The Disappearers

A Novel

by Marlon James

Riverhead, Sept. 1

Longlisted for the 2026 Booker Prize, James provides a layered and intimate portrait of queer life, murderous homophobia and death in this vivid crime thriller.

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The Distance Between Our Names

The Untold History of America’s War on Japanese Immigrants

by Paul Richter

Simon & Schuster, Sept. 1

Richter tells the disturbing story of what happened before U.S. authorities forced Japanese Americans into camps during World War II. In short, generations of Japanese immigrants faced all-encompassing racism.

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The Art of Fighting

The Transformative Power of Conflict

by Priya Parker 

Riverhead, Sept. 8

The strongest and most effective relationships are often built on healthy conflict. A vital skill for movement building, for every facet of our personal and political lives, Parker gives us the tools to build bridges across our disputes in this essential book.

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Signals Across Vast Distances

Essays and Tales

by Elizabeth Alexander

W. W. Norton, Sept. 15

Signals Across Vast Distances demonstrates the power of the word—and Alexander’s powerful words. We learn to find courage in connection through this magnificent book.

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The Great Refusal

A New Vision of Resistance

by Casey Gerald

Little, Brown, Sept. 15

As society is dissolving into absolute racist tyranny, The Great Refusal could not be timelier. Through this visionary tome, Gerald is a sage for our resistance.

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End Times Fascism

And the Fight for the Living World

by Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor

Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Sept. 15

A rousing call for a radically new “pro-life” politics —protecting each other and our planet— on the pages of a penetrating study of those moving to destroy life as we know it. Klein and Taylor educate us on how to save our world from the reactionary tech bros, great replacement theorists, and Christian nationalists.

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The Perilous Fight

By Colin Kaepernick

Legacy Lit, Sept. 15

Kaepernick’s long-awaited memoir is as daring as his famous kneel for justice. The Perilous Fight is likely to be read for generations to come.

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Anti-Zionism

A Jewish History

by Benjamin Moser

Doubleday, Sept. 22

One of the most harmful myths of our political moment—that anti-Zionism is antisemitic—is totally debunked in this sweeping historical narrative. Moser, one of the most influential Jewish writers of our time, chronicles the long-standing and intrepid march of anti-Zionist thought expressed by Jews from a wide variety of backgrounds around the world.

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Racist by Design

Two Centuries of U.S. Immigration Control

by Kelly Lytle Hernández

W. W. Norton, Sept. 22

Racist by Design is a magisterial narrative history of generations of U.S. policymakers producing and reproducing laws and practices that largely fostered the inclusion of White immigrants and the exclusion of immigrants of color. An accessible and critical work of scholarship by Hernández, an award-winning historian.

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The True Confessions of First Lady Freeman

A Novel

by Deesha Philyaw

Mariner Books, Sept. 29

The celebrated author of The Secret Lives of Church Ladies returns with spice. The secret past of the wife of a megachurch pastor comes to public light in this incisive, hilarious, visceral, and lovable novel.

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An Inconvenient Woman

The Extraordinary Life of Lillian Smith, the Southerner Who Defied Jim Crow America

by Keri Leigh Merritt

St. Martin’s Press, Sept. 29

When White women striving to be antiracist look to history for inspiration, they can look to Lillian Smith. Merritt renders a remarkable biography of a remarkable Southern woman who defied Jim Crow at every turn.

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How Bright the Path Grows

The Untold Story of the Women Who Made the March on Washington

by Marcia Chatelain

Pantheon, Sept. 29

Everyone has heard of the March on Washington, but there would not have been a march if not for thirteen Black women who Chatelain brings to the fore in epic detail. In this superbly written group biography, Chatelain ensures that these women—largely silenced at the March—are heard now.

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American Hagwon

A Novel

by Min Jin Lee

Cardinal, Sept. 29

Lee has done it again with a 600-page novel that reads like 60 pages. American Hagwon is as engrossing as it is ambitious—a family of memorable characters moving through continents and the dynamics of immigration, capitalism, expectations, anxiety, striving, the Korean diaspora, and more.

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