This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I may earn from qualifying purchases at no additional cost to you.
And so it is with joy that we welcome the arrival of September and therefore, autumn if you’re in the Northern Hemisphere. I have learnt over time that each season is to be embraced, its challenges faced and its opportunities welcomed. Autumn can bring with it a slowness that summer often lacks, and if the weather is fine, a chance to be outside still without the insistence of summer’s baking heat.
As each season of our life imposes certain limitations or offers certain chances, so too does each season of the year. With that in mind, I like to do certain things in each season that I don’t do at other times a year. Naturally, we change our wardrobes with the weather, what we eat changes if we try to eat seasonally or locally, and perhaps our interests and pastimes shift too. The gardening year turns to harvesting, clearing and planning, which after the intensity of spring and summer, leaves a welcome space for other pursuits.
Today I want to share with you some of my cosy reading recommendations for autumn, many still with a connection to homemaking, seasonal appreciation or just a general slowing down and reflecting that this time of year encourages.
Cosy Reading – My Favourite Books to Read in Autumn
- The Running Hare by John Lewis-Stempel – I bought this book some years ago and it remains a firm favourite. A personal account of comparing older more harmonious ways of farming with modern intensive farming with a focus on the very direct impact on wildlife and biodiversity. Though its subject matter is serious it gives a feeling of returning to rurality and seasonality which is often so elusive in the modern world. This would also be a great gift for anyone interested in the countryside, agricultural and wildlife.
- Tender Volume 1 and Volume 2 by Nigel Slater – If you have ever read a Nigel Slate book before you will know that these are not just recipe books. His photography, his writing and his recipes capture the best of growing, harvesting and cooking fresh, seasonal fruit and vegetables. Although not specifically autumnal, autumn is a time of harvest and abundance and you’ll be spoiled for choice on what to cook whether you’ve grown the ingredients yourself or not. They also make planning the weekly meals a much more enjoyable task, particularly when slumped of an evening with a notebook and a glass of something.
- Anne of Green Gables by L M Montgomery – I have loved Anne of Green Gables since I was a child. It has a gentleness and a nostalgia which soften but do not mask the difficulties and sadness faced by the characters. I have read and reread the whole series so many times, and can’t wait to share it with my children when they’re a little older. I steer well clear of any television adaptations as the nuances of character, setting and story are so developed in my mind now that I don’t think anything but the original books could do Anne and the other inhabitants of Prince Edward Island justice (it is a dream to visit one day though and see this real place for myself!) This beautiful set would make a lovely gift for a young reader that they can carry with them throughout their life.
- The Curated Closet by Anuschka Rees – If you love clothes, enjoy planning your seasonal wardrobe or are looking for a bit of a style refresh, this is the best book I have found to help you discover or embrace your own style and develop your wardrobe in a way that best captures the look you want and need. There are no recommendations for specific items or amounts, this book acts as a tool so that you can design and build your ideal selection of clothes. I have been guilty of shopping for the lifestyle I dream of, rather than the one I have (evening wear and heels not conducive to my current phase of life homemaking and caring for small children) but this book is helping me to distil what I love about those items and apply them to more practical choices. I am looking forward to continuing my journey in a couple of months time when I am not hampered by an enormous bump! You can see my post on this book from the beginning of the year here (before I found out I was pregnant!)
- Autumn: An Anthology by Melissa Harrison – If you enjoy poems, short stories and essays this book is for you. Inspired by all that autumn has to offer, its part of a four-book series covering each season, this autumn anthology is wonderful for nights spent by the fire. Also great to read out loud as a family as the nights draw in!
- Allotment Month by Month by Alan Buckingham and How to Store Your Home Grown Produce by John and Val Harrison – Even narrowing down to two gardening books was difficult but I settled on these. For the growers among you (or those looking to start growing next year) these books provide easy-to-follow guides on what to grow, when and how, as well as ways to store produce when you reap your abundant harvests! John Harrison also has an excellent website on fruit and veg and allotment growing, where his other books can be purchased and lot of free information and resources about growing your own and sustainable living can be found.
There are so many more books I could have chosen, I think I will have to set up a page where I can add my recommendations over time but I hope some of these provide a cosy welcome to autumn and I’d love to hear if you’ve read any of these or have other autumn reading favourites.
