New Large Print books! #librariesofinstagram #dubuque #bookstagram #springflowers

via IFTTT

Staff Review: Since We Fell by Dennis Lehane

Sometimes it’s difficult for me to tell if I’m really enjoying a book while I’m reading it, until weeks later I find the story lingering in my mind. This was the case with Since We Fell, though it has less to do with Dennis Lehane’s writing style than it does with my not frequenting the mystery genre. When you’re trying out something new, there’s a give and take to whether the new stuff sticks or not. Often, the results aren’t settled immediately after finishing the book.

I’ve read a few other reviews of this book online. Some people claim that it took the story a while to get going when compared to other Lehane novels. I certainly didn’t experience that. I had the advanced reader copy on my phone and stayed up late a few nights reading it, ignoring the inconvenience of reading ten lines of text per page and staring into the vortex of the iPhone (sometimes with one eye shut) in the night bedroom. I often forced myself to stay awake to gather the next piece of the puzzle.

The book opens dramatically; our protagonist has a gun in her hand and she’s just shot her husband. She’s grappling to make sense of the discordant feeling of love she has for him. The gun has been used, and now we want to find out why. We jump backward in Rachel Child’s life to figure out how she got into this situation and what could have brought this unassuming girl to such violence.

The book has three sections with separate plot devices pushing the narrative. In the first, we get an overview of our protagonist’s developing years as well as the first intrigue that drives the plot—Rachel’s search for the father whose identity her mother kept secret. Toward the end of the first section, Rachel departs for a career as a reporter. She makes a name for herself covering large-scale events. She is sent to Haiti upon the catastrophic 7.0 magnitude earthquake to cover the devastation and subsequent cholera outbreak. After some extremely traumatic experiences and an emotional outburst on camera, she loses her job.

The second section attempts to restore some normalcy to Rachel’s life. She’s suffering severe panic attacks and stays mostly within the confines of her apartment, but she has a seemingly comfortable relationship with her new husband. He’s supportive of her fragile mental state and they share a strong connection. They get each other’s sense of humor, share the same friends, and catch each other’s pop-culture references. Toward the end of this section, as Rachel starts to work up the courage to leave their apartment, we begin to suspect that either her husband is leading a double life or Rachel’s paranoia is pulling her further from stability. This triggers the next mystery that continues through the third section.

The third section is the most action-packed and climactic of the book. Rachel is pulled into a dangerous world beyond anything the first part has set up. Murder, more mind games, and two ruthless men with guns keep this section moving along.

Since We Fell was a fast read, with a storyline full of intrigue and suspense and tied to relevant world events from the year 2000 on. Lehane’s characters share a sarcastic sense of humor and refer to pop culture from their formative years on (Radiohead, Tom Waits, Beyoncé). My only gripe is, for all the background provided and events that happen to them, the characters lack depth. They’re written as if Lehane’s more concerned with making them hip than relatable. Rachel has suffered traumatic events, but panic attacks aside, we don’t sense any complex emotions. The characters tend most often to sarcasm and cultural allusion, which makes the dark story more fun, but leaves the characters themselves rather like clichés. The book could be taken to another level with a marriage of its wit to more complex psychology. That would make it another kind of novel though. What we have is still an expertly crafted, hip, and suspenseful storyline sure to be fun for fans of the genre.

~Ben, Adult Services

#ComicsWednesday: Sex Criminals by Matt Fraction & Chip Zdarsky

This week's #ComicsWednesday pick is very much Not For Children.

Sex Criminals, an Eisner Award-winning series written by Matt Fraction and illustrated by Chip Zdarsky, contains graphic nudity, sexual acts, drug use, and profanity, and is not something I'm likely to give to my mother. Seriously, if you think this comic might not be for you, you should check out some of the creators' other, more all-audiences-friendly comics. I'm definitely a fan of Fraction's take on Hawkeye.

If you're still with me, here's the short version: two people who have the ability to freeze time when they orgasm decide to use their power to rob banks in order to save a library. It's a concept that you'd expect in a raunchy direct-to-DVD comedy, and there is some juvenile humor. Overall Fraction and Zdarsky have a respect for their characters that lifts this story above the gutters.

In the beginning the comic's focus is on Suzie, the librarian, and Jon, who works at the bank. This is the beginning of their relationship, and readers learn about their pasts and their strange supernatural power along with the characters. As much as this is a goofy sex comedy, it's also a relationship drama. More than anything else though, this series has a sense of fun. You sense, as a reader, that Fraction and Zdarsky are enjoying the creative process.

I'd love to show you an example of the art because Zdarsky is very expressive and his use of color is phenomenal, but you'll have to check out the book to see it for yourself.

~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: The Nameless City by Faith Erin Hicks & Jordie Bellaire

A city, built on a mountain pass, constantly invaded and claimed for the surrounding nations, each nation calling it something different. The people who live in the city call it the Nameless City, and the invaders who try to give it names are outsiders.

The current nation to occupy the City are the Dao. Kaidu, our hero, is a Dao boy who comes to the city to meet his father and train for the military. Kaidu is more of a dreamer than a fighter, and his father is a scatterbrained military strategist. Kaidu sneaks out of the palace and meets a headstrong girl named Rat. Rat is a girl of the City, and she runs like the wind. Kaidu and Rat become unlikely friends, and when the City they both love is endangered, they stand together to fight injustice.

I really enjoyed this book. I've been a fan of Faith Erin Hicks since I first read The Adventures of Superhero Girl. The Nameless City introduces us to a lushly imagined world, full of relatable characters and thought-provoking situations. At its heart, this is a story about friendship in the face of adversity, and it is incredibly enjoyable.

Hicks' drawings and Bellaire's coloring are seamless. The color palette and the story reminded me of the world of Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra. If you're a fan of those shows, then you will enjoy The Nameless City. The second book in the series, The Stone Heart, comes out next month. I can't wait!


-Libby, Youth Services.

Staff Review: An Atlas of Countries that Don't Exist by Nick Middleton

From ethnically-divided separatist states to absent-minded libertarians taking over uninhabited islands, you'll find this and more in An Atlas of Countries that Don't Exist: a Compendium of Fifty Unrecognized and Largely Unnoticed States by Nick Middleton.

This short book presents fifty would-be countries and a brief description of how each came to be. And I really do mean brief -- only 1-2 paragraphs are devoted to each selection, leaving it up to the reader to do further research on how each separatist movement was formed. Each selection includes stunning visuals: maps, diagrams, and official flags.

The book serves as a nice primer on 20th-century history. The quasi-countries include former communist strongholds, areas forgotten during post-colonial independence, and ethnic divides that continue to simmer.

I'd recommend this book to any lover of history or geography and perhaps to certain readers who need a short nonfiction book to submit for their Great Reading Challenge. 😉

~ Mark, Circulation