Information, Answers & Reviews

Whether you’re inside enjoying the cool air or outside braving the weather at pool-side, consider that small country across the pond. Yes, England, and we’re not talking about the Olympics but a Downton-Abbey type novel set in contemporary times. Are the rich really different from you and me? Screenwriter, novelist, and actor, Julian Fellowes tackles this subject in Snobs, a novel about a middle-class woman named Edith who would love the wealth and title of the Earl, Charles Broughton, whom she’d love to marry. 

Fellowes knows about castles and big estates. He’s the son of a diplomat, and he visited many of the estates he writes about. He’s also known struggling actors who aren’t sure how they will pay next month’s rent. As New York Times reviewer, Jonathan Ames said, Snobs is a “field guide to the behavior of the English aristocracy.”  Ames also wrote, “When you read a book, you're lost in time. All the more reason to read Snobs.  It will distract you pleasantly. It's like a visit to an English country estate: breezy, beautiful and charming.”

Read more »

Local author Michael Koryta’s new book isn’t coming out until August 7 but you can already place a hold in our catalog.  The Prophet is a straight up thriller that stars two brothers, one as an upstanding high school football coach and the other as a fringe bail bondsman.  The brothers are estranged after the devastating fallout resulting from the kidnapping and brutal murder of their sister many years earlier.  When a similar murder happens, the brothers must learn to work together before the murderer strikes again. 

Master thriller author Dennis Lehane says, "The Prophet is a relentless, heart-in-your-throat thriller about ordinary people caught in the middle of an extraordinary nightmare."  And Kirkus reviews praises Koryta’s newest as  "a brilliantly paced thriller that keeps its villains at a tantalizing distance, a compelling family portrait, a study in morality that goes beyond the usual black-and-white judgments, and an entertaining spin on classic football fiction. A flawless performance." Read more »

Having moved on from vampires and zombies to dystopias, as heralded by the success of the Hunger Games series, many teen readers are looking for something similar but still fresh. Catherine Fisher's Incarceron (and the sequel, Sapphique) fit the bill perfectly. Variously described as fantasy, science fiction, slipstream, and steampunk, the setting of this book is both a dystopic future and a fantastical past.

Having moved on from vampires and zombies to dystopias, as heralded by the success of the Hunger Games series, many teen readers are looking for something similar but still fresh. Catherine Fisher's Incarceron (and the sequel, Sapphique) fit the bill perfectly. Variously described as fantasy, science fiction, slipstream, and steampunk, the setting of this book is both a dystopic future and a fantastical past. Read more »

view in catalog

In Girl Land, essayist and magazine writer, Caitlin Flanagan writes about the period she considers “the most psychologically intense period” of a girl’s life—adolescence. Her focus is on how it feels and what mores and culture govern the lives of young women in the 21^st century in the age of Facebook, 24 hour Internet and cell phones, etc.

Her premise is that each generation pushes the envelope for sexual and other freedoms more, and that activities that the last generation might have found shocking often become commonplace. If you’re a parent of a female teen, or just want to compare your own youth to what it’s like now, you’ll enjoy this book. In a chapter on dating, Flanagan covers the interesting history of dating. It didn’t become very popular until the roaring 20s and the advent of cars—roadsters--in those days. Sex became easier to do away from homes and watchful parents. Flanagan also postulates that the expectations that the female would apply the brakes to sexual activity also become prominent then.

Other chapters cover diaries, proms, menstruation, and sexual initiation. The one on proms is both scary and revealing. Scary because post-prom events have become occasions with lots of alcohol, drugs, and sex.  Flanagan also describes upper and middle class girls dressing like streetwalkers and some schools hosting Pimps and Hos parties.  She describes young people using these events as “an aggressive assertion of maturity.”  They get away with this because the parents have some decades-old image of proms as romantic, flower- and gown-filled events. Read more »