What I've Been Reading: October 2016

Well, as expected, with the change of seasons my reading momentum has declined a bit. I'm going to bed a little earlier, I'm watching lots of scary movies, and my hands have been busy with knitting an awful lot of the time! However, I do have a few titles to share with you this month.

The City of Mirrors, by Justin Cronin. This final installment of Cronin's The Passage trilogy (following The Passage and The Twelve) is absolutely action-packed and nerve-wrackingly suspenseful. The human population is beginning to recover and expand its territory once more, more than a century after The Twelve and their Many swept across the North American Continent. The threat finally seems to be fading into mere memory. Until Fanning, the Zero, makes his final play against Peter Jackson and his fellow humans. It is up to Amy, the Girl from Nowhere, to be the ultimate good that stands up against Fanning's ultimate evil. I listened to this as an audiobook, read by Scott Brick, and he gave an amazing performance. I highly recommend the series.

The Kept Woman, by Karin Slaughter. A couple of years ago, I happened across a Karin Slaughter novel and was instantly hooked--I read everything she'd written within a few months' time. Now I wait (very impatiently) for each new novel to be published and I must say, this was worth the wait. GBI Agent Will Trent has had a tough life, but after growing up in the foster system and learning to work around a learning disability, he's become a responsible adult. He's an excellent investigator, he has a girlfriend, he even has a dog. There's just one weak spot in his life: his estranged wife, Angie. When she gets in over her head in her line of private security, Will is compelled to help her, if only to unentangle himself from her once and for all. When cases get personal, things always get messy. Fast-paced and well-plotted, this was a great installment to the series.

Blue Labyrinth, by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child. Speaking of series I'm getting caught up on, here I am, only 2 more books away from being caught up with Preson & Childs Special Agent Pendergast series. As the book opens, Pendergast opens his front door to a disturbing, macabre delivery, which prompts him to travel halfway around the world to unearth the truth about who might have been behind the delivery. What he uncovers, as he delves deep into his family's history, is that he is being stalked by a subtle killer, bent on retribution for an ancient transgression. I felt like this installment meandered a bit early on, but it all came together beautifully in the end.

The Free-Range Knitter, by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee. I read this using the Trumbull Library's access to OverDrive. Stephanie Pearl-McPhee is a Canadian knitter and writer who has a long-running popular knitting blog over at Yarn Harlot. This collection of essays and stories recounts knitting horrors and triumphs, the good, the bad and the just plain ugly of a craft practiced by an estimated 60 million Americans. She talks about creativity, the things that make knitters different, and the things (like love of yarn, color, and creation) that bring knitters and crafters of all stripes together. If you're a knitter and you feel misunderstood? Stephanie Pearl-McPhee gets you, I promise.

Knitting Rules!, also by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee. Subtitled "The Yarn Harlot's Bag of Knitting Tricks", this fun read is full of tips, suggestions, and some simple, basic patterns for knitters. Here she also reviews things like different knitting methods (really, there are many different ways to knit as there are knitters, who knew?) and their pros and cons, as well as preferences for the tools of the trade (different kinds of needles, yarns, etc.). If you're a knitter? Fascinating. If you're not? Probably not so much. I also read this via Overdrive.

The Life She Wants, by Robyn Carr. When Emma Shay's perfect life falls apart in the wake of personal tragedy, she moves cross-country to where she was once happy, and where she once had friends. There is, however, the small issue of the decades-long grudge she has been holding against said friends, and that they have held right back. This is the story of one woman's struggle to get her life back on course after a long and painful detour, about the ties of shared history, and about forgiveness and hope. Carr excels at feel-good reads, and this is testament to her talent.


And if you're counting along at home, that's 75 books for the year. I don't really think I can manage 25 books in the next two months... But stranger things have happened!

