My LINKcat AccountA week from today, assuming you are reading this on Thursday, August 1st, the Harry Potter Birthday Party -- which takes place every year on Harry's birthday which we all know is July 31st--will be a thing of the past and the Summer reading Program will be winding down with only 9 days until the end of the program party on Saturday, August 10th. The preceding rather long and convoluted sentence seeks to point out that 1) the Harry Potter Birthday party is on July 31st so still plenty of time to plan and attending (You do not need to bring birthday presents.There will be cake!), and 2) that there is still plenty of time to add titles to your Summer Reading account and earn dragon dollars to spend in our store or donate to one of three local charities. While summer is entering its later phases in nature -- i.e. some crops are awaiting harvesting, hay is being cut and baled, corn depending on how soggy the fields have been is beginning to tassel, and roadsides and field edges are filled with chicory, Queen Anne's lace, dock, and mullein -- the summer book publishing continues as if it were the beginning of that book publishing season. The books just keep on coming. There are "beach " reads and serious reads galore. Below you will find a sampling of the titles which have arrived at the library recently. Enjoy!
New Non-Fiction
“The Dictionary Wars: The American Fight Over the English Language” by Peter Martin. A history of the national conflicts stemming from the creation of the first definitive American English dictionary shares insights into how ensuing power struggles among lexicographers, scholars, publishers and other major groups underpinned the nation's founding and growth.
“Grace Will Lead Us Home: The Charleston Church Massacre and the Hard, Inspiring Journey to Forgiveness” by Jennifer Berry Hawes. Written by a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist, a poignant narrative account of the tragic 2015 shootings at Charleston's Mother Emanuel AME Church shares survivor insights into the massacre and the community's response of forgiveness.
“Supernavigators: The Astounding New Science of How Animals Find Their Way” by David Barrie. Draws on interviews with leading behavioral scientists and observations collected through newly developed research tools in a tour of the cutting-edge science of animals with astonishing navigation talents, from butterflies and birds to reptiles and whales. 20,
“The Conservative Sensibility” by George F. Will. The Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist and best-selling author of Men at Work outlines revolutionary perspectives on American conservatism that reveal how the Founders' beliefs in natural rights established a political tradition under threat in today's world.
New Fiction
“The Long Flight Home” by Alan Hlad. In September 1940, the events of World War II bring together British pigeon-keeper Susan Shepard, American pilot Ollie Evans and a pigeon on a very special mission named Duchess.
“Star Path: People of Cahokia, No. 25 (North America’s Forgotten Past)” by Michael & Kathleen Gear. A latest entry in the Cahokian story cycle finds the former matron of the Four Winds Clan and her master thief companion navigating treacherous elements and hostile barbarians when an old enemy reemerges America's greatest pre-Columbian city.
“Summer of ‘69” by Elin Hilderbrand. A pregnant eldest sibling, a middle-sister civil rights activist, an infantry soldier brother deployed to Vietnam and a lonely 13-year-old youngest child find their lives upended by troubling family secrets.
“The Tenth Muse” by Catherine Chung. Determined to conquer the Riemann hypothesis in the face of cultural discrimination against women intellectuals, a genius mathematician uncovers a mysterious theorem's unexpected World War II link to her family.
“Aunt Dimity and the Heart of Gold, No. 24(Aunt Dimity)” by Nancy Atherton. Joining friends for an annual holiday bash at Emma Harris' manor that turns into an overnight stay because of stormy weather, Tilly Trout tours her host's home and discovers a hidden compartment filled with a treasure in gold.
“The Book Supremacy, No. 13 (Bibliophile Mysteries)” by Kate Carlisle. Newlyweds Brooklyn and Derek find their post-honeymoon return to San Francisco overshadowed by two murders that are linked to Derek's past and a valuable first-edition James Bond novel. By the best-selling author of the Fixer-Upper Mysteries.
“The Disappearance of Alistair Ainsworth, No. 3 (Daughter of Sherlock Holmes)”by Leonard Goldberg. Joanna and the Watsons race against time to rescue a high-ranking cryptographer who holds vital national secrets from being exploited by his German abductors. By the best-selling author of “A Study in Treason”.
“Sentence is Death, No. 2 (Detective Daniel Hawthrone)” by Anthony Horowitz. Detective Daniel Hawthorne and his literary sidekick risk their lives to expose dangerous secrets while investigating the murder of a celebrity divorce lawyer and teetotaler who was bludgeoned to death with an expensive bottle of wine.
“Whiskers in the Dark, No. 28 (Mrs. Murphy)” by Rita Mae Brown. A massive nor'easter on the eve of an annual National Beagle Club benefit finds Harry Harristeen and her crime-solving kitties linking the murder of a foreign services officer to an unsolved killing from the 18th century.