My LINKcat AccountLast week I gave you all the numbers from the 2023 Summer Reading Program. I did all the math that I usually do at the end of the reading program and plotted the number of miles all the pages read, laid end-to-end, would reach laid on a map (Somewhere near Detroit, Indianapolis, St. Louis, and north of Duluth, if memory serves). And opined that after the Summer Reading Celebration on August 30th (which we are now past) that we would be finally and truly done with this year’s Summer Reading Program. But I forgot. Not only do we count the pages read and report those. We also count the number of “Dragon Dollars” donated to this reading program’s charities and I get to whine a bit about my eleemosynary impulse to agree to convert those “Dragon Dollars” to United States dollars and write checks to each of the charities. Readers earned and donated $230 to the DeForest Area Needs Network (D.A.N.N.) and $705 to the Dane County Humane Society. Far and away the leading charity for our readers this summer was the renovation of the Children’s Story Hour room. That project got a whopping $1,503. I will be making those donations in the not-too-distant future as my cash flow permits (consider this me whining about how many readers wish to donate to local charities!). And now I will encourage you to keep reading so that once the Winter Reading Program rolls around you will be in great shape to read even more books. Below you will find some of the books which recently arrived at the library. Enjoy!
New Non-Fiction
“The Wingman: The Unlikely, Unusual, Unbreakable Friendship Between John Glenn and Ted Williams” by Adam Lazarus. Presents the untold story of the unique 50-year friendship between two American icons: John Glenn, the unassailable pioneer of space exploration and Ted Williams, indisputably the greatest hitter in baseball history.
“Dream Town: Shaker Heights and the Quest for Racial Equity” by Laura Meckler. The history of Shaker Heights, Ohio, which starting in the late 1950s became a national model for housing and school integration and the lessons it can offer to a nation still struggling with racial equity.
“Eight Setbacks That Can Make a Child a Success: What to Do and What to Say to Turn “Failures” into Character-Building Moments” by Michelle Icard. The author of “Fourteen Talks by Age Fourteen” shows parents how behavioral failures such as a bad report card, poor sportsmanship or under-aged drinking can be used as important character-building moments for their children.
“Stuff Mom Never Told You: The Feminist Past, Present, and Future” by Anney Reese and Samantha McVey. The hosts of the popular podcast “Stuff Mom Never Told You” explore today's major feminist issues.
New Fiction
“Masters of Death” by Olivie Blake. From the “New York Times” best-selling author of “The Atlas Six” comes a story about vampires, ghosts, and death itself.
“The Halloween Cupcake Murder” by Carlene O’Connor. From Galway, Ireland, to the North Pole, to Salem, Massachusetts, a trio of Halloween mysteries prove the spookiest season knows no borders ... and neither does murder.
“The Second Murderer: A Philip Marlowe Novel” by Denise Mina. When wealthy socialite Chrissie Montgomery, young, naïve and set to inherit an enormous fortune, goes missing, PI Philip Marlowe and Anne Riordan, head of her own all-female detective agency, search for this woman who doesn’t want to be found, encountering a dead body along the way.
“Happiness” by Danielle Steel. When wealthy socialite Chrissie Montgomery, young, naïve and set to inherit an enormous fortune, goes missing, PI Philip Marlowe and Anne Riordan, head of her own all-female detective agency, search for this woman who doesn’t want to be found, encountering a dead body along the way.
“Dark Corners” by Megan Goldin. A true crime podcaster investigates after a beautiful, popular, young influencer with a huge following goes missing right after visiting a man in jail for breaking and entering, but who is suspected to be a serial killer.
“Gone Tonight” by Sarah Pekkanen. A mother senses danger closing in when her daughter, ready to spread her wings and move away from home, begins asking questions about her past, in the new novel by the author of “The Golden Couple”.
“Just Another Missing Person” by Gillian McAllister. While investigating the disappearance of 22-year-old Oliva, Julia, the detective heading up the case, discovers, to save her own family, she must “not” find out what happened to Oliva and must frame somebody else for her murder.
“Looking Glass Sound” by Catriona Ward. Returning to the small New England town of his youth where a killer had once stalked its streets, writer Wilder Harlow, while penning his memoir, fears his grip on the truth of the tragedy fading and that this will not only be his last book, but the last thing he ever does.
“None of This is True” by Lisa Jewell. Popular podcaster Alix Summer becomes the subject of her own podcast after a woman named Josie Fair comes into her life and then disappears, leaving behind a terrible and terrifying legacy that puts her life and her family’s lives in mortal danger.