The 21 Best Books to Read This November Adam Rathe, Emily BurackNovember 2, 2025 at 7:00 PM 0 The 21 Best Books to Read This November Courtesy "Hearst Magazines and Yahoo may earn commission or revenue on some items through these links." This month, pile your nightstand with a debut novel from a Pulitzer Prizewinning playwright, a treatise on fashion from a First Lady, a deep dive into the mind of an art thief, a memoir from a media macher, and so much more. There are T&C's picks for the best books of November 2025.
- - The 21 Best Books to Read This November
Adam Rathe, Emily BurackNovember 2, 2025 at 7:00 PM
0
The 21 Best Books to Read This November Courtesy
"Hearst Magazines and Yahoo may earn commission or revenue on some items through these links."
This month, pile your nightstand with a debut novel from a Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, a treatise on fashion from a First Lady, a deep dive into the mind of an art thief, a memoir from a media macher, and so much more. There are T&C's picks for the best books of November 2025.
Palaver
Bryan Washington, the author of Memorial and Family Meal, is back this fall with another tender story of found family. The story follows an unnamed, estranged mother and son. From Texas, the son moved to Tokyo and is now navigating a confusing relationship with a man who is married to a woman. When his mother suddenly shows up in Japan, the two are thrust together for the first time in years, and have to learn to coexist and start to mend their deeply fractured relationship. Washington's prose is as beautiful and emotional as ever.
at amazon.com
Cursed Daughters
Oyinkan Braithwaite's follow up to her debut My Sister, the Serial Killer is another look at the familial bonds of women—in a very different tone and story. When Ebun gives birth to her daughter, Eniiyi, on the day her cousin, Monife, is buried, her family believes that Eniiyi is the reincarnation of the late Monife. As Eniiyi grows up, she tries to shake the family's belief that she is fated to follow in Monife's shoes—and the idea that the women in their family are cursed to never be happy in love. Braithwaite's Cursed Daughters is an unforgettable tale of three generations of women, set in modern day Lagos.
at amazon.com
The White Hot
At the start of The White Hot, April Soto, a young mother, buys a ticket to the farthest destination she can, leaving her daughter, Noelle, behind. 26-year-old April writes a letter to her 10-year-old, explaining why she did what she did, that Noelle is meant to read when she turns 18. Quiara Alegría Hudes is the Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright of Water by the Spoonful and the musical In the Heights, and her debut novel is another profound emotional knockout.
at amazon.com
The Stolen Crown: Treachery, Deceit, and the Death of the Tudor Dynasty
Tudor historian Tracy Borman is back with The Stolen Crown, looking at the end of Queen Elizabeth I's reign and her unwillingness to name a successor. Drawing on new evidence, Borman writes that Elizabeth actually never indicated James VI of Scotland was her chosen heir, despite her first biographer, William Camden, writing that she did on her deathbed. This book serves as a fascinating look at Tudor history.
at amazon.com
The Ferryman and His Wife
In this quiet, contemplative novel by Frode Grytten (translated from the Norwegian by Alison McCullough), a ferryman named Nils wakes up and knows it's his final day alive. He sets out to take one last journey across the fjord, and is greeted by the passengers who he has ferried over the years. It's a beautiful look at the end of a life, and Nils calls to mind the mythological ferrymen who carry dead souls to the underworld.
at amazon.com
The Look
Michelle Obama's fashion choices during her tenure as First Lady was endlessly scrutinized. "For a while now, I've been wanting to reclaim more of that story, to share it in my own way," she wrote. "I'm thankful to be at a stage in life where I feel comfortable expressing myself freely — wearing what I love and doing what feels true to me. And I'm excited to share some of what I've learned along the way." In The Look, she writes about her "lifelong journey with fashion, hair, and beauty" with input from her stylist Meredith Koop; makeup makeup artist Carl Ray; hairstylists Yene Damtew, Johnny Wright, and Njeri Radway; and many of the designers who dressed her over the years.
at amazon.com
Simply More
From the outside, it might appear that Cynthia Erivo never misses. After all, she's an Emmy, Grammy, and Tony winner, an Oscar nominee, and in the coming months she'll appear on screen in the second part of the film behemoth Wicked and on stage in the West End in a one-person Dracula. But not everything always goes her way; in this new collection of personal stories, Erivo shares how the challenges she's faced personally and professionally haven't hindered her, but instead have helped her grow into the person she is today.
at amazon.com
Without Consent
In 1978, Greta Rideout became the first woman in United States history to accuse her husband of rape. She lost, and her husband was acquitted, but Greta soon became thrust into a national debate. That little-remembered trial is the subject of Sarah Weinman's newest book, Without Consent, which chronicles the fight to make spousal rape a crime. Weinman, author of Scoundrel and The Real Lolita, and a writer for the New York Times book review, brings her signature storytelling and thorough reporting to the subject.
at amazon.com
The Dinner Party
Franca left the Netherlands behind to start a new life in England, but soon finds herself entangled with Andrew, a posh British man. One night, Andrew asks Franca to host a dinner party for his colleagues to celebrate a big launch—and everything goes wrong. Told in two timelines: Franca talking to her therapist, and that dinner party, it's a can't-put-down tale of female rage and body autonomy.
