My LINKcat AccountFebruary is a month rife with holidays. We passed Valentine's Day over the weekend and on this week's Tuesday, Mardi Gras ( also known as Shrove Tuesday) passed us by. This week's Monday also celebrated Presidents' Day -- which conflates Abraham Lincoln's birthday (February 12th) and George Washington's Birthday (February 22nd although he was actually born on February 11th but because of the change from the Julian to Gregorian calendar (in 1752) his birthday got moved to the 22nd). And just to jam one more celebration on to February 15th, which is President's Day this year, it is also Susan B. Anthony Day. This day celebrates her birthday on this actual date in 1820. What a holiday rich first half of February we have. I would also note one more date to remember. On February 5th, the first confirmed case of Covid-19 was reported in Wisconsin. We sill begin hitting a number of one-year anniversary dates around Covid-19 as we progress through this year. Spring is coming (though though not quickly enough), daylight is returning, the cold snap is passing off, vaccinations are occurring, and the sun is shinning at least some of the time. Spring and life are beginning to stir and so is hope. If you've been hoping for some new books, your in luck. Below are some of the new titles which recently arrived at the library. Enjoy!
New Non-Fiction
Julian Bond’s Time to Teach: A History of the Southern Civil Rights Movement by Julian Bond. A masterclass in the civil rights movement from one of the legendary activists who led it.
Extraterrestrial: The First Sign of Intelligent Life Beyond Earth by Avi Loeb. Harvard’s top astronomer lays out his controversial theory that our solar system was recently visited by advanced alien technology from a distant star.
The Mission: A True Story by David Brown. A narrative chronicle of NASA's deep-space mission to Jupiter's ocean moon, Europa, discusses the remarkable work of scientists who overcame formidable hurdles in their effort to determine if organic life exists elsewhere in our solar system.
When Brains Dream: Exploring the Science and Mystery of Sleep by Antonio Zadra. Two world-renowned sleep and dream researchers present a comprehensive exploration of human dreaming that draws on up-to-date neuroscience research to illuminate what dreams are, where they come from, why we have them and what they mean.
The Attributes: 25 Hidden Drivers of Optimal Performance by Rich Diviney. A retired Navy SEAL trainer identifies the core attributes that the most successful performers under his command most often exemplified, sharing insights into how such qualities as adaptability, conscientiousness and even narcissism can promote higher productivity and teamwork.
Fish Out of Water: A Search for the Meaning of Life by Eric Metaxas. A five-time “New York Times”best-selling author and nationally syndicated radio host writes his own biography and describes growing up as the Queens-born son of Greek and German immigrants who attended Yale while feeling like an outsider.
New Fiction
The Children’s Blizzard by Melanie Benjamin. The best-selling author of “The Aviator's Wife “draws on oral histories of the Great Plains blizzard of 1888 to depict the experiences of two teachers, a servant and a reporter who risk everything to protect the children of immigrant homesteaders.
At the Edge of the Haight by Katherine Seligman. Witnessing a murder that threatens her already precarious existence, a young homeless woman is pressured to return to her family in tech-driven, race-torn San Francisco. An award-winning first novel.
A Court of Silver Flames, No.4 (Court of Thorns and Roses) by Sarah Maas. Nesta and Cassian must face their haunting pasts in order to stop a dangerous alliance of treacherous human queens in the fourth novel of the fantasy series following “A Court of Wings and Ruin”.
All Girls by Emily Layden. Nine young women embark on personal and scholarly journeys of self-discovery at a prestigious New England prep school, where their evolving voices are shaped by a scandal that the administration would cover up. A first novel.
The Removed by Brandon Hobson. A Cherokee family takes in a remarkable foster child on the eve of the Cherokee National Holiday and anniversary of a loved one's death. By the National Book Award-winning author of “Where the Dead Sit Talking”.
Blood Grove, No. 15 (Easy Rawlins) by Walter Mosley. Unlicensed private investigator-turned-hardboiled detective Easy Rawlins navigates sex clubs, the mafia and dangerous friends when he reluctantly accepts the racially charged case of a traumatized Vietnam War veteran in late-1960s Los Angeles.
A Fatal Lie, No. 23 (Inspector Ian Rutledge) by Charles Todd. Dispatched from London to investigate the discovery of an unidentified body in a peaceful Welsh village, Ian Rutledge uncovers a tangle of deception involving a child's tragic fate and a woman bent on hiding the past.
A History of What Comes Next, No.1 (Take Them to the Stars) by Sylvain Neuvel. A woman from a powerful family that has shaped nearly 100 generations of history undertakes a precarious effort to recruit Wernher Von Braun away from the Nazis and into the American rocket program.
Serpentine, No. 36 (Alex Delaware) by Jonathan Kellerman. LAPD homicide lieutenant Milo Sturgis and brilliant psychologist Alex Delaware investigate a decades-unsolved case involving a rich and spoiled client, a mysterious birth mother and violent coincidences. By the Edgar Award-winning author of “True Detectives”.