Minimalist Fall Reading Guide

[00:00:00] Welcome to the What to Read Next podcast. Today, my guest is Victoria from Biblio Lifestyle, and she's coming back to talk to us about the minimalist fall reading guide. If you haven't been a fan of this show, we actually have this on a quarterly basis. She comes in and talks about the reading guide recommendations that she puts together.

She reads all the books that are coming out in every season and she tells us which ones we should pick up this is a minimalist guide, which means there's about six to eight recommendations that she's sharing. And this is just a short list for books that you should definitely pick up this this season.

If you want more recommendations, please make sure to download the full reading guide at fullreadingguide. com. This episode was originally recorded as part of Novel Nights, which is our YouTube channel live show that airs every Thursday from 7 to 8 p. m. Eastern Standard Time on YouTube, Twitch, Instagram, and Facebook.

All right, let's get to the show.

Hello everyone. Welcome to Novel Nights. I'm Victoria. I'm Laura. I'm Francesca. And we're back. . And [00:01:00] today we are doing all things fall. This is going to be Novel Nights

everyone, I am sharing books today. I guess you could call it a preview from my fall reading guide.

If you go to fall reading guide.com, you can sign up I'll be sharing a couple of books from the guide. So the form reading guide this year has 33 books. I know it's an odd number, but it has 33 books in eight categories. So we have eight notori fiction, three nonfiction.

three historical fictions, three books with themes of family and friendship, , six mysteries and thrillers, six romance, three science fiction and fantasy and three books that are more like gothic and horror based books. So that's what you can expect in a guide. Now, I'm just gonna share some of the books that I highly recommend So the literary fiction selection, from the guide is entitlement by ruman alam That's the standout book that i'm recommending that you read.

This [00:02:00] book comes out september 17th And entitlement kind of looks at this woman. She's a black woman. She's educated at vasa She ends up being a teacher and she ends up leaving her teaching job because of course We all know teaching doesn't pay and she becomes a protege to this billionaire and she works at his charitable foundation and the guy's rich and we see her kind of really being enamored with all the privileges and the wealth that you know comes with being in this job and what happens is we see her ambition get the best of her and we see how this kind of really leads her to make questionable decisions and choices.

So this is a novel that really explores how the proximity to money can actually alter your your point of view and how you move through life. Yeah I just, I really enjoyed this one. I think it's, I think it's really special. So I hope people will consider picking up entitlement by Roman [00:03:00] alarm.

His previous book was leave the world behind. That was really good. Yes, I love his work needless to say. So that's literary fiction. The nonfiction selection that I am recommending is the Roman year by Andre Aciman. Now this is nonfiction and I know people No, Andre Aciman from his fiction.

But this one is a memoir and it's about his experiences as a refugee in Rome after his family was expelled from Egypt. So we really see the emotional and the financial toll faced by him and his family. His mom is deaf. So we see her having to navigate this new place. He also has a younger brother and because of the financial constraints and their lives.

being so dependent on an uncle of theirs. Who he's the stingy uncle, right? So very tight with the money. So we see how the family just navigates and being a refugee in Rome. However, we [00:04:00] see Andre through his I guess his new found space in terms of doing interpret, doing interpretive work.

So he's an interpreter, we see him really leaning into that. And of course, finding comfort in books and reading. And over time we see him develop an affection for Rome. So this is like a coming of age story. While also reflecting on his life back home, in egypt and you know his new home here in rome but what I really appreciated as someone who loves rome is just you know, the descriptions of the city So I love seeing rome in this light So you get some armchair traveling with that as well.

So that's my nonfiction selection The Roman Year by Andre Aciman. Now my historical fiction selection in the guide is, I'm known notoriously to not pick traditional historical fiction. So yes, you'll find the occasional World War II novel in there. But if I'm going to focus on a war, I try to get World War I or some other war like Korea, Vietnam, that kind of vibe.

