There were too many wonderful books coming out this fall to cover in one list, so we broke it into two this year. Perfect for gifts, yourself, or to cram in to achieve your Goodreads goal, we have story collections, out-of-print revivals, and necessary nonfiction for your needs.
Black-Owned: The Revolutionary Life of the Black Bookstore, Char Adams (Nov 4)
NBC News reporter CharAdams’ first book traces the history of the Black bookstore, a vehicle for community building as well as a way to sell underrepresented books and uplift authors. As new stores made headlines in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement in the vein of these first stores, the well-researched and needed Black-Owned tracks the changes of this tradition.
Lightbreakers, Aja Gabel (Nov 4)
Maya is an artist obsessed with the natural world; Noah is a quantum physicist determined to demystify the observable galaxy’s rhythms. But beneath their happiness lies Eileen, the lost child from Noah’s previous marriage. When the couple uproots their life and move to the desert, undergoing a new technology that may allow them to time-travel, the intrusion of Noah’s past life might be too much for Maya to bear.
Convent Wisdom: How Sixteenth Century Nuns Could Save Your Twenty-First Century Life, Ana Garriga & Carmen Urbita (Nov 4)
From the hosts of Las hijas de Felipe, one of the most popular podcasts in the Spanish-speaking world, Ana Garriga and Carmen Urbita — scholars and best friends — turn to the wisdom of nuns in order to solve our modern problems, whether it comes to FOMO, body image, or doomscrolling. Turns out they aren’t as stuck in the past as one might think.
Give Me Danger, Tea Hacic-Vlahovic (Nov 4)
From the cult classic Croatian-American author, Give Me Danger centers Val, a bereft novelist whose first book took off. Her life changes when she meets Leonardo, a publishing legend who agrees to work on her second novel, but dies in the middle of editing it (much like Hannah Horvath’s plight in Girls). Val makes sense of her ambitions, hope, but might succumb to the desperation of searching after literary prestige.
Flat Earth, Anika Jade Levy (Nov 4)
Co-founder of Forever Magazine Anika Jade Levy’s first novel follows Avery, a New York City grad student trying to write through the distraction of adderall and Frances, her talented friend whose documentary about right-wing Americana, for fans of Patricia Lockwood or Jenny Offill.
Front Street: Resistance and Rebirth in the Tent Cities of Techlandia, Brian Barth (Nov 11)
Searching for ‘The Fix’ to homelessness, Brian Barth lives with and learns from the homeless people in encampments ironically slotted next to California’s richest tech companies in Front Street, his deeply empathetic, meticulous and urgent first book. Barth never looks away, even when implicating himself; every city-dweller should read this book, but every politician should be required to.
The Ha-Ha, Jennifer Dawson (Nov 11)
In this reissued classic novel from 1961, a young student named Josephine suffers a nervous breakdown and is institutionalized in a mental hospital in the English countryside, only to find out she enjoys its belonging and rigor. Perfect for fans of The Bell Jar, the darkly funny The Ha-Ha is loosely based on Dawson’s own experiences.
The White Hot, Quiara Alegría Hudes (Nov 11)
From Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Quiara Alegría Hudes (In the Heights, Water by the Spoonful) comes her debut novel, a letter from mother to daughter about her ‘white hot,’ a burning feeling inside her that leads her to abandon her daughter and takes her on an impossible and almost fatal journey.
Sofa, Sam Munson (Nov 11)
Billed as a “Kafkaesque slow-burn domestic horror from a master of the uncanny,” Mr. Montessori and his family return to their apartment after a trip to find out their sofa is different. Fittingly, they call the police, but the mystery deepens as Montessori hears sounds in the night, hallucinates, and fears his house is being broken into.
There Is No Antimemetics Division, qntm (Nov 11)
The first story I read by qntm, “Lena,” blew me away — it was a confined work of fiction within an eerily accurate Wikipedia article about a trapped bot, toiling around for all eternity to help humans. For his new novel, There Is No Antimemetics Division, Sam Hughes merges technology, horror, and science fiction in more intricate and unsettling ways than before.
