Category: Books

Online Reading Challenge – October Wrap-Up

- Ann Leave a comment

Hello Fellow Reading Fans!

How did your October Challenge reading go this month? The topic of Nature gave us a lot of options – I hope you found one you liked!

I had a good month; I read (and am now hooked on) the Joe Pickett mystery series by C.J. Box. I’ve actually read several in the series (there are 19 so far with number 20 coming out early next year), but I’ll just talk about the first in the series, Open Season.

Joe Pickett is the new game warden in Twelve Sleep, Wyoming near the Bighorn Mountains. It’s beautiful country, teeming with wildlife and natural resources, but it also seems to attract some people who prefer to live outside the law. Unlike his predecessor, Joe refuses to look the other way or accept bribes and that makes him unpopular with the hunters and fishermen who don’t follow the rules. When two outfitters are murdered and a third man dies in Joe’s backyard, the local sheriff decides that the third man killed the first two, them committed suicide and declares the case closed.

However, this just doesn’t add up for Joe and he begins poking around, looking for clues. The secrets and conspiracies he begins to unravel could be catastrophic for some – including himself and his family. Box navigates the various political issues that are part of modern Wyoming (economic, ecological, environmental) with a delicate touch, showing that each viewpoint has valid concerns, but also has radicals that won’t allow compromise. Joe is a man of few words and often gets himself in trouble by his refusal to back down or look away. He adores his wife and daughters and loves the beauty and wildness of the countryside. He isn’t bigger-than-life heroic, but is determined and observant and able to find solutions that others don’t – or won’t – see.

I especially enjoyed Box’s writing style. Descriptive without being flowery, the harsh but beautiful landscape, unforgiving weather and wildlife of Wyoming comes to life vividly – you can almost smell the sagebrush or see the flow of a pronghorn herd racing across the plateau. This ability to put the reader into the physical story reminds me a lot of Tony Hillerman and his mysteries set in the Southwest. I highly recommend the Joe Pickett mystery series – but be careful, you’ll likely get hooked!

Now it’s your turn – what did you read this month? Let us know in the comments!

Commendably Creepy Campfire Tales – Halloween

- Atticus Leave a comment

When thinking about the Halloween season, there is no more iconic way to celebrate the holiday then gathering your friends and family around the campfire and sharing short scary stories. In this blog post, I have collected some of the best scary short stories for you to share with loved ones around the campfire this Halloween season.

Haunted Nights edited by Lisa Morton and Ellen Datlow

This anthology of short stories all feature tales that focus their themes around the Halloween holiday itself. Urban legends, trick or treating, haunted Jack-o-Lanterns and more are all in this collection of short horror goodies.

The Bazaar of Bad Dreams by Stephen King

What better way to celebrate the season of horror than by reading a collection of works from the King of Horror fiction. This collection features a story about a man who is cursed to relive his life, death and birth over and over again in a never ending cycle, specters that haunt men in their dying days and many other creepy and deeply personal stories.

Scream and Scream Again! edited by R. L. Stine

The best part about the Halloween season is getting to share the frights with the whole family. This collection of short horror stories for Juvenile readers is exactly the thing to provide frights for those of all ages. Collected from some of the best selling authors across the horror and mystery genre, this anthology collection is sure to bring a chill down your spine as you bundle up around the campfire to share in the terrifying tales of this autumn holiday.

These titles and many more horrifying tales are all available at your Davenport Public Library. For more recommendations like these to get you into the Halloween spirit, check out our Halloween LibGuide for more wretched recommendations.

Putting in a Good Word for the Werewolf – Halloween

- Atticus Leave a comment

Werewolves, the fluffiest of the Halloween creatures. They have haunted the streets of London and became enthralled in love triangles in the Pacific Northwest. They often serve as allegory for humanities most animalistic tendencies. This collection of werewolf novels is meant to horrify and inspire self reflection. Are we really that different from the monsters we create in our fiction?

Cabal by Clive Barker

This Novella follows Boone, a man who believes he is a serial killer, but has no recollection of killing anyone. As he becomes convinced that he is indeed a murderer after visits with his psychiatrist, he begins looking for the mythical city of Midian a place that offers protection for monsters called the Night Breed. This horrifying tale has many twists and turns that keep the reader on their toes and his a wholly unique experience to read.

