The Buzz...About Books

Calling All Angels: Heavenly Creatures in Recent Fiction

Angel fiction is all the rage. Fans of Danielle Trussoni's best-selling Angelology, a tale of secret societies, ancient libraries, and fallen angels, eagerly await the upcoming release of Angelopolis. If you like books by Dan Brown, you must check this series out. Even more exciting, Will Smith has signed on to produce the film adaptation. Paul Bettany in Legion (above) is one of the many heavenly bodies to grace the big screen. The super-hot Mortal Instruments series is due to hit theatres in August.

Recent titles featuring angels (and a few hot demons) range from steamy romance (J.R. Ward), to mystery (Linda Poitven), to dark urban fantasy (Tad Williams, Nalini Singh). This sub-genre is a celestial mash-up of religious sources, literary traditions, and pure invention. Fallen angels make for less than angelic behaviour - which is part of the attraction. Angel fiction by Laini Taylor, Lauren Kate, Michelle Rowan, and Becca Fitzpatrick appeal to both teen and adult readers. In fact, Lauren Kate's fallen angel, Daniel Grigori, is arguably even more sparkly than Edward Cullen. Some angels are just working stiffs: Stephanie Chong's guardian angel, Serena St. Clair, has a day job as a yoga instructor. Simon Rich's What in God's Name? takes this to the next level: God is a cranky CEO who wants to liquidate his assets  - but not before he challenges two underpaid angels to save the Earth.

Read on:

Check out these seraphic graphics - fallen angels have long been a fixture in graphic fiction:           

Ben Foster's role as the mutant, Angel, in X-Men 3: The Last Stand is oft cited as a positive LGBT symbol.  

A Quick Read With Charlie D

Looking for a fast, enjoyable read? Don't have time for the new trend of 800 page books? The Rapid Reads series might just be what you are looking for. These books are usually no longer than 100 pages. Stories include anything from mysteries, gang life to romance. If you prefer to read non-fiction, there are also books on a variety of subjects including the World Wars, finance and global warming.

Through this series, I discovered Gail Bowen's interesting character, Charlie D, who hosts a late-night radio program. His listeners are very involved in the call-in portion of the show and his regular callers tend to be outcasts, who feel deeply connected to Charlie. But Charlie also hears from listeners whose personal relationships with him go too far and can result in murder.

   

Love You to Death
Charlie discovers that his callers are being killed on by one. The police suspect that one of Charlie's fans is obsessed and are now depending on Charlie to bring the killer out of hiding before another murder occurs. Also available in eBook.

One Fine Day You're Gonna Die
An expert on death and dying is a guest on Charlie D's radio show. Things take a very dark turn when a caller threatens to kill himself, as well as the daughter of Charlie's guest. Also available in eBook.

The Shadow Killer
It's Father's Day and Charlie D is wrestling with memories of his estranged father, when a young caller shares his plan to murder his own father and the rest of his family. Can Charlie find the location of the caller? Time is running out, and surprisingly Charlie's father may be able to help.

To learn more about Rapid Reads visit their website.

Five Books to Celebrate Harry Houdini

Erik Weisz, who would later use the stage name Harry Houdini, was born in Budapest on March 24, 1874. His family emigrated to the United States in 1874 where the spelling of his name was changed to Ehrich Weiss. When he was 9, Ehrich helped to support his family by working as a trapeze artist in vaudville shows. In 1891, he switched his specialty to magic and adopted the stage name Harry Houdini, as an homage to French magician Jean Eugène Robert-Houdin.

While performing at Coney Island, Harry met and fell in love with another performer, Wilhelmina Beatrice Rahner, known as Bess. The couple would marry in 1894 and she became his stage assistant. During this time, Houdini began to experiment with escape acts and by 1900 he had acquired an international reputation for his escapes from shackles, handcuffs and various locked containers.

In addition to performing around the world, Houdini also appeared in movies and became an aviator. During the 1920s, he began an enthusiastic career debunking spiritualists and mind readers after unsuccessfully trying to communicate with his deceased mother. Although he believed that supernatural powers were fraudulent, he and Bess agreed that whichever of them died first would try to contact the survivor.

Houdini died of peritonitis from a ruptured appendix on October 31, 1926. Bess Houdini dutifully held a séance on the anniversary of his death for the next decade. After the tenth unsuccessful attempt to contact her late husband, she announced that "10 years is long enough to wait for any man" and declared the experiment a failure.

Houdini: Fact and Fiction:

Fiction

Escape Artist by Edward Ifkovic
Reporter Edna Ferber asks her friend Harry Houdini to investigate after a girl mysteriously disappears from her school.

