Plymouth Staff Choices

When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead
Youth Fiction - Lower Level- STEAD

When You Reach Me is Rebecca’s Stead second novel and the winner of the 2010 Newbery Medal. It’s 1978 in New York City and Miranda lives with her single mom in small apartment building. Miranda’s best friend Sal lives just one floor below her. Miranda’s favorite novel is A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle and she carries a very tattered copy of the book with her wherever she goes. Miranda enjoys science fiction and time travel but she is not sure that it is possible until she starts receiving unusual letters. Miranda is plagued by strange events that start taking place during her sixth grade year. First off Sal gets punched on the way home from school and will not talk to Miranda anymore. Then Miranda starts receiving strange letters from an unknown person. These letters confuse Miranda because they are cryptic and some of the events referred to have not happened yet. While all this is taking place Miranda (along with Richard her mother’s boyfriend) is trying to help her mom prepare for being a contestant on The $20,000 pyramid. You learn about the different people that live on Miranda’s block, once Miranda learns the truth of the mysterious letters everything seems to come full circle. This is a wonderful novel by Rebecca Stead and very deserving of the Newbery Award, there is an intriguing storyline plus just the right combination of reality and science fiction to keep the readers enthralled. Once you have read and enjoyed When You Reach Me check out Rebecca's Stead debut novel First Light.

Except the Queen by Jane Yolen and Midori Snyder
Adult New Book Display – Upper Level - Yolen

The first thing I noticed about this book when I opened it up was Jane Yolen’s dedication, which I will reproduce here in it entirety. This, dear readers, is a recommendation list from one of the grande dames of fantasy. I find that I have read many of them, but there’s a good handful that I plan on hunting down:

For Terri Windling, Ellen Datlow, Isak Dinesen, Angela Carter, Alice Hoffman, Ellen Kushner, Delia Sherman, Pamela Dean, Patricia Wrede, Holly Black, Emma Bull, Patricia McKillip, Ellen Klages, Kelly Link, Diana Wynne Jones, Robin McKinley, Shannon Hale, and all the other sisters of fantasy.

But the actual book. Two fairy sister, Meteora and Serana, witness the Queen engaged in a certain act with a human man. The Queen! With a human! They try to stifle their giggles quickly, as they know that revenge will be swift and terrible if word ever gets out. Of course, inevitably, it does and it is. The Queen finds them both and turns them into ugly, fat and magic-less old ladies (how ugly or fat? It’s hard to say coming from people accustomed to eternal youth) and sends them to far cities in the human world. Serana is taken to the hospital as a homeless woman, and eventually set up with an apartment and a small allowance by a social worker. Meteora is found by the Great Witch herself, Baba Yaga, and assigned to watching over her house, the lower stories of which she rents out to college students. The story follows these two as they try to establish communication with each other and to survive among the bewildering ways and proliferating cold iron of the human world. We also meet two young people, both with magic but living in the human world. The Dog Boy, Robin, tries to escape from his cruel father, while Sparrow, who does not know her own name or history herself, finds herself being sucked into a black spell: A friend of a friend guides her to the tattoo parlor of one Hawk, who promises her the most beautiful tattoo she has ever seen, just for her. But the tattoo bleeds at night for weeks, though Sparrow heals even from knife wounds overnight, and Sparrow’s dreams grow increasingly dark. (Meteora’s musings on tattoos are interesting, as she sees bad spells in almost every tattoo she sees – butterflies for a short and meaningless life, or barbed wire for pain and suffering.) The old sisters, too, sense darkness attempting to rise and use what frail powers they have left to help the young people, trying to find a purpose in the human world. The characters are compelling and the plot nicely not obvious. This fey are authentic, the Unseelie Court terrifying, the Seelie Court maybe good but still not necessarily trustworthy or friendly to humans, both sides deeply respectful and fearful of Baba Yaga, who aligns herself with neither court. This is fantasy done well, and, I’ll note, a good stand-alone for those who want a solid fantasy fix without committing to a trilogy or more.

Evermore by Alyson Noel
Teen Zone Fiction-Main Level NOEL

This is the first book in The Immortals series. These aren't vampires, they're immortals. Sixteen-year-old Ever lost her family in a car accident. Since then, she can see people's auras and hear their thoughts. Ever is moved to California to live with her aunt. At her new school, she meets Damen (another new kid), and there is an instant attraction. As it turns out, he is also an Immortal. He and Ever have an interesting connection, which you'll have to read the book to understand! Good vs. evil, friendship, magic, and grief are all themes in this book. Adult and teen fans of supernatural fiction will enjoy this series!

The second installment in the series is
Blue Moon and the third and fourth books are due out later in 2010.

