Fairytale Retellings

I love fairytale retellings. It’s amazing how creative authors can be, weaving bits of a story I already know into a completely new tale. The characters are old favorites, but the journey is completely different. Recently, I've enjoyed reading Marissa Meyer’s The Lunar Chronicles series. She takes fairytale favorites and puts them in a futuristic high-tech world, while weaving their individual stories into an intertwined saga. The first three books are:

Linh Cinder is a cyborg from New Beijing who falls in love with a prince. When Scarlet Beniot’s grandmother goes missing, she enlists the help of a street fighter named Wolf to find her. Cress is a hacker who’s been confined to a satellite since her childhood, but now has the chance to escape.

The last two books are:

Queen Levana just wants to rule and be the fairest of them all. Fairest comes out January 2015. And then there’s the mysterious Winter, which doesn't come out until November 2015.

Will Cinder, Scarlet, Cress, and Winter prevail? Or will the future be in the hands of the evil queen?

NaNoWriMo 2014

Are you participating in NaNoWriMo? Do you know what NaNoWriMo is? It's National Novel Writing Month! People all over the country (and the world!) spend the month of November WRITING A BOOK! It's a really fun program, and a way for any of you budding novelists to get inspiration, support, and at least a good head start on getting that idea for a novel you've had for years written down.

Even if you're not up to committing to writing 50,000 words in one month (!!), you can still drop by the library and get inspiration for your writing life. Library Assistant Katie has put up a great little display near Reference at the Cartersville branch of books about writing. Here are a few:

Stephen King's On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
Terry Brooks' Sometimes the Magic Works: Lessons From a Writing Life
Suzanne Strempek Shea's Shelf Life: Romance, Mystery, Drama, and Other Page-Turning Adventures From a Year In a Bookstore

And if you need a little bit of a writing community to get you going, stop by our adult writing group, Writer's Block, on November 20th! Bring yourself, pen and paper, and be ready to get some writing done!

Library Reads

Have you heard of Library Reads? It's a great program that's been around for just over a year -- librarians around the country vote on their favorite books being published every month! Certainly you can always rely on the best seller lists for new books to read, but wouldn't you trust a librarian, too? Lots of great title selections from all kinds of genres. Check out the November list today! We also try to keep the current list at the Reference Desk at the Cartersville branch, so stop by and ask us for a reading suggestion! Be "in the know" about great new books coming to the library!

October's list has some great suggestions, too. Definitely check out As You Wish by Cary Elwes, about the making of the film The Princess Bride! It's so delightful. And Murder at the Brightwell by Ashley Weaver is great for Agatha Christie fans.

Halloween Reads

I know quite a few people who enjoy the countdown to Halloween. Many of them will do a #31HorrorFilms31Days and watch at least one horror film a day leading up to Halloween. I'm not much of a horror film person myself, but I do love a good creepy read! With a few days left before Halloween, why don't you try one of these books to keep you up at night?

The Historian, by Elizabeth Kostova - Like vampire tales, especially Dracula tales? This is the book for you! It's incredibly suspenseful, as well as being pretty informative about Eastern European history and culture. Entertaining and enlightening! A woman discovers some old letters in her father's things that tell this adventurous and unnerving tale of a man and woman seeking out the history of Dracula lore. It's a hefty tome for sure, but the pace moves fast and will keep you hooked.

Bliss House, by Laura Benedict - This book has only been out for a few months, and the reviews were so good I had to check it out as soon as it was published. A very well-crafted book about a mother and daughter who had recently experienced tragedy, moving back to the mother's ancestral home to try and start anew. But tragedy seems to follow the small family, and the effect that the house has on them is conflicted. The clues of the past are laid out carefully, and will keep you thirsty for the ending.

Horrorstör, by Grady Hendrix - Ever gotten lost in an IKEA? Imagine if that happened at night, you're alone, and something you can't see is after you. That's the premise of this book. It's designed to look like an IKEA catalog, along with vaguely Scandinavian-sounding furniture names. Something is afoot at this IKEA-like store, and a handful employees are volun-told to take an overnight shift and figure out what. Creepiness unfolds. I heard another reviewer call it "Evil Dead 2 in an IKEA," and I think that's a pretty good description.


What good scary reads do you enjoy?

We're BACK!

After a blogging hiatus, we are back! We are reading loads of great things, and we want to share them with you!! So bookmark this page, sign-up to get email updates, follow us on Twitter, add us to your RSS feed of choice - we want to talk about books!

And, of course, you are always welcome to stop by any of our locations and ask your friendly library staff for reading suggestions. :)

Introducing NextReads!

New Books, Old Favorites and Buried Treasures!

Exciting New e-Newsletter Service Brings the Library to You!

The Bartow County Public Library System has announced the introduction of a new e-newsletter service, called NextReads. No library card is necessary—just an email address—for library website visitors and patrons to subscribe to any of the 16 different subject and genre newsletters for all ages.  List topics ranging from Biography and Memoir to Fantasy to New York Times Bestsellers are sent on a regular basis, and include up to 10 titles. Subscribers can link directly to the library catalog from books of interest on the lists, and place a hold or request a title immediately. Even those library patrons without email addresses can take advantage of the lists by viewing them online, either at the library or from any Internet access point.

