It seems like every woman I know remembers the first time she came into contact with Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, the dystopian novel about what happens to women in a society that strips them of their rights. I read it in 11th grade English class, and it unlocked a door in my mind I never even knew was there. The book made me an Atwood acolyte for life.
And so when her latest, Hag-Seed, out October 11, arrived on my desk earlier this fall, I quietly recused myself from all other to-dos and spent a solid six hours reading. Fellow fans, I am thrilled to report: Atwood is just as brilliant as ever. I would suggest scheduling some cozy armchair time with her book in the weeks to come.
Of course, Hag-Seed isn't the only wonderful book that hits shelves in October. Brit Bennett's The Mothers is an important coming-of-age story that also questions the way we racialize "normal" narratives, while The Loved Ones, by Sonya Chung, will linger in your mind long after you close its final pages.
Here are my picks for your October 2016 reading list — I hope you enjoy them as much as I did. May you find yourself sipping a pumpkin latte while subsumed in these plots with changing leaves somewhere nearby. Personally, I can't imagine a better fall afternoon than that.
The Wangs Vs. The World
By Jade Chang
Out October 4
The Wangs are a wealthy Chinese-American family who were once scions of a cosmetics empire — but lost everything following the financial collapse of the late-aughts. Now Charles, the family patriarch, wants to bring his family back to China and collect on his ancestral inheritance — but first he has to get his three kids on board with the plan.
What follows is a hilarious, full-of-heart family road trip from the Wang's foreclosed-upon L.A. mansion to upstate New York, where they must collect the eldest daughter — a former art scene It Girl who is hiding out from the world. Fresh and laugh-out-loud funny, this witty travelogue is also full of insights about what it means to truly belong in America today.
Photo: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
News Of The World
By Paulette Jiles
Out October 4
In 1870, Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd is making his way through Texas, giving paid speeches containing the news of the world. An elderly widower, he is satisfied with this rootless existence. But when he is offered a $50 gold piece to bring a young orphan back to her family in San Antonio, he takes on the task. Johanna was captured by Kiowa raiders; her parents and sister were killed, and she was raised like a member of the tribe.
On the way to bringing Johanna back to her kin, the Captain realizes that he is perhaps actually playing the villain now — and that he'll have to decide if he wants to fulfill the promise he's made, or become a kidnapper himself.
Photo: William Morrow.
Our Hearts Will Burn Us Down
By Anne Valente
Out October 4
Nick, Zola, Matt, and Christina are all eager to capture the memories from their junior year at Lewis and Clark High School in the upcoming yearbook. But when a school shooting tears the fabric of their tight-knit community, they are faced with a tough question: How do you look back on a year pocked by tragedy and still remember the good?
Photo: William Morrow.
Future Sex
By Emily Witt
Out October 11
Dating in the digital age doesn't just mean we're hooking up via apps: It means we're in an era when people are finding entirely new ways to connect with one another.
Witt approaches the modern dating moment with her own unique lens — her book is equal parts memoir and journalistic investigation into what it means to be alive and trying to find love, or any meaningful connection, in the world right now. Smart, insightful, and sometimes even a little titillating, Future Sex is the story of where we are at this very moment, and the highs and lows that come along with it.
Photo: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
The Clancys Of Queens
By Tara Clancy
Out October 11
An electric memoir from a fifth-generation New Yorker, third-generation bartender, and first-generation author, The Clancys of Queens looks back on a life that often seems at odds with itself. As a child, Tara Clancy spent her time divided between working-class Queens, her feisty Italian relatives in Brooklyn, and her family's sprawling estate in the Hamptons.
While this book is a portrait of one New Yorker's specific heritage, it's more than just a delightful romp of a memoir (though rest assured, it is that). Clancy offers an almost anthropological look at working-class women in the outer boroughs. It's a story we don't often hear from a writer we hope to hear more from.
Photo: Crown.
Do Not Say We Have Nothing
By Madeleine Thien
Out October 11
“In a single year, my father left us twice. The first time, to end his marriage, and the second, when he took his own life. I was ten years old.”
