My LINKcat AccountThe dry, mostly clear, somewhat warm, weather continues on apace as the days wind down towards the end of the year. We have already moved past St. Nicholas Day which was yesterday. Did you put your shoes out overnight by the fireplace, on a windowsill or outside your bedroom door? Did St. Nick fill your shoe with candy, dried fruits, little gifts, and treats? (I found a cat toy in one shoe and a few pieces of kibble in another so I’m thinking it wasn’t St. Nick leaving the gifts.) This coming Saturday – that’s December 9th -- that large man in a red suit will be at the library listening to girls and boys (of all ages) telling him what they want for Christmas. It’s a delightful time and a great opportunity to get your picture taken with the big man himself. On Sunday – that’s December 10th—the Solstice Brass will be playing seasonally appropriate music. They will be performing Christmas music from the traditional to the jazzy at 1:30 p.m. from the mezzanine of the library. Enjoy a treat and hot cider served by the Friends of the Library while you listen to the music. And while your hanging out waiting to talk to Santa or listening to the music of the season sipping some cider, checkout out all the new titles that have arrived at the library this past week. Enjoy!
New Non-Fiction
- “1917: Lenin, Wilson, and the Birth of the New World Disorder” by Arthur Herman. The Pulitzer-finalist author of Gandhi and Churchill chronicles the intertwined stories of consequential world leaders Woodrow Wilson and Vladimir Lenin, revealing unexpected commonalities between the two men and their enduring influence on today's world.
- “The Trials of a Scold: The Incredible True Story of Writer Anne Royall” by Jeff Biggers. A passionate, carefully researched portrait of one of America's first woman muckrakers, who was convicted in a bizarre 1829 trial as a "common scold," describes the tenacity that earned her the first presidential interview ever granted to a woman and her tireless denouncement of the increasingly blurry lines between religion and politics.
- “Get Better: 15 Proven Practices to Build Effective Relationships at Work” by Todd Davis. The performance improvement experts at FranklinCovey outline anecdotal and practical recommendations for how organizations of any size or type can create a competitive advantage by building effective relationships.
- “The Annotated African American Folktales” by Henry Gates and Maria Tater. A treasury of dozens of African-American folktales discusses their role in a broader sophisticated, complex and heterogeneous cultural heritage, sharing illuminating annotations and illustrations complementing such classics as the Brer Rabbit stories, the African trickster Anansi and out-of-print tales from the late 19th-century's “Southern Workman”.
- “The Bad Food Bible: How and Why to Eat Sinfully” by Aaron Carroll. Revealing how foods we are trained to avoid can actually improve health, a science-based cookbook reveals the positive benefits of enjoying moderate portions of vilified ingredients ranging from red meat and alcohol to gluten and salt.
- “Troublemakers: Silicon Valley’s Coming of Age” by Leslie Berlin. A narrative history of the Silicon Valley generation that launched five major high-tech industries in seven years details the specific contributions of seven technical pioneers and how they established the foundation for today's tech-driven world.
New Fiction
- “The City of Brass, No. 1 (The City of Brass Trilogy)” by S.A. Chakraborty. A young con artist of unsurpassed talent inadvertently summons a mysterious djinn warrior to her side during one of her cons, revealing the existence of true magic before the future of a magical Middle Eastern kingdom falls into her hands. A first novel. 75,000 first printing.
- “The Complete Sookie Stackhouse Stories” by Charlaine Harris. Featuring a new introduction by the author, a definitive new collection of all previously published Sookie Stackhouse stories includes the tales "Fairy Dust," "Dracula Night," "If I Had a Hammer," and many more.
- “Radio Free Vermont: A Fable of Resistance” by Bill McKibben. Broadcasting from a secret location with the help of a young computer prodigy, a septuagenarian radical and fugitive from the law leads an eccentric group of activists who carry out their own version of guerilla warfare when they decide that their home state might be better off seceding from the United States.
- “The Ruined House” by Ruby Namdar. A U.S. release of an award-winning first novel from Israel follows the experiences of a successful college professor whose life is upended by a series of strange and inexplicable visions involving an ancient religious ritual.
- “The Ballard of Black Bart” by Loren Estleman. The four-time Shamus Award-winning author of Cape Hell depicts the suspenseful Old West rivalry between a legendary Wells Fargo chief of detectives and a notorious stagecoach robber who between heists poses as an upper-class San Francisco gentleman.
- “The Revolution of Marina M.” by Janet Fitch. A young woman of privilege coming of age in 1916 St. Petersburg finds her life and ambitions violently upended by historical events that find her joining the cause for workers' rights, falling in love with a radical poet and navigating devastating betrayals. By the best-selling author of “White Oleander”.