Best Books of the Year...So Far!

Here is BookRiot's list of the best books of 2015...so far.  How many have you read?

Hanya Yanagihara's A LITTLE LIFE
When four classmates from a small Massachusetts college move to New York to make their way, they're broke, adrift, and buoyed only by their friendship and ambition ... Over the decades, their relationships deepen and darken, tinged by addiction, success, and pride. Yet their greatest challenge, each comes to realize, is [their center of gravity] Jude, ... by midlife a terrifyingly talented litigator yet an increasingly broken man, his mind and body scarred by an unspeakable childhood, and haunted by what he fears is a degree of trauma that he'll not only be unable to overcome--but that will define his life forever.

Judith Mitchell Claire's THE REUNION OF GHOSTS
In the vein of such classic family sagas as Fall on Your Knees, A Reunion of Ghosts is the confessional of three sisters who have decided to kill themselves on the very last day of the 20th century; in it they tell the story of a family haunted by suicide ever since the sisters' great-grandfather, a Nobel Prize-winning chemist, developed the first poison gas used in warfare and also the lethal agent used in the Third Reich's gas chambers--inspired in part by the troubled life of Fritz Haber, Nobel Prize winner and inventor of mustard gas.


Courtney Summers's ALL THE RAGE
After being assaulted by the sheriff's son, Kellan Turner, Romy Grey was branded a liar and bullied by former friends, finding refuge only in the diner where she works outside of town, but when a girl with ties to both Romy and Kellan goes missing and news of him assaulting another girl gets out, Romy must decide whether to speak out again or risk having more girls hurt.

Ta-Nehisi Coates's BETWEEN THE WORLD AND ME
For Ta-Nehisi Coates, history has always been personal. At every stage of his life, he's sought in his explorations of history answers to the mysteries that surrounded him--most urgently, why he, and other black people he knew, seemed to live in fear ... In [this book], Coates takes readers along on his journey through America's history of race and its contemporary resonances through a series of awakenings--moments when he discovered some new truth about our long, tangled history of race, whether through his myth-busting professors at Howard University, a trip to a Civil War battlefield with a rogue historian, a journey to Chicago's South Side to visit aging survivors of 20th century America's 'long war on black people,' or a visit with the mother of a beloved friend who was shot down by the police.


Laura Ruby's BONE GAP
Eighteen-year-old Finn, an outsider in his quiet Midwestern town, is the only witness to the abduction of town favorite Roza, but his inability to distinguish between faces makes it difficult for him to help with the investigation, and subjects him to even more ridicule and bullying.



Nnedi Okofar's THE BOOK OF PHOENIX

Phoenix was grown and raised among other genetic experiments in New York's Tower 7. She is an 'accelerated woman'--only two years old but with the body and mind of an adult, Phoenix's abilities far exceed those of a normal human. Still innocent and inexperienced in the ways of the world, she is content living in her room speed reading e-books, running on her treadmill, and basking in the love of Saeed, another biologically altered human of Tower 7. Then one evening, Saeed witnesses something so terrible that he takes his own life. Devastated by his death and Tower 7's refusal to answer her questions, Phoenix finally begins to realize that her home is really her prison, and she becomes desperate to escape. But Phoenix's escape, and her destruction of Tower 7, is just the beginning of her story. Before her story ends, Phoenix will travel from the United States to Africa and back, changing the entire course of humanity's future.


Anna Freeman's THE FAIR FIGHT
A debut historical novel set within the world of female pugilists and their patrons in late eighteenth century Bristol.

Chigozie Obioma's THE FISHERMEN
Told from the point of view of nine-year-old Benjamin, the youngest of four brothers, The Fishermen is the Cain and Abel-esque story of an unforgettable childhood in 1990s Nigeria. When their father has to travel to a distant city for work, the brothers take advantage of his extended absence to skip school and go fishing. At the forbidden nearby river, they encounter a madman who predicts that one of the brothers will kill another. What happens next is an almost mythic event whose impact--both tragic and redemptive--will transcend the lives and imaginations of The Fishermen's characters and its readers.



