lovecraft country

 

Lovecraft Country, an HBO® Series from J.J. Abrams (Executive Producer of Westworld), Misha Green (Creator of Underground) and Jordan Peele (Director of Get Out) based on the novel by Matt Ruff, premiered last weekend and has already captured the attention of viewers.  If you are ready for more weird fiction now, I’ve got you covered!  

If you’re interested in the source material, explore all the JCLC holdings for H.P. Lovecraft here.

Lovecraft Country: A Novel by Matt Ruff

The critically acclaimed cult novelist makes visceral the terrors of life in Jim Crow America and its lingering effects in this brilliant and wondrous work of the imagination that melds historical fiction, pulp noir, and Lovecraftian horror and fantasy.

The Houseguest and Other Stories by Amparo Davila

The first collection in English of an endlessly surprising, master storyteller

Like those of Kafka, Poe, Leonora Carrington, or Shirley Jackson, Amparo Dávila’s stories are terrifying, mesmerizing, and expertly crafted―you’ll finish each one gasping for air. With acute psychological insight, Dávila follows her characters to the limits of desire, paranoia, insomnia, and fear. She is a writer obsessed with obsession, who makes nightmares come to life through the everyday: loneliness sinks in easily like a razor-sharp knife, some sort of evil lurks in every shadow, delusion takes the form of strange and very real creatures. After reading The Houseguest―Dávila’s debut collection in English―you’ll wonder how this secret was kept for so long.

Winter Tide (The Innsmouth Legacy Book 1) by Ruthanna Emrys

"Winter Tide is a weird, lyrical mystery — truly strange and compellingly grim. It's an innovative gem that turns Lovecraft on his head with cleverness and heart" —Cherie Priest

After attacking Devil’s Reef in 1928, the U.S. government rounded up the people of Innsmouth and took them to the desert, far from their ocean, their Deep One ancestors, and their sleeping god Cthulhu. Only Aphra and Caleb Marsh survived the camps, and they emerged without a past or a future. The government that stole Aphra's life now needs her help. FBI agent Ron Spector believes that Communist spies have stolen dangerous magical secrets from Miskatonic University, secrets that could turn the Cold War hot in an instant and hasten the end of the human race. Aphra must return to the ruins of her home, gather scraps of her stolen history, and assemble a new family to face the darkness of human nature.

Song for the Unraveling of the World by Brian Evenson

A newborn’s absent face appears on the back of someone else’s head, a filmmaker goes to gruesome lengths to achieve the silence he’s after for his final scene, and a therapist begins, impossibly, to appear in a troubled patient's room late at night. In these stories of doubt, delusion, and paranoia, no belief, no claim to objectivity, is immune to the distortions of human perception. Here, self-deception is a means of justifying our most inhuman impulses―whether we know it or not.

Alice Isn’t Dead by Joseph Fink

From the creator of the wildly popular Welcome to Night Vale podcast comes a story about loving, about searching – and about the courage you need when you find the unexpected.

For fans of Stephen King, Serial, Twin Peaks and of course the eponymous number one iTunes podcast itself.

In the Shadow of Spindrift House by Mira Grant

Nature abhors a straight line. The natural world is a place of curves and softened edges, of gentle mists and welcoming spirals. Nature remembers deviation; nature does not forgive. For Harlowe Upton-Jones, life has never been a straight line. Shipped off to live with her paternal grandparents after a mysterious cult killed her mother and father, she has grown up chasing the question behind the curve, becoming part of a tight-knit teen detective agency. But “teen” is a limited time offer, and when her friends start looking for adult professions, it's up to Harlowe to find them one last case so that they can go out in a blaze of glory. Welcome to Spindrift House. 

Uzumaki: Spiral Into Horror by Junji Ito

Kurouzu-cho, a small fogbound town on the coast of Japan, is cursed. According to Shuichi Saito, the withdrawn boyfriend of teenager Kirie Goshima, their town is haunted not by a person or being but a pattern: UZUMAKI, the spiral—the hypnotic secret shape of the world. The bizarre masterpiece horror manga is now available all in a single volume. Fall into a whirlpool of terror!