The Last Illusion by Rhys Bowen
After a number of suspicious incidents, Bess Houdini hires private investigator Molly Murphy to protect her husband.

Non-Fiction

Houdini!: the Career of Ehrich Weis: American Self-Liberator, Europe's Eclipsing Sensation, World's Handcuff King and Prison Breaker by Kenneth Silverman
Pulitzer Prize winning author Silverman draws upon previously unpublished letters, diaries and scrapbooks in this biography.

Masters of Mystery: the Strange Friendship of Arthur Conan Doyle and Harry Houdini by Christopher Sandford
Both Houdini and Doyle had an interest in Spiritualism but Doyle was a believer and as Houdini became more sceptical, their friendship grew strained.

The Secret Life of Harry Houdini: the Making of America's First Superhero by William Kalush and Larry Sloman
This controversial biography suggests that Houdini's most spectacular trick was working as a spy for the British secret service.

Beyond Fahrenheit 451: 5 Other Ray Bradbury Books You Should Read

If reading Fahrenheit 451 has whetted your appetite for Ray Bradbury, you are in luck. He began publishing stories in science fiction magazines as a teenager and wrote daily until shortly before his death at the age of 91. Over the course of his writing career he produced 30 books, 600 short stories, poems, essays, screenplays and plays.

It is hard to suggest just five books from his impressive bibliography. The books on this list each represent a type of writing from Bradbury's prolific career.

Dandelion Wine

In Bradbury's most personal book, he combines the memories of his own childhood with fantasy. Set in the summer of 1928 in a small Illinois town, twelve-year-old Douglas Spaulding awakens to the richness of life for the first time. He feels truly alive, exhilarated by the ordinary activities. As the summer progresses however, Doug begins to notice that change, loss and even death are as inevitable as the changing seasons.

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Let's All Kill Constance

Although better known for speculative fiction, Bradbury also tried his hand at the mystery genre. In this novel, a writer not unlike Bradbury himself, is drawn into an investigation after an aging movie star bursts into his house claiming she's being threatened.

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The Martian Chronicles 
Bradbury describes the colonization of Mars in a series of linked short stories. Along with Fahrenheit 451, this is considered one of Bradbury's masterpieces.

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    • Regular Print: Avon Revised Edition
    • Regular Print: Doubleday
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Something Wicked This Way Comes
Something Wicked This Way Comes is considered horror fiction.  It tells the story of two young boys whose lives are changed after a sinister carnival visits their town.

    • eAudiobook: Read by Kevin Foley
    • eAudiobook: Dramatization by The Colonial Radio Theater of the Air
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    • Regular Print: Avon Books
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The Stories of Ray Bradbury
Bradbury was a masterful short story writer. This volume contains 100 of Bradbury's best stories including The Veldt, The Sound of Thunder and The Black Ferris, which provided the basis for Something Wicked This Way Comes.

Related Posts:

• A Firefighter's Take on Fahrenheit 451
• Ray Bradbury: 1920-2012
• This Guy Matters: Anti-Heroes in Literature

Join us in April as we discuss Fahrenheit 451 on Book Buzz: Toronto Public Library's Online Bookclub.

"The Edgar" Nominees: The Best in Mystery

Mystery Writers of America have announced its Nominees for the 2013 Edgar Allan Poe Awards, honoring the best in mystery fiction, non-fiction and television, published or produced in 2012.

BEST NOVEL
The Lost Ones by Ace Atkins
The Gods of Gotham by Lyndsay Faye
Gone Girl: A Novel by Gillian Flynn
Potboiler by Jesse Kellerman
Sunset by Al Lamanda
Live by Night by Dennis Lehane
All I Did Was Shoot My Man by Walter Mosley

 

BEST FIRST NOVEL BY AN AMERICAN AUTHOR
The Map of Lost Memories by Kim Fay
Don’t Ever Get Old by Daniel Friedman
Mr. Churchill’s Secretary by Susan Elia MacNeal
The Expats by Chris Pavone
The 500 by Matthew Quirk
Black Fridays by Michael Sears

 

BEST PAPERBACK ORIGINAL
Complication by Isaac Adamson
Whiplash River by Lou Berney
Bloodland by Alan Glynn
Blessed are the Dead by Malla Nunn
The Last Policeman by Ben H. Winters

BEST FACT CRIME
Midnight in Peking: How the Murder of a Young Englishwoman Haunted the Last Days of Old China by Paul French
Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America by Gilbert King
More Forensics and Fiction: Crime Writers' Morbidly Curious Questions Expertly Answered by D.P. Lyle
Double Cross: The True Story of the D-Day Spies by Ben Macintyre
The People Who Eat Darkness: The Fate of Lucie Blackman by Richard Lloyd Parry

 

BEST CRITICAL/BIOGRAPHICAL
Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe: The Hard-Boiled Detective Transformed by John Paul Athanasourelis
Books to Die For: The World's Greatest Mystery Writers on the World's Greatest Mystery Novels edited by John Connolly and Declan Burke
The Scientific Sherlock Holmes: Cracking the Case with Science and Forensics by James O’Brien
In Pursuit of Spenser: Mystery Writers on Robert B. Parker and the Creation of an American Hero edited by Otto Penzler

October 11 is the International Day of the Girl

The United Nations has declared October 11 the International Day of the Girl Child. The day was established to raise awareness about gender bias and the obstacles preventing girls from reaching their full potential.

