Category Archives: Horror

Spot-Lit for May 2013

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So, you’ve probably heard that Dan Brown, John Sandford, John Le Carré, Isabel Allende, and Kite Runner author Khaled Hosseini all have new books out or due out this month. Below are some more titles getting a lot of advance review buzz and/or publisher support. Click on the titles to read more or to place holds.

General Fiction / Literary Fiction 

Dual InheritanceA Dual Inheritance  by Joanna Hershon
A friendship formed at Harvard in 1962 then abruptly broken off is the focus of this love-triangle novel which spans the past fifty years. Hershon’s novel is being compared to Freedom, Rules of Civility, and The Marriage Plot.

FoolsFools  by Joan Silber
Occurring in many locations around the globe, and spanning the 1920s to Occupy Wall Street, these interlinked stories look at the ways people dupe one another – subtly or otherwise – and are likewise duped.

First Novels

ConstellationA Constellation of Vital Phenomena  by Anthony Marra
After her father is abducted, an eight-year-old girl and her neighbor, Akhmed, take refuge in a bombed out hospital in Chechnya where Sonja, the sole remaining doctor, treats the wounded and mourns her missing sister. In writing that is detailed and eloquent, Akhmed and Sonja explore their pasts and the events that have bound them together.

Red SparrowsRed Sparrow  by Jason Matthews
Pitting Putin’s SVR against the CIA, this exceptional spy thriller includes a host of villains, hit-men, and politicos while employing such spy-trade techniques as counterintelligence, surveillance, “sexpionage,” cyber-warfare and covert communications. Ex-CIA man Matthews knows his stuff.

Under Tower PeakUnder Tower Peak  by Bart Paul
Iraq-war vet Tommy Smith and his wilderness guide partner find themselves in the thick of things when they discover the wreckage of a missing billionaire’s airplane high in the Sierra Nevada mountains. Thugs and family members all seek their self-interest and Tommy has to dust off the sniper skills he thought he’d retired for good. 

Crime Fiction

End of the WorldThe End of the World in Breslau  by Marek Krajewski
Hard-drinking Eberhard Mock investigates the grisly murders of two seemingly unrelated victims in the Polish town of Breslau in 1927. Evidence deliberately left at both crime scenes points to a single suspect. Suspicion falls on Mock’s wife when she begins to display unusual behavior.

RedeemerThe Redeemer  by Jo Nesbø
Renegade detective Harry Hole has little to go on in solving the contract killing of a musician. Flawed, frail human nature is revealed in the characters of The Redeemer – along with their ambiguous quests for redemption. This is masterfully plotted crime writing that explores the darkest corners of the human psyche.

SF / Fantasy / Horror

Human DivisionThe Human Division  by John Scalzi
A bold, hard-SF novel in which earthlings find their own Colonial Union has deceived them and conscripted humans in a generations-long fight with aliens. Things get interesting when the aliens appeal to the betrayed humans to join them in the fight against the CU…  Bradbury and Heinlein fans will want to grab this.

nos4a2NOS4A2  by Joe Hill
Charles Talent Manx has a thing for abducting children. Victoria McQueen is the only victim to ever escape his grasp. That was long ago, but he hasn’t forgotten her. And now he has her son.

Red MoonRed Moon  by Benjamin Percy
This supernatural thriller featuring werewolves (lycans) in a story with strong social and geopolitical undercurrents should attract more than just horror fans. Percy’s book is drawing comparisons to Justin Cronin’s The Passage and Max Brooks’s World War Z.

One for the Ladies

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DivergentIt may seem a bit odd to celebrate Women’s History Month by talking about fictional females, but here I am. I’ve noticed that I wind up reading a lot of fiction with males in lead roles; I guess it’s all that wizardry, sword fighting, and space travel going on – apparently lots of testosterone is needed. Needless to say, I always find it refreshing when I come across a woman in a book that I’m reading who can play with the boys, sometimes even beating them at their own game. Whether it’s mental, physical, or emotional, I love the strong ladies of lit. Sometimes things don’t work out well for them at the end of their journeys, but reading their exploits can be a welcome change in perspective from chest-thumping bros or hand-wringing ninnies. Here are some of my favorite female leads for those of you looking for a sassy lass or two:

True GritMattie Ross – True Grit by Charles Portis.  Mattie just might be #1 on my list, so I figure she’s a great place to start. Not long ago, a librarian friend of mine challenged me to name an of-age female protagonist from a book, written for an audience older than age 12, who had no romantic or sexual subplot attached to her. At first you wouldn’t think this type of character would be hard to find, but the only person I could come up with was Miss Ross. Mattie spends much of the story as a teen, so that’s not too difficult to explain, but she also ends the book as a wise old spinster. Aside from settling a bet among librarians, Mattie is great for other reasons. She is undeniably the heroine of the story, and throughout shows cunning, bravery, and determination. I don’t want to spoil anything for those of you who have never picked up this book, but I think most readers will enjoy Mattie’s particular brand of pluck.

