New year, new books! I like to say that books don’t get stale. That means there’s no reason not to read an older book (an old favorite like Hilary Mantel’s A Place of Greater Safety or one I didn’t get to, such as Ocean Vuong’s On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous ). But there is going to be a whole new crop of great reads. I’ve gotten to read advance copies of some, while others I’ve merely heard about.

Remembrance by Rita Wood (January). A stunning debut historical novel that mixes magical realism, faith, and quantum mechanics with a story about the Underground Railroad. (January)

Tyll by Daniel Kehlmann (February) This imagining of a real life for the trickster character Tyll Ulenspiegal takes us through the bloody faith wars of 17th Century Northern Europe on a tightrope.

The Henna Artist by Alka Joshi. (March) A woman on her own in 1950s Jaipur juggles secrets to survive.

The Mirror and the Light by Hilary Mantel (March). In which Mantel brings her truly wonderful Cromwell trilogy to a close. Sigh… I cannot wait, and yet…

Trace Elements by Donna Leon (March). Brunetti is back! And sometime soon that book of Laura Lippman essays has to come out, right?

And, of course, An Incantation of Cats (out Jan. 14). I had to include my second “Witch Cats of Cambridge” cozy! This book was a labor of love, and I so enjoyed letting my characters – feline and human both – grow and learn. I hope you do too!

What books are you looking forward to?