Mia Alvar's IN THE COUNTRY: STORIES
Mia Alvar's ... debut gives us a vivid ... picture of the Filipino diaspora: exiles and emigrants and wanderers uprooting their families to begin new lives in the Middle East and America--and, sometimes, turning back.


Anna North's THE LIFE AND DEATH OF SOPHIE STARK
An unapologetic filmmaker uses the stories of those around her to create movies that bring her both critical acclaim and ire from the people whose secrets she has exposed. By the author of America Pacifica.

Jessica Knoll's LUCKIEST GIRL ALIVE
In a riveting debut novel that reads like Prep meets Gone Girl, a young woman is determined to create the perfect life--husband, home, and career--until a violent incident from her past threatens to unravel everything and expose her most shocking secret of all. Twenty-eight-year-old New Yorker Ani FaNelli seems to have it all: she's a rising star at The Women's Magazine, impossibly fit, perfectly groomed, and about to marry Luke Harrison, a handsome blueblood. But behind that veneer of perfection lies a vulnerability that Ani holds close and buries deep--a very violent and public trauma from her past that has left her constantly trying to reinvent herself. And only she knows how far she would go to keep her secrets safe. When a documentary producer invites Ani to tell her side of the chilling incident that took place when she was a teenager at the prestigious Bradley School, she hopes it will be an opportunity for public vindication. Armed with the trappings of success--expensive clothes, high-powered byline, a massive engagement ring--she is determined to silence the whispers of suspicion and blame from her past, and prove once and for all how far she's come since Bradley. She'll even let them film her lavish wedding on Nantucket, the final step in her transformation. But perfection doesn't come without cost. As the wedding and filming converge, Ani's meticulously crafted facade begins to buckle and crack--until an explosive revelation offers her a final chance at redemption, even as it rocks her picture-perfect world. Equal parts glitz and darkness, and with a singular voice and twisting plot, Luckiest Girl Alive reads like Sex & the City--if Carrie Bradshaw had a closet full of skeletons instead of shoes. In Ani FaNelli, Jessica Knoll has created a complex and vulnerable heroine who you'll be rooting for to the very last page.


Rebecca Makkai's MUSIC FOR WARTIME: Stories
The singing women -- The worst you ever feel -- The November story -- The miracles years of Little Fork -- Other brands of poison (first legend) -- The briefcase -- Peter Torrelli, falling apart -- Couple of lovers on a red background -- Acolyte (second legend) -- Everything we know about the bomber -- Painted ocean, painted ship -- A bird in the house (third legend) -- Exposition -- Cross -- Good Saint Anthony come around -- Suspension : April 20, 1984 -- The museum of the dearly departed.


Check out the complete list here.

Reblogged: 82 Books for Book Club

 

Check out these recommended books for your book club from

JulieVerse.com.

How many has your group read?

 

Book Review - Ready Player One, by Ernest Cline

I have just read the novel Ready Player One, by Ernest Cline. It is his first novel, and takes place in the near-future, in the 2040s. It is a dystopian novel, and, paradoxically, a utopian novel as well.

I want to start by saying, for better or for worse, that Ernest Cline is perhaps the biggest nerd I have ever encountered in my life. Throughout the novel he shows an encyclopedic knowledge of video games, from Atari to online multiplayer, as well a prodigious knowledge of cult films and television programs. He makes me sound like a surfer from Santa Cruz. Sporadically during the first half of the novel, he would suddenly halt the plot dead in its tracks to summarize the storyline of a famous game or film, or to remind us of exactly how long a TV show was on the air. It was cute the first time, but after a while I was tempted to reach my hand into the past, grab Mr. Cline, and pull him the hell out of his basement.

The story is one that we have all seen before, though perhaps not on such a grand scale. In the future, energy is scarce and everything is polluted. The world is bleak and dirty, and people escape by plugging into a virtual reality world called OASIS (Ontologically Anthropocentric Sensory Immersion Simulation; as a librarian, who must keep up with all kinds of acronyms for my job, I was impressed by how many acronyms Cline managed to come up with). OASIS is, in fact, an entire galaxy of thousands of different planets, each with simulations that represent video games, movies, board games, historical periods, novels, brothels, bars, terrains, and damn near anything else you could think of. Every user creates an avatar with customizable appearance, and that avatar can gain abilities and credits by taking on "challenges" that were created by other users. People connect to OASIS by means of a special visor and haptic gloves.

