Beneath the Book Club, it's time to pick our first fall read.

By SARA VANDEN BERGE

I don’t know about you, but I am sick and tired of all things summer.

I’m over this heat and I’m ready to curl up with a fall-like book with a cup of hot tea.

These aren’t quite spooky enough for Halloween (that will come next month), but they will get us ready for the upcoming holiday season.

Keep scrolling and let me know which book you’re most interested in reading in September.

1. The September House by Carissa Orlando

3.9 on Goodreads

WHAT GOODREADS SAYS: “When Margaret and her husband Hal bought the large Victorian house on Hawthorn Street—for sale at a surprisingly reasonable price—they couldn’t believe they finally had a home of their own.

“Then they discovered the hauntings.

“Every September, the walls drip blood. The ghosts of former inhabitants appear, and all of them are terrified of something that lurks in the basement. Most people would flee.

“Margaret is not most people. 

“Margaret is staying. It’s her house. But after four years Hal can’t take it anymore, and he leaves abruptly.

“Now, he’s not returning calls, and their daughter Katherine - who knows nothing about the hauntings - arrives, intent on looking for her missing father.

“To make things worse, September has just begun, and with every attempt Margaret and Katherine make at finding Hal, the hauntings grow more harrowing, because there are some secrets the house needs to keep.”

2. Five by Ilona Bannister

4.1 on Goodreads

WHAT GOODREADS SAYS: “Have you ever tried to pass the time by imagining the lives of the strangers standing next to you?

“Ilona Bannister’s Five introduces readers to five seemingly random people waiting for a train. But these are not just any five people.

“From the beginning we know that one of them is going to die soon. Very soon.

“In five minutes the next train to London will arrive, killing one of them. But before this happens you will learn their stories.

“None of these people are saints.

“Readers might fall in love with the beautiful young man who is on the verge of gambling his life away.

"They may pity the cantankerous old woman who has fallen to the ground yet is refusing help. Perhaps readers will look away from the child throwing a tantrum. Or judge his mother, who must surely be to blame.

“And some will be curiously compelled by the successful and damaged businessman orbiting them all.

“These are the candidates for this morning’s misfortune. But they don’t know it.

"Only you know.

"And you, our complicit reader, will not be able to resist deciding who deserves to walk away, and who deserves only five more minutes to live.

“An incredibly original novel that breaks the fourth wall and asks the reader to be judge, jury and executioner, Five looks at some of the most complicated issues of contemporary life: motherhood, disability, addiction.

“Every stranger has a story. And in Ilona Bannister’s skillful hands, five people’s stories come together to create an unforgettable novel.”

3. Nightwatching by Tracy Sierra

3.8 on Goodreads

WHAT GOODREADS SAYS: “A footstep on the stairs. A second to react. What happens next will determine everything.

“Home alone with her young children during a blizzard, a mother tucks her son back into bed in the middle of the night.

"She hears a noise—old houses are always making some kind of noise.

“But this sound is disturbingly familiar: it’s the tread of footsteps, unusually heavy and slow, coming up the stairs.

“She sees the figure of a man appear down the hallway, shrouded in the shadows.

“Terrified, she quietly wakes her children and hustles them into the oldest part of the house, a tiny, secret room concealed behind a wall.

"There they hide as the man searches for them, trying to tempt the children out with promises and scare the mother into surrender.

“In the suffocating darkness, the mother struggles to remain calm, to plan.

“Should she search for a weapon or attempt escape? But then she catches another glimpse of him.

“That face. That voice.

“And at once she knows her situation is even more dire than she’d feared, because she knows exactly who he is - and what he wants.”

So, Beneath the Book Clubbers, which book will it be?

Vote for your choice on Facebook of on our Beneath the Book Club page.

We will host our online discussion on Monday, Sept. 28.