My LINKcat AccountThe Summer Reading/ Library Program is underway and slowly gaining momentum. June is a great month to celebrate reading by reading, but it is also has some great month-long observances in case you need a reason to celebrate something besides the arrival of warm weather, sunshine, leafed trees, birdsong, and flowers blooming hither and yon. June is not only Dairy Month, it is also National Ice Tea month as well as National Papaya month. Keeping in the food-themed things to celebrate it is not only National Candy Month, it is also National Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Month. Celebrations which seem to be at war with each other. But I suppose the month of June is like that too. Summer finally arrives with light early in the morning and late and night and then in the third week of the month, at the solstice we start losing the light, heading for the darker days even as the heat continues to rise. June is also Fight the Filthy Fly Month and National Adopt a Cat Month. Both of which seem self-explanatory in their names. This day, June 8th, has its own special celebrations, only one of which is self-explanatory and that is Best Friends Day. June 8th is also Name Your Poison Day – which celebrates the phrase and commemorates making choices or decisions usually when none of the options are good ones (hence the use of the term “poison”). It is also Upsy Daisy Day. A frivolous holiday with the goal of making humor, laughter, and positive attitudes part of the day. To help you enjoy this day even more, below you will find some of the new books that arrived at the library recently. Enjoy!
New Non-Fiction
Al Franken, giant of the Senate / by Al Franken. The Harvard-educated comedian, talk-show host and U.S. senator chronicles the story of his unlikely senatorial campaign, detailing the ensuing months-long recount and what his service has taught him about America's deeply polarized political culture.
Kirk and Anne : letters of love, laughter, and a lifetime in Hollywood / by Kirk & Anne Douglas. The 100-year-old screen icon and his wife of 62 years share secrets to longevity in life and love as demonstrated by candid commentary and correspondences they have shared with friends, world leaders and each other.
Spirit of the horse : a celebration in fact and fable. by William Shatner. An anthology of personal and historical anecdotes collected by the Emmy Award-winning actor best known as Star Trek’s Captain Kirk explores the remarkable impact of horses on human culture while reflecting on the work of his annual Hollywood Charity Horse Show.
The age of the horse : an equine journey through human history / by Susanna Forrest. An evolutionary chronicle of the horse from its origins 56 million years ago to the present examines its prominent role in diverse societies throughout history, sharing anthropological details, personal anecdotes and archival materials to illustrate the parallel development of humans and horses.
The totally unscientific study of the search for human happiness / by Paula Poundstone. The Emmy Award-winning comedienne conducts a series of irreverent "scientific" experiments to discover the secret to happiness, from learning martial arts and speeding in a Lamborghini to communing with nature and volunteering.
New Fiction
Mr Iyer goes to war by Ryan Lobo. A fresh interpretation of Don Quixote, set in modern India, finds a transcendence-seeking student suffering a concussion and experiencing a vision of his past life as the mythical warrior Bhima before embarking on an effort to revive the principles of Hindu culture.
Beren and Luthien by J.R.R. Tolkien. An important chapter in the saga of “The Silmarillion”, first conceived by Tolkien at the end of his service in World War I, follows the romance between an immortal elf and a mortal whose worthiness is put to an impossible test.
The best of Adam Sharp / by Graeme Simsion. The best-selling author of “The Rosie Project” presents the story of a 50-year-old man who reflects on his safe life choices and his long-ago, blazing affair with a strong-willed actress who contacts him unexpectedly and entices him to pursue a riskier life.
Eleanor Oliphant is completely fine : a novel / by Gail Honeyman. A socially awkward, routine-oriented loner teams up with a bumbling IT guy from her office to assist an elderly accident victim, forging a friendship that saves all three from lives of isolation and secret unhappiness.
Fake plastic love : a novel / by Kimberley Tait. A debut novel inspired by The Great Gatsby follows the misadventures of a driven investment banker who would end a relationship between her free-spirited blogger best friend and an unscrupulous colleague only to have her perspectives changed by a dapper Wall Street businessman and hot-air balloon pilot.
How to be human : a novel / by Paula Cocozza. A first novel by an award-winning Guardian feature writer traces the breakdown of a marriage in the wake of a suburban hostility, a woman's growing obsession with a cheeky wild fox and the mysterious appearance of a baby on the woman's doorstep.
Rise and shine, Benedict Stone : a novel / by Phaedra Patrick. In the quiet village of Noon Sun, Benedict Stone lives out the stagnant life of an unhappily married jeweler, until the daughter of his estranged brother arrives from America and turns his whole life upside down. By the author of “The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper”.