Candor

Today’s post is from Cecily at Haggard Library:

Candor by Pam Bachorz

Oscar Banks is superior person.  Oscar Banks is a model citizen.  He always obeys his parents, shows respectful space in every place, and knows that the great are never late.  Or at least that’s what the messages tell him.  Oscar lives in Candor, Florida – a pristine community where subliminal messages make sure that all the teenagers wear clean polo shirts and can’t stand the sight of graffiti. 

But Oscar has learned to resist the brainwashing by creating his own subliminal programming, and he knows just how to maintain his “perfect” facade so no one will suspect.  Even better, he provides his anti-brainwashing skills to the richest of the new kids and helps them escape before their minds are erased.  He has the best of both worlds.  That is, until Nia moves in across the street.  She is beautiful and rebellious and loveable, and Oscar can’t stand to watch the brainwashing erase her like all the other teens that move to Candor.  How far will Oscar go and what will he risk to keep Nia’s mind intact?

Candor is a suspenseful and scary look at the possibilities of brainwashing and having parents who are a little too in control.  The end of the story is a little abrupt and rather sad, but it is a great, edge-of-your-seat story of sacrifice for the one you love, and the expression of free will on a whole new level.

Tattoo Machine

Today’s post is from Ellen at Parr Library:

Tattoo Machine: Tall Tales, True Stories, and My Life in Ink  by Jeff Johnson

The author of this bawdy tale has been a professional tattoo artist for 18 years and is the co-owner of the Sea Tramp Tattoo Company in Portland, Oregon.  He reflects on everything from his days as an apprentice to some of the great inkers in the trade.  He tells of trying to keep artists sane and sober enough to keep his business running.  His shop is a “street shop.”  Opening at noon and staying open late into the night, the business attracts interest from late night partiers, gangsters, college girls looking for a tramp stamp, as well as just the curious.  The resulting encounters are sometimes hilarious, sometimes frightening, and always entertaining.

If you’ve thought about getting a tattoo, this book may help sway your decision.  Not for the faint of heart.

Little Bird of Heaven

Today’s post is from Lynn and Parr Library:

Little Bird of Heaven by Joyce Carol Oates

This book is full of real people living authentic and tragic lives.  The place is Sparta, New York, a dark and dying town.  The time is contemporary, though being a classic story, it could be anytime and anywhere.  The fact is, Zoe Kruller was murdered.  The question is, “Who did it?”  

 The police think either her lover or her ex-husband did it, but neither suspect is ever charged.  But what matters is not the facts or the lack of evidence; what matters is who people think murdered Zoe. 

The suspect’s families, especially their children, pay a huge price for the poor choices of their fathers.  The murder marks a turning point beyond which nothing is ever the same.  Oates is one of the best American writers of our day and Little Bird of Heaven reflects her genius in creating unforgettable characters living real lives. 

 

 

When You Reach Me

Today’s post is from Annie at Parr Library:

When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead

It’s 1978 and Miranda’s life in the Upper West Side of New York City is ticking along nicely.  She has her best friend Sal, a close relationship with her mother, and she knows most of her neighbors.  Everything seems to change when Sal gets punched for no apparent reason by Marcus, a very intelligent boy from their school.  Sal withdraws from Miranda into his own world, which is bad enough.  But then Miranda starts receiving strange notes.  The first reads:

I am coming to save your friend’s life, and my own.
I must ask two favors. First, you must write me a letter.

The subsequent notes foretell future events to prove to Miranda that the writer is sincere in his need for the letter detailing her life.  The book is Miranda’s “letter” to the unknown writer wherein she describes her 6^th-grade friends, her job at Jimmy’s deli, Sal’s withdrawal, the strange Laughing Man on her street corner, and so on. 

 The story is a mystery puzzle and once it’s solved, readers will want to go back to the beginning to see how the clues fit.  An entertaining story for 9 to 12 year olds.

A Night in the Lonesome October

Today’s post is from Erik at Schimelpfenig Library:

A Night in the Lonesome October by Roger Zelazny

Since Halloween is nigh upon us I thought I would write about my personal favorite Halloween story.  A Night in the Lonesome October may not be everyone’s cup of tea, which kind of describes most of author Roger Zelazny’s work, but I really like this particular effort. 

Briefly, the story is told from the point of view of Snuff, canine familiar to Jack.  Snuff, Jack and several other recognizable literary and historical figures all work to either open or keep closed a gate that would allow the “Great Old Ones” access to our world.  Even Sherlock Holmes comes by to lend a hand which is always a high point for me in any book.

The story is great and the characters are fun and well-developed, it’s a little creepy but not gory in the extreme, it’s wonderfully illustrated by Gahan Wilson; it’s a perfect Halloween story!  So you might be asking yourself why this wouldn’t be my cup of tea it seems to have it all!  Well, it’s Zelazny; and Zelazny wouldn’t be Zelazny if he didn’t get a little off track at some point.  Still, this is easily one of his more accessible novels and there are those who firmly believe Zelazny totally hung the science-fiction/fantasy moon so he is definitely worth a shot. A Night in the Lonesome October isn’t perfect but it is a great read, sets a wonderful holiday mood and serves as a good “gateway” book into one of the true masters of Science-fiction/ fantasy.

Immortal Beloved

Today’s post is from Susan at Schimelpfenig Library:

Immortal Beloved (1994) directed by Bernard Rose; starring Gary Oldman, Jeroen Krabbe and Isabella Rosselini.

