My LINKcat AccountI am extremely sorry to report that even given all the access there is nowadays to information, I missed that this past Sunday, December 10th, was Dewey Decimal Day. This day celebrates the birthday, on December 10th, 1851, of Melvil Dewey the inventor of the Dewey Decimal System of library classification. Since its inception it has managed to keep pace with changing technologies and to drive the uninitiated slightly crazy. It is still the most widely used classification system in the world. It is used in 135 countries. It seems as we get closer to the big holidays at the end of this month, the national celebration days get, well, how shall I put this? Some seem seasonally very appropriate, some make no logical sense as to time of year for celebration but are what they are, and there are some that frankly seem to be clutching at straws. For example, December 12th is both National Gingerbread House Day and Poinsettia Day. December 13th is National Cocoa Day and National Day of the Horse. December 14th is both National Cat Herders Day and National Ugly Sweater Day. I’ll end with December 15th which is National Chocolate Covered Anything Day as well as Bill of Rights Day which was designated as such by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1941. Take time out of your busy schedule as the countdown to the holidays gets down to ten days. Celebrate the little things and the big things and if you’re at a loss, celebrate some of the National celebration days listed above. There are a lot of new books listed below all of which will help you celebrate the joy of reading. Enjoy!
New Non-Fiction
- “Wayne and Ford: The Films, the Friendship, and the Forging of an American Hero” by Nancy Schoenberger. A dual portrait of Western film titans John Ford and John Wayne shares insights into their productive collaborations and often turbulent relationship, providing behind-the-scenes details about the makings of such iconic films as “She Wore a Yellow Ribbon” while discussing each star's enduring legacy and influence.
- “Gold Dust Woman: The Biography of Stevie Nicks” by Stephen Davis. An in-depth portrait of the classic-rock artist includes coverage of such topics as her role in the stardom of Fleetwood Mac, the affairs that inspired her greatest songs, her struggles with addiction and her successful solo career.
- “Growing Up Fisher: Musings, Memories, and Misadventures” by Joely Fisher. A behind-the-scenes memoir by the half-sister of the late Carrie Fisher describes their upbringing in their Hollywood family, the author's personal struggles with identity, her two-decade marriage, her experiences as a mother to five children and how she became motivated to pursue a creative life in the wake of Carrie's death.
- “Promise Me, Dad: A Year of Hope, Hardship, and Purpose” by Joe Biden. A former vice president of the United States chronicles the difficult final year of his son's battle with cancer and the lessons he learned from it.
- “Silence: In the Age of Noise” by Erling Kagge. A compact meditation on the role of silence in a creative life contrasts silence to the constant distracting noises of today's connected world while describing the experiences of fellow poets, artists and explorers as well as his personal experiments during a 50-day solo walk in Antarctica without radio contact.
- “Why Bob Dylan Matters” by Richard Thomas. A Harvard classics professor and expert on Bob Dylan expands on his popular seminar in a full-length, meditative examination of the Nobel Prize-winning lyricist's enduring influence, sharing insights into Dylan's formative experiences against a backdrop of western and classical literature.
New Fiction
- “Fairytale” by Danielle Steel. When her idyllic life on her family's Napa Valley vineyard is shattered by her mother's sudden death, a young Stanford graduate finds herself at the mercy of a cold-hearted stepfamily at the same time she bonds with her stepmother's kind mother and a loving friend from her childhood.
- “The Seven Decimate, No. 1(The Great God’s War)” by Stephen R. Donaldson. A prince makes difficult sacrifices and discovers that he has been rendered a pawn as he searches for a powerful repository of sorcerer knowledge in order to reverse the fate of his land, in a debut entry in a trilogy by the best-selling author of “Lord Foul's Bane”.
- “Moon Hunt, No. 3 (North America’s Forgotten Past)” by Kathleen & Michael Gear. Journeying to Cahokia to become the sacrificial promised bride of the Morning Star, Whispering Dawn, a woman carrying dark secrets and powers, is carried away to the Underworld, where she must rescue captured souls at the side of an embittered Fire Cat.
- “A Christmas Return” by Anne Perry. Spurred by holiday cheer and a surprise hidden in a Christmas pudding, an elderly aristocrat endeavors to correct a past wrong by solving a decade-old murder. By the best-selling author of “The Sheen on the Silk”.
- “Count to Ten, No. 13 (Private)” by James Patterson & Ashwin Sanghi. Summoned by the head of the world's top investigation agency to join a new office in Delhi, former Private India head Santosh Wagh struggles to set aside his personal demons before tackling a case involving murderously corrupt authorities and human remains found at a government site.
- “The Deadly Éclair, No.1 (French Bistro Mysteries)” by Daryl Wood Gerber. During the first wedding at the bistro and inn for which Mimi Rousseau is working off a loan order to one day own it, her benefactor, Bryan, is found dead at the bistro with an éclair stuffed in his mouth, and the fingers point at Mimi, whose entire loan is forgiven in Bryan’s will.
- “Death in the Stacks, No. 8 (Library Lovers)” by Jenn McKinlay. Targeted by a new library board president who she is sure is trying to drive her out, library director Lindsey Norris and her new hire, Paula, are declared suspects when the combative president is found dead, a situation that forces them to find the real killer to clear their names. By the best-selling author of “Better Late Than Never”.