#ComicsWednesday: Heartthrob by Christopher Sebela & Robert Wilson IV

None of us will live forever, but Callie, who was born with a congenital heart defect, has never been able to escape the awareness that her time is limited. Throughout her childhood she was either hospitalized or kept wrapped in cotton wool by her parents. But after Callie hears about the first successful heart transplant in 1968, she decides to take a chance on living. She leaves her family, moves to California, gets a job in an insurance company, and saves her money for heart transplant surgery.

The story of Heartthrob starts with Callie just returning to work after months of recovering from her successful heart transplant. She feels different, healthier, stronger, though she's well aware that the still experimental transplant has only extended her lifespan by years. But if Callie was tired of hiding from life before, now she is determined to live. And then she meets a mysterious and handsome stranger at a bar, a stranger with a dangerous past who leads Callie into a life of crime and romance.

This fast-paced story is written by Christopher Sebela, drawn by Robert Wilson IV, and colored by Nick Filardi. The story has enough sex and violence that it is clearly an adult series. I enjoyed the 1970s setting, and Filardi's use of color worked well to capture the vintage mood. Without going into spoilers, I would've enjoyed more focus on the heists and less on the unusual romance. It's an interesting premise, and the first volume ends on a heck of a cliffhanger.

~Sarah, Adult Services

#ComicsWednesday: Paper Girls by Brian K. Vaughan & Cliff Chiang

Writer Brian K. Vaughan has established a solid reputation as the creator of science fiction comic series that are both popular and critically acclaimed, including Saga, Ex Machina, and Y: the last man. His recent, ongoing collaboration with artist Cliff Chiang is no exception. Paper Girls features a twisted sci fi plot and has earned its creators two Eisner awards.

If you're a fan of science fiction adventure stories and eighties nostalgia (think Stranger Things), you should probably check out Paper Girls. The story features four 12-year-old girls who gang up to survive the danger of teen boys out to make trouble in the early morning hours the day after Halloween in 1988 Ohio. The danger quickly escalates when the girls encounter a gang of scavengers who aren't in costume and a strange device in the basement of a house under construction. It's hard to fully convey the sci fi weirdness without giving away major spoilers, so you'll have to trust me when I say it's cool and only gets cooler in the second volume.

The story is very plot-focused, but even with minimal time for character development Vaughan and Chiang manage to give them distinct personalities. There's an overall snarky tone that helps to lighten the danger the girls are facing. While characters can, and do, die, as a reader I was left feeling like Tiff, Mac, KJ, and Erin are likely to not only survive, but save the day.

Cliff Chiang's art is generally very good, but every now and then I was bothered by quirks in how he draws people. Then another action sequence would start, and I would be lost in the story again. I loved the color palate, which as a non-artist I can best describe as muted, menacing pastels. It's an unapologetically girly touch that I definitely appreciated.

~Sarah, Adult Services

Staff Review: The Star Diaries by Stanislaw Lem

I’m glad I decided to check out this little book of short stories called The Star Diaries by Stanislaw Lem. I’ve read Lem’s The Futurological Congress and rate it as one of my favorite books, so felt optimistic going in that these further adventures of Ijon Tichy, the space traveler and hero of The Futurological Congress, would be just as outlandishly cartoonish yet frighteningly plausible.

First off, I don’t know how translator Michael Kandel does it. These stories are masterfully translated from the original Polish. The force of the language — the beauty, the puns, the made-up jargon — comes through clearly in the English translation. Only a truly gifted translator could do this. I’ve read the English version of Lem’s most well-known work, Solaris, notoriously translated from a poor French translation, and had to force my way through it. The Star Diaries tales are mind-melting, playful, satirical, and sometimes dark. None of the fun creative wordplay came through in Solaris.

