September 2018 Book List
It’s September already and I haven’t finished my summer reading yet, so I still have quite a pile of books spilling over into fall. You won’t find many starred selections to add to my pile on this list yet. But I am guessing I will be choosing more titles from this list in the future. There are many things that divide our attention these days and reading, a time-consuming pastime, may seem hard to fit into your schedule, but a single book, ostensibly about only one topic, brings to mind so much more than perhaps the author even intended. For depth, for language, for character, for ideas, for world view, no other media offers as much as a great book. Find time if you can in this busy season to read some books that appeal to you.
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Literature and Fiction
Washington Black: A Novel by Esi Odegyan
A Key to Treehouse Living by Elliot Reed
Lake Success: A Novel by Gay Shteyngart
We That Are Young: A Novel by Preti Taneja
Transcription: A Novel by Kate Atkinson *
Waiting for Eden by Elliot Ackerman
French Exit: A Novel by Patrick deWitt
The Mermaid and Mrs. Hancock: A Novel by Imogn Hermes Gowar
The Tattooist of Auschwitz: A Novel by Heather Morris
Mysteries and Thrillers
Cross Her Heart: A Novel by Sarah Pinborough
The Wildlands: A Novel by Abby Geni
Rylan Does to Detroit by Peter Leonard
When the Lights Go Out by Mary Kubica
Trust Me by Hank Phillippi Ryan
The 7 ½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton
Wild Fire: A Shetland Island Mystery by Ann Cleeves
Lethal White (A Cormoran Strike Novel) by Robert Gilbraith
The Piranhas: The Boy Bosses of Naples: A Novel by Roberto Saviano Antony Shugaar
Depth of Winter (A Longmire Mystery) by Craig Johnson
Miss Kopp Just Won’t Quit (A Kopp Sisters Novel) by Amy Stewart
The Forbidden Place by Susanne Jansson
The Man Who Came Uptown by George Pelicanos
Nonfiction
Hello World: Being Human in the Age of Algorithms by Hannah Fry
Heart: A History by Sandeep Jauhar
How Do We Look: The Body, the Divine, and the Question of Civilization by Mary Beard
Fear: Trump in the White House by Bob Woodward
How to Invent Everything: A Survival Guide for the Stranded Time Traveler by Ryan North
The Personality Brokers: The Strange History of Myers-Briggs and the Birth of Personality Testing by Merve Emre
Leadership in Turbulent Times by Doris Kearns Goodwin
Accessory to War: The Unspoken Alliance Between Astrophysics and the Military by Neil deGrasse Tyson, Avis Lang
The Dinosaur Artist: Obsession, Betrayal, and the Quest for Earth’s Ultimate Trophy by Paige Williams
Burning Down the Haus: Punk Rock, Revolution, and the Fall of the Berlin Wall by Tim Mohr
Football for a Buck: The Crazy Rise and Crazier Demise of the USFL by Jeff Perlman
These Truths: A History of the United States by Jill Lepore
Daeman Voices: On Stories and Storytelling by Philip Pullman
21 Lessons for the 21stCentury by Yuval Noah Harari
Biographies and Memoirs
My Own Devices: True Stories from the Road on Music, Science and Senseless Love by Dessa
On the Other Side of Freedom: The Case for Hope by De Ray Mckesson
Heartland: A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth by Sarah Smarsh
The Spy and the Traitor: The Greatest Espionage Story of the Cold War by Ben Macintyre
The Real Lolita: The Kidnapping of Sally Horner and the Novel that Scandalized the World by Sarah Weinman
Billion Dollar Whale: The Man Who Fooled Wall Street, Hollywood, and the World by Tom Wright and Bradley Hope
Small Fry by Lisa Brennan-Jobs
The Good Neighbor: The Life and Work of Fred Rogers by Maxwell King
The Last Palace: Europe’s Turbulent Century in Five Lives and One Legendary House by Norman Eisen
In Pieces by Sally Field
A Song for the River by Philip Connors
The Browns of California: The Family Dynasty that Transformed a State and Shaped a Nation by Miriam Pawel