at amazon.com
Town & Country
We would never choose a book on its title alone, but this debut novel from T&C contributor Brian Schaefer certainly has a good one. Beyond that, Schaefer's novel captures a six-month period in Griffin, a rural town that's become a hot spot for second homes among a monied set of city folks—including Paul Banks, a newcomer who's running for a congressional seat in the area against a local. The race unearths tensions—regarding money, power, love, and real estate—that even the residents might not have realized were simmering, but that readers won't be able to ignore.
at amazon.com
The Rembrandt Heist
T&C just can't resist a good caper, and this tale of the 1975 theft of Rembrandt's Portrait of Elsbeth van Rijn from the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston doesn't disappoint. Anthony Amore's book gets up close and personal with Myles Connor, a seasoned art thief who was half of the duo that plucked the piece off the museum wall, and delving into the stranger-than-fiction back story of how and why he ended up at the center of one of the art world's darkest moments.
at amazon.com
Unplugged: Adventures from MTV to Timbuktu
The latest in a recent run of must-read memoirs from media moguls, this book by MTV co-founder Tom Freston shares the story of how a peripatetic young man became one of the world's most influential creative thinkers, and the surprising lessons a career that went from bars to boardrooms taught him.
at amazon.com
Lightbreakers
On its surface, the idea of time travel sounds fantastic, but when it becomes an actual possibility for Maya and Noah, the couple—both of whom have significant heartbreak in their pasts—at the center of Aja Gabel's latest novel, it's more complicated than either would have imagined. Chloe Benjamin says, "Compassionate and prismatic, an intellectual adventure as well as a deeply human meditation on memory, family, and reinvention. Aja Gabel's second novel is my favorite kind: soulful science fiction that speaks to the mind as well as the heart."
at amazon.com
The Silver Book
The 1975 murder of the Italian filmmaker Pier Paolo Pasolini has never been solved, but in this new book from Olivia Laing imagines the world where Pasolini and his peers are breathing new life into Italian film—and where two new arrivals to Venice find both an unexpected romance and also some very dangerous secrets. The gripping novel is a love letter to cinema and also a thriller set among some of its most important and mysterious real-life characters.
at amazon.com
From Louis to Vuitton
The history of Louis Vuitton—the brand and the man—are given great consideration in this 400-plus-page hardcover that tells the story of how a teenage boy left home for Paris and went on to found one of the world's most visible companies. Along the way, the book also delves into the people and ideas that have nurtured the incredible growth Louis Vuitton has seen since its founding in 1854, and the way it has adapted to both stay relentless modern and never lose touch with its history.
Bread of Angels
Patti Smith knows something about writing a memoir; the rock legend won a National Book Award for her 2010 autobiography Just Kids, which told the story of her relationship with Robert Mapplethorpe. Her latest, Bread of Angels, takes a longer view, covering her childhood and teenage years as well as her life as a wife and mother—all with her incomparable style. For so many of us, Smith's music has been the soundtrack of our lives, but. it remains a distinct treat to read about her own with the style, vulnerability, and humor that makes all her work unforgettable
at amazon.com
We Did OK, Kid
We're all familiar with Anthony Hopkins the actor, the knight, the screen legend. Who we're less acquainted with is Anthony Hopkins the man. In this memoir, the Oscar winner discussed his life on screen but also doesn't hold back about his childhood, his road to stardom, his tribulations on-screen and off, and the charmed, challenging life that he's lived.
at amazon.com
The Eleventh Hour
A collection of five new stories from one of the most lauded authors of our time, The Eleventh Hour tells tales of characters all dealing, in some way, with the final moments of life—from potentially faked suicides to unexpected private experiences amidst larger catastrophes. Could it be morbid? Perhaps. But it's also among our most anticipated reads of the season.
at amazon.com
Degas at the Gas Station
A new collection of essays from T&C contributor Thomas Beller looks closely at the moments—the random, quotidian, and huge ones alike—that shape the rest of our lives. Throughout the book, Beller considers his experiences with fatherhood, interrogates the loss of his own father, and ponders all manner of sliding-door moments that can change lives forever. Phillip Lopate blurbs, "Thomas Beller writes with wit, irony, skepticism, and brio. Degas at the Gas Station is one of the finest collections of personal essays I have seen in a long while."
at amazon.com
Reflections: On Cinematography
Over his long and storied career, cinematographer Roger Deakins has worked on films including The Shawshank Redemption, Skyfall, and O Brother, Where Art Thou? Here, the two-time Oscar winner shares not only the story of how he became one of the most respected artists in film, but also—buckle up, movie nerds!—includes sketches and storyboards from some of his most beloved projects.
at amazon.com
Troublemaker: The Fierce, Unruly Life of Jessica Mitford
For any Mitford fanatic, there's never been a shortage of works to read by Jessica ("Decca") Mitford, who covered her unusual upbringing in the memoir Hons and Rebels and brilliantly tackled the funeral industry in the The American Way of Death. Now, there's finally something to read about Decca, who ran away from home to marry a Communist cousin, who found herself on the front lines of the Spanish Civil War, and who moved to America (the horror!) to become a writer and activist. Time magazine called her "Queen of the Muckrakers," and here biographer Carla Kaplan dives deep into her life and offers a long overdue tome dedicated to putting Decca front and center.
at amazon.com
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Published: November 02, 2025 at 05:10PM on Source: JAST MAG
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