Ian Rankin, Louise Kennedy and readers recommend their October reads
Writers Ian Rankin and Louise Kennedy, alongside Guardian readers, share books they enjoyed reading in October. Their choices range from crime fiction and biography to long, unsettling literary novels, contemporary fiction and translated classics, offering readers a varied set of recommendations.
The selections include Frances Crawford’s prize-winning Glasgow crime debut *A Bad, Bad Place* and James Bailey’s biography of Muriel Spark, as well as China Miéville’s more than 1,200-page *The Rouse*. Readers also praise Emma Cline’s *Switzy*, Kiran Millwood Hargrave’s *Almost Life* and Halldór Laxness’s *Independent People*, a novel about an Icelandic farming family translated by JA Thompson in collaboration with Laxness.
In short
- Writers and readers share their favourite October reads.
- Picks span crime, biography, contemporary fiction and classics.
- China Miéville’s *The Rouse* runs to more than 1,200 pages.
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Originally published by The Guardian as “What we’re reading: Ian Rankin, Louise Kennedy and Guardian readers on the books they enjoyed in October”.