Lem’s been likened to Bach for the artistry with which he constructs his stories and to Einstein for his sweeping intellect — comparisons certainly ripe for scrutiny. I can say that Lem’s mind works on a different level from many of us mere mortals. Tichy’s adventures are a vehicle for Lem’s scientific and philosophical speculation. He often uses other planets and life forms to illustrate an outsider’s view of human behavior or to show how similar intelligent beings evolve far in the future, seamlessly bringing to light many of our foibles. Understanding the scientific jargon or made-up words (both of which are liberally used and often mixed together) isn’t essential to enjoying the stories. The stories are dense, but completely readable and a lot of fun. There are puns-a-plenty thrown around and each re-reading brings about more snorts and chuckles.

To show what one is in for, I’ll share bits from two of my favorite stories. Time slips are always ripe for good humor. The first story in the book is probably the funniest of this kind that I’ve ever read. Ijon Tichy finds himself having to fix a rudder on his one-man rocket ship, a job that takes two. After going through a gravitational field Monday, he’s awakened by the Ijon Tichy from Tuesday. Several time slips later, things turn to chaos as the ship fills up with Tichys from various days of the week and they quarrel over fixing the rudder. It’s not really even necessary to keep things straight as the story moves maddeningly and hilariously forward.

In one of his more satirical/philosophical stories, Tichy finds himself on a distant planet, whose dominant life forms bear many similarities to homo sapiens. Most of the revealing and interesting information about this world comes from the history books being read by our protagonist. One example, illustrating humans’ endless desire for ‘more,’ deals with the inhabitants’ physical “enhancements.” When science has advanced so that people can have whatever appearance they wish, naturally people get restless (see Lem’s humorous illustration of an “Octabod”— a skeleton with 8 legs). The physical and monstrously cartoonish characters that eventually inhabit the planet no longer resemble us, but are eerily within the realm of reason.

These fantastic stories, written in the late 50s through early 70s, will muster up questions pertinent to technological issues we face today. They can be simultaneously frightening and hilarious. In terms of style, Lem has been compared to Borges, Vonnegut, and Philip K. Dick, among others. His stories share elements with these authors but are still entirely Lem. This book is definitely not for everyone, but fans of satire, scientific speculation, and unconventional stories should love it.

~Ben, Adult Services

#ComicsWednesday: Mooncop by Tom Gauld

Someone probably already said this, but Mooncop by Tom Gauld is The Little Prince of our times.

Like The Little Prince, this new, tiny book is elegant and beautiful. It expresses in a few short pages what it means to be human, not only in an imagined future where we fly through space and colonize the moon, but in the present, at this very moment.

Mooncop is sad and lovely. Don't let it slip by!

~Mike, Adult Services

Staff Review: China Mountain Zhang by Maureen McHugh

A mosaic novel is made up of a series of related short stories that stand up well individually, yet taken as a whole become something bigger. As a non-English major*, I had no idea there was a name for this until last year. Having a name for one of my favorite types of book has helped me in tracking down new books to read.

When I read an article that mentioned Maureen F. McHugh's first book and described it as a mosaic novel, I snapped it up immediately. Published in 1992, China Mountain Zhang was nominated for both the Hugo and the Nebula and won a Locus Award for Best First Novel, a Lambda Award, and a James Tiptree, Jr. Memorial Award.

There is some excellent world-building in China Mountain Zhang, and the imagined future holds up fairly well almost 25 years later. Part of why it does is McHugh's focus on the characters: people are recognizably people no matter how different their worlds might be. Because of the focus on the characters' lives, readers learn about the larger setting gradually. A character will reference some historical event in one story, two stories later you'll get a few more details, while other pieces of the background are left almost entirely to your imagination. This added to the book's suspense and made it harder for me to put down at the end of my lunch break.

The central character of the book, the person who ties the various stories together, is Zhang Zhongshan. His name roughly translates to China Mountain Zhang, though his oldest and closest friends know him as Rafael. Zhang lives in a future where China is the center of the civilized world and has the best technology, universities, fashion, etc. Zhang is a native of New York and fortunate in his Chinese father. That his mother is Hispanic is less beneficial to his chances for advancement. Even more damning is the fact that he is gay, something he would be killed for in China. It's less dire in the States, though I suspect the consequences of official discovery would be very grim.

