![group of people of different skin tones gathered around a table discussing books](https://s2982.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/book-club-group.jpg.optimal.jpg)
The Biggest Book Club Books Coming Out This Fall
And just like that, after a summer that felt like it was entirely made up of heat waves and tropical storms, we are preparing for fall. I’m going to be real and say that, at first, I was scoffing a bit at the fall book lists I started seeing about a week ago. Weather forecasts still had a lot of us firmly in the 80s and 90s, temperature-wise, and outside was giving more iced tea than pumpkin spice.
But this week, I’m on a different beat. There’s a natural breeze and I can smell people cooking soup. And listen, I am all for leaving this hell of a summer behind us. Turns out the book world is, too. As various fall reading lists have been popping up, I’ve selected a few books that I think will be on everyone’s TBRs this fall.
![cover of The Message by Ta-Nehisi Coates](https://s2982.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/210943364.jpg.optimal.jpg)
The Message by Ta-Nehisi Coates
I led a book discussion on Coates’ Between the World and Me for a library I worked at in the DC Metropolitan area a few years ago, and remember being surprised by how dense it felt to read. The language was beautiful, and I found myself relieved with how well Coates explained aspects of the Black experience, but damn if it wasn’t depressing. That’s the thing though—discussing the reality of Blackness in America can be depressing, but Coates does it so well. At the risk of sounding clichéd, his latest is so timely. It’s a collection of essays that explores how the stories we construct distort reality. He travels to Senegal, South Carolina, and Palestine, contending with myth and reality in each place.
![cover of The City and Its Uncertain Walls by Haruki Murakami](https://s2982.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/The-City-and-Its-Uncertain-Walls-by-Haruki-Murakami.jpg.optimal.jpg)
The City and Its Uncertain Walls by Haruki Murakami
A new Murakami is always going to make waves, and this is his first in six years. Fans of the author will find the Town here familiar. It’s where a Dream Reader reviews dreams and where shadows go on their own way. There’s love, noir, pop culture, jazz, libraries, and the intriguing otherworldliness that we’ve come to expect from Murakami.
![cover of Intermezzo by Sally Rooney](https://s2982.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/208931300.jpg.optimal.jpg)
Intermezzo by Sally Rooney
Rooney’s eye for interpersonal relationships is turned to two brothers, Peter and Ivan Koubek, who aren’t very much alike. Peter fits every bit of the confident and successful attorney stereotype there is—until his father dies, and he starts self-medicating to get to sleep. And, now his relationships with two different women—one his age and one in college—are starting to falter, too. Then there’s his younger brother, Ivan, who is a competitive chess player, and who has never been all that social. Since their father died, his life has changed, too, and he finds himself becoming more and more involved with an older woman.
![cover of The Empusium by Olga Tokarczuk](https://s2982.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/204316857.jpg.optimal.jpg)
The Empusium by Olga Tokarczuk, translated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones
After reading Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead, Tokarczuk’s books and I go together real bad. Here, she’s set her glittering and thrilling prose to a sanitarium in 1913 Poland. Mieczysław is a young man suffering from tuberculosis who arrives at Wilhelm Opitz’s Guesthouse for Gentlemen, where he will gather every day with other residents to discuss class, war, and the inherent value of women. But strange things are happening while Guesthousers do all this pontificating—something is watching them. And as Mieczysław investigates what’s going on, he realizes it may be too late. I am so ready for the humor, folklore, and horror this promises.
![cover of The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World by Robin Wall Kimmerer, illustrated by John Burgoyn](https://s2982.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/The-Serviceberry-Abundance-and-Reciprocity-in-the-Natural-World-Robin-Wall-Kimmerer-John-Burgoyn.jpg.optimal.jpg)
The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World by Robin Wall Kimmerer, illustrated by John Burgoyne
I haven’t come across anyone who’s read Braiding Sweetgrass by Kimmerer who doesn’t recommend it emphatically. Here, the Indigenous scientist considers the gift economy and how we can better position ourselves when it comes to reciprocity and community, based on lessons from nature. Which is, of course, in direct contrast to the capitalist-driven culture of scarcity we currently live in.
Suggestion Section
Nibbles and Sips: Cosmo Slush
You can, of course, drink this cosmo slush anytime, but it does seem particularly suited to the last days of summer. You’ll need the usual cosmo ingredients (lime juice, cranberry juice, lemon vodka, cointreau), as well as frozen strawberries. Visit Delish to get the tea.
Book Club Tings:
A printable list of book club-friendly questions
More To Read
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8 Amazing Books That Take Place in Libraries
The Most Anticipated Historical Fiction Books of Fall 2024, According to Goodreads
**Below is a list of books I think should be big this fall*
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