Blog Post
If you liked Stranger Things…
by manz
The most talked about television show of the summer has been Stranger Things, a Netflix original that premiered on July 15. If you have not watched it yet, stop reading this and go watch it immediately.
Okay, you’re back. The 8-episode sci-fi horror series hit children of the 80s in the face like a bag of nostalgia that they didn’t know they needed so badly in 2016. Created by the Duffer brothers, it’s filled with enough suspenseful fright to keep you up at night (grab a buddy to watch with), but also adorned with well intended, adorable, adventurous kids to keep you smiling.
Set in 1983 the story follows four 12 year old boys who geek out over Dungeons and Dragons and the AV club. One of them goes missing and the others try to find him once his disappearance turns suspicious. Enter a small town police chief, a frantic mother of the boy gone missing (played effortlessly by Winona Ryder), a government lab, a mysterious alien creature, and a psychokinetic 12 year old girl… and well, you’ve got quite a story.
The show references so many 70s and 80s films it almost seems unreal. It’s an homage to Steven Spielberg and Stephen King. It’s Stand By Me meets Close Encounters of the Third Kind. It’s Cujo meets The Goonies. It’s Firestarter meets E.T. It’s IT meets Cloak and Dagger. It goes so far. And the music? Yes. An 80s soundtrack paired with eerie electronic music and John Carpenter-ish synth twangs, which fills another void you didn’t know existed. The first volume of a soundtrack will be released digitally this Friday, with a CD to follow.
As a fan of what I call “little boy adventure stories,” I was hooked immediately, and the nostalgia and soundtrack sealed the deal and created many late nights of watching the show.
Here is a list of books and movies that might be of interest to you if you finished season 1 and are jonesing for season 2 to begin, and yes, the Duffer brothers have claimed there are more seasons to follow.
Blog Post
The Reading List 2016
by muffy
At the ALA Midwinter in Boston, a committee of 8 librarians announced this past year's best of the best in genre fiction - the Reading List. The winner in each of the 8 categories are:
Adrenaline
Pretty Girls by Karin Slaughter
Three sisters are driven apart in the aftermath of one’s disappearance. When a violent crime occurs new fears arise and relationships shift again. Long term effects of family grief are exploited by the compulsions of a psychopath. Brutal and disturbing, this is ultimately a story of love and empowerment.
Fantasy
Uprooted by Naomi Novik
In this enchanted old-world fable, villagers threatened by a blighted magical wood allow the resident wizard to take one daughter into servitude for ten years. When he chooses klutzy Agnieszka, she faces an unexpected future and confronts the dangers of a wider political world and the roots of magical corruption.
Historical Fiction
Crooked Heart by Lissa Evans
Raised by his eccentric ex-suffragette godmother to be a free-thinker, young Noel is thrown into chaos when the London Blitz forces him into the home of a scam artist loyal only to her layabout son. Thrust together, the two oddballs are forced to find a way through the wartime landscape.
Horror
The Fifth House of the Heart by Ben Tripp
Flamboyant antiques dealer Asmodeus “Sax” Saxon-Tang made his fortune by accidentally killing a vampire with a horde of treasure. To protect the only person he loves, his niece, he’s forced to return to old Europe to assemble an eccentric team of vampire hunters in this gory, witty caper.
Mystery
The Long and Faraway Gone by Lou Berney
Cold cases cast a twenty-five year shadow of grief and guilt on the lives of two survivors of traumatic teenage crimes. New leads and new cases bring them back to Oklahoma City as past and present intersect in this poignant and compelling story of lives forever changed by random violence.
Romance
Taking the Heat by Victoria Dahl
Sassy relationship advice columnist Veronica overcomes her commitment anxiety and gains confidence with the help of mountain-climbing librarian Gabe. Steamy romance evolves into a strong relationship as they scale a mountain of family conflicts and share secrets against a majestic Jackson Hole backdrop.
Science Fiction
Golden Son by Pierce Brown
Insurgent Darrow inveigled his way into high Gold society in 2014’s Red Rising. In this dramatic, high octane follow-up, conflicting loyalties and his own ambitions lure Darrow into an untenable web of deceptions. Bolstered by new alliances, Darrow battles to overthrow corrupt lunar leadership and bring freedom to Mars.
Women’s Fiction
Re Jane by Patricia Park
Anxious to escape the strict upbringing of her uncle’s Flushing grocery, Korean-American Jane accepts an au pair position in the pretentious household of two Brooklyn academics and their adopted Chinese daughter. Park has created a bright comic story of falling in love, finding strength, and living on one’s own terms.
