Wednesday, January 29, 2014

The February LibraryReads List!

The latest batch of librarian favorites are here. The February list has something for everyone, from Science Fiction to Biography to Historical Fiction and more! We've included descriptions* below and you can head to the LibraryReads website to see brief reviews submitted by librarians. We'd love to hear what you think about the titles, so if you love it or hate it be sure to let us know on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, or in the comments below!
The February LibraryReads Picks

Red Rising by Pierce Brown
Published: January 28, 2014

Darrow is a miner and a Red, a member of the lowest caste in the color-coded society of the future. Like his fellow Reds, he digs all day, believing that he and his people are making the surface of the planet livable for future generations. Darrow has never seen the sky. Yet he spends his life willingly, knowing that his blood and sweat will one day result in a better future for his children. But Darrow and his kind have been betrayed. Soon he discovers that humanity already reached the surface generations ago. Vast cities and sprawling parks spread across the planet. Darrow and Reds like him are nothing more than slaves to a decadent ruling class. Inspired by a longing for justice, and driven by the memory of lost love, Darrow joins a resistance group in order to infiltrate the ruling class and destroy society from within. He will stop at nothing to bring down his enemies...even if it means he has to become one of them to do so.

The Good Luck of Right Now by Matthew Quick
Published: February 11, 2014

For thirty-eight years, Bartholomew Neil has lived with his mother. When she gets sick and dies, he has no idea how to be on his own. His redheaded grief counselor, Wendy, says he needs to find his flock and leave the nest. But how does a man whose whole life has been grounded in his mom, Saturday Mass, and the library learn how to fly? Bartholomew thinks he's found a clue when he discovers a "Free Tibet" letter from Richard Gere hidden in his mother's underwear drawer. In her final days, Mom called him Richard--there must be a cosmic connection. Believing that the actor is meant to help him, Bartholomew awkwardly starts his new life by writing Richard Gere a series of letters.

This Dark Road to Mercy by Wiley Cash
Published: January 28, 2014

When their mother dies unexpectedly, twelve-year-old Easter Quillby and her six-year-old sister, Ruby, are shuffled into the foster care system in Gastonia, North Carolina, a little town not far from the Appalachian Mountains. But just as they settle into their new life, their errant father, Wade, an ex-minor league baseball player whom they haven't seen in years, suddenly reappears and steals them away in the middle of the night. Brady Weller, the girls' court-appointed guardian, begins looking for Wade, and quickly turns up unsettling information linking him to a multimillion-dollar robbery. But Brady isn't the only one hunting him. Also on the trail is Robert Pruitt, a mercurial man nursing a years-old vendetta, a man determined to find Wade and claim what he believes he is owed.

The Martian by Andy Weir
Published: February 11, 2014

Six days ago, astronaut Mark Watney became one of the first men to walk on the surface of Mars. Now, he's sure he'll be the first man to die there. It started with the dust storm that holed his suit and nearly killed him and that forced his crew to leave him behind, sure he was already dead. Now he's stranded millions of miles from the nearest human being, with no way to even signal Earth that he's alive and even if he could get word out, his food would be gone years before a rescue mission could arrive. Chances are, though, he won't have time to starve to death. The damaged machinery, unforgiving environment, or plain-old "human error" are much more likely to get him first. But Mark isn't ready to give up yet. Drawing on his ingenuity, his engineering skills-and a relentless, dogged refusal to quit-he steadfastly confronts one seemingly insurmountable obstacle after the next. But will his resourcefulness be enough to overcome the impossible odds against him?

