If you’re looking for something to preorder while you wait for A Court of Splintered Harmony to hit next month, Funko has introduced a POP! collection of ACOTAR figurines that includes Amarantha, Rhysand, Lucien, and Tamlin (in beast form) (she writes, as if she knows what any of those words mean). They’re available for preorder now at $14.99 a pop (see what I did there) in case you need a little treat.
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THE HEADLINENetflix’s East of Eden is“I believe there are monsters born in this world to human parents,” begins the trailer for Zoe Kazan’s adaptation of East of Eden, which looks freaking incredible.
- The monster of Steinbeck’s epic multigenerational saga is Cathy Ames, played by Florence Pugh in the seven-episode limited series coming to Netflix October 1.
Pugh leads an all-star cast that includes Tracy Letts as patriarch Cyrus Trask and Mike Faist and Christopher Abbott as his sons, Charles and Adam.
- Joe Anders and Joseph Zada appear as Adam’s sons, Aron and Cal.
- Hoon Lee plays the Trask family’s servant and moral compass, Lee.
Novelist Alexander Chee stepped in to write an episode focused on Lee, who was omitted from the 1955 adaptation directed by Kazan’s grandfather, the legendary Elia Kazan.
- While the original film abridged major elements of the text, it was a box office smash and is credited with launching James Dean into movie stardom.
If you’ve been waiting to read or revisit this beloved classic, the time to hesitate is through. Join our Zero to Well-Read guided read-along, kicking off next week. — RJS
TRENDINGThe It Books of September 2026It’s been a minute since we had a fall so loaded with big names and highly anticipated releases. The only problem is that it made our highly scientific vibes-based assessment of the It Books of the month damn near impossible.
The ideal It Book rings four bells:
-  Zeitgeist – What’s the buzz?
-  Art – Is it good?
-  Acclaim – Will it contend for awards and best-of lists?
-  Sales – Where’s the money?
This month’s contenders include an epic-in-every-sense novel being hailed as a modern masterpiece, a beloved YA author’s adult debut, the kickoff of a new series with dark academia vibes from the author of Practical Magic, and more.
Listen as we play a knockout round to crown the It Book of September.
NEW BOOKSThe best way to keep up with upcoming booksA flood of new books clamoring for a spot on your TBR comes out every month, and with so many competing for your attention, it’s easy to lose track of the ones you’re most excited about. And often, you just end up hearing about the titles with the biggest marketing budgets.
So, how do you keep up with new releases without it spiraling into a part-time job of catalog reviews and spreadsheets? That’s where the New Release Index comes in.
The New Release Index is a database of upcoming books, curated by Book Riot. It’s organized by release date, and you can filter by genre. Above is a sneak peek of some of the new releases out this week.
Here’s how it works: scroll through the covers until you find one that catches your eye. Click on the cover for the book description, and then save the titles you’re interested in on your Watchlist.
The best part is that the New Release Index is included in your All Access subscription. For $6 a month, you not only get the New Release Index, but also all of Book Riot’s paid content. For a limited time, get 15% off an annual membership to celebrate Book Riot’s 15th anniversary!
Sign up for All Access to get started, or you can check out our guide to the New Release Index for more information.
