“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.”
Posted on Monday, April 22, 2019 by Reading Addict
Oliver Griebl [CC BY 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)]Spring has sprung and I’m getting itchy! Yes, I do have allergies, but that’s not what I mean. I’m feeling drawn to the woods. I want to be hiking. I want to smell the trees. I want to hug a tree! I have poetry in my heart!
I have been trying to get out there but I just haven’t managed it. It seems that whenever I get the chance it’s raining! So I will have to delve into the world of trees through books until I can satiate this longing. I could take a “Walk in the Woods” with Bill Bryson or walk the “Wild” with Cheryl Strayed. I have been on those treks before and love them both! But maybe it’s time to go on “Grandma Gatewood’s Walk” or get out “On Trails” with Robert Moor. Continue reading “For the Love of TREES!”
I picked up “The Bus on Thursday” by Shirley Barrett because the cover has a disembodied hand on it. It’s creepy and striking, much like disembodied hands are when they don’t appear on book covers. After reading the first sentence (“I was at work scratching my armpit.”), I knew I’d have to read the whole book. Would the scratching alleviate or aggravate the itch in her pit? These are the sort of hooks novelists spend their lives searching for.
Immediately, subsequent sentences turn the outcome of the itch into a triviality: she’d discovered a lump, and it was cancer. Soon after being told she won’t be able to have kids until her late 30s, her best friend announces her own pregnancy on social media with a particularly annoying post. Eleanor decides to move from the big city and take a teaching job in small, cute, and creepy town. She’s replacing a beloved teacher who recently disappeared, and she can move into the teacher’s former home, complete with thirty plus locks on the door, immediately. Between the missing teacher and the preponderance of locks on her door, the reader may venture to assume something strange is afoot. Continue reading “The Gentleman Recommends: Shirley Barrett”
The consensus in the scientific community is that we are in an age where human activity has had a defining impact on our environment. This is being taken seriously by many sectors of our society, such as the insurance industry, the intelligence community and the military. Welcome to the “Anthropocene.” This somewhat ungainly term has been adopted by many to define our current geologic age, the time period during which human activity has been the dominant influence on climate and the environment. Naming this period is an attempt to reframe our way of seeing the natural world, to bring to light our impact on it and our responsibility towards it.
Earth Day was originally proposed by Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson in reaction to a devastating oil spill in Santa Barbara, California — a very concrete example of human impact on the environment. So for this Earth Day, April 22, it would be fitting to read some books about our impact on the natural world and what we can change about it.
“Living in the Anthropocene” (Smithsonian Books, 2017) is a collection of 32 essays by leading thinkers exploring the idea of the Anthropocene from scientific, anthropological, social, artistic and economic points of view. Each explores not only the ways we have changed the environment, but also our potential responses to those changes. Continue reading “Literary Links: Welcome to the Anthropocene”
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For about as long as society has existed, so has incarceration. From Socrates to Boethius to Oscar Wilde and beyond, philosophers and writers have often found themselves on the punitive end of a criminal justice system. Even behind bars, though, many managed to produce compelling and inspirational works.
Social activists are often imprisoned for their efforts. During his 27 year incarceration, Nelson Mandela wrote letters to family, fellow activists, government officials, and prison authorities. 255 of these letters are published, and offer an inspiring glimpse into Mandela’s altruism and powerful optimism. Mahatma Ghandi, the pioneer of non-violent protest himself, wrote his autobiography, “The Story of My Experiments With Truth,” at the urging of a fellow prisoner at Yerwada Central Jail. Martin Luther King, Jr., an activist heavily inspired by Ghandi’s example, spent eleven days behind bars. During that time, he penned “Letter From Birmingham Jail.” Both Ghandi and King cited Henry David Thoreau’s essay “On Civil Disobedience” as an influence. Thoreau wrote the essay while imprisoned for refusing to pay taxes that would fund a war he considered unjust.Continue reading “Read Harder 2019: A Book Written in Prison”
Here are a few of the debut novels that came out in March 2019 which are generating a lot of buzz. A longer list of debut titles can be found by visiting our catalog.
Czechoslovakia, 1935. Hrad Orlu Asylum for the Criminally Insane houses six of the most depraved murderers in the country, known as the Devil’s Six. Newly arrived from Prague, where a Jack the Ripper copycat known as Leather Apron is terrorizing the city, psychiatrist Viktor Kosárek delves into the inner-workings of the criminal mind. Kosárek is searching for the motivation that drives a person to commit atrocious acts of violence, a quality he calls the devil aspect. Meanwhile Prague police captain Luk Smolk finds a tiny piece of evidence at the most recent Leather Apron crime scene which he hopes will lead him to the serial killer, but first it leads him to the asylum and the Devil’s Six.
A murder in space. Mahit Dzmare is summoned to court as the new ambassador to the imperializing Teixcalaanli Empire from her small, but independent, mining station after her predecessor, Yskandr, dies. No one will admit the previous ambassador was murdered, and Mahit must carefully navigate the alien culture of the Teixcalaanli, aided by her fluency in their language and Yskadr’s implanted memories. However, she soon learns that those memories are out of date, possibly even sabotaged, and she is forced to rely on her wits to protect her station, uncover the truth, and resist the seductive nature of the imperial court. Continue reading “Debut Author Spotlight: March/April 2019”
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