Blog Post
Fabulous Fiction Firsts #115
by muffy
Michigan native Scott Sigler's previous novels are "free, serialized podcasts that generated a large online following and saw over 4 million downloads".
His print debut Infected* will thrill and chill SF and horror fans with a mysterious disease that is turning ordinary Americans across the country into raving, screaming, homicidal maniacs.
CIA operative Dew Phillips and Center for Disease Control epidemiologist Margaret Montoya race in vain to capture a live victim. Meanwhile Perry Dawsey - a hulking former University of Michigan football star awakens one morning to find several mysterious itchy welts growing on his body. Soon Perry finds himself acting and thinking strangely, hearing voices ... he is infected.
With numerous references to Michigan and the UM, this is definitely a fast-paced and captivating read. Try the podcast just for fun and stop scratching!
* = Starred Review
Blog Post
Fabulous Fiction Firsts #114
by muffy
Set in west Dorset, British filmmaker Poppy Adams' "eerie, accomplished debut", The Sister, is "an engrossing psychodrama" of four generations of the Stone family as they gather for a reunion of sorts at their crumbling Victorian manor.
Murder, illicit sex, long-buried secrets and painful memories have estranged them for decades and this reunion will surely bring matters to an explosive conclusion.
Dark, chilling and gothic. Perfect to start your summer reading.
Blog Post
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
by Caser
An audiobook with 10+ discs will probably not come home with me. The problem is not in the writing, but in the reader/narrator. Few readers are dynamic enough to keep my interest for ten hours, so when I found an audiobook with multiple readers, I knew that someone had figured this out.
Jonathan Safran Foer's second novel, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, is told through several perspectives (a la Faulkner) and voiced through three excellent readers: Barbara Caruso, Richard Ferrone, and Jeff Woodsman. The story begins in New York City a few years after 9/11, where Oskar Schell, a nine-year-old with a penchant for inventions, tambourines, and Stephen Hawking, searches for the lock that fits the key he found hidden in his deceased father's closet. Essentially a tale of loss and recovery, Oskar's startling wit and cautious self-awareness make this a highly inviting listen. The novel is also available in our collection.
Blog Post
Fabulous Fiction Firsts #113
by muffy
Civil & Strange is a quietly engaging American debut for Irish poet Cláir Ní Aonghusa, nicely captured by the cover art.
Fans of vintage Maeve Binchy and Joanna Trollope would appreciate the lovingly detailed dynamics of village life and relationships.
Ellen Hughes, a Dublin schoolteacher escapes a crumbling marriage to live in Sligo, a small farming village where she spent childhood summers. She buys and renovates the family home and renews her friendship with an older woman Beatrice, and tentatively explores romance with a newcomer.
"The refreshing blasts of reality give the book emotional heft, and the credible romance that eventually develops is a break from the standard mold". Highly recommended.
Blog Post
Fabulous Fiction Firsts #112
by muffy
Malaysian Preeta Samarasan scores high marks with critics for her debut Evening is the Whole Day*.
This impressive novel is based on an earlier version that won the 2005-6 Avery and Jule Hopwood Awards while Preeta Samarasan (check out her website) was a graduate student at The University of Michigan.
On the outskirts of Ipoh (Malaysia), The Rajasekharans, a wealthy Indian family, suffers a series of personal and familial tragedies that begin with the death of the matriach, Paati, and the disgraceful dismissal of a young servant girl. Most affected by all of the uproar is 6 year-old Aasha, who is harboring a secret that could further devastate not only her family, but the entire community.
Samarasan "scores impressively with the creation of an intimate, gossipy omniscient narrative voice that's the perfect vehicle for her slowly unfloding, intricately layered story".
For fans of Kiran Desai and Arundhati Roy.
Blog Post
Heart of Darkness
by jaegerla
Recently I reread Heart of Darkness, a book that gets better every time. Joseph Conrad is able to masterfully portray human corruption through a story of an expedition into a mysterious continent as well as the soul itself. The next time you are perusing our shelves, consider rereading an old classic. You may enjoy it even more the second time. Visit a list of Pulitzer Prize Winners for possible Re-Read candidates.
Blog Post
The Princess Diaries: Audiobooks
by Cherie Lee
When Mia Thermopolis learns she's a princess her world changes--for the worse! This story turns most little girls' dream into a nightmare for one New York teen. In The Princess Diaries Meg Cabot imagines the hijinks, antics, and neurotic wonderings of a modern unwilling royal.
Two different voice actors read these books but they have similar styles, so if I hadn't checked the back, I might not have noticed. Anne Hathaway, who plays Mia in the movie, reads some while the rest are read by Clea Lewis who has acted in several TV shows as well as done voices for cartoons. Some of the boys sound different with the different readers, but Mia sounds pretty much the same throughout. They also start with beautiful classical music over the Little Princess quotes at the beginning of each book which are probably the most moving things in the entire series.
I listened to seven of these which might lead one to believe that I like them, and I suppose I would have to confess I didn't hate them as much as I initially wanted to, but I still think the movie version is better. The reason being is that in the movie you can imagine that Mia is smart which makes her easier to sympathize with. In the book you can't hold onto any such delusions since you can see her every inane thought. Admittedly her father and grandmother are far more comical in the books, but the movie (while not the most profound) is definitely more profound than these books.
Blog Post
Jhumpa Lahiri is simply elegant
by darla
I finally managed to get my hands on a copy of Jhumpa Lahiri's latest book Unaccustomed Earth and, once again, was spellbound by her gorgeous prose. Hopefully you are familiar with her previous works Interpreter of Maladies (she won a Pulitzer Prize for this one in 2000!) and The Namesake. This latest work, a collection of short stories, follows Lahiri's previous path of exploring life through the eyes of Indian immigrants and their children raised in America. Not only does she make everyday life seem extraordinary, she also dives deep into intimate, haunting story-telling of love, identity, grief, tradition, and attachment. While her writing nods to tales of immigration, it ultimately finds a place in any culture where characters confront the secrets of the human heart. Her rich, emotional stories will unsettle you, get under your skin and leave you wanting more.
Blog Post
Fabulous Fiction Firsts #111
by muffy
The History of Lucy’s Love Life in Ten and a Half Chapters is fun, fluffy and fantastical.
29 year-old commitment-phobic Lucy is staring at the prospect of a perfect life with dishy and nice Anthony (with whom she had 400 plus one-night stands) and chucks it all, wondering if there’s something better on the horizon.
Sacked from her pointless job and bored, an errant time machine sends Lucy on a dating frenzy with bad boy Lord Byron, Leonardo da Vinci, Ovid and Casanova (a sweet guy, really). It’s a thrill ride but there’s also a lesson to be learned. The question is… Is Lucy ready for it?
This British chick lit./fantasy/romantic comedy is the first to be published in the United States by Deborah Wright, a graduate of Oxford University with three best-selling novels in the U.K.
Blog Post
Fabulous Fiction Firsts #109
by muffy
In Girls in Trucks we first meet Sarah Walters and her Camellia (Society) girls at the Charleston Cotillion School for future debutantes. Then come the Ivy League college days and the decade as single girls in the big city. We watch as they make consistent bad choices about men, drugs and alcohol, falling short of the Camellia Society ideal (no riding in shiny red trucks with boys), and in danger of totally missing out on a chance for happiness.
Told in the linked-short-story format, Katie Crouch’s “exceptional, stylish debut” is distinguished by its “gentle humor and sharp observation couched in straightforward prose with none of the preening preciosity so often seen in Southern fiction.”
Fresh, heartwarming and engaging, it reminds one of Melissa Bank’s The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing and The Last Girls by Lee Smith.