Category: Books

Ghost Ship by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller

- Ann Leave a comment

submitted by Georgann

Ghost Ship, a novel of the Liaden Universe by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller

I was SO GLAD to see this new novel in the series come out! This is the third in the series-within-a-series, this one continuing the tale of Theo Waitley. Theo has grown up a lot from the student she was when we first met her, and she is still just as likeable as she was to begin with. With maturity and her First Class pilot’s jacket comes many more adventures and unexpected twists in her life.

She is learning about her father’s side of the family, and quite a family it is! (You can read all about them in the previous novels of the series. You can find more thoughts about the series in an earlier blog post.) They are thrilled to have her; she’s not quite so sure about them! She is learning about being a solo pilot who really needs backup. She is learning about a sentient ship who is claiming her as Captain. Shea hasn’t yet learned how extraordinary she is!

It is a great story, full of relationships, characters you care about, mystery and intrigue. The only bad thing about it was it was over too soon, and the next one’s not out yet!

Downton Abbey Withdrawal

- Ann Leave a comment

Blimey! The second series of Downton Abbey is over! Now what!

If you’ve fallen in love with the English period drama like millions of others, you might be feeling a little bereft right now. The good news is that Downton Abbey will be back – filming for the third series began last week. The bad news is, it’ll probably be a year before we see it on the screen. Fill your need for costume, drama and roller-coaster romances set in the bucolic English countryside with some of the following suggestions.

You might start with re-watching Downton Abbey itself; Series 1 and Series 2 are now available on DVD. The exquisite fashions and the breathtaking Highclere House (which stands in for Downton Abbey) never get old.  Or explore the characters and settings in-depth with The World of Downton Abbey by Jessica Fellowes which is filled with behind-the-scenes photos and lots of insight on how the series was filmed.

Another option is to go to the original (and still maybe the best) series about the class system of the English upper class – Upstairs, Downstairs. There are many similarities between the series which both follow the entwined lives of a rich, upper-class family and their servants. The setting here is London (as opposed to North Yorkshire) and starts a few years earlier, but you’ll find the same meticulous attention to detail,  fine acting and addictive story lines. With five seasons and over 60 episodes, you can happily wallow in repressed English drama for weeks. A recent continuation of Upstairs, Downstairs, set in the late 1930s, is interesting but somehow misses the magic formula.

For a quick hit of upper class/lower class, go to Gosford Park, a theatrical release about a weekend holiday at an English country home, set in the 1930s. Like Downton Abbey, it was written by Julian Fellowes and it also stars Dame Maggie Smith (the Dowager Countess in Downton Abbey)

Manor House is a reality show that plucks ordinary, modern people from their lives and transports them to a 1906 country house to play the parts of masters and servants. This is a real eye-opener on just how privileged the upper class was and how the life of a servant was filled with hard work and not much else. Fascinating.

Finally, I’d recommend the recent production of Emma. Most of Jane Austen’s heroines are forced to live in reduced circumstances, but Emma is securely ensconced in a comfortable upper class life. While the time period is 100 years earlier than Downton Abbey and the focus is on the wealthy, you’ll still find witty dialogue, beautiful homes and idyllic countryside.

I’ll Be There by Holly Goldberg Sloan

- Ann Leave a comment

I’ll Be There by Holly Goldberg Sloan is a story about love and devotion and friendship, about hanging on and believing in yourself and trusting the right people. It’s about how we touch other lives, often without knowing. It’s a family drama and a survival story and a romance rolled into one can’t-put-down story.

When 17-year-old Sam meets Emily, his life is a mess. Worse than a mess – it’s hopeless. His abusive father snatched Sam and his little brother Riddle from their backyard a decade ago. Since then, Sam has protected Riddle (who is sickly and no longer talks), takes care of him and absorbs most of the punishment their father hands out. They aren’t allowed to go to school – Sam teaches himself as best he can – how to swim, how to play the guitar – and keeps up with the world by reading magazines discarded in dumpsters. They move constantly, one step ahead of the law, and making friends is impossible.

Emily Bell is mortified about singing a solo at church. It doesn’t matter that her father is a professor of music, she’s a terrible singer. Her Dad insists, she manages to muddle through the song (badly off-key) by locking eyes with the mysterious boy sitting at the very back pew. They make a connection and she gets through her ordeal – barely. The minute she’s finished she rushes outside to be sick. That’s where the mysterious boy (Sam) finds her, holds her hair and tells her it’s going to be ok.

It takes some persistence, but Emily finds Sam again and they become friends. Sam is wary and is protective of Riddle, and tries to shield Emily from his background but gradually, through kindness and attention, Sam becomes part of Emily’s family. Emily’s parents take to the boys – her father discovers that Sam is a musical prodigy and encourages his talent and her mother recognizes that Riddle needs to be treated for asthma and that both boys are desperate for love and family. For the first time in a long time, Sam and Riddle have some hope.

