magic & illusion

 

The next Books & Beyond discussion club (BAB) will be Tuesday, November 19th at 6:30pm.  The topic up for discussion is any book or film related to reading and/or writing. This week, BAB met to chat about magic & illusion.

Half Magic by Edward Eager (Tales of Magic series #1)

It all begins with a strange coin on a sun-warmed sidewalk. Jane finds the coin, and because she and her siblings are having the worst, most dreadfully boring summer ever, she idly wishes something exciting would happen. And something does: Her wish is granted. Or not quite. Only half of her wish comes true. It turns out the coin grants wishes—but only by half, so that you must wish for twice as much as you want. Enjoy all seven of the middle grade novels in Edward Eager's beloved Tales of Magic series!

At the Coffee Shop of Curiosities by Heather Webber

When Ava Harrison receives a letter containing an unusual job listing one month after the sudden death of her ex-boyfriend, the job is the perfect chance to start a new life. On the surface, Maggie Mae Brightwell is a bundle of energy as she runs a coffee and curiosity shop, where there’s magic to be found in pairing the old with the new. But keeping busy is just the best way to distract herself from lingering loss and worry. Ava and Maggie soon find they’re kindred spirits, as they’re both haunted―not by spirits, but by regret. Both must learn to let go of the past to move on―because sometimes the waves of change bring you to the place where you most belong.

Pearl by Josh Malerman

“Daring readers should find this tale of a malevolent telepathic pig to be a memorable experience.”—Booklist (starred review)

Our Share of Night by Mariana Enriquez

A woman’s mysterious death puts her husband and son on a collision course with her demonic family in the first novel to be translated into English by the International Booker Prize–shortlisted author of The Dangers of Smoking in Bed—“the most exciting discovery I’ve made in fiction for some time” (Kazuo Ishiguro).

Petty Magic by Camille DeAngelis

Evelyn Harbinger sees nothing wrong with a one-night stand. At 149 years old, Eve may look like she bakes oatmeal cookies in the afternoon and dozes in her rocking chair in the evening, but once the gray hair and wrinkles are traded for jet-black tresses and porcelain skin, she can still turn heads as the beautiful girl she once was. Can’t fault a girl for having a little fun, can you? This is all fine and well until Eve meets Justin, who reminds her so much of a former lover that one night is no longer enough. In this captivating tale of adventure and timeless romance, novelist Camille DeAngelis blends World War II heroics with witchcraft and wit, conjuring a fabulously rich world where beldames and mortal men dare to fall in love.

The Magicians by Lev Grossman (Magicians trilogy #1)

The prequel to the New York Times bestselling book The Magician King and the #1 bestseller The Magician's Land, The Magicians is one of the most daring and inventive works of literary fantasy in years. No one who has escaped into the worlds of Narnia and Harry Potter should miss this breathtaking return to the landscape of the imagination.

The Tempest by William Shakespeare

Written in 1610-1611, The Tempest is set on a remote island and is centered on the sorcerer Prospero, his daughter Miranda, and their two servants, Caliban and Ariel, who all live in exile on the island. One of Shakespeare's most complex and nuanced comedies, The Tempest remains a favorite of audiences and of scholars, featuring many of Shakespeare's most memorable characters and lines.

The Grand Illusion by Syd Moore

Historical fiction inspired by the War Office response to the Nazi obsession with the occult.

Nightmare Alley by William Lindsay Gresham

Nightmare Alley begins with an extraordinary description of a carnival-show geek—alcoholic and abject and the object of the voyeuristic crowd’s gleeful disgust and derision—going about his work at a county fair. Young Stan Carlisle is working as a carny, and he wonders how a man could fall so low. There’s no way in hell, he vows, that anything like that will ever happen to him.

And since Stan is clever and ambitious and not without a useful streak of ruthlessness, soon enough he’s going places. Onstage he plays the mentalist with a cute assistant (before long his harried wife), then he graduates to full-blown spiritualist, catering to the needs of the rich and gullible in their well-upholstered homes. It looks like the world is Stan’s for the taking. At least for now.

Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt

Is eternal life a blessing or a curse? That is what young Winnie Foster must decide when she discovers a spring on her family’s property whose waters grant immortality. Members of the Tuck family, having drunk from the spring, tell Winnie of their experiences watching life go by and never growing older. But then Winnie must decide whether or not to keep the Tucks’ secret―and whether or not to join them on their never-ending journey.

A Thousand Beginnings and Endings edited by Ellen Oh & Elsie Chapman

Sixteen extraordinary authors—including New York Times bestsellers Melissa de la Cruz, Renée Ahdieh, and Julie Kagawa—reimagine the folklore and mythology of East and South Asia in short stories that are by turns enchanting, heartbreaking, romantic, and passionate.

Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things by Lafcadio Hearn

A blind musician with amazing talent is called upon to perform for the dead. Faceless creatures haunt an unwary traveler. A beautiful woman — the personification of winter at its cruelest — ruthlessly kills unsuspecting mortals. These and 17 other chilling supernatural tales — based on legends, myths, and beliefs of ancient Japan — represent the very best of Lafcadio Hearn's literary style. They are also a culmination of his lifelong interest in the endlessly fascinating customs and tales of the country where he spent the last fourteen years of his life, translating into English the atmospheric stories he so avidly collected.Teeming with undead samurais, man-eating goblins, and other terrifying demons, these classic ghost stories inspired the Oscar-nominated 1964 film of the same name.

Mrs. Davis (not available in the JCLC, streaming by subscription on Peacock, available to rent or buy on Amazon)

After being ousted from her convent, Sister Simone vows to destroy the one responsible: a powerful artificial intelligence known as Mrs. Davis. To exact her revenge, Simone makes a deal with the algorithm and is thrust into a dangerous world of secret societies, religious conspiracies and age-old legends as she searches for the whereabouts of the most clichéd and overused MacGuffin -- the Holy Grail. To complete the ridiculous and farfetched task, Simone teams up with her rebellious ex-boyfriend, Wiley, who is now the leader of an underground resistance movement dedicated to stopping Mrs. Davis. Together they face a variety of mysterious and powerful forces as they search for the Grail, the one thing capable of destroying the algorithm once and for all. As they grow closer to completing their quest, Simone must confront her past, prove the strength of her faith and uncover long-hidden secrets as she fights to liberate a society that may not want to be freed.

I Married a Witch (digital only: depending on city of residence, available on Kanopy with a valid library card)

Just as she is about to be burned at the stake for witchcraft, 17th century witch Jennifer (Veronica Lake) casts a curse on the family of her accuser, dooming all the men of future generations to marry the wrong women. Freed from her ethereal prison some 250 years later, Jennifer decides to make the most recent descendant of her accuser (Fredric March) even more miserable by using a love potion on him that makes him fall in love with her, a plan that has unexpected results.

Bell, Book, and Candle

In the late 1950s, Gillian Holroyd (Kim Novak) is a modern-day witch living in New York City's Greenwich Village. When she encounters charming publisher Shepherd Henderson (James Stewart), she decides to make him hers by casting a love spell. Gillian takes added pleasure in doing so because Henderson is engaged to her old college rival (Janice Rule). However, Gillian finds herself actually falling for Shepherd, which poses a problem: She will lose her powers if she falls in love.

One Night on Halloween by Thea Masen (not available in the JCLC, Amazon ebook and paperback purchase only)

Zoe thought she’s spend her Halloween watching movies and passing out candy, until the single dad next door comes over dressed as Dracula. Zoe and her hot neighbor slip into character, only to find out that this role-playing is more than just pretend.

What starts as an innocent one-night stand turns mysteriously magical, and a new tradition is born. As their yearly Halloween encounters become more passionate and intense, Zoe has to ask herself, are these feelings real or just a costume?

