Happy Fall!
Well, for about another two weeks. But if you are like me, you are excited to enter the spooky/fall season finally. When you combine an enticing read and the brisk Fall, cool air, you feel everything is all right with the world. And if you need to take a mental break from the outside world this fall season, there are great September releases that will do just the trick! Get into the autumn feeling with heartwarming romances. Or, maybe you want to jump-start your “spooky” reading by picking up a horror read? Or a book that is thought-provoking but also provides you with entertainment throughout the entire read?
Whatever your mood is for September, you are guaranteed to have an enjoyable Fall beginning with these exciting releases:
Featured Book of the Month
The Life Impossible by Matt Haig
“What looks like magic is simply a part of life we don’t understand yet…”
When retired math teacher Grace Winters is left a run-down house on a Mediterranean island by a long-lost friend, curiosity gets the better of her. She arrives in Ibiza with a one-way ticket, no guidebook and no plan.Among the rugged hills and golden beaches of the island, Grace searches for answers about her friend’s life, and how it ended. What she uncovers is stranger than she could have dreamed. But to dive into this impossible truth, Grace must first come to terms with her past.
Filled with wonder and wild adventure, thisis a story of hope and the life-changing power of a new beginning. (Credit: Viking)
We Came to Welcome You by Vincent Tirado
Where beauty lies, secrets are held…ugly ones.
Sol Reyes has had a rough year. After a series of workplace incidents at her university lab culminates in a plagiarism accusation, Sol is put on probation. Dutiful visits to her homophobic father aren’t helping her mental health, and she finds her nightly glass of wine becoming more of an all-day–and all-bottle–event. Her wife, Alice Song, is far more optimistic. After all, the two finally managed to buy a house in the beautiful, gated community of Maneless Grove.
However, the neighbors are a little too friendly in Sol’s opinion. She has no interest in the pushy Homeowners Association, their bizarrely detailed contract, or their never-ending microaggressions. But Alice simply attributes their pursuit to the community motto: “Invest in a neighborly spirit”…which only serves to irritate Sol more.
Suddenly, a number of strange occurrences–doors and stairs disappearing, roots growing inside the house–cause Sol to wonder if her social paranoia isn’t built on something more sinister. Yet Sol’s fears are dismissed as Alice embraces their new home and becomes increasingly worried instead about Sol’s drinking and manic behavior. When Sol finds a journal in the property from a resident that went missing a few years ago, she realizes why they were able to buy the house so easily…(Credit: William Morrow & Company)
This Book Kills by Ravena Guron
I’ll make it clear from the start: I did not kill Hugh Henry Van Boren. I didn’t even help…Well, not intentionally.
All Jess Choudhary wants is to keep her head down, do her work, and make it through high school without any problems. As a scholarship student–and one of only two students of Indian heritage–her future at the elite school depends on her ability to keep a low profile and spotless record. But when one of the most popular and richest kids in the school ends up dead in the exact same way as a character in a short story she wrote, Jess unintentionally finds herself at the center of the investigation.
And then Jess receives an anonymous text thanking her for the inspiration.
As rumors run rampant about who the murderer could be, Jess knows if she doesn’t solve this mystery herself, she’ll finally have something in common with Hugh: she’ll be dead too. (Credit: Sourcebooks Fire)
Mismatched: A Modern Graphic Retelling of Emma by Anne Camlin and illustrated by Isadora Zeferino
A teen social media star learns he can’t control everything in this delicious, queer graphic novel adaptation that relocates Jane Austen’s Emma to a modern-day high school in Queens, New York.
Evan Horowitz has it all: beauty, brains, and a not-so-secret flair for matchmaking! An Insta influencer with a talent for makeup and a taste for romance, he’s no stranger to playing cupid for those hopelessly clueless in finding love.
So when shy transfer student Natalia shuffles into school one day, Evan can’t help but get his hands messy! With so many matches to choose from, it’s not long before he sets a plan in motion for Natalia–much against the better judgement of his level-headed best friend, Davi.
But he takes things too far, creating a web of drama that spirals out of his control. Can Evan learn to put the people closest to him before his misguided ambition? Or will he lose them and his own chance at romance, too? (Credit: Little, Brown Ink)
You Belong With Me by Mhairi McFarlane
She found The One. But when everyone wants him, can she keep him?
Edie found true love. And on Christmas day, he’s knocking at her door.
Elliot Owen is handsome, charming and basically Hollywood royalty. And, he insists, madly in love with Edie Thompson: an ordinary citizen with tomato soup stains on her coat. It’s going to be complicated. Edie will have to learn how to live in the limelight, but they’re just too good together not to try.
