What are the unmissable new novels of the season? We have some suggestions. We asked Five Books deputy editor Cal Flyn to put together a selection of some of the most exciting new fiction being published in early 2026.

Whether you are preparing for a trip to Japan, are a fan of manga and anime, or simply curious about a non-European language, you might want to try your hand at learning Japanese. With recommendations ranging from Japanese textbooks for beginners, via an up-to-date guide to Japanese society and culture, to helpful online resources, experienced language teacher Kazuki Morimoto explains how to set about studying Japanese.

Frederick the Great (1712-1786) embodied two ideas of kingship: on the one hand, the traditional one of the warrior monarch, and on the other, an enlightened monarch, patron of the arts, a social reformer, and the friend of philosophes like Voltaire. It is on this dual character of his rule that his perennially high reputation rests, says historian Adam Storring. He introduces us to both sides of Frederick's kingly character and recommends books to learn more about the brilliant military campaigner who led Prussia from 1740 until his death nearly half a century later.

Since the 17th century, we've been aware that the force that causes apples to fall from a tree is the same force that holds the planets in the sky, but we still don't know everything there is to know about gravity, says James Riordon, a science writer at NASA and author of Crush: Close Encounters with Gravity. He picks his favourite books on gravity—from the equations you need to understand it to a funny book about what it's like to live without it.

With technology pulling young people in like never before we need to curate books that motivate teenagers to read, argues Susannah Richards, Associate Professor in Education at Eastern Connecticut State University and a specialist in literature for youth. From the large number of new books published for teens and young adults in 2025, she picks five of the best to ignite and delight young readers.

Shakespeare's plays and even his life have inspired many other writers over the years. Here, Sally O'Reilly, author of Hagtale: A Macbeth Origin Story, recommends five creative retellings of Shakespearean stories—from a brilliantly absurdist Tom Stoppard play to an elliptical short story by Jorge Luis Borges.

If you're looking for audiobooks that will make a good book even better, AudioFile magazine's best of the year lists are a great place to start. Here's their list of best audiobooks for 2025 in the science fiction and fantasy genres—from retellings of mythical tales to the hell of dark academia.

'Afrofuturism' is a term that has come to describe books about the Black experience through a speculative lens. We asked Eugen Bacon, the award-winning fantasy author and member of the Sauúti Collective—who, together, have created a shared fictional universe—to recommend five key Afrofuturist books.

From books exploring questions of identity and belonging in contemporary China to a charming memoir by a delivery driver, it's been an extraordinary year for books about China in English argues Jeffrey Wasserstrom, a professor at UC Irvine and specialist in modern Chinese history. Here, he talks us through some of his favourite China books published in 2025.

If anything can get a teen or young adult off their phone and immersed in a story, it's a good audiobook. Here, we present the best audiobooks for young adults of 2025, as recommended by the dedicated editors of AudioFile magazine, the best place for audiobook recommendations on the web.