The Most Read Books on Goodreads This Week

As timely a novel as ever. The titular Employee No. 9 is going through it: his wife needs surgery after overworking herself at the grocery store, his son’s college tuition payment is coming up, and the company he helped build is trying to push him out. He’s thinking of fighting back, but at what cost? —Erica Ezeifedi

This has to be one of my all-time favorite graphic memoir series, and the great thing is you don’t necessarily have to read them in order (though it’d be better if you did). In this latest snippet of Huda’s life, we follow the teen during the summer after her high school graduation, when she is ready for love. But is love ready for her is the question. She’s got great new supportive friends, and she’s getting set up with lots of eligible guys her age, but gender roles and her ambitions start to clash. All of it has her wondering if she can be happy and have it all. —Erica Ezeifedi

This is the newest book from the author of The Help. The Help was a huge bestseller, made into a blockbuster movie, but it received a lot of criticism for its use of stereotypes of Black people and white saviorism, as well as its historical inaccuracies. This criticism didn’t prevent Stockett from snagging a lucrative book deal for her new novel, however, and it looks like it hasn’t hurt its sales. The Calamity Club was read by 17,000 users this week and has a 4.6 average rating.

Verity was first published in 2018, but it’s back on the bestseller lists following the movie adaptation starring Anne Hathaway and Dakota Johnson, which came out on October 2nd. The movie garnered a 33% Tomatometer rating from critics, but a 71% Popcornmeter rating from audiences. It was read by 19,000 users this week and has a 4.3 average rating.

Still in the top five is Yesteryear, which came out in April. It’s one of several buzzy tradwife novels out this year. In this one, a tradwife influencer wakes up one day in the time period she’s been romanticizing, and real-life homesteading turns out to be much more difficult—and dangerous—than it looks on Instagram. Yesteryear was read by 23,000 users this week and has a 3.8 average rating.

The reigning queen of thrillers is back, this time with an October-appropriate story. After losing her job, Julia moves in with her elderly grandmother in their family’s 17th-century estate in Massachusetts. Soon, she begins to suspect the house is haunted by a woman executed for witchcraft in 1692. It was read by 62,000 users this week and has a 4.1 average rating.

The fourth book in the Empyrean series still doesn’t have a release date, so fans likely have a long time to wait. In the meantime, they can revisit the world in this new novella, which follows 13 characters on their Threshing Days, when they endure a deadly trial in attempts to bond with a dragon. It was read by almost 66,000 users this week and has a 4.5 average rating.