But then I'll pick something just [00:05:00] completely different. And the one that is completely different is the Emposium. Now I cannot pronounce Olga's last name. Every time I try, it comes out wrong. And I just, I love her work. I'm a big fan. So from flights to the book of Jacob to , the bones of the dead book.

I forgot that one because that one was actually one of my favorites But anyways in the Emposium The novel follows a young man a young polish man who seeks treatment for tuberculosis at this Sanitarium and it's located in this mountain town. I forgot the name. But anyway, the resort is full of people so he ends up staying at this nearby inn And we see strange occurrences starting to unfold and by the way, this is set \ like early 20th century Yeah but anyway a whole bunch of odd things start to happen and we see him connecting with people And, trying to find out what's going on. And then we see the men at this facility debating on life, from politics to gender [00:06:00] differences and just, where we're going in the future.

Cause obviously this is set early 20th century. So anyway, it's a very suspenseful narrative. There's also some mystery, but there's also lots of thoughts. And I really enjoyed it. And Oh, this one comes out September 17th. And I forgot to say the Romania comes out in October sometime. So again, remember the full reading guide.

I read all these books in advance to share them with you. So when you get the guide, you'll see all the books coming out like around September. I might include a late August because there's a late August book or two in there, but the books are September, October, November. That's a kind of range. So those are the kinds of books you can expect.

Okay, the next book I want to share with you is a book with themes of family and friendship and the book I'm recommending is Shred Sisters by Betsy Lerner. This one comes out in October and we see our main character in the story. Her name is Amy. We [00:07:00] see her kind of navigating her childhood. We have coming of age elements and her into early adulthood as we see her life being influenced by her older sister.

Now her older sister is, her life is very chaotic and very tumultuous. So we see, living with a rebellious sibling and how, another sibling comes of age and navigates life, having to live with that. So this is set in Connecticut and we see this family dynamic. along with our main character's journey.

So we see Amy's journey, so we see her being an outsider in her community, but also within her family, to becoming a more self sufficient and determined adult. I think what makes this one really stand out is we got to see the compelling relationships with not just the sister, but with her parents and also partners.

It read like a memoir I have to be honest it really did but I still really enjoyed it yeah, so shred sisters by amy learner. Okay, [00:08:00] something more fun thrillers \. So my thriller pic is you can't hurt And this is very interesting, like the title is literal.

So You Can't Hurt Me by Emma Cook follows this journalist who is doing some work for this neuroscientist, like helping to write his I think it's like his memoir or something. She's helping him do some writings, long story short. And she's like a ghost writer behind the scenes. And, While she's doing this she learns more about his wife who has passed away and she realizes oh my gosh There's something with this woman.

She can't feel any pain Right and she mysteriously dies So just think about it like someone who exists who can't feel pain and then they die Under mysterious circumstances. So we see her because as she's so close to this man, and she's you know writing for him She's something's up and because she's so close to him as well.

She is seeing his diaries The wife's diaries i'm sorry and stuff like [00:09:00] that. So she really starts to question things and then It doesn't help that an investigation has been opened again to look into the wife's death. So of course we see our main character, the journalist having to navigate the secrets, but also the motives around her without, Getting in harm's way herself.

So that's the mystery and thriller one. For romance I'm definitely more contemporary romance girly and The book I'm recommending I feel just has a little bit of everything so you get romance you get cozy and all the things and it's best hex ever by Nadia El Farsi. Love, love this book. I felt it just checked so much boxes for me.

And it felt very fall, autumn, wintry and all the things, right? So this one follows a kitchen witch. And she runs this cafe in London and it was really fun because she can cast spells for other people, but she has a curse on herself that she can't fix. But like she can, because she runs a [00:10:00] cafe, you can go and you can get like a beverage or a pastry or whatever and she can make it it makes you feel better or give you a bit of luck or brings back, bring back positive memories or just whatever it is that you're looking for.

