The Buzz...About Books

Staff Favourites from 2012: Part 1

Last week members of Book Buzz, Toronto Public Library's online book club shared their favourite books of 2012. This week I've asked staff members for their recommendations.

This is the first in a series of blog posts featuring staff suggestions.

Ab:

Divergent by Veronica Roth
During a summer cottage getaway, I devoured Divergent, the first part in Veronica Roth’s dystopia trilogy series for young adults. Soon after, I ran to the bookstore to pick up its recently-released sequel, Insurgent. Told through the eyes of heroine Tris, the series explores a fascinating world – and the resulting conflicts - where society is divided into five different factions: Erudite, Dauntless, Candor, Amity and Abnegation. The series is now being developed into a movie, with the industry already buzzing that it will be the next Hunger Games. I can’t wait till the final book comes out next fall.

Cathy:

Kurt Vonnegut: Letters edited by Dan Wakefield
Vonnegut's unique point of view on the world always makes for great reading. In his own words: "I am an American fad -- of a slightly higher order than a hula hoop."

The Women by T.C. Boyle
Great read from a master storyteller about all the women in the life of famous architect Frank Lloyd Wright.
    • eAudiobook
    • eBook
    • Large Print
    • Talking Book (restricted to Print Disabled patrons)

Jill:

Bury Your Dead by Louise Penny
All the Chief Inspector Armand Gamache mysteries by Canada's best mystery writer, Louise Penny, are worth reading, but Bury Your Dead , set in Quebec City, takes the series to another level.
    • Audiobook
    • eAudiobook
    • Large Print
    • Talking Book (restricted to Print Disabled patrons)

Rosemary:

The Brides of Rollrock Island by Margo Lanagan
I enjoyed the beautiful writing and found the dark fantasy (selkie story gone badly) to be challenging and provocative.
• eBook

The Ghosts of Ashbury High by Jaclyn Moriarty
Both funny and heartbreaking I love the way the author develops the unique and complex personalities of the main characters.

Sarah:

Mornings in Jenin by Susan Abulhawa.
Follows the story of strong and bold Amal, a girl born in a Palestinian refugee camp. Powerful and heartwrenching, the novel covers four generations of stories from the pre-conflict years in the ancient village of Ein Hod through 60 years of conflict to present day Palestine.
    • Large Print

Winona:

Are You My Mother?: a Comic Drama by Alison Bechdel
Bechdel draws on psychoanalytic ideas and literary works to explore her fraught relationship with her mother and her development as an artist in this emotionally honest and visually captivating graphic memoir – the sequel to Fun Home: a Family Tragicomic.

Life is about Losing Everything by Lynn Crosbie
A dazzling, episodic roman à clef covering seven years in the life – real and imagined – of poet, professor, and Globe and Mail columnist Lynn Crosbie. At once hilarious and heartbreaking, graceful and grotesque.
    • eBook

Maidenhead by Tamara Faith Berger
Brainy, unnerving, and explicit, Berger’s story of the erotic awakening of a teenage girl is also an unflinching examination of the politics and power dynamics of sexual desire. Reader be warned: this is several shades darker than Fifty Shades of Grey, but it is also far smarter and much better written.
    • eBook

My Ideal Bookshelf edited by Thessaly La Force; art by Jane Mount
See which books were chosen to grace the imaginary ideal bookshelves of 100 celebrated cultural figures – writers, musicians, chefs, designers – in these charming illustrations by Jane Mount, accompanied by commentary drawn from interviews with Thessaly La Force.

Related Posts:

• Best Books of 2012: Chosen by Book Buzz Members

The bleaker, the better: More great dystopian reads

Earlier last month, I posted a few titles - mostly teen fiction - that painted dreary futures of tyrannical governments, genetic experimentations gone awry and more. There were, of course, still many more titles I missed, and I had loads of suggestions from readers who had some of their own picks to share.

Here are some more featured dystopian reads, including favourites from commenters, and some more I wanted to add in. When it comes to dystopian reading, you can never get too wierd or too creepy, so if you think this list is too tame, consider this a challenge to bring it on!

The Classics
These have been around forever - and with good reason. You may have read some of these in school, and they may have actually *gasp!* interested you! If you haven't yet, make time to get yourself into the worlds of these writers who were ahead of their times.

1. 1984 by George Orwell (reader suggestion!)
2. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley (reader suggestion!)
3. Lord of the Flies by William Golding
4. The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood (reader suggestion!)

If you'd like to try your luck, you can also walk into a local library branch and check out the Classic paperback section for the titles above.

Hot for Teens
Fresh off the success of hits like The Hunger Games and Divergent, there have been a slew of young adult books that deal with themes of isolation, loss of identity, and power struggles - usually against the backdrop of mass government control. Here are some other titles to get you psyched (and maybe just a little paranoid...)

