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Hunger Games + Carolyn McCormick = Good Listening
by annevm
If you're looking for an excuse to listen to the BOCD of The Hunger Games, consider this: The narrator is Carolyn McCormick who played Dr. Elizabeth Olivet on NBC's Law & Order. Not impressed? Well, McCormick also is the narrator on BOCDs of mysteries by James Patterson and Patricia Cornwell. Who can resist?
Blog Post
(My) Fabulous Fiction Firsts #247
by muffy
For someone who is eternally looking for the next Chick Lit. read, I have no idea how Jill Mansell gets by me. Mind you, not once, but 3 times. But I will be making up for lost time.
Charming and cheery, Staying at Daisy's (originally published in the UK, 2002) was just the thing to ward off the lingering winter chill and the incessant sleet and snow.
In this "screwball romantic comedy" set at a posh hotel in picturesque Bristol, Daisy MacLean handily juggles the hospitality business, misbehaving guests, an odd assortment of staff and the embarrassing excuse for an owner who happens to her father; but is leery and tentative with rich, successful (and very hot) former rugby player Dev Tyzack who might just be pursuing her romantically.
Daisy's personal history, small town secrets, serendipity and surprises enrich the plot, add to the humor, and heighten the suspense, making it a "clever, absorbing, and very enjoyable read".
For fans of British Katie Fforde; Madeleine Wickham; and Isabel Wolff who enjoy lighthearted, contemporary women's fiction.
Blog Post
Fabulous Fiction Firsts #246
by muffy
Keigo Higashino won Japan's Naoki Prize for Best Novel with The Devotion of Suspect X* * * , a stunning thriller about miscarried human devotion.
This is the first major English publication of Japan's best-loved and bestselling crime novelist, translated from the Japanese by Alexander O. Smith with Elye J. Alexander.
Young Yasuko is caught red-handed over the dead body of her abusive ex-husband, luckily by her neighbor, a middle-aged high school mathematics teacher named Shigami who quickly offers to help, not only to dispose of the body but to construct an elaborate alibi for her.
When Detective Kusanagi draws the case, he suspects Yasuko though he is unable to find any obvious holes in her alibi. So Kusanagi enlists the help of Dr. Manabu Yukawa, a brilliant physicist, who also happens to be a former classmates of Ishigami. What ensues is a high level battle of wits, as Ishigami tries to protect Yasuko by outmaneuvering and outthinking Yukawa, who faces his most clever and determined opponent yet.
Readers of atmospheric and psychological thriller should also like David Peace's WWII-era Tokyo Year Zero (2007), a darkly lyrical and original crime novel featuring Detective Minami of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police. Or noir mysteries by Natsuo Kirino, at the fringe of contemporary Tokyo society.
Readers interested in character-driven mysteries set in Asia should try James Church's Inspector O series, set in a politically-charged modern Korea.
* * * = Starred Reviews
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Author Birthdays: Aleichem, Seuss, Goodis
by marshd
March 2nd marks the birthday of authors Sholem Aleichem, Dr. Seuss, and David Goodis.
Sholem Aleichem was a Yiddish writer from the Ukraine, and while you may not immediately recognize his work Tevye the Dairyman, you probably recognize its musical counterpart The Fiddler on the Roof.
Aleichem also wrote the novel Wandering Stars, a tale of the Yiddish theater, and his autobiography From the Fair, which CHOICE said "told in the third person, reveals a very rich picture of Jewish shtetl existence".
I feel no need to introduce such a person as Dr. Seuss. His real name was Theodor Seuss Geisel, and his Oh, The Places You'll Go! has probably been quoted at 2/3 of graduations since its publication. Though, my personal favorite has always been Hop on Pop.
Seuss's works have been translated into many languages; here at AADL we have his books in five aside from English--Spanish, Chinese, French, Russian, and Hebrew.
David Goodis was an American writer of noir, a sub-genre of hardboiled crime fiction. Many of his novels were made into noir movies as well, like Dark Passage and Shoot The Piano Player.
