"Never Let Me Go" by Kazuo Ishiguro

Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel, Never Let Me Go, is many things. It is a coming of age story, a romance, a mystery, a horror story, and a tear-jerker. It is a tale of deceptive simplicity that reveals emotional depth and resonance in its characters. But most importantly, it is well-told story that is enjoyable to read. Indeed, Never Let Me Go is a novel that doesn’t fit into a single genre. It’s not a surprise that the novel made Time Magazine’s All-TIME 100 Novels list.

Never Let Me Go is told through the reminiscing of Kathy, a student at an exclusive English private school named Hailsham. She and her fellow classmates are treated well, but as they grow older they come to realize that there is a secret which permeates their lives. By the time the secret is revealed, it is too late to save themselves. Set in a fictional England during the 1990s, Never Let Me Go takes place in a dystopian landscape.

Given the recent popularity of The Hunger Games trilogy, Never Let Me Go is an excellent choice for those wanting to read something similar. Even if dystopian literature is not your cup of tea, Never Let Me Go is an excellent novel for teens and adults. I highly recommend this book to anyone that loves literature.

288 p.

Book review by Justin.

Soweto Gospel Choir’s “African Spirit”

There is a Psalm that says to "Make a joyful noise." I remember hearing this Psalm growing up, and the idea of a "joyful noise" has stuck with me. I can't think of a better description for the Soweto Gospel Choir and their album African Spirit. There is nothing timid about a gospel choir, even on CD, and I can only imagine how powerful this group must sound live.

The music combines South African gospel with spirituals, reggae, and American popular music. “Seteng Sediba” is a rousing opener in which I hear no Western harmony or melody, just fifty-plus thrilling voices with hand drums; in contrast, the album closer, “World in Union” includes Hollywood strings (and synthesizer?) and sounds like it could play over the end credits of The Lion King. Elsewhere, the reggae pulse of “Avulekile Amasango” appropriately segues into Bob Marley’s “One Love.”

Like the opening track, most of the songs use minimal or no instruments, and these were my favorite. These voices need no accompaniment, and I felt disappointed whenever a track began with an instrument other than a human voice, because this usually indicated a comparatively dull pop/R&B ballad (usually sung in English). Then, Bono shows up halfway through the disc for a rendition of U2's "One,” and the choir is pushed to the background. I don’t understand this, because there is such a distinct passion in the African songs and voices here that every other sound pales by comparison.

The Soweto Gospel Choir’s talents have not gone unrecognized. They have received awards worldwide, including two Grammy Awards, and they have performed with many popular musicians, so I guess that explains Bono. A few puzzling song choices aside, this is a rewarding introduction to South Africa’s music, and there is no missing the joy and intensity of these musicians, even for my Missouri ears.

Click on album cover or here to reserve a copy.

Review by David Hill.

"The Adventures of Nanny Piggins" by R.A. Spratt

What a fun read! This title was recommended in a librarian’s training session on selecting books for young readers. I must admit that I am probably not considered a “young reader” by anyone’s definition, however the title and cover art drew me in immediately. I would describe this story as a charming mix of Mary Poppins, Nanny McPhee and A Series of Unfortunate Events books all rolled into one, minus the darkness and impending doom of the Unfortunate titles. I actually laughed out loud a few times (I know that's difficult to believe from me).

I thoroughly enjoyed this unforgettable walk through a fantasy world where a chocoholic pig could ring the doorbell and inquire about a nanny position. Sure beats her former job as a circus performer! Don't even bother to ask about the cannon or the ballet dancing bear. Just sit back and relax. Nanny Piggins has everything under control. Rumor has it that a second installment of the porcine nanny’s adventures is in the works to be released next summer.

Recommended for Grades 3-6.
240 pages

Book review by Mel, Branch Manager at the Library Station.

Trick 'R Treat

Trick 'r Treat is a delightfully modern take on the classic slasher films with a little of the blood and guts torture of today's horror flicks thrown in. Don't let this scare you, though. It's all in good fun. Written and directed by Michael Dougherty, Trick 'r Treat is based off of his short film, Season's Greetings.

The film opens in a small town in Ohio, where we witness the sometimes strange, sometimes gruesome Halloween festivities. A principal and his son reveal a darker side while enjoying the usual traditions. A young woman, considered the "runt of the litter," attempts to lose her “virginity" so she can finally be part of the pack. The neighborhood children plan a dark tribute to the town's scariest myth, taking a prank too far. A man sits alone, frightening would-be trick or treaters, and a couple returning from a party debate the merits of certain Halloween traditions. All of these stories are seamlessly tied together with fantastic attention to detail. One common element is a creepy trick or treater in a shabby scarecrow costume. “Sam the Scarecrow” always shows up wherever someone isn't following Halloween tradition. If I were you, I would make sure to have plenty of candy. You don't want to run out before Sam makes it to your house.

