Ten books to add to your autumn reading list

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Image of Victoria Gallery and Museum with the front cover of books layered over the top

As autumn arrives and the evenings draw in, there's no better time to start a new book or make your way through your to-be-read pile.

From Liverpool Literary Festival speakers and University of Liverpool alumni to BookTok favourites and modern classics, we've gathered ten recommendations to inspire your autumn reading list.

  1. So I Met This Guy… by Alexandra Potter

From the author of the bestseller Confessions of a Fortysomething F##k Up comes another laugh-out-loud novel full of wit, wisdom and women who have had enough. It’s a sun-kissed quest for justice fuelled by friendship, laughter and finding that inner steel. The perfect read for those who enjoy Sophie Kinsella, Marian Keyes and Bella Mackie.

At the Liverpool Literary Festival on 17 October, Alexandra will be reading excerpts from her new book. Book your place now.

  1. Strange Sally Diamond by Liz Nugent

As the weather changes and nights become darker, we all need a thriller we can’t put down. Set in rural Ireland, this book is filled with twists and turns, leaving you questioning human morality and the argument of the nature versus nurture debate.

  1. One Day by David Nicholls

While some of us are ready to embrace the darker nights, sometimes you want to hold onto warm summer days. Told yearly on 15 July across the 80s, 90s and 00s, reminisce on bygone uni days and how the friends and connections we make at university can shape us and inform our futures. A nostalgic read, filled with yearning, which has tugged at countless people’s heartstrings.

  1. Service by Lauren Mooney

Danielle MacKinnon is nearly thirty and still hasn't got her life sorted. Her job as a PA to the blithely privileged Jeannie is boring and existentially depressing, and now, after a break-up, she needs to find somewhere to live for the next two months.

A University of Liverpool alumna, Lauren Mooney’s debut novel Service, published in June by Manilla Press, finds comedy and horror in servitude at a landed estate.

  1. A Working Title I Want to Change by Saul Leslie

In the labyrinth of Tesco’s flagship supermarket, precariously employed workers search for dignity at the margins of late-capitalist London, while a nameless narrator cycles through the discarded name tags of sacked colleagues. Gradually absorbing their stories, he drifts from shifts at the superstore to temporary accommodation, as imminent homelessness threatens his intellectual hopes. Petty triumphs, quiet humiliations, and fleeting acts of kindness become markers of resistance to the wider collapse beyond the store’s walls.

Lauren and Saul, both of whom studied English Literature at the University, will be in conversation with Dr Sophie Oliver, Senior Lecturer in the Department of English at this year’s Liverpool Literary Festival on the 18 October. Book your place now.

  1. The Secret History by Donna Tartt

A modern classic, arguably the quintessential autumn novel. New England campus, crisp leaves, dark academia, and an unforgettable atmosphere. A story of a closely knit group of six Classics students at Hampden College, a small, elite liberal arts college in Vermont.

  1. East of Eden by John Steinbeck

Read East of Eden before watching it on Netflix this autumn. It is a sprawling family saga that retells the biblical story of Cain and Abel and the fall of Adam and Eve. Many regard the work as Steinbeck's most ambitious novel, and Steinbeck himself considered it his magnum opus.

  1. Fruit Fly by Josh Silver

A washed-up author will stop at nothing to claw her way back to relevancy—even if it means appropriating a young gay man’s tragic story. A razor-sharp satirical thriller, Fruit Fly will appeal to fans of R. F. Kuang’s Yellowface and Yomi Adegoke’s The List.

Fruit Fly has been everywhere over the summer and even optioned for TV after falling into the hands of Anne Hathaway. In Anne’s own words, “Gimme, gimme, gimme.”

  1. What We Left Unsaid by Winnie M Li

Winnie M Li’s latest novel, What We Left Unsaid, reconsiders the Great American Road Trip from the perspective of people of colour and uses the story of a single family to reflect on the political, economic, and ideological divisions shaping contemporary America, and the possibility of reconciliation.

Winnie will be joining this year’s Liverpool Literary Festival in an event chaired by alumna Sara-Louise Tareen, co-organiser of Feminist Fiction Liverpool. Book your place now.

  1. The Pumpkin Spice Café by Laurie Gilmore

A cosy romantic mystery for fans of Gilmore Girls with all the autumn vibes. When Jeanie’s aunt gifts her the beloved Pumpkin Spice Café in the small town of Dream Harbor, Jeanie jumps at the chance for a fresh start away from her very dull desk job.

Liverpool Literary Festival

This year’s festival will take place 16 – 18 October 2026 and will welcome local authors, poets, best-selling novelists and many more to our iconic Victoria Gallery & Museum. Including Frank Cottrell-Boyce and Rodger McGough.

Find out more information about each of the events on the festival’s website and book your place now.

Last year, we were proud to see alumna Emma Jane Unsworth, a BAFTA-nominated, BIFA-winning screenwriter and bestselling novelist, take part in an In Conversation event as part of the festival. Watch the event online, where Emma discussed her new novel Slags, which was published in May 2025.

Emma featured in our 2025 Alumni Magazine as part of our Friends Reunited section, discussing her friendship with writer Alison Taylor who she met at Liverpool and has shared all of life’s trials and triumphs ever since. Emma’s novel, Animals, is even inspired by their friendship. Here, they share a touching and hilarious insight into their uni days and finding their ‘tribe’.