What I've Been Reading: August 2016

The Twelve, by Justin Cronin. Second in Cronin's The Passage Trilogy, this continues my re-read of the first two books, as the third book, City of Mirrors, has just been released and I felt I needed a refresher before I wrapped up the trilogy. I fully admit to doing these as audiobooks--they are narrated by Scott Brick, and he does an amazing job. The second installment finds our heroes from the first book scattered by their new lives, five years after the close of book one. All seems quiet, too quiet, and while some grieve their losses and others try and build "normal" lives in a post-viral world, both sides in the ultimate battle of good versus evil, human versus viral, seem to be digging deep and preparing for a final battle. Only one side can win. The narrative is fraught with tension and packed with action. If anything, I'm enjoying these even more the second time around.

Forbidden Falls, Angel's Peak, Moonlight Road, Promise Canyon, Wild Man Creek, & Deep in the Valley, all by Robyn Carr. The first five titles are all part of Carr's Virgin River series, which I've been making my way through quite steadily this summer. These are light, fluffy, blend from one into the next quite seamlessly, and are deliciously entertaining. Granted, some are a little stronger than others, but as a whole, these have been a great respite for me this summer, letting me cultivate some reading juju in between some of the bigger, denser, more serious reads on my list. The sixth title is from an earlier series, Grace Valley. It's a little stilted, and I definitely prefer some of Carr's more recent series titles.

Voracious, by Cara Nicoletti. This is a series of vignettes about the author's life in relation to books she has loved, and the food that they have inspired her to create--Nicoletti is a butcher and chef in addition to being a bibliophile, and she absolutely spoke to this librarian's heart. In fact, this is something I don't often say--I have to own this book. I wanted to make every recipe; I want to re-read some of her nostalgic waxings regarding titles we both enjoyed. Truly a delicious read, each chapter is a perfect bite.

The Colorado Kid, by Stephen King. I feel like I must have read this, but digging a little deeper into its origins, it appears I'd missed it altogether--it was originally published in 2005 by the Hard Case Crime imprint, issued in one paperback-only edition. (It went on to inspire the SyFy series Haven, of which I am absolutely a fan.) It was also released in this audiobook format, read brilliantly by Jeffrey DeMunn--his command of the down-east Maine accent truly helps make the story that much more captivating. The premise is this: A young newspaperwoman, working alongside two old-timers who run the small local paper on an island off the coast of Maine, spends an afternoon listening as the men recount what is one of the most well-known (to the locals) best-kept secrets (to everyone else), an unsolved mystery which will puzzle Stephanie, and the reader, long after the telling is through.

Lilac Girls, by Martha Hall Kelly. Inspired by real events, this is the story of three brave women whose lives are all connected, across oceans and language barriers, by the atrocities of World War II. Caroline Ferriday, New York socialite and volunteer at the French Consulate, struggles to provide for French orphans even as she waits for word from her French lover who returned to Paris just before Hitler invaded France. Polish teen Kasia Kuzmerick works in the underground resistance movement after Hitler's invasion of Poland, only to find herself in the work camp at Ravensbruck, where she meets German doctor Herta Oberheuser, who very wrongly thought that her assignment among military doctors would be an excellent opportunity for medical advancement. This is a read for those who found hope among the heartbreak in books like Kristin Hannah's The Nightingale and Anthony Doerr's All the Light We Cannot See.

Swept Away, by Robyn Carr. A rare stand-alone novel from Carr. Jennifer Chaise has made a career of being a professional mistress to powerful older men. After a rough childhood full of uncertainty and poverty, she takes to the lap of luxury right away. Until she believes her current sugar-daddy to be a cold-blooded killer, and runs for her life. She washes up in Boulder City, lops off her blond locks, and reinvents herself as diner waitress Doris, ready to run again at a moments notice. And yet, she discovers she likes her neighbors and coworkers in the little town, and is loathe to give them up, not even when her past comes knocking. It's light and entertaining, but it feels as though it never really got off the ground. Not my favorite.

