What We’re Reading: Bait

Sixteen year old Diego McMann has problems. Big problems. He has been charged with assault for punching out another student at his high school. He’s not really sure why he hit Fabio Flores. Fabio just kept looking at him. That way. Until Diego couldn’t take it anymore and he suddenly hit him. Sometimes he just gets so angry. And now, after taking an anger management class, which didn’t work, he is facing a hearing to determine what will happen to him next.

Bait follows Diego McMann as he begins to realize why he is so angry and begins to discover what he can do to regain control of the emotions that flare up, and out of control, before he realizes what is happening.

Bait is Alex Sanchez’s latest, and most complex novel yet. Diego McMann, the book’s principal character, is well drawn and believable. He is both, and neither, a bully and a victim. He is also the product of a background with elements (absent father, single working mother, immigration) that will be very, very familiar to a lot of readers. In addition, Diego’s feelings and confusion sound genuine as the reader follows him through his struggle to reconcile, and confront, the events from his childhood that keep manifesting themselves in both his outbursts of rage at others, and the self-mutilation he inflicts on himself. Bait is a powerful and compelling novel about the effects of abuse and how they can be overcome.

Brown Bag Book Club

The next meeting is on Tuesday, 12/15/09 at noon at the Central library on the 2nd floor. Our next book is fiction and the title is The Shack by William P. Young. As always our club is open to anybody.

What We’re Reading: Star Wars: Death Troopers

A new addition to the recent rash (pun most certainly intended!) of zombie literature, Joe Scheiber’s Star Wars: Death Troopers now adds Star Wars to the list of established “worlds” to which zombies have been recently introduced (Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, World War Z, Zombie Survival Guide, The Forest of Hands and Teeth, Zombie Queen of Newbury High).

Trig and Kale Longo are prisoners on the Imperial prison barge Purge. Their father, Von, just died while being interrogated by Captain Jareth Sartoris, despite the efforts of the barge’s Medical Officer, Zahara Cody, to save his life. While life on an Imperial prison barge is never easy, the traditional difficulties are increased exponentially when the barge’s engines mysteriously cease to function and an attempt is made to secure the necessary parts to effect repairs from an, apparently, uninhabited Star Destroyer. But only half of the boarding party returns to the Purge, and they brought with them a disease so virulent that in a matter of hours, the entire compliment, inmates and crew, are dying. But with this infection, as these survivors discover, death is only the beginning. . .

Star Wars: Death Troopers is a classic zombie story with a Star Wars twist and fans of either, or both, genres should enjoy the relentless mayhem. While it’s not difficult to guess where things are going, there were a few surprises and Schreiber does a nice job of building the tension and horror while moving the story along nicely. It’s not great literature, like Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, but it’s something Star Wars and zombie fans can devour with relish!!

Lĭt / uh / ruh / sē Äw / fĭs

Exquisite Corpse Adventure: Episode 4
By Susan Cooper

DIG THAT PIG

It was a pig. A very large, lean, elegant black pig with a white patch around one eye. He looked exceedingly dangerous. “I’ll take it now,” he said, and he held out his front hoof. READ MORE !

Episode 5 – November 20

see previous post for more info about The Exquiste Corpse Adventure.

Teen Writing Contest Results!

Thirty-nine Burbank teens “told a tale of terror” for our Teen Read Month Writing Contest, Oct. 1-31, and here are the results:

1st place: Camille de la Rosa, 8th grade, Saint Francis Xavier, for "Alone"

2nd place: Jacqueline Gunning, 10th grade, Providence High School, for "Halloween Story Contest"

3rd place: Reymond Tan, 12th grade, Bellarmine-Jefferson High School, for "Simply Beautiful"

We also want to recognize three runners-up, in no particular order:

Sarah Hofstedt, 9th grade (no school listed), for “The Color of Her Nails”

Christine Trinidad, 11th grade, Bellarmine-Jefferson High School, for "Never Apart"

Tamar Tellado, 8th grade, Saint Francis Xavier, for "Moonlight Arabesque"

And best titles go to: Matthew Neumann, 6th grade at Muir, for “The Mysterious Couch” and Jackie Kreger, 6th grade, for “The Haunted Shirt.”

