Adult Book Review - Heart Shaped Box by Joe Hill

Review Contributed by Brent C.

It's hard to avoid comparing the son to the father, but if a comparison must be made, let it be done with the best of intentions.

This book has a voice of it's own, that has the accent of his father's best works. CREEPY, with characters the reader immediately feels a connection to, in a world like ours as seen through a wavy glass window.

One of the most satisfying endings to a suspense/supernatural thriller that I've read in years.

(From Publisher Weekly):
Starred Review. Stoker-winner Hill features a particularly merciless ghost in his powerful first novel. Middle-aged rock star Judas Coyne collects morbid curios for fun, so doesn't think twice about buying a suit advertised at an online auction site as haunted by its dead owner's ghost. Only after it arrives does Judas discover that the suit belonged to Craddock McDermott, the stepfather of one of Coyne's discarded groupies, and that the old man's ghost is a malignant spirit determined to kill Judas in revenge for his stepdaughter's suicide. Judas isn't quite the cad or Craddock the avenging angel this scenario makes them at first, but their true motivations reveal themselves only gradually in a fast-paced plot that crackles with expertly planted surprises and revelations. Hill (20th Century Ghosts) gives his characters believably complex emotional lives that help to anchor the supernatural in psychological reality and prove that (as one character observes) "horror was rooted in sympathy." His subtle and skillful treatment of horrors that could easily have exploded over the top and out of control helps make this a truly memorable debut. (Feb.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Book Review: Ain't She Sweet by Susan Elizabeth Phillips

I just read Ain't She Sweet by Susan Elizabeth Phillips and I must say I soooo loved this book. I'm not sure if it is because I'm from a small town in Mississippi or what, but I so knew some of these characters. I was in a group like the Seawillows and I must admit I did one or two of the rituals, I will not say which one but oh did we have fun. It also made me remember what great friendships we had and some of us still have today. If you are in the mood for small town living and great fun this is a must read.
Dee

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak - Review

Review contributed by Brent C.

This book is quite deceptive, it starts slow and centers on characters whom you really don't care about nor have any emotion invested in. You keep expecting the 'whammo' from the Holocaust to hit you over the head just as you're internally wincing over the sure-to-come descriptions of how stark, colorless and horrible those days in Germany were.

Not to say those things aren't present, not at all. But the realization comes without warning or preamble that you DO care about the characters and as the pages come to an end you want to hear more about that stark, colorless, horrible world.

The narration winds it's way around the prose in a beautiful way, the author has a voice that's at once soothing and horrifying. There's a beauty in the author's choice of words here, although it's hard to explain I want more of it.

The story itself is beautiful and simple. It's simply about a small girl and her adopted family and how they come to terms with their lives and how they impact others in Nazi Germany.

We may haunt the narrator, but his story will haunt me for a long time to come.

(From Product Description):
It’s just a small story really, about among other things: a girl, some words, an accordionist, some fanatical Germans, a Jewish fist-fighter, and quite a lot of thievery. . . .

Set during World War II in Germany, Markus Zusak’s groundbreaking new novel is the story of Liesel Meminger, a foster girl living outside of Munich. Liesel scratches out a meager existence for herself by stealing when she encounters something she can’t resist–books. With the help of her accordion-playing foster father, she learns to read and shares her stolen books with her neighbors during bombing raids as well as with the Jewish man hidden in her basement before he is marched to Dachau.

This is an unforgettable story about the ability of books to feed the soul.

New Books in YA!!!!

Announcing a shipment of new books in the YA/Teen Department!!!


I admit that it's always one of my most favorite days in the library when I have a cart full of brand new books to put on the shelf. It's a complete experience for me: I like the way they feel (the pages are all crisp), the way they smell (like fresh ink) and how gorgeous the covers look!!! Here's a short list of a few new things on the shelf - be sure to check one out so you can have the new book "experience."

