Welcome to October’s edition of the Month in Books series! This month, we’re diving into a diverse collection of books that not only captivate and inspire but also creatively spell out “October” with their titles. Whether you’re looking to cozy up with a mystery or explore a new world, these outstanding October reads are sure to enrich your TBR.
Out of the Ice: How Climate Change is Revealing the Past by Claire Eamer & Drew Shannon
As climate change is warming our planet, the ice in Earth’s cryosphere is melting — from glaciers to mountaintop patches to permafrost. An unexpected result of this melting has been the discovery of artifacts that were long preserved in the ice’s depths. Tools, clothing and, perhaps most remarkable, human bodies have been revealed at the edges the retreating ice. Examining these discoveries, along with traces of plants and animals also melting out of the ice, is the work of researchers in a brand-new scientific field called glacial archaeology. This one-of-a-kind introduction to the work of these researchers examines some of the fascinating artifacts that have been uncovered and the insights they provide into how our ancestors lived. It also describes the urgency of this work; as soon as these clues to the past become exposed to the elements, they begin to disintegrate.Award-winning author Claire Eamer keeps the interest level high with her intriguing stories, organized into thirteen chapters. The accessible text is complemented by loads of eye-catching visuals, such as photos of actual artifacts and mummified remains, along with Drew Shannon’s full-color illustrations. The table of contents, timeline, references, glossary and index enhance the book’s classroom utility. This timely book is an excellent choice for updated lessons on the impacts of changes in the environment. Information here covers subjects ranging from science and technology to environmental studies to history and geography.
California’s Deadly Women by Michael Barry
There’s an old saying in the news business: if it bleeds, it leads. The nightly California news and other media outlets are filled with stories of crime, killing, and sorrow. Within these pages rediscover 46 of the most notorious murders and shocking crimes committed by women in the state of California between 1850 and 1950.
Examine the accounts of such notorious murderesses as the “Black Widow,” Louise Peete; “Tiger Woman,” Clara Phillips; the “Duchess,” Juanita Spinelli; and many more. Written in chronological sequence and enhanced by 50 photographs, each entry provides a concise overview of the crime, background information, and final dispositions. At one point these California crimes horrified the collective imaginations of the state—and nation—but many have faded away from our historical consciousness. They’re back. This book is an indispensable reference tool for anyone interested in California history and crime.
Teenage Suicide Notes by Terry Williams
“Picturing myself dying in a way I choose myself seems so comforting, healing and heroic. I’d look at my wrists, watch the blood seeping, and be a spectator in my last act of self-determination. By having lost all my self-respect it seems like the last pride I own, determining the time I die.”-Kyra V., aged seventeen
Reading the confessions of a teenager contemplating suicide is uncomfortable, but we must do so to understand why self-harm has become epidemic, especially in the United States. What drives teenagers to self-harm? What makes death so attractive, so liberating, and so inevitable for so many? In Teenage Suicide Notes, sociologist Terry Williams pores over the writings of a diverse group of troubled youths to better grasp the motivations behind teenage suicide and to humanize those at risk of taking their own lives.
Williams evaluates young people in rural and urban contexts and across lines of race, class, gender, and sexual orientation. His approach, which combines sensitive portrayals with sociological analysis, adds a clarifying dimension to the fickle and often frustrating behavior of adolescents. Williams reads between the lines of his subjects’ seemingly straightforward reflections on alienation, agency, euphoria, and loss, and investigates how this cocktail of emotions can lead to suicide—or not. Rather than treating these notes as exceptional examples of self-expression, Williams situates them at the center of teenage life, linking them to abuse, violence, depression, anxiety, religion, peer pressure, sexual identity, and family dynamics. He captures the currents that turn self-destruction into an act of self-determination and proposes more effective solutions to resolving the suicide crisis.
