Top 10 Books on My Fall 2017 Reading List
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This post may include affiliate links. That means if you click and make a purchase, I may earn a small commission. Please see Disclosures for more information.
I’m not usually one to plan out my reading list in detail. I have a reading bucket list, which has 50 books I know I want to read at some point, but there’s no schedule to it. I often have an idea of my very next read, but even that can change once it comes time to make the decision.
True to my INFP nature, I make these choices based on how I’m feeling in the moment. Do I need something light? Maybe I’m ready for something suspenseful or something that’s just going to emotionally gut me (I just finished one of those). But what I’m learning is that my next read is very much based on my last read. Unless I get on a roll with a series (like Outlander), the next book I choose is almost always very different from the last.
Complicating this is a new dimension to my reading life: I’ve started reading two books at once, one on my iPad (for perusing throughout the day) and one in hardcopy (for wind-down reading in bed at night). These, too, need to be different from one another, and for the sake of my eyes and the way I read on the iPad, that one needs to be consumable in small snippets.
So planning out my next ten reads for fall feels iffy, at best. It’s rare that I’ll jump on any type of reading challenge or plan out my reads like this, but knowing how I choose books, I took this week’s Top Ten Tuesday as a challenge to come up with a list of ten with enough variety to satisfy my whims.
So I’m sure I’ve made this exercise more difficult for myself than most people, but here we go!
- Little Fires Everywhere – Celeste Ng
- Rebecca – Daphne du Maurier
- Sweetbitter – Stephanie Danler
- The Story of a New Name – Elena Ferrante
- American War – Omar El Akkad
- Tiny Beautiful Things – Cheryl Strayed
- The Woman in Cabin 10 – Ruth Ware
- Gods in Alabama – Joshilyn Jackson
- The Hate U Give – Angie Thomas
- Beartown – Fredrik Backman
I tried to include a couple of frontlist books (I plan have a few more of these in the rotation after my wonderful birthday gift: The Book of the Month Club!), as well as one from my bucket list, a thriller, some feel-good books, a dystopian novel, and some backlist books that I’ve wanted to read for a while. Six of these I own in hard copy and the rest I’ll read on an e-reader and will depend on library availability.
Talk to me!
Which of these have you read?
What’s on your fall reading list?
And how do you choose your next perfect read: do you pick up any old book on your TBR list and just start reading (if so, how do you DO that?)? Or is every book choice a Serious Decision?
Awesome picks! There are so many fall releases I am excited about and so many series I want to continue/start!
Happy Reading!
Michelle @ Book Briefs
My Fall TBR picks
After a few years of not reading Rebecca I read it again. Great read/classic. Glass Houses by Louise Penny and Anything Is Possible by Elizabeth Strout will be my next two reads
I just finished Rebecca and really enjoyed it. So much tension and uncertainty throughout!
I’ve only read the first of Louise Penny’s series, but they seem like the kind of curl-up mysteries I could get into, especially in the winter. I hope to read more. Enjoy!
Oh, I thought Beartown was so mind-blowing! I feel like I haven’t stopped thinking about it since. And Rebecca has been on my to-read list for forever, so that’s a good reminder to me that I need to finally get on that one 🙂
I feel like everyone loved the Ferrante series but me. The first book was okay (I gave it 3 stars on Goodreads), but by the second, I just felt that there were literally no characters that I liked, and that the books just kept getting more and more depressing, so I stopped mid-series. I do seem to be in the minority though with that series, so hopefully you have better luck with them than I did!
I’m so glad to hear that about Beartown! I can’t say that a hockey story is super exciting to me, but so many people have raved (and compared it to Friday Night Lights, which I loved) that I have to read it.
You know, I didn’t love the first book in the Neapolitan series either–I also gave it three stars on Goodreads. I liked it well enough to continue with the second book, but at this point I’m uncertain that I’ll make it through the series (especially since they’re so long). Part of me wants to find the magic that everyone else seems to see in them!
Rebecca is on my Fall TBR, as you saw! Woman in Cabin 10 I have on my general TBR!! It looks so good! Can’t way it to see your thoughts!
