It’s officially October, a month that can mean many things to many people. It may represent a turn in the wheel of the year, when the seasons once again shift, and there is a curious mix of abundance and loss, the bright on a tree’s leaves before they fall. It may represent Samhain, when we meditate on the living and the dead. It may represent spooky season, when we meditate on how best to scare the living by donning the costumes of the not-quite-dead. It may represent cooling temperatures and fire pits beginning to be lit. Gabrielle Bellot compiles a list of books you must read this October for Litbhub
If nothing else, it’s a brilliant time to pick up a new book, and you’ll find a whopping twenty-seven new tomes to consider below. Some are frightening; some are explorations of magic in fiction and real life alike; and, of course, there are many others that chronicle those perennial themes that we should reflect on at any time of year. You’ll find a deluxe rerelease of Practical Magic, a memoir of modern witchery, and haunting novels; you’ll also find powerful new fiction from Lydia Davis, Jonathan Lethem, Gauz’, and many others, as well as striking nonfiction from Viet Than Nguyen, Athena Dixon, and many more; and, of course, a wide range of beautiful, complex poetry collections, including a startling offering from mimi tempest. Whatever October means to you, I suggest checking out one, or many, of the exciting new
books below to accompany it.
Viet Thanh Nguyen, A Man of Two Faces: A Memoir, A History, A Memorial
(Grove Press)
“Collage may be an apt word to describe this genre-bending memoir from Pulitzer Prize winner and MacArthur fellow Viet Thanh Nguyen. Weaving together forms that include exquisite prose, verse and photographs, this masterful memoir follows the author and his family from their home country of Vietnam as they resettle in San Jose, including explosive revelations about family, memory and loss.”
–Hannah Bae
Check out the link for more books on the list.
