My LINKcat AccountAs of this writing (02/01/2014), the outcome of two major, life-changing events still hangs in the balance. Tomorrow is not only Ground Hog's Day (when we may or may not be granted a reprieve from this winter which seems to have gone on forever) but also Super Bowl Sunday (when we get to find out which is the cutest/dumbest/most expensive television commercials ever produced). I think combining these two events in some fashion makes sense. Perhaps if Peyton Manning sees his shadow we could declare that it will be six more weeks of winter. Or perhaps if the Seahawk's UW Badger quarterback sees doesn't see his shadow (Badgers are sort of like ground hogs. They're both burrowing, hibernating mammals after all) it will be an early spring. Or the outcome of the game could determine whether or not spring comes early. It is a lot warmer in Seattle than Denver so maybe if the Seahawks win that would mean warmer weather is coming soon. Letting the football game determine the outcome of Ground Hog's Day lets the poor little, sleepy fellows (whether it's Punxsutawney Phil or Sun Prairie's Jimmy) continue their long, winter's nap undisturbed. By the time you read this you will, of course, know the outcomes of both of these events. So now that all the dramatic tension is out of the month of February, why not sit back, relax and read one of the many new books that have been arriving at your library? Enjoy!
New Non-Fiction
The second machine age : work, progress, and prosperity in a time of brilliant technologies by Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee. A pair of technology experts describes how humans will have to keep pace with machines in order to become prosperous in the future and identify strategies and policies for business and individuals to use to combine digital processing power with human ingenuity.
Company man : thirty years of controversy and crisis in the CIA / by John Rizzo. A chief legal officer with the CIA who helped create and implement counterterrorist operations after September 11 draws on previously undisclosed stories from his long career to illuminate the agency's inner workings, charting its evolution from a shadowy entity to an organization based on dynamic new laws, scandals and personalities.
Hundred days : the campaign that ended World War I / by Nick Lloyd. Describes the difficult and bloody four-month battle that tipped the stalemate on the Western Front in favor of the Allies in 1918 and drove back the Germans, bringing World War I to an end.
The rise of the Tudors : the family that changed English history / by Chris Skidmore. A British historian describes the soap opera-worthy story of the ruling family of England's double-crossing, treachery, ruthlessness, feuding and warring in the late 15th to early 17th century and the legacies left by Henry VIII and Elizabeth I.
The wars of Reconstruction : the brief, violent history of America's most progressive era / by Douglass Egerton. Extensively researched, this thought-provoking new history of the Reconstruction, which marked the United States' most progressive moment prior to the Civil Rights movement, tells the stories of the African-American activists and officeholders who risked their lives for equality after the Civil War.
New Fiction
Red Rising / by Pierce Brown. A tale set in a bleak future society torn by class divisions follows the experiences of secret revolutionary Darrow, who after witnessing his wife's execution by an oppressive government joins a revolutionary cell and attempts to infiltrate an elite military academy.
Still life with bread crumbs : a novel / by Anna Quindlen. Abandoning her expensive world to move to a small country cabin, a once world-famous photographer bonds with a local man and begins to see the world around her in new, deeper dimensions while evaluating second chances at love, career and self-understanding. By the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of "Living Out Loud".
A star for Mrs. Blake / by April Smith. Meeting for the first time for a shared pilgrimage to France to visit the graves of their World War I soldier sons, an Irish maid, a chicken farmer's wife, a Boston socialite, a former tennis star and a librarian meet a brutally scarred journalist before confronting a shocking secret set against a lesser-known historical event. By the author of the FBI Special Agent Ana Grey series.
The secret of magic / by Deborah Johnson. Working for a prominent member of the NAACP in 1946 when a request comes from her favorite childhood author to investigate the murder of a black war hero, Regina Robichard travels to Mississippi, where she navigates the muddy waters of racism, relationships and her own tragic past. By the award-winning author of "The Air Between Us".
Under the wide and starry sky : a novel / by Nancy Horan. Imagines the unconventional love affair of Scottish literary giant Robert Louis Stevenson and American divorcee Fanny Van de Grift Osbourne, who after meeting in late-19th-century rural France take refuge from their respective unhappy lives and embark on two shared decades of international turbulence.
Bad wolf / by Nele Neuhaus. When they discover a link between the murder of a 16-year-old-girl and the rape of a popular TV reporter, Inspectors Pia Kirchhoff and Oliver von Bodenstein, investigating the rumor of a secret child pornography ring, expose a terrible secret that impacts their personal lives as well.
Dead to me / by Cath Staincliffe. Forced to work together, two female detectives--Janet Scott, tormented by personal demons, and Rachel Bailey, who is determined to make a name for herself--on the Murder Investigation Team in Manchester, England, must find the person responsible for stabbing a teenage girl death.
Hunting shadows : an Inspector Ian Rutledge Mystery / by Charles Todd. When three very different victims are murdered seemingly by the same killer, local police turn to Scotland Yard Inspector Ian Rutledge.