Corny by Sabrina Cross (not available in the JCLC, Amazon ebook and paperback purchase only)

A True Love Spell Gone Wrong. A Demon Fairy Godmother? Her Very Soul on the Line. 
Can Clover still find true love or is she destined to face the flames alone? Content Considerations: Corny is a paranormal romance that involves woman on stuffed animal action. This story is very weird and not for everyone.

Hallowpeen by Holly Wilde (not available in the JCLC, Amazon ebook and paperback purchase only)

Three women, one occult ritual, and an urban legend come true are waiting for you to discover just how delicious Halloween can be. Everyone in the small town of Hollow Springs knows that Halloween night is when the veil of sentience is at its thinnest. So no one would attempt a ridiculous ritual on the night of a full moon, right? Wrong.

Circe by Madeline Miller

This #1 New York Times bestseller is a "bold and subversive retelling of the goddess's story" that brilliantly reimagines the life of Circe, formidable sorceress of The Odyssey (Alexandra Alter, The New York Times).

Halloween poems collected by the Poetry Foundation

Spooky, scary, and fun poems that will make your hair curl.

Guilty Pleasures by Laurell K. Hamilton (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter series #1)

Meet Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, in the first novel in the #1 New York Times bestselling series that “blends the genres of romance, horror and adventure with stunning panache” (Diana Gabaldon). Anita Blake is small, dark, and dangerous. Her turf is the city of St. Louis. Her job: re-animating the dead and killing the undead who take things too far. But when the city’s most powerful vampire asks her to solve a series of vicious slayings, Anita must confront her greatest fear—her undeniable attraction to master vampire Jean-Claude, one of the creatures she is sworn to destroy...

Thief, Liar, Lady by D.L. Soria

“Happily Ever After” is a total scam, but at least this time the princess is the one controlling the grift—until her true love arrives and threatens to ruin the whole scheme. Intrigue, magic, and wit abound in this Cinderella fairytale reimagining, perfect for fans of Heather Walter and Naomi Novik.

My Darling Dreadful Thing by Johanna van Veen

Roos Beckman has a spirit companion only she can see. Ruth―strange, corpse-like, and dead for centuries―is the light of Roos' life. That is, until the wealthy young widow Agnes Knoop visits one of Roos' backroom seances, and the two strike up a connection. 

Soon, Roos is whisked away to the crumbling estate Agnes inherited upon the death of her husband, where an ill woman haunts the halls, strange smells drift through the air at night, and mysterious stone statues reside in the family chapel. Something dreadful festers in the manor, but still, the attraction between Roos and Agnes is undeniable. Then, someone is murdered. Poor, alone, and with a history of 'hysterics', Roos is the obvious culprit. With her sanity and innocence in question, she'll have to prove who―or what―is at fault or lose everything she holds dear.

Hollow by C.M. Nascosta (not available in the JCLC, Amazon ebook only) 

From the New York Times bestselling author comes two smutty, spooky, dark academia, gothic romance retellings of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.  In one, Ichabod Crane, Sleepy Hollow’s new schoolmaster, is on the prowl. After he happens upon two members of the polo club in flagrante delicto in the club’s locker room, he can’t get the headless hedonists out of his mind. In the other, Kat Van Tassel doesn't have to choose between Brom Bones and Ichabod Crane, and there are worse things haunting them than the Headless Horseman.

Tales of Beedle the Bard by J.K. Rowling

A collection of well-loved stories for witches and wizards of all ages, The Tales of Beedle the Bard are the wizarding world's Grimm's Fairytales.

Struwwelpeter by Heinrich Hoffmann

First published in 1845. Struwwelpeter (variously translated as "slovenly" or "shock-headed" Peter) has become widely recognized as one of the most popular and influential children's books ever written. Heinrich Hoffmann was a Frankfurt physician. Unhappy with the dry and pedagogic books available for children at the time, he wrote and illustrated Struwwelpeter as a Christmas present for his three-year-old son. The book relates in verse and pictures the often gruesome consequences that befall children who torment animals, play with matches, suck their thumbs, refuse to eat, fidget at meals, etc.

Lisa Frankenstein

A coming of RAGE love story from acclaimed writer Diablo Cody (Jennifer's Body) about a misunderstood teenager and her high school crush, who happens to be a handsome corpse. After a set of playfully horrific circumstances bring him back to life, the two embark on a murderous journey to find love, happiness... and a few missing body parts along the way.

Warm Bodies

A terrible plague has left the planet's population divided between zombies and humans. An unusual zombie named R (Nicholas Hoult) sees his walking-dead brethren attacking a living woman named Julie (Teresa Palmer) and rescues her. Julie sees that R is different from the other zombies, and the pair embark on an unusual relationship. As their bond grows and R becomes more and more human, a chain of events unfolds that could transform the entire lifeless world.

Item descriptions pulled from Amazon and Rotten Tomatoes.

Photo by Aron Visuals on Unsplash

math and numbers

 

Upcoming programs:

Sunday, October 6 : 6-10pm
SLEEP IN CINEMA returns to Under the Mountain on October 6, 2024 at 6 PM for a double feature with live music that will melt your brain in your skull well before it’s even Halloween! Join us at the O’Neal Library for THE GOLEM: HOW HE CAME INTO THIS WORLD (1920) and THE UNKNOWN (1927), featuring original scores performed by Birmingham-based musical acts BITTER CALM and B.SONNIER!  Register here: https://emmetoneal.libnet.info/event/11330039

Saturday, October 12 : 9am-noon
Crafterday is a chance to visit with new friends while you work on your favorite craft or hobby. We will have tables and chairs, snacks and drinks. You bring the craft! Our session is open to anyone with any craft, drop in any time between 9-12 or stay the entire time, it's up to you!

Tuesday, October 29: 6:30-8pm
Books & Beyond (BAB) returns for a discussion of magic and illusion.  If you need inspiration, there is a display on the topic at the 2nd floor service desk.  Looking ahead to November, the topic is reading & writing and it will be the last meeting of the year as we will not meet in December.

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Last night, BAB met to discuss math, numbers, and number sciences.

Number Go Up: Inside Crypto’s Wild Rise and Staggering Fall by Zeke Faux

The “rollicking” (The Economist), “masterfully written” (The Washington Post) account of the crypto delusion, and how Sam Bankman-Fried and a cast of fellow nerds and hustlers turned useless virtual coins into trillions of dollars—hailed by Ezra Klein in The New York Times as one of the “Books That Explain Where We Are”

The Land of Big Numbers: Stories by Te-Ping Chen

A “stirring and brilliant” debut story collection, offering vivid portrayals of the men and women of modern China and its diaspora, “both love letter and sharp social criticism,” from a phenomenal new literary talent bringing great “insight from her years as a reporter with the Wall Street Journal” (Elle).

Got Your Number: The Greatest Sports Legends and the Numbers They Own by Mike Greenberg

ESPN personality (Get Up and #Greeny) and New York Times bestselling author Mike Greenberg partners with mega-producer Hembo to settle once and for all which legends flat-out own which numbers. In short essays certain to provoke debate between and amongst all generations, Greeny uses his lifetime of sports knowledge to spin yarns of the legends among the legends and tell you why some have claimed their spot in the top 100 of all time.

The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang

Stella Lane thinks math is the only thing that unites the universe. She comes up with algorithms to predict customer purchases—a job that has given her more money than she knows what to do with, and way less experience in the dating department than the average thirty-year-old. Her conclusion: she needs lots of practice—with a professional. Which is why she hires escort Michael Phan. The Vietnamese and Swedish stunner can't afford to turn down Stella's offer, and agrees to help her check off all the boxes on her lesson plan—from foreplay to more-than-missionary position...

Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions by Edwin A. Abbott

Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions is a satirical novella by the English schoolmaster Edwin Abbott Abbott, first published in 1884. Written pseudonymously by "A Square",the book used the fictional two-dimensional world of Flatland to comment on the hierarchy of Victorian culture, but the novella's more enduring contribution is its examination of dimensions.

The Annotated Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions by Edwin A. Abbott, introduction and notes by Ian Stewart

Published in 1884 by the English clergyman and headmaster Edwin A. Abbott, it is the fanciful tale of A. Square, a two-dimensional being who is whisked away by a mysterious visitor to The Land of Three Dimensions, an experience that forever alters his worldview.

Like the original, Ian Stewart's commentary takes readers on a strange and wonderful journey. With clarity and wit, Stewart illuminates Abbott's numerous Victorian references and touches on such diverse topics as ancient Babylon, Karl Marx, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Mt. Everest, H.G. Wells, and phrenology. The Annotated Flatland makes fascinating connections between Flatland and Abbott's era, resulting in a classic to rival Abbott's own, and a book that will inspire and delight curious readers for generations to come.

Spaceland: A Novel of the Fourth Dimension by Rudy Rucker

Rudy Rucker is a past master at turning mathematical concepts into rollicking science fiction adventure, from Spacetime Donuts and White Light to The Hacker and the Ants. In the tradition of Edwin A. Abbott's classic novel, Flatland, Rucker gives us a tour of higher mathematics and visionary realities. Spaceland is Flatland on hyperdrive!

The Joy of x: A Guided Tour of Math, from One to Infinity by Steven Strogatz

Many people take math in high school and promptly forget much of it. But math plays a part in all of our lives all of the time, whether we know it or not. In The Joy of x, Steven Strogatz expands on his hit New York Times series to explain the big ideas of math gently and clearly, with wit, insight, and brilliant illustrations.

The Imitation Code: Alan Turing Decoded by Jim Ottaviani, illustrated by Leland Purvis

English mathematician and scientist Alan Turing (1912–1954) is credited with many of the foundational principles of contemporary computer science. The Imitation Game presents a historically accurate graphic novel biography of Turing’s life, including his groundbreaking work on the fundamentals of cryptography and artificial intelligence.

The Imitation Game (film, 2014)

In 1939, newly created British intelligence agency MI6 recruits Cambridge mathematics alumnus Alan Turing (Benedict Cumberbatch) to crack Nazi codes, including Enigma -- which cryptanalysts had thought unbreakable. Turing's team, including Joan Clarke (Keira Knightley), analyze Enigma messages while he builds a machine to decipher them. Turing and team finally succeed and become heroes, but in 1952, the quiet genius encounters disgrace when authorities reveal he is gay and send him to prison.

Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy by Cathy O’Neil

We live in the age of the algorithm. Increasingly, the decisions that affect our lives—where we go to school, whether we can get a job or a loan, how much we pay for health insurance—are being made not by humans, but by machines. In theory, this should lead to greater fairness: Everyone is judged according to the same rules.
 
But as mathematician and data scientist Cathy O’Neil reveals, the mathematical models being used today are unregulated and uncontestable, even when they’re wrong. Most troubling, they reinforce discrimination—propping up the lucky, punishing the downtrodden, and undermining our democracy in the process. Welcome to the dark side of Big Data.

Can Fish Count:: What Animals Reveal About Our Uniquely Mathematical Minds by Brian Butterworth

As cognitive psychologist Brian Butterworth shows us in Can Fish Count?, many “simple” animals—such as bees, which count trees and fence posts, and guppies, which can size up groups—have a sense of numbers. And unlike humans, they don’t need to be taught.  

In telling animals’ stories, Butterworth shines new light on one of our most ancient questions: Just where, exactly, do numbers come from? He reveals how insights gleaned from studying animals can help us make better sense of our own abilities. Full of discovery and delight, Can Fish Count? is an astonishing journey through the animal kingdom and the human mind. 

The Accountant (film, 2016)

Christian Wolff (Ben Affleck) is a mathematics savant with more affinity for numbers than people. Using a small-town CPA office as a cover, he makes his living as a freelance accountant for dangerous criminal organizations. With a Treasury agent (J.K. Simmons) hot on his heels, Christian takes on a state-of-the-art robotics company as a legitimate client. As Wolff gets closer to the truth about a discrepancy that involves millions of dollars, the body count starts to rise.

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GENERAL DISCUSSION:

Mr. Wrong Number by Lynn Painter

Things get textual when a steamy message from a random wrong number turns into an anonymous relationship in this hilarious rom-com.

Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake by Sarah MacLean

Calpurnia Hartwell has spent a lifetime following the rules and, as a reward, she’s been forgotten at the edges of society, unnoticed…and unsatisfied. So, what’s a girl to do, but break the rules and get a taste of the life she’s been missing?

Once Callie throws herself into a bold new world, she fast realizes a taste won’t ever be enough. She’s going to need a partner—someone who knows everything about rule-breaking. Someone like Gabriel St. John, Marquess of Ralston—charming and handsome, with a scandalous reputation matched only by his wicked smile.

How to Win Friends & Influence Fungi: Collected Quirks of Science, Tech, Engineering, and Math from Nerd Nite by Dr. Chris Balakrishnan

Hilariously named after Dale Carnegie’s iconic book, How to Win Friends and Influence Fungi features narratives, bursts, and infographics on all things STEM from scientists around the world. Chapters are sure to make you laugh-out-loud, with titles such as "The Science of the Hangover," "What Birds Can Teach Us About the Impending Zombie Apocalypse," and "Lessons from the Oregon Trail."

The Three Body Problem by Cixin Liu

Set against the backdrop of China's Cultural Revolution, a secret military project sends signals into space to establish contact with aliens. An alien civilization on the brink of destruction captures the signal and plans to invade Earth. Meanwhile, on Earth, different camps start forming, planning to either welcome the superior beings and help them take over a world seen as corrupt, or to fight against the invasion. The result is a science fiction masterpiece of enormous scope and vision.

Flatland (Kanopy, 1965)

In 1962 John Hubley came to Harvard University as the first teacher of animation in the new Visual Arts Center. It was his idea to make a film based on Edwin Abbott’s famous novel about life in a two-dimensional world, FLATLAND. The story is told by the voices of Dudley Moore and other actors belonging to the British theatrical comedy group, "Beyond the Fringe." Aside from mathematicians and philosophers of science, the film has entertained and delighted audiences of many kinds since it first appeared.

everyone’s a aliebn when ur a aleibn too by Jomny Sun

The illustrated story of a lonely alien sent to observe Earth, only to meet all sorts of creatures with all sorts of perspectives on life, love, and happiness, all while learning to feel a little better about being an alien.

Speak by Louisa Hall

A thoughtful, poignant novel that explores the creation of Artificial Intelligence—illuminating the very human need for communication, connection, and understanding.

In a narrative that spans geography and time, from the Atlantic Ocean in the seventeenth century, to a correctional institute in Texas in the near future, and told from the perspectives of five very different characters, Speak considers what it means to be human, and what it means to be less than fully alive.

Our Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us by Ed Yong

A “thrilling” (The New York Times), “dazzling” (The Wall Street Journal) tour of the radically different ways that animals perceive the world that will fill you with wonder and forever alter your perspective.

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DISHONORABLE MENTIONS, THOSE WE DIDN’T ENJOY:

Anathem by Neal Stephenson

Imagines an alternate universe where scientists, philosophers, and mathematicians live in seclusion behind ancient monastery walls until they are called back into the world to deal with a crisis of astronomical proportions.

The Calculation of You and Me by Serena Kaylor

A calculus nerd enlists her surly classmate’s help to win back her ex-boyfriend, but when sparks start to fly, she realizes there’s no algorithm for falling in love.

