PEOPLE's Best New Books to Read in Nov. 2023 — From Barbra Streisand’s Juicy Memoir to Courtney B. Vance's Powerful Guidebook

Cozy up with PEOPLE's picks for the best new books of November 2023

Swampland shenanigans, family dramas in lockdown, and utopian dreams gone awry — here are PEOPLE's picks for the best new books of November 2023.

The Invisible Ache: Black Men Identifying Their Pain and Reclaiming Their Power by Courtney B. Vance and Dr. Robin L. Smith

The Tony and Emmy Award-winning actor teamed up with psychologist Dr. Robin L. Smith to create this powerful guidebook on healing and mental health for Black men.

“We have to find a way to [experience] joy,” Vance told PEOPLE. “It's a part of life, that death is a part of life, and pain is a part of life, and suffering is a part of life. The question is, what are we going to do?”

Gator Country by Rebecca Renner

This nail-biter account of Operation Alligator, an undercover sting in the Florida swampland, has the intensity of the best true crime—except the victims are thousands of baby alligators, their eggs spirited out of state by a ring of poachers. Impersonating a degenerate trying to break into the alligatorfarming business, Jeff Babauta became deeply embedded in this world before he took it down. A high-def tale that ensnares you from the start. — Marion Winik

Day by Michael Cunningham

Dan and Isabel’s sinking marriage is buoyed and buffeted by their love for Isabel’s brother (and his temporary residence in their attic). Then COVID hits and forces the trio to confront questions of identity, belonging and the meaning of family in fractured times. Quietly compelling. — Theo Munger

The New Naturals by Gabriel Bump

The loss of their baby sends a couple underground— literally. They build a utopia beneath a mountain, attracting a billionaire benefactor and disaffected seekers. But funding dries up, and society’s ills creep in, jeopardizing the experiment. A wryly funny take on the human condition. — Claire Martin

My Name Is Barbra by Barbra Streisand

In her long-awaited autobiography, the EGOT-winning singer and actress delves into her life and career, from her acclaimed music to her famous friendships.

So Late in the Day by Claire Keegan

A trio of brilliantly polished stories about the way men and women interact, with a heavy emphasis on women who make accommodations for men (or not, defying expectation) and the consequences. In Keegan’s expert hands, even a minor skirmish—between a pushy older man and the writer who grudgingly lets him interrupt her solitude at an artist’s residency— illuminates how the sexes so often seem to navigate the world on completely different operating systems. — Mary Pols

The Madstone by Elizabeth Crook

Nell is not your typical damsel in distress: She’s pregnant, traveling with her 4-year-old son Tot, and before Ben ever meets her properly, she’s gunned down an outlaw who may be her husband. Who can blame a country boy for falling in love? A wonderfully transporting tale of the Old West. — Marion Winik

The Vulnerables by Sigrid Nunez

During the pandemic an older writer finds herself parrot-sitting and smoking joints with a handsome young screwup in a friend’s apartment—and that’s just one of the interesting tales she has to tell. With the intimacy and humor of a great conversation, this novel makes you feel smarter and more alive. — Marion Winik

Ghosts of Honolulu by Mark Harmon and Leon Carroll Jr.

The NCIS star teamed up with the show 's technical advisor — and former NCIS special agent — to write a story straight out of the police procedural. This riveting account of American and Japanese intelligence agents details the moral conflict many Japanese American officers faced at war time, as well as the Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI), which impacted the real-life NCIS.

Above the Salt by Katherine Vaz

As children on the Portuguese island of Madeira in the 1850s, John and Mary form a magnetic bond. Religious persecution forces them to flee, but they meet again as immigrants in Illinois, and their paths continue to cross and diverge through America's convulsive history, from the Civil War to the Jazz Age. Will their love prevail? Vaz explores the complexities of duty, passion and sacrifice in an engrossing narrative that celebrates life's abiding beauty. — Robin Micheli

World Within a Song by Jeff Tweedy

The Wilco frontman delves into his inspiring relationship with music through 50 songs (from "Gloria" to "Free Bird") and adds heart-wrenching memories of childhood friendship, gun-wielding tour bus drivers and more. If life's a movie, Tweedy's has a pretty great soundtrack. — Theo Munger

Class by Stephanie Land

In this sequel to the mega-selling Maid, single mom Land struggles to fulfill her lifelong dream of getting an MFA to build a writing career, even as she battles poverty and — worse — people's judgement that she's being self-indulgent and impractical. Raw and inspiring. — Caroline Leavitt 

For more People news, make sure to sign up for our newsletter!

Read the original article on People.