Meg's Picks: May 2016, part 1

I hope you're ready to set up your summer reading lists a little early, because there are a TON of amazing titles being released next month.  Sure, there are the regulars on the best-sellers lists that I've posted in Reading Ahead, but then there are the special things that I feel the need to highlight, because I'd hate for you to miss out on them. Like these:

I Let You Go, by Clare McKintosh. Billed as the next blockbuster thriller, after such sleeper hits as Gone Girl and The Girl on the Train, McKintosh's I Let You Go follows Jenna Gray as she moves to a ramshackle cottage on the remote Welsh coast, trying to escape the memory of the car accident that plays again and again in her mind and desperate to heal from the loss of her child and the rest of her painful past. At the same time, the novel tracks the pair of Bristol police investigators trying to get to the bottom of this hit-and-run. As they chase down one hopeless lead after another, they find themselves as drawn to each other as they are to the frustrating, twist-filled case before them. If you were going to pick up just one new book next month, I'd pick this one.

 

A Game for all the Family, by Sophie Hannah. Hannah treats readers to a stand-alone novel (her Spilling CID series starts with Little Face, if you're curious). Justine has left her old life behind her, seeking a fresh start with her daughter. But her daughter almost immediately begins to withdraw after a misunderstanding at school leads to her new friend's expulsion. When Justine asks the principal to reconsider, she's informed that the student in question doesn't exist. Now she must determine who is lying, even as a mysterious outsider begins to play an ominous game with Justine's very life. Hannah has been steadily gaining popularity with readers--this might be a great opportunity to try her work for yourself.

The City of Mirrors, by Justin Cronin. If you, like me, have followed The Passage and faced The Twelve, then you have been waiting with barely contained eagerness to explore The City of Mirrors, the final installment in The Passage trilogy. The Twelve have been destroyed and the terrifying hundred-year reign of darkness that descended upon the world has ended. The survivors are stepping outside their walls, determined to build society anew—and daring to dream of a hopeful future. But far from them, in a dead metropolis, he waits: Zero. The First. Father of the Twelve. The anguish that shattered his human life haunts him, and the hatred spawned by his transformation burns bright. His fury will be quenched only when he destroys Amy—humanity’s only hope, the Girl from Nowhere who grew up to rise against him. One last time light and dark will clash, and at last Amy and her friends will know their fate. I have been waiting something like six years for this--I'm looking forward to re-reading the first two books before delving into this finale.

Fellside, by M.R. Carey. In one of those instances where a book's publication date was moved up instead of back, Fellside is actually available now, having been released two weeks ago. Oops! That said, I wanted to make sure to share its publication with my fellow readers, especially those who liked Carey's The Girl With All The Gifts, which I read recently and loved--Carey has a special knack for making you question whether or not the monsters are actually what one should be frightened of. Here, Fellside is a maximum security prison on the edge of the Yorkshire Moors. It's not the kind of place you'd want to end up. But it's where Jess Moulson could be spending the rest of her life, a place where even the walls whisper. And one voice belongs to a little boy with a message for Jess. If you're like me and enjoy a read that gives you a creeps, this would be one to try. (Note: The link above for The Girl With All The Gifts is actually to the audiobook version, as we wait to receive replacement copies of the hardcover edition.)

The Fireman, by Joe Hill. Joe Hill has horror in his blood (his full name is Joseph Hillstrom King, and he's the son of Stephen King) and has proven his mettle with darkly brilliant novels like Horns (so SO good!) and NOS4A2. So readers who prefer their summer reads scary and full of suspense will want to check out his newest novel, The Fireman. A worldwide pandemic of spontaneous combustion threatens to reduce civilization to ashes and a band of improbable heroes battle to save it, led by one powerful and enigmatic man known as the Fireman. 

I'll be back on Thursday with more (and perhaps lighter) reads slated for May release that you just won't want to miss. In the meantime, happy reading!