This was probably my favorite book of 2016 and I don't want to give too much else away, so I'll limit myself to one final appeal: there are domed communes on Mars with beekeeping colonists. Politics AND space bees!

~Sarah, Adult Services

*Anthropology, in case you were curious

Staff Review: Space Brothers

If you wanted to be an astronaut when you were a kid, you need to check out Space Brothers. If you find Neil deGrasse Tyson's enthusiasm for space exploration inspiring, you need to check out Space Brothers. If you loved the near-future realism of The Martian, you need to check out Space Brothers.

I will warn you right here that this anime is only available with English subtitles, which I know is not an option for some people. However, the fact that this is an animated series should not stop you from checking this series out. While there are a handful of cartoony moments in the series, it is, by and large, very grounded in real life. Every element is either based on the realities of current space exploration technology, or on well-researched potential technology.

Seriously space nerds, this series is for us. Guys, JAXA astronaut Akihiko Hoshide recorded dialog for this series while on the International Space Station. The live-action version (which the library does not own) features a cameo by Buzz Aldrin.

Space Brothers follows two brothers, Mutta and Hibito Nanba, who decided as children that they wanted to be astronauts. Older brother Mutta abandoned that dream, and instead became a mechanical engineer. Hibito followed through and is now an astronaut in training for a moon mission scheduled for next year (2026). Mutta's feelings of inadequacy in the face of his brother's success are only complicated when he's fired. Hibito though, never doubted his brother and secretly submits an application on Mutta's behalf to Japan's highly competitive astronaut training program.

This is a slower-paced series. While parts are fairly intense, the real focus is on the characters and the entire step-by-step process for astronaut selection and training. The characters are interesting, varied, and have distinct personalities. Obviously, my favorite character is the pug dog Apo (short for Apollo).

The whole series is a commitment at 99 episodes, but if you want a heartwarming, optimistic series about the future of space exploration this is a series you need to check out.

~Sarah, Adult Services

Binge Worthy TV Shows

Sometimes I think the DVR is the best and worst invention ever.  The best because I can record shows when I'm not home and watch them whenever.  The worst because I record a lot of TV shows and then I end up watching an entire season over the course of a day or two. For a television junkie, the DVR is a big old enabler. 
 
Here are a few of my favorite binge worthy shows: 


Angie Tribeca on TBS

From the mind of Steve Carell and his wife, Nancy Walls Carell, Angie Tribeca is a police procedural satire in the spirit of Police Squad.  Rashida Jones plays the titular detective who gets a new partner in the pilot episode. TBS aired the first season of 10 episodes as a 25-hour marathon, so this show was truly made for binge watching.  The humor is very reminiscent of the movies Airplane! and The Naked Gun. Surely (don't call me Shirley) you will want to give this show a try. 




Killjoys on Syfy

Killjoys follows a trio of bounty hunters, Dutch, Dav and Johnny as they work in a four planet system called The Quad. Hello, space bounty hunters!  What isn't to love about this show?  Killjoys, especially in the second season is a great mix of humor, drama and action.  The leader of this rag-tag trio is Dutch, and she is a woman who knows how to take care of herself.  You wouldn't want to meet her in a dark alley.  The best part of this show is her relationship (strictly platonic) with Johnny.  Also Pree, every episode with Pree is automatically my favorite episode. 




Dark Matter on Syfy

Dark Matter is a bit darker (ha) in tone than Killjoys.  A group of six people wake up on the space ship Raza, with no memory of who they are.  They name themselves One through Six based on the order in which they woke up.  Dark Matter was created by Joseph Mallozzi and Paul Mullie based upon their comic book of the same name.  Both men at one time or another were writers and executive producers on the Stargate TV shows. If you are a fan of the Stargate shows, you will see some familiar faces pop up now and then. Even without their memories, it becomes clear that the leader of the Raza crew is "Two" and she is a kick-butt, take names later (if they are still alive) kind of woman.   

