13 Noteworthy New Paperbacks to Crack Open This Fall

Emmy Award–winning actor Henry Winkler is a consummate performer, having entertained audiences on Happy Days, Parks and Recreation, HBO’s Barry, and more. In his heartfelt celebrity memoir Being Henry, Winkler proves he’s just as charming on paper as he is on screen. Across its pages, Winkler shares stories from his childhood, the joys and challenges of playing an iconic character like the Fonz, and the ups and downs of finding success before finding yourself.

In While You Were Out, award-winning journalist Meg Kissinger blends the rigors of investigative journalism with the candor of an intimate family memoir. It’s 1960s suburban Chicago, and the Kissingers are, by all appearances, a happy and active family of 10. Behind closed doors, however, things aren’t as easy. Kissinger vividly chronicles her family’s battles with mental illness and describes how the trials and trauma of her childhood, combined with the stifling culture of silence that defined the era, spurred her career as a journalist to expose the failings of mental health care in our country. A story of love, loss, and fortitude, While You Were Out is a “a startling, important book” (Los Angeles Times).

Lauded sportswriter Roland Lazenby chronicles the life of legendary basketball player Earvin “Magic” Johnson in Magic. From his charm and dominance on the court to controversy and scandal in the tabloids, Magic has always been a notable public figure. Lazenby’s definitive sports biography captures Magic’s legacy through interviews with teammates, coaches, rivals, loved ones, and more. The New York Times Book Review says that Magic “gives us a wealth of detail, a huge cast of characters, and, in a way, the tapestry of our time.” Bonus: The paperback edition of this enthralling basketball book makes a slam-dunk holiday gift for superfans!

Alex North, bestselling author of The Whisper Man and The Shadows, delivers another dark and suspenseful thriller in The Angel Maker. Though it was years ago, Katie Shaw still harbors guilt over the violent attack on her younger brother, Chris. It was a day that changed their lives forever. And then she receives a call that Chris has gone missing. Meanwhile, Detective Laurence Page investigates the horrible murder of a professor of fate and free will. The detective’s investigation leads him back to the attack on Chris and to the crimes of a notorious serial killer rumored to be able to see into the future. Are these different threads connected by chance? Or is it fate? Complex and chilling, The Angel Maker is a perfect paperback to pick up this fall.

A brilliantly crafted domestic thriller told from multiple perspectives, Stephen Amidon’s Locust Lane is not to be missed. The affluent town of Emerson, Massachusetts, is shaken to its core by the death of young Eden Perry. What was once a cordial enclave is now a deeply divided place where families close ranks and neighbors draw their curtains. As the investigation intensifies, authorities zero in on the three other teens who were with Eden on the night of her death — Hannah, Jack, and Christopher. The teens’ parents sense the pressure building, and they’re determined to protect their children — no matter who else pays the price.

A New York Times bestseller, Of Time and Turtles by naturalist Sy Montgomery turns a visit to the Turtle Rescue League into an enchanting meditation on resilience and the eternal rhythms of nature. Together with wildlife artist Matt Patterson, Montgomery visited the sanctuary and observed the rehabilitation of injured turtles. While there, she spoke with the turtles’ handlers and learned more about these ancient and enchanting creatures, drawing lessons from their lives that all of us could enjoy. Brimming with heart and hope, and bolstered by Patterson’s vivid illustrations, Montgomery’s environmental narrative delivers “an engaging, informative, and colorful journey into the world of turtles” (Kirkus Reviews).

From Pulitzer Prize–winner Viet Thanh Nguyen, A Man of Two Faces is an important and deeply personal memoir on the dual experience of being a Vietnamese refugee in America. He shares his story, from fleeing Vietnam with his family as a child to making a new life for themselves in America only for his parents to be shot in their grocery store on Christmas Eve. Later, news of an adopted sister back in Vietnam further complicates his sense of home and self. TIME Magazine says “A Man of Two Faces is a witty and scathing look at what it means to be a refugee, an immigrant, and an American in a world that doesn’t see you as you see yourself.”

A New York Times bestseller, Doppelganger by activist and intellectual Naomi Klein skillfully blends memoir with reporting in its consideration of political polarization and online culture in the current digital era. Prompted by the experience of encountering her bizarro-world double in the public arena, another Naomi with many similarities but deeply opposing views, Klein delves into the supreme strangeness of our present era — from AI and climate profiteering to the politicization of wellness content. According to Vulture, “no recent book has better captured the absurdities and perils of the current moment in politics and culture and digital life than Doppelganger.”

An instant New York Times bestseller, Let Us Descend by Jesmyn Ward is the powerful story of Annis, an enslaved girl who’s sold by her white enslaver father. On her passage south, Annis retreats into her head, holding tight to memories of her mother and the stories she knows of her grandmother. Her journey is accompanied by spirits of nature, history, and more as she seeks release and rebirth. Let Us Descend is “superb . . . angry, beautiful, raw, visceral, and heartfelt” (NPR).

Holly Gibney returns in this new chiller by horror maestro Stephen King. Now a detective in her own right, Holly agrees to take on a case, even though her partner is sick. Bonnie Dahl is missing, reported by her mother, Penny, and Holly’s investigation leads her to an unassuming couple — Rodney and Emily Harris, elderly professors who live a few blocks from where Bonnie disappeared. But the Harrises are hardly what they appear, and Holly will have to match their cunning if she wants to find out what happened to the missing girl. King delivers yet another nerve-jangling tale in Holly, perfect for a chilly autumn night.

C Pam Zhang’s Land of Milk and Honey is a delectable book about food, pleasure, and human nature. When a young chef leaves the smog-ridden city for a new position at an elite mountaintop colony, she finds herself surrounded by ingredients that are zesty, vibrant, and exhilarating. Soon, this sensuousness spills out of the kitchen and into her personal life. A seductive and atmospheric novel, Land of Milk and Honey is a beguiling treat.

Award-winning author Alice McDermott’s instant New York Times bestseller Absolution turns the spotlight on American women during the Vietnam War. In 1963, newlywed Tricia and mother-of-three Charlene find themselves in Saigon in support of their military husbands, though with ambitions of their own. Sixty years later, Tricia reminisces on that time with Charlene’s daughter, considering the role they played and the lives they led on the fringes of war. Elegant and compelling, Absolution “has taken the worn tapestry of the war novel and turned it inside out” (Los Angeles Times).

North Woods by Daniel Mason is the sweeping, century-spanning story of a small cabin in the New England forest and the many lives that inhabit it. From two young lovers fleeing their Puritan colony to a lovesick painter, an impassioned orchardist, a crime reporter, and so many more, the souls that dwell within this cabin carry on long after they’re gone. A finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, North Woods is “a time-spanning, genre-blurring work of storytelling magic” (The Washington Post).