My LINKcat AccountI, for one, am hoping that this shiny, hardly-used, new year will be better than the previous year. You get to a certain age-- and trust me, I am well past that certain age--and the names of friends, acquaintances, and colleagues start appearing in the obit section of the newspaper. 2023 was one of those years for me. I imagine you all have your stories of loss and blessings from 2023 to tell. Stories are really important. They help us organize our thoughts in not only a linear, chronological fashion, but also causally and etiologically (the non-medical definition). Stories help us make sense of the world and of our actions. I believe that stories define what it is to be human as much as, if not more, than tool making. Science has found any number of animals that use tools of some sort. Story tellers in other species have yet to be found. (Although I do think my cats tell each other stories about, say, their trips to the vet or the birds they just saw on the porch.) The stories we tell delve into motivation as well as telling a series of events. Our stories sometimes describe not only how we behaved but how we could have or should have behaved. Stories can help us understand other people’s circumstances and the reasons for their actions. They can create empathy. Libraries are filled with stories. Some of those stories are telling a series of facts in a narrative frame to aid understanding of the events and motivations of people. That is non-fiction. Libraries are also filled with fiction stories too which ask us to imagine plots, people, and even different worlds. If you’re reading this you probably like stories too. Below are some of the recent titles of books filled with stories some of which may help you understand your own story better. Enjoy!
New Non-Fiction
“Create Your Own Cozy: 100 Practical Ways to Love Your Home and Life” by Liz Marie Galvan. A blogger, interior designer, and co-owner of a vintage home decor boutique offers inspiration, interactions and intentional living ideas to make your home and life cozier by growing flowers, creating a soothing bedtime routine and bringing the indoors outside.
“Dumb Ideas: A Behind-the-scenes-Expose on Making Pranks and Other Stupid Creative Endeavors (And How You Can Also Too!)” by Eric & Curry Andre. The minds behind “The Eric Andre Show” and “Bad Trip” reveal the secrets behind their classic pranks and offer tips for novice pranksters to pull off their own stunts such as “Jell-O Surprise,” “Benadryl Steaks” and “Amateur Graverobber.”
“Dust: The Story of the Modern World in a Trillion Particles” by Jay Owens. A London-based researcher and writer describes how the progress of the 20th century has created a profound threat to life in the 21st century by examining the smallest substance on earth: dust.
“Eat, Poop, Die: How Animals Make Our World” by Joe Roman. Reveals how ecosystems are sculpted and sustained by animals eating, pooping, and dying—and how these fundamental functions could help save us from climate catastrophe.
“How Note to Kill Your Houseplant: Survival Tips for the Horticulturally Challenged” by Veronica Peerless. A horticulturist, garden designer and writer/editor provides tips and tricks to sustain and "fix" your house plants with information on more than 100 different plants to help them bloom and thrive in your own space.
New Fiction
“Lone Oaks Crossing, No. 8 (New Americans)” by Janet Dailey. In the lush rolling hills of Lone Oaks, Kentucky, the good life is measured in sips of aged bourbon and the thrill of the world’s most famous horse race: the Kentucky Derby.
“Dissolved” by Nord & Sara Blaedel. Chief Superintendent Liam Stark and Superintendent Dea Torp of the Danish police investigate the disappearance of two people in Tommerup, Denmark and discover a strange note linking the second missing person to the first crime scene.
“The Fourth Rule, No. 4 (A Riley Wolfe Novel)” by Jeffry Lindaay. When the Cobra, a shadowy figure of international crime, plans the biggest heist the world has ever seen, only cunning and clever Riley Wolfe, the ultimate thief, can stop him.
“Manner of Death” by Robin Cook. When a pathology resident ends up on her table days after helping with a suicide autopsy, NYC chief medical examiner Laurie Montgomery discovers his death is a staged homicide and launches her own investigation which leads her to a fraudulent but highly lucrative cancer diagnostics company—and possibly her own death.
“The Other Mothers” by Katherine Faulkner. Searching for a story to launch her career and new friends to help her navigate motherhood, Tash, welcomed into a circle of sleek, sophisticated mothers, discovers the kind of life she’s always dreamed of until two recent murders make her wonder why she’s been so quickly accepted into their exclusive world.
“The Twelve Days of Murder” by Andreina Cordani. Summoned to Scotland for a Christmas-themed masquerade party, former members of an exclusive mystery-solving group at university soon discover that in this game, murder is all too real, and to survive until Christmas morning, they must face the truth of what really happened one fateful night twelve years earlier.
“The Vacation” by John Marrs. On the shores of Venice Beach, eight strangers, staying in a rundown backpackers hostel, are all running from something—and have secrets they’re more than willing to kill for.
“Where the Dead Wait” by Ally Wilkes. Victorian explorer William Day, thirteen years after a failed expedition resulted in abandonment, betrayal and cannibalism, embarks on an uncanny journey into his past to find his missing second-in-command during which he must face up to the things he’s done as the restless dead follow closely behind.