The Vegetarian by Han Kang

A beautiful, unsettling novel about rebellion and taboo, violence and eroticism, and the twisting metamorphosis of a soul…Before the nightmares began, Yeong-hye and her husband lived an ordinary, controlled life. But the dreams—invasive images of blood and brutality—torture her, driving Yeong-hye to purge her mind and renounce eating meat altogether. It’s a small act of independence, but it interrupts her marriage and sets into motion an increasingly grotesque chain of events at home.

The City We Became by N.K. Jemisin

Every great city has a soul. Some are ancient as myths, and others are as new and destructive as children. New York? She's got six.

The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones

A tale of revenge, cultural identity, and the cost of breaking from tradition in this latest novel from the Jordan Peele of horror literature, Stephen Graham Jones.

Seamlessly blending classic horror and a dramatic narrative with sharp social commentary, The Only Good Indians follows four American Indian men after a disturbing event from their youth puts them in a desperate struggle for their lives. Tracked by an entity bent on revenge, these childhood friends are helpless as the culture and traditions they left behind catch up to them in a violent, vengeful way.

The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor LaValle

People move to New York looking for magic and nothing will convince them it isn't there. Charles Thomas Tester hustles to put food on the table, keep the roof over his father's head, from Harlem to Flushing Meadows to Red Hook. He knows what magic a suit can cast, the invisibility a guitar case can provide, and the curse written on his skin that attracts the eye of wealthy white folks and their cops. But when he delivers an occult tome to a reclusive sorceress in the heart of Queens, Tom opens a door to a deeper realm of magic, and earns the attention of things best left sleeping.

Monstress: Volume One by Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda

The richly imagined world of MONSTRESS is an alternate matriarchal 1900s Asia, with an art deco-infused steampunk aesthetic that's brimming with arcane dangers. Within it, a teenage girl struggles to overcome the trauma of war, a task that's made all the more difficult by her mysterious psychic link to an eldritch monster of tremendous power―a connection that will transform them both, and place them in the crosshairs of both human and otherworldly powers.

Kraken by China Mieville

With this outrageous new novel, China Miéville has written one of the strangest, funniest, and flat-out scariest books you will read this—or any other—year. The London that comes to life in Kraken is a weird metropolis awash in secret currents of myth and magic, where criminals, police, cultists, and wizards are locked in a war to bring about—or prevent—the End of All Things.

White is for Witching by Helen Oyeyemi

At once an unforgettable mystery and a meditation on race, nationality, and family legacies, White is for Witching is a boldly original, terrifying, and elegant novel by a prodigious talent.

Maplecroft (The Borden Dispatches Book 1) by Cherie Priest

Lizzie Borden took an axe and gave her mother forty whacks; and when she saw what she had done, she gave her father forty-one....
 
The people of Fall River, Massachusetts, fear me. Perhaps rightfully so. I remain a suspect in the brutal deaths of my father and his second wife despite the verdict of innocence at my trial. With our inheritance, my sister, Emma, and I have taken up residence in Maplecroft, a mansion near the sea and far from gossip and scrutiny. But it is not far enough from the affliction that possessed my parents.

Their characters, their very souls, were consumed from within by something that left malevolent entities in their place. It originates from the ocean’s depths, plaguing the populace with tides of nightmares and madness. This evil cannot hide from me. No matter what guise it assumes, I will be waiting for it. With an axe.

The Hole by Hye-young Pyun

A bestseller in Korea, The Hole is a superbly crafted and deeply unnerving novel about the horrors of isolation and neglect in all of its banal and brutal forms. As Oghi desperately searches for a way to escape, he discovers the difficult truth about his wife and the toll their life together took on her.

We Cast a Shadow by Maurice Carlos Ruffin

“You can be beautiful, even more beautiful than before.” This is the seductive promise of Dr. Nzinga’s clinic, where anyone can get their lips thinned, their skin bleached, and their nose narrowed. A complete demelanization will liberate you from the confines of being born in a black body—if you can afford it. In this near-future Southern city plagued by fenced-in ghettos and police violence, more and more residents are turning to this experimental medical procedure.
Like any father, our narrator just wants the best for his son, Nigel, a biracial boy whose black birthmark is getting bigger by the day. The darker Nigel becomes, the more frightened his father feels. But how far will he go to protect his son? And will he destroy his family in the process?

