Valentine’s Day might be just around the corner, but we’re keeping our book recommendations a little more general this month. There are romance novels in our picks (Brynne Weaver’s Scythe And Sparrow is of particular note), but we’ve also got some exciting new books of cultural criticism in the mix, too. In addition to these selections, you’ll find a few more February books in our broader 2025 preview, including another romance novel and nonfiction titles about Better Call Saul and Lorne Michaels.
Pure Innocent Fun by Ira Madison III (February 4)
The title of Ira Madison III’s first book comes from a much-memed quote from NeNe Leakes on The Real Housewives Of Atlanta: “It’s unfortunate that people can change something that was just pure, innocent fun into drama.” It’s a fitting pedigree for a collection of essays from Madison, co-host of the Keep It! podcast and a longtime cultural critic at The Daily Beast, GQ, New York magazine, and more. In Pure, Innocent Fun, Madison examines the pop culture that shaped him throughout his youth as a gay Black man in Milwaukee and inspired his eventual, very successful career.
The Secret Public: How Music Moved Queer Culture From The Margins To The Mainstream by Jon Savage (February 4)
Jon Savage wrote the definitive text on punk music with his 1991 book England’s Dreaming and has parlayed that success into a career writing some of the most thoughtful music criticism of the past three decades. Savage continues that trend with The Secret Public, which examines the relationship between pop music and queer culture, beginning with Little Richard and ending with the death of disco. Queer themes were necessarily subtextual in early pop music, but Savage makes a compelling argument for their undeniable presence and influence throughout the 1950s, ’60s, and ’70s.
Shattered: A Memoir by Hanif Kureishi (February 4)
In 2022, acclaimed British-Pakistani writer Hanif Kureishi (Buddha Of Suburbia, My Beautiful Laundrette) experienced a devastating fall that left him paralyzed from the neck down. It didn’t stop him from writing, though: While in the hospital, he dictated his thoughts to his wife and sons, publishing a Substack newsletter about his experiences. Those hospital dispatches form the basis of Shattered, Kureishi’s new memoir that explores his fall, his recovery, and how he rebuilt his life in the aftermath.
Victorian Psycho by Virginia Feito (February 4)
Virginia Feito burst onto the literary scene in 2021 with her debut novel Mrs. March, displaying an uncanny ability to convey a woman’s psychological unraveling. Her second novel, Victorian Psycho, pushes even further. It does exactly what it says on the tin: Winifred Notty lands a prime gig as the Pounds family’s new governess at their palatial estate in the English countryside. Too bad the parents are vile, the children are brats, and Winifred’s got a secret violent past that she’s not doing a very good job of repressing. A24 has already snatched up the film rights with Margaret Qualley set to star.
Where Is Abbas Kiarostami? Toward A Postcolonial Film Philosophy by Hamid Dabashi (February 4)
Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival for his 1997 film Taste Of Cherry. He died in 2016, leaving behind a legacy of highly acclaimed work. In Where Is Abbas Kiarostami? Toward A Postcolonial Film Philosophy, scholar Hamid Dabashi critically examines Kiarostami’s body of work as a whole, proposing a new way of understanding Kiarostami’s films—and film philosophy in general.
People Of Means by Nancy Johnson (February 11)
In her second novel, People Of Means, Nancy Johnson tells the intersecting stories of Freda, a Black woman attending Fisk University in 1959, and her daughter, Tulip, a rising public relations star in 1992 Chicago. Both Freda and Tulip face critical moments of social change: Freda with the Jim Crow South reaching a boiling point, and Tulip with the Rodney King verdict. They must each decide how to engage with the fight for equality—and what they’re willing to put on the line for it.
Scythe And Sparrow by Brynne Weaver (February 11)
If you’re still mourning the loss of BookTok, Brynne Weaver’s latest book will probably only amplify your grief. Scythe And Sparrow is the final novel in the Ruinous Love trilogy; the first two, Butcher And Blackbird and Leather And Lark, were TikTok sensations as readers pored over the delicious, ludicrous premises and plot twists. In the final entry, doctor Fionn Kane is trying to start over in small-town Nebraska after his relationship in Boston falls apart. Rose Evans, a motorcycle stunt performer at a traveling circus, is just looking to let off some steam with a quick murder before getting the hell out of dodge, but she ends up with a broken leg instead. As Fionn nurses her back to health, the two become entangled in a dark romance.
The Garden by Nick Newman (February 18)
In Nick Newman’s adult fiction debut (he writes children’s books under the name Nicholas Bowling), two sisters live in an isolated garden. They don’t know anything outside its walls; they have only ever known each other and the plants they tend. But when they find a boy hiding inside their sanctuary, they must confront the world outside for the first time.
Death Takes Me by Cristina Rivera Garza (February 25)
We’ve only been catching up to the brilliance of Cristina Rivera Garza in the U.S. over the past few years, but she’s been a literary sensation in her native Mexico for decades. English translations of her past works are few and far between, but hopefully that will change soon, given that her 2023 memoir, Liliana’s Invincible Summer: A Sister’s Search For Justice, won the Pulitzer Prize for Memoir or Autobiography, bringing her international recognition. But even if her archives are slower to get translations, at least we’re getting her latest novel, Death Takes Me, in a timely manner. The book follows a professor—named Cristina Rivera Garza, in a meta twist—who discovers a man’s mutilated corpse and finds herself entangled in the police investigation of a serial killer obsessed with poetry.
The Talent by Daniel D’Addario (February 25)
In his debut novel, Daniel D’Addario, a chief correspondent at Variety, takes aim at the industry he’s spent years covering. The Talent follows five actresses nominated for the biggest award of the year as they navigate their own professional ambitions while also reckoning with what they owe each other. The sudden spotlight from their nominations forces each of them to do some serious self-reflection, leading to uncomfortable revelations and existential questions about the nature of fame.