Shelf Talk

From spooky tales to epic fantasy and much more, October new releases have you covered as the nights get darker and cooler.

10/1: The Bog Wife by Kay Chronister
The Haddesley family has long maintained a supernatural bargain – their family tends the cranberry bog and the bog sustains them, with each generation sacrificing their patriarch in return for a bog-wife who continues the family line. But now something is off, and it’s up to the five Haddesley siblings to figure it out. (horror)

10/1: The City in Glass by Nghi Vo
The demon Vitrine has watched over and nurtured the city of Azril, until the day angels destroyed it. Devastated, locked in a battle with an angel cursed to haunt the Azril’s remains, Vitrine is determined to rebuild. (fantasy)

10/1: Coup de Grâce by Sofia Ajram
Vicken is planning to die by suicide, but instead finds himself trapped in an endless, looping Montreal subway. Moving through corridors and rooms, he sees no exit but realizes he’s not the only one in there. (horror)

10/1: The Crescent Moon Tearoom by Stacy Sivinski
Sisters Anne, Beatrix, and Violet Quigley in late 1800s Chicago run a tea shop where they tell the fortunes of customers. But soon hints of a family curse, an unexpected opportunity, and a meddling coven threaten to pull them apart. (fantasy)

10/1: The Great When by Alan Moore
When Dennis Knuckleyard, secondhand bookseller, picks up a new donation he discovers an unexpected title, one that belongs to a parallel London. Just the existence of such a book could break down the barriers between worlds, launching Dennis into mayhem. (fantasy)

10/1: Marigold Mind Laundry by Jungeun Yun, translated by Shanna Tan
After her uncontrolled magical powers cause a family tragedy, Jieun finds solace in opening a magical laundromat where customers come to have the stains of their unhappy memoires removed. (general fiction)

10/1: The Mighty Red by Louise Erdrich
The Red River flows through a tight-knit Ojibwe community, where mom Crystal and daughter Kismet try to forge their own paths in the wake of personal problems, environmental upheaval, and financial crises. (general fiction)

10/1: Model Home by Rivers Solomon
When the Maxwell family moved to a predominantly white, gated community outside Dallas, they were the only Black family in the area. The neighbors are nice, but unexplainable things still happened. The three Maxwell siblings scattered, but when their parents die, they return home to ask – were these deaths natural, or supernatural? (horror/thriller)

10/1: Shred Sisters by Betsy Lerner
Two sisters grapple with the impact of family mental illness on their lives as they grow apart and collide back together, always connected by their sisterly bond. (general fiction)

10/8: Blood of the Old Kings by Sung-il Kim, translated by Anton Hur
In an empire where dead sorcerers are drained of their magic to fuel the empire and dragons have been enchained, a sorcerer, a swordswoman, and a man bent on vengeance collide as they each seek a way to forge their own destinies.

10/8: Dark Space by Rob Hart and Alex Segura
The spaceship Mosaic, helmed by Commander Jose Carriles, has traveled light years to explore other possible planetary homes. When the ship suffers a terrifying breakdown, former-spy-turned-admin Corin Timony gets the alert – and then a message that it was a false alarm. But Timony doesn’t believe it, and as Carriles tries to keep the crew alive, Timony investigates. (science fiction thriller)

10/8: The Last Dragon of the East by Katrina Kwan
After receiving a pair of magical dragon scales, Sai leaves his quiet life tending the family teahouse and his ailing mother for an adventure to find a dragon believed extinct. (fantasy)

10/8: The Last One at the Wedding by Jason Rekulak
When Frank Szatowski is unexpectedly invited to his estranged daughter Maggie’s wedding, he jumps at the chance. But when he arrives at the remote wedding site, the situation is disturbingly uncomfortable, prompting him to dig into the family Maggie is marrying into. (thriller)

10/8: The Restaurant of Lost Recipes by Hisashi Kashiwai, translated by Jesse Kirkwood
The father/daughter duo of The Kamogawa Food Detectives is back, continuing to sleuth out the meals that will connect their diners to cherished memories. (general fiction)

