The hottest new books of the past two years, ranked by how fast readers are picking them up, with the numbers behind each one.
The Rising chart is for new books: only books published in the past two years that readers are talking about and picking up fast. We show only the books that clear the bar, so the list can be shorter than 50.
It is separate from our Top 100, which covers the books readers love and keep coming back to, new and old, from classics to current favorites.
Looking for the best of a specific year? See Best books by year.
Showing all 30 books
Suzanne Collins · 2025
As the fiftieth Hunger Games dawns, the Quarter Quell brings twice as many tributes from the districts. Back in District 12, Haymitch Abernathy faces the Games that will shape him.
Why it’s rising: Its Wikipedia page had 102,912 views last month, up 59% on the two months before; 914 readers have shelved it on Open Library since 2025; 31 are reading it right now.
Best for: Hunger Games fans who want the story behind Haymitch.
Rebecca Yarros · 2025
After nearly eighteen months at Basgiath War College, Violet Sorrengail knows the lessons are over and the battle has truly begun. With enemies closing in from outside the walls, she has to decide how far she will go.
Why it’s here: Its Wikipedia page had 19,128 views last month; 1,032 readers have shelved it on Open Library since 2025; 61 are reading it right now.
Best for: Romantasy readers following the Empyrean series.
Jeff Kinney · 2025
Why it’s here: Its Wikipedia page had 3,813 views last month; 953 readers have shelved it on Open Library since 2025; 68 are reading it right now.
Dan Brown · 2025
Symbologist Robert Langdon travels to Prague for a groundbreaking lecture by Katherine Solomon, a noetic scientist he has recently begun a relationship with. Her research is on the verge of a discovery that sets the story in motion.
Why it’s here: Its Wikipedia page had 26,285 views last month; 113 readers have shelved it on Open Library since 2025.
Best for: Fans of Robert Langdon puzzles and fast-paced thrillers.
Kathryn Stockett · 2026
Set in Oxford, Mississippi in 1933, the story follows eleven-year-old Meg Lefleur, abandoned by her mother one Christmas Eve. One of the unadoptable older girls at the county orphan asylum, she has learned to rely on no one.
Why it’s rising: Its Wikipedia page had 46,709 views last month, up 54% on the two months before.
Best for: Readers of Southern historical fiction with a young heroine.
Charles Spencer, Earl Spencer · 2026
Charles Spencer tells the life and death of his sister Diana, from what it was like growing up with her to the years that followed. It is a family memoir written by the person who knew her longest.
Why it’s rising: Its Wikipedia page had 32,631 views last month, up 300% on the two months before.
Best for: Readers who want a personal, family-side view of Princess Diana.
Freida McFadden · 2026
Debbie Mullen has spent years giving advice to the wives of New England in her column, Dear Debbie. Now she is losing it, and enough is enough.
Why it’s rising: Its Wikipedia page had 3,642 views last month, up 300% on the two months before.
Best for: Readers who like domestic thrillers with a dark edge.
Mel Robbins · 2024
Mel Robbins argues that the key to happiness, success and love can be as simple as two words. If you feel stuck or frustrated, she says the problem is the power you give to other people.
Why it’s here: 1,882 readers have shelved it on Open Library since 2024; 93 are reading it right now.
Best for: Anyone feeling stuck who wants a short, practical mindset idea.
SenLinYu · 2025
The war is over and Holdfast is dead, but Helena Marino, once a promising alchemist, is still being pressed about what she is protecting in her mind. A dark fantasy built around memory and survival after conflict.
Why it’s here: Its Wikipedia page had 18,912 views last month; 272 readers have shelved it on Open Library since 2025.
Best for: Dark fantasy readers who like slow reveals.
Rachel Gillig · 2025
Sybil Delling spent nine years in a great cathedral as a Diviner, a foundling girl who receives visions in her dreams, wishing for no dreams at all. Her service is nearly done, and the visions are not finished with her.
Why it’s rising: Its Wikipedia page had 9,166 views last month, up 77% on the two months before.
Best for: Readers who like gothic, atmospheric fantasy.
Deblina Bhattacharya · 2024
Why it’s here: 2,394 readers have shelved it on Open Library since 2024; 249 are reading it right now.