Hemlock Grove by Brian McGreevy

At the core of it, Hemlock Grove is a mystery. When girls are showing up dead and the two protagonists Roman and Peter are singled out as the most likely suspects, it is up to them to get to the bottom of the case and nab the real killer. the catch, Peter is a werewolf. This story is one that is full of interesting revelations that keep the reader on the edge of their seat for the whole ride so I won’t spoil any more than just stating the premise.

Red Moon by Benjamin Percy

5% of the population are werewolves. They are drugged so as to keep them from transforming into their wolf forms and it has been made illegal for werewolves to use their powers. Red Moon is all about asking a question that is a common werewolf trope “who is the real monster?”. Dealing with themes such as terrorism, domestic surveillance, prejudice and many more. This werewolf epic is well-worth the read.

These titles and many more horrifying tales are all available at your Davenport Public Library. For more recommendations like these to get you into the Halloween spirit, check out our Halloween LibGuide for more wretched recommendations. And always remember to beware the full moon.

 

Delving into the Living Dead – Halloween

- Atticus Leave a comment

From Frankenstein to Rick Grimes, the zombie is an enduring and evocative Halloween creature that has taken many forms over the years. From the mind controlled undead slave to Romero’s hordes of Ghouls, there are many ways that authors have portrayed this creature. As a continuation of my Halloween recommendations I have decided to focus this post on great zombie novels for recommendations.

Frankenstein in Baghdad by Ahmed Saadawi

Since George Romero’s classic Night of the Living Dead first graced the silver screen, zombies have been used as socio-political alegory, after all, they are us, just a few shades greyer and far less conversational. Frankenstein in Baghdad takes place in 2005 Baghdad when a stitched-together corpse goes missing and reports of a walking corpse begin to be reported. This story does a great job of immersing the reader into this place and this world. An interesting modern twist on a classic concept, this story is one worth reading if you are looking for something new to spice up your hordes of the undead.

World War Z by Max Brooks

This classic anthology is probably the best example of what the zombie can be. It reads as a collection of primary accounts from across the globe tracking a zombie apolocolypse.  If you have seen the Brad Pitt film and were hoping for something similar to that movie, I have some bad news for you, no 4 story ladders made out of zombies in this book. Brooks grounds the zombies with “realistic” rules that take things like muscle degeneration and climate into account. Very well-written and a must-read for any zombie fans out there.

The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan

This Young Adult novel takes place generations after a zombie apocolypse ravages the planet, in a small village with walls that serve as the only thing separating its inhabitants from the hordes of undead outside. When the day comes when the walls are breached, it is up to the protagonist Mary to explore into the forest of hands and teeth and into the outside world to find refuge and survive in the wake of her horrific predicament.

These titles and many more horrifying tales are all available at your Davenport Public Library. For more recommendations like these to get you into the Halloween spirit, check out our Halloween LibGuide for more wretched recommendations.

 

Vouching For Vampires – Halloween

- Atticus Leave a comment

It’s getting closer to the best time of the year. Leaves are about to change colors, the winds at night are going to become crisp and cool and abandoned department stores are about to become filled with all manner of spooky costumes and decorations. Halloween is upon us! And I have tasked myself with theming some blog posts around getting into the holiday spirit. This post is going to focus on making some recommendations for those looking for stories about everyone’s favorite bloodsucking bat-people. Vampires!

The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova

This is a macabre novel that delves into the depths of Vampire lore to the original figure that inspired Bram Stoker to write Dracula. Vlad the Impaler. This twisting and turning narrative follows the narrator as she peels back the layers to a case of a missing professor and how that ties in to hundreds of years of letters and their sinister vampiric history.

Let the Right One In by John Lindqvist

This creepy atmospheric tale takes place in 1980s Sweden where one bullied boy finds that he might have finally made a friend. A friend that just moved in next door, A friend that he only gets to see at night, a friend that only started showing up after a body was found drained of blood.

NOS4A2 by Joe Hill

This is a unique vampire tale that involves psychic bridges, child kidnappers, and a really scary car. Follow Vic McQueen as she goes through life learning about her mysterious powers and battles against an evil child abductor that is even more ominous than meets the eye in this intense thriller.

These titles and many more horrifying tales are all available at your Davenport Public Library. For more recommendations like these to get you into the Halloween spirit, check out our Halloween LibGuide for more wretched recommendations.

