My LINKcat AccountIn case you are counting the days until our annual Harry Potter Birthday Party? If you are doing a countdown, then, as of this date, July 18th, there are 12 – count them—twelve days until July 31st – which we all know is Harry Potter’s birthday. We have already rolled past the 25th anniversary of the release of “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire” in the U.S. The book was released on July 8th, 2000 and this was the first time that the Harry Potter books were released simultaneously in the United Kingdom and the United States. This is also the book where things start getting darker. Be sure to stop by between 10 and noon on the 31st, and partake of the frivolity! There will be refreshments. There will be a slug eating contest (no actual slugs will be harmed!). There will be a costume contest.
The Concerts on Market Street continue for the next two Tuesdays evenings at 6:30 – on the 22nd, Gin, Chocolate, and Bottle Rockets will be performing and on the 29th the Soggy Prairie Band will be playing. Both of these concerts will help you fill up your time while you are waiting for the Harry Potter Birthday Party on July 31st (from 10-Noon). Or, you could read some of the books listed below.
Enjoy!
New Non-Fiction
“How Countries Go Broke: The Big Cycle (Principles)” by Ray Dalio. Looks at such political questions as: Do big government debts threaten our collective well-being? Are there limits to debt growth? Can a big, important reserve currency country like the United States really go broke; and more.
“Proof of Life: Let Go, Let Love, and Stop Looking for Permission to Live Your Life” by Jennifer Pastiloff. This book is an account of how the author radically changed her own life—leaving her marriage, taking risks professionally—while imparting her courage and wisdom to inspire readers to do the same.
“Midnight on the Potomac: The Last Year of the Civil War, the Lincoln Assassination and the Rebirth of America” by Scott Ellsworth. Jam-packed with fresh, revelatory evidence, the author’s research strongly infers that by the time the house lights dimmed inside of Ford’s Theatre on April 14th, 1865, Lincoln’s assassin John Wilkes Booth had been working alongside, if not in direct concert with, the Confederate Secret Service for nearly a year.
New Fiction
“The Accidental Favorite” by Bran Littlewood. A moving family dramedy investigates the question so many of us have asked ourselves: do my parents have a favorite?
“A Mother’s Love” by Danielle Steel. Empty-nester and bestselling author Halley Holbrook befriends charming Bart Warner on a flight to Paris, but when a cunning thief steals her handbag and starts harassing her, reawakening ghosts from her traumatic childhood, she fights back with Bart’s help.
“Don’t Open Your Eyes” by Liv Constantine. Shaken by premonitions of a future where she hates her husband and her daughter is in danger, Annabelle's perfect life is shaken forcing her to decipher her visions before a single choice seals her fate and the future becomes reality.
“Kill Your Darlings” by Peter Swanson. Wendy and Thom’s marriage is told in reverse, moving backward to witness key moments from the couple’s lives—their fiftieth birthday party, Jason’s birth, the mysterious death of a colleague—all painting a portrait of a marriage defined by a terrible act they plotted together years ago.
“The Medusa Protocol, No. 2 (Assassins Anonymous)” by Rob Hart. Former assassin Astrid wakes in a secret prison where a sinister doctor probes her memories for a crucial secret, while her sponsor Mark and their Assassins Anonymous group decipher her cryptic plea for help, setting the stage for a daring escape.
“Stuart Woods’ Finders Keepers, No. 66 (Stone Barrington)” by Brett Battles. After helping his friend Jack Coulter’s newly divorced niece, Sara, adjust to life in New York, Stone Barrington becomes entangled in a dangerous scheme as men from Sara’s past are attacked and Jack’s family is threatened by an unknown adversary with deadly intentions.
“With a Vengeance” by Riley Sager. Anna Matheson lures six people onto a luxury train to expose their crimes against her family a decade earlier, but when a passenger is murdered, she must risk her life to protect those she sought to destroy
“The Lost Masterpiece” by B.A. Shapiro. The bestselling author of “The Art Forger” offers a story about an enigmatic painting that explores the mystery of who painted it.
“The Red Queen” by Martha Grimes. When a businessman is gunned down in a quiet Twickenham pub, superintendent Richard Jury uncovers a web of conflicting accounts, a mysterious lookalike in America, and a parallel case involving his partner’s missing sister that soon complicates both investigations in unexpected ways.
“Edge of Honor, No.24 (Scot Harvath)” by Brad Thor. After six months abroad, elite spy Scot Harvath returns to a shifting political landscape in America, where a powerful secret cabal threatens to destabilize the nation in the latest addition to the long-time series following “Shadow of Doubt”.
“The World’s Greatest Detective and Her Just Okay Assistant (Tula Walberg Mysteries)” by Liza Tully. Eager to prove herself, assistant detective Olivia Blunt pushes her reluctant mentor to investigate a wealthy matriarch’s suspicious death on Lake Champlain, only to find herself entangled in the secrets and shifting loyalties of the powerful Summersworth family.