October is my birthday month, which is exciting because it’s also a month for so many incredible book birthdays! Many of my favorite authors are releasing new books this month, and many more authors who I’ve recently discovered are too! If you are looking for a new book to read, this is certainly a great month to do so. Below are the 10 books I’m most excited to read:
Mad Honey
Author: Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Finney Boylan
Genre: Mystery / Thriller
Release Date: October 4th, 2022
My Thoughts: I am so excited to read this book. I love Jodi Picoult because she manages to capture the truth behind emotions so well. Reading her books is like being transported into another world. This book is written with a co-author, so I’m intrigued to see how that plays out here.
Goodreads Summary: A soul-stirring novel about what we choose to keep from our past, and what we choose to leave behind.
Olivia McAfee knows what it feels like to start over. Her picture-perfect life—living in Boston, married to a brilliant cardiothoracic surgeon, raising a beautiful son, Asher—was upended when her husband revealed a darker side. She never imagined she would end up back in her sleepy New Hampshire hometown, living in the house she grew up in, and taking over her father’s beekeeping business.
Lily Campanello is familiar with do-overs, too. When she and her mom relocate to Adams, New Hampshire, for her final year of high school, they both hope it will be a fresh start.
And for just a short while, these new beginnings are exactly what Olivia and Lily need. Their paths cross when Asher falls for the new girl in school, and Lily can’t help but fall for him, too. With Ash, she feels happy for the first time. Yet at times, she wonders if she can she trust him completely . . .
Then one day, Olivia receives a phone call: Lily is dead, and Asher is being questioned by the police. Olivia is adamant that her son is innocent. But she would be lying if she didn’t acknowledge the flashes of his father’s temper in him, and as the case against him unfolds, she realizes he’s hidden more than he’s shared with her.
Mad Honey is a riveting novel of suspense, an unforgettable love story, and a moving and powerful exploration of the secrets we keep and the risks we take in order to become ourselves.
Màgòdiz
Author: Gabe Calderón
Genre: Adult Fantasy / Adventure
Release Date: October 4th, 2022
My Thoughts: This book sounds great for lovers of adventure in the spirit of She who Became the Sun or other such fantastical world building novels. One of the main characters is a Two-Spirit person that uses neopronouns, so it appears that there will be queer representation in this fantasy universe!
Goodreads Summary: Màgòdiz (Anishinabemowin, Algonquin dialect): a person who refuses allegiance to, resists, or rises in arms against the government or ruler of their country.
Everything that was green and good is gone, scorched away by a war that no one living remembers. The small surviving human population scavenges to get by; they cannot read or write and lack the tools or knowledge to rebuild. The only ones with any power are the mindless Enforcers, controlled by the Madjideye, a faceless, formless spiritual entity that has infiltrated the world to subjugate the human population.
A’tugwewinu is the last survivor of the Andwànikàdjigan. On the run from the Madjideye with her lover, Bèl, a descendant of the Warrior Nation, they seek to share what the world has forgotten: stories. In Pasakamate, both Shkitagen, the firekeeper of his generation, and his life’s heart, Nitàwesì, whose hands mend bones and cure sickness, attempt to find a home where they can raise children in peace, without fear of slavers or rising waters. In Zhōng yang, Riordan wheels around just fine, leading xir gang of misfits in hopes of surviving until the next meal. However, Elite Enforcer H-09761 (Yun Seo, who was abducted as a child, then tortured and brainwashed into servitude) is determined to arrest Riordan for theft of resources and will stop at nothing to bring xir to the Madjideye. In a ruined world, six people collide, discovering family and foe, navigating friendship and love, and reclaiming the sacredness of the gifts they carry.
With themes of resistance, of ceremony as the conduit between realms, and of transcending gender, Màgòdiz is a powerful and visionary reclamation that Two-Spirit people always have and always will be vital to the cultural and spiritual legacy of their communities.
Such Sharp Teeth
Author: Rachel Harrison
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Release Date: October 4th, 2022
My Thoughts: This book goes out to all of the lovers of strong fantasy here. It looks like a combination of a powerful woman and a werewolf story, which isn’t necessarily my go to choice but has somehow been made appealing to me because of the cover of the book.
Goodreads Summary: A young woman in need of a transformation finds herself in touch with the animal inside in this gripping, incisive novel from the author of Cackle and The Return.
Rory Morris isn’t thrilled to be moving back to her hometown, even if it is temporary. There are bad memories there. But her twin sister, Scarlett, is pregnant, estranged from the baby’s father, and needs support, so Rory returns to the place she thought she’d put in her rearview. After a night out at a bar where she runs into an old almost-flame, she hits a large animal with her car. And when she gets out to investigate, she’s attacked.
