My LINKcat AccountToday, should be the third day of January, 2025. You have already had a couple of days to get that date of the year right, if, like me, you still occasionally write a check or two and or send actual, handwritten, Thank-you cards. Here are some fun facts about January. The month is named after the Roman god, Janus (pronounced the same way my unabbreviated name is, but that is purely coincidental) the protector of beginnings and endings as well as gates, doorways, and other areas of transition. This god is portrayed as being two –faced, which does make sense, to be both looking back towards the past and forward towards the future. This pause that January gives us after the rush of the holidays, allows us chance to firmly resolve to take up new actions (sometimes) and set down old ones (sometimes). In the publishing world, this is the time of year that all the self-help books pour out into bookstores, libraries, and the hands of well-intentioned, determined individuals. You will note, that today’s selection of book titles, only includes one book that might be considered a self-help (“Lifestyled”). More titles of this ilk, I am sure will be following as we get deeper into the month of January. Today, January 3rd, is “National Drinking Straw Day”. This is the date in 1888 that Marvin C. Stone received the patent for the paper drinking straw. It is “National Chocolate Covered Cherry Day”. These cherries can be covered in white chocolate, milk chocolate, or dark chocolate and can also contain a little bit of kirsch liqueur (or other cherry cordial). I hope the beginning of this brand, new, year is treating you well. Below you will find some of the new books which recently arrived at the library. Enjoy!
Jan's Column 2025
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New Non-Fiction:
“Indigenous: A Biography of Benjamin Franklin, Scientist” by Richard Munson. The dramatic story of an ingenious American Founder who explained nature and created a country.
“The McCartney Legacy: 1974-80” by Allan Kozinn & Adrian Sinclair. The extensively researched second entry of this multi-volume biography chronicles the celebrated musician's life from 1974 onward, detailing his rise with Wings as a top band of the 1970s and his continued evolution as a musician beyond the Beatles, solidifying his enduring legacy into the 21st century.
“Box Office Poison: Hollywood’s Story in a Century of Flops” by Tim Robey. A “Daily Telegraph” film critic presents an entertaining alternative history of Hollywood, exploring a century of notable film flops, with insights into the film industry, public tastes and the circumstances behind these essential cinematic failures.
“A Certain Idea of America: Selected Writings” by Peggy Noonan. From a Pulitzer-prize-winning Wall Street Journal columnist and New York Times bestselling author comes a masterclass in how to see and love America.
“Lifestyled: Your Guide to a More Organized & Intentional Life” by Gill Shira. Providing chapters covering health, home, relationships, career, finance, and personal development, a professional home organizing expert uses her signature blend of practical minimalism and organization to design a framework to streamline and simplify every part of your life, regardless of lifestyle or budget.
“The Paris Girl: The Young Woman Who Outwitted the Nazis and Became a WWII Hero” by Francelle Bradford White. Written by her own daughter, an intimate biography chronicles the courage of Andrée Griotteray, a teenage girl in Nazi-occupied Paris who would become a hero of the French Resistance through her harrowing work as an underground intelligence courier.
New Fiction:
“Bellevue” by Robin Cook. As Dr. Mitt Fuller begins his surgical residency at Bellevue Hospital, his sixth sense intensifies, leading him to uncover sinister connections between mysterious patient deaths and the dark secrets of an abandoned local psychopathic hospital.
“I Made It Out of Clay” by Beth Kander. Wrestling with crushing grief and desperate for a date to her sister’s wedding, Eve, a Jewish woman in Chicago, creates a golem to be her plus-one, but what begins as a lighthearted rom-com fantasy swiftly mudslides toward something much, much darker.
“The Icarus Needle” by Timothy Zahn. In a universe where ancient Icari portals offer instant travel across stars, Gregory Roarke and his Kadolian partner Selene must navigate shifting allegiances and rival factions on a distant world with a ruined city and competing alien groups, all while uncovering the true purpose behind the portals.
“A Monsoon Rising, No.2 (Hurricane War)” by Thea Guanzon. Forced into a marriage to end their nations' war, Alaric and Talasyn navigate their feelings along with a dangerous plot that could cause a cataclysmic event in the second novel of the series following The Hurricane Wars.
“Only the Stars Know the Meaning of Space: A Literary Mixtape” by Ngamije Remy. Presented as a literary mixtape, the A-Side describes an almost thirty-year-old aspiring writer navigating a complicated world, and the B-Side features (seemingly) unrelated short stories—but when read together, they reveal a third, complex, intergenerational, and interconnected world exploring grief.
“The Champagne Letters” by Kate Macintosh. In 1805 Reims, Barbe-Nicole Clicquot, determined to build a premier champagne house despite her husband’s death, navigates war, competition, and court politics, while in present-day Paris, Natalie Taylor, inspired by Clicquot’s letters, seeks to rebuild her life after a divorce and faces a life-changing decision.
“Against the Grain, No.22 (Detective Peter Diamon Mysteries)” by Peter Lovesey. Returning to a small Georgia town to inherit her eccentric Aunt Rose's quirky bookstore, Madeline Brimley is threatened by arson and a murder in the store, forcing her to investigate before she becomes the next victim.
“Death at an Irish Wedding, No.2 (Irish Castle Mysteries)” by Ellie Brannigan. Rayne McGrath’s plan to save her family’s crumbling castle hinges on hosting a celebrity wedding, but the suspicious death of a guest threatens everything in the second novel of the series following Murder at an Irish Castle.