The 10 Books You Should Be Reading This October

What does October’s month in books look like to you? Our suggestions for the month cover a lot of ground, from immersive histories (including a new edition of an early Anthony Bourdain book) to novels exploring challenges both physical and existential. Throw in works by a notable documentarian and a candid exploration of creativity from a notable graphic novel creator and you have a literary month to savor.

Alex Hannaford, Lost in Austin: The Evolution of an American City (Oct. 1)

Few cities have captured the American imagination the way Austin has. So too have few places embodied the contradictions the nation’s cities have had to navigate in recent years, from the onrush of tech companies to the preservation of Austin’s reputation as a cultural hub. Journalist Alex Hannaford’s new book is an elegantly written chronicle of the challenges facing Texas’s capital city.

John Wilson, Your Dream Home (Oct. 22)

What has John Wilson been up to since the end of his critically acclaimed HBO series How To With John Wilson? For one thing, he has a book due out this month. And it turns out that, like a lot of people, Wilson spends a lot of time on Zillow. And apparently, this book is a collection of some of the disquieting things he’s discovered in the listings there.

Aaron Robertson, The Black Utopians: Searching for Paradise and the Promised Land in America (Oct. 1)

The country has a long history of pursuing utopian dreams — some in rural settings, others in the middle of cities. Aaron Robertson’s new book explores a resonant fraction of that, telling the stories of Black utopian communities across the U.S. from the 19th century to today. It’s a powerful look at historical legacies and institutional memories.

Regina M. Cohn and Ryan Matthew Cohn, The Witch’s Door: Oddities and Tales from the Esoteric to the Extreme (Oct. 1)

In 2018, InsideHook reported on a project from Regina and Ryan Cohn: the Oddities Flea Market, which their website describes as “the premier venue for purveyors of the unusual and the macabre.” You might think that the people behind that have some pretty good stories to tell — and indeed, in The Witch’s Door, they share accounts of objects that have notable and even uncanny histories.

Adrian Tomine, Q & A (Oct. 15)

Graphic novelist Adrian Tomine has been making stunning and emotionally haunting work for decades now; a film adaptation of his book Shortcomings was released last year. His new book, Q & A, finds him addressing questions from longtime readers and delving into the minutiae of his craft. Whether you’re a longtime Tomine reader or someone intrigued by the art of storytelling, there’s plenty to savor here.

Jeff VanderMeer, Absolution (Oct. 22)

Jeff VanderMeer has long followed his own path, whether he’s chronicling the rise and fall of a surreal city or pushing at the very limits of the novel. VanderMeer’s new novel Absolution returns to the world of his Southern Reach trilogy, exploring the strange and beguiling history of Area X, the setting of those haunting books.

Anthony Bourdain, Typhoid Mary: An Urban Historical (Oct. 15)

In the wake of his breakthrough Kitchen Confidential, what did Anthony Bourdain have ready for his encore? The answer might surprise you: it’s a volume that tells the story of Mary Mallon, who knew a thing or two about nightmarish restaurant experiences. This new edition of a book considered to be an overlooked gem in Bourdain’s bibliography should bring his deep dive into New York’s history to a new audience.

Jeff VanderMeer Searches for Where It All Went Wrong in New Book “Dead Astronauts”

The speculative-fiction writer isn’t afraid to take on the big questions: Climate change. Corporate influence. Trump.

Robert McCrumb, The Penalty Kick: The Story of a Gamechanger (Oct. 8)

There are few moments in sports that are as satisfying as watching a well-taken penalty kick — and few as heartbreaking as one that goes wrong. It’s worth mentioning, though, that the penalty kick wasn’t part of the game when soccer was created. Instead, it entered the sport’s rulebook in 1891 — and by the great-grandfather of this book’s author, no less. The Penalty Kick, then, is both an athletic history and a familial one.

Shion Miura (translated by Yui Kajita), Run With the Wind (Oct. 15)

There have been plenty of great sports novels over the years, with writers zeroing in on everything from baseball to field hockey. Notable fiction about running can be a little harder to come by, which makes Yui Kajita’s translation of Shion Miura’s Run With the Wind — the tale of a group of students preparing to compete in a storied relay race — feel that much more significant.

Elliot Mintz, We All Shine On: John, Yoko, and Me (Oct. 22)

The news that Elliot Mintz was writing a memoir was itself news. That’s because the author here is, as the Associated Press described him last year, a “[l]ongtime Lennon-Ono insider.” We All Shine On is Mintz’s account of his decade spent working with John Lennon and Yoko Ono, through the challenges of the 1970s and Lennon’s tragic death in 1980.