Books
In the life of a true blue book-lover, every season is a season for reading: those organizational and/or personal wellness books that always seem to pop up in January, the travel memoirs that sneak into your TBR pile around spring break, July’s never-ending stack of beach reads — the list goes on. But for some reason, at least IMO, books and the fall season seem to pair together best of all. Maybe it’s nostalgia for beginning-of-the-school-year reading lists gone by, maybe it’s the way nothing is more inviting than a stack of books and a Pumpkin Spice Latte, or maybe it’s because fall — with its shortening days and cooling weather — is the perfect time to start curling up with some brand new long books that’ll keep you in reading (and indoors) for days. (Nobody brings Infinite Jest to the beach. Nobody.)
This fall is packed with just-published long books that are totally worth your time this season. All stacking up to 400-plus pages (and yeah, one exception because rules are hard,) these books invite you kick off those ankle boots, sit down, and stay awhile. And believe me, you’re going to love them. Check out these ten brand new long books to curl up with this fall.
'Manhattan Beach' by Jennifer Egan
Page count: 448
From Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Jennifer Egan (for her 2010 title: A Visit from the Goon Squad) comes one of fall’s brand new novels, Manhattan Beach. Transporting readers to 1930s Brooklyn and then into the years of World War II, Manhattan Beach tells the story of Anna Kerrigan, a 19-year-old woman who is desperate to solve the mystery of her father’s disappearance. Once involved in a life of low-level crime and bribery for corrupt union officials, Eddie Kerrigan simply vanished one day, and Anna — the first female civilian diver working at the Brooklyn Naval Yard — is determined to find out what happened to the man who was just trying to make ends meet for his family.
'The Golden House' by Salman Rushdie
Page count: 400
Is it just me, or does Salman Rushdie publish a new book every two years, like clockwork? The prize-winning writer known for his signature blend of historical fiction and magical realism is gracing readers with yet another novel this fall — this time one that centers around neither history nor magic. Taking readers back to a time that, now, seems much longer ago than it actually was (the day of Barack Obama’s inauguration) The Golden House tackles the danger and absurdity of the current moment in America through the story of a cloistered community in New York’s Greenwich Village; a crass presidential campaign; and one immigrant family: the Goldens, and their neighbor René, who is improbably researching a movie about their lives.
'The Last Mrs. Parrish' by Liv Constantine
Page count: 400
For lovers of suspense and psychological thrillers, The Last Mrs. Parrish is Liv Constantine’s debut novel. Amber Patterson and Daphne Parrish couldn’t be more different from one another: and the plain, invisible Amber wants nothing more than everything Daphne has. Inserting herself into the lives of the Parrish family, under the guise of being Daphne’s friend and confidant, Amber has positioned herself to undermine the life that Daphne and her husband have built — until Amber’s past suddenly comes back to haunt her, and may throw her whole plan into disarray.
'The World of Tomorrow' by Brendan Mathews
Page count: 560
This fast-paced and expansive debut novel is 500-plus pages of storytelling that will keep you captivated from beginning to end. The World of Tomorrow, by Brendan Mathews, begins in the summer of 1939 on an ocean liner traveling from Ireland to New York City. Aboard are brothers Francis and Michael Dempsey, funding their new life in the United States with money they stole from the Irish Republican Army — at least, that’s the plan until an assassin named Tom Cronin tracks them down, and things begin to unravel. Taking readers through the jazz clubs and smoky mobster bars of pre-World War II New York City, and directly into the 1939 World’s Fair, The World of Tomorrow is a whirlwind of historical fiction that you won’t want to put down.
'We Were Eight Years in Power: An American Tragedy' by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Page count: 416
As one of the two nonfiction titles on this list, Ta-Nehisi Coates’s We Were Eight Years in Power: An American Tragedy is a collection of new and selected essays that speaks to both the history of race in America and the immediate moment we find ourselves in today. Eight of the collection’s essays revisit each year of the Obama administration through Coates’s personal experiences and observations, as well as featuring three of the writer’s most iconic essays: “Fear of a Black President,” “The Case for Reparations,” and “The Black Family in the Age of Mass Incarceration.” Pinpointing the parallels and distinctions between America’s past and our present, We Were Eight Years in Power is a must-read for anyone trying to navigate political and racial dynamics in the U.S. right now.
'The Revolution of Marina M.' by Janet Fitch
Page count: 816
For readers who have been waiting for author Janet Fitch’s next novel — since White Oleander and Paint It Black totally rocked your world — 2017 is the year she delivers, in over 800 pages of intense, signature-Fitch storytelling. The Revolution of Marina M. begins on the dawn of 1916, New Year’s Eve in St. Petersburg, Russia, where Marina Makarova’s life of privilege is about to be dismantled. Russia’s political upheaval mirrors Marina’s coming-of-age own, as she joins the marches for workers' rights, falls in love with a radical young poet, and bears witness to some of the most transforming and dramatic events of the last century.
'In the Fall They Come Back' by Robert Bausch
Page count: 416
Taking readers to a small private school in Northern Virginia, Robert Bausch’s In the Fall They Come Back is a coming-of-age story on multiple levels — with fresh-outta-graduate-school Ben Jameson experiencing just as many growing pains as his own high school-aged students. As is common for the post-grad crowd, Ben’s desire to “save” his students leads him down one complicated path after another, as both he and his students embark upon different-but-similar paths to discovering what kind of people they want to be, and how they want to exist in the world.
'The Best Kind of People' by Zoe Whittall
Page count: 404
Another novel that takes readers into the life and mind of a high school educator, Zoe Whittall’s The Best Kind of People is already a bestseller in Canada, now making its way onto bookstore shelves in the United States this month. The Best Kind of People introduces readers to George Woodbury, a science teacher at his daughter’s prep school who is arrested for sexual misconduct with his daughter’s teenaged peers. The fallout — though George stands by his innocence — impacts all the Woodburys: his wife and daughter, and even a son who lives states away; bringing up pain from their past and challenging what kind of people they’ll become in their future.
'Troublemakers: Silicon Valley's Coming of Age' by Leslie Berlin
Page count: 528
If you’re old enough to remember a life without your iPhone clutched in one hand at all times, then you may have found yourself wondering why that iPhone has rapidly become something you can’t live without (you were living without it before, I promise.) The second nonfiction title on this list, Leslie Berlin’s Troublemakers: Silicon Valley's Coming of Age digs deep into exactly how we arrived in the technology-obsessed/dependent landscape we currently occupy today. Taking readers all the way back to California’s Silicon Valley in the 1970s, Berlin profiles the seven men and women responsible for big technology changing the world.
'The Rules of Magic' by Alice Hoffman
Page count: 384
Arriving just in time to land at the top of your Halloween TBR pile, Alice Hoffman’s The Rules of Magic traverses decades and landscapes to tell the story of the Owens family — a story that began with a curse in 1620s Massachusetts and lands in late-1950s New York City. Susanna Owens knows that her children are hauntingly unique — and she also knows that they must never, ever fall in love. But when the three Owens children visit their aunt in Massachusetts, the truth about their past and who they are begins to reveal itself. If you loved Practical Magic, you've been waiting for this one.
