Every month, we’re profiling new-ish releases that are getting critical and commercial buzz. For November, we’re looking at rich people behaving badly, a heated tribal election on a Anishinaabe reservation, the humorous tale of an obituary writer falsely declared deceased, new science fiction and fantasy releases, a novel on audiobook about the infamous Virginia Hill, a history of the Cherokee Nation, and nonfiction about Rogers, Arkansas, just the next county over.
If you enjoy contemporary fiction:
Renée Ahdieh’s Park Avenue (2025)
Ahdieh is best known for her YA fantasy series, but her first adult novel, Park Avenue, pivots to an entirely new focus, which has been billed as “Crazy Rich Asians meets Succession.”
Jia is a young junior partner at an exclusive New York City law firm who’s selected to handle the nasty suit the Park siblings are bringing against their makeup mogul father. Jia knows the firm picked her to represent the family because of their shared Korean heritage, but she quickly finds herself caught in the middle of a convoluted and heated family feud. The siblings accuse their father of hiding assets from their dying mother, whom he’s divorcing, and the situation devolves rapidly from there.
Recommended for fans of the work of Kevin Kwan.
If you want literary fiction:
Jon Hickey’s Big Chief (2025)
Like Park Avenue, Big Chief also focuses on a young attorney, though this time billed as “There, There meets The Night Watchman.” This young attorney in question is Micah Caddo. His childhood friend Mack, who’s president of their Anishinaabe reservation, selected him to help run the tribal government and their casino. However, on the brink of Mack’s reelection, Layla, Mack’s estranged sister and Micah’s former girlfriend, and her boss, a well-known activist, emerge as a particularly effective opponent. Complications ensue.
Recommended for fans of the work of Tommy Orange and Louise Erdrich.
If you like heartfelt comedy:
John Kenney’s I See You’ve Called in Dead (2025)*
Bud Stanley is trapped in a peculiar form of stasis. His wife has left him, and his job writing obituaries is a dead end, pardon the most intentional pun. One night in a drunken moment of despair, he writes and publishes his own obituary, which would prompt his firing except the company has a policy about not firing deceased employees. Now in another form of strange limbo, Bud starts to learn how to live again . . . by attending other people’s funerals.
Recommended for fans of the work of Fredrik Backman.
*Audiobook also available in Hoopla.
If you prefer science fiction and fantasy:
Ray Nayler’s Where The Axe is Buried (2025)
In this unusual dystopian science fiction espionage thriller, the Federation–a future Russia–and the rest of Europe are ruled by disturbing artificial entities. Western Europe gets the AI-generated prime ministers, while the Federation has an eternal president, whose mind is downloaded into new bodies as needed. Two Russian revolutionaries are determined to stop him, which is easier said than done.
Recommended for fans of the work of John Scalzi, Adrian Tchaikovsky, and Arkady Martine.
Louis Sacher’s The Magician of Tiger Castle (2025)
Just as Ahdieh is best known for her YA fantasy, Louis Sacher is also best known for his children’s books. But his latest is an adult fantasy. In it, Princess Tullia must marry the hated prince of a rival country to save her beloved kingdom of Esquaveta. Tullia, however, loves a lowly scribe instead, and her frustrated father turns to her only other ally at court, a disgraced magician named Anatole, with instructions for him to concoct a potion that will make Tullia comply with the arranged marriage.
Anatole knows that making a successful potion will assure the kingdom’s survival and also give his career a badly needed boost, but to do so, he must betray Tullia, whom he adores and wants to protect. Decisions, decisions. . . .
Recommended for fans of the work of Heather Fawcett.
If you need an audiobook:
Erin Bledsoe’s Mob Queen (2025)
Virginia Hill has gone down in history best-known as vicious mobster Bugsy Siegel’s mistress, but this new novel gives Virginia center stage as it explores her rise in the 1930s crime world after arriving in Chicago from Georgia. She is initially helped by a fellow waitress named Madeline, but after her friend mysteriously disappears, Virginia is determined to find her as she also navigates her own ascent in the Chicago underworld.
Recommended for fans of Dennis Lehane’s historical fiction.
If you love nonfiction:
David Narrett’s The Cherokees: in War and at Peace, 1670-1840 (2025)
This history of the Cherokee Nation, written by a history professor at the University of Texas, concentrates on the approximately 150 years of tribal history from initial contact with Europeans to the Trail of Tears removal. Narrett is particularly interested in personal narratives and the interplay between the Cherokee and other tribes, as well as with white settlers.
Recommended for fans of the work of Pekka Hamalainen and Peter Cozzens.
Marilyn Harris Collins’s Rogers: The Town the Frisco Built (2002)
This compact photo-filled book details the history of Rogers, Arkansas, just across the border in Benton County. As is true of many towns in the late 1800s, Rogers developed as a result of the railroad, and the book traces that history, as well as other facets of its history through the decades. It also profiles famous folks with a connection to Rogers, ranging from the railroad general manager it was named after to humorist Will Rogers’s wife Betty Blake, who grew up in the town.
Recommended for any fan of Arkansas and/or Ozark history.
What’s your favorite new-ish books? What books are you buzzing about for 2025? Have you read any of these books? Tell us in the comments! As always, please follow this link to our online library catalog for more information on any of these items or to place them on hold.
Berryville Book Buzz 