To save her job — her in-office rival also wants the column — she reluctantly agrees, but with a twist: her children will choose her dates

Get ready to be haunted by the creepiest new offerings and classics of Halloween-inspired literature. Here are a cauldron’s worth of books that embrace the pumpkin spice of the season and keep you on the chilliest edge of your seat!

“The Bookshop,” Evan Friss’s history of the book retail business, includes the didn’t-see-that-coming tale of Judy, a 3,000-pound elephant who signed books (with a stamp that dangled from her trunk, obviously) at Marshall Field’s booming books department in 1944.

As in “Sense and Sensibility,” the characters here learn to recognize the importance of reason and communication in relationships. They also learn to know themselves in spite of the “shoulds” fired at them from every direction, from family members to casual acquaintances.

“The Love of My Afterlife,” by Kirsty Greenwood, is “quirky” incarnate — with so much heart and comedy that readers will find it difficult not to laugh while reading.

Not many romance novels feature introverted women who don’t like being around people and have no need to kowtow to societal niceties. The problem is inherent for the writer: How do you make someone likable if they are hard to get to know? That’s one of many challenges Ali Hazelwood tackles in her newest book, “Not In Love.”