Amatka by Karin Tidbeck

Vanja, an information assistant, is sent from her home city of Essre to the austere, wintry colony of Amatka with an assignment to collect intelligence for the government. Immediately she feels that something strange is going on: people act oddly in Amatka, and citizens are monitored for signs of subversion.

Intending to stay just a short while, Vanja falls in love with her housemate, Nina, and prolongs her visit. But when she stumbles on evidence of a growing threat to the colony, and a cover-up by its administration, she embarks on an investigation that puts her at tremendous risk.

A Peculiar Peril (The Misadventures of Jonathan Lambshead Book 1) by Jeff VanderMeer

A Peculiar Peril is a head-spinning epic about three friends on a quest to protect the world from a threat as unknowable as it is terrifying, from the Nebula Award–winning and New York Times bestselling author of Annihilation, Jeff VanderMeer.

Ring Shout by P. Djeli Clark (This book will be published October 13, 2020. Keep an eye out!)

Nebula, Locus, and Alex Award-winner P. Djèlí Clark returns with Ring Shout, a dark fantasy historical novella that gives a supernatural twist to the Ku Klux Klan's reign of terror

Meddling Kids by Edgar Cantero

A mad scientist's concoction of H. P. Lovecraft, teen detectives, and a love of Americana, Edgar Cantero's Meddling Kids is a story filled with rich horror, thrilling twists, outright hilarity, and surprising poignancy.

 

 

 

 

Great reads and views

Upcoming programs

In celebration of the Alabama Bicentennial, we’re hosting a Funny Film Fest. All films are PG-13 so they are family friendly and all ages are welcome! Doors at 6pm, film at 6:30. Light refreshments provided.
Tue Jul 2 – Sweet Home Alabama
Tue Jul 9 – Fried Green Tomatoes
Tue Jul 16 – Crazy in Alabama

Two of the library’s book groups are discussing Michael Capuzzo’s “Close to Shore: The Terrifying Shark Attacks of 1916.” The daytime group, The Bookies, will meet on Tue Jul 9 at 10am and Lost & Found will meet on Thu Jul 25 at 6:30pm.  This book was one of Peter Benchley’s inspirations for writing the book, “Jaws!” In celebration, we’ll be screening the film “Jaws” on the lawn across from the library on Thu Jul 11 at 8pm. The film is PG so bring the whole family, plus some chairs and beach towels!

July’s Art House Film Series movie is “The Scent of Green Papaya” and will be screened on Wed Jul 31st at 6:30pm in the Library’s Community Meeting Room.

This week, our Genre Reading Group met for one of our biannual Salon Discussions, where there is no assigned topic and it is totally up to the readers’ own choices.

Midnight in Chernobyl: The Untold Story of the World’s Greatest Disaster by Adam Higginbotham

(amazon.com)

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

Journalist Adam Higginbotham’s definitive, years-in-the-making account of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant disaster—and a powerful investigation into how propaganda, secrecy, and myth have obscured the true story of one of the twentieth century’s greatest disasters.

Early in the morning of April 26, 1986, Reactor Number Four of the Chernobyl Atomic Energy Station exploded, triggering history’s worst nuclear disaster. In the thirty years since then, Chernobyl has become lodged in the collective nightmares of the world: shorthand for the spectral horrors of radiation poisoning, for a dangerous technology slipping its leash, for ecological fragility, and for what can happen when a dishonest and careless state endangers its citizens and the entire world. But the real story of the accident, clouded from the beginning by secrecy, propaganda, and misinformation, has long remained in dispute.

Drawing on hundreds of hours of interviews conducted over the course of more than ten years, as well as letters, unpublished memoirs, and documents from recently-declassified archives, Adam Higginbotham has written a harrowing and compelling narrative which brings the disaster to life through the eyes of the men and women who witnessed it firsthand. The result is a masterful nonfiction thriller, and the definitive account of an event that changed history: a story that is more complex, more human, and more terrifying than the Soviet myth.

