We're Not From Here

We're Not From Here by Geoff Rodkey  256 pages

Really good story about life on Earth ceasing as we know it sending a select number of colonizers first to Mars, then when life can no longer be sustained there to the planet Choom which took 20 years to reach.   Unfortunately in the 20 years it took for the colonizers to reach Choom a new political administration is in power and they do NOT want the humans coming to their planet.   With no place to go the humans are forced to try to prove to the inhabitants of Choom they are worthy of being allowed to live there.  Up against violent attacks from the mosquito like inhabitants, the small werewolf-like creatures and the large marshmallow like creatures already inhabiting the planet it is a hard sell to prove to them that the Earthlings aren't there to bring war and try to take over and destroy their planet as destruction is in the Humans history.   Nearly out of food and fuel the Earthlings really are stranded and their lives depend on demonstrating they mean no harm to other beings fearful of what humans are capable of.   They don't let the humans forget their generosity is temporary and at the first sign of violence the Jheri will vaporize every human from their home planet.   What will become of these strangers in a strange land (a slight steal from Robert A. Heinlein)?     Very well told story and while it is geared to Juveniles I think adults who enjoy a good science fiction tale will be satiated by this one, too.   I recommend it to young and old alike.   It really makes you think what would we do in that situation?   It is told so realistically one really could see themselves in such a spot.   Bravo, Geoff Rodkey.                                                                                                                                                             

The Bookshop on the Shore

The Bookshop on the Shore by Jenny Colgan   416 pages.

Falling in love and lust with an out of work D.J. Zoe soon finds herself a single mother with a guy who will not commit to her nor their son who flies off with his friends at the drop of a hat without even a second thought for anyone but himself.   Having no one to fall back on (Zoe's Dad is dead and her mother moved to Spain) her lover's sister hooks her up with a couple of jobs in Scotland.   A big change from her life in a substandard flat with her son to becoming an au pair to a laird in Scotland is quite a stretch but doable.   Though her son is now 6 years old he has yet to speak, but like a duck to water he takes to his new life in the Highlands and his new best friend - the youngest of the laird's children.   The story is a really good one with lots going on continuously.  Since there is a housekeeper/baby sitter during the day, while Zoe is the au pair at night for the brood, Zoe is able to work a second job during the day working for a very pregnant Nina selling books around the various local villages in Nina's van.    A few clever surprises are thrown in for good measure and Jenny Colgan is such a natural storyteller you don't want her tales to end.    A very enjoyable tale to have a cup of hot tea, and let the characters and their antics take you far away across the sea.   I highly recommend this and all of Jenny Colgan's books.

Roar

Roar by Cecelia Ahern   288 pages

I loved this book!    Cecelia Ahern explores the many facets that are a woman's sense of self developing them in fanciful extremes to really bring attention to those minor things women sometimes see as much bigger issues.    The stories while dealing with real issues are so exaggerated that the reader can see the fun the writer was having putting word to page.    The woman who comes undone actually catches her sleeve on a chair as she goes by and doesn't realize until her son asks her where her right arm is that it had actually ravelled off onto the floor the sweater sleeve and her arm along with it to the point as she keeps going ignoring her problem that she is coming completely undone and her sisters scoop her up in a sand pail and take her to a pub to chill out and they sit the pail up on the bar and pour her drink into it.  She continues to chat with them finally asking them to help her get herself together and get out of the pail before she can't.   They do and with a few missing pieces she comes back to herself enough to walk out of the bar.   Come to find out later in the story her sisters were hiding the fact they were unravelling here and there, too.   So many great inventions to describe so many of the things the female of the species goes through and told in such jolly ways.  I really enjoyed this one.    I highly recommend this one to all adult females who have gone through and get the reality of what is being worked out in the stories.   Best of all you will laugh more than half the way through each one.   Told with intelligence and humor.   New ways of laughing at many of the things we think are so dire at the time but in retrospect we can see the funny side - these stories show the funny side straight away.   Well done, Cecelia Ahern. 