Edie discovers it’s not easy when the press is the third person in your relationship, or when stories start leaking that force you to mistrust the motives of those around you. It’s tricky when you’re separated by an ocean and gorgeous co-stars and charismatic new colleagues are closer by. It’s harder still when your past is raked up by envious people determined to destroy your present.
Edie already knows how it feels to be infamous, now she’s going to find out what it’s like to be famous.
Are she and Elliot a fairytale, or a cautionary fable about getting what you wish for? (Credit: Avon Books)
Rebel Fire by Ann Sei Lin
Kurara has barely escaped the grasp of Princess Tsukimi. Reeling from her Crafter mentor’s grim betrayal, Kurara and her friends are desperate to catch up with their old airship, even if it means they have to do it on foot. But after everything she’s been through, Kurara refuses to give up on understanding and freeing the shikigami, origami creatures enchanted to life, nor will she stop at anything to understand her mysterious past, no matter who tries to interfere . . . or what dark truths about her role in the war may surface, the farther south she goes. Her goal is the Grand Stream, where Suzaku, the greatest shikigami of all, likes in furious wait.
But Kurara isn’t the only one searching for Suzaku. Traveling through forests, seas and the ruins of an underground Crafter city, there is no shortage of enemies who wish to control Kurara and the shikigami of the world for their own ends. When a bloody confrontation leads to horrifying revelations about the true nature of shikigami and Kurara’s past, Kurara will need all the support she can muster just to carry on.
In this sequel to the breathless Rebel Skies, readers will return to the soaring heights, incredible twists and dark depths of Ann Sei Lin’s vivid fantasy world. (Credit: Tundra Books)
Spindle and Dagger by J. Anderson Coats
Wales, 1109. Three years ago, a warband raided Elen’s home, killing both her elder and baby sister. Elen survived sexual assault, and when she saw a chance to live, she took it. She healed the wound of the war band’s leader, Owain, and spun a lie: Owain ap Cadwgan, son of the king of Powys, cannot be killed, not by blade nor blow nor poison. He has the protection of Saint Elen, so long as he keeps her namesake near him and safe from harm.
Since then, Elen has had food, clothes, and a bed that she shares with the man who brought that warband to her door. But then Owain abducts Nest, the wife of a Norman lord, and her three children. War breaks out, and as her careful lies threaten to unravel, Elen looks to Nest and begins to imagine a different life–if she can decide, once and for all, where her loyalties lie. J. Anderson Coats’s evocative prose immerses the reader in a dark, affirming tale of power and survival. (Credit: Candlewick Press)
A Good Indian Girl by Mansi Shah
Life’s more fun when you ditch the recipe.
Jyoti is the “perfect” Indian American daughter: She stayed out of trouble, looked after her younger sisters, and married a man her parents approved of. So when her husband, Ashok, pushes her to quit her dream job as head chef to focus on conceiving, she obliges, knowing this will please her parents–only for Ashok to leave her when she cannot carry to term. Now unemployed, childless, and divorced, a disgrace to her Gujarati family, Jyoti books a ticket to Tuscany for the summer to visit her best friend (and fellow social outcast), Karishma.
Carbs, chianti, and la bella vita slowly restore Jyoti’s confidence, inspiring her to experiment with Indian-Italian fusion recipes. But when she unexpectedly goes viral for her impromptu cooking vlogs–and candid vent sessions–her gossiping aunties have a field day. And when a shocking reveal comes to light, Jyoti must choose between family acceptance, a fulfilling career, and even motherhood, all before the summer ends…(Credit: Park Row)
The Book Swap by Tessa Bickers
Still reeling from a recent tragedy, Erin Connolly knows she needs to start living, but has no idea how. When she accidentally donates her favorite book–a heavily annotated copy of To Kill a Mockingbird containing a memento she can’t be without–to a local little community library, she’s devastated. But then the book turns up a week later, back in the library with fresh notes in the margins, along with an invitation in a copy of Great Expectations to meet her newfound pen pal.
A life-changing conversation, written only in the margins of beloved classic books, begins between Erin and her Mystery Man. Following each other through the pages of their favorite novels as the book exchange continues, they both begin to open up, falling into a friendship…and maybe something more.
But Erin and her pen pal have a shared history that neither of them has guessed. Faced with painful reminders of the past–and the one person she swore never to forgive–Erin finds herself at a crossroads. One that could change her life forever. (Credit: Graydon House)
American Ghoul by Michelle McGill-Vargas
You can’t kill someone who’s already dead.
