Is it just us or does this time of year seem to possess a certain je ne sais quoi that those before it simply can’t provide? Call us crazy or call us cliche, but as soon as we start the transition out of summer’s hot and humid grasp and don our first sweater, we can’t help but find ourselves feeling extra sentimental, emotional, excited and ready for the rest of the year’s seasonal schmaltz. It could be as simple as ditching your morning iced latte for its hot and frothy counterpart, or perhaps it’s the first flick of a lighter when you once again decide it’s time to reintroduce Diptyque’s Feu De Bois into the candle rotation.
How ever you welcome this time of year, we’re of firm belief that fall is the season made for the romantics, whatever that version of romance may be. And although there is no “right” time to dive deep into a new read, there’s just something about the colder weather that makes us want to curl up and get cozy, book in hand. So, whether your latest written escape includes a how-to for a modern method of self-help or a fictionalized, forbidden romance between young lovers, we want to know what’s been keeping your attention and you up well past bedtime. Tell us, dear Bleu readers. What have you been reading (or what’s on deck) this season? Books, magazines, novellas — we want to hear it all.
Sarah
October 28, 2019 at 10:34 amJust finished The Silent Patient and Verity. Great reads if you’re looking for Gone Girl / Girl on the Train vibes. Moving on to Three Women and Undress Me in the Temple of Heaven.
Calli Alford
October 28, 2019 at 11:02 amI just finished Educated by Tara Westover.
Women in Power by Mary Beard is a short and powerful manifesto and is a great compliment to Educated.
I’m going to buy The Subjection of Women by John Stuart Mills, Tara Westover mentions this essay in her book.
Also (slowly) reading Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews by Paula Fredriksen.
I’m consumed with the disturbing realization that women have been marginalized/oppressed/subjugated for as long as we have written words about them, and that it’s so normal most of society is blind to it.
I’m also fascinated by the concept of religion and am trying to learn about it from an objective, intellectual perspective.
Marla R. Horton
October 28, 2019 at 11:11 amJust Finished:
A Guide to Being Born by Ramona Ausubel
Currently Reading:
All the Names They Used for God by Anjali Sachdeva
On Deck:
Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami
C
October 28, 2019 at 11:24 amJust finished…
Goodbye Vitamin by Rachel Khong, which was one of the best books I have read in a while and would highly recommend! It was a very easy read as well.
Just starting…
Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami, which is off to an interesting start, not sure about this one yet but it’s the first of his books I am reading so I am being open minded to the possibility of it!
Chelsea
October 28, 2019 at 5:11 pmRead some of his other works. I liked that one but I didn’t love it. Norwegian wood and the wind up bird chronicle are my favorites.
C
October 29, 2019 at 12:28 pmTY!! It’s good so far but a little hard to stay interested in, going to try the Wind Up Bird Chronicle next
Taurean
October 31, 2019 at 12:04 pmWind Up Bird was what initially drew me into his world. I’ve only enjoyed a few others, including Kafka on the Shore. Not including 1Q84. Currently awaiting holds to be released on A Glorious Freedom, by Lisa Congdon. God bless public Libraries.
vicky
October 28, 2019 at 12:26 pmJust read Calypso by David Sedaris and Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman – loved both.
Another recent read – Ali Wong’s Dear Girls fell a little short for me.
Now i’m deep into Circe by Madeline Miller (great so far) and have Ronan Farrow’s Catch and Kill on deck.
Amber Christopher
October 28, 2019 at 12:46 pmThe Testaments, by Margaret Attwood. Incredible. A follow up to The Handmaids Tale, a dystopian novel based in a theocratic United States where they enslave women, especially fertile women to reproduce for elite couples due to plummeting birth rates. This follow up book is what we’ve all been waiting for since the handmaids tale was published 34 years ago. Must read
Ashley
October 28, 2019 at 1:24 pmCurrently ready The Woman in the Window (like so far! a page turning book)
Up next is Where the Crawdads Sing or Trick Mirror
Jess
October 28, 2019 at 4:48 pmHalf-way through “The Pisces” by Melissa Broder — super juicy read. Feels like today’s version of Twilight, if Edward was a merman and Bella was a sex-addict recuperating at her sister’s in LA…lol-worthy in the best possibly way.
Chelsea
October 28, 2019 at 5:19 pmIn the last few weeks I’ve read:
Eleanor Oliphant is completely fine
Daisy Jones and the Six
The Great Believers
Normal People
Conversations with Friends
Bandit
I’ll be Gone in the dark
A Tale for the Time Being
A Secret History
Where the Crawdads Sing
Little Fires Everywhere
I recommend all of them.
Marla R. Horton
October 29, 2019 at 2:19 pmI read The Great Believers this past summer. So lovely. A Secret History was really wonderful too!
Sara
November 14, 2019 at 12:34 pmI just finished The Great Believers and I wish it had never ended!
JD
October 28, 2019 at 6:21 pmCrime and Punishment, second time. Deep dive into the psychology of a killer.
Katy
October 29, 2019 at 5:46 pmI had been sucked into reading a lot of the “in books” recently (Eleanor Oliphant, normal people etc…) and I really had started to think I had lost my passion for reading. My partner reads a lot of John Grisham books and I picked up an old copy of ‘The Firm’ and could not put it down, I was quite relieved at how much I loved reading it.
Eve
November 1, 2019 at 8:37 amI love tackling longer, classic books in autumn/winter. Currently reading Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina, which I’ve been meaning to read since I was about 13.
BHaun
November 4, 2019 at 12:35 pmJust finished Little Fires Everywhere (I just thought it was…good? Not mind-blowingly great? Maybe an unpopular opinion, idk). Next up is Shrill by Lindy West, and also have Daisy Jones and the Six on deck.
Sara
November 14, 2019 at 12:35 pmListening to There There by Tommy Orange on audio while reading Kim Krans’s new Archetypes Guidebook and Deck and a vintage gem I found by Barbara Ehrenreich & Deirdre English: For Her Own Good.