Books To Read In Fall

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Guess what, bookworms? It's the time of year where all of us basic bitches come to life. It's autumn! Break out the fluffy clothes and pumpkin spice everything. Here's what I'll be reading while I munch Halloween candy.

🍂  Fall Reading List  🧣

DEAD MOUNTAIN: THE UNTOLD TRUE STORY OF THE DYATLOV PASS INCIDENT BY DONNIE EICHAR

Adult History Nonfiction

In February 1959, a group of nine experienced hikers in the Russian Ural Mountains died mysteriously on an elevation known as Dead Mountain. Eerie aspects of the incident—unexplained violent injuries, signs that they cut open and fled the tent without proper clothing or shoes, a strange final photograph taken by one of the hikers, and elevated levels of radiation found on some of their clothes—have led to decades of speculation over what really happened. This gripping work of literary nonfiction delves into the mystery through unprecedented access to the hikers' own journals and photographs, rarely seen government records, dozens of interviews, and the author's retracing of the hikers' fateful journey in the Russian winter.

Why I'm excited to read it: I'm pretty sure I've seen every TV show about the Dyatlov Pass incident. It's a weird and fascinating historical mystery that may never be solved. There are so many things in the wilderness that can kill a person. I'm interested to see if this book has any new insights.

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THE WARLOW EXPERIMENT BY ALIX NATHAN

Adult Historical Fiction

Herbert Powyss lives in an estate in the Welsh Marches, with enough time and income to pursue a gentleman's fashionable investigations and experiments in botany. But he longs to make his mark in the field of science—something consequential enough to present to the Royal Society in London. He hits on a radical experiment in isolation: For seven years a subject will inhabit three rooms in the basement of the manor house, fitted out with rugs, books, paintings, and even a chamber organ. Meals will arrive thrice daily via a dumbwaiter. The solitude will be totally unrelieved by any social contact whatsoever; the subject will keep a diary of his daily thoughts and actions. The pay: fifty pounds per annum, for life.

Only one man is desperate to apply for the job: John Warlow, a semi-literate laborer with a wife and six children to provide for. The experiment, a classic Enlightenment exercise gone more than a little mad, will have unforeseen consequences for all included.

Why I'm excited to read it: Seven years of solitude? I don't know if that would be amazing or horrible. I'd probably go insane. This book sounds like it might have a lot to say about society, science, and how humans exploit one another. It should be interesting.

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SPOOK: SCIENCE TACKLES THE AFTERLIFE BY MARY ROACH

Adult Science Nonfiction

"What happens when we die? Does the light just go out and that's that—the million-year nap? Or will some part of my personality, my me-ness persist? What will that feel like? What will I do all day? Is there a place to plug in my lap-top?" In an attempt to find out, Mary Roach brings her tireless curiosity to bear on an array of contemporary and historical soul-searchers: scientists, schemers, engineers, mediums, all trying to prove (or disprove) that life goes on after we die.

Why I'm excited to read it: Mary Roach is my favorite nonfiction writer. She writes about depressing subjects with humor and optimism. She also asks the awkward questions that we're all secretly wondering about. I've loved every book I've read by her.

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SAGA, VOLUME 1 BY BRIAN K VAUGHAN & FIONA STAPLES

Adult Science Fiction Graphic Novel

When two soldiers from opposite sides of a never-ending galactic war fall in love, they risk everything to bring a fragile new life into a dangerous old universe.

Why I'm excited to read it: This series is iconic. Whenever I ask for graphic novel recommendations, this one comes up. If everybody else loves it, I probably will too. Reviewers rave about the fictional world and the snarky characters.

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RAISING THE DEAD: THE MEN WHO CREATED FRANKENSTEIN BY ANDY DOUGAN

Adult Science / History Nonfiction

Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel, Frankenstein, introduced readers around the world to the concept of raising the dead through scientific procedures. Those who read the book were thrilled by this incredible Gothic adventure. Few, however, realized that Shelley’s story had a basis in fact. What she imagined as her modern Prometheus was a serious pursuit for some of the greatest minds of the early 19th century. It was a time when scientists genuinely believed, as Frankenstein did, that they could know what it feels like to be God. Raising the Dead is the story of the science of galvanism.

Why I'm excited to read it: I considered not buying this book because I object to the title. It's about the "men" who created Frankenstein, but Mary Shelley was a woman! She's the one who literally created Frankenstein! Anyway, I bought the book because it sounds too weird to pass up. I've read many books about the history of medicine. They're almost always bizarre and fascinating. Humans are brilliant. And very, very strange.

