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October books do not shy away from reality. If you are wondering about Taylor Swift\u2019s meteoric rise to fame, for example, a Harvard professor has written an entire book explaining it. Or if you are curious about why social media platforms keep noticeably worsening, a tech critic has the answers. There\u2019s also a new novel about the unique pressures on Black artists. It\u2019s finally soup season, so curl up with a tasty bowl and a good book.<\/p>\n
\u2018Dear New York\u2019<\/p>\n Humans of New York, a photography project that has amassed more than 12 million followers on Instagram, was begun by Brandon Stanton in 2010. The social media page offers a consistent stream of portraits and interviews with citizens of New York City (though the IG recently pivoted to photos of and dialogues with Gazans).<\/p>\n The Week<\/p>\n Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \nSUBSCRIBE & SAVE\n<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Sign up for The Week’s Free Newsletters<\/p>\n From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.<\/p>\n From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.<\/p>\n Stanton\u2019s new book is a love letter to all five New York boroughs, as told across five hundred pages of color photos. Alongside the book release, Grand Central Terminal is doing a massive art installation<\/a> that projects Stanton’s photos and interview quotes on the station walls and on digital screens. (out now, $37, Amazon<\/a>; St. Martin’s Press<\/a>)<\/p>\n \u2018Shadow Ticket\u2019<\/p>\n Pynchon\u2019s ninth novel is also his first in a dozen years, a \u201csupercharged noir\u201d set in prohibition-era Wisconsin that heralds a return to form with \u201cgenre parodies,\u201d \u201cornate zingers,\u201d \u201clollygagging but frequently hilarious descriptions\u201d and a \u201cChandleresque, Depression-era yarn involving a missing heiress and a disaster-prone private eye,\u201d said The New York Times<\/a>. At the ripe age of 88, the famed author of \u201cGravity\u2019s Rainbow\u201d and \u201cInherent Vice\u201d has apparently still got plenty of tricks up his sleeve. (out now, $24, Amazon<\/a>; Penguin Press<\/a>)<\/p>\n \u2018Taylor\u2019s Version: The Poetic and Musical Genius of Taylor Swift\u2019 <\/p>\n Harvard English professor Stephanie Burt made headlines in 2023 \u2014 some incredulous, some complimentary \u2014 when she taught an undergraduate course examining Taylor Swift\u2019s lyricism alongside poetry by Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Wordsworth. Now, non\u2013Ivy League students can appreciate Burt\u2019s exhaustive insights into the pop star\u2019s career in the scholar\u2019s new book, \u201cTaylor\u2019s Version.\u201d<\/p>\n Using Swift\u2019s first eleven albums (this was written before \u201cThe Life of a Showgirl\u201d) and the record-breaking<\/a> Eras Tour, Burt analyzes Swift\u2019s ascent to the top of pop culture amid her chronic \u201cambition,\u201d \u201cwish to be loved\u201d and \u201cperilous, and occasionally ridiculous, desire to please everyone,\u201d Burt said to the Times<\/a> (out now, $30, Amazon<\/a>; Basic Books<\/a>) <\/p>\n \u2018Enshittification\u2019 <\/p>\n Technology critic and novelist Cory Doctorow coined this book\u2019s titular phrase to \u201cdescribe how all the digital services that increasingly dominated our daily lives seemed to be getting worse at the same time,\u201d said Kyle Chayka at The New Yorker<\/a>. Despite the clear deterioration of digital platforms \u2014 the corporations that own them seek only to make more money, not to maintain a user-friendly experience \u2014 and the advent of unhealthy practices like \u201cdoomscrolling,\u201d most people can\u2019t quit their screens<\/a>.<\/p>\n Doctorow\u2019s book \u201cmoves the conversation beyond the overwhelming sense of our inevitably enshittified fate\u201d and \u201cshows us the specific decisions that led us here, who made them and \u2014 most important \u2014 how they can be undone,\u201d said the official book description<\/a>. (Oct. 14, $30, Amazon<\/a>; MCD<\/a>)<\/p>\n \u2018Minor Black Figures\u2019<\/p>\n Booker Prize finalist Brandon Taylor, author of 2020\u2019s \u201cReal Life,\u201d is back with a new story set in the New York City art world and one centered around Wyeth, a young painter who also happens to be both Black and gay. In \u201csearch of a new subject,\u201d Wyeth struggles to \u201csquare his sense of integrity with pressures on Black artists to represent their culture,\u201d said Publishers Weekly<\/a>. \u201cHe also frets over whether he can make a career as a painter.\u201d \u201cMinor Black Figures\u201d ultimately explores what it means to be Black<\/a>, gay and a professional creative in the modern world. (Oct. 14, $29, Amazon<\/a>; Riverhead Books<\/a>)<\/p>\n Explore More<\/p>\n