Bibliofiles
King, David. Death in the City of Light
Sure to draw comparisons to Erik Larson’s masterful true-crime epic, “Devil in the White City,” King’s “Death in the City of Light” unfolds the true story of a serial killer who stalked the streets of Paris during its occupation by the Nazi regime. A strange burning smell first alerted citizens that not all was right. When concerned firefighters entered the building from which the smell seemed to be emanating, they were appalled to discover severed body parts burning in a large furnace. Commisaire Georges-Victor Massu, the head of the Parisian Brigade Criminelle, was tasked by the Gestapo with bringing the murderer to justice. The main suspect quickly became Dr. Marcel Petiot, the owner of the building and, by current accounts, a reputable man. He was known as the “Peoples’ Doctor,” with a reputation for kindness and generosity and for providing free medical care to the poor. But when the police began digging into Petiot's background, a very different picture of the man emerged.
Petiot was soon charged with 27 murders…though authorities believed the true number of dead to be closer to 150. But who was being killed, and why? What Massu eventually unraveled was a plan of such deviousness and evil that it was shocking. When Petiot was charged, the city and the police hoped for answers and closure. What they got was a circus as the trial—for all of the cases simultaneously—stumbled over Petiot’s charm and wit and the effective and aggressive defense of his lawyer.
Gripping and detailed.
Just a Thought -- Coming Soon
A lot of popular authors have books coming out this fall and winter! If you want to get a head-start on writing up your "to-read" lists, look no further!
Coming in November:
Evanovich, Janet. Explosive Eighteen
Grafton, Sue. V is for Vengeance
King, Stephen. 11/22/63
Patterson, James. Kill Alex Cross
Sanderson, Brandon. The Alloy of Law
Coming in December:
Connelly, Michael. The Drop
Cornwell, Patricia. Red Mist
Koontz, Dean. 77 Shadow Street
McCall Smith, Alexander. The Forgotten Affairs of Youth
Woods, Stuart. D.C. Dead
Adiga, Aravind. Last Man in Tower
At Vishram Society Tower A, an aging apartment building in the slums of Mumbai, some news has shaken up the usually respectable middle-class residents. An offer has been made by Dharmen Shah, an ambitious developer who wants to tear down the tower and build luxury condominiums worthy of the "new" India. The temptation of money quickly convinces the younger residents of Tower B to leave their apartments, but Tower A remains stubborn. They are more complicated, and Mr. Shah must negotiate with them one-at-a-time, shamelessly using their long forgotten dreams and weaknesses to his advantage. One-by-one they give in until only Mr. Masterji is left, a retired teacher and widower-impervious to bribes, Shah’s intimidation tactics and even pressure from the other residents.
The suspenseful showdown between Mr. Shah and Mr. Masterji is not just about the apartment, it is about old vs. new India, the changing class system and maintaining respectability in an increasingly greedy society. Adiga introduces the strengths and flaws of both men, complicating the readers’ alliances and sympathies. Will Mr. Masterji crumble under the overwhelming efforts of Mr. Shah to destroy his home? Or will this battle prove that money is not always power? This book is sure to be another gem from Adiga, who won the Man Booker Prize in 2008 for his book, The White Tiger.
Torres, Justin. We the Animals
Written in a series of short stories and vignettes, We the Animals is not what you would expect from a coming-of-age story. It delves deeply into the lives of a family continually balancing on the edge. Set in an unknown town in upstate New York, the unnamed seven year-old narrator and his two older brothers, Joel and Manny, experience a freedom foreign to most children their age, roaming the streets day and night while their mother works the graveyard shift and their father disappears for days at a time. What the boys fail to see is the dark reality of their situation; that their freedom is really neglect, their mother’s deep love for her children is also a form of her desperation, and their parent’s relationship, while passionate, is also volatile and dangerous.
Through glimpses we see the boys experience seemingly traumatic events: learning to swim by being abandoned in deep water, watching their father dig a grave in the backyard for no one in particular, packing up and leaving with their mother only to return after not knowing where to go, and understanding them as nothing extraordinary, as every-day life. As the boys grow they come to learn what it means to be an adult. While the narrator’s older brothers fall into their family’s vicious cycle of failure, aggression and indifference, he is desperate to separate himself from them, but at what price?
