Bestseller Read-Alikes for the Week of April 9th

Can’t wait to get your hands on the latest best-seller, but the hold list is too long? To tide you over, every week we’ll offer similar titles and authors to the week’s fiction and nonfiction best sellers.

Fiction

This week's #1 book on the fiction bestsellers list is Lover Reborn: A Novel of the Black Dagger Brotherhood by J.R. Ward. Book ten in the paranormal romance series The Black Dagger Brotherhood follows fallen vampire leader Tohrment who has been brought back to the Brotherhood by a fallen angel. Haunted by memories of his former mate, he asks the angel to set her free - but the price he must pay to do so is high. As war rages between the Brotherhood and the lessers, Tohrment is caught between a past he can't forget and an uncertain future.

Other authors with similar writing styles to Ward include:

Sherrilyn Kenyon -One of the leading writers in the paranormal romance genre, Kenyon is the author of the on-going Dark-Hunter series. The series blends the worlds of vampires, mythology and magic into her steamy, fast-paced, character-driven novels. Kenyon also pays great attention to detail when describing her characters' surroundings and many of her novels are set in New Orleans. Try Fantasy Lover.

Christine Feehan - Feehan is another well-known author in the paranormal romance genre. Her Carpathians series feature detailed world building, complex characters and interconnected stories. The Carpathians are a race gifted with heightened physical and physic abilities, with attributes similar to vampires. All male Carpathians must find their lifemates, or else they begin to lose all emotions. Once that happens, the only way to feel again is to kill. Try Dark Prince.

Click here for more fiction bestsellers...

Nonfiction 

This week's #1 nonfiction book is Drift: The Unmooring of American Military Power by Rachel Maddow. MSNBC talk-show host Maddow explains how the focus on national security is actually compromising national stability, tracing the historical events and contributing factors that have promoted a deeply militarized American culture.

Other books similar to Drift include:

The Way of the World: A Story of Truth and Hope in an Age of Extremism by Ron Suskind - Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Ron Suskind investigates  how America lost its way and the nation's daily struggle to reclaim the moral authority upon which its survival depends. Tracking down historic revelations and improbable hope from the Beltway to the farthest corners of the globe, Suskind delivers a stirring and strikingly original portrait of the post-9/11 world.

Washington Rules: America's Path to Permanent War by Andrew J. Bacevich - U.S. Army colonel turned academic, Bacevich offers an unsparing, cogent, and important critique of assumptions guiding American military policy. These central tenets, the "Washington rules"--such as the belief that the world order depends on America maintaining a massive military capable of rapid and forceful interventions anywhere in the world--have dominated national security policy since the start of the cold war and have condemned the U.S. to "insolvency and perpetual war." 

Click here for more nonfiction bestselllers ...

If you'd like more recommendations, 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!

Eden by Keary Taylor

I picked up Eden by Keary Taylor because of the excellent cover art, and, of course, because it's young adult dystopia, a genre I am unapologetically addicted to. The plot is intriguing, though probably familiar to fans of the genre. Set in the near future, a young woman named Eve with no memory of her past defends a small band of survivors from hoards of cybernetic zombies. The Fall, as it is called in the novel, began as a well-intended (aren't they always?) experiment in nanotechnology that soon went terribly wrong. The "infection" is spread by a mere touch, and the Fallen hunt what few remnants of human civilization remain. Thrown into the mix is a love triangle, a mysterious newcomer, Eve's slow but inevitable discovery of where she came from and the omnipresent threat of the Fallen.

The action begins quickly and is told in the first person, from Eve's point of view. As such, the chapters are interspersed with sections of Eve's own thoughts and feelings, which, after a while, begin to wear thin. Too much time is spent listening to Eve repeat again and again how conflicted her feelings are for her two love interests. These sections are a bit too overwrought - although, considering that Eve is a teenager, perhaps it is appropriate. 

I give Taylor credit for not taking the easy way out when the time comes for Eve to finally decide which boy to choose. I had feared that the story was about to go that way at one point, but thankfully, Eve actually makes a choice, unlike in some other YA dystopias in which one love interest conveniently dies, disappears, leaves or is made otherwise unavailable (such as in the final installment of The Hunger Games series, Mockingjay.)

