Blog Post
Promise Me
by jaegerla
Harlan Coben's Promise Me gets a four out of ten in my personal book rating system. This 2006 release was reviewed as being a very exciting exploration into one of Coben's most popular characters- it was the first book centered around Myron Bolitar in six years.
While this still makes it a good read for fans of the series, it doesn't change the fact that it would be lackluster for any first time readers of Coben's work. The story gave a sense of constantly waiting for the plot to take off, but rather than feeling suspensful it instead felt a bit droning. Not that it was terrible, the book did delve into two interesting topics: whether sworn promises outweigh unspoken understandings, and where the line should be drawn in adult involvement in children's lives.
As sure as this book is to thrill devoted readers of the series, the storyline was not very exciting for an outsider. If you're looking for a quick, easy read, it does the job, but beyond that you would be better off with a classic, such as The Count of Monte Cristo. What do you think of the book? Did you find it amazing? Do you agree that it wasn't that great? Send in your thoughts on the book!
Blog Post
Happy Birthday, Jane
by Maxine
The dark romance, Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte was published on October 6, 1847 under the title, Jane Eyre: An Autobiography by Currer Bell, a pseudonym created by Bronte. Thought to be one of the most famous of British novels, the book has all the elements of compelling Gothic romance: a brooding man, a woman madly in love with him and to top it off, a mad wife. The novel has spawned others with the same appeal including Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier, The Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys and a futuristic parody, The Eyre Affair: A Thursday Next Novel by Jasper Fforde. Jane has transmogrified to screen and just recently, the musical stage.
Oh, and don't forget Charlotte's sister, Emily and her equally brooding Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights.
Blog Post
Walking the Pattern
by RiponGood
I love a good fantasy series. One of my favorites is The Chronicles of Amber by Roger Zelanzny. The first book, Nine Princes of Amber tells the story of Carl Corey. With the help of his brother Random, Carl learns his true identity, Prince Corwin, one of the nine princes of Amber. Corwin then travels from Earth to Amber, the only true world, to battle Eric his brother for the kingship of Amber.
Blog Post
Of Of Mice And Men
by John J. Madonna
For the end of Banned Books Week, I shall write my third and final book blog—which suits me just fine, as I don’t think I’ve read more than three books in my life—about another high school and banned book staple, John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men. If you haven’t read it, it’s great. Stunning analysis, I know, but I actually want to clarify book banning. Only one school or library in the entire country (of which there must be dozens… maybe more) has to challenge or ban a book to make the American Library Association’s list. And even though Of Mice and Men is amazingly depressing, coarse, and violent, why would any library not carry it, or a school not create a forum to discuss it? We need controversial books, books that make us react to them whether it be, we love them, are disgusted by them, or they make us hungry. We need to read a book and want to talk about why we love it or why it should never be read by another human, but we shouldn’t ban books. That’s not discussion. That’s the end of discussion.
Blog Post
Unshelved (the Comic Strip) on Banned Books Week
by Van
How is the Mallville Public Library celebrating Banned Books Week?
Click on these links to see what Dewey, Mel, Tamara, Merv, and the patrons are up to:
Tuesday’s strip
Wednesday’s strip
Thursday’s strip
Friday’s strip
You can get each day’s Unshelved as a RSS feed: http://www.unshelved.com/rss.aspx
The library has two collections of Unshelved:
Library Mascot Cage Match: an Unshelved Collection and What Would Dewey Do?: an Unshelved Collection and two more are on order.
Blog Post
Banned but not forgotten.
by RiponGood
Join us as we celebrate Banned Books Week. Here are four classic science-fiction/ dystopia novels.
1984 by George Orwell - Banned in the USSR for political reasons. Accused of anti-semitism. Challenged in Florida for pro communist and sexual theme.
We by Yevgeny Zamyatin - Banned in the USSR for political reasons.
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess - Removed from a high schools (1976 and 1977) for "objectionable" language.
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley -
Banned in Ireland (1932) and multiple times in the US.
Blog Post
On Orwell and Dahl
by John J. Madonna
George Orwell’s essay “Such, Such Were The Joys…” lamented his days in British preparatory school. Roald Dahl’s autobiography, Boy, lamented his days in British preparatory school. Orwell and Dahl wrote ten years apart and for different audiences, and Orwell had a much shorter career, yet they both wrote about overbearing, cruel teachers and schoolmasters, strict rules on everything, floggings over trifles, deprivation of food, warmth, and supplies. Not surprisingly, Orwell’s books like 1984 and Animal Farm and Dahl’s books like James and the Giant Peach, BFG, and Matilda share a theme of mistrust of authority.