Trick 'r Treat is both a unique take on the horror movie and also an homage to the popular anthology films of the 1980's and the classic horror comics of the 1950's. Trick 'r Treat reminds us that, while we all covet the mountains of candy, we were still scared stiff by the ghost and monster stories that make Halloween so wonderful. So, what are you afraid of?

Rated R.

Book review by Heidi, Circulation Assistant at the Library Station.

May We Suggest...Tim LaHaye

For 25 years, Tim LaHaye pastored one of the nation's outstanding churches in San Diego, Calif., which grew to three locations. It was during this time he also founded two accredited Christian high schools, a school system of 10 Christian schools, San Diego Christian College (formerly Christian Heritage College), and assisted Dr. Henry Morris in the founding of the Institute for Creation Research, the nation's foremost exponent of creationist materials.

LaHaye has written more than 60 non-fiction books on a wide range of subjects such as: family life, temperaments, sexual adjustment, Bible prophecy, the will of God, Jesus Christ, and secular humanism with over 14 million in print, some of which have been translated into 32 foreign languages. His writings are best noted for their easy-to-understand and scriptural based application of biblical principles that assist in facing and handling the challenges of life.

The Left Behind fiction series, co-authored with Jerry B. Jenkins, have broken all publishing records with a total of 80 million in print. These books have appeared on the best-seller lists of The New York Times, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, Publishers Weekly, and Christian Booksellers Association. Based on the Bible’s book of Revelation, the apocalyptic thrillers follow the lives of those left behind after the sudden disappearance of millions of believers.

LaHaye holds a Doctor of Ministry degree from Western Theological Seminary and the Doctor of Literature degree from Liberty University.

LaHaye and his wife Beverly, who is chairman of the board and founder of Concerned Women for America, have been married for over 60 years and live in southern California. They have four grown children, nine grandchildren, and ten great grandchildren.

READ-A-LIKES

Joel C. Rosenberg - Rosenburg writes writes nail-biting political thrillers with an Evangelical themes. Fans of Left Behind will recognize Rosenberg's modern-day apocalyptic settings, with action taking place in America, the Middle East, and Europe.Start with Rosenberg's first novel, The Last Jihad; like the first Left Behind book, the story starts on a plane, though in this case it is a hijacked jet on a kamikaze mission to America. Fascinatingly, this novel of Middle Eastern terrorism was written prior to the 9/11 attacks on America.

Frank Peretti - Peretti is another wildly popular, fundamentalist suspense writer. Sex and strong language are never present, and Biblical quotations are common. Some of Peretti's characters are strong in their Christian faith, while others struggle, much like the characters in the Left Behind series. Start with his first novel, This Present Darkness. Set in contemporary America, it features human and superhuman heroes and villains who are waging a violent physical and spiritual war for the souls of individuals, of a town, and of a church.

Bill Myers - Myers is best known for his books for children, but his adult novels should appeal to Left Behind fans for their compelling plots and fundamentalist ideologies. A good starting place for Myers is Blood of Heaven. It is the story of a godless, soulless murderer who has a unique chance to escape Death Row: He will be granted pardon, but only if he agrees to receive an injection of DNA that is believed to have come from Christ's blood.

True Crime on the Kindle: A Shocking True Story of Shame, Desire and Snobbery

I love trashy true crime novels. The kind of books for sale in the grocery store with titles like Death on the Highway: The Shocking True Story of Secrets, Murder, and Twisted Love or Lone Star Murder: The Shocking True Story of Love, Death, and Dark Secrets. You get the idea. These books usually have crime scene photos on the cover under raised glossy letters. In the middle of each book is a quarter-inch thick section of crime scene photos too shocking to put on the cover, plus, inevitably, the high school yearbook photo of the future killer, future victim, or both.

The master of the genre is Ann Rule. Her books almost always follow the same outline: Naive victim falls in love with someone who seems great on the surface, but inside is a seething mass of psychopathic tendencies. By the time the naive victim realizes what's going on, it's too late. The victim gets murdered in some horrific way, and even though everyone knows the killer was the psychopathic boyfriend or girlfriend, the police have to spend years building up a solid case. In the end, the killer goes to prison, where Ann Rule shows up to interview him or her. Voila! A bestseller is written.

I love these books without reservation. The more gruesome the murder, the more perverse the killer's tendencies, the stranger the evidence trail, the better. There's no shortage of these kinds of books; it's one of the most popular nonfiction genres in the US. But there's a problem: I feel bad reading them. I feel like everyone who sees me with my nose buried in Date Night Murder: A Grisly Tale of Secrets and Death knows that I'm just reading it for the titillating details. And they're right, I am. But I don't want to be judged for my reading choices! Sure, I'm reading trash now, I want to insist, but I majored in literature! I've read War and Peace, and I'm prepared to discuss it intelligently! I have a subscription to The New Yorker! I bought a copy of Jeffrey Eugenides' new book in hardcover! I'm so insecure about being judged that last time I rode on a plane I hid my trashy true crime novel inside a copy of Sky Mall.

