Sometimes the world is a big, scary, heavy place.  And this week has seems to have been filled with Days Like That for a lot of you, beloved patrons.  So we’re going to get right down to Five Things to Make You Smile before we get to The Books.

1. The earliest known iteration of “Facebook”, which seems a lot less stressful than today’s iteration (from The Western Times, 1902)

2. This cheerful plush teacup

3. A cartoon from the delightfully literary humorist Tom Gauld:

4. This video of a baby owl getting his pets.  Note: I still want a Library Owl, please.

5. New books!  Thank all that is good and right in this world, there are new books:

Far From Home: Riptide Publishing is one of the very few publishing companies to promote LGBT romances–and their books are generally of the highest caliber.  Not only that, but their books aren’t afraid to deal with the tough stuff.  In this work, Rachel is dealing with an eating disorder, and the anxiety and insecurity that so often comes along with it.  Drowning in debt and in need of a little kindness, Rachel agrees to marry Pavi, her calm, quiet friend who is in desperate need of a green card.  But as their friendship begins to evolve into something much more intense, Rachel begins to realize that she can’t fully love Pavi until she learns how to trust herself.  Author Lorelei Brown has built her career on crafting smart, insightful romances, and this book promises to be another success, offering an inclusive, honest, and heartrending story, which  Publisher’s Weekly gave a starred review, saying, “The oddest of odd couples finds unexpected joy in Brown’s warm, sweet contemporary romance…drawing readers deep into the women’s tender romance.”

I Am No One: Patrick Flanery’s high-tech thriller shows the very personal aspects of a world of increasing, and increasingly impersonal, surveillance, and uses one man’s search for answers to ask some very trenchant questions about the state of that world.  Jeremy O’Keefe has returned form a decade in England to work as a professor of German literature, living a life that is fulfilling, if a bit lonely.  But when a box full of records of his online activity appears on his doorstep, he begins to wonder if he has not indeed left a trace of some kind.  As the silent attacks begin to escalate, Jeremy is forced to question whether he has unwittingly committed a crime so heinous that it will destroy him–and what it could possible be?  The Associated Press wrote a brilliant review of this book, saying that it “reads like a collaboration between spy novelist John le Carre and Franz Kafka. . . . It’s at once a beautifully written slow-motion thriller, an unnerving story of fear and paranoia, and a cautionary tale about the perils of spy satellites, security cameras and electronic surveillance by faceless government bureaucrats.”

Pond: Not only does Irish author Claire-Louise Bennett’s debut feature a stunningly colorful cover, but the book itself is being hailed as a remarkable triumph.  Rather than telling a single, linear narrative, we as readers have the chance to see the world through the eyes of Bennett’s unnamed narrator.  As she looks around, as she moves through her day, we learn the secrets of her past, her dreams for the future, and the content of her small cottage.  Bennett’s heroine is as much an Everywoman as she is her own unique presence, and this remarkable, unexpected book is touching and connecting readers around the globe, including the London based Literary Review, which called this slim novel “A beautiful, lasting book that privileges modes of human experience that are so often undervalued, if they are acknowledged at all: neither formative encounters nor outward achievement, but rather the workings of a roving, inquisitive mind, open and receptive to all.”

The Big Sheep: I love literary puns, and I think sheep are great, so naturally, I had to stop and take a look at Robert Kroese’s book, and saw critics drawing comparisons to both Philip K. Dick and Terry Pratchett…and I was sold.  This book opens in Los Angeles in 2039, where P.I. Erasmus Keane is asked to investigate the disappearance of some genetically-modified sheep.  But as Keane begins chasing lost sheep, his partner finds himself entangled in the case of a mysterious, stunning client–who doesn’t remember hiring them.  As the two cases become impossibly, inextricably linked, Keane realizes that the secrets he is seeking may be the darkest of his memorable career.  NPR had plenty of good things to say about this book, including this: “Kroese’s story is intricate, and his pace is refreshingly relentless, but what really carries The Big Sheep is the laughs. Clever, wry, and not above a little groan-inducing wordplay of the very best kind, the book’s humor not only keeps the mood light, it cements Keane and Fowler’s characters.”

The Accidental Agent: Readers who have eagerly awaited the close of Andrew Rosenheim’s Special Agent Jimmy Nessheim trilogy can rejoice, and those who have waited to binge-read this taut, historical thriller, get ready to enjoy.  This story opens in 1942, with Nessheim requesting a long-term leave from the FBI to pursue a law degree at the University of Chicago.  But another man is also heading to the University of Chicago with big dreams–Enrico Fermi has begun work on what will soon become the Manhattan Project, and Nessheim soon finds himself re-enlisted to guard the work that Fermi is doing against a suspected Nazi infiltrator–and confronted with his ex-girlfriend, whose reappearance may not be as coincidental as it seems.  Publisher’s Weekly loved this book, too, giving it a starred review, and cheering, “Rosenheim’s outstanding third Jimmy Nessheim novel (following 2013’s The Little Tokyo Informant) combines a crackerjack plot and multiple nuanced characters with a convincing portrayal of WWII America…The dramatic twists work to propel the plot to a powerful and moving conclusion. Fans of Joseph Kanon’s thrillers of the same period will find a lot to like.”

