NLW Staff Picks: Tonia & Andrew

 

Tonia

 

Annie Bot by Sierra Greer

I knew I wanted to read Annie Bot after spotting a review in a magazine—especially with artificial intelligence being such a hot topic right now. What drew me in was the way this sci-fi story doesn’t feel all that far-fetched anymore. The idea of a robot girlfriend sounds like something out of The Twilight Zone, but the way Sierra Greer tells it, you start to realize how close to reality this could actually become.

Annie Bot is more than just a machine—she’s learning, evolving, and developing feelings that seem anything but robotic. The story has a creepy, unsettling feel that gets under your skin in the best way. It raises big questions about emotional and psychological risks, consent, and control in relationships where one partner was literally built to please the other. I found it to be a fun, thought-provoking, and yes—definitely disconcerting—read. It’s one of those books that stays with you and keeps you thinking about the strange directions our future could take.

 

 Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

 

Mexican Gothic is another favorite in my collection of horror stories that center around unsettling old houses—and this one truly delivers. Set in the remote Mexican countryside, the story revolves around a crumbling mansion full of disturbing secrets and a family that gets creepier the more you get to know them. I loved the eerie atmosphere—it reminded me at times of The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters and Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier. It has that same haunting, slow-burn suspense where the truth feels just out of reach.

This book is full of vivid nightmares, hallucinations, twisted family dynamics, and a thick gothic vibe that settles in from the very first pages. It’s deeply unsettling in the best way. If you’re a horror fan or someone who enjoys stories where the house feels like a character in itself, this is a perfect choice.

 

Andrew

 

Lord of the Rings, or any books that we have by or about J.R.R. Tolkien.

The Lord of the Rings audiobooks the library has that are narrated by Andy Serkis are amazing.

 

I'm a fan of some older Stephen King titles, such as Firestarter, Carrie, Pet Semetary, and one of my all-time favorites is Needful Things.

 

The Game of Thrones series by George R.R. Martin are some of my favorites as well.

 

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline is incredible, but unfortunately the sequel Ready Player Two does not capture the same magic the first book did.

 

Jurassic Park and The Lost World by Michael Crichton are up there as all-time favorites, as is one of Crichton's last titles before he passed away, Micro.

 

Lastly, just to mix things up a bit, The Walking Dead comics by Robert Kirkman are pretty cool, I know we have at least the first compendium.

Nevermore: Olive Again, Constitution, Symptoms of Being Human, This Is How It Always Is, Historian, Less

Reported by Jeanne

Nevermore opened with praises being sung for Olive, Again by Elizabeth Strout.  The first book, Olive Kitteridge, was greatly enjoyed by the group (indeed, someone was currently reading it) and this second one is deemed a most worthy sequel. As with the first book, there are a series of connecting stories about the lives of ordinary people in the small town of Crosby, Maine.  Olive Kitteridge, a retired school teacher, is the link between them.  Olive is a wonderful creation. Blunt, stubborn, curmudgeonly, Olive is still very relatable.  Strout has a gift for creating characters who feel real and for infusing her stories with a deep humanity.  One reader commented that she found it amazing that Ms. Strout, who appears so young could write so movingly and realistically about old age.

How to Read the Constitution and Why by Kim Wehle is a very thorough examination of the U.S. Constitution.  Very. Thorough.  Word by word thorough. And not just the current meaning of some of the words but the historic meanings as well.  Our reader said it was good but slow reading.  She had heard the author speak and found her to be lively and interesting, but that didn’t really show up in the book.  It’s an important book on an important subject, but it was not engaging.

The next reviewer has been reading about the changing concepts of gender and sexuality.  In The Symptoms of Being Human by Jeff Garvin, Riley is a fourteen year old who is gender fluid.  Some days Riley feels more masculine, sometimes more feminine.  Riley dresses in a neutral style, but that doesn’t stop bullying by classmates.  To complicate matters further, Riley’s father is a congressman who is running for re-election in a very conservative district, so Riley’s questions of identity must be kept secret. This is a YA novel, so there is a good bit of teen angst but our reader still found it entertaining and informative.

Her second book was Laurie Frankel’s This Is How It Always Is which centers around a family with a child with similar issues, but at a younger age. Rosie and Adam have four sons—or so it seemed, but their youngest child, precocious Claude insists that he wants to be a girl when he grows up and wants to wear feminine clothing.The family accepts this, but problems arise as Poppy becomes old enough to attend school. (Kristin reviewed this book back in 2017.)

A new Nevermore attendee was enthusiastic about The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova.  As the story opens, a young woman finds a dragon-emblazoned book which contains a collection of letters that seem to indicate the legendary Dracula is very real.  This launches a search across countries, with flashbacks to earlier time periods.  The reader said that the book bogged down somewhat in the middle, being packed with well-researched historical information.  There are some genuinely chilling scenes as well--another Nevermore member said she had put it down at times because it was so frightening.

Another character who sets out on an international adventure isn’t so much searching for something as avoiding a situation.  Andrew Less is a middle aged man whose younger lover has decided to marry someone else.  In a desperate attempt to avoid the ceremony, Andrew accepts every professional invitation he can and sets out on what will become an international journey and a voyage of self-discovery.  Our reader called Andrew Sean Greer’s novel Less funny and satiric, but also a poignant book about love.