Remember, remember… November feels like the start of the slow turn to the close of the year. Everything outside gets browner and crunchier. There’s the quiet dying of the light. It happens subtly, then all at once. It also gives us a moment to sit with the quiet, find a small corner, wrap up in a blanket, and read by lamplight.
Atlas of Paranormal Places
by Evelyn Hollow
Put on some warm, fuzzy socks and give yourself some chills reading about these places around the world. Some of these places you’ll have heard of; others are more esoteric. The strength of this book is the design and layout. Double page spreads with attractive diagrams and maps put it somewhere between guide and coffee table book.
From the publisher: Legends about spirits that rise from the dead, places where the crops don’t grow, or sites where strange lights are seen at night… glaciers that bleed, ghost towns, crumbling castles, disused (and active) cemeteries, eerie forests, and freak nature patterns… This cursed collection covers these sites in all their mysterious glory, and recounts what happened, what continues to happen, and what may explain these phenomena.
Publisher: Ivy Press (September 3, 2024)
Language: English
Hardcover: 224 pages
ISBN-10: 0711287961
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Key to the City
by Sara C. Bronin
Zoning is one of the more mundane — and potentially nefarious — aspects of modern living. Bureaucratic at its core, at times inscrutable for the average person, it can make or break a city. It can also ruin a neighborhood, encourage new business, or protect natural resources. Brown uses examples of zoning, good and bad, to illustrate her points, though I wish she had included more ways to create protective ordinances.
From the publisher: In Key to the City, legal scholar and architect Sara C. Bronin examines how zoning became such a prevailing force and reveals its impact―and its potential for good. Outdated zoning codes have maintained racial segregation, prioritized cars over people, and enabled great ecological harm. But, as Bronin argues, once we recognize the power of zoning, we can harness it to create the communities we desire, and deserve.
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company (October 1, 2024)
Language: English
Hardcover: 240 pages
ISBN-10: 0393881660
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Night and Day
By John Connolly
A cozy collection of uncanny stories. Wrap up in a blanket and expect to read well into the night.
From the publisher: Filled with eerie surprises and dark delights, Night and Day takes us from the dusty shelves of an uncanny library filled with fictional characters to a bunker deep beneath the earth where scientists seek revenge on old Nazis; from an English marsh haunted by a mother and her son to a country house where a grieving widower finds comfort from a most unlikely source.
Publisher: Atria/Emily Bestler Books (October 22, 2024)
Language: English
Paperback: 368 pages
ISBN-10: 1668081679
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Gods and Monsters
By Mark Haddon
I am hardly alone in my enjoyment of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time but I have had a tough time finding joy in Haddon’s subsequent outings. This collection of short stories was uneven, in my opinion.
from the publisher: Greek myths have fascinated people for millenia, seeing in them lessons about fate and hubris and the contingency of existence. Mark Haddon digs into the heart of these ancient fables and sees them anew. Haddon’s tales cover a vast range, from the mythic to the domestic, from ancient Greece to the present day, from stories about love to stories about cruelty, from battlefields to bed and breakfasts, from dogs in space to doors between worlds, all of them bound together by a profound sympathy and an understanding of how human beings act and think and feel when pushed to the very edge.
Publisher: Doubleday (October 15, 2024)
Language: English
Hardcover: 288 pages
ISBN-10: 0385550863
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The Mysterious Case of the Victorian Female Detective
By Sara Lodge
I never tire of this subject matter and am always looking to learn about new-to-me authors and characters in the genre. While I generally enjoyed and appreciated this book, I was occasionally put off by the writer’s frequent insistence that no one (besides her) has ever heard of these figures. I grant they are lesser known and deserve more attention, but even an amateur enthusiast like me knew several of these ‘unknowns.’
From the publisher: From Wilkie Collins to the adventures of Sherlock Holmes, the traditional image of the Victorian detective is male. Few people realise that women detectives successfully investigated Victorian Britain, working both with the police and for private agencies, which they sometimes managed themselves. Sara Lodge recovers these forgotten women’s lives. She also reveals the sensational role played by the fantasy female detective in Victorian melodrama and popular fiction, enthralling a public who relished the spectacle of a cross-dressing, fist-swinging heroine who got the better of love rats, burglars, and murderers alike.
Publisher: Yale University Press (November 5, 2024)
Language: English
Hardcover: 384 pages
ISBN-10: 0300277881
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The Mesmerist
By Caroline Woods
I tried three times to read this book but I could never get into it. The summary sounds precisely like something I would enjoy but after more than 100 pages nothing had happened. I had to set it aside.
From the publisher: Before hypnotism, there was Mesmerism. And in 1894 Minneapolis, in the wake of a national financial crisis, spiritualism of every stripe is all the rage, and women are dying under mysterious circumstances. Rich with tension, suspicion, and sharply observed characters, Caroline Woods reimagines a classic American genre through the eyes of three bold, unforgettable women.
Publisher: Doubleday (September 10, 2024)
Language: English
Hardcover: 336 pages
ISBN-10: 0385550162
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