The Best Books to Add to Your Must-Read List for October

Zadie Smith is one of this generation's most popular and successful authors.

And her first collection of short stories shows exactly why, as it spans a multitude of topics and genres. One reviewer even calls it "the closest thing literary fiction can come to a party."

You may know Leigh Bardugo as the author of classic young adult novels, but this month she breaks into the adult fiction genre.

Ninth House pays homage to Bardugo's own experiences at Yale, but with a supernatural twist: The school’s eight oldest secret societies are actually practitioners of magic. The protagonist, Galaxy “Alex” Stern, has to become accustomed to both the world of magic and privilege.

What better time of the year than October to revisit the world of Frankenstein?

But this ain't your Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, as author Jeanette Winterson explores issues as diverse as women’s liberation and artificial intelligence. And Mary Shelley does play a part, as the novel transitions between Mary Shelley and Ry, a trans man who becomes involved with a mad scientist.

In this harrowing memoir, author Jeannie Vanasco revisits her own rape.

Part true crime, part memoir, the book consists of on-the-record interviews with her attacker, a former high-school friend named Mark.

Vanasco delves into her friendship with Mark before and after the assault, exploring the effects of sexual assault while attempting to answer the unanswerable: Why do good people do bad things?

Over the years, the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas, has been a media lightning rod for their controversial protests of military funerals, among other extreme, attention-grabbing actions.

Megan Phelps-Roper, granddaughter to the church's founder, was often front-and-center preaching the church's rhetoric, even becoming their Twitter spokeswoman. But she started to question the church's teachings, and soon left. This memoir is a powerful look into escaping extremism and touching story about falling in love.

This memoir is a bit shocking in its details as it recounts the relationship between author Adrienne Brodeur and her mother.

One summer night, Brodeur's mother confessed to the then 14-year-old something salacious: She'd kissed her husband's best friend. From there, Brodeur becomes complicit in the affair.

In this new book, Brodeur meditates on and questions her relationship with her mother through the years.

A sequel nearly two decades in the making — and, thanks to Hulu, after becoming a cultural phenomenon — The Testaments answers all the lingering questions Atwood left with the cliffhanger that ended The Handmaid's Tale. 

Atwood picks up the story 15 years after Offred stepped into the unknown, with the explosive testaments of three female narrators from Gilead. 

The author even promised readers: "Everything you've ever asked me about Gilead and its inner workings is the inspiration for this book. Well, almost everything! The other inspiration is the world we've been living in." 

Ta-Nehisi Coates has become a fierce social critic and something of a juggernaut in today's social lexicon. Eschewing the nonfiction genre he's known for — including Between the World and Me and We Were Eight Years in Power — The Water Dancer is his first novel. 

But he doesn't stray far, exploring a magical-realist, plantation-set story about a boy born into bondage who discovers he possesses a supernatural gift.

If you loved Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers, get ready for Talking to Strangers. It's yet another intellectual adventure through history that Gladwell unfurls for us.  

Challenging what we think we know about famous cases like the deceptions of Bernie Madoff, the trial of Amanda Knox, the suicide of Sylvia Plath, the Jerry Sandusky pedophilia scandal at Penn State University, and the death of Sandra Bland, Gladwell posits that there's simply something wrong with how we often make sense of others. 

Equal parts memoir, criticism, and journalism, Make It Scream, Make It Burn is Leslie Jamison's dive into the complex issues of longing and obsession. 

Through her take on subjects that include "the loneliest whale in the world"; the eerie past-life memories of children; the devoted citizens of an online world called Second Life; the haunted landscape of the Sri Lankan Civil War; and an entire museum dedicated to the relics of broken relationships, you'll see why she's so often compared to Joan Didion. 

Fans of Ruth Ware (Woman in Cabin 10) have been waiting all year to get their hands on her latest thriller, and it was definitely worth the wait.

Rowan Caine realizes her high-salaried, live-in nannying job isn’t the dream she’d expected it to be. The children are a nightmare compared to how they acted during the interview, but that was just the start of the horrible events. She never dreamed she’d be sitting in prison, trying to explain to her lawyer what happened — as she awaits trial for murder of a child.

Even if you weren’t captivated by the absolutely insane story of Anna Delvey that hit Vanity Fair back in April (did anyone not hear about it?), you’ll love this book. Rachel DeLoache Williams delivers the entire story about how she and Anna met and ended up losing $62,000.

This story about a fake heiress who lied her way into a life of fancy hotels, five-star dining, and extravagant vacations is one you won’t be able to put down.

Colson Whitehead’s follow-up to the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Underground Railroad — a brilliant portrayal of the 1960s' Jim Crow-era Florida — is already a NY Times best-seller and on Barack Obama's summer reading list.

Elwood Curtis enrolls in the local black college, but finds himself sentenced to the Nickel Academy — a juvenile reformatory for delinquent boys that’s supposed to turn him into an honest and honorable man. What he finds there is horror. 

Based on a real reform school in Florida — which was closed in 2011 — this story shows how these boys’ fates are determined by what they had to endure at the Nickel Academy.

