But don't get it twisted – this being a Lockwood novel, don't expect it to be straightforward at all. / Penguin Press / Penguin PressShadow Ticket by Thomas Pynchon, Oct. 7One of the few literary living legends we've got left, the book is Pynchon's first novel since 2013's Bleeding Edge. The book confronts our present-day anxieties of being surrounded by AI, and the tricky relationship between reality and our dreams. Her last book, You, Again made NPR's 2023 year-end Books We Love list for its "delicious, slow burn tension." / W. W. Norton & Company / W. W. Norton & CompanyFear Less: Poetry in Perilous Times by Tracy K. Smith, Nov. 18If you've got a few moments to kill, what's stopping you from putting your phone down and picking up a poem instead?