Book Review Friday: The Ocean at the End of the Lane

Yes, I know it's Saturday.

Lately, most of Neil Gaiman's books end up in the Children's Department of the library.  Though The Ocean at the End of the Lane tells the story of a man remembering his childhood this is a story for grown ups.  At 178 pages long, The Ocean at the End of the Lane is really a novella.  But each page is packed with Gaiman's magic touch.  The narrator is a middle-aged man returning to his home town for a funeral.  He finds himself driving through the old neighborhood somewhat aimlessly, until he arrives at the end of the lane and the Hempstock's farm and he starts to remember.   What he remembers is a fantastic, magical, impossible experience he had when he was seven years old and first met eleven year old Lettie Hempstock and her mother and grandmother.

If you get a chance to listen to the audio book narrated by Gaiman himself, I highly recommend the experience.  But not necessarily while you're driving.  I found the story and Gaiman's narration so engrossing that I became a hazard on the highways and, for the safety of myself and my fellow commuters, I opted to read instead of listen.

For more by Neil Gaiman try:

Fragile Things
Anansi Boys
American Gods
Stardust
Smoke and Mirrors
Neverwhere
Good Omens

The Graveyard Book
M is for Magic
Coraline
Odd and the Frost Giants
Crazy Hair
Blueberry Girl
The Dangerous Alphabet
The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish
The Wolves in the Walls

Favorite Things: Fantastic Fiction

Life at the Reference/Adult Services Desk can get hectic.  And sometimes we just need a little help finding the right answers. When it comes to answering: "Can you tell me if this is the first book in the series?"  Or "What else has this author written?"  Fantastic Fiction is one of my go-to resources.  With listings for over 30,000 authors and 350,000 books and counting, if it's in the library catalog, it's probably in here, too.

Search by author to find a list of everything they've published listed in series order.  It's easy to print out a list for a fan.  Search by book title and click on the link for a synopsis and Amazon purchasing info (of course).  At the bottom of an author page there may be recommendations from the author and you'll find a list of "people who searched for this author also searched for ..."  a great way to find readalikes for that "Oh, I've read all of those" patron.

You can also browse authors alphabetically or by genre or search for new listings in hardback, paperback, audio, or Kindle.

Book Review Friday: Darkwalker

 

 "Vengeance never forgets a debt ...."

Darkwalker by E. L. Tettensor is a paranormal mystery set in a Victorianesque world where magic, mystery, and the supernatural collide.
Nicolas Lenoir is a police inspector.  Once the best and the brightest he is now jaded and apathetic.  Investigating a case of grave robbing Lenoir is just going through the motions and earning the disdain of his protege, Sergeant Bran Kody.  When Lenoir's nine-year-old informant, Zach goes missing it looks like the two cases might have something in common and Lenoir finally has something to live for.  but that might not be easy, he has reason to believe that the green-eyed man who haunts his memories and his nightmares is involved, too.  Lenoir escaped the Darkwalker once, but he would be a fool to think he could do it again, but to save Zach's life he's going to have to try.
Dark and atmospheric with just a hint of magic.  Add a supernatural spirit who relentlessly stalks his prey and a kidnapping/murder mystery.  Toss in some well-turned phrases and a fast-paced, page-turning narrative,  Mix in a brooding anti-hero that you'll learn to like in spite of yourself and a few well-drawn secondary characters you'll want to know better.   Darkwalker has it all and ends with the promises of sequels to come. 
Darkwalker is E. L. Tettensor's first novel.

I'm at a loss to provide readalikes for this book.  I haven't read anything else quite like it.

Here's a list of Best Supernatural Mysteries from GoodReads.

Other books with a Victorian atmospheric flavor include:

Silent in the Grave by Deanna Raybourn

Drood by Dan Simmons
The Yard by Alex Grecian

2014 Goals

Well, 2013 was a wild ride!  The cats are exhausted.  Time to strap in for the new year and set a few goals down in writing ... just to keep me honest.  So for 2014 I'd like to ...


Read 50 books cover to cover, according to Shelfari I made it 36 this year.  I know there were a few I didn't post there, so for 2013 I'll give myself 40. Fifty should be doable.

Create a file of annotations to use for Reader's Advisory and bibliographies. 

Be more consistent about posting book reviews on the blog every Friday.

Post something every Tuesday: tech tips, interesting articles, observations, who knows.  And yes, I realize today is Wednesday, this is a goal to strive for, and I've got some work to do in the organization department, too.

Read more industry literature: Library Journal, Publishers Weekly, books from our professional development collection, etc.  I've been a little sporadic about that sort of thing.  The only thing I read consistently every month is AudioFile, but then I do order the audio books for the adult department at my library.

Rack up at least 20 hours of professional development: Webinars, MOOCs, conferences, in-service training, etc.  I've recorded 29.5 for 2013.

Keep working on the ARRT Popular Fiction List.  I've found it is a valuable tool for helping me become more familiar with authors and genres I don't always read.  Reading something from the list every month gets me out of my comfort zone and makes me a better reader's adviser.  

So that's the plan for 2014.  We'll see how it goes.
Happy New Year!

