I Killed Adolf Hitler by Jason

I Killed Adolf Hitler by Jason

One theme that nearly always crops up in the science fiction that is one of my main reading staples is time travel.  A well written time travel story is both perplexing and satisfying. However, I have rarely seen the intricacies of a time travel story addressed in such a minimalist, deadpan style as I Killed Adolf Hitler. The story is set in a world where anyone can hire a contract killer for any reason, be it dysfunctional relatives to boorish neighbors. Needless to say, this profession is in high demand. Our protagonist is one such character and is quite obviously weary with the daily grind of his work until a new client arrives with a strange request, to travel back in time and kill Adolf Hitler. But after accepting the contract, the killer finds himself stranded in the past after being surprised and losing his time-machine to Hitler. Still determined to carry out the contract, the killer makes his way to the present by simply waiting though the years until the present where he teams up with his relatively much younger girlfriend to track the elusive dictator that left him stranded in the past.

There are sizable portions of this story where there is very little dialogue and less action. However, Jason manages to make the stretches not only entertaining, but to further the plot of the story. Moreover, the incredible clean style of the panels is reinforced by Jason’s signature warped but dry humor. For those that like strangeness and humor delivered in the most expressionless manner possible, then I would highly recommend giving I Killed Adolf Hitler a try.

 

 

 

June 2013 Earphone Awards Go To...

 

This is the second in my three part series for audiobook award winners.  In my search for great listening material I have chosen to use AudioFile's  Earphones Awards as a guide for great listening pleasure. Here are their June 2013 Earphone Award winners. The Earphone Award is given to audiobooks whose narrators do a truly exceptional presentation that excels in narrative voice and style; vocal characterizations; appropriateness for audio format and one who enchances the text they read.

Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation
by Michael Pollan
Read by Michael Pollan

The Gift of Therapy: An Open Letter to A New Generation of Therapists and Their Patients
By Irvin D. Yaolim
Read by Don Hagin

The Golem and the Jinni
by Helene Wecker
Read by George Guidall

The Stockholm Octavo
By Karen Engelmann
Read by Simon Vance

In the Body of the World
By Eve Ensler
Read by Eve Ensler

Revolutionary Summer
By Joseph J. Ellis
Read by Stephan Rudnicki

A Delicate Truth
By John Le Carre
Read by John Le Carre

The Good Cop
By Brad Parks
Read by Adam Verner

Spy The Lie: former CIA Officers Show You How to Detect Deception
By Philip Houston, Mike Floyd and Susan Carnicero
Read by Fred Berman

Sticks and Stones
By Emily Bazelon
Read by Rebecca Lowman

For the complete listing of June's 2013 Earphone Award Winners click here.

The Middlesteins…would you like fries with that?

Another 2012 release that finally crawled to the top of my reading list, The Middlesteins by Jami Attenberg, left me unsettled. It isn’t classified as psychological fiction, but part of me feels like it should be.

The story focuses on the Middlestein family—Edie, Richard, Robin, and Benny. Another member of the family lurks in the shadows…food. Edie, mother to Benny and Robin, is steadily eating herself to death and has finally hit the point when her life is in jeopardy because of her eating habits. We first meet Edie as a child. Her parents, both Russian immigrants, shower her with love and food. As Attenberg tells us in in the voice of Edie’s mother, “Food was made of love, and love was made of food,” which helps to explain Edie’s upbringing. As the story progresses, we become privy to Edie’s habits, the views of her family, and the other primary conflict of the story—Richard’s departure when Edie’s health begins to fail. Richard becomes a villain to his family in many ways, but we are able to hear his side of the story when no one else will.

Attenberg’s ability to create realistic, complex characters is a gift. She gives the past, present, and some future glimpses of each character, which works to draw you in emotionally. For a book so full of food, conflict, and emotion, it left me feeling empty. The book was fantastic, but the emotion it evoked was akin to sadness. I was left pondering how much I truly know about the people I love and how we all manage our private lives without our loved ones’ knowledge.

