September Reads: 5 Stories To Fall Into
- Nathalie Ila Mukerabirori
- Sep 1
- 4 min read
The “in-between” month, September, is marked by a transitional period between seasons: the end of summer and the beginning of fall. It is filled with that back-to-school energy, and as the cozy reading weather surrenders, here is a selection of 5 intellectual, atmospheric, and reflective books that will keep you company during these seasonal shifts.
Written by Nathalie Ila Mukerabirori
Edited by Kamilla Jumayeva
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
This novel explores friendships, creativity, and the world we build together – inside and outside of video games.
The book is a contemporary literary fiction that captures that “back-to-school” energy, as it tells a story of two college students who bump into each other at a train station after not speaking to each other since childhood, when the pair bonds in the games room of a hospital, where one was visiting her sister recovering from a terrible car crash that ended his mother’s life and left his foot broken in 27 places, playing Super Mario Bros.
The Guardian describes their friendship as “the precious kind one that waxes and wanes but never weakens”, and so their meeting at the train station will inevitably unravel “ a point of resumption and the start of a prolific creative partnership.”
This book is perfect for readers entering fall with a sense of curiosity and possibility, and as The New York Times reports, “Gabrielle Zevin’s novel 'Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow’ is a love letter to the literary gamer.”
The Secret History by Donna Tartt
Donna Tartt’s novel, The Secret History, is a literary fiction/ dark academia/ psychological thriller of a group of ‘classic’ students at an elite college entwined in beauty, obsession, and eventually, violence/murder.
This riveting, darkly humorous, and valiant story is narrated by a fictional character, Richard Papen, who is 28 years old but also “ annoying, unreliable, and probably not entirely straight" graduate from Hampden College, as Wordcrafters describes.
Richard tells the story of the events that led up to the murder of one of his friends, Bunny, while he was studying for his degree in literature. The novel’s contemplative mood and intellectual ambition set out perfectly for the chilling autumnal atmosphere of September.
The Overstory by Richard Powers
This book will remind you of cycles, growth, change, and our connection to nature, like September’s turning leaves. It is a literary environmental fiction that begins with a Norwegian family that emigrated to Brooklyn in the mid-19th century, before moving to Iowa and starting a farm. They brought with them the seeds of a chestnut grove and planted it at the end of a cornfield.
From afar, the other chestnuts, one of the trees, make it to maturity despite the great blight that sweeps through the US in the early 1900s. Eventually, the old man of the family makes it a habit to photograph the tree on the same day in March every year, a tradition that is passed across generations, as the farm shrinks in the face of modernisation.
The Guardian describes the story as “full of drama, development, colliding hopes and fears, tangled plots and lots of characters”. This extraordinary novel covers the intertwined stories of people whose lives are deeply shaped by trees, exploring the natural world’s relationship with humanity.
Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan
This captivating novel is set in an Irish town in the 1980s and tells of a quiet yet powerful tale about compassion and moral courage.
Claire Keegan’s “Small Things Like These” is a novella, historical, and literary fiction of a hardworking husband, who delivers coal and wood in the snow before Christmas, and as his family prepares for the holidays, he finds out by accident that something is wrong at the local convent. “Why are the girls he sees there troubled?” he asked himself, but what can he do? As “the church is part of daily life, and to challenge it is dangerous.”, describes The Riverside Bookshop.
This book has that September appeal of bravery, tenderness, and quiet transitions that mirror the season itself.
Devotions by Mary Oliver
What better way to capture back the memories made in summer and the transition to fall than poetry itself? September also comes with the vibes of that meditative and grounding feeling– perfect for early autumn walks and cozy evenings.
Devotions by Mary Oliver brings that same mood as it is an exhibit selection of Oliver’s poetry spanning decades, focusing on nature, spirituality, and attentive living.
America The Jesuit Review says about how “Devotions finds the poet rising early to welcome morning, setting out to chronicle the impermanent beauty of the natural phenomena near her home, which in many of these poems means the ponds, fields and woods near Provincetown, Massachusetts.”. Powerfully, these poems are of empathy, joy, delight, and awe, and their unworldly simplicity will allow you to welcome these seasonal shifts.
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