Get cozy in fall 2026 with these new books

MARK BRODIE: Next Tuesday is the first day of fall, even though it doesn’t necessarily feel like it outside. But those high temperatures don’t mean we can’t talk about books for the season.

With me now to do just that is Valley-based book critic Mark Athitakis. Mark, welcome back.

MARK ATHITAKIS: Thank you very much for having me.

MARK BRODIE: So you have some recommendations for us here, and I want to start with one that is written by the son of a very well-known author who has, it sounds like kind of, — he’s sort of taken a difficult time in his life and made it into something that sounds really quite beautiful.

MARK ATHITAKIS: Yes, the book is called “Hold Still” by Ben Ehrenreich, and his mother is the well-known muckraking journalist Barbara Ehrenreich, best known for writing the book “Nickel and Dimed,” where she engaged in quote-unquote “unskilled labor” to see what those jobs working as a waitress or as a maid, what those experiences were really like.

And Ben is a fine writer in his own right. He’s written beautifully about the desert and mythology of it. When Barbara died in 2022, he undertook this process of, “I’m going to write a story every day to help process this experience.”

And so this book, “Hold Still,” is kind of a collection of 80-odd, you might call it flash fiction. Sometimes it’s dealing with mythology, sometimes it’s talking about his healing process, his relationship with his family. And it’s not as mournful as you might expect because what it is is seeking a kind of centering through story.

He talks a lot about: What are the stories that we tell ourselves or the stories that we ignore when we are going through an experience like this? And I can see this is an eminently teachable book as well for people who are trying to learn to, how are you going to express yourself through this? So it is a, I wouldn’t call it easy uplift, but I wouldn’t call it just sad, mournful writing.

MARK BRODIE: A little bit of a lot of things, it sounds like.

MARK ATHITAKIS: Exactly, yeah.

MARK BRODIE: OK, so you also have a book called “On the Calculation of Volume,” and this is one of, it sounds like a series of books?

MARK ATHITAKIS: Yes, it is a seven-part series. The fifth will be coming out in November, I believe, so it’s time to catch up now. So this has become a little bit of a indie hit. The author’s name is Solvej Balle, I believe that’s how you pronounce it. She’s a Danish writer, and the idea is the main character is keeping a diary diary of her experience of being stuck on the same day, Nov. 18.

Now, we’ve seen this movie and it’s called “Groundhog Day,” right? But the thing that she does really remarkably is talk about some of the kind of the existential consequences of this.

If you miss seasons, you can travel to a different place every day and experience that. You reset as a person every day, but the resources that you consume do not. So what does that mean in terms of stewardship of resources? She is also not alone in this. There are other people who are stuck in this same kind of time loop. What does society look like when you are separate from that society?

So it is a fun read just to kind of think about what some of the the challenges and maybe some of the freedoms that come with this experience. And it’s beautifully written, very well-translated, and the books themselves, each one is about 200 pages, so it’s not going to be too not too stressful.

MARK BRODIE: Not a a literal or figurative heavy lift there, it sounds like.

MARK ATHITAKIS: Exactly.

MARK BRODIE: OK, so another one you have is called “Music Against the Night,” and this is a historical fiction?

MARK ATHITAKIS: Yes, it is. And so this is by Yiyun Li, who is one of my favorite living writers. She’s won the National Book Award. People with longish memories may recall that during the pandemic, she convened a global group read of “War and Peace” so that we could get through those first early months. And she’s a teacher herself and is a, just a very engaging person in that role.

This novel is her second historical novel, and it’s about the lives of two classical composers and performers and their relationship. We’re talking about the 1700s, 1800s. And the difficulty of initially having this transatlantic relationship, building a relationship, splitting away from each other as their creative and their romantic instincts start to split and divide. And she is just a wonderful, elegant writer as well.

MARK BRODIE: And doing that in a time before, like, cellphones and FaceTime.

MARK ATHITAKIS: Exactly, exactly.

MARK BRODIE: OK, so that sounds maybe like a bit of a downer, so let’s talk about something, some books that are coming out that maybe will not be downers. Some comedians have biographies or autobiographies, including Larry David, of course, from “Seinfeld” and “Curb Your Enthusiasm” and many other things; stand-up Taylor Tomlinson; Chuck Lorre, who’s the guy behind “The Big Bang Theory” and and many other many other shows. These sound — I’m sure they won’t all just be like laugh-out-loud like every page, but probably a little more uplifting.

MARK ATHITAKIS: Yes, absolutely. The Chuck Lorre’s book, “Sitcom,” which is kind of the story of his life, is — I think there’s something that is about being a comedian that forces you to be self-deprecating. One fun thing about this this particular book is that he includes the scripts of a couple of his early pilots for “The Kominsky Method” and for “The Big Bang Theory,” and he is scrawling all over the page about how angry he is at himself at how bad these jokes are. So it’s kind of an object lesson in how much work goes into being a comedian.

And Taylor Tomlinson’s book especially, it’s called “Actually, Nevermind,” and it’s either just out or just about to be, is talking about her experience growing up in a very religious family. She had entree into the clean comedy world and then had to make a decision about, that’s not where I want to stay. I want to evolve beyond this. And so talks a lot about the the craft and the experience and being a woman in comedy and the things that you have to navigate in order to earn success in that business.

MARK BRODIE: And interesting to have a memoir coming out by somebody — obviously she’s accomplished a lot already, but she’s not she’s not old, she’s pretty young.

MARK ATHITAKIS: No, she’s not. But she has lived a lot. She talks a lot about the experience about losing her mother at a young age. She talks a lot about her experience coming out, talks about her experiences with mental wellness, mental illness as well. So, and she also, she led a TV program called “After Midnight,” which kind of imploded a couple of years ago. It was very funny, but so she certainly has enough material to work with.

MARK BRODIE: OK, before I let you go: Dan Aykroyd, also a comedian, might remember him as one of the Blues Brothers, he has a sci-fi novel?

MARK ATHITAKIS: Things are weird. I suppose when you’re successful like that, you can pursue and follow your bliss. Yes, it’s a novel called “Soul Hider,” which is a just a a fun little lark of a sci-fi novel. I think if you’re a hardcore sci-fi fan, it may not necessarily appeal, but it is about a mild-mannered person who is recruited to help broker a kind of peace agreement between two warring extraterrestrial groups, so.

MARK BRODIE: Maybe a mission from God, as it were?

MARK ATHITAKIS: It is, or ...

MARK BRODIE: As in “The Blues Brothers”?

MARK ATHITAKIS: Or a variation on the Coneheads, who knows?

MARK BRODIE: One way or the other. All right. Mark Athitakis, thanks as always for coming in to talk about books to look for this fall. Appreciate it.

MARK ATHITAKIS: Thank you very much.