Paperback Picks

Welcome back to cozy reading season. At the time you’re reading these words, you might still be living in the afterglow of summer. But Seattleites understand that when the calendar turns to September, we’ll quickly be back to colder temperatures, gray skies and indulgent afternoons spent under warm blankets with a good book.

This month’s new paperback releases include the latest books by some of the most popular authors in the world and some thought-provoking titles from up-and-coming talents.

“Intermezzo” by Sally Rooney (Picador, $19). Irish novelist Rooney is probably the biggest literary sensation of the last 10 years, winning over book clubs and BookTok alike with her observational, emotionally rich novels. Her latest is the story of two brothers, a successful lawyer and a shy chess player, who struggle with loss and love.

“You Like It Darker” by Stephen King (Scribner, $20). He may best be known for writing massive horror novels that could double as murder weapons in a pinch, but real book nerds know King’s sneaky strength is his short stories. This genre-busting collection of a dozen short stories includes the standout “The Answer Man,” which King began in the 1970s before tossing it unfinished in a drawer for decades, only to be fished out and completed by modern-day King in a unique act of self-collaboration.

“The City and Its Uncertain Walls” by Haruki Murakami, translated by Philip Gabriel (Vintage, $19). The latest novel from Murakami features one of his most time-tested plots: Specifically, a woman’s disappearance incites the male protagonist to go on an otherworldly voyage. (Yes, again.) But the spectacular dreamlike library at the center of this book is the kind of rare creation that explains why Murakami is a perennial favorite for oddsmakers trying to predict the Nobel Prize in literature.

“Nexus” by Yuval Noah Harari (Random House Trade Paperbacks, $25). With his bestselling breakout “Sapiens,” Harari changed the way we think about the evolution and development of the human race. For his next trick, the historian offers this book, subtitled “A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI.” If “Sapiens” explained the hardware of our human bodies and brains, “Nexus” looks at the development of the software we use to explain ideas big and small to each other.

“We’re Alone” by Edwidge Danticat (Graywolf Press, $18). Danticat, a Haitian American novelist and memoirist, has won international audiences with prose that finds the universal tucked discreetly into personal experiences. This essay collection includes thoughts on the COVID-19 pandemic and the climate crisis, as well as enthusiastic explorations of legendary writers, including Toni Morrison and James Baldwin.

“Sky Full of Elephants” by Cebo Campbell (Simon & Schuster, $18). Campbell’s provocative debut novel begins one year after a bizarre event: One day, every white person in America suddenly walks into the nearest body of water. In the world left behind, a Black professor and his daughter travel to the Kingdom of Alabama in search of some sort of answers.

“What You Are Looking For Is in the Library” by Michiko Aoyama (Hanover Square Press, $18.99). Book-lovers in search of a cozy escape from the headlines will slip into this warm hug of a novel about a magical librarian in Tokyo who knows exactly which life-changing book to recommend to every patron who enters her library.

“The Tusks of Extinction” by Ray Nayler (Tordotcom, $17.99). Nayler won the prestigious Hugo Award for this novella, about an elephant expert whose consciousness is uploaded into a mammoth that has been resurrected from extinction with the help of advanced cloning technology.

“Animal Stories” by Kate Zambreno (Transit Books, $17.95). In her latest nonfiction book, Zambreno, a brilliant feminist author whose insights have recontextualized generations of writings by women, visits the monkey house at a Parisian zoo. This window into simian behavior offers Zambreno some astonishing new insights into the whole of human behavior — including how we consider ourselves in relation to other animals.

“The Favorites” by Layne Fargo (Random House Trade Paperbacks, $19). The Washington Post called this novel about love, scandal and competitive figure skating “a dizzying left hook to the jaw.” If you’re looking for a saucy love story that drops you deep inside a rarefied world populated by emotionally stunted elite athletes, Fargo’s latest might be for you.

“Heretic” by Jeanna Kadlec (Harper Perennial, $18.99). This memoir tracks Kadlec’s evolution from the wife of an evangelical pastor’s son to a boldly queer feminist critic of Christianity. Musician Lucy Dacus of the band Boygenius raves, “I wish I had this book when I was a teenager.”

“So You Want to Own Greenland?” by Elizabeth Buchanan (Melville House, $19.99). You can be forgiven for not thinking much about Greenland until President Donald Trump suddenly announced that he wanted to annex it for the United States. Buchanan offers a helpful crash course in the sparsely populated nation’s history, from the Vikings through World War II to its current important role in geopolitics.

“American Rapture” by CJ Leede (Tor Nightfire, $18.99). It’s only September, but if you’re looking to jump-start the Halloween vibes in your life, this novel about a virus spreading across the American Midwest is a fun invitation to embrace the dark side. Outlets ranging from Esquire to Literary Hub named “American Rapture” one of the best horror books of 2024.

Paul Constant: thisispaulconstant@gmail.com. Paul Constant is a Seattle-based writer and the co-founder of The Seattle Review of Books. His Neighborhood Reads series appears monthly in The Seattle Times.

Paul Constant

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