My LINKcat AccountOne of the interesting things about doing a weekly column, is that that when you run out of things to say, you can always comment on things which have recently happened or are soon to happen. Things which recently occurred (Well, not that recently now. Time has slipped through my fingers like water through a sieve, or like a football through the hands of an NFL receiver (I mean, seriously. How much do these guys get paid to catch a ball! But I digress)). The Summer Reading Program ended a bit more than a month ago. While I gave you the low down on how many miles of pages were read, I did not tell you how many dragon dollars were donated to charities and which I shall be converting to United States dollars. I shall now proceed to do just that. The DeForest Area Needs Network shall be getting a check from yours truly in the amount of $400. The Dane County Humane Society shall be getting a check for $850. I will be making these donations this month. I shall wait until my cash flow settles down a bit before announcing the donation of dragon dollars to the DeForest Area Public Library Endowment. It is heartwarming that so many of you read so much and are so willing to give those hard-earned dollars to charities. The Winter Reading Program is right around the corner. You know, reading is a muscle you need to use regularly to stay in shape. (I think that’s true, but I sort of made that up.) Below you will find some of the new books which recently arrived at the library. Keep reading! Stay in shape! Enjoy!
New Non-Fiction
“Book and Dagger: How Scholars and Librarians Became the Unlikely Spies of World War II” by Elyse Graham. This untold story of the academics who became OSS spies and invented modern spy craft tells how they were able to change the course of World War II and help defeat the Nazis.
“Confronting the Presidents: No Spin Assessments from Washington to Biden” by Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard. Aims a critical eye at every U.S. president—from Washington to Biden—, including their lives, policies, foibles and legacies.
New Fiction
“Creation Lake” by Rachel Kushner. From a Booker Prize finalist and two-time National Book Award finalist comes a new novel about a seductive and cunning American woman who infiltrates an anarchist collective in France.
“Entitlement” by Rumaan Alam. A woman working as an assistant to an octogenarian billionaire in the process of giving away his huge fortune fights the seduction of money in the new novel from the New York Times best-selling author of “Leave the World Behind”.
“The Holiday Cottage” by Sarah Morgan. The USA Today best-selling author of Beach House Summer returns with a heartfelt story of friendship, finding yourself and the surprising ties that bring us together.
“The Night We Lost Him” by Laura Dave. As Nora and her estranged brother Sam form an uneasy alliance to unravel the mystery of their father's death, they start putting together the pieces of their father’s past and uncover a family secret that changes everything.
“A Place to Hide” by Ronald Balson. From the winner of the National Jewish Book Award comes a novel of heroism and resistance during World War II.
“Playground” by Richard Powers. The tiny atoll of French Polynesia has been chosen for humanity’s next adventure: a plan to send floating, autonomous cities out onto the open sea, but first, the island’s residents must vote to greenlight the project or turn the seasteaders away. By the New York Times best-selling author of “The Overstory”.
“Queen Macbeth” by Val McDermid. A counternarrative drawing on the historical record delivers an illuminating portrait of Shakespeare’s most famous villain, and the treacherous pursuit of ambition that made her legendary.
“A Reason to See You Again” by Jami Attenberg. A mother and her two daughters find out the hard way over forty years that running from the past can't save you in the new novel from the New York Times best-selling author of “The Middlesteins”.
“Santa’s Secret, No.3 (Santa’s Crew)” by Fern Michaels. Friends since high school, four 30-something women reunite for a once-in-a-lifetime Italian adventure during Christmastime, filled with tons of laughter, mischief, great food and even a little romance.
“Tell Me Everything” by Elizabeth Strout. While defending a lonely, isolated man accused of killing his mother, town lawyer Bob Burgess falls into a deep and abiding friendship with acclaimed writer, Lucy Barton, and together they meet the iconic Olive Kitteridge and spend afternoons in Olive’s apartment, telling each other stories, which imbues their lives with meaning.
“The Booklover’s Library” by Madeline Martin. In wartime England, widow Emma, when she’s separated from her daughter, seeks solace in the friendships she forms at Boots’ Booklover’s Library, but when the Blitz intensifies, she fights to reunite with her daughter, learning to depending on her community and the powerful of literature to find hope in the darkest of times.
“Agnes Sharp and the Trip of a Lifetime, No. 2(Miss Sharp Investigates)” by Leonie Swann. The elderly residents of Sunset Hall investigate after another series of murders shock the sleepy town of Duck End in the second novel of the series following “The Sunset Years of Agnes Sharp”.