From grade school to parenthood, September attracts a similar attention distinct from any other month throughout our lives. It’s like the friend who cancels plans at the last minute, then complains that they never do anything ‘exciting’. It’s the raisin in an oatmeal cookie disguising itself all too well as a Hershey’s chocolate chip. It’s the parking curb that’s always just a hair closer to your hubcap than you think. In sum, September is the party-pooper: the quasi-autumnal spoilsport of a season full of warmth, fun, and laxed responsibility.
And yet, regardless of the countless back-to ‘you-know-what’ sales on everything from snack packs to SUVs, it’s also a month that sees thousands of new books hit the market every year. So, we’ve made a little cheat sheet for you to be ahead of the game!
Want to free yourself from those Sunday scaries? Why not challenge some real nightmares in L. L. McKinney’s new gripping fantasy thriller A Crown So Cursed?
Still thinking about the Women’s World Cup in all its sapphic glory? Meryl Wilsner’s Cleat Cute is sure to score.
Interested in the sides of history too often overlooked? Michael G. Long’s biography of the revolutionary scholar and activist Bayard Rustin is sure to open a portal to another time.
And, if you’re still not quite ready for summer to end, give Adam Sass’ campy YA horror Your Lonely Nights Are Over a shot—after all, who knows what the next school year will hold, maybe you’ll team up to take down a serial killer too!
No matter what you’re looking for, our list has something for you. If you have a book coming out in the near future (or represent someone who does) please fill out this form for consideration in our upcoming lists.
BIO/MEMOIR
– A Part of the Heart Can’t Be Eaten by Tristan Taormino, Duke University Press
– Bayard Rustin: A Legacy of Protest and Politics by Michael G. Long, NYU Press
– Inverse Cowgirl: A Memoir by Alicia Roth Weigel, HarperOne
– Love and Money, Sex and Death: A Memoir by McKenzie Wark, Verso
– My Body Is Distant: A Memoir by Paige Maylott, ECW Press
– Next Time You Come Home by Lisa Dordal and Milly Dordal, Black Lawrence Press
– Nimrods: a fake-punk self-hurt anti-memoir by Kawika Guillermo, Duke University Press
FICTION
– And The Train Kept Moving by Michael Kiggins,Running Wild Press
– Cherish by Kris Bryant, Bold Strokes Books
– Dearborn by Ghassan Zeineddine, Tin House Books
– Disorderly Men by Edward Cahill, Fordham University Press
– Dry Land by B. Pladek, University of Wisconsin Press
– Forget I Told You This: A Novel Hilary Zaid, University of Nebraska Press
– Nadia by Christine Evans, University of Iowa Press
– New Millennium Boyz by Alex Kazemi, Permuted Press
– The Wind Will Catch You by Michelle Theall, Alcove Press
– Trouble the Living by Francesca McDonnell Capossela, Lake Union Publishing
– Wild Geese by Soula Emmanuel, Feminist Press
LGBTQ STUDIES/NONFICTION
- Born This Way Science, Citizenship, and Inequality in the American LGBTQ+ Movement by Joanna Wuest, The University of Chicago Press
- Denied: Women, Sports, and the Contradictions of Identity by Michelle J. Manno, NYU Press
- Fair Play: How Sports Shape the Gender Debates by Katie Barnes, St. Martin’s Press
- The Age of Insecurity: Coming Together as Things Fall Apart by Astra Taylor, House of Anansi Press Inc
- The Famous Lady Lovers: Black Women and Queer Desire before Stonewall by Cookie Woolner, University of North Carolina Press
- Unseen Flesh: Gynecology and Black Queer Worth-Making in Brazil by Nessette Falu, Duke University Press
- Xoxo, Cody: An Opinionated Homosexual’s Guide to Self-Love, Relationships, and Tactful Pettiness by Cody Rigsby, Ballantine Books
ROMANCE
– Always There For You by Halli Starling, Halli Starling Books
– An Independent Woman by Kit Meredith, Bold Strokes Books
– Cleat Cute by Meryl Wilsner, St. Martin’s Griffin
– Fly with Me by Andie Burke, St. Martin’s Griffin
– Out of Touch by Michael Sarais, Cloudy Day Publishing
– Sweet Spot by Kimberly Cooper Griffin, Bold Strokes Books
– Thank You for Sharing by Rachel Runya Katz, St. Martin’s Griffin
– The Fall That Saved Us by Tamara Jerée, Water Sign Books
– This Spells Disaster by Tori Anne Martin, Berkley Books
– Unexpectedly Yours by Toni Logan, Bold Strokes Books
– You, Again by Kate Goldbeck, Dial Press
MYSTERY/THRILLER
– How to Find a Missing Girl by Victoria Wlosok, Little, Brown Books
– Playing with Fire by Amanda Kabak, Bella Books
– The Undetectables by Courtney Smyth, Titan Books
SCI-FI/FANTASY/HORROR
– A Grim and Sunken Vow by Ashley Shuttleworth, Simon & Schuster
– Cursebreakers by Madeleine Nakamura, Canis Major Books
– Mammoths at the Gates Nghi Vo, Tor
– People Collide by Isle McElroy, Harpervia
– Sleep No More by Seanan McGuire, Daw Books
– Silver Helix by Xan Van Rooven, Android Press
– Silver Under Nightfall by Rin Chupeco, Gallery/Saga Press
– These Burning Stars by Bethany Jacobs, Orbit
– The Salvation Gambit by Emily Skrutskie, Del Rey Books
– The Spirit Bares Its Teeth Andrew Joseph White, Peachtree Teen
HISTORICAL FICTION
– Cities of Women by Kathleen B. Jones, Keylight Books
– Into the Bright Open by Cherie Dimaline, Feiwel & Friends
– Salt Kiss by Sierra Simone, Bloom Books
YOUNG ADULT LITERATURE
– Alex Wise vs. the End of the World by Terry J. Benton-Walker, Labyrinth Road
– A Prayer for Vengeance by Leanne Schwartz, Page Street YA
– Every Star That Falls by Michael Thomas Ford, HarperCollins
– In the Ring by Sierra Isley, Little Press
– Proximity by Jordan Meadows, Bold Strokes Books
– Ryan and Avery by David Levithan, Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers
– The Borrow a Boyfriend Club by Page Powars, Delacorte Press
– The Meadows by Stephanie Oakes, Dial Books
– What Stalks Among Us by Sarah Hollowell, Clarion Books
– Your Lonely Nights Are Over by Adam Sass, Viking Books for Young Readers
CHILDREN’S/MIDDLE GRADE LITERATURE
– The Problem with Gravity by Michelle Mohrweis, Peachtree Publishers
– The Unsleeping Witch by Alexandra Overy, Inkyard Press
POETRY
- A Film in Which I Play Everyone: Poems by Mary Jo Bang, Graywolf Press
- Have You Been Long Enough at Table by Leslie Sainz, Tin House Books
- No Spare People by Erin Hoover, Black Lawrence Press, Inc.
- The Perfect Bastard: Poems by Quinn Carver Johnson, Curbstone Press
- Thine by Kate Partridge, Tupelo Press
- Wound by Oksana Vasyakina (Author) and Elina Alter (Translator), Catapult Press
COMICS/GRAPHIC NOVELS
– Blackward by Lawrence Lindell, Drawn & Quarterly
– Cross My Heart and Never Lie by Nora Dåsnes, Hippo Park
– Mall Goth by Kate Leth, Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
– Roaming by Jillian Tamaki (author), Mariko Tamaki (illustrator), Drawn & Quarterly