Girls around the world are more likely to be victims of violence and less likely to receive education. Girls who receive less schooling are far more likely to marry as children, before the age of 15. Girls are less likely to learn to read and write. By 2015 it is estimated that 64% of the world's illiterate will be female.

Females are also 3 times more likely to be malnourished than are boys.

Girls face challenges in our country also. In Canada, young woman are the victims of dating violence ten times more often than young men and are 70% more likely to face intimidation from online predators. Girls and young women suffer from mental illnesses like depression twice as often as boys and young men.

These are some of the amazing girls in fiction:

Anne Shirley: The heroine of Lucy Maud Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables was no shrinking violet, shocking the citizens of Avonlea with her antics and her irrepressible spirit.

She's featured in these books:
Anne of Green Gables
Anne of Avonlea
Anne of the Island
Anne's House of Dreams
Anne of Windy Poplars
Anne of Ingleside

Flavia de Luce: The main character in the mystery novels of Alan Bradley, Flavia is a precocious 11-year-old girl whose intelligence, determination and encyclopedic knowledge of chemistry allows her to solve crimes.

She's featured in these books:
The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie
The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag
A Red Herring Without Mustard
I Am Half-Sick of Shadows

Jane Eyre: Orphaned at a young age, the protagonist of Charlotte Bronte's novel, is strong, intelligent and self-reliant. Her beliefs in justice, human dignity and social equality set her apart from others in Victorian England.

 

 

Lyra Belacqua: In Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy, the headstrong and intelligent Lyra finds herself playing a crucial role in a cosmic war.

She is featured in these books:
The Golden Compass
The Subtle Knife
The Amber Spyglass

 

 

Scout Finch: The narrator and protagonist of To Kill a Mockingbird, Scout must come to terms with the racism that pervades her hometown when her father defends a black man accused of raping a white woman.

 

There are lots of wonderful girls in fiction--Nancy Drew, the March sisters, Hermione Granger among others. Ask library staff for more suggestions.

The Last Book You'll Ever Read?

My New Enemy, Ben H. Winters

You know, I think I hate Ben H. Winters. Not a "hunt him down and kill him" hate, just a blinding irrational jealously over his latest book. The Last Policeman, available as an eBook at Toronto Public Library, begins with a wonderful premise--a wonderful premise that I should have thought of first, darn it. It is a pre-Apocalypse police procedural--a simple, brilliant concept. The world is on the brink of destruction. There's a great big asteriod on a collision course with Earth and nothing can be done. 

The marvelous thing about The Last Policeman is that it is not about the end of the world. It is about how life goes on just prior to the end of the world. Except that sometimes it doesn't go on and that's where our main character Henry Palace comes into play. He's a detective in Manchester, New Hampshire, a town with a soaring suicide rate. Palace is called to the scene of an apparent suicide. The dead man is Peter Zell, an actuary who has by all accounts been coping well with the impending doom. Unlike many, Zell has been steady and dependable--sort of like Henry Palace, actually.

Although it would be easy to label the death a suicide and close the case, Henry suspects it is murder and doggedly investigates.

I liked this book a lot and I'm not the only one. There is talk of it becoming a television series which would be fantastic.

The Last Policeman is the first in a trilogy with the second book scheduled for release in 2013.  Please write faster, Mr. Winters.

Here's the book trailer:

 

 October 31 Update: Toronto Public Library has ordered print copies of the book!

CSI With Magic

Bonnie Torres is a recent New York college graduate, who is desperately looking for a job. She is a magic user, but this ability will not help her find employment...or so she thinks.

One day Bonnie receives a phone call informing her of a job interview that she does not remember applying for. This is her introduction to the P.U.P.I (Private, Unaffiliated, Paranormal Investigation). Bonnie and four other twenty-somethings have been selected to work for this covert firm that solves crimes beyond the capacity of the regular police; crimes which usually involve magic.