Father Coughlin

Father Coughlin: The Tumultuous Life of the Priest of the Little Flower by Sheldon Marcus, 232 pages

For his supporters, he was one of the few men with the courage to defy the Establishment and take a stand against the vested interests responsible for the Great Depression, steering America between the Scylla of Fascism and the Charybdis of Communism.  To his enemies, he was a demagogue exploiting the desperate masses, an ignorant loudmouthed bigot, a Catiline in a Roman collar.  In his own account, he was a simple priest preaching the social doctrine of his Church.  For over a decade Father Charles Coughlin held forth to an audience of millions, both on the radio and in his journal Social Justice, providing critical support to FDR in the 1932 election, when he coined the slogan "Roosevelt or Ruin", but turning against him when the New Deal proved insufficiently radical.  Hatred of bankers and financiers segued easily into anti-Semitism, Anglophobia into Teutonophilia, horror at Communism into sympathy for fascism.  In 1942, he narrowly escaped treason charges for his vocal opposition to the same president he had helped put in power ten years earlier.

Those years of feverish activity are the only reason anyone is interested in a biography of Coughlin, and they are the subject of the overwhelming majority of this book.  Unfortunately, Sheldon Marcus' biography is a confused jumble of news reports and personal reminiscences, without narrative flow or structure.  Marcus seems singularly uninterested - or perhaps assumes his audience will be - in the substance of Coughlin's political positions, but also provides only the barest glimpses of the personalities involved.  The author might be praised for his willingness to present multiple conflicting accounts of the same events and let the reader judge which is the most plausible, but the result is an undifferentiated mass of information more likely to confuse than edify.

SLPL Team November 2019 totals

This month was a slower month for the SLPL team. Perhaps it was the cold that made the rounds through staff at all locations?  Either way, we still managed to read some good books!

This month:

6 people

read 28 books

for a total of 8588 pages

with 2 people reading books with the "author name double letter" -- for 3 books with that bonus

Happy reading in December, everyone!

Passing for Human: A Graphic Memoir

Passing for Human: A Graphic Memoir by Liana Finck   240 pages

Funny and melancholy, this very personal story is an exploration of identity. Liana Finck goes searching for the thing she has lost: her shadow (or the "strangeness" that has defined her since birth).  Part of her has always made her feel apart from the rest of the world, and in this memoir, Finck explores her past, as well as her parents' past.  In her journey to find her true self, she discovers some truths about self-acceptance and what it is that makes her whole.

I had read a review of this book and had been curious, and I found this to be an interesting read. Finck's art is mostly pretty spare, but it's able to convey a lot of emotion in just a few well-placed lines. I found Finck's story to be compelling, and this was an interesting way to approach a memoir.

Joe Quinn's Poltergeist

Joe Quinn's Poltergeist by David Almond   80 pages

That Joe Quinn will tell anyone about the poltergeist in his house, but no one believes him. No one, except for Davie, who has felt the strange presence in the Quinns' house.  Random objects are flying through the air and maybe there's a ghost, too.

This is a dreamy, haunting story with art by Dave McKean, one of my favorite artists and a frequent collaborator with Neil Gaiman. McKean's mixed-media art can be dreamy and/or disturbing, so it's a perfect match for this story that focuses on God, and grief, and possible hauntings.  Told from the point of a view of a young person, it's difficult to know what is truth and what is observation mixed with misunderstanding.

Mister Rogers' Neighborhood: A Visual History

Mister Rogers' Neighborhood: A Visual History by Melissa Wagner   336 pags

This is the kind of book that has loads of information, behind-the scenes interviews, and which brings back memories.  Delving into the history of the show, the book has interviews, photos and articles that talk about the huge impact that this show had on American culture, as well as ideas about childrearing.  There were things in this book that I had totally forgotten about, which made it a lot of fun.   This is a great companion book to the new-ish biographical film about Fred Rogers.

The Family Upstairs

The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewell   340 pages

When Libby Jones turns 25, she receives a letter that she has been waiting for her entire life: the letter that gives her the identity of her birth parents. And, as it turns out, she is also the sole inheritor of their abandoned mansion in London. Everything in Libby's life is about to change . . . but she has no idea just what's around the corner.  Because 25 years ago, the police were called to this house with a report of a baby crying and when they went in, they discovered a baby --- and several dead adults.  Where were the four other children who lived in that house?

Now, everything (and everyone) seems to be coming together now that Libby has inherited the house. However, are the people who say they can help her really out to hurt her? And just what happened in that sinister house?

