Who is ready to settle into fall with good books, warm fires, and comfort food?

Fall is the perfect time to get lost in good stories, so I tried to find as many new stories as I could. This year I decided to broaden my reading tastes a bit by purposely looking for books about other cultures as well as genres I usually pass by.

I’ve done all the legwork for you and put together an exhaustive list of books from many genres; there is something for everybody on this list, and if you want to know if I’m going to read them all, the answer is that I plan to. It’s ambitious, and I’ve already knocked a few off the list.

I’ve listed them in the order of their publication dates and provided you with their current Amazon star rating (if they have one), links to purchase if you’d like (click on the title, the picture, or a link in the description), and a description. If I’ve read them, I’ll give you a quick personal opinion.

August

August was a big month for book releases. Prepare to be thrilled because there are a lot of thrillers in August. Listed in order of release date, they are all available now.

Persons Unknown by Susie Steiner

Amazon Star Rating: 4.5

Genre/Type: Mystery/Suspense/Thriller

I used to think I didn’t like thrillers. I’m certain it’s because I read Amityville Horror when I was in 7th grade. And if you’re wondering why my parents let me read it, they didn’t, which is why I had to stay upstairs all by myself and read until I was too terrified to breathe. It’s still one of the most terrifying things I’ve ever read.

I do, however, love the new crime thrillers that women are writing now, and Susie Steiner apparently will not disappoint.

In Persons Unkown, Manon Bradshaw, a detective, ends up working a murder case of a millionaire London banker, when she finds out she is linked more closely to the case than she imagined as the investigation leads her to suspects inside her own family.

See What I Have Done by Sarah Schmidt

Amazon Rating: 3.5 Stars

Genre/Type: Historical Thriller

I like historical thrillers, and our family has a weird family joke about Lizzie Borden, the historical character See What I Have Done focuses on.

Sarah Schmidt has reimagined the back story behind why Lizzie Borden violently killed her parents with an ax. It’s on my list because I love to see how authors fill in historical gaps with fictional stories.

I would suggest reading the Amazon reviews on this one before you purchase. It will be one of my last reads of the fall, and I’ve been known to put the book down and move on if I don’t like it because life is too short to read books you don’t like.

If it helps, 42% of reviewers gave it four stars and 18% gave it five stars. Click over to Amazon and look inside the book, read the reviews, and decide for yourself.

The Address by Fiona Davis

Amazon Rating: 4.5 Stars

Genre/Type: Historical Fiction/Literary

I’ve already finished The Address, and I loved it. The story takes place at The Dakota, New York City’s most famous residence. Davis weaves the stories of two women living 100 years apart in the same building. In 1885 Sara Smythe, a Londoner, has caught the eye of Theodore Camden, the architect of The Dakota, and he gives her the opportunity of a lifetime, to move to America and work at the famed building. Theo is taken with Sara, but he also has a wife and three children.

In 1985, Bailey Camden has just come out of rehab and is down on her luck. Her “cousin” offers her the opportunity of a lifetime to redesign her apartment in The Dakota

One hundred years apart, their lives intertwine in a love story that ends with a very mysterious murder. People Magazine called it “a delicious tale of love, lies, and madness. I highly recommend.

Girl in Snow by Danya Kukafka

Amazon Star Rating: 4 Stars

Genre/Type: Thriller/Suspense

I plan on reading as many thrillers as I can in October because I still love Halloween and scary stuff, but I don’t have it in my emotional wheelhouse to see horror movies anymore. Somehow, reading terror is more enjoyable to me than seeing it on screen. Weird, I know.

This national bestseller opens with beloved high schooler, Lucinda Hayes’ murder. Three suspects, Cameron, Jade, and Russ- all have to confront their darkest secrets to get to the truth. Kukafka explores identity and the line between love and obsession, between watching and seeing, and between truth and memory.

Girl in the Snow will definitely be on my bedside table this October.

