Fiction of Choice

Our next meeting is Wednesday, April 10, 2013 at 9am at Emmet O’Neal Library.  Our topic of discussion will be Southern Writers and this will apply to fiction and/or nonfiction, so go all out!!

Today the always-anticipated Fiction of Choice discussion took place.  It is frequently a particular point of interest as our group’s reading tastes vary widely.  Today was no exception.

The Poison Princess by Kresley Cole
(audiobook version narrated by Emma Galvin and Keith Nobbs)
This is the first YA crossover for paranormal romance writer Kresley Cole.  I would highly recommend this book for any adult readers (particularly females) who are scouring your YA shelves for paranormal romance. It is tamer than Cole's other works for mature audiences, but it is still steamy enough to make most happy. Also, the narrators of this audiobook did an excellent job.


The book is split between 2 parts of the same story that occur Before Flash and After Flash (BF, AF). The flash was the moment the apocalypse happened. The story follows Evie and Jackson as they meet BF then again AF, forced to help each other survive in the world with limited resources, little to no water, zombie like mutations, and militia out to capture and dominate any females they find. For whatever reason, the flash killed almost all the women,  so it is particularly dangerous for females who are being rounded up into slave camps. To make matters worse, the two main characters are constantly butting heads due to their BF misunderstandings and radically different backgrounds and histories.

To add another layer of cool to the book beyond apocalypse and zombies, the author has used the Tarot deck as inspiration for her main characters.  Somewhere out in the world there are 22 teens who represent the 22 Major Arcana Tarot cards. Each card has different powers. Some of the teens knew of their heritage BF and had been trained by their families since childhood. Some of the teens knew nothing and have no idea what they are or what they are in for. These 22 cards are seeking each other out and forming alliances for the upcoming battle where they will battle till the death. In the end, we are told, there can be only 1 card left.
Librarians should be warned that this book is apparently one of those "love it or hate it" books. Reviews on the web are either side of the fence but never in the middle. The book is not serious fiction and anyone trying to hold science or logic against Cole's apocalyptic descriptions will get angry at the writer, so it's best to enter into Cole's world with an open mind to magic, and expect a fun, sexy, action packed tale with lots of gore, danger, and guns.

Gina, Gardendale

Ada’s Rules by Alice Randall
Crossroads by William Young
NYPD Red by James Patterson
Felita, East Lake

GENERAL DISCUSSION:
Confessions of a Murder Suspect by James Patterson

James Patterson returns to the genre that made him famous with a thrilling teen detective series about the mysterious and magnificently wealthy Angel family . . . and the dark secrets they're keeping from one another.

On the night Malcolm and Maud Angel are murdered, Tandy Angel knows just three things: 1) She was the last person to see her parents alive. 2) The police have no suspects besides Tandy and her three siblings. 3) She can't trust anyone--maybe not even herself. Having grown up under Malcolm and Maud's intense perfectionist demands, no child comes away undamaged. Tandy decides that she will have to clear the family name, but digging deeper into her powerful parents' affairs is a dangerous-and revealing-game. Who knows what the Angels are truly capable of? (From amazon.com)


Sanctuary Cove by Rochelle Alers
Rochelle Alers introduces a new series that takes place on Cavanaugh Island in what is considered as Lowcountry in South Carolina. Residents in Sanctuary Cove adhere to four hundred year old traditions, and a much slower pace of living.Deborah Robinson is recently widowed. Her best friend and husband of eighteen years drown after attempting to save three boys swimming in a rip tide. Prior to his death he was involved in a high school scandal that implicated him in an affair with a pregnant teen. In order, to remove herself from the hurt and loss, Deborah Robinson sales her home and moves her two teenaged children to Sanctuary Cove from Charleston, where they resides in her grandmothers house. Sanctuary Cove is also home to snowbirds who visit during the winter months. This is where Dr. Asa Monroe enters into the story line. Asa has experienced a loss, not only did he lose his wife, but his six year old son as well. He's only in town until Doctors Without Borders approves his application. Deborah opens a bookstore called The Parlor in Sanctuary Cove and hires Asa as her part time assistant. Business is flourishing at the bookstore. Debs as Asa fondly calls Deborah has events planned for the bookstore including themed months, book clubs, and three oclock tea time. Since Asa plays the piano beautifully at the Parlor this brings the ladies in. Things are going well. Asa and Debs are getting closer. Read Sanctuary Cove to see how this romance plays out. Angels Landing will be the second installment in the Cavanaugh Island series.
Felita, East Lake