Beatrice “Tris” Prior – Divergent Trilogy by Veronica Roth. If you liked Katniss Everdeen trust me, you are going to love Tris Prior. Unlike Katniss, Tris made the conscious choice to enter a life of danger and adventure. In a post-apocalyptic Chicago, society is broken down into five factions where individuals live according to a core value that they choose to uphold. At sixteen Tris does the unthinkable and opts to leave her humble faction of service, Abnegation, for the daredevil warrior faction, Dauntless. This choice sets off an avalanche of challenges for Tris as she struggles to prove herself as a Dauntless member and gain acceptance into her new faction. The stakes are high, and failure could be fatal. You don’t want to miss this series.

DraculaMina Harker – Dracula by Bram Stoker. In the opening chapters of Dracula, Mina is a single, orphaned, yet financially-independent woman – no mean feat in the late 19th Century. When I first read Dracula, I had to do a double-take on the date of publication because I was surprised by the strong lead role that Mina played. Clearly Mr. Stoker thought that Mina was exceptional as well; at one point he describes her as having a ‘man’s brain.’ Throughout the book, we learn bits and pieces about Mina’s life by reading excerpts from her correspondences and journals. Mina comes across as a very intelligent person – not only perfecting her stenography skills in order to succeed as a legal assistant for her fiance, but also studying his law texts so that she can better help him in his practice when he becomes established as a solicitor. She is an interesting mixture of the stereotypical gentle, subservient Victorian wife and a brave and intellectual heroine, often leading her vampire-hunting counterparts to important clues about Dracula’s location and plans. This mix of femininity and intellect makes her a very believable and likable protagonist.

Amelia Peabody's EgyptAmelia Peabody Emerson -The Amelia Peabody series by Elizabeth Peters. Last summer I was quoted as saying that I wanted to be Indiana Jones when I was a kid; that was true, but I think I should have added that I wanted to be Amelia Peabody as well. I was in love with the Amelia Peabody mystery series when I was younger, possibly more than I was with the Indiana Jones movies because I could actually imagine being Peabody. Amelia was everything I wanted to be: mature, insanely smart, funny independent, and above all – an Egyptologist at the turn of the century! This was an intoxicating thought to a nerdy little girl who loved to daydream about digging in the sand in a pith helmet and bloomers, and peering through cracks in ancient stone doors with Howard Carter to discover ‘wonderful things.‘ Through the magic of fiction, Amelia got to do all of this for me, and was witty and endearing while she was at it. To be fair, the entire cast in this series is wonderful – from Amelia’s ornery beau to their precocious children who arrive later in the series. I’d highly recommend these stories to anyone who likes both a good mystery and historical fiction.

Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour BookstoreKat Potente – Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan. Let me just say, completely aside from the topic of this post, that I fell hard for this book; what an absolute delight it was to read! Even if you weren’t on a quest for a new female heroine I would tell you to grab this book and love it. But back to the topic at hand! Kat Potente enters the scene as the love interest of our male protagonist, Clay, but you soon learn that she is far more than a pretty face. Kat is one of the data visualization whiz kids at Google – a beyond-smart techie who seems to be on the verge of climbing high up the ranks at the internet powerhouse. When Clay becomes obsessed with mysterious goings on at his very unusual place of employment, he turns to Kat to help him find answers through the far-reaching network of information and technology that she has access to through Google. I like Kat because I find her work to be a fascinating look into the near future of where Internet technology, and the digitization of old texts, will take researchers. To a librarian and archivist, it’s tantalizing to see the concepts at play in this book, even if it’s fiction. You know that not far beneath the surface there is a lot of reality in what Sloan is writing about.

Juego de TronosA Song of Ice and Fire series (aka Game of Thrones), by George R.R. Martin. Do I have to pick just one? This series is chock full of awesome ladies; my personal favorites are Arya, the young tomboy of House Stark, and Brienne of Tarth, the warrior maiden. Both ladies are fiercely independent, even when it causes them great pain and hardship. Without risking too much in the area of spoilers, I can also let it slip that Caitlin Stark (Eddard’s wife), Osha (a wildling woman taken captive by House Stark), and Ygritte (another wildling woman) play very important and interesting roles in the series.

Of course there are many other fascinating women in literature that deserve a write-up. I’ve tried to include books/heroines that do not get mentioned as frequently in the numerous ‘Women in Literature’ lists that can be found online. I would love to hear about your personal favorites!

Lisa

Warm Bodies

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warmbodiesMy skin is always cold. I don’t like people to touch me, to try to hold my hand or touch the back of my neck because the skin there is always cold. Even in the middle of a scorching August day parts of my body are cold. Passing mirrors or shop windows I’m startled into remembering I’m inside this body. I feel like I just fell into it, that I was somewhere else a few minutes ago and then boom! I’m human again. Being inside this skin is almost ridiculous. I think that’s how zombies would feel if they were real. Or had thoughts beyond “That brain looks tasty.”

Isaac Marion’s Warm Bodies is a beauty of a book. It’s an atypical zombie read with surprisingly beautiful writing. There’s R, a zombie who lives at an abandoned airport along with hundreds of other zombies. There are out-posts of survivors who go on foraging missions for supplies and weapons. Some make it back in one piece. Some are lost to the world of the dead. There’s no explanation for the zombies or how they came to be. We seem to be the cause or the wrong we’ve done to the planet and to each other:

We released it. We poked through the seabed and the oil erupted, painted us black, pulled our inner sickness out for everyone to see. Now here we are in this dry corpse of a world, rotting on our feet ‘til there’s nothing left but bones and the buzz of flies.

