Tuesday, July 31, 2012

The Last Policeman by Ben H. Winters

The Last Policeman by Ben H. Winters

The world will end in six months.  That’s when the asteroid is going to crash into the earth.  Know to be statistically improbable the impact is now a harsh reality.  Everyone knows exactly how much time they have until the world ends.

Hank Palace is a policeman, a detective really; he is what he always wanted to be.  His job is extremely difficult with people walking off their jobs to work on their bucket lists and people in his jurisdiction (Concord, New Hampshire) working on their bucket lists and breaking the law.  Being arrested, even for petty crimes, is a big deal.  Do you want to spend the last six months of your life in jail?  But Hank enjoys his job and goes to work every morning.  “Hangers” (that is how the people of Concord choosing to commit suicide prior to the big event tend to do it) are commonplace.  But something about the “hanger” at the local McDonald’s doesn’t sit right with Hank.  He feels it was murder.  He chooses to investigate.

There are a lot of books out there about the end of the world and what life is like after the big event.  There are a few that tell the story of the world ending/getting very messed up and what life is like (for example The Age of Miracles below).  There are very few that address a countdown to the inevitable end of life as we know it.  It’s interesting to see how people and the government deal with impending doom.  And it’s especially interesting that Winters chose to tell this story as a gritty mystery novel.

The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker

The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker

Julia is a typical eleven year old living in Southern California.  She has a crush on a boy, problems with friends, and sometimes doesn’t understand her parents.  Then one day the slowing is announced.  The world isn’t turning the way it used to.  Days are getting longer, and longer, and it’s getting really obvious that life is changing.  When a day reaches past 30 hours the government steps in and announces that the world will be living on clock time.  Days are still considered to be 24-hours but sometimes that means Julia is going to school in pitch darkness and going to sleep in bright sunlight.  There are those who feel life is meant to be lived by the rising and setting of the sun and there is some fighting between the clock-timers and the real-timers.  All Julia wants to do is survive middle school but the slowing is really making life difficult.

Global catastrophe through the eyes of a pre-teen is an interesting concept.  She fills us in on the troubles of the wider world (a rotation of the earth climbing towards 48 hours, wheat crop failures, radiation fears) but she is mostly focused on what is going on in her immediate universe.  How her best friend has left, the boy she likes is mad at her and her mother is suffering from the newly coined gravity sickness. 

Never oppressive or depressing, it is food for thought.  How would you handle something so devastating?  How would you choose to live your life?  And really, are the things we worry about every day actually worth worrying so much about?

Monday, July 30, 2012

The Hypnotist by Lars Kepler

The Hypnotist by Lars Kepler

The more Scandinavian mysteries and thrillers I read the more I like them.  They never seem to head where I think they are going.  Which I find wonderful.

A teenaged boy is found stabbed repeatedly, over 100 times, and suffering from blood loss.  His father, mother and younger sister have all been murdered.  No one knows where his older sister is and the police fear for her life.  Detective Inspector Joona Linna calls hypnotist Dr. Erik Maria Bark out of retirement – he can see no other way to retrieve the information from the injured boy’s mind that may save his sister’s life.  What they learn from the boy while he is under hypnosis is astounding. 

The novel seems to revolve around Dr. Bark and the current incident that makes him break the vow he made ten years previously to never again hypnotize anyone.  We learn how hypnotism is a valuable tool for psychologists dealing with victims of trauma, but also how it can be seen as an invasion of privacy on a very deep level.  Past and present meet with shocking results.

The next novel in the series The Nightmare was recently released and I am waiting patiently for it.  I have to admit I thought that Dr. Bark would be the constant in the series, but it will be DI Linna.  The authors (Lars Kepler is a fictitious person, a husband and wife team write the novels – I have seen them speak and they are absolutely charming) didn’t reveal too much about their main character in the first entry of the series.  We know that he has the uncanny ability to be right all of the time and he gets obsessed with solving crimes.  I am looking forward to getting to know him better.

Redshirts by John Scalzi

Redshirts by John Scalzi

If you’re ever watched Star Trek you know that wearing a red shirt is a bad thing.  Why?  Because if you go on an away mission you will die a heinously awful (often pointlessly weird) death. 

The crew of the Intrepid, the flagship of the Universal Union, is exploring the far reaches of space in galaxies far away and far into the future and they are noticing disturbing trends.  Any non-officer who goes on an away mission often suffers a horrible death by strange means – malfunctioning repair robots turned into killers, exploding heads, even the hard to picture ice shark.  No one seems to care.  It’s the flagship and the death toll should be higher than the other ships in the fleet.  But the crew of the Intrepid are scared for their lives.  And when one shell-shocked crew member talks of the video archives of a long ago television program and how their statistics and circumstances mirror their own, the newest members of the crew start to listen.

Absurd, funny and mind-bending, this is a great escape for lovers of Star Trek, science fiction and just plain crazy plotlines.