Midnight in Chernobyl is an indelible portrait of one of the great disasters of the twentieth century, of human resilience and ingenuity, and the lessons learned when mankind seeks to bend the natural world to his will—lessons which, in the face of climate change and other threats, remain not just vital but necessary.

Babushkas of Chernobyl

(thebabushkasofchernobyl.com) In the radioactive Dead Zone surrounding Chernobyl’s Reactor No. 4, a defiant community of women scratches out an existence on some of the most toxic land on Earth. They share this hauntingly beautiful but lethal landscape with an assortment of interlopers—scientists, soldiers, and even ‘stalkers’—young thrill-seekers who sneak in to pursue post-apocalyptic video game-inspired fantasies. Why the film’s central characters, Hanna Zavorotyna, Maria Shovkuta, and Valentyna Ivanivna, chose to return after the disaster, defying the authorities and endangering their health, is a remarkable tale about the pull of home, the healing power of shaping one’s destiny and the subjective nature of risk.

Building Chernobyl’s Megatomb

(www.pbs.org) In 1986, in the heart of Ukraine, the Chernobyl nuclear reactor exploded, releasing 400 times more radiation than the Hiroshima Bomb. It was the world’s worst nuclear disaster. Thirty workers died, 50,000 people fled the nearest city, and radioactive fallout made an area larger than Long Island a no-go zone. Hastily, a so-called “sarcophagus” was built to contain the radioactive materials that lingered at the site after the explosion. But 30 years later, the sarcophagus is crumbling, and another disaster at Chernobyl looms. Now, an international team of engineers is racing the clock to assemble one of the most ambitious superstructures ever built—an extraordinary 40,000 ton, $1.5 billion dome to encase the crumbling remains of the Chernobyl nuclear reactor. Battling arctic winter weather—and lethal radiation—this is the inside story of the epic race to build Chernobyl’s MegaTomb.

Chernobyl’s Café (Amazon Prime)

(amazon.com) Thirty years after the nuclear reactor explosion, Chernobyl is showing signs of life. As the fears of older generations are replaced by the fascination of the new, Chernobyl is emerging as a popular tourist destination, and local industry is on the rise. However, with radiation levels still dangerously high, serious questions remain over whether the region can ever truly recover from its past.

Close to Shore: The Terrifying Shark Attacks of 1916 by Michael Capuzzo

(amazon.com) Combining rich historical detail and a harrowing, pulse-pounding narrative, Close to Shore brilliantly re-creates the summer of 1916, when a rogue Great White shark attacked swimmers along the New Jersey shore, triggering mass hysteria and launching the most extensive shark hunt in history.

In July 1916 a lone Great White left its usual deep-ocean habitat and headed in the direction of the New Jersey shoreline. There, near the towns of Beach Haven and Spring Lake--and, incredibly, a farming community eleven miles inland--the most ferocious and unpredictable of predators began a deadly rampage: the first shark attacks on swimmers in U.S. history.

Capuzzo interweaves a vivid portrait of the era and meticulously drawn characters with chilling accounts of the shark's five attacks and the frenzied hunt that ensued. From the unnerving inevitability of the first attack on the esteemed son of a prosperous Philadelphia physician to the spine-tingling moment when a farm boy swimming in Matawan Creek feels the sandpaper-like skin of the passing shark, Close to Shore is an undeniably gripping saga.

Heightening the drama are stories of the resulting panic in the citizenry, press and politicians, and of colorful personalities such as Herman Oelrichs, a flamboyant millionaire who made a bet that a shark was no match for a man (and set out to prove it); Museum of Natural History ichthyologist John Treadwell Nichols, faced with the challenge of stopping a mythic sea creature about which little was known; and, most memorable, the rogue Great White itself moving through a world that couldn't conceive of either its destructive power or its moral right to destroy.

Scrupulously researched and superbly written, Close to Shore brings to life a breathtaking, pivotal moment in American history. Masterfully written and suffused with fascinating period detail and insights into the science and behavior of sharks, Close to Shore recounts a breathtaking, pivotal moment in American history with startling immediacy.

New Iberia Blues by James Lee Burke

(amazon.com) The shocking death of a young woman leads detective Dave Robicheaux into the dark corners of Hollywood, the mafia, and the backwoods of Louisiana in this gripping mystery from "modern master" (Publishers Weekly) James Lee Burke.

