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Readers' Most Anticipated Books of October
October brings us another installment of this autumn’s tidal wave of hotly anticipated and high-profile book releases. The fall season is usually busy, relatively, but this year has been particularly packed with goodness. Remember to pace yourself, readers. You don’t want to sprain a frontal lobe.
New in October: David Sedaris, generally acknowledged as the funniest writer on the planet, is back with his latest collection, A Carnival of Snackery: Diaries 2003–2020. Alice Hoffman concludes the saga of the witchy Owens family with The Book of Magic, the long-awaited final chapter—so far as we know—of the Practical Magic series. And acclaimed short story writer Jocelyn Nicole Johnson releases her debut collection, My Monticello. Also this month: Japanese ghosts, Canadian nine-year-olds, and some delightful new American mythmaking from author Amor Towles.
Each month the Goodreads editorial team takes a look at the books that are being published in the U.S., readers' early reviews, and how many readers are adding these books to their Want to Read shelves (which is how we measure anticipation). We use the information to curate this list of hottest new releases.
The new novel from author Amor Towles (A Gentleman in Moscow) tells the story of two brothers and their remarkable road trip in the year 1954. We can say from direct experience that this is one of the very best books of the year, a rich and wholly satisfying American adventure told from the POV of multiple characters. Towles like to nest stories within stories, so by the end of the book you’ve actually enjoyed several dozen different background tales, narratives, and yarns.
Read our interview with Towles here.
Read our interview with Towles here.
Alice Hoffman’s Practical Magic series is highly recommended for those with a taste for exquisitely imagined magical realism. With its contemporary setting, The Book of Magic is said to be the conclusion of the popular series, which otherwise tends to run up and down a 300-year timeline of the wonderful and witchy Owens family. This time around, three generations of Owens women—and one long-lost brother—discover the ultimate secrets of magic and love.
The unsinkable Lucy Barton returns in this new novel from Elizabeth Strout, author of the acclaimed 2008 novel Olive Kitteridge and the extremely relevant 2015 book My Name Is Lucy Barton. Strout’s highly anticipated new story covers Lucy’s years with her first husband, William, and the enduring bond that continues to grow between them. Strout is universally admired for her empathetic and insightful characterizations of people just like us, living lives just like ours.
Canadian author, journalist, and sometimes screen actor Miriam Toews broke through in 2004 with her beloved novel A Complicated Kindness. Her new book, Fight Night, is told from the point of view of Swiv, a nine-year-old girl in Toronto living with her pregnant mom and her frail but fierce grandmother. With a new family member on the way, Swiv and her grandmother inspire each other to write down their thoughts on life, love, and loyalty.
This debut collection of short stories leads with the eponymous novella “My Monticello,” which follows a diverse group of citizens as they flee violent white supremacists in a near-future version of Charlottesville, Virginia. Other stories include the highly acclaimed “Control Negro,” recently anthologized in the Best American Short Stories series. Johnson has been hailed as a major new voice in fiction, and now’s our chance to get in early on a very bright future.
Read our interview with Johnson here.
Read our interview with Johnson here.
Recently separated, and with her daughter all grown up, Anna finds herself looking into the past. Searching through her deceased mother’s things, Anna discovers that her birth father, a man she never knew, is now president of a small nation in West Africa. With her novel Sankofa—named after a remarkably cool African symbol (google it!)—London-based author Chibundu Onuzo tells the story of one woman’s journey to connect with her father and find a new and deeper kind of belonging.
Love stories are the best kind of stories, and the new novel from Tiphanie Yanique (Land of Love and Drowning) is full of them. Fly and Stela found one another in 21st-century New York City, but their relationship rests on the foundation of those that came before. Looking back in time, Monster in the Middle explores how one couple’s love story is informed and maybe even powered by the love stories of previous generations.