 
The 100 on the CW

This post-apocalyptic drama follows a group of teens (100 of them in all) as they become the first humans to return to Earth, 97 years after a devastating nuclear apocalypse.  The twist here is that the teens are all technically criminals and Earth isn't quite as uninhabited as those still living in space think.  Also, the colony of space ships is failing so returning to Earth is pretty much their only chance of survival.  The CW is famous for dramas with very pretty people, and The 100 does deliver on that front. However, they don't stay so pretty (yes they actually get dirty and the dirt sticks) and life on planet Earth is BRUTAL.  Think Lord of the Flies, Game of Thrones brutal.  I record this show because sometimes I just need to stop my DVR, walk away and decompress.  Fair warning, this show will bring about emotions.


 UnREAL on the Lifetime channel.

I did a review of this show that you can read here.  Basically this is a show about the making of a fictional reality dating show and it is CRAZY.  Plus each season (season 2 just ended) is only 10 episodes long so you could easily watch a season in one day.







~Amy, Adult 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.

Staff Review: The Red: First Light by Linda Nagata

[Note: This review contains mild spoilers.]

I've been in a reading slump for about three years now. I start books and don't finish them. I take books home and don't even open the covers. It's frustrating, but at the same time it's nice. I'm spending more time on my other hobbies, like gardening. Life is all about balance, and this has been a period of readjustment for my life, a rebalancing that I'd like to believe has been a net positive.

Of course, I wouldn't be so optimistic about the changes in my reading habits if I were convinced a sentient computer program was influencing my choices as part of its larger plan to change the entire world to suit its purposes. There's a fairly large difference between making my own choices and being someone's or something's puppet.

Which brings me to The Red: First Light by Linda Nagata, the first in a series of near-future military science fiction where the characters slowly realize that their choices are being influenced by a mysterious power whose intentions are not entirely clear. It's a fascinating question, and I'm fascinated to see how it plays out over the next books in the series.

The near-future setting of the novel means that many of the issues the characters face feel very familiar. I found that this helped draw me into the story by making the high-tech super soldiers seem a bit more like people I know. While I'm unquestionably a fan of military science fiction, my tastes tend more towards far-flung space adventures than gritty stories set in something very similar to the real world.

The best science fiction gives you a new perspective on the real world, pushing the reader to reexamine how our choices today might change the future. Let's just hope that Linda Nagata's prediction of a future guided by a computer program with a mind of its own stays fictional.

~Sarah, Adult Services

Read the 2015 Oscar Nominees

Several of the films nominated for a 2015 Academy Award (or 12) found their origins in books. Books which you can check out from Carnegie-Stout Public Library!

Room by Emma Donoghue

A fast-paced and suspenseful novel told from the perspective of five-year-old Jack, who has lived his entire life in one small room with his mother, held captive by the whims of her kidnapper. Though this novel is somewhat disturbing, it might appeal to some older teens.

The Revenant by Michael Punke
A story of survival and vengeance in the Dakota wilderness of 1820. Andrew Henry's adventurous life prepared him well for the day he was abandoned to die by the men tasked to care for him after a vicious bear attack.

Brooklyn by Colm Toibin
Eilis Lacey left Ireland for a chance of a better life in America, but discovers much more when she meets the handsome Tony. A lyrical and richly detailed look at life in 1950s Brooklyn, and the growing pains of a young woman torn between home and new opportunity.

The Martian by Andy Weir
A suspenseful story of survival in extreme conditions that has appeal for readers who might normally avoid science fiction. No one expected astronaut Mark Watney to be abandoned on Mars, least of all Mark or he would've packed an MP3 player.
This title is also available as an eBook.

The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith
This romantic 1952 novel by Patricia Highsmith was originally published under a pseudonym due to the scandal and controversy of a story about two women falling in love. The 2015 film was released as Carol.

The Danish Girl by David Ebershoff
This thoughtful story of love and change is based on the lives of a historical couple, Einar and Greta Wegener, and the challenges they faced as Einar transitions to life as Lili.

The Big Short by Michael Lewis

(330.973 LEW) A thought-provoking, yet accessible look at the complicated economics and plain old greed that led to the housing market bubble and resulting recession. Author Michael Lewis is also responsible for two other notable movies based on nonfiction titles: Moneyball and The Blind Side.

