All the Books You’ll Maybe Probably Definitely Want to Read This Fall

Summer is coming swiftly to a close, and with it the season of summer reading. Sad though that is, fall is by far the best season for new books — including some highly anticipated releases to hole up with as the weather gets colder. We’ve pulled together a list of some titles to watch for from here until the end of the year — and a bonus look at some releases after!

SEPTEMBER

Angel Catbird by Margaret Atwood
Release Date: September 6th, 2016

The author of feminist dystopian classic The Handmaid’s Tale (now being adapted for TV) steps into comics this September. Angel Catbird is the story of genetic engineer Strig Feleedus, mutated by his own experiments into the titular character. This pulp-inspired original graphic novel looks like a fresh and gorgeous take on the superhero genre, and we look forward to seeing Margaret Atwood’s prose in comics form alongside Johnnie Christmas’s artwork.

Here I Am by Jonathan Safran Foer
Release Date: September 6th, 2016

His first novel since the release of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close in 2005, Here I Am is the story of the Bloch family in present day Washington D.C. This highly anticipated work explores difficult moral questions about responsibility: to our families and our nations, especially when those loyalties are divided. Jacob, Julia, and their three sons confront the contradictions in their lives as a catastrophic earthquake unleashes fresh violence in the Middle East. Early reviews are full of effusive praise.

Where Am I Now by Mara Wilson
Release Date: September 13th, 2016

Twenty years after the release of the movie of Roald Dahl’s Matilda, in which Mara Wilson played the title character, she releases this memoir of her childhood and adolescence, frequently out of place, accidentally famous and perpetually young. Wilson’s internet presence is clever, funny, and insightful, and we’re excited to see her writing at more length: that rarity, a child star grown up gracefully.

Black Wave by Michelle Tea
Release Date: September 13th, 2016

Narrator Michelle moves to Los Angeles to escape her addictions to drugs and bad relationships. When it’s announced that the world is going to end in a year, the city starts to descend into the weird; Michelle begins on a new novel while living in an abandoned bookstore. The boundaries between fiction and reality start to blur, and she struggles to hold back from self-destruction. Weird, genre bending, and dark, this novel embraces the apocalypse and questions of queer love and art with equal grace.

Trainwreck by Sady Doyle
Release Date: September 20th, 2016

The writer behind the feminist blog Tiger Beatdown, Sady Doyle here takes on the “trainwreck” — women who “fail” in some way, like Britney Spears’ famous head-shaving incident, or Mary Wollstonecraft, known for her suicide attempts more than her writing. She asks why we love to mock and hate these women, and what it means that women’s behavior is put under such scrutiny, especially now as women push more than ever against the traditional limits placed upon them. Funny and incisive, Doyle digs deep into history and feminism for answers.

Shelter In Place by Alexander Maksik
Release Date: September 13th, 2016

Set in Seattle in the 1990s, the age of grunge and heyday of Nirvana, Maksik’s novel is about mental illness and the focused intensity of youth. Joseph March’s future falls apart after his mom abruptly murders a stranger, shortly after he starts to show symptoms of bipolar disorder. Told in Maksik’s stylish prose, Shelter In Place tells a deeply American story grounded in the tense atmosphere of the early 90s. This new release from Europa, and Maksik’s third novel, promises to be one of the stars of the fall publishing season.

Darling Days by iO Tillett Wright
Release Date: September 27th, 2016

Actor, activist, speaker and writer iO Tillett Wright releases his memoir this September, driven by the relationship between iO and his mother, Rhonna. At the age of eight iO rejected his assigned gender and took a new identity as a boy named Ricky. Now, iO is an outspoken advocate for queer and genderqueer people, and one of the early voices to bring the idea of gender and sexuality as a spectrum into the mainstream. Darling Days examines issues of culture and identity through the lens of one extraordinary life.

OCTOBER

The Wangs vs. The World by Jade Chang
Release Date: October 4th, 2016

This debut novel follows an immigrant family gone from riches to rags after their father’s cosmetics fortune was lost in the recession. Frustrated with his loss, Charles Wang aims to start over in China, reclaiming his ancestor’s land and his lost pride — but his family is less ready to go along with the plan. Funny and hopeful, Chang offers a new kind of immigrant story about family and belonging.

