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With the start of October, there’s been round-up after round-up of the most anticipated and best books coming out this month. Since fall has only just begun, these lists—which are conveniently gathered here—have banger after banger.
I’ve parsed through them to bring you a sampling of the BIPOC releases that our staff is also excited about. There’s historical fantasy that imagines the lives of real musicians (who end up married), a trifling moonshiner’s murder (it’s award-nominated), historical romantasy based on the last Incan emperor, and more. And, just as a reminder since these books technically came out at the end of September, there’s Mazywood by Tananarive Due and The True Confessions of First Lady Freeman by Deesha Philyaw to also add to your list.
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In Reading Color
A weekly newsletter focusing on literature by and about people of color!
Music Against the Night by Yiyun Li
The award-winning Li’s latest is historical fiction that sweeps across late 18th-century Dublin, England, Russia, and India as it explores the story of the talented pianist Adelaide Percheron and her future husband, John Field (who invented the term “nocturne”), and their lives as ambitious artists. —Erica Ezeifedi
The Occidental Book of the Dead by T. Geronimo Johnson
This is the thickest book on my TBR so far. PEN/Faulkner Finalist T. Geronimo Johnson’s previous novel, Welcome to Braggsville, got a lot of love in addition to being longlisted for the National Book Award. I’m readying myself for a deep, potent read with this book about a Black cop shaken out of his life of assimilation after a confrontation with a white teen turns violent. —S. Zainab Williams
The Four Wives and Five Deaths of Richard Milford by Nafissa Thompson-Spires
Thompson-Spires’ short story collection was longlisted for the National Book Award, and now her debut novel is shortlisted for the First Novel Prize. And it’s messy. In it, the trifling Rich Milford is dead, but I wouldn’t say anyone is really and truly sad about it, seeing as he was a no-good, womanizing moonshiner. But there still is the question of who exactly killed him in this Great Depression-era literary mystery. —Erica Ezeifedi
The Savage Mind: An American Legacy by David Treuer
With The Savage Mind, Treuer joins the tradition writers like James Baldwin and Ta-Nehisi Coates have taken part in by writing of this country’s ills in letter format. He merges both the personal and historical to explore the white settler violence that happened at the “frontier,” and how it is still perpetuated today. —Erica Ezeifedi
The Lost Guardian by Natalia Hernandez
This modern-day historical romantasy is based on the true history of Atahualpa, the last emperor of the Inca people. A young L.A. archaeologist is sent on an adventure through the Andes when his grandfather sends him a map to the lost tomb of the emperor, a journey that will put him in the path of ruthless tomb raiders and an alluring Peruvian woman who might be his only chance at finding the tomb—or be the key to his downfall. I do love a “my relative gave me an artifact that sent me on a globe-trotting adventure” story, so this one is high on my list. —Vanessa Diaz
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