Posted on Wednesday, May 29, 2019 by Reading Addict
RCA Records [Public domain]There is a finite set of books that can fit this task because there are only so many awards given in a year. Hopefully this post will help to expand on some that you may have already seen. With so many people trying to expand their reading with audio books, I thought I would focus on the Audie Awards which are granted for outstanding audio books and spoken word entertainment by the Audio Publishers Association. Not all of these books won the 2018 Audie Award but if they didn’t then they also won another award within 2018.
Imagine you go to school one morning to go on a field trip. Suddenly, you and your classmates wake up on an island. Each of you has an ominous metal collar around your neck. You are told you have to fight each other until only one of you is left alive. If you all refuse to kill each other those collars will start exploding. Worst day of school ever?
That is the premise of “Battle Royal” by Koushun Takami. This violent, action-packed novel tinged with teen angst was a controversial and unexpected hit in Japan in 1999. It was even rejected in the final round of the 1997 Japan Horror Fiction Awards because of its controversial content. The book was later adapted into an equally controversial and commercially successful film in 2000. The controversy is understandable, as the subject matter can feel a bit exploitative. The story is a combination of fast-paced thriller and horror story, but there is a dystopian backdrop that also makes it a bit of an allegory, albeit one told with the subtlety of a hammer. Continue reading “Know Your Dystopias: Battle Royale”
Why should kids have all the fun? Summer Reading is for grown-ups, too! The Daniel Boone Regional Library is challenging adults to read three books, submit three book reviews and do seven fun, library-related activities. Complete the challenge, and beginning July 1, you’ll receive a prize. You’ll also be entered into a drawing for other fun rewards including a telescope or a book store gift card.
The last season of the hit HBO series “Game of Thrones” (based on George R.R. Martin’s “A Song of Ice and Fire” book series) has been controversial at times, but I think we can all agree on one point – it’s over. But don’t despair – your library is here to fill the dragon-shaped hole in your life.
If you want to stay in the realm (heh) of acclaimed fantasy novels adapted for prestige television, read the Philip Pullman series “His Dark Materials.” There are no dragons, but there are polar bears and prophecies, and Lyra is one of the most memorable characters you’ll ever spend time with. The first season of the show will premiere on HBO later this year. Lin-Manuel Miranda is in it!
Maybe you want to start another fantasy series with superb world building and a villain you can love to hate. “The Kingkiller Chronicle,” by Patrick Rothfuss, is well-written and propulsive and you’ll want to pick up the second book as soon as you close the first. However, this series and “A Song of Ice and Fire” have something else in common – neither series has had a book published since 2011. “The Kingkiller Chronicle” is also being adapted into a movie. Lin-Manuel Miranda is writing it! Continue reading ““Game of Thrones” Is Dead. Long Live “Game of Thrones”!”
Posted on Wednesday, May 15, 2019 by Reading Addict
The Algonquin Round Table – Portrait of Art Samuels, Charlie MacArthur, Harpo Marx, Dorothy Parker and Alexander Woollcott, circa 1919“Excuse my dust” was Dorothy Parker’s self-chosen epitaph. “What fresh hell is this?” is how she is said to have answered the door/telephone. She had a way with words.
Dorothy Parker was born Dorothy Rothschild in 1893 but she was quick to point out it was not THOSE Rothschilds. Her mother died when she was five and she had a difficult relationship with her father before he also died, leaving her to fend for herself. One of her most famous quotes is “I’d like to have money. And I’d like to be a good writer. These two can come together, and I hope they will, but if that’s too adorable, I’d rather have money.” A lot of her writing can be read as fictionalized biography and you can hear the stress in her voice.
The majority of Parker’s writing, both poetry and short stories, is available in “The Portable Dorothy Parker” which turns 75 on May 15th. My personal copy is the Viking Portable Library edition printed in 1944 as part of a series of books written for WWII servicemen overseas. It includes an introduction by Somerset Maugham and is one of only three of the Viking series that has never been out of print. This is not the version available at the library but you can listen to the audio book with Hoopla, one of our digital downloading services. You can also read one of my favorite short stories, “The Waltz,” in “The 50 funniest American Writers.” Continue reading “Excuse My Dust — 75 Years of “The Portable Dorothy Parker””
“Foe” by Iain Reid is a book meant to be blazed through in a single sitting. It’s a short novel, it immediately introduces a big old mystery, and answers to the story’s questions seem to be just barely obscured, so that if, like the novel’s narrator, you drill a spy hole into your bathroom wall, maybe all will become clear. But it turns out it takes more than a creepy hole to answer your questions: just like in life, eventually a representative from a massive corporation will make things horrifyingly clear.