Roald Dahl remains so popular with kids, because his stories feature children’s viewpoints, a lot of which come from the abused and abandoned. Dahl sets his stories in a world of wonderful and innocent children and adults that only wish to take that away (though usually at least one adult will be very kind and understanding.) As realised in Boy, Roald Dahl spent his childhood split betwixt living in bliss with his loving and caring mother and his siblings and abandonment to his boarding school where the adults there merely tried to wear away at his childishness.
Orwell’s two most popular novels revel in his mistrust of authority. Animal Farm, his satire of the Bolshevik Revolution, has all the animals under the authority of a human farmer, who uses the animals for his own gain. After the revolution, the pigs let the power of authority corrupt them and degrade them to the level of their previous overseer. 1984 similarly features a government invading all aspects of people’s lives and denying simple pleasures and freedoms. Compare this to Orwell’s experiences in private school. "Such, Such Were The Joys…" begins with Orwell admitting he was a bed wetter at school, and that he was punished for something that was, as he puts it, both sinful and out of his control.
While it is a point of fascination of a common thread in the writing of two classic authors, and it serves as an important lesson (i.e. don’t send your children to early 20th century British prep schools,) we can see how the way a person is raised and his or her childhood experiences just completely shape their outlook on the world for the rest of their lives.
Blog Post
Get Behind Me Satan...
by erin
After reading the incredibly enjoyable book Devilish by Maureen Johnson I got to wondering, "what's with all the satan stuff lately?" Take for instance the new Kevin Smith directed TV show on the CW, Reaper about a boy who discovers his parents sold his soul to the devil before he was even born - and now he has to work as satan's bounty hunter! In addition to the devil-meets-chick-lit title Devilish there's been a rash of devil books published for teens lately: Repossessed, Black Tattoo, Alfred Kropp: the Seal of Solomon and finally the Demonata series by Cirque Du Freak author Darren Shan. Whether the devil, satan himself, Lucifer, El Diablo or Beelzebub there's plenty of entertainment to be had.
Blog Post
Two brothers in war torn Japan
by Maxine
Gail Tsukiyama's sixth book, The Street of a Thousand Blossoms is the story of Japan before, during and after World War II as seen through the eyes of the two main characters, brothers Hiroshi and Kenji Matsumoto. The boys are raised by loving grandparents in Tokyo. In 1939, Hiroshi dreams of becoming a sumo wrestling champion and Kenji of learning the art of making masks for the Noh theater. But when war breaks out, their plans are put on hold but not extinguished. Tsukiyama brings Japan to life in her vivid yet understated writing about the horror of war, the saving grace of art and the reconstruction of Japan.
Blog Post
In Honour of the ALA’s Banned Book Week: A Book Review!
by John J. Madonna
Everyone reads The Catcher In The Rye in high school. I did, my parents did, my children—err… my hypothetical children will. J.D. Salinger's oft-banned book is oft lauded as a classic tale of teenage angst. Holden Caulfield, the would-be titular catcher and the smoking, drinking, prostitute-soliciting (for conversation only, mind you,) prep-school-flunking antihero has angered parents since his first publication. Even though not all teenagers smoke and drink (or flunk or solicit) Holden is a typical teen, rebellious and occasionally preoccupied with the opposite sex. Of course, to write this off as merely a wonderful story of teenagerism would hardly give it enough credit (slight spoilers ahead.)
Despite his teenage everyman qualities, Holden lost his brother/best friend to leukemia (a personal tragedy he has yet to move past) and saw a kid kill himself at prep school after being bullied. These two experiences, hardly everyday for teens, put Holden in his unfair world full of phonies. I don’t mean to downplay the idea that teens can get a lot from this book, but I also don’t want to downplay the fact that this is also a unique character study about a young man angry at the fact that his innocence is gone.
When I told an English professor I didn’t like Charles Dickens, she said, “Of course you don’t you read it in high school.” The joke, of course, was on her—I read it in middle school—but her point was clear enough: I was not old enough to appreciate it. Likewise, when I revisited Catcher a few years after I had read it, and having in the interim read the other three books by Salinger, I knew I hadn’t been old enough to truly appreciate it. It’s hard to explain outside of the vague, but in his last three books, Salinger’s books teemed Zen Buddhism and other asceticism also present in Catcher. Not to mention that the critical, cynical, sarcastic protagonist like Holden is one of Salinger’s favorites (take a look at Buddy or Zooey Glass) often represents his own voice.
I’m trying to keep this more fawning praise of The Catcher In The Rye, rather than a long discussion, but this book, combined with Nine Stories, Raise High The Roof Beam, Carpenters, and Franny and Zooey make up such a compelling collection of writing, and present such a frustrating collection of writing too. Whereas Salinger’s devoted fans eagerly await the release of everything Salinger has privately written and not published up to now since 1965 (a.k.a., the last year he officially published a new story,) we also know that it will never see the light of day until he dies. Tough position.