scorecardThe 12 best books you'll want to read this October, according to Amazon's editors
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The 12 best books you'll want to read this October, according to Amazon's editors

"Wild Game" by Adrienne Brodeur

The 12 best books you'll want to read this October, according to Amazon's editors

"Unfollow" by Megan Phelps-Roper

"Unfollow" by Megan Phelps-Roper
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Megan Phelps-Roper is a member of the family infamous for picketing military funerals and protesting homosexuality (among other things). In "Unfollow," she reflects on her extreme upbringing, explains why she left the church, and argues that exercising humility is the key to healing divisiveness.

"Ninth House" by Leigh Bardugo

"Ninth House" by Leigh Bardugo
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Bestselling author Leigh Bardugo spins a tale of dark intrigue amongst the Ivy League elite in her enthralling adult debut. "Ninth House" follows a troubled young woman, the only survivor of an unsolved murder, who is recruited by a mysterious benefactor to attend Yale and investigate the school's secret societies.

"Things We Didn't Talk About When I Was a Girl" by Jeannie Vanasco

"Things We Didn
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In a powerful reckoning that adds a different dimension to the #MeToo conversation — one more intimate, insidious, and full of improbable grace — Jeannie Vanasco interrogates her rapist, a man who had once been a long-time friend.

"Grand Union" by Zadie Smith

"Grand Union" by Zadie Smith
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"Grand Union" is the first short-story collection from award-winning author, Zadie Smith. These eleven new and previously published works demonstrate her virtuosic skill in observation and genre-bending, as she illuminates the pleasures and perils of navigating our complicated world.

"All This Could Be Yours" by Jami Attenberg

"All This Could Be Yours" by Jami Attenberg
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In this unsettling, but powerful, family saga, there is no love lost when the patriarch of the Tuchman family finds himself on death's door. As his daughter and son reckon with his dubious legacy, they must resolve to make sure that his past transgressions don't taint their futures.

"Olive, Again" by Elizabeth Strout

"Olive, Again" by Elizabeth Strout
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Elizabeth Strout's 2008 novel "Olive Kitteridge" won the Pulitzer Prize and spawned a hit HBO miniseries starring Frances McDormand and Bill Murray. In "Olive, Again" she resurrects the endearing curmudgeon from Crosby, Maine in thirteen interconnected stories that remind us that you're never too old to grown up.

"I Will Never See the World Again" by Ahmet Altan

"I Will Never See the World Again" by Ahmet Altan
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Written from a prison cell only four meters long, one of Turkey's most lauded authors has penned a stirring and surprisingly uplifting account of being a casualty of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's crackdown on freedom of speech. It's also a powerful tribute to the consolation of words.

"Face It" by Debbie Harry

"Face It" by Debbie Harry
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You know her as the frontwoman of Blondie, a band whose unique blend of rock, punk, disco, reggae and hip-hop became the soundtrack of 1970s New York. But Debbie Harry's memoir "Face It" goes well beyond that, charting the dramatic highs and lows of a career whose creative and cultural influences are still felt today.

"Running with Sherman" by Christopher McDougall

"Running with Sherman" by Christopher McDougall
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Who can resist a story about a down-and-out donkey getting a second chance at life? (Not you.) The bestselling author of "Born to Run" tells the heartfelt tale of how he took in a rescue from an animal hoarder, and trained him to run in the World Championship of burro racing.

"The Topeka School" by Ben Lerner

"The Topeka School" by Ben Lerner
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All is not quiet on the Midwestern front in Ben Lerner's introspective auto-fiction, "The Topeka School", a deft exploration of adolescence, masculinity and violence, and of the enduring imprints parents make on their children's lives, that follow them into adulthood.

"Life Undercover" by Amaryllis Fox

"Life Undercover" by Amaryllis Fox
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By day she was a covert CIA operative trying to stop nuclear weapons from getting into the hands of terrorists; by night, a pregnant newlywed living far from home, navigating an already imploding marriage to a co-worker. No, this isn't the plot to a new, "Alias"-like TV show (though it could be!). It's the crux of Amaryllis Fox's fascinating memoir.

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