Lockdown by Walter Dean Myers
Once a Witch by Carolyn MacCullough
Dirty Little Secrets by C. J. Omololu
Little Miss Red by Robin Palmer
Albatross by Josie Blott
A Star on the Hollywood Wald of Fame by Brenda Woods
Token of Darkness by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes
Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters by Jane Austen and Ben H. Winters
My Boyfriend's Dogs by Dandi Daley Mackall
A Match Made in High School by Kristin Walker
The Iron King by Julie Kagawa
Suite Scarlett by Maureen Johnson
Tiger's Curse by Colleen Houck
Riker's High by Paul Volponi

Book Review - The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

I have a confession to make - I tend not to read the books that are SUPER popular. I have no idea what has caused me to develop this particular character flaw, but I have muddled along without really having reason to reexamine my world view in relation to SUPER popular books. Until now. I had not planned to read this book until it was selected by our book club and for the first hundred pages or so, I felt like I would have been totally fine with never picking the book up. Then it happened...all the strings came together and I could not put this book down (seriously - I read 400 pages in one night)!!! The two main characters are a contrast that work well together. Mikael Blomkvist, a journalist picking up the pieces after a libel suit, and Lisbeth Salander, a young tattooed brilliant computer hacker - who was inspired by the authors musings on what would have happened to Pippi Longstockings as she became an adult, become entwined in resolving the decades old disappearance of a girl from a prominent family.

(From Publishers Weekly)
Starred Review. Cases rarely come much colder than the decades-old disappearance of teen heiress Harriet Vanger from her family's remote island retreat north of Stockholm, nor do fiction debuts hotter than this European bestseller by muckraking Swedish journalist Larsson. At once a strikingly original thriller and a vivisection of Sweden's dirty not-so-little secrets (as suggested by its original title, Men Who Hate Women), this first of a trilogy introduces a provocatively odd couple: disgraced financial journalist Mikael Blomkvist, freshly sentenced to jail for libeling a shady businessman, and the multipierced and tattooed Lisbeth Salander, a feral but vulnerable superhacker. Hired by octogenarian industrialist Henrik Vanger, who wants to find out what happened to his beloved great-niece before he dies, the duo gradually uncover a festering morass of familial corruption—at the same time, Larsson skillfully bares some of the similar horrors that have left Salander such a marked woman. Larsson died in 2004, shortly after handing in the manuscripts for what will be his legacy.

One Good Dog by Susan Wilson - Book Review

Submitted by Kathy E.

Available March 2, 2010!!!

LOVED IT! i like that the guy had the business world by the tail, but no intact personal relationships.
i hated that the dog was born into a life of illegal dog fighting.
i LOVED that these two "losers" in life found each other when they didn't know what they really needed!
man meets dog, dog meets man and i won't tell you the rest of the story, read it, it is great!

From Publisher's Website:

“One Good Dog is a wonderful novel: a moving, tender, and brilliantly crafted story about two fighters—one a man, one a dog— hoping to leave the fight behind, who ultimately find their salvation in each other. Susan Wilson’s clear and unflinching style is perfectly suited for her story that strips away the trappings and toys we all hide behind, and exposes our essential need to give and accept love in order to thrive.”—Garth Stein, New York Times bestselling author of The Art of Racing in the Rain

Adam March is a self-made “Master of the Universe.” He has it all: the beautiful wife, the high-powered job, the glittering circle of friends. But there is a price to be paid for all these trappings, and the pressure is mounting—until the day Adam makes a fatal mistake. His assistant leaves him a message with three words: your sister called. What no one knows is that Adam’s sister has been missing for decades. That she represents the excruciatingly painful past he has left behind. And that her absence has secretly tormented him all these years. When his assistant brushes off his request for an explanation in favor of her more pressing personal call, Adam loses it. And all hell breaks loose.

Adam is escorted from the building. He loses his job. He loses his wife. He loses the life he’s worked so hard to achieve. He doesn’t believe it is possible to sink any lower when he is assigned to work in a soup kitchen as a form of community service. But unbeknownst to Adam, this is where his life will intersect with Chance.

Chance is a mixed breed Pit Bull. He’s been born and raised to fight and seldom leaves the dirty basement where he is kept between fights. But Chance is not a victim or a monster. It is Chance’s unique spirit that helps him escape and puts him in the path of Adam.

What transpires is the story of one man, one dog, and how they save each other—in ways they never could have expected.

R.I.P Robert B. Parker

Prolific crime novelist, Robert B. Parker(September 17, 1932 – January 18, 2010) died Monday, January 18th. It seems fitting that he died at his desk, working. He is best known for his Spenser series, featuring a Boston detective. The popular television show Spenser for Hire was based on this series. He has written over 60 novels, which include 3 different series. He is survived by his wife Joan and their 2 sons. Parker's books remain popular here at the library and are located upstairs in Fiction and in Paperback Fiction downstairs.