Les Miserables by Victor Hugo

Translation by Lee Fahnestock and Norman Macafee
Based on the classic translation by C.E. Wilbour
Before the hit theatre musical, before the many movies it inspired, there was the novel Les Miserables. Consistently appearing in lists of the major works of world literature, the novel is certainly one of Victor Hugo’s greatest works and probably the most popular. The storyline and major theme are simple---an outcast from society is redeemed by an act of love and mercy---but on this foundation Hugo builds an edifice of history, philosophy, and gripping plot that is practically a gothic cathedral of fiction.

The convict Jean Valjean, imprisoned for nineteen years for stealing a loaf of bread to feed his starving family, is finally released from prison but finds himself unwelcome everywhere because of his ex-convict status. An act of kindness from a priest sets him on the road to reforming his life, but it requires him to hide his true identity; he breaks his parole and builds a life for himself under a new name. But there is no security for him as long as he is pursued by the relentless policeman, Inspector Javert, who is determined to return Valjean to prison.

Hugo based some of the novel on real-life events, such as the career of Eugène François Vidocq, an ex-convict who later became a successful businessman and, ironically, a formidable police detective and the founder of the Sûreté Nationale. The sequence in which Fantine the prostitute is arrested for supposedly assaulting a customer is also based on a real-life incident Hugo witnessed---and in which he interceded for the prostitute and prevented her arrest. He was also on the scene during the 1832 revolt and his descriptions of the barricade scenes are based on what he actually witnessed taking place in the streets of Paris.

Reading the novel is no casual undertaking: fans refer to the unabridged version by names like “the Brick” for a reason. But it is a sweeping panoramic view of life at all levels of society in 19th-century France and continues to inspire passionate responses in readers to this day. Here is what Hugo himself said about the response he wanted to inspire: “Wherever men go in ignorance or despair, wherever women sell themselves for bread, wherever children lack a book to learn from or a warm hearth, Les Miserables knocks at the door and says: ‘open up, I am here for you’.”
Mary Anne, BPL Southern History

Tooth and Claw by Jo Walton

Tooth and Claw features many of the tropes of 19th century British fiction: modest maidens escorted by chaperones and worried about whether they can make a good match with an inadequate dowry or no dowry at all; family struggles over inheritance and position in society; interactions between the privileged upper class and their servants in the lower classes; officious vicars, unprincipled scoundrels and rakes.

The difference is that every character in this novel is a dragon.

Jo Walton delivers a brilliant and original fantasy novel that she claims “owes a lot to Anthony Trollope’s Framley Parsonage,” and readers of Victorian novels will spot the similarities in tone and character types immediately. In the world of Tooth and Claw, dragons can only grow bigger and stronger by eating the remains of another dragon, so inheritance issues---who in the family gets to take the biggest and first bites of a dead family member---are literally a matter of life and death.

Another major plot point has to do with maiden dragons and their status in society. An untouched maiden has golden-colored scales, which “blush” and turn pink when she is approached by a male and will later turn dark red when she has had clutches of eggs. However, the blush can take place even if a male (whose attentions may or may not be welcome to her) intrudes too closely into her personal space, without any true sexual contact involved. In one sequence, a maiden dragon who blushes on account of a male’s unwelcome attentions resorts to a home remedy provided by an old and trusted servant of the family to return her scales to their maiden-gold color. The drawback is that she may not be able to blush later even if she is approached by a male she loves and whose attentions are welcome to her. She will be “ruined,” through no fault of her own, in the eyes of her society, and though there are comic aspects to the episode, the parallel with the human double standard of sexual conduct is abundantly clear.

Walton’s satire is as sharp and precise as a scalpel, but she wields it with a delicate touch. Tooth and Claw is a good read for anyone who enjoys an intriguing plot, engaging characters, and a whole new society to explore. And even though the characters are scaly and reptilian, you’re almost certain to spot someone you know.

Mary Anne, BPL Southern History

The Sunne in Splendour by Sharon Kay Penman

“Now is the winter of our discontent Made glorious summer by this sun of York . . .” Among the most famous opening lines of Shakespeare’s plays, this speech introduces us to Richard, Duke of Gloucester, who has ambitions to become King Richard and will allow nothing to stand in his way. Shakespeare’s Richard is scheming, unscrupulous, ruthless, psychotic . . . and fictional. In the wake of the recent archaeological discovery of the bones of Richard III, there has been a surge of popular interest in the historical Richard as both king and man.