This urban fantasy series by Laura Anne Gilman, is set in a world where magic is a fact of life and treated as an actual science. The first book in this series, Hard Magic, deals with the team learning their new profession. Not only do they have to learn to use their magic skills in new ways, but they must learn to find evidence and interrogate suspects. On their first job, the team is hired by a woman who does not believe that her parents committed suicide, as the police have ruled. The inexperienced team must work together in order to use forensic magic to prove that the two deaths were murder and not suicide.

For more of Bonnie and friends also check out:

Get Cozy with a Mystery

The days are getting shorter and chillier weather is just around the corner. It's nearly time to start thinking about putting on sweaters, lighting fires and snuggling up with a good book.

There's nothing better for a cool season than a cozy mystery. Cozy mysteries are crime novels that emphasize character development and keep violence to a minimum. 

The Agatha Awards, honouring cozy mysteries, are presented annually at the Malice Domestic convention.

Best Novel	Best First Novel	Best Non-Fiction

Best Novel:

Winner:
Three Day Town by Margaret Maron
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Finalists:

The Diva Haunts the House by Krista Davis (Large Print edition)
The Real Macaw by Donna Andrews
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A Trick of the Light by Louise Penny
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Wicked Autumn by G.M. Malliet
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Best First Novel:

Winner:
Learning to Swim by Sara J. Henry
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Finalists:

Choke by Kaye George
Dire Threads by Janet Bolin (Large Print edition)
Tempest in the Tea Leaves by Keri Lee Townsend (Large Print edition)
Who Do, Voodoo? by Rochelle Staab

Best Non-Fiction:

Winner:
Books, Crooks and Counselors: How to Write Accurately about Criminal Law and Courtroom Procedure by Leslie Budewitz

Finalists:

Agatha Christie: Murder in the Making--More Stories and Secrets from Her Notebooks by John Curran
On Conan Doyle: Or, the Whole Art of Storytelling by Michael Dirda
The Sookie Stackhouse Companion by Charlaine Harris
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Wilkie Collins, Vera Caspary and the Evolution of the Casebook Novel by A.B. Emrys

If you're curious about cozy mysteries, the link below will take you to a video tutorial from Book Buzz blogger Erin. It's full of information and suggestions.

Download Cozy Mysteries

School Daze: Fiction Picks

Whether you've headed back to school this week, or are blissfully detached from the back-to-school scramble, there's always space for a good book about student life. Check out some of these titles I picked up recently.

Fall by Colin McAdam

Fall is set mostly at a prestigious Canadian boarding school, and it serves as a quiet backdrop to the relationship between three pivotal characters: Noel, the quiet loner; Julius, the athletic golden-boy, and Julius' girlfriend, the beautiful Fallon (or Fall, for whom the novel is named). Suspense grows as the relationships, particularly between Noel and Julius, grow in strange and complicated ways. When Fall mysteriously disappears one day, we're left wondering just who is behind it all. This is both a sharply-plotted mystery and a well-written character study for the most part: Julius and Noel have distinct voices, while Fall is talked about more than anything else. This isn't a particularly fast read, but it's well-paced so you won't get bored.

Place Fall on hold.

 

Juno & Juliet by Julian Gough

When identical twin sisters, Juno and Juliet leave together for their first year at an Irish university, they're looking forward to exploring everything their time away can offer them. Naturally, this includes a lot more than books and class notes...

The story's narrator, Juliet, is convinced her sister is the more gorgeous and charming of the duo, and when boys begin to drop at Juno's feet, Juliet assures us it's not a surprise. Written in a conversational and lighthearted tone, Juliet shares her insights into post-secondary life ("I was disappointed by the university, and vice versa"), there is still room for some deeper understanding of life beyond highschool in this fun and fast read.

Place Juno & Juliet on hold.

 

Looking for Alaska by John Green

 John Green's Looking for Alaska is a modern-day classic - so if you haven't read it yet, you should.

When Miles heads from Florida to an Alabama boarding school to finish off his highschool career, he is in search of a "great perhaps". And find it he does: it appears in the form of Chip ("The Captain") his rough-around-the-edges roomate, and his best friend, the lovely, literate and slightly self-destructive Alaska Young. Miles (teasingly nicknamed Pudge for his thin physique)sets off on a whirlwind first year with school pranks, growing romantic entanglements, and finally, a sobering look at life and death.

Although this is a young adult book (and a multiple prize-winning one at that), I've had both teens and adults tell me how much they enjoyed this. Green writes smart and he never dumbs down his characters. The teens in the story are confused, persistent, lonely and brave - and all the emotions are rendered realistically and often, in memorable prose: after an encounter with Alaska, Pudge reflects while "collapsed on the bottom bunk, thinking that if people were rain, I was drizzle and she was a hurricane.”

Place Looking for Alaska on hold.

 Have some other titles you'd recommend? Let us know in the comments!