Pride and Prejudice and Zombies September 10, 2009

Title: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

Author: Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith

Summary: It’s Pride and Prejudice…with zombies! Fighting off zombie attacks are a daily chore for the Bennet sisters. During their years of training in China, they have honed their mastery with the sword, becoming famous in their small town for their abilities. Our hero Mr. Darcy happens to also be a famous zombie slayer. It would be a match made in heaven if not for Darcy’s superior status and the disapproving glare of his aunt, the renowned Lady Catherine de Bourgh. With the classic cast of passionate, sharp-mouthed, lovesick characters, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies brings this original tale back to life – literally.

Who will like this book?: If you’re a fan of Gregory Maguire, I’d say this book is for you. If you enjoyed the original Pride and Prejudice, you might enjoy this as well, as it contains many direct passages (and essentially the same plot) from the original.  Even if you don’t like reading the classics, you’ll find this one hard to put down.

If you like this, you should try: Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters. Wicked and Mirror Mirror by Gregory Maguire. Fool by Christopher Moore. Goose Girl by Shannon Hale.

Recommended by: ZZ, Fairfield resident and avid reader

Handle With Care August 25, 2009

Title: Handle With Care

Author: Jodi Picoult

Summary: With the recent movie version of My Sister’s Keeper, everyone has been in the library looking for books by Jodi Picoult. And while readers might want to read the book of the movie, I suggest you try this one, her latest, instead. It is a more mature story with the same gripping medical drama and intense relationships.

Five year-old Willow is a wonderful child – bright, funny, kindhearted and incredibly smart for her age. She was born with osteogenesis imperfecta, or brittle bone disease: Stumbling could mean a broken leg, coughing could break her ribs. She will need medical care and supervision for her whole life. Her mother Charlotte decides to sue her doctor, who is also her dearest friend, for ‘wrongful death,’ meaning that if Charlotte had known Willow would be born with a debilitating disease sooner in her pregnancy, she might have chosen not to have her. Told in the voices of Charlotte, her best friend, husband, lawyer, and other daughter Amelia, this wrenching story tackles the complex idea of who should decide if a life is worth living.

Who will like this book: Mature readers who enjoy dramatic stories about families and friendship.

If you like this, try this: My Sister’s Keeperby Jodi Picoult. All We Know of Heavenby Jacqueline Mitchard.

Recommended by: Nicole, Teen Librarian

Columbine June 17, 2009

Title: Columbine

Author: Dave Cullen

Summary: On April 20, 1999, two boys entered their high school and proceeded to unleash the most unforgettable school shooting of the modern era. Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold were troubled outcasts in black trench coats, picked on by jocks and preps, who, after years of listening to angry music and playing violent video games, finally snapped.

Or were they? Actually, none of these accepted facts about the young killers are true. In this absorbing book for mature readers, a reporter who was on the scene that day and followed the story long after the tragedy of school shootings became seemingly commonplace, dispels the myths behind the shooting, its perpetrators, and even its victims. Everyone knows what you mean when you say ‘Columbine,’ but not one of us has ever heard the whole story until now.

Who will like this book?: Mature teen readers interested in crime and detection stories. 

If you like this, try this: In Cold Blood by Truman Capote. Give a Boy a Gun by Todd Strasser. A mature fictional work that deals, in part, with Columbine and it’s aftermath, The Hour I First Believed by Wally Lamb.

Recommended by: Nicole, Teen Librarian

The Blind Side August 8, 2008

Title: The Blind Side: The Evolution of a Game

Author: Michael Lewis

Summary: The game of football changed forever on November 18, 1985. As millions watched on Monday Night Football, Joe Theisman was sacked by Lawrence Taylor, and suffered a career-ending leg fracture. Taylor hit Theisman from the blind side; the quarterback never saw it coming. As a result, team owners and coaches scrambled to find a way to protect the quarterback’s blind side and the position of left tackle was transformed. Once just another interchangeable big man on the line, he is now often the highest paid player on the team. Good left tackles possess a freakish combination of speed and size, and they are very hard to find.

Michael Oher was born to a drug-addicted mother in Memphis. He doesn’t know his father, or even his own birthday. Growing up on the streets, he faced a very difficult future. But opportunities for an education and a career in the NFL all emerge, because at 6′6” with the speed of a basketball player, Oher was born to play left tackle. The Blind Side is more than just a riveting sports book. It makes you wonder: If Lawrence Taylor hadn’t landed that monster hit, would Micheal Oher be starting his senior season at Ole Miss today?

Who will like this book?: Football fans. People who like to read stories about life on the streets and kids who triumph over difficult odds.

If you like this, try this: Moneyball, also by Michael Lewis. Game by Walter Dean Myers.

Recommended by: Nicole, Teen Librarian

Jarhead July 1, 2008

Title: Jarhead: A Marine’s Chronicle of the Gulf War and Other Battles

Author: Anthony Swofford

Summary: Anthony Swofford served in the first Gulf War as a Marine sniper and describes his time in Kuwait and Iraq, as well as his training and life after the conflict in this original, unsettling memoir. If you are looking for a heroic tale of the glories of combat, you won’t find it here – this book is free from many of the stereotypes you might associate with American war stories. For Swoff and company, the most difficult part of the war is the waiting – for battle, for news from home, and for a chance to use their training. When the fighting starts it seems to be over before it begins.

Operation Desert Storm was a short conflict. But it was brutal. The author doesn’t pull any punches (or leave much to the imagination) when describing battle, his comrades, or his personal life. This unique perspective on life as a solider is one you won’t soon forget. 

Who will like this book?: Mature readers interested in military and war stories. People who like intense personal stories.

If you like this, try this: The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien. Kipling’s Choice by Geert Spillbeen. Fallen Angels and Sunrise Over Fallujah by Walter Dean Myers.

Recommended by: Nicole, Teen Librarian

Counting Coup June 28, 2008

Title: Counting Coup: A True Story of Basketball and Honor on the Little Big Horn

Author:Larry Colton

Summary:  Sharon LaForge moves on the basketball court with fluidity and grace driven by an intuitive understanding of the game.  She is a gifted athlete and will lead her school team to a state championship, but no college recruiter will ever show an interest in her.  No offer of scholarship will ever be sent to Sharon because, as most people on her reservation believe, schools don’t like to take a chance that their athletic investment may not adjust to life off the reservation. 

Author Larry Colton went to Crow Agency searching for an answer as to why young Native American athletes, who dominate the basketball court in high school, leave school without a single college offer. What he found was Sharon LaForge.  In telling Sharon’s story, Colton tells the story of her fellow teammates, her family, her Indian community, and his own experiences with the people inside that community. 

Who will like this book?:  Fans of sports books and those interested in Native American life on a reservation.  Don’t be confused though, this isn’t a dry anthropological study of culture, but rather a very personal look into a young woman’s life, the choices she makes, and her community. 

If you like this, try this: In These Girls, Hope is Muscleby Madeleine Blias and Friday Night Lights: a Town, a Team, and a Dreamby H.G. Bissinger

Recommended by:Jen, Fairfield Woods Teen Librarian