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Say goodbye to your beach reads and hello to a new batch of books that will help you embrace the change of seasons. The most anticipated books of the fall include Jesmyn Ward’s imaginative novel about an enslaved woman in the American South, Michael Lewis’ exploration of cryptocurrency, and Zadie Smith’s first work of historical fiction.
As the temperatures start to drop, snuggle up with piping hot memoirs from Britney Spears, Kerry Washington, Jada Pinkett Smith, and Barbra Streisand. Understand the psyche of Elon Musk or find happiness with Oprah Winfrey. Get lost in novels about a mysterious beauty cult, a spirited parrot, and an illicit love affair with political ramifications, or catch up with new works by award-winning authors Viet Thanh Nguyen, Tracy K. Smith, and Annie Ernaux.
From Nnedi Okorafor’s newly reissued Africanfuturist epic to Jessica Knoll’s serial killer thriller with a twist, these are the 36 books that will keep you busy from Labor Day to Thanksgiving.
Read for a review of A Man of Two Faces from Time Magazine
A Man of Two Faces: A Memoir, A History, A Memorial by Viet Thanh Nguyen (Oct. 3)
Pulitzer Prize winner Viet Thanh Nguyen returns with a deeply personal and political memoir that uses the defining moments of his own life to explore his conflicted relationship with America. “This is a war story,” the Vietnamese American author writes in A Man of Two Faces, and the recollections from his youth reveal deep battle wounds. He recalls how, at 9 years old, he learned that his parents had been shot while working at the grocery store they owned, where he also helped out. He details the existential crisis he had while watching the Vietnam War film Apocalypse Now as a teenager, realizing the ways in which his own identity positioned him as both the killer and the victim in the deadly conflict. The follow-up to his 2021 novel The Committed, A Man of Two Faces is a witty and scathing look at what it means to be a refugee, an immigrant, and an American in a world that doesn’t see you as you see yourself.
