CSPL Reader of the Month: Thea

The CSPL Reader of the Month for February is one of the Recommendations Librarians, Thea Dement. Thea's verve for adventure, fantasy, and thought-provoking reads come through in her answers to these questions. 

Q & A with Thea

Q. What is the best book you’ve read this year?

A. I haven’t read any noteworthy titles yet in 2019, but my favorite books from 2018 were both from series that I enjoy (and have read every book in).

The first is The Mortal Word by Genevieve Cogman. It is the 5^th book in the Invisible Library Series. This series combines the best of fantasy, science fiction, steampunk, and of course books. It follows Irene, a librarian that works for The Library, which is a place that balances the forces of good and evil by collecting books from worlds controlled by each side. The coolest part of this series is the fact that the librarians are really more like secret agents and get to go on a variety of dangerous missions to help save the world. 

The second is The Demon Crown by James Rollins, which is the 13^th book in the Sigma Force Series. This series follows a secret government agency that works under DARPA and goes on missions to save the world from various threats. The reason I love this series is that Rollins combines actual events, historical knowledge, and scientific facts into very plausible scenarios that are both terrifying and exhilarating (and hopefully remain fiction!). The Demon Crown features an ancient species from prehistoric times being revived using genetic engineering and wreaking havoc upon the world (no, not dinosaurs!). Sigma Force races against the clock to not only survive but neutralize the threat before it destroys mankind. Each book is action-packed and will leave you on the edge of your seat!

Q. What’s your ideal reading environment (location, sound, snacks, etc.)?

A. I enjoy reading pretty much anywhere. I’ve been known to even walk down the street reading (although I do look when crossing at intersections!). My ideal reading environment would include a comfy chair (or bed) that I can read in for hours without getting uncomfortable and the sound of a purring cat (which is most likely sleeping on me somewhere). 

Q. What book are you most excited about reading next and what about it is most exciting?

A. I’m most excited about reading a bunch of fantasy, science fiction, mystery, and action books this year as well as expanding my reading tastes to be able to give better recommendations to others. I also enjoy keeping up-to-date on a number of non-fiction subjects including business and self-help books.

Specific titles I’m looking forward to include the 14^th book in the Sigma Force series by James Rollins, Crucible, and the latest Thomas Harris book, Cari Mora. Both of these books are scheduled to come out later this year so I’m impatiently waiting for them! 

One title that is out that I’m looking forward to reading is called Deadly Rising by Jeri Westerson. It is the 2^nd book in the Booke of the Hidden Series. It is a fun combination of fantasy and a little romance and follows Kylie, a girl who inadvertently releases demonic creatures in her small town and must work to re-capture them. I really enjoyed the first book so I’m looking forward to seeing what happens in this one!

Q. What book do you think more people should read and why do you think they should read it?

A. Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. This book is a literary classic and in my opinion should be required reading for everyone. I think more people should read it because it draws many parallels to today’s world and would help answer a lot of questions people have about why things are going the way they are. Even though it was written in 1957, you could easily replace the events in the book with current events, which is very unsettling. Rand gives a vision of what will happen if things continue to go the way they are. Perhaps if more people read the book and understood its implications there would be a greater push to change the society we live in.  

Q. What book has been the most challenging for you to read? How did it challenge you?

A. I have a habit of reading negative utopia books. These are books that look at a futuristic society that generally appears to be wonderful but in reality is horrible for its citizens, who are generally living in some form of slavery. Each one I read is challenging in its own way, mostly because of the parallels I can draw between the book and the real world. I like to read them in order to get a sense of how society could go terribly wrong, in the hopes of doing my part to ensure that it doesn’t become a reality during my lifetime. There are also many life lessons that can be learned from these kinds of books, many of which are challenging to accept, especially when they challenge one’s current worldview.  

Q. When do you decide to stop reading a book?

A. I used to read every book all the way through, but I’ve learned that this isn’t necessary. Now, I usually give a book a few chapters and if I’m not feeling it by then I stop reading it. There are way too many good books that I need to read!

