Books to Get You in the Mood for Fall
Tuesday is the first day of fall! As the days grow shorter, curl up with a warm blanket and a good book—maybe even a warm cup of tea.
September 21, 2020
Tuesday is the first day of fall! As the days grow shorter, curl up with a warm blanket and a good book—maybe even a warm cup of tea.
Autumn leaves—coming soon!
Fiction
Autumn Brocade
Teru Miyamoto
The word kinshu has many connotations: brocade, poetic writing, the brilliance of autumn leaves, and here resonates as a vibrant metaphor for the complex, intimate relationship between Aki and Yasuaki, a divorced and long-estranged couple. Ten years after their divorce, they meet by chance at a mountain resort. In a flood of emotions and memories, Aki initiates a new correspondence, and letter by letter through the seasons, the secrets of their past unfold as they reflect on their present struggles.
The Secret History
Donna Tartt
Richard Papen had never been to New England before his nineteenth year. Then he arrived at Hampeden College and quickly became seduced by the sweet, dark rhythms of campus life, in particular by an elite group of five students, Greek scholars, worldly, self-assured, and at first glance, highly unapproachable. Yet as Richard was accepted and drawn into their inner circle, he learned a terrifying secret that bound them to one another, a secret about an incident in the woods in the dead of night where an ancient rite was brought to brutal life and lead to a gruesome death. And that was just the beginning.
The September Society
Charles Finch
In the small hours of the morning one fall day in 1866, a frantic widow visits detective Charles Lenox. Lady Annabelle’s problem is simple: her beloved son, George, has vanished from his room at Oxford. When Lenox visits his alma mater to investigate, he discovers a series of bizarre clues, including a murdered cat and a card cryptically referring to the September Society. Then, just as Lenox realizes that the case may be deeper than it appears, a student dies, the victim of foul play. What could the September Society have to do with it? What specter, returned from the past, is haunting gentle Oxford? Lenox, with the support of his devoted friends in London?s upper crust, must race to discover the truth before it comes searching for him, and dangerously close to home.
September
Rosamunde Pilcher
A place you will never forget: Rosamunde Pilcher’s Scotland…where the fields flourish with greenery, the bills bloom with purple, and the lochs glitter with the bright blue of the sky. A time you will never forget: September…when the heather is in full flower, the first chill of autumn cools the air, and the countryside stirs with the hunt, balls, dinner parties, and dance. A novel you will never forget: Rosamunde Pilcher’s September…a story of homecomings and heartbreaks, friendships, betrayals, forgiveness, and love.
The Gilded Years
Karin Tanabe
Since childhood, Anita Hemmings longed to attend the country’s most exclusive school for women, Vassar College. Now a bright, beautiful senior in the class of 1897, she’s hiding a secret that would have banned her from admission. With her olive complexion and dark hair, this daughter of a janitor and descendent of slaves has passed successfully passed as white, but finds herself rooming with Louise “Lottie” Taylor, the scion of one of New York’s most prominent families.
Olive Kitteridge
Elizabeth Strout
At the edge of the continent, in the small town of Crosby, Maine, lives Olive Kitteridge, a retired schoolteacher who deplores the changes in her town and in the world at large but doesn’t always recognize the changes in those around her.
Elevation
Stephen King
Set in the fictional town of Castle Rock, Maine The latest from legendary master storyteller Stephen King, a riveting, extraordinarily eerie, and moving story about a man whose mysterious affliction brings a small town together–a timely, upbeat tale about finding common ground despite deep-rooted differences. Although Scott Carey doesn’t look any different, he’s been steadily losing weight. There are a couple of other odd things, too. He weighs the same in his clothes and out of them, no matter how heavy they are. Scott doesn’t want to be poked and prodded. He mostly just wants someone else to know, and he trusts Doctor Bob Ellis. Unlikely alliances, the annual foot race, and the mystery of Scott’s affliction bring out the best in people who have indulged the worst in themselves and others.
The Last Romantics
Tara Conklin
When the renowned poet Fiona Skinner is asked about the inspiration behind her iconic work, The Love Poem, she tells her audience a story about her family and a betrayal that reverberates through time. It begins in a big yellow house with a funeral, an iron poker, and a brief variation forever known as the Pause: a free and feral summer in a middle-class Connecticut town. Caught between the predictable life they once led and an uncertain future that stretches before them, the Skinner siblings–fierce Renee, sensitive Caroline, golden boy Joe and watchful Fiona–emerge from the Pause staunchly loyal and deeply connected. Two decades later, the siblings find themselves once again confronted with a family crisis that tests the strength of these bonds and forces them to question the life choices they’ve made and ask what, exactly, they will do for love. A sweeping yet intimate epic about one American family, The Last Romantics is an unforgettable exploration of the ties that bind us together, the responsibilities we embrace and the duties we resent, and how we can lose–and sometimes rescue–the ones we love. A novel that pierces the heart and lingers in the mind, it is also a beautiful meditation on the power of stories–how they navigate us through difficult times, help us understand the past, and point the way toward our future.