Book Review Friday: Juliet

 

Juliet is  Anne Fortier's debut novel.  It is a work of contemporary and historical fiction telling two parallel stories.  Julie Jacobs is 25 years old when her Aunt Rose dies and instead of leaving her estate for Julie and her twin sister Janice to divide equally, as she had always promised to do, she leaves the estate to Janice.  To Julie she leaves a note, a key to a safety deposit box in a bank in Siena, Italy, and a mystery hundreds of years in the making.
Julie soon learns that she and Janice were born Giulietta and Giannozza Tolomei and their distant ancestor, the original Giulietta Tolomei's tragic life and death was the true inspiration for Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.
The twins were told that their parents died in a car crash when the  girls were 3 years old.  Now Julie discovers that this is not exactly the whole truth, though their parents are dead, the circumstances were suspicious. And a member of Solembini clan, rivals to the Tolomeis for hundreds of years could be responsible. 
When Julie travels to Siena unable to speak a word of Italian the first people she meets are Eva Maria Solembini and her handsome, but aloof godson, Alessandro.  Eva Maria is fascinated by Julie's story and eager to help her learn more about her past, but Julie can't help but wonder why.  And why is Alessandro so distant and suspicious of her motives?  The safety deposit box holds no treasure, but a box full of papers and diaries. As Julie sifts through this memorabilia she discovers it holds the key not only to a fabulous treasure but also to unlocking the mystery surrounding the ancient tragedy of Giulietta and Romeo.  If she plays her cards right, Julie could finally find a way to end the infamous "plague on both your houses" which still curses both the Tolomeis and the Solembinis or she could end up another victim to the tragic curse.
 Fortier's prose is rich and evocative, if perhaps a bit overlong, as she weaves the two stories together.   The book is well researched and thoroughly entertaining.  A fascinating look beyond the story of Romeo and Juliet.


For more books based on Shakespeare's classic plays check out this list: Fiction Based on Shakespeare from the New York Public Library.

If you liked Juliet, you might like these:

The DaVinci Code by Dan Brown
The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
Violets of March by Sarah Jio
Map of Lost Memories by Kim Fay
The Birth of Venus by Sarah Dunant
The Book of Madness and Cures by Regina O'Melveny

Book Review Friday: The Art of War for Writers

 

The Art of War for Writers: Fiction Writing Strategies, Tactics, and Exercises by James Scott Bell is a small, to the point guide for novelists.  Bell is an accomplished author of several novels as well as writer how-to books.  In this book he uses short chapters to highlight various points he considers necessary for writers to improve their craft.  He quotes liberally from Sun Tzu's classic strategy book The Art of War (in the library catalog the author attribution is "sunzi, active 5th century B. C.), applying those principles to the art of putting words on paper.  He also quotes liberally from Stephen King's On Writing. 

Bell's book is pocket sized, the chapters are short and each contains a pithy nugget of wisdom that writers can use to their benefit.  There are exercises for practicing the craft, strategies for overcoming writer's block, and tips and tricks that only a veteran writer can share with the novice.  An excellent guide book.  A perfect gift for the writer in your life.

Need more help getting that novel started or finished?  Try these:

On Writing by Stephen King
A Writer's Guide to Characterization: Archetypes, Heroic Journeys, and Other Elements of Dynamic Character Development by Victoria Lynn Schmidt
Story Engineering: Mastering the Six Core Competencies of Successful Writing by Larry Brooks
Beginnings, Middles, & Ends by Nancy Kress
Characters & Viewpoint by Orson Scott Card
Elmore Leonard's 10 Rules of Writing by Elmore Leonard
Writer's Workshop in a Book: The Squaw Valley Community of Writers on the Art of Fiction

More books by James Scott Bell:

Revision and Self-Editing for Publication: Techniques for Transforming Your First Draft into a Novel
Write Great Fiction: Plot & Structure: Techniques and Exercises for Crafting a Plot that Grips Readers from Start to Finish

Blind Justice: A Novel
City of Angels
Angels Flight
Angel of Mercy
Deadlock
A Greater Glory
A Higher Justice
Presumed Guilty
The Whole Truth
Don't Leave Me

Book Review Friday: A Beautiful Blue Death

 

A Beautiful Blue Death by Charles Finch

Victorian gentleman and armchair explorer, Charles Lennox likes to spend his winter afternoons with a cup of tea, a good book, and a blazing fire.  But when his good friend and neighbor Lady Jane asks him to help solve a crime he cannot refuse.  Lady Jane's former made Pru Smith has turned up at her new job dead of an apparent suicide.  Lennox accompanied by his good friend, Dr. Thomas McConnell and his valet, Graham investigate and soon deduce that Pru was murdered by a rare poison and the race is on to discover how the girl was killed and why. 
A fascinating glimpse into Victorian England and a first class mystery as well. 

For more Charles Lennox mysteries try:

The September Society
The Fleet Street Murders
A Stranger in Mayfair
A Burial at Sea
A Death in the Small Hours
An Old Betrayal

For more Victorian mysteries try:

The Yard by Alex Grecian
The William Monk series by Anne Perry
The Thomas and Charlotte Pitt series by Anne Perry

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories