Welcome back to the listing of September Treasures in My Closet. I hope you find a book or two that appeals to you. These are all September releases.
Rami Abou Jamous’ The Stars Shine Brighter: A Father and Son in Gaza will not be an easy book to read. A Palestinian journalist’s extraordinary account of family, survival, and resilience amid the ongoing genocide. On the morning of October 7, 2023, Rami Abou Jamous is already packed. A respected francophone journalist from Palestine, he quickly grasps what the scale of the Israeli response will be. His emergency bag containing passports, clothes, medical supplies, and cash is never far away—Rami is the father of a two-year-old son, Walid, whom he must protect at all costs, physically and psychologically. He decides to create a bubble around this little boy that fear, anxiety, and sadness will not be able to penetrate. Explosions are fireworks, drones are birds in full flight, and Walid keeps smiling. Through a series of forced moves from Gaza City to Rafah to Deir al-Balah, from a large, modern apartment to a refugee tent, Rami fights to preserve the safety and dignity of his family and neighbors. A declaration of a father’s love for his son, The Stars Shine Brighter plunges the reader into the everyday reality of one of the worst humanitarian disasters of our time. A unique and priceless testimony about supporting others when everything around you is collapsing. (Release day is Sept. 8.)
Who would think I’d list two nonfiction titles in a row? Lea Korsgaard’s The Butterfly Season is subtitled What 64 Butterflies Taught Me About Nature’s Great Mysteries and the Meaning of Life. Combining nature writing, philosophy, myth, and science, The Butterfly Season is a luminous account of one woman’s quest to see all sixty-four species of butterflies native to Denmark in a single year. Part field diary, part mythological tapestry, part existential reflection, Lea Korsgaard’s journey unfolds across seasons and geographies, through meadows, marshes, and ancient coastal lands, as she discovers the mysteries and miracles of the natural world. (Release day is Sept. 15.)
In Norah Labiner’s intricate novel Morocco, a woman untangles her enduring bond with an heiress who she is still trying to understand…Chicago, the turn of the 21st century. Our narrator—always there and never entirely present—recounts her decades-long relationship with the heiress, Katherine Stern. Through the years since boarding school, she has seen Katherine as a daughter who wants for nothing but respect from her psychotherapist father, as a woman with a kind, but fortune-hunting fiancée, and as a mystery even more confounding than the gothic horror stories she evaluates from the slush pile at her job. Sometimes, despite their estrangement, she has even seen Katherine as a friend. Inspired by the classic story Washington Square by Henry James, Norah Labiner reimagines the prolific tale. Moving through wintery Michigan avenue to the creeping mansions of the rich to the world of melodrama, ghosts, and girls. Morocco confronts the ambiguity of memory, the horrors of history, and what it means, or does not mean, to read a book and tell a story. (Release date is Sept. 22.)
I know a number of readers here loved The Frozen River, and someone here reviewed The Pirate Queen. A sweeping historical adventure inspired by the life of Grace O’Malley, the legendary Irish folk heroine who risked everything to defend her people. Venture onto the high seas with the thrilling latest from the New York Times bestselling author of The Frozen River and I Was Anastasia. Grace O’Malley was born to be a sea captain. But despite her natural skill on the water, Grace learns early that her dreams of a life at the helm are not compatible with the expectations of her noble family. As the only daughter of a powerful chieftain, her role is to secure a strong alliance and bear children. But when she’s sent to foster with a nearby clan, Grace falls for a clever and open-minded second son—a man she cannot have. Married off against her will to a brutal warrior, Grace performs her duty, all the while gathering followers loyal to her, and consolidating her husband’s power, only to be ousted from his lands. But this betrayal offers Grace the opportunity to return to sea, finally leading clan O’Malley’s mighty fleet. Just as she finds true independence, Queen Elizabeth’s incursions into Ireland grow bolder and Grace must fight to defend her land, her ships, and the people she loves most against the cruel and power-hungry English deputies, who will stop at nothing to check her influence.(Release date is Sept. 8.)
