15 Fabulous Fall Reads

Looking to fall for a good book? As the weather turns cool, cozy up with one of these great reads.

Wolf Lodge
By Hilary Mantel

Wolf Lodge, winner of the 2009 Man Booker Prize, is a rich, historical fiction that gives a new perspective on the court of Henry the VIII. While all the main players are present — Katherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, Thomas Wolsey, Thomas More, the Pope and others — the real focus is on the political genius of self-made agent Thomas Cromwell and the events of his breathtaking rise from personal disaster to power. Treading cautiously through the intrigues of a court where a fall from grace could mean a trip to the gallows, he pits himself against the political establishment and the papacy to reshape England and fulfill the wishes of his king.

Murder in Jerusalem
By Batya Gur

Murder in Jerusalem is the final installment of the acclaimed mystery series featuring Police Chief Superintendent Michael Ohayon. Through his investigation of two mysterious deaths and a spiraling conspiracy at Israel’s bustling and chaotic official television station, the book explores the conflicting and sometimes violent interplay between the media, government and religion in present-day Israel.

Innocent
By Scott Turow

In this sequel to the landmark bestseller Presumed Innocent, Turow’s new legal thriller continues the story of Rusty Sabich (who is now an appeals court judge) and prosecutor Tommy Molto. Once again, after 20 years, the two men are pitted against each other in a riveting psychological match, this time following the mysterious death of Rusty’s troubled wife.

Roma: The Novel of Ancient Rome
By Steven Saylor

Spanning a thousand years, this epic saga follows the shifting fortunes of two of Rome’s first families. Seen through the eyes of prominent descendents of the Potitius and Pinarius clans, Saylor recounts the city’s founding by ill-fated twins Romulus and Remus and the dramatic events leading to its rise to capital of the most powerful empire in history, including the tragedy of the hero-traitor Coriolanus, the capture of the city by the Gauls, the invasion of Hannibal, the bitter political struggles of the patricians and plebeians, and finally, the death of Rome’s republic with the assassination of Julius Caesar.

Our Kind of Traitor
By John le Carre

Former Oxford tutor Perry Makepiece and his lawyer girlfriend, Gail Perkins are on a tennis vacation in Antigua when they meet Dmitri “Dima” Vladimirovich Krasnov, a Russian oligarch (who also happens to be a big-time money launderer). Dimi enlists their help to defect, claiming that in exchange for amnesty he will expose corruption in the ‘legitimate’ financial and political world. But all too soon, the idealistic English couple find themselves to be pawns in a deadly endgame.

[NEXTPAGE]

The Rembrandt Affair
By Daniel Silva

In Silva’s latest thriller, master art restorer and assassin Gabriel Allon has retreated to the windswept cliffs of Cornwall with his Venetian-born wife Chiara. But his determination to sever his ties with the Office once and for all is short-lived when he receives a visitor from his tangled past. An art restorer has been brutally murdered and a long-lost portrait by Rembrandt stolen. Despite his reluctance, Gabriel is persuaded to use his unique skills to search for the painting and for those responsible for the crime.

The Distant Hours
By Kate Morton

Fans of New York Times best selling author Kate Morton will not be disappointed with her new book, The Distant Hours. In this romantic thriller, the reader travels from the present day into World War II England. It all begins when a long lost letter arrives in the mail, and thirty-something Edie Burchill finds herself on a journey to Milderhurst Castle, a great but decaying old house, where the Blythe spinsters live and where her mother was billeted 50 years before as an teenage evacuee during the Blitz. Inside the castle, Edie begins to unravel her mother’s past — and the other dark secrets hidden in the stones of Milderhurst.

House Rules
By Jody Picoult

Jacob Hunt is a teenage boy with Asperger’s Syndrome (AS). Like many people with AS, he has difficulty reading social cues and expressing himself. One day his tutor is found dead, and as part of a routine investigation, the police come to question him. Jacob responds to the questioning with some of the hallmark behaviors of Asperger’s — avoidance of eye contact, stimulatory tics and twitches, inappropriate responses to stressful situations — which can look like guilt to law enforcement personnel. As a result, Jacob is accused of murder.

A Journey: My Political Life
By Tony Blair

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair writes about his fascinating journey and the difficult choices he faced during his 10 years in office. From his work in Northern Ireland to the challenges from the war on terror, the memoir is full of intimate and startling insights into a host of world leaders including George W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Queen Elizabeth II.

The Grand Design
By Stephen Hawking

In his new book, famed theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking takes on the ultimate questions on the meaning of life and mysteries of the universe: Why does the universe behave the way it does? Why are we here? Why is there something instead of nothing? Along with his co-author, physicist Leonard Mlodinow, Hawking argues that the universe didn’t need divine inspiration to come into being.

[NEXTPAGE]

Conversations with Myself
By Nelson Mandela

Mandela’s highly-anticipated memoir is a collection of notebooks, diaries, journals, and letters that he kept during his early anti-apartheid struggles and his long, 27-year-imprisonment on Robben Island. In his own words: “[These] archives contain traces of my life and those who have lived it with me. Anyone who has explored the world of archives will know that it is a treasure house, one that is full of surprises, crossing paths, dead ends, painful reminders and unanswered questions.”

The Woman I Was Born to Be: My Story
By Susan Boyle

In April 2009, a modest middle-aged woman from a small village in Scotland rose to worldwide fame with the surfacing of the YouTube video of her audition for Britain’s Got Talent. In her soon to be released autobiography, Susan Boyle tells the story of her life, her love of singing, and the challenges she overcame on the road to international stardom.

C’est la Vie
By Suzy Gershman

Best known for her Born to Shop guidebooks, American writer Suzy Gershman recounts how she reinvented herself at the age of 52 in the City of Light. Suzy had always fantasized about moving to Paris with her husband, but before they can make this dream a reality, he dies unexpectedly. Grief-stricken, but not defeated, she decides to fulfill their dream on her own. C’est la Vie is a spirited chronicle of her first year in Paris — and the joys and frustrations of learning to live like a Parisian.

The Woman Who Fell From the Sky
By Jennifer Steil

Liberal New York journalist Jennifer Steil accepted a job teaching journalism in Yemen, never dreaming that she’d end up as editor-in-chief of one of the top newspapers in this ultra-conservative, impoverished country. But this is exactly what happened. Steil recounts her fascinating journey into traditional Middle Eastern culture, the gender and journalistic differences she encounters in her work, and the surprisingly deep friendships she forms with women and men whose traditions and beliefs are in total opposition to her own.

Cry of the Giraffe
By Judie Oron

Based on a true story, Toronto-based journalist Judie Oron tells the harrowing tale of a girl’s trek from exile and slavery to hope in a new land. In the early 1980s, thousands of Ethiopian Jews fled the civil unrest, famine and religious persecution of their native land in the hopes of finding a better life in Jerusalem. Wuditu and her family embark on their dangerous journey and find themselves in a refugee camp in Sudan, where they are separated. Fearful for her survival, Wudito accepts work as a ‘servant’ until she realizes she is actually a slave. Like the giraffe that has no voice, she suffers in silence until Judie Oron risks her own life to free her from slavery.

Would you like to recommend a book? Post it in the comments!

READ MORE
Books to inspire you
12 tantalizing travel reads
Canadian Christmas reads