Critic Bethanne Patrick recommends 10 promising titles (both fiction and nonfiction) to consider for your September reading list.
September’s novels come from authors who have made a big mark and include literary fiction, crime fiction, and commercial fiction about characters who leave their own big mark. Some are beloved returning characters; others feature new and complex voices. Nonfiction titles include memoir, reportage, and historical fiction, each book full of passion and purpose. Happy reading!
FICTION
Little Rain: A Novel
By Garth Greenwell
Farrar, Straus and Giroux: 320 pages, $28
(September 3)
(Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
Greenwell’s previous work (his novel What Belongs to You and his short stories Cleanness) amply demonstrate his brilliance at writing about sex and desire, as well as his brilliance with language. Now, Greenwell turns his attention to writing about grief and dependency, in a raw and, yes, brilliant story of a gay poet in his 40s whose aortic tear forces him to confront not only his own mortality, but also how he and his partner will move on with their lives if he recovers.
Guide Me Home: A Novel
By Attica Locke
Mulholland Books: 320 pages, $29
(September 3)
In the first two Highway 57 novels, Darren Matthews, a Texas ranger, faced racism and murder in East Texas. In this third and final title in the trilogy, Matthews has retired early, hoping for a quiet life, when his chaotic mother shows up and begs him to investigate a missing black girl from a sorority house. Unfortunately, even the slightest questions asked about that girl reveal corruption so ugly that Matthews has to rely on his mother to uncover the truth.
The women behind the door: a novel
By Roddy Doyle
Viking: 272 pages, $29
(September 10)
Readers first met abused addict Paula Spencer in Doyle’s 1996 “The Woman Who Walked Through the Doors” and again in 2006’s “Paula Spencer.” They’ll be glad to find her, at 66, a widow and grandmother, content with her job, her boyfriend Joe, and her children’s stable families. But when her eldest daughter, Nicola, comes to stay, planning to leave her husband and children, the two women must confront old, dark memories.
Tell me everything: a novel
By Elizabeth Strout
Random House: 352 pages, $30
(September 10)
Strout’s Amgash books, of which this is the fifth and final installment, began with “My Name Is Lucy Barton”; few of us could have predicted that the narrator would end up in Maine during the pandemic or that she would be living with her ex-husband William. Here, when lawyer Bob Burgess, Lucy’s dear friend, is accused of murder, she even ends up meeting Strout’s famous character, Olive Kitteridge, at the latter’s retirement community.
Title: A novel
By Rumaan Alam
Riverhead: 288 pages, $30
(September 17)
Brooke Orr identifies as black and follows the life path set by her white adoptive mother, which leads her to run the charitable foundation of an octogenarian billionaire. She is perplexed when an older black woman refuses the foundation's money. Alam never shies away from uncomfortable scenes or questions, and in this film, she pits class against race, against greed, against freedom and joy.
NON-FICTION
Best copy available: Memoirs of a true crime
By Jay Baron Nicorvo
University of Georgia Press: 240 pages, $29
(September 1)
Nicorvo was a loving family man who was also a published author (“The Standard Grand”) and a college professor. But the violent crimes he and his single mother suffered long ago at the hands of men had taken their toll on them both. The past is murky, though: The scanned PDF of a photocopy of his report was stamped “best copy available.” This remarkably honest and sometimes funny memoir shows how one family ended the cycle of abuse.
By the fire we carry: the struggle of generations for justice in native lands
By Rebecca Nagle
Harper: 352 pages, $32
(September 10)
Nagle is a member of the Cherokee Nation, and knowledge of her own heritage, as well as that of the Five Tribes, underpins her fluid and comprehensive account of how U.S. policy has resulted in so much injustice for Native Americans. On the eve of the Supreme Court’s 2020 ruling in Sharp v. Murphy, which awarded land to the Muscogee Nation in Oklahoma for resettlement, Nagle gives voice to the frustrations Native people have experienced.
Overwork: Transforming the daily routine in search of a better life
By Brigid Schulte
Henry Holt: 432 pages, $32
(September 17)
The journalist who brought us 2014’s “Overwhelmed,” about our over-committed lives, is back with a book specifically about what’s wrong when it comes to the American work style. Schulte looks at the current landscape and the mid-20th-century backstory of how we got to this point, and examines other cultures’ methods of work-life balance. Her findings don’t offer easy solutions, but rather underscore the need for change.
The Third Ear: Reflections on the Art and Science of Listening
By Elizabeth Rosner
Counterpoint: 240 pages, $27
(September 17)
Rosner’s parents, Holocaust survivors, spoke six languages at home, and as young Rosner listened and learned, she realized that the soundscapes of our lives affect us on levels large and small. As an adult writer, she weaves her own stories with interviews with experts of all stripes to demonstrate how deep listening can foster better communication and empathy, in a lively and perceptive book about how and what we listen to.
Health and Safety: A Detailed Analysis
By Emily Witt
Pantheon: 272 pages, $27
(September 17)
Witt, a journalist whose first book, “Future Sex,” was a brave look at everything beyond monogamy, describes what happened when, in 2016, she decided to get off antidepressants and try psychedelics. Soon, the author was joining the New York City dance club scene, all while holding down her regular day job. She — and our country — were headed toward a meltdown, and with her trademark honesty, Witt tells the story of both.