Top 10 on Tuesday: Oh, the horror!

This time of year, there's nothing like a good scare. Monster movie marathons abound on television. Hollywood waits until October to release its biggest scary blockbusters. Stores are full of costumes and spooky decorations (scariest part? I saw Christmas decorations in the stores last week. I almost ran screaming from the building.) So why should reading or the library be any different? To this librarian, there's nothing better than a good old-fashioned scare on a dark and stormy October evening.

I'll admit that I'm a bit of a horror genre junkie, and I've written a lot about it over the years. From vampires to monsters to creepy gothic novels to some of the classics, I've talked about the spectrum. But the good news is that there are always more books to talk about, and so I've got some of my all-time favorites to share with you today, across a broad spectrum of the genre, from those that leave you uneasy to those that just might keep you up at night.


1. The Exorcist, by William Peter Blatty. The film adaptation of this scared me so much as a kid, I think I slept with the lights on for a month. It was only in my twenties that I actually went back and read it in an attempt to finally put my fears to rest. It worked, sort of. It's still one of the scariest stories I've ever encountered, both raw and profane. The 11-year-old daughter of a movie actress in 1970's Washington, D.C. becomes possessed by an ancient demon, and it is left to her mother, an elderly exorcist, and a young priest who has lost his faith, to rescue Regan from a fate worse than death after all scientific explanations have been exhausted. This is the ultimate good vs. evil, not for the faint of heart. 

2. American Psycho, by Bret Easton Ellis. In this black satire of the materialistic eighties, a Wall Street yuppie can't get enough of anything, including murder. The book, which was also turned into a cult classic of a film, is a mad slasher of a tale, full of narcissism, greed and violence as  educated and successful Patrick Bateman moves in the society of the young and trendy like a shark, hunting his next victim. Scariest perhaps for the paper-thin veneer of civility that covers Bateman's true murderous tendencies, this novel sends readers down the rabbit-hole into chaos and madness.

3. The Ruins, by Scott Smith. Two American couples, just out of college, enjoy a lazy beach holiday together in Mexico. On an impulse, they go off with newfound friends in search of one of their group--the young German who headed off for the archaeological dig in some remote Mayan ruins in pursuit of a girl. Then the searchers, as they move deeper into the jungle, begin to suspect that there is an "other" among them.

4. John Dies at the End, by David Wong. Part dark comedy, part Lovecraft-ian terror, this might be the story of two Midwestern friends who drink beer and think something horrific is going on in their small town. Or it could be aliens. Or it could be a drug-induced hallucinations. In any case, the narrator claims no responsibility. For those who like a little hilarity to break up their scares.

5. The Handmaid's Tale, by Margaret Atwood. This dystopian novel, often billed as science fiction, is the scary near-future tale of a world in which a totalitarian Christian theocracy has overthrown the United States government and the first order of business was to remove all women's rights. In this society, almost all women are forbidden to read. The story is presented from the point of view of a woman called Offred, one of a class of individuals kept as concubines ("handmaids") for reproductive purposes by the ruling class in an era of declining births due to sterility from pollution and sexually transmitted diseases. This is guaranteed to make even the most jaded reader uneasy.

6. The Passage, by Justin Cronin. Imagine vampirism as a virus, which infects millions of Americans.  States secede and set up giant walls.  The outside world cuts off the North American continent.  What would human civilization look like after 100 years in a camp of survivors abandoned by the Army? This is a huge book at nearly 800 pages, but I promise that it is not a slow read by any means. I highly recommend this for fans of Walking Dead-like dystopian stories with a broad cast of characters. Bonus points, this is the first in a trilogy, with the third installment tentatively due out next year.

7. We Need to Talk About Kevin, by Lionel Shriver. This is often described as a psychological study of a novel, but I found it deeply unsettling and nightmarish. Told in a series of missives by Eva to her estranged husband in the wake of the incarceration of their 17-year-old son, Kevin, after Kevin's murderous rampage in school, the novel explores Eva's own feelings about motherhood as well as her observations of her difficult first child over the years. Raw and brutally honest and extremely unnerving.

