Recommending Books For Autumn! 🍁 (& Baking Pumpkin Buns) 🎃 | The Book Castle | 2023

[@Winterknits]

My recipe for Pumpkin Spice: 1/4 cup ground ginger 1/4 cup ground cinnamon 3 tablespoons ground cardamom 1 tablespoon ground cloves I make a batch every year and put it in everything starting in the autumn 😊

[@TheBookCastle]

Aaah, didn't even cross my mind I could make it! Thank you so much! :D

[@electraandbooks5925]

@@TheBookCastle Yes ! I was about to give it to you, it's sold in France (to make gingerbread)

[@sarahlopinot906]

I really enjoy your baking and book recommendation videos. Would love if this would be a seasonal series because these are so fun to watch.

[@starlasell5698]

❤️📚❤️...Anne of Green Gables is such a great found family story. Janet Fluke writes cute cozy, baking, small town mysteries.

[@RadioGirLF]

Omg, I love your shirt! Pawnee ❤

[@CharlotteWW13]

@TheBookCastle where did you get it??? 🤩

[@LauraRodriguez-Peace]

Loved this video. 📚 Thank you for sharing, Alice! 🎃🍂🍁🌾😊

[@FebruaryJulia]

Cozy autumnal small-town mystery: you just have to try the Shady Hollow series. Just looking at their cover will make you warm and fuzzy. Shady Hollow is a small town inhibited and run by animals, no people. There's a vixen who is a local newspaper reporter, her best friend raven who is a bookstore owner, there's a moose named Joe who runs a coffee shop, etc, etc. For such a premise the murder mystery plot of each book is surprisingly decent, but the way it makes you feel is even better. And it's very small-town: everybody knows everybody and the back story of everybody and their family, there's gossip, but there's also community and support, it just melts in your mouth as you read it.

[@TheBookCastle]

Adding that to my TBR immidiately!! Thank you

[@FebruaryJulia]

@@emily_robinson me too!

[@lindaklinedinst9236]

Hi Alice You did a Fantastic Job on your Sweet Pumpkin Buns - oh they look so very delicious. Lots of great book recommendations. Take Care & Happy Reading - Baking ❤️🤗🍂🍁☕️🔰❤️

[@stefanienordstrom6750]

I love the baking + recommendations! Please do a gothic video - I'll watch it! Some cozy mystery series I love are Flavia du Luce by Alan Bradley in English countryside and the Magical Cats Mystery by Sofie Kelly in small town Minnesota - both highlight seasonal stuff and have some set in fall. I love Rosamunde Pilcher's books for cozy stories about families, Shell Seekers is a favorite and I am reading September right now which starts in summer and goes into fall in the Scottish countryside. Trying to remember, I think Heather Webber's Midnight at the Blackbird Cafe also starts in summer and goes into fall in small town Alabama - family and magical elements similar to Sarah Addison Allen vibes (who I also recommend for cozy small town magical stories Garden Spells is a favorite). Amy Poppel's Musical Chairs and The Sweet Spot are (IMHO) cozy/humorous family stories - set in NYC metro.

[@casual-books]

A book that specifically takes place in fall (October) is "Something Wicked This Way Comes" from Ray Bradbury .

[@martineolsenlysvand7400]

Great video and recommendations! I would recommend “Embers” by Sándor Márai. Super atmospheric book about an old general living in a secluded castle in the Hungarian forest. It’s about male friendship and secrets from the past. A modern classic perfect for fall.

[@elizabethb.3932]

Hello- you can make pumpkin spice (and it does not include pumpkin, it’s the spices that are in classic American pumpkin pie), the ratios vary but I use 1 tbsp cinnamon; 1 tsp ginger; 1/2 tsp nutmeg; 1/2 tsp clove. Some people put allspice in as well but the classic is those first 4 ingredients, although there’s a pretty wide range of ratios.

[@kashishbhatia6655]

These kind of videos are some of my fav videos to watch

[@TheBookCastle]

[@PaperBec]

For a gothic, eerie, autumnal read I always recommend my favorite book, which is The Thirteenth Tale ❤ it has ghostly vibes, a creepy old estate and Jane eyre refrences. Perfect for fall😊 and the buns look so amazing!!

[@TheBookCastle]

I've been meaning to read that for years! :D

[@PaperBec]

I'm already planning to re-read it in October or November - the darker months are just perfect for the story😊😊

[@FebruaryJulia]

Cozy family story - I've got one! I think it's natural to gravitate towards children's books because in "grown-up" books most stories are about a specific dysfunction of this or that family, and what kind of trauma this breed of dysfunction installs in the family members, but there's a nine-book series about Moomins by Tove Jansson, a golden classic from Finland and a most wholesome read. I loved them as a child, and currently seasonally reread Moominsummer Madness and Moominland Midwinter, and it was great. Moomins family is precious.