The world-building in this novel is very good, with some room to kvetch. Without revealing any spoilers, one of the major conflicts is resolved a bit too simply for my taste, almost as an afterthought. Perhaps that's because my personal preference is for action, and not romance, but I would have liked to see the action fleshed out a bit more and the relational drama tightened up.

Eden would have been even better if Taylor had hired a good proofreader and editor (Eden and her other novels are self-published). The text has about 15-20 typos - mostly misspellings and missing punctuation - which took me out of the narrative momentarily. Annoying, but not a deal breaker. That said, I enjoyed the book quite a bit. If you're a forgiving sort of reader and can overlook some errors, give this book a try. I think the author has a great deal of promise and I'll be watching out for her next novels.

~ Allison, Adult Services

Choose your Favorite Haiku!

To celebrate National Poetry Month, Carnegie-Stout Public Library is having a Library Haiku Contest! We've received a number of wonderful haikus over the past week. Our winners will be displayed on the announcement monitors in the library, as part of our Poetry Month display, and posted to our Blog and Facebook pages.

Help us select our winners by voting for your favorite entries in the comments section of this post. No sign up or log in required! And yes! We're still accepting last minute entries.

Entry One
Library heaven
on any day of the week
perusing the aisles

Entry Two
Adventure, surprise,
mystery, romance, sci-fi
at your library

Entry Three
Eight plus points to staff*,
such care makes the Telegraph.
Deep joy, that's no laugh.
*Library

Entry Four
Discover yourself,
at your local library
live the adventure

Entry Five
under the fan
crickets chirp
unsettled weather

Entry Six
Books, books everywhere
as far as the eye can see
could life "be" more fair?

Entry Seven
Bluff blooming
spring winds
aha! gifts

Entry Eight
Lazy summer days
spent reading under a tree
near the library

Entry Nine
When I first met you
When I first hugged you,
I thought being by your side
Is where I should be

Entry TenOppressive silence,
Then anguished cries, crazed murmurs,
@ your library (tm)

Entry ElevenCollected wisdom,
Painstakingly curated.
Also, DVDs.

Entry TwelveWhere darkness once reigned,
A spark catches in the mind,
Kindled by reading.

Entry ThirteenWhere once we knew shame,
Our lustful clinch is now veiled.
Reading on Kindle.

Entry Fourteen
Wonderment is found,
Instilled in our minds by books.
I travel so far.

Poetry Roundtable / 3 poets: 3 voices, 3 visions

To celebrate National Poetry Month, Carnegie-Stout Public Library is sponsoring Poetry Roundtable / 3 poets: 3 voices, 3 visions on April 11, 2012, at 7:00 PM in Aigler Auditorium. Three talented and published poets with Dubuque connections will read from their work and talk about poetry: Lauren Alleyne, Francine Banwarth, and James Pollock. Come enjoy hearing poetry read aloud and learn about less familiar poetic forms, such as haiku and senryu.

Lauren K. Alleyne is Poet-in-Residence and Assistant Professor of English at the University of Dubuque. Alleyne is a native of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. Her work has been published in numerous journals: Atlanta Review, Bellevue Literary Review, Black Arts Quarterly, Kennesaw Review, and The Caribbean Writer. She won the International Publication Prize from The Atlanta Review and the Reginald Shepherd Memorial Poetry Prize. Her chapbook, Dawn in the Kaatskills, was published in 2008, and she is co-editor of the anthology From the Heart of Brooklyn. Alleyne earned a B.A. from St. Francis College, an M.A. from Iowa State University, and an M.F.A. from Cornell University.

Francine Banwarth lives in Dubuque and began studying haiku in 1988. She is a cofounder of Haiku Dubuque, which recently published The River Knows the Way. She has received numerous awards for her haiku and senryu; and her haiku, senryu, rengay, and haibun have been published in numerous journals, anthologies, and chapbooks. She currently serves as editor of Frogpond, the major publication since 1978 of the Haiku Society of America. Banwarth earned a B.A. from Clarke University.

James Pollock is an Associate Professor of Creative Writing at Loras College in Dubuque. He is the author of two books to be published in 2012: Sailing to Babylon, a collection of poetry, and You Are Here: Essays on Criticism and the Art of Poetry in Canada. His poetry has been published in numerous journals: The Paris Review, Poetry Daily, The Fiddlehead, AGNI, Geist, Southern Poetry Review, and Canadian Literature. He earned an Honors B.A. in English literature and creative writing from York University (Toronto), and an M.A. and Ph.D. in creative writing and literature from the University of Houston. He was a John Woods Scholar in poetry at the Prague Summer Program at Charles University, and a work-study scholar in poetry at the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference. Mr. Pollock lives with his wife and son in Madison, Wisconsin.