10/8: Shock Induction by Chuck Palahniuk
In a high school where students have been surveilled since birth by a shadowy organization run by billionaires, the best and the brightest have been dying by suicide. Coincidence, or a response to a forced decision between freedom or a life of indenture? By the author of Fight Club. (satire/general fiction)

10/8: The Stone Witch of Florence by Anna Rasche
Once banished as a witch, Ginevra is begged to return to and use her healing powers to help an Italy ravaged by the Black Plague. But when she arrives, she’s instead asked to find a thief stealing relics from Florentine churches – relics the city’s fathers hope will save their city. Succeed and she’ll be able to stay; but is she just a pawn in the game of others? (historical fantasy)

10/8: The Undercurrent by Sarah Sawyer
New mother Bee travels from Maine back to her small Texas hometown, where she searches for answers to the unsolved disappearance of a young girl in 1987. But she may find more clues in her own past, and that of her mother and neighbor, than she expected. (suspense)

10/8: The Witches of El Paso by Luis Jaramillo
Marta and her great-aunt Nena forge a bond over motherhood, connecting with their latent supernatural powers as they search across the borders of time and space for a lost daughter. (fantasy/historical fiction)

10/15: Polostan by Neal Stephenson
From the ranches of Wyoming during the Great Depression to Leninist USSR, to recruitment by the KGB, Dawn Rae Bjornberg lives the life of a survivor against the tumultuous history of the early 20^th century. First in a new series by the prolific Stephenson. (historical fiction)

10/22: Absolution by Jeff VanderMeer
VanderMeer returns to the story told in the Southern Reach trilogy with a series of linked prequel stories, looking back at the conditions that created Area X and the first expedition there. (science fiction)

10/29: This Motherless Land by Nikki May
Following a family tragedy, Funke is sent from her home in Lagos, Nigeria to live with her mother’s family in England. Adrift, Funke finds comfort in her cousin Liv. As the two cousins navigate a fraught path, they’re haunted by decisions made by their mothers. (general fiction)

~ posted by Andrea G.

We’re adding fourteen new Peak Picks in October!

In fiction, Hugo Award-winning author Nghi Vo introduces a beguiling fantasy city in the tradition of Calvino, Mieville, and Le Guin in the new standalone novel The City in Glass;  legendary storyteller Alan Moore introduces the first book in an enthralling new fantasy series about murder, magic, and madness in post-WWII London in The Great When; Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award-winning author Louise Erdrich tells a story of love, natural forces, spiritual yearnings, and the tragic impact of uncontrollable circumstances on ordinary people’s lives in The Mighty Red; the Maxwell siblings return to their childhood home in the Dallas suburbs after the shocking news of their parents’ death…to find the house, and the family itself, haunted by strange, inexplicable terrors in Rivers Solomon’s haunted-house novel Model Home; from Betsy Lerner, celebrated author of The Bridge Ladies, comes a wry and riveting debut novel about family, mental illness, and a hard-won path between siblings in Shred Sisters; Cherry Loy Sy debuts with a beautiful, tender yet searing novel about intergenerational fractures and coming of age, following a young woman who immigrates to the United States from the Philippines and finds herself adrift between familial expectations and her own burning desires, in Love Can’t Feed You; and from Neal Stephenson, the bestselling author of Termination Shock and Cryptonomicon, comes Polostan, the first installment in a monumental new series – an expansive historical epic of intrigue and international espionage, presaging the dawn of the Atomic Age.