8. World War Z, by Max Brooks. If you like your horror with a heaping helping of zombies, this is a must-read (especially if you liked the movie, which I thought was pretty good). An account of the decade-long conflict between humankind and hordes of the predatory undead is told from the perspective of dozens of survivors who describe in their own words the epic human battle for survival.

9. Misery, by Stephen King. One of the scariest King novels, in my opinion. Rescued after a car crash by his "Number One Fan", author Paul Sheldon is held captive by and forced to rewrite his most recent novel, yet to be published, to the specifications of crazed fan Annie Wilkes. But even as he mends and writes and plots his escape, Paul has to tread very carefully to try and stay alive, because Annie is lunatic who isn't afraid to hurt the one she loves. If you think you know the whole story because you've seen the movie, you don't know the half of it.

10. The Woman in Black, by Susan Hill. This classic ghost story was unfortunately not particularly well done in its film release, but the novel itself is excellent--a chilling tale of a small English town haunted by a menacing specter. Guaranteed to make you jump at every noise in the night.

Want more recommendations? Stop by the library and check out this week's display of horror novels on the main floor, across from the circulation desk!

Reading Ahead: October 2014, part 2

Today's post brings you thrills, chills, suspense, and a long-undead character back among the living. What the heck am I talking about?  Read on.

Paris Match, by Stuart Woods. Stone Barrington is back in his 31st outing of Woods' long-running series, and has returned to Paris to attend to some business. While he's there, Barrington finds himself pursued by an old enemy who has teamed up with a second man who has his own reasons to be out for Barrington's blood. And concerns from across the pond find our hero torn between his needs abroad and those of his country back home.

A Wolf in Winter, by John Connolly. Bestselling Irish author Connolly returns with a new Charlie Parker thriller which finds the private detective drawn to Prosperous, Maine after the death of a homeless man and the disappearance of his daughter. The people of Prosperous are not welcoming to outsiders; their lives and prosperity are dependent upon shielding their centuries-old secret from the rest of the world. Parker, however, is not a man easily dissuaded, and he is therefore one of the biggest threats to the citizens of Prosperous, putting him in terrible danger. Readers who like their thrillers full of rich prose and introspective characters would do well to try this series.

Prince Lestat, by Anne Rice. At long last, Rice returns to her most popular series and character, the decidedly non-sparkly vampire Lestat. The Vampire world is in utter chaos. Vampires are proliferating at alarming rates. Burnings have commenced world-wide; old vampires have been raised from their long slumbers by a Voice bidding them to do terrible things. Heroes of Rice's long-running series, like Armand, Pandora, Marius and others, are all brought together to figure out what the Voice is and how they may stop it. At the center of all of this madness is the curiously absent Prince Lestat himself, considered the last great hope of vampire-kind. Fans will be overjoyed at the return of some of their favorite characters in what is being heralded as a luxuriant and fiercely ambitious novel.

What I've Been Reading: August 2014

August seemed to just fly right by this year, a cooler, gentler August than what we're used to in this neck of the woods. But readers will tell you that there's no bad weather for reading, and I am doing my best to prove that rule this year. I've been reading, and listening, to a little bit of everything this past month and I can't wait to share!



Jim Henson: A Biography, by Brian Jay Jones. A comprehensive biography of the gentle dreamer and creative genius Jim Henson. From Sam & Friends to Sesame Street, the Muppet Show and movies, Fraggles and story-telling, it is a compilation of imagination and nostalgia for someone like me, who grew up with the Muppets as an integral part of my childhood. The work was made possible by the immense generosity and candor of Henson's friends and family, giving a full portrait of the man as more than puppeteer, but also as son, father, husband, and friend. I savored this book, finding it touching and enlightening.