 Carmen Sims, Library Director, states "We see the introduction of the NextReads e-newsletter service as being an important part of our outreach to the community. We will be able to better serve our many patrons who are less able to visit our facilities in person to browse the shelves and book displays or ask for staff assistance to find something new to read. Our newsletters will be an opportunity to bring the library to them-whether they are at work, school, home, or on the road.  The newsletters include links to the library catalog of all items listed in the newsletter in order for users to place holds or
request new items.  Each newsletter includes a "Focus On" section which spotlights older titles you might have missed within that genre."  Our Web site, found at www.bartowlibraryonline.org is considered a "virtual" branch of the library, open 24 hours a day, available 365 days a year."

Adult Services Coordinator Colleen Knight sees the NextReads e-newsletter as a way to improve communication with library patrons and the community at large. “Connecting our readers and listeners with books has always been a priority for us. Now we will be able to connect patrons with the genre of books that they want and read.  Nextreads also gives us the opportunity to inform patrons of the events and programs at the library that might be of interest to them.”

Visit your local branch, in person or online, to sign up for your NextReads e-newletter today!  Since NextReads is a similar Reader’s Advisory service to what we were offering in our blog, only much better, we will be discontinuing the blog.

Braaaaains...

If you’re sick of vampires, or just disappointed that the current vampire literature lacks of the “bite” of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, there’s good news! The library has plenty of zombie books that can be counted on to paint a terrifying picture of the undead that will make you a little less comfortable around graveyard.

If you’re seen the TV show, The Walking Dead, why not read the graphic novels that inspired the show? The Walking Dead: A Continuing Story of Survival Horror, Book One begins with Rick Grimes and his friend and fellow officer, Shane, in a shootout with an escaped prisoner. Rick is shot, and when he wakes up in a hospital some time later he quickly discovers that the world he remembers is gone. In his new reality, the dead have risen and society has crumbled, leaving the survivors to fend for themselves. Amazingly, Rick manages to find his wife and son with Shane and a group of other survivors in an encampment just outside of Atlanta. However, Rick’s joy at finding his family is short-lived, as he soon discovers that the zombie apocalypse isn’t the only danger that they face. Their new existence is brutal, and the pressure of surviving in a broken world can make good men succumb to their most evil desires.

In Ashes by Ilsa J. Bick, Alex is a teenager dying of terminal brain cancer when she makes the fateful decision to cut school and travel to the Great Lakes in Michigan to spread the ashes of her parents and put to rest her personal demons. She’s camped in the Waucamaw Wilderness, a place she often visited with her parents, when she meets Jack Cranford, his granddaughter Ellie, and their dog Mina. Ellie, Alex discovers, has just lost her solider father in an explosion and is having trouble coping. Jack has taken her camping to help her sort through her issues. As Jack and Alex are talking, they are both experience a strange pain and hear a loud, metallic screech that sends the local wildlife into an uproar. The unexplained event kills Jack, and as Alex soon discovers, wipes out all of their electrical devices. She and Ellie set off to find help, and along the way they discover that the event has transformed their fellow campers into savage predators.

Rot and Ruin by Jonathan Maberry adds a twist to a tale of two teenagers looking for summer employment. Benny Imura and his friend Lou Chong live in a post-apocalyptic world infested with zombies (or Zoms, as they call them) and lacking modern technology. The boys need to find a job by the time school starts or face having their rations cut in half. Chong finds work as a “spotter” (a lookout for zombies) but after trying several jobs Benny is forced to work as his older brother’s apprentice. Working for Tom is the last thing Benny wants to do since he blames Tom for their parents’ death. Tom Imura is a “closure specialist” and is well-respected by the community, but Benny isn’t impressed by his brother’s reputation. He prefers the company of his heroes, Charlie Pinkeye and Marion Hammer, two bounty hunters who tell fascinating stories about their work killing Zoms. After a seemingly innocent event leads to unexpected violence, Benny is forced to reevaluate his opinions about his brother, his former heroes and the world they live in.

Monster Island: A Zombie Novel by David Wellington poses the question, what would happen if zombies could think? The story alternates between the perspectives of Dekalb, a former United Nations Weapons Inspector, and Gary, a medical student who has made the decision to become a zombie after taking steps to keep his brain alive. The story begins with Dekalb as he arrives in New York City with a group of girl soldiers from the Free Women’s Republic of Somaliland. The leader of the Free Women’s Republic, Mama Halima, suffers from AIDS. She believes that Dekalb can find the drugs she needs to survive, and in return she will offer him a life with his daughter, Sarah. Unable to find what Mama Halima needs in Africa, Dekalb and the girls have come to New York to search the UN Building, which Dekalb knows has a stockpile of HIV medication. When the group encounters Gary, they are wary but allow him to join them. Shortly thereafter he commits a heinous act that has unexpected consequences for all.

Other recommended Zombie titles:

 

World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks 

Zombies Don’t Cry by Rusty Fischer

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dawn of the Dreadfuls by Steve Hockensmith 

Forrest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Seth Grahame-Smith
Generation Dead by Dan Waters