After I'm Gone by Laura Lippman
Published: February 11, 2014

When Felix Brewer meets 19-year-old Bernadette "Bambi" Gottschalk at a Valentine's Day dance in 1959, he charms her with wild promises, some of which he actually keeps. Thanks to his lucrative--if not all legal--businesses, she and their three little girls live in luxury. But on the Fourth of July in 1976, Bambi's comfortable world implodes when Felix, facing prison, vanishes. Though Bambi has no idea where her husband--or his money--might be, she suspects one woman does: his devoted young mistress, Julie. When Julie disappears ten years to the day after Felix went on the lam, everyone assumes she's left to join her old lover--until her remains are discovered in a secluded park. Now, twenty-six years later, Roberto "Sandy" Sanchez, a retired Baltimore detective working cold cases for some extra cash, is investigating her murder. What he discovers is a tangled web of bitterness, jealousy, resentment, greed, and longing stretching over five decades. And at its center is the man who, though long gone, has never been forgotten by the five women who loved him: the enigmatic Felix Brewer. Felix Brewer left five women behind. Now there are four. Does at least one of them know the truth?

Ripper by Isabel Allende
Published: January 28, 2014

The Jackson women, Indiana and Amanda, have always had each other. Though their bond is strong, mother and daughter are as different as night and day. Indiana, a beautiful holistic healer, is a free-spirited bohemian. Long divorced from Amanda's father, she's reluctant to settle down with either of the men who want her--Alan, the wealthy scion of one of San Francisco's elite families, and Ryan, an enigmatic, scarred former Navy SEAL. While her mom looks for the good in people, Amanda is fascinated by the dark side of human nature--as is her father, the SF PD's deputy chief of homicide. Brilliant and introverted, the MIT-bound high school senior Amanda is a natural-born sleuth addicted to crime novels and to Ripper, the online mystery game she plays with her beloved grandfather and friends around the world. When a string of strange murders occurs across the city, Amanda plunges into her own investigation, probing hints and deductions that elude the police department. But the case becomes all too personal when Indiana suddenly vanishes. Could her mother's disappearance have something to do with the series of deaths? Now, with her mother's life on the line, Amanda must solve the most complex mystery she's ever faced before it's too late.

The Ghost of the Mary Celeste by Valerie Martin
Published: January 28, 2014

In 1872 the American merchant vessel Mary Celeste was discovered adrift off the coast of Spain. Her cargo was intact and there was no sign of struggle, but the crew was gone. They were never found. This maritime mystery lies at the center of an intricate narrative branching through the highest levels of late-nineteenth-century literary society. While on a voyage to Africa, a rather hard-up and unproven young writer named Arthur Conan Doyle hears of the Mary Celeste and decides to write an outlandish short story about what took place. This story causes quite a sensation back in the United States, particularly between sought-after Philadelphia spiritualist medium Violet Petra and a rational-minded journalist named Phoebe Grant, who is seeking to expose Petra as a fraud. Then there is the family of the Mary Celeste 's captain, a family linked to the sea for generations and marked repeatedly by tragedy. Each member of this ensemble cast holds a critical piece to the puzzle of the Mary Celeste . These three elements--a ship found sailing without a crew, a famous writer on the verge of enormous success, and the rise of an unorthodox and heretical religious fervor--converge in unexpected ways, in diaries, in letters, in safe harbors and rough seas. In a haunted, death-obsessed age, a ghost ship appearing in the mist is by turns a provocative mystery, an inspiration to creativity, and a tragic story of the disappearance of a family and of a bond between husband and wife that, for one moment, transcends the impenetrable barrier of death.

The Wife, the Maid, and the Mistress by Ariel Lawhon
Published: January 28, 2014

A tantalizing reimagining of a scandalous mystery that rocked the nation in 1930-Justice Joseph Crater's infamous disappearance-as seen through the eyes of the three women who knew him best. They say behind every great man, there's a woman. In this case, there are three. Stella Crater, the judge's wife, is the picture of propriety draped in long pearls and the latest Chanel. Ritzi, a leggy showgirl with Broadway aspirations, thinks moonlighting in the judge's bed is the quickest way off the chorus line. Maria Simon, the dutiful maid, has the judge to thank for her husband's recent promotion to detective in the NYPD. Meanwhile, Crater is equally indebted to Tammany Hall leaders and the city's most notorious gangster, Owney "The Killer" Madden. On a sultry summer night, as rumors circulate about the judge's involvement in wide-scale political corruption, the Honorable Joseph Crater steps into a cab and disappears without a trace. Or does he?