From the very beginning R is a different kind of zombie. He loves Sinatra and lives alone in one of the grounded airplanes while all the other zombies group together. He can’t remember his name or who he was before becoming a zombie. He dreams. “Normal” zombies don’t sleep much let alone dream. R gathers bits of memories when he eats people. He sees their lives spread out before him. He savors their lives the way a zombie savors….well, human meat.

One day R and a few other zombies go out on a hunting mission and run up against human survivors. There’s a battle (the humans lose, of course) and R meets Julie. He’s chomping away at her boyfriend’s brain and quickly falls in love with her. He feels an overwhelming need to protect her and this freaks him out. He’s a zombie. He’s not supposed to feel protective of anyone or anything except maybe what bit of flesh belongs to him.

Surprisingly, the feelings are mutual for Julie. The only problem standing in their way, besides the whole he’s a corpse and she’s alive thing, is Julie’s father who’s a big muckety-muck in the service. He runs the small city Julie and other survivors live in. There’s always a psychotic father/general/sheriff in the zombie world, huh?

R tries to get across the message that the zombies are changing, evolving into something different. Julie sees this and tries to explain it to her father but Crazy General Dad can’t and won’t see the changes. All he sees is death and destruction and his own place eradicating the zombies from this world.

The one thing both zombies and humans have in common is their fear of the Boneys. These are zombies so ancient that they have only the slightest of skin stretched tight over their bones. They’re walking skeletons. They do not evolve. In fact, they seem mighty ticked off at R for becoming something and someone new and try to put a halt to it.

Part love story, part survival story, Warm Bodies is a novel about change and acceptance and loving someone even if they eat your boyfriend’s brain. I was once told that there’s a lid for every jar when it comes to being loved, that there’s someone for everyone. If you can love the zombie who ate most of your boyfriend then you, my friend, have found the best kind of love.

Just make sure your zombie boyfriend brushes his teeth before he leans in for that kiss.

Jennifer

Spot-Lit for February 2013

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February brings books by popular authors ranging from Dave Barry to Danielle Steel, and from literary limelighters such as Ismail Kadare and Jamaica Kincaid (her first novel in 10 years). Find these and more in our complete list of items on order here. Below you’ll find a hand-picked mix of books we think you’ll especially want to know about – click on the links to read more about them or place them on hold.

General Fiction / Literary Fiction 

Vampires in the Lemon GroveVampires in the Lemon Grove  by Karen Russell
Following Russell’s popular and acclaimed novel Swamplandia comes this collection of eight stories, described as strange, stunning, luscious, arresting, unique, mind-blowing, and tender.

Here I Go AgainHere I Go Again  by Jen Lancaster
Lissy Ryder no longer rules the halls of her high school – in fact it’s 20 years later, and she’s just lost her job, husband and condo in this whimsical novel of stock-taking and starting over.

Love Song of Jonny ValentineThe Love Song of Jonny Valentine  by Teddy Wayne
Jonny Valentine is a preadolescent pop star in this sharp, witty and humane satire that looks at our obsession with celebrity worship, fame and star-making’s devastating effects on childhood innocence.

RevengeRevenge: Eleven Dark Tales  by Yoko Ogawa
Previous Shirley Jackson Award-winner Ogawa is in fine form in these eleven interconnected stories. As the publisher puts it, “Revenge is a master class in the macabre that will haunt you to the last page.”

TirzaTirza  by Arnon Grunberg
An inept, middle-aged man has already lost his wife, his job, a fortune (to a hedge fund that tanked in the wake of 9/11), and spurred his eldest daughter to flee. Now his youngest daughter, Tirza, wants to travel in Africa with her boyfriend – who looks just like Mohammed Atta. The publisher calls this “a heartrending and masterful story of a man seeking redemption.”

First Fiction

GhostmanGhostman  by Roger Hobbs
When a big-time casino robbery goes awry, the perps call in a mysterious fixer known only as Jack to help salvage the situation – while staying one step ahead of the FBI. This white-knuckle thriller introduces a strong new talent.

Three Graves FullThree Graves Full  by Jamie Mason
Under trying circumstances, everyman Jason Getty commits a murder and buries the body in his backyard – but his life gets complicated when a landscaper discovers two more bodies buried on his property. An assured and entertaining debut.

Middle Men

Middle Men  by Jim Gavin
One sad sack after another realizes he won’t reach his ideals in this searing, hilarious, and poignant collection of stories set in our current era of diminished expectations.

Bear Is BrokenBear Is Broken  by Lachlan Smith
Leo Maxwell is in for some shocking surprises about his family when he tries to figure out who killed his criminal defense attorney brother – a man as reviled by street thugs as by those working in the police department.

Crime Fiction /Suspense

Burning AirThe Burning Air  by Erin Kelly
The MacBrides live a life of upper-class privilege, but upon the death of Lydia, the family matriarch, they discover they have an unknown enemy who claims Lydia was a murderer, and he is intent on taking the family down.