You may or may not know that Pokemon cards are in full Dutch tulip mode right now. One of the results is that stores have had trouble managing demand and securing stock. Enter the Pokemon card vending machine, which is in both of my local grocery stores (one of them has two!).Â
I have long wondered why book vending machines haven’t ever become a thing. There have been some educational/nonprofit uses, but straight-up cash-making versions? Never seen one, until I saw this story about book vending machines in a Tampa mall. Pretty straightforward: you agree to have one of these things in a store, hotel, whatever, and you get some portion of the sales. You don’t have to manage it, just put it somewhere and plug it in. Based on Got Books’ IG profile and website, I don’t think there are a ton of these out there (maybe even just a handful). But there should be more. Specifically in these three places:
- Movie theaters. I was making this case before The Odyssey. Movie theaters should carry books, though I have acknowledged that it adds complexity to stock and staff. Not so here. This fall into spring should have these in major chains and have Dune, East of Eden, and other AAA adaptations that people are hearing about, either in theaters or streaming at home.Â
- Hotel lobbies (especially in vacation areas). People want to read on vacation. This is different than saying they do read. Get one of these in your all-inclusive mega-complex or whatever and stock it with beach-friendly picks.Â
- Coffee shops. Many bookstores have a little coffee side to them. The reverse could work too. Have a busy coffee shop? I am here to tell you that you are over-indexed on the kind of people who buy books.Â
Kindle Unlimited users get access to a library of over 5 million titles each month. Before you begin the infinite scroll, here are five standouts available now.Â
- Ain’t Nobody’s Fool: The Life and Times of Dolly Parton by Martha Ackmann – Grab the Kleenex and settle in for this bio. R.I.P. to a real one.Â
- Red City by Marie Liu – The first in a fantasy duology billed as The Godfather meets The Magicians, set in an alternate L.A.Â
- The City We Became by N. K. Jemisin – New York City doesn’t just have a literal soul in this fantasy series opener— it has six. Â
- Spread Me by Sarah Gailey – A routine probe at a research station uncovers a specimen in search of a warm place to stay… Sarah Gailey, y’all. I love their kind of weird.Â
- Raw Dog by Jamie Loftus – You might not think you need a book about hot dogs in your life, but trust me: you do. —VD
photo credit: Andy Shelter
Rachel Pastan is the author of We’re So Lucky to Live Here, about a young theater director who tries to raise enough money to keep her childhood home by staging a production of The Cherry Orchard in the turret house. It’s out September 15th from Delphinium. Below, she recommends three novels about alternative living arrangements.
When I think about stories with grand houses, Anton Chekhov’s play The Cherry Orchard—written over 100 years ago about a bunch of people trying haplessly to hang on to their beloved home—comes to mind first. I love stories that plop me down into interesting buildings, reconsider the many different ways of living in them, and explore the risk of losing cherished homes. Three more recent additions to the shelf explore what might happen when we give up conventional housing aspirations and invent new relationships to homes, and to each other.
Wolf Bells by Leni Zumas: Two old friends—former bandmates in a punk band—try to hang on to the big, falling apart house on a cliff high over the Pacific one of them inherited. Their plan: turn it into a place where older people, in need of care, live together with younger ones who share the caregiving. It’s a radical, beautiful, sometimes hilarious idea, and all kinds of unexpected things come of it, both lovely and hard. And the chapters are named after the rooms where they take place: dining room, back porch, downstairs bathroom!
The Turner House by Angela Flournoy: The house in East Detroit where the thirteen Turner children grew up is both a beloved link to the family’s past and an unmanageable burden. The mortgage now costs more than the house is worth. When the mother, Viola, can no longer live on her own, her children must decide how to care for her and what to do about the house, which may or may not be literally haunted, but is certainly suffused with love, grief, and also hope.
Dwelling by Emily Hunt Kivel: This odd, funny book begins with a thought experiment: What if every renter in New York City were evicted in a single day? A young woman named Evie finds herself in a strange town full of unlikely houses metastasized with wild additions and eventually moves into a building shaped like a shoe. She turns out to have mad cobblering skills! With a touch of fantasy and a sharp eye for the absurd, the novel offers a surprising happily ever after.
HAPPY BIRTHDAYKiran Desai, born September 3, 1971ÂDid you know? At one point in the writing of The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny, Desai had over 5000 pages of notes.
CRITICAL LINKINGYou are now free to roam about the internetThe new historical fiction books out in September include lots of historical horror for spooky season.
Channel back-to-school vibes with five great campus novels.
Queue up the best literary film and TV to stream in September.
This is how Blackwing pencils, beloved by many writers, are made.
Will AI replace celebrity ghostwriters?
END NOTESWritten by Rebecca Schinsky, Danika Ellis, Jeff O’Neal, and Vanessa Diaz. Thanks to Vanessa Diaz for copy editing.
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