We don’t know about you, but we are ready for fall. After the hottest summer on record, we cannot wait for chilly mornings and crisp nights that beg you to curl up with a mug of tea and a good book. While it may not be sweater season in LA just yet (she likes to tease us this time of year then turn around and smack us with triple-digits again while the rest of the country watches the leaves changing color), we’re always up for a good book. As dedicated word lovers and storytellers, we thought we’d share a few of our favorite recent reads.
Kat’s picks
Rock Paper Scissors – by Alice Feeney
The only thing I love more than a good British thriller is a good British thriller set in a remote location, preferably involving snow. (See: The Hunting Party, In a Dark Dark Woods, etc.) Rock Paper Scissors is a dark and twisted tale of a couple attempting to save their marriage with a weekend away in (you guessed it) a remote, snow-covered location. As the story unfolds, secrets are revealed, lies start to pile up, and everything (and everyone) begins to seem suspicious. A keep-you-guessing-until-the-end page turner.
The Once and Future Witches – by Alix E. Harrow
Three sisters, separated by time and temper, reunite by accident (or is it?) to find themselves battling a common enemy and rallying around a shared cause: women’s suffrage. This story oozes magic of many kinds. Spells. Secrets. Spices. Sisterhood. Motherhood. Romance. Lost “words and ways.” And, perhaps most importantly, dresses with pockets. Selling point: This book was so good, my mother got out of bed in the middle of the night to finish it because she couldn’t sleep without knowing how it ended.
All Our Shimmering Skies – by Trent Dalton
I have a huge writer crush on Trent Dalton. Not only are his books line-by-line beautiful, they weave mysticism together with cold hard reality in a way that takes your breath away. Set in Australia’s top end at the onset of the second world war, this is an epic adventure starring a motherless gravedigger girl, a quick-witted actress, and a Japanese fighter pilot who has fallen from the sky. With a stunning backdrop, complex characters, and a truly diabolical villain, this story will stay with you long after the last page. (P.S. Dalton’s first novel, Boy Swallows Universe, is equally fantastic.)
Beautiful World, Where Are You – by Sally Rooney
Fans of Rooney, rejoice. She’s back, at her most Rooney-ish. Like her previous novels, Beautiful World is about relationships. Power dynamics. Love. Desire. Money, or lack thereof. The state of the world. And of course, Irish millennials going to bed with each other. A lot. This one follows two best friends navigating the “what have I done with my life” waters of their late twenties as well as their own friendship and respective on-again, off-again romantic relationships. Favorite line: “Aren’t we unfortunate babies to be born when the world ended?”
Malibu Rising – by Taylor Jenkins Reid
As the name suggests, this book is a perfect beach read. But I’d also argue it’s also perfect for hanging onto that summer feeling as we slip into fall, or escaping back into it during the cold winter months. Malibu Rising is about four famous siblings, or rather, four siblings with a famous father, and one epic party where shared family history comes to a head. Part love story, part family drama, with some good old fashioned Hollywood voyeurism and whole a lot of eighties excess mixed in, this book is by turns fun, funny, sexy, and sad. Everything Taylor Jenkins-Reid does so well.
