We've almost made it through the first month of the fall book season, dear friends. We hope your To Be Read piles aren't too high. Surely you can balance a few more titles on them? We know you can. Because there are a few in this week's list that you're going to want to add to the stack. 
 

First up is Naomi Novik's The Golden Enclaves, the third book in her Scholomance series. As you will recall, The Last Graduate ended with [SPOILER] and [SPOILER]. And can you believe [SPOILER]? Our minds were blown. 

Anyway, if you burned through the first two books in this Dark Magic School of the Damned series, you've been waiting for this day. If you haven't had a chance to see what an author does when they lean HARD into a particularly interesting "what if?" world-building scenario, well, you're in for a treat. And probably some late nights as you read. The rest of us have been waiting awhile. Plan accordingly. 
 

And speaking of patiently waiting, that next Colleen Hoover book is—oh, wait. It's just a collector's edition of Verity? In hardback? Oh, well, sure. Whatever. A new chapter? But . . . but . . . wasn't the story finished the first time around? 

We're not fans of this "bonus chapter!" nonsense. If it's important for the story, put it in the first damn time. 

Anyway, if you dug the "What the heck is happening here?" feeling that Verity gave you, you can have it all over again. But in hardback. With an extra chapter. 
 

And speaking of second chances, Anthony Doerr's Cloud Cuckoo Land is out in paperback this week. In case you were like us and and bought the hardback last year, fully intending to read the Book of the Season in a timely fashion, but here we are a year later, and yeah, that hardback has got to be in one of these stacks somewhere. We got you.

Anyway: Constantinople in the 15th century! Idaho in the 20th! A generation spaceship in the future! All things comingled in the power of the story! 

Yeah, we really should have read it last year. Oh well. Maybe we'll put it on the bookclub list. 
 

And speaking of Pulitzer Prize winning authors, Annie Proulx is back this week with a book about peatbogs. No, seriously. It's called Fen, Bog & Swamp: A Short History of Peatland Destruction and Its Role in the Climate Crisis. Proulx, a lifelong environmentalist, takes us on a fascinating journey through the wetlands, which are a critical part of the natural cycle. We drain the peat at our own risk, people! 
 

And speaking of the deep loam of the gothic, here is Alexis Henderson's House of Hunger, which is a story of blood, family, and things that taste good. As it says on label: Wanted - Bloodmaid of exceptional taste. Must have a keen proclivity for life's finer pleasures. Girls of weak will need not apply. As you can imagine, things get atmospheric and hypnotic from there. Henderson's Year of the Witching was a dark gem last year, and we anticipate that House of Hunger is only going to improve her reputation as a writer to watch. 
 

And speaking of writers with reputations, here is a book from Jacques Pépin. It's about that humble barnyard animal, the chicken. Jacques likes chickens. They make him laugh. He paints pictures of them. He can bone one in about thirty seconds. And he's been cooking them for longer than most of us have been alive. Some of his stories in Art of the Chicken are funny. Some of them are anecdotes about that one time when he made this one recipe. Some of them are actual recipes. All in all, it's a poignant memorial to the man, the bird, and the gastronomical connection between them. 

Which reminds us about that one time when we got obsessed over—oh, wait, what's this? 
 

Kate Summerscale has made us a book about phobias and manias. How exciting! Now we can have 98 other compulsions to explore! Humans are such delightfully idiosyncratic creatures. 

The cover of Summerscale's The Book of Phobias & Manias reminds us that Ransom Riggs has a new Miss Peregrine book out this week.
 

This one is Miss Peregrine's Museum of Wonders: An Indispensable Guide to the Dangers and Delights of the Peculiar World for the Instruction of New Arrivals. We're not sure what else we can tell you about the book that the subtitle didn't already say, and actually, we have to go lie down for a bit after typing out all those words. Surely there's a condition in The Book of Phobias & Manias that encapsulates this weariness we feel in our fingers. Is there a fear of overly strenuous typing? 

Well, at least it's not luposlipaphobia. 
 

Anyway, let's talk about mermaids.
 

Emily B. Martin's A Field Guide to Mermaids is a delightfully illustrated guide to all sorts of water spirits that live in our ponds, streams, oceans, and—yes—our fens and bogs. Fairies, pixies, and gnomes get a lot of press, and we're glad to see to see that selkies, naiads, and other types of mer-folk are getting some attention. 
 

And speaking of the stranger parts of the world, Adam Alexander would like to invite you to explore the remarkable history of the common vegetable. In The Seed Detective, Alexander discovers how a variety of wild vegetables became staples of our dietary regime. Kale! Beans! Asparagus! Where did they all come from? Curious and fascinating. Recommended. 
 

And finally, here is the eleventh item on our list of ten things for your bedside TBR stack, because it's an occult thing, and occult things always disregard the rules. This is the latest map/infographic from Herb Lester Associates and it's all about the spooky history of Paris. We've got a couple of Herb Lester's products scattered around the store, and if you've got a pal who is into cozy crime or weird folklore or some other arcane subject, what better gift than a fold-out illustrated map that can double as a driving guide for your next getaway vacation?