October, incredibly, is nearly over, though the end of the month is often just what we look forward to most: Halloween, Samhain, reflections on the passage of time and life alike. (And, because it’s inescapable this year, the election, though many of us are perhaps less eager for that chaotic day to come.) In advance of all these (or in place of them), you may be in search of new things to read, and I come bearing eighteen options for you to consider, from anticipated novels and story and essay collections to a new biography of the Brothers Grimm; a bookish memoir from Glory Edim; a nod to the literature in Gilmore Girls; and much, much more.
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Let your to-be-read piles grow and grow.
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Cho Nam-Joo, Miss Kim Knows: And Other Stories (trans. Jamie Chang)
(Liveright)
“These eight stories feature women of all ages who struggle with discrimination, domestic violence, dysfunctional workplaces, and domesticity. Nam-joo even takes inspiration from her own life for a story in which a Seoul-based author releases a divisive feminist novel. (Nam-joo was both celebrated and derided for her 2020 international best-seller, Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982)…a thought-provoking anthology for the #MeToo age.”
–TIME
Nikki May, This Motherless Land
(Mariner Books)
“A fierce and evocative retelling of Mansfield Park. Funke and Liv are cousins, united (and torn apart) by tragedy and neglect, finding their place in the world. It’s a vivid, moving and epic family saga.”
–Beth Morrey
Scholastique Mukasonga, Sister Deborah (trans. Mark Polizzotti)
(Archipelago Books)
“[Sister Deborah] delivers a dazzling and witty narrative of a Black Christian cult in early twentieth-century Rwanda…as in Mukasonga’s excellent previous work, she manages to balance clear-eyed portrayals of charlatan leaders and their superstitious followers with striking depictions of spiritual visions…a master class in post-colonial feminist storytelling.”
–Publishers Weekly
Ann Schmiesing, The Brothers Grimm: A Biography
(Yale University Press)
“At long last—an authoritative biography in English of the remarkable Brothers Grimm. Rich in details and insights, Ann Schmiesing’s unparalleled account draws on up-to-date research and her extensive knowledge of the brothers’ extraordinary lives and times.”
–Donald Haase
Glory Edim, Gather Me: A Memoir in Praise of the Books that Saved Me
(Ballantine)
“Gather Me is a beautiful, deeply introspective, and tender journey. Edim is one of the most important nurturers of the Black literary tradition, and now she stands elegantly within it as a writer.”
–Imani Perry
Erika Berlin, Gilmore Girls: The Rory Gilmore Reading Challenge: The Official Guide to All the Books
(Running Press Adult)
“With over 330 books mentioned throughout the series, The Rory Gilmore Reading Challenge conveniently rounds up every title, from Dostoevsky to Dr. Seuss, along with bookish tidbits from the show.”
–People
Mike Fu, Masquerade
(Tin House)
“Sensuous, sexy, and at times surreal, Mike Fu’s Masquerade paints an unforgettable portrait of a young man standing on the cusp of creative agency. Masquerade is a mesmeric fever dream of a novel about the powers and boundaries of life, love, and art….Fu introduces hidden, decadent corners of the singular cities of Shanghai, old Shanghai, and New York. A Nabokovian puzzle with a hint of Hitchcock and an altogether original cast.”
–Julie Min
Susan Rieger, Like Mother, Like Mother
(Dial Press)
“A novel in the spirit of Meg Wolitzer, Jean Hanff Korelitz, and the great Nora Ephron….Who says comedy is dead? It’s all here—incredible characters, joyful satire, a wisecracking newswoman, family secrets with a twist of lime.”
–Allegra Goodman
Maylis de Karangal, Canoes (trans. Jessica Moore)
(Archipelago Books)
“De Kerangal’s masterful collection examines alienation and grief at pivotal moments in her characters’ lives….Each story is richly complex, and the collection’s recurring canoe imagery gives it the feel of a treasure map….This understated volume packs a powerful punch.”
–Publishers Weekly
Damion Searls, The Philosophy of Translation
(Yale University Press)
“Translators are priceless, and their task is often thankless. Now more than ever, readers who have been confused by Google Translate do not understand the project of translation. The Philosophy of Translation makes clear the mission of the translator, the amazing task of offering an extant work by constructing a new work. This book is open, honest and, most of all, smart; it makes clear that the act of translation is an act of creation. Remarkable.”
–Percival Everett
Stephen Osborne, The Coincidence Problem: Selected Dispatches 1999 – 2022
(Arsenal Pulp Press)
“To read this collection is to share in the author’s delight with the language of life, the details of the everyday. Every essay is absorbing and surprising, composed of smaller stories strung together like mismatched beads, each with its own particular allure. The result is a dazzling reminder that there is much in the world to be fascinated by, if only one would look a little closer, a little longer.”
–Lynn Coady
Lyta Gold, Dangerous Fictions: The Fear of Fantasy and the Invention of Reality
(Soft Skull)
“An incisive book debut with a thoughtful, often witty, examination of the causes and consequences of banning novels….A savvy contribution to current debates.”
–Kirkus Reviews
Mikaella Clements, Onjuli Datta, Feast While You Can
(Grand Central Publishing)
“This book takes a bold and seemingly effortless swing for the fences of literary horror: beautiful, greedy and terrifying, it makes an intimate home for itself right alongside your bones. Add to that the vividly realised characters and setting, and a queer romance full of yearning and heat, and you get a unique story that I’ll be thinking about forever.”
–Freya Marske
Paula Hawkins, The Blue Hour
(Mariner)
“An atmospheric and marvelously twisty novel– Paula Hawkins returns with an examination of legacy, and the mountains we’ll move to feel like we belong. The Blue Hour builds a labyrinth of surprises, which deliver through to the very last page.”
–Daniel Kukafka
Dylan Riley, Perdita: On Loss
(Verso)
“A poignant memoir of the felicitous and infelicitous contingencies that shape the course of a life, Perdita testifies to the irreducible uniqueness of each human being, and the power of writing to ensure the survival of the universe they once were.”
–Ryan Ruby
Charles King, Every Valley: The Desperate Lives and Troubled Times That Made Handel’s Messiah
(Doubleday)
“Ecstatic, affecting, entirely weird, Handel’s Messiah indeed seems—as a listener wrote after its 1742 Dublin debut—’a species of music different from any other.’ With brio, Charles King pulls aside the curtain behind the work, to reveal the scandal and intrigue, opportunists and thugs, deep pain and soaring optimism, that Handel transmuted, in less than a month….A book of power and glory, brimming with emotion and dazzling in its reach.”
–Stacy Schiff
S. H. Fernando, The Chronicles of Doom: Unraveling Rap’s Masked Iconoclast
(Astra House)
“The Chronicles of DOOM is superbly written, and incredibly well researched, but also full of heart and the pure love and appreciation of any true DOOM fan. Here you get everything you would want to know about the man, the myth, the mask. It is written as compellingly as the origin stories of the greatest superheroes and supervillains. If you love DOOM, I could not more highly recommend this book.”
–Tommy Orange
Richard Seymour, Disaster Nationalism: The Downfall of Liberal Civilization
(Verso)
“Thrilling, clinical, and profound-a necessary account of the stupefying rise, and grotesque fantasies, of the new apocalyptic right. There is no better guide to this hellish ideological landscape or the social dysfunction which gave rise to it.”
–Joya Chatterji
