Even if this fall doesn’t look or feel like any other in recent memory, October will always conjure memories of spooky tales and autumnal escapes. This month, explore a new setting with a book that transports readers to real and imaginary locales, no social distancing required.
Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam
Rumaan Alam’s eerie novel begins almost like a Nancy Meyers movie: a white family arrives at a luxurious Long Island rental for a much-needed vacation, armed with decadent groceries and entertainment-packed devices. Later, the parents are enjoying a nightcap when there’s an unexpected knock at the door: an older Black couple who say they’re the owners of the home, and they need to stay for the night due to a massive blackout in the city. Are they telling the truth? Are the white parents being unfairly suspicious because of their race? Soon, awkwardly under one roof, the families begin to witness strange events — like a flamingo in the backyard pool, a deafening noise that rips through the quiet home and breaks glass, and the sight of hundreds of deer migrating elsewhere. Each chapter of Alam’s novel drives us deeper into this mysterious chaos full of unplaceable dread — hm, sounds kind of familiar? — a tactic that makes putting it down all the more impossible. Please read it so that we can talk about it.
Field Music: Poems by Alexandria Hall
One of the pleasures of reading poetry, even if it’s not something you do often, comes from its ability to evoke very real sensory experiences. In a time when new and/or varied experiences are hard to come by, Alexandria Hall’s National Poetry Series-winning debut collection offers its own form of travel. Readers will smell earthy skunk and lilac while running through fields in Vermont (where Hall grew up), they’ll hear the sounds of powerful waves breaking on low rocks, they’ll taste ripe berries and rake their fingers through fresh dirt. Her dreamy poems touch on themes of youth, love, art, and family — as well as their rough edges. “Even the softest things,” she writes, “under the right conditions become sharp.”
The Searcher by Tana French
You know that deep cold that gets into your bones, the kind that you just can’t seem to warm up from? That’s the same feeling you’ll get from Tana French’s slow-moving mysteries, which begin unfolding only after their characters have had enough time to get their hooks in you. Her latest follows Cal, a retired Chicago cop refurbishing an old house in the Irish countryside. Among the quirky locals who make his acquaintance, he meets Trey, a young boy from a poor local family, whose older brother has recently gone missing. In his unusual way, Trey convinces Cal to help him figure out just where his brother has gone, unleashing a host of additional complications. It’s a quiet thriller ideal for a weekend date with your couch and a cozy blanket.
Memorial by Bryan Washington
In this utterly sweet and beautiful story, two young men in a long-term interracial relationship in Houston—a Black man named Benson, his Japanese partner named Mike—are unsure about their future together. It may be that their relationship has run its course and neither men know how to navigate the next step. Instead of working things out, a wrench is thrown into the mix when Mike gets word that his estranged father is dying in Japan. Mike decides to fly to Japan to seek some closure. At the same time, Mike's mother Mitsuko arrives in Houston to discover that her son is across the globe. In a setup that could be fitting for a sitcom, Benson invites Mitsuko to stay with him and the two become unlikely roommates. Both Mike and Benson embark on personal journeys apart from each other, in hopes that there might be an answer to their relationship at the end of it. It'll squeeze your heart and ignite your taste buds (Benson is always cooking something delicious). Memorial will take you to emotional places.
Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi
True to its title, if you're looking for a transcendent novel that will both destroy you and elevate your way of thinking, look no further than Yaa Gyasi's second book, Transcendent Kingdom. It follows the lives of a struggling Ghanaian family living in Alabama. Gifty is a neurologist in training interested in unlocking the ways of mental illness and addiction, and for deeply personal reasons. Her brother died from heroin overdose after a high school sports injury left him addicted to OxyContin, which then led her mother into a deep depression, the kind of unspeakable pain that forever affects a mother who outlives her child. Let this be a heads up: This novel is bound to reveal many layers of pain, grief, and suffering. But there's an inexplicable power to Gyasi's words, one that will likely leave you breathless and in tears.
The Lightness by Emily Temple
A book that could be categorized under "literature about bad girls" or "troubled youth," this novel has a bit of a throwback vibe to teen movies like The Craft or Jennifer's Body. In essence, it's a fun and entertaining ride, with elements of superstition and spirituality thrown in. Olivia attends a summer "Buddhist boot camp" up in the mountains where she meets several other girls also sent there as a last resort by their parents. Sequestered in nature where the air is thin, they partake in outdoorsy, get-in-touch-with-yourself activities like archery, meditation, and levitation. For Olivia though, this trip is much more personal—this unnamed center is supposedly the last place where her beloved father was last seen before he vanished. While looking for answers, Olivia gets sucked into the inner workings of her new clique, and begins to question what it means to be a young woman and how to survive in a world that isn't built to have her back.