The story begins with a representative (Terrance) from a corporate/government entity showing up to inform our narrator he’s won a lottery and he might be going to space to work on a habitat for humanity. Terrance makes it cheerfully clear that there is no choice in the matter: if Junior wins the lottery, he’s going to be a space worker for a some years. Not to fear though, the corporation will benevolently provide a companion for his wife while he’s away. Junior doesn’t like the sound of that, and he’s not mollified when he finds out his replacement will basically be a 3D-printed replica of himself. Continue reading “The Gentleman Recommends: Iain Reid”
Before there was “tourism” and souvenir ashtrays became “kitsch,” the Lake of the Ozarks was a Shangri-La for middle-class Midwestern families on vacation. It was there that author Bill Geist spent summers in the Sixties during his school and college years working at Arrowhead Lodge. What may have seemed just a summer job became, upon reflection, a transformative era where a cast of eccentric, small-town characters and experiences shaped (some might suggest “slightly twisted”) Bill into the man he is today. In “Lake of the Ozarks,” Emmy Award-winning CBS Sunday Morning Correspondent Bill Geist reflects on his coming of age in the American Heartland and traces his evolution as a man and a writer. Continue reading “Nonfiction Roundup: May 2019”
April showers bring May flowers and an abundance of exciting new books by debut fiction authors. There are so many interesting titles being published this month that it was difficult to choose which ones to highlight, so make sure you visit our catalog to see all the ones I couldn’t fit into this post.
All of London is abuzz with the scandalous case of Frannie Langton, accused of the brutal double murder of her employers, renowned scientist George Benham and his eccentric French wife, Marguerite. Crowds pack the courtroom, eagerly following every twist, while the newspapers print lurid theories about the killings and the mysterious woman being tried at the Old Bailey.
The testimonies against Frannie are damning. She is a seductress, a witch, a master manipulator, a whore.
But Frannie claims she cannot recall what happened that fateful evening, even if remembering could save her life. She doesn’t know how she came to be covered in the victims’ blood. But she does have a tale to tell: a story of her childhood on a Jamaican plantation, her apprenticeship under a debauched scientist who stretched all bounds of ethics, and the events that brought her into the Benhams’ London home—and into a passionate and forbidden relationship.
Though her testimony may seal her conviction, the truth will unmask the perpetrators of crimes far beyond murder and indict the whole of English society itself. Continue reading “Debut Author Spotlight: May 2019”
Space. What’s out there, and is there any end to it? Is there life on other planets? These questions have driven many developments in science, and led to the creation of lot of fantastic literature. Which makes it a snap to meet the 2019’s Read Harder challenge number six, a book by an author of color set in or about space.
Margo Lee Shetterley’s 2016 nonfiction book, “Hidden Figures,” shows us that behind every successful space launch is a bevy of smart, hard-working Black women performing the mathematical calculations to make it possible. If you’ve only seen the movie, I recommend reading the book as well. It provides many more layers to the stories of the women’s lives.
In the realm of science fiction, “The Three-Body Problem” by Liu Cixin won the Hugo, the Nebula, and several other literary awards. The story begins in the 1960s, during China’s Cultural Revolution, and moves decades into the future. Translator Ken Liu provides a few short footnotes to help western readers understand the cultural context. Even without additional explanations, it’s easy enough to grasp the premise of the book. How would humans, individually and as a society, react to news of alien creatures on their way to colonize our planet? Continue reading “Read Harder 2019: A Book by an Author of Color Set in or About Space”
It is a truth universally acknowledged in book-loving communities that if you don’t like to read, you haven’t found the right books. With so much out there – romance, mysteries, short stories, cookbooks, self-improvement, etc. – there really is something for everybody. Even devout lovers of the written word, however, sometimes shy away from poetry. The distaste for poetry reaches as far back as Socrates, and the notion of saccharine sing-songy rhymes and cliche metaphors for love and loss deter many readers. Poetry comes in so many styles, though, that if you don’t like poetry, you probably haven’t found the right poet. Whatever your taste, chances are there is a collection of poetry whose tone, content, and style mimic that of your favorite prose. In honor of National Poetry Month, here are some poetry and prose pairings to match you with your new favorite bard.
If you like “Wuthering Heights,” you may like the poetry of Sylvia Plath. The intensity, passion, pain, and jagged beauty resemble the tumultuous romance and rugged moors of Emily Bronte’s imagination.
“I didn’t want any flowers, I only wanted / To lie with my hands turned up and be utterly empty. / How free it is, you have no idea how free – / The peacefulness, so big it dazes you, / And it asks nothing, a name tag, a few trinkets. / It is what the dead close on, finally; I imagine them / Shutting their mouths on it, like a Communion tablet.” – “Tulips” from “Ariel.”
Why should kids have all the fun? ![http://www.geocities.com/~jbenz/marxphot.html [Public domain]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cb/Algonquin_Round_Table.gif)
