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Traction Man is Here!
by Caser
Traction Man is a "generic action figure with dazzle-painted battle pants!" It even says so on the box in which he's packaged. He also happens to be the best friend of one young boy who guides his hero through an imaginative series of perilous journeys and daring escapes. That is, until the boy's well-meaning grandmother knits a green yarn jumpsuit for Traction Man, thus sapping the moveable man of his mighty action powers. Can Traction Man and his intrepid sidekick Scrubbing Brush ever regain their status as avengers of nefarious house scum? Check out Mini Grey's picture book Traction Man is Here! and the sequel, Traction Man Meets Turbodog, to find out.
Blog Post
Nobel prize winning playwright Harold Pinter dies
by lucroe
Playwright, poet, essayist, actor, political activist, and Nobel prize in literature winner (2005), Harold Pinter passed away on Dec 25, 2008 at age 78 after struggling with esophageal cancer. Before passing he wrote a poem about his diagnosis,
I need to see my tumor dead
A tumor which forgets to die
But plans to murder me instead.
But I remember how to die
Though all my witnesses are dead.
But I remember what they said
Of tumors which would render them
As blind and dumb as they had been
Before the birth of that disease
Which brought the tumor into play.
The black cells will dry up and die
Or sing with joy and have their way.
They breed so quietly night and day,
You never know, they never say.
For further information about the prolific Pinter click here.
Blog Post
As Simple As Snow
by celesteh
A young man becomes entranced with the spooky new girl at his small town high school, Anna Cayne. As Anna and the unnamed narrator’s relationship progresses, he finds himself entirely absorbed in her strange world full of ghosts, puzzles and codes – not to mention the obituaries that she’s been writing for everyone in the whole town. When Anna disappears on Valentine’s Day, the narrator struggles to decipher the clues left behind to find her – and meanwhile, everyone in town seems to have plenty of secrets of their own. As Simple as Snow by Gregory Galloway is a dramatic, but often funny, coming-of-age story that is so steeped in clues and mystery it has developed somewhat of a cult following. It is not a ‘typical’ novel or mystery by any means – and some who prefer a neatly wrapped package may find the story a source of frustration. However, As Simple as Snow may haunt you, long after the novel is over…and you may find yourself reading again, wondering…are the answers all here?
Blog Post
Terrifically terrifying
by lucroe
Ready for a scary book for those cold winter nights? Get your hot chocolate and jammies on, you will need them since this book will NOT make you any warmer! International Horror award winner, the Terror by multiple award winning author, Dan Simmons, brings the reader up close to the trials of the 1840s Franklin Expedition to the Canadian Arctic. The expedition, while searching for the famed Northwest Passage, was besot by foul weather and eventually became lodged in the ice, never to be seen again. Simmons takes these true events and adds some horror and a touch of the supernatural. It is a very suspenseful book and extremely well-written. You won't have to go outside to get the feeling of the freezing Arctic temperatures, Simmons does it all for you!
Blog Post
(Audio) Fabulous Fiction Firsts #137
by muffy
In Rivka Galchen's Atmospheric Disturbances, convinced that his wife has disappeared and left behind a duplicate of herself who fools everyone else, Dr. Leo Liebenstein embarks on a quixotic journey to reclaim his lost love, an effort during which he is aided by a deluded psychiatric patient and an enigmatic meteorologist.
Critics liked this intriguing and sophisticated first novel for its startling premise and unique characters and Reader Malcolm Hillgartner's rich baritone is "perfect for the obsessed Liebenstein".
In the The Lace Reader*, Brunonia Barry's debut (first in a proposed trilogy) novel Psychic Towner Whitney reluctantly returns to her hometown of Salem, Massachusetts when her 85 year-old great-aunt suddenly disappears, and joins local cop John Rafferty in his investigation into the mystery. (Read by the prolific Alyssa Bresnahan).
Barry "combines her focus on the history of this particular community, including its witchcraft trials, religious cults, and quotidian seaport life, with her study of a fractured family seeking truth to bring us a most unusual and bewitching novel. Highly recommended. ~Library Journal.
* = Starred Review
Blog Post
Fabulous Fiction Firsts #136
by muffy
A 2007 Hopwood Awards winner, Nami Mun's debut novel Miles from Nowhere* has garnered enthusiastic praise from many critics.