1. Scored by Lauren McLaughlin
2. This is Not a Test by Courtney Summers
3. A Long, Long Sleep by Anna Sheehan
4. Beta by Rachel Cohn
5. Feed by MT Anderson (reader suggestion!)
6. Unwind by Neal Shusterman

You've heard of it...now read it!
You may have seen the screen adaptation or had a friend gush over how much she loved this book...and cha nces are, you haven't quite read the book yet. Why wait?

 

1. We by Yevgeny Zamyat in (reader suggestion!)
2.   The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. LeGuin (reader suggestion!)
3. The Book of Dave by Will Self (reader suggestion!)
   
4. World Made by Hand by James Howard Kunstler (reader suggestion!)
5. Ready Player One by Ernest Cline (considered more utopian, actually...)
6. V for Vendetta by Alan Moore
7. World War Z by Max Brooks
8. The Devil's Alphabet by Daryl Gregory
9. Blindness by Jose Saramago
10. Battle Royale by Koushun Tamaki

Remember that many of these titles are available in a number of formats, including paperback, ebook and audio, so you can read it however you want.

Happy Reading!

 

 

 

 

 

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!

 

Gutsy Women of the Future

Have you read all of the Hunger Games books and are looking for something new to read? Try Moira Young's debut novel, Blood Red Road. 

Saba is an 18 year old girl, living a secluded life with her father, twin brother Lugh and younger sister Emmi. Life is hard for this family, as the lake that they depend on for survival is drying up and their father refuses to move. Saba's mother died giving birth to Emmi and Saba continues to hold a grudge against her sister. Lugh is the only thing that Saba adores; although they are twins, he is everything that she is not, light haired, blue-eyed, kind and loving.

One day armed men on horseback arrive at the family shack, killing their father and kidnapping Lugh. As the men tie Lugh to a horse, Saba promises: "Wherever they take you, I swear I'll find you." This event will lead Saba and Emmi on an epic quest to find Lugh.

Without Lugh, Saba believes she is lost; she had always just been his shadow. Suddenly thrown into a vicious new world Saba realizes she is a fighter and most importantly a survivor. What began as a journey to free her brother may in fact change the world.

Ridley Scott already has plans to make this into a movie. The sequel, Rebel Heart will be published in October and is on order with the library. Place you holds now!

Also available: eBook

Have You Been Let Down By a Book?

Have you ever heard about a new book in a beloved series and gotten very excited? You wait and wait for it to finally be published, and then you wait and wait for it while it's on hold. Once you finally start reading it, you realize that you really don't like the book at all! I recently had that experience.

Long before Twilight, there was a series of books that all teenage girls read. Francine Pascal's Sweet Valley. There were many Sweet Valley (SV) series which followed the two main characters at different stages in their lives, including, SV Kids, SV Twins, SV High and SV University, to name a few.

The two blonde-haired, blue-eyed California girls might have been identical twins, but they had drastically different personalities. Elizabeth was academic and dreamed of becoming a journalist, while Jessica was flirty and travelled with the in crowd.

Sweet Valley Confidential is the recent adult book that visits the twins ten years after graduating from high school. The twins have had a falling out, over a guy. Elizabeth has fled to New York to write for a theatre magazine/blog, while Jessica surprisingly has remained in Sweet Valley. Right from the first chapter, I knew I was in trouble. Somehow the twins personalities have drastically changed, gone are the girls we once knew. Jessica is suddenly a valley girl, who throws "like" into a sentence for no reason at all. Elizabeth, who used to value and agonize over every relationship, now thinks nothing of one-night stands or "friends with benefits." I know the twins had to grow up and become adults, but I did not realize that they would become people that I would not care for.

Now the writing of these books was never of a very high standard, but the characters were what kept bringing readers back. The best part of the book was the Epilogue that provides a brief "where are they now" for some of the characters from the series. In the end, I felt that I should have left my fond memories of the series in the past. Have you read any books that you looked forward to only to be disappointed and let down?

A different kind of princess

Sophia FitzOsborne (aka Princess Sophie) is more Paperbag Princess than girly vision in pink.  She lives on the tiny island kingdom of Montmaray located somewhere in the Bay of Biscay. The inhabitants of the once prosperous kingdom are reduced to Sophie, her sister Henry, her cousin Veronica, her uncle the (increasingly mad) King, and a few faithful retainers living in a crumbling castle. Her brother Toby, heir to the throne, is away in England at school. 

The year is 1936 and Sophie has just received a journal for her sixteenth birthday and while she's trying to understand her eccentric family and keep things going at home the Germans have noticed the strategic position the island holds and distant rumblings of war in Europe are drawing closer.  There is a little romance, some dark family secrets, lots of suspense and an  intelligent and courageous heroine.  A Brief History of Montmaray was written as a teen novel but don't let that put you off, it reads like highly entertaining gothic fiction.

 Once you are hooked, you will want to read the sequel The FitzOsbournes in Exile in which Sophie and her family are racing against Nazi agents to avert an international crisis.

"It's Hammer Time!"

