Tuesday, December 20, 2016
[Book Review] The Ugly Duckling by Iris Johansen
Fiction/Romance
Susan reviews THE UGLY DUCKLING by Iris Johansen (Bantam Books, 1996)
The Ugly Duckling is a Cinderella story with a twist.
Nell Calder is plain, ordinary, and the wife of a financier with a lovely daughter named Jill. On the night of an elegant party for Richard, her husband, hosted to advance his career, the unthinkable happens. Nell thinks she is hearing firecrackers, but they are gunshots. Nell is attacked and thrown over the balcony. She wakes to a shattered face and a dead husband and child. She should not be alive, but with a reconstructed and beautiful face along with anonymity, she is plotting her revenge.
Enter Nicholas Tanek, who helps Nell despite her wanting and moving on revenge on her own. His keeping her identity a secret and her reluctantly accepting his help move the plot forward. Tanek was at the party; he believes he could have prevented the deaths of Richard and Jill, but what all he knows he keeps close and slowly reveals to Nell and the reader why he was involved at all. For Nell, her new-found physical beauty is but a means to an end. She toughens physically and mentally to face the murderer.
Nell Calder really never was plain and ordinary; she is a woman of exceptional inner strength.
Susan B., Library staff
Labels: Fiction, Reviews by Susan B., Romance, Suspense
Monday, September 19, 2016
[Book Review] Tall Tail by Rita Mae Brown & Sneaky Pie Brown
Fiction/Mystery
Susan reviews TALL TAIL: A MRS. MURPHY MYSTERY by Rita Mae Brown & Sneaky Pie Brown (Bantam Books, 2016)
Anyone who has pets knows that they “talk.” Sometimes, we humans just do not understand, but when it comes to murder, paying very close attention to our furry companions can be lifesaving.
Rita Mae Brown, a distinguished Southern writer, began writing the “Mrs. Murphy” mysteries more than twenty years ago in “collaboration” with Sneaky Pie, a rescued tiger cat. Mrs. Murphy, a tabby cat; Pewter, a portly, grey cat; and Tee Tucker, a loyal corgi, help their mom Mary Minor Haristeen solve murders in and around a small town in Virginia. The other characters are well-detailed, and reading the latest mystery feels like a visit with old friends.
In the latest installment, Barbara Leader, a nurse to former Governor Sam Holloway, appears to have a heart attack, but she has been murdered. A family secret links her murder to the murder of a Francisco Selisse in 1784. Selisse was a brutal slave owner, and Brown moves the reader between the present day and the past to unravel the truth.
Labels: Fiction, Mystery Fiction, Reviews by Susan B., Staff book reviews
Thursday, June 30, 2016
[Book Review] 2001 A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke
Each month library staff members learn about different genres during "What's Your Flavor," a series of Reader's Advisory classes. After each session participants must select a book from that genre to read and profile.
Science Fiction Genre Spotlight
2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY by Arthur C. Clarke
“Open the pod doors, HAL.”
The basic plot is as follows: apes who will evolve into man are dying out. A monolith appears and teaches the apes how to kill so that they will survive. Move forward to the present where a monolith discovered on the moon proves to be millions of years old. The said monolith sends a signal to Saturn, and the “odyssey” of the space ship Discovery One begins with the journey to Saturn where astronaut David Bowman is transported through a monolith (an interstellar gateway) to an alien world where he is transformed into the “star child,” a “savior” or an overseer of earth. The aliens, whoever they are, are “god-like” and are again “saving” the human race.
Susan B., Library staff
Science Fiction Genre Spotlight
2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY by Arthur C. Clarke
“Open the pod doors, HAL.”
Arthur C. Clarke is one of the masters of scientific science fiction, and 2001 is a masterpiece of early science fiction. Clarke collaborated with the filmmaker, Stanley Kubrick, and the product was obviously a film and a book, both released in 1968. The movie is landmark because computer graphics were introduced on screen. Without 2001 there would never have been a Star Wars. The book is landmark because it explores A.I. (artificial intelligence) in the “character” HAL, the computer on board the space craft. As a joke, HAL is one letter off of IBM.
The basic plot is as follows: apes who will evolve into man are dying out. A monolith appears and teaches the apes how to kill so that they will survive. Move forward to the present where a monolith discovered on the moon proves to be millions of years old. The said monolith sends a signal to Saturn, and the “odyssey” of the space ship Discovery One begins with the journey to Saturn where astronaut David Bowman is transported through a monolith (an interstellar gateway) to an alien world where he is transformed into the “star child,” a “savior” or an overseer of earth. The aliens, whoever they are, are “god-like” and are again “saving” the human race.
Susan B., Library staff
Labels: Fiction, Readers' Advisory Annotations, Reviews by Susan B., Science Fiction