Check out the complete list for a shortlist of honor titles in each category.
Blog Post
NPR's Best Books of 2015
by eapearce
NPR recently released its Best Books of 2015 list, an in depth yearly endeavor where critics and NPR staff choose their favorite books of the year and compile them into a genre-spanning list of several hundred titles. I love that, along with the expected books on the list that are getting accolades from numerous publications and organizations, NPR’s list always contains more obscure titles that many readers likely missed over the course of the year.
You can view all of the titles from the list that we have available in our catalog here.
So what’s on this list of nearly 300 books? Here’s a preview:
In Speak, by Louisa Hall, a young Puritan woman travels to America with her unwanted husband, while in other time and place Alan Turing writes letters to his best friend’s mother and a Jewish refugee tries to reconnect with his distant wife. Elsewhere in time and space, a lonely young girl speaks with an intelligent software program and a formerly celebrated Silicon Valley entrepreneur is imprisoned for making illegal lifelike dolls. How does Hall tie all these characters together? As they all try somehow to communicate across gaps, Hall connects their stories, creating an amazing book that is a blend of historical fiction, science fiction and fantasy.
V is for Vegetables offers more than 140 simple recipes for cooking vegetables in unique and unexpected ways at home. Author and chef Michael Anthony has cleverly divided the chapters of the book by vegetable, so if you ever find yourself staring at kohlrabi or tomatillos in the grocery store, curious about how one cooks such things, this is the book for you! And even expert cooks will be refreshed by Anthony’s new ideas for ways to use common vegetables like broccoli, tomatoes, carrots and squash.
The Battle of Versailles tells of a little-known event that took place at the Palace of Versailles: as a fundraiser for the restoration of the palace, the world’s elite gathered in the grand theater there for a “fashion competition” of sorts: five American designers (including Oscar de la Renta and Anne Klein) faced off against five French designers considered to be the best designers in the world—Yves Saint Laurent, Hubert de Givenchy and others. The American clothes were expected to be a laughingstock but instead, the garments and the energy of the models who wore them wowed the crowd. By the end of the evening, American fashion in the world had transformed from a footnote to an enormous influence, not only on style itself but also on the way race, gender, sexuality and economics were treated in fashion in the years to come.
Blog Post
Lawbreakers Beware! Judge Dredd is in the Building!
by gulickb
The British comic 2000 AD has had a huge impact on the world of comics and graphic novels with such great comic book geniuses as Alan Moore, Peter Milligan and Neil Gaiman having worked for the comic, but none of the stories to come out of 2000 AD are quite as well known as Judge Dredd, spawning hundreds of issues of comics and 2 major motion pictures as well as a slew of video games.
Now in almost 400-page volumes, you can read the exploits of Judge Dredd in Mega-City One for yourself in "The Complete Judge Dredd Case files". The comics have a dark and gritty feel that now might be commonplace amongst certain genres of graphic novels, but at the time was truly revolutionary!
If you've ever seen the movies or played the games and wanted to know more about Judge Dredd and the world that he lives in, then now is the perfect chance to check out the many volumes that the library offers.
Blog Post
The Martian
by PizzaPuppy
“If a hiker gets lost in the mountains, people will coordinate a search. If a train crashes, people will line up to give blood. If an earthquake levels a city, people all over the world will send emergency supplies. This is so fundamentally human that it's found in every culture without exception. Yes, there are people who just don't care, but they're massively outnumbered by the people who do.”
After a freak accident during a vicious sand storm at the Ares 3 mission base, Mark Watney wakes up to discover that his crew mates, believing he did not survive the storm, have abandoned him on Mars. With only enough supplies to last the original 35 days of the mission (and no chance of a return mission to rescue him for another 4 years), Mark must rely on his training, quick wit, and intellect to help him stretch his supplies to the limit and find a way to survive in the harsh Martian landscape.
Throughout the novel, Mark's optimism blended with his witty (and sometimes crude) remarks humanize his character and bring a more light-hearted aspect to the novel. This fast-paced and thrilling novel intertwines the story of Mark with the respective stories of his devastated crew members on their way back to Earth, NASA's frenzied attempts to save Mark, and the media's fascination with the Mark Watney story. First-time novelist Andy Weir includes quite a bit of technical detail (most of which is backed by real science), adding to the intensity of this great story. The Martian is a classic story of hope and survival in a foreign wilderness that is sure to delight adult readers. Watch out for the movie adaptation starring Matt Damon, which hits theaters in October!