For more titles, check out Thea's Favorite Books list!

#ComicsWednesday: PREZ Volume 1: Corndog-In-Chief by Mark Russell, Ben Caldwell, & Mark Morales

I don't really read a lot of DC comics. I'm more of a Marvel or BOOM! girl, myself, but sometimes a comic just calls to me. PREZ: Corndog-In-Chief was one such comic. The USA's first teenage president, elected by twitter vote in an effort from hacker group Anonymous to overthrow the status quo?

COUNT ME IN.

Beth Ross, a.k.a. the star of viral internet video Corndog Girl, is elected as the next President of the United States in 2036. This United States is a not-so-distant dystopian future, full of automated sentry drones, a wealth gap larger than any before, and an epidemic of the deadly cat flu. Corporations call the shots, and congress is full of mega-rich idiots. Poor citizens will literally shoot themselves in the leg on national television for the chance to win some money. Enter: Corndog Girl. Beth navigates the intense job of being the leader of a country everyone hates, and trying to make right the wrongs that have plagued the nation. Beth is smart and she surrounds herself with smart people, and also a sentient killer robot named Tina.

There is so much going on in this comic, that I can't even begin to describe it all. Writer Mark Russell is a newer voice in comics, and he hit this one out of the park. Ben Caldwell (Justice League Beyond) and Mark Morales (X-Force, Secret Invasion) have a unique and interesting style, perfect for the tone of the comic. PREZ: Corndog-In-Chief is a reboot of 1973 comic PREZ. 

 If you liked the dystopian aspect of The Hunger Games, but wanted a little more humor, this is for you. If you like the idea of a teenager being POTUS, this is for you. If you're sick of the news and want to laugh about politics for a change, this is for you. Basically, just read it. I promise you won't regret it.

-Libby, Youth Services

Staff Review: "The Last One" by Alexandra Oliva

We've all been there. You're making small talk at a social gathering, and a seemingly innocuous question turns into a conversational landmine.

"How's your cat doing? Still tearing up the couch?" you ask.

"No," your acquaintance responds, "she died last week."

Awkward silence descends.

It's common knowledge that you avoid the obviously controversial topics of politics and religion, but it's much easier to slip and ask a personally treacherous question about careers or relationships. Who wants to discuss the complications of their romantic life with near strangers and distant relatives? Add in all the varied social pressure around reproductive choices for women (the clock is ticking!), and you have a real recipe for disaster.

Zoo* is twenty-nine, happily married with an enjoyable career, and she decides to avoid the question of children for just a little bit longer by signing up for a reality TV competition focused on wilderness survival. Think, Survivor, but set in a wilderness area in Pennsylvania instead of somewhere more distant. Zoo's choice to pick adventure (and avoidance) over convention made perfect sense to me as a reader and a woman who's faced similar social pressures in her life.

I did not expect to find such a depth or resonance of character when I checked out The Last One by Alexandra Oliva. I wasn't looking for a reflection on the potential loss of self (or at least freedom) that can come from motherhood. Nope, I wanted to read Oliva's debut novel because I enjoy the escapism of a good survival tale, especially a survival tale in the face of The End of the World As We Know It.

The chapters alternate between a behind the scenes view of the reality competition and Zoo's continued struggle to survive alone in the wilderness. In the first chapter readers learn that a mysterious infection with a very high mortality rate will rapidly spread across the eastern United States (and entire world), leaving Zoo stranded and unaware.

The Last One will be near the top of my Best of list for 2016 for the way that Oliva mixes literary introspection, sharp human observation, and a suspenseful action plot. This is a fully absorbing weekend read that stuck with me even after I finished the last page, and I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys a gripping tale of survival.

~Sarah, Adult Services


*Not her real name. Zoo is the nickname given to her by the TV show's production team, and as a reader you don't learn her real name until much later in the book.