In nonfiction, Ina Garten – aka the Barefoot Contessa, author of thirteen bestselling cookbooks, beloved Food Network personality, Instagram sensation, and cultural icon – shares her personal story with readers hungry for a seat at her table In her long-awaited memoir, Be Ready When Luck Happens; from Seattle-based forager-chef and forest therapy guide Ashley Rodriguez comes Field Notes from a Fungi Forager, a gorgeously illustrated compendium that’s also a love letter to mushrooms – and to the Pacific Northwest; Kari Leibowitz debuts with a blend of mindset science, original research, and cultural insights for cultivating a positive “wintertime mindset,” to vanquish winter blues and find joy and comfort in dark times year-round in How to Winter; in the tradition of The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse comes a gorgeously illustrated fable about a young child’s journey into the world beyond the shadow of home, a magical landscape where he discovers the secrets of sharing, connection, and finding peace with the people we love in comedian Trevor Noah’s all-ages fable Into the Uncut Grass;  Ta-Nehisi Coates, the bestselling author of Between the World and Me, journeys to three resonant sites of conflict to explore how the stories we tell – and the ones we don’t – shape our realities in The Message; twenty-five years after the publication of his groundbreaking first book, Malcolm Gladwell returns with a brand-new volume that reframes the lessons of The Tipping Point in a startling and revealing light in Revenge of the Tipping Point; and from bestselling cookbook author Julia Turshen comes an original, inspired, and interactive approach to cooking that takes the guesswork out of everyday meals in What Goes With What.

~posted by Frank. All descriptions provided by publishers.

With one weekend of rain underway, I’m ready to be on the couch, mug of tea in hand, reading a book that matches my mood. I’m looking for maximum coziness and though you can find cozy fantasy, cozy mystery, and even cozy horror, I’ve been diving into translated Japanese and Korean cozies, with a distinctly different tone. These books tend to feature settings like bookstores, libraries, and cafes, and cats, tea, and a little bit of mystery abound. Check out some of my favorites and new releases!

The book that started my interest in this arena is What You Are Looking for Is in the Library by Michiko Aoyama, translated from the Japanese by Alison Watts. This delightful story, perfect for librarians, features several individuals who are all at a point of transition in their lives. We meet a 20-something retail worker trying to figure out what’s next in her life, a new mother returning to work after having a baby, a retiree unsure how to fill his time; all of these figures and others end up in the library at the Tokyo Community House. There, they meet Komachi, a larger-than-life librarian happy to provide the exact answers to their question, plus a little something extra that manages to answer the question they didn’t know how to ask.

Continuing with books, Welcome to the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop by Hwang Bo-Reum, translated by Shanna Tan, introduces us to Yeongju. After leaving her high-pressure job, Yeongju realizes her dream and opens a bookstore with a coffee shop in a residential Seoul neighborhood. Her anxiety doesn’t abate, however, until she starts connecting with other people in her community and in the store. She hires a barista who becomes obsessed with making the perfect cup of coffee, connects with an unmotivated teenager who finds interest in her reading recommendations, and becomes a pillar of the community and a source of both information and comfort for many. Though the interesting book recommendations and author visits are lovely elements, at its core this is a story of self-discovery and fulfillment, perfect for readers of any age.

I’m not the only one who loves these books, as evidenced by the holds on many of these titles. If you want to get started with a Japanese cozy right away, The Kamogawa Food Detectives by Hisashi Kashiwai, translated by Jesse Kirkwood, is available now as a Peak Pick! Father-daughter duo  Koishi and Nagare run a special cafe in Kyoto, nondescript and tucked away from the outside. Once inside, visitors can recount a favorite or lost meal, one that evokes strong memories for them. Doubling as detective, Koishi and Nagare will then go to any length necessary to find the inspiration and ingredients to recreate the meal. The descriptions of food will make your mouth water while reading PLUS there’s a cafe cat named Drowsy.

Want more? Check out Before the Coffee Gets Cold, The Full Moon Coffee Shop, and The Dallergut Dream Department Store.

~posted by Jane S.

On a Monday afternoon in mid-August, a spacious courtyard on Seattle’s First Hill is alive with flowers, music, dancing and quiet conversation. It is cloudy, but the mood is all sunshine at the Memory Hub, a dementia-specific community center on the Frye Museum campus founded by the University of Washington Memory and Brain Wellness Center.