Bad BloodBad Blood  by Dana Stabenow
Stabenow’s mysteries featuring Alaskan sleuth Kate Shugak are popular here in Everett, and her new one about two clans of rival Native Alaskans finds her risking more than ever.

Horror

Last DaysLast Days  by Adam Nevill
A pair of documentary filmmakers find more than they were looking for as they re-examine the 1970s mass suicide by members of the Temple of the Last Days cult. This paranormal thriller may well keep you awake at night.

Bad Glass

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I think I’ve always understood that I’m known around here as “that creepy girl” because I love all things scary and grotesque. It used to embarrass me when a co-worker would find a book about serial killers or zombies and immediately think of me. Little by little I’m embracing my creepiness. Some people knit. I like to read about monsters, human or otherwise. Bad Glass by Richard E. Gropp has everything I could ever want: things crawling out of walls, chase scenes, party scenes, inexplicable animals roaming through the park.

20-something Dean Walker drives from California to Spokane after hearing reports of evacuations and strange happenings in that city. He thinks of himself as a photojournalist who’s going to bust wide open the story of what’s really going on in Spokane. Remember dreams and ambition? Ah, to be 20 and ambitious again. Now when the TV remote falls on the floor in front of my chair that’s just too far away for me to bother with.

Dean slips through the military guard at the Spokane border and begins a bizarre journey that had me putting the book down several times. Books don’t often make me uneasy or make me look over my shoulder but I had to put this book down a couple of times. Dean walks through an abandoned hotel looking for pictures to take. He looks into one room and sees a man embedded in the ceiling, the man’s arm reaching down to a prone woman on the floor. The man hasn’t fallen through the ceiling but has somehow fused with it.

Wolves that don’t move like normal canines roam in enormous packs. Huge spiders pour through a wall that has a face with blinking eyes sticking out of it. The internet and radio are jammed so information about what is happening in Spokane is a mixture of rumors, fictions and truths. No one but the people who refused to evacuate the city know what’s really going on. Dean joins a group of misfits headed up by a mysterious beauty named Taylor who is using a teenaged computer hacker to get the story out of Spokane. Is something really happening or is it all just a hallucination?

This is a gem of a book that was brought to my attention by a co-worker (thanks, Carol). I’m that creepy girl who likes creepy things and Bad Glass is on my top ten list of creepy books. Read it. But stay away from Spokane and any walls that might have human limbs sprouting from them.

Jennifer

Austenmania!

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It is thoroughly stunning that a Jane Austen cottage industry flourishes 200 years after her death. Modern authors have thrust her characters into the 21st century, thrown people from the present into her novels, added supernatural elements to her oeuvre and written continuations of and prequels to her works. Following are a few titles that Jane Austen fans might want to check out.

UPDATES
Fitzwilliam Darcy, Rock Star by Heather Lynn Riguad
Fitzwilliam Darcy is the founder and lead guitarist of the rock band Slurry. His bandmates think that Long Bourne Suffering, a trio made up of Jane and Elizabeth Bennet and Charlotte Lucas, would be the perfect opening act for their upcoming tour. Darcy, on the other hand, worries that touring with desirable women will create unwanted problems.

Also for your consideration:

Vanity and Vexation:  a novel of Pride and Prejudice by Kate Fenton
The Three Weissmanns of Westport by Cathleen Schine
The Dashwood Sisters Tell All:  a Modern-Day Novel of Jane Austen by Beth Pattillo

TIME TRAVEL
Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict and
Rude Awakenings of a Jane Austen Addict by Laurie Viera Rigler
L.A. denizen Courtney Stone finds herself in Jane Austen’s England, living the life of a 19th century gentlewoman named Jane. In the sequel, Jane finds herself hurled into Courtney’s body in the 21st century.

Also for your consideration: 
Prada and Prejudice by Amanda Hubbard

ALTERNATE POINTS OF VIEW
The Confession of Fitzwilliam Darcy by Mary Street
Fans of Pride and Prejudice will enjoy this retelling from Fitzwilliam Darcy’s point of view. As Austen did not reveal much of Darcy’s thoughts in the original, P&P enthusiasts will delight in the new insights into his character.

Also for your consideration:
Captain Wentworth’s Diary (Persuasion) and
Colonel Brandon’s Diary  (Sense and Sensibility) and
Mr. Knightley’s Diary  (Emma) by Amanda Grange

Dearest Cousin Jane: a Jane Austen novel by Jill Pitkeathley
Murder at Mansfield Park by Lynn Shepherd
An Assembly Such as this: a novel of Fitzwilliam Darcy, Gentleman by Pamela Aidan
MYSTERIES
Murder on the Bride’s Side and
Murder at Longbourn by Tracy Kiely
Drawing from the classic Sense and Sensibility, Tracy Kiely recounts the adventures of Elizabeth Parker, the likable Austen-quoting sleuth, in this witty and charming series.