But anyway, she can cast spell for others, but she can't get rid of a hex, which will, and the hex on her is that anybody she tries to get in a relationship with. Bad things are going to happen to that person, so it's it really affects her love life. She meets this guy who works at the British Museum and, sparks fly between them and all that.

But she's hesitant to pursue a romance with him because of said hex. Anyway, she becomes the maid of honor at one of her, at her friend's wedding and then the friend is The friend's wedding, the friend is marrying the museum guy's friend and the museum guy is the best man. So we see them running back into each other at the wedding, during the wedding happenings because he's the best man and she's a maid of honor.

That's how they're brought back together again. And through the festivities, we see them, get to know each other. Of course, sparks are flying and [00:11:00] them having, she has to decide whether or not she can actually lift the hex or if she should pursue this and just embrace it. So I loved it.

You get magic, you get romance, you get friendship, you get family. So that was just like giving all the things I personally wanted. Okay. Or science fiction fantasy selection is a city in glass. And I have to say, I love everything. How, I forgot how you say her name, Nevo, I forgot. Anyway, love everything this author writes.

So this is a science fiction fantasy selection and we meet a demon who has this What do you call it? Like her city. Yeah, like a community, an area and it's a very nice and vibrant place But then we see some angels come and destroy the city So she captures one of the angels who destroyed her place and kind of binds the angel with this curse So we see her because the place is destroyed.

So we see her trying to rebuild the place [00:12:00] And she forms like this odd, complicated relationship with the angel that she has hexed and bonded. So we see them kind of building a relationship while she is rebuilding the city and just overcoming the hatred. And we see like histories come to the surface and just seeing them navigating each other.

So it's very transformative. Their relationship. So we see it moving from like anger, hate and loss. to one of like love and redemption. But the world building is what's brilliant. This is a standalone novel and it's just, it's brilliant. It's very immersive. So if you're looking for, demons and angels and a world destroyed and being rebuilt, this I think would be a good book for you.

And then the last one is gothic and horror and the book i'm recommending is the night guest and I cannot pronounce that author's name So i'm not even going to attempt it [00:13:00] but just look for the book with a pretty bright pink cover Entitled the night guest now. This is a horror It's a psychological horror and we have our main character can't pronounce her name either but she's this woman and she's suffering from chronic exhaustion Like this woman is tired all the medicine and Therapies and things that she's trying is just not working for her, right?

So anyways come to find out she gets up to some serious things at the night during nighttime like she's sleepwalking and doing all kinds of Things let me just say that but she doesn't know that she's doing these things, she's unaware So it's only when she gets like this sleep tracker thing she's able to really see what's happening because she would wake up with like injuries And you know how you have your apple watches and things and you have a high you, you check your steps.

She's discovering like I'm getting up to some crazy things because she'll have 40, [00:14:00] 50, 000 steps when she should be sleeping. So when she records herself, she legit sets up her phone, records herself. She realizes, Oh my gosh, I am getting up to some serious. Bad things and we see that kind of leading to some terrifying consequences.

We see it possibly threaten her life. And yeah, just some very disturbing events. Note it is a horror, but it's more psychological horror. Just expect like really surreal elements. But there's like this buildup. And a bit grotesque, but great ending. I felt like this book's strength is in its ending.

But anyways, that's it for my preview. I guess you could say these are the books from the minimalist reads list and you can all find them inside the fall reading guide. So those are my books. What do y'all think? Crazy mix. I think the fantasy looks amazing. Yeah, it is really good.

It is good. It's a quick read. I think I love, I [00:15:00] think of the selection in the guide, I'm in love with the fantasy and the gothic horror selections. Like I'm always a literary girlie at heart, but I'm really in love with those and I think They are perfectly immersive for the fall The standout romance is best hex ever.

I just thought that was just so fun I love the whole I love kitchen witches. I think that's my kind of favorite kind of witch

If you enjoyed this recommendations and want to hear more about the 33 books selections, make sure download the fall reading guide at fallreadingguide.com. Thank you Victoria, for sharing your recommendations. And I hope you have a great day.