Truly, there’s no bad time to crack open a new book, but, for me, there’s just something about reading in the fall. Days are growing shorter, temperatures are getting cooler, the passage of time is made manifest as leaves turn and then fall from their limbs. This time of year, I’m always reaching for something with big feelings and real stakes: something a little atmospheric, a little wistful, a little spooky, a little mysterious, a little sad.

If you’re also in the mood for an autumnal read, consider adding some of these NPL-curated books to your fall to-be-read list.

Originally published in Spain as La Sombra del Viento, The Shadow of the Wind opens in 1945 in Francoist Spain, as ten-year-old Daniel Sempere ​​Martín and his bookseller father visit the Cemetery of Forgotten Books, a secret library maintained by a network of guardians who protect banned and rare books. On a visitor’s first visit to the cemetery, they are invited to take one book from the library to safeguard and preserve, keeping its memory alive by reading and appreciating it. Daniel selects a novel called The Shadow of the Wind by Julian Carax and, as the years pass, is drawn into a bigger conspiracy when he becomes the target of a mysterious figure, Lain Coubert, who is burning all known copies of Carax’s works and may be involved in the disappearance of Carax himself. Whether you read this book in its original Spanish or its English translation, you’re in for a real treat. I read this book years ago and still think about it whenever I am in the mood for a book that gives me that lump-in-your-throat, ache-in-your-chest, can’t-stop-reading-to-go-to-sleep feeling.

The quintessential dark academia novel, The Secret History follows a group of eccentric, clever students at an elite liberal arts college under the thrall of a shadowy, magnetic professor. When one member of the clique dies under mysterious circumstances, some members of the group try to reckon with what they have become, while others find themselves pushing the boundaries of human morality further and further… 

When Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of the Surêté du Québec is called in to inspect a presumed accidental hunting death in the tiny village of Three Pines, he soon realizes there is something much more sinister afoot. The first book in the best-selling Armand Gamache series, read Still Life if you’re looking for a quiet, moody traditional mystery with a real sense of place and character.

A classic of Gothic fiction, Rebecca follows a young woman who returns to her new husband’s Cornish estate after a whirlwind marriage and learns that his first wife, Rebecca de Winter, died under peculiar circumstances months prior. A creeping sense of doom pervades the world of Manderley as the second Mrs. de Winter is compared to the beautiful and seemingly perfect Rebecca by neighbors and Manderley staff and as she discovers that there is more to Rebecca’s life (and death) than she originally believed. With millions of copies sold since its original 1938 publication, Rebecca is the perfect fall book for those looking for a ghostly, unsettling read.