What are we reading this fall? My tippy top rec (recognizing I’m late to the game here) is the Emma Lion series. I tumbled headfirst into the first one and don’t think I’ll stop until I make it through volume eight (the author is currently working on the ninth). I found the first few chapters of the first installment a little slow to start — a lot of exposition about the cartography and architecture of the story’s setting — but you must persist, because now that we’re into the characters and their drama, I’m completely obsessed. I’m staying up late and waking up early; I’m referring to my desk on the top floor as “my garret”; I find myself wanting to say, “I digress.” I can’t wait to share a more robust reflection but I’m struck by how deeply 18th-century the novel is in the sense that it is grappling with so many of the core socio-economic concerns and narrative motifs of that era: inheritance/disinheritance; tokens lost and gained; hidden, mixed, and lost messages; readership and permissions! It’s giving Waverley, it’s giving Pamela, it’s giving Daniel Deronda (be still my lit major heart), but with the wittiest, driest commentary to lighten the load and modernize the prose. My sister said the author wrote for the show “Fleabag,” which explained a lot to me. What a delight.
As I’m reading, I keep thinking of how Emma Lion is the prototypical bad book girl in every sense. I’ve highlighted several lines reflecting her “I read as I please” energy:
“I’m afraid I’m a slow reader, and I prefer to write in books.”
“We read Jane Eyre to tatters. It was manna in the wilderness.”
“Jane Eyre was one of the means of survival.”
And of course she is constantly bartering for books, and using readership as a means of connection with the people around her. When I tell you I love this series, I Love it with a capital L!
In Emma’s honor, re-sharing a little musing I posted on Instagram:
BTW, if you want to join the “bad book girl” flock, you can snag a hat here! Some Magpies have given these out as gifts to their book club girls!
Our September Book Club Pick.
I know I am woefully behind in my review of Land (Maggie O’Farrell), which was our July book club pick (…), but it just did not feel like the right book for my summer. The prose is exceptional and I will return to it and share notes when I do. But I am going to pivot and propose Understory by Chloe Benjamin for this month’s read. People are going crazy over this novel! I ordered a hard copy of this. The Readerista mentioned that it’s one of the best books she’s ever read!
“At the edge of the world, biologist Laurel Salter is hiding from everything she’s ever known. For ten hours a day, six days per week, she works as a dishwasher at McMurdo Station, an isolated research base in Antarctica. She tells no one that before she arrived, she was a renowned young scientist with a promising career and a family.”
Of course, the premise is giving major Wild Dark Shore energy, which I love. I’d also strongly rec that book as a fall read on a rainy September weekend.
New Releases (and a Few Classics) in My Fall TBR Pile.
Other books at the top of my fall TBR:
+Taipei Story, R.F. Kuang. “A wryly humorous and profoundly moving coming-of-age novel that grapples with grief, language, and culture shock—all set against the backdrop of an unforgettable summer in Taipei.” So many Magpies urged me to read Kuang’s Babel as a pinnacle “dark academia” novel, so this is on the list, too!
+Murder at the Grand Alpine Hotel, Lucy Foley (releases September 22). I haven’t read a thriller in years but this one is garnering a lot of buzz as a modern-day Agatha Christie. and the premise sounds delightful. “When a body is found and a blizzard cuts off all escape, only Miss Marple can connect the clues before the killer strikes again. Because it isn’t a question of who has a motive, but who’s next…”
+Writers and Lovers, Lily King. Another resume gap, but I adored Heart the Lover and can’t wait to tuck into this novel in the same fictional universe. This is heavily-praised portrait of a young artist: “Writers & Lovers follows Casey—a smart and achingly vulnerable protagonist—in the last days of a long youth, a time when every element of her life comes to a crisis. Written with King’s trademark humor, heart, and intelligence, Writers & Lovers is a transfixing novel that explores the terrifying and exhilarating leap between the end of one phase of life and the beginning of another.”
+The Secret History, Donna Tartt – a major resume gap for me, and the season is just right.
