The New Historical Fiction You Need
Welcome to The Best of Book Riot, our daily round-up of what’s on offer across our site, newsletters, podcasts, and social channels. Not everything is for everyone, but there is something for everyone.
Great New Historical Fiction for May
In addition to famous authors, May is also bringing us a book about Sweeney Todd’s infamous partner-in-crime, Mrs. Lovett, a sweeping historical tale about a family who gain supernatural abilities from a deal with the devil, and stories set in the dark underbellies of London and Portland. From dark to uplifting, these new historical fiction books give you your pick. So go on, venture back through the decades and centuries into these stories of yore, where the history isn’t just taking place in the past, but very much still with us in the present.
Books to Read If You Loved the Movie Sinners
By the time I saw Ryan Coogler’s Sinners last week, it felt like I was already behind. The movie seemed to take hold of moviegoers’ attention as soon as it was released—though this didn’t come without a bit of oddly disparaging framing by certain outlets. Still, the movie has been on everyone’s minds, with many people reporting seeing it two or three times in theaters. Unsurprisingly, this also means there have been a number of think pieces and, yes, book lists. I tried my best to avoid these before seeing the movie myself so that I could form my own opinion.
I have to say that, even with its more extravagant and fantastical elements, I was able to slip into a familiarity that I later realized was courtesy of my southern upbringing, despite not having lived in the region for more than 10 years. I’ve gathered a group of books that each touch on the major themes and feelings in Sinners. They are, at times, grotesque, celebratory, ancestral, and spiritual—all evocative of the South.
New YA Book Releases This Week, May 7, 2025
pril’s book showers have, without question, brought up a whole host of May book flowers. If you’ve been thinking this spring’s YA publishing season has been quiet, then this week certainly shows otherwise. There is something here this week for every kind of reader, and readers who have been itching for even more LGBTQ+ YA books will be especially delighted by the array hitting shelves this week.
Grab your TBR and get ready to fill it out with some of this week’s best new releases.
The Best Adaptations To Stream Right Now
These are recent favorite series and films that are currently streaming that I’ve really enjoyed and are inspired by/adapted from books. I aimed for a lot of viewing and reading moods: there’s a fun mystery with a lot of behind-the-scenes details on how The White House runs, a dark humored and fast moving spy thriller series, a magical realism family drama, a sports drama film based on a nonfiction title following a Navajo basketball team, and more.
This is the Juiciest, Wildest Story of the Year
I don’t care that we’re not even halfway through a most upside-down, harrowing, bizarro-world year. I’m ready to call the book I’m talking about today the wildest ride of 2025. It’s rare that I come across a book as incendiary as everyone claims it is, but it happened. I was planning to read this whistleblower memoir after learning that an emergency ruling prohibited its author from promoting the book–it shot to the top of the New York Times bestseller list anyway, so, yeah…methinks that lawsuit backfired–but I stopped everything to bump it to the top of my reading list when my friend said she needed to talk with someone about the unbelievable shark story that opens the book. Now how could I resist such a baffling and exciting invitation?