Dorothea Lange

Dorothea Lange was an American photographer and photojournalist probably best known for her Depression-era work for the Farm Security Administration (FSA).  Her photography put a human face on the consequences of the Depression and helped shape the development of documentary photography.

She along with about ten other photographers worked for the FSA between 1935-44, to help bring the plight of the poor to public awareness and in doing so, helped combat poverty and hunger.

Together with John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath and documentary books such as Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, the FSA photography project was responsible for creating the iconic images that Americans recognize and identify with The Dust Bowl and The Great Depression.

The photo to the right is called "Migrant Mother" and is Dorothea Lange's most famous and recognized image.

In 1941, Lange was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship.  After the attack on Pearl Harbor she gave up her award so she could photograph the forced internment of Japanese-Americans.  Her photographs were so critical that the Army impounded them.

Lange died in 1965 at age 70 of cancer following a couple of decades of poor health.  Her images have kept her memory alive and will continue to do so for many more generations.

Dorothea Lange

Dorothea Lange: Photographs from the J. Paul Getty Museum

Dorothea Lange: a Life Beyond Limits by Linda Gordon

Daring to Look: Dorothea Lange’s Photographs & Reports from the Field by Anne Whiston Spirn

Impounded: Dorothea Lange and the Censored Images of Japanese American Internment—ed. By Linda Gordon and Gary Y. Okihiro
Restless Spirit: the Life and Works of Dorothea Lange by Elizabeth Partridge
Farm Security Administration

Let Us Now Praise Famous Men: the American Classic, in Words and Photographs, of Three Tenant Families in the Deep South by James Agee and Walker Evans

Ohio:A Photographic Portrait 1935-1941: Farm Security Administration Photographs

 

Children pledge allegiance to the American flag in 1942, prior to the internment of Japanese-Americans.                            --Dorothea Lange

 

 

The Audie Award Winners Are....

Do you want to know the titles of the best audio books and audio book narrators? This is the first of a three part series. The series will include 2013 Audie Award winners, Earphones Award winners and Golden Voice winners. 

 

The Audio Publisher's Association 2013 Audie Award Winners that the library owns are listed below. The Audie Awards are bestowed annually by the Audio Publisher's Association for outstanding quality in audio books and spoken word entertainment.

Audiobook of the Year finalists
American Grown
by Michelle Obama
Read by Michelle Obama, Jim Adams, Charlie Brandts, Christeta Comerford and a full cast
Killing Kennedy
By Bill O'Reilly
Read by Bill O'Reilly

Audie Award Winner for Business/Educational
Spy the Lie
By Philip Houston, Michael Floyd, Susan Carnicero and Don Tennant
Read by Fred Berman

Audie Award Winner for Humor 
I Suck at Girls
By Justin Halpern
Read by Sean Schemmel

Audie Award Winner for Inspirational/Faith Based Fiction 
The Good Dream
By Donna VanLiere
Read by Donna VanLiere

Audie Award Winner for Literary Fiction 
Bring Up the Bodies
By Hilary Mantel
Read by Simon Vance

Audie Award Winner for Romance 
The Witness
By Nora Roberts
Read by Julia Whelan

Audie Award Winner for Science Fiction 
The Age of Miracles
By Karen Thompson Walker
Read by Emily Rankin

Audie Award Winner for Thriller/Suspense 
Red, White and Blood
By Christopher Farnsworth
Read by Bronson Pinchot

NOS4A2

 

When you were a kid, didn't you ever wish you could just hop on your bike and go wherever you wanted? Maybe if you were like me, you pretended to do just that whenever you went out for a spin up and down the street that ran in front of your house. Well, in Joe Hill's spectacular new book, NOS4A2, eight-year-old Vic McQueen has a sweet ride that does it for real: a Day-Glo blue Raleigh Tuff Burner with the ability to carry her wherever she wants to go via the Shorter Way, a covered bridge that no longer exists except when Vic needs it to. But Vic isn't the only person with a supernatural talent for slipping in and out of impossible places. Meet Charlie Manx, NOS4A2's "Big Bad," if you will. Manx owns a 1938 Rolls-Royce Wraith, a beauty of a car but hell on wheels for anyone unlucky enough to find himself inside it. See, Manx has a thing for taking kids on joyrides in his car, delivering them to a place of his own twisted creation: Christmasland, ". . . where every morning is Christmas morning . . . ." And if you thought the worst a roadtrip could do to you is leave you with stiff legs and a sore back, imagine one that turns you into a, well, thing, a mockery of a human being with no living goodness left inside you because Manx, like the vampire his vanity license plate references, has devoured it all. That's what happens to the children who take a ride with good ol' Charlie Manx, and that's how he's able to live such an unnaturally long life.