Rory survives, miraculously, but life begins to look and feel different. She’s unnaturally strong, with an aversion to silver–and suddenly the moon has her in its thrall. She’s changing into someone else–something else, maybe even a monster. But does that mean she’s putting those close to her in danger? Or is embracing the wildness inside of her the key to acceptance?
This darkly comedic love story is a brilliantly layered portrait of trauma, rage, and vulnerability.
The Storyteller’s Death
Author: Ann Dávila Cardinal
Genre: Magic / Historical Fiction
Release Date: October 4th, 2022
My Thoughts: After I read When We Were Birds, I fell in love with magical fantasy books. When there are stories from the past combined with true magical powers, everything seems so enchanting. This book promises to give us exactly that.
Goodreads Summary: From International Latino Book Award-winning author Ann Dávila Cardinal comes a gorgeously written family saga about a Puerto Rican teenager who finds herself gifted (or cursed?) with a strange ability.
There was always an old woman dying in the back room of her family’s house when Isla was a child…
Isla Larsen Sanchez’s life begins to unravel when her father passes away. Instead of being comforted at home in New Jersey, her mother starts leaving her in Puerto Rico with her grandmother and great-aunt each summer like a piece of forgotten luggage.
When Isla turns eighteen, her grandmother, a great storyteller, dies. It is then that Isla discovers she has a gift passed down through her family’s cuentistas. The tales of dead family storytellers are brought back to life, replaying themselves over and over in front of her.
At first, Isla is enchanted by this connection to the Sanchez cuentistas. But when Isla has a vision of an old murder mystery, she realizes that if she can’t solve it to make the loop end, these seemingly harmless stories could cost Isla her life.
The Future is Disabled
Author: Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha
Genre: Nonfiction
Release Date: October 4th, 2022
My Thoughts:I don’t know a ton about this book yet, given that the summary on Goodreads is just the author’s bio, but the combination of the forthright title and beautiful colors on the cover drew me in, and I’m excited to hear Lakshmi’s perspective.
Goodreads Summary: Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha is the Lambda Literary Award–winning author of Care Work: Dreaming Disability Justice, Tonguebreaker, and Dirty River. A disability justice movement worker and 2020 United States Artists Disability Futures Fellow, they are a Rust Belt–raised Sri Lankan-Irish-Roma nonbinary femme currently living in South Seattle, Duwamish territories. Her new book, The Future Is Disabled, is forthcoming in fall of 2022.
Our Missing Hearts
Author: Celeste Ng
Genre: Adult Dystopian / Literary Fiction
Release Date: October 4th, 2022
My Thoughts: I loved Little Fires Everywhere, perhaps Ng’s most popular novel, and I’m excited to read another book written by her. It looks like this is a dystopian book that’s going to directly address racism, and I’m intrigued to see how closely it will parallel our real life experiences of book suppression.
Goodreads Summary: Twelve-year-old Bird Gardner lives a quiet existence with his loving but broken father, a former linguist who now shelves books in Harvard University’s library. Bird knows to not ask too many questions, stand out too much, or stray too far. For a decade, their lives have been governed by laws written to preserve “American culture” in the wake of years of economic instability and violence. To keep the peace and restore prosperity, the authorities are now allowed to relocate children of dissidents, especially those of Asian origin, and libraries have been forced to remove books seen as unpatriotic—including the work of Bird’s mother, Margaret, a Chinese American poet who left the family when he was nine years old.
Bird has grown up disavowing his mother and her poems; he doesn’t know her work or what happened to her, and he knows he shouldn’t wonder. But when he receives a mysterious letter containing only a cryptic drawing, he is drawn into a quest to find her. His journey will take him back to the many folktales she poured into his head as a child, through the ranks of an underground network of librarians, into the lives of the children who have been taken, and finally to New York City, where a new act of defiance may be the beginning of much-needed change.
Our Missing Hearts is an old story made new, of the ways supposedly civilized communities can ignore the most searing injustice. It’s a story about the power—and limitations—of art to create change, the lessons and legacies we pass on to our children, and how any of us can survive a broken world with our hearts intact.
The First to Die at the End
Author: Adam Silvera
Genre: YA Fiction / Dystopian
Release Date: October 4th, 2022
My Thoughts: I absolutely adored They Both Die at the End. I flew through it in a day and cried the entire time, so I cannot wait for this prequel. Silvera most definitely invented the idea for this book because of the current TikTok popularity of the original, but I don’t care. I’m here for it.
Goodreads Summary: In this prequel to #1 New York Times bestselling phenomenon They Both Die at the End, two new strangers spend a life-changing day together after Death-Cast first makes their fateful calls.