Oliver Twist: The Mystery of Throate Manor by David Stuart Davies
A thrilling ‘Dickensian Whodunit’ in which Oliver Twist, now a young man and a lawyer, assisted by his clerk Jack Dawkins (the Artful Dodger) tries to solve a series of brutal murders.P>Oliver Twist is a young man in his late twenties and employed as a solicitor. He has taken his old associate Jack Dawkins, aka the Artful Dodger, on as his clerk in attempt to civilise him and keep him out of trouble.
Together they become embroiled in a dark and dangerous murder mystery.Throate Manor is the ancestral home of the Throate Family in Surrey. The latest incumbent of the line, the aged Sir Ebenezer, trapped in a loveless marriage to Lady Amelia, is being terrified by a night visitor, a sheeted apparition who appears in his bedroom, and warns him to remember his son.This does not refer to his legitimate offspring Jeremiah Throate, a reckless gambler and libertine, who is deeply in debt to Eugene Trench, a sinister figure in the Victorian underworld.
The son to whom the apparition refers is an illegitimate child Sir Ebenezer fathered with a maidservant some twenty five years previously.Fear mixed with guilt prompts Sir Ebenezer to try and locate the son he has never known. He plans to alter his will to favour him. He contacts his solicitors, the firm of Gripewind and Biddle, for this purpose and they despatch Oliver Twist and Jack Dawkins to Throate Manor to attend to this business. Sir Ebenezer charges Oliver with the task of finding his lost son.The task is a perilous one leading to violence and murder before shocking revelations threaten to destroy them all.
Bestselling crime author David Stuart Davies delivers a unique Victorian set mystery, reimagining some of Charles Dickens best loved characters in new and thrilling roles.Author David Stuart Davies is also a film historian and expert on Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes. He is a member of the national committee of the Crime Writers’ Association and has edited Red Herrings, their monthly publication, since 1999. He is also the author of Spiral of Lies, a Johnny Hawke thriller and The Scarlet Coven, a Simon Finch crime thriller.
Butcher Rising by Brian Zenner
When civilization collapsed, evil rose to power: In the deep recesses of solitary confinement, a wickedness emerges to defile what is left of humanity. With society coming to its knees, the opportunity is right for a terrible army to claim the world as their own, and inflict upon it the same pain they received in life. The After War series continues. This is the story of Karl Metzger. “It is said that even a villain is the hero of their own story. And everyone does have a story … In the end, that’s what we all are—stories, little stories that build to bigger stories, that make up the epic of a lifetime.” – Manhattan Book Review
Although Butcher Rising is the second novel in The After War series, they can be read independently of each other if desired. Both books work as standalone novels
Elements of San Joaquin by Gary Soto
A timely new edition of a pioneering work in Latino literature, National Book Award nominee Gary Soto’s first collection (originally published in 1977) draws on California’s fertile San Joaquin Valley, the people, the place, and the hard agricultural work done there by immigrants. In these poems, joy and anger, violence and hope are placed in both the metaphorical and very real circumstances of the Valley. Rooted in personal experiences—of the poet as a young man, his friends, family, and neighbors—the poems are spare but expansive, with Soto’s voice as important as ever. This welcome new edition has been expanded with a crucial selection of complementary poems (some previously unpublished) and a new introduction by the author).
Emi has spent her entire life hiding from the creatures that hunt her. The savage earth spirits are determined to kill her before she can become the living host of a goddess, so she stays hidden–until the day she saves the life of one of her hunters.
Shiro isn’t the harmless fox spirit she thought he was. He’s mysterious, cunning, unpredictable … and now hers to command. He’s sworn to pay his debt to her, but he doesn’t know who she is. If he finds out, he’ll kill her.
But she can’t send him away–not yet. Her future isn’t what she thought. The lies surrounding her fate have begun to unravel, and she needs answers before time runs out–answers that lie in the spirit realm. Shiro can take her there … if she dares to trust him.
And only then will she find out how deep the gods’ treachery runs.
