6 of the Best New Book Releases Out February 17, 2026

On Morrison by Namwali Serpell

Here, Serpell, an award-winning author herself, guides readers through literary icon Toni Morrison’s work. The professor—who teaches a course on Morrison—parses through the author’s novels, criticism, drama, and even poetry, giving additional context to the work as well as her own, singular analysis. If you’re looking to become better acquainted with one of the most important American writers of the last century, this is a great primer.

A Hymn to Life: Shame Has to Change Sides by Gisèle Pelicot, translated by Natasha Lehrer, Ruth Diver

In 2024, Pelicot waived her right to anonymity as she fought in the court case against her husband and fifty other men. A few years before, Pelicot learned that her husband had been drugging her and inviting men over to sexually assault her. Pelicot’s declaration, “Shame must change sides,” echoed across the world. Now she’s telling her own story. —Kendra Winchester

Railsong by Rahul Bhattacharya

It’s the 20th century when India is newly independent that the motherless Charu, daughter of a railway worker, envisions a life past the poverty she was born into. As the nation changes, steam engines take over diesel ones, famine takes over her town, and she takes the chance to leave for Bombay and all of its possibilities. The constant discrimination she meets in her new life doesn’t stop her from seeing a grand future, in herself and her country. Soon, she becomes a hero of sorts—a railway woman who embodies the best of what a new India has to offer.

I’m Not the Only Murderer in My Retirement Home by Fergus Craig

Where the Wildflowers Grow by Terah Shelton Harris

Harris’ latest is a story of survival and found family. In it, Leigh watched the rest of her family, the Wildes, die. Then. she’s alone and headed to prison when fate sees to her transport bus crashing, leaving her as the only survivor. Again. With this second chance of sorts, she searches for safety and finds it in an Alabama flower farm way off in the cut. There she finds other survivors who have pieced their lives into something worthwhile, and Leigh may be able to join in on the assembled family. But of course, her past isn’t so easily forgotten.

Nightmare on Nightmare Street by R. L. Stine

I don’t typically discus many middle grade titles in these weekly new release round-ups, but I had to shout out the latest by an author who kept my middle grade years spooky. Stine’s Nightmare on Nightmare Street has all of the familiar haunted house trappings: there are tombstones in the basement, creepy dolls, and more, but there’s also the dreaming. When 12-year-old Joe Ferber and his sister Sadie try to fall asleep for the first night in the creepy new house, it’s 12-year-old Shawn who wakes up from a dream. You see, Shawn and his little sis Addie seem to be living in the same house—but that’s not the only topsy turvy thing. When they get to school, the teachers are wearing animal masks and a stranger who says she’s Shawn’s mom tries to pick him up at the end of the day. Let me just say that this has heebied my adult jeebies.