Authors at the Library!

Happy National Library Week!  In celebration, we’re having some local authors in to sign their books and meet with readers.  Here’s the schedule:

Monday, April 15   4:30 PM- 6 :00 PM
Dr. Craig McDonald, long-time professor in the King College English Department, writes historical fiction about characters whose faith is real, and is woven into their lives.  Otherwise, the characters and setting vary widely.  In His Right Mind takes up the story of man from whom Jesus cast out demons.  Now healed, what can he make of his life?  How can he carry out the mission Jesus gave him? McDonald has two other historical novels, both set in Scotland during the Middle Ages:  An Early Fall and Among His Personal Effects.

Tuesday, April 16  4:30 PM- 6:00 PM
Lisa White is an area native who spends her time gardening, spending time with family and friends, practicing law and, of course, writing.  Her first novel Laws of Love is contemporary romance.  Livi Miller has built her life around her job as general counsel for Hampton Steel, enjoying the challenges of negotiating deals and aiming her way up the corporate ladder.  Then an unexpected takeover at work  and the reappearance of an old flame throws her life into chaos, and Livi finds herself caught between love and responsibility.

 

Wednesday, April 16  4:30 PM-6:00 PM
It’s an author double feature when Tim Rouse and Lightnin’ Charlie visit the library.  Tim is the author of the “Me and Delmer Green” series, sure to delight Western fans.  Tim believes in the classic Western stories, like those told by Zane Grey and Louis L’Amour.  Lightnin’ Charlie is well known to area music fans for decades.  He tells his story in the book Lightnin’ Charlie Off the Record:  The Trials and Tribulations of a Travelin’ Troubadour.

Thursday, April 17 4:30 PM-6:00 PM
Kathy Shearer is an oral historian who specializes in telling the stories of the people and places of our region.  Her most recent book is Tales from the Moonshine Trade, which has stories of those who made the illegal liquor and those who chased them down. 

She says, "I came to realize that making moonshine was actually very hard work and many men and even a few women engaged in it to put food on the table during the Depression. This was a part of their heritage, going back to a time before whiskey was taxed, and distilling was a normal part of the farmstead activities."

Kathy is currently is gathering stories and pictures from people who worked for the Stuart Land and Cattle Company, once the largest family-owned farm east of the Mississippi.

Nevermore: Neuroscience

The Nevermore Book Club picks ran to non-fiction this week and to neuroscience in particular. Library Director  Jud Barry is very intrigued with The Universal Sense:  How Hearing Shapes the Mind by Seth Horowitz.  Horowitz is both a musician and a neuroscientist who specializes in the study of sound and how it affects us.  One of the first things to note is that ears are individual, and the way we hear is determined in part by the precise shape of the ear and its parts. Sound can alter moods, attract or repel, and influence our health.

Jud read aloud a section on how to use sound as a merchandising tool to entice someone to buy a particular product. Another interesting tidbit involved how certain frequencies repeated over and over can cause someone to more or less lose the ability to think rationally.  Remember the last time the smoke detector went off accidentally in your house?  Remember how desperate you were to make it SHUT UP?  Do you think you could have solved a math problem before cutting the darn thing off? Jud commented that while others talk around him, he finds it very difficult to follow any one conversation.  There’s simply too much other noise, just like the smoke detector.

Jud said that while the book can get a bit technical at times, for the most part it’s very approachable and readable.

Another member had just finished Oliver Sacks’ new book Hallucinations.  The neurologist continues his exploration of unusual mental states and conditions with this collection of essays examining people who sense things that the rest of us do not.  One may see something that isn’t there, or still feel pain from an amputated limb, or hear voices.  Sack looks at the science behind these occurrences, using actual cases to illustrate his stories.  Our reader said she had trouble buying into some of the ideas, and didn’t believe that these things could exist as reality for some people.  Sacks is known for his articles and essays about subjects such as autism, Tourette Syndrome, sleeping sickness, and other atypical disorders.  The movie Awakenings was based on one of his books.

Finally, another member had picked up the anniversary edition of Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards.  The book was first published in 1979 and was an instant classic. Edwards contended that the different sides of the brain process things differently, with the right side handling the visual and emotional, and the left managing verbal and analytical. The book has a number of exercises to train the artist to use the right side of the brain.  We’ll be getting a report next time as to whether or not he found it effective.

