Can you recommend a good book for Autumn

[AliasGrape]

Looking for suggestions please - I have been in a reading slump for soo long - just not interested in the 100s of books I have on my kindle/ physical pile.

But now I’ve got a real fancy to read something seasonal/ Autumn/ maybe Halloween ( but not scary) appropriate. Any ideas?

Something reflective of the season in some way, I don’t want to say ‘cosy’ because I don’t get on with most things that are billed as cosy - but comforting somehow.

I like Halloween in a pumpkins and cute kids bobbing for apples way, but I’m a total wimp so nothing spooky or horror please. Atmospheric but not too dark would be good.

Don’t like the ‘time of year at the’ XYZ bookshop/ bakery/ quaint town cafe type things.

Some books I have really loved to give an idea of taste (though not sure how helpful this is!) -

Circe - Madeleine Miller

Really good historical fiction of the Hilary Mantel type (but to be honest I’m not sure I have the attention for Mantel these days!)

Kate Atkinson - the Jackson Brodie series, Life After Life and Behind the Scenes at the Museum in particular

The Poisonwood Bible - Barbara Kingslover - long time since I read it but remember loving it back then

The Thursday Murder Club series - they’re ridiculous but for some reason they really worked for me - but I’ve not liked anything so far that’s been recommended as being ‘like’ them including the Marlow ones

The Night Circus - don’t remember author now, but including here as maybe being quite close to the sort of ‘Halloween appropriate but not scary’ vibe I was thinking of

Grateful for any suggestions!

Halloween Party by Agatha Christie-it's an enjoyable Poirot novel and features Ariadne Oliver, who was supposed to be based on Christie herself.

A Fortnight in September by R C Sheriff, published by Persephone. A book that quietly draws you in to the characters. It's about a London family in the 1930s who go for their regular holiday to Bognor Regis.

Man on a Donkey by HFM Prescott. This is the book which inspired Hilary Mantel. It is a tome-but it has been re-published in one volume. Set at the time of the Dissolution of the Monasteries, it is a combination of fictional and real characters and it is absolutely compelling.
Frank Cotterell Boyce called it one of the finest historical novels to be ever written.

Have you read any of Elizabeth Strout's novels? I've been reading/re-reading them this year. I've just finished The Burgess Boys and that references Autumn at the start, working its way through the seasons and back round again. I really enjoyed it. A good story including an interesting look at asylum seekers from Somalia settling into a small community in Maine and the issues they face.

Thanks @JaneEyreLaughing - I’ve got Halloween Party and usually reread this time of year so will do that again, The other two sound really interesting though thank you.

@DrivingThePlot - I have read some Elizabeth Strout yes, I really enjoyed Amy and Isabelle, I remember finding some of the others a bit dull to start with but very much getting drawn in by the end, not tried The Burgess Boys though so that’s a good shout thank you.

The new Jackson Brodie is out if you haven’t picked that up yet. Death at the sign of the rook.

Also Janice Hallett has a new one, The Examiner, in the same vein as the others such as The Appeal but they’re always clever and entertaining. I can’t put her books down!

Surely October is Little Women season?

I have it in audible @Tristar15, I’d used a credit to preorder because I couldn’t think of anything else I wanted that month. (I’m managing audiobooks better than proper reading at the moment!) I may get it for kindle though and that way I can do a mix.

@ElizabethVonArnim ooh that’s a good call!

She has a new one coming out next summer but it's a young adult one, it looks good but because it's wrote in the same style as her previous ones, I don't know if it will be too simple so making the plot easier to guess?