I mentioned before that I like reading seasonally (Creative Reading foundation #5: Read on purpose), and to choose my books with the highest potential resonance in mind. October is a lovely month for this, because it’s so atmospheric, and its atmosphere (spooky, cooling, darkening, socks, activating soup mode, moving inward. . . ) is so specific.
The circumstance of being not just a writer but also a bookseller means I’m always, always up to my eyeballs in books. It’s one of the best parts of the job! Several years ago, realizing that I was always reading like twelve books at a time and it was taking me forever to actually finish any of them because of it, I decided to try READING as many as I want (foundation #2: Read a variety of topics, genres, writers, styles) but commit to FINISHING three every month.
I’m happy to say that while I still constantly have to march many toppling stacks of books around the house, I’ve been finishing about fifty a year since I started. I’m a very slow reader (partially because of my devotion to foundation #3: Read actively; participate! lol — you saw some of the shenanigans in my reading journal!) so this feels like a lot to me and I’m proud of following through on my idea and happy that what started as an experimental strategy is working pretty much exactly how I’d hoped it would. This is yet another reason experiments are fun! Because sometimes they work. 🙂
So this week, I thought I’d share my book selections for October.
1. Modern Magic ~ Michelle Tea
My neighbors put a sign on the front lawn last week, next to three black-clad, tattered scarecrowish figures circled around a cauldron: BEWARE OF WITCHES. Beware, indeed! Michelle Tea is someone I’ve admired for years for her plucky, feral, fuck-all way of doing pretty much everything she does: feminism, poetry, queerness, memoir, spirituality. She was a bit of a local celebrity in the San Francisco arts community during the years our living there overlapped. I appreciate her attitude toward creative living and am perpetually inspired by her boldness, bright energy, and singular style.
True to form, this book is a wholly original, provocative, and illuminating take on modern witchery, its capacity to release us from systems “that threaten to rob us of our wonder, liberty, agency, and divine spark,” and how if we collaborate with unseen forces and make magic our own (as we arguably should any spiritual framework or practice) it has the power to support us profoundly as we negotiate our way along our own crooked paths.
2. When the Forest Breathes ~ Suzanne Simard
Wow, this one. I loved forest ecologist Suzanne Simard’s first book, Finding the Mother Tree (2021), and was thrilled to discover she has this new one coming out in March (2026). I’m reading an advance copy and it’s a delight. It’s pretty perfect to be reading and learning more about trees (notably the truly wondrous ways they communicate and support one another and the entire ecosystem) while they’re doing the indisputably enchanted rainbow sundapple magic show that is the visual and energetic centerpiece of October in Vermont.
In both books, Dr. Simard braids the parallel lines of her professional and personal stories together into a gorgeous (lush, vivid, lyrical, inspiring) tale that fizzes with life. Her profound sensitivity toward the forest seems to give her an extra superpower—this extraordinary ability to explain and evoke its wonders for the rest of us.
3. Lucky Girl ~ Allie Tagle-Dokus
This is my wild card! And a debut, to boot. Great debuts are so inspiring! And this is a great one. The novel I finished for last month was pretty measured and serious and I wanted something a little more colorful and playful—but with a bite—to follow it. This one (coming out in November) is totally doing the trick. Not only is it funny and original and narrated by my favorite kind of narrator (a sort of bright-eyed, soul-searching mess with a combustible good luck charm clutched in the glovebox of her jalopy heart) but it has a poignantly dysfunctional family at its core, too, which rings in harmony with my current writing project.
I love reading stories with kindred vibes and dynamics to the ones I’m spinning into my own work. It’s like the stories are hollering jokes to each other down the long hallways of a building where they all invent themselves in separate rooms.
And, BONUS: my bedtime book!
4. Silverborn ~ Jessica Townsend
I don’t put when-to-finish expectations on my bedtime books (hence the “bonus” status) but I do select and save them just for bedtime which makes them special and gives me something fun and specific to look forward to at the end of the day—a therapeutic practice in and of itself! I mentioned before how I love reading middle grade fiction (novels written for 8-12 year olds, like Harry Potter or Chronicles of Narnia) at bedtime, and this particular installation of Jessica’s Nevermoor series feels very Halloweenish and spook-forward, so I’ve been saving it for October. 🎃
Like so many other great MG stories—fantasy, in particular—it’s full of colorful characters, friendship, monsters, magic, adventure, danger, and humor, lovely to read before pushing off in my pillow-ship to the great dreamy Beyond. Another reason I love MG fantasies at bedtime is because they’re not about real-world, adult problems so aren’t likely to stress me out and get the gears of my worry-machine whirring when it’s really time to relax and let the day go.
Reading real books is so supportive for the body, spirit, and mind (foundation #1: Read real books) but choosing what/when can make or break the benefit sometimes.
How about you? What are you reading? How do you like it, why did you choose it? Always love hearing about the book piles you’ve got kicking around—what’s in them and why they’re dog-eared in a million places or pressing book-shaped secret messages into the dust on the coffee table. (Because foundation #4: Everything matters!)
Happy reading!
Love & light from the margins,
ali
Thanks so much for reading, and hello new subscribers! I’m a multidisciplinary artist, bookseller, and educator. If you liked this post, one of the best ways you can support what I’m doing is to chime in, subscribe, share, or click the heart button. 💛 If you’d like to check out more of my work, here’s my website! I also reluctantly post on Instagram but am working (albeit slowly) to make the move over to Bluesky.
Star in the Margin is free and open to all, but does require lots of time, love, and energy! If you’re into the vibe and want to cheer me on. . .