It’s peak publishing season and October’s nonfiction releases will be in demand. Check out these top picks for the month.
In biography and memoir, the wilds of Graceland are the setting for Lisa Marie Presley’s memoir From Here to the Great Unknown (completed by her daughter Riley Keough following Presley’s death in 2023). Stanley Tucci returns with a deliciously unique chronicle of food in What I Ate in One Year while iconic actor Al Pacino provides a revelatory account of a creative life in full in Sonny Boy. Alex Van Halen shares his personal story of family, friendship, music and brotherly love in this tribute to his late brother Eddie in Brothers and actor and comedian Jenny Slate pens genre-bending essays about motherhood in Lifeform. “One Tree Hill” star Bethany Joy Lenz writes about her decade in a cult, and quest to break free, in Dinner for Vampires. Shirley MacLaine chronicles her extraordinary life with 150+ photographs in The Wall of Life. British journalist Craig Brown draws a deeply original, telling portrait of the late Queen Elizabeth in Q while historian Dan Jones returns with a biography examining the dramatic life and unparalleled leadership of England’s greatest medieval king, Henry V. And Randy Rainbow presents sparkling whines, champagne problems and other pressing issues from his gay agenda in Low-Hanging Fruit.
John Grisham teams up with Centurion Ministries founder Jim McCloskey to tell 10 harrowing stories of wrongful convictions in Framed. The late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who paid the ultimate price for his beliefs, details his fight for Russian democracy in Patriot while David Greenberg delivers a comprehensive biography of civil rights leader John Lewis. CNN’s Chris Wallace’s draws fresh parallels between the Kennedy/Nixon presidential election to today’s face-off between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris in Countdown 1960 while Noam Chomsky indicts both American foreign policy and the national myths that support it in The Myth of American Idealism. Fox News correspondent Trey Yingst provides a firsthand account of the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023 in Black Saturday. And Michael Tackett reveals how Mitch McConnell mastered the Senate, changed America, and lost his party in The Price of Power.
Margaret Atwood gathers a career-spanning collection of poetry, going back to 1961, with Paper Boat. Glory Edim (Well-Read Black Girl) pens an ode to the power of books to help us understand ourselves in Gather Me; Andre Aciman (Call Me By Your Name) returns with a deeply romantic chronicle of his time in Rome while on the cusp of adulthood in Roman Year; and Deborah Levy delivers a feast of observations from the particular beauty of lemons on a table, to the allure of Colette, to the streets of Paris in The Position of Spoons.
In cookbooks, Pamela Anderson embarks on a deeply personal culinary journey that harmonizes style, compassion, and the pleasures of plant-based cooking in I Love You while Hari Pulapaka presents over 100 recipes for lowering blood pressure, reversing heart disease & cardiac recovery in The Heart Healthy Plant-Based Cookbook. Katarina Cermelj presents solutions for making any recipe gluten-free, dairy-free, egg-free or vegan in The Elements of Baking, while Broma Bakery’s Sarah Fennel delivers 100 stunning, delicious, must-bake recipes for everyone who saves room for dessert in Sweet Tooth. New York Times cooking editor Emily Weinstein takes the stress out of weeknights with 100 easy, quick and flavorful recipes in Easy Weeknight Dinners and Justine Doiron debuts with 100 innovative and approachable plant-forward recipes in Justine Cooks. And Alex Guarnaschelli returns with 120 go-to Italian American favorites for all the red-sauced, pan-fried, crispy-cornered, baked-until-bubbly comforting classics you’ll want to eat every night in Italian American Forever.
Dava Sobel chronicles the life and work of the most famous woman in the history of science, and the untold story of the many young women trained in her laboratory who were launched into stellar scientific careers of their own in
The Elements of Marie Curie. Navajo Ranger Stanley Milford Jr. pens a chilling and clear-eyed memoir of his investigations into bizarre cases of the paranormal and unexplained in Navajoland in The Paranormal Ranger. Michelle Tea returns to her magical roots, offering stories, little-known history, traditions, rituals, and spells for any witch seeking a deeper spiritual practice in Modern Magic.
Drawn from NPR Music’s acclaimed, groundbreaking series Turning the Tables, How Women Made Music is the definitive book on the vital role of women in music, from Beyoncé to Odetta, Taylor Swift to Joan Baez, Joan Jett to Dolly Parton. Jason Schreier provides a riveting examination of Blizzard Entertainment’s rise and shocking downfall in Play Nice. Maira Kalman’s latest, Still Life with Remorse, is a moving meditation in words and pictures on remorse, joy, ancestry, and memory.
Chase Jarvis presents a practical guide to freedom, creativity, and a life you love with Never Play it Safe while Oliver Burkeman (Four Thousand Weeks) provides a map for a liberating journey that begins where we actually find ourselves, not with a fantasy of where we’d like to be, in Meditations for Mortals. Kendra Adachi brings her signature Kind Big Sister Energy to a practical time management book for people weary of productivity but eager to live a good life in The Plan. Charles Bock takes a comical and heartbreaking look at parenting and love as a young widower in I Will Do Better. And from celebrity stylist Law Roach comes a groundbreaking guide to becoming your ultimate, confident self in How to Build a Fashion Icon.
~posted by Frank. Descriptions provided by publishers.
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