It’s a Numberful World: How Math is Hiding Everywhere—from the Crown of a Tree to the Sound of a Sine Wave by Eddie Woo (Hoopla only)

Here are twenty-six bite-size chapters on the hidden mathematical marvels that encrypt our email, enchant our senses, and even keep us alive―from the sine waves we h
ear as “music” to the mysterious golden ratio.

Material descriptions pulled from Amazon and Rotten Tomatoes.

dinosaurs, fossils, and paleontology

 

The next Books & Beyond discussion group meeting will be Tuesday, September 24^th at 6:30pm and the topic groups are math, numbers, and number science.  Fiction, nonfiction, and film are all welcome! If you'd like to attend online, register here: https://www.oneallibrary.org/event/8810338

Our August meeting was a great one and we discussed dinosaurs, fossils, paleontology, etc.  Here’s the list!

Fossil Men: The Quest for the Oldest Skeleton and the Origins of Humankind by Kermit Pattison

In Fossil Men, acclaimed journalist Kermit Pattison brings us a cast of eccentric, obsessive scientists, including Tim White, an uncompromising perfectionist whose virtuoso skills in the field were matched only by his propensity for making enemies; Gen Suwa, a Japanese savant whose deep expertise about teeth rivaled anyone on Earth; Owen Lovejoy, a onetime creationist-turned-paleoanthropologist with radical insights into human locomotion; Berhane Asfaw, who survived imprisonment and torture to become Ethiopia’s most senior paleoanthropologist; Don Johanson, the discoverer of Lucy, who had a rancorous falling out with the Ardi team; and the Leakeys, for decades the most famous family in paleoanthropology. Based on a half-decade of research in Africa, Europe and North America, Fossil Men is not only a brilliant investigation into the origins of the human lineage, but the oldest of human emotions: curiosity, jealousy, perseverance and wonder. 

Dragon Teeth by Michael Crichton

The year is 1876. Warring Indian tribes still populate America's western territories, even as lawless gold-rush towns begin to mark the landscape. In much of the country, it is still illegal to espouse evolution. Against this backdrop two monomaniacal paleontologists pillage the Wild West, hunting for dinosaur fossils while surveilling, deceiving, and sabotaging each other in a rivalry that will come to be known as the Bone Wars. Drawing on both meticulously researched history and an exuberant imagination, Dragon Teeth is based on the rivalry between real-life paleontologists Cope and Marsh; in William Johnson listeners will find an inspiring hero only Michael Crichton could have imagined. Perfectly paced and brilliantly plotted, this enormously winning adventure is destined to become another Crichton classic.

Deadlands: Hunted by Skye Melki-Wegner (children’s middle grade fiction)

Battle rages between the dinosaur kingdoms of Cretacea. When the Fallen Star struck, it brought death and despair, ash and toxic rain. But some dinosaurs survived . . . and were changed. Their minds grew alert. They learned to speak. To dream. To wage war. As the two remaining dinosaur kingdoms fight for territory, Eleri, the disgraced son of a prince, is exiled from his home for saving an enemy soldier. Banished to the merciless Deadlands, a terrifying desert full of tar pits, poisonous gas, and ruthless carnivores, he must join forces with a group of questionable allies―including the enemy soldier he saved―to avoid becoming prey. When Eleri and his fellow exiles discover the horrific truth behind the war, the unlikely heroes must do all they can to save their kingdoms from a lurking predator. . . and a secret plot that might destroy them all.

The Rise & Fall of the Dinosaurs: A New History of Their Lost World by Steve Brusatte

Brusatte traces the evolution of dinosaurs from their inauspicious start as small shadow dwellers—themselves the beneficiaries of a mass extinction caused by volcanic eruptions at the beginning of the Triassic period—into the dominant array of species every wide-eyed child memorizes today, T. rex, Triceratops, Brontosaurus, and more. This gifted scientist and writer re-creates the dinosaurs’ peak during the Jurassic and Cretaceous, when thousands of species thrived, and winged and feathered dinosaurs, the prehistoric ancestors of modern birds, emerged. The story continues to the end of the Cretaceous period, when a giant asteroid or comet struck the planet and nearly every dinosaur species (but not all) died out, in the most extraordinary extinction event in earth’s history, one full of lessons for today as we confront a “sixth extinction.”

After the Dinosaurs: The Age of Mammals by Donald Prothero

The fascinating group of animals called dinosaurs became extinct some 65 million years ago (except for their feathered descendants). In their place evolved an enormous variety of land creatures, especially mammals, which in their way were every bit as remarkable as their Mesozoic cousins. The Age of Mammals, the Cenozoic Era, has never had its Jurassic Park, but it was an amazing time in earth’s history, populated by a wonderful assortment of bizarre animals. Engaging and insightful, After the Dinosaurs is a book for everyone who has an abiding fascination with the remarkable life of the past.

Our Hideous Progeny by C.E. McGill

Mary is the great-niece of Victor Frankenstein. She knows her great uncle disappeared under mysterious circumstances in the Arctic, but she doesn’t know why or how. . . . The 1850s are a time of discovery, and London is ablaze with the latest scientific theories and debates, especially when a spectacular new exhibition of dinosaur sculptures opens at the Crystal Palace. Mary is keen to make her name in this world of science alongside her geologist husband, Henry—but despite her sharp mind and sharper tongue, without wealth and connections their options are limited. When Mary discovers some old family papers that allude to the shocking truth behind her great-uncle’s past, she thinks she may have found the key to securing her and Henry’s professional and financial future. Their quest takes them to the wilds of Scotland; to Henry’s intriguing but reclusive sister, Maisie; and to a deadly chase with a rival who is out to steal their secret.

The Dinosaur Artist: Obsession, Betrayal, and the Quest for Earth’s Ultimate Trophy by Paige Williams

In the tradition of The Orchid Thief, The Dinosaur Artist is a stunning work of narrative journalism about humans' relationship with natural history and a seemingly intractable conflict between science and commerce. A story that stretches from Florida's Land O' Lakes to the Gobi Desert, The Dinosaur Artist illuminates the history of fossil collecting--a murky, sometimes risky business, populated by eccentrics and obsessives, where the lines between poacher and hunter, collector and smuggler, enthusiast and opportunist, can easily blur. In her first book, Paige Williams gives readers an irresistible story that spans continents, cultures, and millennia as she examines the question of who, ultimately, owns the past.

Cretaceous Dawn by Lisa & Michael Graziano (Hoopla ebook only)

A long-extinct beetle appears in a physics lab. Four-and-a-half people and a dog are hurled 65 million years through time, to the Age of the Dinosaurs, and paleontologist Julian Whitney and his companions have only one chance for rescue. Meanwhile in the lab, police chief Sharon Earles must solve the mystery of why half a body remains where five people had just been. Physicists try to determine what went wrong but can they fix the vault in time to retrieve the missing people―and do they want to?

Meg by Steve Alten

even years ago and seven miles below the surface of the Pacific Ocean, Dr. Jonas Taylor encountered something that changed the course of his life. Once a Navy deep-sea submersible pilot, now a marine paleontologist, Taylor is convinced that a remnant population of Carcharodon megalodon―prehistoric sharks growing up to 70 feet long, that subsisted on whales―lurks at the bottom of the Mariana Trench. Offered the opportunity to return to those crushing depths in search of the Megs, Taylor leaps at the chance...but his quest for scientific knowledge (and personal vindication) becomes a desperate fight for survival, when the most vicious predator the earth has ever known is freed to once again hunt the surface.