Isabela Livino’s An Immaculate Deception is a A debut Gothic horror set in 1870s Brazil—a tale of creeping suspense in which a young pregnant woman finds herself unable to escape her lover’s isolated family home, and a family’s deal with the devil goes terribly wrong.1877, Pernambuco, Brazil: Raised in a deeply religious household, Madalena knows Dante’s Inferno by heart and fears her mother’s reaction as much as she fears God. When she falls pregnant with a child conceived in sin, her mother issues a threat: marry or surrender the baby. Madalena is confident that the father, the dashing Leandro Neves, will do right by her and propose. But just as she is about to tell him about the baby, a violent storm sends their carriage careening off the road. Madalena awakens in Leandro’s sprawling, secluded home, under the care of the mysterious and larger-than-life Doctor Lobo. Leandro is there . . . but he is no longer the charming poet she knew. He’s silent. Obsessed. Always watching. Strange perfume haunts a locked room. Pages vanish from books. Jewels lie untouched in a forgotten wardrobe. And mirrors begin disappearing after Madalena sees something—or someone—ghastly in the reflection. Leandro is unraveling. Doctor Lobo may be hiding something even darker. Trapped in a decaying house of secrets, Madalena must uncover the truth before the men around her destroy her, and before the hell she fears becomes the one she’s living in. (Release date is Sept. 1.)
Fictional Selves is actor Kyle MacLachlan’s memoir. In this highly anticipated memoir, the beloved actor and star of Twin Peaks, Blue Velvet, Sex and the City, Fallout, and more shares his utterly original account of his offbeat journey in Hollywood, his battles with fear and fame, and the projects that shaped him—and created a cult icon. To be in the black suit, or not to be? Kyle MacLachlan’s funny, moving, and playfully self-aware memoir charts a career that could belong to no other. (Release date is Sept. 29.)
The line that follows the title of Rhonda McKinight’s Writer in Residence would convince me to try it. It says, A Bookish Small-Town Romance with Southern Charm, Literary Themes, and Emotional Depth. Alexandra Chambers is a writer who has run out of words. Struggling with writer’s block and the pressure to secure a new book deal, she wins a week in a writer-friendly cabin through a drawing held at a Lowcountry literacy center. What she finds is far more than she expected–a vibrant community brimming with inspiration, a past steeped in history and culture, and a man who both intrigues and unsettles her. Gabe Scott, a bestselling author and the former writer-in-residence, is everything Alex feels she’s not–acclaimed, award-winning, and unshakably confident. When their paths cross at the center, his literary brilliance and dedication to helping struggling Gullah students stir feelings Alex isn’t ready to confront. Though undeniably attracted to him, Alex wrestles with the fear that her books pale beside his celebrated wor. When a surprising family connection unearths long-hidden truths about her past, Alex is forced to confront a lie that has shaped her life. Guided by the quiet wisdom of Ms. Kate, an elderly Gullah cleaning woman with losses of her own, Alex finds the strength to forgive truths long withheld, embrace her voice, and write the story only she can tell. (Release date is Sept. 8.)
Emily St. John Mandel, the award-winning, bestselling author of Station Eleven and Sea of Tranquility returns with a breathtaking novel of doubles, shadow worlds, and fractured timelines as a man disappears from a glittering Los Angeles party, and a woman—a gunrunner, an art collector, an operative of the State—searches for answers. Los Angeles, 2031: The first spring after the collapse of the United States, peacekeeping troops withdraw from the city, the Jacaranda trees blossom, and the curfew is finally lifted. Ari Waker and her roommate pass the gauntlet of bomb-sniffing dogs, the shanty towns, and the Red Cross tents as they walk across Silverlake to a party. The mood is ecstatic inside the apartment, people drink and dance, a woman wears a silver dress, pleated like tinfoil. And then: A shift. A bewildered twin, an uncanny doppelganger stumbles through the crowd and out into the night, and Kareem, the party’s host, vanishes into thin air. (Release date is Sept. 15.)
