David (Mar. 3, $29, ISBN 978-1-250-35763-2). In her follow-up to No One Asked for This, David unpacks the successes, failures, and lessons she learned in her 20s.
Inspiration Porn by Ryan O’Connell (May 26, $28, ISBN 978-1-250-37624-4). This memoir-in-essays covers the actor, novelist, and screenwriter’s rough upbringing in Southern California, struggles with addiction, and sexual escapades while living with cerebral palsy.
Three Rooms
The Immortal Journeys of Isabelle Eberhardt by Hédi A. Jaouad (May 12, $20 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-953103-72-7). This biography of the late-19th-century Swiss explorer drills deep into the North African and European landscapes she visited and unpacks how each one affected her beliefs, writing, and sense of self.
Transit
Sydney Journals by Antigone Kefala (Mar. 10, $18.95 trade paper, ISBN 979-8-89338-025-5) contains selections from the late poet and prose writer’s diary, which she kept for 30 years, much of which concerns her artistic coming-of-age in Sydney after her family fled the Soviet Union.
Univ. of Pittsburgh
August Wilson’s American Century: Life as Art by Laurence A. Glasco (Feb. 10, $35, ISBN 978-0-8229-4854-4) chronicles how the Pulitzer-winning playwright’s most enduring work was shaped by Pittsburgh’s Black communities.
Velo
Above the Abyss: Finding Strength, Stillness, and Survival on the Slackline by Friedi Kühne (Feb. 3, $19.99 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-64604-860-1) discusses how the author became a professional slackliner, traveling the world to compete for world records and meet personal goals after first encountering the sport at 18.
Viking
The Remarkable Life of Reed Peggram: The Man Who Stared Down World War II in the Name of Love by Ethelene Whitmire (Feb. 3, $30, ISBN 978-0-593-65419-4) recounts the life of a little-known Black queer American scholar who got caught up in WWII while living in Europe with his lover and was forced to escape the Nazis.
Yale Univ.
Stephen Sondheim: Art Isn’t Easy by Daniel Okrent (Mar. 17, $35, ISBN 978-0-300-27021-1) focuses on the emotional life of the late musical theater legend, including his struggles with alcoholism and relationships with collaborators from Leonard Bernstein to James Lapine.
