BFFs & Frenemies

While I find the term "frenemies" objectionable, I admit to enjoying stories about poisonous, nice-to-your-face relationships. Bitter, backstabbing jealousy covered in a thin mask of friendship can make for some delicious conflict in a story. Often, but not always, the characters in these twisted friendships are women, often young, privileged women. So, if like me, you're cursed with wonderfully supportive friends and a dearth of couture, try picking up one of these books, movies, or TV shows and exploring the turmoil beneath the perfect facade.


Movies and TV

• Mean Girls
• Heathers
• Gossip Girl (also books!)
• Revenge

Books

I'm So Happy for You by Lucinda Rosenfeld
Wendy and Daphne have always been friends, and Wendy has always been the successful, stable one. Now Daphne seems to have stumbled into the perfect life, and Wendy is left reeling with jealousy. Rosenfeld's fast-paced and engaging novel is by turns reflective and sassy, with plenty of drama.





Friends Like Us by Lauren Fox
Willa and Jane have been friends and roommates since college, but their Milwaukee apartment becomes crowded when Jane starts dating Willa's friend from high school. Fox's witty and bittersweet exploration of relationships in your 20s will ring true for many New Adults.






More Like Her by Liza Palmer
Ms. Palmer’s novels are about women in the process of confronting their dissatisfaction with their lives and relationships with wit and emotion. While some of her titles are lighter and more romantic, her most recent novel, More Like Her, is somewhat darker. Frannie is convinced that her coworker, Emma, has the perfect life, and that her own is a disappointing mess, but then Frannie finds that Emma isn’t so perfect after all.




Dare Me by Megan Abbott
 Edgar-winning novelist Megan Abbott’s suspenseful, character-driven novels present a feminine perspective on the darker corners of the mystery genre. Dare Me is a fast-paced and disturbing glimpse into the cut-throat dynamics of cheerleading. A new, popular coach upends the power structure of Sutton Grove High School’s squad. Manipulation, revenge, and jealousy all increase the tension of this psychological page-turner.


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!

Staff Review: Hawkeye: my life as a weapon

 Hawkeye: My Life as a Weapon was my first ever "superhero comic." I admit it, I'm a snob. Maybe snob isn't quite the right word because at the same time that I avoided superhero comics, I've been happily consuming superhero cartoons, movies, etc. I was leery for two reasons:

1) With series that have been in publication for decades, with complex relationships, backstories, and alternate universes, it's really hard to know where to start.

2) My perception of superhero comics as just a little sexist, and thus not for me.

Like millions of other people around the globe, I watched and enjoyed Joss Whedon's Avengers movie. Of course, I also left wondering how some dude with a bow and arrows wound up on a superhero team with, well, actual superheroes. Although I was happy enough to see a dude in the role of damsel in distress, until he's needed in the epic final battle, of course.

I didn't think I'd hear anything else about Hawkeye before the inevitable Avengers 2: Out for Vengence (I am making this title up). Except that people whose judgment I trust started talking about The Hawkeye Initiative (link sometimes NSFW), Hawkguy, and Pizza Dog.

Illustration by Noelle "Gingerhaze" Stevenson

The Hawkeye Initiative invites artists to contort Hawkeye into the less practical poses one sometimes finds the female characters in comic books drawn into. It's a humorous take on an issue that, to be fair, is not limited to superhero comics. Add in the fact that Hawkeye is portrayed as a character who would be more than okay with sexy posing to agitate for change, and you've got my attention.

Hawkguy and Pizza Dog are references to the comics written by Matt Fraction and illustrated (primarily) by David Aja. That Aja is not the illustrator for all of the issues is my only real complaint about a book that is otherwise fun.This is a series that pokes fun at the characters and the world they live in. It's almost a mash-up of the quirky slice of life stories I love in graphic novels with crazy heroics and exciting action sequences. In one scene you'll have a rooftop block party, and in another a high speed car chase (with Mini Coopers, of course).

Kate Bishop is my second favorite character, after Pizza Dog.