Recently, though, I've found a solution. I didn't stop reading true crime, but I did stop feeling ashamed about it. Did I realize I'm a worthwhile person and I don't need to prove anything? Nope, I just found a way to hide my shameful habit. I've been checking out e-books from the Library's Overdrive service and reading them on my Kindle. On a Kindle, no one can tell what I'm reading. No one needs to know that I'm currently halfway through Die, Lover, Die: A True Story of Dark Secrets and Death. To the outside observer, I might as well be reading Little Women. Free from the prying eyes of the judgmental public, I've been able to read more true crime than ever! Right now Overdrive has about 20 true crime titles available for Kindle, and they're adding more all the time. Finally I can read all the shocking murder details I want without feeling like the world is looking down on me.

One of the things the move to digital books will change is the communal nature of reading in public. Reading is a solitary activity, but by reading in public you're broadcasting your choices and in some ways contributing to the conversation, even if you're not talking to anyone. I can glance at a book title and instantly feel like I know a little bit about the person reading it. This person likes mysteries, this person likes cooking, this person wants to know more about Steve Jobs. We lose some of that when we move to digital books. I might tell a stranger "I read that book, too," if I can see the cover. We might talk about it. We might become friends. But I've never asked a stranger what they're reading on their Kindle or Nook. If I can't see the cover, it seems like prying. Maybe by moving to digital formats we lose a little of our sense of community.

But at least no one is judging me for reading Murder at Midnight: The Shocking True Story of a Suburban Family's Descent into Lies, Dark Secrets, and Death.

You can find True Crime e-books on Overdrive here.

Note: None of the True Crime novels mentioned actually exist.

By Grace, Youth Services Manager at the Library Station.

"Call Me Irresistible" by Susan Elizabeth Phillips

At the beginning of Call Me Irresistible, Ted Beaudine is about to be marry Lucy Korvik. Meg is one of the attendants and Lucy’s best friend, but she doesn’t believe that Lucy and Ted are meant for each other. After the wedding is called off, the shocked small town of Wynette blames Meg for the broken relationship. Throughout Call Me Irresistible, the ostracized Meg is not at the best point in her life. She is just about broke, and her credit card is maxed out. Plus, even her parents and siblings have cut her off so that she will stop living an aimless life and find responsibility and a purpose.

To be responsible, Meg must first find a job. This isn’t easy, considering no one wants to hire the girl who broke up Ted and Lucy. Eventually, she finds a couple jobs, and her fashion sense inspires her to sell jewelry on the side. Slowly Meg begins taking responsibility for herself, and the town no longer wishes to collectively ostracize her. Meg starts to like the town residents in return, including her best friend’s former fiance. As those two spend more time together, she unexpectedly falls for the irresistible Ted.

Susan Elizabeth Phillips is romance author that always makes you laugh, and Call Me Irresistible will not let you down. This book made me laugh, smile, and I even wanted to cry at some points when the town was ganging up on Meg. I could not put this book down once I started it, and this is the case for most of her books. Frequent readers of Susan Elizabeth Phillips will appreciate how she incorporates stories and characters from her other books so it’s possible to find out what is going on with your favorite characters.

Click on the cover or here to reserve a copy of the book.

Book review by Becky.

May We Suggest...Stephen King

Stephen Edwin King was born in Portland, Maine in 1947, the second son of Donald and Nellie Ruth Pillsbury King. When Stephen was eleven, his mother brought her children to Durham, Maine, for good. Stephen attended the grammar school in Durham and then Lisbon Falls High School, graduating in 1966. From his sophomore year at the University of Maine, he wrote a weekly column for the school newspaper, THE MAINE CAMPUS. He was also active in student politics, serving as a member of the Student Senate. He came to support the anti-war movement on campus, arriving at his stance from a conservative view that the war in Vietnam was unconstitutional. He graduated from the University of Maine in 1970, with a B.A. in English and qualified to teach on the high school level.

He and Tabitha Spruce married in January of 1971. As Stephen was unable to find placement as a teacher immediately, the Kings lived on his earnings as a laborer at an industrial laundry. Stephen made his first professional short story sale ("The Glass Floor") to Startling Mystery Stories in 1967. Throughout the early years of his marriage, he continued to sell stories to men's magazines. Many of these were later gathered into the Night Shift collection or appeared in other anthologies. In the fall of 1971, Stephen began teaching high school English classes at Hampden Academy. Writing in the evenings and on the weekends, he continued to produce short stories and to work on novels.