Also for your consideration:
Jane and the Canterbury Tale and many others by Stephanie Barron

The Intrigue at Highbury: or, Emma’s Match and many others by Carrie Bebris

 
PARANORMAL
Jane Bites Back and
Jane Vows Vengeance by Michael Thomas Ford
Elizabeth Jane Fairfax (aka Jane Austen) owns a bookstore. Oh, she’s also a vampire. Tired of best-selling Pride and Prejudice knockoffs, as well as the 116 rejections of her last manuscript, Jane attempts to find an in-road into the modern publishing world.

Also for your consideration:
Jane and the Damned by Janet Mullany
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: The Classic Regency Romance – Now with Ultraviolent Zombie Mayhem! by Seth Grahame-Smith
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dawn of the Dreadfuls: A Prequel by Steve Hockensmith
Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters by Ben H. Winters
Mr. Darcy, Vampyre by Amanda Grange


CONTINUATIONS
These stories pick up where Austen left off, adding more details to the lives of her beloved characters.
Mr. Darcy Takes a Wife:  Pride and Prejudice Continues and
Darcy and Elizabeth:  Nights and Days at Pemberley:  Pride and Prejudice continues by Linda Berdoll


Mr. Darcy’s Daughters and many others by Elizabeth Aston


Jane Austen might be dead, but if she were a vampire and owned copyright to her works and characters, she would be rolling in royalty checks.

Ron

Spot-Lit for October 2012

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General Fiction / Literary Fiction  

Blasphemy: New and Selected Stories  by Sherman Alexie
Northwest favorite Alexie combines 15 of his most popular stories with 15 new ones, showcasing his mordant humor and bracing audacity as he tackles all manner of subjects.

Familiar  by J. Robert Lennon
As she is returning from her son’s grave, Elisa Brown enters a twilight zone in which everything changes – her son is suddenly alive again, her marriage happier, she has a new job. To pierce the veil of her new world she must see deeply into her authentic self. Can she do it? Could anyone?

The Twelve  by Justin Cronin
A government experiment gone wrong unleashed a deadly virus in Cronin’s 2010 apocalyptic hit, The Passage. This time-skipping sequel finds survivors on the trail of the original twelve virals, and at tremendous risk.

Illuminations  by Mary Sharratt
Historical fiction based on the remarkable and resilient 12th century abbess, composer and visionary Hildegard von Bingen.

First Novels

The Stockholm Octavo  by Karen Engelmann
Emil Larsson is a self-satisfied bureaucrat and bachelor, but eight cards laid down by a fortune-teller augurs well for his love-life. Or does it? The plot thickens in this character-rich tale set in late 1700s Stockholm as political chaos and rebellion threaten.

The Care of Wooden Floors  by Will Wiles
In this darkly humorous novel a man is asked to house-sit by his more well-to-do friend who leaves quite pointed instructions – particularly regarding his expensive wood floors. The spilling of a glass of wine on the floor is only the beginning of things going disastrously wrong.

Fra Keeler  by Azareen Van der Vliet Oloomi
Reality begins to appear uncertain and off-kilter for a man who has moved into a house previously owned by Fra Keeler, who had died in it.

Sutton  by J.R. Moehringer
The real life criminal Willie Sutton is the subject of this novel about a man who hated banks and was driven to a life of crime by his first love and accomplice – who later broke his heart. By the author of the memoir The Tender Bar.

Down the Rabbit Hole  by Juan Pablo Villalobos
Tochtli is the son of a Mexican drug lord who lives in a palace with hitmen, prostitutes, and other underworld figures. Advance reviews report this mix of childhood innocence and big-time corruption is impeccably narrated from the child’s perspective.

Crime Fiction /Suspense

Unattended Death  by Victoria Jenkins
Detective Irene Chavez investigates the case of a woman’s body that is found in a slough of the Puget Sound in this psychologically astute and assured mystery.

Phantom  by Jo Nesbo
Renegade lawman Harry Hole returns from Hong Kong to Oslo when he learns the son of the woman he lost but still loves has been arrested for murder. His investigation takes him through an underworld of drugs and politics as well as his own troubled past.

A Private Venus  by Giorgio Scerbanenco
This Italian noir classic from 1966, just now being released in English, focuses on Dr. Duca Lamberti who agrees to treat a young patient only to discover a past woven with dark crimes that make him suspect Mafia involvement.

Live by Night  by Dennis Lehane
Joe Coughlin goes from committing youthful petty crimes to becoming a full-blown mobster in this vivid account of Prohibition-era America.

SF / Fantasy / Horror

The Hydrogen Sonata  by Iain M. Banks
Lieutenant Commander Vyr Cossont tries to clear her name when efforts to join the Culture, an intragalactic league, meet with violence and the Gzilt civilization is imperiled.

Dark Currents  by Jacqueline Carey
Daisy Johansson, offspring of an incubus, keeps the peace between the regular folk and the supernatural community in a mid-western town, but a drowning raises tensions and threatens the paranormal tourist trade.

Wonders of the Invisible World  by Patricia McKillip
Fantastic stories grounded in fairy tales and myth from the multiple award-winning  fantasy author.

Little Star  by John Ajvide Lindqvist
An abandoned baby is found, brought home and taught to sing. After singing on television, she is brought together with another young girl who saw the performance – with horrifying consequences.

