Books That Capture the Feeling of Fall

Under the influence of a charismatic classics professor, a group of clever, eccentric misfits at a New England college discover a way of thought and life a world away from their banal contemporaries. But their search for the transcendent leads them down a dangerous path, beyond human constructs of morality. A contemporary literary classic and “an accomplished psychological thriller … absolutely chilling” (Village Voice), from the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Goldfinch.

Coming soon to the big screen as Emerald Fennell’s feature film which captures the spirit of this epic love story and stars Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi as Catherine and Heathcliff. There are few more convincing, less sentimental accounts of passionate love than Wuthering Heights. This is the story of the savage, tormented foundling Heathcliff, who falls wildly in love with Catherine Earnshaw, the daughter of his benefactor, and of the violence and misery that result from their thwarted longing for each other.

Slip behind the bleak walls and vacant windows of Netflix’s reimagining of the mansion of doom in this anthology of works by Edgar Allan Poe that inspired the limited series The Fall of the House of Usher. From well-loved classics like “The Raven” and “The Tell-Tale Heart” to lesser-known gems such as “Tamerlane” and “The Murders in the Rue Morgue,” these collected tales have withstood the test of time, haunting readers for nearly two hundred years.

The complete four-book boxed set of the greatest fantasy epic of all time: The Lord of the Rings and its enchanting prequel, The Hobbit. When Thorin Oakenshield and his band of dwarves embark upon a dangerous quest to reclaim the hoard of gold stolen from them by the evil dragon Smaug, Gandalf the wizard suggests an unlikely accomplice: Bilbo Baggins, an unassuming Hobbit dwelling in peaceful Hobbiton.

L. M. Montgomery’s novel Anne of Green Gables recounts the adventures of Anne Shirley, an 11-year-old orphan mistakenly sent to a pair of siblings who intended to adopt a boy to help work on their farm in Prince Edward Island. Yet Anne’s quirky personality and good-natured spirit causes the siblings to grow to love her anyway, and soon the entire town falls for the precocious little girl with bright red hair.

Now a new film streaming on Max! Ben Mears has returned to Jerusalem’s Lot in hopes that exploring the history of the Marsten House, an old mansion long the subject of rumor and speculation, will help him cast out his personal devils and provide inspiration for his new book.

A young woman living in a rigid, puritanical society discovers dark powers within herself in this stunning, feminist fantasy debut. In Bethel, where the Prophet’s word rules, Immanuelle Moore lives in disgrace for her mother’s forbidden union. Drawn into the Darkwood, she discovers witches’ spirits and her mother’s hidden past. As she unravels secrets of the Church, Immanuelle realizes Bethel’s true danger lies within.

An isolated mansion. A chillingly charismatic aristocrat. And a brave socialite drawn to expose their treacherous secrets . . .  From the author of Gods of Jade and Shadow comes “a terrifying twist on classic gothic horror” (Kirkus Reviews) set in glamorous 1950s Mexico.

Mika Moon, one of the few witches in Britain, hides her magic and avoids others to keep their powers secret. Lonely and orphaned, she breaks one rule with an online account pretending to be a witch. When she’s asked to teach three young witches at Nowhere House, she’s drawn into their lives, secrets, and the guarded librarian who sees her as a threat. There, Mika begins to imagine belonging, but when danger arrives, she must decide if this found family is worth risking everything.

A luminous meditation on the meaning of richness and harvest and worth, Autumn is the first installment of Ali Smith’s Seasonal Quartet, and it casts an eye over our own time: Who are we? What are we made of? Shakespearean jeu d’esprit, Keatsian melancholy, the sheer bright energy of 1960s pop art. Autumn is wide-ranging in time-scale and light-footed through histories.

A book that “speak[s] volumes about our need for connection — human, feline or otherwise” (The San Francisco Chronicle), The Travelling Cat Chronicles is a life-affirming anthem to kindness and self-sacrifice that shows how the smallest things can provide the greatest joy — the perfect gift for cat lovers and travelers!

This wise, hilarious novel reminds us why Zadie Smith has rocketed to literary stardom. On Beauty is the story of an interracial family living in the university town of Wellington, Massachusetts, whose misadventures in the culture wars — on both sides of the Atlantic — serve to skewer everything from family life to political correctness to the combustive collision between the personal and the political. Full of dead-on wit and relentlessly funny, this tour de force confirms Zadie Smith’s reputation as a major literary talent.

The spellbinding new novel from one of our most fearless chroniclers of the female experience, Bunny is a down-the-rabbit-hole tale of loneliness and belonging, friendship and desire, and the fantastic and terrible power of the imagination.

From the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, here is “an intricate and dazzling novel” (The New York Times) about the perfect butler and his fading, insular world in post-World War II England. Stevens, at the end of three decades of service at Darlington Hall, spending a day on a country drive, embarks as well on a journey through the past in an effort to reassure himself that he has served humanity by serving the “great gentleman,” Lord Darlington. But lurking in his memory are doubts about the true nature of Lord Darlington’s “greatness,” and much graver doubts about the nature of his own life.

From the bestselling author of Kafka on the Shore: A magnificent coming-of-age story steeped in nostalgia, “a masterly novel” (The New York Times Book Review) blending the music, the mood, and the ethos that were the sixties with a young man’s hopeless and heroic first love. Toru, a serious college student in Tokyo, loves Naoko, a fragile woman haunted by their friend’s death. As she retreats inward, he’s drawn to a bold, independent woman.