The Nevermore Book Club meets every Tuesday at 11 AM in the Frances E. Kegley Meeting Room. Members bring whatever books they’re reading to share with the group.  No registration is necessary. Doughnuts are provided by the fabulous Blackbird Bakery and coffee is courtesy of the library.

Bad Blood by Dana Stabenow

Reviewed by Kristin

Dana Stabenow is always on my “must-read” list, and I eagerly awaited her newest release, Bad Blood. This is #20 in the Kate Shugak series. Kate is an Alaskan Native, an Aleut, who lives within a fictional national park in Alaska.  The books are rich with stories of Kate’s family connections reaching back to previous generations in earlier titles in the series. Currently, Kate is romantically involved with Alaskan Trooper Sergeant Jim Chopin (“Chopper Jim”) and is also the guardian of a teenage boy, Johnny. The author paints a vivid picture of the Alaskan landscape as well as unique characters that her fans have come to know and love.

 Bad Blood starts with Sergeant Jim Chopin investigating the death of a young man found in the river between two feuding villages, Kushtaka and Kuskulana.  Due to geographical advantages, Kuskulana has always flourished while Kushtaka has grown smaller over the years.  The differences in the villages have spurred a feud lasting almost a century.  When the body of a young man from Kushtaka is found caught in a fish wheel, where do you think the natives go looking for a suspect?

Despite Chopper Jim’s investigation, one body is not enough for the feuding villagers.  Payback is demanded and the body count escalates.  Kate Shugak is involved as the community of the “Park” closes around their own.  Add a pair of Romeo and Juliet style star-crossed lovers, and the battle between the villages grows hotter.

This book seems a little shorter than the previous ones in the series.  Dana Stabenow has started publishing Kate Shugak short stories as e-books only, so perhaps this has carried over into her full length novels.  Very little interaction between old, familiar characters is included.  Even Mutt, Kate’s wolf/dog hybrid, gets only perfunctory mention, as people comment “Is that a wolf?” repeatedly.  While I enjoyed the book, the cliffhanger ending had me almost yelling, “You can’t end a book like that!”  On her website, Stabenow states that the next book in the series will be available in two years.  Don’t read the comments on her website (http://www.stabenow.com/ ) unless you want spoilers of what happens at the end of this book.

While you can read Bad Blood without reading any of the previous titles, this series is best read in order due to the major life changes that the characters have had over the years.

Book into Film: Fiction

The summer movie season is heating up and as usual a number of the films are based on books.  Here are some of the most anticipated books-to-film:

“The Host” is based on the book of the same name by Stephenie Meyer—yes, THAT Stephenie Meyer, author of the immensely popular Twilight series books which spawned the equally popular movie series.  The Host  isn’t about vampires, though, but an alien invasion in which the aliens take over human bodies. Melanie isn’t about to let her consciousness go so easily.  Can she fight back and save those she loves? The movie opens March 29.  In pre-movie interviews, Meyer has said she’s writing a sequel.

Of course, there if aliens aren’t your thing but zombies are, then you’ll want to pick up World War Z by Max Brooks.  Brooks, author of The Zombie Survival Guide, sets the book up as an oral history from survivors, giving him a chance to give many different views of the disaster.  The movie stars Brad Pitt as a UN employee going to various places around the world as different areas try to hold off the undead and is scheduled for a June release.  (By the way, Max Brooks is the son of Mel Brooks and Anne Bancroft.)

If you’d rather have a story about non-alien, non-zombie characters, there are some interesting choices available.  “Admission” stars Tina Fey as a college admissions office at Princeton who is challenged by a young man who shouldn’t quite measure up to Princeton standards, but who makes her question some of her past choices.  Paul Rudd also stars.  The movie is based on the book Admission  by Jean Hanff Korelitz.

Hollywood isn’t neglecting the classics, either.  A new version of “The Great Gatsby” is scheduled for a May 10 release.  Leonardo DiCaprio stars as Jay Gatsby and Tobey Maguire is Nick.  If it’s been awhile, this might be a good time to pick up F. Scott Fitzgerald’s original novel just to get in the mood. I have to say that the costumes and automobiles look fabulous!


James Thurber’s story, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, was first made into a movie starring Danny Kaye back in 1947, so it’s no surprise some think it’s due for an update.  Ben Stiller will be starring in the new version, due out in December 2013.

If thrillers are more your genre, look for Paranoia by Joseph Finder.  A young man is caught manipulating his company’s system.  He’s given a choice:  go to jail, or spy on a competing corporation.  He chooses the latter option and soon is on the fast track at his new place of employment, living the life of his dreams in a job he loves—and soon he’s going to have to betray everyone there. The movie "Paranoia"stars Liam Helmsworth, Gary Oldman, and Harrison Ford, and is scheduled for an October release.

