22 Books That Should Be On Your Radar: October 2020

Editor’s note: You’ll notice all the links we feature below lead to Bookshop.org or IndieBound. We encourage you to do whatever you can to support your local bookstore, including purchasing audiobooks from our sponsor Libro.fm. Feel free to share what’s on your bunker reading list by tweeting us @WritersBone or in the comments section below. Stay safe, stay home, and keep reading!—Daniel Ford

Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam

Daniel Ford: So many of the questions we’ve been asking ourselves during the COVID-19 pandemic are grappled with exquisitely in Rumaan Alam’s Leave the World Behind. The novel’s claustrophobic atmosphere feels even more immediate now, and the characters resemble our neighbors, our family, our friends. This National Book Award nominee is not to be missed.

A Murder Is Forever by Rob Bates

Daniel: New charts will have to be made to explain how off the charts this book is. The cover deserves a New York City diner backdrop and a Greek coffee cup, but, alas, #pandemic. Filled with the author’s signature humor and intelligence, A Murder Is Forever not only made me homesick for the city, but also for the quirky industry where I started my career.

The Voting Booth by Brandy Colbert

Daniel: I noticed this in Belmont Books’ Staff Picks section and was hooked from the first lines of Tildy’s review: “What do civic duty, fried salami sandwiches, and an instagram-famous cat have in common? They're all very important parts of this fantastic YA.” Seems like the perfect combo in a Presidential election year. Buy this book and vote!

The Princess Diarist by Carrie Fisher

Daniel: I’ve been on something of a Carrie Fisher kick since reading Sheila Weller’s excellent Life on the Edge and Byron Lane’s A Star Is Bored. After reading The Princess Diarist, I can confirm that all morning reading sessions should start with Carrie Fisher and Harrison Ford shtupping stories. As a “Star Wars” geek, I also appreciated the relationship she had with her character Princess Leia and her adoring fans.

The Searcher by Tana French

Daniel: Tana French is one of our favorite authors and we’re running out of superlatives for her and her work. I love how she continues to take chances and bends the crime fiction genre she’s so clearly mastered. I could marinate in her dialogue all day.

Daniel: I hate to admit it, but I have read precious little of Neil Gaiman’s work. Given the season, his short story collection Smoke and Mirrors might be a good place to begin my deep dive into his fiction.

Forget About Me by Karen Grey

Daniel: The audiobook version of Karen Grey’s What I’m Looking For was such a welcome delight this past summer. Grey can write the hell out of a romance and it is wonderful spending time in 1980s Boston with her characters. Plus, Shakespeare references never hurt anyone.

Daniel: I’m going to transition listening to Bruce Springsteen’s “Letter to You” on repeat to reading Peter Guralnick’s Looking To Get Lost: Adventures in Music and Writing. Who am I kidding, I’m going to enjoy both at the same time.

The Book of Lamps and Banners by Elizabeth Hand

Daniel: I don’t know how I missed this book (and the rest of the Cass Neary series), but I’m going to rectify that in short order.

Loving Sports When They Don't Love You Back by Jessica Luther and Kavitha A. Davidson

Daniel: Jessica Luther and Kavitha A. Davidson recently appeared on #Authoring and they had a super smart discussion about sports, the pandemic, and journalism with Jennifer Keishin Armstrong and Kimberly Potts. The subject matter was so engrossing and so timely that I had to remind myself several times I was supposed to be editing the episode. Needless to say, Luther and Davidson’s book was in my cart by the time I was done. One of the things I’ve had to grapple this year with is my love of baseball and how these games really fit into my life. I found myself gravitating more to the NBA and their social activism and thinking deeply about what it means to be a fan. Loving Sports When They Don't Love You Back is likely to keep that conversation in my head going (and prevent me from shouting at the television when the Yankees are losing).

Missionaries by Phil Klay

Daniel: Phil Klay set bar the high with his 2014 National Book Award-winner Redeployment and he somehow managed to set that bar even higher with Missionaries. Here’s hoping we can treat him, Matt Gallagher, and Elliot Ackerman to a beer at a post-pandemic live event and “borrow” all of their literary secrets.

Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Daniel: Paul Tremblay recommended this book during his last appearance on the show and with Halloween approaching, it seems only fair I give yet another writer an opportunity to scare the shit out of me and force me to turn all my lights on at midnight. Also, any book that features a blurb that ends with “gets seriously weird” moves up the reading queue a few places.

Daniel: I saw our literary pal Vanessa Lillie (For the Best, Little Voices) post a picture of this book on social media and we couldn’t add it to our #TBR pile fast enough. Our wish list works so much better when we just follow Vanessa’s lead.

The Cold Millions by Jess Walter

Daniel: As I said during my recent podcast interview with Jess Walter, I claim his novel Beautiful Ruins as one of my major influences. There’s such a depth of intelligence in Walter’s writing, but he’s not afraid to mine emotional depths in service to the story. The Cold Millions hit me in very much the same way when I read it a few weeks ago. Anyone who listens to this podcast knows I can’t resist a story that revolves around two brothers. Set them in the early 1900s and I won’t be able to put it down, and that was exactly the case with The Cold Millions.

Memorial by Bryan Washington

Daniel: What a gift Bryan Washington’s words are. His short story collection Lot is one of the best I’ve ever read and his follow up novel Memorial is just as good if not better. On my short list for best cover of 2020 as well. Superb storytelling that sets the bar higher for the rest of us mere mortals.

Daniel: With the title and subject matter, I shouldn’t have to explain why I want to read this ASAP. This line from the book’s description sealed the deal: “Shit, Actually is a love letter and a break-up note all in one: to the films that shaped us and the ones that ruined us. More often than not, Lindy finds, they're one and the same.”

Billion Dollar Loser by Reeves Wiedeman

Daniel: This paragraph Reeves Wiedeman’s exploration into Adam Neumann and WeWork really thumped me:

"As the Obama era faded, Neumann watched his friend Jared Kushner, whom he met as a boyish New York landlord, follow his father-in-law to the White House. Hyperbole, autocratic leadership, and a disconnect from reality were suddenly assets on the path to power. Neumann attached himself and his company to the fire hose of cheap capital that washed over entrepreneurs willing to take giants risks, enabling new fortunes to be made on little more than ambition and insistence that your company was harnessing the power of technology—no need to say exactly which one—to distrust a new industry."

Whoops.

Daniel: I adored Isabel Wilkerson’s The Warmth of Other Suns. It remains one of the best nonfiction reads I’ve ever picked up. Very much looking forward to her new book Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents.

Daniel: I’ve always believed that reading poetry strengthens my fiction writing. I have a feeling that reading this collection might also help me improve as a human being.

Author’s Corner

Maaza Mengiste, author of The Shadow King, stopped by the podcast recently and gave us a ton of great recommendations, so you should add them all to your reading list and buy them from your local bookstore, Bookshop.org, Indiebound, or Libro.fm.

NovelClass

In Episode 4.08, host Dave Pezza is joined by Elizabeth Chiles Shelburne, author of Holding On To Nothing. Elizabeth and Dave chat about Mike Chen’s A Beginning at the End.

Writers Bone

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