One of the Best Books I Read in 2015: Uprooted by Naomi Novik

Uprooted starts with a fairly predictable fantasy novel set up: the unremarkable main character, Agnieszka, has lived an unremarkable life, in an unremarkable small village, and has every reason to believe that her talented and beautiful best friend is the one destined for greatness. Of course it's Agnieszka who is tapped by fate for something more, assuming she can learn to trust in her own abilities.

Uprooted is Naomi Novik's first stand-alone fantasy novel (she's well know for her Temeraire series), and it is a delightful story with tons of appeal. I was impressed by the way she captured the feel of a familiar fairy tale while still telling an inventive and original story. I especially enjoyed the way that Novik handled the romantic subplot (warning: things do get rather steamy).

And because I can't limit myself to just one fantasy recommendation, here are two of my other favorites from 2015:

• The Traitor Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson
• The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison

~Sarah, Adult Services

One of the Best Books I Read in 2015: Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

Emily St. John Mandel's Station Eleven came out in 2014 and was on many a Best Book of the Year 2014 list. It sounded interesting, but I didn't read it until April of 2015. And oh, how angry I was at myself for not reading it sooner! This is one of my favorite books EVER.

The novel starts a few hours before a flu spreads across the globe, decimating the population and then moves back and forth between life before the outbreak and fifteen years into the future. Mandel uses her characters to discuss the importance of art and culture and to question the value of remembering the past. It's ambitious, amazing, and awe-inspiring.

~Aisha, Adult Services

Staff Review: The Martian by Andy Weir

I am late to the party. Almost everyone I know has either already read The Martian by Andy Weir or seen the movie. Aisha even wrote a post about the movie's (then) upcoming release on this blog. In a way, this is awesome. It's a very lonely feeling to read an awesome book and then have no one to talk about it with because (seemingly) no one else has read it yet. It's much more fun when everyone responds to "I really like this book I'm reading" with "OH YEAH THAT BOOK IS GREAT!"

Mostly though, I'm kicking myself. Two years ago I had access to an ARC (advance reader copy) of The Martian, but I never made it past the first page. I'd just read The Last Policeman and didn't feel up to reading another book where everything is balanced on the edge of disaster. Over the next two years as more and more people mentioned how much they loved The Martian, I became more and more convinced that this wasn't a book I wanted to read. I'm sure we've all had those moments where we tried something popular and thought, "What's the big deal?"

Avoiding something because it's popular is a guaranteed method to miss out on awesome things. However, I suspect that if I'd picked up the print edition, I would've been overwhelmed and disappointed. Happily, I listened to the audiobook narrated by R.C. Bray and that made all the difference. Bray is a perfect match for Mark Watney, the novel's main character and primary narrator. Bray's delivery captured Watney's wry, yet juvenile, humor and incredible optimism, as well as the personalities of the other characters. Bray somehow made even the most technically detailed descriptions of, say, canvas fabrication incredibly engaging. Seriously, there was a chapter that went into great detail on the design, manufacture, testing, and deployment of some fancy space canvas that had me on the edge of my seat.

I tore through the entire 11-hour audiobook over the course of four days. This is saying something because I had to give myself a break for a day after a particularly tense section (see above) and read a comic book. I haven't seen the movie yet, so I don't have an opinion on how they match up. I'm just not ready to live through that tension again, but I'll probably check it out once it's available on DVD. First though, I'll be checking out Packing for Mars by Mary Roach.

If you haven't read The Martian yet, it's not too late!* On Tuesday, January 12th we'll be discussing The Martian by Andy Weir at our first book club meeting of 2016. We hope to see you there!

~Sarah, Adult Services


*It's never too late to read a good book!

Staff Review: Leviathan Wakes and The Expanse TV Series

Have you ever read a book and thought, "Hey, this might make a great TV show?" Sometimes you get what you ask for, and in my case that is The Expanse series of books by James S.A. Corey coming to a television near me.  I'd heard raves about the first book in the series, Leviathan Wakes and decided to give it a try.

