September is rolling in which means so are the can’t-miss fall books of the season as well as some fantastic new adaptations you won’t want to miss. From the return of some favorite authors, to a sequel almost 30 years in the making and of course, the book-to-screen adaptation of our dreams, these are the reads and watches you won’t want to miss this month.

Must Re-Read

Yes, we could all just read new releases until we can’t see straight anymore, but every now and then, a title is worth revisiting. Especially when there’s an equally tempting new release coming from the same author.

Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason

This was an incredible book that released in 2021 and now that Meg Mason’s latest—Sophie, Standing There—is hitting shelves it feels like the perfect time for a re-read and a new read from this unforgettable author.

Martha went from planning to write a book and living in Paris to creating internet content and living in a community in Oxford. Something changed in her when she was seventeen and all the medication and therapy she can get isn’t fixing it. She stays in bed for days and throws barbs at those who love her. Including the husband who once doted on her, but is now leaving. Forced to return home to live with her parents, Martha hopes she still has time to write a new story for herself.

Buy the book now: Bookshop.org | Amazon

Sophie, Standing There by Meg Mason

Sophie has gone from a job she loves, a wonderful husband, a lifelong best friend and a close connection with her brother to being completely and utterly alone and on the verge of being fired. She retreats into reading, discovering an author who she once loved in her twenties. As she pours over the author’s novels, she begins to feel connected to them. Like maybe they could even be friends. Or more.

Buy the book now: Bookshop.org | Amazon

In Case You Missed It Must Read

Take one look back at summer with this fantastic August release that also has some exciting adaptation news attached.

When Lemons Give You Life by Anna Johnston

As news hits about the Netflix adaptation of The Borrowed Life of Frederick Fife, we also get a wonderful new book from Anna Johnston. Griff was a Michelin-star chef and now he’s disappearing in a nursing home. When he decides to make a tart as his last hurrah, it reawakens something in him and he begins cooking for his fellow residents. Meanwhile, his sister and lone visitor has her own struggles beyond the silence between her and Griff. As secrets find their way out, both must decide if there is room to forgive.

Buy the book now: Bookshop.org | Amazon

New Must- Reads

September is such a promising reading month. Get that fall TBR stacked all the way to the top with historical fiction, romance, speculative, memoir and more.

I’m Sorry You Feel That Way by Rebecca Wait

When two estranged sisters are forced together by a funeral, two generations of fractured sisterhood are explored. Alice and Hannah are Celia’s twin daughters, but when she was young, her own life was thrown off course by an unexpected diagnosis in her sister Katy. The two histories mix as these women reconcile family dynamics that have created a ripple effect and embedded a doomed cycle.

Buy the book now: Bookshop.org | Amazon

The Pirate Queen by Ariel Lawhon

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Frozen River comes another unbelievable heroine plucked from history. Grace O’Malley belongs on the sea, but her stature lands her in a marriage to a brutal warrior instead. When her husband casts her out, it’s the opportunity she’s been waiting for to captain her own ship.

Buy the book now: Bookshop.org | Amazon

The Radiance by Ayad Akhtar

Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Ayad Akhtar explores spiritual transformation in his captivating new novel. A hit-and-run kicks off a series of events that upends our main character’s life. Drawn to a colleague, wrapped up in the academic world and entrenched in an erotic and challenging relationship, family secrets threaten exposure and the truth of the accident is ever-looming.

Buy the book now: Bookshop.org | Amazon

If Not You by Ellen O’Clover

Mattie is living her dream as a copywriter at a scrappy ad agency. Everything appears to be lined up just as she planned. But when an opportunity to land a major client pits her against her internship nemesis, Campbell, she’ll need more than just a good story to come out on top. As she squares off with his irritating charm in the pitch battle they are both fighting for, a new layer begins to unfold. Can what started as a rivalry morph into something else?

Buy the book now: Bookshop.org | Amazon

The Survivors Guild by Gabriella Saab

Two women board the RMS Titanic with the weight of what they are leaving behind constantly clawing for them, and the promise of a better future ahead. But when the ship sinks and one saves the other—along with a baby who no one claims—they become intertwined in the aftermath and each other’s lives as they continue to also pursue a better life.

Buy the book now: Bookshop.org | Amazon

Where I’m From: A Poetic Journey Across Five Continents by Ebony Walden

In this remarkable travel memoir, 29-year-old Ebony documents an eight-month trip to 15 countries across five continents. Documenting a series of “Where I’m From” poems as she goes, this book is both an enriching global portrait and an exploration of growth when we travel beyond home.

Buy the book now: Bookshop.org | Amazon

American Hagwon by Min Jin Lee

The Koh family was once comfortably middle class living in Korea. But when the Asian financial crisis disperses people across the globe, they find themselves first in Sydney and then eventually landing in Southern California. The bestselling author of Pachinko masterfully chronicles the lives of the three Koh children through the process of immigration and trying to build a life that feels like home.

Buy the book now: Bookshop.org | Amazon

Under Story by Chloe Benjamin

Laurel has retreated to the most remote part of the world. Working as a dishwasher at a base in Antarctica, she keeps to herself the fact that she too was once a budding scientist. Now, she simply hopes to hide from the life she left behind. When a mysterious light appears, it draws in the world’s physicists, including her estranged husband. Laurel, however, begins to believe that the Arc, as it’s called, could be the key to time, consciousness, and fixing their lives.

Buy the book now: Bookshop.org | Amazon

Must Watch Movies

This month we are celebrating two things: the arrival of witchy season and falling in love. Fortunately, we have a pair of movies releasing that captures both.

Practical Magic 2

It has been 28 years since the Owens sisters first hit screens, but Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman are back with a fresh story adapted from Alice Hoffman’s novel The Book of Magic. As the pair of witchy sisters contend with magic in their own ways, one of Sally’s daughters is put in the crosshairs of a centuries old curse that has plagued every Owens woman. Now, to save her daughter and any man who dare to love an Owens in the future, the two must set off to finally break the curse.

The Love Hypothesis

In this highly anticipated adaptation of the beloved novel that put Ali Hazelwood on everyone’s radar, we are finally getting to see the chemistry we adore up on screen. Starring Lili Reinhart and Tom Bateman in a STEM-set, fake dating scenario, this is sure to be the rom-com kickoff for the season.