My LINKcat AccountI am writing this on Monday, February 19th, which, I’m sure, most of you will recall, is Presidents Day. This holiday was originally designated to celebrate George Washington’s birthday which is actually on February 22nd.. As the years went on Lincoln’s birthday (February 12th) was also included under the umbrella term “Presidents Day”. In 1968, Presidents Day became a federal holiday which means there is no U.S. mail (which I shall have totally forgotten about when I stop to get my mail on the way home) and banks and a few other businesses may be closed. Presidents Day is a fine opportunity for sales and many retailers both online and in brick-and-mortar stores take advantage of the holiday to offer discounts. The funny thing about Presidents Day, also known as George Washington’s birthday is that for all the places that you will find his birth date as February 22nd, 1732 in fact, he was born in Virginia on February 11th, 1731. How is this possible, you ask? Well he was born when the Gregorian calendar was being used. In 1752, Britain and its colonies switched to the Julian calendar which added one year and 11 days to preceding dates. I won’t go into why one calendar system was preferred over the other now. Suffice it to say, the three-day federal holiday celebrating various presidential birthdays makes it a moveable feast which Washington’s birthday sort of was anyway.(Lincoln’s birthday has moved around at all). Below are some of the new books which recently arrived at the library – none via U.S. mail on Monday, however – Enjoy!
New Non-Fiction
“The Other Significant Others: Reimagining Life With Friendship at the Center” by Rhaina Cohen. Inviting us into the lives of people who have defied convention by choosing a friend as a life partner, an award-winning producer and editor for NPR offers a powerful narrative on platonic partnerships and how the thrill, intimacy and we commitment we seek is often found through meaningful friendship.
“The Secret Life of Hidden Places: Concealed Rooms, Clandestine Passageways, and the Curious Minds That Made Them” by Stefan Bachman & April Tucholke. This wonderous guide for the curious introduces 18 hidden places and the eccentric and obsessive minds that created them, such as a chamber of skulls high in the Swiss Alps, a Japanese temple full of traps and a spooky “initiation” well in Portugal built by a secret society.
“The Pursuit of Happiness: How Classical Writers on Virtue Inspire the Lives of the Founders and Defined America” by Jeffrey Rosen. In this interpretation of the Declaration of Independence’s famous phrase, the president of the National Constitution Center profiles six of the most influential founders to show what pursuing happiness meant in their lives and how it became the foundation of our democracy.
“Birding to Change the World: A Call to Action” by Trish O’Kane. A professor and activist shares what birds can teach us about life, social change and protecting the environment.
“Four Thousand Paws: Caring for the Dogs of the Iditarod: A Veterinarian’s Story” by Lee Morgan. An award-wining veterinarian who cares for the dogs who compete in the annual Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Races shares the story of the heroic canine athletes who risk injury, illness and fatigue while facing the dangers of the Arctic.
New Fiction
“The Warm Hands of the Ghost” by Katherine Arden. In 1918, field nurse Laura Iven returns to Belgium to uncover the truth about her brother Freddie’s supposed death in combat, while Freddie, unable to return to the killing fields, take refuge with a mysterious man who has the power to make the hell-scape of the trenches disappear.
“The Summer Book Club” by Susan Mallery. In the small town of Los Lobos, California, three women join a local indie bookstore’s summer book club—devoted entirely to romance novels—and become life-long friends as they navigate the messiness of motherhood, second chances and becoming the person you’ve always wanted to be.
“No Better Time: A Novel of the Spirited Women of the 6888 Central Postal Directory Battalion” by Phillip Williams. In early 1945, Dorothy and 800 African American WACs arrive at their post in England where they are tasked with processing mail sent to GIs from their loved ones back home, an estimated 17 million pieces, and with their outlooks changed forever, return to the U.S. as the catalysts for change in America.
“The Framed Women of Ardemore: A Netherleigh Mystery” by Brandy Schillace. The first book in a cozy mystery series starring an autistic, hyperlexic book editor who inherits a crumbling English estate, only to find herself at the center of a murder investigation when a family portrait vanishes and a dead body shows up in the manor.
“End of Story” by A.J. Finn. Invited by a reclusive mystery novelist to help draft his life story, a longtime correspondent and detective fiction expert finds herself in a real whodunnit when she learns the writer's first wife and son mysteriously vanished.
“The Guest” by A.B. Paris. When their friend Laure moves in after her husband reveals he’s had a child with another woman, Iris and Gabriel, with Laure acting increasingly unhinged and broken relationships and hidden motives linked to a recent tragedy piling up around them, must reckon with whether their happy life has been an illusion.
“Three-Inch Teeth, No. 24 Joe Pickett)” by C.J. Box. When the outlaw he locked up years ago is released from prison, determined to exact revenge on the six people who sent him away, Wyoming game warden Joe Pickett, with a grizzly bear on a rampage, soon discovers he’s one of those six people.