Whether we're ready for it or not, summer is beginning to fade into fall — and with that often comes a change in literary choices and a flurry of new book releases for the season.

Author Jen Sookfong Lee and Hilary Atleo, owner of Iron Dog Books, are two Vancouver bibliophiles eagerly looking forward to picking up a new read this fall.

"Oftentime in the summer, I look for things that I can pick up and put down without too much trouble," Sookfong Lee told CBC's The Early Edition guest host Michelle Eliot.

"I think in the fall, I really want something that'll, you know, park my butt on the sofa for several hours at a time."

Sookfong Lee and Atleo shared some of their favourite works with CBC for the days ahead.

Sookfong Lee describes The Most Precious Substance on Earth as a novel about a woman who goes through several painful events as a teenager, and how that reverberates throughout the rest of her life. Though a heavy topic, Sookfong Lee says Bhat excels at exploring tragedy through a comedic lens.

Casey Plett's latest collection of short stories is described by publisher Arsenal Pulp Press as an "ethereal meditation on partnership, sex, addiction, romance, groundedness and love [that] buzz with quiet intensity and the intimate complexities of being human."

Sookfong Lee says she thinks Plett is "one of our best living Canadian authors."

Miriam Toews' ninth book is a tribute to faith, love, perseverance and unconventional families. It centres around nine-year-old Swiv, who lives in Toronto with her pregnant mother. The mother is raising Swiv while also caring for her own elderly, frail, yet extraordinarily lively mother. When Swiv is expelled from school, she is given a unique assignment by her grandmother: write a letter to her absent father about her life. Swiv then gives Grandma an assignment: to write a letter to her unborn grandchild.

"I will read anything Miriam Toews writes, even if it's just a grocery list," Sookfong Lee said.

A novel told in short vignettes about a young woman and her complicated feelings about her immediate and extended family. Ghost Forest has been described as poetic and haunting, layering detail and abstraction, and weaving memory and oral history to paint a moving portrait of a Chinese-Canadian "astronaut" family.

"Very important, as it gives a window into the experiences of families separated by immigration, particularly Chinese families," Atleo said.

Atleo describes Raccoon as an "absolutely lovely" non-fiction book from a local writer. Raccoons have evolved closely with humans and for many of us they are the wild mammal we see most often. This book is highly entertaining, heavily illustrated (though it is for adults) and gives new insight into the true character of these bandits.

Atleo's most anticipated book of the season is The Prairie Chicken Dance Tour, which is very loosely based on the true story of a group of misfit Indigenous dancers who left Saskatchewan and toured through Europe in the 1970s. Dumont employs her signature razor-sharp wit and impeccable comedic timing to this wildly entertaining novel.