Books I Judged by the Cover (and Loved)
Depending on where you are in the world, you might be noticing some changes. The evenings are cooler. You can sleep with your windows open (and wake up with your eyes puffed shut from all of the pollen that came drifting in your window). The bees are in full on chaos mode (I'm sure a quick google could tell me why September wasps are out for literal blood, but I'm just going to leave that up to my own imagination). It's FALL, y'all!
Fall is a season of vision. We want to gaze upon the bold colors, take in the last of the green grass before it is buried under snow and dulls for the winter. Animals dash about, making preparations for the long winter. And book covers are popped on endcaps and displays, hoping to get onto our own (digital) bookshelves! We eat with our eyes first, and this goes for what we read, not just ingest.
So, let's take a moment and acknowledge some of the amazing covers that we have this season. What needs to hit your Libby shelves now, before all of the leaves have fallen from the trees?
Covers That Got Me:
Exit Party
by Emily St. John Mandel
Ooo! The colors! The skylines! The post-apocalyptic stories of a master storyteller! This is one that you will not regret picking up. In the near future, after a second U.S. civil war, two women attend a party in LA, where not everything is what it seems. We will travel around the world and out of it to find out the truth of what really happened that night, while also trying to reconcile this new world which everyone is now living in. St. John Mandel's works are all fantastic, so expect to be wowed by this one, as well.
American Hagwon
by Min Jin Lee
I find this cover so provocative. Simple, yet bold, the bright pencil shaving against the stark black background (also, Pachinko is one of my favorite books, so seeing Min Jin Lee on the cover makes me want to read it?). Told over decades, this is the story of a family trying to find themselves after personal and financial losses, spanning from Seoul to Sidney to Southern California. This is the story of survival and family that is perfect for a fall read.
The True Confessions of First Lady Freeman
by Deesha Philyaw
The colors are the first thing that stand out to me with this one, then when you keep looking at it, you see so much more. Peep the red sole of the shoe. The crown. The apple. The small smile on her lips. This book wants you to read it (as do many of my fellow Libby librarians who haven't been able to stop talking about this book!). As the wife of a megachurch pastor, many things are expected of Scharisse, even though she's not always the best at fitting that mold. When the opportunity of a lifetime comes up, she finally has a chance to make it big and fit in, if her past doesn't come back to haunt her. But maybe, fitting in isn't always the goal.
Building 903
by Lois Lowry
I just love this one so much! That pop of green in a sea of greys and purples? Perfection. Also perfection, Lois Lowry speaking at ALA Annual Conference this summer and kicking it off by asking the audience how many of them already thought she was dead. That is a queen. One who is still alive and writing books that are designed to challenge us and make us think, and that's what we need in our kids' literature. In a future "utopia", there is no conflict, but also no choice. People are safe and live long lives but are led by tyrants. When Tessa's twin brother disappears, she must rely on her community to help save him and discover secrets behind the world they are living in.
Queen of Lombard Street
by Lisa Kleypas
I must be on a color pop streak, or there is a fun trend in book covers right now, but a woman in red surrounded by fabulous architecture really catches me off guard. I'm drawn to it. I want to know more. Lisa Kleypas is a go-to for Regency and Victorian romance, so you know that this will be worth cracking open. In this story, her heroine is an economist, not a common thing for Victorian women, who wants women to have their own financial freedom, and looks to found a woman's bank in order to help them secure this. However, the men surrounding her might hurt her chances of this more than help. While romance is a factor in this, it's not the central theme, making it a solid historical fiction from a traditional historical romance author.
As You Wake, Break the Shell
by Becky Chambers
BECKY CHAMBERS. That's it. That's the tweet. (Oh man, am I millennial coded or what?!?) Anyways... Becky Chambers is a gift, and this cover is perfect, and anyone who loves sci fi should have it printed and framed on their wall. Anyone who is in need of a good found family book can pick up any of hers, but don't pass up on this new story of two women who live on the planet of Fortune, trying to survive and thrive in a world that is determined to make that near impossible. You'll get the best of Chambers with this one.
Dive Bar at the End of the Road
by Kelley Armstrong
If this cover doesn't give you chills, you are stronger than I am. It's giving Bates Motel vibes for me. The neons. The rain. Shivers. When I think about people ending up at a dive bar after a car accident, I want more 27 Dresses vibes than what this book is giving, which is pure "don't-go-into-the-woods-stay-with-the-group" terror. Can everyone survive until sunrise, if it ever comes? Read on to find out (preferably with the lights on, unless you are braver than I am).
I'll Believe in Anything
by Jacob Tierney
This is where I not only pivot aggressively from the last book, but I also get a bit cheeky as to what is eye-catching about a cover. For me, of course I want beautiful and provocative and getting the people going, but sometimes it's just a book that makes you want to read it and be happy. This will take everyone who spent last winter watching and rewatching Heated Rivalry and hopefully help all of us cope until we get season 2. Also, consider this a shameless plug to also read all the books!
Mystery Play
by Elizabeth Kostova
This cover is Elizabeth Kostova telling me (and I guess anyone else who is looking at it), I remember that you loved The Historian and I'm giving you more of that (it acually reminds me a bunch of the cover for Dracula that had her forward). It's time for vampires. Those eyes. That foggy moor. Historians with their own mysteries, trying to solve all of them? I am SAT for this one. In this case, we're going to dig deep into not only Dracula, but also the mane who played him on stage and those who followed and loved him. This is perfect fall reading, sweeping and chilling.
Sunflower Season
by Danica Nava
Sunflowers are late summer flowers, but by November, when this comes out, they've all been replaced with mums and holly. So, getting to gaze upon some late summer glory will help warm us up as well as that mug of hot cider I hope we're all holding. And Danica Nava is always a go-to for creating an expansive world with characters you want to cheer for (when you're taking a break from cheering for football, hockey, basketball, and whatever other fall sports you might be watching). In this book, we meet June, who is burnt out from the tech world and decides to return home to rural Oklahoma to run a dying sunflower farm. Turning the place around is challenging enough without having to confront the boy, now man, she left behind, Noah. Everyone loves a charming second chance romance!
Abandoning a Cat
by Haruki Murakami
There is nothing a cat loves more than a box. Mine tells me this constantly. I'm also a sucker for an orange kitty (the sweetest, derpiest of all cats), so you can bet that I'm picking up this one. While not a story explicitly about cats (though cats are included!), this memoir of Murakami and his father is one that is perfect for long, reflective fall evenings. As the seasons change, we often think back on our past, and this is a look at a father's life and his son's place in it and all the ways things went wrong and were made right. This book reads like poetry.
The Telephone
by James Gleick
If you too love some good pop art, this cover is going to catch your eye. It's busy, colorful, has dramatic fonts. All the things you want. And microhistories are so hot right now! The phone is one of the inventions that changed the world the most in modern history, yet beyond Alexander Graham Bell, so many of us know little about the way that not only the phone evolved but also how it affected everything in our lives. This is going to be a buzzy (since our phone is on silent mode) book of the fall season!
Okay, if these books haven't caught your eye, we must remember that art is subjective and that book covers are art. There are so many amazing books that you can fill your Libby with this fall, and I know that you'll find one for you!
Published Oct 02, 2026
Meghan Volchko
Meghan Volchko is a writer for Libby Life and a Libby librarian. Her English degree set her up perfectly for grad school, where she received her MLIS and has been immersed in the world of books ever since. You can find her reading with her cat, traveling with her friends and family, or having kitchen dance parties with her daughter. HEAs are life.