Fall is just around the corner. That means pumpkin spice lattes, cooler temperatures for optimal cozy reading cocoons, and of course September's book club picks. (And if you're one of those types who falls asleep while reading, we'll make sure you wake you up before September ends.) Make sure to check out those picks below to make sure that your September is Fully Booked.
To submit titles for inclusion in this roundup, email us.
The book: Nightbitch by Rachel Yoder (Doubleday)
Recommended for: When you want to find out the other meaning of “dog mom.”
Our reviewer says: “Yoder’s guttural and luminous debut blends absurdism, humor, and myth to lay bare the feral, violent realities underlying a new mother’s existence.” Read more here.
The Audacious Book Club, Roxane Gay’s Book Club
The book: The Renunciations by Donika Kelly (Graywolf)
Recommended for: Those who feel lost due to past trauma and need something to aid in the healing process.
Our reviewer says: “Kelly explores in her powerful latest the tenuous line between desire and trauma in poems that ache with memory and revelation.” Read more here.
The book: Something New Under the Sun by Alexandra Kleeman (Hogarth)
Recommended for: If you like dystopian fiction but gotta stop at the climate change rally on the way to the bookstore
Our reviewer says: “Kleeman’s ranging and ambitious latest (after Intimations) imagines a climate-ravaged near-future California.” Read more here.
The book: Matrix by Lauren Groff (Riverhead)
Recommended for: Fans of 12th-century poet Marie de France, or really anyone who likes reading about impressive historical women.
Our reviewer says: “Groff fashions a boldly original narrative based on the life and legend of 12th-century poet Marie de France”. Read more here.
The Beach & Beyond, the Elin Hilderbrand Book Club
The book: Mrs. by Caitlin Macy (LB/Boudreaux)
Recommended for: Fans of Big Little Lies and those who love watching the extremely rich fall from grace.
Our reviewer says: “Macy penetrates the gossipy lives of well-off parents in New York City’s Upper East Side in this fresh take on the society novel.” Read more here.
The book:The Shimmering State by Meredith Westgate (Atria)
Recommended for: Black Mirror and The Matrix fans, and anyone else who enjoys wondering if this life is real or all in their heads.
Our reviewer says: “A dangerous new party drug hits the streets of Los Angeles in Westgate’s ambitious debut. Mem, short for Memoroxin, an experimental, shimmering pill, contains a person’s happy memories, which they’ve selected. Read more here.
The book: Chemistry by Weike Wang (Knopf)
Recommended for: Asian American “gifted child” burn-outs. Take a break from chasing your parents' dreams and read something to distract you from all that pressure.
Our reviewer says: “A clipped, funny, painfully honest narrative voice lights up Wang’s debut novel about a Chinese-American graduate student who finds the scientific method inadequate for understanding her parents, her boyfriend, or herself.” Read more here.
The book: Burn by Patrick Ness (Quill Tree)
Recommended for: Those who fell in love with dragons and hoarded all those Dragonology books from the library.
Our reviewer says: “Too deeply in debt to engage human farmhands, 15-year-old Sarah Dewhurst’s father is forced to hire a dragon to clear their farm’s fields for planting.” Read more here.
The Call In, the Megan Rapinoe Book Club
The book: Unbound: My Story of Liberation and the Birth of the Me Too Movement by Tarana Burke (Flatiron)
Recommended for: Survivors of sexual assault and those who want to change the stigma around it. Let your voice be heard.
Our reviewer says: “In this powerful debut, Burke, founder of the #MeToo movement, depicts her experiences as a survivor of sexual assault and an advocate for the “necessary work” of collective healing.” Read more here.
Fearless, the Malala Book Club
The book: Girl A by Abigail Dean (Viking)
Recommended for: Fans of Sharp Objects (the book turned miniseries—put that knife down) and true crime junkies who are familiar with, say, the case of the Turpin family.
Our reviewer says: “Alexandra “Lex” Gracie, the protagonist of Dean’s harrowing debut, grew up in an abusive home in Hollowfield, England, from which she escaped 15 years earlier and freed her older brother and four younger siblings.” Read more here.
Finding Wonder, the Atlas Obscura Book Club
Recommended for: Those seeking to understand America's dark past as a slave owning nation.
Our reviewer says: “Poet and Atlantic staff writer Smith debuts with a moving and perceptive survey of landmarks that reckon, or fail to reckon, with the legacy of slavery in America.” Read more here.
Gathering of Voices, the Jesmyn Ward Book Club
The book: Caul Baby by Morgan Jerkins (Harper)
Recommended for: Three words: black girl magic.
Our reviewer says: “Jerkins makes her fiction debut with the rich if didactic story of the Melancon family and the shadow they cast over present-day Harlem.” Read more here.
The book: Seeing Ghosts by Kat Chow (Grand Central)
Recommended for: Children of immigrants who are struggling with the loss of their parents and trying to figure out what it means to look after them—even after their deaths.
Our reviewer says: “Journalist Chow writes longingly about her mother, who died from cancer, in this intimate debut about a life shaped by loss.” Read more here.
Good Morning America Book Club
The book: Several People Are Typing by Calvin Kasulke (Doubleday)
Recommended for: All of us who have mixed up WFH with WTF and lowkey experience a small heart attack every time a Slack notification pops up.
Our reviewer says: “Kasulke’s ambitious if underwhelming debut, a fantastical workplace comedy, unfolds via Slack messages sent by employees of a New York City PR firm. Gerald works from home, trapped indefinitely ‘within the confines of [Slack].’” Read more here.