That’s what Lavinia keeps telling her jailer after–allegedly–killing her mistress, Simone Arceneau. But how could Simone be dead when she was taking callers just a few minutes before? And why was her house always so dark?
Lavinia, a recently freed slave, met Simone, a recently undead vampire, by chance on a plantation in post-Civil War Georgia. With nothing remaining for either woman in the South, the two form a fast friendship and head north. However, Lavinia quickly learns that teaming up with this white woman may be more than she bargained for.
Simone is reckless and impulsive–which would’ve been bad enough on its own, but when combined with her particular diet, Lavinia finds herself in way over her head. As she is forced to repeatedly compromise her morals and struggles to make lasting human connections, Lavinia begins to wonder, is she truly free or has she merely exchanged one form of enslavement for another? As bodies start to pile up in the small Indiana town they’ve settled in, people start to take a second look at the two newcomers, and Simone and Lavinia’s relationship is stretched to its breaking point…(Credit: Blackstone Publishing)
The Amendments by Niamh Mulvey
Nell and her partner Adrienne are about to have a baby. For Adrienne, it’s the start of a new life. For Nell, it’s the reason the two of them are sitting in a therapist’s office. Because she can’t go into this without dealing with the truth: that she has been a mother before, and now she can hardly bring herself to speak to her own mother, let alone return home to Ireland.
Nell is running out of places to hide from her past.
But to Ireland and the past is where she must go, and that is where The Amendments takes us: to the heat of Nell’s teenage years in the early 2000s, as Ireland was unpicking itself from its faith and embracing the hedonism of the Celtic Tiger. To 1983, when Nell’s mother Dolores was grappling with the tensions of the women’s rights movement. And then to the farms and suburbs and towns that made and unmade the lives at the centre of this story, bound together by the terrible secret that Nell still cannot face.
Houses of the Unholy by Ed Brubaker and illustrated by Sean Phillips
In this new tale, an FBI agent from the cult crime beat and a woman with a past linked to the Satanic Panic are drawn into a terrifying hunt for an insane killer hiding in the shadows of the underworld.
This pulse-pounding story asks: can you ever escape your past, or are all your bad decisions just more ghosts to haunt you, wherever you go? (Credit: Image Comics)
The Whitewashed Tombs by Kwei Quartey
Author Kwei Quartey tackles a real-life–and deeply personal–issue as an anti-gay bill threatens to tear Ghana apart.
Marcelo Tetteh, a twenty-seven-year-old LGBTQ+ activist, is butchered one night after being lured on a dating app to a deserted building site. With rampant homophobia in Ghana, Marcelo’s wealthy father doesn’t trust the Ghana Police Service to find the killer, so he goes to the Sowah Private Investigators Agency for help, partly because he still feels guilty for disowning his son when he came out.
PI Emma Djan is assigned the case but quickly learns of a complication that prevents her from teaming up as usual with Jojo, her trusted colleague. Emma is the only one at work who knows Jojo is gay, and now he reveals something else: for some time, Jojo was dating Marcelo, the victim.
Working with Manu, whom she’s never gotten along with, Emma goes undercover in the International Congress of Families, a powerful organization seeking to criminalize homosexuality in African countries. As Emma infiltrates the ICF, she uncovers a web of deceit and hypocrisy and discovers that the mastermind behind the murders is someone much closer than she ever imagined. Emma must race against time to unmask the killer, protect the vulnerable LGBTQ+ community, and bring justice to the victims, all while navigating the dangerous waters of politics, power, and personal secrets.(Credit: Soho Crime)
Displeasure Island by Alice Bell
Claire Hendricks can see ghosts, but she can’t see herself having a fun vacation. Yet when her new friends/found family, Basher and Alex, insist, Claire and her dead BFF, Sophie, pack themselves off to a remote Irish island. This tempest-tossed isle is indeed full of noises: not only is the hotel where the gang is staying double booked with a posh private party, the island’s crumbling old fort is being fought over by rival ghost pirates. In death, as in life, they’re vying over a legendary stash of loot, supposedly hidden somewhere on the island or in the surrounding rough seas……which, inevitably, are whipped up into a terrific storm, stranding everyone–living and dead–on the island. Claire is already fighting off anxious And Then There Were None vibes before one of the other guests turns up murdered. With Basher distracted by a handsome Irish seaman and Sophie stretching the limits of her tether to flirt with a dead pirate with dubious intentions, it’s up to Claire to solve the mystery of three-hundred-year-old buried treasure and figure out who’s picking off party guests–before the whole gang meets a grim, Agatha Christie-like fate. (Credit: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group)
The Examiner by Janice Hallett
Expected Publication Date: September 10
University professor Gela Nathaniel must make her new master’s program in multimedia art succeed. If it doesn’t, then Royal Hastings University will cut her funding and she’ll be out of the job she loves. The six students in this inaugural course will be key to that success…but how well has she selected the team?
