24 books finally came out in paperback this September. ‹ Literary axis

September is officially here, which means – aside from the (hopeful) promise of cool weather after a sweltering summer – another month of paperbacks to look forward to. Below, you’ll find a wide selection of novels, stories, memoirs, and nonfiction studies coming out in paperback this month, from new and well-known authors alike. There’s a lot to look forward to, and I hope you’ll add some of these interesting releases to your reading list!

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hilary Mantel, Learning to speak: stories
(Holt MacDougall)

“Those who for decades have entertained Mantell’s imagination relish her chameleon-like facility with language, and her ability to conjure wildly diverse characters, settings, and atmospheres…. The stories here enable us fully to appreciate Mantel’s wide-ranging gifts….The overall effect of the collection is palimpsest, a powerful evocation of an unhappy childhood in the mid-twentieth century in the north of England.
–Harper

margaret Atwood, Burning Questions: Essays and Occasional Pieces
(classic)

(Burning questions) reflects the urgency and combustibility of the issues dear to her – literature, feminism, the environment, human rights –… The scope of the book and the precision of her writing are indicative of reading and reflection on a long life well lived.
–Washington Post

michael Parker, I am the light of this world
(Algonquin)

“I am still haunted by this tragic novel – its idealized depiction of ignorant youth, its bad vacations, its bad choices, its perplexities and quirks, and above all, the small moments of compassion that offer hope in the midst of a desperate situation.” The situation…. With a powerful imagination already in the books, Michael Parker delivers his most powerful work yet.
Ben’s Fountain

hwa Hsu, Staying True: A Memoir
(anchor books)

(stay honest) is a funny and wise work, an elegiac work of self-indulgence. “What a gift to remember the people you loved, and those who loved you, while you were busy becoming yourself,” Hsu concludes.
–Atlantic Ocean

kenneth C Davis, Great Short Books: A Year of Reading – for a while
(copy)

“Anyone who is forever strapped for time will appreciate Kenneth C Davis” Great short books. This elegant volume highlights fifty-eight works of fiction selected by Davis for their size (small) and impact (enormous). Davis offers readers insights and plenty of literary trivia in this helpful guide. Outside of overtime, it’s the perfect gift for busy book lovers.
–Book page

jonathan Escofrey, If I survive you
(Picador)

“Not since Moby Dick Has the American spirit of “sink or swim” alone been amplified to such devastating effect? If I survive you “It’s an extraordinary first collection, an intensely detailed, yet panoramic depiction of what it’s like to try to make it — or not — in this crazy, diverse country.”
– Maureen Corrigan

meg horry, They will love you
(Anchor Books)

“A beautiful, relatable portrait of a woman, her regrets, and her successes. While Haori honestly and unflinchingly delves into the complexities of relationships and the inevitable growing pains that come with life, she also explores her history as a ballet dancer to provide an honest portrait of the world of dance, the reality of working artists, and the obstacles they face.” The dancers, revealing the realities of the real world through a fantasy setting.
–NPR

andy Borowitz, Glimpses of Ignorance: How American Politicians Got Dumber and Dumber
(AVID Reader Press / Simon & Schuster)

“This is one of those wonderful books that makes you laugh until you cry. Borowitz brilliantly casts light (and shadow) on a league of idiots who stumbled their way to power. His writing has never been smarter, clearer, or more necessary.”
-Susan Orlean

Amy Odell, Anna: The Autobiography
(Books Exhibition)

“Having interviewed more than 250 sources (many of them memorable and quotable figures)…. O’Dell takes readers through Wintour’s lifelong love of fashion, her personal life and romantic relationships, and, above all, her decades-long career. …While Odell has clever writing strokes in the passage, the range and detail here make this perfect for fashionistas and fans of tales of the publishing industry as Anna’s career coincides with seismic changes in magazine journalism.
–Booklist

dahlia litwick, Lady Justice: Women, the Law, and the Battle to Save America
(Penguin)

“Witty and wickedly acerbic, Litwick shines a reassuring light on the fundamental interconnectedness of women and the law and champions the vital role women lawyers must continue to play if American democracy is to endure.”
–Booklist

john Banville, singularities
(knopf)

“Reading John Banville is like being in the presence of a magician of unfathomable talent, intelligence, and intelligence—someone so adept at his craft, you suspect, that he could make you disappear. singularities He proves that Banville deserves to be summoned from Stockholm…. Time and again he stuns Banville with sentences so dazzling that they are like a boxer’s lightning-fast blow.
–Boston Globe

cormac McCarthy, the passenger
(classic)