 

 

Wytches by Scott Snyder

- Atticus Leave a comment

The first thing that drew me to Wytches by Scott Snyder was the cover, it did such a great job of grabbing my attention while also letting me know what the tone of the novel was going to be before I even opened the book. Dark, stylized art that was personal and small in scope. No world-ending apocalypse in this horror novel, just a family struggling to cope with their past and trying to accommodate to a new home. Little do they know that the woods that surround them holds an evil more sinister then they could imagine.

The horror in this novel comes from how little we see. As a fan of horror I always appreciate when a writer is able to show restraint in showing too much of the monster. Snyder does a fantastic job of only showing the wytches in little chunks throughout the story. It helps to preserve the mystery of the monster and horror is largely anchored in fear of the unknown, once the monster is explained to us, it ceases being as scary. Snyder knows this and does a fantastic job of showing the reader just enough of the wytches so that the reader knows to fear them.

Jock’s art is stylized, chaotic, yet also clearly defined. Some artists that draw in a similar style to Jock border on abstract art but Jock is able to draw these fantastically beautiful and dark settings and characters while grounding them as well. Jock is able to take the extremes of this chaotic art style, with bright and dark colors contrasting all across the frames with paint splatter and exaggerated figures and balance that style with a more grounded style and the two styles mesh wonderfully throughout the story and add to the tone and presentation of the work as a whole. Typically, the extreme exaggerated borderline abstract art is used when the supernatural is occurring, and this contrasts with the clearer more-traditional sections of the work where the protagonists aren’t being confronted by tree-wytches.

Overall, Wytches doesn’t go out and do anything that transcends the trappings of the horror genre, but it isn’t trying to. It is a very well-executed horror story about a family coming to terms their traumatic past, and in the process having to fight off supernatural wytches. It is a spooky story that nails it all where it counts. Atmosphere, art, writing and scares.

For other spooky scary stories, look no further than the Davenport Public Library’s Halloween Libguide! If you are looking for more graphic novels to dive into, our Comics Libguide is the one for you!

Evvie Drake Starts Over by Linda Holmes

- Ann Leave a comment

Evvie Drake has packed her suitcase and stashed all of her cash in the glove compartment of her car and is about to pull out of the driveway to leave her emotionally abusive husband when her cell phone rings. Her husband has just died in a car accident and Evvie is now a widow. A widow who hated her husband.

Dean Tenney had a golden arm that brought him to the pinnacle of Major League Baseball fame and success until one day he can’t pitch anymore. No amount of therapy (mental or physical) helps and, embarrassed and shamed, Dean walks away from the game.

Dean escapes from the chaos of New York City and moves to a small town in coastal Maine where an old buddy lives, seeking peace and quiet and time to heal. Evvie, weighted down by her guilt and lack of sadness over the death of her husband, rents a small apartment to Dean and slowly, cautiously, these two worn, damaged people find strength in each other.

This is a fun, quick read that also manages to be thoughtful. There is a lot of humor, but there is also real pain that needs to be dealt with. There’s romance and healing, but it isn’t quick and it doesn’t come without vulnerability and hard work and compromise. It’s great to read something where the characters grow and develop, take some missteps but find their way in the end. Recommended.

 

The Secrets We Kept by Lara Prescott

- Michelle 1 Comment

The Secrets We Kept by Lara Prescott  transports the reader back to the politics of the Cold War in the 1950s and the tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union during the years immediately following World War II.   At the heart of the story is the secret plan by the United States government to get its hands on Boris Pasternak’s masterpiece Doctor Zhivago in order to publish it for the world to read.

The Secrets We Kept is told in alternating chapters with scenes taking place between the United States and The Soviet Union.  Much of the story revolves around the pressure and repercussions on Pasternak of writing a book that is in direct contrast with the government of the USSR and their eventual censorship of his novel.  Pasternak’s struggle is not only with the government, it is also with his long time mistress, Olga Ivinskya, who became his most passionate advocate and sometime publicist.  Olga also has the distinction of being the inspiration for the main character in Pasternak’s novel, Lara.  The Soviet government went as far as imprisoning Olga for numerous years due to her association with Pasternak as an additional form of pressure on him.  Upon her release, she returned and they picked up where they left off with the goal of publishing Pasternak’s book.

