5 Comfort Books We Love And 5 Books We're Highly Anticipating This November

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For this week's Tuesday Book Drop, BuzzFeed's avid bookworms shout out a book being released in November that they're really looking forward to reading, plus their favorite comfort read. We hope you check out their picks!

Farrah Penn / BuzzFeed

Rent a Boyfriend by Gloria Chao

Simon & Schuster

Release date: Nov. 10

Why Farrah's looking forward to it: Rent a Boyfriend contains the beloved fake-boyfriend trope, and I cannot stress how excited I am. Chloe Wang hires Drew Chang from Rent for Your ’Rents to pretend to be her boyfriend so that they'll stop pushing her to pursue Hongbo, a wealthy yet sleazy bachelor in their tight-knit Asian American community. But what happens when Chloe begins to fall for Drew? Only a few more days until this is released, and I can't wait.

White Ivy by Susie Yang

Schuster

Release date: Nov. 3

Why Arianna's looking forward to it: Ivy Lin learns early on in life that the only person she can truly trust is herself. Her parents moved from China to the US when she was 2, and she spent the next three years in the care of her offbeat but doting grandmother. When she follows her parents to the US, she barely recognizes them. Luckily, her grandmother is soon able to join them too, and when she arrives, she senses an urgent need to teach Ivy “two qualities necessary for survival: self-reliance and opportunism.” So Ivy learns the skills of deception, which she uses as a child and teen to steal what she can’t afford, and then, when she’s an adult, to slip into the upper-crust world she’s always been obsessed with but never had full access to.

But the flip side of deception is distrust, and when she starts dating Gideon, a local politician’s son and the very embodiment of privilege, she can’t stop second-guessing their relationship — especially when an unwelcome reminder of her past turns up on the first vacation she takes with Gideon’s family. Paranoia simmers under the surface of this book and keeps you guessing — never fully comfortable, but never quite certain about where, exactly, this dread is coming from. It’s captivating, razor sharp, and so, so juicy — I never wanted it to end.

The Gentleman and the Thief by Sarah M. Eden

Shadow Mountain

Release date: Nov. 3

Why Shyla's looking forward to it: Hollis Darby has two secrets: He writes novels under a pseudonym to keep his family afloat and maintain their status in society...and he's hopelessly besotted with Ana Newport. Except Ana has a secret too: She's a music teacher by day and a Robin Hood–esque thief by night. When a string of robberies plague London, the two combine their skills to figure out who's committing the crimes...as well as figure out their feelings for each other.

These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong

Simon & Schuster

Release date: Nov. 17

Why Kirby's looking forward to it: A timely Romeo and Juliet retelling despite being set in 1926, this fantasy follows the heirs of two rival gangs fighting for control of Shanghai. Juliette of the Scarlet Gang has just returned to the city to reclaim her throne, only to find herself going head-to-head with her first love, Roma, the leader of the rival White Flowers gang. But when whispers of a plague, mysterious deaths, and dark monsters creep through both of their gangs, these lovers turned rivals must work together to save the city they both love.

Here the Whole Time by Vitor Martins

Scholastic Press

Release date: Nov. 10

Why Rachel's looking forward to it: In this incredible debut, Felipe is thrilled about spring break and the relaxation that comes with being away from classmates who constantly tease him about his size. But his alone time is cut short when Caio, his neighbor and crush, comes to stay with them for the next 15 days while his own parents are on vacation, forcing Felipe to confront many of his internalized issues.

Farrah Penn / BuzzFeed

Sex and Vanity by Kevin Kwan

Doubleday Books

Why it's Shyla's comfort read: In this book, based on E.M. Forster’s A Room With a View, Crazy Rich Asians author Kevin Kwan returns with the story of Lucie Churchill, a half-Chinese, half-American woman caught in a love triangle between her WASP fiancé and George Zao, a man whom she loathed upon their first meeting but whom she hasn’t been able to stop thinking about even years later. The book takes place in Capri, New York, and the Hamptons and is the perfect escape into the world of wealth, power, and glamour.

Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins

Dutton

Why it's Farrah's comfort read: This book has everything you need during a pandemic: a sweet romance, a gorgeous Parisian setting, and quippy dialogue. When Anna is sent to a boarding school in Paris for her senior year, she's a little put off by the whole idea. That is, until she meets Étienne St. Clair — a beautiful French-English boy who is currently not single — and an unlikely group of friends who help her acclimate to a new city. Lucky for you, the 10th anniversary edition of this book has just been released. If you really miss traveling and loved bingeing Emily in Paris, you'll want to pick this one up. (And don't miss our interview with Stephanie Perkins here!)

Spoon River Anthology by Edgar Lee Masters

Penguinrandomhouse

Why it's Arianna's comfort read: At the most distressing and anxiety-inducing stretches of this nightmare year, two things helped keep me sane: audiobooks and poetry. I’ve often returned to Spoon River Anthology throughout my adult life, but it’s basically been a permanent fixture on my nightstand in recent months. The poems are a series of monologues, told from the perspectives of the long-dead residents of a fictional Midwestern town called Spoon River, now reflecting from their shared cemetery. These vignettes connect the speakers in ways that illuminate the drama of small-town life; they talk about affairs, abuse, corruption, progress, love earned and lost, a lot of regrets. I know this sounds morbid as hell — and in some ways it is — but it’s also human and affirming. And it contains one of my favorite lines of poetry, which opens “Fiddler Jones”: “The earth keeps some vibration going / There in your heart, and that is you.” How can you not feel a little better? (A version of this review was published in Arianna’s newsletter, Reading Habits.)

The Roommate by Rosie Danan

peguinrandomhouse

Why it's Rachel's comfort read: Romance has been my comfort this year, and that's especially true of Rosie Danan's sensational debut. Following Clara cross-country as she moves in hopes of living with her longtime crush, she ends up living with a stranger when the aforementioned crush goes on tour with his band. That stranger is Josh, who, as Clara's googling skills inform her, is a porn star. The two bond and eventually decide to work together to help tackle the stigma surrounding female desire. Having recently read the upcoming companion novel, The Intimacy Experiment, and falling headfirst for that, I'm now desperate to dive back in and reread this one.

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

Square Fish

Why it's Kirby's comfort read: When I want to escape the real world, I try to lose myself in imaginary ones. In a world filled with magical people known as Grisha, Kaz Brekker is just your ordinary human criminal mastermind. He and his gang rule the seedy underbelly in the city of Ketterdam, so when he’s offered the chance to pull off the world’s greatest heist, he naturally sets to work assembling a ragtag team of criminals to help. But riches beyond compare aren’t the only thing on the line for this job — the fate of the entire world rests in Kaz’s gloved hands.