Blog Post
NPR Books' Summer Of Love
by eapearce
The hottest month of the summer is almost upon us and in honor of their Summer of Love theme this year, NPR Books has just released a list of 100 swoon-worthy romances to keep you occupied during August and beyond. Readers and authors alike voted on their favorite romance novels, and then the votes were tallied and divided into categories to produce the final list, which you can check out here!
I love the diversity of the list: it includes historical, paranormal and LBGT romances, classics such as Pride and Prejudice, and entire series. There's even a YA category! Even readers who don't consider themselves readers of romance novels will be able to find something that catches their eye. Look for any of the books that interest you from the list in our catalog!
Blog Post
If you go into the woods today you're in for a big suprise! James Tynion's 'The Woods" is a graphic novel you don't want to walk away from
by gulickb
James Tynion is no novice comic creator his work on Batman has given him some serious comic book cred. Now his first original comic, The Woods, is being serialized in graphic novel form by BOOM Studios.
So what is The Woods about? In October 2013 437 students 52 teachers, and 24 other staff from Bay Point Preparatory High School disappear, the school in its entirety is transported to an alien landscape. These students, teachers and staff must decide how they are going to survive, where they are and if anyone is coming to rescue them.Volume one: The Arrow contains the first 4 issues of the series and Volume Two: The Swarm contains issues 5-8.
Blog Post
ALEX award winner Lock In
by gulickb
In February John Scalzi's book Lock In was one of 10 books to win the Alex award given out by the ALA and YALSA.
Lock In takes place in a world where 1.7 million people have contracted an illness that makes them unable to move or communicate. They are aware of their surrounding but unable to act, this syndrome is called "Locked In Syndrome" but in Scalzi's book they refer to the people who suffer from it as Haden's.
The world develops technology to let these Haden's move and be functional members of society. Now someone is killing them. Chris Shane is one of those and now he has to try and find out who is killing other Haden's and why.
This Sci Fi Mystery will grab you and make you want to finish.
If you are interested in reading more of John Scalzi's work you should out his Hugo award winners Old Man's War and Redshirts
Blog Post
Fabulous Fiction Firsts #525 - “At some point you have to stop running and turn around and face whoever wants you dead. The one thing is finding the courage to do it.” ~ Suzanne Collins
by muffy
The Fire Sermon * * * by award-winning poet Francesca Haig has been billed as The Hunger Games meets The Road - a richly imagined first novel in a new post-apocalyptic trilogy, and is poised to become the next must-read hit.
Four hundred years after a catastrophic nuclear fire destroyed much of Earth and its civilization, genetic mutation dictates that each human is born with a twin. Of each pair, one (an Alpha) is physically perfect, the other (an Omega) is burdened with some form of deformity. While the Alphas are designated as the ruling class, the Omegas are branded and banished to strictly controlled colonies. For all their superiority, Alphas cannot escape one harsh fact: whenever one twin dies, so does the other.
Cass is a rare Omega, one burdened with psychic foresight. While her twin, Zach, gains power on the Alpha Council, she dares to dream the most dangerous dream of all: equality. For daring to envision a world in which Alphas and Omegas live side-by-side as equals, both the Council and the Resistance have her in their sights.
"Haig's prose is gorgeous and engaging, particularly when she describes the desolate landscape, now peppered with ruins from the Before. Fans of dystopias will appreciate this adventure-filled yet character-focused tale that offers hope and explores (in a refreshingly nuanced way) the moral complexities involved in defeating an oppressive and backward government structure."
A great addition to the recent crop of dystopian novels.
* * * = 3 starred reviews
Blog Post
Award Winning Audiobook: Ready Player One
by BugsAndSlugs
Ready Player One 2011. 15 hrs., 41 min.
Awards: The book received an Alex Award from the American Library Association and won the 2012 Prometheus Award.
Author: Ernest Cline
Narrator: Wil Wheaton
Synopsis:
It is the year 2044, and Wade Watts is like everyone else - he escapes the horrible circumstances of his life by spending nearly all his time in the OASIS, a limitless world of virtual reality. Ready Player One is the story of a massive treasure hunt, where clues are only solved by players with the greatest knowledge of 1980s pop culture, and the quest for money and power undermines the future of the human race. This fast paced and engaging audiobook is enhanced by Wil Wheaton’s expert voice acting, and as a self proclaimed geek, the narrator is a perfect fit. "Ready Player One" the movie, directed by Steven Spielberg, will be in theaters on December 15th, 2017!!!
For similar audiobooks, check out:
Surface Detail by Iain Banks
Makers by Cory Doctorow
Robopocalypse by Daniel H. Wilson
The Magicians Trilogy by Lev Grossman