Fall is arguably the best time of year to read a book. Mornings and nights are starting to get chilly, which is perfect for curling up with a book and a cup of tea. Meanwhile, days are still warm enough to sit outside and read while the leaves are falling around you.
So whether you’ve been eating pumpkin spice flavored foods since August, or you haven’t packed away your beach towel just yet, there’s one great reason to look forward to autumn. Fall is a fantastic time for new book releases!
Here are some of the most highly-anticipated fiction releases for fall 2017!
Popular Authors
Let’s start with some heavy hitters. These are releases from well-known authors with loyal followings. Fans eagerly anticipate their next releases, so these fiction titles are guaranteed to be popular the moment they hit the shelves!
Sleeping Beauties by Stephen King and Owen King
Stephen King is immensely popular, but this new release by King has a fun twist: it was co-authored with his son Owen! You might already know Stephen’s other son, Joe Hill, who has enjoyed his share of success (and has a new book, Strange Weather, coming out in October).
In a near-future where women succumb to a sleeping disease and men revert to their primal natures, one mysteriously immune woman struggles to survive in an Appalachian town where she is treated as both a demon and a lab specimen.
Artemis by Andy Weir
Don’t recognize the author’s name? Weir wrote The Martian, which was a huge hit. Both the book and the movie were very popular here at the library. Weir’s new novel, set on the moon, promises to be equally intriguing.
Jazz Bashara is a criminal. Well, sort of. Life on Artemis, the first and only city on the moon, is tough if you're not a rich tourist or an eccentric billionaire. So smuggling in the occasional harmless bit of contraband barely counts, right? Everything changes when Jazz sees the chance to commit the perfect crime and learns that she's stepped square into a conspiracy for control of Artemis itself.
Origin by Dan Brown
When Dan Brown writes a new book, we get ready to order a lot of copies. Brown, who enjoyed success with The Da Vinci Code, continues his series of action-packed mysteries featuring Robert Langdon!
Robert Langdon arrives at the ultramodern Guggenheim Museum Bilbao to attend a major announcement--the unveiling of a discovery by one of Langdon's first students at Harvard that "will change the face of science forever."
Prize Winners
These prize-winning authors have won praise from critics and readers alike. Accomplished authors, they aren’t afraid to take their fiction in surprising new directions.
Fresh Complaint: stories by Jeffrey Eugenides
Eugenides impressed readers and critics with his fascinating Pulitzer Prize-winning book, Middlesex. It’s been years since he last published a book, so Fresh Complaint, his first collection of short stories, promises to be popular.
A first collection of short stories by the Pulitzer Prize winner includes the tales of a failed poet-turned-embezzeler, a young traveler seeking enlightenment, and a high schooler whose drastic decision upends a British physicist's life.
Manhattan Beach by Jennifer Egan
Egan won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for A Visit from the Goon Squad, a story about an aging punk-rocker and a young woman with a compulsion to steal. Egan’s new release is a lyrical, character-driven novel with a historical background.
Years after she is placed in the hands of a stranger vital to her family's survival, Anna takes a job at the Brooklyn Naval Yard during the war while meeting with the man who helped them and learning important truths about her father's disappearance.
The Golden House by Salman Rushdie
Multiple Booker award-winner Rushdie has written a book that covers big issues in current times: media, culture, and politics. The narrator of the book is a filmmaker who gains the trust of the aristocratic Golden family, documenting their triumphs and downfalls.
A thriller inspired by today's headlines follows the experiences of a real-estate tycoon and his mysterious, corrupt family, who become the subjects of an aspiring filmmaker's project before revelations of monstrous past activities give way to the rise of a mad presidential candidate.
Debut Authors
Successful debut authors working on subsequent books often admit that their writing processes have changed. After success, there’s understandably a lot of pressure and deadlines! Because they’ve had a lifetime of storing up great ideas, sometimes debut authors really nail their first books!
George & Lizzie by Nancy Pearl
Nancy Pearl is also known as “America’s Librarian,” so librarians worldwide are rooting for her debut! After a lifetime of reading and reviewing books, she’s written a book of her own!
The daughter of two renowned narcissistic psychologists, Lizzie’s problem has always been overthinking everything. George, raised in a very adoring family, comes into Lizzie’s life with one goal – to love her completely and forever. Can she relinquish the past to move toward the happiness that could be hers in the future?
The Floating World by C. Morgan Babst
Another debut that promises to be excellent, The Floating World is set in New Orleans during and after Hurricane Katrina. It’s particularly relevant in the wake of hurricanes Harvey and Irma.
Refusing to evacuate when Hurricane Katrina approaches the Louisiana Coast, Cora, the fragile eldest daughter of the Boisdores family, inadvertently triggers a chain of events that strains her parents' marriage and subjects her to a mysterious act of violence.
The Blind by A. F. Brady
Psychological thrillers are enjoying their time in the spotlight, and this one promises to be pretty twisted!
Sam James has spent years carefully crafting her reputation as the best psychologist at Typhlos, Manhattan's most challenging psychiatric institution. She believes if she can't save herself, she'll save someone else. It's this savior complex that serves her well in helping patients battle their inner demons, though it leads Sam down some dark paths and opens her eyes to her own mental turmoil.
Librarian’s Picks
These are topping my TBR (To Be Read) list! If you’ve read and loved previous books by each of these authors, there’s a good chance you’ll enjoy these new releases too!
Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
Celeste Ng’s debut, Everything I Never Told You, won multiple awards and was named Best Book of the Year in 2015 by more than fifteen major publications. Ng is adept at exploring family dynamics and social drama, making her novels both fascinating and relevant.
In Shaker Heights, a placid, progressive suburb of Cleveland, everything is planned - from the layout of the winding roads, to the colors of the houses and the successful lives its residents will go on to lead. No one embodies this spirit more than Elena Richardson, whose guiding principle is playing by the rules. When Mia Warren arrives in this idyllic bubble with her teenaged daughter Pearl, her mysterious past and a disregard for the status quo threatens to upend this carefully ordered community.
Miss Kopp’s Midnight Confessions by Amy Stewart
In the third book in the Kopp Sisters novels, we return to the tough and clever Constance Kopp, based on a true story of a female deputy sheriff in 1916 Hackensack, N.J.
Deputy Sheriff Constance Kopp and her sister Fleurette defend the young women being brought into the 1916 Hackensack jail under dubious charges like waywardness and incorrigibility.
Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward
Salvage the Bones, which won a National Book award, was such a beautifully written book, while covering such heavy topics as teen pregnancy, dog fighting, poverty, and Hurricane Katrina. Ward’s new book follows in a similar vein of heavy topics described in gorgeous prose.
Living with his grandparents and toddler sister on a Gulf Coast farm, Jojo navigates the challenges of his tormented mother's addictions and his grandmother's terminal cancer before the release of his father from prison prompts a road trip of danger and hope.
Love and Other Consolation Prizes by Jamie Ford
Ford couldn’t have picked a more accurate title for the popular Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, which had everyone smiling and crying in equal measures. I imagine that Ford’s new novel will elicit similar reactions, as we explore another disturbing episode in history. But don’t worry—amidst tragedy, Ford will yet again offer a bit of hope.
For 12-year-old Ernest Young the chance to go to the World's Fair feels like a gift. But only once he's there, amid the exotic exhibits, fireworks, and Ferris wheels, does he discover that he is the one who is actually the prize. The half-Chinese orphan is astounded to learn he will be raffled off--a healthy boy "to a good home."
