Well, it’s November, and the days are growing shorter and shorter. (Assuming you’re in the northern hemisphere, at least.) We’d say that this group of books are an array of doorstoppers, suitable for curling up by the fire, but that’s not entirely true; most of these books are quite trim, in fact. They do represent a wide array of styles, however: from comic novels to incisive cultural studies; from surreal fiction in translation to candid usage of the essay form. Here are a few of the November books we’re most excited about.