October brings a robust slate of fresh horror reads, plus new books from heavy hitters like John Grisham, Jesmyn Ward, Jonathan Lethem, Jhumpa Lahiri, and more!
10/3: Brooklyn Crime Novel by Jonathan Lethem
Residents of one Brooklyn neighborhood experience – but remember differently – community, crime, real estate speculation and gentrification over 50 years. (general fiction)
10/3: Death Valley by Melissa Broder
A woman flees the pressure and emptiness of her life, landing at a Best Western in the high desert of California. On a hike, a strange cactus; in the side of the cactus, a gash like a door, through which she finds a new journey. (general fiction)
10/3: Knock Knock, Open Wide by Neal Sharpson
A corpse and an unspeakable horror in the Irish countryside; two college co-eds in Dublin; the black goat puppet of a popular children’s TV show that only comes out when you misbehave; and a family history that ties into the deep forces that run beneath our society. (horror)
10/3: The Maniac by Benjamin Labatut
A series of scientific masterminds tell the life story and far reaching impact of John von Neumann, a Hungarian polymath whose work in game theory, computing and more prefigured central questions and developments in AI and digital life. A sort of fictional biopic. (general fiction)
10/3: The Night House by Jo Nesbo
Sent to stay with relatives after his parent die in a house fire, 14-year-old Richard Elauved sees a classmate sucked into a telephone booth receiver. Investigating clues the police won’t follow, Richard finds an abandoned house in the Mirror Forest … and then he begins to hear the voices. (horror)
10/3: Our Strangers by Lydia Davis
This collection of short stories celebrates careful observation of life’s day-to-day moments. (general fiction)
10/3: Out There Screaming: An Anthology of New Black Horror, edited by Jordan Peele
An anthology of horror stories by Black authors, curated by Jordan Peele, writer/director of the films Get Out, Us, and Nope. (horror)
10/3: Starling House by Alix E. Harrow
Opal, orphaned and taking care of her brother in a Kentucky coal town, dreams nightly of Starling House, home to the reclusive heir of 19th century novelist E. Starling. When Opal takes a job cleaning Starling House, she begins to connect elements of her past to the buried secrets of the house and its owner. (fantasy) A Peak Pick!
10/10: Blackouts by Justin Torres
An unnamed narrator tends to an old friend, Juan Gay, promising to finish a research project to restore the work of Jan Gay, a queer researcher who gathered first person accounts from queer subjects in the early 20th century but had her work co-opted and obscured. Along the way, they discuss and explore storytelling, art, and love. (general fiction)
10/10: The Family Meal by Bryan Washington
Cam, falling apart after the man he loves has died, returns home to Houston and crashes back into the life of his estranged best friend TJ. Their lives collide as the two navigate a hurtful past and an uncertain future. (general fiction) A Peak Pick!
10/10: The Hive and the Honey by Paul Yoon
A collection of short stories about diasporic communities, confronting identity, belonging, and cultural collisions. (general fiction)
10/10: Last to Leave the Room by Caitlin Starling
Dr. Tamsin Rivers has been conducting experiments under the city of San Siroco, causing the city to sink. In her basement one night, Tamsin discovers a door that wasn’t there before, and out walks her double. As Tamsin begins to lose memories, she races to solve the mystery of the basement door. (horror/thriller)
10/10: The Leftover Woman by Jean Kwok
Jasmine Young travels from rural China to New York City to search for her daughter, who was taken away from her at birth, and goes to work as a nanny for Rebecca Whitney, a white publishing executive who has recently adopted a Chinese daughter. (general fiction)
10/10: Roman Stories by Jhumpa Lahiri, translated by Jhumpa Lahiri and Todd Portnowitz
A collection of short stories featuring Rome, past and present, not merely as setting but as protagonist. (general fiction) A Peak Pick!
10/17: The Exchange by John Grisham
Mitch McDeere, hero of Grisham’s novel The Firm, returns after 15 years as a partner at the largest law firm in the world. A favor for a friend lands him in the middle of a plot that endangers all he holds dear and has worldwide implications. (thriller)
10/17: The House of Doors by Tan Twan Eng
In 1921, W. Somerset Maugham and his secretary Gerald visit old friends Lesley and Robert Hamlyn in Malaya. Maugham is desperate, hiding his true self and with a marriage of convenience unraveling. Look for writing inspiration, he digs into Lesley’s life and secrets and a surprising tale of war and scandal. (historical fiction) A Peak Pick!
10/17: Jonathan Abernathy You Are Kind by Molly McGhee
Behind on his student loans and with no prospects, Jonathan Abernathy takes a job as a “dream auditor,” infiltrating the minds of workers while they sleep and removing thoughts that make them unproductive. As reality and morality begin to warp around him, Jonathan connects with his neighbor even as he uncovers a more sinister element to the company he works for. (general fiction/satire)
10/17: Tremor by Teju Cole
Nigerian American Tunde teaches photography at Harvard and interrogates the morality of art and the ideal of a meaningful life in a series of linked vignettes. (general fiction)
10/24: America Fantastica by Tim O’Brien
Discredited journalist Body Halverson robs a bank and invites bank teller Angie to accompany him on a rollicking road trip across the country. By the author of The Things They Carried. (general fiction/satire)
10/24: Let Us Descend by Jesmyn Ward
Annis, sold into slavery, travels through a hellscape of American slavery in the years before the Civil War, from rice fields in the Carolinas, to the slave markets of New Orleans, to a Louisiana sugar plantation. Through her journey she turns inward, to the memories of her mother and the stories of her grandmother, to a world beyond this world. (historical/general fiction) A Peak Pick!
10/31: Absolution by Alice McDermott
During the Vietnam War in 1963 Saigon, two American military wives form an uneasy alliance, drawn to support their husbands but also in some way help the people of Vietnam, a relationship that reverberates down 60 years. (general fiction)
10/31: The Berry Pickers by Amanda Peters
In 1962, a four-year-old Mi’kmaq girl goes missing from Maine’s blueberry fields, an event that will haunt those involved for the next fifty years. (general fiction) A Peak Pick!
10/31: The Reformatory by Tananarive Due
In 1950s Jim Crow-era Florida, 12-year-old Robbie, who is Black, is sent to Gracetown Reformatory for Boys because he kicked a white boy. Once there, he finds more than just the living in residence. When the warden realizes Robbie can see the haints of boys who died there, Robbie is pressured to destroy them, even as the haints ask for his help. (horror)
10/31: A Shining by Jon Fosse, translated by Damion Searls
A man drives aimlessly, ending up deep in the Norwegian woods where, lost and cold, he encounters a glowing being. By the winner of the 2023 Nobel Prize in Literature. (general fiction)
~ posted by Andrea G.
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