Penman’s novel takes the pro-Ricardian stance: i.e., Richard is depicted in a positive light as a humane and enlightened individual (by 15th century standards) who was interested in legal reform and education. Most important to Penman’s depiction is the idea that Richard was not guilty of having his nephews murdered while they were in residence in the Tower of London. This has always been represented as the great stain on his character, and Penman’s idea of the situation---that some of Richard’s more unprincipled hangers-on at court carried out the deed without his permission or knowledge---is fascinating, tragic, and only too believable given the atmosphere of many a  medieval court. Some pro-Ricardian readers have said that when they read Sunne they always stop right before the Bosworth Field episode, knowing the tragic end that must come next, and Penman herself has responded on her blog: “Well, writing those scenes was not much fun, either; it took me three weeks to get Richard out of his command tent and onto the battlefield at Bosworth.”

http://www.goodreads.com/author_blog_posts/3731878-no-happy-endings

So if you must have a happy ending, steer clear; this is not the novel for you. But for anyone fascinated by King Richard and his times, this is a definitely a must. Penman’s love of the period is reflected in her careful and detailed historical research and the action-packed plotline makes this lengthy novel a very fast read.

Mary Anne, BPL Southern History

Among Others by Jo Walton
Morwenna (Mori) Phelps has a lot on her plate.  The area surrounding her childhood home is in industrial and ecological ruin, her mother is pretty much insane, and her twin sister is dead.  Fleeing the chaos of her mother’s presence, she has no choice but to seek out the father she barely knows.  He promptly sends her off to an English boarding school where her Welsh accent does her no favors either.  Her attempts to find her niche in this new place go oh-so slowly until she joins the sci-fi/fantasy book group at the local library, then magic of the best kind starts to happen.   This is not the light, somewhat fluffy world of early Harry Potter, but a darker, more complex world is which magic is only as real as those who believe in it.  You won’t find much tidily fixed up at any point in this novel, but Mori’s coming-of-age rang true with me.  Anyone who felt a little off step with everyone else during their teenage years may feel the same.
Holley, Emmet O’Neal

GENERAL DISCUSSION:  The bibliography of the works cited in Among Others is pretty impressive:
Jo Walton’s livejournal site - http://papersky.livejournal.com/509278.html
GoodReads - http://tinyurl.com/a8j7jn5
Pinterest - http://tinyurl.com/angmrrm

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
Anyone old enough to remember the music, movies, and video/arcade games of the 80’s should do themselves a favor and read this book immediately.  Wade Watts leads a rather squalid existence in 2044 America.  His parents are dead and he lives with his aunt and 15 other people in one unit of The Stacks, row upon row of 10-20 mobile homes stacked on top of one another like makeshift skyscrapers.  His only escape is the OASIS, an immersive, online virtual community where everyone on Earth with the means to do so gathers to get away from the disappointment of reality.  When the OASIS creator, James Halliday, dies, a life changing opportunity presents itself.  In a worldwide announcement, the estate makes Halliday’s last wishes known: his fortune, and a controlling interest in the company behind OASIS, will go to the first OASIS user to find the easter egg he hid somewhere in the simulation.  Now the hunt is on!  On one side, you have all of the individual egg hunters (gunters) enjoying the thrill of the chase, but on the other you have the corporate goons from Innovative Online Interfaces going to lethal lengths to make sure their employees are the first to find the prize.  Wade Watts and his friends, and the rest of the OASIS community’s users, don’t want to see their virtual world fall into such greedy hands and the most epic battle in gaming history starts.  Read this book.  Start now.  I’m serious.
Holley, Emmet O’Neal

Bloodroot by Amy Greene

Mystical mountain tale about a brother and sister raised in Appalachia by their grandmother and how their interaction with neighbors, authorities, and love interests weave between their own stories and the stories of their mother and father.   Ms. Green is a talented writer able to make her characters so real you can almost smell the wood smoke and hear the gentle Southern twang.

