'Tis the season... for reading!

Christmas is just around the corner (as I'm sure you know), so take a break from the holiday madness and check out these new Christmas-themed books from your favorite authors!

Silent Night is Robert B. Parker's last novel, finished and published posthumously by his longtime agent. When a homeless client and a local halfway house are being threatened, Spenser discovers links to a drug lord.

For fans of Debbie Macomber, Starry Night is her newest novel. Carrie follows a scoop to get an interview with bestselling, recluse author Finn Dalton. As the two warm to each other, Carrie must choose between her career and her heart.

In A Christmas Hope by Anne Perry, a murder at a holiday party with her new beau as the prime suspect means Claudine must work fast to solve the crime and save the day.

Journey to Savannah in Christmas Bliss, Mary Kay Andrews' newest Christmas outing. Weezie is getting married, but her bridesmaid reveals she is expecting - within a few days! Can Weezie get married in time for Christmas and convince her bridesmaid to settle down with the father? 

In A Seaside Christmas by Sherryl Woods, Jenny returns to her hometown, where she has always been treated as an outsider, for a music project and to see her estranged family. At the same time, an old flame tries to rekindle their stalled relationship. 

It's the perfect season for curling up with a good book. Happy holidays from us here at the Reader's Corner!

Shannon Wood, Adult Services Librarian

Allegiant by Veronica Roth

I have been a fan of  the wildly popular Divergent series since the first book, and I am sad to say that the third book is a disappointment. Allegiant by Veronica Roth takes all the potential of its predecessors and throws it away. I won't go into too much detail in terms of plot in case you haven't read the other books, but suffice to say Tris, Four, and their friends finally get outside the fence surrounding their city and discover what is on the other side.

The final book in the trilogy does not live up to promise of the first two, as it takes the central conflict of the previous novels and makes it completely unimportant. The plot stalls out halfway through the book, so that both the characters and the readers are stuck in one place. In addition, the alternating viewpoints between Tris and Four did not add to the experience, since their voices are so similar as to be completely indistinguishable. There were more than a few times that I had to skip back to the start of the chapter to figure out who was narrating. As I really enjoyed the first two books, I am disappointed in the overblown melodrama  that is the conclusion of this trilogy. Read this novel if you really must find out what happens to Tris and Four, but otherwise - skip it.

Shannon Wood, Adult Services Librarian

Geek's Guide to Dating

As a geek girl (though I have a boyfriend), when I saw this book, I had to read it. The Geek's Guide to Dating by Eric Smith is just what the doctor ordered for all the socially awkward geeks out there who can't find their "Player Two." From the first paragraph, Smith sits this slim tome in the middle of geek lore. With numerous references to pop culture, television, movies, comic books, and other things geeks love, Smith outlines a solid plan on how to date. As a woman, I have to say that Smith's advice is spot on - there are no easy shortcuts, no pick-up lines, and he emphasizes putting in hard work to attract the opposite sex.

I liked that Smith starts with taking a look at yourself and discovering your "special abilities" - knowing yourself before dating others. He emphasizes that you must love yourself and your interests, but also be open to new things and what other people enjoy as well. However, one complaint I have is that there are no tips specifically for the geek girl, which is unfortunate, though Smith says that you can apply his guide to both sexes.

Need a gift idea for the single geek in your life? This book is perfect for any geek ready to dive into dating and who may not want to read a traditional dating guide.

Win a copy of this book! All you need to do is correctly answer this question:

What is the best-selling video game console of all time?

First correct answer wins a copy of the book and a poster. Five correct answers after that will win a poster.


Shannon Wood, Adult Services Librarian

Let's Talk About... Major Pettigrew's Last Stand

Want to relax amid the bustle of preparing for the holidays?  Join us for a discussion of Helen Simonson's Major Pettigrew's Last Stand, the sweet, romantic story of an old widower living in a small village in the English countryside. This last book club meeting of 2013 will be on Thursday, December 5 from 10:30-11:30 a.m. in the Junior Home room at Tiffin-Seneca Public Library. Light refreshments will be provided.

Major Pettigrew is a proper English gentleman who strikes up a friendship with the lovely Pakistani shopkeeper, Mrs. Ali, from down the road. They bond over the loss of their spouses and eventually their friendship begins to turn to romance. However, their blossoming love hits a snag when the others in the village find out and disapprove of the romance between a local and a foreigner.

Though I do not normally read romances, I enjoyed this novel for a lighter look at some deeper themes such as racism, dealing with adult children, and love after the death of a spouse. The characters also turned out to be deeper than I had initially assumed, and the Major especially grows over the course of the novel. In addition, the slow-burning romance between Mrs. Ali and the Major is heart-warming to observe as they bond over their losses and love of reading.