+My Salinger Year, Joanna Rakoff — the premise is so fetching! “At twenty-three, after leaving graduate school to pursue her dreams of becoming a poet, Joanna Rakoff moves to New York City and takes a job as assistant to the storied literary agent for J. D. Salinger. She spends her days in a plush, wood-paneled office, where Dictaphones and typewriters still reign and old-time agents doze at their desks after martini lunches. At night she goes home to the tiny, threadbare Williamsburg apartment she shares with her socialist boyfriend. Precariously balanced between glamour and poverty, surrounded by titanic personalities, and struggling to trust her own artistic instinct, Rakoff is tasked with answering Salinger’s voluminous fan mail. But as she reads the candid, heart-wrenching letters from his readers around the world, she finds herself unable to type out the agency’s decades-old form response. Instead, drawn inexorably into the emotional world of Salinger’s devotees, she abandons the template and begins writing back. Over the course of the year, she finds her own voice by acting as Salinger’s, on her own dangerous and liberating terms.”
+Partita, Barbara Kingsolver (releases Oct 6). Hard to imagine publishing a novel after the epic Demon Copperhead, but here we are! “Livia Cable has made her peace with her marriage and modest livelihood in the farm country where she grew up, until a shocking phone call from an old lover shakes her to the core. Decades earlier, this man knew her as Livia Bohusz, a music conservatory student estranged from her home and family, uncertain of anything except her passion for music and promise as an extraordinary pianist. His request, now, to see her again stirs up ghosts she’s kept at bay for a lifetime.”
Also on my radar but not grabbing my interest as immediately: Emma Cline’s latest (the premise feels…meh? but it’s been shortlisted for the Booker Prize!) and The Disappearers by Marlon James, which is garnering Nobel Prize-type accolades. Both feel a tad heavy for me at the moment but they are on my mind!
I linked all of these plus a few other great fall reads here!
Post-Scripts.
+Magpies share their cozy reading nooks.
+I think this was the best book I’ve read so far this year.
+Recommendations for book club books!
Shopping Break.
+This striped tee arrived and she’s so cool! The coolest swingy shape and a nice heavy weight cotton. Love.
+J. Crew new arrivals alert! Obsessed with this embellished-collar barn jacket and this tie-neck sweater in the plum color!
+Reminder that Cadets pants are BACK in great fall colors and prints, and they’ve extended the sizing — now they offer a women’s XS and XL. I’m typically an XS in things but I took the S in these before they released the XS and find they run a bit loose but not overly so, in case that helps? Use code EXTRACRISPY.
+My favorite ballet flats in new fall colors. I also love M. Gemi and Margaux but these are my most-worn pairs because I really like the elongated toe box — helps a shortie like me out!
+But I have to say, if I prize were going to “most comfortable fall flat,” it’d be M. Gemi’s Una. Simply the best. Insanely soft right out of the box, with cushioned, pliable leather. I have them in the leopard, which are super fun. I could (and have) walk miles and miles in these. These are my go-to travel day flat. I pair them with the Ruti pants any time I travel! Polished but so, so comfortable.
+A perfect denim button down for fall.
+Frame’s new corduroy ranger pants are so, so good. For a totally different silhouette in corduroy: these VBs or these brand-new JAs!
+Ooh la la, Negative’s new garnet color is everything I want to wear this fall. I straight up LOVE their whipped and waffle collections and just can’t have enough!
+This new Dr. Diamond “liplift” product has really grown on me. I think it makes your lips look super full and pillowy. I use it every morning before applying makeup and then usually reapply 1-2x throughout the day. Looks bananas paired with this lipstick in the color Andie.
+Gorgeous designer throw pillows to zhush your fall sofa: these and these.
+LOVE this tortoise laguiole cutlery set for fall.
+Finding this terry cardi incredibly versatile. Looks great with the aforementioned Cadets pants!
+Cannot wait for this to arrive in the mail. It’s SO GOOD. I got it in the oatmeal color!
+To the Magpie seeking a perfect red bucket bag: this is, I believe, it. Not red, but these mini Mansur Gavriels are absolutely perfect and deeply discounted. And J. Crew has a compelling under-$200 option nestled in among their new arrivals.
+Every year I look forward to using this little pumpkin cocotte for dips (hummus, French onion, etc!)
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