Winnie-the-Pooh by A.A. Milne. Read by Stephen Fry, Judi Dench, and a whole host of others.
Youth Audio Books – Lower Level - Milne

This is a recording of Winnie-the-Pooh and The House at Pooh Corner. It is delightfully narrated by a nearly full cast of talented British actors with varying accents. The only voice actor I was unsure of was the one playing Christopher Robin, clearly an actual child, whose inflections seemed a bit wooden at times. Aside from that, once again, hearing an old favorite aloud like this reminds one of just how delightful the words really are. This version has the added pleasure of having had music composed for Pooh’s many hums. The words are read with the music played on piano underneath, so that while it’s not sung, you can hear how it’s meant to sound. This is a wonderful version to share with a favorite child, or to reacquaint yourself with the wonders of Pooh.

Sharp Objects Gillian Flynn
Adult Fiction Shelves Main Level – FLYNN

Sharp Objects is Gillian Flynn’s debut thriller. Camille Preaker is a reporter for Chicago’s Daily Post. She is sent on assignment by her editor to go back to her hometown of Wind Gap, Missouri. Camille is sent to do a human interest piece on two missing local girls that show up dead in a grueling manner. The girls vanished less than a year apart. The town is scared for their little girls because the police have no leads. Once Camille is back in her old town you start learning the truth about why she left and had no desire to ever return. Her mother is the most influential person in town. In public she shows that she is the loving doting mother. In private she lets her disappointment and hate show for her oldest daughter. Being around her mother, Camille is drawn back to the times that made her so unhappy and she has the desire to harm herself again, something she has not done since she has been hospitalized. The deeper that Camille is involved in the investigation the more she is convinced that the killer is local. Flynn takes dysfunctional family to a whole new level in this twisting and turning suspense thriller.

Dark Places Gillian Flynn
Adult New Book Display Main Level – FLYNN

True to her first novel Gillian Flynn pens another suspense thriller more twisted than her first. Libby Day was seven when her mother and 2 older sisters were brutally murdered in the middle of the night on a cold day in January of 1985. Her testimony of what happened that day landed her older brother Ben, just 15 at the time a life term in prison. Not only does Libby have the emotional scars from that day she also has physical scars from the spending the night in the woods. It is now 24 years later and Libby needs money. She has never had to work and now her money is running out. A man named Lyle contacts her offering money if she will come to the next meeting of the Kill Club. The Kill Club is a group of people that meet and discuss old murder cases. Since Libby is so desperate for money she agrees. She was unprepared for what happens as she meets this club. Certain members of the group believe that she lied about what happened that day. They think that Ben is innocent and they want Libby to prove it. The story is told in alternating chapters between Libby in the present day, her mom Patty on the day she died and Ben on the day he allegedly committed the murders. There are so many things that happened on that fateful day in January and so many secrets were kept. The big question is if Ben did not commit the murders then who else was in the house that night?

The Last Song by Nicholas Sparks
Adult New Book Display-Main Level – SPARKS

Veronica “Ronnie” Miller’s life was never the same after her parents divorce. She lives in New York with her mom and her younger brother Jonah. Ever since the divorce Ronnie has fallen into the wrong crowd. She does not apply herself at school, stopped playing the piano all together, gotten caught and arrested for shoplifting and to top it off she has not spoken to her dad in three years. Her dad lives in Wilmington, North Carolina. She is furious when her mom forces her and Jonah to visit their dad for the summer. Ronnie’s dad, Steve, is a former concert pianist and teacher that lives in a quiet beach town. Steve is currently engrossed in a project for the local church. He is recreating a stained glass window for the church because the old one was destroyed in an arson fire a few months earlier. He is very excited for his children to come and visit.

Once the family is together their summer begins. Ronnie is starting off on the wrong foot in town by making friends with the local delinquent kids. The one bright spot in her summer has been meeting Will. He is the all American boy next door. Ronnie is completely herself around him and drops the attitude that she has developed. Ronnie has been slowly making amends with her father. Jonah is having the summer of his life and never wants to go back to New York. He gets to help his dad with the stained glass window and have father son bonding time whenever he wants. It is near the end of summer that Ronnie and Jonah find out the real reason they had to spend their summer with their dad. This reason will change their lives forever. Also at the end of summer is when the truth is learned of how the church burned down all those months ago. This has been a hard summer for the Miller family and many lessons have been learned through their journey. Nicholas Sparks once again writes another great novel about love, lost, and trust. You will read about broken hearts and how love and time can heal them.

Better Off: Flipping the Switch on Technology by Eric Brende

Adult Nonfiction 303.483B

This is the story of a hands-on experiment to determine “What is the least we need to achieve the most.” The author was studying technology’s influence on humans as a graduate student at MIT when he began to come to conclusions that made his mentors uncomfortable. Abandoning his formal studies, Brende and his new bride decided to move to a community that he dubbed “the Minimites” and see what life was like when modern technology was removed from life’s equation. They agreed to spend 18 months farming and trying to sustain themselves by depending on fellow humans instead of machines. In following with the rigid standards of their new community (more strict than the Amish), they forewent conveniences such as electricity and indoor plumbing and discovered that for every thing they lost, they gained something else. This fascinating book is as entertaining as the best works of fiction. It will make you reassess the role that technology plays in your life.

Posted by Alice on February 1, 2010 5:42 PM | Permalink