Best New Books: Week of February 9, 2021

The following books, published this week, received starred reviews in Booklist. Want to read our starred reviews before the books go on sale? Subscribe to Booklist!

Adult Fiction

★ The Absolute Book, by Elizabeth Knox

★ The Burning Girls, by C. J. Tudor

★ The Delivery, by Peter Mendelsund

★ A Lady’s Formula for Love, by Elizabeth Everett

★ Ladies of the House: A Modern Retelling of Sense and Sensibility, by Lauren Edmondson

★ Love and Other Lies, by Ben McPherson

★ Never Have I Ever, by Isabel Yap

★ Slough House, by Mick Herron

★ Sorrow and Bliss, by Meg Mason

★ The Velocity of Revolution, by Marshall Ryan Maresca

★ The Witch’s Heart, by Genevieve Gornichec

★ Thirsty Mermaids, by Kat Leyh

★ We Play Ourselves, by Jen Silverman

★ We Run the Tides, by Vendela Vida

★ Wild Rain, by Beverly Jenkins

Adult Nonfiction

★ Art Is a Tyrant: The Unconventional Life of Rose Bonheur, by Catherine Hewitt

★ Between Two Kingdoms: A Memoir of a Life Interrupted, by Suleika Jaouad

★ Crossing the Line: A Fearless Team of Brothers and the Sport That Changed Their Lives Forever, by Kareem Rosser

★ George Washington: The Political Rise of America’s Founding Father, by David O. Stewart

★ This Is How They Tell Me the World Ends: The Cyber Weapons Arms Race, by Nicole Perlroth

★ Under a White Sky: The Nature of the Future, by Elizabeth Kolbert

★ We Too: Essays on Sex Work and Survival, edited by Natalie West and Tina Horn

★ A Worse Place Than Hell: How the Civil War Battle of Fredericksburg Changed a Nation, by John Matteson

Youth Fiction

★ Ancestor Approved: Intertribal Stories for Kids, edited by Cynthia L. Smith

★ As Far as You’ll Take Me, by Phil Stamper

★ Bug Boys: Outside and Beyond, by Laura Knetzger and illustrated by Laura Knetzger and Lyle Lynde

★ The Electric Kingdom, by David Arnold

★ The Gilded Ones, by Namina Forna

★ One Jar of Magic, by Corey Ann Haydu

★ A Pho Love Story, by Loan Le

★ We Are the Ashes, We Are the Fire, by Joy McCullough

Youth Nonfiction

★ Butterfly for a King: Saving Hawaiʻi’s Kamehameha Butterflies, by Cindy Trumbore and illustrated by Susan L. Roth