Many a time I have been expounding on one of my favorite topics — classic literature — only to notice that my intended audience was edging toward the door with a trapped, hunted look in their eyes. After blocking exits and conducting interrogations interviews, I discovered why. Some people are under the impression that the label “classic” means a piece of writing is boring, Serious with a capital S, and designed to Teach a Lesson in the most ponderous way possible. As your Classics Maven, it is my unsolemn duty to dispel this notion by providing a list of books virtually guaranteed to elicit chuckles rather than furrowed brows. Continue reading “Classics for Everyone: What’s So Funny About Classic Literature?”
Morgan Eye is a Columbia, MO author who recently came out with her debut book, “The Eye In Team: Cinderella Wore Sneakers.” It’s an autobiography of her life in basketball, from her early years playing in the small town of Montrose, Missouri, to her record breaking career at Mizzou and beyond. The book covers the highs and lows of her journey, as well as the challenges she’s faced both on and off the basketball court. Morgan and her husband both live in Columbia, where she teaches classes through the Columbia Public Schools and coaches girls basketball at Hickman High School. I emailed some interview questions to her, and she was kind enough to take time to write back some answers. Continue reading “Q&A With Morgan Eye, Author of “The Eye In Team””
Here are a few of the most notable debut novels coming out in October. These have all received positive reviews in library journals. For a longer list, please visit our catalog.
“A Marvellous Light” by Freya Marske
Robin Blyth has more than enough bother in his life. He’s struggling to be a good older brother, a responsible employer, and the harried baronet of a seat gutted by his late parents’ excesses. When an administrative mistake sees him named the civil service liaison to a hidden magical society, he discovers what’s been operating beneath the unextraordinary reality he’s always known.
Now Robin must contend with the beauty and danger of magic, an excruciating deadly curse, and the alarming visions of the future that come with it — not to mention Edwin Courcey, his cold and prickly counterpart in the magical bureaucracy, who clearly wishes Robin were anyone and anywhere else.
Robin’s predecessor has disappeared, and the mystery of what happened to him reveals unsettling truths about the very oldest stories they’ve been told about the land they live on and what binds it. Thrown together and facing unexpected dangers, Robin and Edwin discover a plot that threatens every magician in the British Isles — and a secret that more than one person has already died to keep.
Continue reading “Debut Author Spotlight: November 2021”
I’m highlighting some nonfiction books coming out in November. All of the mentioned titles are available to put on hold in our catalog and will also be made available via the library’s Overdrive website on the day of publication in eBook and downloadable audiobook format (as available). For a more extensive list of new nonfiction books coming out this month, check our online catalog.
Top Picks
“Immune: A Journey Into the Mysterious System That Keeps You Alive” by Philipp Dettmer (Nov 2)
You wake up and feel a tickle in your throat. Your head hurts. You’re mildly annoyed as you get the kids ready for school and dress for work yourself. Meanwhile, an epic war is being fought, just below your skin. Millions are fighting and dying for you to be able to complain as you head out the door. But most of us never really stop to ask: What even is our immune system? Second only to the human brain in its complexity, it is one of the oldest and most critical facets of life on Earth. Without it, you would die within days. In “Immune,” Philipp Dettmer, the brains behind the most popular science channel on YouTube, takes readers on a journey through the fortress of the human body and its defenses. There is a constant battle of staggering scale raging within us, full of stories of invasion, strategy, defeat, and noble self-sacrifice. In fact, in the time you’ve been reading this, your immune system has probably identified and eradicated a cancer cell that started to grow in your body. Each chapter delves into an element of the immune system, including defenses like antibodies and inflammation as well as threats like bacteria, allergies, and cancer, as Dettmer reveals why boosting your immune system is actually nonsense, how parasites sneak their way past your body’s defenses, how viruses work, and what goes on in your wounds when you cut yourself. Enlivened by engaging full-color graphics and immersive descriptions, “Immune” turns one of the most intricate, interconnected, and confusing subjects — immunology — into a gripping adventure through an astonishing alien landscape. “Immune” is a vital and remarkably fun crash course in what is arguably, and increasingly, the most important system in the body. Continue reading “Nonfiction Roundup: November 2021”
Throughout its history, the horror genre has been effective at exploring and subverting cultural anxieties and taboos. Between the late 1960s and early 90s, there was plenty of material to work with. These decades saw one revolution after another, including the upending of social mores around sexuality, rapid developments in science and technology and the apocalyptic fears of the Cold War. It was also a boom time for mass market paperbacks, and horror authors in this period abandoned convention and respectability, running with the most bizarre and indecent plots they could imagine.