Here are some things to think about to get your brain working before the book club meeting:

• Major Pettigrew and Mrs. Ali have known one another for a time. What is it about this one moment, when he opens the door to her at the story's onset, that makes him fall in love with her?*
• How are outsiders treated in this village...and who are considered outsiders?*

Please join us to discuss this sweet English romance. We are looking forward to seeing you there!

Shannon Wood, Adult Services Librarian

*Discussion questions courtesy of Litlovers.com.

The Night Guest

My love for debut novels can be a blessing and a curse.  I recently had someone ask if I tend to read the follow-up to an author's debut.  When I responded with a "pfft", I realized I may have a problem.  However, it can certainly be a great thing when I find one of those under-the-radar titles that winds up being amazing.  Fiona McFarlane's debut, The Night Guest, is one of those titles that reminds me why I love reading debuts.

Ruth is a widow living in a beach house on the coast of Australia.  Her husband, Harry, passed away a year ago and, while Ruth gets along fine for the most part, something is certainly missing from her life now.  Enter Frida, a guest who arrives one night claiming to be a helper from the government.  She cleans, cooks, and even makes conversation with Ruth, getting to know her.  But where did Frida really come from?  And is she a good influence upon Ruth's life or is she too much of an influence?  As Ruth begins piecing together Frida's past, she finds herself wondering about her guest's intentions.

I love books that I have trouble classifying.  This is certainly one of them.  Mystery?  Literary Fiction?  Suspense?  Romance?  Psychological Fiction? All of the above applies here.  The writing style is magnificent and very lyrical.  If that doesn't pique your interest, did I mention the tiger Ruth occasionally hears in her home at night? 

Chris May- Adult Services Manager

Confessions of a Latter-Day Virgin by Nicole Hardy

I usually don't read memoirs (or much nonfiction), but a friend recommended this to me and I thought it looked interesting. It turned out to be a touching and evocative account of a life lived out of sync with what her community expects. Confessions of a Latter-day Virgin: a Memoir by Nicole Hardy is a memoir of a young, single Mormon woman struggling with the clash between what her church expects of her and what she wants out of life. The church wants her to practice abstinence, marry early, and give up her career for motherhood. Nicole is fiercely independent and wants to become a writer, travel the world, and not have children.

The memoir explores the loneliness and isolation of not being able to connect with the opposite sex inside or outside her church. Mormon men think she is too independent and those outside the church are confused by her faith and subsequent virginity. Hardy tells of her struggle between her own sexuality and her commitment to celibacy with poetic prose. She touches on universal doubts and troubles that I think we all share, such as the search for identity and the need to please one's parents. Check out Hardy's memoir for an inside look at the Mormon faith, or for a young woman's struggle to be true to who she is.

Shannon Wood, Adult Services Librarian

Joyce Carol Oates Does It Again

Joyce Carol Oates, esteemed writer of terrific fiction like Blonde and What I Lived For, is one of those timeless authors you must pay attention to.  Her fiction has won many awards, such as the O.Henry Award, National Book Award, and the National Humanities Medal.  She has also been nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.  Not a bad career!

Her latest, Evil Eye, is a collection of four novellas about the dangers of love.  In the first work, we meet Mariana, who is the fourth wife to an esteemed college professor.  The first wife, with whom the husband has a polite friendship, comes to visit and Mariana learns a secret through this encounter that rocks the foundation of her marriage.  A shy, awkward teenager meets a young man who shows an immediate interest in her in the second work.  She soon learns that his interest in her goes beyond typical teenage love, towards something far more sinister.  The third work, The Execution, follows young Bart Hansen through a vicious and unthinkable crime.  The results, thanks to the love of his mother, is not what the reader will be expecting.  Finally, the last work follows Cecelia as she tries to deal with the horrible events of her childhood that threaten to ruin her first true love.

Oates creates such atmospheric pieces in these short works of fiction.  The dread and inner turmoil each character deals with through his or her journey comes right off the page, creating a believable look at love gone wrong.  It really is nothing short of amazing.

Chris May- Adult Services Manager

Join the discussion next Thursday for The Dog Stars!

Spice up your Thursday morning with a fun, energetic discussion of The Dog Stars by Peter Heller on November 7. The "Let's Talk" book club will meet at 10:30 a.m.  in the Junior Home room at T-SPL.

After the end of the world, all Hig wants to do is fish for trout. But the trout are all gone, along with much of the weaker flora and fauna of the world, including most of the humans. Hig now lives at an abandoned airport with his dog Jasper and another survivor named Bangley. One day Hig receives a radio transmission and flies to meet it in his plane. His destination is past the point of no return, so Hig must take a leap into the unknown to find what he is searching for.

To get your brain buzzing, here are a couple things to think about:

• The prose style of The Dog Stars is clipped, terse, often fragmented. Why would Heller choose this way of writing this particular story? In what ways is it fitting?
• What does the novel imply about human nature, after the constraints of civilization have been removed? What does it suggest about the possible consequences of the way we are living now?

Join us for light refreshments and fun discussion - we'd love to see you there!


