A dozen autumn books to read this fall.
It’s no secret I love autumn evenings. Sunset streams through color-splashed trees. Knit blankets are cozy defaults, alongside piping hot mugs of tea, apple-scented candles, and thick stacks of books. Fall reawakens my reading mood; when September rolls around, I want to read all day, every day, straight into winter’s moonlit mornings.
Here are twelve of the most autumnal books I’ve ever read, a little fall reading list full of quiet classics, comforting graphic novels, (slightly) spooky stories, and witchy romances.
Disclosure: Heads up, this post contains affiliate links, which means Passport To Eden may get a commission (at no extra cost to you) if you make an online purchase. Don’t feel pressured to buy anything. We still love that you’re here, reading our content (side note: we suggest getting a coffee or tea first because our blog posts tend to be long). You can read our full affiliate disclosure here to find out more.
12 Cozy Fall Books To Read
Rainbow Rowell & Faith Erin Hicks
Pumpkinheads
Pumpkinheads is a love letter to autumn, a warm graphic novel about a friendship that hinges on the season. Every year, from September to October 31st, Josie and Deja take on a shift at their local pumpkin patch (picture a twisty corn maze, ever-present bales of hay, and a nightly s’mores pit). Halloween day arrives; the two set out to find Josie’s annual crush (Marcy) while detouring for lots of fall foods – double-dipped Granny Smith caramel apples, fresh kettle corn, and apple cider slushes.
Lucy Jane Wood
Rewitched
Rewitched is an uplifting standalone fantasy set in London. Belladonna (Belle) Blackthorn lives in her own little bubble of coziness. She works at a bookshop. She resides in an apartment above a cafe. She casts quiet witchy charms, but her powers are (mostly) sleepy and unused. So, on Belle’s 30th birthday (the day an EquiWitch Trial determines whether her magic should remain), split results force her under a mentor’s wing, giving her until Halloween to complete six challenges, prove herself, and (if all goes well) retain her powers (reading this autumn book made me quite nostalgic for Season Two of Sabrina The Teenage Witch).
Erin Morgenstern
The Night Circus
Autumn slips in and out of The Night Circus. Septembers and Octobers come and go. Thirty years pass, as Marco and Celia, magicians bound to each other since childhood, duel at Le Cirque des Rêves, a circus of dreams that entrances visitors under moonlight. The Night Circus is the definition of an atmosphere-driven novel: dark, dazzling, surreal. The plot takes a backseat as Erin Morgenstern’s prose breathes life into the Le Cirque des Rêves: the scents of caramel lingering by a bonfire, the taste of popcorn fished out of black-and-white striped bags, the sounds of shuffling tarot cards. Two lines I look forward to on every reread: “Now the circus is open. Now you may enter.”
Margaret Rogerson
An Enchantment Of Ravens
An Enchantment Of Ravens is an easy choice for a fall reading list. An autumn prince, bent on making a young portraitist, Isobel, stand trial for her crime of painting mortal grief onto the eyes of a fae, whisks Isobel towards the autumnlands. Fall thrusts forward at full force. You see the season at its red-leafed brightest and at its most withering. You smell autumn’s ambered fragrance and feel the falling leaves rising up to your ankles. Margaret Rogerson captures the intensity of autumn across all senses in this young adult standalone.
R.C. Sherriff
The Fortnight In September
The Fortnight In September (our monthly book club pick) is the book to read as summer switches to autumn. For twenty Septembers, the Stevens family has made a trip to Bognor for their annual vacation. They spend days by the beach, stay in an apartment titled Seaview, and relax near the coast (solo and together). The Fortnight In September is a quiet classic – pleasant and gently contemplative. The first hints of autumn come in flashes, summer mornings chased by evening dew. By the end of the Stevens’ seaside holiday, the air is misted, overcoats are worn, and warm nights have given way to fall’s cooling breaths.
Sangu Mandanna
The Very Secret Society Of Irregular Witches
Britain’s Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches has particular rules: witches can only meet on the third Thursday of every third month, never in the same location, and never for long. But Mika Moon wants to embrace her witchiness, so she makes witchcore videos online. When Ian, who lives in Nowhere House, sees Mika’s content, he invites her home to train three young, witchy wards in secret. Mika now needs to decide if Nowhere House, with its charming caretakers (including a very grumpy librarian, Jamie), is worth breaking the rules for. I loved this fantasy romance for its whimsy, charm, and autumnal atmosphere (the story begins on the third Thursday of October, then moves through November into December).
