The Best New Books to Read This Fall

‘Inconspicuous Consumption’ by Tatiana Schlossberg

Release Date: August 27

New York Times science writer Tatiana Schlossberg understands that it’s tough to draw a link between everyday life and the frightening, global consequences of climate change. Inconspicuous Consumption walks through those connections, offering empathy, relevant solutions and just the sort of dry wit you need when synthesizing a potentially apocalyptic situation. Everyone on planet Earth could benefit from a copy of this book — be the first of your friends to read it and earn bragging rights well through winter.

Inconspicuous Consumption (hardcover), $22.40 at Amazon

‘How To Raise A Reader’ by Pamela Paul & Maria Russo

Release Date: September 3

Another hit from former New York Times contributors, How To Raise A Reader features the insight of Book Review editors Pamela Paul and Maria Russo, who share their expertise on how to cultivate a love of reading in your child from a young age. Yes, we’re all terrified that our children have too much screen time, but we’re equally aware that forcing a child into an activity they don’t like is a fruitless (and exhausting) endeavor. This guide offers point-by-point recommendations on how to transform reading from a chore into a genuine delight — and might just inspire you to revisit old childhood favorites, too.

How To Raise A Reader (hardcover), $17.96 at Amazon.

‘Cantoras’ by Carolina De Robertis

Release Date: September 3

Cantoras, written by The Gods Of Tango‘s Carolina De Robertis, is at once a very familiar and very novel tale. The themes — friendship, love, identity, home — are as universal as the setting is specific: 1970s Uruguay, held hostage by a powerful dictator who threatens the safety and rights of the civilian population each day. This novel traces the stories of five women and the refuge they find in these troubled times, both literally and in one another. 

Cantoras (hardcover), $24.26 at Amazon

‘For The Love Of Men’ by Liz Plank

Release Date: September 10

Unsurprisingly, many of 2019’s top hits act as responses to the complex conversations about gender roles that the year’s events have elicited. Journalist (and #BlogHer19 speaker!) Liz Plank is offering a fresh perspective on how to solve today’s toxic masculinity crisis. For The Love Of Men: A New Vision For Mindful Masculinity combines key insight on how this crisis came to be with alternate models toward which men can (and should) look. It’s a surprisingly hopeful view of a topic that too often elicits only despair, and Plank’s signature knack for incisive reporting and keen analysis makes it both educational and a pleasure to read.

For The Love Of Men (hardcover), $23.58 at Amazon

‘Everything Is Figureoutable’ by Marie Forleo

Release Date: September 10

When Elizabeth Gilbert (Eat, Pray, Love) says a book is going to “change lives,” you take notice — no stranger to making a meaningful difference in strangers’ lives, Gilbert knows an inspirational text when she sees one. Marie Forleo’s Everything Is Figureoutable is the self-help book you didn’t know you needed, offering practical solutions and skills for, well, everything. Podcast host Forleo’s brand of “relentless optimism” will fire you up with the conviction you need to pursue your goals, and the guidance you need to make sure you don’t burn out (or give up) along the way.

Everything Is Figureoutable (hardcover), $15.00 at Amazon

‘The Testaments’ by Margaret Atwood

Release Date: September 10

If you’re a fan of The Handmaid’s Tale, chances are you’ve been waiting on this sequel a while — and 34 years later, it’s finally here. Set in a world 15 years after Gilead’s inception (and the events of the first novel), Margaret Atwood’s follow-up The Testaments tells the tale of three women within this toxic Republic, tracing both their personal development and the slow, sure decline of the evil forces holding this society in place. (And yes, Hulu already has the TV rights.) 

The Testaments (hardcover), $17.37 at Amazon

‘Unpregnant’ by Jenni Hendriks & Ted Caplan

Release Date: September 10

Typically, it’s a pretty good sign when a novel has its film rights optioned before it’s even released to the public. WarnerMedia snapped up the rights to Jenni Hendriks and Ted Caplan’s Unpregnant, which is already being hailed as a modern follow-up to hits like Juno. When teen Veronica Clarke finds herself facing an unexpected pregnancy, she embarks on a madcap adventure with her former best friend to the only available abortion clinic 900 miles away. It’s an achingly funny, occasionally brutal tale of a teen’s first taste of facing adult decisions, and a frank look at an all-too-realistic story certain teens face today.