Shannon Wood, Adult Services Librarian

Have You Missed Coffee By the Book?

Coffee By the Book, started last year as a joint venture between the Tiffin-Seneca Public Library and Bailiwicks Coffee Company, has been a rousing success throughout its first year of existence.  This is not your normal book group.  First, there's obviously coffee.  How can you go wrong there?  Second, the book selections may surprise you.  The focus is on debut novels, often quirky, that may have slipped under your radar.  Finally, there is the group itself.  We have a very good group who are energetic and love talking about books.

We discussed The Light Between Oceans by ML Stedman at our last meeting.  This heartbreaking novel follows a young man who becomes a lighthouse keeper on a small island off the coast of Australia.  He meets a young woman while on shore leave and they soon get married.  After several failed attempts at starting a family, they find a boat that has washed up on the island.  The boat contains a man who has passed away and a healthy baby. The decision they make ends up haunting them for a long time.

Our next meeting will be on Thursday, November 21 from 6:00 to 7:00 at Bailiwicks.  Herman Koch's The Dinner is our next book.  Koch looks at two brothers who share a dark family secret.  The entire story takes place during a single dinner which gets more and more hostile.  Our discussion should be interesting since the meeting is one week before Thanksgiving!  Copies of the book are now available at the Information Desk. 

Chris May- Adult Services Manager

The Death of Spiderman's First Love - Debut Novel by Sarah Bruni

Sheila obsessively studies French in the hopes of leaving her small town home after her high school graduation. At her job as a nighttime gas station attendant, she meets a stranger who calls himself Peter Parker, after the true identity of the web-slinging superhero Spiderman. He believes that Sheila is Spiderman's first love, Gwen Stacy, and despite that (or perhaps because of it) she is drawn to the mysterious stranger. Soon he convinces her to run away with him to Chicago, but will not tell her why. The Night Gwen Stacy Died by Sarah Bruni is a one-of-a-kind debut coming-of-age novel, with romance, literary fiction, and comic books mixed in.

The book is a dizzying blend of fantasy and reality, where one cannot tell where the myths end and the real world begins. It relies on the Spiderman narrative to frame its story, but don't worry! Readers not familiar with the comics will not be lost since the novel is more about the search for identity and the creation of new ones than about the superhero story. One fault of the novel is that the characters tend to be emotionless and can be hard to identify with, but fans of Spiderman will enjoy Bruni's numerous nods to the original comics. If you love Spiderman or smart, experimental fiction, you should read The Night Gwen Stacy Died.

The Past CAN Come Back

Everyone deserves a second chance, right?  We all make mistakes, especially in our younger years, and can make up for those mistakes.  But sometimes it's not quite that easy.  Alex Marwood shows this in his debut novel, Wicked Girls.

A series of murders in a seaside town in the UK becomes the hot news story for Kirsty, who arrives from one of the larger UK newspapers.  The latest victim, a young girl, is found by Amber, a worker at the local amusement park.  We soon find out that Kirsty and Amber know each other...as Bel and Jade.  The story moves back and forth between present day and the fateful day 25 years earlier in which Bel and Jade became involved in a horrible criminal act.  Their chance meeting during a murdering spree threatens to tear apart everything they have built in their quest for normal lives.

I really enjoyed the fact that this thriller was more about the characters.  Each is developed well and the reader really understands the struggle they go through.  Kirsty and Amber each have their own motivations for not getting involved with the other, but other reasons for finding out what the other knows.  The psychological struggle in this novel makes it one not to be missed!

Chris May- Adult Services Manager

Dark Vampire Horror by Kathleen Tierney

Siobhan Quinn is a monster hunter for hire - she takes out rampaging vampires, werewolves, ghouls, and the like. A junkie with a tragic past, Siobhan will do anything for her next fix - until she comes out on the wrong end of a fight with a werewolf and is infected with the loup virus. To add insult to injury, an angry vampire changes her into one of its own kind, making her an abomination called a 'werepire.' An offhand comment by her vampire 'mother' tells her that her change was not by accident, and this sets Siobhan on a mission to find out why she was twice-damned, and by whose orders.

Blood Oranges by Kathleen Tierney is a grown-up supernatural mystery with an extremely unreliable narrator. Siobhan Quinn resists telling the whole truth and sometimes embellishes her story, and her numerous asides help to expand the world that Tierney has created (and can sometimes detract from it). The author is also careful to distinguish her book from other supernatural stories, but does include nods to other works. This paranormal adventure is not for the faint of heart, either, with plenty of gore, cursing, and adult situations. Fans of Laurell K Hamilton's Anita Blake series will find much to like in this supernatural horror story, which is the first in a planned series.

Check Out Library Reads for Book Recommendations

I love making book recommendations through the Readers' Corner blog, the T-SPL Facebook page, and through in-person interactions.  It's one of those cool things I get to do at my job!  But I also love to speak with fellow librarians and receive recommendations for titles I missed.