On May 6, Kenneth Branagh's Thor opens in theatres - and the Toronto Public Library doth have mighty reads featuring the Son of Odin.    

Branagh with his Shakespearean gravitas seems an unlikely fit with a superhero film. Watch his interview at the Comics Con in San Diego. It may surprise you.

Oscar-winner Natalie Portman plays Thor's earthly love, Jane Foster. Read how filming Thor kept her sane after The Black Swan. Chris Hemsworth, a relative newcomer, has the role of Thor.

Branagh's casting of British actor, Idris Elba (The Wire, Luther) as Heimdall, the Norse guardian of Asgard, was truly inspired. Read Elba's take in the UK Guardian.

Thor, a prominent figure in Norse mythology and immortalized in the Eddas, reached the height of popularity during the Viking Era. Thor's legacy continues - not only did he inspire "Thursday" - but some wicked cool comic books.

 

One of the most interesting (and weirder) creations of Marvel, Thor first appeared in Journey Into Mystery #83 in 1962, created by the immortal Stan Lee and drawn by Jack Kirby. Thor and the tales of Asgard have endured for over 40 years. Thor's Marvel-ous charm includes his hyperbolic mash-up of pseudo-medieval  diction:

"The power within Mjolnir doth rage like the winter storms bursting upon the shore in furious assault!"

 

 

 

 

 The cast of Thor (from left to right) Natalie Portman, Chris Hemsworth, Idris Elba

And the merchandising: last weekend, I stood puzzling at a display of Easter Thors (because nothing suggests Easter more than Norse gods made of chocolate).

Further reading:

• Norse Mythology: The Myths and Legends of the Nordic Gods by Arthur Cotterell
• Marvel Adventures:  Avengers / Thor by Paul Toibin
• Visionaries: Thor by Walter Simonson
• Avengers Disassembled: The Mighty Thor by Michael Avon Oeming
• Ragnarok: Eve of Apocalypse by Myŏng-lang Yi  (Korean graphic fiction series based on Norse mythology)

  
  

 

 

 

 

Do these boots match my gun?

Gossip Girl is a wildly popular book series by Cicely von Ziegesar, focusing on the lives, loves, and clothing of privileged teenagers attending an elite private school in Manhattan.  Over the course of thirteen books, central characters Blair Waldorf and Serena van der Woodson navigate the perilous waters of high society in Christian Louboutin ostrich pumps while their every move and accessory is documented by an anonymous blogger.  Often criticised for its superficiality, casual sex and recreational drugs, the series has nevertheless become a favourite among young adult readers, spawning numerous imitations and an equally popular television series. 

The books are an obvious target for parody but in this case the satire is coming from an unexpected source--the author herself.  In October 2011, Cicely von Ziegesar will publish her own send-up,  Gossip Girl, Psycho Killer.  This novel will be based  on the first book in the series but this time Blair and Serena add murder to their already packed social calendar. New characters with tragically short life expectancies have been created as cannon fodder for our sociopathic socialites.  It's unlikely actual cannons will be used, however--they're so last season.

It all makes sense.  The backstabbing in Gossip Girl was bound to turn into actual stabbing at some point.  Besides, you can pack a lot of weapons into one of those outsized Valentino 360 Hobo bags and with servants to take care of the blood stains, there is no good reason Blair and Serena wouldn't start murdering people.  

It sounds like a lot of fun.  If you're unfamiliar with the series, it's best to start with the first book, Gossip Girl.

Everyone is hungry for Hunger Games

What a great read! This fast paced series by Suzanne Collins is set in a dystopian version of North America's future.  Its a pretty bleak place to live, The Panem, with it's peace keepers that kill for stealing and where people starve from hunger every day. 

The story begins almost a century after a rebellion.  The punishment: Two young people are chosen by lottery to represent each of the 12 Districts of Panem and must fight to the death on a reality TV show. Was the 13th District really annihalated during the rebellion or could it be a place to escape the dictatorship in which the people now live?

The Hunger Games Trilogy is officially a teen series but the books have taken off like Twilight and Harry Potter and are being read by adults everywhere.  

Even Stephen King who reviewed the first book for Entertainment Weekly thinks the young adult category is wacky.  He says “Young Adult Novel” is right up there with terms like “Jumbo Shrimp” and “Airline Food”! Although the plotline includes a standard “love triangle” the action soon takes over to become a “violent, jarring speed-rap” adventure.   King says he just couldn’t put it down. I agree!

The movie has, of course, been optioned and there are numerous videos on YouTube.

The Audiobook of the first book is also excellent.

Book Sale!

The North York Central Library Youth Advisory Group members will be hosting a Word Out Book Sale at North York Central Library on Sat. July 10 from 2-4 p.m.

Buy great teen reads for cheap, cheap prices!

Don't miss out on this awesome sale. Many thanks to Book Ends for the book donations.

Youth can check out Word Out 2010 online. They can read great books, win cool prizes, make video book reviews, and get their library fines forgiven!