The students include a talented young sculptor who is determined to graduate with top grades, a former gallery owner with limited artistic skills, a single mother more interested in a paycheck than homework, a people pleaser who struggles with technology, a marketing executive suffering from burnout, and a successful artist who seems rather overqualified for the program.
At the end of the academic year, when the examiner arrives to grade the students’ final project, he finds himself asking what happened. Because if someone in that course isn’t in mortal danger, then they are already dead. But who, and why?
He wants us to read through the students’ coursework, texts, message boards, and final essays to see if we can find the answers. Only one thing is certain: nothing about this course has been left to chance, and each of these students has their own very different agenda. (Credit: Atria Books)
Fall Into Temptation by Lucy Score
Expected Publication Date: September 10
Beckett Pierce is the most eligible bachelor in the nosiest small town in upstate New York. But after his last girlfriend handcuffed herself to his porch and set his welcome mat on fire, he’s not looking for any more romance.
Especially if it lands right in his own backyard. And has miles of red hair.
Gianna Decker has her hands full–no, overflowing–with problems. With two kids, a useless ex, and a brand new yoga studio, the last thing on her mind is finding a man who’ll demand more of her time.
Fantasizing about her hot, broody landlord? Mistake. Lusting after the sexy mayor of her new town? Terrible idea. Getting naked with the “favorite” son of her father’s new lady friend? N-O. Getting involved with Beckett has disaster written all over it.
Those stolen kisses were accidental. A few moments of strings-free, sizzling passion couldn’t possibly cause any trouble. At least, not until tempers flare when their families complicate things and the interfering citizens of Blue Moon step in with their special brand of chaos. (Credit: Bloom Books)
Death at the Sanatorium: A Mystery by Ragnar Jónasson
Expected Publication Date: September 10
1983
At a former sanatorium in the north of Iceland, now a hospital ward, an old nurse, Yrsa, is found murdered. Detective Hulda Hermannsdottir and her boss, Sverrir, are sent to investigate her death. There, they discover five suspects: the chief physician, two junior nurses, a young doctor, and the caretaker, who is arrested following false testimony from one of the nurses, but subsequently released.
Less than a week after the murder, the chief physician, is also found dead, having apparently fallen from a balcony. Sverrir, rules his death as suicide and assumes that he was guilty of the murder as well. The case is closed.
2012
Almost thirty years later, Helgi Reykdal, a young police officer, has been studying criminology in the UK, but decides to return to Iceland when he is offered a job at the Reykjavik police department–the job which detective Hulda Hermannsdottir is about to retire from.
He is also a collector of golden age detective stories, and is writing his thesis on the 1983 murders in the north. As Helgi delves deeper into the past, and starts his new job, he decides to try to meet with the original suspects. But soon he finds silence and suspicion at every turn, as he tries to finally solve the mystery from years before. (Credit: Minotaur Books)
The Booklover’s Library by Madeline Martin
Expected Publication Date: September 10
In Nottingham, England, widow Emma Taylor finds herself in desperate need of a job. She and her beloved daughter Olivia have always managed just fine on their own, but with the legal restrictions prohibiting widows with children from most employment opportunities, she’s left with only one option: persuading the manageress at Boots’ Booklover’s Library to take a chance on her with a job.
When the threat of war in England becomes a reality, Olivia must be evacuated to the countryside. In the wake of being separated from her daughter, Emma seeks solace in the unlikely friendships she forms with her neighbors and coworkers, and a renewed sense of purpose through the recommendations she provides to the library’s quirky regulars. But the job doesn’t come without its difficulties. Books are mysteriously misshelved and disappearing and the work at the lending library forces her to confront the memories of her late father and the bookstore they once owned together before a terrible accident.
As the Blitz intensifies in Nottingham and Emma fights to reunite with her daughter, she must learn to depend on her community and the power of literature more than ever to find hope in the darkest of times. (Credit: Hanover Square Press)
The Deaf Girl: A Memoir of Hearing Loss, Hope, and Fighting Against the Odds by Abigail Heringer
Expected Publication Date: September 10
Abigail Heringer made her television debut as an instant fan-favorite on season 25 of The Bachelor. Stepping out of the limousine, she approached her bachelor with a playful declaration: she would be staring at his lips all night for two compelling reasons–her profound deafness since birth and because he had some nice lips!