There is a terrific new resource I would like to share with you called LibraryReads.  This is a program designed for librarians from around the country to make book recommendations.  The top ten titles of the month are then shared on the website!  What makes this program especially wonderful is the fact that multiple publishers are involved, including Random House, Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins, and Penguin.  The love of reading and making recommendations is bringing these publishers and librarians together.

Check out the November LibraryReads list:

Bellman & Black by Diane Setterfield
Through the Evil Days by Julia Spencer-Fleming
The Death of Santini by Pat Conroy
Someone Else's Love Story by Joshilyn Jackson
The Valley of Amazement by Amy Tan
Lies You Wanted to Hear by James Whitfield Thomson
The Cartographer of No Man's Land by P.S. Duffy
The Raven's Eye by Barry Maitland
Death of a Nightingale by Lene Kaaberbol and Agnete Friis
Parasite by Mira Grant

Man Booker Prize Shortlist

I have been meaning to post the Man Booker Prize Shortlist for a few weeks now, as they were announced on September 10.  If you missed our post on the longlist, you can find it at this link.

It is a bit embarrassing to admit that I have only read one of the titles making its way to the shortlist, We Need New Names, which was a wonderful read.  The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri is currently waiting for me on my Kindle, so maybe I can make up some ground soon.  I promise to catch up and give you all a full report!


Here are the titles making it to the shortlist:

We Need New Names by NoViolete Bulawayo
The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton
Harvest by Jim Crace
The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri
A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki
The Testament of Mary by Colm Toibin

What is really interesting about this list is the vast diversity of the authors.  Authors from New Zealand (Catton), England (Lahiri, of Indian descent, and Crace), Canada (Ozeki), Ireland (Toibin), and Zimbabwe (Bulawayo) are represented here.  Take a tour of the world by reading these six finalists!

Chris May- Adult Services Manager

New Zealand, England, Canada, Ireland and Zimbabwe

The Sad Songs of Willow Frost

See what I did there with the title?  It should tell you all you need to know about this beautiful, yet heartbreaking novel by Jamie Ford.  You should remember Ford from his wonderful debut, The Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, which was very well reviewed and nominated for a bunch of awards.

 This is a very touching book about young William Eng, a twelve year old boy living in an orphanage outside Seattle. He has vague memories about the night his mother disappeared, and the horrible sight that he saw but does not understand, which led to his placement at Sacred Heart Orphanage. He has never been told why she left and, more importantly, why she never came back.  Unfortunately, many of the young children at Sacred Heart have similar stories.

When the group is taken to a theater, William sees a woman on screen, Willow Frost, who looks just like his mother. He decides he must find this woman in an effort to finally find out the truth.  Aided by his best friend, Charlotte, a young blind girl in the orphanage, William escapes Sacred Heart in a desperate search for Willow Frost in the unlikely event that she is his mother.

The characters are very well developed. Charlotte, in particular, is an amazing young person in this story. Many of her moments with William are both beautiful and heartbreaking.  When you combine William's unfortunate past with Charlotte's, you have some powerful stuff.  But their will to not only survive, but to thrive, makes for a wonderful side story to William's search.  

Chris May- Adult Services Manager

Venice Thriller Debut by Jonathan Holt

In Venice, someone wearing priest's robes is found floating on the front steps of the Santa Maria della Salute, one of the city's most famous landmarks. The body turns out to be that of a woman shot in the head. By wearing sacred vestments, she has committed a grievous desecration in the eyes of the Catholic Church. Kat Tapo, a female Italian police captain, is tasked with solving the case. Meanwhile, Holly Boland, an American soldier from the military base in Venice, is given a Freedom of Information request dealing with a war lord in Bosnia, and what she finds may be a conspiracy decades old. The Abomination by Jonathan Holt is a tightly plotted, suspense-filled ride through the seedy underbelly of Venice.

The novel deals with themes of feminism, war crimes, loyalty, and internet privacy, so it is quite topical in terms of the recent NSA controversy. Holt shifts between a number of viewpoints during the course of the book, including Kat, Holly, and a hacker genius named Daniele Barbo, but the three viewpoints never become jumbled and are weaved together with skill. Holt also does a wonderful job of creating two strong female characters with dynamic personalities, which can be difficult for a male author. Fans of Stieg Larrson's Millennium series trilogy will be drawn in by this fast-paced, complex mystery, which is the first in a planned trilogy.

Shannon Wood, Adult Services Librarian

Celebrate Banned Books Week

Libraries and bookstores all across the country will be celebrating Banned Books Week from September 22-28.  The week celebrates our freedom to read what we choose and to challenge ourselves by reading books that past (and current) generations, individuals, organizations, and even countries have either banned or challenged for a variety of reasons.  For more information on Banned Books Week, visit this site.  The American Library Association also has a wonderful page.