Extinction by Douglas Preston

Erebus Resort, occupying a magnificent, hundred-thousand acre valley deep in the Colorado Rockies, offers guests the experience of viewing woolly mammoths, Irish Elk, and giant ground sloths in their native habitat, brought back from extinction through the magic of genetic manipulation. When a billionaire's son and his new wife are kidnapped and murdered in the Erebus back country by what is assumed to be a gang of eco-terrorists, Colorado Bureau of Investigation Agent Frances Cash partners with county sheriff James Colcord to track down the perpetrators. As killings mount and the valley is evacuated, Cash and Colcord must confront an ancient, intelligent, and malevolent presence at Erebus, bent not on resurrection―but extinction.

Remarkable Creatures by Tracy Chevalier

On the windswept, fossil-strewn beaches of the English coast, poor and uneducated Mary learns that she has a unique gift: "the eye" to spot ammonites and other fossils no one else can see. When she uncovers an unusual fossilized skeleton in the cliffs near her home, she sets the religious community on edge, the townspeople to gossip, and the scientific world alight. After enduring bitter cold, thunderstorms, and landslips, her challenges only grow when she falls in love with an impossible man. Mary soon finds an unlikely champion in prickly Elizabeth, a middle-class spinster who shares her passion for scouring the beaches. Their relationship strikes a delicate balance between fierce loyalty, mutual appreciation, and barely suppressed envy, but ultimately turns out to be their greatest asset. From the author of At the Edge of the Orchard and Girl With a Pearl Earring comes this incredible story of two remarkable women and their voyage of discovery.

Dinosaurs at the Dinner Party: How an Eccentric Group of Victorians Discovered Prehistoric Creatures and Accidentally Upended the World by Edward Dolnick

In Dinosaurs at the Dinner Party, celebrated storyteller and historian Edward Dolnick leads us through a compelling true adventure as the paleontologists of the first half of the 19th century puzzled their way through the fossil record to create the story of dinosaurs we know today. The tale begins with Mary Anning, a poor, uneducated woman who had a sixth sense for finding fossils buried deep inside cliffs; and moves to a brilliant, eccentric geologist named William Buckland, a kind of Doctor Doolittle on a mission to eat his way through the entire animal kingdom; and then on to Richard Owen, the most respected and the most despised scientist of his generation. Entertaining, erudite, and featuring an unconventional cast of characters, Dinosaurs at the Dinner Party tells the story of how the accidental discovery of prehistoric creatures upended humanity’s understanding of the world and their place in it, and how a group of paleontologists worked to bring it back into focus again.

A History of the World in 100 Fossils by Paul D. Taylor & Aaron O’Dea

This visually stunning book showcases 100 key fossils that together illustrate the evolution of life on earth. Iconic specimens have been selected from the renowned collections of the two premier natural history museums in the world, the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, and the Natural History Museum, London. The fossils have been chosen not only for their importance in the history of life, but also because of the visual story they tell. This coffee table book is perfect for all readers because its clear explanations and beautiful photographs illuminate the significance of these amazing pieces, including 500 million-year-old Burgess Shale fossils that provide a window into early animal life in the sea, insects encapsulated by amber, the first fossil bird Archaeopteryx, and the remains of our own ancestors.

Beasts Before Us: The Untold Story of Mammal Origins and Evolution by Elsa Panciroli

For most of us, the story of mammal evolution starts after the asteroid impact that killed the dinosaurs, but over the last 20 years scientists have uncovered new fossils and used new technologies that have upended this story. In Beasts Before Us, palaeontologist Elsa Panciroli charts the emergence of the mammal lineage, Synapsida, beginning at their murky split from the reptiles in the Carboniferous period, over three hundred million years ago. They made the world theirs long before the rise of dinosaurs. Travelling forward into the Permian and then Triassic periods, we learn how our ancient mammal ancestors evolved from large hairy beasts with accelerating metabolisms to exploit miniaturisation, which was key to unlocking the traits that define mammals as we now know them.

Grandmother Fish: A Child’s First Book of Evolution by Jonathan Tweet (toddler picture book, not available in the JCLC but may be requested from Interlibrary Loan)

Where did we come from? It's a simple question, but not so simple an answer to explain―especially to young children. Charles Darwin's theory of common descent no longer needs to be a scientific mystery to inquisitive young readers. Meet Grandmother Fish. Told in an engaging call and response text where a child can wiggle like a fish or hoot like an ape and brought to life by vibrant artwork, Grandmother Fish takes children and adults through the history of life on our planet and explains how we are all connected.

GENERAL DISCUSSION

The Bone Wars

The Bone Wars, also known as the Great Dinosaur Rush, was a period of intense and ruthlessly competitive fossil hunting and discovery during the Gilded Age of American history, marked by a heated rivalry between Edward Drinker Cope (of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia) and Othniel Charles Marsh (of the Peabody Museum of Natural History at Yale). Each of the two paleontologists used underhanded methods to try to outdo the other in the field, resorting to bribery, theft, and the destruction of bones. Each scientist also sought to ruin his rival's reputation and cut off his funding, using attacks in scientific publications.  Learn more by listening to this 27-minute episode of the BBC 4 podcast, Science Stories. 

Arctic Dinosaurs (PBS NOVA)

Most people imagine dinosaurs lurking in warm locales with swamps and jungles, dining on vegetation and each other. But "Arctic Dinosaurs" reveals that many species also thrived in the harsh environments of the north and south polar regions. NOVA follows two high-stakes expeditions and the paleontologists who push the limits of science to unearth 70 million-year-old fossils buried in the vast Alaskan tundra.

The hardy scientists shadowed in "Arctic Dinosaurs" persevere because they are driven by a compelling riddle: How did dinosaurs—long believed to be cold-blooded animals—endure the bleak polar environment and navigate in near-total darkness during the long winter months? Did they migrate over hundreds of miles of rough terrain like modern-day herds of caribou in search of food? Or did they enter a dormant state of hibernation, like bears? Could they have been warm-blooded, like birds and mammals? Top researchers from Texas, Australia, and the United Kingdom converge on the freezing tundra to unearth some startling new answers.

• In 2013, Paige Williams wrote an article in the New Yorker about Erik Prokopi, one of the subjects of her book listed earlier, The Dinosaur Artist.  A year later, she penned a follow-up article.  I’m including an excerpt of each below
  .  If you would like to read the entirety of one or both articles, I can get you a copy...just call or email me!

1/20/2013 Bones of Contention

After a German sea-lily fossil sold to a live bidder, for forty thousand dollars, Greg Rohan, Heritage’s president, who had been standing near the lectern, handed the auctioneer a note. The auctioneer announced, “The sale of this next lot will be contingent upon a satisfactory resolution of a court proceeding.” He was talking about the dinosaur, which he called the auction’s “signature item.” Largely intact dinosaur skeletons are not easily found, and this specimen had been advertised as seventy-five per cent complete. “It can fit in all rooms ten feet high,” the auctioneer added. “So it’s also a great decorative piece.”

As the bidding opened, at eight hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars, Robert Painter, an attorney from Houston, stood up, a BlackBerry in his hand. Painter is six feet three and forty-two, with dark hair, rimless eyeglasses, and a deep voice. “I hate to interrupt this,” he told the room. “But I have the judge on the phone.” The previous day, Carlos Cortez—a state district judge in Dallas, where Heritage has its headquarters—had signed a temporary restraining order forbidding the company to auction the T. bataar, on the ground that the dinosaur was believed to have been stolen from Mongolia. The judge, defied, was not pleased.

6/7/2014 The Black Market for Dinosaurs

Facing a possible seventeen years in prison, Prokopi started talking. In the seventeen months since he pleaded guilty, he has helped to widen the U.S. investigation into fossil smuggling, providing details about specific specimens, dates, and locations. “There is probably not an active fossil investigation at this point that doesn’t owe, on some level, to information that Mr. Prokopi has furnished law enforcement,” Martin Bell, an assistant U.S. Attorney, told the U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein last week, when Prokopi returned to the federal courthouse in lower Manhattan for sentencing. The case has pushed federal authorities to get their “act together” with respect to “the policing of this admittedly obscure area,” Bell said, adding, “The government’s only recently realizing the contours of that black market, and what it is.”