“When’s the last time you read about…sex witches from the fourth dimension, flesh-eating moths, homicidal mimes, or golems stalking Long Island?”
Continue reading “Paperbacks From Hell & Retro Horror”
PBS recently announced that season two of Masterpiece Theater’s “All Creatures Great and Small” will be available in the U.S. on January 9, 2022. I’m a big James Herriot fan, and I enjoyed season one of this new television adaption of James Herriot’s classic stories of working as a young veterinarian in rural England in the 1930s. The announcement has me anxiously awaiting season two. If you’re also getting antsy for the next installment, here are some ideas to tide you over until January, 2022.
It’s always a good idea to re-watch the previous season, which is available on DVD at the library.
But that won’t take very long to watch if you’re serious about Herriot, which I am. What will take awhile to get through is 90 episodes of the BBC series by the same name which ran sporadically from 1978 to 1990.
Continue reading “Anxiously Awaiting Season Two of “All Creatures Great and Small”?”
When you think of fairy tales, do you think of princesses in love, magic that cures all, and a happily ever after? What about vindictive villains? Maybe you secretly root for the bad guy or wish your prince charming would sweep you off to a castle. Or, if you’re like me, you like your fairy tales a little darker, more sinister, a little closer to the original writings where Snow White’s step-mother was forced to dance in red-hot iron shoes or Rumpelstiltskin got so mad he stomped himself into the ground then ripped himself in half trying to get out. Dark fairy tales take us on wild, dangerous adventures. Adventures with complex characters, unique worlds, and an underlying feeling of, well, darkness. So break out the pumpkin spice whatever, curl up in your coziest blanket, and take a romp through some fantastic stories with some treacherous characters. Continue reading “Dive Into a Dark Fairy Tale”
Hey, comic fans! Thanks for joining me for another edition of Quintessential Comics! This “issue” we’re going to focus on characters that might get overlooked when scouring the shelves looking for that next graphic novel fix. These characters come from both Marvel and DC, so there’s sure to be something you’ll like! I’m not listing anything “indy,” as you really should get out there and read about anything from Image, Darkhorse, etc. The criteria I’m using for these picks are that they are characters that aren’t prominent features in many series, they might have a series of their own, and could possibly have a unique or interesting backstory. I hope you enjoy! Continue reading “Quintessential Comics: Dive Into Obscurity”
Here are a few of the most notable debut novels coming out in October. These have all received positive reviews in library journals. For a longer list, please visit our catalog.
“The Last Checkmate” by Gabriella Saab
Maria is many things: daughter, avid chess player, and member of the Polish underground resistance in Nazi-occupied Warsaw. Captured by the Gestapo she is imprisoned in Auschwitz, while her family is sent to their deaths. Realizing her ability to play chess, the sadistic camp deputy, Fritzsch, intends to use her as a chess opponent to entertain the camp guards. However, once he tires of utilizing her skills, he has every intention of killing her.
Befriended by a Catholic priest, Maria attempts to overcome her grief and see the value in survival. Literally playing for her life through four grueling years, her strategy is simple: Live. Fight. Survive. By cleverly provoking Fritzsch’s volatile nature in front of his superiors, Maria intends to orchestrate his downfall. Only then will she have a chance to evade the fate awaiting her and see him brought to justice.
As she carries out her plan and the war nears its end, she discovers Fritzsch has survived. And so Maria, vowing still to avenge the murder of her family, challenges her former nemesis to one final game, certain to end in life or death, in failure or justice. If Maria can bear to face Fritzsch — and her past — one last time. Continue reading “Debut Author Spotlight: October 2021”
Here I am at the end of my journey, traveling through New England during a glorious fall. I’m not sure why I have taken the path that I did to have me end here as the air is turning crisp and the leaves are presenting a beautiful mosaic, but I like it! Even if the books I’m reading are not set during autumn, my spirit overlays the mood since this is MY time of year. Continue reading “Travel Through Story: New England”
