Summer binge-reading time is here!

The Girls by Emma Cline imagines the lives of the young women who, in the summer of 1969, joined the cult of a charismatic figure known only as "Russell" (who bears an uncanny resemblance to Charles Manson).

Get. On. This. Book! It's Go Ask Alice meets Helter Skelter.

Before the Fall, Noah Hawley's summer blockbuster, leads with a pulse-pounding plane crash followed by a dramatic survival scenario that will suck you in and hold you under. This is the perfect thriller for people who like that kind of thing.



(People like us, am I right?)

The Fireman by Joe Hill, the latest from the author of Horns and NOS4A2, is here to scare you into replacing the batteries in your smoke detectors (It's a public service!) with a chilling tale of spontaneous human combustion.

Is it a little...hot in here?

Sweetbitter by Stephanie Danler: Young woman from the village meets New York City, is never the same again. Do you really need more than that?



No.

Grunt by Mary Roach, because, Mary Roach, you guys. The author of Gulp, Stiff, and Bonk is the undisputed best ever at delivering the curious science of stuff in an entertaining, humorous, and informative way. Her latest book explains the curious science of humans at war. Check it out and learn a little something this summer, huh?

***Hey! Adults! You too can participate in summer reading! Log five books between June 18th-August 13th and be entered to win a 3 month family pass to the YMCA! ***

Finding yourself in books for adults young *and* old

Loving Day
by Mat Johnson (author of Pym)

After his marriage fails and his father dies, Warren Duffy returns from Wales to Philadelphia and his inherited ramshackle mansion. At a comic book convention he discovers a teenage daughter he never knew he had--and that she has been raised unaware that her father is black. Loving Day is a wry and touching commentary on race, gender, and family that, while written for adults, will surely appeal to a young adult audience as well.

The Brief, Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
by Junot Diaz

This magnificent bildungsroman is the tale of Oscar, an overweight young man living in NYC who dreams of someday becoming the Dominican J.R.R. Tolkien, and dreams of his first kiss, is cursed. One summer he decides to end his curse once and for all. Read this book (truly one of my all-time favorites) and Oscar will stay in your heart forever.

Alif the Unseen
by G. Willow Wilson

Young Arab-Indian hacker, Alif, loses his girl to "The Hand of God", the head of state security, and his computer is hacked, sending him on a wild journey. Alif discovers the powerful secret book of the Jinn, and his own power, in this fun and fresh YA-friendly novel that blends cyberpunk and fantasy with a little bit of romance.

We Love You, Charlie Freeman
by  Kaitlyn Greenidge

Set in the 90s at the fictional Toneybee Institute, an African-American family is invited into an experiment in raising a chimpanzee as a child. Teenage Charlotte uncovers ugly secrets about the institute's founders and confronts adult problems in this gripping debut novel.

RE Jane
by Patricia Park

Jane Re, Korean-American orphan raised by her aunt and uncle in Flushing, Queens, is sick and tired of working in her uncle's market. Ignoring her family's objections, she takes a job as a live in au pair for a Manhattan family after graduating college. A romantic affair with the father of her charge sends her on a journey of self-discovery that takes her to Korea where she hopes to learn the truth about her mother.

New Titles for Kids of All Ages!

Summer Learning Challenge 2015:       Every Hero Has a Story!

• Sign ups are happening online and at your local library.  
• You have until August 22, 2015 to register, complete your log, and enter to win a bicycle!
• Children, teens and adults are eligible.

New titles @ Your Library...Check One Out!

Books are full of heroes and our new titles include heroes who are there for us daily and some who are heroes to people they never meet.  

The Red Bicycle:  the Extraordinary Story of One Ordinary Bicycle by Jude Isabella.

Do you have a bike that is too small for you?  Have you ever wondered what happens to old bicycles that no one wants?  Follow the story of Leo and his bike and meet the people who benefit along the way.  Leo earns money to buy the big, red bike of his dreams.  When he outgrows the bike he donates it to a program that sends bicycles to countries where they are needed for daily transportation, deliveries, and even health.  A fascinating example of a small action with great impact.

