Cowboys vs Aliens

Our next meeting is on Wednesday, June 13, 2012 at 9am at the Emmet O’Neal Library. Our topic is Beach Reads. Fiction, nonfiction, audio, ebook, the format doesn’t matter. If you decide it’d be ideally read on the beach with a frosty drink close at hand, bring it and tell us about it!

December feels a long way off at this point, but our meeting road trip has been confirmed. The meeting on December 12 will be held at the Birmingham Public Library downtown in the Southern History department. They have an outstanding collection of vintage/local cookbooks and we will have the opportunity to see a few of the best so be sure to mark your calendars for far-off December!

In the epic battle between cowboys and aliens at the Reader’s Advisory Roundtable this morning, it was a rousing victory on the part of the aliens. Science fiction, traditional and in a wide variety of sub-genres, won the day with westerns scrambling to keep up.

Isaac Asimov’s Robot novels:
The Caves of Steel
The Naked Sun
The Robots of Dawn
Robots and Empire
Mary Ann, BPL Southern History

GENERAL DISCUSSION: Isaac Asimov was one of the most prolific of writers, penning material, both fiction and nonfiction, for every age group from elementary school to learned adult. Find more information about him here.

The Rose Garden by Susanna Kearsley
Hybrids by Whitley Strieber
Mondretta, Leeds

The Sisters Brothers by Patrick Dewitt
Katie, Emmet O’Neal

Zombie Powder by Tite Kubo
Trigun by Yasuhiro Nightow
Akira by Katsuhiro Otomo
Ringworld by Larry Niven
Ringworld Engineers by Larry Niven
The Integral Trees by Larry Niven
Dune by Frank Herbert
Samuel, BPL Info/Circ

Robopocalypse by Daniel H. Wilson
Set up as a series of interviews with survivors (on the World War Z model), Robopocalypse recounts the earliest days of the takeover of the planet by our trusted machines. Anything with any sort of onboard computerization now wants to kill you. First it was cars and machinery. If you were in it, it crashed. If you weren't in it, it ran you over until you were dead. Then it patrolled the streets, searching for new victims. Later, more mobile robotic entities started entering homes and clearing buildings. Soon, the last pockets of human resistance were rounded up into prison camps, where the machines began “experimenting.” An unapologetic, gory, roller coaster thrill ride through a dystopian landscape refreshingly different from the zombie takeovers currently in fashion.

The Leviathan trilogy by Scott Westerfeld
Leviathan
Behemoth
Goliath
This steam punk alternate history of the events leading up to World War I for young adults is SOOO good! The world is parsed in two groups: the Darwinists and the Clankers, those who’ve built their societies around bioengineering and those who’ve chosen steam-powered mechanics. The Germans, now in pursuit of the assassinated Arch Duke Franz Ferdinand’s son Aleksandar, are Clankers and the British are Darwinists. Young airman Dillon Sharp, a girl disguised as a boy in the British Air Service, finds herself aboard the mightiest beast in the British fleet, the whale air ship Leviathan. As the paths of the Leviathan and Aleksandar Ferdinand converge, the fate of Europe becomes more and more unstable. Excellent world-building, a super strong and funny heroine, and a fast-paced plot combine to make the whole trilogy a winner. The audiobooks, narrated exquisitely by Alan Cumming, are not to be missed.
Holley, Emmet O’Neal

Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde
Kelly, BPL Springville Road

Genesis by Bernard Beckett
Buffalo Girls by Larry McMurtry
Michelle, Irondale

Earthbound by Joe Halderman
Shadows in Flight by Orson Scott Card
The Rope by Nevada Barr
Blend by Alan Dean Foster
Doc by Maria Dorla Russell
Jon, Avondale

GENERAL DISCUSSION: We talked quite a bit about westerns as a genre and its waning popularity.
2010 article in Library Journal
Elmore Leonard’s western novels, specifically the Raylan Givens novels, have experienced a resurgence due to the hit FX show adapted from those novels, Justified, starring Timothy Olyphant. Here’s a recent Book Beast interview with Mr. Leonard.

This just in! Patron recommendations on Thursday, April 12th include One Thousand White Women by Jim Fergus and Craig Johnson's Walt Longmire books:
The Cold Dish
Death Without Company
Kindness Goes Unpunished
Another Man's Moccasins
The Dark Horse
Junkyard Dogs
Hell is Empty
As the Crow Flies

Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne
Richard, BPL Fiction

Looking for purchasing sources for graphic classics? Try Classics Illustrated Junior Comics or try this list of websites.

What are YOU reading?


Holley