This fall we were spoiled byfive of our all-time favorite authors releasing new books.They range from essay compilationsto memoirto science writing, but all boast lyrical prose that exploreswhat it means to be a human during these strange times.
If You’re Body Positive
‘The Body: A Guide for Occupants,’by Bill Bryson
A huge amount of research went into , covering everything from the skin and the skeleton to aging, reproduction, and death. But Bryson has a unique ability to camouflage his hard work and depth of knowledge with a light and self-effacing voice, which fans of his Appalachian Trail classic, , will instantly recognize. He uses it to deliver an avalanche of surprising and eminently sharable facts about how our bodies—“a product of three billion years of evolutionary tweaks”—are built. (Ever wondered how many species of bacteria live in your belly button? Read on.) Like your favorite teacher, Bryson is someone who loves his subject. Before he’s finished, he’ll make you love it, too.($30, Doubleday)
If You Are F–king Freaked Out by Climate Change
‘We Are the Weather,’by Jonathan Safran Foer
Foer begins his newest book as a climate-based argument for eliminating meat, eggs, and dairy from the American diet. But the novelist and is really too thoughtful and self-doubting to stop the conversation there. Probing the contradictions that seem built into how we talk, think, and write about global warming, he concludes that the only way we’ll actually do anything about the crisis is through a collective embrace of personal responsibility. “The ways we live our lives, the actions we take and don’t take, can feed the systemic problems,” he writes, “and they can also change them.” is not just a polemic, it’s also a vigorous and unflinching meditation on Foer’s own status as a father—and a descendant of Holocaust survivors—trying to answer for his role in a man-made disaster.($25; Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
If You Want Training Advice from Animals
‘Running with Sherman,’by Christopher McDougall
Not everyone would understand the impulse to rescue a donkey from a hoarder, load it with mining tools, and lead it on a trail run in the Rocky Mountains. But burro racing is a real thing, involving real competitors who travel side by side with stubborn quadrupeds over distances that range from a few miles to an ultramarathon. To the author of , now living with his family in Amish country, there was no better way for him to learn about humanity’s relationship with working animals than to train an equine named Sherman for the sport’s world championship in Fairplay, Colorado. If you can forgive the reliance on dad jokes, you’ll find a smart critique of the culture of conventional American sports. “You’ve got one hope of getting to the finish line,” McDougall writes, “and that’s to forget about dominance and ego and discover the power of sharing and caring.”($28, Knopf)
If You Feel Like a Wanderer
‘Travel Light, Move Fast,’by Alexandra Fuller
Fuller was born in England, raised in southern Africa, and resides in Wyoming. She has a gift for depicting the forces that compel people to move, and in her new memoir—written shortly after her father died in a hospital in Budapest—she reflects on how an itinerant farmer who chased zebras and drank to excess could also be a nurturing and perspicacious parent. Ultimately he helped her appreciate the value of restlessness and impermanence: although grief strikes her as “a place between countries, a holding pattern, a purgatory,” the author nevertheless emerges from it with a clearer understanding of what it means to have a home.($27, Penguin Press)
If You’re Trying to Make Sense of It All
‘Erosion,’by Terry Tempest Williams
Few writers can match Williams’s talent for capturing big, abstract notions of environmental justice and connecting them to the lived experiences of individuals, families, and communities. In this collection of essays, written between 2012 and 2019, the lifelong activist and educator celebrates the power of friendship and dialogue to bring about authentic change. “We tell stories that remind us we will resist,” she writes, “and insist that our communities be built upon the faith we have in each other.” Crashing oil and gas lease auctions and visiting tea ceremonies in the desert, Williams lyrically depicts global disputes over climate change and public lands through her own community of art making, collective organizing, and prayer.($27, Sarah Crichton)