Good Books to Read in Fall

For 2009, it is hard to come up with a novel or nonfiction book that was as compelling or thrilling as The Big Burn. National Book Award Winner Timothy Egan follows up The Worst Hard Time with the stories surrounding The Great Fire, the largest wildfire in American history. Eyes will be left burning trying to finish this one before day is charred to night.

• Read a complete review of The Big Burn by Timothy Egan

New York Times Bestselling author, Dennis Lehane, Boston writer of modern tragedies like Mystic River and Gone Baby, Gone, enters a new realm of literature with his first historical fiction, The Given Day. While the setting is 1918, the story writhes with a modern twist of emotion, fears and striving humanity.

• Read a complete review of The Given Day by Dennis Lehane.
• The Given Day Book Club Discussion Questions

Tobias Wolff is worthy to be mentioned among the greats of short story writing. In Our Story Begins: New and Selected Stories, the master of the genre blesses us once again with an incredible collection.

• Read a complete review of Our Story Begins: New and Selected Stories by Tobias Wolff
• Our Story Begins Book Club Discussion Questions

Jhumpa Lahiri is one of today's most acclaimed writers, having won a Pulitzer Prize for her first collection of short stories, Interpreter of Maladies. Her placid, poetic writing is back in another collection of stories, Unaccustomed Earth. It has the wistful, sad feeling of fall.

• Read a complete review of Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri
• Unaccustomed Earth Book Club Discussion Questions

Joanna Smith Rakoff's debut novel, A Fortunate Age, tells the story of a group of friends from college who move to New York City together and find their life paths diverging and their friendships changing. The story of A Fortunate Age is closely tied to the time and place it portrays -- trendy New York City neighborhoods in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

• Book review of A Fortunate Age by Joanna Smith Rakoff
• A Fortunate Age Book Club Discussion Questions