The beginning of October brings cooler weather, fall sweaters, and pumpkin spice everything. It also brings with it October’s Monthly Musts. From modern romances, historical dramas, and entertaining sci-fi twists, this list is sure to make you feel deep emotions and fall in love with both new and old characters.

Must Read Classic

The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough

Following three generations of the Clearys family, the clan of ranchers try to make their life on the hard land while dealing with bitterness, faults, and secrets that plague the family. Full of love stories, struggles, sacrifice, and individuality, The Thorn Birds tells the story of the Clearys’ only daughter, Meggie, a haunted priest, Father Ralph de Bricassart, and a lifetime of heart and soul in a relationship that muddles sacred boundaries and ethics.

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In Case You Missed it:

John of John by Douglas Stuart

After running out of money and little to show for an art school education, John-Calum Macleod is returning by ferry to the Isle of Harris in the Outer Hebrides, his hometown, to find that he is the only thing that has changed. John, his father, is still a sheep farmer and preacher in the local Presbyterian church and his grandmother Ella, a foul mouthed Glaswegian, still offers the steady warmth Cal relied on after the sudden passing of his mother. Cal secretly wonders if he might be able to find another lonely man on the island. John may be disheartened by his son’s strange appearance and unwillingness to be saved, but he isn’t the only one keeping secrets. As the sheep season turns to shearing time, the ties holding the community together are going to unravel and nothing will ever be the same.

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New Must Reads

The Daughters of Rosebud by “Rashda Buttar (Sonny Buttar)”

Salma Chaudhry has avoided attachments in her quiet life working as a teacher, but when her estranged father calls, the bubble she lives in bursts bringing past trauma to the surface. Growing up in the small town of Rosebud, Salma and her sister were inseparable. Though they were opposites, with Salma being the peacekeeper and Asma choosing to be bold and fearless, they navigated their mother’s decline and rigid expectations together. However, a choice Asma makes tears the family in two, and drives Salma to choose between her parents and her sister. After years of trying to forget, Salma is forced to look at her past and contemplates reconciling with her father. In facing her past, Salma is able to find the courage she needs to break down walls and love again.

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Mine Again by Andrea Thome

Delilah Spencer is just meant to be in Sunflower, Montana temporarily on a work assignment from Chicago attorney job. Ranger Beckham’s family has lived in Sunflower for three generations. He’s freshly divorced from a marriage of convenience, working as a high school band director, and trying to navigate being a single dad. Finding true love is the last thing on his mind, until he bumps into Delilah. She’s leaving Sunflower soon and refuses to get attached to the town or the people in it. Her chemistry with Ranger is to hot to ignore, so they make a deal that they’ll end as friends when Delilah eventually leaves. The small town is slowly winning Delilah over, and she struggles with the idea of leaving Ranger and Sunflower behind. Delilah must decide if she finally found the place to puts roots down, or if she is willing to leave Ranger and the life she never wanted behind.

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Partita by Barbara Kingsolver

Livia Cable has learned to live in the farm country where she grew up with her marriage and modest life. That is until an old lover calls her out of the blue and leaves her reeling. A lifetime ago, she was Livia Bohusz, estranged from her family and studying at a music conservatory. His desire to see her now, decades later, brings up ghosts from the past. Following both the past and present, Livia’s decision is influenced by her childhood, abandonment, consuming passion, and dangerous attachment to the man that broke her heart and dismantled the course of her life.

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Peck & Peck by Bonnie Garmus

In New York City in 1982, Batter Gray is fearing for his future. Though he has a sharp ear for poetry, he is stuck folding shirts at the Gap, and drowning in student loan debt. That is until he gets his dream job at Peck & Peck, the most prestigious poetry quarterly in the world, where his life hits the accelerator. He is now in the midst of the two Editors in Chief, the Peck brothers themselves, who are both twins and enemies. He also finds himself aware of the secrets of thirty-nine editors who are on the sole mission to find originality. It’s a cut throat world at Peck & Peck, where “good” isn’t enough, “interesting” is boring and those that don’t make the cut are burned.