Community helpers are there when we need them and are true, local heroes.  A new series on community helpers illustrates the many assignments facing these heroes each day.

Shane Evans is a talented author and illustrator who "attributes much of his influence to his travels to Africa, South America, Asia, Europe, the Caribbean and much of the United States."  His latest book, We March, is a sparse yet powerful account of the civil rights march on Washington, DC on August 28, 1963.  Through simple words and lively illustrations he reminds us of the heroes of that movement, still relevant today.

Non-fiction lists facts about the world around us and great illustrators bring those facts to life on the pages of a book.  These two new titles are perfect examples:

Daylight Starlight Wildlife by Wendell Minor.  This talented artist has illustrated many beautiful books for children. Each page shows daytime animals and their nighttime counterparts with Fun Facts on each at the end.

A Rock is Lively by Dianna Hutts Aston, illustrated by Sylvia Long.

Rock lovers rejoice!  Lively, galactic, old, inventive...these are just some of the unusual ways to describe rocks.  Discover these and others in this beautiful, new title.

And just for fun...

What Pet Should I Get by Dr. Seuss.

Can it be?  A Dr. Seuss book that was never published?  Yes, it can!

"Pick a pet fast!

Pick a pet soon!

Mother and Dad said to be home by noon!"

"Make up your mind."

Characters you know and some you can only imagine.  Just what you would expect from Dr. Seuss.  And you have to choose just one.

The Most Magnificent Thing by Ashley Spires.

For all the perfectionists out there:  a little girl, determined to create a magnificent thing that works.  With her trusty assistant she gathers supplies and makes her prototype, only to find it's not so magnificent.  Does she give up?  

Read and find out.

Who could resist Otto the Book Bear by Katie Cleminson. Otto lives in the pages of a book and has a secret:  he exits the book when no one is looking.  When a family move leaves Otto's book behind he begins a journey that will take him to a new and wonderful home.  Can you guess where?

One last title for brothers, sisters, dads, and anyone who ever had a plan that didn't turn out quite how you imagined.

Gone Fishing:  a novel in verse by Tamera Will Wissinger, illustrated by Matthew Cordell.

Sam can't wait for the day just he and his dad will go fishing, "just us two."  He dreams of the fish they will catch and fun of being alone with his dad.  The day arrives and his little sister Lucy gets to come along and Sam is disappointed and impatient.  Follow this great story, each page a different type of verse, with illustrations full of humor. Discover how even a ruined plan may end happily.

Wherever your journey takes you, don't forget a book!  (or two)

Looking to get the most out of your travels this summer? Try a taking a literary tour!

Often the setting of a novel is as important to the story as any of the characters. This is quite true in the case of the Chicago of The Jungle.Years ago, just for grins, I went on a self-guided tour of Upton Sinclair's Chicago--specifically through the meat packing district. The idea of immersing myself in the setting of a book that was so richly detailed in the text was a thrill. It wasn't a long tour as it isn't a big area but even as it has clearly been cleaned up (one would not want to spend much time in Sinclair's meat packing district at the turn of the last century) one can still see the streets and buildings, smell the smells, and hear the activity of Chicago's still functioning meat packing district...though maybe that experience isn't for everybody.

Let's journey a few thousand miles further to Istanbul, Turkey, the setting of, and major character in, Orhan Pamuk's romantic and deeply immersive literary and art experience:

The Museum of Innocence and The Innocence of Objects by Orhan Pamuk

The golden ticket!