(the passenger) blends the risqué humor of some of McCarthy’s early novels with the dry tone of his later, more macabre works…. It is full of sentences so funny, grotesque, and haunted that other writers will steal lines from them for epigraphs, as if the university, for the next 150 years….the passenger is a great New Orleans novel. It’s a great novel about food…for anyone who cares, it’s also a great novel about Knoxville – Knoxville is where McCarthy spent most of his childhood….a sprawling book of ideas.
–New York times

cormac mccarthy, Stella Maris
(classic)

“if (Stella Maris and the passenger) Ultimately, McCarthy’s shrine, we can say, came out with a majestic shudder in keeping with his best work. They echo not only his greatest hits, but also a body of American literature: the Baroque language and syntax of Faulkner; Hemingway’s terse and terse dialogue; Even the paranoid DeLillo felt angry.
–Boston Globe

karen armstrong, Sacred Nature: Reclaiming Our Ancient Connections with the Natural World
(anchor books)

“Armstrong offers… a searching spiritual view of climate change…. The illuminating examinations of a wide range of religious traditions are thought-provoking and have the power to change the way readers see the world and humanity’s place in it. Strikingly original and wide-ranging, this book On climate change, light the way.
–Publishers Weekly

Siddhartha Mukherjee, The Cell Song: Exploring Medicine and the New Human
(copier)

“In a lyrical and expansive novel, Mukherjee takes us through the evolution of human understanding: from the 17th century discovery that humans are made of cells to our cutting-edge technologies for manipulating and disseminating cells for therapeutic purposes.”
–The New Yorker

sean Fabry, Wolf’s Roar: A Black Woman on Wall Street
(Holt McDougall)

What a wonderful voice! What a crisp, powerful story! Wonderful! It takes us back to her Haitian roots, through her life as a young woman, and into the bowels of Wall Street to shine a deep, thoughtful light on everything from the experience of black immigrants in America to capitalism. Everyone Needs To read this.”
– Jacqueline Woodson

ling Ma, Montague Place
(picador)

“Each story unfolds like a particularly memorable dream sequence…. What’s so satisfying about Chapter Two that he does what’s how Montague Place He picks up the thread he left behind to cutComing-of-age ushers in these stories of older, more hardened women, who have already faced their pasts again and again, and who now find comfort—and rebellion—through separation.
–Vanity gallery

david Means, Two nurses smoking: stories
(picador)

“There’s nothing quite like the story of David Means…. Means is the genius of the part….(Two nurses smoking is a) a fascinating collection of stories that seek to destabilize the illusions of the imagination even as it embraces and enhances them.
–Kirkus Reviews

casey Parks, Diary of a Misfit: A Memoir and a Mystery
(classic)

(S) translator Memoirs and MysteriesIt’s certainly both of those things, but it’s also a hardworking family history, a decades-old community history à la Sarah Broome. yellow housea coming-of-age novel, a dive into Christian cults, a grapple with Southern heritage….Most affecting is Parks’ portrayal of an eccentric breed, and her emphasis on the outcasts’ origin, a tapestry of fellow misfits in which the marginalized will always, for better or worse, fit in.”
–New York Times Book Review

katherine Rundle, Super Infinite: The Transformations of John Donne
(picador)

Kathryn Rondell calls her new autobiography about Don infinite super. It’s an ingenious way of making his difficulty seem simultaneously exciting and formidable…. (Rondel) He writes with expert knowledge and the friendly affection of an evangelist.
–The New Yorker

brenda Lozano, witches (via Heather Cleary)
(the catapult)

Readers of Fernanda Melchor’s stunning and psychedelic take on modern South American history will not want to miss Brenda Lozano’s book witches…. Heather Cleary seamlessly translates Lozano’s thorny novel, immersing readers in its horrors without obscuring its beauty.
–Chicago Review of Books

orlando Higgs, Russia story
(Metropolitan Books)

“This is the basic backstory, the history book you need if you want to understand modern Russia and its wars with Ukraine, with its neighbors, with America, and with the West.”
– Ann Applebaum

chelsea Conaboy, The Mother’s Brain: How Neuroscience is Rewriting the Story of Parenthood
(Holt McDougall)

“(A) engaging first book…the author deftly translates scientific studies—by neurobiologists, anthropologists, primatologists, psychologists, and endocrinologists, among others—into accessible prose that speaks to the needs and concerns he shares It has many fathers.”
–Kirkus Reviews

rachel aviv, Strangers to Ourselves: Unstable Minds and the Stories That Make Us
(picador)

“Each attempt at a solution comes with its own pitfalls, which Aviv looks at with sympathy and analytical insight…. She is particularly sharp on minute detail—by focusing on the unique combination of perceptions of each of these individuals, she can show how their form changes as soon as they come into contact.” With the perceptions formulated in the formulation of social history.
–Los Angeles Review of Books