Prokopi’s cooperation with authorities has led to the recovery and repatriation of not only the T. bataar but also other Mongolian fossils—enough to populate a new dinosaur museum in Ulaanbaatar. In court on Tuesday, Bell reported that “over eighteen largely complete, if not fully prepped, dinosaur fossils will be returned as a result, indirectly or directly, of Mr. Prokopi’s information, to Mongolia, a country which is not only enthusiastic about the possibility of dinosaur tourism based solely on the haul from this case but which badly seems to need it.” The returned specimens included “a second Tyrannosaurus skeleton; a dinosaur called an oviraptor, which is an egg-eating thing,” Bell said. “I think a number of them stampeded in the 1996 movie ‘Jurassic Park.’ It might have been 1992. I was young and awestruck in any event, Your Honor.”

“I missed the movie,” the judge said. “Maybe I should go back to see it.”

Title descriptions pulled from Amazon, Bone War information pulled from Wikipedia, excerpts from the work of Paige Williams pulled from The New Yorker online archives.

2024 Booker Prize longlist

 

The 2024 longlist for the Booker Prize – the world’s most influential prize for a single work of fiction – is announced today, Tuesday, July 30, 2024. 

The longlist of 13 books – the ‘Booker Dozen’ – has been chosen by the 2024 judging panel. The panel is chaired by artist and author Edmund de Waal, who is joined by award-winning novelist Sara Collins; Fiction Editor of the Guardian, Justine Jordan; world-renowned writer and professor Yiyun Li; and musician, composer and producer Nitin Sawhney.  

It features blackly comic page-turners, multigenerational epics, meditations on the pain of exile – plus a crime caper, a spy thriller, an unflinching account of girls’ boxing and a reimagining of a 19th-century classic.

Wandering Stars by Tommy Orange

The Pulitzer Prize-finalist and author of the breakout bestseller There There ("Pure soaring beauty."The New York Times Book Review) delivers a masterful follow-up to his already classic first novel. Extending his constellation of narratives into the past and future, Tommy Orange traces the legacies of the Sand Creek Massacre of 1864 and the Carlisle Indian Industrial School through three generations of a family in a story that is by turns shattering and wondrous.

Wild Houses by Colin Barrett

The riotous, raucous and deeply resonant debut novel from “one of the best story writers in the English language today” (Financial Times) Wild Houses follows two outsiders caught in the crosshairs of a small-town revenge kidnapping gone awry.

Held by Anne Michaels

1917. On a battlefield near the River Escaut, John lies in the aftermath of a blast, unable to move or feel his legs. 1920. John has returned from war to North Yorkshire, near a different river. He is alive but still not whole. Reunited with Helena, an artist, he reopens his photography business and tries to keep on living. But the past erupts insistently into the present, as ghosts begin to surface in his pictures: ghosts with messages he cannot understand. So begins a narrative that spans four generations of connections and consequences that ignite and reignite as the century unfolds.

Creation Lake by Rachel Kushner (publishing September 3rd)

From Rachel Kushner, a Booker Prize finalist, two-time National Book Award finalist, and “one of the most gifted authors of her generation” (The New York Times Book Review), comes a new novel about a seductive and cunning American woman who infiltrates an anarchist collective in France—a propulsive page-turner of glittering insights and dark humor.

This Strange Eventful History by Claire Messud

Over seven decades, from 1940 to 2010, the pieds-noirs Cassars live in an itinerant state―separated in the chaos of World War II, running from a complicated colonial homeland, and, after Algerian independence, without a homeland at all. This Strange Eventful History, told with historical sweep, is above all a family story

Playground by Richard Powers (publishing September 24th)

Set in the world’s largest ocean, this awe-filled book explores that last wild place we have yet to colonize in a still-unfolding oceanic game, and interweaves beautiful writing, rich characterization, profound themes of technology and the environment, and a deep exploration of our shared humanity in a way only Richard Powers can.

Enlightenment by Sarah Perry

From the author of The Essex Serpent, a dazzling novel of love and astronomy told over the course of twenty years through the lives of two improbable best friends.

Orbital by Samantha Harvey

A singular new novel from Betty Trask Prize-winner Samantha Harvey, Orbital is an eloquent meditation on space and life on our planet through the eyes of six astronauts circling the earth in 24 hours.

James by Percival Everett

A brilliant, action-packed reimagining of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, both harrowing and darkly humorous, told from the enslaved Jim's point of view.

The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden

An exhilarating, twisted tale of desire, suspicion, and obsession between two women staying in the same house in the Dutch countryside during the summer of 1961—a powerful exploration of the legacy of WWII and the darker parts of our collective past.

My Friends by Hisham Matar

A “masterly” (The New York Times, Editors’ Choice), “riveting” (The Atlantic) novel of friendship, family, and the unthinkable realities of exile, from the Booker Prize–nominated and Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Return.

Stone Yard Devotional by Charlotte Wood (not available in the U.S. yet)

Burnt out and in need of retreat, a middle-aged woman leaves Sydney to return to the place she grew up, taking refuge in a small religious community hidden away on the stark plains of the Australian outback. She doesn’t believe in God, or know what prayer is, and finds herself living a strange, reclusive existence almost by accident. But disquiet interrupts this secluded life with three visitations. First comes a terrible mouse plague, each day signalling a new battle against the rising infestation. Second is the return of the skeletal remains of a sister who disappeared decades before, presumed murdered. And finally, a troubling visitor plunges the narrator further back into her past…

Headshot by Rita Bullwinkel

An unexpected tragedy at a community pool. A family’s unrelenting expectation of victory. The desire to gain or lose control; to make time speed up or stop; to be frighteningly, undeniably good at something. Each of the eight teenage girl boxers in this blistering debut novel has her own reasons for the sacrifices she has made to come to Reno, Nevada, to compete to be named the best in the country. Through a series of face-offs that are raw, ecstatic, and punctuated by flashes of humor and tenderness, prizewinning writer Rita Bullwinkelanimates the competitors’ pasts and futures as they summon the emotion, imagination, and force of will required to win.

_______________

The judges selection was made from 156 books published between October 1, 2023 and September 30, 2024. The Booker Prize is open to works of long-form fiction by writers of any nationality, written in English and published in the UK and/or Ireland.

The shortlist of six books will be announced on Monday, September 16th and the winner will be announced on Tuesday, November 12th.

The judges’ selection includes: 

-Strong new voices – including three debut novels – alongside international bestselling authors and six writers previously nominated for the prize

-The first Dutch and first Native American authors to be longlisted, the first Australian in eight years, one British-Libyan writer, and authors from Canada, the UK, Ireland and the US 

-A strong showing of Americans displays a range of experience, from a first-time novelist to the author of more than 20 novels

-Blackly comic page-turners, multigenerational epics, meditations on the pain of exile – plus a crime caper, a spy thriller, an unflinching account of girls’ boxing and a reimagining of a 19th-century classic

-Eight women and five men 

-The first nomination for Pan Macmillan imprint Mantle, and four nominations for Jonathan Cape, in the imprint’s first longlisting since 2019

-‘Works of fiction that inhabit ideas by making us care deeply about people and their predicaments,’ according to Chair of judges Edmund de Waal, who adds that these are works that have ‘made a space in our hearts and that we want to see find a place in the reading lives of many others’

 

adventure at your library

 

 

Upcoming programs:

Sat 7/27 @ 3pm – 80s Adventure Film Series: Romancing the Stone
Tue 8/6 @ 5pm – Great Short Stories Film Series: Smoke Signals
Fri 8/9 @ 9am-6pm – World Cross Stitch Day
Sat 8/10 @ 9am-noon – Crafterday
Tue 8/20 @ 6:30pm – 80s Adventure Film Series: The Princess Bride
Tue 8/27 @ 6:30pm – Books & Beyond: Dinosaurs, Fossils, and Paleontology

Last night, the Books & Beyond discussion group met to talk about adventure!