 

Class Mom by Laurie Gelman

Amazon Star Rating: 4.5 Stars

Genre/Type: Humor/Satire/Women’s Fiction

If you liked Where’d You Go, Bernadette, you’ll like Class Mom. I read this one in two sittings and laughed all the way through. Laurie Gelman wrote this book after a year in the trenches as Class Mom. I feel her pain. I was Class Mom when my oldest was in kindergarten, and I have never worked so hard in all my life.

If you are fascinated with mom politics, helicopter parenting, and all the other things that come along with living in this crazy time, you will love this book. I laughed all the way through it.

Jen Dixon is an “experienced” Kansas City kindergarten mom; she has two college-aged daughters and a kindergarten son. Because of her experience, she is elected Class Mom and then proceeds to offend every parent in the class with her e-mails shaming them about their e-mail response times, their unenthusiastic attitudes about volunteering, and their snack choices.

If you have kids, if you are a teacher, or if you just need a good laugh, then add this one to your list.

The River at Night by Erica Ferencik

Amazon Star Rating: 4 Stars

Genre/Type: Suspense/Contemporary Women’s Fiction

Like I said, October is Thriller month for me, so I’m going to give The River at Night a shot.

Wini has just suffered the end of her marriage, the death of her brother, and she hates her job. Her three friends decide they will take an adventurous girls’ trip, so they head off for the Maine wilderness for hiking and rafting.

A freak accident leaves them stranded without their boat or any of their belongings. As night falls, they see a fire in the distance and head for safety. It isn’t long before the women catch on to the real intent of their believed saviors. As they try to survive, long-buried secrets emerge and lifelong friendships are put to the test.

According to Amazon, “This is a dark exploration of creatures–both friend and foe–that you won’t soon forget.”

Impossible Views of the World by Lucy Ives

Amazon Rating: 3 Stars

Genre/Type: Literary/Contemporary Women

Since Amazon readers give it three stars, I say it’s always best to look inside before you purchase. That being said, after reading the reviews, I think those who were dissatisfied were lovers of literary fiction who didn’t enjoy the mystery of the story, or they were mystery lovers who do not appreciate the descriptions and diction of literary fiction.

Impossible Views of the World is  described as a debut with “neurotic humor and dagger-sharp prose” and “intricate, and darkly funny.”

Stella is a curator at Manhattan’s Central Museum of Art. Her ex-husband is stalking her, her current romance with a narcissist is in a free-fall to failure, and a colleague has gone missing. Then a mysterious map depicting a 19th-century utopian settlement shows up and sends Stella on an “all-consuming research mission” In her research, she uncovers a counterfeiting scheme as well as many other secrets.

“It’s a dazzling debut novel about how to make it through your early thirties with your brain and heart intact.”

 Emma In the Night by Wendy Walker

Amazon Rating: 4 Stars

Genre: Thriller/Suspense

And we’re back to thrillers. As I said, it’s how I celebrate October. Some people bake ghost cookies; some make artful arrangements of pumpkins and mums – I read thrillers.

Emma In the Night is a twisted psychological thriller with an unreliable narrator, so basically just life.

Two sisters disappear without a trace until three years later one returns without the other. She tells a story of kidnapping and living on an island. The forensic psychologist says the facts don’t add up and she starts looking deep into the history of the family. She discovers a family that was reared by narcissistic parents with no boundaries and decides that the return of one of the sisters may just be the very beginning of the crime.

Listen, I’m praying for a rainy October Saturday with poor television football coverage so I can go all in with this one.

The Good Daughter by Karin Slaughter

Amazon Rating: 4.5 Stars

Genre: Suspense/Thriller

The Good Daughter was an instant New York Times Bestseller.

Two girls are forced into the woods at gunpoint, but only one, Charlie, escapes. The other is left behind.

Twenty-eight years later Charlie follows in her father’s footsteps and becomes a lawyer in their small hometown of Pikeville.

When violence comes to Pikeville again, Charlie finds herself in the middle of it because she is the first witness on the scene.

Then it unleashes all the memories of her past and unlocks truths about the crime that destroyed her own family almost 30 years prior.

