Fall Reading Recommendations

It’s Fall!!!! It’s officially Fall!!!! . . . . Kind of . . . It’s football season, which is really the only indication of Fall in South Texas. I’m not a football fan so I rely on the appearance of anything and everything pumpkin flavored that appears at any and all stores in the area. Fall reading is typically full of fantasies, mysteries and historical fiction. Sometimes I even read a mix of all three. The five books below are books that I picked because I felt like they perfectly encapsulate the feeling of fall. I love a spooky atmosphere that isn’t too scary. (I’m a total chicken when it comes to being scared.)

Top 5 Tuesday is hosted by Shanah @ The Bionic Bookworm. If you are interested in learning more about Top 5 Tuesday or want to participate feel free to check out the October topics!

1. Three Dark Crowns by Kendare Blake – I just found this series but it’s the perfect fall fantasy read! It’s dark, dramatic, and intensely political. The premise of Three Dark Crowns is that there are three queens but only one queen can rule. For generations the sisters have fought to the death for the title, but this year who will win? The series is turning out to be so much more than I expected when I started and I can’t wait to see what the last two books bring!
2. Stalking Jack the Ripper by Kerri Maniscalco – I had to put this series on her because it’s truly a perfect fall read. This reminds me a lot of the television show Murdoch Mysteries but a little bit darker. The series features a clever young woman who works as an apprentice in the field of Forensic Pathology during the era of Jack the Ripper. When she meets the dashing Thomas Cresswell, they form an alliance to find the unknown killer before he finds them.
3. The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson – Ok so I haven’t read all of this book but that’s because I’m easily scared. What I have read of this book showed me that it’s good enough to recommend, I’m even considering attempting to read it again. This is a nonfiction book about two parallel events in Chicago’s history. The invention, creation, and running of the Chicago World’s Fair is shown alongside the development of American’s first serial killer. One of most terrifying things about this book is that something so amazing and horrific could have existed side by side and contributed so much to the creation of the other.
4. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde – For some reason this is one of my most read classics. (Frankenstein is probably the second most read but that one seemed to obvious for this list.) I’m not completely sure what draws me to this book so often but I find myself reading it almost every fall season. It contains horror and scandal but there are also many deeply rooted human themes throughout the novel. The horror in this novel is psychological versus the blood and guts style of many modern horror films.
5. The Library Book by Susan Orlean – Fall means back to school, which means trips to the library right? If you have ever been interested in the history of libraries I highly recommend The Library Book by Susan Orlean. Even if you didn’t think that the history of a library could be so interesting give this book a chance before you write it off as boring and uninteresting. Plus there is a slight mystery element to this book as it looks into who set the fire at the Los Angeles County Central Library in 1986.