Carnegie Medals Shortlist

I did it!  My stack of books to read is at a manageable level!  Oh...wait...the shortlists for the Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction were recently announced?  And I still have not read some of these titles.  Disregard my previous statement about my to-read list being at a normal level.  It's not.

These awards are some of the newest in the list of literary prizes.  In only the second year, the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the American Library Association have made the fiction and nonfiction awards into highly respected prizes.  Here's this year's shortlist:

Finalists for Fiction

This is How You Lose Her- Junot Díaz
The Round House- Louise Erdrich
Canada- Richard Ford

Finalists for Nonfiction

Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher- Timothy Egan
The Mansion of Happiness- Jill Lepore
Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic- David Quammen

The winners will be announced at the American Library Association Annual Conference on June 30.

Of course, the Man Booker Prize longlist is set to be announced at the end of July.  Looks like I have some catching up to do.

Debut Fantasy novel by Helene Wecker - The Golem and the Jinni

It is 1899 in New York City. Immigrants arrive daily at Ellis Island, hoping to start again in the new world. Two lost souls disembark separately but are drawn inexorably to each other, each trapped in their own way. Somehow the two strangers find solace in their shared otherness.

It may sound familiar, but what sets this book apart is that the main characters are a golem and a jinni, creatures from Jewish and Arabic legend, respectively. The jinni arrived in a flask and was released (just like in the stories) by a man rubbing the bottle, and the golem was abandoned when her master died on the crossing to America. Both are rudderless, lost, and utterly opposite. They must learn together how to survive in the human world and avoid those who would expose their secret.

Helene Wecker's debut novel, The Golem and the Jinni, is difficult to describe. It is engaging, enthralling, and  accessible, and captures perfectly what it is to be an outsider. The characters are multifaceted, deep, and flawed people who should not be friends but somehow find strength and understanding in each other. It is a fairy tale, yet viscerally real at the same time, and Wecker has succeeded in creating a world where fantasy and reality effortlessly intertwine.

Shannon Wood, Adult Services Librarian

A Love Triangle Written With Depth

I was skeptical when I picked up Daphne Kalotay's newest novel, Sight Reading.  The reviews I read were pretty positive but, let's face it, most stories dealing with love triangles often rely on poorly constructed archetypes.  The characters are usually shallow and there's no real depth to them.  But not with this work.

The story begins twenty years ago and looks at the marriage of Nicholas and Hazel.  Nicholas is a gifted composer and classical music lecturer who travels the world to be wherever he is most in demand.  Hazel willingly goes along with nary a complaint, trying her best to put some time into her own artistic endeavors.  They find themselves in Boston where Nicholas meets Remy, a gifted but very confident student at the conservatory.  While things begin innocently enough, eventually the two strike up a romance, leaving Hazel looking in from the outside.

Years go by as the reader follows each of these characters in the aftermath of Nicholas' decision.  Secrets threaten to throw each of them into ruin.  The question remains, can they each gain a respect for each other that previously never present?

What struck me most about this work is the depth of each character.  I really had a feeling of what to expect from each at times, but was quite surprised by some of their actions.  You'll soon find that the secondary characters area also well written and have a major affect on the story.  This novel does not rely on stereotypes nor is it formulaic.

Chris May- Head of Adult Services

Graphic Novels @ T-SPL - Sailor Twain or: The Mermaid in the Hudson

This week it's another graphic novel review from T-SPL, for Sailor Twain or: The Mermaid in the Hudson by Mark Siegel.

Elijah Twain captains a steamboat traversing the Hudson River. One night he finds a woman clinging to the side of his boat, grievously injured. When he pulls her from the river, he is astonished to find that she is a mermaid. He nurses her back to health in his cabin, hiding her from the amorous owner of his vessel. But Twain falls under the mermaid's spell, and interest turns to obsession.

Siegel weaves this gripping tale with the skill of a master, creating his own American legend inspired by Greek mythology. The girl in the water is definitely not a Disney mermaid - she is a siren from legend, luring people to bad ends with her song. It also must be said that this graphic novel is for adults and older teens, since there is a lot of nudity (the mermaid is bare-chested throughout the novel) and characters engage in briefly-depicted sex. The book explores themes of love, obsession, and lust. I liked that no character is entirely good or entirely evil, each one is sympathetic in their own way, and there is no clear-cut villain. Siegel's hazy, dreamlike charcoal drawings complement the novel's gloomy, unreal atmosphere. If you like a healthy dose of myth mixed in with your history, you will love this book.

