The Buzz...About Books

Is Geek the New Cool?

In the book, Geek Girls Unite: How Fangirls, Bookworms, Indie Chicks, and Other Misfits are Taking Over the World a geek is defined as: "a person who's passionate about something and strives to be an expert."

Recently one of my friends commented that while we were in school, being a geek was considered a bad thing! This statement made me think. Have things truly changed? Are geeks now more socially accepted? Or have the geeks of the past simply grown up to design computers and make television shows like the Big Bang Theory and blockbuster superhero movies. These geeks have grown into successful adults. Is it true, just as the book title suggests, that The Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth?

The following are a few of my favourite geeky books and movies, including a few biographies by some self-proclaimed geeks, who made it big.

Non-Fiction

Fiction

 
                 

DVDs

                                                        

Successful Geeks

Memorable Reads

Before I Go to Sleep – S.J. Watson

“The bedroom is strange. Unfamiliar. I don’t know where I am, how I came to be here. I don’t know how I’m going to get home.”

 Every morning, Christine Lucas wakes up next to someone that she doesn’t recognize, in an unfamiliar home, believing that she is still in her twenties. Each day, a man who claims to be her husband explains that she was in an accident 20 years prior, that the two of them are happily married and that she is 47 years old.

Christine is able to retain her memories throughout the day, but everything is erased at night when she goes to sleep.  Upon the recommendation of her doctor, she begins to write a journal to try to piece together the details of her past. Each morning, her doctor calls to direct her to her journal, which is kept hidden in her closet.

As the details of her past unravel, they are far more horrifying and shocking than Christine could have ever imagined.This is a chilling and harrowing psychological thriller.

Other novels featuring characters with memory disorders

The Dark Room - Minette Walters

After a car accident leaves Jinx Kingsley with amnesia, she is left wondering what her role was in the gruesome murders of her fiancé and best friend.

What Alice Forgot - Liane Moriarty

After hitting her head at the gym, Alice believes that she is 29 years old, pregnant and happily married. In actuality she is 39 years old, with three children and is in the midst of an ugly divorce. As she begins to piece together the events of the past ten years, Alice realizes that some things are better off forgotten. This is a compelling and humorous novel.

Still Alice – Lisa Genova

Alice is a 52 year old university professor, happily married with three grown children. After experiencing months of forgetfulness, she discovers that she is suffering from the early signs of Alzheimer’s. Alice tries to find meaning in her life and make sense of her disease. This is a poignant, insightful and powerful novel.

       

The Gift of Being a Man Wolf

Anne Rice returns to her gothic horror roots with The Wolf Gift. She has crafted tales of vampires, witches and angels, and now, Rice tackles werewolves.

We are introduced to our anti-hero Reuben Golding, while he is on location writing a story for the San Francisco Observer. Reuben seems to have it all, wealth, good looks and a promising career as a journalist. He is attracted to the lovely and older Marchent Nideck, who is selling her ancient family home. Reuben is captivated by the mysterious mansion, nestled in a redwood forest just north of San Francisco. While giving a tour of the house, Marchent recalls her family history, which includes a missing great-uncle Felix, who has finally been officially declared dead. During their romantic evening, Marchent is attacked and murdered and Reuben is bitten by a strange animal, while fighting with the attackers.

Of course, we all know the bizarre changes Reuben "suddenly" begins to experience at night. He dubs himself "the Man Wolf," discovering that his new animal senses allow him to hear and smell evil-doers and their victims. He becomes a vigilante of sorts, while the media, police and scientists hunt for his true identity. Throughout the novel, Reuben struggles with the moral dilemma of good and evil, and the internal conflict of embracing and fearing what he is becoming. The question of what bit him and if there are more man wolves out there continues to haunt him.

Also available in: Audiobook and Large Print

Anne Rice recently visited the Appel Salon to talk about The Wolf Gift, if you missed her that night, here are the videos!

 

 

 

Folk Song Comes to Life

Everyone at some point has heard the Kingston Trio's haunting folk song "Tom Dooley," about a man who is convicted of murder and sentenced to hang for his crime. In Sharyn McCrumb's novel, The Ballad of Tom Dooley, the story is retold with surprising results.

McCrumb researched historical documents and legal evidence of the murder and ensuing trial to write this book. The first shock of the novel is that the man, on which the legend is based, was actually named Tom Dula, and furthermore, McCrumb comes to the conclusion that he was innocent.