The winners and runners-up may come by the Central Library (110 N. Glenoaks) to pick up their prizes any time from Friday the 13th (tomorrow) on; and we also have a certificate for all participants, which can be picked up at the library branch where they submitted their stories. The teen librarians would like to say that we greatly enjoyed reading ALL the stories—there were things to like about each of them—and to thank everyone for participating in the contest. Congratulations to all, and keep writing!

"Hey Ma, look what I found" or serendipity on the book shelves!

I recently had occasion to search for some books on a list of problems and noticed that some of the found books were quite intriguing and deserved to be brought to your attention for reading consideration. So with no further delay, here is what I found, hope you enjoy them!

The invention of Clouds by Richard Hamblyn "tells the extraordinary story of an amateur meteorologist, Luke Howard, and his groundbreaking work to define what had hitherto been random and unknowable structures-clouds. In December 1802, Luke Howard delivered a lecture that was to be a defining point in natural history and meteorology. He named the clouds, classifying them in terms that remain familiar to this day: cirrus, stratus, cumulus, and nimbus." This truly can qualify as a "small treasure" on our shelves...the book is only 5.5" high!

A Sense of the World : How a blind man becam history's greatest traveler by Jason Roberts With a title like that, how can one not be intrigued to read about the life of James Holman who was "known as the Blind Traveler-a solitary, sightless adventurer who, astonishingly, fought the slave trade in Africa, survived a frozen captivity in Siberia, hunter rogue elephants in Ceylon, and helped chart the Austrailian outback". Whew, wonder what he did in his spare time?

The Dangerous World of Spies and Spying by Robert Liston This book, while 40+ years old would hold great appeal to readers fond of mystery or espionage fiction or true crime readers. It does lack illustrations or photographs but has morse code to decipher at the beginning of each chapter and how can one resist a chapers entitled "The corpse that "talked" or "How spying stopped Hitler's secret weapons".

Seven Underwater Wonders of the World by Rick Sammon An International panel of Marine scientists selected the seven underwater wonders of the world and the aptly named Sammon visits, explores and writes of his time spent at all seven wonders. The seven underwater wonders are The Belize Barrier Reef, Lake Baikal, The Northern Red Sea, The Galapagos Archipelago, The Great Barrier Reef, Deep Ocean Vents and Palau. The beautiful photography alone is reason enough to check this book out!

What We're Reading: Stitches

David Small, award winning illustrator and children’s author has written his memoir, Stitches, in the form of graphic (illustrated) nonfiction. The memoir begins in Detroit when David was 6 years old, and we see his troubled family through his eyes. Through the years we get more glimpses of his family and their unspoken emotions and secrets that tremendously impact David’s life. At the age of 14 he woke from a “harmless” operation to find his vocal chords cut, leaving him unable to speak . The reader follows David’s life and his struggle to live with his family and his parents’ secrets. Until finally, as an adult he finally begins to unravel the secrets and to understand his parents, as well as himself.

This is the first graphic book I’ve read and I was surprised that the author could communicate the scope of his life and his feelings in so few words. A particular group of 11 pages with no words at all was so moving I was brought to tears. I’m now a convert to graphic novels and nonfiction if they continue to be as interesting and moving as this book.

Posted on behalf of Leslie

What We're Listening To - Sgt. Pepper Live by Cheap Trick

In recent years, it has become fashionable for Rock 'n Roll groups to play the entirety of an album live in concert. Pink Floyd [Dark Side of the Moon], Steely Dan [Aja, The Royal Scam, Goucho], Van Morrison [Astral Weeks] and even Bruce Springsteen [Born to Run]. A great concept that is sure to please fans!

That said, perhaps the most unusual take on this concept is one that I've been listening to, that of Cheap Trick performing the Beatles masterpiece Sgt. Pepper.

Sgt. Pepper Live is intriguing for two basic reasons, one it is Cheap Trick not doing their own material and taking on the Beatles [takes a lot of confidence to do a concert and nary a song is your song] and two, what Beatles fan hasn't wondered "what if". What if the Beatles had continued to tour what would it sound like? Confidence it takes, talent helps too, and I think you'll find Cheap Trick up to the task in honoring the Beatles with this disc. BTW the last track is last part of the famous medley that so famously concludes the Abbey Road album and makes a great conclusion to a very satisfying listen.