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Fall Reading 2024

Fall Reading

Fall Reading 2024

Fall is known as the biggest season of the year for books. The titles that release during this latter part of the year often become holiday gifts, and many are blockbusters. We spotlighted 10 of these books in our Fall Reading Contests and Feature. While our series of 24-hour giveaways have ended, we encourage you to take a look at our featured titles, which we know people will be talking about this fall and beyond.

» Click here to see the winners of this year's Fall Reading contests.

Bright Lights, Big Christmas by Mary Kay Andrews - Romance


When fall rolls around, it’s time for Kerry Tolliver to leave her family’s Christmas tree farm in the mountains of North Carolina for the wilds of New York City to help her gruff older brother and his dog, Queenie, sell the trees at the family stand on a corner in Greenwich Village. In the weeks leading into Christmas, Kerry quickly becomes close with the charming neighbors who live near their stand. When an elderly neighbor goes missing, Kerry will need to combine her country know-how with her newly acquired New York knowledge to protect the new friends she’s come to think of as family. And complicating everything is Patrick, a single dad raising his son, Austin, on this quirky block. Kerry and Patrick’s chemistry is undeniable, but what chance does this holiday romance really have?

The Grays of Truth by Sharon Virts - Historical Mystery


In Reconstruction-era Baltimore, members of the city’s elite keep turning up dead. When Jane Gray Wharton’s husband, Ned, dies unexpectedly while overnighting at his brother’s home, Jane has no reason to question the circumstances of his death. But on a visit to the same house a few weeks later, both Jane and her daughter fall gravely ill, and Jane begins to suspect foul play. Though a trained chemist and former nurse, Jane is haunted by a history of delusion, loss and institutionalization. As the unexpected and devastating deaths begin to multiply, Jane’s grip on reality starts to slip. When a respected army officer falls terribly ill after visiting the Whartons’ Baltimore home, Jane’s greatest fears become all too real. The time has come to act. But who will believe her? And can she even trust her own mind?

Libby Lost and Found by Stephanie Booth - Fiction

Meet Libby Weeks, author of the mega-bestselling fantasy series The Falling Children --- written as "F.T. Goldhero" to maintain her privacy. When the last manuscript is already months overdue to her publisher and rabid fans around the world are growing impatient, Libby is diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's. Already suffering from crippling anxiety, Libby's symptoms quickly accelerate. After she forgets her dog at the park one day --- then almost discloses her identity to the journalist who finds him --- Libby has to admit it: she needs help finishing the last book. Desperately, she turns to 11-year-old superfan Peanut Bixton, who knows the books even better than she does but harbors her own dark secrets. Tensions mount as Libby's dementia deepens --- until both Peanut and Libby swirl into an inevitable but bone-shocking conclusion.

Like Mother, Like Mother by Susan Rieger - Fiction

Detroit, 1960. Lila Pereira is two years old when her angry, abusive father has her mother committed to an asylum. Lila never sees her mother again. Three decades later, Lila rises to the pinnacle of American media as the powerful, brilliant executive editor of The Washington Globe. Lila leaves the rearing of her daughters to her generous husband, Joe. Grace, their youngest daughter, feels abandoned. She wishes her mother would attend PTA meetings, not White House correspondents’ dinners. As she grows up, she cannot shake her resentment. She wants out from under Lila’s shadow, yet the more she resists, the more Lila seems to shape her life. Grace becomes a successful reporter, even publishing a bestselling book about her mother. In the process of writing it, she realizes how little she knows about her own family.

The Love Elixir of Augusta Stern by Lynda Cohen Loigman - Historical Fiction

On the cusp of turning 80, newly retired pharmacist Augusta Stern is adrift. When she relocates to Rallentando Springs, an active senior community in southern Florida, she unexpectedly crosses paths with Irving Rivkin, the delivery boy from her father’s old pharmacy --- and the man who broke her heart 60 years earlier. Augusta is still haunted by the mistakes of her past. What happened all those years ago, and how did her plan involving her Great Aunt Esther’s most potent elixir go so spectacularly wrong? Did Irving ever truly love her, or was he simply playing a part? And can Augusta reclaim the magic of her youth before it’s too late?

The Most Famous Girl in the World by Iman Hariri-Kia - Fiction/Satire


Rose Aslani is mid-bikini wax when her phone lights up with a notification: Famed scam artist Poppy Hastings will be released from prison today. It’s been two years since Rose --- a first-generation Middle Eastern American, functional trainwreck and reporter for the online journal The Shred --- wrote the investigative article that exposed Poppy as a socialite grifter. But the article and the highly publicized trial that followed only turned Poppy into the internet’s favorite celebrity. As Poppy's star rises as an influencer and pop-culture icon, Rose becomes obsessed with exposing Poppy for the monster that she is (with the help of a devilishly handsome FBI agent gone rogue, no less). But it’s not going to be easy taking down the most famous girl in the world.

The Night We Lost Him by Laura Dave - Domestic Thriller/Mystery

Liam Noone was many things to many people. To the public, he was an exacting, self-made hotel magnate fleeing his past. To his three ex-wives, he was a loving albeit distant family man who kept his finances flush and his families carefully separated. To Nora, he was a father who often loved her from afar --- notably a cliffside cottage perched on the California coast from which he fell to his death. The authorities rule the death accidental, but Nora and her estranged brother, Sam, have other ideas. As Nora and Sam form an uneasy alliance to unravel the mystery, they start putting together the pieces of their father's past --- and uncover a family secret that changes everything.

Shell Games by Bonnie Kistler - Psychological Thriller

Julie’s mother, Kate, is a self-made real estate developer, a grande dame in Florida society, and a power broker in Florida politics. It wasn’t easy for Julie to grow up in the shadow of such a dynamo, but she loves her mother. She and her husband, Eric, are thrilled when Kate marries her long-lost high school sweetheart, a salt-of-the-earth man named Charlie. But on their wedding night, Kate calls the police in hysterics to report that Charlie just confessed to a notorious unsolved crime from decades before. Charlie says that Kate imagined it. Eric says that Kate has dementia. And the FBI says that Charlie couldn’t possibly have committed that crime. Julie doesn’t know what to believe. Is her brilliant mother losing her mind? Or is sweet, lovable Charlie gaslighting Kate to gain control of her fortune?

Spirit Crossing by William Kent Krueger - Mystery

The disappearance of a local politician’s teenage daughter is major news in Minnesota. As a huge manhunt is launched to find her, Cork O’Connor’s grandson stumbles across the shallow grave of a young Ojibwe woman --- but nobody seems that interested. Nobody, that is, except Cork and the newly formed Iron Lake Ojibwe Tribal Police. As Cork and the tribal officers dig into the circumstances of this mysterious and grim discovery, they uncover a connection to the missing teenager. And soon, it’s clear that Cork’s grandson is in danger of being the killer’s next victim.

This Girl's a Killer by Emma C. Wells - Thriller/Humor


Cordelia Black loves exactly three things: her chosen family, her hairdresser (worth every penny plus tip) and killing bad men. By day, she's an ambitious pharma rep with a flawless reputation and designer wardrobe. By night, she culls South Louisiana of unscrupulous men --- monsters who think they've evaded justice, until they meet her. But when the evening news starts throwing around the term "serial killer" and her best friend starts dating a man who just might unravel everything Cordelia has worked for, she must come face to face with the choices she's made. The good, the bad and the murderous. Her family and her freedom depend on it.