Even though the novel is slim, it packs an emotional punch. If you’re a fan of poetry, you will appreciate how Torres structures his novel and delicately navigates the story with a sensitivity that will stay with you long after you have finished it.
Just a Thought -- Zombie Fiction
Everywhere you look these days, zombies are rearing their decaying heads. From films like "Zombieland" to novels likePride and Prejudice and Zombies" to the website of the Centers for Disease Control, it seems that the zombie is our new favorite monster. But the ranks of the mindlessly hungry undead have not only invaded classic literature, they have also been joined by new brethren who think between nibbling on brains and are able to tell their own stories in their own words. The zombie fiction genre is expanding as new authors sink their teeth into the subject. For a few new and different takes on the shambling undead, try some of these titles!
Ajvide Linqvist, John. Handling the Undead
Becker, Robin. Brains: a zombie memoir
Brown, Ryan. Play Dead
Browne, S.G. Breathers: a zombie's lament
Goldsher, Alan. Paul is undead : the British zombie invasion
Kenemore, Scott. Zombie, Ohio: a tale of the undead
Moore, J. P. Toothless
Rowland, Diana. My Life as a White Trash Zombie
Turner, Joan Frances. Dust
Rowland, Diana. My Life as a White Trash Zombie
Angel Crawford, a high-school dropout on probation for possession of a stolen car, is going nowhere with her life. Stuck in a dead-end relationship with a dead-beat boyfriend, taking care of and hiding from her alcoholic father by turns, drinking to excess and taking illegal drugs, she is a mess. A white trash mess. So she’s not too terribly surprised when she wakes up in the hospital one day and is told she was found by the side of the road, naked, having overdosed on drugs after leaving the bar with a man other than her boyfriend. What DOES surprise Angel is that there’s not a scratch on her when she clearly remembers being flung through the windshield after a terrible car accident. A mysterious benefactor has left her a cooler full of some kind of coffee drink with strict instructions to drink one every day and has arranged a job at the local morgue for Angel. Uncertain as to what’s going on, Angel nevertheless follows instructions and shows up for the job as a morgue van driver and autopsy assistant. It isn’t long before she realizes that she has a strange, insatiable craving for brains…a craving she resists as long as possible. But when she gives in, she realizes that she’s stronger, better, and more alive after eating them. When a horribly decaying man ambushes her van one evening looking for brains, it’s a short mental hop from there to the fact that Angel herself is now one of the living dead. Now she must figure out how to “live” in her current state, who her mysterious benefactor might be, and, more alarmingly, who is out there killing other zombies before falling victim herself.
Funny, intriguing, and surprisingly touching, My Life as a White Trash Zombie is hopefully only the first installment in the undead adventures of Angel Crawford.
Just a Thought -- Monster Mash
It all started with Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Suddenly zombies, werewolves, vampires, and beasts of all descriptions were invading our classic literature! These mash-ups, as they’re termed, take many forms. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies simply wove zombies into Jane Austen’s original text, with hilarious and oddly seamless results. Other mash-ups include a higher percentage of newly-created text. Still others, for a twist on the genre, take a real historical figure and add creatures to his or her real history. Whichever type, the books are fascinating in their way, often funny, and always engaging.
Brown, Eric. War of the Worlds, Plus Blood, Guts, and Zombies
Erwin, Sherri. Jane Slayre
Grahame-Smith, Seth. Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter
Grand, Porter. Little Women and Werewolves
Gray, Sarah. Wuthering Bites
Jensen, Van. Pinocchio, Vampire Slayer
Moorat, A.E. Queen Victorian: Demon Hunter
Nazarian, Vera. Mansfield Park and Mummies
Weston, Lucy. The Secret History of Elizabeth Tudor, Vampire Slayer
Winters, Ben. Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters
Winters, Ben. Android Karenina
Sem-Sandberg, Steve. The Emperor of Lies
In 1940, the second largest Jewish ghetto in Poland was established in the town of Lodz. Placed in control of this ghetto by the Nazi regime was a figure still controversial and compelling today, Mordechai Rumkowski. A failed businessman, a bullying insurance agent, Rumkowski was by all accounts brash, egomaniacal, and deeply insecure. But he could also be oddly generous and loving, fancying himself a savior to the weak and the innocent. After his wife’s death in 1936, he established a Kinderkolonie, an orphanage for Jewish children. He encouraged the orphans to look on him as a father figure, going so far as to sprinkle candy in their midst on his visits, ensuring they would always run up to and after him.