In a nutshell, humans have colonized Mars, the Moon, the Asteroid belt and beyond.  The people born and raised on the outer planets refer to themselves as "belters". Those born and raised on Earth are called "Earthers".  There are a lot of politics at play, but the bottom line is that the belters aren't big fans of the Earthers and vice versa so of course there is a war brewing.  The majority of the story is told from two different viewpoints, in alternating chapters.

James Holden is an Earther and the executive officer of an ice mining ship that makes runs from the rings of Saturn to various mining stations on the belt. His ship happens upon the Scopuli, a derelict ship, and when he and a few other crew members mount a salvage/rescue mission, things go horribly wrong. It seems they have stumbled upon a secret that will get them killed.

Detective Joe Miller works for Star Helix Security on the Ceres station. He is tasked with looking for a missing girl named Julie Mao.  Her parents are important and it seems she had a bit of a rebellious streak while in college, joining a student activist group and refusing to come home.  Her last known address was on Ceres, and Miller traces her to a ship called the Scopuli.  Through a series of events, Miller and Holden end up working together to find Julie and discover what secret the Scopuli was holding.

Leviathan Wakes paints a fascinating picture of life on Earth and beyond.  Obviously it takes place in a distant future so even things on Earth are different.  For instance, Holden was born in a family co-op with five fathers and three mothers.  They all contributed to his DNA mix and somehow this arrangement gave them a huge tax break, allowing them to own 22 acres of decent farmland. Miller on the other hand was born on Ceres, having only been off-planet 4 times.  It becomes pretty obvious that Miller is being set-up as the fall guy for something.  He is depressed, his life is stagnant, and as a result he become obsessed with the Julie Mao case.  The two different points of view allow the story to move forward until the two main characters intersect.  I had a few moments of "wait, what is happening here?" but for the most part found that the world-building wasn't too complicated and the story progressed nicely.  To date there are four more books in The Expanse series: Caliban's War, Abaddon's Gate, Cibola Burn, and Nemesis Games. 

Enough about the book, lets get to the TV show.  Yes, The Expanse will be coming to the SyFy channel with a two part series premier on December 14 and 15.  I, for one, can't wait to see this huge space opera (for lack of a better description) come to life on the small screen.  I really enjoyed the Battlestar Galactica reboot and the recent SyFy shows Killjoys and Dark Matter.  I apparently enjoy TV shows that take place in space.  There is still time to read the book before the series begins, or if you don't want to read the book (it is only 582 pages, you can do it), wait until December and watch the story unfold in one hour increments.

Also, in case anyone is wondering, "James S.A. Corey"is a pen name used by the two writers that collaborate on this series, Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck.

~Amy, Adult Services

Seven Reasons to Meet Mary Robinette Kowal at Carnegie-Stout Public Library

What are you doing on Saturday, October 17 at 2 p.m.?

We think you should be at Carnegie-Stout Public Library to meet award-winning author Mary Robinette Kowal, and we've got seven reasons to help convince you.

ONE: Jane Austen

Mary Robinette Kowal's first novel, Shades of Milk and Honey, draws on Jane Austen for inspiration, while still creating a unique fantasy setting. Have you always thought that Elizabeth Bennett would do well to learn a few magic spells? This is the book for you. Seriously, she created her own spellcheck from a list she compiled of every word Jane Austen used to ensure that the language she uses in her own books is period appropriate.

Plus, it's entirely possible that Mary Robinette Kowal is time travelling Jane Austen (time lady?)

Left: Mary Robinette Kowal. Right: Jane Austen, photo by TV West Country/Katie Rowlett from Tor.com

TWO: Patrick Rothfuss

Jane Austen isn't the only author whose style Mary Robinette Kowal can channel, she also once out-Rothfussed Patrick Rothfuss. In a 2013 contest to raise money for charity, readers were asked to pick out Patrick Rothfuss's real Twitter account from a half-dozen fakes, and Kowal won handily with 41% of the votes (Rothfuss got 15%). You can read the behind-the-scenes story of her win on her blog.