Detective Dave Robicheaux's world isn't filled with too many happy stories, but Desmond Cormier's rags-to-riches tale is certainly one of them. Robicheaux first met Cormier on the streets of New Orleans, when the young, undersized boy had foolish dreams of becoming a Hollywood director.

Twenty-five years later, when Robicheaux knocks on Cormier's door, it isn't to congratulate him on his Golden Globe and Academy Award nominations. Robicheaux has discovered the body of a young woman who's been crucified, wearing only a small chain on her ankle. She disappeared near Cormier's Cyrpemort Point estate, and Robicheaux, along with young Deputy Sean McClain, are looking for answers. Neither Cormier nor his enigmatic actor friend Antoine Butterworth are saying much, but Robicheaux knows better.

As always, Clete Purcel and Davie's daughter, Alafair, have Robicheaux's back. Clete witnesses the escape of Texas inmate Hugo Tillinger, who may hold the key to Robicheaux's case. As they wade further into the investigation, they end up in the cross hairs of the mob, the deranged Chester Wimple, and the dark ghosts Robicheaux has been running from for years. Ultimately, it's up to Robicheaux to stop them all, but he'll have to summon a light he's never seen or felt to save himself and those he loves.

Savage Season by Joe R. Lansdale

(amazon.com) Savage Season is the basis for the first season of the Sundance TV series Hap and Leonard

A rip-roaring, high-octane, Texas-sized thriller, featuring two friends, one vixen, a crew of washed-up radicals, loads of money, and bloody mayhem.

Hap Collins and Leonard Pine are best friends, yet they couldn't be more different. Hap is an east Texas white-boy with a weakness for Texas women. Leonard is a gay, black Vietnam vet. Together, they steer up more commotion than a fire storm. But that's just the way they like it. So when an ex-flame of Hap's returns promising a huge score. Hap lets Leonard in on the scam, and that's when things get interesting. Chockfull of action and laughs, Savage Season is the masterpiece of dark suspense that introduced Hap and Leonard to the thriller scene. It hasn't been the same since.

Game of Thrones HBO TV series

(hbo.com) Summers span decades. Winters can last a lifetime. And the struggle for the Iron Throne begins. Based on the bestselling book series by George R.R. Martin and created by David Benioff and D.B. Weiss. (Wikipedia.org) Game of Thrones is roughly based on the storylines of A Song of Ice and Fire, set in the fictional Seven Kingdoms of Westeros and the continent of Essos. The series chronicles the violent dynastic struggles among the realm's noble families for the Iron Throne, while other families fight for independence from it. Eight total seasons.

Halt and Catch Fire AMC TV series

(Wikipedia.org) Taking place over a period of more than ten years, the series depicts a fictionalized insider's view of the personal computer revolution of the 1980s and later the growth of the World Wide Web in the early 1990s. The show's title refers to computer machine code instruction HCF, the execution of which would cause the computer's CPU to stop working ("catch fire" was a humorous exaggeration).

The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco

(amazon.com) An international sensation and winner of the Premio Strega and the Prix Médicis Étranger awards

The year is 1327. Benedictines in a wealthy Italian abbey are suspected of heresy, and Brother William of Baskerville arrives to investigate. When his delicate mission is suddenly overshadowed by seven bizarre deaths, Brother William turns detective. His tools are the logic of Aristotle, the theology of Aquinas, the empirical insights of Roger Bacon—all sharpened to a glistening edge by wry humor and a ferocious curiosity. He collects evidence, deciphers secret symbols and coded manuscripts, and digs into the eerie labyrinth of the abbey, where “the most interesting things happen at night.”

“Like the labyrinthine library at its heart, this brilliant novel has many cunning passages and secret chambers . . . Fascinating . . . ingenious . . . dazzling.” – Newsweek

The Name of the Rose feature film

(amazon.com) "The Name of the Rose" is a gothic medieval mystery thriller set in a 14th-century Italian monastery. Franciscan monk William of Baskerville (Sean Connery) and a young novice (Christian Slater) arrive for a conference to find that several monks have been murdered in mysterious circumstances. To solve the crimes, William must rise up against the Church authority and fight the shadowy conspiracy of monastery monks using only his wit and intelligence.

