From memoirs to fiction.
Halloween decorations are already going up in my neighborhood even though it’s still warm out. But everything seems upside down this fall — not just the weather. Between the stress of the upcoming election, the protests and war in the Middle East, and the North Carolina post-hurricane flooding, sometimes it’s too much. If you want to get away like me, all you have to do is open a book. These stories — all of which are out now or coming out soon — will make you think and feel, take you away from your own issues, and guide you through anything from loss and mental illness to cancer and addiction. But I promise, they’re uplifting!
Best New Books Fall 2024
1. What Does It Feel Like? by Sophie Kinsella
When I read on Instagram that Sophie Kinsella had cancer, I gasped. In this deeply personal work of fiction, Kinsella takes us behind the scenes and shares what we all want to know about family, illness, and love. In this novel about a successful author who gets diagnosed with stage 4 glioblastoma and suffers memory loss, trouble walking, and more symptoms after having brain surgery, we learn about Sophie’s true feelings about her diagnosis. I can’t stop thinking about when the main character decides not to live out a bucket list but to be at home with her five kids and husband, saying, “I just want to be around.” They call it “normal plus.” It is soul-stirring, funny, and beautiful. A must-read.
2. Raising Resilience: How to Help Our Children Thrive in Times of Uncertainty by Tovah Klein
Beloved educator Tovah Klein, Ph.D., director of the Center for Toddler Development at Barnard, shares her wisdom in this treatise on how to raise resilient children — and not lose your own mind. With tips on how to foster grit, like letting your kids navigate their way through complicated issues — as long as they’re safe, they can figure it out — Dr. Klein shares how to truly raise kids who can thrive.
3. Exposure by Ava Dellaira
Bestselling YA author Ava Dellaira is back after the success of Love Letters to the Dead with Exposure, a captivating, conversation-starting story about memory, race, ambition, motherhood, and grief centered around one event that changed the lives of all involved. An event in high school between a Black teenage boy and a white teenage girl surfaces years later, thanks to the girl’s old friend, and threatens to destroy the long-awaited screenwriting career success that Noah has been working so hard to attain. The book shows that there are always two sides to the story. It also offers a truly authentic glimpse of new motherhood as Jess, Noah’s wife, adjusts. All the characters have lost parents, which both unites them and adds another level of depth to the story.
4. A Kid from Marlboro Road by Edward Burns
At first, I thought this was a memoir, but it turns out actor/director/screenwriter Ed Burns is just that talented and has also penned an incredible novel. A coming-of-age story about brothers, family, loss, and longing, this one packs a punch. It’s set over one summer as a 12-year-old boy deals with his parents’ complicated marriage, the loss of his grandfather, his brother’s pulling away from the family, and entering the next phase of life.
5. Connie by Connie Chung
I am completely obsessed with Connie Chung. Her wit, wisdom, grit, and perseverance in becoming a beloved TV anchor shine in this funny and inspiring memoir. Chung writes about her own experiences as a young daredevil reporter and the lengths she would go to pursue a story. She shares the impact of living at home far longer than her peers and what finally pushed her to move out of her parents’ house, despite their displeasure. She spills about pressure, love, becoming a mother, and how she did all of it in such a way that legions of young girls are now named after her. And she’s funny!
6. What We Wish For by Melody Maysonet
I absolutely loved this story about a family just hoping to have a home, the impact of poverty, and the power of the human spirit. Homelessness and addiction mix in this heart-wrenching tale about a young girl and her family as they navigate a season of loss, strain, and financial hardship.
7. The Sequel by Jean Hanff Korelitz
Everything about this brilliant work of fiction is meta, even the cover. The sequel to The Plot is an insider look at publishing with twists you never saw coming. It starts with the star of The Plot’s widow poking fun at her colleagues at a writers’ conference as she decides it’s time to find her own voice. Her becoming an unlikely author and what happens next adds even more perspective to The Plot. Now I just need to know, will there be a third?!