The public is invited to attend this free event. For more information, please call the Carnegie-Stout Public Library at 563-589-4225.

Spotlight: 100th Anniversary of the Sinking of the Titanic

On April 15th, 1912 the RMS Titanic collided with an ice berg, and went to her watery grave with 1,514 passengers and crew. This terrible tragedy has captured our imaginations for generations, and the 100th anniversary has renewed interest. We've gathered together some interesting links from around the web, as well as books and DVDs available here at Carnegie-Stout.

Of course we do have James Cameron's Titanic starring Leonardo DiCaprio on both DVD and blu-ray.

We also have the 1953 film Titanic starring Barbara Stanwyck in addition to three documentaries on the topic:
Secrets of the Titanic (DVD 910.45 SEC)
Titanic : how it really sank (DVD 910.91634 TIT)
Titanic : the complete story (DVD 910.91634 TIT)

There are a number of new documentaries and dramas airing on TV this month. Including a two part mini-series on ABC produced by Julian Fellowes (the man behind Downton Abbey), and a number of programs on PBS.

For those looking for a more immersive experience, a trip to Branson, Missouri might be in order. If a road trip to see Titanic Branson is not in your schedule, you still might want to check out their website, which includes video profiles of passengers and more. You may also enjoy the website of RMS Titanic, Inc, a company which has been behind seven research expeditions to the undersea wreckage and worldwide exhibitions of Titanic artifacts recovered from the wreckage. Their website includes information and photographs.

Still not enough? Mills Morgan Travel is offering a Titanic Memorial Cruise from Southampton to (hopefully) New York. Or maybe you'd prefer to stay on dry land and peruse the Library of Congress' Titanic Pathfinder, the BBC's Titanic archive, or the official Titanic Facebook page.

A selection of books on the Titanic available at Carnegie-Stout:
A Night to Remember by Walter Lord
(910.91634 LOR) Mr. Lord brought an immersive, human-centered touch to his histories. His dramatic, richly detailed, and painstakingly researched examination of the sinking of the Titanic remains a classic of narrative nonfiction more than fifty years after its original publication.

The Dressmaker by Kate Alcott
Seamstress Tess Collins, maid to fashion designer Lady Lucile Duff Gordon, finds herself sailing on the Titanic towards her dreams of a better life. Ms. Alcott's first novel focuses on the aftermath of the disaster, and includes a bit of romance for Tess.

The Lifeboat by Charlotte Rogan
Grace Winter survived the sinking of an ocean liner crossing the Atlantic in 1914 and three weeks in an overcrowded lifeboat with minimal supplies. Ms. Rogan's first novel is a compelling look at human nature, self-sacrifice, and the will to survive.

Voyagers of the Titanic by R. P. T. Davenport-Hines
(910.91634) A history of the Titanic and its ill-fated voyage focuses on the passengers, crew, and builders and illuminates the heroism, sacrifice, hope and love that emerged from the tragedy.

The Band that Played On by Steve Turner
(910.91634) The story of the musicians who went down with the ship, a story that has fascinated readers since the first news reports. Who were these brave men? What was the last song they played?

Lost Voices from the Titanic by Nick Barratt
(910.91634) Mr. Barratt provides the definitive narrative of the disaster in the words of those who were involved--including the designers and naval architects at the White Star Line; first-class aristocratic passengers and the families in third class and steerage, many of whom were simply seeking a better life in America; and the boards ofinquiry, whose task it was to help change maritime law to ensure that such an event never took place again.

Building the Titanic by Rod Green
(623.82 GRE) Features a detailed account of the creation of the Titanic, telling the story of how the ship was designed and constructed and why its legend continues to fascinate.

Titanic's Last Secrets by Bradford Matsen
(910.91634) John Chatterton and Richie Kohler, of Shadow Divers fame, look into the sinking of the Titanic. Mr. Matsen tells of their investigation of the wreck of both the Titanic and her sister ship, the Britannic.

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!