Auralee Wallace
In The Company Of Witches
When I think of mystery books steeped in autumn, I think of In The Company Of Witches, a novel that mentions leaves falling and swirling and tumbling, hypes the scent of old books and orange peel, and accompanies cozy scenes with tea (from chamomile to honeybush). This autumn book is intoxicatingly nostalgic (picture a small town New England setting à la Stars Hollow from Gilmore Girls, two aunts with the zaniness of Hilda and Zelda from Sabrina The Teenage Witch, and the laid-back charm of Practical Magic). Brynn Warren runs a small-town bed-and-breakfast alongside her aunts, Izzy and Nora. When one of the inn’s guests passes away, Nora is cast as the prime suspect, and Brynn investigates to clear her aunt’s name.
Tim Probert
The Girl & The Galdurian
Autumn is always in the background of The Girl & The Galdurian. Bright yellow woods stretch across the panels of this middle-grade graphic novel. Beatrice (Bea) is on a quest to find her grandfather, while a mysterious bird spreads darkness around the land of Irpa. The Girl & The Galdurian is one of my favorite autumn book recommendations to pass along to fans of Avatar: The Last Airbender. It’s the first title in Tim Probert’s Lightfall series, an ongoing set of fantasy stories (fair warning: each one ends on a cliffhanger) that slowly reveal an expansive world through friendship-fueled banter and beautiful illustrations.
Aiden Thomas
Cemetery Boys
Cemetery Boys is a gut-punch of a novel. The main storyline (a mystery) is Scooby Doo straightforward, but the themes (of coming-of-age in a family entrenched in traditions, of cycling through anger and forgiveness in the face of unflinching dynamics) make this one of the best young adult books to read in the fall. The novel takes place in East Los Angeles, in a cemetery full of spirits, on the days leading up to DÃa de Muertos. The atmosphere is (slightly) spooky and palpable, as sharp and cinnamon-spiced on the tongue as a hot batch of café de olla.
R.F. Kuang
Babel
The Secret History (practically) birthed the dark academia autumn aesthetic; Babel, by R.F. Kuang, functions as a thematic response to Donna Tartt’s The Secret History. A young boy, stripped from his homeland, is raised to study languages. When he joins Oxford’s prestigious translation institute, he inches towards to the elusive, secretive, language-and-magic-driven world of silverworking. Babel pushes the question: Does change in a powerful institution require violence? Hint: The expanded title of this standalone fantasy is Babel, Or The Necessity Of Violence.
Suzanne Walker & Wendy Xu
Mooncakes
Mooncakes is the perfect fall-themed book to flip through on a late autumn evening for Wendy Xu’s illustrations alone. This graphic novel is full of fall hues: buttery yellows and dusky purples. And Black Cat Bookseller Cafe, where Nova Huang works, is the best of autumn’s vibrant colors softened into the gentlest pastels. Nova teams up with her childhood friend, a werewolf named Tam, to battle a horse-demon (the plot was a bit too kooky for my taste, but the reading experience was fun, light-hearted, and immersively autumnal).
Patrick Rothfuss
The Name Of The Wind
I’m still in the midst of reading The Name Of The Wind (my defense: the novel is over 700 pages and I read quite slowly). The Name Of The Wind is a popular fantasy novel, hyped for its magic, characters, and prose. Patrick Rothfuss pens some of the prettiest autumnal descriptions I’ve ever come across. Proof: a silence is described as “deep and wide as autumn’s ending.” This is a story nested within a story; Kvothe narrates his life, in his own voice, to a chronicler. In many ways, The Name Of The Wind feels like the picture-perfect autumn accompaniment, a bedside book thick enough to last an entire season.
Did you enjoy this list of atmospheric autumn books? What fall books would you add to this list? Let me know in the comments below! I’m always looking for new book recommendations.
Hi, this is a great list of books, thank you so much! Would you share the rest of the books you love to read in the autumn?