Now More Than Ever, Greta Schledorn (Nov 11)
The debut novel from “one of the only writers right now who is scary” (Manuel Marrero, editor-in-chief of Expat Press), Now More Than Ever goes deep into looksmaxxing, mogging, locking in, and cutting deep to the bone.
The Merge, Grace Walker (Nov 11)
It’s the near future, and Earth’s resources have all but evaporated. To save space, energy, and materials, a controversial new procedure that allows two human consciousnesses to merge with each other gains popularity. For Amelia, who just can’t see her Alzheimer’s-stricken mother fade away, it might be an opportunity to restore her mother to her former self.
Man Hating Psycho, Iphgenia Baal (Nov 18)
The second ever title from Hagfish, a publisher championing out-of-print books, is a darkly funny short story collection that mixes the unsettling online to the hazardous offline. Provocative and biting, it makes the way for a new UK talent.
49 Venezuelan Novels, Sebastian Castillo (Nov 18)
Asterism Books is republishing the author of Fresh, Green Life’s first short story collection, a quippy, surreal collection of funny microfiction. Castillo’s stories are bizarre, brilliant, and always imaginative.
My Little Donkey and Other Essays, Martha Cooley (Nov 18)
Try not to get too jealous when you hear the origin story of Martha Cooley’s My Little Donkey: she left her teaching job in New York City in 2021 and uprooted her life to Castiglione del Terziere, a small village in Tuscany. Donkey’s essays follow the ripples of this decision, investigating family, identity, inheritance, and history.
Empire of Orgasm: Sex, Power, and the Downfall of a Wellness Cult, Ellen Huet (Nov 18)
Investigative journalist Ellen Huet’s first book, Empire of Orgasm, blends tech and humanity as she tracks the story of OneTaste, a company that promised transcendence through orgasmic meditation, or OM. Initially breaking the story in Bloomberg, Huet has a firsthand account of how the cult transitioned into something more sinister, great for fans of stories about company corruption and true crime like Bad Blood.
Alligator, David Ryan (November 30)
David Ryan’s deeply human and often startlingly intimate new short story collection, Alligator, is up for everything and takes no prisoners with its keen, astute writing. Life hums below these marvelous stories; they tap into something pretty exciting.
Casanova 20: Or, Hot World, Davey Davis (Dec 2)
From the author of X, Davey Davis’ Casanova 20 follows Adrian, a bisexual man who awakes one day to find he is no longer beautiful. He goes to his famous painter friend Mark, who is suffering from his own dastardly affliction: the disease that is about to take his own mother and sister. Grappling with art, power, and platonic romance, Casanova 20 slams mortality against our deepest desires.
Television, Lauren Rothery (Dec 2)
Joan Didion meets Bojack Horseman in this stylish debut novel where an aging movie star gives away his entire salary while his lifelong friend looks on. And foreign to them both, a filmmaker writes a script about best friends, art, and the financial struggles it takes to maintain and create both.
House of Day, House of Night, Olga Tokarczuk (Dec 2)
In the latest novel to be translated into English by Nobel Prize winner Olga Tokarczuk, a woman arrives with her husband in a remote Polish village where she knows no one, but soon learns the cast of characters that inhabit the land. Another of Tokarczuk’s “constellation novels,” House of Day, House of Night braids together mystery, mythology, and community.
Galápagos, Fátima Vélez (Dec 2)
In this striking novel from PhD candidate Fátima Vélez, a group of artists dying of AIDS goes on one final journey to the Galápagos islands, sharing beds, stories, and humor despite their bodies deteriorating and withering. In spite of its ever-present morality, Galápagos is quite the funny ride.
Cape Fever, Nadia Davids (Dec 9)
The newest novel from the South African author is a 1920s gothic psychological thriller set in a small city in an unnamed colonial empire where Soraya accepts a job as a maid. But when the lady of the house offers to help Soraya stay in touch with her fiancée, they start a ritual where Soraya dictates and Mrs. Hattingh writes, binding the two women in strange and unforgettable ways.
