9 New Books to Read This Fall

Books to Cozy Up with this Fall

With longer nights, cooler days, and sweater-appropriate weather, the final months of the year are a great time to crack open some books and get reading.

To help you curate your fall TBR list, we've selected 9 titles that are either newly released or being published this fall, all of which are or will be reviewed by our readers and reviewers — read on for the full list!

Playground

Playground: A Novel
by Richard Powers


Hardcover Sep 24, 2024. 400 pages
Published by W.W. Norton & Company

Why We Picked It: Fall is a great time to connect with nature, and no one writes nature quite like Richard Powers. While The Overstory might be the more obvious fall read with its woodsy settings, Playground offers a vibrant escape to the ocean and a French Polynesian setting.

Short Summary: A magisterial new novel from the Pulitzer Prize–winning and New York Times best-selling author of The Overstory and Bewilderment.

Review Snippet: At one point in Playground, Evelyne thinks that she'd like to write a book: "To try one more time to make the land dwellers love the wild, unfathomable God of waters. To give the smallest hint of creatures so varied and inventive and otherworldly that they might compel humility and stop human progress in its tracks with awe." One feels this, too, is the heart and the goal of Playground. And for this reader, mission accomplished. (Reviewed by Kim Kovacs) 

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The Bog Wife

The Bog Wife
by Kay Chronister


Oct 1, 2024. 336 pages
Published by Counterpoint Press

Why We Picked It: If you're looking for a creepier read this Halloween, add this to your list.  As one of our readers put it, "This book is as good as it is strange, and it is really strange!" 

Short Summary: Five siblings in West Virginia unearth long-buried secrets when the supernatural bargain entwining their fate with their ancestral land is suddenly ruptured. 

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Intermezzo

Intermezzo: A Novel
by Sally Rooney


Hardcover Sep 24, 2024. 464 pages
Published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux

Why We Picked It: We'd recommend just about anything from Rooney, but this book, focusing on the shared grief of two brothers, offers a great book to sit with on a gloomy day.


Short Summary: An exquisitely moving story about grief, love, and family―but especially love―from the global phenomenon Sally Rooney. 

Review Snippet: In her novels, Rooney lets us peek into moments of her characters' lives. She opens a window and shows us a fragment, an interlude, an intermezzo. Then, when the blinds fall, life goes on, as unpredictable for readers as for characters, "more and more complex, more difficult. Which is another way, she thinks, of saying: more life, more and more life." (Reviewed by Alicia Calvo Hernández)



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Pony Confidential

Pony Confidential
by Christina Lynch


Nov 5, 2024. 384 pages
Published by Berkley Books

Why We Picked It:  If you're looking to lighten your mood this fall, this book is more light-hearted.  As one of our readers wrote, "You will love this book if you loved Six-Thirty in Lessons in Chemistry or Marcellus in Remarkably Bright Creatures. If you just want something heartwarming and different, please pick it up."

Short Summary: In this one-of-a-kind mystery with heart and humor, a hilariously grumpy pony must save the only human he's ever loved after discovering she stands accused of a murder he knows she didn't commit. 

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Tell Me Everything

Tell Me Everything: A Novel
by Elizabeth Strout


Sep 2024. 352 pages
Published by Random House

Why We Picked It: Oprah has good taste! Jokes aside, the setting of autumn in Maine makes this a perfect fall read.

Short Summary: From Pulitzer Prize–winning author Elizabeth Strout comes a hopeful, healing novel about new friendships, old loves, and the very human desire to leave a mark on the world.

BookBrowse review coming soon! 

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The God of the Woods

The God of the Woods: A Novel
by Liz Moore


Hardcover Jul 2024. 496 pages
Published by Riverhead Books

Why We Picked It: The Adirondack setting and literary mystery make this novel great for fall reading. 

Short Summary: When a teenager vanishes from her Adirondack summer camp, two worlds collide.

Review Snippet: This is an engrossing mystery that expands the genre into character study and a discussion of social norms. The book is highly recommended for those looking for a top-notch mystery, as well as anyone interested in an outstanding work of literary fiction. (Reviewed by Kim Kovacs) 

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Libby Lost and Found

Libby Lost and Found: A Novel
by Stephanie Booth


Oct 15, 2024. 400 pages
Published by Sourcebooks Landmark

Why We Picked It:  Another feel-good read, Libby Lost and Found is a great choice for readers who love books about books and want to sit in a comfy chair and read all day. As one of our readers wrote, "Her story will remind you of the first book you ever fell in love with as a child. It's that good. I highly recommend!"

Short Summary: Libby Lost and Found is a book for people who don't know who they are without the books they love. It's about the stories we tell ourselves and the chapters of our lives we regret. Most importantly, it's about the endings we write for ourselves.

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Colored Television

Colored Television: A Novel
by Danzy Senna


Hardcover Sep 2024. 288 pages
Published by Riverhead Books

Why We Picked It: OK, sunny LA might not be the obvious setting for a fall read, but this book is a great choice for those looking for a dark comedy dealing with midlife crises, particularly if you enjoy poking fun at the entertainment industry.

Short Summary: A brilliant dark comedy about love and ambition, failure and reinvention, and the racial- identity-industrial complex from the bestselling author of Caucasia.

Review Snippet: Senna's novel plays beautifully with notions of cliché. In satirizing obvious tropes, she both uses them for their originally intended purpose and invites the reader to question their validity. Jane's character arc follows the curve of a classic mid-life crisis, but instead of having an affair or indulging in the past, as middle-aged men are clichédly wont to do, she sneaks out of the house day and night with the aim of building a secret future. Her biracial identity and the lack of belonging it makes her feel is another cliché, but also a reality she must navigate, one that spins off into deeply hilarious explorations of anti-Black racism and its echoes, ranging from the sinister commodification of race in the entertainment industry to the psychic who once upon a time engineered Jane's relationship with Lenny. (Reviewed by Elisabeth Cook)

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In the Garden of Monsters

In the Garden of Monsters: A Novel
by Crystal King


Sep 24, 2024. 336 pages
Published by MIRA

Why We Picked It:  Who doesn't enjoy a good mythical retelling? We've rounded out our list with another slightly spooky title taking the myth of Hades and Persephone and pairing it with Salvador Dali and an Italian setting. Our readers highlighted the quality of the writing as well: "Crystal King paints word pictures that flow like poetry."

Short Summary: A woman with no past. A man who seems to know her. And a monstrous garden that could be the border between their worlds…

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