Life Entertainment 10 Good Books to Get You in the Mood for Fall Looking for a good fall book to read? If you’re in the mood to get cozy, check out the autumnal books on this list. By Rebecca Renner Rebecca Renner Instagram Twitter Website Rebecca Renner is a lifestyle and travel writer with nearly a decade of experience in print and digital media. Highlights: * Book reviewer at Publishers Weekly * Senior web editor at Aiport Revenue News * Founder of Renner/Barnes, a marketing and design company * Content writer at Leaf Group * Writer for Real Simple, The Atlantic, The Washington Post, Outside Magazine, and National Geographic, among other publications Real Simple's Editorial Guidelines and Brandi Broxson Brandi Broxson Instagram Twitter Website Brandi is an editor and writer with more than 15 years in the magazine and newspaper world. She was with Real Simple for nearly seven years and oversaw personal finance, pets, product testing, and career content. She ideated the magazine's first money issue in 2019 and created two virtual money summits which drew thousands of attendees. Brandi was a longtime editor of Real Simple's popular Clever Items franchise and tested hundreds, if not thousands, of products during her time at the brand. Real Simple's Editorial Guidelines Updated on September 10, 2020 Share Tweet Pin Email Fall is a season of dramatic change. Kids go back to school. Leaves turn every shade of red and orange. Temperatures start to plummet. It's time to cozy up with some good books to read. If you really want to get into the fall mood, put down your pumpkin spice everything and grab a fall-themed book. Fall books come in as many varieties as the changing leaves. You can read a campus novel and relive your glory days at school, or you can find a book with vivid descriptions of foliage and the frost nipping the air. But in October, it's time for a different kind of chill: Pick up a literary horror classic to put yourself in the Halloween spirit. The Coziest Books of All Time Campus novels and other education-themed stories are a literary tradition. Perhaps the most famous is The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger. More recent campus novels include The Female Persuasion by Meg Wolitzer and The Idiot by Elif Batuman. But education isn't only in the domain of fiction. Learning often plays an important part in memoirs as well. If you'd prefer to immerse yourself in lush autumnal settings, choose a book set in New England. Many of John Irving's novels, for example, have a distinctly fall feeling, almost like being dropped into a Robert Frost poem. The works of Nathaniel Hawthorne, such as The Scarlet Letter, have a similar sensibility. But if it's close to Halloween, partake in a classic of horror literature. Even if you don't like scary stories, many horror classics are worth a read and are beloved parts of the western canon. Novels like Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and Bram Stoker's Dracula are good books in their own right, and they will definitely put you in the fall mood. Fall reads can be spooky, lighthearted, serious, or smart. Choose one of these fall books and wrap yourself in their autumnal worlds. 01 of 10 Educated by Tara Westover bookshop.org $26, bookshop.org If you haven't already read this phenomenon of a book, add it to your list. In Educated, Westover describes her rough upbringing in a family of religious survivalists in Idaho. As she grew older, Westover began to understand how limited her options would be without a formal education. So she decided to pave her own way, going from self-educated home-schooler to a PhD candidate at Cambridge University. If fall is a time of change and learning, Educated is the book to add to your list. RELATED: The Best Books to Read Right Now 02 of 10 Possession by A.S. Byatt bookshop.org From $16, bookshop.org This Man Booker award–winning novel about romance between two literary scholars includes many wonderful tidbits of bookish goodness. Byatt weaves the story together with a patchwork of poetry, fairy tales, letters, diary entries, narration, and even academic papers. A high-brow love story, Possession will give you a taste of fall on a British university campus. 03 of 10 The Secret History by Donna Tartt bookshop.org $16, bookshop.org What's more perfect to read for fall than a book about students at elite New England prep school? A book where those students become embroiled in a dark conflict of cult-like obsessions, secrets, and murder. Though author Tartt's novel The Goldfinch won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 2014, The Secret History has a much stronger following. Pick up this chilling campus novel and learn what the hype is all about. 04 of 10 The Death of Mrs. Westaway by Ruth Ware bookshop.org From $16, bookshop.org It all starts with a mysterious letter: Hal is to receive an inheritance. The money, it turns out, was meant for someone else. Hal wants to use her skills as a tarot reader to get the money anyway, but she soon finders herself snared in a dangerous situation she wasn't expecting. If you loved Ware's In a Dark, Dark Wood, this suspenseful thriller is for you. 05 of 10 The Cider House Rules by John Irving bookshop.org From $17, bookshop.org John Irving's novels describe fall in New England at its best: leaves changing, a crisp chill in the air, and the workings of an apple orchard producing cider. When you read his prose, you'll almost be able to taste the fall flavors. But this novel isn't a plain, cozy read. In it, Irving tackles the issues of adoption and abortion. 06 of 10 We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson Courtesy of publisher From $16, bookshop.org Moody, witchy, and downright spooky, Jackson's We Have Always Lived in the Castle is a gothic fall classic. It follows the Blackwood family, especially sisters Merricat and Constance. Constance was accused of murdering half of their family, but now that she's been acquitted and returned home, younger sister Merricat has vowed to protect Constance from the villagers and others who might seek to do her wrong. RELATED: The Best Books of 2020 (So Far) 07 of 10 The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald bookshop.org From $16, bookshop.org Transport yourself to opulent parties during the Jazz Age on New York's Long Island. The plot uses the seasons of summer and fall as symbolism for the situations its characters experience. As autumn begins and the leaves start to fall, the novel's love triangle comes to a head. 08 of 10 Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery bookshop.org From $7, bookshop.org An 11-year-old, freckle-faced orphan with a big imagination makes her home with an adoptive family on Prince Edward Island. Anne's description of the scenery at Green Gables captures the charm and warmth of fall. 09 of 10 Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman Courtesy of publisher From $16, bookshop.org This bewitching read tells the tale of the Owens girls, orphaned sisters who are raised by their aunts, who happen to be witches. After growing up, pursuing love, and going in different directions, the sisters reunite in the spellbinding house they were raised in. 10 of 10 Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder bookshop.org From $8, bookshop.org A pioneer family works through the fall to prepare for the coming winter in a cabin on the outskirts of the Big Woods in Wisconsin. Crops are harvested, meat is smoked, and maple syrup tapped before the family gathers around the fire at night for some fiddle playing. Was this page helpful? Thanks for your feedback! Tell us why! Other Submit