It all comes crashing down when their father discovers that the boys have made friends and he once again snatches them away and goes on the run. The story of the boys struggle to survive their harsh new reality and Emily and her parents search for them will keep you up reading very late at night – Sloan masterfully creates and maintains an almost unbearable tension throughout the book. (I have to make a confession. About two thirds of the way through, I skipped ahead to the end to find out what happened. The tension was just too high, the need to know just too strong. Then I went back and read the part I’d missed!) The characters she creates are amazing – complex and believable. I especially liked the various relationships – especially between Riddle and Emily’s Mom and between Sam and Riddle. They (and the whole book) show that love comes in all sizes and shapes and can save you no matter how bad things look. Read this book – you won’t be disappointed.

 

When She Woke by Hillary Jordan

- Ann Leave a comment

Hillary Jordan’s novel When She Woke is often described as a new dystopian take on The Scarlet Letter.  It is set in a future where an epidemic has left the majority of women sterile and abortion has been made illegal to prevent a declining population.  Prisons are also wildly overcrowded, so to remedy this, criminals who aren’t considered dangerous to society are not locked up but are instead “melachromed”: their skin is dyed so that their crime is instantly recognizable to the population.

The novel’s main character, Hannah Payne, is a very religious young woman who broke the law by having an abortion in order to protect the baby’s father, world-famous Reverend Aidan Dale.  Hannah is caught and tried, and she wakes up a the beginning of the novel with scarlet red skin.  The book flashes back to how she ended up in this position and how she deals with entering society as a an outcast due to the color of her skin and the nature of her crime.

This book was very compelling, so much so that I found it a little painful to have to put it down at times.  It’s a very interesting take on a futuristic society; it’s unique, but not so out-there that you can never imagine it happening.  This might even be a fun pick for a book club because its controversial nature could bring up some very lively discussion!

New Bookclub in a Box kits!

- Ann Leave a comment

The library just added 20 new kits to our Bookclub in a Box collection!  These kits include a minimum of 10 copies of a book along with a folder of discussion questions and book reviews.  Some of them even come with the book on CD.  Here’s a list of our newest kits:

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Steig Larsson

Loving Frank by Nancy Horan

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer

The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein

Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

Blood and Thunder by Hampton Sides

Hearts of Horses by Molly Gloss

 

The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown

Dear American Airlines by Jonathan Miles

Sing Them Home by Stephanie Kallos

Hope’s Boy by Andrew Bridge

Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese

Stranger Among Us

Belong to Me by Marisa de los Santos

The Condition by Jennifer Haigh

Beautiful Boy by David Sheff

Time is a River by Mary Alice Monroe

The Girls by Lori Lansens

Long Gone by Alafair Burke

- Michelle Leave a comment

Long Gone, the new thriller from Alafair Burke, is a suspenseful roller coaster of a novel where everything appears one way but, in reality, is completely the opposite.  Recently fired from her job at a prestigious art museum in New York, Alice Humphrey is thrilled to be approached by a complete stranger, Drew Campbell, during an art gallery opening.  Drew offers her a fabulous proposition – a dream job of managing an up-and-coming art gallery funded by an anonymous, wealthy patron.  After a few initial doubts, Alice accepts the offer and begins to make her mark on the art world.

After the initial flurry of a successful opening, Alice begins to enjoy her new career until one morning a few weeks later.  She opens the gallery and discovers the space is completely empty and the body of Drew Campbell is on the gallery floor.  Quickly, the evidence begins to mount against her and the police believe that she killed the man who she thought to be Drew Campbell, but has been identified as someone else.  Knowing that she has been set up, Alice desperately sets out on a quest to clear her name and find out the truth.  While searching for answers along the way, Alice discovers even more hidden secrets involving her own family’s past.

Long Gone is a page-turning mystery with an intense and intricately woven storyline.   Highly recommended!

A Quiet Death by Marcia Talley

- Lynn Leave a comment

At the start of A Quiet Death, Hannah Ives is riding the Washington D.C. metro when her train crashes. Though injured herself, she tries to help a fellow passenger who is very badly hurt. In the confusion, she ends up with a shopping bag he was carrying. Eventually she reads the letters it contains in order to return the bag to him.

I picked up the book because I was interested in the Washington D.C. setting and that promise was fulfilled. Marcia Talley does well in portraying a city that revolves around the government – for example, the subtleties of how prestigious a restaurant is  – based on the level of the bureaucrats who frequent it.

The mystery itself, however, seemed a bit contrived. Instead of checking with transit or police officials who may be able to locate the mystery passenger, Hannah decides to find him herself, relying on simple google searches. Nothing very intriguing there. Security is also lax at Fox, I mean Lynx, News where Hannah drops in to interview their news anchor, whom she’s never met.

A pleasant read, but not a real page turner.

Nowhere Boy’s in Black

- Ann Leave a comment

On February 7, 1964 the Beatles arrived at New York’s Kennedy Airport to thousands of screaming fans. It was awesome. Or so I’ve heard.

