September brings a bumper crop of excellent fiction, including early horror titles, deep explorations of moments in American history, and much more.
9/5: Amazing Grace Adams by Fran Littlewood
Grace Adams has hit 45 years old, and she’s losing it. Stuck in traffic one day, she gets out of her car and sets off across London to win back her estranged daughter, reflecting back on the days when people (including herself) thought she was incredible. (general fiction)
9/5: Coleman Hill by Kim Coleman Foote
In a story based partly on the author’s own family legend, friends Celia Coleman and Lucy Grimes flee their homes in the South for a more promising future in Vauxhall, New Jersey in 1916. As their two families become deeply intertwined, a fallout reverberates through multiple generations. (historical fiction) A Peak Pick!
9/5: Dearborn by Ghassan Zeineddine
A collection of short stories set in the Arab American community of Dearborn, Michigan. (general fiction)
9/5: The Fraud by Zadie Smith
In 1870s England, a man claims he is the long-lost heir to a massive estate, although others assert he is a butcher from Australia. Drawn into the fervor of the dispute are Scottish widow Mrs. Touchet, who lives on the edges of London’s literary society; and Andrew Bogle, a formerly enslaved man from Jamaica. Based on real historical events of a trial that divided Victorian England. (historical fiction)
9/5: Grave Expectations by Alice Bell
Faux-medium Claire and the ghost of her best friend Sophie go to a crumbling home in the English countryside to perform a séance for the family matriarch’s 80th birthday. When Claire and Sophie make contact with an extremely angry ghost, likely a murder victim from the previous year’s party, they investigate. (mystery)
9/5: Holly by Stephen King
Holly Gibney returns, taking on the case of the disappearance of Bonnie Dahl, who disappeared just down the block from Professors Rodney and Emily Harris, a seemingly respectable couple harboring an unholy secret. (horror/thriller)
9/5: What You Are Looking for Is in the Library by Michiko Aoyama, translated by Alison Watts
Librarian Sayuri Komachi can determine just what each library visitor needs, and the book recommendation that will help them on their paths, from a mother returning to work after parental leave, to an accountant dreaming of opening an antique store, and more. (general fiction)
9/5: The Witching Tide by Margaret Meyer
As witchfinder Silas Makepeace leaves a wake of destruction in 17th century East Anglia, healer Martha Hallybread is charged with searching women accused of being witches for devilish markings. But Martha harbors her own secrets, and in her desperation will turn to powers unknown. (historical fiction)
9/12: Rouge by Mona Awad
Belle, like her estranged mother before her, is obsessed with skincare. Back in Southern California for her mother’s funeral, a strange woman in red invites Belle to a cryptic, culty spa. As she’s pulled in, Belle grapples with the dark side of beauty and the legacy of her relationship with her mother. (general fiction)
9/12: The Secret Hours by Mick Herron
A team tasked with reviewing the British spy service (aka MI5) discovers a classified operation in 1994 Berlin that has remained secret even while rewriting everything that came after, and there are many who don’t want the past to come to light. A standalone from the author of the Slough House series. (thriller) A Peak Pick!
9/12: The Vaster Wilds by Lauren Groff
A servant girl escapes from the starving colonial settlement of Jamestown, Virginia, determined to make her own way in a North American wilderness just on the cusp of extensive colonialism and finds her notions of civilization, faith, and community challenged. (historical fiction) A Peak Pick!
9/19: Black Sheep by Rachel Harrison
Vesper Wright left the religious community she grew up in at 18 and never looked back. Now she’s invited to her cousin’s wedding, and knows she must return, even if it’s a trap. When her homecoming unearths a secret, it’s time to reckon with her family and their history. (horror)
9/19: The Golden Gate by Amy Chua
In 1944 Berkeley, California, Detective Al Sullivan investigates the assassination of a presidential candidate at the Claremont Hotel, and unexpectedly finds ties to a seemingly unrelated case at the same hotel, 10 years prior: the death of seven-year-old Iris Stafford, a member of one of the wealthiest families in San Francisco. (historical mystery)
9/19: The Last Devil to Die by Richard Osman
This fourth installment in the Thursday Murder Club series find the crew digging in the antiques business after receiving word that an old friend has been murdered, the package he was protecting gone. (mystery)
9/19: North Woods by Daniel Mason
A house in the New England woods sees centuries of inhabitants, from a pair of Puritan escapees, to spinster twins, to a crime reporter, a painter, a panther, a beetle, and more in a novel that examines the human condition and our connection to our environment and histories. (general fiction)
9/19: The Wren, The Wren by Anne Enright
Three generations of Irish women contend with the outsized legacy of poet Phil McDaragh, as they navigate inheritances of poetic wonder, abandonment, and sustaining love. (general fiction)
9/26: The Navigating Fox by Christopher Rowe
Quintus Shu’al, a navigating fox, has been living in disgrace since leading his last expedition to their doom. His redemption lies in leading a ragtag team to the very gates of Hell. (fantasy)
9/26: The Fragile Threads of Power by V.E. Schwab
Across four fantastical realms connected at the overlap of a single city, two royals fight to keep their crowns even as a girl with unusual magical ability appears with the power to bring them all together, or tear it all down. A new series based in the world of the Shades of Magic series. (fantasy)
9/26: Land of Milk and Honey by C. Pam Zhang
In a future world where smog covers the land and food crops are disappearing, a chef takes a job in an elite mountaintop colony where the sky is clear and ingredients are abundant. As her boundaries erode, she reaches for a new world. (general fiction) A Peak Pick!
9/26: And Then She Fell by Alicia Elliott
Alice feels like she’s achieved the picture-perfect life, with a new baby, a charming husband, and a new house in Toronto. But as the only Indigenous resident of the neighborhood, Alice feels isolated, and then strange things start to happen. (horror/general fiction) A Peak Pick!
9/26: The Unsettled by Ayana Mathis
In 1985, three generations of one family split between Philadelphia and Bonaparte, Alabama, seek better lives for themselves and their children while grappling with the legacy of the past. (general fiction)
9/26: The Wake-Up Call by Beth O’Leary
Izzy and Lucas, receptionists at the financially strapped Forest Manor Hotel, are convinced to return four lost wedding rings in the hotel’s lost and found in the hopes the reward money will save the hotel. (romance)
~ posted by Andrea G.
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