Riverhead Reader program FAQ

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This is the dedicated Riverhead Reader Program FAQ for titles published by the Riverhead Books imprint under Penguin Random House US.

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FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS:

What is the Riverhead Reader Program? 

Great question! Every month we give away galleys (and occasionally finished copies) of forthcoming hot titles from Riverhead to readers who request them through our Survey Form. 

 How can I participate in your monthly offerings? 

Complete our monthly request form here.

  • This form is updated with new title offerings every month.

  • You can request as many titles as you would like. Please note, by completing the form, you are not guaranteed a copy, as we have limited quantities for each title and recipients are picked randomly. 

  • We recommend checking this page each month as new books become available. 

I got an email about receiving a copy! What now?

Yay! If you read and love the book feel free to join the conversation online but there is no requirement to do so.  

I am interested in a particular title/author but I do not see it listed as available.

If a title is not listed it means we are not offering copies at this time. We invite you to follow us to learn more about additional opportunities to win copies of our books: 

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Write to us via email at helloriverhead@penguinrandomhouse.com. 

BOOKS AVAILABLE FOR REQUEST:

The below books are available for request. If a book is not listed below, it is unavailable for request at this time. Please submit your inquiry via the Request Form.

Please complete this form by 8/2.

The next offering of new titles will launch on 8/3.

The Castle by Jon Ronson

The Castle

Jon Ronson

From the bestselling author of The Psychopath Test and So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed comes a darkly comic trip to the furthest reaches of the masculinity crisis

His only child is lured to a mysterious castle in the forests of New England late one night, sending Jon Ronson on an extraordinary adventure into a dark world of unmoored men desperately searching for purpose and control—whatever the cost.

     With zero warning, the crisis of masculinity and its bizarre, wrecking-ball manifestations had crashed into Jon’s life. As his investigation deepens, urgent questions come to light: What exactly is “Princessing”? Why did a lawn care influencer dress as a baby in front of billions of online viewers? How did a paid-up member of the Skeptic Society derail his life in the name of a warped vision of chivalry? And, more pressingly, why are two recently released murderers on their way to pay Jon a visit?

     In our rapidly changing society, many men have become detached from reality; some are behaving like separatists, while others have fallen deep down ideological rabbit holes. Is this a complete fracturing of society, a new era of disinhibition where anything goes?

     Drawing on his trademark brand of humor, psychological insight, and unrivaled prescience, The Castle marks Jon Ronson’s long-awaited return to the written page in his darkest and most insightful book yet—one where he throws open the doors to the Castle and reveals a new lost generation of men.

The Disappearers by Marlon James

The Disappearers

Marlon James

From Marlon James, author of the Booker Prize–winning A Brief History of Seven Killings: a propulsive novel about the murder of a gay man in 1980s Jamaica and its tragic consequences

In 1988, eight men in Kingston, Jamaica, begin rehearsals for a play. The men are strangers to one another and each has a different reason for being involved. But they all share one inescapable truth: All of them are gay―a “battyman” in Jamaican argot―and all of them must contend with the dangers that such a truth lays bare.

One night a mob savagely attacks them, killing one of the men. For the survivors, their recovery is as much emotional as it is physical. As their bodies heal, each man grapples with the violence, the hatred, and the rage that the attack made plain. Some try to ignore what the attack has unearthed, while others double down on retribution.

In The Disappearers, Marlon James has written a riveting and deeply human story of men forced to make compromises to survive what the society they live in demands. It is both a dramatic page-turner and an unflinching exploration of queer life in Jamaica during the 1980s and 1990s.

Ply by Hernan Diaz

Ply

Hernan Diaz

The Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Trust turns to the future with a novel that examines the place of technology in the American imagination

Centuries from now, at the dawn of a historical epoch filled with both uncertainty and promise, an orphan is adrift in a city on the brink of a great transformation. The state has been dismantled, and humans are reinventing social bonds and learning new ways to coexist with nature. Following a childhood defined by loss, survival, and found family, the orphan grows up to become a “pincher,” someone who steals electricity from the grid to sell it on the black market. It’s a high-risk life, one that brings her into a rich art and music scene where she powers underground concerts. It also leads her to a colossal scientific invention that could change the very fabric of reality.

After rewriting America’s past with his two previous novels, Hernan Diaz defies expectations with his third and gives us a breathtaking glimpse into the future. A major achievement from a major contemporary writer, Ply questions the place of technology in the American experiment with a plot that grabs both heart and mind. It is a novel of ideas built from a story of people. Combining Dickensian odyssey, family drama, and scientific thriller, Ply poignantly charts the tenuous boundaries of selfhood and the distance that inevitably stands between us and those we love.