Deacon King Kong
James McBride
In September 1969, a fumbling, cranky old church deacon known as Sportcoat shuffles into the courtyard of the Cause Houses housing project in south Brooklyn, pulls a .45 from his pocket, and in front of everybody shoots the project’s drug dealer at point-blank range. The reasons for this desperate burst of violence and the consequences that spring from it lie at the heart of Deacon King Kong, James McBride’s funny, moving novel and his first since his National Book Award-winning The Good Lord Bird. In Deacon King Kong, McBride brings to vivid life the people affected by the shooting: the victim, the African-American and Latinx residents who witnessed it, the white neighbors, the local cops assigned to investigate, the members of the Five Ends Baptist Church where Sportcoat was deacon, the neighborhood’s Italian mobsters, and Sportcoat himself. As the story deepens, it becomes clear that the lives of the characters–caught in the tumultuous swirl of 1960s New York–overlap in unexpected ways. When the truth does emerge, McBride shows us that not all secrets are meant to be hidden, that the best way to grow is to face change without fear, and that the seeds of love lie in hope and compassion.
The Lake Of Dreams
Kim Edwards
In this book, the author tells the story of a woman’s homecoming, a family secret, and the old house that holds the key to the true legacy of a family. At a crossroads in her life, Lucy Jarrett returns home from Japan, only to find herself haunted by her father’s unresolved death a decade ago. Old longings stirred up by Keegan Fall, a local glass artist who was once her passionate first love, lead her into the unexpected. Late one night, as she paces the hallways of her family’s rambling lakeside house, she discovers, locked in a window seat, a collection of objects that first appear to be useless curiosities. But soon they reveal a deeper and more complex family past. As Lucy discovers and explores the traces of her lineage from an heirloom tapestry and dusty political tracts to a web of allusions depicted in stained glass windows throughout upstate New York, the family story she has always known is shattered. Lucy’s quest for the truth reconfigures her family’s history, links her to a unique slice of the suffragette movement, and yields dramatic insights that embolden her to live freely. With surprises at every turn, this is a saga in which every element emerges as a carefully place piece of the puzzle.
The Bone Houses
Emily Lloyd-Jones
When risen corpses called ‘bone houses’ threaten Ryn’s village because of a decades-old curse, she teams up with a mapmaker named Ellis to solve the mystery of the curse and destroy the bone houses forever.
The Daughters Of Temperance Hobbs
Katherine Howe
Connie Goodwin is an expert on America’s fractured past with witchcraft. A young, tenure-track professor in Boston, she’s earned career success by studying the history of magic in colonial America–especially women’s home recipes and medicines–and by exposing society’s threats against women fluent in those skills. But beyond her studies, Connie harbors a secret: She is the direct descendant of a woman tried as a witch in Salem, an ancestor whose abilities were far more magical than the historical record shows. When a hint from her mother and clues from her research lead Connie to the shocking realization that her partner’s life is in danger, she must race to solve the mystery behind a hundreds’-years-long deadly curse. Flashing back through American history to the lives of certain supernaturally gifted women, The Daughters of Temperance Hobbs affectingly reveals not only the special bond that unites one particular matriarchal line, but also explores the many challenges to women’s survival across the decades–and the risks some women are forced to take to protect what they love most.
A Discovery Of Witches
Deborah Harkness
Witch and Yale historian Diana Bishop discovers an enchanted manuscript, attracting the attention of 1,500-year-old vampire Matthew Clairmont. The orphaned daughter of two powerful witches, Bishop prefers intellect, but relies on magic when her discovery of a palimpsest documenting the origin of supernatural species releases an assortment of undead who threaten, stalk, and harass her.
The Furies
Katie Lowe
In 1998, a sixteen-year-old girl is found dead. She’s posed on a swing on her boarding school’s property, dressed all in white, with no known cause of death. Whispers and rumors swirl, with no answers. But there are a few who know what happened; there is one girl who will never forget. One year earlier: a new student, Violet, steps on the campus of Elm Hollow Academy, an all-girl’s boarding school on the outskirts of a sleepy coastal town. This is her fresh start, her chance to begin again in the wake of tragedy, leave her demons behind. Bright but a little strange, uncertain and desperate to fit in, she soon finds herself invited to an advanced study group, led by her alluring and mysterious art teacher, Annabel. There, with three other girls–Alex, Grace, and Robin–the five of them delve into the school’s long-buried grim history: of Greek and Celtic legends; of the school founder’s “academic” interest in the occult; of gruesome 17th century witch trials. Annabel does her best to convince the girls that her classes aren’t related to ancient rites and rituals, and that they are just history and mythology. But the more she tries to warn the girls off the topic, the more they are drawn to it, and the possibility that they can harness magic for themselves. Violet quickly finds herself wrapped up in this heady new world of lawless power–except she is needled by the disappearance of a former member of the group, one with whom Violet shares an uncanny resemblance. As her friends’ actions take a turn for the darker and spiral out of control, she begins to wonder who she can trust, all the while becoming more deeply entangled. How far will these young girls go to protect one another…or to destroy one another?
