Pumpkin spice latte season. Scary movie season. Nora Ephron movie season. Chris Evans’ cable-knit sweater from Knives Out season. Apple picking season. Football season. Back to school season. Baking season. Leaf-peeping season
Everyone has something they’re excited about for fall. Why do these two-or-three months spark so much tradition? It probably has something to do with the school schedule or seasonal harvest bringing new life to a village or the ritual sacrifice pleasing the gods every October 31; I’m no sociologist. But it’s interesting to think about, especially considering how it’s become normal to call autumnal traditions basic. Just thinking about fall one of those Christian Girl Autumn memes comes to mind. I’m sure they are live, laugh, loving this time of year, and that’s great. Why can’t we just have nice things?
I think fall is reading season. Cozy up with a nice book on your couch, or your porch, with a hot cup of something and a chunky sweater (even if you’re somewhere you have to turn the AC up) and settle in. Need some recs? I thought you’d never ask!
Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
A story about friends, video game developers, and everything else that happens over 35 years of a life. It’s one of those books where you become so immersed in the world and the characters when you finish it you feel destroyed!
If I Survive You by Jonathan Escoffery
A collection of stories following the same Jamaican American man who makes his way through life in Miami. It’s funny and smart and will make you emotional!
All This Could Be Different by Sarah Thankam Mathews
This month’s sad girl novel! Weepers let’s ride.
Shutter by Ramona Emerson
A crime thriller set in New Mexico’s Navajo Nation about a forensic photographer who sees the ghosts of the victims in her photos. I know, the concept sounds cheesy but it is a well-written page-turner.
Babel by R.F. Kuang
An immersive realistic-fantasy (is that a thing?) set at Babel, a school of translation at Oxford in the 19th century. Based loosely off the author’s time at Cambridge and Oxford where they were confronted with racist academics at a storied institution!