The Winter People by Jennifer McMahon
Published: February 11, 2014

West Hall, Vermont has always been a town of strange disappearances and old legends. The most mysterious is that of Sara Harrison Shea, who, in 1908, was found dead in the field behind her house just months after the tragic death of her daughter, Gertie. Now, in present day, nineteen-year-old Ruthie lives in Sara's farmhouse with her mother, Alice, and her younger sister, Fawn. Alice has always insisted that they live off the grid, a decision that suddenly proves perilous when Ruthie wakes up one morning to find that Alice has vanished without a trace. Searching for clues, she is startled to find a copy of Sara Harrison Shea's diary hidden beneath the floorboards of her mother's bedroom. As Ruthie gets sucked deeper into the mystery of Sara's fate, she discovers that she's not the only person who's desperately looking for someone that they've lost. But she may be the only one who can stop history from repeating itself.

E.E. Cummings: A Life by Susan Cheever
Published: February 11, 2014
A reassessment of the life and work of the preeminent twentieth-century poet examines the idiosyncratic expressions that led to critical disagreements about his achievements, and covers his Cambridge youth, Harvard education, and relationships with fellow writers.

Which one will you read first? If you need help placing a hold with your Chandler Public Library card, give us a call at 480-782-2800. 

If you'd like more book recommendations, browse our Book Lists page or check out the previous LibraryReads lists

*Book descriptions from the publisher.

Monday, January 27, 2014

Book Review: It's Kind of a Funny Story

There's a lot of pressure on teens to be the best at everything...pretty, smart, thin, athletic. In the novel It's Kind of a Funny Story, Craig puts a lot of pressure on himself, so much so that he ends up admitting himself to his neighborhood psychiatric facility. Once there we meet an interesting cast of characters that all are there to heal themselves but also end up helping Craig. The ending felt inauthentic, after only five days Craig feels the Shift. But part of what brought on his recent suicidal thoughts would have been his suddenly not taking his prescription. Is five days enough time for that to properly balance him? I'm not sure.

But despite that, there's a very real message here: you can change your situation. You can manage the craziness of life. And no matter what: live. - Melissa (Downtown)

Monday, January 20, 2014

Library Closed - Check out books online

All four Chandler Public Libraries will be closed Monday, January 20 for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.

Visit our Ebooks and Digital Media page for material you can check out even while the library's closed. Zinio is a collection of full-page magazine issues that you can read online. Axis360 features popular authors and illustrated titles, many that are not available elsewhere. OverDrive is our largest ebook collection and includes audiobooks - you can even find books about the civil rights movement.

Monday, January 13, 2014

Book Review: I Am Malala

One day as a group of girls returns from a school trip, their bus is stopped by men in black. One comes aboard and demands to know which one is Malala - then shoots her at point-blank range.

I Am Malala is the story of the girl shot by the Taliban for fighting for her right to go to school. Not just an account of her shooting and its life-threatening aftermath, the story tells of Malala's family and her native Pakistan, how she was influenced by her father's life as a champion of education and an outspoken opponent of injustice, and how she became a prominent public speaker in her own right. She also gives a detailed account of Pakistan's tumultuous history and how the Taliban came to power in the region. Her descriptions of the violence her country has endured are chilling, but her passionate words about equality, compassion, and the right of all children to go to school are remarkable and inspiring. - Michelle (Sunset)

Monday, January 6, 2014

Book Review: Life After Life

There were two books with the same title this year that have been loved by CPL staff. We posted a review of Jill McCorkle's Life After Life recently, and today we have two glowing reviews of Kate Atkinson's Life After Life.