Hex Life: Wicked New Tales Of Witchery
Edited Christopher Golden and Rachel Autumn Deering
Brand-new stories of witches and witchcraft written by popular female fantasy authors, including Kelley Armstrong, Rachel Caine and Sherrilyn Kenyon writing in their own bestselling universes! These are tales of witches, wickedness, evil, and cunning.
Magic For Liars
Sarah Gailey
When a gruesome murder is discovered at The Osthorne Academy of Young Mages, where her estranged twin sister teaches Theoretical Magic, reluctant detective Ivy Gamble is pulled into the world of untold power and dangerous secrets. She will have to find a murderer and reclaim her sister–without losing herself.
Minnow
James E. McTeer II
Minnow is an otherworldly story of a small boy who leaves his dying father’s bedside hunting a medicine for a mysterious illness. Sent by his mother to a local druggist in their coastal town, Minnow unexpectedly takes a dark and wondrous journey deep into the ancient Sea Islands, seeking the grave dust of a long-dead hoodoo man to buy him a cure. With only a half-feral dog at his side, Minnow’s odyssey is haunted at every turn by the agents of Sorry George, a witch doctor who once stirred up a fever that killed 52 men. Meanwhile, a tempest brews out at sea, threatening to bring untold devastation to the coastal way of life.
The Rules Of Magic
Alice Hoffman
A prequel to the best-selling Practical Magic traces the story of the children of Susanna Owens, who, in spite of their mother’s fierce edicts against witchcraft, develop powerful abilities while struggling to escape the family curse that leads to tragedy if they fall in love.
When Autumn Leaves
Amy S. Foster
In the picturesque Pacific coast town of Avening, it’s hard not to believe in magic. This is a town where the shoes in the window always fit, where you can buy a love potion at the corner shop, and where local lore seamlessly mixes with the supernatural. And then there’s Autumn, Avening’s most beloved resident, shopkeeper, and guardian of the Jaen sisterhood. When she receives word she’s been promoted within the order, Autumn must undertake the task of selecting her own replacement. But who in Avening is magical enough to take Autumn’s place?
The Year Of The Witching
Alexis Henderson
A young woman living in a rigid, repressive society discovers dark powers within herself, with terrifying and far-reaching consequences, in this stunning, feminist fantasy debut. In the lands of Bethel, where the Prophet’s word is law, Immanuelle Moore’s very existence is blasphemy. The daughter of an union with an outsider that cast her once-proud family into disgrace, Immanuelle does her best to worship the Father, follow Holy Protocol, and lead a life of submission, devotion, and absolute conformity, like all the women in the settlement. But a chance mishap lures her into the forbidden Darkwood surrounding Bethel, where the first prophet once chased and killed four powerful witches. Their spirits are still walking there, and they bestow a gift on Immanuelle: the diary of her dead mother, who Immanuelle is shocked to learn once sought sanctuary in the wood. Fascinated by secrets in the diary, Immanuelle finds herself struggling to understand how her mother could have consorted with the witches. But when she begins to learn grim truths about the Church and its history, she realizes the true threat to Bethel is its own darkness. And she starts to understand that if Bethel is to change, it must begin with her.
Non-Fiction
Along The Mohawk Trail
David J. McLaughlin and Laren Bright
A fewast of fall foliage and spectacular hill towns.
Autumn
Karl Ove Knausgaard
The first entry in a planned four-part autobiographical series presents sensory letters written to the author’s unborn daughter that describe his childhood and daily life with his wife and older children in rural Sweden.
The Cozy Life: Rediscover The Joy Of The Simple Things Through The Danish Concept Of Hygge
Pia Edberg
In today’s world, we’re constantly rushing from one thing to the next and are struggling with information overload. We’re more disconnected from ourselves and our loved ones than ever before. The Cozy Life will inspire you to slow down and enjoy life’s cozy moments, to rediscover the joy of the simple things. Learn about the Danish cultural phenomenon of Hygge and the secret to why Denmark is consistently rated the happiest country in the world. Embrace the little things and take simplicity and minimalism up a notch with practical examples and tips for adding Hygge into every aspect of your life. Say goodbye to the Winter Blues and live a healthier, centered life. This charming little book beautifully addresses that yearning we all have for a more authentic life, created by ourselves instead of external forces.
New England Fall Foliage Road Trips
Amy C. Balfour
Features 4 road trips, plus up-to-date advice on the travel destinations along the way, you can cruise Lake Champlain on a schooner, picnic in the Berkshires, or take a Vermont farm tour.
New England’s Best Trips
Gregor Clark, Carolyn Bain, Mara Voorhees, Benedict Walker
31 amazing road trips across New England Cape Cod & the islands, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Vermont.
The Wreath Recipe Book: Year-Round Wreaths, Swags, And Other Decorations To Make With Seasonal Branches
Alethea Harampolis and Jill Rizzo
The Wreath Recipe Book provides 100 “recipes” to make with flowering and leafy branches. There are detailed ingredient lists and hundreds of step-by-step photos as well as chapters covering basic techniques, sourcing, and care information.