10 books we’re looking forward to reading this fall

Written By Eline van Wieren

Of course every season is a great season for reading, but fall just seems to be exceptionally great for reading. At WOW, we can’t wait to retreat into the wonderful world of stories as the days get shorter and the fall colors start to appear outside our windows. Get your scented candles, clear your schedule for all of October and get ready to disappear into each of these wonderful literary pieces. 

Leigh Welles has not set foot on the Scottish island that she grew up on in years and then she finds herself called home from life on the mainland by her father’s unexpected death. She returns home determined to forget the sorrows of the past. But the October she spends on the Island turns out to be anything but normal. When a young man disappears, Leigh has to investigate the truth at the island’s dark heart and reveal her own hidden secrets.
October on a Scottish island and major witchy vibes, all the ingredients for a perfect fall book!

This book was originally published in 1963, but was recently republished and on the publisher’s website it’s called ‘a haunting feminist sci-fi masterpiece and international bestseller that is “as absorbing as Robinson Crusoe (Doris Lessing)”’. 

So what’s this classic about? A middle-aged woman who’s vacationing in the Austrian mountains, wakes one morning to find herself separated from the rest of the world by an invisible wall. With a cat, a dog and a cow as her sole companions, she learns how to survive and cope with her loneliness. 

Boulder is the second novel in a triptych that explores the lives of women by Spanish poet and writer Eva Baltasar. The book is told from the perspective of a horny, chain-smoking cook who works on a merchant ship off the coast of southern Chile. On the ship, she meets and falls in love with Samsa. Samsa is the one who gives our main character her nickname, Boulder. Together they move to Reykjavik, where Samsa decides she wants to have a child. Boulder doesn’t necessarily want a child, but also doesn’t know how to say no - ‘and so finds herself dragged along a journey that feels as thankless as it is alien’. 

There seems to be no better time to read poetry than fall. Especially late Sunday afternoons where the sun has already set, the candles are on and you are being kept warm under a blanket on the couch. What we love about poetry, or literature in general, is that it’s capable of making sense of the biggest, most ungraspable phenomena of the world in a tangible way. The World Keeps Ending, and The World Goes on is a poetry collection for the ends of worlds - past, present and future. It reminds us that apocalypse has already come in myriad of ways for marginalized peoples. Want a small taste of this collection: Read its title poem here!

A story of coming-of-age at the end of a life. When Lia is diagnosed with cancer, the boundaries between her past and present begin to collapse. We read from three different perspectives and timelines: Lia’s childhood, Lia’s present day life and the third perspective is that of the cancer cells traveling through her body. The story navigates around one of the hardest questions there are in life: how can we move on from the events that have shaped us, when our bodies harbor everything?

Just like Maddie Mortimer’s book, Noopiming (Anishinaabemowin for “in the bush”) has an incredible way of playing with form. Who gets to tell the story? In this book about the power of Anishinaabe life and traditions amid colonialism, we listen to Mashkawaji (they/them). As Mashkawaji lies frozen in the ice, they introduce us to seven characters: Akiwenzii, the old man who represents the narrator’s will; Ninaatig, the maple tree who represents their lungs; Mindimooyenh, the old woman, their conscience; Sabe, a gentle giant, their marrow; Adik, the caribou, their nervous system; and Asin and Lucy, the humans who represent their eyes, ears and brain.

According to Maggie Nelson (The Argonauts) this book is ‘as electric as the title suggests’. And we’re just going to quote directly from the publisher’s website, because there’s no way we could phrase this in a more appealing way: ‘In Constructing a Nervous System, Jefferson shatters herself into pieces and recombines them into a new and vital apparatus on the page, fusing the criticism that she is known for, fragments of the family members she grieves for, and signal moments from her life, as well as the words of those who have peopled her past and accompanied her in her solitude, dramatized here like never before.’

Oh Lucy Barton, the character that lives forever in our hearts. Before reading Oh, William, which came out last year, WOW’s Eline reread the first two novels about Lucy Barton in anticipation. She was once again struck by how little Strout needs to show her reader so much. Finding out that there’s a new book about Lucy Barton coming was the cherry on top of our fall pie. We can’t wait to read about Lucy and her ex-husband William as they’re cooped up in a small town in Maine during the pandemic. 

Set primarily on the island of Ibiza, the story is narrated by the writer Amanda Wordlaw, whose closest friend, a gifted sculptor named Catherine Shuger, is repeatedly institutionalized for trying to kill a husband who never leaves her. The three form a quirky triangle on the white-washed island.

Decades ago, Gayl Jones was discovered by Toni Morrison and more recently Tayari Jones called Gayl her favorite writer. If that isn’t enough, she was also described as one of the great literary writers of the 20th century.

Hanne, the main character of Devotion, has synaesthesia. She hears the natural world as music, listens to walnut trees and banksias, feels melodies of light, cold and mud on her skin. She is a child of nature and in her village of Kay, she is friendless and considered an oddity. Until she meets Thea. With this book, Hannah Kent has set out to write a book of optimism and joy. An antidote, as she told Guardian Australia, to queer love stories centered in pain and shame. Set in Prussia, 1836, this is the perfect book to disappear in during a rainy fall evening.

Eline van Wieren
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