Unpregnant (hardcover), $16.19 at Amazon

‘Don’t You Forget About Me’ by Mhairi McFarlane

Release Date: September 10

Don’t You Forget About Me is already being hailed as the next Bridget Jones — the highest of compliments, as any true rom-com fan knows. Mhairi McFarlane’s page-turner tells the story of Georgina, a woman doubly scorned by being fired from her job and catching her live-in boyfriend with someone else on the same day. There’s nowhere to go but up: and in this case, up comes in the form of a bartending gig and old flame-slash-new boss Lucas McCarthy. Intrigued? Us too.

Don’t You Forget About Me (paperback), $12.11 at Amazon

‘How To Be A Family’ by Dan Kois

Release Date: September 17

Slate writer Dan Kois spins a heartwarming family tale in this memoir of the travels he and his family embarked on over the course of a year: New Zealand, the Netherlands, Costa Rica and Kansas. Feeling stuck in their urban bubble, Kois and his wife wanted to explore a new way of living with their two daughters — the stories that ensued are imbued with plenty of classic pre-teen concerns and offer genuine insight into what makes each of these communities tick. Every parent will find something to relate to in this year-long odyssey of going to great lengths to feel closer together.

How To Be A Family (hardcover), $28.00 at Amazon

‘Becoming Super Woman’ by Nicole Lapin

Release Date: September 17

New York Times bestselling author Nicole Lapin (Boss Bitch) is back with her latest 12-step plan — and this time, it’s focused on saving your mental health. Becoming Super Woman: A Simple 12-Step Plan to Go From Burnout to Balance is part-memoir, part-guide, and all completely addictive. Lapin’s story of burning out and finally prioritizing self-care will resonate with women everywhere, and her guidance (shrewd and snappy as always) is seriously on point. Order now and save yourself the breakdown later.

Becoming Super Woman (hardcover), $24.26 at Amazon

‘Juliet Takes A Breath’ by Gabby Rivera

Release Date: September 17

Hailed by author Roxane Gay as “f***king outstanding,” (a quote proudly featured on the new cover), Juliet Takes A Breath tells the story of Juliet Milagros Palante, a queer Puerto Rican growing up in the Bronx and trying to survive the repercussions of coming out to her family. An internship with a feminist icon in Portland doesn’t quite go as planned, but Juliet bursts into her own nonetheless. A bold, vibrant must-read.

Juliet Takes A Breath (hardcover), $12.77 at Amazon

‘Inside Out’ by Demi Moore

Release Date: September 24

Demi Moore has been in the spotlight for decades: her acting career, relationships with other celebs, and personal struggles have all been tabloid fodder. Now, Moore is sharing her side of the story, talking about everything from battling addiction to questioning her own role in Hollywood. Inside Out is a deeply honest, moving and hard-won moment of reflection from one of entertainment’s most recognizable faces. We suspected it wasn’t easy being an icon: but Moore’s vulnerability and willingness to look hard at her own past give us new insight on how exactly that title has affected her.

Inside Out (hardcover), $19.59 at Amazon

‘Know My Name’ by Chanel Miller

Release Date: September 24

Chanel Miller, AKA Emily Doe, is the rape survivor who was assaulted by Brock Turner in 2016. Three years after her victim statement went viral, she’s making her voice — and face — known to the public, sharing this haunting memoir recounting both the trial itself and the aftermath. Her courage is as boundless here as it was in that first 2016 missive, and it sheds new light on the experience survivors face when they come forward about assault. In 2019, it’s required reading, and strikingly beautiful through the tragedy it portrays.  

