Your Shelf Life: 5 Books to Read in November

Ivy Pochoda’s Wonder Valley is full of twists, grit, and characters living on the margins of contemporary Los Angeles society. Their stories collide when a naked man runs through traffic on the busy 110 freeway.

Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner pens his first novel, Heather, the Totality, a compact, menacing tale of a wealthy New York couple, their enchanting daughter, and a violent predator.

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Distinguished environmental writer Bill McKibben has published a zany caper about an underground radio show that advocates for secession from the US. Radio Free Vermont: A Fable of Resistance includes a glowing blurb from Bernie Sanders.

Like the resurgently popular Handmaid’s Tale, Louise Erdrich’s Future Home of the Living God is a dystopian novel centered on women’s fertility. The protagonist is newly pregnant in a devolving world where humans, plants, and animals are mutating back to primitive states.

Myriam Gurba’s memoir, Mean, tells her story of growing up queer and Chicana in a small California town. Gurba tackles issues of race and sexual assault with pointed humor.

Your Shelf Life: 5 Books to Read in November