Other anticipated films from books are:

• "Catching Fire," the second installment of Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games trilogy, scheduled for November 2013

• "Divergent", another YA dystopian adventure, based on the book of the same title by Veronica Roth, due out in 2014
  

• "City of Bones", adapted from the first book in Cassandra Clare’s Mortal Instruments series, in which a teenage girl suddenly develops the ability to see demons

• "The Hobbit:  The Desolation of Smaug," the second movie in the Hobbit trilogy, is from J.R.R. Tolkein’s book The Hobbit and is scheduled to be out in December 2013.

Mercedes Lackey and the land of Valdemar

Reviewed by Holly White

Note:  this is an overview to introduce readers to the series.  Holly will be reviewing the books in published order.

Long ago, a good man named Baron Valdemar lived in a land with a tyrant for a king. For a time, Baron Valdemar was content to use his magic  to merely protect his people from the tyrant, but the day finally came when he knew that the only way for the people to survival was to go to a new land which they called Valdemar.  He ruled over them wisely and well until he was old. The day came when he realized he needed to create a safeguard for his people to ensure that no matter what happened, the land of Valdemar would never have a tyrant king like the one they had escaped.

As Valdemar thought these thoughts about the future, three silvery-white horse-like creatures, called Companions, appeared from a grove. Mercedes Lackey says in her book Arrows of the Queen, that Companions, " … transcended horses in the way that panthers transcend alleycats, or angels transcend men." These Companions immediately bonded, one each to Valdemar, one to Valdemar’s son, and the third to the Valdemar’s closest adviser, the Chief Herald.  This set the pattern from then on: only those Chosen by a Companion could rule.

Because the Companions, who were not only sentient but also wiser than humans, were also good and kind, and would only Choose someone who had a pure heart. The Companions never Chose someone unworthy to bear the name of Herald. The Companions never made mistakes. To be Chosen by a Companion means to be bonded for life to a being who knows every thought you’d ever had, every action you’d ever done, every motive you’d ever acted on, and but still loves you anyway with that incredible acceptance. You can hear each other’s thoughts.  The bond is so strong that if one of you died, the other would likely die as well.

The Heralds responsibilities included serving and protecting the Monarchy, being the Monarch’s messengers, fighting the wars, sometimes judging the people, and even doing some healing when a regular Healer could not be found. One Herald is The Monarch’s Own, Chosen by a special companion, and this Herald is the confidant and advisor of the reigning Monarch, the one person with whom the Monarch could be completely honest, and more importantly, the one person who would be completely honest with the Monarch.

Those chosen as Heralds are taken to the Heraldic Collegium, a training school which teaches history, languages, mathematics, logic, and other traditional academic topics, in addition to weaponry training, training in fighting and battle, and training in your special Gift. Most or all Heralds have at least one special Gift, such as telekinetics, skill with a particular weapon, or fire-starting. One Gift is Mindspeech, a kind of extension of the mind-speaking a Chosen does with his Companion, only a Herald or Trainee with this Gift can mindspeak to anyone he chooses, the same way he does with his Companion.  Then the Herald in training spends one year on circuit with a full Herald, a kind of internship, after which, if all else went well, you would usually earn your Whites, the costume instantly recognizable from anywhere in the Kingdom as that of a Herald of Valdemar.

There are other collegia in Valdemar, such as the Bardic, for those with musical talent, and the Healers’, for those with that Gift. Some wealthy, aristocratic families sent their offspring there for schooling, but these students took the classes they chose and were not affiliated with any of the three Collegia, hence were called the Unaffiliates. They were not Chosen by Companions, and so could not necessarily be counted on to be pure in heart. This distinction occasionally presented problems. Indeed, often the Unaffiliates often resent and felt superior to those Herald trainees who were peasants, uneducated, poor, or different in some other way.

This is the life of a Herald Trainee in Valdemar. It has its wonderful points, not the least of which is the lifelong love and acceptance you can now forever count on from your Companion, but also includes the free training, good food (for some the first truly good food they’ve had in their lives), warm comfortable rooms (again, a first for some), and the companionship of others being trained for the same thing, who are of like mind. This life also has its rough points, including light (and not so light) hazing, straining to learn what your Gift is and how best to use it for the Kingdom. In many cases there are feelings of guilt because you were Chosen and this or that family member was left behind, and as often as not, being put into a position where you have to use your newfound Gifts and abilities before you are fully trained in their use in a situation with very real consequences- for yourself and for others.