These promising, hand-picked titles are due to be published in October. To see all the new fiction that’s on order, click here.

It All Starts with World War Z

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I’m not really into zombies. I generally confine my summer reads to mildly-embarrassing vampire fiction or binge-reading Game of Thrones books. I did not choose World War Z to fill the guilty pleasure niche as my summer came to a close. What attracted me to World War Z was the oral history angle. I have always loved oral histories and was curious to see how the author used that framework to tell a sci-fi story. I was not disappointed by what I found. Author Max Brooks did an amazing job adapting his subject matter to have the feel of a real collection of oral histories. In his credits at the end, Brooks cited the late, great oral historian Studs Terkel as one of his main influences. Those who are familiar with Terkel’s work can see why after a couple of chapters; the voice of Studs is continually present.

I would highly recommend this title to the average reader – not strictly those who are into sci-fi, zombies, gore, dystopian novels, or anything else you would assume that a book about zombies might represent (though readers looking for all the above will get hooked on this book just as quickly). By necessity there are some gruesome descriptions, but that’s not what dominates the stories told by the author. World War Z, above all, gives a human voice to a terrible (though fictitious) period of human history.

Once you’ve had the chance to check out a fictional oral history collection, you may want to branch out into the real thing. Oral histories are collected to tell a range of different stories about historic events, cultural phenomena, or just to record what life was like during a specific time period. The Everett Public Library has a lot of great oral histories in its collections – here are some voices from a few:

One of the boys in the show, Tony, said, ‘Don’t worry. All my uncles are stagehands and the rest of ‘em are bootleggers. Pick out a night club you want to work, we’ll work’. I looked at these freaks, with these little postage-stamp stages… Up to this time, the most sexy thing I’d ever done is Scheherazade in the ballet. I thought a girl who went on stage without stockings was a hussy (laughs). -Sally Rand, Dancer. Excerpt from Hard Times: An Oral History of the Great Depression, by Studs Terkel.

“Punk rock saved a lot of people’s sanity, emboldened the timid and gave countless youth all over the world a voice.” – Henry Rollins from the forward of Punk Rock: an Oral History, by John Robb

D-Day was not one day, but a composite of many days, experienced by each of those individuals who played a part on the Allied side – from the 120,000 men who landed during the initial action to the millions of personnel who supported them. […] The record, as offered in this volume, does indeed show that they didn’t just do their job “well” – they were magnificent. – prologue to Voices of Valor:  D-Day: June 6, 1944, by Douglas Brinkley and Ronald J. Drez

“But I love him! I love him! He’s sleeping, and I’m whispering: ‘I love you.’ Carrying his sanitary tray, ‘I love you.’ I remembered how we used to live at home. He only fell asleep at night after he’d taken my hand. That was a habit of his – to hold my hand while he slept. All night. So in the hospital I take his hand and don’t let go.” – Lyudmilla Ignatenko – widow of a first responder to the Chernobyl disaster. Excerpt from Voices from Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster, by Svetlana Alexievich

I walked down the street, not knowing where to go, thinking that everybody I’d been with had died. I barely knew who I was, I was dizzy and disoriented, my speech was slurred. Looking back, it makes perfect sense: I’d been hit twice on the head, once in the office and once on the street. The wall of my office had knocked me on my right temple… All I wanted to do was get uptown and find my wife. I knew where she worked and I said to myself, I don’t care if I have to walk all the way, I’ll get there eventually, just go. So I started walking. – Tom Haddad, 31, escaped from the 89th floor of Tower I. Excerpt from Tower Stories: An Oral History of 9/11 ,by Damon DiMarco

 “We had a policy in place that was ridiculous. I had served for so many years with so many people that I knew were gay and were outstanding soldiers. Officers, enlisted-they ran the gamut. I mean, yes, there were some that I wasn’t fond of and would never want to be friends with, but in general most of the gays and lesbians that I served with in the military did a good job, and I would have been proud to call them a friend at any time. So I did want to do something to change the policy.” Brenda Vosbein, WAC Retired. -  excerpt from Ask and Tell: Gay and Lesbian Veterans Speak Out, by Steve Estes

“We received support from the most unusual places, like The Times. I hope they live forever. They saved my neck. A year making mailbags in prison was not on my itinerary [laughs].” -Keith Richards. Excerpt from The Rolling Stones: An Oral History, by Alan Lysaght.

Explore these other oral history titles for even more first-hand accounts of culture, history, and events that changed the world:

Culture

Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk, By Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain
And They All Sang: Adventures of an Eclectic Disc Jockey, by Studs Terkel
Everybody Loves Our Town: An Oral History of Grunge, by Mark Yarm
The Record Players: DJ Revolutionaries, by Bill Brewster and Frank Broughton
Why? Because we Still Like You: an Oral History of the Mickey Mouse Club, by Jennifer Armstrong
Listening is an act of Love: a celebration of American life from the StoryCorps Project, by Dave Isay with StoryCorps
Indian Voices: Listening to Native Americans, by Alison Owings
Nā Kua’āina: Living Hawaiian Culture, by Davianna Pōmaika’i McGregor

