19 Books to Pick Up This October

Wendell Pierce's uplifting memoir, The Wind in the Reeds (Riverhead), explores the transformative role theater played in healing New Orleans post-Katrina. After the devastating hurricane, Pierce felt compelled to act—in both senses of the word. He took a lead role in a free performance of Waiting for Godot in the Ninth Ward, and found that the play not only united people, but also served as a call to stand strong and rebuild. "Art doesn't give us life's answers," Pierce writes, "as much as it empowers us to live life's questions."