Ep. 205: Fall 2025 Book Preview with Catherine GIlmore (@GilmoreGuide)
Sarah's Bookshelves Live
Sarah Dickinson
4.7 • 785 Ratings
🗓️ 3 September 2025
⏱️ 52 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Welcome to the Fall 2025 Book Preview with Catherine of Gilmore Guide to Books!
Today, Catherine and Sarah share 14 of their most anticipated books releasing from mid-August through December.
This post contains affiliate links through which I make a small commission when you make a purchase (at no cost to you!).
CLICK HERE for the full episode Show Notes on the blog.
Announcement
- One of the many benefits to supporting the podcast through either our Patreon Community or our Substack Community (both for just $7/mo) is that you get access to several bonus podcast episode series, including Book Preview Extras! In these episodes, Catherine and I share at least 4 bonus books we are excited about that we did not share in the big show preview episode. Get more details about all the goodies available and sign up here for Patreon and here for Substack!
Highlights
- A lightning round of some big releases coming this fall that we're not featuring in today's preview.
- Odd fall pickings meant they both chose to feature 7 books each.
- Catherine's choices are a grab bag mix: academia, mysteries, a love story, and a snarky lighter read.
- Of Sarah's seven books, there are 3 debut authors and 1 repeat author — and 2 sports books!
- Some of Sarah's picks slide her right from sad girl summer into sad girl fall.
- Sarah has already read and rated one of her picks — and it was a success!
- Plus, their #1 picks for fall.
Big Fall Releases
- Wreck by Catherine Newman (October 28) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [1:15]
- King Sorrow by Joe Hill (October 21) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [1:22]
- Son of the Morning by Akwaeke Emezi (November 4) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [1:25]
- What We Can Know by Ian McEwan (September 23) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [1:29]
- Palaver by Bryan Washington (November 4) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [1:32]
- Replaceable You by Mary Roach (September 16) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [1:35]
- Circle of Days by Ken Follett (September 23) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [1:51]
- People Like Us by Jason Mott (August 5) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [2:14]
- The Black Wolf by Louise Penny (October 28) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [2:33]
- All the Way to the River by Elizabeth Gilbert (September 9) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [2:38]
- Queen Esther by John Irving (November 4) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [2:46]
- Hot Wax by M. L. Rio (September 9) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [3:02]
- Cursed Daughters by Oyinkan Braithwaite (November 4) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [3:51]
- Among the Burning Flowers by Samantha Shannon (September 16) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [3:55]
Other Books Mentioned
- Sandwich by Catherine Newman (2024) [1:18]
- The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett (1989) [2:06]
- Hell of a Book by Jason Mott (2021) [2:20]
- If We Were Villains by M. L. Rio (2017) [3:06]
- The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon (2019) [4:04]
Fall 2025 Book Preview [7:26]
August
Sarah's Picks
- Dominion
by Addie E. Citchens (August 19) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [8:09]
- We Loved to Run by Stephanie Reents (August 26) | Amazon
| Bookshop.org[14:09]
Catherine's Pick
- Katabasis by R. F. Kuang (August 26) | Amazon
Other Books Mentioned
- God Spare the Girls by Kelsey McKinney (2021) [9:49]
- Search by Michelle Huneven (2022) [9:58]
- The Secret Lives of Church Ladies by Deesha Philyaw (2020) [10:08]
- Olga Dies Dreaming by Xóchitl González (2022) [10:12]
- Inferno by Dante (c. 1321) [11:36]
- Babel by R. F. Kuang (2022) [13:30]
- Yellowface by R. F. Kuang (2023) [13:32]
- Headshot by Rita Bullwinkel (2024) [14:57]
- The Rachel Incident by Caroline O'Donoghue (2023) [14:59]
- Unlikely Animals by Annie Hartnett (2022) [15:53]
- The Mothers by Brit Bennett (2016) [15:54]
- Good For a Girl by Lauren Fleshman (2023) [16:20]
- The Longest Race by Kara Goucher (2023) [16:22]
September
Sarah's Picks
- Buckeye by Patrick Ryan (September 2) | Amazon
- Hot Desk by Laura Dickerman (September 2) | Amazon
- The Wilderness by Angela Flournoy (September 16) | Amazon
- Underspin by E. Y. Zhao (September 23) | Amazon
Catherine's Picks
- The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai (September 23) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [17:08]
- Guilty by Definition by Susie Dent (US release: September 30) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [22:07]
Other Books Mentioned
- Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin (2022) [18:15]
- Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano (2023) [20:05]
- Slanting Towards the Sea by Lidija Hilje (2025) [20:38]
- The Flatshare by Beth O'Leary (2019) [24:46]
- Younger by Pamela Redmond Satran (2005) [26:10] (The book upon which the television series is based.)