Ruth Margalit’s In the Belly of the Whale is subtitled “Portraits from a Fractured Israel”. Renowned journalist Ruth Margalit revisits 10 profiles of Israeli politicians, cultural figures, and iconoclasts spanning a decade of her reporting for The New Yorker and The New York Times Magazine to create a powerful mosaic of the clashing forces that have led to Israel’s current state. To live in Israel today, Margalit writes, is to be either a whale or a Jonah—trying to make do in the belly of the whale. The profiles in this collection represent both: outsiders trying to make a life in a system designed against them, and insiders hatching plans and amassing power all while riding the twin waves of populism and jingoism. (Release date is Sept. 22.)
The next Christmas romance up is Lilac Mills’ Christmas at Honeycombe Bay. This one is a little different, though. The main characters are older, not Hallmark characters in their twenties. Two Scrooges come together for a festive-free holiday season by the sea and find all their anti-Christmas plans going up in smoke when they decide to play Santa for a single mom and her child. Eloise Garrett thinks Christmas is overpriced, overhyped, and overrated, and without any family to share it with, she feels sad, lonely and isolated. The “season for giving” is just a constant reminder that she’s single, sixty(ish), and staring down retirement. But not this Christmas. Determined to avoid the most magical time of the year, Eloise decides to spend Christmas in Honeycombe Bay. Surely a seaside village in the middle of winter won’t be too festive? Ever since his wife passed away, Bartholomew Knott hasn’t felt up to welcoming visitors to his guest house. With the prospect of another long, lonely winter, and having become more Scrooge than Santa over the years, Bart is dreading Christmas. However, when he’s contacted by someone who dislikes decking the halls just as much as he does, Bart has the brilliant idea of opening the guest house to people who want to escape all things festive. Christmas isn’t easy to ignore, though, not even in off-season Honeycombe Bay. So when fate forces Bart to give shelter to a single mother and child whose holiday has been devastated by a terrible fire, Eloise finds herself playing Mrs. Claus to Bart’s Santa—dragging the house’s other guest, a heartbroken teacher looking for a break during the holidays, into the action as well. But holiday cheer isn’t the only thing sparking under the mistletoe. Will the guests at Honeycombe Bay realize that, sometimes, the best way to escape Christmas is to let it into your heart? (Release date is Sept. 29.)
I know Jeff Meyerson and I both fans of Margaret Mizushima’s Timber Creek K-9 mysteries. Fighting Edge is the most recent one. A routine welfare check becomes a nightmare when Deputy Mattie Walker finds a young mother dead and a hysterical toddler, possibly the only witness to a brutal crime. Before the investigative team can start piecing together what happened, Mattie discovers another criminal act in Timber Creek. During a traffic stop for speeding, Mattie observes a nervous driver and a teenage passenger frozen with fear. A quick sweep of the car with her K-9 partner, Robo, reveals a dangerous mix of drugs and suspected human trafficking, providing Mattie with grounds to arrest the driver. After she places the teenager in protective custody, the sheriff’s department hands the case over to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation. As the team gathers evidence and information, Mattie’s husband, veterinarian Cole Walker, notices suspicious activity during ambulatory calls at dog kennels, indicating yet a third crime lurking in the shadows. What begins as isolated incidents quickly reveals a chilling truth: Organized crime has infiltrated their rural mountain community. (Release date is Sept. 8.)
Here’s one that sounds odd, Marshall J. Moore’s The Henchperson’s Guide to Unionizing. As the laboratory assistant to the brilliant but demanding Doctor, Igor spends his nights robbing graves, stitching together body parts, and ensuring that his master doesn’t electrocute himself (too badly). When a mob of peasants wielding torches and pitchforks drives them out of town (again), Igor and the Doctor relocate to the isolated Ravenwald Manor to resume their experiments creating new life from dead flesh. But Igor and the Doctor are not the only ones seeking refuge within the walls of Ravenwald. The manor is already home to a vampiric Count and his highly dissatisfied bride, Cornelia—and an enigmatic witch and her feline familiar, Grimalkin, intend to use it as the site of a magical ritual. At Igor’s suggestion, the three pairs come to an uneasy agreement to cohabitate in Ravenwald, lest they attract the suspicion of the nearby village. In the wake of this truce, Igor, Cornelia, and Grimalkin soon begin to realize that they might have more common with one another than their respective masters. When the trio discovers that they’ve been unwitting participants in a horrible plan to destroy the world as they know it, they must work together to stop their masters from bringing on armageddon… and stop the increasingly suspicious villagers from reaching for their pitchforks and torches. (Release date is Sept. 22.)