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Every Story is a Love Story by Imbolo Mbue

After his wife was killed in a tragic car accident ending their future together, Wolo is trying to rebuild his life and navigate his grief. He goes to work, spends time with a few friends, and fights off the older women trying to set him up with someone new. Though his grief is still present, it has become gentler. Then a letter from the woman behind the wheel that fateful day arrives and threatens to disrupt his life. Though his family members explicitly tell Wolo to ignore the woman, Wolo agrees to meet, Victoria, the woman responsible for his wife’s death after days of contemplation. Her compassion, sorrow, and remorse affect Wolo in ways he didn’t anticipate, and he begins to think that the difficult path to healing can be shared.

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Life Out of Order by Audrey Niffenegger

Alba DeTamble has an extraordinarily out of order life. She has a condition, the same as her father, that causes her to time travel involuntarily. Though far from ordinary, she tries to live as normal of a life as she can. She is a gifted violinist finding comfort in a community of musicians and artists. As she blips through time, she carries secrets she must keep, including from her safe place, Zach. Her situation takes her through time to riot-torn Chicago, to the eerie “Yellow House” where she meets fellow time traveler and quite attractive Oliver, and to the Museum of Lost Souls, a virtual collection of forgotten and lost memories. There, none other than her mysterious step sister, Isadora, is the curator. Alba finds Isadora to be an unsettling addition to their family but their futures are intertwined in more dangerous ways than they know.

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Bad Words by Ríoghnach Robinson

Parker Navarro’s debut novel went from defining his career to flopping all thanks to critic Selina Chan’s bad review. His next book, now four years later, is Parker’s chance to redeem himself, but yet again Selina leaves him a scathing review, beginning a very viral feud. The literary world is spurring on their public argument, but in the midst of that, a quieter conversation begins. It is a conversation to challenge everything they believe they know about success and each other.

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Friends and Family by Natalie Baszile

Babs and Nora have been friends for over a decade, initially bonding over their kids. They share everything with each other including secrets, gossip, and advice. Their intimate advice spans from picking out lingerie to Bab’s counsel to Nora on raising Nathan, her adopted Black son, as a white woman. Their worlds are disrupted when the police are called on the kids while home alone, leading to a disturbing and traumatic encounter with the cops for Nathan. After the incident, Babs and Nora find that they are more divided than ever before, and Nathan looks to Babs and her family for conversations about race and identity that don’t happen in his own home. Though she is trying to respect Nora’s issues, Babs can see that Nathan is struggling as a young black man trying to find himself without a community, so she makes a choice that will change their lives forever.

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Must Watch

Get cozy and prepare for the perfect watches to celebrate the leaves turning. With gritty historical adaptations and an emotionally raw speculative film, this list has everything you could need this October.

Sense and Sensibility 

A woman and her three daughters are left destitute after their father, Mr. Dashwood, has died. The women are forced to move in with distant relatives after being cast out of their home. The logical daughter, Elinor, discovers that the man she loves, Edward, is engaged but bears her heartbreak in secret. Her opposite sister, emotional and romantic, Marianne has fallen for Mr. Willoughby. When he is revealed to be disloyal, Marianne is distraught. Through love and loss, the Dashwood sisters learn how to balance sense and sensibility in the pursuit of happiness.

Klara and the Sun

Klara, an artificial intelligence friend, is looking for the perfect home. Soon, it meets Josie, a young woman who has a tumultuous relationship with her mother. Though Josie’s world is complicated, Klara’s childlike wonder and steadfast devotion help to slowly heal the family.

Wicker

A lonely fisherwoman has a local basket maker construct her a companion made of wicker, but he turns out to be a far more exciting husband that she imagined. His passion and skill change her life for the better, sparking jealousy, captivation, and a disturbance that threatens the way of life in her village.

East of Eden

Nestled in the farmlands of Salinas Valley in California, two families, the Trasks and the Hamiltons, navigate a life of living on the land in the early 20th century. Focusing on the life of Cathy Ames, alongside half-brothers Charles and Adam Trask, and her twin sons, Caleb and Aron, they contend with their nature of anger and destiny to reenact the fatal story of Cain and Abel.