Kemal, the wealthy scion of a prominent Istanbul family and engaged to marry the similarly wealthy Sibel, unexpectedly reunites with his childhood friend Füsun while she is working in a shop. Though from different classes and different worlds, of course they embark on a devastating love affair. Over the course of his decades long obsession, Kemal collects thousands of small objects that remind him of moments he spent with Füsun and assembles them into a museum. Many of the objects are stolen from her, many are simply discarded waste that he pockets (over 4,000 carefully documented cigarette butts make up the first exhibit in the museum), and many items are donated by her family to his museum.

Sunset on the posh streets of Beyoğlu, where Kemal roamed

In the ultimate blurring of fact and fiction, author Orhan Pamuk built a really real museum, based on the novel, in the really real neighborhood where fictional Füsun's family lived. He built the museum faithfully to his own description in the book which was written as if by fictional Orhan Pamuk, supporting character, friend and confidant of fictional Kemal. Lost yet? Good!  Get lost in the book and cross over into the surreal and awesome experience of walking in a beloved fictional character's footsteps. Think Harry Potter world, only instead of wizards and magic we have a bittersweet love story for grown-ups. At the museum one can examine Füsun's dresses, butterfly earrings (even buy a pair in the gift shop!), her movie ticket stubs, dozens of small ceramic dogs (my favorite case), other pilfered trinkets, and the aforementioned lovingly described 4,213 cigarette butts in a giant wall case--complete with her shade of lipstick dotting the ends. The Innocence of Objects, a third work in this experience is the gorgeously photographed and beautifully written exhibit catalog. Once you fall in love with The Museum of Innocence, check out the exhibit catalog, The Innocence of Objects, and fall in love again. Then plan your trip to Istanbul and prepare to be amazed.

For the full experience I recommend reading both of these books and then going to the museum. (The only thing possibly missing is a film version of the book but I have no idea if one is on the way.) When you go, bring The Innocence of Objects with you, or pay the extra 10 Turkish Lira for the audio tour--otherwise you will have to rely on memory as there is very little text in the museum to remind you of what the assembled items in each case represent. Though they are an impressive collection of Turkish culture and do stand on their own as a work of art one can enjoy without even having read the novel. Photography is absolutely NOT allowed in the museum, so here are some pictures I took:

The line between fact and fiction delightfully blurred in Kemal's bedroom installation

Manuscripty!

The cigarettes! I borrowed this photo from the internet because the guard could see me trying to sneak a photo. First rule of literary traveling: Don't get kicked out!

For a little background on why he did this, click here for Orhan Pamuk's Manifesto for Museums.

From the city we journey to the countryside with Memed, My Hawk by Yaşar Kemal.

Published in 1951, Yaşar Kemal's debut novel set in a remote mountain village in Eastern Turkey follows the life of Slim Memed from abused and exploited child working for a cruel landlord to legendary avenging brigand. The novel describes in great detail the setting--the mountains, small villages, and the eerily beautiful but brutal thistle fields of rural Anatolia are essential to the development and actions of the characters. I bought this book in the airport in anticipation of an excruciatingly long layover and selected it for the contrast of hiking rural Anatolia after the very urban experience of reading Pamuk in Istanbul. Books have a way of taking you there, and taking you back. Before Istanbul we rented a car and drove through the countryside to an inn near Midas City (Midas Han, if you find yourself off the beaten path, is pretty much the best thing ever) to hike around the remains of the Phrygian kingdom, which lasted from about 1200 to 700 BC and was home to the Gordias and King Midas. The mountains, the villages, and the brutal fields of thistles, were there just as described in Memed, My Hawk, as well as some amazing hiking around really cool tombs and monuments.

The Ataturk airport bookstore's "Turkish Interest" section

A monument

Phyrigian traffic jam

Tombs!

So just for fun in the comments, tell us your vacation destination (real or wishful thinking) and we will reply with a book recommendation to round out the experience. Bon Voyage!

