Browns Best New Books for November 2025
3rd November 2025
Every month we carefully select our favourites from the fabulous new titles on offer. Evenings are dark, Halloween treats have been given out (and consumed), some houses have had their Christmas lights up for weeks already and everyone is eagerly awaiting the finale of Celebrity Traitors – it’s November! The countdown is on to winter festivities, decorations are being rediscovered and plans are being made (and someone you know has had all their gifts brought and wrapped since August!). November can feel a bit of a quiet month for new books after the bumper publishing of October but there are still some great new books available and these are a few of our highlights.
Check back next month for our roundup of the Best Books of 2025.
Adult Non-Fiction
Look Closer
Douglas-Fairhurst, Robert
Hardback
Reading is an amazing thing! Books can educate us, transport us, entertain us and allow us to experience the lives of others. Reading can make us happier and help us to work through problems and difficulties; a good book really can change your life!
In this wonderful new book that looks at reading and how we read, English Literature Professor and Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, Robert Douglas-Fairhurst examines how literature works and offers tips and techniques on how to slow down, read more deeply and open texts up further. Looking at classic literature such as Wuthering Heights alongside more modern masterpieces like Sally Rooney’s Normal People and also covering poetry, plays and children’s books, this lovely book examines texts that have formed an important part of the author’s life both personally and through his teaching. Funny, touching and inspiring this is a book that celebrates the power of reading and offers ways to enhance our enjoyment of it even further.
More DetailsAdult Fiction
The Burning Grounds
Mukherjee, Abir
Hardback
In 1920s Calcutta, a man is found murdered in the Burning Grounds – the place where the dead are laid to rest. The victim is a man who was apparently well-loved, a popular patron of the arts and philanthropist; who could possibly have a motive to murder him? Detective Sam Wyndham is given the case to investigate and finds himself amid the glamourous world of cinema, looking into a film the victim was funding. Meanwhile Sam’s former colleague, Surendranath Banerjee, is looking for a missing female photographer and when he realises the two cases may be linked the two men are forced to work together again.
Abir Mukherjee’s book Hunted has been a stand-out thriller of 2025, winning the Crime & Thriller Book of the Year at the British Book Awards and the Theakston Old Peculiar Crime Book of the Year. This latest book is a historical mystery set in Calcutta of the 1920s and is part of a series featuring detectives Wyndham and Banerjee (the books can be enjoyed as standalone novels or part of the wider series). With great historical and cultural detail and a fantastic dynamic between the two central characters as well as a gripping and twisty plot this is a great read for fans of both crime and historical novels. A hugely enjoyable book from a very talented author.
More DetailsChildren’s Non-Fiction
Things Scientists Don't Know Yet
Gallivan, Peter
Hardback
Could humans live on other planets? Why do we dream? How will the universe end? Why are there so many types of beetle? Science is amazing and has solved many of the mysteries that have puzzled us throughout history. But there are many, many questions that science hasn’t answered and many mysteries that continue to puzzle and intrigue us and keep scientists working on finding answers.
This great book is a brilliant introduction to science for Primary-age children. With lots of interesting questions to puzzle over, fascinating facts and fun science this book examines some of the latest scientific thinking and covers topics like multiverses and time travel in an accessible and enjoyable way. Readers can puzzle over the questions science has yet to solve but will also be introduced to the ways in which scientists work using step-by-step processes, theories, experiments and collaboration. With contributions from science educators at the UKs Royal Institution and an accessible layout with lots of facts and images, this is a great introduction to science and scientific thinking.
More DetailsChildren’s Fiction
Anisha, Accidental Detective: Christmas Chaos
Patel, Serena
Paperback / softback
It’s Christmas and Anisha’s family LOVE Christmas! This is the year it’s going to be extra- exciting as Dad has been put in charge of the Festive Fayre! Anisha and her best friend Milo have loads of ideas, Aunty Bindi is going all out with the tinsel and there is even a big red sleigh for Santa’s Grotto, it’s going to be an event to remember - until someone steals the sleigh in the middle of the night. It’s up to Anisha and Milo to solve the mystery, track down the thief and save the Festive Fayre …
We are big fans of Serena Patel’s brilliant Anisha, Accidental Detective books at Browns and so a new book – and one with a festive plotline! – is a perfect Christmas treat. Anisha is a very relatable central character with an engaging personality and with great supporting characters (we love Aunty Bindi in particular!), great depictions of family and friendship dynamics and diverse characters and plotlines that will keep readers turning the pages to solve the mystery with Anisha and Milo, this is a gem of a series. This new book will delight fans of Anisha and captivate those who have yet to enjoy her brilliantly funny adventures and it will leave readers feeling suitably festive as well. With great illustrations that brilliantly complement the story this is perfect for Lower KS2 and newly confident readers.
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