Among readers, there is a great divide over which is better: reading on the beach or curling up with hot tea or cocoa, a soft blanket, and a stack of must-read books. And while beach reads certainly have their time and place, nothing can replace the cozy feeling you get when there's a chill in the air and you're lost in a really, really good story. So, before it gets too cold outside, check out our list of 31 fall and winter books that'll having you bee-lining to your local bookstore.
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
Sam and Sadie have been friends since childhood but during their time at Harvard, they decide to begin a collaboration that changes both of their lives. They beg and borrow, and by the time they graduate, they've created a blockbuster that turns them into overnight sensations. This duo might be intelligent and successful, but they aren't immune to their own ambition and betrayal.
This Is What It Sounds Like by Susan Rogers and Ogi Ogas
Take a journey from one of the most successful female record producers of all time to discover why your favorite songs move your body and touch your soul. On a mission to help you discover a musical self-awareness, Rogers breaks down our brain's "listener profile" and how it reacts to seven different elements of any song as she takes you behind the scenes of record-making. This title will be available on September 20, 2022.
Carrie Soto Is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid
By the time Carrie Soto retires from tennis, she's the best player of all time. That is, until the 1994 US Open, when Nicki Chan starts breaking her records. Even though sports media is starting to turn on her and she has to train with a man she almost opened her heart to, Carrie decides to come out of retirement and blow everyone away with one final season.
Bliss Montage by Ling Ma
Ma moves through reality and fantasy with stories of love, connection, motherhood, and the idea of home. From a toxic friendship that forms around a magical drug to an ancient healing ritual that requires you to bury yourself alive, these stories show how similar the imaginary and the ordinary truly are.
Lucy by the Sea by Elizabeth Strout
When the world goes into lockdown, Lucy moves from Manhattan to be with her ex-husband in a small house nestled on the sea in Maine. Examining the fear and difficulty of isolation, as well as the hope and peace that can be found within, Strout examines the deep human emotions that connect, even when we're far apart. This title will be available on September 20, 2022.
How To Not Drown In A Glass Of Water by Angie Cruz
After losing her job in the Great Recession 50-something Cara has to go back into the job market. Set up with a job counselor for 12 sessions, Cara delves into love affairs, debt, gentrification, and what drove her and her estranged son apart. Faced with secrets and darkness from her past, Cruz writes a woman who still has plenty of fight left in her. This title will be available on September 13, 2022.
The Fortunes of Jaded Women by Carolyn Huynh
After Oanh left her marriage for true love, a Vietnamese witch cursed her descendants so that they'd never find love or happiness. Oanh's descendant Mai knows this curse firsthand. She's divorced from her husband and estranged from her sisters, and even though her adult daughters are successful, their love lives are DOA. Things are looking grim, until a trusted psychic tells Oanh that she'll see a marriage, a funeral, and the birth of a son reunite the family.
Our Violent Ends by Chloe Gong
In this sequel to last year's bestseller, These Violent Delights, Juliette has been on a mission since sacrificing her relationship with Roma. The only way to save him *and* protect her place as the Scarlet Gang's heir? Make Roma think she's actually guilty of murdering his best friend. Roma is dealing with Marshall's death and is getting the cold shoulder from his cousin, and knows that to make things right, he must kill the girl he both loves and hates.
I Love You but I've Chosen Darkness by Claire Vaye Watkins
When a writer travels to a speaking engagement, leaving behind her husband and their baby daughter, she ends up staying longer than planned, descending into her childhood and meeting ghosts from her past at every turn, including the ex who still haunts her and her cultist father. How can she move forward when she can't fix the things that went wrong?
Five Tuesdays in Winter by Lily King
A bookseller who finally begins to feel love, and its discomfort, again. A man who is can't help his sick granddaughter, no matter how much he wants to. College roommates who have a middle-aged reunion. A writer who is visited by all the men who have tried to stop her. These stories weave together for a raw, honest, and romantic look at the human heart.
Made in Manhattanby Lauren Layne
Raised in the Upper East Side, wealthy Violet is a bit of a people pleaser. She always says, does, and wears the right thing, and is deeply committed to the people she loves. When her grandmother asks Violet to teach Cain Stone to fit in with New York City's elite so that he can prepare to take over the family company, she agrees. Cain, however, is less than excited. But as they come to understand one another, Violet realizes that happiness isn't found in high society.