 

How to Change a Life by Stacey Ballis

Amazon Rating: 4 Stars

Genre/Type: Women/Foodie/Humor

I read How to Change a Life the day it came out, and I loved it. I discovered her a few years ago through Jen Lancaster (they’re friends). I’ve read them all.

In a very fun twist of life, I ended up at a Nashville restaurant sampling menu items and talking about cooking with Stacey this summer. It’s not often you get to meet an author personally, and she is as warm and generous as her books imply.

This is a story about a group of three reunited high school friends and their attempt at changing parts of their lives. They make a charitable bet, and the plot is a go. The main character is a chef, and my favorite thing about Stacey’s books is that they all incorporate cooking and food as a character. This one also has recipes, and even when there aren’t recipes, some of the descriptions are so clear you can make the dishes yourself. I know. I did it on more than one occasion.

Read this one. Then get her other books, you won’t be disappointed.

A Stranger in the House by Shari Lapena

 Amazon Rating: 4 Stars

Genre/Type: Mystery/Thriller

Hey look, another thriller. I know. I can’t stop with them.

“In this neighborhood, danger lies close to home. A domestic thriller packed full of secrets, and a twisty story that never stops- from the bestselling author of The Couple Next Door.”

A happily married couple look like they have it all. Then Tom, the husband, returns home to find his wife Karen has vanished. Her car is gone, but it looks like she left in a rush because her purse, phone, and identification are left behind.

Later, the police arrive to take Tom to the hospital because Karen has had a car accident in a terrible part of town. She is mostly okay except for some memory loss, which the police think she might be faking.

Karen comes home and tries to get back to normal, but she notices something’s been moved. Someone has been in their house, and the police are still asking questions.

“Because in this house, everyone’s a stranger. Everyone has something they’d rather keep hidden. Something they might even kill to keep quiet.”

The Heart’s Invisible Furies by John Boyne

Amazon Rating: 4.5 Stars

Genre/Type: Literary/Coming of Age/Family Saga

Listen, no one loves a family saga like I do. And my people are Irish, so I can’t wait to get into The Heart’s Invisible Furies. It’s long- 592 pages, but the reviews repeatedly say it’s riveting and beautiful.

Cyril Avery doesn’t believe he’s a real Avery because that’s what his adoptive parents have told him.

He was born out of wedlock to a teenage girl cast out from her rural Irish community and adopted by a well-to-do Dublin couple.

Cyril “will spend a lifetime coming to know himself and where he came from- and over his many years, will struggle to discover an identity, a home, a country, and much more.”

The Guardian calls it “a picaresque, lolloping odyssey for the individual characters and for the nation that confines them…The book blazes with anger as it commemorates lives wrecked by social contempt and self-loathing…a substantial achievement.”

The Irish Times says it’s “an epic full of verve, humour and heart…sure to be read by the bucketload…deeply cinematic and extremely funny.”

So both angry and funny. Let me know what you think if you give it a try. I’ll post a review when I finish.

My Absolute Darling by Gabriel Tallent

Amazon Rating: 3.5 Stars

Genre/Type: Literary

This novel is predicted to be a big prize winner this year. The critics are all loving it, yet it has 3.5 stars. Again, I think that literary fiction is hard for some if what they are wanting is fast-paced action. Some of the reviewers also said they didn’t like it because the subject matter is hard for them to read.

Turtle Alveston is a 14-year-old who roams the woods in northern California for miles. She has grown up isolated since her mother died, leaving only her father to raise her. Her only social interactions are at the school she attends but refuses to befriend anyone and with her father.

She meets Jacob, a high school boy who lives a more normal life. He is smitten with her. Motivated by her first real relationship and a crush she starts plotting an escape from her father, who is described as tortured and charismatic.

The New York Times says “with its unconventional heroine and unflinching portrayal of an abused girl’s fight to save herself, My Absolute Darling seems poised to become the breakout debut of the year.”

