30 New Fall Books You Actually Need: Lionel Richie, Charlie Sheen, Elizabeth Gilbert Lead the Season
This fall pivots from breezy beach reads to heavyweight memoirs and cultural deep dives, with release dates stacked across September and October.
I am Jordan Collins, and since your nightstand clearly needs supervision, I will curate the only fall reading list you are likely to finish without crying.
Media power plays take center stage. Start with John Malone, arriving Sept. 2 from Simon and Schuster. The 84 year old cable titan behind early Discovery and QVC pulls back the boardroom curtain with deal war stories and face offs involving Barry Diller and Ted Turner. Translation, this is the syllabus for anyone who pretends to understand how American media became a labyrinth of mergers, spinoffs, and shouting matches. Expect sharp elbows, actual numbers, and the kind of industry context your group chat thinks it already knows.
Elizabeth Gilbert returns to memoir, finally. Out Sept. 9 via Riverhead Books, the author of Eat Pray Love breaks a decade long gap with a candid account of falling in love with her best friend, Rayya, as mortality crashed the party. Gilbert tracks discovery, grief, and the messy edges of dependence, including her own reckoning with addiction to sex and love. It is personal, yes, but it also interrogates identity and attachment in a way your paperback romances do not dare touch.
Football brains, not just brawn. Also on Sept. 9, Seth Wickersham at Hyperion Avenue assembles a cultural history of the quarterback position, from Johnny Unitas and John Elway to phenoms Caleb Williams and Arch Manning. If you keep yelling about QBR without knowing why the QB is the American archetype, this will educate you and, mercifully, calm you down on Sundays.
Charlie Sheen is ready to talk on Sept. 9 from Gallery Books, sizing up the ride from Hollywood legacy kid to Brat Pack orbit, then sitcom superstardom and self destruction. The memoir lands the day before a Netflix documentary titled Winning, a pairing that suggests he is curating his own myth at last. Expect confessions, signatures from his tabloid era, and a timeline that should make certain headlines finally make sense.
Faith, family, and fallout. Jen Hatmaker returns Sept. 23 with Avid Reader Press and Simon and Schuster after discovering her husband’s infidelity following 26 years of marriage, five children, and a brand built on Christian family life. She dismantles her public story, reevaluates faith, and rebuilds identity in plain sight. If you crave vulnerable but structured memoir that does not sugarcoat consequences, here you go.
All night long with Lionel Richie. HarperOne releases his life story Sept. 30, tracing a shy Alabama childhood during the civil rights era, the ascent with the Commodores, a solo run to global fame, and the judge’s chair on American Idol. Expect studio lore, tour triumphs, and the social context that shaped one of pop’s most durable gentlemen.
History gets high stakes on the water. John U. Bacon’s account of the SS Edmund Fitzgerald, due Oct. 7 from Liveright, reconstructs the 1975 Lake Superior disaster that claimed 29 crew members. The book ties the tragedy to the mid century economic engine of the Great Lakes, giving you both a gripping narrative and a primer on the industrial power that moved the Midwest.
Andrew Ross Sorkin revisits the big crash. On Oct. 14 with Viking, Sorkin expands the 2008 financial crisis playbook he made famous in Too Big to Fail. This time he works through hundreds of pages with newly surfaced documents, building a boots on the floor chronicle of panic, policy, and power. If you still mix up TARP and TALF at dinner, this is your cheat code.
Rock and roll homework from Cameron Crowe. Oct. 28, Avid Reader Press and Simon and Schuster deliver the teenage reporter who fueled Almost Famous in nonfiction detail. Crowe recounts embedding as David Bowie became the Thin White Duke, loitering with the Eagles, and coaxing unguarded reflections from Joni Mitchell. It is a backstage pass with footnotes, which is to say, you can finally retire the same three tour bus anecdotes you keep repeating.
How to actually use this list, since you asked. Preorder two titles per month, one memoir and one reported history, then rotate by mood. Need high gloss celebrity? Pick Sheen or Richie. Want structural power analysis? Go with Malone or Sorkin. Craving heart level writing? Gilbert and Hatmaker are your move. For sports with brains, Wickersham. For history with weather and steel, Bacon. Look at you, managing both taste and time like an adult.
Key dates to pretend you remembered without me: Sept. 2 kicks off with John Malone. Sept. 9 brings Elizabeth Gilbert, Seth Wickersham, and Charlie Sheen. Sept. 23 nods to Jen Hatmaker. Sept. 30 is Lionel Richie’s victory lap. Oct. 7 belongs to John U. Bacon. Oct. 14 is Sorkin’s deep dive. Oct. 28 is Cameron Crowe’s turn at the mic.
Yes, the season is crowded, which is why you needed this cleaned up, sorted, and explained. Now set a reminder, clear a little shelf space, and try not to act surprised when these titles start dominating book clubs and dinner debates. Glad I could make your fall reading tastefully inevitable.
Sources: Celebrity Storm and New York Post
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