10 books you should read in October, including David Bowie’s Moonage Daydream and William Shatner’s Boldly Go

Also check out Nerd by Maya Phillips, Demon Copperhead from Barbara Kingsolver, and more

By Cat Auer | September 27, 2022 | 12:00pm

Books News David Bowie

10 books you should read in October, including David Bowie’s Moonage Daydream and William Shatner’s Boldly Go

Clockwork from bottom left: Boldly Go (Image: Atria); Demon Copperhead (Image: Harper); Ghost Town (Image: Europa Editions); Liberation Day (Image: Random House); Nerds: Adventures In Fandom From This Universe To The Multiverse (Image: Atria); Nights Of Plague (Image: Knopf); Moonage Daydream (Image: Genesis Publications) Graphic: Libby McGuire

Every month, a deluge of new books comes flooding out from big publishers, indie houses, and self-publishing platforms. To help you navigate the wave of titles arriving in October, The A.V. Club has narrowed down the options to 10 books we’re most excited about, including a collection of hundreds of photographs chronicling David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust era, a ninth autobiographical outing from Captain Kirk himself, William Shatner; and the tumultuous memoirs of Fresh Off The Boat star Constance Wu.

Liberation Day: Stories by George Saunders (October 18, Random House)

He’s written a children’s book, reportage, essays, novellas, and a Booker Prize–winning novel, but short stories are ’ sweet spot. Liberation Day, his fifth collection, includes nine stories (five previously published in The New Yorker); the title story is a powerhouse, but they all pack mean emotional punches. A recurring theme (“Liberation Day,” “Ghoul,” “Elliott Spencer,” and to some degree “A Thing At Work”) is the exploitation of people in service of capitalism or private interests. Both deep sincerity and dark humor are on display throughout. “I guess one never realizes how little one wants to be kicked to death until one hears a crowd doing that exact same thing to someone nearby,” says the protagonist of “Ghoul” (the setting: a theme-park-like environment—classic Saunders).

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