With golden leaves falling from the trees and aromas of cardamom and pumpkin spice all around, autumn paints the perfect ambiance for delving into a new book. Considering the stress of assignments and deadlines that come with returning to school, it may feel tiresome to allocate mental prowess to another task. Reading can provide the perfect mental escape!
Here are some of my book recommendations to help you escape reality in just a few of pages.
- YellowFace – R.F. Kuang
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There is no dilly-dallying when it comes to Yellowface; author R.F. Kuang cuts right to the chase. She immediately draws readers through her captivating, cynical, and provocative critiques of the status quo. If you are looking for a book that will leave you thinking yet yearning for more, Yellowface is for you.
- Mad Honey – Jodi Picoult & Jennifer Finney Boylan
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Mad Honey is the epitome of a binge-able book. Picoult and Boylan’s descriptive language guides readers through this emotional tale filled with plot twists and turns. They incorporate heavy topics in a way that is digestible while also not diluting them. This novel is a perfect “who-done-it” for a rainy day.
- The Many Lives of Mama Love: A Memoir of Lying, Stealing, Writing, and Healing – Lara Love Hardin
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From soccer mom to incarceration, The Many Lives of Mama Love: A Memoir of Lying, Stealing, Writing, and Healing is a stunning and vulnerable account of addiction, recovery, and forgiveness. Love Hardin’s honest writing allows readers to dislike, empathize with, and love her throughout the book. This memoir also allows you to place yourself into Love Hardin’s shoes and grow with her.
It is a beautiful page-turner that will leave you a better person.
- The Berry Pickers – Amanda Peters
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An immersive and stunning mystery, The Berry Pickers is a compelling tale of a family riddled with heartache and strife. The narrative switches between the perspectives of separate siblings, Norma and Joe, uncovering how one traumatic event impacts their individual worldviews. Peters’s strengths lie in character development and depiction of complex human emotion, allowing readers to feel as if they’re a part of the family themselves.
- Normal People – Sally Rooney
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There is a reason why Normal People took the world by storm. Rooney’s characters exhibit the rawness and imperfections that come with being human, which makes them so endearing. There has been discourse surrounding the lack of quotation marks in Rooney’s novels, however, it adds to the overarching theme of miscommunication and allows readers to fully feel immersed in the dialogue.
If you are looking for a book that reminds you of the hill scene from Greta Gerwig’s Little Women (2019), this book is for you.
This list of books will leave you captivated, excited, and wanting more!
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