The Resurrection of Joan Ashby by Cherise Wolas

Amazon Rating: 4.5 Stars

Genre/Type: Literary/Family Life/Women’s Fiction

Joan herself says, “A story requires two things: a great story to tell and the bravery to tell it.”

So, I’m all in.

Joan Ashby marries a man who has no want for children, which is fine with her because she wants to be a writer. Then she ends up pregnant, and her husband is ecstatic. So Joan decides to go all-in with for raising a family while she waits for her opportunity to finish her novel.

Just as she begins to reclaim the life she intended, a “betrayal of Shakespearean proportion forces her to question every choice she has made.”

“The Resurrection of Joan Ashby is a story about sacrifice and motherhood, the burdens and expectations of genius. Cherise Wolas’s gorgeous debut introduces an indelible heroine candid about her struggles and unapologetic in her ambition.” from Amazon.

Cherise Wolas is being compared to J.D. Salinger, Carson McCullers, Truman Capote, and Joan Didion.

I’m hoping and counting on this being one of my favorites of the fall.

September

Lie to Me by J.T. Ellison

Amazon Rating: 4.5 Stars

Genre/Type: Psychological Thriller

The first J.T. Ellison book I read, No One Knows, was the one that convinced me that I did love thrillers. It’s set in Nashville, which made it fun to read and picture the drama unfolding in my hometown, but her pace and the way she develops her characters had me sold.

Lie to Me is about a disintegration of a marriage because of both personal and professional betrayals as well as financial strain.

Sutton and Ethan Montclair appear to be the perfect couple, but we find out quickly they have built a life on lies.

As tensions mount, Sutton disappears and leaves a note saying not to look for her. Rumors start to spread, and as the police start to investigate all the lies the two have told start to unravel.

Many critics have called this one a page-turner, saying you won’t be able to put it down. Sounds like a great plan for lazy Saturday.

George and Lizzie by Nancy Pearl

 Amazon Rating: 5 Stars

Genre/Type: Literary/Family Life/Marriage

Speaking of marriage. This novel by “America’s librarian” and NPR books commentator, Nancy Pearl, is an in-depth look at a marriage pushing against its hurt line.

Amazon says, “With pitch-perfect prose and compassion and humor to spare, George & Lizzie is an intimate story of new and past loves, the scars of childhood, and an imperfect marriage at its defining moments.”

I love it when people who love stories write really good stories about characters that feel like family. This book would make a great book club selection, so if your group is making its list, I’d add George & Lizzie.

 

Dinner at the Center of the Earth by Nathan Englander

Amazon Rating: 4 Stars

Genre/Type: Literary/Political/Jewish

“The best work yet from the Pulitzer finalist and best-selling author of For the Relief of Unbearable Urges— a political thriller that unfolds in the highly charged territory of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and pivots on the complex relationship between a secret prisoner and his guard.”

One of my goals this year is to understand more of the conflicts that shape the world in which we live. I find that novels written in or about the conflicts we see on the news are better at informing our empathy, our ability to see with understanding, both sides of the conflict.

The hallmark of this generation is that we get news of events instantaneously with little to no reporting of the facts surrounding the events. Social media and the new media take us straight to opinion reporting and side-taking. I find that literature is an effective way of slowing that process down for me and allowing me time to see the humanity behind the politically-charged rhetoric and irresponsible media reporting. (And no, I don’t think ALL media reporting is irresponsible, but there is enough to make me wary of all.)

The Golden House by Salman Rushdie

Amazon Rating: 4 Stars

Genre/Type: Literary/Satire

“A modern American epic set against the panorama of contemporary politics and culture– a hurtling, page-turning mystery that is equal parts The Great Gatsby and The Bonfire of the Vanities.” Amazon

I was a senior in high school when Satanic Verses was published, and for weeks there were stories of attempted killings and demands for banning the book. Naively, I thought all the uproar was because it mentioned Satan in the title.

