We know, we know. It's barely December, and we're about to dig into January books. But the thing is, what's coming your way in 2018 is so good that we literally could not wait. Why? For starters, the gals behind The Financial Diet will help you get the new year off to a new spending — and saving — fresh start with their guide for how to truly get good with money, which is always a good place to begin. Dropping mid-month, Leni Dumas' Red Clocks is the dystopian feminist novel for a new generation and a story that will rev you up to be part of the resistance. And then there's The Hazel Wood, the brilliantly spooky book about what happens when supernatural forces and pitch black fairytales cross the border into real life. (Seriously, we got shivers.)
There are more where those came from and we'll be adding a few in the weeks to come, too. Wondering what else we read this year? Take a look back at our top reading list picks from all of 2017 — on the literary front at least, it's been a terrific year.
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The Financial Diet: A Total Beginner's Guide to Getting Good with Money
By Chelsea Fagan and Lauren Ver Hage
Maybe you have a savings account and a pension plan; maybe your credit is somewhere in the "excellent" zone and you're paying off your credit card at the month... But if you still don't feel like you're making the best decisions with your dollars — well, then this is the book your should gift yourself. File this one under: brass tacks, actually useful advice you can actually implement no matter what you're working with, from two women who truly get it. Your future self will thank your present self for this good decision.
Out January 2
Heart Spring Mountain
By Robin McArthur
In August 2011, Tropical Storm Irene whipped through Vale's small Vermont hometown — and in the aftermath of the flooding her mom, Bonnie, is nowhere to be found. Despite their estrangement, Vale packs up her life in New Orleans and goes home again to join the search effort. What she finds when she gets there is a place that is at once familiar and unrecognizable — and a family secret that's deeper than she could have ever imagined.
Out January 9
Everything Here Is Beautiful
By Mira T. Lee
When Miranda and Lucia lose their mother, and Lucia begins to hear voices, the older sister knows it's up to her to bring her younger sister back into reality. But her sister can't be contained: Before anyone can stop her, Lucia gets married, leaves that man for her lover, has a baby, moves countries, shakes up her entire life. Ultimately, her mental illness brings her crashing back down to Earth, and Miranda must make a choice. At what point do sisterly bonds break? And how far should one sister go to save the other from herself?
Out January 16
Neon In Daylight
By Hermione Hoby
Set in the dog days of an unbearable heat wave in New York City, the story follows Kate, a young Englishwoman cat sitting in Manhattan, while also trying to figure out her future. She has a boyfriend back home, but her love affair with the city is starting to swirl: The siren song of crowded club and bars are irresistible — as are two strangers who will change the course of her life forever.
Out January 9
Red Clocks
Leni Zumas
Imagine it: Abortion has become illegal once again in America. Doctors are banned from performing in-vitro fertilisation. A Personhood Amendment has endowed embryos with the right liberty, the pursuit of happiness, and above all else, life. In a small Oregon town, five women are forced to navigate the confines of this new world, in a novel that is like The Handmaid's Tale for the new millennium; that will terrify you and also lays bare the strength and resilience of women.
Out January 16
The Milk Lady of Bangalore: An Unexpected Adventure
By Shoba Narayan
Narayan, a writer and cookbook author, lived in Manhattan for years, but when she moves back to Bangalore to be with her family she finds herself suddenly befriending the "milk lady," who sells her fresh dairy every day. The two bond, and eventually Narayan agrees to buy her friend a brand new cow — so they set off together looking for the perfect one. This lovely, lighthearted novel is a journey through cultural mores and female friendship, as well as a look at the spiritual and historical part that cows play in India; it's an easy read that you can't help but love.
Out January 23
Our Lady of the Prairie
By Thisbe Nessen
Phillipa Maakestad barely recognises her life anymore. A long-married professor, she finds herself having fallen for a colleague; when she returns from a teaching stint in Ohio to Iowa, she's thrust into the mix of her daughter's madcap wedding — complete with a maniac mother-in-law, a (soon-t0-be ex) husband who wants his revenge, and a literal tornado on top of everything else. So how does Phillipa make it through? By burning. Shit. Down. Brazen, sexy, and brilliant: We adored this ode to the power and might of midwestern women.
Out January 23
The Hazel Wood
By Melissa Albert
Alice is 17 and — along with her mother — has spent most of her life on the road, always trying to stay a step ahead of the bad luck that seems to follow them everywhere. But when her grandmother, a reclusive writer of frightening fairytales, dies, Alice's mother vanishes, stolen away by a one of the fairytale villains and taken to the the cruel supernatural world where those stories are set. To get her back, Alice is forced to seek out her grandmother's cultish fans and venture to the family manor, where she learns that the twisted roots go deeper than she ever would have known.
Out January 30
Flight Season
By Marie Marquardt
The first time TJ Carvalho met Vivi Flannigan was the only time that she'd completely lost control of her life — and she wants to forget all about it. But when Vivi returns home during her first year of college and they both wind up working in the heart ward of a university hospital, the pair is forced together whether they like it or not. Their task: Keeping an eye on Ángel, a feisty patient in their hospital hall. But it turns out Vivi and TJ have much more to learn from the dying man than they ever could have imagined.
Out February 20
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It's Lit: Naomi Shimada's Reading List