#WCW Woman Crush Wednesday: Imperator Furiosa

There are many reasons I loved Mad Max: Fury Road. I loved the guy tied to a truck with bungee cords playing a guitar that shoots flames. I love that to make this movie the director actually had an actor attached to a truck with bungee cords play a guitar that actually shot flames. I love that this movie was essentially one long, glorious car chase. But most of all, I loved Imperator Furiosa.

I love action movies: the adventure, the explosions, the lone hero (or rag tag band) fighting impossible odds to save the day. Unfortunately, your standard action movie also tend to have at most one female character, and she's generally the one who needs saving, the hero's love interest, or both. Not so with Fury Road: Imperator Furiosa is the literal driving force of the movie's story. Even with a minimum of dialogue, the movie introduces a varied cast of characters (female and male) with distinct motivations.

Bonus #wcw Melissa Jaffer as Keeper of the Seeds saying "Kaboom!"

Imperator Furiosa (Charlize Theron) is on a mission to save a group of young women imprisoned as wives to a warlord, while Mad Max (Tom Hardy) is merely carried along for the ride. I don't want to drop any big spoilers in case you're waiting for the DVD or Blu-Ray (release date: September 1st), but this was one of my favorite movies of 2015 and I highly recommend you check it out.

Mini Staff Review: When We Wake by Karen Healey

What will the world be like in 100 years? Odds are we won't be around to see it, but Australian teen Tegan Oglietti cares about the future she can't see. Okay, she might be slightly more interested in her new boyfriend, but she's hoping to make a difference in the world by attending a protest of government policies on the day she dies, shot by an inept sniper. A hundred years later, Tegan is revived in an experimental military procedure, the first human ever to return from cryogenic suspension. When We Wake by Karen Healey is the story of Tegan's attempt to adjust to the Australia of the 22nd century, where everyone she knows is dead. Some things about the future are better, but very little is familiar, and Tegan isn't sure who she can trust. Fast-paced and thought-provoking, When We Wake and its sequel, While We Run, will appeal to fans of dystopian fiction.

For a quieter, more romance centered dystopian novel, try For Darkness Shows the Stars by Diana Peterfreund, a retelling of Jane Austen's Persuasion set in a future reeling from the effects of genetic modifications gone awry.

~Sarah, Adult Services

Staff Review: Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer

I don't read a lot of speculative fiction, I usually go for more urban fiction or fantasy.  I saw a plug for Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer on some review site I was reading (I honestly can't tell you which one at this point) and thought "hey, that looks interesting".  When I checked out the book I was excited to see that it is only 195 pages long.  From what I could tell this book takes place is some sort of dystopian future.  As with most dystopian stories, something happened that isn't really explained, causing weird things to occur. In this book, the weird thing is actually an area.

Area X has been cut off from the rest of the continent for decades. Nature has reclaimed the land and human civilization in Area X has disappeared. Expeditions have been sent to try and figure out what happened, and is continuing to happen. The first expedition returned with reports of a pristine, Eden like landscape; all the members of the second expedition committed suicide; the third expedition members turned on one another and died in a hail of gunfire; the members of the eleventh expedition returned as shadows of their former selves, and within months of their return, all had died of aggressive cancer.

Annihilation is the story of the twelfth expedition.  This group is made up of four women, a psychologist, a surveyor, an anthropologist, and our narrator, a biologist.  Their mission is to the map the terrain, collect samples, and record all of their observations in journals. They are dispatched with what amounts to primitive tools, a camera, and a few guns for protection.  They have no way of communicating with anyone outside of Area X.  Even though they arrive expecting the unexpected, nothing could prepare them for the reality of Area X. 

This novel is based on the biologist first person account of the expedition.  Vandermeer never gives you the names of the expedition members. They are just referred to by their job titles.  Initially that was a little disconcerting,  I really wanted to know names.   By the end of the book, I didn't care.  Names weren't important.  The writing style is vivid with descriptions of colors and sounds.  But everything that happens seems so other-worldly, almost dream-like.  I couldn't put this book down!  I wanted to know what was going on.  What happened to to create Area X?  What happened to the other expeditions?  Why would people still volunteer to go on these expeditions when they all seem to end badly?  What is Southern Reach?  Some of these questions were answered, many more were not.  Be warned, this book is creepy.  Not bump-in-the-night creepy, but unsettling creepy. 