That bias kept me from reading any of Rushdie’s work until now. (I was wrong about ALL of it. The Islamic Defense Council found the book to be offensive to the Muslim faith.) This novel begins on the day President Obama’s inauguration; a foreign billionaire moves into a community in Greenwich Village, and the residents all become intrigued with Nero Golden and his family.

Our guide to Nero Golden’s world is a filmmaker and new neighbor of Golden’s.

Rushdie’s return to fiction has all the critics talking about big awards. This one is worth a look inside.

I’m the One Who Got Away by Andrea Jarrell

Amazon Rating: 5 Stars

Genre/Type: Memoir

This is a memoir about a girl and her mother and the bond they develop as they become fugitives from a violent man.

After Jarrell was grown, she thought all of that was behind her until a woman she knows is murdered, and she realizes it’s her mother’s choices that she’s been outrunning all her life.

“Without preaching or prescribing, I’m the One Who Got Away is a life-affirming story of having the courage to become both safe enough and vulnerable enough to love and be loved.” Amazon

Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward

Amazon Rating: 4.5

Genre/Type: Literary/Coming of Age

Sing, Unburied, Sing is a Southern odyssey that takes place in rural twenty-first-century America. There are heavy influences of Faulkner and Morrison, The Odyssey, and the Old Testament.

It is an “epochal story, a journey through Mississippi’s past and present that is both an intimate portrait of a family and an epic tale of hope and struggle.”

I’ve started this one, and it is a descriptive read. It’s an adventure book and a family saga all at once. As with most Southern fiction, there are ghosts, struggles with progress, racial tensions, and familial rifts.

Another book that poised for significant awards, it has received quite a bit of critical acclaim.

Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng

Amazon Rating: 4.5 Stars

Genre/Type: Literary/Women/Family Life

I am reading Little Fires Everywhere right now, and I love every word of it. Ng (pronounced “ing”) paints a satirical but accurate portrait of upper-middle-class America and then illuminates the failures and shortcomings of both the haves and the have-nots.

 

This novel goes straight to the heart of every mother’s fear- is she doing it right? Is she a good mother? It also explores the nature of art and identity, the complexities of marriage and parenting, as well as the weight of secrets.

It is funny and serious all at once.  This is another excellent choice for a book club selection.

Lies She Told by Cate Holahan

Amazon Rating: 4.5

Genre/Type: Murder/Suspense

Lies She Told is a suspense novel about a suspense author, Liza Cole, who has one month to write the thriller that can land her back on the bestseller list and out of the toilet.

Liza is also trying to start a family, but her husband is distracted by the disappearance of his best friend, Nick. The stress weighs on her, yet she escapes by writing the terrifying exploits of her newest heroine, Beth.

Beth has just had a baby and suspects her husband is cheating on her while she is caring for their baby. She plans to catch him in the act and make him pay for ruining her life. Before she realizes what has happened, Beth is throwing the body of her husband’s mistress into the East River.

That’s when the lines between Liza’s fiction and her reality blur in an eery set of circumstances. Nick’s body is pulled from the East River, and her husband is charged with the murder. You’ll have to read the novel to see if Liza finishes hers and finds out the truth about her husband.

Forest Dark by Nicole Krauss

Amazon Rating: 3.5 Stars

Genre/Type: Literary/Cultural Heritage

I almost left Forest Dark off the list, but so many people love this story right now, I had to leave it.

It’s the story of two different transformations. One is a young novelist, and the other is an older attorney.

Jules Epstein retires from his law firm after both his parents die and he divorces his wife of more than thirty years. He feels an irresistible need to give away all his possessions and with the last of his wealth, he travels to Israel to do something to honor his parents. He gets caught up with a charismatic American rabbi, and his story immediately gets more complex.

Meanwhile, a young novelist from Brooklyn runs away to Tel Aviv to escape writer’s block and a failing marriage. When she meets a retired literature professor, who proposes a project she can’t turn down she is drawn into a mystery that changes her life forever.

When We Were Worthy by Marybeth Whalen

Amazon Rating: 4.5

Genre/Type: Family/Women/Mystery

I loved When We Were Worthy. It is one of my favorites of 2017. I can’t stress it enough- run to get this book.