Kelly, Springville Road

They Eat Puppies, Don’t They? by Christopher Buckley

This time Buckley skewers the political pundits and pretty roundly takes on all sides.  The title is from an on-air broadcast in the book where one party is defending China and the other party asks innocently, “The Chinese.  They eat puppies, don’t they?”   As with all of Buckley’s novels, he makes good use of his Washington insider background to hilariously send up everyone inside The Belt who takes themselves a wee bit too seriously.

Kelly, Springville Road

Supreme Courtship by Christopher Buckley

The President can’t seem to get his Supreme Court nominees past a hostile Congress, so he nominates Judge Pepper Cartwright, who is the most popular TV judge in America, beloved of constituents everywhere.   This is another example of how Buckley’s insight into the back halls and intrigues of Washington allows him to poke fun in just the right places.

Kelly, Springville Road

No Way To Treat a First Lady by Christopher Buckley

Following a night of extramarital hanky-panky, the President and First Lady have an interaction in which he is hit in the head with an antique spittoon and dies.   The politically ambitious First Lady goes on trial for murder, but chooses her old boyfriend from law school to defend her.   During the “Trial of the Millennium” shocking information is brought forth, an affair is rekindled, and all the repartee for which Buckley is famous comes out in force.   This is an extremely funny book and will be enjoyed by adherents of both sides of the political spectrum.

Kelly, Springville Road

Calling Invisible Women by Jeanne Ray

A middle-aged housewife steps out of the shower one morning and can’t see herself in the mirror.  She sees her towel, her toothbrush, and her robe, but of her skin there is no view.   She first thinks she’s had a stroke, then that she’s losing her mind, but as it happens, she really IS invisible—and she finds out there are others just like her.  The problem is, as long as supper is on the table and the laundry is done, no one in her family notices.   This is a funny and poignant book and women of “a certain age” will particularly relate to how a fully alive functioning female can appear to disappear to certain segments of the population.

Kelly, Springville Road

GENERAL DISCUSSION:
On the theme of invisibility in Jeanne Ray’s book, “Calling Invisible Women”:  A scene from the movie Tampopo, in which a woman dies at the dinner table but the family is too busy eating her food to notice.  Also, Kafka’s Metamorphosis:  just as Clover wakes up one morning to find herself invisible, Gregor wakes up to find he has transformed into a cockroach.

The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh

Victoria was abandoned as an infant and struggled through multiple Foster care situations her entire life. Once, she nearly had a mother—Elizabeth.  Elizabeth gave Victoria the confidence to learn in her own time. Among other things she taught Victoria the Victorian language of flowers.  For a child who has never been able to communicate well or feel heard, this was a special gift. As an adult, Victoria is able to use that gift to connect with others and make a life for herself. Victoria’s journey in this book is the story of finding and accepting love. I was loved by this quick read and I highly recommend it.

Michelle, Irondale

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
Amy was a devoted wife that just wanted to make her marriage work. She loved her husband Nick and couldn’t understand why he grew so distant.  After all, she gave up everything that she’d known in the city and followed him back to his home town. She moved into a house “without a soul” and contributed her inheritance to Nick’s purchase of a local bar.  Then Amy disappears.  And Nick has a very different understanding of their life together.  The twists in this book will truly keep you guessing… there is a very good reason that it is flying off the shelves.
Michelle, Irondale

The Age of Miracles by Karen Walker
Michelle, Irondale

GENERAL DISCUSSION:
Planetary apocalypses that focus on character development more so than the actual apocalyptic event:
The films Melancholia and Seeking a Friend for the End of the World.

The Dechronization of Sam MacGruder by George Gaylord Simpson
A bunch of intellectuals in the 22nd Century are sitting around talking about what it’d be like to be a person separated forever from the rest of humanity. One gets a chance to do just that- only he didn't intend to. Sam MacGruder, a time scientist, accidentally gets himself thrown back 80 million years, ending up in the Cretaceous Era. Now, instead of lab routines, he’s trying to fend off dinos and find workable food, clothing and shelter. And deal with a loneliness that transcends all. Robinson Crusoe had it comparatively easy. George G. Simpson, who most feel was the greatest paleontologist of the 20th century, makes the plot continually defy boredom and keeps the dinosaur science top notch, of course. But he never published this. His daughter found the manuscript 10 years after his death. I’m very glad she stumbled upon it. It’s a corker and a fine piece of psychological and philosophical musing. Simpson apparently had no idea what a splendid storyteller he was.
Richard, BPL Fiction

A Cookie Before Dying by Virginia Lowell
Leigh, North Birmingham