Goop, Gwyneth Paltrow’s Book Club
The book: A Farewell to Gabo and Mercedes by Rodrigo Garcia (HarperCollins)
Recommended for: Lovers of the Colombian novelist Gabriel García Márquez—or anyone who's experienced the loss of a loved one.
Our reviewer says: “The Nobel-winning author of the celebrated One Hundred Years of Solitude and his wife, Mercedes, are memorialized in this heartfelt debut written by their son.” Read more here.
The book: The Day of Atonement by David Liss (Random House)
Recommended for: Those days you wake up and choose vengeance.
The book: The Forgiveness Tour: How to Find the Perfect Apology by Susan Shapiro (Skyhorse)
Recommended for: When you’re going through a really bad breakup (be it romantic or otherwise) and are struggling to find a way to heal without drinking away next month’s rent.
Our reviewer says: “Journalist Shapiro chronicles her search for ways to heal after a devastating betrayal in this magnificent work.” Read more here.
The Joy Collective, the Kelly McGonigal Book Club
The book: The Art of Gathering by Priya Parker (Riverhead)
Recommended for: Anyone about to host a fully-vaccinated dinner party with friends and family you haven’t seen in months.
The book: The Heart Principle by Helen Hoang (Berkley)
Recommended for: Band geeks, orchestra nerds, and anyone struggling to rekindle their love for a passion they made into a career.
Our reviewer says: “A classical musician struggling with professional burnout, family judgment, and a faithless long-term boyfriend gets her groove back in the beautifully melancholy and meditative latest from Hoang.” Read more here.
The book: Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison (Vintage)
Recommended for: Honestly? Everybody. Come on, you really haven't read this already?
Myth & Meaning, the Joseph Campbell Book Club
Recommended for: When you’re sick of Greek and Roman mythology and want to explore the myths of cultures closer to home.
The book: Belly of the Beast by Da'Shaun L. Harrison (North Atlantic)
Recommended for: Black folks who have felt like outsiders because of the color of their skin or the number on the bathroom scale.
The book: Heavy by Kiese Laymon (Scribner)
Recommended for: Those who struggle with body dysmorphia, body shame, and the weight of existing in an America that otherizes black bodies.
Our reviewer says: “In this stylish and complex memoir, Laymon, an English professor at the University of Mississippi and novelist, presents bittersweet episodes of being a chubby outsider in 1980s Mississippi.” Read more here.
The book: The Skin I'm In by Sharon G. Flake (Little, Brown)
Recommended for: Those who struggle to find the beauty in their own dark skin.
The book: The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois by Fanonne Jeffers (Harper)
Recommended for: Fans of generational family sagas.
Our reviewer says: “Poet Jeffers debuts with a staggering and ambitious saga exploring African American history.” Read more here.
Private Collection, the Susan Orlean Book Club
The book: Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann (Random)
Recommended for: Lovers of the city that never sleeps.
Our reviewer says: “McCann's sweeping new novel hinges on Philippe Petit's illicit 1974 high-wire walk between the twin towers.” Read more here.
Read Like An Artist, the Austin Kleon Book Club
The book: The Art of Noticing by Rob Walker (Knopf)
Recommended for: Anyone constantly glued to a screen (so, all of us) who's forgotten how to exist in the present moment.
Reading with Richard, the Richard Branson Book Club
The book: The Emerald Mile by Kevin Fedarko (Scribner)
Recommended for: Nature explorers, thrill seekers, and suckers for well-researched man vs. nature stories.
Our reviewer says: “Fearlessness, and possibly foolishness, compelled Kenton Grua and a small crew to launch a refurbished dory, a flat-bottomed fishing boat, named Emerald Mile into the Colorado River ‘on the crest of [a] flood tide’ late one night in the summer of 1983.” Read more here.
The book: L.A. Weather by María Amparo Escandón (Flatiron)
Recommended for: When your Mexican-American family is driving you crazy and you need a reminder that it could be worse.
Our reviewer says: “Escandón returns with a rollicking and hilarious family drama of telenovela-esque proportions that doubles as a fiery love letter to Los Angeles.” Read more here.
The book: A Wish in the Dark by Christina Soontornvat (Candlewick)
Recommended for: Fans of Les Misérables. This is your favorite French fiction with a Thai-inspired twist.
Our reviewer says: “After nine-year-old orphan Pong escapes from Namwon Prison, where he was born, he finds himself on a collision course with the Governor, a powerful autocrat who has built a society for the privileged few.” Read more here.
Underrated, the Stephen Curry Book Club
The book: Live Free by Devon Franklin (Morrow)
Recommended for: Those feeling overwhelmed by life who need a guide to placing fewer demands on themselves.
Our reviewer says: “Franklin, a spiritual coach and film producer, delivers an insightful motivational guide to living a happier, more fulfilling life by evaluating and understanding one’s expectations.” Read more here.
The book: Piranesi by Susanna Clarke (Bloomsbury)
Recommended for: Corn maze solvers and those who don’t mind wandering pages as if they were a labyrinth.
Our reviewer says: “Clarke wraps a twisty mystery inside a metaphysical fantasy in her extraordinary new novel, her first since 2004’s Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell.” Read more here.
Wild Reads, the Cheryl Strayed Book Club
The book: The Final Revival of Opal and Nev by Dawnie Walton (37 Ink)
Recommended for: Fans of Daisy Jones & The Six, the oral history format, and following the rise and fall of pop music groups.
Our reviewer says: “Walton’s spectacular debut pulls off a polyphonic oral history of a fictional proto-Afro-punk performer and her white musical partner.” Read more here.
