Top of the Crop:
15 Great Reads for Fall 2016
by Devon A. Corneal
As the slightly shorter days and cooler nights of late summer shift our focus away from suntan lotion and barbeques to back-to-school clothes and new pencils, I’m reminded that soon things will return to normal. The kids will complain about early alarms and classrooms and homework, and parents will rejoice, knowing we may have a little extra time on our hands. Why not fill those rare moments of silence with a good book? Want to steal away with the memoir of a comedienne, a rock star, or a wife? What about a history of an iconic ballet, or an exploration of slavery, cigarettes, or silly animals? You deserve to get lost in a good book, and we’ve scoured this fall’s new releases for a few recommendations to get you started.
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Harmony
What would you do to save your child? Tilly Hammond’s parents pick up the family and move them from Washington, D.C. to Camp Harmony in the remote woods of New Hampshire hoping to give Tilly a chance at a normal life. But what they find in the woods is not quite what they expect.
(On Sale: 08/02/2016)Available from: -
The Underground Railroad
Available from:Author Colson Whitehead describes his latest novel, a visceral, terrifying, and important examination of slavery and the paths to freedom sought by those trying to escape its horrors, as the book that “really scared” him. Imagining the Underground Railroad as a real train, and telling the story of a slave named Cora who, despite the deadly consequences she faces if she is caught, insists on becoming a northbound passenger, Whitehead’s novel is not for the faint of heart. Chosen as Oprah’s latest book club pick, this is going to be the book everyone’s talking about this fall.
(On Sale: 08/02/2016)Also available from: -
Textbook
Available from:Parents may know Amy Krouse Rosenthal for her charming and insanely witty children’s books — Little Pea, Duck! Rabbit!, Spoon, and Bedtime for Mommy to name just a few. But she’s also an inventive author of books for adults, and her latest, Textbook, brings together the highly creative style she’s known for with poignant and timely observations about living.
(On Sale: 08/09/2016)Also available from: -
The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo
There are plenty of memoirs to choose from this fall, including this intensely personal, insightful, and laugh-out-loud funny one from comedienne Amy Schumer. Schumer is at her best puncturing our stereotypes on the page and making us laugh while doing it.
(On Sale: 08/16/2016) -
Here I Am
From the author of Everything Is Illuminated and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, comes Here I Am, a family saga told in the span of four weeks, crossing oceans, religious boundaries, intergenerational relationships, and individual identities. In a single month, the Bloch family must reckon with an invasion, an earthquake, a bar mitzvah, and the tensile strength of the ties that hold them together.
(On Sale: 09/06/2016) -
Love Warrior: A Memoir
Glennon Doyle Melton never shies away from the most brutal of personal observations, and writes with remarkable candor about her struggles with everything from addiction to depression to faith. Written in the wake of the near-collapse of her marriage, Love Warrior explores the contours of love, betrayal, forgiveness, and commitment in Melton’s frank and honest way.
(On Sale: 09/06/2016) -
Sad Animal Facts
This book is perfect for those moments when you need to escape. This collection of unexpectedly amusing, sad, and just plain odd facts about animals big and small, complete with silly, simple illustrations is guaranteed to keep you laughing page after page.
(On Sale: 09/06/2016) -
Commonwealth
Sometimes a kiss is not just a kiss. Sometimes, a kiss can change everything, fracturing families and rebuilding them in unexpected ways. Patchett shines chronicling the Cousins and Keating children and their parents as they navigate the aftershocks of a single kiss.
(On Sale: 09/13/2016) -
Jerusalem
If epics are your thing, Jerusalem is your book. Sweeping and eclectic, Jerusalem encompasses entire worlds and revolutionary scientific theories, the intimacy of childbirth and the vastness of science fiction, kings and beggars, historical characters and angels, all in the dirty streets and alleys of Northampton, England.
(On Sale: 09/13/2016) -
The Wonder
Emma Donoghue crafts deeply moving, provocative, and suspenseful stories about children and the adults who care for them, as anyone who has read Room can attest. Donoghue’s latest novel tells the story of Lib Wright, an English nurse brought to a small Irish village to watch over eleven-year-old Anna O’Donnell, who claims to have eaten nothing but manna from heaven for months. Instead of merely watching, however, Lib finds herself fighting to save Anna’s life.
(On Sale: 09/20/2016) -
Born to Run
The Boss’s fans are about to get their closest look yet at the life of this prolific rocker. Seven years in the writing, Bruce Springsteen promises to try to “show the reader his mind.” We can’t wait to see what’s inside.
(On Sale: 09/27/2016) -
Nicotine
When Penny Baker inherits her father’s childhood home in New Jersey, she does not expect to find it inhabited by a small group of determined smokers’ rights advocates, holding tightly to a 1960’s sensibility in a 21st century world. As Penny is pulled into this tiny, but intensely connected community, she finds herself questioning the life she had crafted for herself and the lengths she’s willing to go to protect the new family she’s joined. Funny and thoughtful in equal measure, Nicotine is a surprising and deftly executed novel.
(On Sale: 10/04/2016) -
Today Will Be Different
I laughed and sometimes cried my way through Maria Semple’s Where’d You Go, Bernadette, so I’m eager to read her latest about one Eleanor Flood whose messy life is about to get messier and maybe, just maybe, a whole lot better.
(On Sale: 10/04/2016) -
Bolshoi Confidential
Go backstage at the famed Bolshoi Ballet to discover the artistry and politics of this storied theater and company. The Bolshoi’s 240-year-old history is filled with charlatans, violence, censorship, and above all, extraordinary talent and a relentless pursuit of perfection. From tsars to communists to modern criminals, the Bolshoi has seen, and done, it all.
(On Sale: 10/11/2016) -
Swing Time
The friendship of two girls who dream of being dancers unravels when they discover that only one has the talent to truly succeed. Moving from London to Africa and from childhood to adulthood, Zadie Smith reminds us that the rhythm of our early dreams shapes everything that comes after.
(On Sale: 11/15/2016)
Everything Old Is New Again:
This fall, get ready for the 50th Anniversary of The Chosen by Chaim Potok and Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys and the 100th Anniversary of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce. If you haven’t read these classics before, now is your chance. Also, be on the lookout for film versions of The Light Between Oceans and Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children in September, The Girl on the Train in October, and Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk in December. Impress your friends and read the books before you hit theaters.
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Wide Sargasso Sea
Preorder from: A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Also available from: -
What other books are on your to-be-read list for fall? Let us know in the comments below.