September Book Recommendations: Adults

Thinking about creating a new reading list or simply looking for some new books to read, we've got your back. Our team has created a booklist based on their recent reads and compiled them here for you to view. Enjoy!

Top Five Adults Reads:

1. How Beautiful We Were, by Imbolo Mbue. In the fictional African village of Kosawa, the unwelcomed presence of an American oil company in the 1980s has unforeseen and irreparable consequences. Imbolo Mbue charts the damage in her new novel, which explores the intersection of greed and colonialism, and the young woman who finds herself in the middle of it all. Wider in scope than her bestselling debut Behold the Dreamers, Mbue’s new work promises to be just as moving.

2. Caul Baby By Morgan Jerkins. After suffering multiple failed pregnancies, Laila turns to the Melancon family, known for their special protective abilities, to no avail. Her baby is stillborn—but her niece Amara soon delivers a child with a striking commonality with the Melancons, and the powerful family raises the girl as their own. As she grows up, she begins to wonder if she is being raised by her true mother, deepening Morgan Jerkins’ debut novel that blends family drama with magic.

3. The Nature of Middle-Earth by J.R.R. Tolkien. Edited by Carl Hostetter, a leading J.R.R. Tolkien expert and specialist in Tolkien’s constructed languages, The Nature of Middle-Earth is a collection of previously unpublished essays written by the high fantasy master. Elvish reincarnation, the geographic wonder of the kingdom of Gondor and which characters had beards (a subject long debated in the fandom) are all explored in this unofficial addition to the History of Middle-earth series. The collection reveals new information about Tolkein’s fantasy world, while also answering age-old questions.

4. The Charmed Wife by Olga Grushin.This wildly inventive, thoroughly modern retelling of the story of Cinderella—and what happens after she marries Prince Charming and comes to feel he is not really so charming after all—is creepy in all the right ways. Genre-bending and darkly comic, Grushin’s fourth novel is a weird and wonderful triumph.

5. Walking with Ghosts by Gabriel Byrne. A moody and melodic memoir—much like the great actor himself—in which a young, working-class Dubliner first pursued the Catholic priesthood, but found his way to theatre and Hollywood stardom. An Irish This Boy’s Life with walk-ons by Laurence Olivier, Gianni Versace, and the father who haunts Byrne still.