This tautly written psychological thriller keeps you on edge and guessing, with a cast of characters who have more than one layer to them. The story goes back and forth in different perspectives of characters, and also back in forth in time, which gives the story a layered effect, as well. And the effect of unwrapping a particularly nasty box of family secrets.  Interesting premise, and I liked it up to the end.

The Starless Sea

The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern   498 pages

"Built from fables, myths, and fairy tales, Morgenstern's long-awaited second fantastical novel (following The Night Circus) delves into a vast subterranean library, the Harbor on the Starless Sea, a giant, maze-like, subterranean library where all languages are comprehensible to everyone, and time moves differently. Its wonders include moving statues, edible stories, and a sea made of honey. Narrative-obsessed grad student Zachary Rawlins happens upon an old, authorless collection in the campus library. Among the tales of an improbable land of books and their devotees is an anecdote from Zachary's own childhood, a time when he found a magical door but chose to walk away, disbelieving. Desperate to understand and longing for a second chance at adventure, Zachary investigates and finds a literary party thrown by a secret society. He goes through a painted door in Central Park and into the Harbor itself, now long past its heyday and mostly deserted. Aboveground, the secret society is trying to close as many doors as possible, hoping to keep the Starless Sea hidden. Aided by otherworldly Mirabel, whose motives and history are obscure, and alluring Dorian, a former society member who opposes the closing of the doors, Zachary works to understand how the Harbor fell into disrepair and what he can do to protect it. He also learns what it means to be not just a reader but a part of the story, and what happens after that story ends."  Summary from Publisher's Weekly because I absolutely could not figure out how to summarize this story in a way that made sense.

I have read and re-read The Night Circus several times, so I had looked forward to this book --- and absolutely was not disappointed.  For the first time in a long time, I wound up reading slowly, taking in bits of the story at a time, instead of whipping my way through the story. This could have been partly because I had a pretty awful cold for a week and was sleeping more than I was reading.  Beautifully written, this book reads like Morgenstern crafted it, instead of just writing it. Words are chosen with care to create beautiful, evocative descriptions and each chapter unfolds a little more of the story.  So, it's reading a beautifully written book about stories, which seems tailored for those readers who love fables, fairy tales, magical realism and magic.  This is a book I plan to buy so I can read it again and again.  

I Can't Keep My Own Secrets: Six-Word Memoirs by Teens Famous & Obscure

 I Can't Keep My Own Secrets: Six-Word Memoirs by Teens Famous & Obscure Edited by SMITH Magazine     192 pages

This book is a revelation.   How would you sum up your life in just six words?    Based on the premise that someone challenged Ernest Hemingway to write a book in just 6 words.   Hemingway is said to have met the challenge with:  "Baby shoes.   For sale.  Never worn."   Grabs your heart doesn't it?   It did mine.    It says so much an entire book if you will all communicated in those 6 words.  WOW!  Extraordinary.    It is the same in this book.   Each entry by a different teenage writer is so deep, so telling, so full of emotion and a big story told simply.   Amazing.   This is one of the most moving, phenomenal books I have ever read.   Some entries immediately bring tears to your eyes they are so heartfelt and immense, so touching so all encompassing everything that makes up that person yet said in so few words.   Everyone should read this book it will give you new vision into every person you meet.    There is so much that lies behind the eyes of everyone, so many stories that could be told.   The infinite universe that is one person told in the most meaningful of ways with all the fluff and flack cut away to the bare bones the core of another human being.   I loved this book.   Read it and the feelings and the magnitude of all that fills the life of each and every person around us will be almost tangible with very few words spoken.   It is a marvel and I cannot recommend it highly enough.  A jewel with so many facets and yet all in one tiny mass.   Magnificent.  Light as a spirit heavy with meaning.  How to show the world your heart, your soul, your reality..

