My LINKcat AccountHere it is a couple of days before winter officially starts and already everyone is tired of winter. There's something about a winter that starts in earnest after the set of holidays at the end of the year, which makes hard cold and lack of light seem more doable. Possibly because Ground Hog's Day is only a month away and after that, it's about six more weeks until signs of spring start appearing. But when the hard, cold part of winter arrives before the actual start date (December 21st) you have to start wondering why you live in such a place. While some of us are busily counting the minutes until spring arrives (or the January thaw or any thaw), there are other things to be counting down. There are only six days until Christmas (or five until Christmas Eve if that's when you celebrate). That's six days or 144 hours which is 8,640 minutes. Still plenty of time to get everything done and read a book or two (and you'll find a nice selection to choose from further down the page). And the good news is that there is light a little longer in the evening sky now. Beginning on December 2nd, sunset has been at 4:23 p.m. The days have continued to get shorter but all the lost time has been in the morning. On December 16th, we gained a minute at sunset and today we gain another minute so that sunset is at 4:25. Things don't start going the other direction in the mornings until January 8th although we stay stuck at 7:29 for sunrise from December 28th on. We're almost through the darkest days!
New Non-Fiction
Dogfight : how Apple and Google went to war and started a revolution / by Fred Vogelstein. Traces how the professional rivalry between Apple and Google has reshaped the way people think about technology, assessing infamous legal battles and the contributions of such figures as Steve Jobs and Eric Schmidt to explain how they are having a significant impact on market dominance, intellectual property and more.
Jab, jab, jab, right hook : how to tell your story in a noisy, social world / by Gary Vaynerchuk. A social media expert and "New York Times" best-selling author seeks to improve marketers' right hooks by changing the way they fight to make their customers happy by providing a blueprint to effective social media marketing strategies that really work.
Capturing the light : the birth of photography, a true story of genius and rivalry / by Helen Rappaport & Roger Watson. Totally ignorant of each other's work during the 1830s, two very different geniuses solved the ancient puzzle of how to capture the light, changing the world and how we see it, in this fascinating story that draws on a wide range of sources and features rare plates in color, sepia and black and white.
Just babies : the origins of good and evil / by Paul Bloom. A leading cognitive scientist argues that a human sense of morality is genetically innate, drawing on years of original research at Yale to challenge psychological beliefs and explain how morality is a limited behavior that is subject to a natural hatred of different groups and a species-unique capacity for reason.
This land was made for you and me (but mostly me) : billionaires in the wild / by Bruce McCall and David Letterman. The "New Yorker" artist and writer and the late-night comic host present a satirical survey of the "universally detested" wealthy elite that lampoons their megalomaniacal fantasies, environmental recklessness and moral indecency.
The Daniel plan : 40 days to a healthier life / by Rick Warren, Daniel Amen, and Mark Hyman. Three powerhouse self-help authors offer an innovative approach to achieving a healthy lifestyle where people get better together by optimizing their health in the key areas of faith, food, fitness, focus and friends.
New Fiction
King and Maxwell / by David Baldacci. Sean King and Michelle Maxwell return to investigate another shocking case in this new novel from the number one "New York Times" best-selling author of "The Sixth Man".
A Christmas Hope : a novel / by Anne Perry. A latest holiday-themed tale by the best-selling author of "The Sheen on the Silk" finds Hester Monk's co-worker, Claudine Burroughs, investigating a Christmas-party murder involving an endearingly romantic poet and the prostitute escort he has brought uninvited to an employee Christmas party.
Death of a nightingale / by Lene Kaaberbol. Protecting the young daughter of an illegal immigrant who has escaped police custody in the aftermath of a brutal murder, Danish Red Cross nurse Nina Borg struggles with a belief in the woman's innocence as she learns more about her violent past. By the authors of the best-selling "The Boy in the Suitcase".
Heirs of the body : a Daisy Dalrymple mystery / by Carola Dunn. When her cousin Edgar asks to interview possible heirs to the viscountcy, Daisy Dalrymple Fletcher, with the help of the family lawyer, gathers together four claimants to the title, but when one claimant is murdered, Daisy must uncover a conspiracy before someone else meets the same fate.
Murder on the Orient Espresso / by Sandra Balzo. When Maggy Thorsen and her husband set out on a theatrical recreation of "Murder on the Orient Express" on a train ride through the Everglades, a real life mystery soon unfolds.
Command authority / by Tom Clancy. There's a new strong man in Russia, but his rise to power is based on a dark secret hidden decades in the past, and the solution to that mystery lies with a most unexpected source, President Jack Ryan.
The gods of guilt : a novel / by Michael Connelly. Defense attorney Mickey Haller investigates after a former client, a prostitute who had left the life for the straight and narrow, turns up dead, in the fifth novel of the crime series following "The Fifth Witness".