In 1866, the Civil War had just ended and men like Tom were returning home. When Tom returns to North Carolina, he finds his childhood sweetheart, Ann Melton, married not for love but stability. They begin a torrid affair, which is no secret from anyone in their small town. Instead of looking for work, Tom chooses to live with his mother, drinking and having trysts with multiple women including Ann's cousin, Laura Foster. Within months Laura is missing and Tom is the main suspect.

The story is narrated by Pauline Foster, another cousin of Ann's, and Zebulon Vance, Dula's lawyer and a former Confederate governor. Both narrators do not seem too trustworthy, but they do have interesting points of view. Pauline becomes the hired help at Ann's house just in-time to witness the now legendary events. Suffering from syphilis, Pauline is jealous of her beautiful cousin Ann and adds to the drama with tragic results.

Also available in:

Audiobook

Dispatches from the War on the Internet

When Wikipedia darkened it's site last week to protest the passing of laws that would have placed new restrictions on our use of the internet to share books, music and video, I was very glad to have just finished reading two excellent collections of essays by Cory Doctorow on the issues involved.

Cory Doctorow by Derryl Murphy

Doctorow was born in Toronto and has a reputation as an author of fine science-fiction and as a co-editor of the wildly popular blog Boing Boing. He has also been writing marvelously entertaining articles on the internet using down-to-earth, easy to understand language and examples from everyday life.

In his first collection -- Content: Selected Essays on Technology, Creativity, Copyright, and the Future of the Future he writes in detail about the negative effects of Digital Rights Management (DRM) and other forms of control on the internet.

Doctorow's argument boils down to his belief that whatever we lose in the free exchange of information on the internet, we will gain in innovations which will enrich our culture in ways that cannot yet be predicted. Call him an optimist.

Doctorow has given away free downloads of all his novels from the beginning of his career. He has found that by making these copies free and encouraging his fans to share them online he has expanded the market for the printed editions of his books.

In his latest collection -- Context: Further Selected Essays on Productivity, Creativity, Parenting, and Politics in the 21st Century he writes about how these issues affect him as a creative writer and as a new parent.

He explains intellectual property, the "information economy", copyright enforcement and digital licensing in clearly understandable ways.

His warnings about the vulnerability of our passwords and our personal data online are frightening and sobering.

He explains why streaming will never replace the downloading of music online.

He also talks about how he manages the hundreds of non-spam emails he gets every day, and why he will never buy an iPad.

Together these books cover ten years of exciting, insightful coverage of these increasingly important issues in a highly readable way.

 

Wine & Murder

Ellen Crosby's The Merlot Murders beings late one night when Lucie Montgomery receives a phone call from her brother, Eli, telling her to come home immediately, because her father has been accidentally shot and killed. Lucie has been living in France for the past 2 years, recuperating from a car accident that has left her dependant on a cane.

Returning to her family's Virginia-based vineyard, Lucie discovers that much has changed since she left and that her father has actually died under suspicious circumstances. The family home is in shambles, Eli is desperate to sell the vineyard to escape their debts and her younger sister, Mia, is now dating Lucie's ex, who caused her debilitating accident.

Lucie's godfather, Fitz, warns Lucie that her father was murdered because he refused to sell the vineyard and gives her a mysterious key. The next day Fitz's body is discovered in one of the wine canisters. Lucie realizes family, friends and employees have suddenly become suspects. She also discovers that the murderer may be after her. While trying to get the harvest in and save the vineyard, Lucie must also try to unmask the killer before it's too late.

Also available in:

Large Print

Other books in this series include:

Pemberley Revisited

Sequels to Jane Austen's novels are often greeted by fans of Austen's works with a variety of reactions, which can range anywhere from curiousity and enthusiasm through distain and resentment.  

P.D. James (or Baroness James of Holland Park, to use her official title) is one of a few well-known authors to publish a sequel of one of Jane Austen's books.  P.D. James is one of Britain's best known detective fiction authors.  She has published 19 novels, most of which feature policeman Adam Dalgliesh. 

In Death Comes to Pemberley, she continues the story of  Pride and Prejudice, revealing the six years between the end of that book and the beginning of this story in the Prologue.   I think Austen fans will particulary enjoy this part of the book, as it is quite "Austen-esque".

The story itself begins on the eve of Lady Anne's Ball, with Jane and Bingley, Colonel Fitzwilliam, Georgiana and the Bingleys' friend Henry Alveston all visiting Pemberley.  Just as they are about to retire for the night, a chaise arrives driven quite unexpectedly.   As the galloping horses come to a stop, a hysterical Lydia Wickham throws herself out of the carriage and screams that her husband Wickham has been murdered in the Pemberley woods.   Darcy, Colonel Fitzwilliam and Alveston soon set off, only to discover  Wickham over the body of Captain Denny crying "He's dead! Oh God, Denny's dead! He was my friend, my only friend, and I've killed him! I've killed him! It's my fault".  Has Wickham really killed Denny?