- Writers & Lovers by Lily King (2020) [26:12]
- The Turner House by Angela Flournoy (2015) [29:49]
- Headshot by Rita Bullwinkel (2024) [38:49]
October
Catherine's Picks
- Workhorse by Caroline Palmer (October 14) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [27:25]
- The Wayfinder by Adam Johnson (October 14) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [33:14]
November
Sarah's Pick
- Lightbreakers by Aja Gabel (November 4) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [43:31]
Catherine's Pick
- Best Offer Wins by Marisa Kashino (November 25) | Amazon | Bookshop.org[40:02]
Other Books Mentioned
- The Ensemble by Aja Gabel (2018) [43:57]
December
Catherine's Pick
- The Day I Lost You by Ruth Mancini (US release: December 2) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [47:19]
Other Books Mentioned
- The Woman on the Ledge by Ruth Mancini (2024) [47:22]
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Welcome to Sarah's Bookshelves Live. I'm your host, Sarah Dickinson. Join me every other week as we get real and sometimes a bit snarky about books and reading. Let's get rolling. Welcome to the 2025 fall book preview. |
| 0:24.5 | As usual for these quarterly preview episodes, Catherine is joining me. Hi, Catherine. Hello. |
| 0:30.7 | Today we are highlighting the books we are excited about that are coming out from mid-August through |
| 0:36.6 | December. This is our longest period |
| 0:40.2 | of any of the preview episodes that we cover. And that's because there's kind of a dead period |
| 0:46.8 | at the end of the year where not a lot's coming out. So there's more months in this preview |
| 0:52.0 | episode than in any other season we do. |
| 0:57.3 | As usual, before we get to our own preview picks, we're going to quickly let y'all know about some big time releases coming this fall |
| 1:01.2 | that we are not going to talk about on today's show. |
| 1:04.2 | But we do know these are books lots of people will be excited about. |
| 1:08.5 | So I've got a little list. |
| 1:10.2 | Catherine, you've got a little list. So we'll just |
| 1:12.5 | run through these kind of a lightning round style. So Rec by Catherine Newman is coming out. That is a |
| 1:18.7 | follow-up to Sandwich, which a lot of people loved last year. King Sorrow by Joe Hill, |
| 1:25.5 | Son of the Morning by Equique A Mezzi, What We Can Know by Ian McEwen, Paliver by Brian Washington, |
| 1:35.1 | Replacable You by Mary Roach, who writes nonfiction in a really funny style about kind of random topics, |
| 1:43.3 | and I'm not sure what this one's about. |
| 1:45.0 | I know. I was curious. I should have looked that up, shouldn't I have? We had enough going on. |
| 1:50.4 | We did. Circle of Days by Ken Follett, which is a 700-page novel about the building of Stonehenge. |
| 1:57.5 | I am so going to read that book. Are you really? |
| 2:00.2 | Oh, God, yes. Well, |
| 2:02.0 | I guess we all did read the book about the building of the cathedral. Right, right. The pillars of the |
... |
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