The Winter Olympics are starting soon, and all eyes are turning towards Italy. The original Olympics didn’t include such modern winter favorites like luge, ski jump, or figure skating, but from 1912-1942, the modern games did include an arts competition with medals given in music, painting, sculpture—and even literature. Books may no longer be eligible, but we do think these new releases deserve a gold medal.
Fiction
The Pōhaku by Jasmin Iolani Hakes
Spanning centuries and shaped by the power of story, Hakes’s latest traces the fate of a Hawaiian family bound to a sacred stone and to the history it carries. When a teenage girl falls at the treacherous Queen’s Bath on Kauaʻi in 1992 and ends up in a coma, her estranged grandmother stays at her bedside, telling her a story. It begins in the 18th century with the birth of a royal child and her stillborn twin, transformed into the pōhaku, a powerful stone entrusted to generations of women sworn to protect it as colonial forces threaten the Hawaiian Islands. Moving between Hawaiʻi and California, past and present, Hakes explores how knowledge is preserved, who gets to name history, and what is lost, or healed, through silence. This sweeping yet intimate family saga confronts the costs of power and the endurance of Indigenous memory, revealing storytelling itself as an act of survival and resistance. Available February 3. Library catalog link here.
The Midnight Taxi by Yosha Gunasekera
Late one night in New York City, taxi driver Siriwathi “Siri” Perera delivers her final fare, only to discover that her passenger has been murdered in the backseat, and she’s the only plausible suspect. Arrested and facing a grand jury in just five days, Siri is unexpectedly bailed out by her wealthy childhood best friend and turns to the one person who might be able to help: Amaya Fernando, a public defender and fellow Sri Lankan immigrant she bonded with earlier that same night. As the two women race across the boroughs to untangle a seemingly impossible locked-room crime, they confront a justice system stacked against poor people of color, along with a web of secrets powerful enough to kill for. Drawing on her experience as a former public defender, Gunasekera delivers a smart, propulsive series opener that pairs brainy mystery plotting with a vivid portrait of immigrant life, grief, and ambition in the city that never sleeps. Available February 10. Library catalog link here.
Out of the Loop by Katie Siegel
For two years, Amie Teller has lived the same day on repeat: September 17, complete with a missing blueberry bagel, a neighborly argument she knows by heart, and an awkwardly tender “friend date” with her ex-girlfriend, Ziya. And then, one day, it’s suddenly September 18 and Amie feels she’s forgotten how to live a new day. But then she learns that Savannah Harlow, the neighbor whose argument she repeatedly witnessed, was actually murdered on the 17th. No one can know the events of that day better than Amie, so she sets out to solve the crime with her friend David and the still-complicated Ziya. Witty, tender, and sharply observant, Out of the Loop blends a clever time-loop mystery with a heartfelt exploration of risk, love, and the small moments that turn out to matter most. Available February 10. Library catalog link here.
Agnes Aubert’s Mystical Cat Shelter by Heather Fawcett
Agnes Aubert runs her cat shelter with meticulous care and absolutely no tolerance for magicians. So, when a magical duel destroys her building, she’s dismayed to find that the only affordable new location comes with an impossible catch: a covert magic shop in the basement, run by Havelock Renard, the world’s most infamous (and deeply irritating) magician, who is also disastrously allergic to cats. As the prickly pair negotiate an uneasy truce, Agnes finds herself drawn into illicit magic, a suspicious police investigation, and a threat that could destroy both the shelter and the city. Caught between her growing feelings for Havelock and a detective convinced her charity is a front for magical crimes, Agnes must decide how much romance and chaos she’s willing to let into her carefully ordered life. Set in a cozy, cat-filled 1920s Montreal, this enchanting fantasy blends gentle humor, slow-burn romance, and magical mischief. Available February 17. Library catalog link here.
Nonfiction
I’ll Make Me a World: The 100-Year Journey of Black History Month by Jarvis R Givens
One hundred years ago, Carter G. Woodson founded Negro History Week, which grew into Black History Month. To mark the 100th anniversary, Givens honors all the people who fought to preserve Black history—the librarians, teachers, archivists, and activists. Looking at oral storytelling, everyday lives, and the political nature of whose history gets saved and kept, he issues a call for historians, teachers, and readers to understand how history is made and why. Available February 3. Library catalog link here.