Ski Weekend by Rektok Ross
Crammed into an SUV with five teenage boys and a dog, Sam is dreading the senior ski trip. She'll probably have to supervise her younger brother and his mischievous friend, who gets on her nerves even if he is cute. Then their SUV crashes into a snowbank, and the weekend goes from bad to worse: no service, temperatures dropping, and Sam's brother has a crushed leg and raging fever. Stranded for days, supplies dwindling, and her brother getting worse, Sam will do whatever it takes to save her brother.
These Toxic Things by Rachel Howzell Hall
Mickie is a curator of digital scrapbooks: she puts together precious tokens for clients, so they're never forgotten or lost. When her most recent client Nadia, a curio shop owner, dies from a supposed suicide, Mickie decides to complete the project to honor her. Soon she finds herself solving the mystery of Nadia's past when she receives threatening messages… and discovering the truth may mean confronting a serial killer.
My Famous Brain by Diane Wald
Jack died in 1974, but he's ready to narrate his story from beyond the grave. Able to remember memories from his past lives, Jack ponders the interconnectedness of them all: from his childhood participation in research of the intellectually gifted, to his careers as a psychologist and professor, his love affair with a student, his deeper friendships, and his acceptance and celebration of his fate. His journeys are mirrored in how he handles the murder of someone dear to him and, eventually, his own death.
The London House by Katherine Reay
When Caroline's historian friend Mat calls to inform her that her great-aunt may have betrayed family and country to marry her German lover in World War II, she knows her family's reputation depends on her uncovering the truth. She and Mat discover diaries and letters that reveal her great aunt and grandmother as the Waite sisters, a duo popular and witty during the interwar years. As the letters unearth more about the sisters and their relationships with men and each other, Caroline wonders: was her great-aunt a Nazi collaborator, or is there a more complex truth?
The Secret Life of Albert Entwistle by Matt Cain
After a letter from the Royal Mail Albert forces mailman Albert into retirement, he isn't sure how to fill his day. He decides that instead of continuing his lonely life, he is going to live honestly — and find George, the man he spent a perfect few months with long ago. As Albert searches for George and the happiness he's never allowed himself, he reveals his story and finds friends along the way.
Lessons by Ian McEwan
Roland's life has never been easy. After a tumultuous childhood and his wife leaving him alone with their son, and as the radiation from Chernobyl spreads across Europe, Roland begins to look for answers for his restlessness. His quest for comfort and solace will make you question your own choices and the impact of history on humanity. This title will be available on September 13, 2022.
Sankofa by Chibundu Onuzo
After her mother passes away, her husband separates from her, and her daughter grows up, Anna is grasping at any sense of self left. When she finds clues about her African father, she learns more than she bargained for: he was involved in radical politics in the '70s that led to becoming president (and maybe even dictator) of a small nation in West Africa. Oh, and he's still alive. The resulting journey Anna goes on to track her father down is moving, funny, and fascinating.
No Beauties or Monsters by Tara Goedjen
Thanks to her mom's new work assignment, Rylie is returning to the place she never wanted to come back to: Twentynine Palms. The desert is painful for her: memories of her father who died and her grandfather who cut ties with the family before passing away resurface, her friend Lily has vanished, and now Rylie has visions of monsters in the night. It's all tied to her grandfather and the cabin he left behind, and though Rylie wants the truth, she's not sure what's deadlier – the desert or herself.
White Smoke by Tiffany D. Jackson
In this Haunting of Hill House meets Get Out young adult thriller, we follow Marigold and her family as they try to find a fresh start in their picture-perfect home on Maple Street… perfect except the dilapidated homes around it, the wary neighbors, and the secrets. Then things start vanishing, doors open and lights flicker on their own, shadows are seen and voices are heard, and Marigold starts to feel her ghosts are returning… especially when her bratty step-sister tells her about a new friend who wants Marigold gone.
Christmas in Peachtree Bluff by Kristy Woodson Harvey
Alright, you need at least one holiday book on your TBR this season. Ansley is always there for her daughters when they need her in a crisis. But between the storm of the century and her angsty granddaughter Vivi, whose mother Caroline has left with her for the holidays, Ansley may be the one who needs rescuing. Vivi's recklessness has forced them into shelter during the hurricane, and as the sisters try to rescue their mother for once, they'll need teamwork and the magic of Christmas to make it work.
