Fall Books to Read for Autumn Vibes |
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| Sirens & Muses by Antonia AngressWhat happens: In 2011, Louisa, Karina, and Preston meet while students at a prestigious art college, where Robert (a faded star of NYC's elite art scene) now teaches. Their complex desires shadow their lives long after graduation.
Reviewers say: "A highly recommended novel of art and heart that viscerally represents the act of creation while balancing multiple themes to perfection" (Library Journal).
Try this next: Age of Consent by Amanda Brainerd. |
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The Marriage Plot
by Jeffrey Eugenides
Madeleine Hanna breaks out of her straight-and-narrow mold when she enrolls in a semiotics course and falls in love with charismatic loner Leonard Morten, a time which is complicated by the resurfacing of man who is obsessed with the idea that Madeleine is his destiny. By the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Middlesex and The Virgin Suicides. 400,000 first printing.
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| If I Survive You by Jonathan EscofferyStarring: Trelawny, the American-born son of Jamaican immigrants, cast adrift in muddled assumptions about who he is or ought to be.
What it is: linked short stories about Trelawny's multi-ethnic and multi-cultural explorations of self: as the token Black intellectual at an east-coast college; as an unwelcome American interloper in Jamaica; and as an ongoing disappointment to his hard-nosed father.
Read this next: Oscar Hokeah's Calling for a Blanket Dance.
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The Consequences: Stories
by Manuel Muñoz
Set in Californias Central Valley in the 1980s, this masterful new collection of stories, the first in 10 years, depicts the Mexican and Mexican American farmworkers who are regularly and ruthlessly rounded up by the migra, as well as the immense challenges faced by their families. Original. 15,000 first printing.
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| The Marsh Queen by Virginia HartmanWhat happens: Loni couldn't wait to escape the backwater Florida community where her father tragically died when she was 12. Years later, Loni reluctantly returns to clear the family home and uncovers town secrets that hint her father's death wasn't an accident.
Why you'll love it: Loni's cat-and-mouse search for a potential killer is spiced up by an unexpected romance and plays out against an atmospheric swampland setting.
Read this next: The Silent Sister by Diane Chamberlain. |
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More than Words
by Jill Santopolo
"A woman mourning the death of her hotel owner father and reeling from an astounding secret finds herself caught between the world of her longtime boyfriend and her passionate boss. By the author of ""The Light We Lost""."
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| Nightcrawling by Leila MottleyMeet: Kiara, a young Black woman devoted to her younger brother and determined to keep him off the rough streets of Oakland, California.
What happens: Caught between escalating housing costs and corrupt law enforcement, Kiara is forced into sex work to survive. When the dirty cops are exposed, she becomes the object of public victim blaming and class shaming.
Reviewers say: "Mottley's novel understands that sometimes a happy ending just means surviving" (Library Journal). |
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A Walk Across the Sun: A Novel
by Corban Addison
Orphaned and homeless after a tsunami decimates their coastal India town, 17-year-old Ahalya Ghai and her 15-year-old sister, Sita, are abducted and sold to a Mumbai brothel owner, where they endure a torturous existence before they are helped by a Washington, D.C. attorney who is able to combat human trafficking. A first novel.
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| Carrie Soto Is Back by Taylor Jenkins ReidGame... Before being sidelined by a knee injury, Carrie Soto attained GOAT status as a world-famous record-setting tennis champ.
Set... An up-and-comer threatens Carrie's legacy, drawing her back to the courts at age 37.
Match... Carrie's single-minded determination is a blessing and a curse. Can she embrace her vulnerabilites at last -- and level-up her relationship with former fling, Bowe Huntley?
Read this next: The Second Season by Emily Adrian. |
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Legend
by Katy Evans
"Can love really conquer all?--Book Six in Katy Evans's breakout New York Times bestselling series that began with Real. Maverick "The Avenger" Cage wants to rise to the top and become a legend in the ring. Though he keeps his identity well guarded, he'sknown on the fighting circuit as the new kid with a chip on his shoulder and a tattoo on his back that marks him as trouble. He's got a personal score to settle with the Underground's one and only Remington "Riptide" Tate. As Mav trains, he meets a young girl--the only other new person in the town--and sparks fly. When things get heated between them, he finds out she's none other than Reese Dumas, the cousin of Remington Tate's wife. A girl who's supposed to root against him and a girl he's supposed to stay away from. But Mav fights for the woman in his heart and the monsters in his blood. The world's eyes are on them, and the victor will go down in history as the ultimate fighting champion--the ultimate LEGEND"
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| Big Girl by Mecca Jamilah SullivanBody positivity... is decades away in 1990s Harlem, where Malaya comes of age as a Black, plus-sized young woman. White classmates at her prep school for the gifted taunt her by day; her family (and society at large) send mixed messages about food and identity the rest of the time.
What happens: Malaya rises to the challenge, discovering -- and celebrating -- her true self.
For fans of: Precious, from Push by Sapphire; Queenie, star of Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams; or Ana, from Angie Cruz's Dominicana. |
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Queenie
by Candice Carty-Williams
Starring: young Jamaican British Queenie, who finds herself in a downward spiral after a relationship ends.
What happens: Dating disasters (the white men she meets tend to fetishize her) and impulsive decisions spell trouble, but Queenie has friends to lean on, and she eventually takes control of her mental health.
Reviewers say: "This smart, funny, and tender debut embraces a modern woman's messiness" (Booklist).
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| Sweet, Soft, Plenty Rhythm by Laura WarrellStarring: Circus, a 40-something, love-them-and-leave-them jazz trumpeter, whose one true love (probably) has just revealed she's pregnant with his child.
Read it for: a soulful, real-talk story -- told from multiple perspectives -- about the effects of confusing duty, love, desire, and passion for one another.
Sample it: "On the other side of the pool, a woman glanced up... He was used to being watched with Maggie. They were loud and beautiful together." |
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A Visit from the Goon Squad
by Jennifer Egan
Working side-by-side for a record label, former punk rocker Bennie Salazar and the passionate Sasha hide illicit secrets from one another while interacting with a motley assortment of equally troubled people from 1970s San Francisco to the post-war future. By the National Book Award-nominated author of Look at Me.
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| The Frederick Sisters Are Living the Dream by Jeannie ZusyMeet: Bets, the eldest sister, living her best life in Southern California; Maggie, the youngest, now shouldering care for middle sister Ginny, a willful 57-year-old with type II diabetes who nearly OD's on Jell-O.
Now what? Bets's perfect life... isn't. Maggie's marriage founders, her adult sons won't grow up, and Ginny's sugar addiction feels like it could be the death of them all. Plus, an aged dog's life hangs in the balance.
Reviewers say: "Amid the chaos and the fear, there is always love" (Booklist). |
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The Weird Sisters
by Eleanor Brown
Unwillingly brought together to care for their ailing mother, three sisters who were named after famous Shakespearean characters discover that everything they have been avoiding may prove more worthwhile than expected. A first novel.
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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