History

Lost Voices from the Titanic: The Definitive Oral History , by Nick Barratt
Beyond Glory: Medal of Honor Heroes in Their Own Words: Extraordinary Stories of Courage from World War II to Vietnam, by Larry Smith
48 Hours of Kristallnacht: Night of Destruction/Dawn of the Holocaust: An Oral History, by Mitchell G. Bard, Ph.D.
Reflections of Pearl Harbor: An Oral History of December 7, 1941, by K.D. Richardson
Remembering Jim Crow: African Americans Tell About Life in the Segregated South , edited by William H. Chafe, Raymond Gavins, and Robert Rodgers Korstad
What We Knew: Terror, Mass Murder, and Everyday Life in Nazi Germany: An Oral History, by Eric A. Johnson and Karl-Heinz Reuband

Local Interest

River Pigs & Cayuses: Oral Histories from the Pacific Northwest, by Ron Strickland
Voices from Everett’s First Century
Riverside Remembers: Books I, II & III
Whistlepunks & Geoducks: Oral Histories of the Pacific Northwest, edited by Ron Strickland
Everett Voices, by David Dilgard of the Everett Public Library
Upriver Voices: Tales of Skykomish, by Nancy Cleveland and Anne Sektor

Lisa

Spot-Lit (September, 2012)

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Uber-popular authors such as Lee Child, Ken Follett, James Patterson, J.D. Robb, and Stuart Woods hardly need us here at Spot-Lit to give their new novels more attention. But did you know that superstar kids’ author J.K. Rowling (the Harry Potter novels) has a new book for adults? Other popular authors with new titles include T.C. Boyle, Michael Chabon, and Junot Diaz.

In the debut category, September brings new novels looking at the Iraq war (Fobbit, The Yellow Birds), a thriller grounded in a familiar-looking financial crisis (Black Fridays), a centenarian’s adventures upon escaping from a retirement home (The 100-Year-Old Man…), Japanese steampunk (Stormdancer), and the second in a knockout historical sci-fi series starring H.G. Wells (Map of the Sky). 

Other treats this month include a newly discovered novel by noir-master James Cain, a political thriller by Hank Phillippi Ryan, and a novel of supernatural horror by Stefan Kiesby. See below for summaries of these books plus others. Click the titles to read more about them or to place holds in the library catalog.

General Fiction / Literary Fiction

Casual Vacancy  by J.K. Rowling
Tensions roil in the seemingly idylic town of Pagford, England when a council member dies and a contentious election is held to fill the vacant seat. After the astounding success of the Harry Potter novels, Rowling releases her first novel for adults.

San Miguel  by T.C. Boyle
Two families – one in the 1880s and one in the 1930s – seek freedom and self-reliance on a tiny island off the Southern California coast. Told with Boyle’s assured command of characterization, pacing and period detail.

Map of the Sky  by Felix J. Palma
Palma’s debut, The Map of Time, wowed readers with its intricate plotting and inventive story-telling – expect more of the same here as he weaves time-travel and mystery into interconnected plots and includes H.G. Wells and Edgar Allan Poe as characters.

Telegraph Avenue  by Michael Chabon
Small-potatoes Brokeland Records on Berkeley’s Telegraph Avenue is threatened by the announcement of the opening of a new music megastore nearby. The midwife spouses of the record store owners face their own personal and professional challenges in a powerful story that stretches from 2004 back to rock ‘n roll’s glory days.

John Saturnall’s Feast  by Lawrence Norfolk
A young orphan kitchen-worker at a manor house rises to become a great chef, and vies for the hand of the maiden of the manor in this sensuous treat.

Panorama City  by Antoine Wilson
In this thoughtful, and intriguing novel, “slow absorber” Oppen Porter thinks he is dying, so he records on audio cassette everything he thinks his unborn son will need to know.

This is How You Lose Her  by Junot Diaz
Stories of the passions, foibles, longings and weaknesses of the human heart from the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.

First Novels

Fobbit  by David Abrams 
In this Iraq war novel that is very much in the spirit of Catch-22 and M.A.S.H., Abrams takes aim at the goings-on at Baghdad’s Forward Operation Base.

The Yellow Birds  by Kevin Powers
Two men form a fierce and emotional bond as their platoon fights an extended, bloody battle in the Iraq war. The fog of war and its hidden costs are powerfully depicted.

The People of Forever Are Not Afraid  by Shani Boianjiu
Three eighteen-year-old girls join the Israeli Defense Forces. Ever alert to danger they also find themselves reflecting on the day-to-day activities of families at checkpoints and the passionate energy of refugees. 

The Three-Day Affair  by Michael Kardos
A two-bit rock band drummer finds himself party to robbery and kidnapping when his friend jumps into his car with a girl hostage after holding up a convenience store. 

Black Fridays  by Michael Sears
A former Wall Street trader is in the thick of it when, after his prison stint, the only kind of work he can get puts his life in danger – a life he is actively re-examining as he also tries to reclaim his autistic son from his unbalanced ex.

The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared  by Jonas Jonasson
The title alludes to the escape and adventures of a still-lively man from the clutches of his nursing home. This hilarious novel by a Swedish author has sold almost 2 million copies worldwide.