Patrick Rothfuss & Mary Robinette Kowal. Photo by Wesley Chu

THREE: Regency Fashion

Mary Robinette Kowal doesn't limit herself to period accuracy in her vocabulary, she does research to make sure that her characters' fashion choices are accurate too. Not only that, she makes her own Regency dresses, including the dress on the cover of her most recent novel Of Noble Family. 

On the left, Mary Robineet Kowal models the dress she made. On the right, the cover created by Larry Rostant.

Her dresses have even been worn by other award-winning speculative fiction authors, like John Scalzi.

Photo and caption by John Scalzi.

FOUR: Writing Excuses

At this point, you might be asking yourself, how can I learn to write like Mary Robinette Kowal? Well, first, you should come to Carnegie-Stout Public Library on Saturday, October 17th to hear her advice in person. But, obviously, she can't fit all of her advice into one afternoon, which is why you should check out Writing Excuses, the writing advice podcast she hosts along with Brandon Sanderson, Howard Tayler, and Dan Wells. Their podcast won a Hugo Award.

FIVE: NaNoWriMo

Mary Robinette Kowal isn't just a published author, she's a published author who wrote her first novel during NaNoWriMo. If you're thinking about doing NaNoWriMo this year, there is your chance to get advice from someone who's been there. Not sure what I'm talking about? National Novel Writing Month is an annual event where people around the world attempt to write an entire 50,000 word novel in just one month: November.

SIX: Puppets

In addition to writing amazing books, creating beautiful dresses, and sharing her writing wisdom, Mary Robinette Kowal is an accomplished puppeteer. Just check out her audition video for the Sesame Street Puppetry Workshop. 

SEVEN: Audiobooks

With the voice actings skills required by puppeteering, it's no surprise that Mary Robinette Kowal is also an audiobook narrator. She's narrated books by authors like Sherryl Woods, Seanan McGuire, and Susan Wittig Albert. Check out this behind the scenes video of Mary Robinette Kowal recording audio for Of Noble Family.



Now that we've given you seven reasons to be there, you'll have to try hard to come up with a reason to miss out on meeting Mary Robinette Kowal on Saturday, October 17th at 2 p.m. at Carnegie-Stout Public Library!

Books and Movies: The Martian by Andy Weir

Think of some synonyms for "intense" and any one of them will perfectly describe The Martian by Andy Weir. Agonizing. Fierce. Excruciating. Harrowing. (I could go on, but I won't.)

Astronaut Mark Watney is stuck on Mars. (What?) He was with his crew when a dust storm hit, separating them, and the rest of the crew evacuated and headed back to Earth, believing he's dead. (No!) But he's not. He's alive. On Mars. By himself. Watney wakes up, realizes he's all alone, and instead of bursting into tears like I would, he gets to work, attempting to contact NASA and grow food (on Mars!), all while keeping a video log. His crew finds out that he's alive and are torn as to whether or not to go back for him because while they feel guilty about leaving him, going back for him could mean their deaths if they run out of supplies. (Because there are no grocery stores on Mars.)

The Martian has been made into a movie starring Matt Damon as Watney. It also stars Jessica Chastain, Jeff Daniels, Chiwetel Ejiofor (starring in his second book-to-film of the year, the first being Z is for Zachariah) and Kristen Wiig. Check out the trailer and read the book if you haven't already. The movie comes out on October 2.

Staff Review: The Beautiful Bureaucrat by Helen Phillips

The Beautiful Bureaucrat is, at exactly 180 pages, not a long novel (the pedantic might say novella), but author Helen Phillips does not skimp on the emotional walloping. In respect of Phillips's dense brevity, I'll do my best to keep this review short, too. I almost said "short and sweet," but that didn't seem right when discussing a book that left me feeling like my guts had been hollowed out -- yet still, somehow, hopeful.

If you have ever been young and unemployed, no matter how many applications you send or interviews you go to, or if you've clung to a terrible, soul-deadening job to avoid falling into unemployment, you'll probably be able to relate to Josephine, our story's main character. Josephine and her equally young husband Joseph moved from the suburbs (hinterlands) to the city for a chance at something better, but instead found months of unemployment and struggle.

