Posted on Tuesday, September 1, 2020 by patron reviewer
“Exhalation” is a collection of science fiction short stories. The author works in the software industry and is clearly knowledgeable about scientific principles and technology and curious about its possibilities. His stories often blend the scientific with the spiritual, and invoke a lot of moral and ethical questions. My favorite stories were “Omphalos” which focuses on a narrator struggling to reconcile her faith and purpose in light of new scientific evidence, and “The Truth of Fact, The Truth of Feeling” which deals with the flexibility of memory, how we construct narratives about ourselves and our worlds, and how different forms of technology can shape those narratives.
Three words that describe this book: Thought-provoking, enlightening, well-crafted
You might want to pick this book up if: You like humanistic science fiction.
Of all the Read Harder blog posts I signed up to write, I have put this one off the longest. The last thing I want to think about right now is that we have another imminent threat to humanity’s survival which is totally overcomeable but our ability to do so is dependent on our capability of taking in the research offered by credible scientific sources and working together to adjust our lifestyles in mildly inconvenient ways to help ourselves as a collective human species.
Unprecedented times indeed.
I will admit that I have had to set down and walk away from every book I tried to read for this task because I got so angry and frustrated with the state of things.
Posted on Wednesday, August 26, 2020 by DBRL_Katie
We lose things all the time: keys, rings, our train of thought. In the following documentaries, entire film treasuries were lost, only to be rediscovered decades later by chance. Check out these films that follow the recovery of priceless collections. You’ll emerge appreciating the things you’ve long held onto. Continue reading “Hit the Mother Lode: Docs About Unearthed Collections”
My Best Friend’s Exorcism: Abby and Gretchen are high school BFFs whose friendship gets put to the ultimate test. After the two girls experiment with LSD, Gretchen disappears, later reemerging with some strange symptoms such as flashback, fits, and randomly bleeding. The horrifying reality dawns on Abby: Gretchen is possessed, and Abby must be the one to exorcise the demon. As a bonus, this book takes place in 1988 and is stuffed with 80s references. Continue reading “Read Harder 2020: A Horror Book by an Indie Press”
Rich Karlgaard believes our society suffers from an obsession with young prodigies, stars who peak at a young age. In “Late Bloomers,” he makes the case for allowing people the opportunity to blossom when they are ready. He backs this up with anecdotes of folks who found success long after crossing the threshold into adulthood and an examination of societal factors he believes contribute to the emphasis on early achievement. Continue reading “Late Bloomers”
Since they were babies, my husband made Christmas ornaments significant for that year for our children out of polymer clay. I was always fascinated with the details of the ornaments, but found that clay hard to work with. That changed when I attended a workshop held by one of my colleagues on creating tiles with Sculpey clay — a polymer clay that is more pliable and easy to work with. There were examples shown of using the clay tiles to make boxes, picture frames and other decorative items. Continue reading “Take-Home Crafternoon Kit: Polymer Clay Tiles”
Posted on Wednesday, August 12, 2020 by Decimal Diver
Stan Adams is a mid-Missouri author who recently came out with his debut book “Mokane to Mole City.” Adams grew up in the small town of Mokane, Missouri, and was drafted in the Summer of 1968, spending a year as a combat infantryman on the front lines of the Vietnam War. Fifty years later, through a photographic history, this book recounts his journey from rural Missouri to the jungles of Vietnam. Last year he gave a talk about the book at the Callaway County Public Library and also showcased the book at the Local Authors Open House at the Columbia Public Library. I recently emailed some interview questions to him about the book, and he wrote back some answers. Continue reading “Author Interview: Stan Adams”
Posted on Tuesday, August 11, 2020 by patron reviewer
“The Ocean at the End of the Lane” is a modern fairy tale in the way that only Neil Gaiman can write. The protagonist returns to his rural hometown for a funeral, and finds himself recovering strange memories of events that happened when he was seven years old. Could they have really happened? Could he really have befriended an eleven year old girl who was actually as old as time itself? Could he have brought an ill-tempered spirit home with him from the edges of reality? Could he have died and come back to life? How is it possible that memories could be ripped out and new ones stitched together?
I love the way Gaiman weaves a story, and this one leaves just enough to the imagination of the reader, while being set in a fully-imagined world. It was a quick read—I did it in one sitting on a sick day in bed — and a wonderful escape from what’s going on in the real world. The characters are well-drawn; the “scenery” is at turns idyllic and horrifying.
Three words that describe this book: Magical, quick, fantasy
You might want to pick this book up if: You loved fairy tales as a child, and still love them as an adult.
Here’s a look at just a few of the many highly praised debut novels coming to shelves near you in August. As always, for a more complete list, please visit our catalog.
Multiverse travel is finally possible, but there’s just one catch: No one can visit a world where their counterpart is still alive. Enter Cara, whose parallel selves happen to be exceptionally good at dying — from disease, turf wars, or vendettas they couldn’t outrun. Cara’s life has been cut short on 372 worlds in total.
On this dystopian Earth, however, Cara has survived. Identified as an outlier and therefore a perfect candidate for multiverse travel, Cara is plucked from the dirt of the wastelands. Now what once made her marginalized has finally become an unexpected source of power. She has a nice apartment on the lower levels of the wealthy and walled-off Wiley City. She works — and shamelessly flirts — with her enticing yet aloof handler, Dell, as the two women collect off-world data for the Eldridge Institute. She even occasionally leaves the city to visit her family in the wastes, though she struggles to feel at home in either place. So long as she can keep her head down and avoid trouble, Cara is on a sure path to citizenship and security.
But trouble finds Cara when one of her eight remaining doppelgängers dies under mysterious circumstances, plunging her into a new world with an old secret. What she discovers will connect her past and her future in ways she could have never imagined — and reveal her own role in a plot that endangers not just her world, but the entire multiverse.
“Exhalation” is a collection of science fiction short stories. The author works in the software industry and is clearly knowledgeable about scientific principles and technology and curious about its possibilities. His stories often blend the scientific with the spiritual, and invoke a lot of moral and ethical questions. My favorite stories were “Omphalos” which focuses on a narrator struggling to reconcile her faith and purpose in light of new scientific evidence, and “The Truth of Fact, The Truth of Feeling” which deals with the flexibility of memory, how we construct narratives about ourselves and our worlds, and how different forms of technology can shape those narratives.
