The fall books compendium!

2024 just keeps giving!

photo courtesy bookshop.org

Hello and welcome to the fall books edition of GRETAGRAM! There are SO MANY great books out this season. This list was compiled by me with help from a bunch of GRETAGRAM readers, and it’s arranged by release date! There’s a little something for everyone here, from celeb memoir to essays about motherhood to lit fic and rom coms and vampire stuff.

Death at the Sign of the Rook: A Jackson Brodie Book, Kate Atkinson (out now!)

I’m always jazzed by a new book by a favorite author, even more so when it’s a new book in a stellar series. Bonus FALL excitement points because of the inclusion of a rook in the title and on the cover! - Whitney

Creation Lake, Rachel Kushner (out now!)

All I know is that this is a literary spy thriller, and that’s all I need to know. -Greta

Colored Television, Danzy Senna (out now!)

The description has so much to chew on! I love writers who find interesting ways to write about writing and the absurdities therein. -Cara

***this is the GRETAGRAM September book club pick!***

So Thirsty, Rachel Harrison (9/10)

Rachel Harrison has a gift for placing the mythical into real life with thrillingly disturbing results. This would make an excellent start to your spooky reason reading list! -Greta

Somewhere Beyond the Sea, TJ Klune (9/10)

I’m very excited for this sequel to The House in the Cerulean Sea because the first book was such a great, wholesome story about embracing our differences and what makes us unique, recognizing strengths, and finding your place to make the world better in an age where we feel like cogs in a larger machine with so many systemic issues. TJ Klune does a great job of writing stories about coupled and lovely relationships, both romantic and platonic. -Sam 

Big Fan, Alexandra Romanoff (9/10)

Alexandra has written several novels, including the amazing Grace and the Fever, as Zan Romanoff, and this new rom-com looks like a delightful read. -Greta

Tell Me Everything, Elizabeth Strout (9/10)

Award-winning author Elizabeth Strout returns to her well-loved characters with this one. If you need “autumn in Maine” vibes, this is for you! -Greta

Entitlement, Rumaan Alam (9/17)

I will read anything this man writes! -Greta

The Third Gilmore Girl, Kelly Bishop (9/17)

Kelly Bishop is a legend and as Emily she had the best character arc in Gilmore Girls. -Tunde

Sky Full of Elephants, Cebo Campbell (9/17)

This provocative debut speculative novel explores what the world would look like if all white people suddently disappeared. I am intrigued!!! -Greta

Rejection: Fiction, Tony Tulathimutte (9/17)

This is a novel-in-stories with a linked theme: you guessed it, rejection. A blurb by Carmen Maria Machado means I’m all in! -Greta

How to Tell When We Will Die: On Pain, Disability, and Doom, Johanna Hedva (9/24)

The description of this book is astoundingly interesting: “In their radical reimagining of a world where care and pain are symbiotic, and our bodies are allowed to live free and well, Hedva implores us to remember that illness is neither an inconvenience or inevitability, but an enlivening and elemental part of being alive.” I can’t wait to read it! -Greta

Intermezzo, Sally Rooney (9/24)

Every time I think I’m not going to like a Sally Rooney book, there’s a part of the book that just destroys me. I spent most of Beautiful World, Where Are You not feeling connected to the characters and then she blew me away with one particular chapter, where everything turned on its head. That’s such a rare reading experience. Honestly the premise isn’t what’s hooking me, but I’ll follow Sally Rooney where she wants to go. – Corinne

The Empusium: A Health Resort Horror Story, Olga Tokarszuk (9/24)

The atmosphere and characters Olga built around an isolated community in her last book makes me absolutely delighted to see what she does with a haunted WWII sanitorium. I mean, just that setting is incredible. -Corinne 

Let’s Move the Needle: An Activism Handbook for Artists, Crafters, Creatives, and Makers; Build Community and Make Change!, Shannon Downey (10/1)