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WINTERKILL BY KATE A. BOORMAN

Young Adult Mystery (?) Horror (?)

Where Emmeline lives, you cannot love and you cannot leave . . .

The Council's rules are strict, but they're for the good of the settlement in which Emmeline lives. Everyone knows there is nothing but danger on the other side of the Wall, and the community must prepare for the freezing winterkill that comes every year.

But Emmeline struggles to be obedient under the Council's suffocating embrace, especially when she discovers that a Council leader intends to snatch her hand in marriage.

Then Emmeline begins to hear the call of the trees beyond the Wall . . .

Why I'm excited to read it: "Excited" is the wrong word. "Cautiously optimistic" might be better. The plot of this book sounds exactly like a dozen other books I've read. That's because I can't pass up the "small town X creepy woods" combination. Cross your fingers that it's good.

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DESTINATION TRUTH: MEMOIRS OF A MONSTER HUNTER BY JOSH GATES

Adult Memoir

World adventurer and international monster hunter Josh Gates has careened through nearly 100 countries, investigating frightening myths, chilling cryptozoological legends, and terrifying paranormal phenomena. Now, he invites fans to get a behind-the-scenes look at these breathtaking expeditions.

Follow Gates from the inception of the groundbreaking hit show (at the summit of Kilimanjaro) to his hair-raising encounters with dangerous creatures in the most treacherous locations on earth.

Why I'm excited to read it: Normally, I don't like celebrity memoirs, but Josh Gates is one of my favorite humans. He hosts several exploration-related TV shows on the Discovery and Travel channels. I want to be Josh Gates when I grow up. He's hilarious and open minded. I wish all tourists were like him.

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THE GUSTAV SONATA BY ROSE TREMAIN

Adult Historical Fiction

Gustav Perle grows up in a small town in Switzerland, where the horrors of the Second World War seem only a distant echo. An only child, he lives alone with Emilie, the mother he adores but who treats him with bitter severity. He begins an intense friendship with a Jewish boy his age, talented and mercurial Anton Zweibel, a budding concert pianist. The novel follows Gustav’s family, tracing the roots of his mother’s anti-Semitism and its impact on her son and his beloved friend.

 

Why I’m excited to read it: I feel like I saw this book on every award longlist back in 2017. All the historical fiction fans were reading it. Well, all of them except me. Rose Tremain has written a ton of books, so if I enjoy this one, I’ll have her whole backlist to read.

 

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AFTER THE ECLIPSE: A MOTHER'S MURDER, A DAUGHTER'S SEARCH BY SARAH PERRY

Adult Memoir

When Sarah Perry was twelve, she saw a partial eclipse of the sun, an event she took as a sign of good fortune for her and her mother, Crystal. But that brief moment of darkness ultimately foreshadowed a much larger one: two days later, Crystal was murdered in their home in rural Maine, just a few feet from Sarah’s bedroom.
 
The killer escaped unseen; it would take the police twelve years to find him, time in which Sarah grew into adulthood, struggling with abandonment, police interrogations, and the effort of rebuilding her life when so much had been lost. Through it all she would dream of the eventual trial, a conviction—all her questions finally answered. But after the trial, Sarah’s questions only grew. She wanted to understand her mother’s life, not just her final hours, and so she began a personal investigation, one that drew her back to Maine, taking her deep into the abiding darkness of a small American town.

Why I'm excited to read it: I'm always looking for true crime books, but I'm super picky about them. I don't like books that are sensationalized and only focus on the killer and treat the victims like props in the killer's story. Since this memoir is written by a victim, maybe it will offer a unique perspective.

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THE OVERSTORY BY RICHARD POWERS

Adult Literary Fiction

From the roots to the crown and back to the seeds, Richard Powers’s twelfth novel unfolds in concentric rings of interlocking fables that range from antebellum New York to the late twentieth-century Timber Wars of the Pacific Northwest and beyond. There is a world alongside ours—vast, slow, interconnected, resourceful, magnificently inventive, and almost invisible to us. This is the story of a handful of people who learn how to see that world and who are drawn up into its unfolding catastrophe.

Why I'm excited to read it: Look at that cover! It's pretty! So . . . I don't think I understand what this book is about. I know it's about trees. And history. I kept seeing it on lists of best nature writing, and then it won a Pulitzer, so I finally decided to pick it up. Let's see if it lives up to the hype.

Buy it on Amazon

What are you reading this fall?