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes

The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes

I’ll admit it.  If a book wins a major literary award (this particular novel won the 2011 Man Booker Prize) I do my best not to read it.  This slight book was picked by my local book group and I didn’t feel right as a librarian to argue against an acclaimed book the rest of the group was excited about.  And at less than 200 pages I figured I could suffer in silence.  I didn’t suffer exactly.  I found that the writing was wonderful and enough to keep me reading a story that I felt was lacking.  Then I attended book group and we started chatting.  And chatting.  And exclaiming things like: Do you think that’s really what was going on?!  We found ourselves loving the way the author told the story since we’re still not completely confident that we got it right.

Now a fan of the book, I want to see if another group has a similar experience.  That and I really want to re-read it knowing what I think I now know…  The Popular Fiction Book Discussion Group will be meeting on Tuesday, September 18th at 7pm at the Bridgewater Library to talk about this book.

The Long Earth by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter

The Long Earth by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter

What if you could download plans from the internet and with these plans, a handful of supplies from the local Radio Shack and a potato make your own stepper?  Why you’d be able to flip the switch west or east and “step” into the earth next to us.  And you could possibly keep going for millions of steps.  No one knows, but the iterations of the earth appear to be endless.  Each new long earth is an earth that could have been.  My personal favorite: what if the catastrophic collision that created our moon never happened?  What would our planet be like? 

The narrative follows Joshua, a natural stepper who can flit between the earths of the long earth without a device and without feeling ill while stepping – which is a deterrent to most people getting too far from datum earth (our earth).  We also follow Lobsang, a computer who is given rights as a human being since he has managed to prove himself to be the reincarnation of a Tibetan man.  These touches of whimsy, and the odd jokes thrown throughout, are definitely the Pratchett touches coming through!

The book, while fun and funny also brings up some really interesting “what if?” questions.  Gold is awful easy to find when you already know where it was discovered and can just step an earth over or two to get it, what would happen to the economy?  Does a country govern the same boundaries of land across the long earth?  While many questions are answered, many are not, and I’m looking forward to the next book in the series to see what happens in the long earth.

The Reckoning by Jane Casey

The Reckoning by Jane Casey

Maeve Kerrigan just got assigned a new supervisor.  She can’t find anything in the boxes scattered around her new flat.  And her love life is a shambles.  While her personal life isn’t the focus of the book, knowing her as a person helps see Maeve as a hard worker dedicated to her job and determined to make a good impression.  Maeve is a Detective Constable who just got assigned to the most unpopular case the force has seen in recent memory.  Someone is torturing convicted pedophiles to death.  While her fellow London police don’t feel too concerned she feels for the way these men died, especially since a few may have been innocent of any wrongdoing.

If you’re a fan of British police procedurals Jane Casey is a name to watch.

Monday, July 16, 2012

More Scintillating Summer Reads -- All Summer Long by Susan Mallery

All Summer Long by Susan Mallery
Reviewed by Cassandra, Collection Management Library

I’ve been waiting for the story of tomboy firefighter Charlie for a while in the Fools Gold series. I almost gave up on the series after one or two that were fairly blah. However, Charlie’s story gave me faith in the series again! Charlie’s superstar ballerina mother left her with trust issues and a low self esteem. Charlie has combated these issues by distancing herself from her mother and becoming a strong, capable woman. Unfortunately, in walks her estranged mother looking for a relationship. Fortunately, the 3rd Stryker brother, ex-underwear model Clay Stryker, strolls into Fools Gold to start a new business venture and acts as Charlie’s ally and unexpected temptation. I loved this story because of Charlie’s resilience, her mother’s super nasty attitude followed by a heartfelt turn-around and sexy Clay’s desire to be taken seriously as a businessman. A very nice addition to the series!

More Scintillating Summer Reads -- Can’t Hurry Love by Molly O’Keefe

Can’t Hurry Love by Molly O’Keefe
Reviewed by Cassandra, Collection Management Library

Victoria Baker is the widowed wife of a disgraced financier. She returns to the Crooked Creek Ranch in Texas in the hopes of giving her son a better place to live without the ridicule heaped on them by their “friends” in NYC. Eli Turnbull has spent his entire life working the Crooked Creek Ranch only to have Victoria return home and snatch it away from him. The tension between the two is palatable and the passion runs wild. As Victoria and Eli both try to turn their lives around, bad relationships and crazy finances may drive them apart. It is a story full of interesting characters and the side characters are almost more compelling than the main characters. Eli is hard to like – even though he is a rugged, handsome cowboy. Victoria is a little too wilting flower – even though she starts to toughen up. It is kind of a crazy story with lots of side stories. I am still not sure if I like it but I finished it so that says something.

