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

From Africa to America in NoViolet Bulawayo's We Need New Names

NoViolet Bulawayo, born and raised in Zimbabwe, is making a splash with her debut novel, We Need New Names.  The work has already been included in the Man Booker Prize longlist (look for a future post on the list) , making her the only African writer up for the award this year.  Reviews of have been spectacular, so I was eagerly anticipating reading this one.

Darling begins her journey in Zimbabwe.  She spends most of her with a group of her closest friends, getting into the kind of mischief children often get into.  They steal guavas from neighboring rich areas, harass police, make fun of the adults, without missing a chance to laugh at each other.  But each is haunted by the better times that came before military forces destroyed their homes, forcing them to live a life never before imagined.  Darling soon finds herself with an out.  Her aunt, who lives in Detroit, decides to take Darling into her home and give her the opportunity to make it in America.  But Darling finds that America is not quite the America of her dreams.  She is an outsider in a strange land that does not quite live up to the expectations she had while living in Zimbabwe.

This work, at times, will make you laugh out loud.  At other times, it evokes a powerful emotional response.  Above all, it is a very moving and poignant debut novel.  I found myself re-reading sections and even having to set it down after several of the emotional moments.  Bulawayo's triumph is how she makes the reader feel not only Darling's struggle, but the struggle of those who have lost everything and find themselves in a new place. 

Chris May- Manager of Adult Services