Goodis was not necessarily well liked. In one book, Geoffrey O'Brien called him "a poet of the losers. ... If Jack Kerouac had written crime novels, they might have sounded a bit like this".
Blog Post
Teen Stuff: H.I.V.E by Mark Walden
by Caser
Evil geniuses of the world, your secret is out. We know you weren't born corrupt destroyers of all things good like puppies and 70 degree days in March. And now we know where you were forged into your mold of malevolence: H. I. V. E. (Higher Institute of Villainous Education).
Otto, a 13 year old orphan genius with a photographic memory, is kidnapped by H.I.V.E. and taken to their secret headquarters inside a remote volcanic island. He is joined by other kidnapping victims who were abducted for their elite abilities and enrolled in classes like 'Villainy Studies' and 'Stealth and Evasion'. Discovering that they are trapped here, Otto and a few of his friends band together to try to escape from H.I.V.E., a feat no one has accomplished before.
Fans of the Alex Rider series will find the pace and adventure of Mark Walden's H.I.V.E. a gripping introduction to the finest minds of madness this world has ever known. Fans of I am a Genius of Unspeakable Evil and I Want to be Your Class President will simply enjoy the evil.
Blog Post
'Starcrossed'
by marshd
Starcrossed is the second novel by historical fantasy author Elizabeth C. Bunce, and the first book in the "Thief Errant" series.
The story stars a learned and streetwise thief, Digger, who, in order to escape the wrath of the kingdom Inquisitor and his policing Greenmen, finds herself and her fate entwined with that of a party of drunken nobles. With the group is Lady Merista, a young girl whom Digger quite suddenly discovers is deeply into something punishable by torture and death -- magic. Digger becomes torn between her developing love for her young friend, the suspicious and dangerous activity of Merista's parents, the blackmailing and vengeful friend of her host, and her mantra: Stay Alive. Don't get caught. Don't get involved.
If you like intrigue, spies, magic, romance, and a sassy heroine, this is a must-read. Bunce not only presents a vivid and fast-paced tale, but also an addictive world, moving characters, and a great tension between people and their rulers. Historically, the story throws us into a sense of the Inquisition and the witch craze in Europe.
Blog Post
Fabulous Fiction Firsts #245
by muffy
Paula McLain will be reading and signing The Paris Wife at Borders on Liberty Street, Wednesday, March 2, at 7 pm.
In Paula McLain's The Paris Wife : a novel * * , Hadley Richardson takes center stage in this fictional biography of a marriage - between a quiet and supportive older woman (by 8 years) to her charismatic and soon-to-be famous husband Ernest "Hem" Hemingway.
Though doomed, the Hemingway marriage had its giddy high points, including a whirlwind courtship and a few fast and furious "gin-soaked and jazz-infused" years in the expatriate lifestyle of the 1920s Paris. Readers are also treated to intimate glimpses of many of the literary giants of the era, including Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound, James Joyce, and F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald.
Much more than a "woman-behind-the-man" homage, this beautifully crafted tale is an unsentimental and yet sympathetic tribute to a woman who acted with grace and strength as her marriage crumbled. Compelling and a pleasure to read.
For background information and research for this novel, here is an interview with the author at The Hemingway Project website. May I also suggest Hadley, a biography by Gioia Diliberto?
Poet Paula McLain (Like Family : Growing up in Other People's Houses : a memoir) received an MFA from the University of Michigan and has been a resident of Yaddo and the MacDowell Colony. This is the first of her novels in our collection.
* * = Starred reviews
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Author Birthdays: Shirer, Cornwell, Sandford
by marshd
February 23rd marks the birthday of authors William L. Shirer, Bernard Cornwell, and John Sandford.
William L. Shirer was an American writer of mostly non-fiction history books. Much of his works focus on Nazi Germany, which isn't surprising, considering he was a WWII journalist who actually reported from Berlin. Part of his book 20th Century Journey called "The Nightmare Years", about his time in Germany, was made into a TV movie with Law & Order star Sam Waterston playing the journalist.
