My LINKcat AccountWas the solar eclipse good for you? Was it everything you expected? Was the weather even conducive to viewing (writing this at noon on Sunday, August 20th the forecast – depending on the news channel- is mostly cloudy with a 40 to 60 percent chance of thunderstorms.)? The hoopla surrounding this event and the search for eclipses-viewing glasses complete with reports of purported shipments arriving at various locations around the Madison area, reminds me of the Beanie Baby craze of the 1990s. And who can forget the 1983 holiday season spent standing in line to get a Cabbage Patch doll for your beloved offspring? The eclipse and the resulting demand for safe eyewear created a good example of supply-and-demand economics. We had a program about the eclipse at the end of June and bought 20 pairs of glasses for about $16. So that’s like eighty cents a \piece. Fast forward to this past week and a pair of the same glasses was going for $9.99. There was very low supply (no one anticipated the amount of interest there would be in this eclipse) and very high demand – a real sellers’ market. Isn’t the free market swell? If you did manage to snag a pair of glasses, put them away in a safe place. The next total eclipse in the continental United States will be April 4th, 2024 and its path goes through northern Indiana and Michigan (not too far a drive).August 12, 2045 has a total eclipse going from coast to coast but further south. But, if you can manage to stay alive until September 14th, 2099 there will be a solar eclipse with the path of totality right around Madison, WI. While you’re waiting for the next solar eclipse or whatever you might be waiting for, you will find some new books listed below to help you while away the time. Enjoy!
New Non-Fiction
The world broke in two : Virginia Woolf, T.S. Eliot, D.H. Lawrence, E.M. Forster and the year that changed literature / by Bill Goldstein. A revelatory portrait of the intersecting lives and works of literary masters Virginia Woolf, T. S. Eliot, E. M. Forster and D. H. Lawrence in the year that marked the beginning of modernism describes how they struggled with creative blocks in a transforming literary community.
The big lie : exposing the Nazi roots of the American left / by Dinesh D’Souza. The author of three #1 New York Times best-sellers argues that American progressivism has its roots in Nazism.
Woolly : the true story of the quest to revive one of history's most iconic extinct creatures / by Ben Mezrich. The best-selling author of The Accidental Billionaires traces the pioneering work of a group of young scientists under the guidance of brilliant geneticist George Church, who sequenced the DNA of a frozen woolly mammoth harvested from the Arctic Circle to resurrect the extinct species as part of a larger effort to slow the advances of global warming.
The way we die now : the view from medicine's front line / by Seamus O’Mahony. An insightful report on how the western world addresses death and dying examines how innumerable people currently die in hospitals, often unaware that their time has come and subjected to invasive and unhelpful last-minute interventions, in a call-to-action that urges for a return to practices that enable compassionate and positive death experiences.
New Fiction
The epiphany machine / by David Gerrard. The author of Short Century reimagines an alternative-history New York from the 1960s to the near future marked by a salon host's innovation of an "epiphany machine" that places text tattoos on its users' forearms that make revelatory statements of fortune and consequence.
The almost sisters / by Joshilyn Jackson. Swept off her feet by a costumed man at a comics convention, a graphic novelist discovers that she is pregnant with a biracial child and avoids telling her conventional Southern family while assisting her elderly grandmother, who has been hiding a dangerous secret linked to the Civil War.
The reason you're alive / by Matthew Quick. Surviving a brain tumor linked to a wartime chemical exposure, David resolves to return a stolen object to a former Native American soldier from his past as part of an effort to find closure and recover from his wife's untimely death. By the award-winning author of “The Silver Linings Playbook”.
Chuckwagon trail. by William Johnstone. A pair of national best-selling authors present the first book in an exciting new western series.
Collared / by David Rosenfelt. Astonished when an anonymously surrendered dog is linked to the kidnapping of a baby more than two years earlier, canine rescuer and lawyer Andy Carpenter reopens the case to search for the stolen child and determine if the right person was sent to jail. By the award-winning author of “Outfoxed”.
Deadfall / by Linda Fairstein. Investigating the drive-by murder of a high-profile city employee, assistant district attorney Alexandra Cooper teams up with NYPD detectives Mike Chapman and Mercer Wallace to search for answers in secret societies, a big-game hunting operation, the illegal animal trade and covert government deals.
A distant view of everything / by Smith McCall, Alexander. The arrival of a second child for amateur sleuth Isabel Dalhousie is complicated by her four-year-old's lack of enthusiasm and a matchmaker's request for help with a couple whose prospects have been overshadowed by sinister revelations. By the best-selling author of the “No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency” series.
The late show / by Michael Connelly. Relegated to the night shift after filing a sexual harassment complaint against a supervisor, a once up-and-coming LAPD detective disobeys orders by refusing to walk away from two cases, including an assault on a prostitute and the death of a young woman in a nightclub shooting. By the best-selling author of “The Crossing”.