October's Bookshelf: Kingsolver, Garmus and Stephen Graham Jones Lead 26 New Titles

Publishers Weekly has singled out 26 new books for October, led by new novels from Barbara Kingsolver, Imbolo Mbue and Stephen Graham Jones, alongside biographies of Larry David and Frank Capra and a crop of titles timed to the Halloween season.

Kingsolver, whose novel "Demon Copperhead" won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2023, returns this month with a new work of fiction. She shares the list with Imbolo Mbue, the author of "How Beautiful We Were," and Stephen Graham Jones, the prolific horror writer behind "The Only Good Indians."

The October slate stretches beyond literary fiction. Two biographies of major figures in American comedy and cinema arrive together: one chronicling Larry David, the co-creator of "Seinfeld," and another on Frank Capra, the director of "It's a Wonderful Life" and "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington."

The timing is no accident. October remains the publishing industry's ramp-up to the holiday season, when houses release their heaviest hitters in fiction and nonfiction. Publishers Weekly's roundup places established names alongside seasonal fare, including a set of horror titles aimed squarely at readers seeking spooky-season reading.

Jones, a member of the Blackfeet Nation and a master of the slasher revival, anchors the horror side of the list. His appearance alongside Kingsolver and Mbue signals how firmly horror now sits within mainstream literary publishing — a category once confined to genre imprints.

Mbue, whose debut "Behold the Dreamers" was an Oprah's Book Club selection, continues a career that has tracked themes of immigration, capitalism and environmental collapse. Her presence on the October list adds literary weight to a month otherwise stocked with celebrity biography and genre fiction.

For readers who prefer their nonfiction with a show-business angle, the Larry David biography promises a close look at one of television's most influential comic minds. The Capra volume, by contrast, returns to Hollywood's studio era, examining the director whose name became shorthand for a certain kind of optimistic American filmmaking.

With 26 titles across fiction, biography and horror, the October list offers a cross-section of what commercial publishing does best in the fall: prize-winning novelists, name-brand biographies and books engineered for the season. Which of these titles carry into the year-end best-of conversations will become clear in the months ahead.