It’s the night before Death-Cast goes live, and there’s one question on everyone’s mind: Can Death-Cast actually predict when someone will die, or is it just an elaborate hoax?
Orion Pagan has waited years for someone to tell him that he’s going to die. He has a serious heart condition, and he signed up for Death-Cast so he could know what’s coming.
Valentino Prince is restarting his life in New York. He has a long and promising future ahead and he only registered for Death-Cast after his twin sister nearly died in a car accident.
Orion and Valentino cross paths in Times Square and immediately feel a deep connection. But when the first round of End Day calls goes out, their lives are changed forever—one of them receives a call, and the other doesn’t. Though neither boy is certain how the day will end, they know they want to spend it together…even if that means their goodbye will be heartbreaking.
Told with acclaimed author Adam Silvera’s signature bittersweet touch, this story celebrates the lasting impact that people have on each other and proves that life is always worth living to the fullest.
Mistakes Were Made
Author: Meryl Wilsner
Genre: Adult Romance
Release Date: October 11th, 2022
My Thoughts: You can read my full review on this book if you want to, but suffice it to say that I loved the hot MILF content that it gave us. Queer age gap relationship lovers, this book is for you.
Goodreads Summary: From the critically acclaimed author of Something To Talk About comes a sharp and sexy rom-com about a college senior who accidentally hooks up with her best friend’s mom.
When Cassie Klein goes to an off-campus bar to escape her school’s Family Weekend, she isn’t looking for a hookup—it just happens. Buying a drink for a stranger turns into what should be an uncomplicated, amazing one-night stand. But then the next morning rolls around and her friend drags her along to meet her mom—the hot, older woman Cassie slept with.
Erin Bennett came to Family Weekend to get closer to her daughter, not have a one-night stand with a college senior. In her defense, she hadn’t known Cassie was a student when they’d met. To make things worse, Erin’s daughter brings Cassie to breakfast the next morning. And despite Erin’s better judgement—how could sleeping with your daughter’s friend be anything but bad?—she and Cassie get along in the day just as well as they did last night.
What should have been a one-time fling quickly proves impossible to ignore, and soon Cassie and Erin are sneaking around. Worst of all, they start to realize they have something real. But is being honest about the love between them worth the cost?
It Starts with Us
Author: Colleen Hoover
Genre: Romance
Release Date: October 18th, 2022
My Thoughts: Okay I KNOW Colleen Hoover is controversial, but I am a sucker for a cheesy romance story and I just know this book is going to deliver. I loved It Ends With Us, and I can’t wait to get the full Lilly / Atlas story. For fans new to the series, a STRONG trigger warning for domestic abuse, and a note that I am worried about Hoover’s ability to handle a sequel on the subject with grace.
Goodreads Summary: Before It Ends with Us, it started with Atlas. Colleen Hoover tells fan favorite Atlas’s side of the story and shares what comes next in this long-anticipated sequel to the “glorious and touching” (USA TODAY) #1 New York Times bestseller It Ends with Us.
Lily and her ex-husband, Ryle, have just settled into a civil coparenting rhythm when she suddenly bumps into her first love, Atlas, again. After nearly two years separated, she is elated that for once, time is on their side, and she immediately says yes when Atlas asks her on a date.
But her excitement is quickly hampered by the knowledge that, though they are no longer married, Ryle is still very much a part of her life—and Atlas Corrigan is the one man he will hate being in his ex-wife and daughter’s life.
README.txt
Author: Chelsea Manning
Genre: Memoir
Release Date: October 18th, 2022
My Thoughts: I am so excited that Chelsea Manning is writing a memoir. This is going to be such a good combination of political transparency and being a trans person, particularly in the federal system. I have a lot of respect for her as a person and am excited to learn more.
Goodreads Summary: An intimate, revealing memoir from one of the most important activists of our time.
While working as an intelligence analyst in Iraq for the United States Army in 2010, Chelsea Manning disclosed more than seven hundred thousand classified military and diplomatic records that she had smuggled out of the country on the memory card of her digital camera. In 2011 she was charged with twenty-two counts related to the unauthorized possession and distribution of classified military records, and in 2013 she was sentenced to thirty-five years in military prison.
The day after her conviction, Manning declared her gender identity as a woman and began to transition, seeking hormones through the federal court system. In 2017, President Barack Obama commuted her sentence and she was released from prison.
In README .txt, Manning recounts how her pleas for increased institutional transparency and government accountability took place alongside a fight to defend her rights as a trans woman. Manning details the challenges of her childhood and adolescence as a naive, computer-savvy kid, what drew her to the military, and the fierce pride she has about the work she does. This powerful, observant memoir will stand as one of the definitive testaments of our digital, information-driven age.
Write Through the Night 