We’ve always got our noses in a book at KAYU, but fall’s crisp weather provides an especially enticing environment for curling up with a great read, a cup of coffee, and a cozy blanket. From a tome overflowing with aesthetic inspiration to a modern-day fairytale, these are the books we can’t wait to get lost in as autumn settles in.
What We’re Reading
Pacific Natural
by Jenni Kayne
A coffee table book you’ll actually read. Having honed an empire of good taste, from shoes to homewares to lifestyle, Jenni Kayne is now synonymous with the sort of laid-back yet high-end coastal living that is so sought after today. In this Rizzoli volume, Kayne turns her attention to entertaining and “slow living”—and a foreword by Martha Stewart secures her a place in the pantheon.
Sing To It: Stories
by Amy Hempel
An uncontested master of the short story, Hempel’s latest collection explores every corner of lived experience, from infidelity to loss and beyond, all through fresh eyes. An engrossing read for your morning commute or a spare half-hour at the corner coffee shop on a Sunday morning, we love these bite-sized insights into the lives we all lead.
Thea Porter’s Scrapbook
edited by Venetia Porter
Told in her own words and edited by her daughter, Thea Porter’s Scrapbook is an autobiography of this influential but now often overlooked designer. Porter helped define the style of the 1960s and ‘70s by dressing rock legends and movie stars alike, crafting visionary garments inspired by the fabrics of the Middle East that celebrated the cross-cultural influence of an era while also establishing an aesthetic that would never truly fade from fashion’s favor.
The Testaments
by Margaret Atwood
The essential read for after your Hulu binge. The sequel to Atwood’s powerhouse dystopian novel The Handmaid’s Tale, The Testaments is no less critical a read for the current moment. Exploring the slow but eventual crumbling of Gilead, it challenges the morals and values of the women still caught in the puritanical grip of this society.
The Dutch House
by Ann Patchett
Set outside Philadelphia and anchored in an opulent mansion inhabited by two motherless children, the iconic author’s latest read deftly weaves together elements of traditional European fairytales and folk stories, juxtaposing them with a uniquely American saga of family, materialism, nostalgia, and what it means to have a sense of home. The book’s meditations on memory and lush surroundings feel especially indulgent for fall.
What Red Was
by Rosie Price
A timely and complicated story for the Title IX era, What Red Was explores an intense college friendship that spans social and economic strata, and the sexual assault that shakes it to its core.
