My LINKcat AccountI think we can safely say that summer is officially over. We have passed the Labor Day weekend, school is back in session, the daily temperatures for the most part have started going down (Although I would have to note that today is supposed be near 90 degrees. But we always have to have one at least a few hot days once school gets back in session. It’s some kind of tradition.) and at least the vegetable crop on my back porch is finishing off. The tomato plants look like sticks with tomatoes attached. The foliage is quickly browning and dropping off. The days too are getting shorter. From that earliest sunrise of 4:18 a.m. (CST) which started on June 8th and persisted until June 22nd and that latest of sunsets of 19:41 (which started on June 21st and persisted until July 2nd. We have lost a lot of sunlight. Sunrise is now at 5:26 and sunset at 18:25. (All numbers are CST and, obviously, in military time.) So if I’m doing my math correctly we went from about 15.5 hours of daylight to roughly 13 hours now. Which means there’s more time to stay inside and read. The publisher’s lists of fall titles have already started to arrive. Below you will find a sampling of the books that have arrived this past week. Enjoy!
New Non-Fiction
Feminism unfinished : a short, surprising history of American women's movement by Dorothy Cobble. Traces the beginnings of the feminist movement to the 1920s and follows the post-Suffrage movements, which exposed the exploitation of women in the workplace and fought for sexual rights and freedoms, while shining a spotlight on often-obscured activism by minorities and the working class.
Happiness by design : change what you do, not how you think by Paul Dolan. Draws on insights from economics and psychology to argue that people must behave in happy ways to experience actual happiness, citing the importance of balancing a sense of purpose with environmental comfort while recognizing how to shift focus to overcome emotional biases.
The way forward : renewing the American idea / by Paul Ryan. A congressman and former vice-presidential candidate provides his view on the state of the conservative movement today and a clear plan for what needs to be done to save America.
New Fiction
Death of a dog whisperer / by Laurien Berneson. When her aunt's dog-whispering protégé is found dead, Melanie Travis must help sort through the growing list of suspects to find the killer, all while juggling motherhood, marriage and her six beloved Poodles.
The frozen dead / by Bernard Minier. A U.S. release of an international best-seller is set in a high-security French Pyrenees asylum for the criminally insane and follows the experiences of psychologist Diane Berg, who helps Commandant Martin Servaz investigate a brutal killing and the disappearance of medications. A first novel.
I can see in the dark / by Karin Fossum. Guilty of a terrible crime, Riktor isn’t surprised when a police officer bursts into his house to arrest him, except that he didn’t actually commit the particular crime he is being charged with and must defend his innocence without further incriminating himself.
Strange shores / by Arnaldur Indridason. Decades after a woman disappears from the Icelandic fjords amid a tempest of lies, betrayal and revenge, Detective Erlendur searches the same region for his long-lost brother, only to uncover disturbing secrets. By the award-winning author of “Silence of the Grave”.
An unwilling accomplice / by Charles Todd. While home on leave, World War I battlefield nurse Bess Crawford finds her career, honor and life in jeopardy when the wounded soldier she is supposed to accompany to Buckingham Palace, where he is to be decorated by the King, commits murder and then disappears.
Windigo Island : a novel / by William Krueger. When the body of a year-missing Ojibwa girl washes up on a Lake Superior island, rekindling Native American superstitions about mythical monsters, Cork O'Connor struggles to obtain information from reluctant witnesses to a brutal sex-trafficking operation. By the award-winning author of “Tamarack County”.
Close to home / by Lisa Jackson. In a romantic-suspense novel from a best-selling author, single mother Sara McAdams' attempt to raise her two teen daughters in her childhood home turns terrifying when the dilapidated mansion is rumored to be haunted and teenage girls begin disappearing around town.
Harbor Island / by Carla Neggers. While tracking down stolen artifacts from Boston to Ireland to the coast of Maine, Emma Sharpe, the granddaughter of a world-renowned art detective, and her fiancé, FBI deep-cover agent Colin Donovan, must outwit one of the smartest, most ruthless killers they have ever encountered.
Her last whisper : a novel / by Karen Robards. Assisting a colleague's search for a missing sister who may be a serial killer's latest victim, criminal psychologist Dr. Charlotte Stone, accompanied by ghost lover Michael, teams up with FBI agents Bartoli and Crane in Las Vegas, where they uncover the murderer's sinister seduction practices.
Love Letters : a Rose Harbor novel / by Debbie Macomber. Three guests at Rose Harbor Inn find comfort and renewal through letters, including a woman who reconnects with the father she cannot remember, a couple who rekindle their love and an Afghanistan war widow who finds the strength to move on. By the best-selling author of the Cedar Cove series.