Annihilation is the first in the Southern Reach trilogy.  The second book, Authority, is due out in May, the third, Acceptance, in September.  I can't wait to read them both. If you want to dip your toe into speculative fiction give Annihilation a shot.  It is short, suspenseful, intriguing, and leaves you wanting more. 

~ Amy, Adult Services

Our Favorite Books of 2013, part two

It's time once again for the staff of Carnegie-Stout Public Library to pick our favorite books of 2013. It's a mix of books new in 2013, and books new to us in 2013. This is the second half of our list, you can check out the first set of our favorite books of 2013 by clicking here. If you're wondering what other patrons have been reading this year, you can check out the What Dubuque is Reading Pinterest Board. We'd love it if you'd share your favorite books from this past year in the comments

Andrea, Circulation: Growing up, I did not read many books that are considered “the traditional classics.” Trying that now as an adult, I finally picked up To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee.  Published in 1960 and set in the South, this is a time that I do not know very well.  Aware of this fact, I wanted to keep reading it once I started.  Seeing the world through the eyes of Scout and Jem in 1930s Alabama, I was able to learn many lessons about inequality and justice.  I can't imagine this is how people used to live, yet this was a normal occurrence to them with change slow in coming.   Now I am finally able to understand all of the nuances brought out by this book in the world today and how many actual Boo Radleys there are in our own lives.  I am now thankful for my first journey into the classics and I am waiting for my next trip very soon. 

Amy, Youth Services: Pure Trilogy by Julianna Baggott (Pure, Fuse, and Burn): These books take place during the post-apocalyptic future world.  A cataclysmic event has happened and all of the people outside the "dome" suffer from fusing's of materials and other people that were near them at the time.  Pressia has a doll head fused to her hand.  She meets up with Partridge who is an escaped "pure" dome-dweller.  Together they brave the desolate and treacherous countryside to find her mother that she is sure survived the cataclysm.  They also search for the secret that will free the Wretches (those outside the dome) of their fusing's forever.  I'm anxiously awaiting the 3rd installment of this trilogy.  It's due to be released in February 2014.  I liked the fast pace of these books and the intriguing story.
You might also enjoy checking out Allison's review of Pure.

Sarah, Adult Services: It's hard to pick just one book for this list, which is why it's nice that I get to post reviews for my favorites throughout the year.  Even so, I'm picking two books. A friend insisted that World War Z by Max Brooks was worth reading despite the zombies, and while I did have zombie themed nightmares, it was an amazing audiobook. It's a full cast recording, so each narrator who shares their experiences in the zombie war has a unique voice and character. Zombie stories, like much of science fiction, are used as metaphors for the problems in modern society, and Brooks does a brilliant job of that. My second choice is The Human Division by John Scalzi. I read this in a standard print copy, as opposed to its original release as a series of short stories. I think this was the strongest title in his Old Man's War series, but I'm a sucker for collections of interconnected short stories. If I have a complaint, it's that the ending is a little too open, but I'm hopeful that means there will be a book six.

Michelle, Adult Services: Jan Brett's brand new book Cinders: a chicken Cinderella is my Christmas present to myself.  Cinderella is not my favorite fairy tale, but Jan Brett's spin on the story and her illustrations are incredible.  The four page center foldout is a magical ballroom scene that gives new meaning to "chicken dance"!  I love looking at the details in the borders around each set of pages.  Brett knows chickens; this is evident in her drawings and her description of the flock's pecking order.  Cinders, her Cinderella, reminds me of Doofus and Dorcas, my Silver Gray Dorking hens.