I like to pick up at least one banned/challenged title during the week.  This year I chose Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway as my banned title to read.  I may be cheating as I'm currently working my way through all of Woolf's titles, but I like a good two birds with one stone situation.

I also enjoy going through the lists of banned/challenged books and finding those gems I have enjoyed over the years.  Titles like The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Beloved, The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, The Catcher in the Rye, and Fight Club wind up on every list.  But there are some others that fly under the radar.  One of the first banned books I enjoyed was Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers.  This title, depicting the realities of the Vietnam War, is often assigned in middle and high school literature classes.  I also have fond memories of reading A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle.  The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, the author of Half Broke Horses, is a powerful memoir of growing up with a mother suffering from mental illness and an alcoholic father.  Another commonly banned title is A Clockwork Orange, which was the first title I read when I became aware of Banned Books Week.  Finally, I loved Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God, about a young African American woman dealing with racism in 20th century United States.

Remember to exercise your right to read, not only this week, but throughout the year.

Historical Ninja Mystery

In 16th century Japan, a ninja named Hiro (more properly called a shinobi) is tasked with protecting Father Mateo, one of the first and only foreigners allowed to live and work in Kyoto. When one of Father Mateo's converts, a beautiful young entertainer named Sayuri, is accused of the murder of one of her patrons, the priest puts his own life on the line to buy time to prove her innocence. Hiro and Father Mateo must find the killer in two days, or else both the priest and Sayuri will be executed. The excellent debut novel The Claws of the Cat by Susan Spann is where mysteries and ancient Japan collide.

Spann's novel is an excellent mystery as well as a skillful introduction to 16th century Japanese culture. It refrains from passing judgement but details such traditions as the bushido code of the samurai and the rigid class system. Characters are rich and full of life, even secondary ones, and the bond between Hiro and Mateo is especially deep. The most singular aspect of this novel, however, is that it is a mystery set in the 16th century - no CSI fingerprinting and blood-spatter analysis here. Hiro uses clues such as the shape of footprints in blood, the potential motive of the killer, and his shinobi skills to solve the murder. It was intriguing to read a story where the detective was both a ninja and had to solve the mystery by using relatively simple (to modern readers) means. If you want to know more about Japanese culture and love an old-fashioned whodunit, you will enjoy this gripping mystery.

Shannon Wood, Adult Services Librarian

Paul Harding's Follow-Up to Tinkers

I encountered Paul Harding's work in 2010, after his novel Tinkers won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.  Tinkers was about George Washington Crosby, a clock repairman whose own time is about to run out.  As he lays on his deathbed, Crosby relives his troubled childhood and his relationship with his epileptic father.  I had mixed feelings about the book, but Harding's unique and mesmerizing use of language was apparent.  His follow-up, Enon, is due out this month and I was lucky enough to get my hands on an advance copy.

Harding's subject this time is Charlie Crosby, grandson of George Washington Crosby.  The mood, as in the first book, is certainly not light.  Charlie has just lost his daughter in an accident and his wife has left to spend time with her family, though it becomes clear she is not coming back.  The reader delves into Charlie's day to day life which becomes more and more unsettling.  He barely eats, wanders the town of Enon, visits his daughters grave nightly, and has bizarre interactions with the people of the town. 

If there is one thing to take from this book it's that Paul Harding is an absolute master with language.  The disconcerting details of Charlie's plunge into borderline madness, mixed with the vivid descriptions of Enon and its people, are truly amazing.  The subject matter, while unpleasant, shows what a parent with no support could go through after losing a child.

Chris May- Adult Services Manager

Need a Discussion Guide for Your Book Group?

We love helping out local book groups at the Tiffin-Seneca Public Library!  Let us know if you have a group and need help ordering enough copies for your members.  We would be more than happy to help!

But what about book discussion guides?  There's no worse feeling than not having enough interesting questions for the group.  Never fear!  Check out these sites below for excellent book discussion guides (click the images to enter the sites):

NoveList Plus is an excellent subscription service offered for free through the library.  You will be asked for either your zip code or library card number when entering the site.  Click on "Book Discussion Guides" on the right-hand side of the page.

BookBrowse is a tremendous free service for book reviews, author/title read-alikes and book discussion guides.  Hover over the Book Clubs tab on the top of the screen and you will see Reading Guides listed.

LitLovers is similar to BookBrowse.  It even includes useful tips on starting your own book club!  Go to LitResources on the left-hand side of the screen.  Reading Guides is listed under this heading.



Don't forget that the library also offers to book groups!  Let's Talk About It meets on the first Thursday of the month at 10:30 am.  Copies of the next book, Mountains Beyond Mountains, are available at the Information Desk.  Our other book group, Coffee By the Book, meets at Bailiwicks Coffee Company on the third Thursday of the month at 6:00 pm.  Copies of this month's title, The Unchangeable Spots of Leopards, are also available.