You see where this is going, right? The inevitability that Vic McQueen and Charlie Manx will at some point cross paths? They do, first when she's an angry teenager looking for trouble and finding it in spectacularly horrific fashion (the Shorter Way bridge never steers her wrong), and again after a decade and some change spent battling alcoholism, drug addiction, and depression, when her own son is kidnapped by Manx. Her vow to put both Manx and his fantasyland into the dirt for good to save her son is downright epic, and when she gives chase on the wheels of an old Triumph Bonneville motorcycle with the same location-shifting abilities as her old Tuff Burner, you know she means
business.

I absolutely loved this book, devoured it the way Charlie Manx devours children's souls. Reading it, I couldn't help but develop strong feelings towards its cast of characters, from the tragic (Vic) to the likeable (librarian Maggie Leigh and biker Lou Carmody) to the moronically evil (Bing Partridge, who "couldn't pour water out of a boot with instructions written on the heel") and others still. Yes, this is one of those stories where you want Good, no matter how broken and flawed, to stand up and kick Evil right in the jewels. And guess what? She does.

NOS4A2 is the perfect book to kick off your summer reading season, so reserve your copy now!

After the Fall Before the Fall During the Fall by Nancy Kress

After the Fall Before the Fall During the Fall by Nancy Kress

The story of the ending of civilization, told from three different points of view, which, as the title suggests, are after, before, and during.

Before: Julie Kahn, an analytical mathematician is on the trail of a strong of kidnappings and robberies. Working with the FBI to plot these strange crimes, her time and location predictions become increasingly accurate. But she has the added difficulty of becoming a mother as she tracks these inconsistent crimes.

After: The last remnants of humanity are trapped in a strange enclosure known as the Shell. The original survivors tried to breed and all but six of their offspring die. Even those remaining six are sterile and deformed. Their hope lies is a strange machine that lets them travel back before the fall to grab supplies and healthy children in order to survive and expand humanity’s gene pool.

Kress does an amazing job of weaving together the before and after elements of the fall. At times the motivations of Pete, the main character of the After, can seem overly simplistic. But this could be explained by his being a deformed 15 year old growing up in highly unusual circumstances. It is a relatively short novel, not even reaching a full 200 pages, and the structure of the chapters is engaging and makes for a quick read. The only thing that I was not particularly was the revelation at the end, when you find out who the aliens are and the forces behind them. To me, this did not stand up to the rest of the book. However, the remainder of the story is an certainly unusual and interesting take on a old idea and worth checking out.

Wanted Great Narrators!

Listening to audio books is new to me and I still (probably) prefer reading a book, but listening while I work, drive, clean and bake is a definite plus for me. One of our library patron's strongly encouraged me to listen to an audio book that Lorelei King narrated. I listened to her read Notorious Nineteen and I was hooked. I have found other books narrated by King and enjoyed them as well. Then being quite bold and daring, I listened to Maze Runner written by James Dashner. It is narrated by Mark Deakins. Deakins does marvelous voice characterizations, too. Consequently I am now looking for more great narrators!

Naturally the story has to be good, but... the narrator can make or break a good audio book. In my quest for great narrators and audio books I learned the Audie Award winners were announced on May 30th, and discovered neither of the narrators I enjoyed, were on the list of winners. I cannot imagine how they could miss, but now I am determined to listen to more great books and find more great narrators! The narrator brings the story to life and keeps you on the edge of your seat. If you enjoy audio books and have a favorite narrator please let me know, who it is. If you recall a book they read that was good, please tell me the title. I will listen! Really, I will.

