Reasons to smile today:

1) In one week, we get some daylight savings time, and in a little more than two weeks, it’s spring!  (She says, looking at the snow incongruously falling outside…)

2) Sunday is National Oreo Cookie Day.  Celebrate accordingly.

3) FORT FURNITURE.  Apparently, we have single-handedly launched the Blanket Fort Revolution, my friends, as Flavorwire is now highlight all these cool pieces of furniture that double as forts.  Seriously.

4) This Beluga Whale, who is part of a species that seems always happy to make new friends:

5) New books!  Always new books!  Here are five of those new books that leapt onto our shelves this week.

The Opposite of Everyone:  Brilliant and outspoken Paula Vauss spent her childhood with her free-spirited mother, an itinerant storyteller who re-interpreted and re-invented history with every tale she told.  But Paula’s own attempts to tell stories ended with her losing everything, even her birth name, Kali Jai, as she ended up in foster care.  But when she receives a note from her mother hinting at a final trip, and suddenly finds herself the caretaker of her heretofore unknown sister, Paula realizes that, having spent her career separating families, she is now going to have to begin putting her own back together.  Aided by her ex-boyfriend, a romantic PI named Birdwine, Paula sets off on a journey of discovery and self-redemption that is causing a number of critics to sit up and take notice.  RT Bookreviews made this book a Top Pick for the month, cheering, “Beautifully written, fascinating and deep, The Opposite of Everyone is another must-read novel… Jackson has done a phenomenal job of weaving the past with the present and unfolding the story layer after layer. This is a masterfully written tale that readers cannot put down.”

A Gathering of Shadows:  Did you ever have one of those days when you see a new book on the shelf and scare people because you start jumping up and down and singing a happy song to see the sequel to a phenomenal book has arrived?  I did when I saw V.E. Schwab’s newest book on our shelves.  Fans of her A Darker Shade of Magic will be thrilled with the return of the Kell, his multi-dimensional coat (I want that coat.  So badly.), and the multiple Londons through which he travels.  This book picks up four months after the close of the first, with Kell dodging lingering feelings of guilt and suffering from dreams of magical foreboding–dreams that becoming terrifyingly true when a new London begins emerging.  A London that everyone believed dead.  And in order to keep the balance, Kell realizes that another London must invariably fall.  Schwab has already earned herself quite a reputation as a YA author, but her foray into adult novels has made her the talk of the proverbial town, and this series is an absolute joy, not in the least because of Schwab’s courage in showing a caring, conflicted hero, and a heroine who is willing to take on the world without reservations.  Publisher’s Weekly gave this book a starred review, saying “Tensions rise steadily, culminating with the exciting Element Games, and the finale will leave readers breathless. This is how fantasy should be done.”

Imbeciles : the Supreme Court, American eugenics, and the sterilization of Carrie Buck: In 1927, during the height of the eugenics craze (a movement which championed the creation of a “perfect race” through sterilization and over racism), the Supreme Court permitted the state of Virginia to sterilize a young woman named Carrie Buck, on the pretense that she was an “imbecile”.  There was nothing wrong with Carrie Buck, but, as Adam Cohen reveals in this conscientious and timely work of history, she, and some 70,000 other Americans, were victims of a world that eagerly downgraded the humanity of many in the pursuit of creating a utopian society.  In the process, Cohen reveals that even those men whom history upholds as legal heroes, from William Taft to Oliver Wendall Holmes, were willing to give credit to eugenicist before their victims.  This is not an easy read, but it is a vital one; and Booklist say of it, “Cohen not only illuminates a shameful moment in American history when the nation’s most respected professions—medicine, academia, law, and the judiciary—failed to protect one of the most vulnerable members of society, he also tracks the landmark case’s repercussions up to the present.”

Ways to Disappear: When celebrated Brazilian writer Beatriz Yagoda disappears, her American translator, Emma, takes it upon herself to discover Yagoda’s whereabouts.  But upon her arrival in Brazil, she finds a far more complicated mystery than she ever imagined.  Yagoda left behind an enormous gambling debt, and a wealth of quirky, fascinating people, each eager for her return (for various, and not always benevolent reasons).  Idra Novey is herself a translator, and her insight in the workings of words makes this fiction debut one that is delighting many a reader.  NPR lauded this book, saying, “Novey’s novel delivers on its promises in so many ways. Yes, there’s carnage, but there’s also exuberant love, revelations of long-buried, unhappy secrets, ruminations about what makes a satisfying life, a publisher’s regrets about moral compromises in both his work and his use of his family wealth and connections, and an alternately heartfelt and wry portrait of the satisfactions and anxieties of the generally underappreciated art of translation.”

A Murder Over a Girl: Justice, Gender, Junior High:  When psychologist Ken Corbett first hear of the murder of high school student Larry King,  who was shot on Feb. 12, 2008, at E. O. Green Junior High in Oxnard, California by his 14-year-old classmate, reportedly as a result of Larry’s decision to use the name “Leticia” and wear makeup and jewelry to school, he was, understandably, devastated.  However, the subsequent media reports of the case staunchly refused to discuss the gender and identity aspects of the case, giving Corbett the impetus to travel to LA, and observe the trial for himself.  This book is more than just his observations, however; it is the work of a scholar who has spent his career studying gender, sexuality, and the human mind, and the way that a single act of violence can damage an entire community.  He details this case with the precision of a scientist, but the heart of a human being, making this an accessible, moving, and very necessary work.  Library Journal writes, “Corbett powerfully documents the life-threatening consequences of America’s persistent fear of gender difference. This will be read by those with academic, political, and personal interest in making the world safer for LGBT youth.”

Until next week, beloved patrons–Happy Reading!