What’s On My Fall TBR?
*Authors Note: TBR stands for “To Be Read!”
With fall rapidly approaching and temperatures finally starting to drop after a summer of sickening heat waves, I’ve put together a list of my fall “must-reads.” Now you might be wondering what differentiates a “fall book” from a “summer book.” I think most people probably have a good sense of what a “summer” book is. Summer books are the fun, silly romance books with the bright covers and the easier to follow plots. They are your quintessential “beach reads.”
But as we start to tiptoe into fall, it’s time to switch over to our moody, wordy, and perhaps a little bit pretentious books. In my opinion, setting plays a big part in what distinguishes a fall book from a book of other seasons, which is why the first book on my list is actually a fall re-read.
The Secret History by Donna Tartt
If you haven’t read this book, you need to add it to your list immediately…at least that is if you can handle a little bit of cultish-ness with a dash of murder. This book takes place in rural New England at Hampden College. While fictional, Hampden is based off of the very real Bennington College, which is where Tartt went to school. Think fancy old buildings set against a cold and dreary background. The story follows an elite group of Classics students who find themselves essentially living in the stories that they study. This novel encapsulates the “dark academia” vibes. However, it’s a pretentious one, so if you’re the type of reader that tends to doze off when things start to get a bit wordy, I highly recommend that you listen to this novel on audiobook, specifically because it’s narrated by the author herself.
Katabasis by R.F. Kuang
Moving right along with the pretentious, academia energy here, we jump into my first real TBR. Katabasis is a newer novel, having been released just this past August, by R.F. Kuang, author of the popular novel Babel. While I have never read Babel, I found myself drawn to reading this new publication, Katabasis, after seeing people online call it “unnecessarily pretentious,” which seems like it would be my kind of book! Katabasis is about two doctoral candidates who “must venture to hell to save their thesis advisor,” according to a blurb on Wikipedia. It also has a grand total of 560 pages, which to some might be a bit of a turn off, but I enjoy a longer read so for me this is an added benefit. The biggest point of concern for me with this book is that it’s technically a fantasy so there is going to be some magic involved, and for me personally, that can either be a hit or a miss…and most of the time it's a big miss. However, the book is sitting comfortably at a nice 4.0 stars on Goodreads with a whooping 21,000+ reviews even after only being published for a month. I’ll be sure to link my review once I finish it!
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers by J. R. R. Tolkien
Completely going back on what I just previously said about magic being a huge no-go for me in books, I’m currently reading The Two Towers, the second installment in the LOTR series. Growing up, I was very much so a Harry Potter kid, which means I was a little bit anti-LOTR because I suppose you could only claim one fantasy franchise as your niche hobby, but after being properly introduced to all the LOTR movies this past winter, I’ve been on a mission to collect the books from my local thrift stores so I could have a complete set and read them all. I recently was able to get my hands on the second book at Goodwill for $1.99 and I’ve slowly but surely been making my way through it. I tend to be opposed to watching the movies before reading the books, but there are some exceptions to be made and this is one of them. While I love the movies, they are lengthy, and as are the books. This series is one of the few that I can’t speed-read through them and finish a whole book in one day. That being said, this might be one that stays on my nightstand for awhile, chipping away chapter by chapter until I finally get through it, but in the meantime that means I need to set out to find the third installment, The Return of the King secondhand sometime soon!
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
Since we are on the topic of book to movie adaptions, I figured it was best to add this one in as well. After seeing the recent Wuthering Heights trailer from Warner Bros., and in turn, the backlash over said trailer, I decided that this classic should be another book added to my list. When I first saw all the hate for the trailer, I actually scoured my house for a copy of the book, seeing as I went through a phase during college where I collected copies of classic novels (and read maybe half of those) I figured I had to have the book lying around somewhere, but to no avail. Truthfully, I feel as though my classics phase is behind me a little bit, so I’m wondering if I’ll be able to get into this one, but it’s worth a try to see what everyone is talking about. The movie comes out on Valentines Day, so this read might fall a little bit toward the later side of the fall, and I’m really not sure if there are any “fall elements” to this book to be noted, but I’ll be sure to report back and share if I think that the criticisms circling the internet regarding its film adaptation are justified or not!
The House Across The Lake by Riley Sager
This last book is my designated “scary” book for the fall! I am not a huge fan of horror books, I don’t like anything too scary, but I do like suspenseful thrillers -- something that’s eerie and will keep you on the edge of your seat, but not gruesome. The House Across the Lake by Riley Sager is something of a murder mystery that takes place in, yet again, rural Vermont. It has just 3.6 stars on Goodreads, but I’m not going to dig into these ratings too heavily because I want to try and eliminate the chance for spoilers at all costs. 3.6 seems…low, but I have to keep in mind that murder mystery books really go either way. Some of them are phenomenal and really challenge the genre stereotypes, and some are just your typical “who-dun-it’s.”
The House Across the Lake actually popped up on the app Fable when I was searching for some spooky September reads! Fable is essentially a social media for book-lovers, you can share what you’re reading, and join “book clubs” to discuss your reads with others who are also reading the same book. One of my favorite features of Fable is that it gives you a ton of statistics about your reading. The more you log your reading, the more information it has to offer you. For instance, it’s currently telling me that I’m behind on my reading goal for the year, at only 11 out of 24 books finished, and that in order to reach my reading goals, I’ll have to read five books every month for the rest of the year. It’s my favorite place to track my TBR list and also to do quick little reviews on the books I’ve finished, although, I’m going to try and be better about posting full length reviews here on the blog.
Thanks for checking out my list of upcoming reads! Happy reading and happy Fall!