I Say Fall, You Say Autumn

by

Kat Warren

The air is crisp (at least here in northern California), the apple harvest is on and pumpkins are appearing in patches all over town. It must be autumn, or is it fall?  Whichever, any season, any reason is a good excuse for a book list. 

Even after all these years, fall still is a splendid surprise to me. I was born in Panama and raised in the Canal Zone, not moving to the United States until age 17 so I’d never experienced fall until then. Panama has only two seasons: rainy for nine months and dry for three. The air is never remotely crisp since the humidity hovers in the 80s and 90s year-round. My first stateside fall was a revelation, and ever since then it’s been my favorite season (well, after summer with its long days, that is). Apples, pumpkins, persimmons, pomegranates! [What’s with all the p’s, eh?]  Not to mention cider (yippee) and maple syrup, chrysanthemums, leaves of scarlet and gold, sheaves of wheat and bundles of corn stalks, and, of course, Halloween and Thanksgiving (although we had interesting colonial versions of same in the Canal Zone).

I don’t know why I produce book lists at the drop of a hat but I suspect there’s something pathological associated with this uncontrollable impulse. Of course, I read a fair bit, averaging three to four books a week (yes, I also ostensibly work full-time) and have done so since early childhood, so there are more than a few titles in my organic database. Besides, I cheat when I have to in order to round out a list. Herewith, a seasonal rendition (oops, that poor word’s got a bad rep these days):

Final Harvest: Poems by Emily Dickinson
Poetry gets short shrift in most book lists so let’s start this one with eminent Emily Dickinson.  Her verse is so much of our own time it’s jarring to recall she wrote almost 150 years ago.  This selection includes some of her well-known poems and many more new to most readers. Both categories, familiar and not, delight and assuage.

The Golden Apples by Eudora Welty
Anything by Eudora Welty is worthy (even her grocery lists if someone has thought to save them) but this collection of early stories set in mythical Morgana, Mississippi, is a slice of perfection pie.  

Quartet in Autumn by Barbara Pym
In anyone else’s hands, this would have been a sour, dour story but because it’s from Pym’s pen, it’s that but richer and better because it’s funny as hell (which is, after all, what office work is all about—hell, that is).  Sweeping broadly here, the story concerns a group of clerks with long tenure who retire. Sounds dull, yes? But, no, it’s not; it’s deliciously snide and wisely humane.  

The Cider House Rules by John Irving
First apples, then cider, and then this sterling story-telling treasure during and after WWII.  Set in Maine and its beautifully rendered countryside, this is a story with global heart and Dickensian mind.

October Country by Ray Bradbury
Just in time for Halloween, this vintage Bradbury story collection encompasses horrors both supernatural and psychological. It will have you preternaturally sensitive to sounds in the night—and day, too.

Red Leaves by Thomas H. Cook
This is a very creepy, superb mystery in which ordinary, commonplace, comfortable suburbia is flipped over quietly but firmly. It all takes place in autumn, and you need to pick it up from there.

Dewey Defeats Truman by Thomas Mallon
No matter the year, every November brings elections of one kind or another, presidential, state, local. Mallon’s novel, with its accurate title echoing the famously too-soon-to-press headline centers on Dewey’s home town in Michigan, rather than on the man himself and only tangentially on the election per se. It is the blend of stories of this town’s people that makes the book powerful.

Red Harvest by Dashiell Hammett
The first American tough-guy detective makes his debut in Hammett’s debut noir novel. It’s ingeniously plotted yet the stars here are the exquisitely written characters. You can put the book down but can’t walk away from it.

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving
Ichabod Crane courts young Katrina in Irving’s wonderfully readable classic from 1820. It’s spooky, it’s cruel (after all, who names a child Ichabod?) and it’s a hoot and half.

The Hunt for Red October by Tom Clancy
If you appreciate Clancy and you have a penchant for submarines, then this book would be yours.  If, however, you’re a just a bit claustrophobic forget it forthwith.

The Essential Root Vegetable Cookbook by Martin Stone
Another rarity in book lists is the cooking tome. Herewith a favorite because it celebrates the humble vegetables—beets, parsnips, rutabagas, Jerusalem artichokes, ramps, yams, cassava (aka yucca and manioc) and, yes, carrots, potatoes, onions and garlic among others.     

I promise the next list won’t be seasonal but, with any luck, will be spicy.

Kat Warren is a corporate librarian in Northern California who lives with a fuchsia hybridist, their two elderly cats and too many books to count. Her preferred exercise workout is turning the pages of a good tome whilst guzzling champagne. She loves Bach (particularly the unaccompanied cello suites), beaches, books and a good bacchanal now and again. Kat can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it