The premise is all too familiar. In today's world of YouTube, Netflix, X-Box, World of Warcraft, etc., Cline's creation is remarkably easy to envision. The novel succeeds by means of Cline's spectacular imaginative power. What it lacks, however, is a decision whether to treat this world as science-fiction or as fantasy.

In our library, Ready Player One is labeled as Fantasy. The plot does, indeed, resemble an epic quest from Tolkien or Simon R. Green: the creator of OASIS, a man named James Halliday, has died and bequeathed all of his riches and all of OASIS to the person who can solve a series of puzzles hidden in the virtual realms and collect the supreme "Easter Egg." A young orphan named Wade Watts escapes his miserable surroundings by logging on to OASIS as much as possible, and he is the first to take a step successfully toward finding the mythical egg. Soon Wade, along with a handful of allies (whose names he does not even know, since they have only met online and share only their avatar names), are racing to obtain the egg before an evil corporation obtains it first and turns OASIS into a for-profit amusement park for the very rich. Wade must face riddles, demons, dragons, space battles, and hand-to-hand combat as he continues in his quest.

I've read that the difference between fantasy and science-fiction is that, whereas fantasy asks us to suspend our disbelief and experience the impossible while knowing it is not really there, science-fiction attempts to back up its ideas with enough facts that it becomes plausible to us, and we recognize that those ideas are already a part of our real world. While the premise of Ready Player One is plausible enough, the action of the novel is mostly the stuff of dreams and video games. Thus, I am left with the feeling of an author telling me, "Yes, life really is a dreadfully dangerous thing, but you can always imagine something better and then the world won't seem quite so bad - until you go outside again and receive a fresh reminder." When I first saw the cover of this book, I imagined the story as something where a person must play his way through a series of fantastical-yet-real challenges - a story that inspires us to rise to the challenges of everyday life, and that teaches us not to be frustrated by failure. But Ready Player One achieves neither of these effects. It paints the world as a harsh and futile place, and any taste of success in the novel feels contrived and forced.

This book has been called a "nerdgasm," a "cyberquest," one that "pleased every geeky bone in my geeky body." Yes, they are already working on a movie adaptation of it - directed by Spielberg! Holy cow! Perhaps that name will draw enough people to the theaters, so that it is not a box-office bomb like Ender's Game or Hugo. This book panders to an audience that "knows" how to seek virtual solace as a substitute for a real connection to the world. Richmond Lattimore once wrote of the playwright Euripides, "Even his own invention, bright optimistic romantic comedy, becomes drama of escape. Usually, escape is impossible. He believe in a world he disliked. His gods represent this world." No matter how much we want to escape the world, the only thing to which we can escape is more of the same world. The language and culture might be different, but the limitations are the same.

Perhaps I am being hypocritical. I play computer games sometimes, and I used to play them a lot more than I do now. I write my own fiction, much of which involves fantasy and science-fiction. But Ready Player One is an exciting, epic story that tells me nothing about the author. Every "challenge" in it, every "game-within-a-game" that Wade plays through, is taken directly from a preexisting work - and half of them are very old video games. Cline spends pages describing a tedious PAC-man tournament, a battle against a computer player in the old "Joust" game, "Tempest," "Black Tiger," and more. A video game is a simulation of a story, which is a retelling of something that might have happened in real life or simply come out of the programmer's imagination. And Cline actually describes the events of the gameplay - in other words, the novel becomes an imitation of an imitation of an imitation. Whatever meaning existed in the original game is lost now; Cline exploits the sense of challenge in a game, just as a means to make the eventual victory over the machine seem as if the gamer has earned it.

The book did not bore me. It was exciting. The second half of it moved a lot quicker than the first half, and I get the feeling that Cline was becoming more and more comfortable as an author as he went on. The dialogue was very 21st century colloquial. My favorite example is when Wade says to the evil corporate executive, whose cronies are derogatorily called "Sux0rz," "You and the other Sux0rz call go f--- a duck." Very classy. One hundred years from now, I doubt people will be able to appreciate half of the references and phrases that Cline uses.

