21 New Books Coming in October

Shred Sisters, by Betsy Lerner

A coming-of-age overcast with the inconstant cloud of mental illness, Lerner’s first novel follows Amy Shred, an aspiring biologist turned book editor in 1970s suburban Connecticut whose older sister, Ollie, is beautiful, effortlessly cool and deeply unstable. As Ollie weaves in and out of psychiatric hospitals, Amy — by turns exasperated, awed and destroyed by her sister — probes what exactly it means for love to be unconditional.

Grove, Oct. 1

The Third Realm, by Karl Ove Knausgaard

The third novel in a series that Knausgaard began with “The Morning Star” returns to the setting of that book, in which nine narrators see a strange new celestial body in the sky and reflect on whether it has anything to do with some recent dark events. “The Third Realm” offers new perspectives on these events, which include ghastly murders, while continuing the author’s examination of psychosis, religion and the supernatural.

Penguin Press, Oct. 1

Be Ready When the Luck Happens, by Ina Garten

Food Network star, prolific cookbook author, specialty foods-seller — Garten has taught much of America to cook with her accessible, sophisticated recipes and easy warmth. This memoir shows us the woman behind the Barefoot Contessa: as a child, a young army wife and an economist who worked in Washington before changing her life completely. As Ina would say, “How good is that?”

Crown, Oct. 1