The must-read books of the season

Making History

A totally unscientific assessment of fall’s biggest memoirs and biographies.

1. Taylor’s Version by Stephanie Burt: A Harvard English prof and hard-core Swiftie unpacks the impact of this era’s most prolific pop star. Out October 7

2. This Is for Everyone by Tim Berners-Lee: The man behind the World Wide Web pulls back the curtain on the risks and rewards of his revolutionary inventions. Out now

3. Book of Lives: A Memoir of Sorts by Margaret Atwood: CanLit’s high priestess turns inward for a story that braids the Atwood who lives with the Atwood who writes. Out November 4

4. John Candy: A Life in Comedy by Paul Myers: Steve Martin, Dan Aykroyd, Catherine O’Hara and more weigh in on the legacy of Canada’s most beloved funnyman. Out October 7

5. Auston Matthews: A Life in Hockey by Kevin McGran: A reporter gets under the skin of the Leafs captain in this unauthorized look at his career. Out September 30

6. The Look by Michelle Obama: The former FLOTUS decodes her style choices, from her Inauguration Day ’fits to her post–White House micro braids. Out November 4

7. We the Raptors by Eric Smith and Andrew Bricker: Thirty players share 30 stories in honour of the Raps’ 30th anniversary. Out November 4

8. Luigi: The Making and the Meaning by John H. Richardson: Esquire writer Richardson puts Luigi Mangione’s killing of a health insurance CEO—and the swell of support for the shooter—into context. Out November 4

9. You Will Not Kill Our Imagination by Saeed Teebi: A defiant treatise on the power of art and imagination in the face of tragedy by a local writer from the Palestinian diaspora. Out September 30

10. The Other Girl by Annie Ernaux, translated by Alison L. Strayer: A long-awaited English translation of the Nobel laureate’s letter to her sister, who died before she was born. Out September 23

11. All the Way to the River by Elizabeth Gilbert: The Eat, Pray, Love author revisits the agony-to-enlightenment pipeline in a story of how falling in love with her best friend had devastating, then cathartic, consequences. Out now

12. Conversations on Faith by Martin Scorsese and Antonio Spadaro: A director and a priest sit down for a chat and come out with a book about their relationship to the divine. Out November 4

13. Joyride: A Memoir by Susan Orlean: Dive into the curious mind behind The Orchid Thief and epic magazine pieces about surfing, boyhood and show dogs. Out October 14

Related: Best of Fall—A sneak peek at the season’s buzziest debuts on stage, screen and page

Team Canada: Five of the season’s best bets from home

Exiles by Mason Coile

The first of two posthumous novels by Andrew Pyper—who used Coile as his pen name—this sci-fi thriller is set on a version of Mars that includes the botched beginnings of a human colony and machines gone very (very) rogue.

Cannon by Lee Lai

Graphic novel fans are flocking for the latest by Stone Fruit author Lee Lai, a darkly humorous take on queer friendship that tracks what happens before and after a Montreal chef demolishes her own restaurant during a heatwave.

We Love You, Bunny by Mona Awad

This companion to the 2019 horror-fantasy hit Bunny drags the reader back down the rabbit hole into Awad’s dark take on academia, creativity and friendship. After publishing a thinly veiled account of her time in their MFA program, Sam faces the wrath of her classmates.

Pick a Colour by Souvankham Thammavongsa

A Giller Prize winner for her short story collection How to Pronounce Knife, Thammavongsa has built her highly anticipated debut novel around a former boxer who works as a manicurist in a nail salon and unpacks the immigrant experience as she buffs and shapes.

Queen Esther by John Irving

Irving revisits one of his most beloved books (The Cider House Rules) in this story of a Jewish girl plagued by anti­semitism as she moves through the years and through the world, from Vienna to rural Maine to Jerusalem.