What I wanted from this book was the feeling that I was experiencing a real adventure, one probably wasn't real but one that I wanted very badly to be real. I guess I was aiming too high, as usual. The best fantasy adventure novels I have read so far are The Golden Compass, Howl's Moving Castle, and the Akira manga series by Katsuhiro Otomo. Akira, now that I think about it, is a more successful blend of science-fiction and fantasy: set in a Neo-Tokyo, it portrays a group of teenagers who must adapt as their world becomes a battleground for a set of psychic juggernauts, who struggle to control their powers as they destroy the lives around them and are in turn manipulated by various forces. The action of the graphic novel is impossible, but I can believe in it the way I believe that a person's psychological and social struggle can bring him to do wonderful and terrible things beyond anyone's predictions.

Ernest Cline is, clearly, a very intelligent person. His plot is intricate and well-imagined. This will not be his last work, and I have high hopes for him. What I want is for him to put himself in the story. Ready Player One seemed to imply that the reader needs to stick a quarter in and enjoy the ride, through the kaleidoscope of gameplay and virtual artifacts, all the while knowing that we are being pulled through a preconceived storyline that has just a few endings, all of which have already been programmed in. What I want from Cline is, to quote Neo from the end of the The Matrix, "a world where anything is possible."

Author Book Talk and Signing: MEGAN ABBOTT

This upcoming Thursday, May 21st,  nationally acclaimed author MEGAN ABBOTT will be at the Palmer Branch for a book talk and signing. This program is a part of the nationwide paperback release of her book, The Fever. Other books Ms. Abbott has written are Bury Me Deep, Dare Me, Die a Little, and The End of Everything.


Books will be available for sale and signing after the program. Light refreshments will be provided, and the program itself is FREE and OPEN TO THE PUBLIC.


Hope to see you all there!

Reblogged: Books Guaranteed to Make You Laugh Out Loud

Warning: You'll probably want to read these in private, since spontaneous laughter can occur.

Mindy Kaling's IS EVERYONE HANGING OUT WITHOUT ME?
Kaling shares her observations, fears, and opinions about a wide-ranging list of the topics she thinks about the most. From her favorite types of guys to life in the "The Office" writers' room, her book is full of personal stories and laugh-out-loud philosophies.

Helen Fielding's BRIDGET JONES'S DIARY
On her quest for self-improvement, Bridget Jones gets hung up on chain-smoking and too-short skirts. Bridget Jones is you. Bridget Jones is life.

Kurt Vonnegut's BREAKFAST OF CHAMPIONS
A funny look at 1970s America seen through the scope of an unintentionally murderous aging writer. Classic Kurt satire.

Christopher Moore's LAMB: THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO BIFF
The birth of Jesus has been well chronicled, as have his glorious teachings, acts, and divine sacrifice after his thirtieth birthday. But no one knows about the early life of the Son of God, the missing years-- except Biff, the Messiah's best childhood friend, who has been resurrected to tell the story.

Jonathan Ames's WAKE UP, SIR!
This book proves even a personal butler can’t help some people. But it’s fun to watch them try.

Jack Handey's THE STENCH OF HONOLULU
Two friends who are given a treasure map by a travel agent embark on a quest for the Golden Monkey in the mysterious land of Honolulu, where they meet untold dangers, encounter strange natives, and discover ancient ruins.

Bill Bryson's A WALK IN THE WOODS (+ Audio)
Two slightly out-of-shape hikers attempt to take on the Appalachian Trail. One of those hikers is Bill Bryson, prolific humor/travel writer. This book is perfect for anyone looking for a laugh, or to be talked out of hiking the Appalachian Trail.

William Goldman's THE PRINCESS BRIDE
Whether you liked the film adaptation or hated it, read this book! It’s the the Spinal Tap of fairy tales, and it’s much funnier on paper.

David Sedaris's ME TALK PRETTY ONE DAY
Sedaris has unabashedly been called the funniest writer in America by critics and fans alike. Any of his titles will have you crossing your legs to keep from wetting yourself, but Me Talk Pretty One Day really triumphs.