Future Tension: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of my Sci-Fi Summer

What's your vision of the future? Will aliens colonize earth? Will Earth colonize them?  Will civilization as we know it survive rising sea levels? Will languages exist as we understand them? What mighty empires will rise and fall and rise again? This summer I have been furiously reading through a lengthy list of recommended sci-fi, dystopian, and futurist reads and I'm declaring winners and losers here, on this blog, today.  First, the Good:

The Girl in the Road was awesome.  Imagine a world suffering the predicted effects of climate change (rising sea levels, crop failures, extreme storms, etc.). Now add to that a not-too-distant future imagined with mostly appropriately advanced technology (no improbable leaps in A.I. but a little genetic silliness), and the global hegemony has shifted east to Mumbai. A young woman being pursued by a mysterious little girl goes on the run to hunt down her parents' killer in Ethiopia via "the Trail", a long and seemingly mythical  hydro-electric project spanning the Arabian Sea from India to east Africa. The Girl in the Road is pretty terrific magical realism set against a well-constructed, believable future backdrop. It was so different from anything I've read in the genre. I would recommend it to any lovers of sci-fi/fantasy and to readers who say they "don't read science fiction".

The Man with the Compound Eyes, another from the realm of magical realism, was a beautifully written and imaginative story.  Originally published in Taiwan, the book is set in another not-too-distant future impacted by a changing environment.  A grieving professor is preparing for her suicide as her seaside home is gradually consumed by the sea. A young member of the fictional Wayo Wayo tribe is cast off his South Pacific island home according to tradition. Their lives intersect when a swirling garbage vortex washes ashore. Are you hooked yet? 

The Bees is my most recommended book of the year and so far not a single person has given me the stink-eye after reading it--yet. When I saw it come in I was skeptical, I'll admit.  I mean, a bee narrative?  Yes, a bee narrative! I haven't connected with an anthropomorphic bug protagonist in such a visceral way since Charlotte's Web. This book, quite frankly, should have been silly.  Flora 717 is a big awkward sanitation worker bee who dares to bee (I'm sorry) more than her prescribed station in life. One jacket blurb (clearly written by someone who has only heard of books in passing) declared it "The Handmaid's Tale meets The Hunger Games."  No it isn't. I don't particularly care for the "[book] meets [other book]" reviews anyway. They are lazy and do a disservice to the books, especially considering how completely well thought out The Bees is. Maybe what we need are review reviews?

Now for the BAD (and my sassiest review to date on this blog so brace yourselves): California is a little bit of Oryx and Crake, On Such a Full Sea, The Dog Stars, and The Road but WAY less thoughtful than any of those books. The characters are shallow and one dimensional, which seems to be on purpose but it's hard to say, and if the author were better she might have pulled off a sort of Ira Levin does Beverly Hills, 90210: the post apocalyptic years. Sadly, she did not. This book was really disappointing, an incredibly naive story about dull people whining in the wilderness. Recommended instead are: Oryx and Crake, On Such a Full Sea, The Dog Stars, and The Road. 

The Girl with all the Gifts was a pretty average zombie story, which could be forgivable, but I was promised so much more! It was not "thrilling", "gripping", "haunting" or "heartbreaking". Sometimes it seems like reviewers go into a book deciding they're going to like it no matter what. While still moderately satisfying in the way zombie stories usually are, all of the characters were such dull caricatures and the Girl was really annoying. The incredibly silly final act required the reader to suspend an awful lot of disbelief too, though I won't spoil the "twist" for those still determined to read it. If you're hoping for the World War Z, Zone One, or even The Strain of 2014, shuffle past this one. I still say Black Moon, though not technically a zombie story with a capital Zed, is the most satisfying zombie novel of the year.

Finally, the UGLY: The Martian by Andy Weir. Why Ugly? Because 1) I could only bring myself to give it three stars on Goodreads but I liked it. 2)  I winced through every line of dialogue but couldn't put it down and read it in two sittings. And 3)  the astronaut was so obnoxious that I was rooting for Mars, then recommended it to my 16 year old brother who L-O-V-E-D it and asked for more. The science is super cool, the astronaut is a dumb frat boy stereotype (who became an astronaut somehow), and the scary space action is non-stop even when it's, well, stopped. The basics: Guy goes to Mars, gets stranded, keep a detailed scientific log peppered with "that's what she said" jokes.  And it's really fun.

