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.

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!

Did the cover of a book in the photo catch your eye? Let me know in the comments and I will happily provide the title and author information if it is too small to decipher.

With the warm weather come the lists of books that are perfect for reading on a beach. I know that reading on the beach is incredibly popular but I've never really gotten into it, mostly because the bright sun on white pages makes my eyes hurt. My summer reading venue of choice is an air-conditioned bar, preferably in the middle of the day when the background noise is ambient, not distracting. But no matter where you choose to read, you want to read something amazing. Somewhere along the way, summer beach reads became synonymous with light and fluffy fiction. The implication is that anything that would be enjoyable to read on a beach would have the literary value of a soap opera, however, these stories feature mult-faceted characters with complicated family dynamics that will keep you furiously flipping pages. Plus, all three of these novels are available in paperback which makes them ideal for travel. 

Pioneer Girl by Bich Minh Nguyen

This was the April book club pick at my local indie bookstore and I don't know why it took me so long to hear about it! It is one part family lore, one part childhood nostalgia, and one part falling down the rabbit hole of research. Lee Lien has returned home after finishing a Ph.D. in English without a job and with increasing apathy towards Edith Wharton, the subject of her dissertation. Stuck under the same roof with her mother and grandfather, who both immigrated from Vietnam, Lee finds comfort rereading the Little House series, looking for clues to confirm that a brooch left in her grandfather's restaurant in Vietname belonged to Rose, the journalist daughter of Laura Ingalls Wilder. Her search takes her on a journey West as she unravels the mysteries of Rose's life and tries to find direction for her own. I love that the family dynamic of the Lien family mirrors that of the Ingalls Wilder family, highlighting what it means to be an immigrant looking for a place to call home.

The Hundred-Year House by Rebecca Makkai

As the title suggests, this book tells the stories of the inhabitants of the house over its first hundred years, but the twist is that the chronology is reversed. The first section takes place in 1999 when Zee and her husband, Doug, move into the guest house on her childhood estate. However, Doug dredges up the past as he tries to find information for his book about Edwin Parfitt, a poet who stayed at the house when it was an artists' colony. Doug does not find all the answers he wants, but the reader does as the story jumps backwards to previous groups of tenants until the house is just a piece of land with a broken branch marking the future location of the front door. Each generation has their secrets wrapped up in the house and as time turns back, the layers are pulled away to expose the tangled web of the family. This is a book that begs to be reread because each dip further into the past adds new understanding to the future. Last summer I heard an interview with Rebecca Makkai about this book on WUWM, Milwaukee's local NPR station, and was immediately sold so I'm thrilled it is now out in paperback. 

Arcadia by Lauren Groff

Of my three recommendations, this is the most serious, though that is not to say that it is without joy. Rather it shows all the ups, downs, and in-betweens of life. For about fifty years, the story follows Bit, the first child born into a commune in Western New York called Arcadia. A story of an unorthodox childhood morphs into something more complex as both Arcadia and Bit grow up and cracks in their perfect world begin to show. The idealistic values erode under the charisma and hubris of Arcadia's leader and an agrarian utopia becomes an outpost of debauchery. Arcadia is Bit's family and home, but he is forced to leave the people and the place that he once loved, though Arcadia never really leaves him. 

I was visiting my parents a couple weeks ago and since their kitchen is much larger than my apartment kitchen, I decided I wanted to do some cooking. With fresh fruit easily available during the summer, I decided to try my hand at making jams. For many years I have watched from a distance when my mom made jams, but if I had known it was so easy I would have tried my hand at it years ago. I made a batch of rhubarb-ginger jam, which is a standby in my house because the rhubarb plant in my parents' backyard is enormous, and then decided to branch out with this delicious raspberry, jalapeno, and cilantro jam from Cupcake Rehab. If you like a bit of heat in your preserves, this is the recipe for you!

Summer is the perfect time to catch up on reading and I am a huge fan of British detective stories. I saw a reference to the Rivers of London series with Constable Peter Grant and knew I had to find a copy. One of the blurbs on the back cover refers to the series as "Harry Potter joins the Metropolitan Police" and the books do not disappoint. The first in the series is Midnight Riot and is not pictured above because I have already passed it onto my mystery-loving mom. If you like a little bit of magic, a lot of wit, and a great plot, then you should check out this series by Ben Aaronovitch. I have finished all five books that are currently out and am already impatiently waiting for the next installment!

If you are looking for an easy project to work on this summer, check out this tutorial from Spoonflower on how to make recipe tea towels. I made a batch for my family reunion and they were such a big hit that I had to order more fabric to keep up with the demand! I did not have handwritten recipes to scan, so I used GoogleDocs to create a design that looks like a recipe card. They look great, can be completed in an afternoon, and make a great gift for family members!

