Given the sizeable number of new releases that arrive in store each month, it’s easy to miss some hidden gems. We’ve compiled a short list of books you might have missed this September.

Shark by Will Self

Will Self’s follow-up to Umbrella (which was shortlisted for the Man Booker in 2012) is described by the Guardian as ‘a remorselessly daring tale of unorthodox psychiatry and apex predators’. In this book, Self turns upon an actual incident in WWII, when the ship which had delivered the fissile material to the south Pacific to be dropped on Hiroshima was subsequently sunk by a Japanese submarine with the loss of 900 men, including 200 killed in the largest shark attack ever recorded.

The Girls from Corona Del Mar by Rufi Thorpe

The Australian publication for this wonderful debut was pushed back a few months and we’re so excited it’s finally arrived! Our reviewer, Nina Kenwood, loved it and writes: ‘A raw, gritty and at times uncomfortable read … At its heart, it is a deeply satisfying, engrossing character study of two women who are never quite sure how well they really know one another.’ You can read the full review here.

Internal Medicine: A Doctor’s Stories by Terrence Holt

Internal Medicine is based on Terrence Holt’s experiences as a physician, and offer an insider’s access to the long night of the hospital, where the intricacies of medical technology confront the mysteries of the human spirit. This collection of vivid, intensely felt essays have won many fans including author Junot Díaz who says, ‘[Terrence Holt] is Melville + Poe + Borges but with a heart far more capacious.’

Happiness by Design: Finding Pleasure and Purpose in Everyday Life by Paul Dolan

Happiness by Design is one of those smart, accessible book that could change your life. In an online interview, author Paul Dolan said, ‘The social media person at Penguin read the book and quit.’ A Professor of Behavioural Science at the London School of Economics, Dolan here presents a new outlook on the pursuit of happiness that draws from his original research.

Lucky Us by Amy Bloom

In this vivid, inventive new novel from American author Amy Bloom, two half-sisters journey across 1940s America, from scandal in Hollywood to the jazz clubs and golden mansions of Long Island. One reviewer writes, ‘It is a testament to Bloom’s penetrating and profoundly empathetic vision that even as her characters apply makeup and assume masks, they retain integrity, authenticity, a bedrock sense of identity that only makes their prevarications and pretensions, role-playing and masquerading more astonishing, admirable, poignant’. (Read the full review here.)

How We Learn: The Surprising Truth About When, Where and Why it Happens by Benedict Carey

One review of this book called it a ‘gift to guilt-ridden slackers everywhere’ (read the full review here). Benedict Carey, an award-winning science journalist, shakes up everything we thought we knew about how the brain absorbs and retains information and How We Learn is filled with powerful – and often thrillingly counter-intuitive – wisdom, stories and practical tips.