If, like me, you only know Clint Barton and his alter ego Hawkeye from seeing The Avengers, you won't have any trouble following this story. In fact, if all you know is that Clint Barton is good at shooting arrows and getting himself into trouble, that's enough. Kate Bishop (also a crime fighting archer, and also known as Hawkeye) was an unexpected, but delightfully snarky surprise. Fraction's writing is, as I mentioned, quirky, and the stories tend to play out in somewhat non-linear fashion. Issues often start with Clint in some horrible position, and then back up to show us how he got there.

The fifth issue collected in this volume does veer towards over the top soap opera villainy, but I was able to stumble through without having to look up anyone in Wikipedia. I was also least fond of the art in this issue. I'm sure part of my dislike comes the fact that I'm not accustomed to having the artist on a graphic novel change from chapter to chapter, but it was rather jarring to have the characters look so different. Illustrator Javier Pulido does a fine job, but he's not David Aja.

I might have a bit of an art crush on David Aja. His lines are interesting to look at, and he makes an excellent use of shadows. It's such an interesting balance of flowing precision. There's a great sense of motion, and the characters are so expressive. I found myself coming back to the page where Clint focuses on making a trick shot again and again.

Isn't David Aja's art just the best? *sigh*

~Sarah, Adult Services

Read Alike Dan Brown

Love him or hate him, there's no question that Dan Brown has a gift for writing a real page turner. His most recent book, Inferno, is the fourth to feature the popular symbologist and conspiracy magnet, Robert Langdon. Brown's writing is fast-paced and plot-driven, with interesting puzzles and elements drawn from a variety of disciplines, from art to science.

Two of the Robert Langdon novels, The Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons, have been adapted as movies with Tom Hanks in the starring role. While neither film received rave reviews from the critics, both did quite well at the box office, so it's likely that Hollywood is at the very least considering movies for The Lost Symbol and Inferno.

You can read more about Dan Brown on his website: www.danbrown.com

If you're waiting to borrow a copy of Inferno from the library, or if you've already finished it, we've gathered together a few reading suggestions for you to check out:

The Rule of Four by Ian Caldwell
Mr. Caldwell has written one novel so far, inspired, in part, by the success of The Da Vinci Code and his experiences at Princeton. His Rule of Four, is fast-paced and suspenseful, but somewhat more scholarly with rich historical and academic detail. Set in Princeton, the action follows a group of seniors who get caught up in the puzzle of a mysterious 15th century text, the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, and then one student is murdered.

The Confessor by Daniel Silva 
Bestselling author Daniel Silva is known for his fast-paced thrillers. His protagonist usually has a background in espionage, and his books tend to be violent. His series featuring Mossad agent and art restorer Gabriel Allon is packed with suspense and corruption. The series starts with The Kill Artist, which is available as an eBook in our OverDrive collection. If you're not a fan of eReading, try The Confessor, Allon partners with Pietro, a priest, to uncover secrets of a Catholic society and an assassination.

The Charlemagne Pursuit  by Steve Berry
Steve Berry's Cotton Malone series has a suspenseful mix of historical research and action, as the former Federal agent tackles globe-spanning conspiracies. The series starts with The Templar Legacy, which is available through OverDrive as an eBook. The Charlemagne Pursuit is another good starting point for this series. Cotton Malone is on the trail for answers to his father's mysterious death in a submarine, and the key might be in a manuscript found in Charlegmagne's tomb.

Ark of Fire by C.M. Palov
C.M. Palov's first novel, Ark of Fire, is a fast-paced puzzler that will keep the reader guessing along with the characters. Photographer Edie Miller finds herself drawn into a larger mystery after witnessing the theft of an ancient Hebrew relic. She's joined in her suspenseful, globe-spanning pursuit by historian Caedmon Aisquith, but can they find the truth before the villains catch them?

Other authors to check out include: Matthew Reilly, Raymond Khoury, and Scott Mariani.