Hands-down winner of this month’s Spookiest Book Cover award, Cassandra Khaw’s latest is a haunted house story set in an ancient and abandoned Japanese mansion. It seems that a group of feckless young people have decided that the sinister mansion is a good place for a wedding party. This extremely poor decision doesn’t sit well with the resident ghost, a lonely bride with “a blackened smile and a hungry heart.” Oh, dear.
Over the years, essayist David Sedaris has taken the memoir form into new territories with his unique alchemy of humor and heart. It’s tricky to make a reader laugh then cry, but Sedaris can do it in a single paragraph. His new collection of diary entries is essentially part two of his Theft by Finding collection and brings his legion of fans more or less up to date on the last 17 years. Bonus tip: Sedaris reads his own audiobooks, and he’s really good at it.
Which new releases are you looking forward to reading? Let's talk books in the comments!
Check out more recent articles, including:
October's Hottest New Romances
The Biggest New Young Adult Books of October
Goodreads Members' Most Anticipated Fall Books
Check out more recent articles, including:
October's Hottest New Romances
The Biggest New Young Adult Books of October
Goodreads Members' Most Anticipated Fall Books
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Lady
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Oct 01, 2021 02:47AM
October is a great month for reading, with all the long evenings ahead of us.
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I've read (or will read in the next few days) *27* books releasing this month, and of the 24 I've already finished, I'd recommend 23 of them. (24 if you're a particular masochist - the one book was utterly laughable yet *claimed* to be nonfiction).The Keeper Of Happy Endings by Barbara Davis
Good As Dead by Susan Walter
Move by Parag Khanna (the laughable one)
In Another Light by AJ Banner
Last Girl Ghosted by Lisa Unger
The OC by DP Lyle
Fan Fiction by Brent Spiner
And The Bridge Is Love by David Biro
The Other Man by Farhad J Dadyburjor
Punishment Without Trial by Carissa Byrne Hessick
The House That Christmas Made by Elizabeth Bromke
The Mother Next Door by Tara Laskowski
American Made by Farah Stockman
Being You by Anil Seth
A Dancing Tide by Grace Greene
The Night Of Many Endings by Melissa Payne
Out Of Time by Matthew Mather
Life As We Made It by Beth Shapiro
Firepower by Paul Lockhart
The Secret Of Snow by Viola Shipman
Meet Me In Madrid by Verity Lowell
The Genome Defense by Jorge L Contreras
Sisters Of The Great War by Suzanne Feldman
Fan Club by Erin Mayer*
Christmas In Peachtree Bluff by Kristy Woodson Harvey*
The Christmas Escape by Sarah Morgan*
The Generation Myth by Bobby Duffy
* these are the books I'm reading in the next few days
My book club picked The Lincoln Highway for our next read. I'm very eager to begin!
Aristotle and Dante Dive into the Waters of the World!
I am looking forward to reading Oh William! by Elizabeth Strout. I have been a fan of her writing since reading Abide with Me.
Happy for the David Sedaris one. Hope I can get it soon.
looking forward to Sankofa...it sounds really interesting.
I'm looking forward to Warriors of God by Andrzej Sapkowski and Galaxias by Stephen Baxter.
Waiting excitedly for The Book of Magic to be delivered - within a week!
The spirit engineer comes out this week and I thought it was deliciously spooky!
All black, female, or gay. Typical anti white heterosexual male website.
Cindy wrote: "I am looking forward to reading Oh William! by Elizabeth Strout. I have been a fan of her writing since reading Abide with Me."do you need to read these in any specific order?
RENE wrote: "Any fantasy or science fiction?"Matthew Mather has his latest, Out of Time, - Book 3 in his Delta Devlin series - on Oct 19.
Bobby wrote: "All black, female, or gay. Typical anti white heterosexual male website."The readers populate the list, not the website. "the Goodreads editorial team takes a look at the books that are being published in the U.S., readers' early reviews, and how many readers are adding these books to their Want to Read shelves (which is how we measure anticipation)."
