My LINKcat AccountIf you read this on June 16th, there are only three full days until the summer solstice on Monday, June 20th at 5:34 p.m. Sunrise is at 5:18 and sunset is at 8:41. This is the longest day of the year and the time when the sun is at its northernmost point in our sky. From this point on the days start getting shorter. It seems like summer just got here, which it technically just did since the summer solstice is the meteorological start of summer. But even as the trees that are slow starters in leafing out and in flowering (such as the lilac trees that are reaching their blooming peak), the birds who were early starters have already fledged their first crop of youngsters. Young geese are starting to take to the air and practice flying. Oats and wheat look like they’re in the dough stage and ready for cropping and first crop hay was cut a few weeks ago. If you planted vegetables you have undoubtedly noted that they are growing by leaps and bound. The two almost- ninety-degree days we’ve already and the rain that has been arriving at a nicely spaced schedule have made it a great growing season so far. While summer gallops on a pace and seems to already be slipping through our hands, there still many weeks left in the library’s summer program. You have from now until the 31st of July – which would be Harry Potter’s Birthday Party as well – to read book and earn dragon dollars to enter into weekly drawings for really cool prizes, donate to charities (DeForest Area Needs Network, the library’s endowment fund, or the Dane County Humane Society), or purchase something (also really cool stuff) in our store. The books below are a sample of all the wonderful reading possibilities that are available at your library. Enjoy!
New Non-Fiction
A self-made man : the political life of Abraham Lincoln, 1809-1849 / by Sidney Blumenthal. The first book in a multivolume biography of the 16th president follows his childhood as a “newsboy” and a voracious reader that molded him into a “free thinker,” ultimately setting up his political aspirations and career in law.
The view from the cheap seats : selected nonfiction / by Neil Gaiman. The best-selling author of American Gods presents an enthralling collection of nonfiction essays on a myriad of topics—from art and artists to dreams, myths and memories—observed in his distinctive, probing and amusing style.
Unselfie : why empathetic kids succeed in our all-about-me world / by Michele Borba. Citing the reasons a healthy sense of empathy can secure a child's long-term well-being in today's connected, media-driven culture, the best-selling author of The Big Book of Parenting Solutions outlines a nine-step program for cultivating empathy to foster kindness, leadership skills and courage in today's kids.
New Fiction
The highwayman : a Longmire story / by Craig Johnson. Longmire and Henry Standing Bear assist newly transferred officer Rosey Wayman, who has been receiving assistance calls from a legendary Arapaho patrolman who died in a fiery canyon accident more nearly half a century earlier. By the best-selling author of “Dry Bones”.
Prayers the devil answers : a novel / by Sharyn McCrumb. Appointed to serve out her late husband's term as sheriff of their Depression-era Tennessee mountain town, Ellie struggles to reconcile her responsibilities with societal expectations for women and forges unexpected ties with a condemned killer she is scheduled to execute.
Robert B. Parker's Slow burn / by Ace Atkins. When a firefighter is ostracized for claiming that a deadly three-alarm blaze was set by an arsonist, Spenser discovers that the fire may be linked to a string of new arsons plaguing one of Boston's oldest neighborhoods.
Seven days dead / by John Farrow. While enjoying a vacation in coastal Maine, Detective Cinq-Mars becomes caught up in a murder investigation and its possible connection to the death of a seemingly unrelated old man, in the second book in the trilogy following “The Storm Murders”.
Tall tail : a Mrs. Murphy mystery / by Rita Mae Brown. When the governor of Virginia passes away from a telling disease, Harry and her furry detective cohorts look for answers in the 18th century, where they discover a secret ancestry that originated in brutality and silence. By the author of the "Sister" Jane Arnold Outfoxed series.
The girl from Summer Hill : a Summer Hill novel / by Jude Deveraux. Clashing with a gorgeous Hollywood star who is playing Darcy in a local production of Pride & Prejudice, Casey, a chef who puts her career first and who believes the actor's brother-in-law's damning claims, finds herself becoming attracted to him in spite of herself. By the best-selling author of A Knight in Shining Armor.
Haunted destiny / by Heather Graham. Assigned to investigate a mysterious serial killer who leaves his victims in churches with saint medallions on their necks, paranormal investigator Jackson Crow and New Orleans agent Jude McCoy team up with piano player Alexi on a haunted cruise ship when the ghost of a victim appears to them.
Troublemaker / by Linda Howard. Sent to a remote location when an unknown enemy begins targeting members of his paramilitary group, dedicated operative Morgan Yancy fights his growing feelings for small-town police chief Isabeau Maran, whose life is put in danger by her discovery of Morgan's secret.
The versions of us / by Laura Barnett. Follows the disparate paths shared by a couple who, after meeting by chance on a Cambridge street, fell in love or went separate ways, married or split up, and grew disillusioned with their shared lives or found solace together after years of separation. A first novel.
Fatal thunder / by Larry Bond. Receiving intelligence from a former enemy that nuclear relics from the fallen Soviet Empire are being sold to hostile adversaries, U.S. skipper Jerry Mitchell teams up with dubious allies in an effort to stop Indian nationalist from triggering an Asian nuclear war.