You might also enjoy checking out Cheap Thrills, a book blog devoted to the thriller genre by a local blogger: cheapthrillsbookblog.wordpress.com


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!

Chick Lit

To celebrate my tenth year of keeping chickens, I’m reviewing four books related to gallus domesticus.  The first two titles focus on the basics of becoming a chicken wrangler; the second two titles are more playful.

As urban flocks and small chicken holdings become more popular, the market for chick lit has greatly expanded.  Instead of technically proper but emotionally sterile writing and presentation, readers of chick lit now demand brightly colored covers, photographs, drawings, pretty graphics and interesting prose.  The front cover of Chick Days features nine chickens in different poses while the back shows five photographs of one chicken from hatchling to laying hen.  Instead of a standard table of contents in outline form, Chick Days has twelve eggs of various hues, each containing the chapter title and page information.  Every set of pages in the book has a color photo, graphic, table or chart similar to glossy magazines, but don’t think the content suffers.  The book manages to present the information necessary to decide which chickens to raise, where to house them, how to feed them and keep them alive.  Three appendices provide a breed chart, details on chicken health and a list of resources.  The stories of Honey, Tilda and Ameila, the hens making up the photographer’s first flock, personalize the text.

Robert and Hannah Litt’s A Chicken in Every Yard is more text heavy than Chick Days.  It’s a longer book with fewer illustrations and photographs, but the pictures are used to good effect.  The contents follow the same pattern as Chick Days; why raise chickens, which breed is best for your situation, how to plan, prepare and then enjoy your flock and keep it healthy followed by a list of chicken resources.  The Litts offer a few more recipes including flan, Sunday morning crepes and perfect poached eggs.  While an average reader might be satisfied to stop reading after Chick Days, a true chick lit fan will devour A Chicken in Every Yard and be searching for more titles.

It’s probably a stretch to include Goblinproofing One’s Chicken Coop as true chick lit since only one chapter deals directly with fowl, but the book is way too much fun to skip or ignore.  In March it won the Diagram Prize from the trade magazine The Bookseller for year's oddest book title.  Author Reginald Bakeley’s tongue-in-cheek style in very proper British form kept me smiling as I read: “Chickens Yes!  Goblins No!  If you believe your hen cottage may be infested with malicious, uncouth goblins, Reginald Bakeley would like to know about it.  He requests your photographs of suspected goblin hens, roosters, chicks and eggs.  For further instructions, visit www.goblinproofing.com.”  I wonder if he knows anything about mice masquerading as goblins.

 The tiny drawings by Lauren Scheuer scattered throughout her book Once Upon a Flock are irresistible to me.  Her illustrations are reminiscent of the Garth Williams’ sketches from the beloved Little House series I’m now reading with my granddaughter.  Scheuer includes actual photographs, too, but irregularly framed and edged as if the pictures were cut out and pasted in a scrapbook.  This is not to slight the prose, which is equally appealing.   Scheuer’s chickens may be anthropomorphized, yet consider that this writing style has sold lots of books recently.  Think of Spencer Quinn’s Chet and Bernie mystery series, nonfiction titles like Marley and Me or the fictional The Art of Racing in the Rain.  Once Upon a Flock is classified as nonfiction; can you believe the flyleaf says “Lauren discovers that love, loss, passion, and resilience are not only parts of the human experience, but of the chicken experience as well.”  Read some chick lit and become a believer!
~ Michelle, Adult Services


Chick Days: an Absolute Beginner’s Guide to Raising Chickens from Hatchlings to Laying Hens by Jenna Woginrich with photography by Mars Vilaubi. 2010. (636.5 WOG)

A Chicken in Every Yard: The Urban Farm Store’s Guide to Chicken Keeping by Robert and Hannah Litt.  2011. (636.5 LIT)

Goblinproofing One’s Chicken Coop and Other Practical Advice in our Campaign against the Fairy Kingdom by Reginald Bakeley. 2012. (818.602 BAK)

Once upon a Flock: Life with My Soulful Chickens by Lauren Scheuer. 2013. (636.5092 SCH)