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Posts by Jane J
We've all got them. Books we think will make us smarter but that are just a bit too daunting every time you go to pick them up and read. Mine in recent times has been Yuval Harari's Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind. I placed it on hold, had the hold come in, checked it out and then returned it unread. I think that probably happened a couple of times.
Every month there are new titles purchased for the Too Good to Miss collections at our libraries. If you're not familiar with TGTM (as we call it here in library-world), it's a special collection of popular books that are truly too good to miss. Some are new and popular titles, others are older titles that might not have had as much media attention as a bestseller or celebrity book club selection but are still great reads that deserve another look.
In this very darkly funny adventure (think way amped up Deadpool humor), Carl is saved from annihilation by aliens because his soon-to-be-ex-girlfriend's prizewinning cat, Princess Donut, has escaped their apartment. While he's freezing outside in the wee hours of the morning, barefoot in his boxer shorts and a jacket, trying to re-capture Princess Donut, Carl sees every physical structure flattened, literally. Anyone who was in those buildings? Gone. He knows that because an alien announcer tells him so.
I'm a fan of true crime tv and podcasts and will listen to a wide variety of them, but when it comes to books, I'm a bit more particular. I think this choosiness has to do with being able to distance myself a bit from the content and for me, when I'm reading, it can feel so much more immediate. So for nonfiction crime books I gravitate to historical crime with the natural distancing of time making it more enjoyable. A Fatal Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum really fit that bill.
At a recent book discussion of the Mystery Book Group at Lakeview we talked about Dennis Lehane's powerful (though incredibly tough to read) novel, Small Mercies. One description of the books says "this novel dives into the dark heart of American racism, weaving a complex tale of family, power, and revenge set against the backdrop of Boston's tumultuous history.
I used to love to wander through a bookstore and feed my reading need (this on top of checking many stacks of books out of the library). But at some point I stopped buying all those print copies, partially for space reasons, partially because of the changing bookstore landscape and partially because I was reading more and more digitally. So what's my version of strolling through the bookstore aisles? Late in the evening I look for ebook deals online to see if there's anything that catches my fancy (this on top of the library books I check out electronically and read on Libby!).
Every month there are new titles purchased for the Too Good to Miss collections at our libraries. If you're not familiar with TGTM (as we call it here in library-world), it's a special collection of popular books that are truly too good to miss. Some are new and popular titles, others are older titles that might not have had as much media attention as a bestseller or celebrity book club selection but are still great reads that deserve another look.
Only Child opens with a tense and heartbreaking scene as Zach Taylor and the rest of his first grade class huddle in a closet waiting for the gunfire of an active shooter in their school to stop. Zach is six and though his class has practiced hiding like this, he and his classmates don't really know what's happening. They just know that they're scared and confused. Once Zach leaves that closet, he'll find the world as he knew it has irrevocably changed - because while Zach has survived, his older brother Andy has not.
Some books I read and think, "I cannot wait to rave about this book to anyone and everyone." And the next thought is, "how will I do it justice?" The Light Brigade by Kameron Hurley had me thinking both of those as I finished. It's a deceptively straightforward military science fiction novel, that packs a much deeper and thought-provoking punch.
Desmond Aloysius Limerick (Dez) is a retired gatekeeper. What's a gatekeeper you may ask? Well in Dez's case, a kind of cross between Jack Reacher, MacGyver, and John McClane. His former profession had him working ops around the world and as a gatekeeper he was responsible not only for getting his teams into whatever location they needed to enter, but making sure they all got out too. He was an expert on entrances and exits of all kinds. His current life has him living in southern California and sitting in on an occasional musical gig.