The Person Who Changed My Life: Prominent People Recall Their Mentors

The Person Who Changed My Life:  Prominent People Recall Their Mentors by Matilda Cuomo and Hilary Rodham Clinton       240 pages

A very good read.   People who have distinguished themselves in life among a myriad of fields and careers share the story of who inspired them along the way to achieve the goals they have.    Like a life coach spurring you on these inspirational stories will make you look at your own life and think back who taught you to do what you love?   Who encouraged you to go for your dreams regardless what hurdles you might have to leap?   Who gave you that hand up or emotional pat on the back just when you need it that led you to believe you could do whatever you set your mind to?   This book is full of the famous people we see in the news, celebrity magazines and on t.v. and movies, in the fields of science, etc.   So very many people plucked from the random amount of people world wide to share the stories and people in their lives who pushed them to take the plunge and fly.   Great book.  It should be on every teacher's must read book for their students.   This book helps one believe in their own worthiness.   It shows how others in similar and maybe even more dire situations overcame their adversities and are now known for their accomplishments.   GREAT BOOK.  I highly recommend it to everyone.  Young people will see what can be achieved if they try, adults will see what can happen if they don't give up on themselves or think that good things or their dreams cannot be achieved this book proves they can.   Kudos to the authors for bringing this book of life achievements to light.

Revenge Wears Prada the Devil Returns

Revenge Wears Prada The Devil Returns by Lauren Weisberger   416 pages

Miranda is back!   It is nearly 10 years later, Andie has the dream life - a loving, faithful, rich husband, a successful blog that blossomed into a wedding magazine,  her former nemesis has turned into her brutally honest best friend she loves dearly and who loves her back just as dearly if not in a huggy demonstrative way, life has given her the champagne dreams and caviar wishes Robin Leach once extolled for the masses of wonders few would ever experience but here is Andy at the pinnacle of all she could ever want until wham the bane of her existence whom she still suffers anxiety attacks and nightmares over - MIRANDA PRIESTLY is back smack in the center of everything she loves and just as loathsome as ever.   This is such a good read.   I had no idea there were actually 5 books in this series so I am on to find the next one this is such a great story and so many exciting things happen with a huge surprise entrance by a long last character.   Omgosh this one is great!   I highly recommend this one especially for anyone who has been wronged, fought back from the edge survived only to be face to face with your biggest fear AGAIN!   Excellent story.  Do give it a read,  it is a treat.

The Whisper Network

The Whisper Network: A Novel by Chandler Baker     368 pages

There is the underlying sense of some illusive piece of the puzzle missing.    Something that is not quite right but what?   You know there is more to the story and try as you might to read between the lines you will wonder all the way through what everyone's motive is and who is lying and why and who might just be telling the truth.    Great suspense novel - you know something isn't right but are things as they seem or does someone have a vendetta?   Well told.   An excellent who done it and will you be surprised!  I highly recommend this one to all fans of suspense and mystery.

Life Itself

Life Itself: A Memoir by Roger Ebert 448 pages


 I loved this book.   I had to make myself put it down to sleep.    I even checked out the video which is also quite good, but, the book has so much more in it.   What a colorful and fun life Roger Ebert led.  The public knew him as a film critic extraordinaire but he was ever so much more.   From his days growing up in small town America to his uproarious college years where he was quite the ladies man to his hard drinking days as a news journalist turned film critic journalist to his internationally famous love affair with film that has won him fame and notoriety world-wide and where he could be found on many a panel speaking at Cannes and other festivals, etc. around the world.   I have always found Roger Ebert one of those people who you feel an immediate kinship with and think he would make a jolly friend if only you knew him.   I highly recommend this book, he tells the good, the not so good and his downfalls and recoveries all the way to the operations that took not only bits of his face and body away but also his ability to speak.   God love him he didn't let it depress him nor break his stride, he continued to communicate ala his writing and the occasional dalliance into the computer voice world of Stephen Hawking.   An unbelievable strong, gifted and happy spirit all the way to the grave.   An amazing man who led an amazing life.   Worth anyone's time who love biographies, film and of course, Roger Ebert himself.   Great book.

Child's Play: A Novel

Child's Play:  A Novel by Daniel Steele   336 pages

A fun read.   Kate Morgan feels she has raised her children well they are grown and all successes in their own right.   O.K. her youngest daughter is suddenly going through this snippy phase where she treats her mother like a slug, but, surely she will grow out of it - she is in her 20s and just grappling with life and acting out and taking it out on her Mom.   Everybody blames the Mom for their woes, right?  Kate shrugs it off even though her feelings are hurt at times.  Surely, it will pass she thinks.   Then there is her oldest daughter - darn!  She is so great if only she could find someone to love who is just as great as she is.  Kate hates to think of her daughter burying her nose in her work to the point of missing out on the joys in life.  Or is she?   The things that can get past a parent...Then there is her son, betrothed to the daughter of one of the wealthiest families in the U.S.  Kate is so proud of that union.  WOW!   Who would have thought her computer geek son who designs games for a living and does really well at it mind you would have snagged the attention of the most famous socialite daughter and was now well on their way to the altar.  The invitations have been sent, the venue booked, flowers, food, cake all paid for and the dress...oh, the dress is magnificent.    And they are so happy.   Again,  the things that can get past a parent...Good story, great characters, I thoroughly enjoyed this one and I recommend it to all for a fun holiday read or read for the new year.