You Can’t Touch My Hair by Phoebe Robinson
Release Date: October 4th, 2016

Stand-up comic, creator, and co-star of the podcast 2 Dope Queens, Phoebe Robinson releases her essay collection on race, gender, and pop culture this October that promises all of the funny, incisive commentary on the absurdity that she deals with daily as a black woman in America. Fans of the podcast will embrace this collection; and those who’ve never listened, let us introduce you to your new favorite commentator.

Nicotine by Nell Zink
Release Date: October 4th, 2016

The author of Mislaid and The Wallcreeper releases her third novel, about a young woman who inherits her bohemian father’s home and finds it occupied by friendly anarchist squatters. Penny Baker has kept her distance from her family for years, but she manages to find a new one in the congregation of squatters around the old house. However, her old family is converging, and Penny has to find a way to navigate between them. Zink captures clashes between idealism and pragmatism, found families and the ones we’re born into.

Crosstalk by Connie Willis
Release Date: October 4th, 2016

Science fiction icon Connie Willis takes on social media in this genre-bending stand-alone exploring the effects of too much communication and connectivity. In the near future, a simple procedure allows romantic partners the ability to enhance empathy to enjoy better emotional connection. Briddey Flannigan links up with her boyfriend Trent to enable the perfect relationship — but things don’t work out quite as she expected. There is definitely such a thing as too much information. Crosstalk explores questions of privacy and communication in this farcical send-up of the interconnected modern world.

The Mothers by Brit Bennett
Release Date: October 11th, 2016

Another debut novel already generating a lot of buzz, The Mothers tells the story of a secret pregnancy and its reverberating effects long after through a black community in Southern California. Nadia Turner, mourning her mother’s recent suicide, and Luke Sheppard, injured football star, begin a brief, casual relationship that doesn’t last for long. The aftereffects, however, follow them into their adult lives, asking questions about how much we as adults are chained by our past choices and roads not taken. (This also wins our vote for best cover!)

Upstream by Mary Oliver
Release Date: October 11th, 2016

This collection of essays by one of America’s most beloved poets, dwells on Oliver’s lifelong connection to nature, her relationship with Walt Whitman and his work, and the pleasure of creative work. The essays in Upstream exhort the reader to always be open to the awe and curiosity about the world around us that is a hallmark of Mary Oliver’s poetry, and also urge giving space and time to the creative urges in each of us.

Float by Anne Carson
Release Date: October 25th, 2016

A new collection from the exceptional modern poet presents several individual chapbooks in one case that can be read in any order. A shape-shifting mix of genres, time periods and structures showcases Carson’s exceptional skill and range, and her unique combination of experimental poet and classical scholar.

NOVEMBER

Faithful by Alice Hoffman
Release Date: November 1st, 2016

The author of such favorites as Practical Magic and The Marriage of Opposites spins the story of Shelby Richmond, a young woman whose life is wrenched off course by an accident that leaves her best friend dead. Faithful is about survival and healing told in Alice Hoffman’s trademark style.

Frantumaglia: A Writer’s Journey by Elena Ferrante
Release Date: November 1st, 2016

This collection of 20 years worth of writings by Elena Ferrante offers a glimpse into the life and work of the author of the Neapolitan Quartet. She discusses the reasoning behind the masking of her identity, leaving her books to stand autonomously, and her relationship with feminism and motherhood. Letters, essays, reflections and interviews compose a unique portrait of a passionate and dedicated writer that allows the Ferrante Feverish to encounter another side of the master craftswoman.

Thus Bad Begins by Javier Marías
Release Date: November 1st, 2016

One of Spain’s most celebrated novelists and winner of multiple international prizes, Javier Marias’ newest work focuses on a young man in the 1980s who takes up a job as personal assistant to an eccentric film director. He becomes drawn into the strange lives of the former director, his wife, and a family friend surrounded by peculiar rumors. Dark, strange, and thrilling, reviews from the UK (where it was released last year) praise Marias’ walking the line between literary fiction and psychological thriller.

Swing Time by Zadie Smith
Release Date: November 15th, 2016

This new novel by the award-winning author of White Teeth and On Beauty is her first new fiction since 2012’s NW. Smith’s exceptional work never disappoints, and this new work promises to equal her previous high standards. It tells the story of two young black women who want to be dancers, and their relationship throughout their lives. Moving between London and West Africa, Swing Time is about the strength of friendship and music across distance and time.

