In 2005, Cliff Arnall, a former lecturer at Cardiff University, was commissioned by a U.K. travel agency to determine the most depressing day of the year in order to best a market winter vacations.  It turns out, according to his not-so-very scientific study, that the third Monday in January is “Blue Monday”, the most depressing day of the year.

And since this week began with Blue Monday, I thought the best way to introduce today’s list of books was with a list of things to make you smile a bit.  So, without any further ado…..

1) Peabody the Owl, taking a bath.  And, by the way…Library Trustees?  Could we please have a Library Owl named Peabody?  Please?

http://youtu.be/8bFmwp-p1Sc

2)  Buzzfeed’s list of “The 27 Most Exciting Books Coming In 2016”, which is obviously subjective, but still gives you plenty of things to look forward to this year.

3) This stunningly beautiful poem about not giving up hope.

4) This plush piece of pizza that looks super-happy to see you:

And, finally….

5) A list of some new books to make your weekend a little more fun:

 

The Rogue Not Taken: Romance author extraordinaire Sarah MacLean is back with a new series that is guaranteed to delight her fans, and perfect for new comers.  This first Scandal and Scoundrels book features Sophie, a heroine who is a magnet for scandal–she’s already landed her philandering brother-in-law in a fishpond, and is desperate to find a new start in London.  But the carriage in which she’s stowed away isn’t empty.  It’s full of trouble–and Kingscote, “King,” the Marquess of Eversley.  Their chemistry is a recipe for disaster…but in the close confines of their carriage, Sophie and King might just find that opposites attract…MacLean’s books are good for whatever ails you, and, as RT Book Reviews said of this monumental success, “MacLean has the magic touch… This lovely story is perfect in so many ways; it’s funny, with rapier wit, sweet and super-sexy, one of those stories you’ll keep close to your heart.”

The Old Farmer’s Almanac 2016: Who is the Old Farmer?  No one is quite sure.  In fact, no one is quite sure how the good people at the Old Farmer’s Almanac make their predictions.  According to their website, “We derive our weather forecasts from a secret formula that was devised by the founder of this Almanac, Robert B. Thomas, in 1792. Thomas believed that weather on Earth was influenced by sunspots, which are magnetic storms on the surface of the Sun.  Notes about that formula are locked in a black box in our offices in Dublin, New Hampshire.”  Though these predictions are now enhanced with state-of-the-art magic weather wands, the Old Farmer is still a joy to read for the snippets of poetry, growing advice, and weather lore included in it, along with weather predictions, tide charts, and growing seasons.

Eleanor: On the surface, Jason Gurley’s newest release is a tale about a girl who attempts to heal her family after her twin sister, Esme, dies in a tragic accident.  But it is also so very much more than that.  Because in the course of her struggle, Eleanor finds herself whisked off into another reality, and forced to contend with the real cost of grief and the price she will have to pay to appease it.  A fascinating genre-mash up that is part surrealist fiction, part science fiction, part tragedy, and part coming-of-age story, this book was originally self-published, but has been reworked and re-edited into this current edition.  The San Francisco Book Review cheers, “Jason Gurley weaves a gorgeous story…that grabs a hold and won’t let go…As with most of Gurley’s work, this novel is the very best kind of mash-up between the fantastic and the literary. It’s a smart, beautiful story with vivid images and polished prose, the kind of novel you can read over again and will want to recommend to others.”

American Housewife: Helen Ellis is a master of black comedy, and this collection of short stories is being hailed by all and sundry as one of the funniest books of the year.  Though, on the surface, the women of American Housewife look the part, with their strings of pearls, their perfectly coiffed hair, and their perfect casserole recipes, beneath the surface, they are just as vicious, snide, snarky, and brutal as the rest of us.  They just do it with better style.  Vogue summed up this quirky, madcap collection thusly: “Delightful in its originality and eerie, almost demented, humor… Ellis’s stories start in a place that’s quite familiar—the domestic sphere of New York City’s ritzy Upper East Side, where the author also resides—and end in a place that’s decidedly not. Her characters are stealthily complex, their perfectly composed, well-maintained exteriors the ideal cover for inner lives that seethe with pathos and ambition.”

Maple: Ok, I admit it.  This book isn’t strictly “new”.  But it’s full of 100 recipes that use maple syrup, and maple syrup is a perfect food.  Yay maple syrup!  (Also: if anyone needs a taste-tester for the recipes in this book, you know whom to call……)