Luckily, for those of us who were too young to experience Beatlemania first-hand (and have yet to be invited by a certain Time Lord to accompany him in his TARDIS), the Beatles continue to be hot topics for books and film. Here are a couple of recent items that celebrate two people who didn’t live to see Beatlemania and yet had a distinct effect on the Beatles becoming The Beatles: original bass player, Stuart Sutcliffe, and John Lennon’s mother, Julia.

Baby's in Black Baby’s in black : the story of Astrid Kirchherr & Stuart Sutcliffe by Arne Bellstorf tells the epic love story between Stuart and Astrid during the era of the Beatles early Hamburg gigs. Although the names were all familiar to me, as was the tragic ending, I knew very little about Astrid and Stu’s life together nor Stuart’s passion for painting. The heavy, stark drawings by Bellstroff manage to evoke and complement both the mod existentialist world of Astrid and the moody rock & roll environment of the Beatles and Stu.

Nowhere BoyNowhere Boy, a film directed by Sam Taylor-Wood, takes place before John Lennon formed the Beatles, before Stuart met Astrid and before John had even met Stuart. Nowhere Boy takes place in the mid 1950’s when John Lennon was in his early teens and struggling to maintain relationships with both his strict and caring guardian, his Aunt Mimi, and his musically-talented, free-spirited mother, Julia, who had just recently reappeared in his life. This story also ends sadly, but there is some fun along the way as we get to see John form his first group, The Quarrymen, and invite Paul McCartney and then George Harrison to join him. Actor Aaron Johnson (the star of two of my favorite films, Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging and Kick-Ass) is absolutely amazing as a cheeky & insecure young John Lennon.

And, just to throw in a book with happier vibes, here is one of my all-time favorite Beatles-related books:

Postcards from the Boys by Ringo Starr showcases some of the cards Ringo has received from John, Paul, and George (and their families) from the 1960’s to now. Each card is shown both front and back and includes a bit of commentary from Ringo. No other way to describe this book, but absolutely DELIGHTFUL.

Get ready for the Oscars!

- Ann Leave a comment

Did you know that 6 of this year’s 9 Oscar nominees for Best Picture are based on books?  In addition to those, several films nominated in other categories were also books before they were movies.  Check them out at the library before the big night!

Moneyball – nominee for Best Picture, Best Actor, and Best Supporting Actor.  Based on the book by Michael Lewis.  If you haven’t seen the movie yet, place a hold here.

The Descendents – nominee for Best Picture, Best Actor and Best Director.  Based on the novel by Kaui Hart Hemmings.

Hugo – nominee for Best Picture and Best Director.  Based on the novel The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick.

War Horse – nominee for Best Picture.  Based on the novel by Michael Morpurgo.

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close – nominee for Best Picture and Best Supporting Actor.  Based on the novel by Jonathan Safran Foer.

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy – nominee for Best Actor.  Based on the novel by John le Carré.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo – nominee for Best Actress.  Based on the novel by Steig Larsson.

The Help – nominee for Best Picture, Best Actress, and Best Supporting Actress.  Based on the novel by Kathryn Stockett.  If you haven’t seen the movie yet, place a hold here.

Read This, Not That: A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin

- Ann Leave a comment

Though first published in 1996, A Game of Thrones and its four sequels (collectively known as A Song of Ice and Fire) have become a phenomenon in library hold queues of late thanks to HBO’s serial adaptation (season 2 premieres on April 1) and the summer ’11 release of the bestselling A Dance With Dragons. If you’re interested in the series but were turned off by the verbose visuals and relentless attention to detail, you are not alone. Try these titles for an alternative jaunt into gritty, political, and subtly-fantastical realms.

If you are intrigued by the era of Martin’s inspiration, England’s Wars of the Roses, try The White Queen by Philippa Gregory, or any of her rich historical novels set in a similar time period, including The Red Queen (a direct sequel), The Other Boleyn Girl, and The Other Queen. For a factual (but nonetheless exciting) version of the story, try Alison Weir’s The Wars of the Roses.

Part of the appeal of Martin’s work is the very small part that magic and fantasy play in the narrative. If you appreciate that ratio, consider The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova, in which a modern woman is embroiled in the continuing high-stakes mystery of Vlad the Impaler (aka Dracula). Another tale of subtle magic is Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen, which explores the lives a Southern family with a unique talent for growing (and using) magical plants in a successful catering business.

If the gripping political drama of a royal family pulls you in, but the fantasy elements are off putting, you’ll love Bernard Cornwell, whose Arthur books (beginning with The Winter King) make the mythic saga fresh, exciting, and utterly believable.

If you enjoy gritty fantasy but not a lot of length, consider The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch or The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie. Both are #1 in their respective serials, but can be enjoyed individually. Additionally, they each still come in very far below the page count Martin sets. In hardcover, A Song of Ice and Fire numbers 4,223 pages in total – a truly intimidating figure. By contrast, Abercrombie’s entire trilogy numbers only 1,810, and Lynch’s tale wraps up in a snappy 752.