Super Nintendo: The Game-Changing Company That Unlocked the Power of Play by Keza MacDonald
From a 19th century maker of handmade playing cards to one of the most influential entertainment companies in the world, Nintendo’s story is anything but conventional. This deeply researched history traces the company’s evolution through the people, ideas, and games that reshaped how the world plays. From Donkey Kong and Super Mario Bros. to The Legend of Zelda and Animal Crossing, Keza MacDonald reveals how Nintendo repeatedly defied industry trends by favoring creativity, accessibility, and joy over raw technical power. Drawing on interviews with developers and rare access to Nintendo’s famously secretive culture, she illuminates the philosophy that produced the Game Boy, Wii, Switch, and countless beloved innovations. Part cultural history, part love letter to play, Super Nintendo captures how a quirky company built on experimentation and risk-taking came to enchant generations of players and continues to shape what games can be. Available February 3. Library catalog link here.
Moveable Feasts: A Story of Paris in Twenty Meals by Chris Newens
In an attempt to better learn his adopted city, food writer Chris Newens set out to eat his way through Paris’s twenty arrondissements. Beginning on the city’s outer edges and spiraling inward, Newens talks with market vendors, cooks, restaurateurs, and diners to uncover the dishes that define each neighborhood, from Congolese catfish and Vietnamese banh mi to time-honored croissants and protest-fueled casseroles. Along the way, he traces how migration, class, and history shape what Parisians eat, pairing his reporting with wry, self-deprecating accounts of his own attempts to recreate these meals at home. Moveable Feasts offers a lively portrait of a city where tradition and change meet at the table. Available February 3. Library catalog link here.
The Death of Trotsky: The True Story of the Plot to Kill Stalin’s Greatest Enemy by Josh Ireland
For more than a decade, Joseph Stalin waged a relentless, secret war against his most dangerous rival: the exiled revolutionary Leon Trotsky. In this narrative history, Josh Ireland traces the global manhunt that followed Trotsky from Europe to a guarded compound in Mexico City, where the long pursuit ended in August 1940 with a single, devastating blow from an ice pick. Moving between Moscow, Paris, and Mexico, Ireland reconstructs the deadly game of cat and mouse through a cast of spies, artists, idealists, and operatives, culminating in an unforgettable portrait of the Soviet agent who infiltrated Trotsky’s inner circle and carried out the assassination. With novelistic pacing and deep archival research, Ireland explores not only Stalin’s paranoia and vindictiveness but also Trotsky’s own misjudgments, revealing how ideology, loyalty, and obsession converged in one of the twentieth century’s most shocking political murders. Available February 24. Library catalog link here.
Middle Grade
Twice Enslaved: Liberty and Justice for Henrietta Wood by Selene Castrovilla, illustrated by Erin K. Robinson
Born into slavery and torn from her family as a teenager, Henrietta Wood was emancipated as an adult. Tricked back across the Ohio River and sold into bondage once more, she endured years of forced labor on a cotton plantation before finally gaining her freedom for good on Juneteenth, 1865. In an extraordinary act of courage, Wood then sued the man who had kidnapped her back into slavery and won the largest reparations ever awarded to a formerly enslaved person in the United States. Told in free verse and brought to life with striking full-color illustrations, this middle-grade biography honors Wood’s resilience, faith, and determination while illuminating a little-known chapter of American history. Available February 3. Library catalog link here.
Teen
Wake Now in the Fire by Jarrett Dapier, illustrated by AJ Dungo
When Persepolis is abruptly removed from Chicago Public School classrooms and libraries, students at one high school are quick to recognize the bitter irony of banning a book about life under censorship. Inspired by the real 2013 CPS controversy, this powerful graphic novel follows an ensemble of teens as they grapple with the order, investigate how it happened, and decide whether and how to resist. From student journalists uncovering the truth, to friends organizing walkouts and sit-ins, to teachers quietly pushing back, their stories reveal how censorship ripples through a community and forces young people to weigh risk, responsibility, and solidarity. Told through multiple perspectives and grounded in extensive interviews, Wake Now in the Fire pairs thoughtful, emotionally resonant storytelling with expressive grayscale artwork punctuated by flashes of red from Satrapi’s banned book. Urgent, empowering, and deeply human, it captures the transformative power of collective action and the stakes of defending intellectual freedom. Available February 3. Library catalog link here.
Jennie Rothschild is a collection engagement librarian for Arlington Public Library.