Christopher Brown examines urban nature from the sides of highways, to empty lots, to traffic islands and how animals and plants thrive in these areas humans aren’t allowed in “A Natural History of Empty Lots.”

Professors and librarians were unlikely spies in WWII, not just as researchers, but also going undercover in enemy territory. Learn more in “Book and Daggar” by Else Graham.

"Murder She Wrote" meets "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" when the village librarian discovers that her town has a suspiciously high body count because a demon enjoys watching her solve murders. It’s up to her and her friends to stop him in C.M. Waggoner’s “The Village Library Demon-Hunting Society.”

Middle grade readers can learn all about the spiritualist movement, famous mediums and the people who worked to expose them as frauds in Gail Jarrow’s “Spirit Sleuths.”

“An Illustrated History of Urban Legends” by Adam Allsuch Boardman introduces teen readers to lost cities, Bigfoot, chain email warning about organ theft and other urban legends.