Until next week, beloved patrons–happy reading!

Ok, so it’s Tax Day, I know, I know….

And that’s why today’s Five Book Friday begins with a List Of Things To Make You Happy, which is among my favorite things to assemble for Fridays.  Enjoy!

1) This happy red panda, who is very, very pleased to see you today!

2) Some lovely daffodils, which I photographed just for you:

3) Redefining “comfort food”, this lovely plush piece of toast that you can hug without worrying about butter stains.

4) This chair with build-in book shelf-things, which looks like one of the only such chairs in which I would actually want to sit for any length of time:

5) NEW BOOKS!!!  We are awash in new fiction selections this week, many of them featuring daring journeys to other realms, other worlds, or other states, in any manner of historical (or future) setting–here are just a few to whet your appetite:

Theater of the Gods: When this book first wandered into the Library, I opened it up to a random page, as I am wont to do, and saw a letter from a man who was about to be eaten by murderous trees.  Which, naturally, has me all in a dither to read the tale of M. Francisco Fabrigas, explorer, philosopher, and physicist, who takes a shipful of children on a trip into another dimension.  Having broken the bounds of conventional reality, Fabrigas and his troupe of interdimensional tourists encounter any number of bizarre and deadly foes, in a wild story that has drawn comparisons to Douglas Adams, Mervyn Peake, and Terry Pratchett…or, as The Guardian observed, “this antidote to formula fiction reads like Douglas Adams channeling William Burroughs channelling Ionesco, spiced with the comic brio of Vonnegut.”  If anyone needs me, I’ll be under the Free For All Display table reading….

The Eloquence of the Dead: Irish journalist Conor Brady made quite a splash with his first historic mystery last summer, and this follow-up, featuring the deceptively complex Sergeant Joe Swallow, brings readers back to the murky and fascinating world of Victorian Dublin, where a pawnbroker has been murdered, and the lead witness has vanished.  Swallow is handed what seems on the surface to be an unsolvable case, and the approbation of a city on edge.  What he finds, however, is deep-seated corruption and a dastardly foe that lead Swallow to the very seat of British imperial power.  Brady packs his stories with loads of historic details and revel in the complications of Dublin society, making it as much a character in these novels as Swallow and his comrades, giving Kirkus plenty of reasons to cheer “The second case for the talented, complicated Swallow again spins a fine mystery out of political corruption in 1880s Dublin.”

The North Water: Another historic setting for you; this time, though, the location is the Arctic Ocean, aboard an ill-fated whaling ship.  Ship’s Medic Patrick Sumner, a disgraced veteran of the Siege of Delhi, thought he had seen all the horrors that humanity had to offer, but the longer he spends with the crew of the Volunteer, particularly the savate harpooner Henry Drax, the more that Sumner becomes convinced that the worst by yet to come–particularly after discovering what is lurking in the hold of the great, doomed ship.  This is a tale of human nature and human endurance, set in one of the most foreboding places on earth, a perfect and terrifying escape that has critics raving.  The New York Times called this “a great white shark of a book―swift, terrifying, relentless and unstoppable…Mr. McGuire is such a natural storyteller―and recounts his tale here with such authority and verve―that ‘The North Water’ swiftly immerses the reader in a fully imagined world. […] Mr. McGuire nimbly folds all these melodramatic developments into his story as it hurtles toward its conclusion.”

Daredevils: This time, our setting is the American West of the 1970’s, specifically Idaho and Arizona, and our protagonist is Loretta, a daring fifteen-year-old girl who is caught with her Gentile boyfriend by her strict Mormon parents.  When she is married off to an older, devout fundamentalist, Loretta finds herself surrounded by a strange family–including Jason, her husband’s free-spirited nephew, who convinces her to flee with him to the open road.  This coming of age tale features a wealth of vivid, utterly unique characters, ranging from the idealist to the sleaziest of grifters, who join Loretta and Jason on their adventures, and is full of the kind of descriptive detail that journalist and writer Shawn Vestal has spent a lifetime observing.  The San Fransisco Chronicle gave this book a glowing review, calling it “[A] full-throttle, exhilarating debut novel about faith, daring and the unexpectedly glorious coming-of-age of a Mormon teenager…This on-the-road novel takes twists and turns that are on no literary map you’ve ever seen…Vestal plays with points of view at a dizzying speed, so that at times the novel feels like a symphonic chorus…The writing, too, feels revolutionary in how it startles you…Ingenious, haunting, wild and hilarious.”

Eating in the Middle: A Mostly Wholesome Cookbook: Andie Mitchell documented her difficulties with weight loss and self-perception in her book It Was Me All Along, and now, in her first cookbook, she shares with readers the dishes–and the stories–that helped her change her life for the better.  As ever, I am attracted by the pictures in cookbooks, and let me tell you…these look particularly delicious.

Until next week, beloved patrons–happy reading!

