Eight Books I Want to Read This Fall!
- maxxwellbooks
- Aug 22, 2023
- 8 min read
I am a mood reader and I rarely create a specific TBR, but I want to try to do seasonal ones that are small and have wiggle room!
Fall is spooky season and with that I chose a lot of murder mysteries, books with witches, and books that overall strike me as books I would love to read with a cup of apple cider in my hand.
Book #1: Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie
This book will be a reread from my childhood (I was the weird kid reading her work in kindergarten!). I recently watched the 2022 movie adaptation (which was surely a movie) and I want to relive the book. I was able to get a free ebook of this title because it is public domain, and I definitely want to read it before the end of the year.
Synopsis of Death on the Nile (via The Storygraph):”The tranquillity of a cruise along the Nile is shattered by the discovery that Linnet Ridgeway has been shot through the head. She was young, stylish and beautiful, a girl who had everything - until she lost her life. Hercule Poirot recalls an earlier outburst by a fellow passenger: 'I'd like to put my dear little pistol against her head and just press the trigger.' Yet in this exotic setting, nothing is ever quite what it seems…”
Book #2: Rebecca by Daphe du Maurier
This book is also a reread from childhood, but this time it was read in middle school. I read this back when I wasn’t super into suspense, and I feel like I will appreciate this book a lot more now than I did at twelve years old.
Synopsis of Rebecca (via The Storygraph): “Last Night I Dreamt I went to Manderley Again...
With these words, the reader is ushered into an isolated gray stone mansion on the windswept Cornish coast, as the second Mrs. Maxim de Winter recalls the chilling events that transpired as she began her new life as the young bride of a husband she barely knew. For in every corner of every room were phantoms of a time dead but not forgotten--a past devotedly preserved by the sinister housekeeper, Mrs. Danvers: a suite immaculate and untouched, clothing laid out and ready to be worn, but not by any of the great house's current occupants. With an eerie presentiment of evil tightening her heart, the second Mrs. de Winter walked in the shadow of her mysterious predecessor, determined to uncover the darkest secrets and shattering truths about Maxim's first wife--the late and hauntingly beautiful Rebecca.
This special edition of Rebecca includes excerpts from Daphne du Maurier's The Rebecca Notebook and Other Memories, an essay on the real Manderley, du Maurier's original epilogue to the book, and more.”
Book #3: Mr. Mercedes by Stephen King
I am trying to get back into Stephen King as an adult. I was a big fan as a kid. I recently read Carrie and was very disappointed, so I am hoping to love Mr. Mercedes. I personally think King’s best work is his non-horror work (my favorites of his are Apt Pupil, Shawshank Redemption, and his memoir On Writing). Mr. Mercedes is a thriller, which as I have stated before is my favorite genre.
Synopsis of Mr. Mercedes (via The Storygraph): “In the frigid pre-dawn hours, in a distressed Midwestern city, hundreds of desperate unemployed folks are lined up for a spot at a job fair. Without warning, a lone driver plows through the crowd in a stolen Mercedes, running over the innocent, backing up, and charging again. Eight people are killed; fifteen are wounded. The killer escapes.
In another part of town, months later, a retired cop named Bill Hodges is still haunted by the unsolved crime. When he gets a crazed letter from someone who self-identifies as the “perk” and threatens an even more diabolical attack, Hodges wakes up from his depressed and vacant retirement, hell-bent on preventing another tragedy.
Brady Hartsfield lives with his alcoholic mother in the house where he was born. He loved the feel of death under the wheels of the Mercedes, and he wants that rush again. Only Bill Hodges, with a couple of highly unlikely allies, can apprehend the killer before he strikes again. And they have no time to lose, because Brady’s next mission, if it succeeds, will kill or maim thousands.
Mr. Mercedes is a war between good and evil, from the master of suspense whose insight into the mind of this obsessed, insane killer is chilling and unforgettable.”
Book #4: Primal Animals by Jennifer Lynn Rubin
I read Trouble Girls by Rubin earlier this year, and I really enjoyed it! I have been slowly getting back into horror, and I have heard really good things about Primal Animals (and it is sapphic), so I figured I would give it a shot! I try to not know too much about a book before I read it, so I am excited to dive into this book.
Synopsis of Primal Animals (via The Storygraph): “Arlee Gold is anxious about spending the summer at the college prep Camp Rockaway—the same camp her mother attended years ago, which her mother insists will help give Arlee a “fresh start” and will “change her life.” Little does Arlee know that, once she steps foot on the manicured grounds, this will prove to be true in horrifying ways.
Even though the girls in her cabin are awesome—and she’s developing a major crush on the girl who sleeps in the bunk above her—the other campers seem to be wary of Arlee, unwilling to talk to her or be near her, which only ramps up her paranoia. When she’s tapped to join a strange secret society, Arlee thinks this will be her shot at fitting in...until her new "sisters" ask her to do the unthinkable, putting her life, and the life of her new crush, in perilous danger.”
