Read October: 5 Books to Read this Month
Here are the new books
we’re most excited
to curl up with this October
The Witches: Salem, 1692
by Stacy Schiff
(October 27)Schiff wrote two of our favorite biographies of all time, Cleopatra: A Life and Véra (Mrs. Nabokov), both of which are incredible renderings of very different (and very differently) influential women, and both of which beautifully demonstrate Schiff’s historical bona fides as well as her ability to spin a compelling narrative. So we really couldn’t be more excited about The Witches, which is basically about how society used to shame women before social media existed. Or something.
M Train
by Patti Smith
(October 13)Smith’s second memoir (the first was the highly acclaimed Just Kids) is a tour de force, sure, but also just a tour of the many places Smith has journeyed in her peripatetic life. Visit with her Paris, French Guinea, Mexico, and the Rockaways, stopping along the way at Frida Kahlo’s house and the graves (Smith loves visiting cemeteries) of Jean Genet and Sylvia Plath. It’s a trip you won’t soon forget.
Thirteen Ways of Looking
by Colum McCann
(October 13)This is McCann’s first collection of short stories in a dozen years, but the author of TransAtlantic and Let the Great World Spin makes clear that he had no problem returning to the form. The four stories contain moments that range from haunting and tragic to exuberant and life-affirming—often all in the same story.
I Must Be Living Twice:
New and Selected Poems
by Eileen Myles
(September 29)Maybe all you need to know to want to read the latest work from Eileen Myles is Kim Gordon’s one-word, back cover blurb: “Amazing.” Or maybe you want to know more? Well, here goes: In the same way that Myles starts off one poem by writing: “I don’t think/ I can afford the time to not sit right down &/ write a poem…”, we don’t think you can afford the time to not sit right down and read these beautiful, de- and re-stabilizing mini-masterpieces. And while you’re on a Myles kick, don’t forget to pick up the reissued Chelsea Girls, a classic that deserves all its renown.
Hunger Makes Me a Girl:
A Modern Memoir
by Carrie Brownstein
(October 27)You can pretty much guarantee that a memoir from Brownstein, guitarist for Sleater-Kinney and co-creator of Portlandia, is going to be powerful and, doubtlessly, funny. But what you might not be prepared for is the clarity of her prose and the at-times-brutal honesty of her story.