In the spring of 1973, Doubleday & Co. accepted the novel Carrie for publication. At the end of the summer of 1973, the Kings moved their growing family to southern Maine. There, Stephen wrote his next-published novel, originally titled Second Coming and then Jerusalem's Lot, before it became Salem's Lot, in a small room in the garage. Carrie was published in the spring of 1974. That same fall, the Kings left Maine for Boulder, Colorado. They lived there for a little less than a year, during which Stephen wrote The Shining, set in Colorado. Returning to Maine in the summer of 1975, Stephen finished writing The Stand, much of which also is set in Boulder. The Dead Zone was also written. To date, King has written over 48 novels and various other fiction and nonfiction works.

Currently, Stephen and Tabitha now spend winters in Florida and the remainder of the year at their Bangor and Center Lovell homes. The Kings have three children: Naomi Rachel, Joe Hill and Owen Phillip, and four grandchildren. Stephen and Tabitha provide scholarships for local high school students and contribute to many other local and national charities. Stephen is the 2003 recipient of The National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters.

Stephen King's Published Books and Stories

• 1960 - People, Places, And Things - Volume 1 (limited edition with Chris Chelsey)

• 1964 - The Star Invaders (limited edition)

• 1974 - Carrie

• 1975 - Salem's Lot

• 1977 - The Shining

• 1978 - Night Shift (stories)

• 1978 - The Stand

• 1979 - The Dead Zone

• 1980 - Firestarter

• 1981 - Cujo

• 1981 - Danse Macabre (nonfiction about horror)

• 1981 - Roadwork

• 1982 - Creepshow (comic book, illustrated by Bernie Wrightson)

• 1982 - The Dark Tower I: The Gunslinger

• 1982 - Different Seasons (novellas)

• 1983 - Christine

• 1983 - Pet Sematary

• 1983 - Cycle of the Werewolf

• 1984 - The Talisman (written with Peter Straub)

• 1985 - Skeleton Crew (stories)

• 1985 - The Bachman Books (novel collection)

• 1986 - It

• 1987 - The Eyes of the Dragon

• 1987 - Misery

• 1987 - The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three

• 1988 - The Tommyknockers

• 1988 - Nightmares in the Sky (Photo book with text by King)

• 1988 - Dark Visions

• 1989 - The Dark Half

• 1989 - Dolan's Cadillac (limited edition)

• 1989 - My Pretty Pony (limited edition)

• 1990 - The Stand: The Complete & Uncut Edition

• 1990 - Four Past Midnight (stories)

• 1991 - Needful Things

• 1991 - The Dark Tower III: The Waste Lands

• 1992 - Gerald's Game

• 1993 - Dolores Claiborne

• 1993 - Nightmares & Dreamscapes (stories)

• 1994 - Insomnia

• 1995 - Rose Madder

• 1995 - Umney's Last Case

• 1996 - The Green Mile (originally published as a monthly serial consisting of six parts:The Two Dead Girls, The Mouse on the Mile, Coffey's Hands, The Bad Death of Eduard Delacroix, Night Journey, and Coffey on the Mile)

• 1996 - Desperation

• 1997 - Six Stories (stories)

• 1997 - The Dark Tower IV: Wizard and Glass

• 1998 - Bag of Bones

• 1999 - Storm of the Century

• 1999 - The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon

• 1999 - The New Lieutenant's Rap (limited edition)

• 1999 - Hearts in Atlantis

• 1999 - Blood and Smoke (audio book)

• 2000 - Riding the Bullet (electronically published novella)

• 2000 - The Plant(electronically published)

• 2000 - Secret Windows

• 2000 - On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft(nonfiction autobiography)

• 2000 - Dreamcatcher

• 2001 - Black House (written with Peter Straub)

• 2002 - From a Buick 8

• 2002 - Everything's Eventual: 14 Dark Tales

• 2003 - The Dark Tower I: The Gunslinger (revised edition)

• 2003 - The Dark Tower V: Wolves of the Calla

• 2004 - The Dark Tower VI: Song of Susannah

• 2004 - The Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower

• 2004 - Faithful: Two Diehard Boston Red Sox Fans Chronicle the Historic 2004 Season

• 2005 - The Colorado Kid

• 2006 - The Secretary of Dreams

• 2006 - Cell

• 2006 - Lisey's Story

• 2008 - Duma Key

• 2008 - Just After Sunset

• 2009 - Stephen King Goes to the Movies

• 2009 - The Little Sisters of Eluria (limited edition)

• 2009 - "Graduation Afternoon" (in PostScripts)

• 2009 - "Throttle" (in He is Legend)

• 2009 - UR (e-novella available only on Amazon.com's Kindle)

• 2009 - Under the Dome

• 2009 - "A Good Marriage"

• 2009 - "Big Driver"

• 2009 - "1922"

• 2009 - "Fair Extension"

• 2010 - Blockade Billy

• 2010 - Full Dark, No Stars

• 2011 - 11/22/63