More: 50+ Books for Readers of All Kinds

Elin Hilderbrand’s first historical novel is the ideal beach read this summer.

As the summer of ’69 approaches, all the Levin children — besides the youngest, Jessie — are breaking the tradition of staying at their grandmother’s historic home in Nantucket. Left feeling like an only child, Jessie is stuck with her mother and her grandma for the summer and discovers family secrets that are lying beneath the surface.

After almost a decade of reporting, Lisa Taddeo delivers a story that delves into the sex lives of three real American women. As one of the highly anticipated books of the year, you’ll want to join the conversation and read the complex and fragile stories of Lina, Maggie, and Sloane.

If you haven’t read Manson’s hit The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck, then read that before you start his second book that got just as much buzz.

In Everything is F*cked: A Book About Hope, Manson turns the focus on the reader and looks at how too much of any “good thing” can eat us alive. With humor, he pushes us to be more honest with ourselves and connect with the world in new ways.

Sarah Blake — the author who wrote the New York Times best-seller The Postmistress — is back with another hit. The Guest Book is the perfect summer read.

The Guest Book takes place over three generations of the Milton family. In the present, Evie Milton uncovers a family myth that dates all the way back to 1939, when her grandma Kitty Milton’s decisions became a defining moment with consequences that affect the entire family for decades.

Anyone who’s a fan of Howard Stern will love diving into his latest book, filled with interviews with every personality you could imagine. Interspersed throughout four decades of interviews, Stern offers commentary on his own evolution — both professionally and personally.

When Harper Lee traveled from New York City to Alabama in the late '70s, her purpose was to write a true crime saga centered around Reverend Willie Maxwell, a man accused of murdering five of his family members for insurance money, and who was shot dead at the funeral of his last victim.

Lee had spent a year in the town reporting on the case — even sitting in the courtroom for the duration of the murder trial of Maxwell's killer — hoping to write her own In Cold Blood. Casey Cep brings not only the story of the murders and courtroom drama to life, but a beautiful portrait of Harper Lee as well. 

Amy Byler is headed to New York City for a summer, taking a much-needed break from her overworked life. After letting loose and taking in all the city has to offer, she meets one particular man who leaves her contemplating if she should stay or go back to all that she left behind in Pennsylvania.

Former food critic for The New York Times and editor in chief of Gourmet magazine, Ruth Reichl delivers another must-read for any fan of food. 

Unlike her other best-sellers, Reichl, for the first time, chronicles her experience working at the magazine and managing a staff of editors during the glory days of publishing.

A decade after a hazy night that ended in her friend Edie’s body being found next to a suicide note, Lindsay discovers an unsettling video from that fateful evening. She starts to wonder if her friend was actually murdered and if she was in any way involved. 

You’ll get chills as you get sucked into this thriller by Elly Griffiths. It’s about high school English teacher Clare Cassidy, who specializes in the work of (fictional) Gothic writer R. M. Holland. 

When a close friend and colleague is found dead — with a line from one of Holland’s stories left by her body — Clare turns to her diary to release her thoughts. It’s there that she notices a entry that isn’t hers. It reads, “Hello Clare. You don’t know me.” 

Evan Thomas’ biography of the first woman Supreme Court Justice, Sandra Day O’Connor, debuted on the New York Times best-seller list. From graduating from Stanford University to every glass ceiling she shattered after that, this portrait of O’Connor will inspire anyone looking to be a leader in life.

Taylor Jenkins Reid’s latest novel was highly anticipated coming into 2019. The work of fiction is written as an oral history of Daisy Jones & The Six, the most popular band of the '70s. It follows how they came together, their rise to fame, and the reason behind their split. 

Critics are raving and Amazon is already developing a Reese Witherspoon-produced series adapted from the book. 

The Threat: How the FBI Protects America in the Age of Terror and Trump is an instant number-one New York Times best-seller. In it, McCabe is candid about his two decades in the FBI leading up to his firing as deputy director by President Donald Trump. The Threat is the real story of the FBI and how it works to ensure the safety and integrity of America.

A famous painter married to an in-demand fashion photographer, it seems as though Alicia Berenson’s life is perfect — until she shoots her husband five times in the face. As the situation turns into an overnight media storm, everyone is dying to know the truth behind her acts. The only problem is that Alicia hasn’t spoken a word since that night.

Angie Thomas — author of the Printz Honor Book The Hate U Give — is back with her anticipated second novel. On the Come Up is about a young aspiring rapper named Bri whose first song goes viral for the wrong reasons. As her family is on the brink of being evicted from their home, Bri knows she has no other choice than to make it as a rapper.

After submitting her DNA to a genealogy site, Dani Shapiro found out her father was not biologically hers. In her memoir — an immediate New York Times best-seller — Shapiro tries to piece together the secrets kept from her for more than 50 years and discover her true identity.

After 20 years of marriage, Paul is cheating on Rebecca with a woman who's a stalker, and Rebecca has fallen into an opiate addiction. When Rebecca finds out Paul’s plan for a life without her, she comes up with her own idea to end everything.