Stormdancer  by Jay Kristoff
When disaster upends her mission to find a supposedly extinct griffin for the Shogun, Yukiko finds herself exiled and alone on an island with only the wounded creature for company as she fights to return to her homeland and to help the griffin fly. First in a new fantasy series.

The Map of Lost Memories  by Kim Fay
Irene Blum goes from Seattle to Shanghai then on to Cambodia in search of ancient Khmer scrolls, accompanied by a scholar and with her dying lover – who each have their own reasons for seeking the scrolls.

Something Red  by Douglas Nicholas
In a debut mixing fantasy and mythology, a group of 13th-century travelers encounter a host of fantastical and historical characters and discover an evil force in the woods which they must confront before an epic snowstorm sets in.

Crime Fiction /Suspense

The Cocktail Waitress  by James M. Cain 
The recently discovered manuscript from the noir-master who gave us the classic books/movies: Double Indemnity, The Postman Always Rings Twice, and Mildred Pierce.

The Other Woman  by Hank Phillippi Ryan
Newspaper reporter Jane Ryland is investigating the mistress of a candidate just days before a pivotal Senate election. Meanwhile, detective Jake Brogan is on the trail of a serial killer – are their cases related?

Death in Valencia  by Jason Webster
The second in Webster’s mystery series featuring the flawed inspector Max Camara looks into the death of a popular and outspoken chef and the political interest in redeveloping the neighborhood where his restaurant was located.

Dead Anyway  by Chris Knopf
A man left for dead has himself declared so by his physician sister then seeks out whoever it was that put the hit on him and his wife in this chilling and inventive tale of revenge.

SF / Fantasy / Horror

Dirty Streets of Heaven  by Tad Williams
The souls of earth’s recently departed are soughts after by flawed angels and temptress demons in this new urban fantasy – but suddenly the souls are disappearing.

Your House is on Fire, Your Children All Gone  by Stefan Kiesbye
Four young friends’ innocent play reveals their village’s darkest secrets in this novel of atmospheric dread that’s been described as a combination of Shirley Jackson, the Brothers Grimm and The X-Files.

Western

With Blood in Their Eyes  by Thomas Cobb
Based on a true story sparked by a shoot-out in Arizona a century ago this is a richly detailed look at flawed men, driven by their passions.

Melvil Dewey’s Odditorium

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The Dewey Decimal System can be a cruel mistress. She promises to organize knowledge into nice neat sets of 10 and create a world of order and method. For the most part she succeeds. But oh those exceptions. They are enough to drive a certain type of highly organized personality, aka pretty much anyone who works in a library, a little bit mad.

Take fiction anthologies for instance. Here at EPL, if a series of short stories is written by one author the book is located in the fiction section by the author’s last name on the first floor. If, however, a tome has the audacity to have works by different authors between the covers, it is banished to the 800s at the back of the second floor. An outrage you say? I heartily agree.

To make things right, why not check out a few great recent anthologies that are worth rescuing from their Dewey enforced obscurity. Be warned though, it’s as if these books have sensed their shunned status and no longer care for the mainstream. They seem to have taken a turn for the odd, quirky and slightly disturbing.

The Weird: A Compendium of Dark and Strange Stories is as you might expect, pretty weird.  But it is a good weird. These aren’t stories of monsters and elves; they are more concerned with the hazy boundary between what is normal and what isn’t. The authors are an eclectic bunch (including the likes of Haruki Murakami, Franz Kafka and Stephen King) but they are all willing to push the envelope of reality. It is a large collection, clocking in at 1126 pages, but there is no need to read it cover to cover. Find a story that sounds intriguing and see where it leads.

As the cover might suggest, The Big Book of Adventure Stories is a visit to a somewhat foreign literary landscape from the past. While it might seem peculiar to modern tastes, the stories in this volume are chock full of tales of derring do, I believe that is still a word, where obstacles are faced and overcome with bravado. Featuring a cast of authors both famous and obscure, this title is anything but dull with intriguing story groupings such as: Megalomania Rules, Man Vs. Nature, Something Feels Funny, and Future Shock.

There are plenty of horror story anthologies but House of Fear stands out for the architectural setting of the stories contained within: the haunted house. Don’t expect a set of classic stories set in dilapidated Victorian mansions with creaky floorboards and door hinges in need of oil. Instead, the authors experiment with ideas and spaces that push the genre in unexpected directions while retaining the creepiness and unrelenting dread of a horror tale.

Much like the T-Virus in Raccoon City, the zombie story continues to spread and mutate at a seemingly unstoppable rate. If you are one of the infected, you will definitely want to sample some of the newest anthologies. 21st Century Dead: A Zombie Anthology lurches into the future with stories from an eclectic group of writers including Sons of Anarchy creator Kurt Sutter and the renowned Orson Scott Card. The New Dead also updates the genre and even incorporates social media in the story “Twittering from the Circus of the Dead” by Joe Hill. If you still aren’t sated, check out The Living Dead 2 which has even more stories of brains and mayhem.

So the next time you visit the library, do something unexpected. After checking out the well placed popular materials, stroll on up to the 2nd floor and see what the freaks and geeks of the 800s have to offer.

Richard