[@janet5123]

Sleep no more is now on my TBR. Would recommend T Kingfisher’s books Nettle and Bone, and What Moves The Dead. Both dark and somewhat gothic yet I literally laughed out loud a few times while reading each one.

[@laurenrodriguez918]

To piggyback onto And Then There Were None I wanted to recommend Daisy Darker by Alice Feeney. Wish I’d read that over Halloween. Definitely recommend it!

[@lsu1222]

Love this list so much ❤❤

[@caleba9648]

We make homemade pumpkin spice seasoning at my house, it’s a blend of cinnamon, allspice, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves :)

[@krissyn.3366]

I was just going to say the same thing! I like it better than the pumpkin pie spice that is pre-made.

[@TheBookCastle]

I gotta try making it! :D

[@vmpapillon8984]

Small town: the romance series Virgin Rivers by Robyn Carr. I would suggest starting with the first one, which has multiple seasons in it, I believe. The second one starts in Fall. But these are full on romance books (not a side story) so not for everyone. There is also a netflix series based on it.

[@mandeeleis]

You have the best recs! I don't think I have heard anyone talk about Ubik before and it was one of my favorites. Now that it's on my mind I need to reread it.

[@MsSweetpoint]

I'm gonna need 'A little bit delicate' on a sweashirt or something😂🧡

[@TheBookCastle]

That's not a bad idea :D I think a lot of us could use one haha!

[@veesreadsrambles9271]

Love this recommendation video. Some of these are already favorites of mine and some I need to read soon. I have a recommendation for a book set in small town in autumn (at least part of it is in autumn). It's a very cozy contemporary romance: The City Baker's Guide to Country Living by Louise Miller. It's about a woman who moves to a small town from the big city after she sets her life on fire (literally!). She ends up being hired as a baker for the local inn. I really enjoyed it.

[@nastya6509]

Thank you for the recommendations, there were new ones for me for sure I want to look into. Cozy family story: new Ann Patchett - Tom Lake. Though it is set in the end of summer 2020, it doesn’t have an Apocalypse vibe at all (some pandemic novels do, and there is nothing wrong with it, of course). It is about a family with 3 daughters, who gathered at their orchard (!) for lockdown, picking cherries, with mom telling grown up daughters a story how she was an actress in her youth and dated a future film star for a summer. It has late summer/early fall vibes, nostalgia, really warm feel to it. Cozy but not mystery, I guess might be: 1) TJ Klune’s The House in the Cerulean Sea (well, to me it is cozy, because it is about a found family) 2) The Wishing Game (there are a couple of puzzles, but it is not a mystery, really. As well it is not a fantasy, no magic) Non-fiction about nature: The Invention of Nature, (about Alexander von Humboldt) Andrea Wulf. It is not about autumn, but it so full of info and gives a good explanation of how the Western world approached nature, and what was the role of A.Humboldt in it. Original and mildly creepy: 1) Walking Practice, Dolki Min. Alien coming to earth, eating humans to survive, and having issues with walking because of Earth’s gravity. 2) We Spread, Ian Reed. Woman in her 70s gets to a nursing facility, and smth strange is happening, she can’t quite explain to herself. [It is really interesting to dig into own read list and look for the answers 😅]

[@starlasell5698]

Oh my, so impressed with your baking skills! The sweet "pumpkin" buns look amazing!

[@TheBookCastle]

Thank yooou! :D

[@mathequation8544]

The Overstory is another great book about trees. I loved Crazy For Birds. Also: the secret history & and then there were none FOREVER ❤

[@electraandbooks5925]

Loved the book recommandations ! as for me, I will try to read two books for Victober (classics). I'm smiling because since yesterday France is under another heatwave, 34 degrees where I live so seeing you wearing a shirt and a sweatshirt is weird ! It's going to last the entire week so wish us luck ! (not a big fan of hot temp)

[@opheliawinfrey9501]

Thanks! SO EXCITED FOR THIS VIDEO!! Hello, favourite season! 🍁

[@anastasiariley2414]

Hi Alice, thank you for your recomendations. I have "Ninth house" and "The secret history" on my shelf, waiting for October/November 📚 And yesterday I thought I want to read a mistery by Oscar de Muriel, and here you came with the recomendations of "The strings of Murder" 🖤

[@jesskathan]

LOVE the sweatshirt :) Thanks for all the recs! Have you read Shirley Jackson? I feel like you would love I Have Always Lived in the Castle.