Below are samples of Siegel's gorgeous charcoal drawings:

Mark Siegel/First Second Books

Mark Siegel/First Second Books

Shannon Wood, Adult Services Librarian

Check Out Our Adult Summer Reading Programs!

Did you know the Tiffin-Seneca Public Library has two adult summer reading programs?  There's still plenty of time to sign up for both!

Groundbreaking Reads is our adult program for those who prefer print titles or eBooks.  Simply register at the Information Desk in the library to be entered into the program.  Then, each time you come to the library, fill out an entry slip for every book you read and place it in the box at the Information Desk.  This will enter you into our prize drawing for all kinds of great items like gift cards to Phat Cakes, Bailiwicks, Wagner Flowers, Mane Cinsations, Fireside Cafe Pub, and  Ralph's Joy of Living.  Winners will be selected and contacted August 1.

Prefer to listen to audiobooks?  Don't fret!  U Need 2 Listen is our summer listening program.  It works the same way as Groundbreaking Reads and you even receive a free pair of ear buds when you sign up for the program!  Fill out an entry form for each audiobook you listen to between now and the end of July and place them in the separate audio club entry box at the Information Desk.  Prizes include gift cards to Pizza Hut, Ralph's Joy of Living, Phat Cakes, Bailiwicks, and Cinemark.  Prizes will be drawn on August 1.

Keep reading and listening to your favorite titles and authors!

Still Alice

Fifty-year-old Alice has a wonderful life: a loving husband, a fulfilling career as a tenured psychology professor at Harvard, and three successful adult children. Sometimes she forgets things, such as where she put her keys. Like most of us would, she chalks it up to normal aging memory problems. Then one day she becomes totally lost while running only a few miles from her house on a route she has taken many times before. After many doctor visits, Alice is diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's disease.

Still Alice by Lisa Genova is a New York Times bestselling novel that tells the story of Alzheimer's from the victim's perspective. It is heartbreaking to watch as Alice's thought processes become confused, repeat themselves, and eventually break down completely. Genova does an amazing job of showing the reader what it would feel like to have the disease: the fear, bewilderment, and confusion as short term memory dies. Alice's relationships with her family and friends are particularly poignant and realistic, as her family is afraid, angry, and sad in turns and her colleagues avoid and fear her.

This novel is an excellent character study of a woman who is literally losing her mind bit by bit. The reader feels the fear and confusion Alice feels as she surrenders more and more functioning and memory to the disease, and your heart will break as you watch her condition deteriorate further. A terribly sad and moving look at a woman with a disease for which there is no cure.

Shannon Wood - Adult Services Librarian

Do Not Mess With Vanessa Michael Munroe

Taylor Stevens broke into the thriller scene in 2011 with The Informationist.  The heroine, Vanessa Michael Munroe, finds information for people in a no-holds-barred manner.  She is hired by a Texas billionaire to find his daughter who disappeared in Africa four years later.  Munroe's unique skill set, such as learning languages at a rapid pace and her extensive weapons and hand-to-hand combat training, make her the perfect solution for this type of problem.    The sequel, The Innocent, found Munroe trying to rescue a girl who had been taken by a cult and later moved to Argentina.

That brings us to the third book in the series, The Doll, which finds Munroe in a vastly different situation.  She has been kidnapped by a human trafficking ring headed by the Doll Maker.  Her mission is to transport the Doll Maker's most precious cargo, a famous young actress who the world is searching for.  Munroe finds herself having to play along because her friends are also in jeopardy.

I really enjoyed this new side to the Vanessa Michael Munro series.  Seeing the heroine as a victim to start the novel really set it on a different course than the other two titles.  Some of her unique skills are utilized more here than in the previous books, specifically her ability to learn languages simply by hearing them a few times.  The banter between herself and the young actress is spot-on for the situation and very believable.  Taylor Stevens has certainly got a good thing going here and I look forward to another Munroe title in the future.

Chris May- Head of Adult Services