Publishing a sequel to such a enduring classic is not done lightly, paricularly by a well-respected author.  P.D. James discusses her motivation for writing this story in a interview with the Telegraph and in this video interview, which took place in her home in October 2011.

 

 

Quite a number of reviews of this book have been written, including in the New York Times and Globe and Mail.  The Toronto Public Library also has it available in audiobook format.

 

Related Posts:

• Spinning Austen or Jane has the last laugh
• Jane Austen Ruined My Life
• Mashed up Fiction and the "ick" factor

Millions and Millions of Cats

Millions of cats roam the Internet, from legendary kitties like Ceiling Cat, Keyboard Cat, and the touchingly rotund Maru to the captioned "kittehs" in I Can Haz Cheeseburger. 

In less than a decade, net cats have multiplied exponentially - with no sign of letting up. Chances are, you have at least one cat right now in your inbox or posted on Facebook. In particular, library staff have a symbiotic relationship with cats (if you don't own a cat when you are hired, you are issued one).

Some popular web cats are prowling their way into print. And we can help you find them.

Check out Cat vs Human by Yasmine Surovec which originated as a personal blog.  Simon's Cat and Simon's Cat: Beyond the Fence by Simon Tofield, a British animator, started as a delightful series of Internet shorts.

 The popularity of cat videos spawned "Catvertising," a brilliant parody by a Toronto-based ad agency:

  

Watch a real commerical that used cats to their ad-vantage.

Not all Internet cats are sweet like the Talking Cats.  Some are nightmarishly creative. Watch "Welcome to Kitty City" by the UK animator, Cyriak.

 

 Want more funny felines in print (beyond Garfield)?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• Fat Freddy's Cat Omnibus by Gilbert Shelton
• Great Comic Cats by Malcolm Whyte
• The New Yorker Book of All-New Cat Cartoons

 

Ceiling Cat is watching . . .

Start the New Year with a Best Seller

As 2011 draws to a close, The Sisters Brothers written by Patrick deWitt, has been appearing on many Best Books of the Year lists. It has already won the Governor General's Literary Award and been Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and the Giller Prize. Ablutions, deWitt's debut novel, was also well-received. Originally from Vancouver Island, Patrick deWitt is a new author to watch for in the future.

Set in 1851 during the gold rush, Eli and Charlie Sisters are hired gunslinger for the Commodore, a man who is as famous as he is feared. The brothers have been hired, once again, to travel from Oregon City to San Francisco to hunt down and kill a prospector named Herman Kermit Warm. The Commodore mysteriously never tells the brothers how Warm has wronged him. Everywhere they go, the Sisters' brothers strike fear in the hearts of everyone they meet. Their brutality is legendary. Suring their journey they have many adventures, including run-ins with Indians, a bear, a witch, a lost boy, a vengeful frontier baron, saloon ladies, and a gang of fur trappers.

Eli, the more sympathetic brother, narrates the tale. As he witnesses his brother's cruelty, blood-lust and addiction to drink and women, he begins to realize that this may be his last job for the Commodore and he may just consider settling down to a quiet, peaceful life.

Also available in:

Audiobook

Large Print

Talking Book (Restricted to Print Disabled Patrons)

Death of a Land Army Girl

Maureen Jennings, well-known for writing the popular Murdoch Mysteries, which were turned into a television series based on the books, and was recently picked up for a fifth season on CBC, has started a new series with the book Season of Darkness.

Set in rural England during World War II, the story begins early one morning with the murder of Elsie Bates, a Land Army Girl. The Women's Land Army was an agricultural organization created to replace men away at war. Elsie had a notorious reputation for being a flirt; however, her death was very brutal and cold-blooded. Detective Inspector Tom Tyler finds himself with numerous question and very few facts. Elsie was hit by a car, shot and then her body moved. Was it a jilted lover? Was there more than one killer?

As soon as the news of the murder breaks in the village of Shropshire, the rumours being to circulate. A temporary German internee camp is located just outside the village and many people feel that a prisoner has escaped or a German parachutist has landed. Complicating matters for Tom is the fact that Clare, his first love, has returned as a translator at the camp, just as his marriage is falling apart. Tom must put aside his personal demons and prejudices and work with a German psychiatrist in the camp to find the murderer before another Land Army Girl is lost.