Possums Are Not Cute!
And Other Myths about Nature’s Most Misunderstood Critter
Hardcover | Kindle Edition
By Ally Burguieres
Publisher: Quirk Books
Release Date: May 10, 2022

Hello, I’m the person on your social media feed who shares memes that say “Hello, I’m an opossum, please don’t hurt me, I mean you no harm” every two weeks. That’s because the opossum, which is commonly referred to as “possum,” the name of its distant cousins from down under, is so misunderstood. People often mistake these climbing critters for rats or raccoons who could carry rabies and consider them :::gasp::: ugly! Well, spoiler alert: They are none of those things!

In Possums Are Not Cute!: And Other Myths about Nature’s Most Misunderstood Critter, wildlife rehabber and advocate Ally Burguieres aims to dispel the myths about opossums, specifically the Virginia Opossum, which is the only native marsupial in the United States. If you see a white and gray little beast with a pointy snout rifling through your garbage pails or eating the food you leave out in your yard for the feral cats, that’s the Virginia Opossum. And they are actually quite adorable … and harmless, too! They’re also here to stay, thankfully, because they happened to be very beneficial to our society, as this new full-color hardcover book delightfully explains.

The Final Girl Support Group
Hardcover | Kindle Edition | Audiobook
By Grady Hendrix
Publisher: Berkley
Release Date: July 13, 2021

“The line between being too careful and not being careful enough is a line you only get to cross once” is a belief Lynnette Tarkington still holds true even 20 years after she survived a Christmas Eve massacre that left her a “Final Girl.” That’s “final girl” as in the last female standing at the end of a serial-killing spree in horror films, but for Lynnette this is no slasher flick… this is her reality.

In The Final Girls Support Group, Grady Hendrix explores the mindset of the now middle-aged Lynnette, whose been unable to live a normal life since her traumatic Yule Tide experience as a teenager. She sees danger around every corner and will go to extreme lengths to protect herself, including barricading herself in her booby-trapped apartment, where she can control her surroundings. Or taking different routes and modes of transportation hours out of her way each time she ventures outside, going so far as to ride the airport shuttle so that potential stalkers won’t be able to ascertain her routine.

Welcome first day of Fall 2021…. and with it come lots of new books!

Last year, aka Pandemic Year 1, while self-isolating and staying indoors as much as possible, I threw myself into reading … print books, magazines, ebooks, and audiobooks. So while it was a stressful year on a whole (for all of us), I really enjoyed being able to prioritize reading. This year, what’s become Pandemic Year 2, I wanted to get outside a bit, but also continue to be on the safe side, which meant road-tripping and hiking the great outdoors. Therefore, I’ve leaned more towards audiobooks.

Below are some titles — with accompanying links to the print, ebooks, and audiobooks editions — that I personally am looking forward to this Fall, presented here in order of release date, starting with those releasing in September 2021. After this main list, I’ve included some titles that came out earlier this year that you might have missed, as well as some themed Cookbooks, Crafts, and Guidebooks, along with an Audiobook Spotlight. And with the Fall comes, of course, Halloween and some spookier picks!

Continue on to check out my Fall 2021 Book Recommendations…

The Ultimate Evil
The Search for the Sons of Sam
Paperback | Kindle Edition | Audiobook
By Maury Terry
Publisher: Quirk Books
Release Date: April 20, 2021

Beginning in July of 1976, “Son of Sam” struck fear in the citizens of New York City for a year, as the serial killer eluded police while killing 6 and wounding 10 during 8 separate shooting sprees. So when the NYPD arrested David Berkowitz for these crimes in July of 1977, New Yorkers finally felt safe. The killer who terrorized a major city was at last captured and was subsequently sentenced to life in prison 6 times over. He’d never be able to harm anyone ever again.

But was Berkowitz acting alone? Journalist Maury Terry was determined to find out and spent a decade conducting an exhaustive investigation of this infamous case in an effort to uncover whether these seemingly indiscriminate murders were cult-related and if the killer had an accomplice. The result was 1987’s The Ultimate Evil, now back in print from Quirk Books with a new introduction by Joshua Zeman, the producer of The Sons of Sam, the recent Netflix documentary series based on Terry’s 500-page true crime book.

Whisper Down The Lane
Hardcover | Kindle Edition | Audiobook
By Clay McLeod Chapman
Publisher: Quirk Books
Release Date: April 6, 2021

Richard is an art teacher at an upscale elementary school in Virginia, where his new wife, Tamara, also teaches, and her son, Elijah, attends. He’s got a great job, is lucky in love, and now his 5-year-old stepson wants Richard to adopt him. Things couldn’t be better for the beloved teacher, until disturbing reminders of his long-buried childhood trauma begin to surface, threatening to destroy his newfound happiness and possibly even his mind.

In Whisper Down The Lane, author Clay McLeod Chapman toggles between Richard’s current life and flashbacks of his life-altering experience as a 5-year-old at the center of the “Satanic Panic,” the 1980s conspiracy theory that children were being abused in satanic rituals which triggered widespread panic and wild accusations all over the United States. We see from Richard’s perspective what he was thinking as a child and how he overcame what happened, earnestly reinventing himself into a mild-mannered educator and father figure. But there’s also interview transcripts from the 1980s of the boy giving coerced and leading testimony to his psychotherapist, the result of which caused the downfall of many around him and the end to life as he knew it.