“When the sound of sirens cuts through a cool fall night, the small town of Worthy, Georgia, hurtles from triumph to tragedy. Just hours before, they’d watched the Wildcats score a winning touchdown. Now word is spreading like wildfire that three cheerleaders have been killed in a terrible car crash and the boy in the other car- the only one to survive- is believed to be at fault…

At the center of this engrossing read are four women, each grappling with loss, regret, shame, and lies: Marglyn, a grieving mother of one of the cheerleaders. Darcy, whose son had been behind the wheel of the car that struck the girls. Ava, the substitute teacher with a scandalous secret. And Leah, a cheerleader who should have been in the car with her friends. Whalen skillfully brings a profound depth of character to each woman, creating empathy for them even in their darkest moments.” from the press release

The Ninth Hour by Alice McDermott

Amazon Rating: 4 Stars

Genre/Type: Literary/Historical/Family Life

“Alice McDermott’s The Ninth Hour is a crowning achievement by one of the premier writers at work in America today.”

Early in the 20th century, an Irish immigrant commits suicide after being fired from his job. Behind he leaves a pregnant wife, who has no way to support herself. An aging nun appears and helps her find a way forward.

“The characters we meet, from Sally, the unborn baby at the beginning of the novel, who becomes the center of the story to the nuns whose personalities we come to know and love to the neighborhood families with whos lives they are entwined, are all rendered with extraordinary sympathy and McDermott’s trademark lucidity and intelligence.” from Amazon

City of Spies by Sorayya Khan

Amazon Rating: 5 Stars

Genre/Type: Literary/Coming of Age

City of Spies is a coming-of-age story set in the late 1970s. A young girl is trying to survive the chaos around her during Pakistan’s political upheaval, where the military revolts, the embassy burns, and there is an awful secret destroying her life.

Aliya Shah is the eleven-year-old daughter of a Pakistani father and a Dutch mother. At the American school she attends, she’s known as a “half-and-half.”

A hit-and-run driver kills the son of her family’s servant, Sadiq, who is her closest friend, her world is turned upside down. After she discovers the truth behind the tragedy, the secret nearly tears her apart.

This novel is based on the author’s own experiences growing up in Islamabad. Her novel gives us a clear portrait of a tumultuous time as seen through the eyes of a young girl trying to live in the tension of loyalty and complicity, of family and country.

October

These novels have yet to be released, but I want to let you know something. Pre-orders matter to a book’s success, and it is one of two generous things readers can do to support their favorite authors. (The other is to leave reviews on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Goodreads.) If you like to read, please consider pre-ordering novels so we can support authors with our wallets and our praise. Amazon does an excellent job of making sure you get the lowest price possible and delivering them to your door on release day.

Manhattan Beach by Jennifer Egan

Genre/Type: Historical Fiction

Anna Kerrigan, an almost twelve-year-old, goes with her father to visit Dexter Styles, a man who, she infers is necessary to the survival of their family. She becomes enchanted with the sea beyond Styles’ house as well as the mystery that surrounds the two men’s relationship.

Many years later, her father has disappeared and the country is at war. Anna works at the Brooklyn Naval Yard, where she holds a job that once only belonged to men. She becomes the first female diver helping to repair ships that will help America win the war.

One evening, she meets Dexter Styles again and only begins to understand the complexities of her father’s life and why he vanished.

“With the atmosphere of a noir thriller, Egan’s first historical novel follows Anna and Styles into a world populated by gangsters, sailors, divers, bankers, and union men.

Y’all know Manhattan Beach will be good. One other thing to note, Jennifer Egan is a Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist; she knows how to turn a phrase.

Winter Solstice by Elin Hildebrand

Genre: Women’s Fiction/Family Life

I teach school. High school English to be exact. One thing that I am desperate for by late fall is a good story that pulls me in and doesn’t make me work.