Let me start with a story. Right before I started eighth grade, my family moved halfway across the country and landed in the Midwest. In the process of packing and unpacking, all sorts of things surfaced that I had never seen or paid attention to before, including quite a few books. Among them were two books about mathematical problems by Lewis Carroll, Euclid and His Modern Rivals and Pillow Problems and A Tangled Tale. I've always been up for reading just about anything and I liked math, so I plucked the books out of a box and stuck them on my bookshelf. When I started my new school a few days later, I discovered that I was required to keep a book with me for quiet reading time during English class (which was called Language Arts). Here is where the problem started: I don't read in ten or fifteen minute increments. When I start a book, it will stay attached to my hand until I finish it or something very compelling interrupts me. Since I knew that the Carroll books would be slower reads, I thought that they were great candidates for in-class reading time. I brought in Euclid and His Modern Rivals, which is written in play format, and had a grand time learning about geometry and that you can write a play about literally anything. Unfortunately, my teacher did not agree and I was forbidden from reading it in class. Euclid and His Modern Rivals was not considered by my teacher to be "pleasure reading" and I had to choose something less academic to read in class. 

Fifteen years later I still find this ridiculous. The benefits of reading don't come solely from reading novels and other works of fiction. Nonfiction also enriches our reading lives and can be very fun to read! My college boyfriend was not a reader, despite the fact that his mom was a librarian who kept a steady supply of books in the house. This wasn't because he didn't like to read, but that he hadn't yet found what he did like to read. It turned out that his literary interests veered more towards humorous memoirs, popular science, and books about American politics that featured a strong narrative voice. For him, it took discovering nonfiction to really grasp the concept of reading "for fun." 

Classifying fiction as "fun" and nonfiction as "work" does a disservice to readers. If you haven't dipped your toe into the pool of nonfiction recently, then try picking one up on your next trip to the library or bookstore. I find nonfiction easier to read in small chunks because there aren't generally cliffhangers at the end of the chapters, so it is perfect reading material for a busy schedule. Here are a few of my favorite works of interesting, informative, and amusing nonfiction that are great additions to any summer reading list:

Dry Storeroom No. 1: The Secret Life of the Natural History Museum by Richard Fortey
Have you ever wanted to know what it is like working as a researcher in a large museum? Trilobite expert Richard Fortey takes readers through the Natural History Museum in London with fascinating stories about the history of the natural world, gossip about what happens behind the museum doors, and a love of learning that will make you care more about fossilized creatures than you ever thought possible.

Country Matters: The Pleasures and Tribulations of Moving from a Big City to an Old Country Farmhouse by Michael Korda
If you have ever daydreamed about moving to a picturesque farm where you could drink summer cocktails on the front porch while surveying your land and livestock, then this is the book for you. This memoir about country living is not all sunshine and rainbows, but that makes it all the more endearing. In every chapter they face a new issue, sometimes with the house, other times with the neighbors, but always with wit and charm.

Shut Up, I'm Talking: And Other Diplomacy Lessons I Learned in the Israeli Government by Gregory Levey
Do you ever wonder what it is like to be a diplomat? In this humorous memoir, a Canadian finds himself working as a speechwriter for the Israeli Mission to the United Nations where nothing ever really seems to run smoothly. There are the daily issues, like trying to decipher the screams coming from the library down the hall, as well as panic-inducing moments, such as when he is the only Israeli representative at a vote on nuclear proliferation and has to ask the United States how he is supposed to vote. It is a fascinating insight into diplomacy and politics in the Middle East, and is wrapped up in a narrative that will keep you laughing.

War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning by Chris Hedges
I realize that this list is getting a little heavy on the memoirs, but the tone of this book is quite different from the others. Chris Hedges is a longtime war correspondent and this book is part memoir, part philosophy on war. He weaves his own experiences and the stories of the people he met in war zones into a meditation on what it means to go to war and how it affects those who live through it. It is a relatively short read, but will stay in your thoughts after you finish.

Before European Hegemony: The World System A.D. 1250-1350 by Janet L. Abu-Lughod
This book was originally assigned to me my freshman year of college, but not in its entirety. The parts I initially read were so compelling that I consumed the book cover to cover over the following winter break. My K-12 education did not have a lot of focus on world history and what little we did cover was focused pretty squarely in Europe. This book looks east and uses the trade routes of the time to discuss politics, economics, and trends of the time. There are plenty of maps so you don't have to keep an atlas handy while reading and the narrative is quite compelling. Though I hesitate to compare its readability to a novel (which seems to be the en vogue way of saying a work of nonfiction is "fun" to read), it is a work that is engrossing. I reread it on a regular basis because it is packed with interesting tidbits about a time period and area that I know less about than I should.