Usually, I am an audio listener of historical fiction, but I happened to pick up this DVD and it was fabulous!  A letter addressed to “Immortal Beloved” was found among the papers of Ludwig von Beethoven when he died.  This is fact and the letter is currently in a museum.  In the movie, Beethoven’s assistant goes from place to place interviewing the women in the musician’s life in an effort to discover his “Beloved.”  We see by flashback what his life was like from childhood on and it is fascinating.

Of course his wonderful music is played throughout the movie, whether we see the musicians or it’s in the soundtrack.

Oh yes, we do find out who Beethoven’s mysterious “Beloved” is in the movie.

Narrow Dog to Indian River

Today’s post is from Ramarie at Harrington Library:

Narrow Dog to Indian River  by Terry Darlington

I didn’t want this book to end!  I love travel memoirs, and this one traces the exploits of an English couple who sail their narrow rowboat (a canal boat) down the eastern Atlantic coast along with their dog, a whippet named Jim.  America is a “savage land”, with its fierce sea and tides that are a menace to the gentle sailing of their vessel.  The wildlife and insects are a constant wonder and fright, and the people they meet along the way are their own special species.  Terry Darlington, the husband, writes the book with great doses of poetry and humor, some of which had me laughing out loud.  I was anxious to visit their website after finishing their book, to see photos, and to especially see their dog Jim who is definitely the third character in the book.  It seems they are now workinig on a new book about sailing their narrowboat in Scotland in search of the Loch Ness Monster.  I can’t wait for it!

The Lost City of Z

Today’s post is from Annie at Parr Library.

The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon by David Grann

The author is a staff writer at the New Yorker magazine, who doesn’t even like to camp out.  This is his first book and it has been optioned by Brad Pitt’s production company and Paramount Pictures for a possible movie.

 In 1925, at age 58,  the intrepid British explorer Percy Fawcett , along with his 21 year old son Jack  and Jack’s friend Raleigh Rimmel, set out into the Amazon jungles in northeastern Brazil in search of “Z”, Fawcett’s name for the highly advanced civilization he was sure existed in the depths of the Amazon.  They vanished without a trace.  In subsequent years, dozens of expeditions ventured into the jungle in search of Fawcett, including Percy Fleming, brother of Ian Fleming, and an English actor of the day, Albert de Winton, found years after he set out, floating naked and crazy in a canoe, by Indians who promptly killed him.  All in all, it is estimated that 100 would-be-rescuers lost their lives in the jungle looking for Fawcett.

 Grann himself must be counted among these “Fawcett Freaks” because while researching this book, he leaves wife and child and attempts to follow Fawcett’s trail.  Fortunately he lives to tell the tale.  And what a tale it is!  Grann, who had access to Fawcett’s diaries, travel logs, and correspondence, meticulously recreates this Victorian man — a soldier, sometime spy, expert surveyor and dashing explorer—and his obsession with Z.  Fawcett was the Indiana Jones of his day and the inspiration for Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Lost World.  Grann intersperses details of Fawcett’s jungle hardships (malaria, cyanide-spitting millipedes, flies whose maggoty larvae burrow under the skin and fester, vampire bats, near starvation) with his own adventures in the jungle.  He comes closer than anyone to determining Fawcett’s fate.  And as for Z—that’s the surprise at the end of the book.  A great story.

Down Around Midnight

Today’s post is from Lynn at Parr Library.

Down Around Midnight: A Memoir of Crash and Survival by Robert Sabbag

Down Around Midnight is the story of the crash of Air New England Flight 248 on June 17, 1979. There weren’t many wild places left on Cape Cod at the time and even fewer now, but that plane crashed in one of those hidden and remote places. The pilot, who should not even have been flying that night, was the only one killed. But the lives of all the survivors were irrevocably changed.

Sabbag was one of those survivors who, despite his own injuries, struggled valiantly to get the other passengers moved from the wreckage to places of safety. Thirty years later he still questions whether he did the right thing by moving severely injured sisters away from the fuselage which could have exploded any minute. Did his decision to move them out of harm’s way cause them even more severe physical damage?

In this memoir, Sabbag attempts to come to terms with his own decisions that horrible night and seeks out the other survivors to find out how their lives were affected by the crash.

Down Around Midnight is an interesting read that made me think that those who survived supposedly unscathed still have hidden scars.

The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate

Today’s post is from Ellen at Parr Library:

The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate  by Jacqueline Kelly

No one calls Callie Vee Calpurnia except her grandfather and of course her mother, when the girl’s in trouble.  The year is 1899, and the “almost 12″ year old wonders why dogs have eyebrows and why some grasshoppers are small and green and others are large and yellow.  When she asks her grandfather, an amateur naturalist, about the grasshoppers, his reply is that “a smart young whip like you can figure it out.”  Callie thinks perhaps she’s discovered a new species, but with further reflection and some serious note taking, she does figure it out.  Her grandfather is quite impressed that she’s done it without help from anyone, and the two spend the summer studying everything from pond life to the habits of badgers.  After school starts, Callie spends every possible minute with the elderly man and the seed of a dream is planted.  Her mother, though, has other ideas and insists that Callie take piano lessons and learn to cook in preparation for her “coming out.”

The story takes place in the fictional town of Fentress, Texas just before the turn of the century.  The telephone comes to town, an automobile is on display at the county fair, and a young girl finds that a whole other world is waiting to be discovered. 

I found this book to be a real charmer – one that can be read and enjoyed by all ages.