The Train to Impossible Places by P.G. Bell

The Impossible Postal Express is no ordinary train. It’s a troll-operated delivery service that runs everywhere from ocean-bottom shipwrecks, to Trollville, to space. But when this impossible train comes roaring through Suzy’s living room, her world turns upside down. After sneaking on board, Suzy suddenly finds herself Deputy Post Master aboard the train, and faced with her first delivery―to the evil Lady Crepuscula. Then, the package itself begs Suzy not to deliver him. A talking snow globe, Frederick has information Crepuscula could use to take over the entire Union of Impossible Places. But when protecting Frederick means putting her friends in danger, Suzy has to make a difficult choice―with the fate of the entire Union at stake. The other books in the series are The Great Brain Robbery and Delivery to the Lost City.

The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer by Siddhartha Mukherjee

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, adapted as a documentary from Ken Burns on PBS, this New York Times bestseller is “an extraordinary achievement” (The New Yorker)—a magnificent, profoundly humane “biography” of cancer.

The Black Bird Oracle by Deborah Harkness

Deborah Harkness first introduced the world to Diana Bishop, an Oxford scholar and witch, and vampire geneticist Matthew de Clermont in A Discovery of Witches. Drawn to each other despite long-standing taboos, these two otherworldly beings found themselves at the center of a battle for a lost, enchanted manuscript known as Ashmole 782. Since then, they have fallen in love, traveled to Elizabethan England, dissolved the Covenant between the three species, and awoken the dark powers within Diana’s family line.

Now, Diana and Matthew receive a formal demand from the Congregation: They must test the magic of their seven-year-old twins, Pip and Rebecca. Concerned with their safety and desperate to avoid the same fate that led her parents to spellbind her, Diana decides to forge a different path for her family’s future and answers a message from a great-aunt she never knew existed, Gwyneth Proctor, whose invitation simply reads: It’s time you came home, Diana.

The Oregon Trail: A New American Journey by Rinker Buck

A major bestseller that has been hailed as a “quintessential American story” (Christian Science Monitor), Rinker Buck’s The Oregon Trail is an epic account of traveling the 2,000-mile length of the Oregon Trail the old-fashioned way—in a covered wagon with a team of mules—that has captivated readers, critics, and booksellers from coast to coast. Simultaneously a majestic journey across the West, a significant work of history, and a moving personal saga, Buck’s chronicle is a “laugh-out-loud masterpiece” (Willamette Week) that “so ensnares the emotions it becomes a tear-jerker at its close” (Star Tribune, Minneapolis) and “will leave you daydreaming and hungry to see this land” (The Boston Globe).

Dead Mountain: The Untold True Story of the Dyatlov Pass Incident by Donnie Eicher

In February 1959, a group of nine experienced hikers in the Russian Ural Mountains died mysteriously on an elevation known as Dead Mountain. Eerie aspects of the mountain climbing incident—unexplained violent injuries, signs that they cut open and fled the tent without proper clothing or shoes, a strange final photograph taken by one of the hikers, and elevated levels of radiation found on some of their clothes—have led to decades of speculation over the true stories and what really happened.

Dead Mountain: The Untold True Story of the Dyatlov Pass Incident delves into the untold story through unprecedented access to the hikers' own journals and photographs, rarely seen government records, dozens of interviews, and author Donnie Eichar's retracing of the hikers' fateful journey in the Russian winter.

Eaters of the Dead by Michael Crichton

It is 922 A.D. The refined Arab courtier Ibn Fadlan is accompanying a party of Viking warriors back to their home. He is appalled by their customs—the gratuitous sexuality of their women, their disregard for cleanliness, and their cold-blooded sacrifices. As they enter the frozen, forbidden landscape of the North—where the day’s length does not equal the night’s, where after sunset the sky burns in streaks of color—Fadlan soon discovers that he has been unwillingly enlisted to combat the terrors in the night that come to slaughter the Vikings, the monsters of the mist that devour human flesh. But just how he will do it, Fadlan has no idea.

The Anomaly by Herve Le Tellier

In their own way, they were all living double lives when they boarded the plane:

-Blake, a respectable family man who works as a contract killer.
-Slimboy, a Nigerian pop star who uses his womanizing image to hide that he’s gay.
-Joanna, a Black American lawyer pressured to play the good old boys’ game to succeed with her Big Pharma client.
-Victor Miesel, a critically acclaimed yet largely obscure writer suddenly on the precipice of global fame.

About to start their descent to JFK, they hit a shockingly violent patch of turbulence, emerging on the other side to a reality both perfectly familiar and utterly strange. As it charts the fallout of this logic-defying event, The Anomaly takes us on a journey from Lagos and Mumbai to the White House and a top-secret hangar.

In Hervé Le Tellier’s most ambitious work yet, high literature follows the lead of a bingeable Netflix series, drawing on the best of genre fiction from “chick lit” to mystery, while also playfully critiquing their hallmarks. An ingenious, timely variation on the doppelgänger theme, it taps into the parts of ourselves that elude us most.

The Games: A Global History of the Olympics by David Goldblatt

The Games is best-selling sportswriter David Goldblatt’s sweeping, definitive history of the modern Olympics. Goldblatt brilliantly traces their history from the reinvention of the Games in Athens in 1896 to Rio in 2016, revealing how the Olympics developed into a global colossus and highlighting how they have been buffeted by (and affected by) domestic and international conflicts. Along the way, Goldblatt reveals the origins of beloved Olympic traditions (winners’ medals, the torch relay, the eternal flame) and popular events (gymnastics, alpine skiing, the marathon). And he delivers memorable portraits of Olympic icons from Jesse Owens to Nadia Comaneci, the Dream Team to Usain Bolt.

On Borrowed Time: North America's Next Big Quake by Gregor Craigie (digital only, ebook on Hoopla)

Mention the word earthquake and most people think of California. But while the Golden State shakes on a regular basis, Washington State, Oregon, and British Columbia are located in a zone that can produce the world’s biggest earthquakes and tsunamis. In the eastern part of the continent, small cities and large, from Ottawa to Montréal to New York City, sit in active earthquake zones. In fact, more than 100-million North Americans live in active seismic zones, many of whom do not realize the risk to their community.

For more than a decade, Gregor Craigie interviewed scientists, engineers, and emergency planners about earthquakes, disaster response, and resilience. He has also collected vivid first-hand accounts from people who have survived deadly earthquakes. His fascinating and deeply researched book dives headfirst into explaining the science behind The Big One — and asks what we can do now to prepare ourselves for events geologists say aren't a matter of if, but when.

Following Caesar: From Rome to Constantinople, the Pathways That Planted the Seeds of Empire by John Keahey

In 66 b.c., young, ambitious Julius Caesar, seeking recognition and authority, became the curator of the Via Appia, a road stretching from Rome to Brindisi. To gain popularity with Roman citizens along the way, he borrowed significant sums to restore the ancient highway. Other armies followed these two roads that eventually connected Rome to Constantinople, today’s Istanbul. Both Octavian and, later, his friend-turned enemy Mark Antony traveled portions of these roads to defeat Caesar’s murderers, Brutus and Cassius. The great Roman statesman Cicero, the Roman poet Homer, the historian Virgil, and many other notables also journeyed on them. In the early second century a.d., the emperor Trajan charted a new, faster, coastal route between Benevento and Brindisi, later called the Via Traiana.