2013 Ohioana Award Winners Announced

The 2013 Ohioana Award winners were recently announced, with a reception to be held on October 11 at the Ohio Statehouse.  If you are unfamiliar with the Ohioana Library Association, visit the organization's website here.  According to the site "The Ohioana Book Awards are given annually to recognize and honor outstanding books published the previous year by authors who were born in Ohio or who have lived in Ohio for at least five years, the exception being a book about Ohio or an Ohioan and, this year’s the special category, fiction set in Ohio".

Here are this year's award winners:

Ohioana Book Award for Fiction
The Coldest Night by Robert Olmstead

Ohioana Book Award for Nonfiction
The Bluebird Effect: Uncommon Bonds with Common Birds by Julie Zickefoose

Ohioana Book Award for Juvenile Literature
His Name Was Raoul Wallenberg: Courage, Rescue and Mystery During World War II by Louise Borden



Ohioana Book Award for Fiction Set in Ohio
The Last Runaway by Tracy Chevalier

Ohioana Book Award for About Ohio or an Ohioan
America's Other Audubon by Joy Kiser

So Your Best Friend is a Kraken

Lilly is the daughter of a rich merchant, but the birthmark on her face marks her as a witch to the townsfolk.  Isolated from other people, she strikes up a friendship with a young kraken that she names Octavius. Yes, you read that right - a kraken. Sea Change, S. M. Wheeler's debut novel, is a dizzying journey through a fantasy world with a cast of strange, mythical characters. When Octavius is kidnapped and sold to the circus, Lilly sets out to rescue him and along the way meets trolls, mermaids, witches, and other mysterious monsters. In order to save her friend, she must make sacrifices that she never knew were possible.

Wheeler's novel is a wildly creative, dark fairy tale in the vein of the original Brothers Grimm stories before they were watered down for Disney. There is gore, blood, horror, and cruelty, but also family, love, and friendship. The novel explores the lengths gone to for friendship and how an unwavering belief, even one with good intentions, will change the person who believes it. One downside to Wheeler's writing style is that the dialogue is somewhat stilted, and I found myself having to read some exchanges multiple times to understand what was going on. However, Wheeler makes up for this with the dark, creative horrors that leap from her mind to the page. Fans of Neil Gaiman's work, especially Neverwhere, will enjoy Wheeler's twisted, visceral fairy tale world.

Shannon Wood, Adult Services Librarian

People Don't Just Disappear

Dani Keller wakes up after late night party with her husband and some of his business associates and starts her regular Sunday morning routine.  A headache looks to be on the horizon and all she wants to do is sit outside of her husband, Ian, and her houseboat and drink some coffee.  Strange, though, that Ian is nowhere to be found.  The minutes turn into hours and, before she knows it, Dani is panicking at the thought of Ian missing.  And thus begins Deb Caletti's thrilling novel, He's Gone.

My expectations were for this work to be a classic thriller/whodunit kind of story.  I was pleasantly surprised to find more substance in Caletti's study of Ian and Dani's marriage.  Both were involved in unhappy marriages before finding each other.  Dani's ex-husband was abusive towards her and Ian's ex-wife simply took advantage of him.  Despite both feeling guilty about their infidelity, Dani and Ian feel that they are soul mates.

However, as Ian remains missing, Dani finds herself dissecting her relationship with Ian.  She quickly finds that not everything is as rosy as she previously thought and there are some unsettled things between them.  Ian's personality, his (and Dani's) relationship with his ex-wife and two children, his relationship with Dani's daughter are just some of the things Dani examines while she investigates Ian's disappearance.  She believes that people don't just disappear and starts to wonder whether Ian would have left on his own.

I flew through this character study to not only find out what happened to Ian, but to find out how he and Dani, while appearing to be soul mates on the surface, were not quite the couple everyone assumed them to be.

Chris May- Adult Services Manager

Common Read Events for Fall 2013

Tiffin-Seneca Public Library is very proud to team up with Heidelberg University and Bailiwicks Coffee Company to present the Common Read 2013.  This series of events takes the place of former Community-Wide Read events of years past, though with the same emphasis on discussing one classic work of literature with the Tiffin community.

This year's work is Mary Shelley's classic, Frankenstein!  We will have copies available at the library, so come pick one up and get ready for these terrific upcoming events:

• Tues. Sept 10, 6:00pm  General Book Discussion
  Baliwicks Coffee Company
• Thurs. Sept 19, 8:00pm  Frankenstein & Bride of Frankenstein
  University Commons
• Tues. Oct 1, 6:00pm  Frankenstein and Pop Culture
  Aramark Room
• Thurs. Oct 3, 9:00pm  Franenweenie
  University Commons
• Thurs. Oct 10, 7:00pm  Myths about Frankenstein
  Tiffin-Seneca Public Library
• Sun. Oct 13, 2:00pm  Frankenweenie (matinee)
  Tiffin-Seneca Public Library
• Wed. Oct 16, 6:00pm  Creating the MONSTER: Frankenstein in the Arts
  Aramark Room
• Oct. 18 or 19, 8:00pm  Frankenstein!!
  Toledo Symphony
• Oct. 31-Nov. 3  Young Frankenstein
  The Ritz Theatre

Click here for more information on this year's Common Read events.