Summer Reading 2014 has come to an end. Get some closure at the big finale party at the main library this Saturday, August 9th from 10-1.  Party like it's 2114!

Packing Light: 9 lightweight novels that pack a punch

All weighing in at under 300 pages, these slender novels are no less powerful for their diminutive size and they fit perfectly in your carry-on luggage while keeping you pinned to the very edge of your airplane seat. Put up your tray table and put down Capital, Summer's "least read" monster, then grab a handful of these little guys hot off the new books shelf. 

Your Fathers, where are they? And the prophets, do they live forever? by Dave Eggers

Mr. Eggers brought us the pretty darn long The Circle last year (which was great and you should read it too). This year I guess he just decided to go with a pretty darn long title.  Your Fathers, [etc.], written entirely in dialogue, is the humorous and suspenseful story of a man kidnapping people and holding them hostage on a decommissioned Naval base because he just wants to ask them some questions.  I read it on a weekend hiking trip so I can confidently recommend it as vacation-friendly.

The Scent of Pine by Lara Vapnyar


A Russian woman now living in the United States remembers  the Soviet summer camp of her youth as she embarks on a sudden and unexpected affair, and discovers how unreliable memory can be.

The Transcriptionist by Amy Rowland


I had to read this in one sitting, pausing only to recommend it to a friend 2/3 of the way through. Lena, a lone transcriptionist with a large and reputable New York City newspaper, becomes obsessed with a story of a blind woman who apparently committed suicide by climbing into a lion's cage at the zoo. In her quest for the truth about this peculiar story she uncovers much more.   

Chop Chop by Simon Wroe


Sharp, mordantly funny, and sometimes horrifying and gross, this witty story of one man's brief career in restaurants might make you think twice about going out to eat while on vacation.

The Snow Queen by Michael Cunningham


I am going to get around to reading you, Snow Queen, I swear! Michael Cunningham, who brought us The Hours,
now brings us this gorgeous story that follows the divergent paths of the Meeks brothers as they each seek their own meaning in life. Highly recommended by a trusted source, and Goodreads, who seldom steers me wrong, described it as "beautiful and heartbreaking, comic and tragic". Sounds pretty good to me.

Next Life Might be Kinder by Howard Norman


In Next Life Might be Kinder, Sam Lattimore is a widower recalling his brief marriage to his wife, and her tragic murder and its aftermath, as he visits with her spirit on the beach in Halifax, Nova Scotia. You might want to grab the tissues for this tender and melancholy little romance.

Sleep Donation by Karen Russell


Karen Russell, author of Swamplandia! and Vampires in the Lemon Grove, is out with a new novella that promises to be every bit as unsettling and entertaining as those were. Sleep Donation is another novel about sleep deprivation--the other being the terrific Black Moon by Kenneth Calhoun--so maybe this is a trend forming. There are about a billion zombie stories out there so the literary market can probably handle a few more insomnia themed tales. This one is on my "to read soon" list, which never seems to get any shorter.

Every Day is for the Thief by Teju Cole


This one is also on my "to read soon" list. Cole's unnamed narrator returns to visit Lagos after 15 years abroad and rediscovers his hometown, and himself. Originally published in Nigeria in 2007, this novella is now available in the United States and just sounds really lovely.

All the Birds, Singing by Evie Wyld


For once I beat the New York Times review of books and read this before they reviewed it. All the Birds, Singing was originally published in the UK in 2013 and finally released in the US in 2014. Told in reverse, this book is riveting and eerie with a complicated central character. Jake Whyte lives an isolated life as a sheep herder and grapples daily with scars from her difficult past while a threatening predator attacks her flock at night.