Shirer's "This is Berlin" is a collection of his radio broadcasts from said city. As noted by Library Journal, it gives "the reader a sense of the drama and tension of 'history as it happens'". He also wrote a diary of the days leading up to the war.
Bernard Cornwell is an English historical novelist, best known for his novels centered on character Richard Sharpe, which take place during the Napoleonic Wars. They were also adapted into a television series.
Cornwell has also written stories in the times of Saxon and Arthurian Britain, and the American Civil War. His latest, The Fort, published last year, is a tale of the Revolutionary War, more specifically, of the Penobscot Expedition.
John Sandford (born John Camp) is an American journalist and novelist, probably best known for his Prey series, featuring the character Lucas Davenport. His newest novel, Buried Prey, is in this series and comes out in May.
Sandford's other works include the novel Dead Watch, which has been called "full of suspense, political intrigue, and violence" by Library Journal; you can also see some of his journalistic exploits on his website.
Blog Post
Fabulous Fiction Firsts #244
by muffy
Winner of the 2008 Amanda Davis Highwire Fiction Award, Hannah Pittard's debut novel The Fates Will Find Their Way * begins with the mysterious disappearance of 16-year old Nora Lindell from the unnamed mid-Atlantic town, all the more eerie as it was Halloween.
Told from the first-person plural point of view of the boys who still long for her and the sister she left behind, the mystery grows kaleidoscopically as years go by, fueled by rumors, divergent suspicions, and tantalizing what-ifs.
Capturing teenage lust, friendship, reverence, and regret, Hannah Pittard's beautifully crafted novel tracks the the boys as they "sleepwalk into an adulthood of jobs, marriages, families, homes, and daughters of their own, all the while pining for a girl–and a life–that no longer exists, except in the imagination."
This suspenseful and melancholy take on what it is like for those left behind will appeal to those who liked Please Don't Come Back from the Moon by Dean Bakopoulos, and What Was Lost by Catherine O'Flynn, long-listed for the Man Booker Prize, the Orange Prize, and "The Guardian" First Book Award.
The author will be reading and signing at Nicola's Books, Wednesday, March 9 @ 7 pm. (Details). Don't be late for the party.
* = Starred review
Blog Post
Fabulous Fiction Firsts #243
by muffy
Michael David Lukas's debut novel The Oracle of Stamboul beautifully evokes life in 19th-century Turkey.
Raised by a doting father after her mother's death at childbirth, Eleonora Cohen is recognized as a prodigy (aka The Oracle) at an early age. Unable to endure her stepmother's iron-fisted discipline, Eleonora stows away on the ship that bears her father to Stamboul (modern day Istanbul) on business. When tragedy strikes, Eleonora's extraordinary genius comes to the attention of Sultan Abdul Amid II who is impressed with her shrewd political evaluations, and seeks her advice that might have changed the course of history.
"The exotic sights and sounds of nineteenth-century Turkey spring vividly to life, ... In addition to conducting a delightfully quirky magical mystery tour via an appealingly quirky heroine, Lukas also paints a bold portrait of an empire precariously poised on the chasm between an old and a new world."
Readers intrigued with historic Istanbul might enjoy Orhan Pamuk's My Name is Red (audio), translated from the Turkish by Erdağ Göknar. Set in In sixteenth-century Istanbul, a furor erupts when the sultan hires a group of artists to illuminate a great book. An intellectual mystery that will appeal to fans of Umberto Eco, Iain Pears, and Arturo Perez-Reverte.
Also check out The Janissary Tree by Jason Goodwin, first in a mystery series, and the Edgar Award Winner for a First Novel. In 1836, Europe is modernizing and the Ottoman Empire must follow suit. But just before the sultan announces sweeping changes, a wave of murders threatens the fragile balance of power in his court.
Katie Hickman's The Aviary Gate is a "lush, ancient tale of treacherous secrets, forbidden love, and murder in an Ottoman palace where a British sea captain’s daughter is held captive in the sultan’s harem in 16th-century Constantinople.
* = Starred review