And, just as he tried to protect the orphans under his care, he attempted to protect the Jewish inhabitants of the Lodz ghetto. He knew, or believed he knew, that if he could only demonstrate to the Nazis the usefulness of the Jews, they would be spared the camps. And so he turned the entire ghetto into a massive industrial complex, forcing the inhabitants to work long hours under brutal conditions, producing furniture and clothing for German citizens and camoflage, foorwear, jackets, and buckles for the Wehrmacht.
And so the central question in Sem-Sandberg’s novel is this: Was Rumkowski a collaborator or a liberator? A sinner, or a saint? A good man who made a difficult choice, or an evil man exploiting his position for personal gain?
The novel opens 2 years into the life of the ghetto, when Rumkowski is forced to annouce that 20,000 inhabitants will be deported from th ghetto, sent to the camps. It goes backwards and forwards in time from there, exploring both Rumkowski’s past and personal life as well as the lives and daily torments of the inhabitants of the ghetto. While Rumkowski is the central figure, the author’s scope is much wider, utilizing an immersive richness of detail and a large, almost Dickensian cast to illuminate this place and this time in a three-dimensional fashion seldom attempted in fiction. Sem-Sandberg’s use of archival materials in reconstructing ghetto life lends his novel historical accuracy and a certain legitimacy, while the fiction format allows the reader to empathize and understand the plight of those within ghetto walls in a way non-fiction seldom does. A challenging, difficult, and ultimately illuminating work.
Watson, S. J. Before I Go to Sleep
Before I Go to Sleep is SJ Watson's first novel, a thriller in the mold of Christopher Nolan's film on the impermanence of memory, Memento. The novel's heroine and storyteller, Chrissie, awakes in a strange bed, with a strange man sleeping beside her. A look in the bathroom mirror reveals a woman some 20 years older than she last remembers. Who is she, and how did she get here?
Able to recall only a few fragmented, disconnected memories, Chrissie comes to find that she has a rare form of amnesia, the result of some sort of head trauma suffered many years earlier. She can recall a few memories from before her accident, and can create new ones, but is unable to retain the vast majority: one night of sleep and her mind is wiped clean. A call from her neurologist, Dr. Nash (like everyone else, a stranger to Chrissie), results in the revelation that she has been keeping a detailed journal of events for the past few weeks. It is this journal that we read, following along as Chrissie makes unsettling discoveries about her past and present.
Before I Go to Sleep is a quick, compelling novel that will keep you guessing at every turn. How did Chrissie lose her memory? Why does Dr. Nash ask her to keep her journal a secret from Ben, her husband? Whose truth does she believe? Watson's writing style - simple yet evocative, never trite - elevates this beyond your average thriller.
Tremain, Rose. Trespass
Two wildly dysfunctional pairs of adult siblings find the paths of their lives colliding with volatile results in this quiet psychological thriller. Anthony Verey, a once-successful and sought-after London antiques dealer whose life is now on the decline, takes refuge in the company of his sister, Veronica. Veronica now lives a happy, quiet life in the Cévennes region of southern France with her lover, Kitty, an amateur watercolorist. Anthony’s trespassing on their lives causes friction between Veronica and Kitty, who cannot understand Veronica’s unswerving loyalty to the unpleasant and arrogant Anthony. When Anthony, seduced by the landscape, determines to sell off the remains of his life in London and buy a house in the area, Kitty is dismayed. Anthony’s rigid perfectionism means that only one house fits his standards…the Mas Lunel, owned now by aging Aramon. Aramon’s sister, Audrun, lives in a ramshackle house on the same property. The two have a long and brutally abusive history and Audrun is simply waiting for Aramon to die so that she can claim the Mas. But Anthony’s interest in purchasing the building and land threatens that goal, and only disaster can result.
Deeply flawed characters and a vivid, though untamed and arid setting perfectly complement Tremain’s tale of dark secrets and years-long grudges come to a head.