What To Read

Every month, we share the books we can't wait to read including: a reminder of why we fell in love with Lily King's storytelling with Heart the Lover; Zadie Smith's essays cut like a scalpel; Pynchon's very Pynchonesque new novel after a 10-year wait.

FICTION

Big Kiss, Bye-Bye by Claire-Louise Bennett (Oct 21)

Selected by Fernanda Gorgulho

Do you ever get hit hard by finding tickets once used as bookmarks, fluttering out of a book from another era? Or the receipt from a long-ago dinner, tucked in a drawer? Stumbling upon ephemera like that, gives me flashes of the afterlife of intimacy. Claire-Louise Bennett (Checkout 19) takes this experience to the next level in a new "intellectual tour de force" (Publishers Weekly) -- the story a woman who moves to the English countryside and begins revisiting her past lovers and acquaintances.

A Guardian and a Thief by Megha Majumdar (Oct 14)

Selected by Romina Raimundo

Currently longlisted for the National Book Award, A Guardian and a Thief follows two families in a climate-ravaged Kolkata bound by one desperate act: stolen immigration papers. Majumdar gives us no villains—the thief is desperate to feed his family—only people fighting to survive with dignity.

Bog Queen by Anna North (Oct 14)

Selected by Fernanda Gorgulho

When a perfectly preserved body surfaces in an English bog, an American forensic scientist races to uncover its secrets—only to find the woman died over two millennia ago. As she sifts ancient Celtic evidence against the pressures of post-Brexit corporations and activists, the author weaves her investigation with the druid’s own story, leaving readers to become detectives too.

Heart the Lover by Lily King (Sept 30)

Selected by Lynda Hammes

Because... Lily King! Many readers I trust can't stop raving about this book being even better than Writers & Lovers.

Intemperance by Sonora Jha (Oct 14)

Selected by Fernanda Gorgulho

The reality dating show era makes the potent mix of love and spectacle seem like a cheap or predictable formula, but Intemperance gives it a timeless twist. Sonora Jha revives the swayamvar, an ancient Indian ritual where men competed for a bride. She hands it to a middle aged professor and the result sounds like a smart, biting comedy we would expect as follow up to her brilliant feminist satirical take on the campus novel, The Laughter.

The Intruder by Freida McFadden (Oct 7)

Selected by Romina Raimundo

In the midst of a hurricane, Casey hunkers down in her remote cabin, only to find a blood-covered girl standing outside her window with a knife in hand - no explanation offered...Just in time for shorter days and longer nights, the current queen of twisty, heart-racing thrillers returns!

Mothers by Brenda Lozano (Oct 7)

Selected by Romina Raimundo

Now that I am a mother, my mind goes to the darkest place when my son goes missing in public--if even for a few minutes. So I guess this book is the ultimate literary thriller for me. Set in 1940s Mexico, the story follows two women whose lives become forever linked after a child’s kidnapping.

Shadow Ticket by Thomas Pynchon (Oct 7)

Selected by Sebastian Cwilich

Only Pynchon could turn a runaway heiress, a private eye entangled with the Nazis and a Wisconsin cheese dynasty into a fever dream of a novel that's so bizarre you can't look away. And only Pynchon could make a ten-year wait feel like the right interval for such an intense read.

NONFICTION

Dead and Alive: Essays by Zadie Smith (Oct 28)

Selected by Iliyah Coles Though she's maybe more known for her blockbuster fiction, Zadie Smith's essays have always struck me as fresher and sharper than almost anyone else’s. Her takes on culture (from film to art to London street life) are such a great lens on the state of humanity.

Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do about It by Cory Doctorow (Oct 7)

Selected by Lynda Hammes

ICYMI, Doctorow — a triple threat sci-fi storyteller, activist and journalist — coined the perfect name for that online doom spiral that seems to have gone into overdrive. That was a few years ago, and he's now taking a deeper dive into how the internet became “enshittified,” and what, if anything, we can do to stop circling the drain.