Elin Hilderbrand is an excellent story-teller. I only just started reading her fiction in the last year, but I love her love for Nantucket, and I love how she fleshes out characters.

This is the third in a series of holiday books, and I haven’t read the first two, but I intend to do that beginning the day after Thanksgiving when we, at the Keel home are allowed to start celebrating Christmas. D wants to make sure that Thanksgiving and gratitude get ALL the props before anyone starts to think about Christmas.

So, the day after Thanksgiving while everyone else is buying cheap televisions and losing their minds with Black Friday sales, I’ll be sitting next to my newly decorated tree beginning Elin Hilderbrand’s winter series.

The Last Ballad by Wiley Cash

Genre: Literary/Mystery

“Wiley Cash reveals a dignity and humanity of people asking for a fair shot in an unfair world.” – Christina Baker Kline

This novel is based on actual events in Bessemer City, North Carolina in 1929. It’s the struggle of one woman’s rights and dignity in a textile mill.

There is a mystery as well as quite a bit of corruption in this one.

“Intertwining many voices, Wiley Cash brings to life the heartbreak and bravery of the now forgotten struggle of the labor movement in early twentieth-century America–and pays tribute to the thousands of heroic women and men who risked their lives to win basic rights for all workers. Lyrical, heartbreaking, and haunting, this eloquent novel confirms Wiley Cash’s place among our nation’s finest writers.

Dunbar by Edward St. Aubyn

Genre: Satire/Literary Humor/Saga 

“A reimagining of one of Shakespeare’s most well-read tragedies, by the contemporary, critically acclaimed master of domestic drama.” -Amazon

I need to tell you that I chose this one only because it is a modern retelling of King Lear. If you aren’t familiar with the story, you’ll still enjoy this novel.

Henry Dunbar, head of a global media corporation, is having a bad day. He hands his corporation over to his two daughters, but as relations go south, he starts to doubt his decisions.

Now imprisoned in an upscale sanitorium in England with only a mentally-ill comedian as company, he starts planning his escape. He runs to the hills hoping his beloved youngest daughter finds him before the older two who are trying to take his fortune.

This is a story about power, money, and the cost of forgiveness.

The Indigo Girl by Natasha Boyd

Genre: Historical Fiction

The Indigo Girl opens in 1739 when Eliza Lucas is left in charge of her family’s three plantations in rural South Carolina. Her father has left her there to handle the financial ruins of the business he has bled dry in pursuit of his military ambitions.

Tensions with both the British and the Spanish are rising, and her mother wants it all to fail so they can go back to England. Her family is in danger of losing everything.

She hears how much the French are willing to pay for indigo dye, and she believes it to be the way out. The problem is no one will tell her the secret to making the dye, but she finds an aging horticulturist, an older gentleman lawyer, and a slave with whom she strikes a dangerous deal- if he teaches her to make the indigo dye, she will teach all of the slaves to read.

It’s an incredible story of love, dangerous and hidden friendships, ambition, betrayal, and sacrifice.

This novel is based on historical documents and tells the story of a teenage girl who learned to produce indigo dye, which later became one of the largest exports out of South Carolina and laid the foundation for wealth in that state.

When the real Eliza Lucas passed away in 1793, President George Washington served as a pallbearer at her funeral.

The Invisible Life of Euridice Gusmao by Martha Batalha

 Genre: Women/Family/Spanish-Portuguese

This novel is named by Bustle as “One of 9 Fall Debuts by Women You’re Going to Want to Read Immediately: You’re going to love it. Batalha takes you through nearly 100 years of life in Rio de Janeiro…filled with intrigue, mystery, sadness, and a whole lot of strong female leads, The Invisible Life of Euridice Gusmao isn’t a novel to miss this season.”

“Named One of the Top 28 Fiction Books for Fall 2017” by Huffington Post

I mentioned that I am making a concerted effort this year to read books about different cultures. I also love a book that is full of strong female leads and humor.

I’m guessing this will be a favorite. If you read it and love it, let me know!