When I heard that there was a prequel to Garth Nix's Old Kingdom series coming out I actually screamed in delight. I'm sure I startled my neighbors. My fingers tripped over themselves as I tried to simultaneously search for more information about the release and email my sister the news. This is one of my favorite series and I hadn't even considered that Garth Nix would be adding to the saga. The third book in the trilogy came out in 2003 and a companion collection of short stories in 2005 so it has been awhile. As much as I would love for authors to continuously add onto my favorite works, after nearly a decade I was not holding my breath. Now you might be thinking that there is no way that any new book in this series could meet my expectations. After all, I've read the series about twenty times. But Clariel is the perfect prequel. It brilliantly tells a story that had been hinted at through a handful of lines in Abhorsen, the third book in the trilogy, that I had always been curious to know more about. 

If you haven't read the series yet, head to your local bookstore and pick up a copy of Sabriel. I really do think that it is better to start with there than with the prequel, although Clariel could stand on its own. But what makes Clariel truly wonderful is how it expands the world that Nix has created and it will be best appreciated once you already have explored the Old Kingdom. This is a fantasy series and while I am partial to that genre, it is because of the strong female leads that I return to the books over and over. They may be trying to thwart Free Magic sorcerers who are raising armies of the dead, but Sabriel, Lirael, and Clariel are all struggling to find their place in the world and that is something anyone can relate to. 

Reading Clariel was a slightly different experience for me than reading the other books because I knew how it was going to end. When I first started it was really only wishful thinking that Nix would be telling the story I wanted to hear and I hadn't considered how that story would affect me as a reader. I knew (or rather thought I knew) that things were not going to end well, but the more I read and became attached the character of Clariel, the more I hoped I was wrong. It was a strange turnabout for me because I really wanted to understand this part of the Old Kingdom history, but it was devastating to see Clariel struggle and to know who she would eventually turn into. Especially in fantasy novels it is easy to get caught up in the dichotomy of good and evil, however in Clariel we are forced to come to terms with the grey area. Villains do not have to be born as such and even the best of intentions can send someone down a dangerous path. 

Sabriel introduces us to the Old Kingdom and the Abhorsens, Lirael shifts northward so we can learn about the Clayr, and Abhorsen furthers our knowledge about Charter Magic and the Beginning. Each subsequent book adds to our overall understanding, but still fits in seamlessly with what came before. Since Clariel is set six hundred years before Sabriel, it offers readers the chance to see what the Old Kingdom was like before the more recent crises that marred the landscape. This is a series that any fantasy enthusiast should have and the prequel is a wonderful addition to the collection. I would have posted a review right after I got the book (on release day!), but instead of writing the blog post I decided the read Clariel a second time through. According to the Author's Note, Garth Nix is working on another novel in the Old Kingdom series and I am absolutely thrilled. 

I am always looking for book recommendations, but sometimes it takes me awhile to actually get around to reading them. About fifteen months ago I met Lindsey from Reeder Reads who raved about Marisha Pessl's new-at-the-time book Night Film. I added it to my to-read list and them promptly forgot about it. This may be due to the fact that I have at least three to-read lists at any given time in various forms, saved to various devices, and none of them sync with the others. I stumbled upon Night Film while browsing at my local bookstore a couple weeks ago so it seemed like the perfect time to finally move it to the top of my reading list. After finishing it, I only wish that I had picked it up sooner--like, fifteen months ago when I was first told about it.

Night Film is both a delightful and a disorienting read. The novel follows a discredited journalist as he investigates the death of a cult filmmaker's daughter, but this is far from a straight forward mystery. The intrigue surrounding the death is coupled with a bitter history between the journalist and the filmmaker so the story soon spirals into layers of conspiracy that draw you in and hold on tight. The further I delved into this novel, the less I was able to distinguish truth (which the journalist was ostensibly seeking) from distraction (which the filmmaker was allegedly creating) because every clue could be interpreted with both an innocent explanation as well as a sinister motivation. Be prepared to question everything many times. 

Pessl intersperses newspaper articles and other primary sources relevant to the investigation into the text, and although I am generally skeptical of that gimmick, I really liked it in this context. The sources helped to expand the world beyond the biases of the main characters and made me feel that I was diving headfirst into the investigation. It was like combining a novel with a Google search about its characters. 

I first started reading Night Film over dinner and had planned to only read for a couple hours before going to bed early. That did not happen, partly because I was so caught up in the story and partly because stopping in the middle seemed like a recipe for nightmares. I highly recommend Night Film, but not as a bedtime story. Parts of it can be pretty unsettling so unless you are planning to finish it in one sitting as I did, I suggest reading it during daylight hours. 

I plan on rereading Night Film and hope that you'll pick up a copy so we can chat about it in the comments. It is fascinating, terrifying, and you never quite know what is the reality. So find a sunny chair, grab a cup of tea, and get ready to start questioning everything.