I had an enormous amount of fun putting together a list of things to make you smile in our last Five Book Friday.  So I’m doing it again, because it’s snowy and February-ish, and…why not?

1) Heart and Brain Dealing With Snow:

2) The Calming Manatee.  Go to calmingmanatee.com for some more words of wisdom:

3) This ridiculously beautiful poem by Nabokov…about the refrigerator making noise in the middle of the night, which contains the following lines: 

a German has proved that the snowflakes we see
are the germ cells of stars and the sea life to be…

4) A quote from one of my favorite human beings, Nikola Tesla:

Of all things I liked books best.

5) New Books!  Here are five new books that have scampered onto our shelves this week.  Enjoy!

Travelers Rest: A genre-bending haunted house story, Keith Lee Morris’ third novel is part family saga, part science-fiction, and part horror, all set in the confines of one very weird Idaho town.  While taking their troubled Uncle Robbie home from yet another stint in rehab, the Addison family find themselves caught in a freak blizzard, and are forced to stop in the derelict town of Good Night, Idaho, and its forlorn hotel, Travelers Rest.  But inside the hotel, it seems that the laws of physics hold no sway, and the town itself is full of secrets.  Will the Addisons be able to find their way home, and together, or will they become one of the ghastly souvenirs of Good Night?  Publisher’s Weekly gave this one a starred review, saying “Expertly refurbishing an old structure, this haunted-hotel novel generates some genuine chills . . . Morris handles the spooky materials deftly, but his writing is what makes the story really scary: quiet and languorous, sweeping steadily and inexorably along like a curtain of drifting snow identified too late as an avalanche.”

Jane and the Waterloo Map:  Fans of Stephanie Barron’s Jane Austen mysteries will be delighted to hear that her thirteenth tale is ready for circulation today–and it is high time that new readers discover this clever series.  Written in the form of the great Miss Austen’s diaries, this adventure sees Jane finishing the proofs for Emma, while staying at the home of her beloved brother, Henry.  While touring Buckingham Palace, Jane stumbles upon a dying man whose last words are “Waterloo Map”–and the stage is set for an investigation that delighted the readers at Library Journal, who noted “Barron deftly imitates Austen’s voice, wit, and occasional melancholy while spinning a well-researched plot that will please historical mystery readers and Janeites everywhere. Jane Austen died two years after the events of Waterloo; one hopes that Barron conjures a few more adventures for her beloved protagonist before historical fact suspends her fiction.”

The Firebrand and the First Lady: This book, a ground-breaking work that details the friendship between Eleanor Roosevelt (a woman whose lineage allowed her into the Daughters of the American Revolution) and a writer-activist (whose grandfather was a slave), took Patricia Bell-Smith twenty years to research and write, but its very clear that the results are worth the lifetime of effort.  Pauli Murray met the Eleanor Roosevelt in 1933, at the housing camp where Murray was living, but it was the letter she wrote five years later, protesting racial segregation in the American South after she was denied admission to University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (a school that prided itself on its socially-progressive policies) because of her race that brought the two women together.  Murray would go on to co-found the National Organization for Women, and become the first African-American Episcopalian Priest, while Eleanor Roosevelt would go on to become the first chair of the UN Council on Human Rights, but this book shines a light on their personal relationship, and how it changed both their lives.  Booklist gave the book a starred review, hailing it as a “sharply detailed and profoundly illuminating . . . Bell-Scott’s groundbreaking portrait of these two tireless and innovative champions of human dignity adds an essential and edifying facet to American history.”

The High Mountains of Portugal: It’s been fifteen years since Yann Martel published The Life of Pi, but, all signs point to the fact that this second novel was well worth the wait.  The setting this time is Lisbon, in 1904, and our hero is Tomás, who discovers an old journal that may very well help re-write history, if he can track down the artifact described within its pages.  While Tomás sets off in one of the first automobiles ever made, the story speeds ahead fifty years to a grieving Canadian diplomat, who has arrived in Portugal following the death of his beloved wife.  You’ll have to check out the book itself to understand how the two narratives are linked, and what magic tricks Martel will pull off in the midst of it all, but the Wahington Post has no qualms in ordering everyone to ““Pack your bag…Yann Martel is taking us on another long journey….but the itinerary in this imaginative new book is entirely fresh. . . . Martel’s writing has never been more charming, a rich mixture of sweetness that’s not cloying and tragedy that’s not melodramatic. . . . The High Mountains of Portugal attains an altitude from which we can see something quietly miraculous.”

Coconut Cowboy: Tim Dorsey’s beloved Serge Storm is back in this wild road trip across the Florida panhandle in a search for the American Dream, as he attempted to finish the journey begun by his freewheeling heroes, Captain America and Billy, which was cut short after their murder.  Along with his side-kick, the drug-riddled Coleman, trivia-nerd and Florida aficionado Serge are on the road again in a tale full of their hallmark weirdness and oddly touching friendship.  The Tampa Bay Times raved about this latest installment, saying “The Serge books are often hilarious, but there’s always something serious underpinning the antics”, while the Providence Journal cheered that this is “one of his funniest and most deftly plotted yet.”