 

The Power by Naomi Alderman

Genre: Literary/Dystopian/Post-Apocalyptic

Winner of the 2017 Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction

When I was a senior in high school, I read The Handmaid’s Tale. It was the second book to give me nightmares. (Remember, The Amityville Horror was the first.) Then in college, I read Surfacing and became a Margaret Atwood fan for life. She hasn’t written a word since 1989 that I haven’t read.

She’s the reason I chose The Power. I generally don’t enjoy dystopian fiction, but Margaret Atwood has endorsed it with all her being, so I’m going to read it.

One reviewer said it was “The Hunger Games crossed with The Handmaid’s Tale.”

A Selfie As Big As the Ritz by Lara Williams

Genre: Contemporary Women/Short Stories

Short stories are making a comeback. There are several collections out this fall, but A Selfie As Big As the Ritz seems particularly interesting.

“The women in Lara Williams’ debut story collection, A Selfie as Big as the Ritz, navigate the tumultuous interval between early twenties and middle age. In the title story, a relationship implodes against the romantic backdrop of Paris… In “Treats,” a single woman comes to terms with her loneliness. As Williams’ characters attempt to lean in, fall in love, hold together a family, fend off loneliness, and build a meaningful life, we see them alternating between expectation and resignation, giddiness and melancholy, the rollercoaster we all find ourselves on.” – Amazon

 

November

A Tangled Mercy by Joy Jordan-Lake

Genre: Historical Fiction/Women’s Fiction

“Told in alternating tales at once haunting and redemptive, A Tangled Mercy is a quintessentially American epic rooted in heartbreaking true events examining the harrowing depths of human brutality and betrayal, and our enduring hope for freedom and forgiveness.” – Amazon

When Joy Jordan-Lake was a Ph.D. student at Tufts specializing in the role of race and religion in nineteenth-century American fiction she first learned of the Denmark Vesey slave revolt of 1822. She knew that was a story she needed to tell.

She spent the next twenty years researching the city, digging into its complicated past, admiring its beauty and charm and the way the past bleeds in with the present on every corner. At the center of her research: Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, where Denmark Vesey and several slave revolt strategists had been leaders, and where nearly two hundred years to the day after the slave revolt, a racially charged shooting claimed the lives of innocent victims.

All I can say about A Tangled Mercy is that it is what we desperately need right this moment. This is an excellent book club choice.

Perennials by Julie Cantrell

Genre: Women’s Fiction

When two estranged sisters reunite for their parents’ 50^th anniversary, a family tragedy brings unexpected lessons of hope and healing amid the flowers of their mother’s perennial garden.

I’m not going to lie; I originally picked this book solely because of its cover. I have a weak spot for flowers, however, the reviews are good, and the story sounds like the kind we’ll need right around the holidays.

“From the lush Mississippi setting and lyrical writing to the flawed yet engaging characters, Julie Cantrell’s Perennials is an engrossing reading pleasure.  I loved this story of a fractured family and a prodigal daughter, and the healing power and connections that tending gardens brings to their lives.  Like an artist, the author uses a delicate brush to carefully illustrate the joys and pains of life’s growing seasons, and of learning how to surrender old hurts to find forgiveness.  This is a book to read more than once.” –Karen White, New York Times bestselling author

Little Broken Things by Nicole Baart

Genre: Women’s Fiction

If you liked Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty, you’d love Little Broken Things.

“I have something for you” reads the text that Quinn gets from her older sister, Nora. She doesn’t think much of it, though she hasn’t talked to her sister in over a year.

But when Nora shows up at Quinn’s door just hours later it sets off a chain of events that will alter their lives forever.

Nora’s something is a little girl who Nora hands over to Quinn and tells her to keep the girl safe and not to utter a word to anyone. Before Quinn can ask questions, Nora disappears. Quinn tries to honor her sister’s request to keep quiet, but it seems Nora might be involved in something that could be deadly to them all.

It’s a matter of life and death, of family and freedom, and ultimately about the lengths, a woman will go to protect the ones she loves.