As summer winds down and the weather turns chilly, there’s nothing like curling up inside with a good book. During my quarantine, I’ve been reading nonstop and I’m excited to share some of my top picks for good reads in the fall! Pull up the pretend fireplace on Netflix, grab your favorite warm drink, and dive in to some spooky, funny, and moving stories. 

September Book: Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler 

Octavia Butler is well-known for her science fiction stories that are intertwined with spirituality, and Parable of the Sower—which is followed by the sequel Parable of the Talents—is no disappointment. The future is bleak in the story, which takes place in 2025. Neighborhoods are islands in a world of gangs, drugs, and cannibals. Lauren, a young girl who lives in one of these neighborhoods, suffers from hyperempathy and constantly prepares for survival outside of the wall. When her chance arrives, it comes with tragedy, but she sets off with other refugees on a trek northward to safety. Along the way, Lauren develops her own spirituality and learns how to survive and build a community with the people she surrounds herself with. 

This book was enjoyable to me because I love science fiction, but it was more than just a fun apocalyptic story. Lauren isn’t just surviving in her world: she’s trying to change it, to save it. It felt important to me in our current times to read a book about a young Black girl making a difference any way she can. Parable of the Sower is about building a community and connecting with the Earth, and Butler brings the diversity that science fiction should have always had. 

October Book: Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman

If you’re like me, you may have seen the 1998 film Practical Magic starring Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman without even knowing it was a book first. Two sisters, Sally and Gillian Owens, grow up with their strange aunts, who all the townspeople fear and revere. They watch the women who come to the aunts’ back door late at night, tearing their hair out in love, looking for a little bit of magic to help them out. Sally swears to never fall in love and Gillian seems to fall in love with every boy she meets. When they grow up, Sally escapes her childhood through marriage and her two daughters, while Gillian travels west for adventure. But history repeats itself and love almost never works out for any of the Owens women. 

Practical Magic brings up the nostalgia of being a kid and wishing you could do magic. I wanted to read it because I loved the movie but, to my surprise, it was its own separate entity with a slightly different plot and much more character development. It’s truly an intergenerational story about love and being a woman. There are three sets of sisters, from the aunts, to Sally and Gillian, to Sally’s two daughters, and each of them have their own journey to go on. Plus, there are some spooky chapters that will make you pull the blanket around you a little tighter. 

November Book: 11/22/63 by Stephen King

Published in 2011, this 849-page novel by horror writer Stephen King doesn’t stick to a single year for very long. With a plot that winds through time and place, you’ll follow high school English teacher Jake Epping in his journey to change the past. Local diner owner Al is dying, and he passes on the secret of a time travel portal in his pantry to Jake, who goes back to 1958 with the intention of stopping the JFK assassination. Jake doesn’t expect to enjoy his time in the past or to find himself at home in the small town of Jodie, Texas. He definitely doesn’t expect to fall in love with the school librarian Sadie. With forces working against him and time running out, Jake must do what he can to save the day, get the girl, and get home. 

11/22/63 is a long read, but one that you won’t be able to put down. I got lost in the world of the 1950s and became invested in Jake’s plight like it was my own. This book isn’t what you might think of when you think of Stephen King: there’s no horror or gore. King doesn’t waste time talking about the space-time-continuum, and as a reader I didn’t really worry about it either. Instead, I fell in love with the characters, stayed up late trying to figure out what would happen next, and cried at the end. Not because it’s sad, but because I didn’t want it to be over even after all those pages. 

School is in full swing for many of us right now, and it can be hard to make time to pick up a book for fun. If you can make some time in your schedule this fall, though, these books are worth a read! Travel through time, survive in a dystopian world, or learn a little magic. 

By Kirsten Lootens

NYU Student who spends her time reading, eating ice cream, and dreaming of a better world