Here’s the description of Julie Olivia’s romance, Love Felt Like This. A grumpy rock star and a joyful children’s show creator revive television magic in this standalone, cozy small-town romance. Griffin Harvey lives his life in the spotlight. Reluctantly. The brooding famous singer-songwriter is on the cusp of composing his sophomore album . . . if only he could find the notes. But after gaining custody of his two-year-old daughter, the only music he’s writing is about shapes and counting to ten. Enter Beverly, who lives her life in the background producing children’s television and laughter. Except joy is hard to find when her nonprofit loses funding. She sinks all of her savings to revive the children’s show by herself, but when her variety show appearance collides with Griffin’s, their banter and chemistry is caught on live television. Suddenly, Griffin is singing a new tune. He needs a muse, and Beverly needs all the help she can get. (Release date is Sept. 8.)
Priya Parker’s new book is The Art of Fighting: The Transformative Power of Conflict. A paradigm-shattering exploration of how we fight and how we build healthy conflict, from the author of The Art of Gathering We say we want community. Successful teams. High-performing colleagues and workplaces. Dynamic friend groups. Yet many of us don’t understand the crucial element we need to forge long-lasting communities in our lives: healthy conflict. In The Art of Fighting, Priya Parker explains that we can’t form and grow effective relationships without a fight. She rejects the idea that conflict is abnormal or that good groups don’t fight. All groups change and evolve; indeed, it’s because people disagree that good groups flourish. (Release date is Sept. 8.)
How to Ruin a Rake by Kate Pearce sounds fun if you’re a reader who enjoys Regency romances. Turning the conventions of Regency London upside down, a single lady desires a carefree, no-strings-attached dalliance with a devilish rogue in this spicy, irresistibly sensual new romance. But is her all-wrong scoundrel actually her Mr. Right? Lady Allegra Musgrove has resigned herself to never marrying. Creating a scandal worked out well for her sister, Carenza, now happily wed after advertising for a no-strings-attached arrangement with a willing gentleman from the ton. But the fallout has landed squarely on poor Allegra, who is ordered to leave London for her family home in the countryside. Sometimes, though, fate comes knocking—or, in Allegra’s case, a rake who abducts her as part of a men’s club drunken wager! Furious, Allegra quickly takes charge when their speeding carriage overturns and her masked captor is revealed: Lord Max Devereux, a notorious ne’er-do-well who pays his way out of trouble and beds women with impunity. Suddenly sober, Max wants to forget the whole debacle and return Allegra to the city. Obviously, Allegra is aware that there could be no one worse to be stuck with in the middle of nowhere than such a rake, especially one so . . . experienced. Or . . . could there be no one better? (Release date is Sept. 29.)
Something Followed Us Home, edited by Cynthia Pelayo, is a collection of “Tales of Latine Horror”. “Insightful, humane, and original, Something Followed Us Home features the most exciting voices in dark fiction today and is a must read for any weird/lit/horror fan.” —Paul Tremblay. Dive into the chilling depths of Latiné horror with this groundbreaking anthology, edited by Bram Stoker Award winner Cynthia Pelayo, where each story reimagines immigration, colonization, faith, and folklore as the fears we inherit and carry across borders and generations. (Release date is Sept. 29.)
The Protectorate by Samantha Sonnett comes highly recommended from our North Carolina friend, Kaye Wilkinson Barley. Durham, North Carolina, 2012. When Detective Sofia Rodriguez is called in on her day off to find a plumber dead in his van—posed with Black-Eyed Susans and a Sylvia Plath verse cradled in his bloodied hands—she knows this is no ordinary murder. By the time the second body surfaces, then a third, Sofia and her partner Detective Jones are hunting a serial killer with a message, a method, and a symbol none of them can identify. That symbol belongs to The Protectorate—a century-old secret society of elite women that has quietly shaped American history from the shadows. When their emblem appears at a crime scene, the organization’s leadership launches its own parallel investigation, desperate to contain the exposure before the FBI closes in. (Release date is Sept. 1.)