At one end of the courtyard, DJ Mr. Cliff is enthusiastically spinning golden oldies. “I’m all shook up!” he says as he puts on Elvis.

An older gentleman in his early 90s, Charlie, steps out to dance with his daughter Lauren. He then dances with Marigrace Becker, the director of the Memory Hub. Other couples and singles join them. The crowd includes people with memory loss and caregivers served by the Memory Hub, as well as staff from the Memory Hub and The Seattle Public Library.

“A unique approach” to community listening

This event, part of a summer concert series, is the result of a collaboration between the Memory Hub and The Seattle Public Library to create programming directly informed by people with memory loss and their caregivers.

To gather ideas, they held a community listening session at the Memory Hub in January 2024. While both organizations use community listening to get input on programs, “engaging people with memory loss requires a unique approach,” explains Emily Billow, the Library’s Older Adults program manager.

As facilitator, Billow used “What brings you joy?” as a guiding question. Participants could also select objects or pictures, and caregivers assisted in articulating their loved ones’ preferences. They also conducted a survey.

Themes that emerged included the importance of community and connection; movement and being outside; and music, in all its forms.

“We know that music is important for those with memory loss as it helps to elicit memories, regulate mood and promote healthy cognitive function,” says Billow.

“A day without music won’t kill you, but why risk it?”

The Memory Hub’s beautiful outdoor space is ideal for the music series they designed, which kicked off in July and will go through September. While some dance, others can take a break at the other end of the courtyard on the built-in benches of Maude’s Garden. Refreshments are served: Shirley Temples, La Croix, crackers, cheese and grapes.

Kathleen, a woman who had stopped by the August event at the suggestion of her son, reflects on the joy that music brings.

“A day without music won’t kill you, but why risk it?” she jokes.

An hour into the gathering, Charlie finally takes a break from dancing with his daughter Lauren by his side. Lauren explains that Charlie was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease and vascular dementia several years ago. He is living at a nearby assisted living facility and may soon transition to memory care.

“The Memory Hub is my lifeline,” says Lauren. She praises all the Memory Hub programs Charlie has engaged with, including Elderwise and the Alzheimer’s Café. But this concert series is something special.

“You don’t have to hold a conversation,” she says. “You can just dance. And it’s engagement through movement. He feels it, and it brings him to life.”

Her father, meanwhile, has high praise for DJ Mr. Cliff: “He picks out what sounds good and gets rid of the garbage.”

More than 150 people have attended the five concerts so far, a testament to the power of music. The last “Celebrate Summer” concert will be held on Monday, Sept. 30, from 4 to 6 p.m. at the Memory Hub.

“Books and Beats,” another series that came out of community listening, will continue at the Memory Hub through December. While caregivers participate in a book discussion, their loved ones engage in a music therapy group.

All Library programs are free and open to the public. Find out more and register on the Library’s Older Adults calendar page.

This story is part of a new series about the Library’s impact. See also our 2023 Impact Report.

Fast Facts about the Library’s Older Adults program

• Number of Library older adult programs and outreach in 2023: 63
• Total attendance: 1,925
• Examples of programs: Civic Coffee Hours, Creative Chats in Community, the Senior Housing Authority Senior Building Pilot, NewHolly Community Listening Session, Ducks in a Row Series, End-of-Life Planning sessions, and more, all held in collaboration with community partners.
• Number of languages: Amharic, Cantonese, Mandarin, Oromo, Somali, Spanish, Tigrinya, Vietnamese, and English.
• Community listening is a component of all programs: For example, Creative Chats in Community, a monthly art and health resource sharing event, was informed by elders in the High Point community.
• What’s next? Starting in October, the Library’s Older Adults program will partner with Seattle Parks and Recreation on Memory Cafe, a pilot program designed for residents of low-income and nonprofit housing with memory loss that engages participants with activities, snacks, music and socialization.

– Elisa M., Communications