It’s cold, it gets dark at 5 p.m. and I’m often tempted to just stay home, curl up under my warmest blanket and crack into a new book. From a fascinating exploration of society’s obsession with gossip to a Curtis Sittenfeld story collection that revisits her iconic character Lee Fiora (Prep), here are seven new books I can’t wait to read in February.
7 Books I Can’t Wait to Read in February
ever wondered why we’re so obsessed with gossip?
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1. The Rules of Fortune by Danielle Prescod
Selected by Mindy Kaling for Mindy’s Book Studio, writer Danielle Prescod’s debut novel (after her 2022 memoir, Token Black Girl) is, as Kaling describes it, “A gripping novel about power, money and secrets.” On their Martha’s Vineyard estate, the Carter family prepares to celebrate the 70th birthday of its billionaire patriarch. But when he dies right before the event, the media is quick to question the future of his multi-industry conglomerate, as his daughter, Kennedy, begins questioning her father’s past. An aspiring filmmaker and an outlier in an elite and fiercely guarded dynasty, Kennedy wants only to understand the origins of their empire, and the lethally ambitious man behind it—but that understanding comes at a cost. As the truth comes out, the fault lines in the family grow, and Kennedy is forced to decide what’s most important―her family’s legacy or exposing the shocking truth of how it was built.
2. No Fault: A Memoir of Romance and Divorce by Haley Mlotek
Writer and editor Haley Mlotek, whose work has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker and more, knows a lot about divorce. As a child, she listened to her twice-divorced grandmother tell stories about her “husbands,” and as a pre-teen, she answered the phones for her mother’s mediation and marriage counseling practice. She grew up with the sense that divorce was an ordeal that promised something better on the other side of something bad. But when she married—and then divorced—the man she had been with for 12 years, she had to reconsider her generation’s inherited understanding of the institution. Combining her personal story with social and literary exploration, No Fault is an honest and wry look at 21st century divorce that asks questions about what divorce should be, who it’s for and why the institution of marriage maintains its power.
3. Show Don’t Tell: Stories by Curtis Sittenfeld
Curtis Sittenfeld (Romantic Comedy, American Wife) is back with a funny and poignant collection of stories about marriage, friendship, fame and art. In “A for Alone,” a married artist works on a project about the so-called Mike Pence Rule (which suggests that women and men can’t spend time alone together without lusting after each other); while in “Lost but Not Forgotten,” Sittenfeld revisits the beloved main character of Prep, Lee Fiora, decades later, when she attends an alumni reunion at her boarding school. Witty and moving, Show Don’t Tell is Sittenfeld at her best.
4. The Snowbirds by Christina Clancy
Billed as The Last Thing He Told Me meets Fleishman Is in Trouble, this latest from Christina Clancy (The Second Home) centers on a couple fleeing winter in the Midwest for Palm Springs. Though they've been together for 30 years, Kim and Grant's partnership is at a crossroads. When they arrive at a quirky condo community, Kim immediately embraces the experience, while Grant struggles to find his footing. Then, Grant goes missing on a hike, and Kim is forced to consider whether Grant is truly lost, or this time, he’s really left her. This honest portrait of middle age asks if it's ever too late to become the person we wanted to be―and if there's still time to change into someone better.
5. This Is a Love Story by Jessica Soffer
Abe and Jane have been going to Central Park for 50 years, as young lovers, as exhausted parents, as artists watching their careers take flight. The Park has been their witness for half a century of love…until now. Jane is dying, and Abe is recounting their life together as a way of keeping them going. Told from various points of view, some even in conversation with Central Park, these stories will paint a portrait as complicated and essential as love itself. This tender novel from the author of Tomorrow There Will Be Apricots is an homage to New York City, romance and even loss; about love that endures despite what life throws at us (or maybe because of it).
6. You Didn't Hear This From Me: (Mostly) True Notes on Gossip by Kelsey McKinney
Kelsey McKinney is the host of Normal Gossip, a podcast that “delivers juicy, strange, funny and utterly banal gossip about people you’ll never know and never meet.” In her first book, McKinney mixes journalism, cultural criticism and stories from her own life to dig into our obsession with gossip. In You Didn't Hear This From Me, she explores why gossip is considered a sin, and how can we better recognize when it's being weaponized. She answers questions like: Why do we think we’re entitled to every detail of a celebrity’s personal life? And how do we define “gossip,” anyway? Funny and insightful, it attempts to explain what we're actually searching for when we demand to know the truth—and how much the truth even matters.
7. Dinner at Our Place by Shiza Shahid
If you read PureWow, you’re likely familiar with the cult favorite cookware brand Our Place. For Dinner at Our Place, the brand’s co-founder and CEO, Shiza Shahid, invited 11 pioneering tastemakers, chefs and restauranteurs to take a month and throw a dinner party for you to join. The book features more than 100 recipes and 12 specially curated dinner parties, plus playlists, mood lighting guides, plating philosophies, scripts for talking to your fishmonger and so much more. Expect a diverse array of delicious and achievable recipes, like Whole Salt-Roasted Fish, Shiso Onigiri, Chili Chocolate Sheet Cake and a Spritz’groni.