Moonglow by Michael Chabon
Release Date: November 22nd, 2016

Another author whose name alone inspires excitement, the Pulitzer Prize winner delivers a book in the form of a deathbed confession, an epic that spans a century of history, encapsulated in one life and told in one week. Blurring the lines between fiction and nonfiction, novel and autobiography, this book looks to be an innovative and invigorating work from a master writer.

DECEMBER

Dark Mirror by Barton Gellman
Release Date: December 6th, 2016

Barton Gellman’s nonfiction book explores the complex story of the modern American surveillance state, partially through the actions of Edward Snowden, the former CIA employee who leaked classified NSA information revealing numerous global surveillance programs. The three time Pulitzer winner brings his keen investigative eye and attentive research to bear on a combination of a true story of modern espionage and Gellman’s own tangles with the world of digital surveillance.

Browsings by Michael Dirda
Release Date: December 6th, 2016

Famous book reviewer and “best-read person in America” (The Paris Review) Michael Dirda releases this collection in December, bringing together fifty essays on all things literary. He reflects on fifty years of literary journalism, book collecting, and his favorite writers in a wide-ranging topics, a celebration of books from a true book lover to delight any afficionado.

Dance on the Volcano by Marie Vieux-Chauvet
Release Date: December 6th, 2016

Set during the very early days of the Haitian Revolution, this novel centers on two sisters, one of whom is able to gain access to French colonial society due to her singing ability while the other remains trapped in the poverty of the colonized Haitian people. Marie Vieux-Chauvet gives voices to the seldom remembered women of Haiti, and brings to life a moment in history rife with tensions of class and skin color. Not just political polemic, however, this is also the personal story of two young women, both intimately connected and divided.

A Woman Looking at Men Looking at Women by Siri Hustvedt
Release Date: December 6th, 2016

Hustvedt, the author of The Blazing World and What I Loved, here examines issues of perception, hysteria, and the mind/body problem. She connects science and the humanities, moving back and forth between psychology and biology and the arts to spur thought and discussion of the topics she considers.

Whatever Happened to Interracial Love? by Kathleen Collins
Release Date: December 6th, 2016

This new collection of short stories by the African-American filmmaker Kathleen Collins (the first black woman to produce a full-length feature film) brings the relatively little known storyteller back into the public eye. Her sensitive, graceful writing explores race, gender, and sexuality in the ordinary lives of her fully realized characters.

JANUARY AND BEYOND

Kindred: A Graphic Novel Adaptation by Octavia Butler
Release Date: January 10th, 2017

Octavia Butler’s classic novel is overdue for the graphic novel treatment, and finally receiving it early next year. The story of Dana, a young woman who suddenly finds herself transported back in time to her own family history on a slave plantation, will be brought to a new kind of life with the help of Damian Duffy and John Jennings.

Bring Back the King by Helen Pilcher
Release Date: January 10, 2017

Could we really resurrect the dinosaurs? Helen Pilcher dives into the science of de-extinction, examining both its possibilities and the possible ramifications. Both scientist and stand-up comedian, Pilcher explores her subject matter with humor and curiosity.

The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden
Release Date: January 10th, 2017

Comparing itself to Uprooted by Naomi Novik or the mythologically inspired work of Neil Gaiman, Arden’s debut novel is set in the remote Russian wilderness and is the story of a young woman fascinated by fairytales who gradually finds them intruding on her real life.

Human Acts by Han Kang
Release Date: January 10th, 2017

Kang’s surreal, disturbing novel The Vegetarian won the Man Booker Prize, and this next novel weaves the story of a young boy killed during a student uprising in South Korea. Reviews from the UK are already raving, promising another great work from a novelist just beginning to be recognized in the English-speaking literary world.

4 3 2 1 by Paul Auster
Release Date: January 31st, 2017

Acclaimed writer Paul Auster tells four separate but interconnected stories about the same man — Archibald Isaac Ferguson — and the divergent paths his life might take. Four stories about four men, the same but utterly different, lay out the array of possibilities and myriad paths that life can take, with all of Auster’s trademark skill.

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