Angie, Circulation: The House of Hades is the 4th book in the Heroes of Olympus series by Rick Riordan– a secondary series that follows the original Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. Much like the Harry Potter series, the heroic adventures in this book appeal to a wide audience - middle-grade through adult readers. For those unfamiliar with the Percy Jackson world - the setting is the modern world, with a twist: The gods of Olympus (Zeus, Poseidon, Hades, etc.) and the monsters of mythology like giants, the Titans and Tartarus, are real and causing chaos) and it is the job of a group of 7 demi-gods (teens who have one mortal parent, one godly parent) to defeat those monsters who are out to destroy the human race. This book takes a darker turn than some of the other books in the series, but the demigod characters really come into their own in this book. With humor and daring, the demigods come to believe that they might be able to pull off the impossible when they work as a team.I listened to the audiobook version of this book– and the performance by narrator Nick Chamian was commendable. I highly recommend anyone listen to the entire series on audiobook. The stories are exciting and funny.

Emily, Youth Services: Gulp by Mary Roach. One would not expect a "journey through the alimentary canal," which is what we now call the digestive tract, to be an enjoyable, let alone funny, read but it is! The subject is well researched with both historical and modern references. Mary Roach covers every - yes, every - aspect of the digestive process with facts, stories, and humor. Gulp is a thorough yet light-hearted examination of a serious and often unpleasant subject.

TV Show Read Alikes

You may've seen our blog post earlier this year suggesting read alikes for three popular comedic TV shows: Big Bang Theory, Modern Family, and Warehouse 13. This week we're taking a stab at suggesting books for fans of three popular dramas.

Mad Men
The much anticipated sixth season of AMC's popular series about the social changes of the 1960s and '70s through the lens of a New York advertising agency will begin airing on April 7th.

If that's not soon enough for you, there's more than a few books to tide you over. The New York Public Library has created several reading lists and various bloggers track the books the show's characters read. We'll limit our suggestions to four titles.

If you tune in for the relationship drama, infidelity, and changing gender roles and expectations, try Richard Yates' 1961 novel about life in the suburbs, Revolutionary Road. The novel also served as the basis for a 2008 film starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet. Similarily, Penny Vincenzi's More Than You Know follows a contentious divorce and custody case in 1960s London that delves into classicism, sexism, and the drama of relationships.

If you're intrigued by Don Draper's rise through the cutthroat ranks of the advertising world, try An Object of Beauty by the witty Steve Martin. Lacey Yeager claws her way to the top of the '90s art market in New York City. Or more directly, check out Mad Men Unbuttoned by Natasha Vargas-Cooper, which provides a historical context for the show, from profiles of the characters to comparisons with actual 1960s ad men.


Revolution
This on going NBC series about life after the apocalypse taps into the current popularity for dystopian landscapes. Specifically, in this future humanity no longer has access to electricity, and American society has fractured in the attempt to survive. The series focuses on the efforts of a family who may have the keys to restore power to the world, and particularly on the older sister's quest to keep her brother safe from a dangerous militia.

Because the first season is still airing on television, no DVDs have been released that can be added to C-SPL's collection, but luckily there's no shortage of books! You've probably heard about The Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins, which will have a second movie out in theaters later this year. We've put together two read alike lists for this series (here and here), but Revolution fans should be sure to check out Ashes by Ilsa Bick about a teen girl struggling in a world where all electronics suddenly stop functioning. Dies the Fire by S.M. Stirling also explores life in a world where electronics have all failed. There's little mystery behind civilization's collapse in Mike Mullin's Ashfall, but Dubuquers will get a special thrill reading about a teen trying to survive and find his family after the volcano under Yellowstone explodes turning North Eastern Iowa into a dangerous wasteland.

Person of Interest
This CBS crime thriller is currently in its second season. The plot follows a vigilante team as they attempt to stop crimes before they happen. The team was organized by a mysterious computer genius who designed predictive surveillance equipment for the government.

Phillip K Dick's 1956 story Minority Report explores the ramifications of a technology that allows the authorities to identify criminals before they commit a crime. This fast-paced story served a loose basis for a film adaptation starring Tom Cruise.