Amy Falls Down...and Becomes a Star

With a title like Amy Falls Down, I knew I could not possibly resist Jincy Willett's latest novel.  I hate to admit that a title/cover combination is enough to make me want to read the book but, in this particular case, I am very happy I picked this one up.

Amy Gallup is a promising young author who several literary magazines dub the next best thing.  Wait.  That was years ago.  Her books are out of print now and she is happy living her life in obscurity.  But then, as the title suggests, she takes a nasty fall in her garden, hitting her head on a birdbath.  This occurs a few hours before she is to give a brief interview for the local newspaper on local authors.  Amy, not quite knowing what she is saying and having no recollection of it, gives the interview with hilarious results.  Everyone takes her rambling as creative genius.  All of a sudden, Amy is hot again.  Her old agent contacts her, a local writing group wants her to teach, demand for her books goes up, and Amy even begins writing again.  Sounds good, right?  Not to Amy.  She wants to live under the radar and finds her new celebrity as a curse rather than a blessing.

Willett has created a honest, sarcastic, and take-no-prisoners character who is also very likable and sympathetic.  That is a very difficult thing to do.  Amy could easily have been an overbearing character but instead became the one character I could identify with in several ways. 

You'll laugh.  You'll cry.  But whatever you do, stay away from birdbaths!

Chris May- Adult Services Manager

Marisha Pessl's Newest Blockbuster Thriller

If you love thrillers, horror, or mysteries, you have to read Night Film by Marisha Pessl. Scott McGrath, disgraced journalist, receives a tip about the death of the daughter of the man who ruined his career. This man is cult horror film auteur Stanislas Cordova, who has not left his backwoods estate in thirty years and holds a mythical status among his followers. Of course McGrath believes that the death was not just a suicide and investigates, digging deeper and deeper into Cordova's past. Piece by piece the web of myths, dark deeds, and shrouded history is unraveled, but who knows if he will ever find the truth.

Pessl uses fantastic, lyrical descriptions and weaves together a tapestry of websites, newspaper articles, pictures to make Cordova and his films real. The mythos behind Cordova and his night films is so tightly crafted that I began to think I could find them somewhere on the internet. Pessl skillfully builds the creepy atmosphere of her novel one piece at a time to ratchet up the tension, until something has to snap - and snap it did. I had to put down the book at one point because I was so freaked out. But aside from the horror aspect, it is an excellent mystery with pieces doled one at a time to reveal a larger picture which may never be fully explained. This hybrid of many genres is an excellent read that will keep you on the edge of your seat and haunt you for days after you finish it.

Shannon Wood, Adult Services Librarian

25 Best Debuts of the 2000s

If you are familiar with my posts, you know of my love for debut novels.  There is just something about discovering a new author who not only has a terrific writing style but is also willing to try something different.  The amount of solid debuts over the past few years has been nothing short of astounding.  It looks like others are thinking the same thing. I just ran across this post from BookPage.  The publication is looking at the 25 Best Debuts of the 2000s and, I have to say, it is quite the list.

There are many here that don't surprise me at all.  The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson and The Help by Kathryn Stockett are all-star examples.  But there are a few titles in this list you may have missed.  American Rust by Philipp Meyer and The Monsters of Templeton by Lauren Groff are two examples that may have flown under your radar.

But what about the 2010s?  Granted, it's only 2013, but the past couple years have produced a ton of debut novels.  Beautiful debuts like ML Stedman's The Light Between Oceans, The Dangers of Proximal Alphabets by Kathleen Alcott and The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern.  Some have been downright uncomfortable like Still Missing by Chevy Stevens and Room by Emma Donoghue.  And, of course, some have been downright bizzare like The Family Fang by Kevin Wilson and Bed by David Whitehouse.

What are some of your favorite debut novels?

Chris May- Manager of Adult Services

Hypnotizing Sci-Fi Thriller by Max Barry

Wil and Emily live in a world where people can be controlled with words. Not just metaphorically - literally controlled by carefully selected strings of words. In Max Barry's Lexicon, a mysterious organization, the Academy, whose members are called Poets, determine personality type using a test of ten questions (linked here). Using the answers to these questions, they can find out the segment (personality type) of the person they are interviewing. Once a Poet discovers your segment, they can control you and command you to do anything. Wil is an outlier - he is immune to these words. Because of this, he is being hunted by a Poet named Woolf. In the second of the two storylines, Emily, sixteen and homeless, is recruited by the Academy to become one of their newest Poets.