But Abigail’s journey wasn’t always marked by such confidence. Growing up deaf and introverted, she dreaded being the center of attention, fearing her disability would burden those around her. Among her hearing peers, she felt like an outsider, simply labeled as “the deaf girl.” And after receiving a cochlear implant at the age of two, she subsequently struggled to find her place in the Deaf community too. Caught in between two worlds and grappling to define her identity as a deaf woman, Abigail felt like she belonged in neither.
Supported by her family, particularly her deaf older sister Rachel, Abigail has come to understand that while being deaf is part of her identity, it doesn’t define her. Throughout her journey, marked by challenges and adversity, Abigail has grown into her own strongest advocate, discovering a new voice that is confident, fearless, and empowered–a voice that enables her to proudly reclaim the title of “the deaf girl” she once resisted and rewrite it as a testament to her resilience and strength.
Hopeful, vulnerable, and uplifting, The Deaf Girl shares Abigail’s journey of navigating life with a profound hearing loss and her transformation from merely accepting her disability to embracing it wholeheartedly. This memoir serves as an inspiring reminder for anyone who has ever felt like an outsider or struggled to embrace their differences, showcasing that every voice is worthy of being heard. (Credit: Sourcebooks)
Joyful, Joyful: 20 Stories by Brilliant Black Creators from Around the World curated by Dapo Adeola
Expected Publication Date: September 10
A hugely entertaining, fully color-illustrated collection celebrating joy, perfect for children age 8 to 12 (and beyond!). Curated by Laugh Out Loud Awards winner Dapo Adeola, with a foreword by the acclaimed Patrice Lawrence. Joyful, Joyful is a book to sing about!A large hardback packed full of colourful illustrations, Joyful, Joyful: Stories Celebrating Black Voices is the perfect gift to spread joy.
Featuring both exciting new talents and globally renowned creators – every poem and story is individually illustrated by an amazing artist.
With stories featuring a mythical whale, a message from the future, a Halloween dance competition, a talking book, a miraculous discovery in a moment of lost hope, the joy of jollof rice and so much more. The creators hail from around the world, from the UK and US, to Uganda, the Netherlands, Nigeria and more. (Credit: Two Hoots)
Impossible Creatures by Katherine Rundell
Expected Publication Date: September 10
The day that Christopher saved a drowning baby griffin from a hidden lake would change his life forever.
It’s the day he learned about the Archipelago–a cluster of unmapped islands where magical creatures of every kind have thrived for thousands of years, until now. And it’s the day he met Mal–a girl on the run, in desperate need of his help.
Mal and Christopher embark on a wild adventure, racing from island to island, searching for someone who can explain why the magic is fading and why magical creatures are suddenly dying. They consult sphinxes, battle kraken, and negotiate with dragons. But the closer they get to the dark truth of what’s happening, the clearer it becomes: no one else can fix this. If the Archipelago is to be saved, Mal and Christopher will have to do it themselves.
Katherine Rundell’s story crackles and roars with energy and delight. It is brought vividly to life with more than 60 illustrations, including a map and a bestiary of magical creatures. (Credit: Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers)
Passiontide by Monique Roffey
Expected Publication Date: September 10
The quiet calm of Ash Wednesday morning. Carnival is over. Everyone on the small island of St. Colibri is sleeping peacefully. Everyone except Sora Tanaka, a young pan player lying under the cannonball tree. Sora, a professional musician, had been visiting St. Colibri to take part in the island’s famous steel pan competition. But Sora isn’t asleep; she’s dead: brutally murdered, and still in her costume. And as the women of this island know all too well, Sora is far from the first woman to be killed, and she probably won’t be the last, either. In fact, the problem of women being killed on the island is so bad, there’s even a dedicated unit within the police department: OMWEN, the Office for Murdered Women, headed by Inspector Cuthbert Loveday.
In this powerful new rewriting of the detective novel, Sora’s death is the last straw and the beginning of something much larger, a “revolution” some are calling it. The event draws together four women who have never before seen each other as allies: a friend of the victim, the organizer of a sex workers’ collective, a local activist, and the prime minister’s wife. Tenderly, sometimes hilariously, Passiontide chronicles how these women join forces and find new ways to help one another. (Credit: Knopf Publishing Group)
We Solve Murders by Richard Osman
Expected Publication Date: September 17
Solving murders. It’s a family business.
