An Inside Look at the Rise and Fall of the World's Youngest Billionaire is One of the Best Books to Read This Month

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This month, pile your nightstand with a thrilling look inside the biggest financial scandal of our time, a former U.S. Ambassador's meditation on life after loss, a deep dive on one of rock 'n' roll's greatest philosophers, and so much more. Here are T&C's picks for the best 15 books of October 2023.

Going Infinite: The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon

The author of Moneyball and Liar's Poker has found an ideal subject in his latest work: one-time crypto boy wonder Sam Bankman-Fried. Here, Lewis turns his singularly observant eye toward the now-disgraced financial whiz kid to examine how the world's youngest billionaire rose to the top of his field and the ways in which his kingdom came crashing down around him.

Think You'll Be Happy: Moving Through Grief with Grit, Grace, and Gratitude

It would be easy for any of us to be derailed by the kind of tragedy Nicole Avant has seen; the diplomat, filmmaker, and philanthropist's mother was killed in 2021 during a home invasion. But in her beautiful and moving new memoir, Avant writes clearly about experiencing trauma and moving through grief, living for all of those who can't. Is it an easy book to read? Not always. But its message is vital, and no one who reads this memoir will put it down unchanged.

Collision of Power: Trump, Bezos, and THE WASHINGTON POST

The most consequential newspaper editor of his generation, Marty Baron, chronicles his time leading the Washington Post in the era of Donald Trump. It is a sobering account of a democracy under siege, and the muckrakers who kept government honest. A must-read for any journalist today, it might also make for the next great movie about the trade, an All the President's Men for a new generation.

How to Say Babylon

Safiya Sinclair won the Whiting Writers’ Award and numerous other prizes for her 2016 collection of poetry Cannibal. In this penetrating new memoir she describes her childhood in Montego Bay, Jamaica, growing up under the increasingly paranoid eye of her strict Rastafarian father who forbade her and her siblings access to what he deemed the corrupting and oppressing influences of Western culture. Books of poetry given to her by her mother provided Sinclair an escape and ultimately served as inspiration for communicating her own perceptions of the world.

Slim Aarons: The Essential Collection

You may already have more than a few Slim Aarons tomes decorating your coffee table, but as the title of this latest promises, this one is essential to add to the stack. First, it’s comprehensive, featuring more than 100 never-before-published photographs. It also provides a deeper look at the man himself, with biographical essays (including one by T&C contributor Lesley Blume) charting his incredible five-decade career, from his early days as an army photographer to his peak as master chronicler of the jet set.

Extremely Online: The Untold Story of Fame, Influence, and Power on the Internet

If, as T&C once wrote, Taylor Lorenz is the Bob Woodward of the TikTok generation, her first book is her All the President's Men. Fascinating, eye-opening, and unbelievable in equal parts, it is a comprehensive witness account of the players, operatives, and principals driving content on the internet today, across platforms and even across entire industries. A must-read for anyone wishing to understand the most arcane conspiracy theories taking up the nation's consciousness to the sweeping cultural changes a rising generation has brought about.

Zingerman's Bakehouse Celebrate Every Day

Zingerman's Bakehouse is an Ann Arbor, Michigan staple—and thanks to shipping, their breads, pastries, and exceedingly good cinnamon roles are available far and wide. Now, just in time for holiday baking season, the beloved institution is releasing a new cookbook with recipes for some of their most popular offerings, from pavlova to chocolate chess pie.

Lee Miller & Man Ray: Fashion, Love, War

Lee Miller was an artist, writer, and something of an international woman of mystery. This new book explores not only her work as a photographer but that of her collaborator and sometimes paramour Man Ray, comparing and contrasting the two great talents and exploring the way they documented the rapidly changing world around them. Read this now before Kate Winslet takes her turn as Miller in the upcoming biopic Lee.

Roman Stories

Jhumpa Lahiri's newest short story collection since Unaccustomed Earth (2008) explores Rome. Written in Italian, and translated by Jhumpa and by Knopf editor Todd Portnowitz, the nine stories in the aptly titled Roman Stories grapple with contemporary life in the Italian capital.

Lou Reed: The King of New York

There's a feeling about someone like Lou Reed that the songs they've written give us a sense of their lives. And while so many of Reed's songs have that ability to feel confessional and profoundly true, the best way to learn about the late genius is undoubtedly Will Hermes's new biography, which draws extensively from the NYPL's archive and never-before-heard recordings. He follows Reed's life from before his role in the Velvet Underground shot him to international fame through until his role as a sometimes-irascible icon.

The Night House

There's a reason the Oslo-based Nesbø's thrillers have sold more than 55 million copies around the world: he knows how to be scary. This new novel follows Richard, a recently orphaned outsider who arrives in a new town with suspicious timing—he's barely there before another kid goes missing. Richard might not be to blame, but he is set on getting to the bottom of what went wrong—no matter how terrifying the experience may be. Consider your Halloween-adjacent reading sorted.

Tremor

Twelve years after the publication of his well-received novel Open City, PEN/Hemingway Award–winner Teju Cole makes a much-anticipated return to fiction with a new book set on a New England campus. Cole, a professor at Harvard and a contributing writer at The New York Times Magazine, has also published essay collections, including Known and Strange Things and an experimental photo book titled Blind Spot.

Madonna: A Rebel Life

It’s hard to imagine a time when Madonna, who turned 65 earlier this year, was not at the center of some sort of musical innovation or cultural controversy. It’s also hard to conceive that there are new things to be learned about this omnipresent superstar. But Mary Gabriel, whose book Love and Capital was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award, reintroduces us to the singer in this exciting new biography by offering insights into major decisions she made during her career and contextualizing how her music and activism shaped our culture.

Family Meal

In Family Meal, Bryan Washington's moving third novel, grief, family, and food are at the forefront. After Cam's boyfriend tragically dies, he turns to his hometown of Houston and reconnects with his former best friend, TJ. As Rumaan Alam writes, "This novel will break your heart twice over, with sadness, sure, but more unexpectedly, with joy. It takes a generous writer to show us the world in this way, and Bryan Washington is one of our best."

Head Over Heels: Joanne Woodward and Paul Newman

We learned quite a bit about Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward in the past year, thanks not only to Newman's posthumously released memoir but also The Last Movie Stars, the six-hour documentary series about the couple. This latest peek inside their life comes from perhaps the best source of all, their daughter Melissa Newman. The book offers a trove of portraits of the couple, some never before seen, as well as handwritten notes, personal snapshots, and other exceedingly rare ephemera. It's a celebration of one of the world's most recognizable pairs written by one of the people who knew and loved them the best.

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