My LINKcat AccountWhile the temperatures (after that one day that hit 80 degrees (or more according to the thermometer on my porch) have not been particularly spring like, the flora seems to be ignoring the chilly days and nights and just carrying on. The trees are budding out, the grass is growing, the flowers are peeping out of the ground and some have been so rash as to actually bloom. Birds are not only singing as they look for partners, many have begun building nests. Why some are even sitting on nests even as I write. Grouse and turkeys, blue jays and crows, pigeons and mourning doves are all about to beginning nesting (if they haven’t already started). May is the month – which is only a day away from today’s public day—is the month when all the songbirds settle down and start raising families. I hope we are done with the snow at least. I don’t think there is a sadder sight than a robin walking around in the snow looking puzzled as he lifts his tiny shoulders and sings “What the heck?” instead of his usual “Cheer up!” song. If you need some cheering up while waiting for spring to definitively arrive, stop by the library and check out some of these new titles. There’s lots to choose from in this latest batch of books. Enjoy!
New Non-Fiction
Finding Me: A Memoir by Viola Davis. A noted actress's memoir, in her own words, spans her incredible, inspiring life, from her coming-of-age in Rhode Island to her present day
The King’s Shadow: Obsession, Betrayal, and the Deadly Quest for the Lost City of Alexandria by Edmund Richardson. Recounting one of history’s most extraordinary stories, this book transports readers back to 19th-century India and Afghanistan where Charles Masson – deserter, pilgrim, doctor, archaeologist, spy and one of the most respected scholars in Asia – searched for the Lost City of Alexandria during the age of empires, kings and spies.
Last Call at the Hotel Imperial: The Reporters Who Took on a World at War by Deborah Cohen. A prize-winning historian’s revelatory account of a close-knit band of American reporters who, in the run-up to World War II, took on the world’s dictators and rewrote the rules of modern journalism.
The Puzzler: One Man’s Quest to Solve the Most Baffling Puzzles Ever, from Crosswords to Jigsaws to the Meaning of Life by A.J. Jacobs. A master of immersion journalism unpacks the history of the most popular puzzles, and aims to solve the most impossible head-scratchers, from a mutant Rubik’s Cube, to the hardest corn maze in America, to the most sadistic jigsaw
Shine Bright: A Very Personal History of Black Women in Pop by Danyel Smith. From a noted cultural critic comes a combination of memoir, criticism, and biography that tells the story of black women in music—from the Dixie Cups to Gladys Knight to Janet Jackson, Whitney Houston, and Mariah Carey—as the foundational story of American pop,
New Fiction
Fevered Star, No. 2 (Between Earth and Sky) by Rebecca Roanhorse. Living avatars, Serapio and Naranpa, fight to stay human in the face of changes that will transform the great city of Tova as tense alliances form and far-away enemies gather in the second novel of the series.
The Baxters by Karen Kingsbury. On Kari Baxter’s wedding day, a building storm brings conflict and doubt to the family until a moment of danger reveals important truths, which could bring them back together or tear them apart.
Probably Ruby by Lisa Bird-Wilson. Spanning time and multiple points of view, a new voice in indigenous fiction introduces us to Ruby, a bold, complex and unapologetic woman who, adopted by white parents, goes in search of her identity as her life spins wildly out of control.
A Woman of Endurance by Dahlma Lianos-Figueroa. A novel illuminates a little discussed aspect of history—the Puerto Rican Atlantic Slave Trade—witnessed through the experiences of Pola, an African captive used as a breeder to bear more slaves.
Little Souls by Sandra Dallas. In 1918 Colorado, as the Spanish Influenza run rampant, sisters Helen and Lutie, after their tenant dies, must care for her daughter, which leads murder, placing them both in danger from the ensuing investigation and the flu.
Take My Hand by Dolen Berins-Valdez. In 1973 Montgomery, Alabama, Civil Townsend, a young Black nurse working for the Montgomery Family Planning Clinic, grapples with her role when she takes two young girls into her heart and the unthinkable happens, and nothing will ever be the same for any of them.
Summer at the Cape by Rae Anne Thayne. Over the course of the summer, the sisters must make peace with each other and also individually with their free-spirited, outspoken, activist mother who left their father two decades earlier.
Dream Town, No. 3 (Archer) by David Baldacci. World War II veteran and private investigator Aloysius Archer becomes enmeshed in a lethal, extended web of murder and deceit in 1953 Los Angeles in the third novel of the series following “A Gambling Man”.
The Investigator by John Sanford. Working with Homeland Security in Texas to investigate the thefts of crude oil, Letty Davenport, the brilliant and tenacious daughter of Lucas Davenport, is pitted against a militia group as the case quickly turns deadly.