This is the life of a Herald Trainee in Valdemar. Think you’re up to it? Join me as I begin a series of book reviews on over twenty of Mercedes Lackey’s books set in the Valdemarian world. My first review will be on the book Arrows of the Queen, which begins the tale of Talia, who is Chosen by the Companion Rolan.

Look for the review of Arrows of the Queen on the first Friday in May!

Karen White: Southern Living with the Dead

 Reviewed by Jeanne

Karen White has been making a name for herself as a writer of Southern romance/mysteries with a ghost or two thrown in.  After having several different people request her books, I decided to give one a try.

The Girl on Legare Street opens with realtor Melanie Middleton trying to turn down a big sale. The purchaser is Melanie’s estranged mother, Ginnette, a renowned opera singer who left seven year old Melanie to be raised by her alcoholic father.  Melanie sees this as a ploy by her mother to try to insinuate herself back into her daughter’s life, and she’s not willing to play along.  To make things even more uncomfortable, the house she wants to buy is their old family home which has a lot of memories attached—among other things. 

You see, Melanie is psychic.  She’s always had the ability to see ghosts, but has learned that many people don’t react well to that sort of thing. Her father certainly didn’t.  His life as a soldier didn’t include supernatural entities or events.  So Melanie learned to conceal her talent, even though some spirits refuse to be ignored—the ones in the house on Legare Street, for instance. At least one of the ghosts seems friendly enough, but another has a definite vicious streak.  It’s up to Melanie to try to uncover family secrets before another tragedy strikes.

There are several romantic subplots, along with a number of plot twists and some chills.  White does a good job with the Charleston, SC setting, giving readers a bit of history without weighing the story down. Similarly, she throws in bits about the restoration of historic houses, genealogy, and the real estate business without being tedious.  Characters are generally well developed, and there are some genuinely creepy scenes.

The only problem is that I didn’t realize this book is actually a sequel to The House on Tradd Street.  I wouldn’t say that you wouldn’t enjoy this book without having read the first, but I did realize fairly early on that I probably would have been more impressed with some events had I known some of the history of the characters. The book can be read as a standalone, but I think it would be more enjoyable if read in order.

White has now produced a third in the series, The Strangers on Montagu Street. Her other novels are not part of a series.

The Evolution of Useful Things by Henry Petroski

Reviewed by Nancy

Have you ever started to zip up your jacket and wondered, “Who came up with this idea of a zipper? The fork, the paper clip, the hammer... how did these items develop?  How did they come to be? Who thinks this stuff up, anyway?”  The answers to these questions and many more are to be found in Henry Petroski's book, The Evolution of Useful Things.

Mr. Petroski, Professor of Civil Engineering at Duke University and the author of many other books on engineering, seems to be compelled to share his knowledge by offering it up in books, and that is very fortunate for the rest of us.

This tome is definitely not for everyone, but if you have ever experienced that passing curiosity, you might want to read Dr. Petroski's book.

Saws, shoes, silverware, nails, napkins, paperclips, keys, bottles, fast food packaging… information on the development of all of these items is to be found in The Evolution of Useful Things. We are so used to having these things that sometimes it seems they have been with us always, like death and taxes. Other things we are sure are new inventions.

Who would have thought straight pins were in use five thousand years ago? The Sumerians made them out of iron and bone, employing them as clothes fasteners. Straight pins eventually were used to hold pieces of paper together, as paper clips were not developed until the mid-eighteen hundreds.

Sometimes there is a real time lapse between the invention of one thing and the invention of something else that would seem to be essential.  Peter Durand was the first person to figure out how to preserve food by putting it in a can. Despite the fact that he came up with this in 1810, the first can opener was not patented until 1858, and can openers did not come into common usage until some years after that. People were so accustomed to whacking their cans open with chisels and axes they saw no reason to be bothered with the early, cumbersome can openers.

The author includes information on patents, the patent application process, patent attorneys, patent royalties, etc., as well as information on the history of engineering.

Perhaps it’s time for you to discover your inner engineer. Or if you don’t have an inner engineer to discover, perhaps your regular old self might enjoy reading this book.

Why is it important that while buttons were in use in Roman times, the buttonhole did not develop until the thirteenth century? Beats me, but it is fun to know.