The Art of Fighting by Priya Parker

The Art of Fighting

Priya Parker

A paradigm-shattering exploration of how we fight and how we build healthy conflict, from the author of The Art of Gathering

We say we want community. Successful teams. High-performing colleagues and workplaces. Dynamic friend groups. Yet many of us don’t understand the crucial element we need to forge long-lasting communities in our lives: healthy conflict.

In The Art of Fighting, Priya Parker explains that we can’t form and grow effective relationships without a fight. She rejects the idea that conflict is abnormal or that good groups don’t fight. All groups change and evolve; indeed, it’s because people disagree that good groups flourish.

As she did in the now-classic The Art of Gathering, Parker draws on her far-reaching experience as a conflict facilitator, her own detailed research, and real-world examples to lay out the ways that people can identify disputes, determine how to address them, and what to do if they are insurmountable. Whether people disagree in the boardroom or the locker room, on a playground or in church, online or in person, conflict is a part of life, and understanding healthy conflict and how to harness its power is more important than ever. The Art of Fighting is a vital primer to help all of us understand how to do that.

The Ghost of the Mountains by Kulbhushansingh Suryawanshi

The Ghost of the Mountains

Kulbhushansingh Suryawanshi

“Thrilling and intrepid. A beautiful tale of dramatic, wild landscapes and the entangled lives of snow leopards, their prey, and the humans who share their terrain.” —Andrea Wulf, bestselling author of The Invention of Nature

“By turns beautiful, terrible, and encouraging.” —Elizabeth Kolbert, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Sixth Extinction

The vivid account of a leading conservationist’s efforts to find, study, and protect snow leopards

Snow leopards have a special grip on the human imagination, a symbol of the mysteries that still exist on our planet. These elusive predators live solitary lives in the highest reaches of the Himalaya, moving along rock faces like smoke. They are also the flagship species of Himalayan conservation, key to preserving this austere, delicate ecosystem.

Kulbhushansingh Suryawanshi is one of the world’s leading snow leopard scientists. In The Ghost of the Mountains, he offers an evocative and personal account of his decades of work in this field, from his exhilarating adventures on the high peaks to his efforts to build a community-based, collaborative model for protecting the snow leopards and their remaining habitat. That habitat is increasingly under threat as encroaching development, ongoing armed conflict, and rapidly intensifying climate change transform this region.

Thrilling, illuminating, and filled with transportive storytelling, The Ghost of the Mountains reveals the challenges facing a beautiful, fragile ecosystem in the midst of a major transition. As Suryawanshi describes his crucial work as a conservationist in a rapidly changing world, he also conveys an infectious sense of wonder. For him, every snow leopard encounter is still a transcendent experience, offering a renewed sense of meaning and purpose.

Ruth by Kate Riley

Ruth

Kate Riley

Named a Wall Street Journal Top 10 Book of 2025

Named a Washington Post Top 10 Fiction Book of 2025

Named a Best Book of the Year by Vulture, Marie Claire and Vanity Fair

"I loved RUTH."—Lorde

“It would never work out, but I’m in love with Ruth.”—Ron Charles, The Washington Post

“A wonderful, loving, tenderly teasing and often moving portrait … [a] standout.”—Sam Sacks, Wall Street Journal

“There are inklings of greatness in Kate Riley’s first novel… I suspect it will become an underground classic.”—Dwight Garner, The New York Times

In this mesmerizing and profound novel, the arc of a woman's life in a devout, insular community challenges our deepest assumptions about what infuses life with meaning.

Ruth is raised in a snow globe of Christian communism, a world without private property, television, or tolerance for idle questions. Every morning she braids her hair and wears the same costume, sings the same breakfast song in a family room identical to every other family room in the community; every one of these moments is meant to be a prayer, but to Ruth they remain puzzles. Her life is seen in glimpses through childhood, marriage, and motherhood, as she tries to manage her own perilous curiosity in a community built on holy mystery. Is she happy? Might this in fact be happiness? Ruth immerses us in an experience that challenges our most fervent beliefs.

Women, Seated by Zhang Yueran, Jeremy Tiang

Women, Seated

Zhang Yueran, Jeremy Tiang

A riveting story of a powerful Chinese family's fall from grace

Enter the world of an elite Chinese couple: a life of luxury, wealth, and around-the-clock service, which includes their trusted nanny, Yu Ling. Slipping in and out of the shadows, meticulous in her care of their only son, she has served the family for years and knows their secrets. But little do they suspect that Yu Ling has secrets of her own.

In the pressure-cooker political environment of China, the fates of even the most powerful families can reverse overnight. When the family becomes the subject of a government investigation, their fortunes crumble, and the nanny is left to make a series of life-changing choices. How far will she go to claim her due?

Taut and enthralling, Women, Seated is a high-stakes story of power and privilege, crimes and secrets, and the elusive pursuit of personal freedom.

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