The Name of the Rose Sundance TV series

(sundancetv.com) The Franciscan monk William of Baskerville (John Turturro) and his novice Adso try to solve a murder case in a secluded abbey. They discover dark secrets and a deadly mystery. But time is running short: The inquisitor Bernard Gui (Rupert Everett) is about to arrive at the abbey.

The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett

(amazon.com)

#1 New York Times Bestseller

Oprah's Book Club Selection

The “extraordinary . . . monumental masterpiece” (Booklist) that changed the course of Ken Follett’s already phenomenal career. Look out for Ken's newest book, A Column of Fire, available now.

“Follett risks all and comes out a clear winner,” extolled Publishers Weekly on the release of The Pillars of the Earth. A departure for the bestselling thriller writer, the historical epic stunned readers and critics alike with its ambitious scope and gripping humanity. Today, it stands as a testament to Follett’s unassailable command of the written word and to his universal appeal.

The Pillars of the Earth tells the story of Philip, prior of Kingsbridge, a devout and resourceful monk driven to build the greatest Gothic cathedral the world has known . . . of Tom, the mason who becomes his architect—a man divided in his soul . . . of the beautiful, elusive Lady Aliena, haunted by a secret shame . . . and of a struggle between good and evil that will turn church against state and brother against brother.

A spellbinding epic tale of ambition, anarchy, and absolute power set against the sprawling medieval canvas of twelfth-century England, this is Ken Follett’s historical masterpiece.

The Pillars of the Earth Starz TV series

(starz.com) Emerging from the war-torn shadows of England’s Dark Ages, an idealistic mason sets out on a quest of erecting a glorious Cathedral.

Anthony Bourdain Remembered by CNN
(amazon.com)

 A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

A moving and insightful collection of quotes, memories, and images celebrating the life of Anthony Bourdain

When Anthony Bourdain committed suicide in June 2018, the outpouring of love from his fans around the world was momentous. The tributes spoke to his legacy: That the world is much smaller than we imagine and people are more alike than they are different. As Bourdain once said, “If I’m an advocate of anything, it’s to move…Walk in someone else’s shoes or at least eat their food.”

Anthony Bourdain Remembered brings together memories and anecdotes from fans reminiscing about Bourdain’s unique achievements and his enduring effect on their lives as well as comments from chefs, journalists, filmmakers, musicians, and writers inspired by Bourdain including Barack Obama, Eric Ripert, Jill Filipovic, Ken Burns, Questlove, and José Andrés, among many others.

These remembrances give us a glimpse of Bourdain's widespread impact through his political and social commitments; his dedication to travel and eating well (and widely); and his love of the written word, along with his deep compassion, open-mindedness, and interest in lives different from his own.

Anthony Bourdain Remembered captures Bourdain's inimitable spirit and passion in the words of his devoted fans as well as some of his closest friends and colleagues.

Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly by Anthony Bourdain

(amazon.com) Kitchen Confidential reveals what Bourdain calls "twenty-five years of sex, drugs, bad behavior and haute cuisine."

When The New Yorker published Chef Bourdain's shocking, "Don't Eat Before Reading This." Bourdain spared no one's appetite when he told all about what happens behind the kitchen door. Bourdain used the same "take-no-prisoners" attitude in his deliciously funny and shockingly delectable book, sure to delight gourmands and philistines alike. From Bourdain's first oyster in the Gironde, to his lowly position as dishwasher in a honky tonk fish restaurant in Provincetown (where he witnessed for the first time the real delights of being a chef); from the kitchen of the Rainbow Room atop Rockefeller Center, to drug dealers in the east village, from Tokyo to Paris and back to New York again, Bourdain's tales of the kitchen are as passionate as they are unpredictable.

American Gods by Neil Gaiman

(amazon.com) Now a STARZ® Original Series produced by FremantleMedia North America starring Ricky Whittle, Ian McShane, Emily Browning, and Pablo Schreiber.

Locked behind bars for three years, Shadow did his time, quietly waiting for the day when he could return to Eagle Point, Indiana. A man no longer scared of what tomorrow might bring, all he wanted was to be with Laura, the wife he deeply loved, and start a new life.