Shobhit Nirwan · 2025
Why it’s here: 614 readers have shelved it on Open Library since 2025; 77 are reading it right now.
Lauren Roberts · 2025
Paedyn and Kai are reunited but face a terrible decision in the conclusion to this romantic fantasy trilogy. It is pitched to fans of Sarah J. Maas and The Red Queen.
Why it’s here: 508 readers have shelved it on Open Library since 2025; 27 are reading it right now.
Best for: Readers finishing the Fearless trilogy or who like romantic fantasy.
Yuval Noah Harari · 2024
From the author of Sapiens, a history of how information networks have shaped and reshaped our world. Harari asks what the power gathered over 100,000 years means for the age of new technology.
Why it’s here: 306 readers have shelved it on Open Library since 2024.
Best for: Readers who want a big-picture look at information, power and technology.
C. G. Drews · 2024
Andrew Perrault is a high school senior who once gave his heart to a boy named Thomas and would protect him, lie for him and kill for him. A dark retelling-style romance with a fairy-tale feel.
Why it’s rising: 111 readers have shelved it on Open Library since 2024.
Best for: Young adult readers who like dark, emotional romance.
Shrijeet Shandilya · 2024
Three college friends are bound by laughter, late-night talks and unspoken promises. When two of them cross the line from friendship into love, betrayal changes everything.
Why it’s here: 3,740 readers have shelved it on Open Library since 2024; 438 are reading it right now.
Best for: Readers of campus love stories about friendship and heartbreak.
Ana Huang · 2024
Xavier Castillo is charming, easygoing and rich beyond belief, with no interest in taking over his family's empire. He has never wanted anyone enough to chase them, until he meets her.
Why it’s here: 773 readers have shelved it on Open Library since 2024; 33 are reading it right now.
Best for: Contemporary romance readers who like the Kings of Sin series.
Ana Huang · 2024
Asher Donovan is a living legend of the Premier League, arguably the greatest footballer in the world, but his reckless antics and a recent transfer are testing him. She is the only woman he wants and the only one he cannot have.
Why it’s here: 352 readers have shelved it on Open Library since 2024; 27 are reading it right now.
Best for: Sports romance fans who like forbidden-love plots.
Emily St. John Mandel · 2026
Los Angeles, 2031: the first spring after the collapse of the United States, peacekeeping troops withdraw and the curfew is finally lifted. Ari Waker and her roommate step into a city finding out what comes next.
Why it’s rising: Its Wikipedia page had 7,996 views last month, up 100% on the two months before.
Best for: Readers who like literary near-future fiction.
R. F. Kuang · 2025
Alice Law has given everything to succeed as a doctoral student in analytical magic at Cambridge, including her energy, time and mental health. The title refers to a hero's descent into the underworld.
Why it’s here: Its Wikipedia page had 15,412 views last month.
Best for: Readers who like dark academia mixed with fantasy.
Elizabeth Strout · 2026
Artie Dam is living a double life. By day he teaches history to eleventh graders and lends a kind word to those who need it, while another part of his life stays hidden.
Why it’s here: Its Wikipedia page had 28,251 views last month.
Best for: Readers who like quiet, character-driven literary fiction.
Douglas Stuart · 2026
Out of money and with little to show for art school, John-Calum Macleod takes the ferry home to the Isle of Harris in the Outer Hebrides. Little has changed there except for him.
Why it’s here: Its Wikipedia page had 22,266 views last month.
Best for: Readers who like novels about home, class and belonging.
Jennette McCurdy · 2026
From the author of I'm Glad My Mom Died, a sad, funny, thrilling novel about sex, consumerism, class, desire, loneliness, the internet, rage, intimacy and power.
Why it’s here: Its Wikipedia page had 18,748 views last month.
Best for: Readers who like sharp, darkly funny novels about modern life.
M. John Harrison · 2026
Phillip Tennent makes his living at the tideline, collecting artefacts that wash up from the Channel. Years after a crisis whose exact nature remains obscure, government barely functions and the seas are changing.
Why it’s rising: Its Wikipedia page had 6,197 views last month, up 246% on the two months before.
Best for: Readers who like strange, atmospheric speculative fiction.