If you enjoy the deductive skills and detective work employed by the show's characters, you can't go wrong with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's stories of Sherlock Holmes. Alternatively, the crime fighting skills of Batman might be more your style. Try Scott Snyder's Batman: Court of Owls, which presents Gotham City's hero with a gritty murder mystery or the Birds of Prey series, which features a team of superheroines including Black Canary and Batgirl.


Please stop by the Recommendations Desk on the first floor, check out NoveList Plus on the library's website, or visit W. 11th & Bluff next week for more reading suggestions. Or submit a Personal Recommendations request, and we'll create a reading list just for you!

Pure by Julianna Baggott

Have you ever enjoyed a book so much that you find yourself  trying to read more and more slowly, rationing out chapters so that perhaps the book might not end so quickly? That is what I found myself doing half-way through Pure by Julianna Baggott. Usually, I plow through books at a breakneck pace, skimming though sentences to find out what happens next, and that's especially true if it's one that one as filled with peril and mystery as Pure is.

Pure opens roughly nine years after the apocalyptic Detonations; a cataclysmic world-wide disaster that destroyed much of civilization. The cause of the Detonations is unclear (and is one of the story's many mysteries) but the effects were devastating. Those who survived did so at a great cost; they are fused with whatever (or whoever) they were holding or standing close to at the time. For our main character 16-year-old Pressia, it means having her left hand and arm fused with the plastic doll she was holding. Other characters in the story bear similar scars - a boy with a flock of live birds fused to his back, another with his younger brother permanently attached to his shoulders. Nightmarish creatures called Dusts (people fused with the earth or buildings) and Beasts (people fused with wild animals) haunt the landscape, devouring any living thing that comes within reach.

Equally deadly is the OSR - once called Operation Search and Rescues, now known as Operation Sacred Revolution - the paramilitary group that runs the poverty-riddled settlement where Pressia lives with her grandfather. At age 16, all children must register with the OSR or face execution. If selected, recruits are "un-taught" how to read and taught how to kill. Those who are too weak or deformed to join are used as live targets for the new recruits.

But this bleak and deadly landscape isn't the only world here. There are those who escaped the Detonations by taking shelter in the Dome, which sits on a great hill overlooking the rubble fields. A few weeks after the Detonations, thousands of notes were dropped on the rubble fields with this message:

From www.puretrilogy.co.uk

This message was the first and only communication from the Dome. Years later, some people worship the Dome, others, like the OSR, plot to destroy it. But many think little about it, more concerned with day-to-day survival.

Life inside the Dome, however, is far from perfect. The cost of surviving the Detonations is to live in a tightly-controlled society under constant surveillance. Sixteen-year-old Partridge, son of the Dome's most powerful man, lives an isolated life, haunted by the death of his mother, who chose to leave the Dome during the Detonations, and his older brother's recent suicide. After uncovering evidence that his mother may still be alive, Partridge escapes the Dome to the rubble fields.

Pressia, meanwhile, is on the run from the OSR when she finds Partridge and saves him from a Groupie attack (Groupies are quite literally groups of people fused together). Thinking she can somehow use Partridge to get off the OSR's list, she agrees to help him find his childhood home, where he believes he will find clues that will lead him to his mother.

Pressia and Partridge's search does not end there, of course. What they uncover leads them to question their own lives, the world they have grown up in and who they really are. Though the book is long at 400+ pages, it is a fast-paced read, filled with action, surprising revelations, heartbreak and of course, more questions than answers. But as quickly as the action unfolds, you'll want to slow down and take in every word.

Baggott's world-building is excellent, adding that much more urgency to Pressia and Partridge's journey. While there is a hint of romance between some characters, it is not the central theme. Pressia is a very strong female lead - while not always sure of the decisions she makes, she never yields control or loses her agency. This is a refreshing change after having read so many YA Hunger Games wannabes. To be sure, Pure is no less dark than Hunger Games, in fact, it is more so. The world of Pure is more complex, with lies and deceptions layered one after another and filled with so much tragedy that it is part of everyday life. That people like Pressia are able to not just survive, but to do so with their spirit intact is no less a victory than finding the answers to the questions surrounding her.

