My LINKcat AccountA mere week from today -- that's seven days, or 168 hours, or 10,080 minutes -- Christmas Eve day will be upon us. If you need some last minute gifts for a book, music, or movie lover, check out the Friends of the Library's full-service book sale tomorrow, December 18th from 9 a/m. to 3 p.m. There are always treasures to be found in the myriad donations the Friends have for sale. Also on Saturday there will be a brief musical interlude with songs of the season provided by Violet Noices, The DeForest Area High School's a capella choir. There will be cookies and cocoa served too. This week we officially rolled past the shortest day of the year and the "official" beginning of Winter on December 21st. However, as noted in a previous column, we quit losing daylight at the sunset part of the day on the 15th. With a predicted high of 60 degrees for this past Wednesday and with that holly-jolly-season bearing down on us, one has to feel that we are heading into brighter (okay, maybe not brighter, but longer periods of daylight) days. Below are some of the new books which recently arrived at the library. Come check them out. Enjoy!
New Non-Fiction
Entertaining Race: Performing Blackness in America by Michael Eric Dyson. The distinguished public intellectual and best-selling author of “Tears We Cannot Stop” returns with a look at the outsized impact of African American culture and politics on the United States.
Unguarded by Scottie Pippen. On the 30th anniversary of the Bulls’ first championship, the six-time NBA Champion, two-time Olympic gold medalist and Hall of Famer is finally giving fans a raw, matter-of-fact look into his life, and role within one of the greatest, most popular teams of all time.
Liberty is Sweet: The Hidden History of the American Revolution by Woody Holton. This reassessment of the American Revolution examines the role of overlooked Americans such as women, Native Americans, African Americans and religious dissenters in the execution and eventual success of the war.
Our First Civil War: Patriots and Loyalists in the American Revolution by H.W. Brands. A best-selling historian presents a dramatic narrative of the American Revolution that reminds us that before America could win its revolution against Britain, the Patriots had to win a bitter civil war against family, neighbors and friends.
Frequently Asked Questions About the Universe by Jorge Cham & Daniel Whiteson. You’ve got questions: about space, time, gravity, and your odds of meeting your older self inside a wormhole, and all the answers you need are right here.
A Very Short History of Life on Earth: 4.6 Billion Years in 12 Pithy Chapters by Henry Gee. Takes the reader through the last 4.6 billion years of history of Life on Earth with infectious enthusiasm and intellectual rigor.
New Fiction
The Left-Handed Twin: A Jane Whitefield Novel by Thomas Perry. When Jane, who helps disappear people, agrees to help a woman escape a crazed ex-boyfriend who is friends with members of a Russian organized crime brotherhood, thus begins a bloodthirsty chase through the northeast where nothing—and no one—can be trusted.
Mrs. Jeffries and the Midwinter Murders, No. 40 (A Victorian Mystery) by Emily Brightwell. When Inspector Witherspoon is assigned a complicated murder case a week before Christmas, Mrs. Jeffries and the household must put on their sleuthing caps and unwrap the clues to catch a killer on Santa’s naughty list.
The Return of the Pharaoh: From the Reminiscences of John H. Watson, M.D. by Nicholas Meyer. In 1910, while in Egypt so that his wife can receive treatment for her tuberculosis in the dry climate, Dr. John Watson runs into Sherlock Holmes and helps him track down an Egyptologist who has disappeared under strange circumstances.
Heard It in a Love Song by Tracey Graves. Newly divorced and lonely, Layla Hilding cautiously gets to know a newly-separated dad whose daughter attends the elementary school where she teaches music in the new novel from the best-selling author of The Girl He Used to Know.
An Heiress’s Guide to Deception and Desire by Manda Collins. Caroline Hardcastle, one half of the writing team behind 1867 England's most infamous crime column, must work with the man who broke her heart and put her father's business at risk after a dear friend is kidnapped.
The Wolf (Black Dagger Brotherhood: Prison Camp) by J.R. Ward. Forced into bartering drug deals for the infamous Prison Colony, wolven Lucan finds things getting hot when he meets Rio, the second in command for the shadowy Caldwell supplier who needs his protection—and his love.
A Blizzard of Polar Bears: A Novel of Suspense by Alice Henderson. While studying polar bears in the Canadian Arctic, wildlife biologist Alex Carter begins experiencing suspicious incidents of sabotage including missing equipment, a malfunctioning helicopter and stolen samples in the second novel of the series following A Solitude of Wolverines.
Clive Cusslers’ the Devil’s Sea, No. 29 (Dirk Pit Adventure) by Dirk Cussler. Dirk Pitt discovers a 60-year-old, forgotten plane crash in the Philippe Sea while recovering a failed hypersonic missile from Luzon Strait, in the latest addition to the long running series from the author known as the "grand master of adventure."