three books to kick off your fall reading list

Fall is wonderful. You can wear flannel without sweating, eat cinnamon-apple flavored everything, and best of all, spend the weekend curled up under a blanket with a book and a mug of something steaming. These three books will be wonderful companions during the long, cold nights ahead.
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Speak by Louisa Hall
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While not being an assigned read, Speak has been the breakout hit in my book club. It was published in mid-July and every month since, someone else has read and loved it. Told in a chorus of voices, over several hundred years, it looks at what it means to communicate and to be human through the lens of artificial intelligence. One of my favorite voices is a fictional Alan Turing who writes letters to his school friend's mother which always end with the most wonderful post-scripts.

Written in a similar format as David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas, the story is not locked into a single time or place. Rather, the experiences of each character are woven together to create powerful parallels. The disagreement that Mary Bradford, a teenager crossing the Atlantic with her family in 1663, and her father have over whether her beloved dog has a soul is echoed later when 21st century parents fear their children's deep connections with their babybots. This thoughtful and thought-provoking novel will stick with you days after you have turned the last page. 
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Angelmaker by Nick Harkaway

Nick Harkaway is my favorite discovery of 2015. Earlier this year, I read his debut novel, The Gone-Away World, and he is now one of my favorite authors. I fell absolutely in love with his writing style, but his books can be counted on one hand, so I've been trying to ration them out. (I have Tigerman on my bookshelf, but am waiting until Thanksgiving weekend to crack it open!)

Angelmaker defies categorization. It is a spy novel and a gangster novel, but neither description really prepares you for this story. The cast includes a clockmaker, a ninety-year old former spy, members of London's criminal underbelly, and Ruskinite monks who are all trying to get their hands on a doomsday device from the 1950s. It is a delightful adventure story with a beautiful blend of laugh-out-loud absurdity and philosophical thoughts. I finally understand why people make margin notes in fiction; I have to keep a notepad near me while reading Harkaway so that I can keep track of all my favorite quotes.

The Rise & Fall of Great Powers by Tom Rachman

When Tooly, living above a used bookstore in Wales, receives a message from an ex-boyfriend in New York telling her that her father is sick, she has no idea what father he could mean. She spent her childhood traveling around the world, first with Paul and later with Sarah, Humphrey, and the charismatic Venn. The message sets her traveling once again, this time to try to piece together her own history.  

The story jumps back and forth across time, mixing Tooly's childhood memories with her current quest for answers. Although you will initially be sucked into the story wanting to solve the mystery of her abduction, at its core The Rise & Fall of Great Powers is about what it means to be a family and what people will do the protect the ones they love. 

What books are currently on your nightstand or tucked into your bag? Share your favorite fall picks in the comments!