My LINKcat AccountApril showers are pretty good at bringing forth May flowers. April showers are also good for library attendance. There’s nothing like wet, dreary weather to drive people to the library looking for entertainment of some sort, be it books, or dvds, music, or magazines. In fact April showers are excellent for checking out cakes pans and using the old stove to add a little warmth and coziness to a cold, damp, spring day. But May. What can I say about the month of May? Rogers and Hammerstein called it “The lusty month of May, that lovely month when everyone goes blissfully astray”. Not that I think people are going “blissfully astray” although that is a lovely image to contemplate; however, I do know folks aren’t coming into the library. The weather in May, in Wisconsin, is just to durn good to stay indoors and the days are getting so much longer, it’s still light out when the library closes. So why would you give up daylight, sunshine, and balmy breezes? I can’t think of but one or two reasons and those are to pick up your holds or to see one of the interesting, informative, and entertaining programs at the library. So if spring fever has you spending most of your waking hours outdoors, remember books are soporific (at times not so much, if it’s really good or really frightening) and should be part of your wind down routine before you go to sleep. Below are some of the new titles that arrived at the library this week. Enjoy!
New Non-Fiction
Jackie's girl : my life with the Kennedy family / by Kathy McKeon. A coming-of-age memoir by a young woman who was Jackie Kennedy's personal assistant and sometime nanny for 13 years describes her witness to several historical events and the lessons about life and love she learned from the beloved First Lady.
The Black Hand : the epic war between a brilliant detective and the deadliest secret society in American history / by Stephen Talty. Chronicles the dramatic story about the origins of the mafia in early 20th-century America and the achievements of Italian-born detective, Joseph Petrosino, who gave his life to fight it.
Killers of the Flower Moon : the Osage murders and the birth of the FBI / by David Grann. The best-selling author of The Lost City of Z presents a true account of the early 20th-century murders of dozens of wealthy Osage and law-enforcement officials, citing the contributions and missteps of a fledgling FBI that eventually uncovered one of the most chilling conspiracies in American history.
New Fiction
The ashes of London / by Andrew Taylor. In 1666 London, as the Great Fire ravages the city, a semi-mummified body is discovered in the ashes of St. Paul’s cathedral, and James Marwood, the son of a disgraced printer, and reluctant government informer, is tasked with hunting down a killer across a devastated landscape. By the #1 best-selling author of “The American Boy”.
Cold earth / by Ann Cleeves. When a landslide in the dark days of a Shetland winter destroys a house in which the body of a mysterious woman in a red silk dress is found, Jimmy Perez becomes obsessed with identifying the woman and discovering how she actually died.
Finding Gideon / by Eric Dickey. Calling in support from the beautiful Hawks when his latest job takes an unprecedented toll, jet-setting contract killer Gideon launches a plan to take down his nemesis, Midnight, who has assembled a team of mercenaries targeting Gideon's loved ones. By the best-selling author of “The Blackbirds”.
Miss Julia weathers the storm / by Ann Ross. Vacationing at the beach with her friends, including one nursing a broken heart, Miss Julia discovers valuable items that have been washed up by a strong storm before her group is threatened by a strange couple that demands they hand over their findings.
Of books and bagpipes : a Scottish bookshop mystery / by Paige Shelton. Thriving in her new home in Edinburgh, historical book seller Delaney Nichols pursues a rare manuscript only to stumble on the murdered body of her contact, a crime that she links to a complicated plot. By the author of “The Cracked Spine”.
Song of the lion / by Anne Hillerman. When a deadly bombing in the Shiprock High School parking lot is discovered to be part of a terrorist plot to disrupt peaceful negotiations between the Hopi and Dine tribes, retired Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn discovers links between the bombing and a cold case from earlier in his career.
What the dead leave behind : a gilded age mystery / by Rosemary Simpson. When her beloved fiancé is found dead after the Great Blizzard of 1888 in New York City, heiress Prudence MacKenzie, suspecting foul play, turns to her fiancé's best friend, a former Pinkerton agent, to discover the truth and find protection from sinister forces. By the author of “Dreams and Shadows”.