9 Brand-New Books to Read in October 2018
by Jennie Yabroff
October means cooler days, longer nights, and the desire for a reading list that combines cozy (for under-the-blanket reading when the fall winds blow), creepy (time to start thinking about Halloween) and inspirational (for that sense of renewed determination that comes with the new school year). This month’s list of new releases features plenty of each, sure to satisfy whatever literary cravings accompany the official start of pumpkin spice season. Enjoy!
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The Kennedy Debutante
Available from:When will our fascination with Kennedy family end? The smart money’s on never, or at least not as long as writers keep uncovering more-heartbreaking-than-fiction stories about this fascinating clan. In this historical novel, writer Maher tells the story of Kathleen “Kick” Kennedy, John and Bobby’s equally high-spirited and ill-fated sister who angered her family with an interfaith romance and lived her short, doomed life at the highest pitch possible.
(On sale: 10/2/18)Also available from: -
A Spark of Light
Available from:It would seem there is no social issue Jodi Picoult is afraid to hold to the light and examine from every angle, illuminating for readers all the many colors and facets of problems that might otherwise seem black and white. In this novel, she grasps one of the most sensitive subjects of our times — health clinics that provide abortions and the anti-abortion protestors who use violent tactics to prevent women from accessing them — and seeks to uncover every side of the story. Set in the hours of a showdown between an armed anti-abortion protester, a hostage-negotiator cop, and the women trapped inside the clinic, one of whom happens to be the cop’s 15-year-old daughter, A Spark of Light is a fair and sensitive portrayal of desperate people making desperate decisions.
(On sale: 10/2/18)Also available from: -
There Will Be No Miracles Here: A Memoir
Available from:Any one anecdote from Casey Gerald’s extraordinary life could be the stuff of an entire book: growing up in an evangelical church that awaited the end of the world; playing football at Yale as a poor, gay, black student from Texas; earning a MBA from Harvard and a place at the table of the most powerful business leaders in the world. But Gerald has something bigger in mind. He weaves these anecdotes together to make readers examine our assumptions about the classic American rags-to-riches story he so perfectly embodies — and which, he argues, is lethally dangerous to society’s disenfranchised. Read this book to rethink your definitions of success, failure, and who among us deserves which.
(On sale: 10/2/18)Also available from: -
Bridge of Clay
Available from:In this long-awaited follow-up to his bestselling, international phenomenon The Book Thief, Zusak tells the story of the five brothers, the fourth of whom, Clay, tries to build a perfect bridge into the wilderness following his mother’s death. Zusak worked on the YA book for eight years and he has said that it got to the point where he either had to finish it or put it away. Around the world, adult and teen readers alike will be glad he chose to finish the story.
(On sale: 10/9/18)Also available from: -
The Witch Elm
When it comes to fans of mysteries, there are two kinds: those who love Tana French and those who haven’t read her yet. The Irish writer has won praise, admiration, and a fair share of goosebumps from heavyweights including Stephen King, and the latest Dublin Murder Squad installment is always met with great excitement. Here, she deviates from her usual cast of antisocial, irresistible detectives to tell the story of a man who, suffering the effects of a brutal and seemingly random meeting, finds himself at the center of a mystery that starts with the discovery of a skull in a tree.
(On sale: 10/9/18)Preorder from: -
Invisible: The Forgotten Story of the Black Woman Lawyer Who Took Down America’s Most Powerful Mobster
When special prosecutor Thomas Dewey was compiling a team to prosecute notorious New York mob boss Lucky Luciano, he chose 19 white men and one African American woman. That woman, Eunice Carter, was the author’s grandmother, and in this biography he details her extraordinary life. The granddaughter of slaves who would go on to graduate from Smith College, Carter’s life was filled with personal and professional triumphs. But it was also marked by tragedy, discrimination, and the constant reminder that, because of her color and gender, the world would have preferred she remain invisible.
(On sale 10/9/18)Preorder from: -
Ruth Bader Ginsberg: A Life
Available from:To simply list Ruth Bader Ginsberg’s “firsts” is no small task: first in her class at Columbia Law; author of the first sex discrimination case argued successfully before the Supreme Court; first tenured law professor at Columbia; not to mention, first Supreme Court justice so beloved and inspiring as to win her own rap moniker (the Notorious RBG). In this comprehensive biography, written with the cooperation of Ginsberg, we see Ginsburg’s impressive and instructive journey from Brooklyn girl growing up in the shadow of the Holocaust to the 107th Supreme Court Justice.
(On sale: 10/16/18)Also available from: -
The Winters
Available from:The premise for Gabriele’s novel is irresistible: updating Daphne du Maurier’s classic suspense novel Rebecca and transporting it to the moneyed and socially incestuous Hamptons. In this retelling, the naive protagonist falls in love with a powerful, politically ambitious widower, whose relationship with his spoiled daughter is only slightly less sinister than the apparent refusal of his first wife, Rebekah, to stay safely dead and gone. Sure to chill and delight in equal measure.
(On sale: 10/16/18)Also available from: -
The White Darkness
Available from:Henry Worsley made it his life goal to walk across Antarctica, finishing the trip his idol, Ernest Shackleton, failed to complete more than 200 years ago. After years of planning and preparation, he achieved his goal in 2008, traversing the continent with two of Shackleton’s descendants. So what do you do once you’ve accomplished a dangerous, seemingly impossible dream? If you’re Worsley, you try to do it again, this time by yourself. In this gripping true account, Grann describes Worsley’s 2015 solo attempt to cross one of the most uninhabitable landscapes on earth: on foot, alone, and with only his will to keep him going.
(On sale: 10/30/18)Also available from:
