My LINKcat AccountI swung by the library this past Sunday on my way to take care of some chores and I heard crickets chirping in the hostas and flowers planted along the library’s west side. Two things then occurred to me: 1) that I had been hearing crickets for probably the past couple of weeks, and 2) that I hadn’t written my summer-and cricket-weather-lore-almost-annual column yet. In previous years, I had noted my concern about hearing crickets this early because it is well-known weather lore that it is six weeks from hearing crickets chirping to the first frost. I had also noted that a frost in mid-to late July seemed highly improbable. I had thensome digging around (librarians call this research) and discovered that the weather lore refers (at least in some cases) to fall crickets. What follows is perhaps more than you want to know about crickets (or wanted to know, but were afraid to ask): Not only are there fall crickets, but there are also spring crickets as well. What I had been hearing were spring crickets. These crickets survive the winter in a juvenile form and as the weather warms, they mature and start chirping. They die off and the fall crickets, who started their post-winter life as eggs, are finally mature and chirping by the end of July or early August. When the fall crickets start singing is when the countdown to the first frost occurs. I’ll keep you posted on those first frost warnings, but for now, there is still a whole lot of summer yet to come. There are still a whole lot of summer books to be read and enjoyed. Below you will find some of the new titles that have arrived recently. Enjoy!
New Non-Fiction
New Fiction
“The History of a Difficult Child” by Mihket Sibhat. The indomitable child of a scorned, formerly landowning family must grow up in the wake of Ethiopia’s socialist revolution.
“Hiss Me Deadly, No. 15 (Cats in the Stacks Mysteries)” by Miranda James. When a former classmate returns to Athena to work with local college music students, Charlie and her cat Diesel investigate after a band member is murdered in the fifteenth novel of the series following “What the Cat Dragged In”.
“The Last Sinner (A Bentz/Montoya Novel)” by Lisa Jackson. When a victim surfaces bearing the signature of serial killer Father John, a fake priest who used the sharpened beads of a rosary to strangle prostitutes, Detectives Bentz and Montoya are convinced the monster is back and he won’t be stopped until the last sinner has paid the ultimate price.
“The Beach at Summerly” by Beatriz Williams. In 1954, Emilia Winthrop, a professor at Wellesley College, is summoned to CIA headquarters where she’s forced to confront the harrowing consequences of the summer she exposed a traitor amongst the New England elite and a choice that could destroy her chance for redemption all over again.
“Banyan Moon” by Thao Thai. Follows three generations of Vietnamese American women reeling from the death of their matriarch, revealing the family’s inherited burdens, buried secrets and unlikely love.
“The Sounds of Sleighbells (Christmas Tree Ranch)” by Janet Dailey. A cozy ranch setting, small-town neighbors, the uplifting magic of the holidays, and a Texas-sized love story makes this brand new “Christmas Tree Ranch” novel from New York Times bestselling author, the perfect read for fans any time of year.
“Welcome to Beach Town” by Susan Wiggs. Compelled to return to Alara Cove, the place where an accusation she made years ago sent her into exile, competitive surfer Nikki Graziola finds old friendships, rivalries and an unexpected romance drawing her back into the life of the beach town she’s never quite forgotten.
“Into the Mist” by P.C. Cast. Bombs strike US cities and military sites, cause fires, explosions, sonic detonations, quakes, slides, and green mist. Breathed in, the toxin melts men into puddles of bloody clothes. But women may get strange new powers. This is book one of a planned duology.
“The Spare Room” by Andrea Bartz. Packed with Andrea Bartz’s signature tension, twists, and toxic relationships, The Spare Room marks an edgy, boundary-pushing new direction from the “master of the ‘feminist thriller’
“Girls and Their Horses” by Eliza Jane Brazier. Set in the glamorous, competitive world of showjumping, a novel about the girls who ride, their cutthroat mothers, and a suspicious death at a horse show. From the author of “Good Rich People”
“The Happiness Plan” by Susan Mallery. Three women search for joy in #1 New York Times best-selling author’s new novel of hope, heartache, and the power of friendship.
“Killingly” by Katharine Beutner. The author takes the real-life unsolved mystery of the disappearance of a Mount Holyoke student in 1897and crafts it into an unforgettable historical portrait of academia, family trauma, and the risks faced by women who dared to pursue unconventional paths at the end of the 19th century.
“My Magnolia Summer” by Victoria Bewzow Frank. Maggie must head back to Sullivan's Island, in South Carolina low country, in order to help mend her family as it goes through a number setbacks.
“Quiet Tenant” by Clemence Michallon. A psychological thrillers about a serial killer is narrated by those closest to him: his 13-year-old daughter, his girlfriend, and the one victim he spared.
“A Botanist Guide to Flowers and Fatality (A Saffron Everleigh Mystery)” by Kate Khavari. 1920s London isn’t the ideal place for a brilliant woman with lofty ambitions. But research assistant Saffron Everleigh is determined to beat the odds in a male-dominated field at the University College of London. Saffron is enlisted to solve a case of women being poisoned with bouquets of flowers.