15 October books to make you think and feel

There are so many wonderful books coming out in October that it’s hard to narrow them down. This month, I chose humor, lightness and inspiration rather than darkness. Why? I think we all need a boost as fall kicks into high gear. Now, when we put on those light jackets and find our boots, we can stuff them in our bag while we go and try to keep our heads up despite whatever the winds may bring.

I’m in the mood to laugh. Are not you? Wendi Aarons delivers just that in her clever look at middle age starting with a museum cashier offering her the senior discount when she was in her early 50s.

From the duo who wrote “Tiny Imperfections” comes a heartwarming new novel about a neighborhood in which a new child and his attention-grabbing uncle arrive. Tragedy shakes the community as expectations of life shake and shake, but Marjette Lewis walks through with laughter and tears.

Pete Hsu’s first collection of stories chronicles scenes from a life adrift in this reflection on the many ways we are meant to adapt to today’s world.

It’s long. But don’t let that deter you. Be excited that there is so much new John Irving material to read. I mean, John Irving! “The World According to Garp!” “A Prayer for Owen Meany!” “The rules of the cider house!” “A widow for a year!” Her first novel in seven years is set in Aspen, Colorado in 1941. It follows Little Ray, a former national skier, who returns east to have her son. Years later, his adult son returns to the Jerome Hotel in Aspen where he encounters ghosts. Continue reading. You won’t be able to stop.

A novel set in Scotland, Italy and France around the mysterious death of a professor, “The Bequest” centers on the doctorate. student, Isabella. When her old friend goes missing, but leaves a coded suicide note, it’s up to Isabel to solve the 400-year-old mystery…before it’s too late.

I will read anything Nora McInerny writes. Her last two books, “No Happy Endings” and “It’s Okay to Laugh (Crying is Cool, Too),” addressed the loss of her young husband with humor. In the meantime, her podcast, “Terrible, Thanks for Asking,” has exploded. “Bad Vibes Only” brings eagerly awaiting fans fabulous, heartfelt and fun essays on culture, appearance, aging and more.

Listen to our past podcast here and check out his nonprofit Still Kickin’ here.

Author of twelve novels and two collections, Lydia Millet tells the dazzling story of a man who walks from New York to Arizona and becomes entangled in the lives of the next-door neighbors living in the glass house.

Reese Witherspoon selected “Little Fires Everywhere” as Reese’s Book Club pick and turned it into a hit show, taking Celeste Ng from your average New York Times bestselling author to true Hollywood stardom. Celeste’s new book, “Our Missing Hearts,” uses her skillful introspection in an examination of family life that has also characterized her previous work. This time, a young boy living in a dormitory with his librarian father after his mother leaves, swears to find his mother whose writings are condemned by the government. When he receives a letter from her, he runs into systemic obstacles in his discovery.

Virtually attend and watch me interview Celeste live with Temple Emanu-El Streicker Center on November 1 at 11:30 a.m.

An Amazon First Reads pick, “Token Black Girl” follows Danielle through her upbringing in a predominantly white environment. She endured painful hair treatments, dietary restrictions and other punitive measures to shape herself and eventually embarked on a career in fashion and beauty, which she now reflects on in this candid look at race in the media.

Dani Shapiro is one of my favorite authors. His first memoir, “Slow Motion,” is the book I most often cite as the memoir that made me love memoirs. (And now I’ve even written one!) Inheritance, his last memoir, was a bestseller. Now comes Signal Fires, Dani’s first novel in fifteen years, which is creating a buzz. An accident involving three teenagers on Division Street tears families apart and unites others under a shroud of secrecy that a young boy, years later, must navigate. Dani did it again in this poetic tale about the hearts of families.

Virtually attend and watch me interview Dani live with Temple Emanu-El Streicker Center on November 29 at 11:30 a.m.

Listen to our previous podcast here.

This is “The Diary of Anne Frank” for the current war being waged in Ukraine. It is almost unfathomable that the war can go on as we all sit here and read, but so be it. Now we can open a spine to turn our attention to a 12-year-old girl whose diary entries take us from a bunker in Ukraine to safe solace in Ireland and further open our eyes to the atrocities endured elsewhere.

Actress, author and activist Amber Tamblyn has assembled her own cast for this anthology about the need for women to listen to their fundamental truths, including Samantha Irby, America Ferrera, Ada Limon and many other notables.

The first novel about five generations of Vietnamese women, “New Year’s Girls” relies on astrological charts to provide meaning. The contemporary girls reveal secrets as their lives unfold to their mother and past ancestors, showing how they even ended up in America.

I’m a little obsessed with time. I still feel the hourglass sand dwindling and act like I’m still racing against it. To go to bed late? No, not a minute to lose! I have already turned to Laura Vanderkam to learn about her intricate time tracking system and how it has helped many people work from home. But now, his main advice is counterintuitive: to make a stressed, time-constrained life more bearable, add more!

Listen to our past podcast here.

They call it “raunch-com”. On its own, author Meryl Wilsner’s first chapter (they/them) might make you blush with a scene between two women on a one-night stand, only to discover that one is the mother of the other. Things heat up quickly in this spicy tale written by a former fan-fiction writer turned high-end novelist.