Women Who Travel Book Club: 10 New Books We Can’t Wait to Read This Fall
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As you prepare your packing list for that long-awaited fall getaway, is there anything quite as exhilarating (or challenging) as selecting which new book to bring? Here at Women Who Travel, we look forward to the moment we can finally sit back, relax, and dive into a book in a new destination. Which is we're continuing to share a quarterly list of the most exciting reads written by women authors that you might want to purchase before you hit the road. We asked our editors, contributors, and well-traveled bibliophiles in our network to share the books that are currently in their carry-ons.
Below, find 10 new books to read this fall, from a spooky thriller that inspired the latest season of American Horror Story to a manifesto on the importance of prioritizing rest. Plus, we’ve got recommendations celebrating Latinx authors in honor of Hispanic Heritage Month from the team at Bookshop.org. We'd love to hear which you're reading—and which fantastic new books we missed—on Instagram or Facebook.
The Karma of Success by Liz Tran
I recently devoured The Karma of Success during an eight-hour flight delay from Denver to DC. It's a must-read for aspiring entrepreneurs and those considering a side hustle, offering a blend of practical advice and spiritual insight. Liz Tran's message about the importance of staying passionate and grounded in your pursuits resonated with me deeply. It's a reminder that hard work is a valuable part of our journey, and it reconnected me spiritually to my professional endeavors. I highly recommend it to anyone seeking a more fulfilling path. —Katalina Mayorga, CEO of El Camino Travel and The Casa Violeta
Delicate Condition by Danielle Valentine
I knew this book would be special when I found out it was the basis for the current season of American Horror Story: Delicate—and had been optioned and produced as a TV show before the book was even released this summer! It's a fast-paced, chilling, perfect-for-spooky-season thriller about an actress who struggles to get pregnant, and starts to believe that mysterious forces are preventing her pregnancy as a means to advance her career. Think of it as a 2023 response to Rosemary's Baby. It's different enough from American Horror Story that you can enjoy the book and the show simultaneously—and I promise the ending will leave you breathless. —Todd Plummer, contributor
America the Beautiful?: One Woman in a Borrowed Prius on the Road Most Traveled by Blythe Roberson
I'm a sucker for a road trip book, so I grabbed this one as soon as I could. Comedian and author of How to Date Men When You Hate Men Blythe Roberson set out on a road trip across the country to prove that while our most celebrated narratives on the road have typically been penned by men, it turns out that women, too, can "find themselves." Her goal becomes collecting Junior Park Ranger badges from US National Parks she has yet to visit, completing activity booklets meant for children, reconnecting with friends, and even getting ghosted along the way. —Taylor Eisenhauer, editorial operations manager
Brave-ish: One Breakup, Six Continents, and Feeling Fearless After Fifty by Lisa Niver
One of the books high on my fall reading list is Brave-ish: One Breakup, Six Continents, and Feeling Fearless After Fifty, by Lisa Niver, an LA–based journalist. I can't wait to dig into Niver's honest account of how she transformed her life at age 47 by committing to doing 50 new things by the time she turned 50: diving with sharks and pulling 3-Gs while bobsledding, to name a few. I love inspirational books, especially when travel, adventure, and gutsy women are involved, so this is right up my literary alley. –Blane Bachelor, contributor
Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld
Curtis Sittenfeld's Romantic Comedy is less a traditional romance book and more an exploration of how the relationship between two people—a writer on an SNL–type show and one of its hosts—starts and stops many times before happily ever after. We follow them from the set where they meet post-2016 election to the early days of quarantine in 2020 when they reconnect. I picked this up during a reading slump and finished it in two days. —T.E.
The Night Parade: A Speculative Memoir by Jami Nakamura Lin
I now think about grief a lot, for better or for worse, after my mother passed away a few years ago. For worse, because it’s such a heavy topic and my emotional baggage is already over the weight limit (insert audience laughter here). But also for better, because I now connect to books and stories of parents and children, mothers and fathers, family and loss, in a way I didn’t before. All that to say, it’s been both heart-wrenching and heart-filling to read Jami Nakamura Lin’s debut book The Night Parade: A Speculative Memoir (a lil’ disclaimer: I got an advance reading copy of this months ago because Lin and I are friends, and I was her erstwhile editor at another magazine). It’s breathtaking to read the way she skillfully utilizes the Hyakki Yagyō—a procession of supernatural oni and yōkai in Japanese folklore and mythology—to recontextualize and reconsider narratives of grief, mental illness, and memory-making. This is a book to keep at your bedside. —Matt Ortile, associate editor
The Last Language by Jennifer duBois
I've been so looking forward to Jennifer duBois's fourth novel, The Last Language. As a writer, she's always playing with unreliable narrators, or, maybe, more generally, the essential unreliability of narrative, given how perspectives not only vary from person to person but are altered by time and distorted by social pressures. In her new book, these themes command center stage as a disgraced linguist tells the twisty-turny story of how she went from helping a nonverbal man find language using a controversial new device to engaging in a covert romance to, well, spending time in prison. I can't wait. —Maggie Shipstead, contributor
Land of Milk and Honey by C Pam Zhang
I can’t wait to read this book. I write a lot about food and restaurants and, separately, I also write a lot about climate change. In this dystopian thriller by C Pam Zhang, those two worlds seem to collide: After smog blocks out the sun, crops begin to fail and the world’s food supplies shrink. Against this backdrop, a chef takes a job at a mysterious mountaintop research community where the sun still shines and diverse ingredients are abundant. But, of course, there’s a dark side. I plan to save this book until my next long flight so I can get totally sucked in and read without interruption. —Sarah Kuta, contributor
Rest is Resistance: A Manifesto by Tricia Hersey
A few years ago, a colleague recommended that I follow The Nap Ministry on Instagram, and I’ve been obsessed ever since. Rest is Resistance: A Manifesto is The Nap Ministry in book form—a transformative argument for letting go of the hustle and grind mindset and, instead, prioritizing rest. Author Tricia Hersey illustrates—through beautiful and powerful stories—how we’re literally destroying our bodies at the altar of capitalism. Her manifesto implores us to reverse centuries of indoctrination and look instead at the value of taking the time to love and care for yourself through naps, mediation, and intentional daydreaming. With the fall and winter seasons upon us, this is the perfect time to honor yourself, your body, and your mind, and abide by Hersey’s manifesto and give yourself permission to rest. —Kimberly A Snead, CMO of Bookshop.org
Our Strangers by Lydia Davis
It's not cheating to pick a book you're publishing, right? Our Strangers by the stunningly talented Lydia Davis is filled with short (sometimes short short) stories of everyday life written in plain prose. Somehow, though, Davis manages to make the mundane magical, and every page of the book is a new pleasure. The collection is available only at independent bookstores, libraries, and on Bookshop.org at the request of the author. Why? Davis wants to sell her book "in the time-honored way—through independent bookstores that value community and engage in a humane, respectful conversation with readers." Here, here! –K.S.
