From poetry to plays, check out CT Public's fall 2025 book recommendations

Where We Live recently hosted a bookish gathering at Rebel Dog Coffee in East Hartford. The Sept. 6 event served as a precursor to the team’s new “Where We Read” initiative and connected listeners and literary fans across the state. We discovered the themes that really spark joy and had a blast sharing what everyone is reading around the room.

Looking for your next book? Here's what the folks who attended Rebel Dog recommend! 

Fiction & Literature:

• A Soldier’s Play – Charles Fuller (play)
• The Lady of the Lake – Sir Walter Scott
• Weyward – Emilia Hart
• Random Family – Adrian Nicole LeBlanc
• Saving Vincent – Jo Van Gogh
• The Lost Baker of Vienna – Sharon Kurtzman 
• Don’t Open Your Eyes – Liv Constantine 
• Lessons in Chemistry – Bonnie Garmus
• Remarkably Bright Creatures – Shelby Van Pelt
• Right Story, Wrong Story – Tyson Yunkaporta
• There Are Rivers in the Sky - Elif Shafak
• The Filling Station – Vanessa Miller
• The Locked Ward – Sarah Pekkanen
• James – Percival Everett
• The Book of Night Women – Marlon James
• Katabasis – R.F. Kuang
• Lady Sherlock (8 book series) – Sherry Thomas
• Murder Your Employer: The McMasters Guide to Homicide – Rupert Holmes, audiobook read by Neil Patrick Harris
• Butter – Asako Yuzuki (literary fiction)
• The Tainted Cup – Robert Jackson Bennett 

Graphic Novels:

• The Hidden Life of Trees: A Graphic Adaptation – originally Peter Wohlleben
• Love Languages – James Albon 
• Godzilla's Monsterpiece Theatre - Tom Scioli

Poetry:

• Forest of Noise – Mosab Abu Toha 
• You Better Be Lightning – Andrea Gibson 

Classics & Popular Re-reads:

• The Color Purple – Alice Walker
• To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee
• The Diary of a Young Girl –   Anne Frank
• J.D. Salinger  (revisiting various works) – J.D. Salinger 

Romance & Romantasy: 

• Throne of Glass: Tower of Dawn  – Sarah J. Maas
• Beverly Jenkins author of multiple historical romance novels
• Oak King Holly King – Sebastian Nothwell
• Master of Storms –  Bec McMaster
• The Five Points Mob series  – Serena Akeroyd

Local Authors: 

• The Summer My Sister Was Cleopatra Moon – Frances Park
• The Early County Massacre: Goolsby vs. The State of Georgia – Oris Jenkins 

Young Adult:

• Not Enough (series) – Maria Scrivan (Also, a local author & graphic novel!)
• Boy 2.0 – Tracy Baptiste 
• Mystery of the Midnight Rider (3rd  book of the Nancy Drew Diaries series) – Carol Keene 

Non-Fiction:

• Dark Sky Rising – Henry Louis Gates Jr. 
• Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence – Nugi Garimara Doris Pilkington 
• If Women Rose Rooted – Sharon Blackie
• Determined – Robert M. Sapolsky 
• Come as You Are – Emily Nagoski 
• Rest Is Resistance – Tricia Hersey (Founder of The Nap Ministry)
• Drink Water and Mind Your Business: A Black Woman's Guide to Unlearning the BS and Healing Your Self-Esteem - Dr. Donna Oriowo
• Fixation: How to Have Stuff Without Breaking the Planet – Sandra Goldmark
• Click: How to Make What People Want – Jake Knapp  & John Zeratsky
• Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men – Caroline Criado Perez
• An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth – Col. Chris Hadfield
• Say Nothing – Patrick Radden Keefe 
• What a Time to Be Alone – Chidera Eggerue 
• 107 Days – Kamala Harris (releases on 9/23/25)
• Crusade for Justice: The Autobiography of Ida B. Wells  - Ida B. Wells 

Thanks to everyone who came and shared what they were reading and what other types of bookish topics they'd like us to cover and events they'd be interested in attending. If you have any recommendations or ideas for us, email us at: wherewelive@ctpublic.org.