A new month means new books to get stuck into. September always brings that back-to-school feeling – a chance to reset, get curious and fill your bag with something new to learn. This month, we’re reading our way through intimate memoirs and bold, beautifully strange fiction – all thought-provoking, conversation-starting and very hard to put down. Here’s what’s on our September reading lists.
Safe Spaces by Tice Cin
This book feels like stepping into someone’s world mid-song: messy, intimate, funny and completely alive. Moving between London, Newark, raves, family, beauty salons and the studio, Tice Cin (who is part of Service95’s line-up at this year’s London Literature Festival) captures what it means to search for belonging while carrying grief and figuring yourself out. The writing is beautifully fluid, slipping between poetry, prose and something more musical. Raw but never self-indulgent, it asks a deceptively big question: what does it actually take to feel safe, and who gets to feel at home?
Female Life On Planet Earth by Laleh Khadivi
Heti is an Iranian-American woman who, while planning her mother’s traditional anniversary memorial, is sent a photograph of her mother as a young woman in Iran, holding a gun, and seemingly about to commit an atrocity. The photo sparks a deep crisis – who was her mother before Heti knew her? Who are all the women around her? Female Life On Planet Earth is an intense fever dream of vignettes and dialogue which considers inheritance, lineage and how we may never truly know those we love most, told as a journey through the cosmos of womanhood. We couldn’t put this mesmerising novel down.
American Hagwon by Min Jin Lee
The much-anticipated follow up to Pachinko (which was Dua’s Monthly Read for July 2023 – watch her conversation with author Min here) has finally landed. An epic set across Korea, Australia and the US, it follows the Koh family as they grapple with seismic events, both personal and global. Extra-marital affairs, blackmail and the Asian financial crisis all have the Kohs searching for the financial security needed to provide the education they want for their children. As they struggle to find their footing with each relocation, parents John and Helen never lose faith that a good education will be the key to their children’s success and security. At more than 600 pages, this is a big book tackling big themes about what we are prepared to sacrifice to provide for our loved ones and at what personal cost.
Ply by Hernan Diaz
Following the success of his Pulitzer Prize-winning Trust, Hernan Diaz returns with a dystopian novel set in a desolate futuristic New York City. (Watch his interview with Dua about Trust here.) Society as we know it has collapsed alongside the skyscrapers that previously dominated the skyline and a new world is emerging – one of shadowy underground figures, eccentrics and punks. An orphan ‘pincher’ roams the city to siphon off what little electricity remains to power her beloved underground music scene. When the pincher’s gift for engineering is noticed by the ultimate mad scientist, the plot takes a mind-bending turn into the world of quantum physics and the space-time continuum. Don’t let that intimidate you – Ply is a wild ride that ultimately asks what survives when everything around us has collapsed. Strap in! (You can also find out more about Ply from Hernan himself at our London Literature Festival session this October.)
An Unexpected Life: A Memoir by Gloria Steinem
Part memoir, part manifesto, this is a warm, witty reminder that no one becomes an icon overnight. From her unconventional childhood to the moments that shaped her feminist activism, Gloria shares the people, places and ideas that changed her along the way. What really lands is her belief in solidarity, curiosity and collective action. It’s intimate without being overly polished, full of hard-won wisdom – and a lovely nudge to keep asking questions, showing up and pushing things forward.
No Land To Stand On by Mahmoud Khalil
A deeply moving account of what happens when speaking out comes at an unimaginable cost. Drawing on his prison diary and family history, Mahmoud brings the realities of ICE detention, displacement and the Palestinian struggle into sharp, deeply personal focus. It’s angry, vulnerable and incredibly clear-eyed, but never loses sight of hope or human dignity. A difficult read, yes – but an essential one, and a powerful reminder that silence is never neutral.
Before I Forget by Anne Pauly
Before I Forget is French author Anne Pauly’s memoir in which she tries to make sense of an imperfect, multifaceted father. As she slowly sifts through his belongings, Anne beautifully describes the claustrophobia and messiness of the grieving process, trying to come to terms with a man of many faces: the caring patriarch, the dedicated Buddhist and the old romantic, along with the volatile alcoholic. As memories are unearthed, we gain a tragicomic portrait into the man that shaped her. It’s darkly witty, so moving and can’t fail to stay with you.
I Choose My Beginning by Nadia Murad
Nadia Murad was just 21 in 2014 when IS attacked her village, killing hundreds (including her mother and six of her brothers) and kidnapping thousands of Yazidi women and girls into a system of sexual slavery. She has spent the years since on the global stage, advocating at the highest level – winning multiple accolades for advocating for sexual violence survivors, including the Nobel Peace Prize. This memoir charts both the experiences we know of, and the ones we don’t. At the heart of the book lies Nadia’s very personal journey of relearning her identity as a sister, friend, wife and student, and how she learnt to find joy in the ordinary once again. (You can hear more from the activist in-person at the London Literature Festival in October.)