But just days before his release, Laura and Shadow’s best friend are killed in an accident. With his life in pieces and nothing to keep him tethered, Shadow accepts a job from a beguiling stranger he meets on the way home, an enigmatic man who calls himself Mr. Wednesday. A trickster and a rogue, Wednesday seems to know more about Shadow than Shadow does himself.

Life as Wednesday’s bodyguard, driver, and errand boy is far more interesting and dangerous than Shadow ever imagined. Soon Shadow learns that the past never dies . . . and that beneath the placid surface of everyday life a storm is brewing—an epic war for the very soul of America—and that he is standing squarely in its path.

“Mystery, satire, sex, horror, poetic prose—American Gods uses all these to keep the reader turning the pages.”—Washington Post

Wind from the Carolinas by Robert Wilder

(amazon.com) "A powerful novel of the old Bahamas" A must read for anyone who cruises or dreams of cruising in the Bahamas. This is a big, bold, best-selling novel that traces the remarkable saga of one family through war and peace, love and disaster. Here is the fabulous story of the Camerons, the aristocratic Tory clan who fled the South in the wake of the American Revolution to rebuild their baronial plantations and recapture their lost fortune in the turbulent, windswept Bahamas Islands. 

Getting started in the Fantasy Book Group

Six people journeyed out into the wintry night questing to find our little library in the Village and I am quite pleased with the discussions that sprung up in our little group. We discussed George R.R. Martin and his work, primarily A Game of Thrones, the first in his A Song of Ice and Fire series. We will not meet in February as our hardworking Friends of the Emmet O'Neal Library group will take over our meeting spaces to transform the Library for the Annual Book Sale February 25-27th but we will meet monthly starting in March.

March and April's meetings are devoted to talking about the other three books in ASoIaF (A Clash of Kings, A Storm of Swords, and A Feast for Crows) as well as the series as whole. If you've read this series and love it, no doubt you are as excited as we are about the HBO miniseries adaptation debuting in April of this year!

These books are long, complex, and peopled with many different characters, many of whom get to tell the story from their point of view. Previously, I described the story this way:

The novel is set in the land of Westeros which, with its royal intrigues, calculated sexual affairs, and political maneuverings, is reminiscent of medieval Europe at its most brutal. Deadly human forces opposing the crown are gathering in the lands beyond Westeros and sinister creatures with no such human allegiances are held at bay in the frozen reaches of the north only by the Kingdom’s aging Wall and a ragtag band of elderly men, landless younger sons, and criminals. Coming in at over 700 pages, this hefty tome will keep you reading far into the night discovering how holding the throne in Westeros truly requires power, deceit, and lethal cunning!

I can only just begin to describe the richness and complexity of these novels. Mr. Martin has spent, and continues to spend, a great deal of time making the places and people of this imaginary world come to life in a way that grounds it firmly in an achingly familiar historical reality. If you enjoy sagas, historical fiction, magical realism, court intrigue, espionage, romance, adventure, or thrills and chills, this is definitely a series to put on your to-be-read list!

Why not read it sooner rather than later and join us for the discussion?

Here is our tentative meeting schedule for 2011:

March 24

April 28

May 26

June 23

July 21

August 25

September 22

October 27

November 24

December 22

We brainstormed some titles to read for the rest of the year, but we are always on the lookout for more so comment with suggestions

!

A Dance with Dragons by George R.R. Martin (I know, I know, it'll be published when it's published, but I'm doing this as a sort of rain dance. I would rather have a great book than a quick one, but George...you're killing us!)

The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss

The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Outlander by Diana Gabaldon

The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly

Swordspoint by Ellen Kushner

Poison Study by Maria V. Snyder

Twilight by Stephenie Meyer

A novel by Patricia McKillip

Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke

Swords & Dark Magic edited by Jonathan Strahan and Lou Anders

The Cup of the World by John Dickinson

Midnight Never Come by Marie Brennan

All of our book groups heartily welcome new members, so please drop by! If you'd like more information, please call (205/445-1117) or email me (hwesley@bham.lib.al.us!