Cop Town, by Karin Slaughter. It's Atlanta in 1974, and Kate Murphy's first day on the police force. Everything is wrong, from her enormous uniform, to her lack of preparation for the job despite her time in the police academy, to her presence as a woman on a force made up mostly of resentful males, to the fact that a cop killer is on the loose and the city, already seething with racial and class tensions, is now on the point of all-out war. Over the course of three days, Murphy will earn her stripes even as she tries to elude the cop killer, who seems to have set his sites on her. This stand-alone novel from Slaughter is raw, compulsively readable, and so tightly plotted, it was all I could do to put it down long enough to do things like sleep and work. Very highly recommended to fans of suspense and crime novels.

The Book of Life, by Deborah Harkness. The final installment in Harkness's All Souls Trilogy (A Discovery of Witches, Shadow of Night) is all fans of the series could have hoped it would be, complete with the wry wit, deft details and fast pacing that made the first book a darling among my library's staff two years ago. Here, Diana and Matthew are back in the present and are seeking, with the help of their tight group of family and friends, to outwit the rogue vampire who has been hunting them across time and place and end his threat against all they hold dear once and for all. Absolutely stunning--one that I both couldn't read fast enough and never wanted to end.

One Kick, by Chelsea Cain. First in a new series by Cain, and my introduction to her. Kick Lannigan has gone by many names over the years, all given to her by someone else: her parents, her abductor. But Kick is her name of choice, and she has, in the years since her rescue from her captor, honed the skills she learned in her years as captive: she can pick any lock, shoot any gun, has studied martial arts, and searches for missing children in her free time. It is when Bishop, he of the shrouded past and fast cars, shows up and insists she help him track the victim of a predator that Kick must face her own past again, if only to find her way forward. Compulsively readable, with a heroine as endearing as she is damaged. I am eagerly anticipating the next in the series.

State of Wonder, by Anne Patchett. I re-read this in preparation for my September book club meeting. When pharmaceutical researcher Dr. Marina Singh is sent to the Amazon for work, it is for several reasons.  First, she is to collect the remains and effects of a colleague who recently died under mysterious circumstances.  She must also locate another colleague studying the fertility of a local tribe, as their women often bear children well into middle age.  It is this second colleague, Dr. Swenson, who was once Marina’s mentor, that troubles Marina the most, as their past together is something she has tried to leave behind her.  Deeply atmospheric, emotional and detailed, this is Patchett at her finest, very much worth the re-read.


The Arsonist, by Sue Miller. Frankie is in her mid-thirties and adrift. After fifteen years of aid-work in East Africa, she has burnt out, returning to the States for an extended, perhaps permanent, break. She spends the summer with her aging parents in what had been their summer home, where they now reside permanently. On her first night back, an unoccupied summer house burns. Then another. And another. Always the homes of summer people. The small New Hampshire town, where no one has ever bothered to lock their doors, now begins to crumble under the suspicion and fear. A novel of family and community, of trust and fear and love, told in Miller's quiet, measured style. I'm a fan, as always.

Queen of Sorcery, by David Eddings. To quote the lads of Monty Python, "And now, for something completely different." Second in a series I originally read about twenty years ago, this follows the sorcerer Belgarath, his daughter the sorceress Polgara, and their motley crew of princes, thieves and adventurers as they pursue the legendary Orb in order to keep it from falling into the hands of those who serve the sleeping god of darkness, Torak. And in the midst of this adventure, young Garion begins to face his own role in their epic quest, prompting him to ask, as all adolescents will: Why me? Just as funny and entertaining as when I first read it.

That's 7 titles for this month, and my total for 2014 is now up to 51! This year is going to be a race to the finish, but I'm determined to hit my goal of 75 titles by the end of the calendar year.

I'm back next week with some titles you can look forward to come *gulp* October. In the meantime, have a safe Labor Day weekend, and happy reading!