My LINKcat AccountI admit it. I am probably the one who jinxed the steady progress spring was making in the area in last week’s column when I noted that spring had arrived. Apologies. I learned a couple of lessons from making that pronouncement. The first thing I learned was if you’re going to predict the weather in Wisconsin in the spring (well, anytime really) then leave some wiggle room in what you say. The second lesson learned was a new piece of weather-lore that had somehow escaped my notice for lo these many years. That lore is: “Spring will come when it has snowed three times on the robin’s tail.” I believe the beginning of the week took care of two of those three snows because there was certainly a loose flock of robins hopping around on my lawn on Monday prior to the snows on Tuesday into Wednesday. We may need one more snow on the robins’ tails for spring to truly be here, but the book publishers certainly think spring has arrived. The spring book titles are beginning to arrive in large quantities. So while we are all waiting to get on the other side of that last robin’s-tail snow, there are plenty of new books -- many of which are listed below--for your reading pleasure. Enjoy!
New Non-Fiction
“Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress” by Steven Pinker. A follow-up to The Better Angels of Our Nature challenges the doom-and-gloom outlooks of today's media to present dozens of graphs and charts demonstrating that life quality, health, prosperity, safety, peace, knowledge and happiness are actually on the rise throughout the world as a result of the philosophies about an Enlightenment era that uses science to improve human existence.
“Farewell to the Horse: A Cultural History” by Ulrich Raullf. A scholarly history of the relationship between horses and humans traces their essential roles in early civilization through the transformations of an increasingly mechanized modern world, exploring how horses have been sources of artistic, military and athletic inspiration.
“The Future of Humanity: Terraforming Mars, Interstellar Travel, Immortality, and Our Destiny Beyond Earth” by Michio Kaku. The co-founder of string field theory and best-selling author of The Future of the Mind traverses the frontiers of astrophysics, artificial intelligence and technology to outline a remarkable vision of humanity's future in space, from colonizing Mars to traveling to distant galaxies.
“I’ll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman’s Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer” by Michelle McNamara. An account of the unsolved Golden State Killer case, written by the late author of the TrueCrimeDiary.com website and featuring an afterword by her husband, comedian Patton Oswalt, traces the rapes and murders of dozens of victims and the author's determined efforts to help identify the killer and bring him to justice.
“The Self-Driven Child: The Science and Sense of Giving Your Kids More Control Over Their Lives” by William Stixrud and Ned Johnson. A clinical psychologist and a test-prep expert combine cutting-edge brain science with insights from their work with families to outline a radical case for giving kids more freedom to unleash their full potential.
New Fiction
“The Shape of Water” by Guillermo del Toro. The famed director of Pan's Labyrinth and a celebrated author combine their talents to craft an otherworldly story set against the backdrop of Cold War-era America, in which an amphibious man is discovered in the Amazon—and subsequently finds love within the human race.
“Promise” by Minrose Gwin. Barely surviving an F5 tornado that rips through her 1936 Mississippi hometown, an African-American laundress and great-grandmother searches for her family among the catastrophe's survivors while bonding with the traumatized teen daughter of a despised white judge.
“The Tuscan Child” by Rhys Bowen. Joanna Langley embarks on a healing journey to Tuscany to learn about her British bomber pilot father's hidden past. By the New York Times best-selling author of “The Royal Spyness” and the Molly Murphy Mysteries.
“White Houses” by Amy Bloom. A New York Times best-selling author presents a novel inspired by the life of Lorena Hickok, and on her love affair and enduring friendship with First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt.
“Winter Sisters” by Robin Oliveira. When the two young daughters of friends killed in a late-19th-century storm vanish without a trace, a former Civil War surgeon launches a determined rescue effort that is challenged by a community that believes there is no hope and a violin-student niece who returns home from Paris with a secret agenda. By the best-selling author of My Name Is Mary Sutter .
“Claws for Concern, No. 9(Cat in the Stacks Mysteries)” by Miranda James. Befriending a man who reveals that he is performing genealogical research on the life of one of Charlie's own family members, proud grandfather Charlie Harris is alarmed when a true-crime writer informs him that the man is suspected in a homicide that occurred years earlier.
“Death of an Honest Man, No. 33 (Hamish Macbeth)” by M.C. Beaton. When an insensitive newcomer to the village of Cnothan is found dead, flame-haired sergeant Hamish Macbeth confronts a bewildering array of suspects at the same time his clumsy police sidekick, Charlie, resigns in protest of his treatment by Chief Inspector Blair. By a New York Times best-selling author..
“Raspberry Danish Murder, No. 22 (Hannah Swensen)” by Joanne Fluke. Throwing herself into the holiday season in the aftermath of her husband Ross' disappearance, Hannah Swensen investigates the murder of her husband's television-station assistant, who had been driving Ross' car and working from his office at the time of his death. Includes recipes.