Most romance novels don’t cover ten years. But, See You Next Tuesday by Kate Stayman-London covers a decade of elections. In every election, they’re the issue. Anya Katz is Type A and highly driven with unfaltering morals; she’s never met a group project she wouldn’t rather do all by herself. Gabe Hunt is a staggeringly handsome and charming golden boy who’ll do whatever it takes to win. At work on Democratic campaigns, Anya and Gabe fight about everything—but how long can they fight their undeniable attraction?
See You Next Tuesday follows Anya and Gabe through a decade of elections, from all-night phone banks and piles of greasy takeout to glitzy celebrity fundraisers and presidential debates. They say politics is the art of making change, but working in politics changes you—and Anya and Gabe navigate dizzying highs and devastating lows in their professional and personal lives as they evolve from enemies to grudgingly respectful colleagues to best friends to lovers . . . to bitter rivals. With breakneck banter, sizzling chemistry, and clear-eyed optimism, See You Next Tuesday is an uplifting and addictive portrait of two lovers passionately working to make history—if only they can overcome their own. (Release date is Sept. 8.)
A lot of books the last two days, but there weren’t as many mysteries as usual. Here’s The Mystic and the Missing Girl by Vikki VanSickle. Small town secrets, a reluctant psychic, and a cold case that could expose them all. Drew Benson can read tarot cards and get impressions from objects―she just never expected to use her gifts to investigate an infamous cold case. Drew Benson has a secret. She gets visions, something she hasn’t tapped into since she was a teenager, when her late aunt, a TV psychic known as Hannah Mystic, became the scapegoat in the unsolved disappearance of a local teenager. Twenty years later, Drew is happy to ignore her gift, focusing instead on keeping the metaphysical shop she inherited from Hannah afloat, wrangling her sole, astrology-obsessed employee, and dodging local rake Foster Banks in her picturesque lakeside hometown. But when Drew’s arch-nemesis from high school, now a big city reporter, decides to investigate the cold case from all those years ago, it’s Drew’s ability that could finally make a break in the decades old mystery. With bills piling up, a disapproving mother laying on the guilt, and a local vandal who wants Drew and her witchy store gone, Drew has a lot to lose. But what she stands to gain―finding out what happened to the missing teen, clearing her aunt’s name, and a second chance at belonging―could change everything. (Release date is Sept. 1.)
Kate Westbury’s The Oxford Guide to Scandal & Lies is the first in her new Oxford Guide series. Set against the backdrop of post-WWII Oxford University, The Oxford Guide to Scandal and Lies is the irresistible debut from Kate Westbury that seamlessly layers mystery, romance, and a dash of academia to introduce the Crown’s newest undercover operatives.
Oxford, England, 1951 – The Honorable Ginevra Bishop likes red lipstick, clever retorts, and earning top marks in her tutorials. She’s following her mother’s footsteps by studying at Oxford, eager to prove she’s more than a debutante. Sidney Braithwaite likes brooding, Latin, and ignoring his nightmares. He’s determined to forge a new life for himself at Oxford, far from his childhood mining village and free from memories of the war. Though Gin and Sidney have little in common, the British Security Service is keen to unite her charm with his espionage experience: there’s a Soviet spy at the university, and the agent tracking them down was poisoned. MI5 wants Gin and Sidney to pick up the trail and identify the informant before more sensitive information is compromised. As a team, the pair of undergraduates clash in personality, upbringing, and taste––but have a connection neither can deny. Gin and Sidney must unite their respective talents to follow the clues before they’re caught in the traitor’s crosshairs…if the sparks flying between them don’t blow up the operation first. (Release date is Sept. 1.)
There’s a lot to choose from for September. Did you find a book or two you want to read? And, what did I miss? What September book releases are on your TBR lists?