Know My Name (hardcover), $19.60 at Amazon

‘Idiot’ by Laura Clery

Release Date: September 24

YouTube comedian and content creator (and #BlogHer19 Creators Summit speaker) Laura Clery is releasing her first-ever essay collection: Idiot: Life Stories From The Creator of Help Helen Smash. Clery takes a reflective look at her recent success in comedy and how she’s gotten to where she is today. Clery’s comedy succeeds due to the exact unflinching approach to vulnerable moments that she showcases in this essay collection, and she paints an honest, complicated portrait of how your life can change.

Idiot (hardcover), $15.00 at Amazon

‘Make It Scream, Make It Burn’ by Leslie Jamison

Release Date: September 24

Two-time New York Times bestselling author Leslie Jamison (The Empathy Exams, The Recovering) is back with a new collection of essays: Make It Scream, Make It Burn. Jamison’s haunting, evocative prose swims between memoir and musing, reflecting on themes like loneliness, memory and longing — the separation between people, and the vast depths of time and space that lay between them. To be familiar with Jamison is to be entranced by her grasp on language, and the moody, ethereal filter through which she views the world. We can’t guarantee this is a light read, but if you’re in the mood to feel deeply, there’s no one more rewarding to take you there than Jamison.

Make It Scream, Make It Burn (hardcover), $19.60 at Amazon

‘The Water Dancer’ by Ta-Nehisi Coates

Release Date:September 24

Back in 2015, Ta-Nehisi Coates’ stunning work of non-fiction Between The World And Me felt like all anyone could talk about — and we wouldn’t be surprised if the same thing happens with debut novel The Water Dancer. National Book Award-winner Coates takes us through the life of Hiram Walker, born into slavery on a Virginia plantation. Walker, in possession of a strange power, plans his escape, and the journey that ensues gives a sweeping, damning view of every corner of the country at that time.

The Water Dancer (hardcover), $19.60 at Amazon

‘The Dutch House’ by Ann Patchett

Release Date: September 24

New York Times bestselling author Ann Patchett is back with another novelistic force of nature — and this time, it’s a sibling relationship that takes center stage. Exiled from their wealthy father’s estate at a young age, siblings Danny and Maeve Conroy learn to fend for themselves in the world, but struggle to escape the trauma of their past. Their intense bond, once necessary for survival, becomes yet another tie to all they’ve lost — and in order to move on, they must finally confront the ways that tie was formed.

The Dutch House (hardcover), $17.14 at Amazon

‘Grand Union’ by Zadie Smith

Release Date: October 8

Beloved novelist Zadie Smith (White Teeth, Swing Time) is publishing her first-ever short story collection. Grand Union combines 11 short stories — most unpublished, but some previously published (and lauded) pieces of short fiction as well. Unsurprisingly, given Smith’s talent for it, these stories leap across time and thoughtfully weigh the distance between past and future: the ramifications of how we look forward and back, and how it affects who we feel ourselves to be. If you love Smith’s prose (and how could you not?), Grand Union is the perfect way to savor it in manageable pieces, while still enjoying her ability to discover universal truths across seemingly disparate ideas.

Grand Union (hardcover), $18.90 at Amazon

‘How We Fight For Our Lives’ by Saeed Jones

Release Date: October 8

The second Roxane Gay-acclaimed title on this list (she calls it “an astonishing, unparalleled memoir”), How We Fight For Our Lives tells the story of Saeed Jones’ adolescence, growing up gay and black in the American South. Jones, also a poet, dives deep into the relationships he formed at that time: with family, with peers, with first stabs at romance. Focusing on that tumultuous coming-of-age time, Jones paints an intricate portrait of just how meaningful those interpersonal moments are — what we learn about each other and ourselves from what, and how much, we expose to one another.

How We Fight For Our Lives (hardcover), $26.00 at Amazon

‘Burn It Down’ by Lilly Dancyger

Release Date: October 8

Is there anything more appropriate to 2019 than the rallying cry of female rage? That’s exactly what these 22 authors explore in the essay collection Burn It Down: Women Writing About Anger. Authors include authors like Leslie Jamison and Bitch Media editor-in-chief Evette Dionne, and topics cover a diversity of perspectives on women’s rage — a topic that isn’t lacking for facets to explore. If you identify with this rage, you’ll enjoy this collection. If you don’t identify with this rage, you’ll learn from it. Either way, we highly recommend.