The Escape Artists: A Band of Daredevil Pilots and the Greatest Prison Break of the Great War by Neal Bascomb
New York Times Book Review
Aug. 2
Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik (F)
Clock Dance by Anne Tyler (F) *
Metamorphics by Zachery Mason (F)
Welcome to Lagos by Chibundu Onuzo (F)
The Mere Wife by Maria Dahvana Headley (F)
Nonfiction
The Trials of Nina McCall by Scott W Stern
Dopesick by Beth Macy
Amity and Prosperity by Eliza Griswold
The Prison Letters of Nelson Mandela by Nelson Mandela *
Light of the Stars by Adam Frank
City of Devils by Paul French
Rome: A History of Seven Sackings by Matthew Kneale
What the Eyes Don’t See by Mona Hanna-Attisha
The Poisoned City by Anna Clark
Conceivability by Elizabeth Katkin
An Excellent Choice by Emma Brockes
Kissinger the Negotiator by James K Sekenius, R. Nicholas Burns, and Robert H Mrookin
A Girl Stands at the Door by Rachel Devlin
In Search of Mary Shelby by Fiona Sampson
Aug. 12
Fiction
Hit and Misses by Simon Rich
A Terrible Country by Keith Gessen
The Middle Man by Olen Steinhauer
Playthings by Alex Pheby
The Shortlist
Sugar Money by Jane Harris
I Was Anastasia by Ariel Lawhon
The Butcher’s Daughter by Victoria Glendinning
The Removes by Tatjana Soli
Nonfiction
Crashed by Adam Tooze
Aroused by Randi Hutter Epstein
Empress by Ruby Lai
No One Tells You This by Glynnis MacNicol
Killing It by Camas Davis
Carbon Ideologies by William T Vollmann
Famous Father Girl by Jamie Bernstein
No Ashes in the Fire by Darnell L Moore
Conservatism: An Invitation to the Great Tradition by Roger Scruton
Into the Hands of Soldiers by David D Kirkpatrick
August 19
Nonfiction
The Tangled Tree by David Quammen
Into the Hands of the Soldiers by David D Kirkpatrick
The Third Bank of the River by Chris Feliciano Arnold
My Year of Dirt and Water by Tracy Franz
Borrowed Time by James Freeman and Vern McKinley
After the Educations Wars by Andrea Gabor
Rising by Elizabeth Rush
The Equations of Life by Charles S Cockell
Devil’s Mile by Alice Sparberg Alexiou
Fiction
Never Anyone But You by Rupert Thomson
The Family Tabor by Cherise Wola
A Long Island Story by Rick Gekoski
Crime Fiction
Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
Isolation Mountain by Stephen O’Connor
The Breakers by Marcia Muller
Don’t Eat Me by Colin Cotterill
August 26
Nonfiction
Winners Take All by Anand Giridharadas
The Husband Hunters by Anne de Courcy
I Will Be Complete by Glen David Gold (Memoir)
Mr. Lear: A Life of Art and Nonsense by Jenny Uglow
Jello Girls by Allie Rowbottom
Ninety-nine Glimpses of Princess Margaret by Craig Brown
Small Animals by Kim Brooks
The Fighters by CJ Chivers
Fly Girls by Keith O’Brien
Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor by Yossi Klein Halevi
Fiction
The Traitor’s Niche by Ismael Kadare
Tin Man by Sarah Winman
If You See Me Don’t Say Hi by Neel Patel
A Shout in the Ruins by Kevin Powers
The Shortlist
Love by Hanne Orstavik, trans. by Martin Aitken
Wait, Blink: A Novel by Gunnhild Oyehaug, trans by Kari Dickson
Mirror, Shoulder, Signal by Dorthe Nors
Sept. 2
Nonfiction
The Splintering of the American Mind by William Egginton
The Coddling of the American Mind by Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Hait
Arthur Ashe: A Life by Raymond Arsenault
Bitwise by David Auerbach
Identity by Francis Fukuyama
The Lies that Bind by Kwame Anthony Appiah
Dead Girls by Alice Bolen
Against Memoir by Michelle Tea
Dickinson’s Nerves, Frost’s Woods by William Logan
Fiction
Red, White, Blue by Lea Carpenter
Safe Houses by Dan Fesperman
The Garden Party by Grace Dane Mazur *
This Mournable Body by Tsitsi Dangarembga
Read Me by Leo Benedictus
The Shortlist
A Walk Through Paris by Eric Hazan, trans. by David Fernbach
My Twenty-Five Years in Provence: Reflections on Then and Now by Peter Mayle
A Bite-Sized History of France: Gastronomical Tales of Revolution, War, and Enlightenment by Stéphane Hénaut and Jeni Mitchell