It wasn't until the very last page of the book that I realized it was part of a planned trilogy. The next book, Fuse, is due out in February and you can already place a hold on it (after mine, of course!)

~ Allison, Adult Services

Update 1/30/13 - Pure was awarded the 2013 ALA/YALSA Alex Award, which is given every year to ten books written for adults that have special appeal to young adults! See the whole list at: www.ala.org/yalsa/alex-awards#current

Books for the apocalypse

As anyone who knows me or who follows my blog postings, I'm a fan of the apocalypse. No, I'm not looking forward to it, nor do I believe in it*, but I am a fan of all the books that have been written about the subject.

There's been a wave of books that take place in some sort of future dystopia, places and worlds where, after some great cataclysm (known or unknown) humanity has remade itself. Many of these new books are written for young adults, but by no means limited to them.

I could go on, but since we're supposedly facing the end of the world this Friday, here are some highlights from some of the best apocalyptic fiction I've read this year:

World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War & The Zombie Survival Guide by Max Brooks - I'll admit, I'm not a big fan of zombies. I avoid books and movies about them, since they tend to emphasize the gore factor a bit too much for my taste. But then I heard that a movie was being made based on the book, and that fans of the book were up in arms about it. I had to read it.

World War Z (the book) is told, true to it's subtitle, as an oral history. Divided into chronological sections, the story is told through interviews with survivors of the war. The people interviewed range from military to doctors to ordinary people, and follow the spread of the plague, the governments' responses (or lack thereof) and how people managed to survive and, ultimately, beat back the zombie hoards. The first-person narration is gripping and brings you to the heart of the crisis. The raw terror, the helplessness and the desperation are tangible, as is the toll both the war and the terrible solution that won it took on what remains of humanity.

Brooks' companion nonfiction book, The Zombie Survival Guide, is referred to a few times as a "civilian survival manual" during World War Z and is written as such. Offering practical advice from where to go to what to bring with you, the guide is written in the same world as World War Z. It also offers more information about the virus that causes people to turn and a retrospective of recorded attacks dating back to 60,000 B.C. to the attacks that set off the global war. I'd recommend reading it after you've finished World War Z, as the history, advice and scenarios will hold more meaning.

Wool: Omnibus & the Shift series by Hugh Howey
The Wool series began as a one-off Kindle single by science fiction writer Howey. But, as the novella became a best seller, fans demanded more. Wool: Omnibus collects the five novellas that have been published so far. Howey has also written two short stories in a planned trilogy (the Shift series) that fill in the history of the world of Wool. Once the third book is published, Howey has promised to continue with Wool 9, and the Shift series should definitely be read after Wool: Omnibus. As a bonus, the Kindle edition of Wool 1 is now free!

Wool takes place in an underground silo where generations of people have lived after an unknown global catastrophe made the surface of the planet uninhabitable and deadly. The story of Wool 1 begins with the sheriff of the silo, Holston. Beyond that, it's difficult to describe further without giving major spoilers. One hint, though: people do leave the silo for "cleaning," however, they do not come back. And often times, they volunteer.

The Machine Stops by E.M. Forster - Written in 1909, this short story is amazingly prescient. Forster imagines a world in which people live in vast underground structures and have lost the ability to live independently. People are dependent on the Machine, which cares for their every need, and the vast majority of life is spent in isolated cells. Exile from the Machine means death and very few question the Machine's existence or actions. The story follows Vashti and her son Kuno, who wants to see the world outside of the Machine. And, as the Machine begins to malfunction, Kuno might get his wish. It's a great story, especially considering it was written 103 years ago, and it's available for as a PDF EPUB or Kindle book. (Hat-tip to Mike for recommending it!)

Good luck and happy reading!

~ Allison, Adult Services

* Although if anyone wants to buy me a spot in one of these, I won't object.