Burn It Down (hardcover), $27.00 at Amazon

‘Horror Stories’ by Liz Phair

Release Date: October 8

Liz Phair isn’t just a musical sensation, she’s a celebrated cultural icon — a feminist singer-songwriter with a piercing point of view and unwillingness to compromise her truth. Memoir Horror Stories walks through Phair’s most intimate memories: death in the family, childbirth, the inevitable toll of fame. And it does so with her signature confessional tone, no detail too personal if it provides the color she’s looking for. Fans of the artist will love this inside peek at how our years of idolizing Phair looked from her side.

Horror Stories (hardcover), $25.20 at Amazon

‘Unfollow’ by Megan Phelps-Roper

Release Date: October 8

Megan Phelps-Roper’s Unfollow: A Memoir of Loving And Leaving The Westboro Baptist Church could read like a dazzling work of fiction — the fact that it’s all true makes it all the more gripping. The Westboro Baptist Church is known throughout America for its use of hate speech opposing the LGBT community, as well as nearly all other religions and certain elected officials. Phelps-Roper wasn’t just born into the church: her family founded it, and Phelps-Roper quickly rose through the ranks, ultimately becoming the church’s social media spokesperson. Ultimately, it was Phelps-Roper falling in love that opened her eyes to WBC’s immoral actions and hateful attitudes — years after breaking free from its grasp, she’s written a tell-all memoir on her journey.

Unfollow (hardcover), $27.00 at Amazon

‘Dear Girls’ by Ali Wong

Release Date: October 15

If you haven’t seen Ali Wong’s Netflix special Baby Cobra, go do so immediately. It will tell you all you need to know about this comedian’s painfully funny, real-as-hell approach to women’s bodies, societal gender roles and what she wants from life, and it’s all but guaranteed to make you cry with laughter. Dear Girls: Intimate Tales, Untold Secrets & Advice for Living Your Best Life is written in the form of letters to Wong’s daughters, offering her particular brand of advice on how to navigate everything from dating to parenting. Wong couldn’t make you laugh quite as hard as she does if her jokes didn’t ring so painfully true, making her comedy as poignant as it is irreverent. This collection promises more of the same.

Dear Girls (hardcover), $18.90 at Amazon

‘As Long As It’s Perfect’ by Lisa Tognola

Release Date: October 15

Homeowners, beware: Lisa Tognola’s As Long As It’s Perfect is not a read for the faint of heart. Janie and Wim Margolis set out to sell their old home and redesign their new one, as Janie transitions from years of being a stay at home mom to taking on a gig as assistant contractor. But as anyone who’s ever embarked on a construction project knows, she and Wim are soon inundated with conflict at every decision (as well as facing many mishaps outside their control). The stressful situation is compounded by the economy’s decline, which makes their selling prospects grimmer and grimmer…if you’re already tearing your hair out, don’t worry. Tognola guides you through to the Margolis family finding peace — but learning quite a bit about their limitations on the way.

As Long As It’s Perfect (paperback), $16.95 at Amazon

‘Olive, Again’ by Elizabeth Strout

Release Date: October 15

To say that Elizabeth Strout’s 2008 Olive Kitteridge was beloved would be an understatement: the Pulitzer Prize-winning piece of fiction was a New York Times bestseller and has since been adapted into an HBO miniseries starring Frances McDormand. 11 years later, Strout is publishing a follow-up to that masterful collection of scenes from protagonist Olive Kitteridge’s life. Olive, Again follows the same structure of interrelated short stories visiting various points in Kitteridge’s life, along with supporting characters in her town of Crosby, Maine. As with Olive Kitteridge, this character’s slice of life and particular view are sure to captivate inquisitive readers’ hearts.

