The 10 Best Books Of January Start Your New Year Right

In 1936 Egypt, Charlotte, a young anthropology student, earns a spot on a sought-after archeological dig, only for disaster to strike. Fast forward to 1978 New York, where Charlotte is an associate curator, quietly working on research for Hathorkare, a female pharaoh, at the Met. Amidst the planning for the Met Gala, a valuable Egyptian artifact goes missing. Is this Hathorkare’s curse? Charlotte must return to Egypt, leading her and a young associate into the lap of danger once again.

Childhood sweethearts Haiwen and Suchi were separated by war in Shanghai 60 years ago, but here they are now, a chance reunion in an L.A. supermarket. Haiwen holds his memories dear while Suchi has powered ahead for survival. Is this meeting a second chance for the once-couple? The story flashes forward and back, telling how each got to this moment, through war, famine and big cities around the globe.

Ebby’s brother Baz is gunned down when she’s only a child, the memory of him lying with a shattered heirloom jar around him seared in her memory. The murder, unsolved, causes a media storm and another storm is brewing when adult Ebby has a failed high-profile romance. She flees to France, thinking about her brother and the stoneware jar brought to America by her enslaved ancestors. Could this jar represent something greater in her own future?

While on a phone call together, the last thing Grady hears is his wife Abby slam on the brakes. Her car is discovered by a cliff with the phone there but she's gone. A year later, still in grief, Grady travels to a tiny Scottish Island where he sees a woman that looks familiar — is it Abby?

Pregnant Tegan is trying to escape her life but she heads directly into a blizzard in rural Maine, and she is stranded with a broken ankle and a dead car. A kind couple rescues her, offering a room in their cabin until the weather clears, but soon, Tegan realizes something is off and she’s in even greater danger than before. She must run again to save herself and her baby from what comes next.

The jacket of this book turns into an origami boat. Inside, a story unfolds about a Tokyo pawnshop disguised as a ramen noodle shop for all but the chosen. The new owner, Hana, awakens one morning to find the shop ransacked and her father missing. A stranger offers help and the two are whisked into a magical journey with rain puddles and paper cranes as their transportation. Hana has a secret, though, and revealing it will change everything.

The glaciers have melted, and New York City is underwater. A group of survivors have set up an encampment on the roof of the American Museum of Natural History, only taking from the exhibits what they absolutely need and farming and hunting in Central Park. When a new storm breaches their flood walls, Nonie and her family escape once again, encountering new survivors with frightening lifestyles.

When her dreams of getting published are dashed, Zelu decides to write a novel for herself. Her book, “Rusted Robots,” is not only a smash, but it changes humanity and sets a path in motion for the robots, altering reality in a very meta way.

High school sweethearts Sarah and Caleb have been married for almost two decades, but when they hit a snag, they join a grueling wilderness retreat to reconnect. In a comedy of errors, they try to make it through the rough patches, both in their relationship and this hike from hell.

Dawn and Wyatt are hosts of a home renovation show and seem to be the perfect pair. In their infertility struggles, Wyatt turns to an experimental drug and the couple conceives, but it also changes Wyatt’s personality to a dark, unstable man whom Dawn doesn’t recognize. When she flees with her newborn twins, Wyatt turns to the media for help finding her, painting Dawn as the unstable one. Can she beat Wyatt at his own game and find the allies she needs?