These are lines from Madeleine Thien's latest novel, which plunges readers into the story of two generations of a Chinese family: those who live through the Maoist Cultural Revolution and others who land on the front lines of Tiananmen Square. Full of history and heart, Do Not Say We Have Nothing is a story about heritage, enduring ties, and survival. It is no wonder this book is short-listed for the Man Booker Prize: It's nothing short of deeply moving.
Photo: W. W. Norton & Company.
The Mothers
By Brit Bennett
Out October 11
At 17, Nadia is at a crossroads. Her mother has recently killed herself, and she is ready to escape her Southern California small town. But she is also half in love with the son of her church pastor — with whom she shares a deep secret.
A gorgeous debut that finds its rhythm in the bonds between women — how they form, stretch, and sometimes tear — and the way that women bear witness to one another over time, Bennett's beautiful novel digs its heels into what it means to be judged, and ultimately to forgive.
Photo: Riverhead Books.
Hag-Seed
By Margaret Atwood
Out October 11
Shakespeare lovers will be especially enthralled by this retelling of The Tempest: Felix was once a rising creative director about to stage a play that would not only boost his profile, but help to heal old wounds. Then tragedy strikes, leaving him living alone in the woods, haunted by memories of his lost daughter — while also plotting his revenge.
Twelve years later, an opportunity to strike presents itself, manifesting as a chance to produce a play at a prison and finally get back at those who betrayed him. But will Felix's bad intentions be his own undoing?
Photo: Hogarth.
The Loved Ones
By Sonya Chung
Out October 18
Weaving an intricate story of loss and love across generations and cultures, Chung's latest novel centers on Charles Lee — a young African American patriarch of a biracial family — and how he hoped to erase the void of growing up without a father by stepping up to the plate when it's his turn. But years into his marriage, he finds himself ensnared in a relationship with a young Korean American caregiver who has her own painful past to shoulder.
A senseless death strains and tests familial bonds — and also surfaces the question: What does it mean to be a loved one, and to what lengths do we go to stay in that small circle? Probing and heartbreaking, The Loved Ones sets its aim at the heart of what its title really means.
Photo: Relegation Books.
The Terranauts
By T.C. Boyle
Out October 25
It is the mid-'90s, and 40 miles outside an Arizona town, a grand experiment is afoot. Climate change is threatening the Earth, and a team of eight scientists — four men, four women — decide to find out if it's possible to live under a glass orb. E2, as it's called, is a prototype of an off-Earth colony.
But while the scientists have everything available to sustain them, their rallying cry — "nothing in, nothing out" — will come back to haunt them.
Photo: Ecco.
On Living
By Kerry Egan
Out October 25
As a hospice chaplain, Kerry Egan spent years with the dying. But what she discovered is that they didn't want to talk about God, or at least clear-cut ideas of what God means — they wanted conversations about the meaning of life.
Equal parts memoir and meditative text on the nature of life — and the many faces of faith — Egan's book brought me to tears and then back again. If you have ever experienced loss, and even if you have not, this beautiful book will speak to parts of your heart that you didn't even realize were hurting. What's more: It might help heal them.
Photo: Riverhead Books.
You Can't Touch My Hair
By Phoebe Robinson
October 4
In Phoebe Robinson's biting and hilarious debut, the young author and comedian delves into the Black female experience today: bizarre boundaries that people always seem to try crossing when it comes to Black hair, what casting calls get wrong about people of color — and plenty of other things she still has to explain.
Photo: Plume.
The Guineveres
By Sarah Domet
Out October 4
The Guineveres ― Vere, Gwen, Ginny, and Win — are four young girls who, apart from their given name, have one important thing in common: They were each abandoned by their parents and raised in a convent by The Sisters of the Supreme Adoration. As the girls grow up, they become fast friends — but they're also each waiting for the day they turn 18 so they can finally make their escape.
When four comatose soldiers arrive at the convent, the Guineveres realize these guys might be their way out. But what happens in the meantime is pure magic and delightful storytelling.
Photo: Flatiron Books.Like what you see? How about some more R29 goodness, right here?
Lily Collins Gets Real About "Extremely Difficult" Past Relationships In New Memoir