Olive, Again (hardcover), $24.30 at Amazon

‘All This Could Be Yours’ by Jami Attenberg

Release Date: October 22

New York Times bestselling author Jami Attenberg is back with the novel All This Could Be Yours: a dysfunctional family drama set in New Orleans, examining the fallout when the family patriarch, Victor, is on his deathbed. While Victor’s children grapple with issues in their own lives and marriages, his wife is reflecting on their time together — and one daughter, Alex, is determined to get answers to long-held questions about how the family came to be what it is. If you’re a fan of shows like Succession or even Arrested Development, looking at the fallout of a wealthy, toxic man and the family life he built, this novel is sure to thrill you. But really, anyone familiar with the ups and downs of family life will find something to relate to here.

All This Could Be Yours (hardcover), $23.40 at Amazon

‘The Giver of Stars’ by Jojo Moyes

Release Date: October 22

Liane Moriarty (Big Little Lies) calls The Giver Of Stars a “beautiful, special novel” she “didn’t [want] to end” — high praise from a woman whose depiction of Monterey was so enthralling Meryl Streep picked up the phone and asked to be a part of it. Jojo Moyes’ captivating novel tells the story of the Horseback Librarians of Kentucky: a group of women who delivered books for Eleanor Roosevelt’s traveling library in the 1930s. The novel follows five women who become a part of this program, one of whom recently traveled from her home in England to join this new world. As these women’s lives unfold, they face new trials and new joys, bound together always by this desire to bring the gift of language wherever they go.

The Giver Of Stars (paperback), $21.00 at Amazon

‘Still Here’ by Alexandra Jacobs

Release Date: October 22

The title of this biography says it all: Alexandra Jacobs’s Still Here: The Madcap, Nervy, Singular Life of Elaine Stritch tells the story of just that, recapping Stritch’s epic journey from collaborating with Tennessee Williams and Stephen Sondheim on Broadway to her 2004 one-woman show. Coming of age with other great actors of her generation, Stritch has seen show business through from Depression-era America to NBC’s hit sitcom 30 Rock in the early 2000s. Her life and work have formed an indelible part of the American theater landscape, and her contributions — and enduring, vibrant character — live on in each recorded performance.

Still Here (hardcover), $27.00 at Amazon

‘The Beautiful Ones’ by Prince

Release Date: October 29

Prince’s tragic death in 2016 came as the artist was in the middle of writing his own memoir, The Beautiful Ones. Three years later, editor Dan Piepenbring has finished compiling Prince’s work. The resulting memoir is presented in four parts detailing how the mythical character of Prince was born from the young child Prince Rogers Nelson, born in Minnesota with big dreams. Much of the writing and photos included have never been released, and editor Piepenbring adds even more depth to Prince’s own accounts in his detailing of how Prince spoke about the project of his memoir, and what he hoped to achieve. It’s a must-read for any fan of the late artist.

The Beautiful Ones (hardcover), $21.00 at Amazon

‘Find Me’ by André Aciman

Release Date: October 29

It doesn’t matter whether you eagerly devoured 2007’s Call Me By Your Name and then were further enthralled by the movie, or the movie caught your attention first. To be a fan of André Aciman’s spellbinding use of language and dizzyingly beautiful worlds is to follow him anywhere — and now, Find Me is picking up with those same characters years later, exploring all that’s happened since that fateful first meeting. In this world, Elio has become a classical pianist, while Oliver is an American professor with a wife and children. But the seemingly severed tie between these two young lovers may face a reawakening and Oliver considers a trip to Elio’s new home in Paris. As with Aciman’s previous novel, it’s never quite what happens but how: the journey itself is everything.

Find Me (hardcover), $19.39 at Amazon

‘Little Weirds’ by Jenny Slate

Release Date: November 5

Little Weirds, by actress Jenny Slate, offers just what it sounds like: a series of increasingly weird bits and bobs from inside Slate’s idiosyncratic mind. Already praised by comic powerhouses Mindy Kaling, Amy Sedaris and John Mulaney, Little Weirds is Slate’s second book, after the wildly successful children’s book Marcel The Shell With Shoes On. Slate is at turns bizarre, heartwarming and sincerely curious: fans of her on-screen persona and authorial voice will get a closer look at what it is to wander through Slate’s mind.

Little Weirds (hardcover), $18.90 at Amazon

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