(Not Quite) Mastering the Art of French Living by Mark Greenside
Crime Novels
Gravesend by William Boyle
Depth of Winter by Walt Longmire
In Her Bones by Kate Moretti
Sunrise Highway by Peter Blauner
Publisher’s Weekly Tip Sheet
August 6
The Spy of Venice by Benet Brandreth (F)
Illegal by Eoin Colfer and Andrew Donkin (F) (Graphic Novel)
So Much Left Over by Louis de Bernieres (F)
Nameless Serenade: Nocturne for Commisario Ricciardi by Maurizio de Giovanni, trans. from the Italian by Antony Shugaar (F)
Perennial by Kelly Forsythe (F) *
Desperate Girls by Laura Griffin (F)
Maeve in America: Essays by a Girl from Somewhere Else by Maeve Higgins (NF) (Essays)
The Blue and the Black: A Cop Reveals Crimes, Racism, and Injustice in America’s Law Enforcement by Matthew Horace and Ron Harris (NF)
If You Leave Me by Crystal Hanna Kim (F)
Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company that Addicted America by Beth Macy (NF)
A Short Film About Disappointment: A Novel by Joshua Mattson (F)
The Arab of the Future 3: A Childhood in the Middle East, 1985-1987 by Riad Sattouf (Memoir)
Before She Sleeps by Bina Shah (F)
Reader, Come Home: The Reading Brain in a Digital World by Maryanne Wolf (NF)
August 13
Blind Kiss: A Novel by Renée Carlino (F)
Pinnacle City by Matt Carter and Fiona J. Titchwell (F)
Playing Changes: Jazz for the New Century by Nate Chinen (NF)
Don’t Eat Me by Colin Cotterill (Mystery)
The End of all Our Exploring by F.Brett Cox (Short Stories)
Pretty Things by Virginia Despentes (F)
Founding Martyr: The Life and Death of Dr. Joseph Warren, The American Revolution’s Lost Hero by Christian Di Spigna (NF)
Sweet Little Lies by Caz Frear (Mystery)
De Gaulle by Julian Jackson (Bio)
The Carrying by Ada Limón (Poems)
Amateur: A True Story about What Makes a Man by Thomas Page McBee (NF)
Flights by Olga Tokarczuk, trans. from the Polish by Jennifer Croft (F)
August 20
Little Man, Little Man: A Story of Childhood by James Baldwin for his nephew, Ages 10+ (reprint)
Foundryside by Robert Jackson Bennett (Fantasy)
Fogland Point by Doug Burgess “a standout” (F)*
Red, White, Blue by Lee Carpenter (spy novel)
Heartbreaker: A Novel by Claudia Dey (F) “it’s the voice”
Desirable Body by Hubert Haddad (F)
Summer by Karl Ove Knausgaard (F)
The Boy on the Beach: My Family’s Escape from Syria and Our Hope for a New Home by Tima Kurdi (NF)
Notes from the Fog by Ben Marcus (Short Story)
Swift Vengeance by T Jefferson Parker (F)
A Life of My Own by Claire Tomain (Memoir)
August 27
Pandemic 1918: Eyewitness Accounts from the Greatest Medical Holocaust in Modern History by Catharine Arnold (NF)
Unapologetic: A Black, Queer and Feminist Mandate for Radical Movements by Charlene Carruthers (NF)
The Imposter: A True Story by Javier Cercas (Bio)
Bloody Rose by Nicholas Eames (Fantasy) “a messy glorious romp” *
Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World by Anand Giridharadas (NF)
21 Lessons for the 21stCentury by Yuval Noah Harari (NF)
Little Comfort by Edwin Hall (F)
The Disordered Mind: What Unusual Brains Tell Us About Ourselves by Eric R Kandel (NF)
Been So Long: My Life and Music by Jorma Kaukonen (Memoir)
Dog Symphony by Sam Munson (F)
September 3
Better Times by Sara Batkie (Short Stories)
Small Fry: A Memoir by Lisa Brennan-Jobs (Memoir)
Terra Nullius by Claire G Coleman (F)
Fashion Climbing: A Memoir with Photographs by Bill Cunningham (Memoir)
Pay No Heed to the Rockets: Life in Contemporary Palestine by Marcello Di Cintio (Memoir)
The Last Palace: Europe’s Turbulent Century in Five Lives and One Legendary House (NF)
Pale Horse Rider: William Cooper, The Rise of Conspiracy, and the Fall of Trust in America by Mark Jacobson (NF)
Every Day is Extra by John Kerry (Memoir)
The Golden State by Lydia Kiesling (F)
After the Winter by Guadalupe Nettel, trans. from the Spanish by Rosalind Harvey (F)
We That are Young by Preti Taneja (F)
Ponti by Sharlene Teo (F)
So Many Books, Choose Wisely 