More Scintillating Summer Reads -- At Last by Jill Shalvis

At Last by Jill Shalvis
Reviewed by Cassandra, Collection Management Library

Amy Michaels is looking for a place to feel safe and belong. Lucky Harbor seemed like a good stopping point and waitressing in the local cafĂ© seemed a great way to pull in rent money and in walks in the local park ranger, Matt Bowers. Dubbed “Hot Buns” by the local gossip reporter, Matt has had a crush on Amy since she started serving him his weekly double burger and soda. It isn’t until Amy gets lost in the woods while trying to uncover her grandmother’s secret and Matt has to rescue her does their romance takes off. However, both Amy and Matt have trust issues. Are they capable of a lasting relationship? Shalvis once again brings together two steaming hot characters and fills their back history with drama and their current lives with missed connections and mystery. Another good read in the Lucky Harbor series.

More Scintillating Summer Reads -- Forever and a Day by Jill Shalvis

Forever and a Day by Jill Shalvis
Reviewed by Cassandra, Collection Management Library

Grace blows into Lucky Harbor after leaving a lucrative accounting position in the city. She is ready to start over and her chocolate addicted friends, Mallory and Amy, are there to help encourage her to find a place in Lucky Harbor. Grace picks up odd jobs to make ends meet and in the process meets sexy single dad and ER doctor Josh Scott. It is another sexy, summer read with fun characters, a bit of drama and the nagging question of whether or not their love will last. Will Josh find a way to make time for his son and Grace? Or will Grace leave Lucky Harbor to find a more lucrative job?

Friday, July 6, 2012

Nocturnal by Scott Sigler

Nocturnal by Scott Sigler

If you’re a fan of police procedurals with well-developed characters, great snappy dialogue and twisty plots give this one a chance.  This is the story of two normal cops, good cops, good guys, who get sucked into the underworld of San Francisco.  And I mean that literally.  The world under San Francisco.  The world “they” inhabit.  The monsters.  The ones who have been tearing the limbs off of people and possibly eating them as well. 

The first half of the book reads like any other great serial killer thriller, and then things start to fall into place.  And the picture those pieces create is not anything that makes sense in our reality.  The book crosses over from police procedural to urban fantasy seamlessly; fans of either genre should appreciate the skill Sigler has to mix the two.  One warning though, Sigler is great at writing horror and a bit of his penchant for gore drips onto the page.

Sigler wrote one of the most memorable books I’ve ever read: Infected.  (If you like horror, you can not beat that one.  Can’t remember if you’ve read it?  Blue triangles – if those two words don’t make you cringe, you didn’t read it.)  I have made a point to wait for each new book that comes out, and he didn’t disappoint me with his fourth.  I eagerly await the fifth.

The Silent Girl by Tess Gerritsen

The Silent Girl by Tess Gerritsen

If you’re a fan of the Rizzoli and Isles television show I really don’t know if you’ll enjoy this book.  There is very little interplay between Rizzoli and Isles here.  While the last book in the series focused on Maura Isles and her trials out West, this one focuses on Jane Rizzoli and the very odd murders she needs to solve in Boston’s Chinatown.  Years ago a man went crazy and shot everyone in the Red Phoenix Restaurant in Chinatown.  Someone, or something, is drawing attention to the old crime.  Rizzoli starts to wonder if the case was ever actually solved.  Was there more to the shooting than a man’s madness taking hold?

Really fun on audio, I especially like Rizzoli’s Boston accent.  I was a little concerned that the book was veering into the mystical, but I should have given Gerritsen more credit.

Don’t Ever Get Old by Daniel Friedman

Don’t Ever Get Old by Daniel Friedman

This title has been getting a lot of buzz – and it totally deserves it.  The amateur sleuth starring here is a retired Memphis homicide detective by the name of Buck Schatz.  Buck is also a war veteran who suffered in a POW camp.  Buck is also plagued by the concern that he may be losing his memory; he knows he’s not in the same physical shape he once was.  Here’s the kicker: he retired thirty years ago, he fought in WWII, and Alzheimer’s is a real worry, because Buck is 87-years old. 

Buck is a great character.  He is the quintessential grumpy old man.  What makes Buck great is that we get inside his head.  We get frustrated with him and celebrate his little victories (like every time he uses his age to his advantage).  While Buck is an extraordinary man hunting down the treasure supposedly smuggled out of Germany by the Nazi who beat him almost to death in the war, he gives amazing insight into the everyday life of the very old.  We empathize with Buck and his young doctor, both frustrated with answers that don’t seem to be answers at all. 

Buck turns 88 during the course of the narrative.  I can’t wait to see how he celebrates his 89th.

Thursday, July 5, 2012

The Chaperone by Laura Moriarty

The Chaperone by Laura Moriarty

The main portion of this book focuses on a five-week period: the time Cora Carlisle spends chaperoning young Louise Brooks (the woman who will become a silent film icon) from Wichita to New York City to attend a summer session at a renowned dance studio.  This is the story of a woman finding herself.  Cora wants to accompany Louise for her own secret reason, to find out about the family she never knew.  Yet what Cora finds in New York City is herself.

I found the characters and how they lived within the constraints of their times fascinating.  What these people risk to find happiness is both frightening and admirable. 

The Popular Fiction Book Discussion group will be discussing this title at the Bridgewater Library on Tuesday, August 21st at 7pm.