5 Books To Read This September When You Want To Escape From It All
On today's episode of BuzzFeed Daily, we broke down the top pop culture headlines AND discussed what books you should add to your fall reading list. You can listen below or scroll down to read more about the interview!
So let's dive right into it! Recently we asked BuzzFeed's Kirby Beaton her thoughts on some of this fall's most-anticipated books. Here's a bit of what we learned:
BuzzFeed Daily: So now that it's almost fall, how do you think the actual books themselves are going to sort of shift? I know people were reading a lot of summer beach reads — what are sort of the books of fall, do you think?
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Kirby Beaton: I feel like everyone was kind of trying to read fun beachy books because they wanted it to feel like Hot Girl Summer, even though it didn't actually feel like summer.... But I think as we sort of turn into fall, I think the books everyone will be reading will kind of become more buzzy, a bit more meaty things that people can really sink their teeth into — books that really promote discussion. I feel like book clubs are going to really come back and everyone's going to be wanting to read sort of the new hot stuff that they can talk about on Twitter.
BuzzFeed Daily: One one of those hot books is actually one that was self-published in 2018, and that is called Black Girls Must Die Exhausted. And you know, its author, Jayne Allen, was eventually offered a four-book deal by HarperCollins, which is no small feat in the publishing world. What is so compelling about this story?
KB: I think it's so impressive. And I think it just shows that people are really excited for this book, myself included. You know, I think Black authors are finally sort of getting their turn to tell their stories. And I think that's one of the reasons why people are so excited for this. It follows a lot of the literary fiction tropes we've seen from white authors before, this of the main character finding out something devastating about her life, having to sort of deal with the consequences of the things that we as normal humans, not book characters, go through in our daily lives.
But I think we're finally getting sort of a fresh new perspective on that. And we're allowing other people to really see themselves in the book. And I think people are just they're so happy to see something new and something within literary fiction...from a fresh new voice. And I think there's a reason why this author was self-published and is now getting republished by a major publisher — it's just because people are they're hungry for these stories. And I think this is going to be one of those ones that's really big this fall.
BuzzFeed Daily: I want to talk about Liane Moriarty. She is The New York Times best selling author of things like Big Little Lies, which was made into a very successful, very good TV show (although we did not need that second season). And and her latest book, Apples Never Fall sticks with what she's great at: It's a family drama, but it also mixes in some mystery. So can you tell us a little bit more about what this book is?
KB: I think this is going to be one of the big mysteries of this month. And it's exciting without being scary. I'm not a big, scary, thriller type person. I like the mystery element, but I don't want to be scared. And I think this one does a really great job of kind of toeing that line and really just playing to Moriarity's strengths — Big Little Lies, even Nine Perfect Strangers, which is also now on Hulu. The characters are sort of where she really shines and they almost feel too real. It's too relatable sometimes the drama that she's putting in there.
I think this one is even more relatable than her previous novels because it is about family and that family drama and family tension that a lot of us, I think, can relate to in some way. But the tension just really simmers below the surface. And the the twist is never really what you expect it to be, but it's definitely one that you're going to want to just sit and read until you finish it, because you have to know what's going to happen.
For the rest of our recommendations, check out the full episode!
We also talked about how Instagrammer Jasmine Clifford, who goes by @antivaxmomma, has been charged with selling fraudulent COVID-19 vaccination cards.
She first started advertising the cards, which went for $200 apiece, on her now-defunct account back in May. She also worked with a New York medical clinic employee to enter a handful of people into the New York State Immunization Information System database for an extra $250 each.
Clifford managed to sell about 250 of the fake cards before her operation was shut down.
Moving on, two teens on TikTok set out to prove their high school dress code is sexist — and succeeded.
Drew Jarding and Kenzie Crimmins decided to wear nearly identical outfits to school on the same day, to see if a boy would be punished for breaking the same dress code rules girls are punished for. Kenzie wore a crop top and leggings, and Drew wore a similar crop top and shorts that fell above his knees (which is against one of the rules).
Despite both being seen by numerous teachers, by the end of the day, only Kenzie was written up for “showing her stomach.”