Nora Ephron's I FEEL BAD ABOUT MY NECK
Ephron brought us Sleepless in Seattle and You’ve Got Mail, so is it any surprise this collection of essays about being a woman of a certain age hits you hard in the LOLerbone?

P.G. Wodehouse's THANK YOU, JEEVES
Wodehouse is known for creating a cast of memorable, wacky characters, and Thank You, Jeeves is no exception. Be wary that the humor in this book was born in 1930s England, though that doesn’t mean contemporary audiences won’t enjoy the ride.

Joseph Heller's CATCH-22
This book often tops lists of the best novels ever written because of its brutally honest portrayal of the absurdities of war and its honest exploration of what it means to be “insane.” A must-read, especially if you SparkNotes’d it in high school (guilty).

Douglas Adams's THE HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY
This book is required reading for all science fiction fans, but that doesn’t mean non-sci-fi people won’t get a kick out of it. The humor is dry and satirical in the same vein of Monty Python but still incredibly original.

Tina Fey's BOSSYPANTS
From her youthful days as a vicious nerd to her tour of duty on Saturday Night Live; from her passionately halfhearted pursuit of physical beauty to her life as a mother eating things off the floor; from her one-sided college romance to her nearly fatal honeymoon, comedian Tina Fey reveals all, and proves that you're no one until someone calls you bossy.

Jenny Lawson's LET'S PRETEND THIS NEVER HAPPENED
In an illustrated memoir, the creator of the Bloggess blog shares humorous stories from her life, including her awkward upbringing in Texas and her relationship with her husband.

Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman's GOOD OMENS (+ Audio)
It’s the end of the world as we know it, and the Antichrist is nowhere to be found. Pratchett and Gaiman make for a hysterical tag team, parodying everything from religion to Elvis.

Jonathan Tropper's THIS IS WHERE I LEAVE YOU
After the death of their father, a dysfunctional family is forced to sit shiva under the same roof for seven days. You’ll do equal time crying and laughing.

All titles available for request.  Requests cost $0.50 per book.

+ Reblogged from BuzzFeed.

Reblog: 15 Books So Good, You Can't Put Them Down

Looking for a good read this summer?  Try one of these 15 guaranteed-to-hold-your-interest books!

Gillian Flynn's GONE GIRL. (Large Print) (Audio)
On the morning of his fifth wedding anniversary, Nick's wife Amy suddenly disappears. The police immediately suspect Nick. Amy's friends reveal that she was afraid of him, that she kept secrets from him. He swears it isn't true. A police examination of his computer shows strange searches. He says they aren't his. And then there are the persistent calls on his mobile phone. So what did really did happen to Nick's beautiful wife?

Liane Moriarty's WHAT ALICE FORGOT. (Available from Bethlehem)

Vanessa Diffenbaugh's THE LANGUAGE OF FLOWERS. (Large Print)
"The story of a woman whose gift for flowers helps her change the lives of others even as she struggles to overcome her own past."

A.S.A. Harrison's THE SILENT WIFE.
Todd Gilbert and Jodie Brett are in a bad place in their relationship. They've been together for twenty-eight years, and with no children to worry about there has been little to disrupt their affluent Chicago lifestyle. But there has also been little to hold it together, and beneath the surface lie ever-widening cracks. When it becomes clear that their precarious world could disintegrate at any moment, Jodie knows she stands to lose everything. It's only now she will discover just how much she's truly capable of.

JoJo Moyes's ME BEFORE YOU. (Large Print)
Taking a job as an assistant to extreme sports enthusiast Will, who is wheelchair bound after a motorcycle accident, Louisa struggles with her employer's acerbic moods and learns of his shocking plans before demonstrating to him that life is still worth living.

Susannah Cahalan's BRAIN ON FIRE: MY MONTH OF MADNESS.
The story of twenty-four-year-old Susannah Cahalan and the life-saving discovery of the autoimmune disorder that nearly killed her -- and that could perhaps be the root of "demonic possessions" throughout history.

John Green's THE FAULT IN OUR STARS. (Audio)
Sixteen-year-old Hazel, a stage IV thyroid cancer patient, has accepted her terminal diagnosis until a chance meeting with a boy at cancer support group forces her to reexamine her perspective on love, loss, and life.