Steve Wheeler is enjoying retired life. He still does the odd bit of investigation work, but he prefers his familiar routines: the pub quiz, his favorite bench, his cat waiting for him at home. His days of adventure are over. Adrenaline is daughter-in-law Amy’s job now.
Amy Wheeler thinks adrenaline is good for the soul. Working in private security, every day is dangerous. She’s currently on a remote island protecting mega-bestselling author Rosie D’Antonio, until a dead body and a bag of money mean trouble in paradise. So she sends an SOS to the only person she trusts . . .As a thrilling race around the world begins, can Amy and Steve outrun and outsmart a killer? (Credit: Pamela Dorman)
The Lantern of Lost Memories by Sanaka Hiiragi
Expected Publication Date: September 17
The hands and pendulum of the old wooden clock on the wall were motionless. Hirasaka cocked his head to listen, but the silence inside the photo studio was almost deafening. His leather shoes sank softly into the aging red carpet as he strode over to the arrangement of flowers on the counter and carefully adjusted the angle of the petals…
This is the story of the peculiar and magical photo studio owned by Mr. Hirasaka, a collector of antique cameras. In the dimly lit interior, a paper background is pulled down in front of a wall, and in front of it stands a single, luxurious chair with an armrest on one side. On a stand is a large bellows camera. On the left is the main studio; photos can also be taken in the courtyard.
Beyond its straightforward interior, however, is a secret. The studio is, in fact, the door to the afterlife, the place between life and death where those who have departed have a chance–one last time–to see their entire life flash before their eyes via Mr. Hirasaka’s “spinning lantern of memories.”
We meet Hatsue, a ninety-two year old woman who worked as a nursery teacher, the rowdy Waniguchi, a yakuza overseer in his life who is also capable of great compassion, and finally Mitsuru, a young girl who has died tragically young at the hands of abusive parents.
Sorting through the many photos of their lives, Mr. Hirasaka also offers guests a second gift: a chance to travel back in time to take a photo of one particular moment in their lives that they wish to cherish in a special way. (Credit: Grand Central Publishing)
Straight Acting: The Hidden Queer Lives of William Shakespeare by Will Tosh
Expected Publication Date: September 17
“Was Shakespeare gay?” For years the question has sent experts and fans into a tailspin of confusion. But as scholar Will Tosh argues, this debate misses the point: sex, intimacy, and identity in Elizabethan England were infinitely more complex–and queer–than we have been taught.
In this incisive biography, Tosh reveals William Shakespeare as a queer artist who drew on his society’s nuanced understanding of gender and sexuality to create some of English literature’s richest works. During Shakespeare’s time, same-sex desire was repressed and punished by the Church and state, but it was also articulated and sustained by institutions across England. Moving through the queer spaces of Shakespeare’s life–his Stratford schoolroom, smoky London taverns and playhouses, the royal court–Tosh shows how strongly Shakespeare’s early work was influenced by the queer culture of the time, much of it totally integrated into mainstream society. He also uncovers the surprising reason why Shakespeare veered away from his early work’s gender-bending homoeroticism.
Offering a subversive sketch of Elizabethan England, Straight Acting uncovers Shakespeare as one of history’s great queer artists and completely reshapes the way we understand his life and times. (Credit: Seal Press)
We Are Hunted by Tomi Oyemakinde
Expected Publication Date: September 17
Experience paradise, reimagined.When 17-year-old Femi Fatona and his older brother are forced to accompany their dad to an island resort, Femi is not looking forward to it. After all, he hasn’t exactly been getting along with either of them lately. At least the resort promises to be full of all the extravagant luxuries they’re used to. Yet not much is actually known about it, as it’s on a recently-discovered island and shrouded in nondisclosure agreements.
Once they arrive, Femi is thrilled to find that the island is bursting with new and spectacular species of plants and animals. But he soon realizes that sometimes pretty exteriors hide ugly truths–truths that are begging to come to light.
When the animals suddenly become feral and the island is thrown into chaos, what was meant to be a peaceful bonding experience quickly becomes the stuff of nightmares. Femi will have to put aside tension with his family and work with other guests in order to escape the animals, the island. . .and his own guilt at the part he may have played in all of it. (Credit: Feiwel & Friends)
Rewitched by Lucy Jane Wood
Expected Publication Date: September 17
Belladonna Blackthorn hasn’t lost her magical spark, precisely . . . but she hasn’t seen it in a while either.
With her witchcraft under wraps and a toxic boss making her days miserable, Belle is struggling to keep her beloved Lunar Books afloat and just make it through the day. The last thing she has time for is perfecting her magic.
