By Kavita Mistry 
As brisk weather moves in and the buzz of back-to-school preparations fills the air, you may find yourself drawn to the library or the comfiest chair in the house. The autumn reading season is a time of abundant current and forthcoming releases, perfect for cozying up with the books in your TBR and adding some new ones. Below, we offer an appealing mix of recent titles and gems soon to hit the shelves for making the most of your fall days. All of these are books we either have covered or plan to feature in our digital magazine. Happy reading!
The Invention of Charlotte Brontë: A New Life
by Graham Watson
Hardcover Aug 2025. 288 pages
Published by Pegasus Books
Lovers of literary history will relish curling up with this book in an armchair this autumn. The famed eldest Brontë sister had a fascinating (if tragic) life, and historian Graham Watson captures new details here through Charlotte’s correspondence with friend and biographer Elizabeth Gaskell, among others. BookBrowse reviewer Peggy Kurkowski writes, “The Invention of Charlotte Brontë peels away more than a century of Brontë myth to reveal the complex woman at the heart of it, and the supreme act of friendship and fortitude it took to tell her story to the world.”
People Like Us: A Novel
by Jason Mott
Hardcover Aug 2025. 288 pages
Published by Dutton
National Book Award winner Jason Mott’s engaging latest novel is the perfect bookish read to get in the mood for this year’s fall awards season. With narratives following two Black American authors as they interact with a racist and violent America from inside and outside of it, People Like Us explores the absurdities of living within an impossible status quo, the line between fiction and reality, and fantasies of escape. Check out our accompanying Beyond the Book article for some background on previous National Book Award winners and the prize itself.
Seduction Theory: A Novel
by Emily Adrian
Hardcover Aug 2025. 240 pages
Published by Little Brown & Company
Want to be whisked away to a college campus setting this fall? Try Seduction Theory, a scintillating exploration of power dynamics and the intricacies of attraction that holds appeal for readers who enjoy being immersed in academic life. It features a married couple, both authors who teach at the same university, and an infidelity in their relationship narrated by a student with ulterior motives. This unique setup creates a sly, self-referential story for those who like their literary fiction with a twist.
Dominion: A Novel
by Addie E. Citchens
Aug 2025. 240 pages
Published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux
Addie E. Citchens’ recently released debut, the story of a devoutly Christian Black Southern family and the tensions running through it, has already garnered multiple starred reviews, earned comparisons to the writing of Hurston and Faulkner, and been longlisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize. Juggling interactions between spirituality and sexuality, patriarchy and the experiences of women living under it, Dominion seems on track to become the kind of book people will be talking about for a long time to come.
Amity: A Novel
by Nathan Harris
Hardcover Sep 2, 2025. 320 pages
Published by Little Brown & Company
Nathan Harris’s much-anticipated sophomore effort, Amity, is another stunning work of historical fiction set in the Reconstruction era (after his evocative and highly acclaimed debut The Sweetness of Water, a BookBrowse Best of Year book). It follows June and Coleman, siblings still entangled with the family who enslaved them, as they embark on separate journeys—June to find freedom in the northern Mexico desert, Coleman to be reunited with his sister.
The Last Extinction: The Real Science Behind the Death of the Dinosaurs
by Dr. Gerta Keller
Sep 9, 2025. 320 pages
Published by Diversion Books
The mass extinction of the dinosaurs was caused by an asteroid, right? Not according to The Last Extinction. Dr. Gerta Keller’s upending of one of the first scientific “facts” many of us learned as children is world-altering and could inform our current climate crisis. Keller also details her experience of sexism and dismissal in the scientific community as she worked to bring her findings to light. This combination of personal memoir, drama, and science with real-life stakes for us all is likely to make this a fascinating fall pick for book clubs, nonfiction readers, and even those not normally drawn to nonfiction.
Will There Ever Be Another You: A Novel
by Patricia Lockwood
Sep 23, 2025. 256 pages
Published by Riverhead Books
Following up on her first novel No One Is Talking About This, a Booker Prize finalist, Lockwood’s Will There Ever Be Another You likewise addresses grief, but with a more general and philosophical focus that reflects the end of a certain way of life in our current moment. Featuring a character dealing with chronic illness, an author who struggles with her craft due to symptoms of Long Covid, the story engages with the ongoing impact of the pandemic in a unique and captivating voice that moves laterally rather than through a traditional plot arc.
Heart the Lover
by Lily King
Sep 30, 2025. 256 pages
Published by Grove Press
Here’s another campus-set novel, this one for those who may be moved to relive their undergraduate days. Lily King’s character-driven stories have a knack for pulling readers into their worlds, and Heart the Lover, focusing on a college love triangle, promises to be a powerful whirlwind of emotions and nostalgia. According to Kirkus, King’s “mostly sunny version of the campus novel is an enjoyable alternative to the current vogue for dark academia.”
Minor Black Figures: A Novel
by Brandon Taylor
Oct 14, 2025. 320 pages
Published by Riverhead Books
Speaking of campus fiction, Brandon Taylor has been responsible for some fantastic contributions to the genre, including Real Life and The Late Americans (which Publishers Weekly remarked “pulls off something like Sally Rooney for the Midwest”). His vivid and intense writing of interpersonal dynamics is transported to the Manhattan art scene this October with Minor Black Figures, which narrates the story of an artist who falls in love with a former priest. Kirkus writes, “Taylor is onto something rich and appealing—a story unafraid to foreground love and lust, and that treats emotional ambiguity as a starting point, not as the fuzzy ending common in literary fiction. A piercing, precise, and affecting tale of young love and high art.”
Bad Bad Girl: A Novel
by Gish Jen
Oct 21, 2025. 352 pages
Published by Knopf
According to Jen, this novel began as a memoir about her mother, but necessitated some invention along the way. It slots in nicely alongside other exciting examples of autobiographical material being released this year by longtime fiction writers (such as memoirs by Margaret Atwood and Miriam Toews), including at least one other account of a difficult mother-daughter relationship (Arundhati Roy’s Mother Mary Comes to Me, for which we also have planned coverage). Bad Bad Girl mixes humor with tragedy and history, beginning in Shanghai in the 1920s and trailing a family across multiple generations. It should be a perfect pick for readers and book clubs interested in historical fiction and complex family relationships.