Today, the remains of these roads are preserved as archaeological wonders, and can be seen through the countryside near, and sometimes under, modern highways in the ruins of ancient Roman cities. Some of the earliest villages have disappeared, while others have grown into modern towns with the ancient roads hidden beneath latter-day pavements.

In this sojourn across Roman history, John Keahey delves into encounters with diverse peoples in these towns in Italy, North Macedonia, Greece, and Turkey, who warmly embrace travelers following in the footsteps of their ancestors. They shared knowledge of historical sites, meals, and a wealth of local lore. Keahey’s unparalleled storytelling breathes life into the prominent figures, pivotal events, and ancient roads that paved the way for the rise and endurance of the Roman empire. It is a journey full of adventure, discovery, and friendship.

Taste of Empire: How Britain's Quest for Food Shaped the Modern World by Lizzie Collingham

In The Taste of Empire, acclaimed historian Lizzie Collingham tells the story of how the British Empire's quest for food shaped the modern world. Told through twenty meals over the course of 450 years, from the Far East to the New World, Collingham explains how Africans taught Americans how to grow rice, how the East India Company turned opium into tea, and how Americans became the best-fed people in the world.

Collingham masterfully shows that only by examining the history of Great Britain's global food system, from sixteenth-century Newfoundland fisheries to our present-day eating habits, can we fully understand our capitalist economy and its role in making our modern diets.

Architects of Memory by Karen Osborne

Terminally ill salvage pilot Ash Jackson lost everything in the war with the alien Vai, but she'll be damned if she loses her future. Her plan: to buy, beg, or lie her way out of corporate indenture and find a cure. When her crew salvages a genocidal weapon from a ravaged starship above a dead colony, Ash uncovers a conspiracy of corporate intrigue and betrayal that threatens to turn her into a living weapon.

GENERAL DISCUSSION:

The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race by Walter Isaacson

Should we use our new evolution-hacking powers to make us less susceptible to viruses? What a wonderful boon that would be! And what about preventing depression? Hmmm…Should we allow parents, if they can afford it, to enhance the height or muscles or IQ of their kids?

After helping to discover CRISPR, Doudna became a leader in wrestling with these moral issues and, with her collaborator Emmanuelle Charpentier, won the Nobel Prize in 2020. Her story is an “enthralling detective story” (Oprah Daily) that involves the most profound wonders of nature, from the origins of life to the future of our species.

Life on the Mississippi: An Epic American Adventure by Rinker Buck

The eagerly awaited return of master American storyteller Rinker Buck, Life on the Mississippi is an epic, enchanting blend of history and adventure in which Buck builds a wooden flatboat from the grand “flatboat era” of the 1800s and sails it down the Mississippi River, illuminating the forgotten past of America’s first western frontier.

Flight of Passage: A True Story by Rinker Buck

Writer Rinker Buck looks back more than 30 years to a summer when he and his brother, at ages 15 and 17 respectively, became the youngest duo to fly across America, from New Jersey to California. Having grown up in an aviation family, the two boys bought an old Piper Cub, restored it themselves, and set out on the grand journey.

Devil’s Pass (digital only, streaming on Kanopy)

To determine what happened to some Russian hikers, five U.S. college students go back to where the hikers were found dead. The students don't return from the expedition, either, and the recovered footage is deemed too disturbing for public viewing.

True Detective: Night Country 

Tsalal is an Arctic research base outside the town of Ennis, Alaska. It is now close to the winter solstice, resulting in days with 24 hours of darkness. When the entire research team disappears there appears to be a link to a murder that occurred several years before. On the case is the Ennis Chief of Police, Liz Danvers, and Evangaline Navarro, a Police trooper who has a personal interest in the murder being solved.

The Eagle Has Flown by Jack Higgins

IRA assassin Liam Devlin returns to Britain in an attempt to effect the escape of German soldier Kurt Steiner from the Tower of London and return with him to Berlin.

Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson

A breathtaking tour de force, and Neal Stephenson's most accomplished and affecting work to date, Cryptonomicon is profound and prophetic, hypnotic and hyper-driven, as it leaps forward and back between World War II and the World Wide Web, hinting all the while at a dark day-after-tomorrow. It is a work of great art, thought and creative daring; the product of a truly iconoclastic imagination working with white-hot intensity.

Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton

A landslide has closed the Korowai Pass on New Zealand’s South Island, cutting off the town of Thorndike and leaving a sizable farm abandoned. The disaster presents an opportunity for Birnam Wood, an undeclared, unregulated, sometimes-criminal, sometimes-philanthropic guerrilla gardening collective that plants crops wherever no one will notice. For years, the group has struggled to break even. To occupy the farm at Thorndike would mean a shot at solvency at last.

But the enigmatic American billionaire Robert Lemoine also has an interest in the place: he has snatched it up to build his end-times bunker, or so he tells Birnam’s founder, Mira, when he catches her on the property. He’s intrigued by Mira, and by Birnam Wood; although they’re poles apart politically, it seems Lemoine and the group might have enemies in common. But can Birnam trust him? And, as their ideals and ideologies are tested, can they trust one another?

The Games 1970 British film (not available in the JCLC)

An American (Ryan O'Neal), a Briton (Michael Crawford), a Czech (Charles Aznavour) and an Aboriginal Australian train for the Rome Olympics marathon. Adapted from a 1968 novel by Hugh Atkinson.

The Games by Hugh Atkinson (not available in the JCLC, request from Interlibrary Loan)

It is four years since Tokyo and once again the Games are obsessing the minds and determining the actions of hundreds of men and women whose ambitions, careers and reputations will depend on ten days in Santa Anna where the next Olympics will be staged. But not only the athletes are planning their lives for a heartbreaking attempt at glory.

Mr. Tornado (not available in the JCLC, streaming for PBS Passport subscribers)

This PBS American Experience details the work of meteorologist Tetsuya Theodore "Ted" Fujita. The Super Outbreak of 1974 was the most intense tornado outbreak on record, tearing a vicious path of destruction across thirteen states, generating 148 tornadoes from Alabama to Ontario, damaging thousands of homes, and killing more than 300 people. Fujita spent ten months studying the outbreak’s aftermath in the most extensive aerial tornado study ever conducted, and through detailed mapping and leaps of scientific imagination, made a series of meteorological breakthroughs.

His discovery of “microbursts,” sudden high wind patterns that could cause airplanes to drop from the sky without warning, transformed aviation safety and saved untold numbers of lives. Mr. Tornado is the remarkable story of the man whose groundbreaking work in research and applied science saved thousands of lives and helped Americans prepare for and respond to dangerous weather phenomena.

The House of Doors by Tan Twan Eng

The year is 1921. Lesley Hamlyn and her husband, Robert, a lawyer and war veteran, are living at Cassowary House on the Straits Settlement of Penang. When “Willie” Somerset Maugham, a famed writer and old friend of Robert's, arrives for an extended visit with his secretary Gerald, the pair threatens a rift that could alter more lives than one.

Alaskan Dinosaurs (not available in the JCLC, streaming for PBS Passport subscribers) 

A team of intrepid paleontologists discovers dinosaurs that thrived in the unlikeliest of places—the cold and dark of winter in the Arctic Circle. How did they survive year-round and raise their young in frigid and dark winter conditions? A dinosaur expedition explores a remote, treacherous, and stormy terrain where the team knows that every bone they find there will likely be a first, adding up to a unique picture of a lost northern world.

Several of Michael Crichton’s books came up in conversation, both for adventure AND for our August topic, dinosaurs!

Book and film descriptions pulled from Amazon and Rotten Tomatoes. Photo by Justin Luebke on Unsplash.