So when her thirtieth birthday brings a summons from her coven and a trial that tests her worthiness as a witch, Belle fears the worst. With only the month of October left to prove herself or risk losing her magic forever, Belle will need all the help she can get–from the women in her life, from an unlikely mentor figure and even from an infuriating coven watchman who’s sworn to protect her…(Credit: Ace Books)
Feral Volume 1 by Tony Fleecs and illustrated by Trish Forstner
Expected Publication Date: September 17
Meet Elsie, Lord Fluffy Britches, and Patch, three indoor cats lost in the not-so-great outdoors during a nightmarish rabies outbreak.
Without their humans to protect them, the cats rush to find their way home before they’re eaten by the forest full of rabid beasts on their tails.
Don’t get bit.
Don’t get scratched.
Don’t become…FERAL.
The Serial Killer Guide to San Francisco by Michelle Chouinard
Expected Publication Date: September 24
Welcome to San Francisco, a city with killer charm.
The chill of a San Francisco summer can be deadly. No one knows this better than Capri Sanzio, who makes her living giving serial killer tours of the city. Capri has been interested in the topic since she was a kid, when she discovered she’s the granddaughter of serial killer William ‘Overkill Bill’ Sanzio. She’s always believed in his innocence, though she’s never taken the leap to fully dive into the case.
But now an Overkill Bill copycat has struck in San Francisco. And Capri’s former mother-in-law, Sylvia, just cut off Capri’s daughter’s tuition payments. Needing cash, Capri wonders if this is the time to exonerate her grandfather. The case is back in the news and the police will be looking to understand the past to catch a present-day killer. Capri could finally uncover the truth about Overkill Bill–documenting the process with a podcast and a book–and hopefully earn some money.
Before Capri can get very far, the cops discover the copycat’s latest victim: Sylvia. Capri soon finds herself at the heart of the police’s investigation for an entirely different reason. She and her daughter are prime suspects. (Credit: Minotaur Books)
What Happened to Belén: The Unjust Imprisonment That Sparked a Women’s Rights Movement by Ana Elena Correa
Expected Publication Date: September 24
In 2014, Belén, a twenty-five-year-old woman living in rural Argentina, went to the hospital for a stomachache–and soon found herself in prison. While at the hospital she had a miscarriage–without knowing she was pregnant. Because of the nation’s repressive laws surrounding abortion and reproductive rights, the doctors were forced to report her to the authorities. Despite her protestations, Belén was convicted and sentenced to two years for homicide.
Belén’s imprisonment is a glaring example of how women’s health care has become increasingly criminalized, putting the most vulnerable–BIPOC, rural, and low-income–women at greater risk of prosecution. Belén’s cause became the centerpiece of a movement to achieve greater protections for all women. After two failed attempts to clear her name, Belén met feminist lawyer Soledad Deza, who quickly rallied Amnesty International and ignited an international feminist movement around #niunamas–not one more–symbolized by thousands of demonstrators around the globe donning white masks, the same kind of mask Belén wore when leaving prison. The #niunamas movement was instrumental in pressuring Argentine president Alberto Fernández to decriminalize abortion in 2021.
In this gripping and personal account of the case and its impact on local law, Ana Correa, one of Argentina’s leading journalists and activists, makes clear that what happened to Belén could happen to any woman–and that we all have the power to raise our collective voices and demand change.
Translated by Julia Sanches (Credit: HarperOne)
Signed Sealed Dead by Cynthia Murphy
Expected Publication Date: September 24
When true-Crime obsessed Paige, along with her family, move across the Atlantic to her father’s eerie hometown, it’s not long before she uncovers the town’s dark history–a string of unsolved murders and disappearances in the 90s.Soon after, notes start appearing at their home, about the secrets the old house is keeping. The clues lead Paige to a diary concealed in the walls that belonged to one of the missing girls.
Could this be the key to solving a quarter-of-a-century mystery…or will the diary make Paige the next target? (Credit: Delacorte Press)
The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year by Ally Carter
Expected Publication Date: September 24
The bridge is out. The phones are down. And the most famous mystery writer in the world just disappeared out of a locked room two days before Christmas.
Meet Maggie Chase and Ethan Wyatt:
She’s the new Queen of the Cozy Mystery.
He’s Mr. Big-time Thriller Guy.
She hates his guts.
He thinks her name is Marcie (no matter how many times she’s told him otherwise.)
But when they both accept a cryptic invitation to attend a Christmas house party at the English estate of a reclusive fan, neither is expecting their host to be the most powerful author in the world: Eleanor Ashley, the Duchess of Death herself.
That night, the weather turns, and the next morning Eleanor is gone.