Sometimes I pick books based on season (like now and Christmas). Other times I start at the top of a TBR list and just work my way down till I find one my library has!
Little Fires Everywhere, Sweetbitter, The Woman in Cabin 10 and American War are all on my To Read Shelf. Currently, I have over 350 books on my Goodreads To Read shelf, and even when it seems I am making a dent in the list, the list retaliates and gets bigger still. The problem is that I am a librarian, so I come across all kinds of new books during work hours that I don’t want to forget about so I just add it to Goodreads, and worry about sorting through the shelf later. I also (being a children’s librarian) have set a standard for myself for the next few months. In order to keep up with current children’s lit, while also reading books for me, I am currently trying to read a children’s novel, followed by a YA novel, followed by an adult novel (repeat). This process has been both difficult and efficient. It is difficult because often times I find myself in the groove of a certain style (whether YA, etc.) and want to pick up another book in that medium, but must force myself to move on to the next. However, I am reading more than ever, while also covering a wide range of literature. So I don’t know, I suppose it is working (for the most part) for me so far.
As far as selecting my next read, I am similar to you in that it all depends on my mood at that time. I may see something, and have it in the back of my mind for a few weeks, but by the time I am ready for a new book, my interest has shifted (slightly), causing me to seek out something different. That’s why I love my Goodreads account. It allows me to keep track of so many books that could/want to read, so when my mood changes, I am not selecting from scratch exactly.
Just a quick little note- YOU HAVE TO READ The Hate U Give. It is by far the best novel I’ve read this year. So topical, and really put me in my place, sort to speak. I highly recommend reading that asap.
The list just grows, doesn’t it? A process like yours sounds so good in theory–just like a list of books to read in the fall–but I find it so hard to stick to a prescribed reading list. Either way, I think it is good to pay attention to the range of things we read and try to read diverse authors, genres, and age categories. I use Goodreads, but I actually seem to add books to my Overdrive wish list more than Goodreads–probably because that puts a huge list of books I want to read at my fingertips, and when I’m ready I can choose from the available ones.
I can’t wait to read The Hate U Give! I’m on the library waitlist.
Little Fires Everywhere is also on my TBR list. I was hoping to get to it before the end of the month but I think it will have to wait until next month.
I LOVED The Woman in Cabin 10. I love locked room mysteries and it’s one of the best ones I’ve read. Great main character, perfectly paced, with plenty of suspense.
I wasn’t as keen on American War. It’s a very well-written book but it’s just horribly depressing. It’s very relevant to what’s going on in our country today and I think if I weren’t already so scared about that, I would have been able to enjoy the book more. As it is, it’s just too close to home for comfort.
I think it was your recommendation that put The Woman in Cabin 10 on my list–mysteries and thrillers just aren’t usually the first thing I’m drawn to, but I have been reading more lately. So many of them disappoint, so I’m excited for a great one.
I’m really hoping to read my Book of the Month selection in the month I get it, so I’ll read one newly released book each month. I’m seeing raves for Little Fires Everywhere–I got it late, so I’m starting as soon as I finish Rebecca.
American War–yes, sounds bleak. I do like dystopia/speculative fiction, though, and I haven’t burned myself out on it like a lot of readers. We’ll see if it hits too close for comfort.
Just finished The Hate U Give and it is amazing!!!! The most relatable and relevant book. I can’t wait for the movie to come out.
My library hold came in and I’m reading it now. You’re right–it’s amazing. I’m not quite halfway through yet and I just keep thinking about it in the moments I’m not reading.
I read Ferrante’s Neapolitan series and I was totally absorbed in it till the end. Totally worth reading The Story of a New Name and the others as well!
I read Ferrante’s Neapolitan series and I was totally absorbed in it till the end. Totally worth reading The Story of a New Name and the others as well!
Rebecca is on my list to finish before the end of the year! Have you read it yet?
I did! It’s definitely worth the read. It’s not action-packed, but the tension builds to the very end. I also just picked up another book by Daphne du Maurier at a library sale that I had never heard of called Rule Britannia. I haven’t started it, but I guess it’s a dystopia.