October 28, 2021 - What a Difference a Week Makes

My, what a difference a week makes! Last week we hit 70 degrees a couple of times before Autumn arrived with a big "Ta da! I'm here!" over the past weekend. Overnight lows bounced right around the freezing mark ending the growing season for a lot of plants. Rain arrived, as did gray skies that seem already to have lasted for days at this writing (Monday). My porch plants have all come in from the cold and are now occupying my kitchen and part of my garage as they wait for either an extended warm spell or to slowly fade away due to lack of light.

And speaking of light and the lack thereof, I’m sure you all have noticed how late the sunrise is and how early the evenings crowd in around us. There is only one more weekend to endure (or enjoy) Daylight Savings Time. That happens on Sunday, November 7th at 2 a.m. in case you want to stay awake and watch your clocks automatically “fall back” or in case you want to manually change your clocks at the precise moment.

The library’s Halloween Party is October 30th at 10 a.m. to noon, around the library grounds (weather permitting) and indoors if the weather doesn’t permit. It looks like the month of November -- or Dinovember-- will be filled with dinosaur-themed crafts and activities. Stay tuned for further details.

This is the time of year when the word “cozy” seems to become increasingly important.With daylight and warmth retreating, it is time to find cozy spots to settle in with a cat, or jigsaw puzzle (Probably not with the cat in the room: They really only want to help!), or dog, or cup of coffee, or tea, or other hot beverage, or crossword puzzle, or book, and snuggle under a blanket, and enjoy the spot of warmth and light you have created in the midst of the cold temperatures and dark days. And if you need books to settle in with, we have a bunch of new titles which are listed below. Enjoy!

New Non-Fiction

The Secret of Life: Rosalind Franklin, James Watson, Francis Crick, and the Discovery of DNA’s Double Helix by Howard Markel. An authoritative history of the race to unravel DNA’s structure, by one of our most prominent medical historians.

 

Where Did the Universe Come From? and Other Cosmic Questions: Our Universe From Quantum to the Cosmos by Chris Ferrie & Geraint Lewis. Unpack the secrets of the universe with two award-winning physicists as they share an accessible conversation about the biggest ideas and smallest forces in the universe.

 

Personal Effects: What Recovering the Dead Teaches Me About Caring for the Living by Robert Jensen. The owner of the world's leading disaster clean-up corporation chronicles the unseen world behind the yellow tape.

 

Unfollow Me: Essays in Complicity by Jill Louise Busby. An intimate and insolent essay collection about race, progress, and hypocrisy from cultural commentator Jill Louise Busby, aka Jillisblack.

 

E.R. Nurses: True Stories from America’s Greatest Unsung Heroes by James Patterson. The #1 best-selling coauthors of Walk in My Combat Boots present the frontline heroes who work to save our lives every day: E.R. nurses.

 

The Night the Lights Went Out: A Memoir of Life After Brain Damage by Drew Magary. The fan-favorite Defector and former Deadspin columnist shares his long recovery from a catastrophic brain hemorrhage and how he learned to live with a broken mind as he tried to figure out who this new person is, in this fascinating, darkly funny comeback story

 

New Fiction

Left for Dead, No. 4 (Eric Steele) by Sean Parnell. Back in action as a special operative for the Program, Eric Steele investigates the theft of a very dangerous, new Chinese bioweapon in the fourth novel of the series following One True Patriot.

 

Never Saw Me Coming by Vera Kurian. While taking part in an unusual clinical study that brings together someone of the most dangerous minds, Chloe Sevre, a Freshman honor student – and diagnosed psychopath with an IQ of 135, goes from hunter to prey when one of the participants is murdered.

 

Rock Paper Scissors by Alice Feeney. Ten years of marriage. Ten years of secrets. And an anniversary they will never forget. Think you know the person you married? Think again.

 

We Know You Remember (The High Coast Series) by Tove Alsterdal. The past comes flooding ack for police detective Eira Sjödin when Olof Hagström, who served time for raping a murdering a local girl, returns home to find his father dead under suspicious circumstances.

 

When Ghosts Come Home by Wiley Cash. When a plane crash lands at the nearby airfield on the coast of North Carolina, Sheriff Winston Barnes begins a murder investigation that will change the course of his life and the fate of the community he has sworn to protect.

 

A Calling for Charlie Barnes by Joshua Ferris. With help from his storyteller son, Charlie Barnes, a lifelong schemer and eternal romantic who would like out of his present circumstances, is granted a second act and, at last, through an act of selflessness and love, becomes the man his son always knew he could be.

 

Forgiving Paris by Karen Kingsbury. A woman who made a life-altering mistake in Paris twenty-four years ago is given a chance at redemption even though she never forgave herself in the new novel from the best-selling author of Truly, Madly, Deeply.

 

Over My Dead Body (William Warwick) by Jeffrey Archer. At the heart of three murder investigations—one in London involving a cold case, one in Geneva involving a millionaire art collector and one in New York involving a wealthy dynasty, Detective Chief Inspector William Warwick must catch the killers before it’s too late.

 

The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles. In June of 1954, 18-year-old Emmett Watson, released after serving 15 months for involuntary manslaughter, discovers that two friends from the work farm have hidden themselves in the trunk of the warden’s car and have hatched a different plan for Emmett’s future.