Callie Hart · 2024
Twenty-four-year-old Saeris Fane is good at keeping secrets, including strange powers she has and the stealing she has done from the Undying Queen's reservoirs. Her secrets are about to be tested.
Why it’s here: 120 readers have shelved it on Open Library since 2024.
Best for: Romantasy readers who like a thief heroine.
Kaveh Akbar · 2024
Cyrus Shams is lost. Newly sober and still grappling with his mother's death when her plane was shot down over the Persian Gulf, he sets out to learn the truth of her life.
Why it’s here: Its Wikipedia page had 13,415 views last month.
Best for: Readers who like inventive, emotional literary novels.
Freida McFadden · 2024
Eve has a good life: she teaches math at the local high school and kisses her husband Nate each morning. But last year Caseham High was rocked by a scandal, and the first lesson is to trust no one.
Why it’s here: 248 readers have shelved it on Open Library since 2024.
Best for: Thriller readers who like twisty, short chapters.
Matt Dinniman · 2026
New Sonoran colonist Oliver Lewis just wants to run the family ranch and keep their aging fleet of intelligent agriculture bots going. Then the colossal Apex Corporation is hired to carry out an eviction.
Why it’s here: Its Wikipedia page had 11,844 views last month.
Best for: Readers who like funny, action-heavy science fiction.
Uketsu · 2021
A Japanese mystery bestseller from YouTube sensation Uketsu, built around a series of unsettling floorplans where the reader plays the detective. A windowless room on one plan hints at something hideous.
Why it’s here: Its Wikipedia page had 2,802 views last month; 153 readers have shelved it on Open Library since 2025.
Best for: Mystery readers who like puzzles and a different kind of whodunit.
Robert Jackson Bennett · 2024
A 2024 fantasy murder mystery and the first book in the Shadow of the Leviathan series. It won the 2025 Hugo Award for Best Novel.
Why it’s here: Its Wikipedia page had 17,679 views last month.
Best for: Readers who like fantasy mixed with detective stories.
The Rising chart answers one question: which new books are readers discovering right now? It is built separately from the Top 100 because new books need different measures. A book published this year has not had time to build up years of readers.
A book must have been published in the past 24 months, judged by its exact publication date. Books age out one month at a time, never all at once on January 1. A book from three or four years ago may be popular, and it can appear in the Top 100, but it is not a new book and it is not on this chart.
We look at the most-shelved recent books on Open Library, and at every book Wikipedia lists in its 2025 and 2026 novel, non-fiction and children’s book categories that people looked up last month. Each is matched to a real book record with a cover.
Each candidate gets a Rising score from 0 to 100, a weighted blend of six signals:
| Signal | Weight | What it captures |
|---|---|---|
| Reader pace | 28% | How many readers the book has gathered on Open Library for each month since it came out. |
| Buzz | 24% | How many people looked up the book on Wikipedia last month, compared with the other new books. |
| Growth | 18% | Whether that Wikipedia attention is climbing against the two months before. Flat or falling scores zero. |
| Being read right now | 12% | How many Open Library readers are in the middle of it. |
| Reader love | 10% | Average reader rating, adjusted so a few ratings cannot inflate it. |
| Newness | 8% | A small boost for books under six months old, easing off to two years. |
To make the chart, a book needs a score of at least 40, real reader activity (at least 100 Open Library readers or 3,000 Wikipedia views last month), and evidence of rising interest. A book whose Wikipedia attention fell by more than 20% is cooling and is left out. No author appears more than twice. We never pad the list: if fewer than 50 books qualify, the chart is shorter. This month 30 qualified.
Rising means Wikipedia attention is up 25% or more on the two months before. Holding strong means it is steady. New and popular means the book has no Wikipedia page yet, so it is ranked on reader activity alone and we make no claim about its direction.
Descriptions are written from real source text (Open Library and Wikipedia) and reviewed. The “why it’s rising” line is built directly from the numbers, never guessed.
Updated on the 1st of every month. Wikipedia views measure curiosity, which news, awards and adaptations can boost, and Open Library counts lag for brand-new books. Rankings reflect reading interest, not quality or sales, and can be affected by data gaps. Looking for classics and long-time favorites too? See the Top 100.
Add what you have read, rate it, and BookWard will recommend what to read next, new releases included.
Free while in beta. No credit card needed.
