Unbe-leaf-able Fall Reads
November reading, for me, is all about finding books I want to curl up with along with a cozy blanket and a mug full of a warm and sippable beverage. Halloween is over, but I’m not ready for winter holidays. What I crave is perfectly atmospheric picks like these, ranging from the coziest to maybe using that blanket to hide under.
Weyward by Emila Hart.
Weyward Cottage is the constant for three women from three time periods, all struggling to thrive amidst chaos, with the help of the transformative power of the natural world and maybe a bit of witchcraft.
Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett.
Professor Emily Wilde travels to a small town in the far north to study faerie folklore, and finds friendship, love, and perhaps real Faeries in this delightful and heartwarming start to a new fantasy series.
The Late Americans by Brandon Taylor.
Everyday life for a cast of very messy queer characters in a Midwestern university town culminates in a shocking cabin weekend getaway. UW-Madison alum Taylor captures the feeling of being at a crossroads.
Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi ; translated from the Japanese by Geoffrey Trousselot.
A Tokyo coffee shop offers four customers the chance to travel back in time, but not without risks. They must sit in one specific chair and must return before the coffee gets cold. The first book in a Japanese mystery series, and a recent TikTok favorite.
The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna.
A witch living in isolation finds community, family, and love after being invited to teach three young witches how to control their magic at the mysterious Nowhere House. When trouble comes knocking, Mika Moon will need to choose whether to risk her privacy or protect her found family.
Picture Perfect Autumn by Shelley Noble.
A photographer finds inspiration, and a curmudgeonly octogenarian, in a Gothic Rhode Island beach house, along with love.
Lone Women by Victor LaValle.
Adelaide and the enormous locked steamer trunk, which when opened, causes people around her to disappear, set out for Montana in 1915 to try and take advantage of the government’s offer of free land for homesteading. Adelaide is alone, or is she?
Reformatory by Tananarive Due.
Ghosts haunt twelve-year-old Robbie who is sent to the Gracetown School for Boys for kicking a landowner’s son. Set in the 1950s Jim Crow South, the ghosts are not the real horror of the reformatory.
Every Season is Soup Season by Shelly Westerhausen.
I’m fairly sure the title says it all, but if it isn’t clear, we love soup around here and you should make all of these!
Goblin Mode: How to Get Cozy, Embrace Imperfection, and Thrive in the Muck by McKayla Coyle.
According to author McKayla Coyle, everyone can be a little bit of a goblin. Using this clever guide, learn how you too can draw inspiration from fungi, frogs, foraging and so much more to embrace your inner chaos and build a more harmonious life.