A Day Like This by Kelley McNeil
Annie's domestic bliss – beautiful house, loving husband, adorable daughter – is jolted when she wakes up from a car crash and being told by confused doctors that none of that ever existed. Her marriage is at an end, her estranged sister is now her best friend, and her farmhouse and baby girl have been swapped out for a career as an artist in Manhattan. As she tries to reconcile her past memories with reality, Annie wonders – is everyone around her lying?
On Location by Sarah Echavarre Smith
Alia's smooth climb up the ladder of success has just gotten rockier. She's thrilled to be the producer of her dream series about Utah's national parks, inspired by her late apong. Thrilled, except for her newest crew member Drew, who happens to be the guy who ghosted her two weeks ago after an amazing date. As tension turns to passion, Alia is heated up by major feelings. But when the series host goes rogue and jeopardizes the entire shoot, Alia will have to rely on Drew and risk her career to save it all.
He Gets That from Me by Jacqueline Friedland
When Maggie stumbles on an ad in the paper offering thousands of dollars to women able to gestate other people's babies, her laughter soon turns to hope as she realizes what the money could do for her and her family. Before long, she's matched to a family, carries their twins and hands them off, and moves on to better support her family and become a teacher. It seems too easy; so she can't understand why, ten years later, the fertility clinic is calling to ask for a follow-up DNA test.
L.A. Weather by María Amparo Escandón
In dry-as-a-bone-LA, weather-obsessed Oscar is desperate for even a little rain. His wife Keila, on the other hand, just wants a little more intimacy and a little less Weather Channel – and feels she has no choice but to end their marriage. Her decision sends waves through the family: their three daughters are left questioning everything they know. Each member of the Alvarado family will have to reflect on their own relationships, and what it means to weather the storm versus when to evacuate.
Litani by Jess Lourey
It's the summer of 1984, and Frankie has just been sent to live with her estranged mother whom she hardly knows. As soon as she arrives in the small town of Litani, she feels something is very, very wrong: everyone is paranoid and uneasy, the locals whisper about The Game, and her mother warns her to stay away from the adults and the woods. Then Frankie sees an opportunity to uncover dark secrets when the bullies invite her to the game. But when hysteria erupts, Frankie fears she may be living among monsters.
Couples Wantedby Briana Cole
Newlyweds Bridget and Roman want to keep their relationship fresh, adventurous, and exciting. So, when they meet married swingers Corinne and Patrick, they instantly feel open to the friendship and carefree glamour they exude. After swapping spouses for one passionate night, Bridget and Roman feel closer than ever – until after, when Corinne and Patrick turn possessive, demanding, and dangerous. Bridget and Roman feel caught in a nightmare of suspicion, lies, and secrets that will test their fresh marriage – and themselves - to the breaking point.
Trashlandsby Alison Stine
Generations from now, coastlines have been redrawn by floods and global powers have agreed not to produce anymore plastic – making trash the new currency. Coral, a mother plucking plastic from the rivers and woods, is desperate to rescue her child from working in the recycling factories. If she can make enough, she can escape Trashlands, a dump named for the strip club at its edge where the club's violent owner rules as the mayor. It's as garbage a reality as it sounds – until a reporter arrives in Trashlands, and Cora is presented with an opportunity to change it all.
The Singles Table by Sara Desai
Zara is obsessed with celebrities, match-making her friends, and never opening her heart again. Jay has celebrity clients and a determination to work hard and stay focused. When they meet at the singles table, Zara is finally stumped by a man she can't match, and Jay just wants to avoid her chaos. After they're forced together for wedding season, they make a deal: Zara will finally find him a match if he introduces her to his celebrity connections. But their little arrangement reveals that the perfect match might just be their own.
The Ballerinas by Rachel Kapelke-Dale
In her youth, Delphine left the Paris Opera Ballet for a new life in St. Petersburg – abandoning her coveted soloist spot and taking with her a secret that could ruin the lives of her two best friends and fellow ballerinas. Now 36, Delphine returns to choreograph the ballet that will hopefully kickstart her career and make things right with her former friends. But it isn't long before she realizes that things have changed since she left, and all secrets come to the surface eventually.
Call Us What We Carryby Amanda Gorman
Previously known as The Hill We Climb and Other Poems, this poetry collection by inaugural poet Amanda Gorman is transformative, hopeful, and healing. Gorman delves into history, language, identity, and erasure through intimate poetry while harnessing the collective trauma of a global pandemic – solidifying Gorman as our messenger from the past and our voice for the future.
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