Welcome to Books of the Month, where once a month, College of Letters and Science staff select works from our Bookshelf of entirely UC Davis authors. Start the quarter off strong by adding these staff picks to your reading list in honor of Hispanic Heritage Month.

Beginning in the fall of 1914, every French soldier on the Western Front received a daily ration of wine from the army. In his book "A Thirst for Wine and War," assistant professor Adam Zientek explores the French army’s emotional and behavioral conditioning of soldiers through the distribution of a mind-altering drug that was later hailed as one of the army’s “fathers of victory.”