Obviously I’m biased here, but I LOVE SHANNON AND SO SHOULD YOU. This book is about how to positively affect change in your community, but it’s also a great book to help us all be better humans. -Greta

The Message, Ta-Nehisi Coates (10/1)

Ta-Nehisi is a must-read, always. -Greta

The Mighty Red, Louise Erdrich (10/1)

Louise Erdrich is phenomenal. -Greta

The Great When: A Long London Novel, Alan Moore (10/1)

I don't know what to expect, but I am an Alan Moore fan and looking forward to this! - Rob

Fang Fiction, Kate Stayman-London (10/1)

Kate Stayman-London’s first book One to Watch was SUCH a pleasure. She is an A+ human and I am extremely biased but this will be very fun! -Greta

Ottolenghi Comfort, Yotam Ottolenghi/Helen Goh (10/8)

Two words I didn’t know I needed together: Ottolenghi and comfort. This is guaranteed to be a gorgeous book! -Greta

Women’s Hotel, Daniel Lavery (10/15)

Daniel Lavery is full of charm and wit, and I’m really excited to check out his next book. -Greta

What Goes with What, Julia Turshen (10/15)

Julia’s books are lovely, and this sounds like a super helpful framework for cooking delicious things. -Greta

The Arizona Triangle, Sydney Graves (10/22)

This book is VERY INTENSE but really great! Read if you like: Tana French, Louisa Luna’s Alice Vega books. -Greta

How to Fall in Love in a Time of Unnameable Disaster, Muriel Leung (10/22)

The title alone is magnificent! -Greta

Lifeform, Jenny Slate (10/22)

Little Weirds is an all-time favorite so I’m excited to check this one out! -Greta

The Grey Wolf, Louise Penny (10/29)

The combination of delicious prose and memorable characters always captures me. - Michele

Eleanore of Avignon, Elizabeth Delozier (11/5)

Eleanore comes out November 5th, when we might need some literary escapism. It’s a feminist story of a midwife and herbalist in France during the Black Plague. - Torrie

You Gotta Eat: Real-Life Strategies for Feeding Yourself When Cooking Feels Impossible, Margaret Eby (11/19)

What a welcome premise to a cookbook! No frills, no preciousness, just deliciousness and ease. -Greta

The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World, Robin Wall Kimmerer (11/19)

I loved her first book, Braiding Sweetgrass, which came out all the way back in 2013 but has been sort of a slow-growing favorite I feel like with an ever increasing number of people. She’s a member of the Potawatomi nation and a professor of botany.  She writes nonfiction books that bring both indigenous knowledge and wisdom about the natural world, and formal western scientific thought to bear on the human connection to the natural world and what our responsibilities are to it. (I’m also just the kind of person who likes audiobooks about trees and birds lol. I think when you turn 40 it activates a sleeper cell in the brain of middle class white ladies and suddenly you find yourself with a bird feeder and a gardening hat.) -Melissa

(I also compiled them into a list at bookshop.org, where I have an affiliate shop. That means you can support independent bookstores while also supporting my freelance work! No pressure, though! I just want you to read books you love, and of course to support local indies whenever you can.)

A summer book giveaway! (Seven, in fact!)

Starting this coming MONDAY, I’m going to give away a book each day next week! The giveaway pool is for paid subscribers, who are all automatically entered into every giveaway drawing I do. Here’s the stack o’ books I’ll be mailing out:

The book giveaways are my special way of saying THANK YOU to the people who can financially support my work. As you know, I’m still figuring out what a freelance career can look like, and so far, Substack has been a really exciting and lovely space for experimentation. I am committed to keeping all content on GRETAGRAM free for anyone who wants to read it! But if you’re in a position to be able to support my work, I would be very grateful, especially as I enter this new chapter! Everyone who becomes a paid subscriber will get a hand-written postcard from me, and you’ll be entered into every drawing I do. 

Whether you’re a reader or a paying subscriber, thanks for being here! I hope this list of new releases helps foster a lovely bookish fall for you.

Talk to you soon,

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