autumnal reading recs

One of my favorite things about fall is how varied the mood can be. You can swing from dark and gothic to warm and cozy, but both feel appropriate for the season. It also means so many different types of books can be suitable for seasonal reading, if that’s your kind of thing. Here are ten books that make me think of autumn.

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Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë — One of my all-time favorite books, which I just reread via audiobook last month. The novel opens on a November day that is so dreary that there’s “no possibility of a walk.” There’s also a sprawling manor house with mysterious noises, which to me is the hallmark of a gothic novel. This time of year also makes me think of going back to school, so reading a classic fits that vibe as well.

The Overstory by Richard Powers — This could be recency bias, as this is my current read, but I do think it’s fitting for the season. The plot of this novel is hard to describe, but it is written like a tree—from the roots to the crown and back to the seeds—telling the story of interlocking lives of characters.

The Secret History by Donna Tartt — Un the influence of their charismatic classics professor, a group of friends at a New England university discover a way of thinking a world away from the norm, but their search for transcendence leads them down a dangerous path. This is the dark academia novel and deserves all of the hype that it gets. I read this over a year ago and I still think about it often.

Anne of Green Gables by L M Montgomery — “I’m so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers,” says Anne. I definitely agree. This childhood favorite is about an orphan who is sent by mistake to live with a lonely brother and sister on a Prince Edward Island farm and proceeds to change the lives of everyone around her.

Pumpkinheads by Rainbow Rowell and Faith Erin Hicks — I don’t often recommend graphic novels, mostly because I don’t read them nearly as often as I did a decade ago. However, this young adult story about two friends who are working their last shift at the Disney World of pumpkin patches is so charming and perfect to get you in the fall mood. I’ve never wanted to inhabit a graphic novel more than this one.

Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders — From a seed of historical truth—that a grief-stricken Abraham Lincoln visits the crypt where his young son lies several times to hold his body—comes an story of familial love and loss as young Willie Lincoln finds himself in a strange purgatory with other souls. This is perfect if you want to explore the idea of ghosts without it being spooky scary. The audiobook is really great as it’s narrated by a full cast, including big names like Nick Offerman and Don Cheadle. It also intersperses historical documents in between the prose, which gives it an academic feel.

The Busy Body by Kemper Donovan — This mystery novel takes place in the wake of a fictional presidential election that had an outcome akin to 2016 (though the novel takes pains not to name names). The senator who lost has gone home to Maine to lick her wounds and work with an unnamed ghost writer on her memoir. However, the book is put on the back burner when the senator’s neighbor is murdered and the senator is determined to solve whodunnit. I read mystery novels all year round because it’s my favorite genre, but I think they’re especially appropriate when the weather turns cool.

Wrong Place, Wrong Time by Gillian McAllister — The novel opens on Halloween night when the main character looks out her window to see her son stab a stranger to death on the sidewalk. After going to the police station and trying to figure out what to do next with her husband, she wakes up the next morning only to discover it’s October 30th and the crime has not been committed yet. Each subsequent morning when she wakes up, she’s further back in the past, at first weeks and then years before the murder. And she slowly finds out that she is supposed to figure out what led her son to kill someone and how to stop it from happening.

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V. E. Schwab — In France in 1714, a young woman named Addie LaRue makes a Faustian bargain to live forever, but is cursed to be forgotten by everyone she meets. That is until, after nearly 300 years, she stumbles across a young man in a bookstore who remembers her name. What’s more autumnal than a novel where the literal devil is a character?

Turn of the Key by Ruth Ware — Rowan Caine arrives at Heatherbrae House, a “smart” home in the Scottish Highlands, to be a live-in nanny to a picture-perfect family, only to end up in prison awaiting trail for murder. Writing her lawyer, she struggles to explain the events that led to her incarceration: from the malfunctioning technology to being left alone with the children for weeks at a time, with no adults around apart from a handyman. This is my favorite Ruth Ware and is as close as you can get to a modern gothic novel.

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What books put you in the autumnal mood? I’d love to chat about it in the comments.

Also: there will be no newsletter next week as I will be celebrating my husband’s birthday and our anniversary. See you back here on the 24th!