She vanished from a locked room, and Maggie has to wonder: Is Eleanor in danger? Or is it all some kind of test? Is Ethan the competition? Or is he the only person in that snowbound mansion she can trust?
As the snow gets deeper and the stakes get higher, every clue will bring Maggie and Ethan closer to the truth–and each other. Because, this Christmas, these two rivals are going to have to become allies (and maybe more) if they have any hope of saving Eleanor.
Assuming they don’t kill each other first. (Credit: Avon Books)
Intermezzo by Sally Rooney
Expected Publication Date: September 24
“Ready or not. Whatever you do. The Hiding Boy is coming for you.”
Aside from the fact that they are brothers, Peter and Ivan Koubek seem to have little in common.
Peter is a Dublin lawyer in his thirties–successful, competent, and apparently unassailable. But in the wake of their father’s death, he’s medicating himself to sleep and struggling to manage his relationships with two very different women–his enduring first love, Sylvia, and Naomi, a college student for whom life is one long joke.
Ivan is a twenty-two-year-old competitive chess player. He has always seen himself as socially awkward, a loner, the antithesis of his glib elder brother. Now, in the early weeks of his bereavement, Ivan meets Margaret, an older woman emerging from her own turbulent past, and their lives become rapidly and intensely intertwined.
For two grieving brothers and the people they love, this is a new interlude–a period of desire, despair, and possibility; a chance to find out how much one life might hold inside itself without breaking. (Credit: Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
Flamboyants: The Queer Harlem Renaissance I Wish I’d Known by George M. Johnson and illustrated by Charly Palmer
Expected Publication Date: September 24
In Flamboyants, George M. Johnson celebrates writers, performers, and activists from 1920s Black America whose sexualities have been obscured throughout history. Through 14 essays, Johnson reveals how American culture has been shaped by icons who are both Black and Queer – and whose stories deserve to be celebrated in their entirety.
Interspersed with personal narrative, powerful poetry, and illustrations by award-winning illustrator Charly Palmer, Flamboyants looks to the past for understanding as to how Black and Queer culture has defined the present and will continue to impact the future. With candid prose and an unflinching lens towards truth and hope, George M. Johnson brings young adult readers an inspiring collection of biographies that will encourage teens today to be unabashed in their layered identities. (Credit: Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
Queen Macbeth by Val McDermid
Expected Publication Date: September 24
Britain’s reigning “Queen of Crime” (The Scotsman), Val McDermid has ensnared audiences worldwide for over thirty years with her thrilling and masterfully plotted crime oeuvre. A radical, rip-roaring counternarrative drawing on the historical record, Queen Macbeth delivers an illuminating portrait of Shakespeare’s most famous villain, and the treacherous pursuit of ambition that made her legendary.
A thousand years ago in an ancient Scottish landscape, a woman is on the run with her three companions – a healer, a weaver, and a seer. The men hunting her will kill her – because she is the only one who stands between them and their violent ambition. She is no lady: she is the first queen of Scotland, married to a king called Macbeth. As the net closes in, what unfurls is a tale of passion, forced marriage, bloody massacre, and the harsh realities of medieval Scotland. At the heart of it is one strong, charismatic woman, who survived loss and jeopardy to outwit the endless plotting of a string of ruthless and power-hungry men. Her struggle won her a country. But now it could cost her life.
Immersive and utterly riveting, Queen Macbeth is an electric reimagining of one of Shakespeare’s most celebrated tragedies and reaffirms McDermid as one of the preeminent writers of our day. (Credit: Atlantic Monthly Press)
The Hysterical Girls of St. Bernadette’s by Hanna Alkaf
Expected Publication Date: September 24
For over a hundred years, girls have fought to attend St. Bernadette’s, with its reputation for shaping only the best and brightest young women.
Unfortunately, there is also the screaming.
When a student begins to scream in the middle of class, a chain reaction starts that impacts the entire school. By the end of the day, seventeen girls are affected–along with St. Bernadette’s stellar reputation.
Khadijah’s got her own scars to tend to, and watching her friends succumb to hysteria only rips apart wounds she’d rather keep closed. But when her sister falls to the screams, Khad knows she’s the only one who can save her.
Rachel has always been far too occupied trying to reconcile her overbearing mother’s expectations with her own secret ambitions to pay attention to school antics. But just as Rachel finds her voice, it turns into screams.
Together, the two girls find themselves digging deeper into the school’s dark history, hunting for the truth. Little do they know that a specter lurks in the darkness, watching, waiting, and hungry for its next victim…(Credit: Salaam Reads / Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
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