I will be writing a series of blogs on the best audio books. This series  includes the 2013 Audie Award winners, Earphones Award winners and Golden Voice Award winners.  Here are a few listings of books read by previous Golden Voice Award winners in case you are also waiting for a good book to listen too.

61 Hours by Lee Child
Read by Dick Hill

Wicked Lovely by Melissa Mar
Read by Alyssa Bresnahan

Brother I'm Dying by Edwidge Danticat
Read by Robin Miles

Harry Potter Series by J.K. Rowling
Read by Jim Dale

The Coral Thief by Rebecca Stott
Read by Simon Prebble
 

The Round House

I recently read my first Louise Erdrich novel. I have listened to people rave about her newest book, The Round House, for almost a year, but I had to wait until it made it's way to the top of my ever-growing reading list. If you are not familiar with the author, Louise Erdrich is the daughter of a Chippewa Indian mother and a German-American father. Erdrich's writing  explores Native-American themes with major characters representing both sides of her heritage.

The Round House is the story of a family, but also the difficulty of law, and the coming-of-age of a young man. Joe is a thirteen year old boy looking forward to summer break on the North Dakota reservation where he lives with his mother and father. On a Sunday afternoon, life on the reservation begins to change when Joe’s mother is brutally attacked. Joe becomes intent on healing his mother by finding the attacker. He becomes angry with the law that his father, the tribal judge, must follow and sets out with his three best friends to solve what the police can’t or won’t. In the midst of this, Joe’s family life begins to unravel, but he finds a plethora of new friends that reach out to him during this time.

Erdrich tells the stories of several characters beautifully. Joe is at the center, but we are given the history of the land, people, and tribal law through Erdrich’s beautiful storytelling. One of the best attributes of the book is Erdrich’s ability to keep Joe in tune with normal thirteen year old boy issues in the midst of this crisis. He worries about his mom, he reads law books, and he thinks about girls. Her ability to handle character descriptions and development made this an incredibly enjoyable read.

25th Lambda Literary Award Winners!

On this past Monday night in New York City, the 25th annual Lammys were announced!  The Lambda Literary Awards highlighted a quarter century of outstanding LGBT literature and they were celebrated in fine fashion!
 
Try some of the following winning authors and titles:

Bisexual Fiction:
 
In One Person by John Irving

Bisexual Non-fiction:
 
My Awesome Place: The Autobiography of Cheryl B. by Cheryl Burke

Gay Memoir/Biography:

Fire in the Belly: The Life and Times of David Wojnarowicz by Cynthia Carr

Lesbian General Fiction:
 
The World We Found by Thrity Umrigar

Lesbian Memoir/Biography:

Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? by Jeanette Winterson

Lesbian Mystery:

Ill Will by J. M. Redmann

LGBT Children's/Young Adult:

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Saenz

For the rest of the winners and nominees:  lambdaliterary

In the Queue

 June's In the Queue is full of hot new reads.  Here's a sample to wet your appetite!

Out of Range: A Novel by Hank Steinberg is a taut, driving thriller about a husband who is searching for his missing wife, a hunt that will lead him straight into a deadly world of spies, lies, and obsession. This award winner television writer, creator and producer of Without a Trace, has created a scintillating debut novel that will keep readers enthralled and on the edge of their seat!

The Astronaut Wives Club: A True Story by Lily Koppel is a true story of the wives of American  astronauts who manned the Mercury Seven. These women became an overnight sensation when their husband's death defying missions sky rocketed them to fame. Now is your chance to meet the military spouses who were transformed into American royalty.

The Fire Witness: A Novel by Lars Kepler and Laura A. Wideburg is sure to become and international sensation just like the author's predecessors, Stieg Larsson and Jo Nesbo. This unflinching page-turner has already taken Sweden by storm. A facility for troubled girls hosts a horrific murder scene, a resident and the charge nurse are dead and one of the inmates is missing and a bloody hammer was found under her pillow. It appears to be an open and shut case, but Detective Linna refuses to accept easy answers. His search leads him into darker, more violent territory, and finally to a shocking confrontation with a figure from his past.