Fall is creeping in and it’s time to get serious about the reading season that is upon us. BookSparks CEO Crystal Patriarche is letting you in on what the best reads (and watches) are for this month. Don’t skip out on new books from Elizabeth Gilbert and Lily King as well as some fantastic picks from every genre.

Hot Desk by Laura Dickerman

In a post-pandemic publishing industry, sticky notes are an acceptable form of passive aggressive communication. For editing rivals Rebecca Blume and Ben Heath, sharing a “hot desk” on alternating days, it’s an entire language that only fires up more as they battle for the estate of literary giant Edward David Adams, “the Lion,” and their place in his publishing legacy. In the midst of this battle, Rebecca must unravel a newfound connection between her mother, Jane, her mother’s best friend Rose, and the Lion from forty years ago in Manhattan. As Rebecca discovers more about her mother’s past, she also discovers more about what she and Ben are to each other as their rivalry morphs into something more.

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Heart the Lover by Lily King

A narrator is fluent in the language of romance stories, all except her own. In her senior year of college, she is introduced to two best friends, Sam and Yash, living in a beautiful house off-campus full of all the romance, banter, and minor debauchery a love story could ever need. They take it upon themselves to nickname her “Jordan” and break every single rule about how she thought love stories were supposed to work. At the very point of their triangle, Jordan finds herself in a mess of decisions driven by academic ambition and youthful pride which she had thought would be left in the past. When her past knocks on her front door and forces her to confront what she had thought long buried, she must decide if she is ready.

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Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai

Immediately captured by each other, Sonia and Sunny know that they have met once before with… less than stellar results. The sheer failure of their original matchmaking set up by their grandparents had been enough to drive them away from each other, but not for too long. Sonia, having recently returned to India from Vermont amidst fears of having been cursed by an artist she once knew and Sunny, fleeing New York City, his mother, and his warring clan, must journey together if they are to hold fast against the troubles of the world and find happiness.

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Buckeye by Patrick Ryan

In the wake of the Allies’ victory in Europe, small-town passions in Bonhomie, Ohio plant the seeds of secrecy that weave through two families for generations. Margaret Salt, a woman with a wish to erase her past and Cal Jenkins, a man haunted by not serving in the war share a fate now as their passions bind them—and their spouses—together. As Cal’s wife, Becky, harnesses her power as a seer to help families reconnect with dead loved ones, Margaret is forced to grapple with the possible loss of her husband Felix when she receives a telegram from the Navy cargo ship he serves on arrives. In the years of reconstruction in post-war America, both families will have to answer for the past to move on into whatever their future holds.

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Amity by Nathan Harris

In postbellum New Orleans, a freed Coleman must search for his sister June who had been taken by their former master, Mr. Harper, in his escape to Mexico after Coleman stayed behind. Upon receiving a letter from Mr. Harper himself, Coleman begins his journey to Mexico to finally reunite with his sister, unaware of all that she has gone through at the hands of Mr. Harper and all that he will have to face in order to see her again. Coleman is forced to ally and journey with Florence, Mr. Harper’s daughter, in the wake of tragedy in order to avoid capture by two brothers who see only the bounties on Coleman and Florence’s heads. On the frontier, June and Coleman both must grapple with the struggles of taking their own lives and freedom by force.

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In Deadly Company by L. S. Stratton

Nicole Underwood is the assistant to Fortune 500 CEO, nightmare boss, Xander Chambers. Well, she is up until he is murdered at the birthday party she planned for him. As both survivor and suspect, Nicole tries to clear her name through working on a film which tells the story of Xander’s murder. However, on top of juggling miscasting, script changes, and other L.A. drama, Nicole must also deal with being haunted by visions of her former boss, blurring her own view of her guilt or innocence.

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The Road to Yesterday by Maryellen Donovan

In the wake of the 9/11 attacks, Maryellen Donovan must pick up the pieces left behind by her husband’s death and learn to be the single mother to her two sons’ without succumbing to her deep, unflinching grief. She finds the path to healing and loving again through the support of friends and family despite the further sorrows and conflicts life throws at her. Her journey through loss is not one taken alone.

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All the Way to the River by Elizabeth Gilbert

Elizabeth Gilbert discovers how similar love and addiction can be when the two intertwine in her friendship-turned codependent romance with Rayya. The two must grapple with the deadliness of addiction hiding under the surface of love, and how sometimes love just is not enough to save two people caught in a tailwind of disaster, together. When heartbreak finally opens the door to recovery, Elizabeth Gilbert comes out on the other side awakened.

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Mercy by Joan Silber

New York City, East Village, 1970’s. Ivan and Eddie are best friends who occasionally find nothing better to do than partake in drugs of varying intensity. When the duo’s luck takes a turn due to a heroin overdose, Ivan brings Eddie to the emergency room but leaves him there to die. Haunted by his decision for decades, Ivan keeping this secret to himself does little to prevent it from cascading across an entire community of people affected by his one dark decision.

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What We Can Know by Ian McEwan

In the year 2119, Thomas Metcalfe is haunted by a poem sung drunkenly at a dinner party in 2014, “A Corona for Vivien.” The world since then has been swallowed up in nuclear disaster and rising tides, and Thomas longs to know of their simpler, easier lives where a poem such as this could have been crafted, but no record of it remains. In his studies, he uncovers a violent crime that threatens to twist his notions of an idyllic past to the breaking point.

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Exquisite Things by Abdi Nazemian

Can love span lifetimes? Shahriar hopes so as he navigates his life in 1895 London where he is forced to repress his true self. He watches Oscar Wilde be tried for gross indecency and wishes for nothing more than to live authentically. When his wish to live in a time and place where he can truly love is granted, he will live under the name Shams then as Bram and navigate his immortal life. Oliver faces similar isolation in 1920’s Boston, where he knows living his truth would crush his mother. Once he finds himself in an underground queer community within Harvard’s hallowed halls, he cannot hope to know the way meeting the right boy on the right night will change everything for him, forever.

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She Watches

Task

In this miniseries written by Brad Inglesby directed by Jeremiah Zagar and Salli Richardson-Whitfield, Task follows an FBI agent based in Philadelphia as he tries to track down and solve the streak of violent crimes, all committed by an unassuming suspect. Starring Mark Ruffalo as FBI Agent Tom and Tom Pelphrey as Robbie, the short drama is a heartstopping seven-episode serie you won’t want to miss.

The Lowdown

The Lowdown is an eight-episode drama from the creator of Reservation Dogs Sterlin Harjo that follows Lee Raybon, played by Ethan Hawke, as he uncovers the dirty truths underneath Tulsa, Oklahoma’s surface. Often unwillingly accompanied by his teenage daughter, Francis, Lee is pulled deeper into risk than even he might be prepared for after writing an expose on the influential Washberg family and a sudden, suspicious suicide.