If you want a fun summer read, this book will suck you in. A gripping thriller, the novel's fast-paced science fiction action has intriguing links to the Babel legend and other similar events. The characters of Emily and Wil are believable in that they have their own faults and act like regular people (no heroics here, at least at first). The science behind it is intriguing, even if somewhat unbelievable. The book explores the power of words and how we persuade others, even without special command words. Despite a rather slow third act, Lexicon will enthrall you from the second you see the first words on the page.

Shannon Wood, Adult Services Librarian

Man Booker Prize Longlist Announced

 I'm very excited because the longlist for the Man Booker Prize was recently announced.  This award, along with the National Book Awards, is one of the few literary awards I pay attention to year after year.  Besides being excited, I'm also a bit overwhelmed since I have to add most of these to my to-read list.  Keep in mind, a few of these titles are not officially out until the Fall.

Here are the titles:

Five Star Billionaire Tash Aw (Fourth Estate)

We Need New Names NoViolet Bulawayo (Chatto & Windus)

The Luminaries Eleanor Catton (Granta)

Harvest Jim Crace (Picador)

The Marrying of Chani Kaufman Eve Harris (Sandstone Press)

The Kills Richard House (Picador) 

The Lowland Jhumpa Lahiri (Bloomsbury)

Unexploded Alison MacLeod ( Hamish Hamilton) 

TransAtlantic Colum McCann (Bloomsbury) 

Almost English Charlotte Mendelson (Mantle) 

A Tale for the Time Being Ruth Ozeki (Canongate)

The Spinning Heart Donal Ryan (Doubleday)

The Testament of Mary Colm Tóibín (Viking)

- See more at: http://www.themanbookerprize.com/news/longlist-2013-announced#sthash.xb5SNatr.dpuf

Five Star Billionaire Tash Aw (Fourth Estate)

We Need New Names NoViolet Bulawayo (Chatto & Windus)

The Luminaries Eleanor Catton (Granta)

Harvest Jim Crace (Picador)

The Marrying of Chani Kaufman Eve Harris (Sandstone Press)

The Kills Richard House (Picador) 

The Lowland Jhumpa Lahiri (Bloomsbury)

Unexploded Alison MacLeod ( Hamish Hamilton) 

TransAtlantic Colum McCann (Bloomsbury) 

Almost English Charlotte Mendelson (Mantle) 

A Tale for the Time Being Ruth Ozeki (Canongate)

The Spinning Heart Donal Ryan (Doubleday)

The Testament of Mary Colm Tóibín (Viking)

- See more at: http://www.themanbookerprize.com/news/longlist-2013-announced#sthash.xb5SNatr.dpuf

Five Star Billionaire by Tash Aw
We Need New Names by NoViolet Bulawayo
The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton
Harvest by Jim Crace
The Marrying of Chani Kaufman by Eve Harris
The Kills by Richard House
The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri 
Unexploded by Alison MacLeod 
TransAtlantic by Colum McCann
Almost English by Charlotte Mendelson 
A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki
The Spinning Heart by Donal Ryan 
The Testament of Mary by Colm Tóibín

TransAtlantic and We Need New Names have both been reviewed here at the Readers' Corner.  But it looks like I definitely have some catching up to do!

Chris May- Manager of Adult Services

Fall "Let's Talk About It" Book Club Preview

It's getting to be that time again... book club season! The "Let's Talk About It" book group is starting up again on September 5*. Check out this preview of upcoming titles!

The novel for the first meeting is one I've reviewed for this blog before and one I greatly enjoyed: The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak. It is the story of Liesel, a young German orphan who goes to live with foster parents during World War II. You can read my review of it here, but suffice to say it is deeply emotional and moving. Copies of The Book Thief are available now for check out at the Information Desk.

For a little variety, I included a nonfiction title in our Fall book club lineup. Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder is a biographical account of the life of Paul Farmer, a doctor and anthropologist who traveled the world  fighting diseases, tuberculosis in particular. The discussion starts on October 3, so don't miss it!

The November selection is a relatively new title, published in May of this year: The Dog Stars by Peter Heller. We will talk about this one on November 7. In a post-apocalyptic world, a man lives in an aircraft hanger with his dog. When he receives a message on his radio, he ventures out to find the source, and what he discovers is nothing he ever expected.

For the last book before the holidays, I decided on something a little lighter. On December 5, we will discuss Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand by Helen Simonson. In a small village in the English countryside, Major Pettigrew lives in peace and quiet until his brother dies unexpectedly. This sparks a friendship between he and Miss Jasmina Ali, a Pakistani shopkeeper in the village. As their friendship turns into something more, the relationship is tested by those who think that romance between locals and outsiders is wrong.

Please join us for our first meeting on September 5 - you can expect lively discussion and light refreshments. We hope to see you there!

*All meetings of the "Let's Talk" book club are at 10:30 a.m. on the first Thursday of the month and take place in the Junior Home room at T-SPL.

Shannon Wood, Adult Services Librarian