The Best Books to Read This Autumn
There’s nothing as bittersweet as finishing a really great book. On one hand, you can share and recommend a fabulous read, but on the other hand, now you have to find an equally great book to read next!
From Michelle Obama’s political memoir to a great love story from Sally Rooney, here are some of the best new books and exceptional characters, personalities and tales to snuggle up with this autumn.
Normal People, Sally Rooney
Connell and Marianne grow up in the same small town in rural Ireland but they are from very different worlds. They both earn places at Trinity College in Dublin and a connection that has grown between them lasts long into the coming years. This beautifully written love story focuses on how people can change the course of your life.
Sally Rooney’s hugely successful debut Conversations with Friends was published after seven publishers started a bidding war over her work. This is her follow up novel.
Lake Success, Gary Shteyngart
Barry Cohen, master of the universe, has just had a very public meltdown involving a dinner party, an insider trading investigation and a $30,000 bottle of whisky. He takes himself off to New York City without his beautiful wife or son, but takes his six favourite designer watches. He takes a Greyhound Bus pilgrimage to Texas finds his old college girlfriend and, with her, a shot at a second chance.
Gary Shteyngart’s latest novel is satire at its best and set as Trump is beginning his quest for the presidency. The questionable protagonist of Lake Success takes the form of hedge fund manager and this book has been described as frightening, infuriating, and hysterical.
Hazards of Time Travel, Joyce Carol Oates
If you liked The Handmaid’s Tale, you’ll love Joyce Carol Oates return with this dystopian novel. It features 17-year-old Adriane Strohl who angers the newly formed “North American States” with a revolutionary speech.
Her punishment is to be sent back in time to Wisconsin in 1959, where she must assume a different name and go through “reeducation” at Wainscotia State University before she can rejoin the present. She finds herself under constant surveillance and she’s forbidden from revealing her true identity to anyone – but when she becomes enamoured with her psychology teacher, Dr Ira Wolfman, she is faced with a risky decision.
Small Fry: A Memoir, Lisa Brennan-Jobs
Steve Job’s daughter has written this provocative memoir and traces her mother’s difficult relationship with the legendary Apple co-founder starting with his denial of her paternity in the first years of her life through to their eventual reconciliation while he battled with cancer.
Small Fry has been described as an enthralling book by an insightful new literary voice.
Unsheltered, Barbara Kingsolver
Hailed as Barbara Kingsolver’s greatest novel since her bestselling Poisonwood Bible, this story has two strands to a gripping narrative. In the present, the nearly bankrupt Willa Knox looks into the history of a dilapidated New Jersey house that she inherits in order to be approved for a grant for its maintenance. She becomes fixated by the life of its 19th-century inhabitants who tried to promote the theory of evolution – in spite of heavy resistance from the town’s conservative leaders.
Becoming, Michelle Obama
The United State’s of America’s revered First Lady has written a memoir. She recounts her journey from her childhood on the impoverished South Side of Chicago to balancing a high-powered job with early motherhood and working side by side with her husband in the White House.
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