October is an embarrassment of riches when it comes to books, so picking just 10 has been a tough task.

The month contains one of my favourite books of the year, Colson Whitehead's wonderful The Underground Railroad, following Cora as she escapes her life of slavery on a plantation for her dream of being free. People pursuing dreams of a different or better life are also central to Julia Leigh's Avalanche, about her quest to have a child using IVF, and Anuk Arudpragasam's The Story of a Brief Marriage, about a young couple during the Sri Lankan civil war.

As the winter nights draw closer, there are few things better than snuggling up with a mystery. For that, you have Graham Norton's debut novel Holding and Anthony Horowitz's Magpie Murders.

There's also some SFF in Naomi Alderman's The Power and Robert Dickinson's The Tourist, drama of the royal sort in Daisy Goodwin's Victoria and the Shakespearean sort in Margaret Atwood's Hag-Seed, and something for beauty addicts with Sali Hughes' Pretty Iconic.

Click through to see Stylist's pick of the best books for October 2016...

Dream-quests, mysteries, and magic: the most addictive new reads of October