Outlandish October Staff Picks

The Lincoln Highway

“Like so many other Amor Towles fans, I’ve been impatiently awaiting his next novel, so I delved right in and didn’t totally emerge until a few days later! As always with his work, it’s immersively readable and his word crafting is such a pleasure. What’s happening in the characters’ lives is chaotic and unsettled, but Towles’ writing is as crisp and precise as ever. I was immediately impressed with how distinctive and age/time-appropriate each of the characters’ voices is--right from the start. Most of the characters are young people, kids really, and their choices and actions are life-altering and often heartbreaking. But there’s lots of humor and amusement as well in following their physical, emotional, and moral journeys. A delightful and satisfying read. ”

Shirley, Watermark Books

The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires

“I don’t know about everyone else, but I, for one, am really excited that vampires are making a comeback. I think they’re such a fun trope in pretty much every genre, and this was no exception. True to the Grady Hendrix style, this book was the perfect campy, slightly off-kilter, and moderately gory suburban horror story I didn’t know I needed.”

Kendall, Brilliant Books Audio

Oh William!

“As intimate and affecting as anything Elizabeth Strout has written — a beautiful new perspective in the ongoing story of Lucy Barton, but one that easily stands alone. Kimberly Farr’s narration makes for an outstanding audiobook experience as well. ”

Emilie, East City Bookshop

Severance

“Candace Chen is a first-generation Chinese millennial immigrant who tries to make a life in New York City by succumbing to the role of the office drone who helps create cheap bibles. But when Shen Fever—a plague that causes its victims to perform a rote task until death—hits, only a few survive, including Candace. She soon finds herself in a cult-like band of other survivors heading to the Midwest while also trying to come to terms with her past and the unknowns of her future. With dark humor, sharp intelligence, and compassion, Ling Ma has written a well-constructed, biting satire of capitalism and a moving glimpse into the roles of memory, place, and identity in a life.”

Kelsey Westenberg, The Dial Bookshop

AN OPRAH'S BOOK CLUB SELECTION

Shortlisted for the 2021 Booker Prize
Longlisted for the 2021 National Book Award for Fiction

A heartrending new novel from the Pulitzer Prize–winning and #1 New York Times best-selling author of The Overstory.

I never believed the diagnoses the doctors settled on my son. When a condition gets three different names... Read more »

AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

Something hasn’t been right at the roadside Sun Down Motel for a very long time, and Carly Kirk is about to find out why in this chilling new novel from the New York Times bestselling and award-winning author of The Broken Girls.

Upstate New York, 1982. Viv Delaney wants to move to New York City, and to help... Read more »

“A beautifully crafted novel that sits at the intersection of race and class, that flags the frank truth of the life of migrant workers for whom a flight to freedom can become the most finely woven trap.”—JODI PICOULT, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Book of Two Ways

From the prize-winning author of The Beekeeper of Aleppo comes... Read more »

The exhilarating story of a mixed-race woman who goes in search of the African father she never knew.

After years of being a daughter, a wife, and a mother, Anna finally has the time to wonder who she really is. But the only person who can tell her—her mother, the only parent who raised her—is dead.

Searching through her mother's belongings... Read more »

Matrix

“Lauren Groff has created an incredibly powerful portrait of the compelling Marie de France, banished to 12th-century England to live in a failing abbey. I fell in love with Marie and the sisters she lives with.”

Rosanna Nissen, Barrett Bookstore

"Audiobook narrator Caroline Lee’s voice is an irresistible, visceral joy; like the best audiobook narrators, her delivery is endlessly malleable, shifting nimbly across accent, register and tone to create a sense that one is inside the story rather than peering in from the outside." -- Farhad Manjoo, The New York Times

"[Lee] adds a crisp warmth...

in her new standalone poetry collection, flower crowns & fearsome things, bestselling & award-winning poetess amanda lovelace explores the complexity of femininity through alternating wildflower & wildfire poems.
within these pages, you will find that each of us has the ability to be both soft & fierce at the same time. there is... Read more »

Firekeeper's Daughter

“This story of a young woman roped into a federal investigation of a drug ring tearing her Ojibwe community apart is riveting and sorrowful. Daunis is an 18 year old non-enrolled Ojibwe with plenty of ambition and skills and won't see a clear path to her future that doesn't involve working in her community. This book moved me in so many ways but Daunis' connection to her elders and their traditions really drove this plot. While her parents' choices keep her from acceptance and death seems to haunt her, Daunis stays focused on her values: preserving and protecting the Ojibwe way of life for the next 6 generations. I loved how Boulley wove the Anishinaabe language, traditions and teaching into this story without spelling it all out for non-Native readers. This book tells the story of some of the Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women (MMIW) and helps us connect with the stories more personally.”

Jessica, BookBar

Nightbitch

“At once weird, darkly funny, moving, relatable, and deliciously messed up, Nightbitch is a rallying howl to women, and especially mothers, everywhere.”

Danielle Raub, Itinerant Literate Books

Shirley Jackson’s deliciously unsettling novel about a perverse, isolated, and possibly murderous family takes readers deep into a labyrinth of dark neurosis, macabre humor, and gothic atmosphere.

Six years after four family members died suspiciously of arsenic poisoning, the three remaining Blackwoods—elder, agoraphobic sister Constance;...

Empire of the Vampire

“In the vein of The Name of the Wind, a vampire hunter recounts his life to his executioner. This epic dystopian fantasy is dark and seductive. The violence! The expletives! The smut! What’s not to love?”

Leah Atlee, Bright Side Bookshop

A haunting novella from the uncannily imaginative author of the national bestsellers Swamplandia! and Orange World: the story of a deadly insomnia epidemic and the lengths one woman will go to to fight it.

Trish Edgewater is the Slumber Corps' top recruiter. On the phone, at a specially organized Sleep Drive, even in a supermarket parking lot:... Read more »

Fifteen-year-old Morgan has a secret: She can't wait to escape the perfect little island where she lives. She's desperate to finish high school and escape her sad divorced mom, her volatile little brother, and worst of all, her great group of friends...who don't understand Morgan at all. Because really, Morgan's biggest secret is that she has a... Read more »

The Woman They Could Not Silence

“As this country waged war against slavery, a quiet heroine fought for the rights of women. A must read for all!”

Fran Ziegler, Titcomb's Bookshop

Cheap fashion has fundamentally changed the way most Americans dress. Stores ranging from discounters like Target to fast fashion chains like H&M now offer the newest trends at unprecedentedly low prices. Retailers are pro­ducing clothes at enormous volumes in order to drive prices down and profits up, and they've turned clothing into a... Read more »

From two-time Newbery Medalist Kate DiCamillo and two-time Caldecott Medalist Sophie Blackall comes a fantastical meditation on fate, love, and the power of words to spell the world.

We shall all, in the end, be led to where we belong. We shall all, in the end, find our way home.

In a time of war, a mysterious child appears at the monastery of the... Read more »