The Night Circus

 The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern, 387 pages.

The circus arrives without warning. Le Cirque des Rêves (The Circus of Dreams in English) is a circus like no other. It opens at sundown and closes when the sun rises, and contained within it's countless black and white striped tents are inexplicable wonders. Which are at least a little more explicable if you know that the circus is also the playing field for a game between two young magicians who have been training for it since childhood, even if they don't entirely understand the rules of the game that their mentors committed them to so many years before. But even Marco's protective spells and Celia's best effort can't keep this magical place running forever, and after decades things are starting to break under the strain.

This is a beautiful book. It's deeply atmospheric, and something about the way Morgenstern writes always feels completely transportative to me. The romance in this book also really works for me. The circus itself becomes a love letter, and I find that this in many ways is the heart of the novel. I would absolutely recommend this sprawling, magical story as a great fall read.

Spy x Family vol. 5 and 6

 Spy x Family vol. 5 and 6 by Tatsuya Endo, 416 pages.

The stakes on these volumes zoom in a bit to the family struggles part of the series. In volume five we focus mostly on Anya desperately studying for her midterms because, due to a quirk of her telepathy, she loses her powers in the days surrounding the new moon (which is of course when the midterms fall). 

Volume six introduces us to Twilight's fellow spy, Nightfall. The two are assigned to work together on an important intelligence gathering mission at an underground tennis tournament, which is made more complicated by the fact that she's in love with him and look to steal the role of "wife" from Yor. Naturally this causes some tension.

Spy x Family vol. 3 and 4

 Spy x Family vol. 3 and 4 by Tatsuya Endo, 392 pages

Volume three of this extremely fun series seems to mark the end of the major set-up for the series, as we meet Yor's younger brother Yuri, who (unbeknownst to her and apparently only her) works for the secret police hunting for spies, and Twilight in particular (naturally). 

By volume four we start getting into some more serious spy craft, and higher stakes than have been in the series so far, as Loid as to try and stop an assassination attempt on a visiting foreign minister and Anya gets caught up in a terrorist plot. Also, the Forger family gets a dog! I'm definitely sold on this series, and excited to see where they go with it.