Simultaneously, in Washington, D. C., new college graduate Irina is plucked from her secretarial position within the US government and given orders to go undercover to help smuggle a copy of the book out of the USSR.  Along with a few select others, she learns the ropes of becoming an international spy by transferring the manuscript of the book to its final destination.  Inspired by the United States belief that literature can change the world, the hand selected group of US spies assume identities all over the world to ensure the book has a worldwide audience.

When I discovered that this book was centered on the writing of Doctor Zhivago, I was immediately intrigued.  I knew just a little about the writing of the book and its aftermath, but this work of historical fiction is not only an intriguing read, but has me wanting to find out more about this time period and the men and women whose passion for literature brought the novel to a worldwide audience.

The Friend Zone by Abby Jimenez

- Stephanie Leave a comment

Romance novels usually contain elements of real life that readers can relate to. The Friend Zone by Abby Jimenez discusses the difficulties of infertility, how to navigate new relationships, and how to handle varying degrees of loss.

The Friend Zone  by Abby Jimenez is a heartwarming romantic comedy that at times delves into deep and sensitive topics. Kristen Petersen hates drama. She is blunt, to the point, and knows what she wants. While she doesn’t have many close family members or friends, Kristen will do anything for the ones that she does have. Her straightforwardness means that Kristen is very quick to dismiss guys who don’t understand her or those that she just doesn’t like. While she is quite frank, there is a major secret that she is keeping from everyone: Kristen has been experiencing major medical issues for years and in order to find some relief, she has chosen to go through a medical procedure that will result in her not being able to have children.

This secret is tearing her up on the inside. Kristen’s best friend is going to be married soon. Helping her to plan the wedding has left Kristen feeling unsure and angry because of how her life is turning out. Her sadness deepens when she meets the best man, Josh Copeland. Josh is everything that she ever wanted. He’s funny, sexy, her dog loves him, and he seems to be able to read her mind. Josh ends up working for Kristen which allows the two to learn more about each other. Several circumstances converge to keep the two apart however. The biggest one: Kristen has a boyfriend. Another one: Josh wants a big family someday. He mentions it to her several different times.

Kristen decides that she needs to keep Josh away from her. She knows that she won’t be able to give him what he wants and that he would be much better off with someone else. The more she pushes him away, the closer they get though.  Kristen isn’t sure what else to do, while Josh isn’t sure why she’s pushing him away.

This book had me cringing at moments wondering why the two just didn’t take time to talk to each other, but also had me recognizing that since I have never gone through any fertility issues, I was unable to fully understand what was happening. All in all, I enjoyed the twists and turns of this book. Check it out and let me know what you think of it in the comments below!

The Marriage Clock by Zara Raheem

- Stephanie Leave a comment

The Marriage Clock by Zara Raheem is a perfect light and get-your-mind-distracted read to help you get ready for summer and for wedding season(or to just take a break from life). Even though summer is over, I still found this book to be a delightfully fresh debut from a new author.

The Marriage Clock is Raheem’s discussion of traditional vs. modern marriage customs in Indian families told as one woman’s struggle to keep everyone in her life happy. 26-year-old Leila Abid has always imagined getting married. Her parents want her to get married too and the fact that Leila isn’t married yet is something that they find very concerning. You see, as an East Indian/East Euro-Asian woman, Leila’s parents believe that marriage is half of their religious duty. Arranged marriages happen all the time, but growing up in America, Leila has slightly more give in terms of how early she was married.

At her 26th birthday party, Leila’s parents sit her down and tell her that she has three months to find a husband before they will arrange a marriage for her. Shocked and not happy with this news, Leila agrees as long as her mother backs off from the set-ups. Leila goes on blind dates, online dates, speed dates, ambush dates, and other dates in those three months, but sadly no great love comes to sweep her off her feet.

Leila has great expectations for love. She has always imagined a Bollywood romance with seven pages of what she’s expecting from her future husband. One of her biggest requests: she wants real love before she’s married. This deviates from the norm as with most traditional Indian arranged marriages, love does not happen until after marriage. Leila knows she doesn’t want that.

As her three month deadline looms closer, Leila finds herself wondering what her parents have in store for her. The longer she searches for a husband, the more Leila realizes that an arranged marriage is not for her. But if she doesn’t go through with one, how will her parents ever forgive her? Leila must find a solution that will keep her parents happy and will let her find a man to fall in love with.