[@TheBookCastle]

I have read some of her books! :D Really enjoyed the ones I read

[@jackiesliterarycorner]

I have read a lot of these, and I want to recommend The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova. A historian discovers that her father might have proof that Dracula is real and still a alive.

[@jolafaith]

Loved this video! The buns are adorable. For an Autumnal, small town, cozy book I’d recommend The Storied Life of AJ Fikryby Gabrielle Zevin. I think The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield is a great cozy, autumnal countryside book. It is a bit eerie and has some uncomfortable moments too - but it’s a great one to settle in to, and great for autumn. I read it years ago and would like to reread it, myself, this fall.

[@Ottolineification]

i watched this video several days ago, and read "Strings of Murder" thanks to your recommendations. Thank you!, that book was exactly what i wanted, the atmosphere is very autumn-y

[@TheBookCastle]

Yay, glad you liked it! :D

[@nmartin5096]

Thank you for listing the books mentioned in the Description tab! I truly appreciate it! Happy Reading!📚🍁🍂🍁

[@TheBookCastle]

:D

[@kimberlynewsom9876]

Wow! So many good recommendations on here -my wish list just grew a ton! Thank you! Years ago I read a book called When Autumn Leaves by Amy Foster and while I can't remember many details, I remember really enjoying it. I'll have to re-read it this year. In looking at the goodreads plot summary it's about a small town witch who has to find her replacement as she's been promoted to a higher coven. Oh and like you I can't watch scary movies either, but I can read scary books!! The buns look adorable. Thank you for another awesome video.

[@arlissbunny]

Small town Fall recommendation: Wicked Autumn by G. M. Malliet. It’s a small town, cozy mystery, first in the Max Tudor series. Malliet always writes engaging characters and enjoyable mysteries but what sets her apart is her dry sense of humor used just here and there to add that extra sparkle.

[@CharlotteWW13]

My favorite cosy family story is Little Women. The book as well as the movies focus so much on the relationship between the mother and her daughters as wel as the bond between the sisters 🥰

[@AnnaRak423]

Hey Alice, I read Miss Beeton's Beetle based on your recommendation and I think it and Lessons In Chemistry are going to be 2 of my favourite reads for 2023. Thank you so much! It was such an adventure. For a cozy mystery, I will be reading A Batter of Life and Death which is set in a small town in Oregon during autumn and there is baking involved! I also have Weyward and The Last Heir to the Blackwood Library down for September reads. Your little pumpkin buns look amazing! Thanks for another great video!

[@TheBookCastle]

Aaah I'm so happy to hear you read it and loved it! :D

[@krissyn.3366]

The first thing that comes to my mind for a cozy, small town mystery is the Flavia de Luce series by Alan Bradley. One of my all time favorite series!

[@TheBookCastle]

Yesss, I need to read that! :D

[@amena7387]

Hello Alice, I love this format of discussions. Your cooking skills are amazing !

[@ameerahalgohary]

I love your baking and recommendations videos 😍

[@indigo149]

Watching this video was wild. You said the first book that popped in my head for almost every prompt haha. But you also recommended some new things that I've never read so it was perfect! We have very similar taste!

[@TheBookCastle]

Love it! :D

[@mimishimaineko1173]

🎃Fall makes me feel like a kid again, so I like to read some middle grade too! How about "Ravenfall"?🧡

[@irhonda31]

This was a lovely video!

[@TheBookCastle]

:D

[@caleba9648]

Have you read Slewfoot by Brom? It has AMAZING fall vibes. It’s technically horror but it reads like a historical fantasy thriller in some ways. It’s a wonderful witchy book too if people want more of those

[@TheBookCastle]

I absolutely want to read that one, it looks amaaaaazing! :D

[@caleba9648]

@@TheBookCastle I can’t wait to hear your thoughts when you do, it’s the perfect autumn read to get you into spooky season :)

[@karakask5488]

Pumpkin spice is just the spices you would put into a pumpkin pie. There's no actual pumpkin. You could probably replicate it pretty easily if you wanted to. You'd need cinnamon. nutmeg, allspice, ginger, and cloves. And probably sugar if you're putting it in a recipe that needs it.

[@polinastoyanova266]

🧡☕🥐🍪📚🍂🦋

[@gracie9658]

I made pumpkin buns last halloween and they were absolutely divine.