Set in the 1980s, it is the coming-of-age story of Joon, a Korean-American teenage runaway. Survival means homeless shelters, jail, hunger, drugs, prostitution, and terror on the mean streets of New York, - gritty and unflinching.
“There is nothing simplistic or sensationalized here as Mun, a writer of gravitas, portrays the dispossessed and the cast-out…”. However, it is her portrayal of Joon who remains “inviolable, kind and determined”, with “a fierce survival instincts, adaptability and radiance” that carries the reader towards a hopeful ending.
*= Starred Reviews. The editors of Booklist have picked Miles as one of the First Novel Stars on their annual list.
Blog Post
Toni Morrison's Newest Novel
by pkooger
Toni Morrison, Pulitzer and Nobel-Prize winning author of Beloved, is back with her 9th novel, a haunting story set in America's dark past. A Mercy takes us back to 17th century America, pictured as a kind of wild paradise with a poisonous edge. The story centers around an Anglo-Dutch trader named Jacob; his wife Rebekka, who has fled from a life of poverty in England; their servant Lina, one of the last remnants of a smallpox-ravaged tribe; Florens, a 16-year old African slave; and Sorrow, a racially mixed survivor of a shipwreck. Morrison expertly revisits the themes of her previous books, the main one being the devastating and damning effects of human slavery, both for those who are dominated and for those who do the dominating. A Mercy forces the reader to see more than just the obvious institution of legal slavery through the slave trade; we also see the essential slavery of the native peoples of America, the indentured lower classes, and women. Morrison's latest book is an epic tragedy and a powerful experience.
Blog Post
More than just a millionaire
by lucroe
British director Danny Boyle, best known for the movies , Millions, & 28 Days Later has a new movie at theaters called Slumdog Millionaire. With a screenplay by Simon Beaufoy and adapted from the book, Q & A by Vikas Swarup, Slumdog is a big departure from Boyle's last movie, the sci-fi adventure, Sunshine. Slumdog Millionaire follows Jamal Malik, an orphan living on the streets of Mumbai, who becomes a contestant on the Hindi version of 'Who Wants to be a Millionaire'. He is one question away from winning it all, when police arrest him for suspected cheating. They question how a street beggar could know so much. Jamal then proceeds to tell his amazing life story which in turn reveals how he knows the answers. This movie has been nominated for a best picture award at the Golden Globes and Oscar buzz has been brewing as well!
Blog Post
Christmas Reads
by ErinDurrett
For those of you who enjoy Holiday books, as well as the Holidays, you may want to consider reading The Christmas Train by David Baldacci. The book delves into a story about Tom Langdon, a former war reporter who now writes features for magazines. To his detriment, he is forced to take a train from D.C. to L.A. (where his girlfriend awaits), after a hostile incident at airport security. On the train he meets several different characters...an eccentric old women, a former Catholic priest, a young couple who are planning to marry on the train, and the former love of his life. Unresolved issues between the two ensue, while a series of unexpected events occur to try to derail any plans of a reconciliation. This book is more sentimental and heartwarming unlike the majority of Baldacci's books and may not suit his usual fan base.
Another sentimental Holiday series is the Christmas Hope Series by bestselling author Donna VanLiere. This series starts with The Christmas Shoes, and continues with The Christmas Blessing, and The Christmas Promise. Each book in the series shows how one good deed can irrevocably change the lives of others. Check out these heartwarming reads today!
Blog Post
A Dark and Deep Underneath
by Caser
Infused with songs of the delta blues, told through the eyes of two kittens and a battered dog, and bent with a violent owner and a vengeful moccasin, The Underneath, a youth novel by Kathy Appelt, bears little resemblance to a Norman Rockwell painting. A finalist for this year's National Book Award, The Underneath is a dark novel that intertwines three stories, each about characters battling with the same philosophical dilemma: choose love, or live in fear.
When a pregnant cat is abandoned in a ditch in southern Texas, she finds protection and love with an unlikely suitor: Ranger, a bullet-wounded hound living underneath his abusive owner's dilapidated house. The hound's owner, known as Gar Face, spends his days hunting his own Moby Dick, a 100 foot alligator lurking in a nearby swamp. Finally, there's Grandmother Moccasin, a mystical snake over 1,000 years old, who plots her revenge against those who wronged her long ago. In the swamps of the south, there is death, there is evil, and there is hope.