Things are looking up as the story starts: Josephine and Joseph have both recently found employment. Josephine does her best to ignore the fact that her new job is a nightmare of isolation and data entry. But as her job slowly becomes more nightmarish, and Joseph becomes more absorbed into his seemingly more satisfying work, Josephine is left with only isolation and the worry that she will never have the life that she aspires to.

Phillips's writing is compelling, though readers should expect a fair amount of wordplay. If puns are not your thing, this might not be the book for you. (Mild Spoilers Ahead!) I should also provide a warning for readers who might not want to read about miscarriage, or who are frustrated by ambiguous endings.

~Sarah, Adult Services

Staff Review: Armada by Ernest Cline

I’ll admit it. I'm a fan girl. I was more than ecstatic that Ernie Cline’s long-awaited book Armada was finally released. His previous book, Ready Player One, was such a fun adventure – nostalgic about the past, but set in a dire and ugly future landscape that everyone escapes by going to a virtual reality called “OASIS” to live their lives. Cline has such an extensive vocabulary of 1980s popular culture, that it permeates the whole book. In Armada, Cline takes us through similar tropes – video games, nostalgia for the 1980s popular culture, adventure, and a very important quest.

Zach Lightman is 18 years old and he has spent his childhood angry at the death of his father when he was only a baby. He lives with his widowed mother (who sadly never found love again) and spends many hours going through boxes of his father’s old belongings. His father was killed during the 1980s and most of his belongings portray a life deeply immersed in video games, popular science fiction films and space-themed paraphernalia. Zach takes on these interests, becoming an expert in his own right. He gets a job at a local arcade and becomes one of the best ranked Armada video game players in the world. Armada is a flight simulation game – the plot of which imagines a war between the people on earth and alien invaders called Sobrukai. Armada players fly unmanned drones that shoot down the alien spaceships.

Life changes for Zach when he looks out of his classroom window and sees one of the alien spaceships hovering in the air above his town. A Sobrukai craft. The same spacecraft he knows so well from his video game Armada. Zach soon discovers that his talents as a gamer (indeed the talents of all Armada gamers the world over) are needed to help save the universe from alien invaders. What follows is a whirlwind of flight simulation, discoveries about the universe, and betrayals and secrets that challenge everything Zach knows about his life, his history and his father.

This book felt heavier than Ready Player One - it doesn't have the sense of lightness that RPO had, even though RPO was set in a much bleaker landscape. The 1980s references and knowledge the main character had in RPO helped him through the story. In Armada, having the knowledge of his father’s past feels like a burden to Zach and one that holds darker implications. Also, unfortunately, it seems that the references don't actually move the story forward, nor do they play much of a role in the plot. They seem to be there just as gratuitous elbow nudges.

This book is very similar to existing stories - like The Last Starfighter and Ender's Game. This is freely acknowledged in the book and I think this book was meant as a nod/tribute to these stories. The numerous acronyms, combined with flight simulator equipment, functions and warfare strategies, were a bit heavy handed for me and I felt a bit lost at times. It took me out of the story. I was spending too much time trying to imagine just exactly what flight maneuvers he was doing, rather than focusing on where the story was going.

Zach’s general smart-assery betrays his absolute terror of what is happening to the world around him. One feels for Zach as he tries to handle all that is heaped upon his plate, but we don't quite know if he realizes it or if he is just in shock. His sarcastic and witty remarks do tend to ring a little desperate and look like a defense mechanism against the chaos. We don't get into Zach's head enough and so he fell a bit flat for me.

My conclusion: I think expecting Armada to be RPO all over again, though, was going to be a letdown no matter what. And it is not exactly fair to compare them, but of course that is what readers do. But I would definitely give this author another chance. I do think he is an inspired writer and I love the blending of "popular culture as character" into his works. Plus, Cline owns and drives a DeLorean. Come on now. I’d give Armada a C+ for effort.

~ Angie, Adult Services