8. Shred Sisters by Betsy Lerner
This book made me cry. It’s a must-read this fall about sisterhood, mental illness, longing for love, and identity. Younger sister Amy, the serious one, has to contend with her older sister Olivia “Ollie” developing mental illness and what happens to the entire family as the tides shift. Betsy herself has struggled with these issues in her personal life and writes from a place of honesty and hope.
9. The Undercurrent by Sarah Sawyer
With rave reviews from Gillian Flynn and Chris Whitaker, The Undercurrent features a girl’s disappearance and its impact on two families and an entire neighborhood for years to come. Mary and Diana are mothers living across the street from each other in suburban Texas. A homemaker and an academic, they’ve never quite gotten along, but their three kids, Mary’s twins and Diana’s son, are a close-knit threesome — until a neighborhood girl goes missing. Fast forward until the three of them are grown-ups, their relationships fractured, and yet they reunite to make sense of the secrets of the past.
10. On Being Jewish Now by Zibby Owens (editor)
I’m so proud of this emotional, heartfelt, and deeply important collection, in which 75 notable Jewish authors and advocates share their personal reflections on what it means to be Jewish, particularly after the October 7th attacks. All profits go to Artists Against Antisemitism. Authors and notables like actor Mark Feuerstein, designer Rebecca Minkoff, author and personality Jenny Mollen, reality star Jill Zarin, intellectual Daphne Merkin, and 70 others wrote essays that only they could write about their lived experiences as Jews post-10/7 and before. The collection is timely, relevant, and important and is designed to make anyone who reads it feel less alone — and to make any potential allies understand that the emotions that unite us really aren’t that different.
11. Mama by Nikkya Hargrove
A woman grapples with the effects of losing her mother in prison and raising her brother in the aftermath, along with her own coming-of-age and sexual identity, in this heart-wrenching and boldly told tale. Nikkya Hargrove’s mother is out of prison but rebounding from a crack cocaine relapse when her half-brother Jonathan is born. Hargrove knows right away that even though she’s a recent college graduate from Bard and had other plans, raising Jonathan was her calling. The book is deeply moving and shows how one woman managed to differentiate herself from her mom, find queer love, and discover her voice. I loved it.
12. No One Gets to Fall Apart by Sarah LaBrie
An examination of herself and her family’s mental illness inspired by her mother’s breakdown, No One Gets to Fall Apart by Sarah LaBrie is both powerful and captivating. LaBrie knows her mother is mentally ill but doesn’t know how to care for her. Her mother is paranoid and hears voices. Yet LaBrie has to plow ahead with her own marriage and life while holding this heavy part of her life, especially before her mom goes on some effective medication. Stirring and heartfelt.
13. The Trade Off by Samantha Greene Woodruff
I learned so much about Wall Street, womanhood, and history in this fabulous story about a young Jewish woman deadset on working in finance in the 1920s. If only she’d known what was coming next. As she tries to break into Wall Street in the 1920s, her brother gets all the opportunities. One business venture that seems too good to be true ends up being just that and throws the family in the Lower East Side into turmoil. Can she save her family with her brain for finance — even if no one seems to want to let her in the door? The story is about resilience, hope, persistence, and some creative ways to make it through the ups and downs of life — and the market.
14. Gather Me: A Memoir in Praise of the Books That Saved Me by Glory Edim
Glory Edim may be best known as the founder of the Well-Read Black Girl community and author of two previous books, but now she has firmly entered the realm of fantastic, fabulous memoirist. This is one of my favorite books, a true love letter to books and how they helped her through various life challenges. Glory writes about the founding of her community, her troubled relationships, her father moving back to Nigeria and leaving her feeling abandoned, a mother with deep depression, and a brother who she helped raise through the chaos. It’s incredibly empowering. At one point, she shares that a man she was dating gave her a T-shirt that said, “Well-Read Black Girl.” She closes: “Reader, I keep the shirt but not the man.”
Zibby Owens is a bestselling author, podcaster, bookstore owner, and publisher. Follow her on Instagram @zibbyowens and join her Substack, Moms Don’t Have Time to Read Substack.
