August 19, 2025, 1:11pm
For this reader, autumn means classics. Nothing gets me through the swiftly souring end of August quite like a vision of myself in this sweater, curled up by a fireplace with an epic that’s been languishing for years on my TBR stack.
Even if you’ve hit your doorstop quota for the year, know this fall brings a fine slate of unusual old suspects. From forgotten icons to made-over faves, here are six reissued novels to put on your fall radar.
Jennifer Dawson, The Ha-Ha
This compact classic is receiving the reissue treatment this November, thanks to some swell brains at Simon & Schuster. Originally published in 1961, the novel follows Josephine, a young woman on the edge of a nervous breakdown. Fans have sussed out a semi-autobiographical quality in this one, and compared the book to better-known bedfellows like The Bell Jar.
I’m excited by the promise of gut-punch sentences. And the fact that Melissa Broder, of Milk-Fed, freshens this edition in a new forward.
Carolivia Herron, Thereafter, Johnnie
McNally Editions will reissue this epic in September. Following the Snowdons, a well-heeled Black family in D.C., this novel explores the country’s founding sin through—what else?—a dark, traumatic family secret.
Praised on its 1991 release for “incantatory prose” and a wildly ambitious scope, the summary suggests incredible prescience. I’m also inclined to follow fans like Carlos Fuentes and Gloria Naylor just about anywhere.
Barbara Pym, The Sweet Dove Died
Barbara Pym’s social comedies are pure post-war delights. The English writer close read middle-class village life in her tightly constructed novels of manners, and reclaimed “spinsterhood” for glorious loners everywhere.
Her arguable masterpiece follows the vain Leonora Eyre over and around a fraught love quadrangle with a widowed antiques dealer, his nephew, and some other motley souls. The NYRB Classics crew has selected this book for its October club on the strength of what The Guardian once called “faultless” prose.
Anita Loos, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
Though Ms. Loos’ ode to the glittery life never quite left the limelight after its initial release in 1925, I’m excited for this reissue on the strength of a new foreword.
Marlowe Granados, the heir apparent to Loos’ life-loving joie-de-vivre—and the author of Happy Hour, one of my favorite literary treats—will reframe this classic for contemporary readers. An evergreen reminder to revisit the glitz.
Karolina Waclawiak, How to Get into the Twin Palms
I’m so here for the trend of reviving books ten or so years after their release. We can’t let the good ones sneak out the back door! This novel, which is returning this fall as part of Two Dollar Radio’s New Classic series, was critically feted on its 2012 release but could use more love.
Following Anya, a First Generation Polish American caught between cultures in her adopted Los Angeles, this one mines an immigrant’s experience with unexpected wit and pathos.
Todd Grimson, Stainless
A true fit for the season, this vampire novel for the Slacker set was first published in 1996. McNally Editions calls the forthcoming re-release “a noir fantasia, a symphony of bloody horror, and a woozy, erotic tour of night-side L.A.” The late, beloved Grimson should be much better known, so I’m especially keen to sink my teeth into this one. His fans included Katherine Dunn, James Ellroy, and Lynne Tillman.
Happy (re-) reading!
