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The books of October are swooping in to help you figure out the world. Barbara Kingsolver's newest novel, Unsheltered, catches a woman just as she's realizing the conditions of 2018 abide by a new set of rules. Willa Knox, you see, never could have predicted that her years as an ambitious journalist would culminate in this: Living on the poverty line in a ramshackle inherited house, which she shares with her ailing father-in-law, barely employed husband, surprise grandson, wandering daughter, and grieving son. And there's absolutely no social safety net to catch them if they fall.
If Unsheltered is a fictional depiction of life in America, then Rebecca Traister's incendiary book Good and Mad, out October 2, offers a political analysis. Good and Mad tracks women's anger as a force of societal change, and where we, the angry, may go from here. For those of you who just want to laugh while the world burns, check out Phoebe Robinson's hilarious new collection, Everything's Trash, But It's Okay, out October 16.
The books on this list will make your commute zoom by and your mind relax before bed. And who knows? They might help you be a person in the world, too.
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