The fall publishing season is in full swing! An amazing array of biographies and memoirs are being released, along with riveting histories, analyses of current events, guides for self-improvement and more. Looking for cooking? Fear not – there’s such a bounty of cookbooks that it will be in its own forthcoming post. And don’t forget October’s Peak Picks which are not listed here – though some of the books below may make it on to Peak Picks shelves in November. Now, on with the show.
In celebrity biography, the late Ozzy Osbourne leads the way with the “shocking and bitterly hilarious” posthumous memoir, Last Rites while iconic journalist and filmmaker Cameron Crowe reveals his formative years in rock and roll in The Uncool. Tim Curry – best known as Dr. Frank-N-Furter from The Rocky Horror Picture Show – looks back on his life in Vagabond; Michael J. Fox takes a heartfelt look back at his two iconic roles simultaneously–Alex P. Keaton in Family Ties and Marty McFly in Back to the Future —in Future Boy; Writer and director Judd Apatow offers a glimpse into the creative life of a comedic genius in Comedy Nerd; and former Daily Show correspondent Roy Wood Jr. offers life lessons disguised as a memoir in the laugh-out-loud The Man of Many Fathers. Marisa Meltzer considers the life and legacy of actress, singer, and legendary style icon Jane Birkin in It Girl while Francesca Wade examines of one of the most influential and mythologized literary figures of the 20th century, Gertrude Stein.
In memoir, Malala Yousafzai – winner of the Nobel Prize at 15 – shares how she rebuilt herself after her world changed overnight in Finding My Way while the late Virginia Roberts Giuffre, who dared to take on Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, penned an unforgettable memoir before her death, Nobody’s Girl. Gabrielle Hamilton paints a compassionate portrait of the demise of her idiosyncratic family in Next of Kin and Beth Macy reckons with the changes that have rocked her own beloved small Ohio hometown in Paper Girl. Elyse Myers — known to her 12 million followers as “the internet’s best friend” — gets real about life’s awkward moments in That’s a Great Question, I’d Love to Tell You while Angela Buchdahl, the first Asian American to be ordained as a rabbi, explores faith, identity and belonging in Heart of a Stranger. Marie Kondo (The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up) opens up about the cultural traditions that have inspired her philosophy in Letter from Japan and Amy Bowers Cordalis chronicles her Indigenous family’s fight to save the Klamath River and their way of life in The Water Remembers. Finally, Zadie Smith returns with a resounding collection of essays on a range of subjects that have captured her attention in recent years in Dead and Alive.
In history, Andrew Ross Sorkin goes inside the greatest crash in Wall Street history in 1929. Joseph J. Ellis considers how America’s founders regarded the issue of slavery and the tragic side of America’s founding in The Great Contradiction while Siddharth Kara recounts a notorious slave ship incident that led to the abolition of slavery in the UK and sparked the US abolitionist movement in The Zorg. Jonathan Freedland tells the true story of a secret resistance network in Nazi Germany — and the spy who betrayed them — in The Traitors Circle and David Nasaw looks beyond the World War II victory parades and into the veterans’–and nation’s–unhealed traumas in The Wounded Generation. Julia Ioffe offers a feminist history of modern Russia, from revolution to utopia to autocracy, in Motherland. John U. Bacon presents a definitive account of the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald in The Gales of November. And CNN’s Jake Tapper’s latest is a riveting chronicle of the race to lock up a dangerous al Qaeda terrorist before he’s set free in Race Against Terror.
In the final installment of the Stoic Virtue series, philosopher Ryan Holiday makes the case for the virtue on which all other virtues depend in Wisdom Takes Work. Ben Rein examines the neuroscience of social connection in Why Brains Need Friends while Cas Holman calls for adults to add more fun, exploration, and imagination to their lives in Playful. TikTok star Eli Rallo pens essays on conquering the quarter-life crisis in Does Anyone Else Feel This Way? while Heather Hirsch helps women make sense of their symptoms and build a personalized treatment plan in The Perimenopause Survival Guide. Social media star and dog-rescue advocate Rocky Kanaka collects heartwarming stories of loss, rescue, and love in Sitting With Dogs. Bestselling author Sue Monk Kidd provides a map for anyone who has ever felt lost as a writer in Writing Creativity and Soul. And Morgan Housel (The Psychology of Money) offers simple choices for a richer life in The Art of Spending Money.
Joyce Vance, author of the Substack “Civil Discourse” newsletter, provides a manual for keeping a democracy in Giving Up is Unforgivable. Jacob Silverman provides searing insight into the political radicalization of Silicon Valley in Gilded Rage; Jonathan Karl’s unparalleled access brings us behind closed doors deep inside Donald Trump’s campaign that changed America in Retribution; and Bernie Sanders breaks down the unprecedented crises we face today in Fight Oligarchy. Jelani Cobb presents a devastatingly insightful collection of published and original work that paints a kaleidoscopic portrait of our last turbulent decade in Three or More Is a Riot. Last but not least, Sarah Goodyear, Doug Gordon and Aaron Naparstek — hosts of the War on Cars podcast — show us how we can free ourselves from the tyranny of the automobile in Life After Cars.
~posted by Frank. All descriptions provided by publisher.