Kimberly McCreight's RESURRECTING AMELIA. (Not currently available.)

Eowyn Ivey's THE SNOW CHILD.

Liane Moriarty's THE HUSBAND'S SECRET. (Large Print)
Discovering a tattered letter that says she is to open it only in the event of her husband's death, Cecelia, a successful family woman, is unable to resist reading the letter and discovers a secret that shatters her life and the lives of two other women.

William Landay's DEFENDING JACOB. (Large Print) (Audio)
When his 14-year-old son is charged with the murder of a fellow student, assistant district attorney Andy Barber is torn between loyalty and justice as facts come to light that lead him to question how well he knows his own son.

Tatiana de Rosnay's SARAH'S KEY. (Audio)
On the anniversary of the roundup of Jews by the French police in Paris, Julia is asked to write an article on this dark episode and embarks on an investigation that leads her to long-hidden family secrets and to the ordeal of Sarah.

Erik Larson's THE DEVIL IN THE WHITE CITY.

Hillary Jordan's WHEN SHE WOKE.
In the future, abortion has become a crime as a series of events threatens the existence of the United States. One woman wakes up to discover that her skin color has been changed to red as punishment for having the procedure done. Now she must embark on a dangerous journey in order to find refuge from a hostile and threatening society.

Kathleen Grissom's THE KITCHEN HOUSE. (Available from Bethlehem and Allentown)

All titles available to request.  Requests cost $0.50 per book.

+ Reblogged from Tiny Oranges.

Last Days in Vietnam - A Review of the Documentary

PBS has been airing Last Days in Vietnam on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the fall of Saigon and the end of the Vietnam War. It was both exciting and heart-wrenching to watch this Academy Award nominated documentary that's now available at the Library.

The war in Vietnam was declared over in 1973 when the Paris Peace Accords was signed. A ceasefire, the dismantling of US bases, and the withdrawal of American troops and advisors within 60 days were part of the agreement. All combat soldiers withdrew by March 29, 1973, leaving behind Embassy personnel and Marine guards to protect US installations - about 5000 people.

The agreement was routinely flouted by both sides. North Vietnam rebuilt its forces over the next two years and violated the Accords by storming into South Vietnam in April 1975 and taking several major cities on the way to Saigon. The war really ended when the North Vietnamese captured Saigon on April 30.

The evacuation of the remaining American personnel and "at risk" South Vietnamese people is the subject of Last Days in Vietnam. We learn that the American Embassy in Saigon had always had evacuation plans in place. The first three would use ships, commercial aircraft, and military aircraft. The fourth or "last resort" was by helicopter. Americans would evacuate, but no South Vietnamese were included.

Evacuation was postponed for fear of starting a panic. When the North Vietnamese Army shelled the airport servicing Saigon on April 29, 1975, it was clear that regular planes could not be used, and the fourth option was all that remained.

As the North Vietnamese advanced on Saigon, many of the Americans had a moral dilemma. How could they leave the men and women who had worked for the Americans and befriended them behind? Many also had wives, girlfriends, and children who were Vietnamese.

Interviews with American personnel reveal the "right" moral decision many  made to disobey the order to leave the South Vietnamese behind. We learn that some of the young officers created "black operations" and were evacuating civilians without the knowledge of their superiors.You'll hear from an Army captain who still feels guilty because he "betrayed" the last group of 450 people who had to be left behind. One of these 450 is a South Vietnamese student who is also interviewed in the documentary. We learn at the end that he was sent to a "re-education" camp.

It's surprising how much footage there is of the evacuation. The mission used 75 military helicopters, picking up and transporting people to ships. Some of the pilots flew for 18 hours. You'll see smaller helicopters being pushed off ships so others can land, and there's an amazing story of a South Vietnamese pilot who flew his family out to a ship in a Chinook - a helicopter too large and heavy to land on the craft.

Last Days in Vietnam makes no judgements. The filmmaker Rory Kennedy wanted to showcase the uplifting stories of bravery and courage that unfolded in those last hours. She succeeds.

Rory Kennedy, the youngest daughter of Robert and Ethel Kennedy, 

makes political and historical documentaries.