For Everyone

For Everyone by Jason Reynolds   112 pages

I really liked this piece.   It is poetry.   It is rap.   It is a love letter to every single person on the planet.   It is encouraging.   It is uplifting.  It is found.   It is creative and artistic.    It is a loving hug from Jason Reynolds.   I highly recommend this one.   Everyone who reads this piece will feel better.  It is comfort found on the written page.   Bravo and thank you, Jason Reynolds.

Dirty Daddy

Dirty Daddy by Bob Saget    272 pages

Bob Saget is a funny guy and it turns out he learned his craft from some of the funniest comics in the business.     As a young boy he researched and found out where Larry Fine of the Three Stooges lived in the old actors' home and went to visit him.   Before Larry died, Bob spent a lot of time with him talking and taking Larry copies of Three Stooges shorts which Larry hadn't seen in several years.   Larry told him about the Stooges careers but he also often cried his heart out over the rip-offs the stooges endured losing royalties and untold amounts of money to their managers who bilked them out of untold amounts of money taking their cut off the top while the stooges had to split whatever pittance was left.    He met Don Rickles, and Rodney Dangerfield and became so close to them he was like family in each performers home and each took him under their wing and taught him the ropes of being a stand-up comedian.   He gives some very intimate portraits of these guys and their lives on stage, off stage and what their family life was like which Bob was lucky enough to be included in.  Lovely stories the reader will thoroughly enjoy.    Bob never strays from saying off the wall remarks almost as if he is trying to show his Dad image is only for t.v. his humor is not light and can get a little intense at times other times so boyish and childish it will make you shake your head.   An enjoyable read and I do highly recommend it.   Adult humor geared to the open minded and tolerant. 

Zero to Sixty

Zero to Sixty by Bob Saget   120 pages

Known for his work on tv's "America's Funniest Videos" and "Full House"  and "Fuller House"  Bob Saget is also well known for his stand-up comedy which is certainly a shade bluer than his family guy tv image.    Sort of his Jekyll and Hyde personna.    Bob talks about what a fast trip his life has been getting from babyhood to 60 years old.   He waxes philosophical and shares many of his experiences throughout his life not hiding the hurtful not the horrible.   Not apologizing just relating,  He has experienced some hard knocks in life and how he keeps on going regardless.   He talks about his coming of age, his marriage, his kids and how the best exes make great friends.    A funny and bittersweet tale of the life of a regular guy who's greatest happiness is when he is making other people laugh.    Be ready for some surprising comments from the guy you can't not think of as Dad to the Olsen Twins and Cameron Buhe.   Good book.   I recommend it to adults but only for those who don't mind base humor, fart jokes, penile illiterations and locker room humor.   For those who know what 'The Aristocrats," joke is - yeah, he tells that one, too.

The Nickel Boys

The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead, 352 pages

A gripping story of the inhumanity suffered by black children in a reform school in Mississippi.  The tale is well told by a great story teller but the atrocities dealt out to these poor kids are inhumane.   The story itself is fiction based on fact.   The stories are truisms that took place elsewhere in the South but you will never forget them and the unfortunates who endured this hell on earth until it often overcame them.   Many unmarked graves with bones rising showing manifestations of unspeakable brutality.    The horrors of thinking of 5 and 6 year old children placed there when no one is around to care for them or other total innocents being subjected to this horror show of rape.   It is almost too hard to read and think about and yet even living in this cesspool there were glimmers of hope.   A book you won't soon forget about children enduring the legal system during the pre-Civil Rights days in the old south.    So well written it could be a classic, so shocking you won't be able to forget it.  I recommend this book, it is a teaching tool,  it is an enlightening tool,  it offers examples on how NOT to treat your fellow man.