My LINKcat AccountMay 11th (today) is rather a boring day when it comes to national holidays. There are only two. National Foam Rolling Day – I think you are supposed to be rolling on basically a large foam Cheeto that is about three feet long and six inches in diameter. It’s supposed to give you a bit of a massage. And National Twilight Zone Day. The first episode aired on October 1st, 1959 so why this day? Nobody knows. That’s it for the day. But it is May and spring is here in all its glory. Since I have nothing more interesting to tell you about this day, let me give you a few bits of May history and weather lore. The May full moon for some Native American tribes is The Flower Moon, The Corn Planting Moon, or the Milk Moon. The Anglo-Saxon name for this month was Tri-Milchi or three milks because the grass was so lush you could milk the cows three times a day. “A cold May is kindly and fills the barn finely.” “A wet May brings a big load of hay.” “Mist in May and heat in June makes harvest come right soon.” The May we’ve had so far, based on the above lore, looks like it will be ushering in huge crops. There are many books by popular authors being published now, some as part of the spring lists, and some anticipating the summer beach books. Below is a sampling of some of the new titles that have been arriving. When one of those cold, misty May days arrives and you don’t really want to be outside, then grab one of these fascinating titles. The time is almost always right to curl up with a good book. Enjoy!
New Non-Fiction
Deviate : the science of seeing differently / by Beau Lotto. The world-renowned neuroscientist, entrepreneur and two-time TED speaker explores how understandings about how the world is perceived can expand humanity's ability to create and innovate.
DNA is not destiny : the remarkable, completely misunderstood relationship between you and your genes / by Steven Heine. A leading cultural psychologist challenges current understandings about the role of DNA in health, drawing on his own genome sequencing results to explain what genes can actually tell us and why psychological biases can render people vulnerable to media hype.
Flavor : the science of our most neglected sense / by Bob Holmes. A journey into the surprising science of the sense of flavor by a veteran New Scientist correspondent outlines narrative principles in neurobiology and modern food production to reveal the broad range of factors that can affect one's appreciation of what we consume.
Head strong : the bulletproof plan to activate untapped brain energy to work smarter and think faster-in just two weeks / by Dave Asprey. The Silicon Valley professional biohacker and best-selling author of The Bulletproof Diet outlines a revolutionary plan for improving brain resilience, sharing strategic practices in nutrition, inflammation reduction and promoting neuron growth. 100,000 first printing.
New Fiction
Borne / by Jeff VanderMeer. In a ruined, nameless city of the future, a scavenger named Rachel finds a creature named Borne, a leftover from a biotech firm called The Company, and she takes it back to her underground lair, where she must shield it from her drug-dealer boyfriend, Wick. By the author of the “Southern Reach” trilogy.
Beartown : a novel / by Fredrik Backman. In a forgotten town fractured by scandal, an amateur hockey team might just be able to change everything. By the New York Times best-selling author of “A Man Called Ove”.
The forever summer : a novel / by Jamie Brenner. When a single careless mistake costs her the job she so carefully built, straitlaced Marin joins a stranger claiming to be her half-sister in Cape Cod, where she meets family members she never knew she had during a fateful summer of revelations and self-discovery.
Music of the ghosts / by Vaddey Ratner. Returning to the Cambodian homeland she fled as a child refugee decades earlier, Teera finds herself in a country of survivors and perpetrators of the Khmer Rouge holocaust before bonding with a mysterious musician who claims to have known her late father. By the best-selling author of “In the Shadow of the Banyan”.
The drowning king / by Emily Holleman. A dramatic follow-up to Cleopatra's Shadows is set four years after the execution of Bernice and finds Arsinoe and her sister Cleopatra facing a terrible choice between allowing the Roman army to steal power from their ailing father or taking the throne into their own hands.
War cry / by Wilbur Smith. A sequel to Assegai is set in Africa between World Wars I and II and finds widower Leon Courtney navigating murky political waters while his headstrong daughter, Saffron, travels to culturally contrasting London to attend Oxford.
The witchfinder's sister : a novel / by Beth Underdown. A tale inspired by the witch hunts of mid-17th-century England follows the experiences of Witchfinder General Matthew Hopkins's disgraced sister—who, upon returning, pregnant and unmarried, to her brother's home—discovers how he is targeting the marginalized women of their community.