10 Books to Cozy Up (or Travel!) With This Month

1. All My Puny Sorrows by Miriam Toews ($15): This novel about two sisters who grew up in a Mennonite community will make your heart ache, but Miriam Towes’ smart, skillful writing should not be missed. Elfrieda is a world-renowned pianist dead-set on killing herself, while her screw-up sister Yolandi does her best to convince her to live. It will make you reconsider what it means to love someone, and how deep family obligations run.

2. Penelope Fitzgerald: A Life by Hermoine Lee ($25): Hermonie Lee is the brilliant author who wrote Edith Wharton, and her latest biography is shaping up to be just as buzz worthy. Fitzgerald may have been known as a blonde bombshell growing up, but her beauty wasn’t enough to shield her from becoming an unhappy housewife and schoolteacher dreaming of a better life. This biography chronicles her life from her early days to her late success of becoming a well-respected English writer in her sixties.

3. The Happiest People in the World by Brock Clarke ($19): If you like dry humor, this novel based on real-life events is right up your alley. It follows a Danish cartoonist who is placed in the witness protection program in New York and given a job as a high school guidance counselor. Throw in a love triangle and some subplots involving terrorism and you have yourself a page-turner.

4. Gay Berlin by Robert Beachy ($21): This non-fiction hardback tells the history of Berlin’s long history of welcoming homosexuality, even as early as 1850. Learning how the city’s gay subculture withstood World War II and the years after is fascinating. You’ll also get schooled on some early gay activists who are often overlooked historically.

5. Autumn Falls by Bella Thorne ($12): If teen celebrities are your guilty pleasure and you love a good Young Adult read, give yourself over to the month’s biggest YA pick. Shake It Up actress Bella Thorne‘s novel is about a girl named Autumn with red hair and klutzy ways. The new girl at school, she lands on the bad side of the Queen Bee, but a magical journal that once belonged to her father starts mysteriously helping solve all her problems. (via Teen Vogue)

6. The Mistletoe Promise by Richard Paul Evans ($13): If you already have Christmas music on full blast, this holiday read will keep up with your spirits. The novel is about a woman named Elise, who, still bitter from a messy divorce, would really just rather skip Christmas this year. But then she runs into an acquaintance at the mall, a guy who works in her building, and after bonding over their shared loneliness, they make a pact to be a pretend couple for the holiday season. Obviously things get complicated.

7. God’ll Cut You Down by John Safran ($20): This true crime saga exposes the complicated hierarchies of the American South, while keeping you hooked on a great story. A Jewish documentarian visits Mississippi to investigate a murder of a man he once interviewed. The deeper he gets involved with the case, the more twists and terrible injustices spiral his way. (out November 28)

8. An Innocent Abroad by Don George ($12): 35 writers share how traveling changed their lives in this new anthology. Warning: It will make you want to plan your next getaway ASAP.

9. Who Knows Tomorrow by Lisa Lovatt-Smith ($19): Vogue fashion director Lisa Lovatt-Smith tells the true story of her choice to abandon her high-fashion world to a life dedicated to helping some of Africa’s most vulnerable children in rural Ghana. Besides this shocking turn, she reveals the family struggles she masked behind her dazzling career.

10. Ed Sheeran: A Visual Journey by Ed Sheeran ($19): Everyone’s favorite redhead is releasing his first book, which chronicles his rise to fame. Sheeran gives fans a glimpse into his life as a pop star, with behind-the-scenes photos and illustrations he sketched while touring. It’s a collector’s item for every pop culture fan.

What are you reading this fall? Tell us in the comments!