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FALL in Love with These Reads: Book Picks from the Clarus Team

November 20, 2025

As temperatures drop and the leaves change, it just feels right to curl up with a good book. So we pulled together a few of our team’s recent reads. These are the ones that we couldn’t put down, made us laugh (or cry) or kept us up way past our bedtime.

Whether you’re looking for your next page-turner or just something cozy to pair with your favorite warm drink, here’s what we’re into this fall.

Lynn
Book Title: My Friends
Author: Fredrik Backman
Genre/Category: Fiction

Why I loved it: I couldn’t stop thinking about this one after I finished it. It follows a group of friends whose lives keep crossing and shifting over the years through love, loss, art, and all the everyday moments in between. What I love the most is that it shows how people quietly show up for each other over time. It’s such a beautiful look at what real friendship feels like and how the people we love shape who we become.

Best for: Anyone who loves stories about deep, lasting friendships. Perfect for a quiet weekend when you want something meaningful, comforting, and beautifully written.

Kristie
Book Title: The Buried Giant
Author: Kazuo Ishiguro
Genre/Category: Literary fiction / mythic allegory

Why I loved it: I loved this novel because it was quiet and strange, with an unusual narration that demanded my full attention.  It follows an elderly couple traveling through a mythical land where a mist causes collective forgetting. Everyone is caught in its haze as memories, both personal and historical, drift in and out, leaving them questioning connections that have defined their lives.   

Best for: Readers who enjoy slow, quirky storytelling and are willing to let a book unfold at its own pace. It’s an immersive read exploring memory, aging, forgiveness, reconciliation, and ultimately, the ties hold us together. This one sets-up shop in your head and lingers long after you finish it. 

Taylor
Book Title: The Correspondent
Author: Virginia Evans
Genre/Category: Fiction

Why I loved it: I was gifted this book from a dear friend for my birthday. It’s an epistolary novel and tells the story of Sybil van Antwerp through her correspondence with friends, family, and strangers over many years. I found myself both laughing out loud and catching my breath in grief and hope as the story of her life and relationships unfolded. Sybil writes once, “You get the one life. It’s awfully unfair, isn’t it?” It is, Sybil! And I loved being along for the journey as she found spring in the winter of her life.

Best for: Anyone who has loved a feisty, funny grandma, delights in receiving snail mail, or knows they can learn from the hard-won wisdom of age.

Rachel
Book Title: Ali and Nino
Author: Kurban Said
Genre/Category: Historical Fiction / Romance / Philosophy

Why I loved it: Ali and Nino (1937) captivated me with its story of connection that crosses cultural and religious divides in early 20th-century Azerbaijan. The mysterious authorship (explored in Tom Reiss’s The Orientalist) adds another layer, as the book’s history mirrors its own themes of identity, belonging, and the forces that shape individual lives.

Best for: Readers drawn to epic stories that explore identity and belonging across cultures, and where history and personal fate collide

Sandrea
Book Title: Mrs. Wiggins
Author: Mary Monroe
Genre/Category: Fiction

Why I loved it: It’s about a woman in 1930s Alabama who marries into the most respected family in town to escape her rough upbringing, but she and her husband both have secrets they’re desperately trying to keep hidden. The way it captures small-town Southern life during the Depression era makes me feel like I’m right there with them, and there’s this perfect mix of humor and drama that keeps me guessing what’s going to happen next.

Best for: Anyone looking for an entertaining escape with plenty of humor and scandal. Perfect if you want a book that pulls you into another time and keeps you hooked.

What are you reading this fall? We’d love to hear your recommendations! We’re always looking to add to our reading list.

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