Book #5: Blackass by A. Igoni Barrett
I LOVE surrealist literature, and because of that, I went on a deep dive on the internet to find surrealist novels to pick up. Within that search, I came across Blackass as a recommendation multiple times, and it immediately became a must read. I headed straight to an online secondhand book retailer, and purchased this book, because it just sounds so bizarre and wild and amazing.
Synopsis of Blackass (via The Storygraph): “White skin, green eyes, red hair...
Furo Wariboko - born and bred in Lagos - wakes up on the morning of his job interview to discover he has turned into a white man. As he hits the city streets running, still reeling from his new-found condition, Furo finds the dead ends of his life open out before him. As a white man in Nigeria, the world is seemingly his oyster - except for one thing: despite his radical transformation, Furo's ass remains robustly black . . .
Funny, fierce, inventive and daringly provocative - this is a very modern satire, with a sting in the tail. “
Book #6: The Woman in the Window by A.J. Finn
Honestly, this has just been sitting on my shelf for six months, and I would really like to pick it up this Fall. It is a well regarded thriller, and I want to know what the hype is about!
Synopsis of The Woman in the Window (via The Storygraph): “For readers of Gillian Flynn and Tana French comes one of the decade's most anticipated debuts: a twisty, powerful Hitchcockian thriller about an agoraphobic woman who believes she witnessed a crime in a neighboring house.
It isn't paranoia if it's really happening . . .
Anna Fox lives alone — a recluse in her New York City home, unable to venture outside. She spends her day drinking wine (maybe too much), watching old movies, recalling happier times . . . and spying on her neighbors.
Then the Russells move into the house across the way: a father, a mother, their teenage son. The perfect family. But when Anna, gazing out her window one night, sees something she shouldn't, her world begins to crumble — and its shocking secrets are laid bare.
What is real? What is imagined? Who is in danger? Who is in control? In this diabolically gripping thriller, no one — and nothing — is what it seems.
Twisty and powerful, ingenious and moving, The Woman in the Window is a smart, sophisticated novel of psychological suspense that recalls the best of Hitchcock.”
Book #7: Last Day Alive by J.R. Adler
I have read most of this author’s books (under her non pen name, Jeneva Rose), and I have thoroughly enjoyed them! I am slowly working my way through her whole bibliography. This is the second to last one on the list, and I am sure I will enjoy it as much as the others.
Synopsis of Last Day Alive (via The Storygraph): “One hot summer’s evening, ten-year-old Piper Chase went for a bike ride. She never came home…
Piper cycles off one hot Oklahoma evening for a sleepover with her new friend Miley from summer camp. But when she doesn’t come home, her grandparents raise the alarm. Their little angel is missing, last seen on her pink bicycle, heading towards the dark woods on Black Heart Lane.
Detective Kimberley King knows that the first twenty-four hours in a missing child investigation are the most critical, but with no witnesses, and darkness falling in the small town of Dead Woman Crossing, she begins to fear the worst. She longs to find the little girl with wide blue eyes and an infectious smile, but when her team discovers Piper’s body in a woodland clearing, lying on a bed of moss, something inside her dies.
In a town where people leave their doors unlocked, Kimberley is terrified that another little girl might be snatched, and that night she holds her own daughter tighter. Desperate to find the monster who took the life of an innocent child, Kimberley chases down all the leads she has. The summer camp counsellor, who got too close to Piper and Miley and lost his job. Piper’s shifty uncle, who arrived back in town the day she disappeared…
Then she gets a call that chills her to the bone. Miley has gone missing. Has the killer who stole one little angel just taken another?
A gripping, heart-wrenching crime thriller that will have you on the edge of your seat, holding your breath. Last Day Alive is perfect for fans of Rachel Caine, Lisa Regan and Carol Wyer.”
Book #8: The Coldest Touch by Isabel Sterling
Honestly, this is a sapphic paranormal book, and that is the sole reason I picked this up. It will be very hard for me not to like it!
Synopsis of The Coldest Touch (via The Storygraph): “Elise Beaumont is cursed. With every touch, she experiences exactly how her loved ones will die. And after her brother’s death—a death she predicted but was unable to prevent—Elise is desperate to get rid of her terrible gift, no matter the cost.
Claire Montgomery also has a unique relationship with death, mostly because she’s already dead. Technically, anyway. Claire is a vampire, and she’s been assigned by the Veil to help Elise master her rare Death Oracle powers.
At first, Elise is reluctant to work with a vampire, but when she predicts a teacher’s imminent murder, she’s determined to stop the violent death, even if it means sacrificing her own future to secure Claire’s help.
The trouble is, Claire and Elise aren’t the only paranormals in town—a killer is stalking the streets, and Claire can’t seem to shake the pull she feels toward Elise, a romance that could upend the Veil’s mission. But as Elise and Claire grow closer, Elise begins to wonder—can she really trust someone tasked with securing her loyalty? Someone who could so easily kill her? Someone who might hold the key to unraveling her brother’s mysterious death?”
Do you have any books you want to read this Fall? Let me know in the comments!
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