Snuggle Up This Fall With These Must-Reads

As life gets a little quieter before the holidays, make some time to cozy up with a good book. Whether it’s a new release, a classic you’ve been meaning to read or a book your friends have been recommending, autumn is the best time to hit your reading list. The days are growing shorter, and it feels only right to settle in with your favorite throw blanket, a cup of tea, and a book that’s ideal for the changing season.

Here are a few reads we can’t put down at Darling:

Persuasion by Jane Austen

You’ve likely ready Pride and Prejudice, but if you haven’t continued on with more of Jane Austen’s novels, you have been missing out on the cutting wit and quiet romance Austen delivers. Persuasion follows heroine Anne Elliot’s tale of tough decisions, deep regrets and the tension of an unfinished love story. 

Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls

Jeanette Walls’ memoir is an open and raw look at unconditional love within a family. Walls grew up in a home that did not conform to any rules as they lived like nomads moving from a barely standing house with no plumbing to camping in the desert. She paints a beautiful picture of the way a family’s love can impact and shape us, whether we’re fitting into the mold or breaking off to create an entirely new path. 

Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

This love story follows Clare and Henry at various ages and phases of their lives, seldom meeting at the same place or time. They share an affection that joins them no matter where or when they find one another.  The two of them manage to build a life together even as Henry’s life bounces uncontrollably around Clare’s constant timeline. 

Home Work: A Memoir of my Hollywood Years by Julie Andrews

Cozy up with the legendary star of The Sound of Music as she reflects on her rise to fame. Julie Andrews talks about everything from losing My Fair Lady to Audrey Hepburn to the demands of success, even the difficulty of being both a devoted mother and a working actor.

A Place for Us by Fatima Fahreen Mirza

This heart-warming and heart-breaking novel follows the family dynamic of a deeply religious Muslim Indian-American family growing up in California. The characters are complex, yet deeply relatable. The relationships between the family members, and perhaps especially the strains put on those relationships, will take your heart on a rollercoaster ride that you’ll never want to get off. 

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

The chronicle of the March sisters has made countless children into lifelong readers. Each of the sisters has a wildly different personality, but they are all united by their devotion for one another. Whether it’s your first time reading it or it’s a recurring tradition, you’ll see yourself in these vibrant women. 

Are there any books you just can’t put down? What is on your fall reading list?

Images via Chaunté Vaughn, Darling Issue No. 17