For the first 100 pages or so I kept flipping back and forth rereading chapters because I knew I had missed something. Huh? Darkness fell. Ha! I stuck with it…and I’m glad I did! The stories of Ursula Todd repeat themselves over and over again, sometimes with small changes, and they lead to new possibilities! Brilliant! - Marybeth (Downtown - Admin)

Amazing. Fantastic. Clever. Imaginative. Just a few of the words that come to mind to describe this book. Ursula Todd relives her life (a life) over and over (and over) again. Small changes make all the difference -- sometimes she survives, sometimes she doesn't. The characters are well-developed and this story is brilliantly told. Life After Life is so wonderfully written that you'll keep reading just to know how darkness falls again and how everything connects. If you like historical fiction and non-traditional timelines, read this book. - Melissa (Downtown)

Wednesday, January 1, 2014

The January LibraryReads List!

The latest batch of librarian favorites are here! We've included descriptions* below and you can head to the LibraryReads website to see brief reviews submitted by librarians. We'd love to hear what you think about the titles, so if you love it or hate it be sure to let us know on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, or in the comments below!

January LibraryReads List

The Dead in Their Vaulted Arches: A Flavia de Luce Novel by Alan Bradley
Published: January 14, 2014
On a spring morning in 1951, eleven-year-old chemist and aspiring detective Flavia de Luce gathers with her family at the railway station, awaiting the return of her long-lost mother, Harriet. Yet upon the train’s arrival in the English village of Bishop’s Lacey, Flavia is approached by a tall stranger who whispers a cryptic message into her ear. Moments later, he is dead, mysteriously pushed under the train by someone in the crowd. Who was this man, what did his words mean, and why were they intended for Flavia?

A Star for Mrs. Blake: A Novel by April Smith
Published: January 14, 2014
Set in the 1930s, this novel follows five American women --Gold Star Mothers-- who travel to France to visit the graves of their World War I soldier sons: a pilgrimage that will change their lives in unforeseeable and indelible ways. The women meet for the first time just before their journey begins: Katie, an Irish maid from Dorchester, Massachusetts; Minnie, wife of an immigrant Russian Jewish chicken farmer; Bobbie, a wealthy Boston socialite; Wilhelmina, a former tennis star in precarious mental health; and Cora Blake, a single mother and librarian from coastal Maine. In Paris, Cora meets a journalist whose drug habit helps him hide from his own wartime fate-facial wounds so grievous he's forced to wear a metal mask. This man will change Cora's life in wholly unexpected ways. And when the women finally travel to Verdun to visit the battlegrounds where their sons fought as well as the cemeteries where they are buried, shocking events-a death, a scandal, a secret revealed-will guarantee that Cora's life and those of her traveling companions will become inextricably intertwined.

Lost Lake: A Novel by Sarah Addison Allen
Published: January 21, 2014
Suley, Georgia, is home to Lost Lake Cottages and not much else. Which is why it's the perfect place for newly-widowed Kate and her eccentric eight-year-old daughter Devin to heal. Kate spent one memorable childhood summer at Lost Lake, had her first almost-kiss at Lost Lake, and met a boy named Wes at Lost Lake. It was a place for dreaming. But Kate doesn't believe in dreams anymore, and her Aunt Eby, Lost Lake's owner, wants to sell the place and move on. Lost Lake's magic is gone. As Kate discovers that time has a way of standing still at Lost Lake can she bring the cottages—and her heart—back to life? Because sometimes the things you love have a funny way of turning up again. And sometimes you never even know they were lost . . . until they are found.

The Days of Anna Madrigal: A Novel by Armistead Maupin
Published: January 21, 2014
Anna Madrigal, the legendary landlady of 28 Barbary Lane, is now a fragile ninety-two years old and committed to the notion of "leaving like a lady." Anna has seemingly found peace in the bosom of her "logical family" in San Francisco: her devoted young caretaker, Jake Greenleaf; her former tenant Brian Hawkins; Brian's daughter Shawna; and Michael Tolliver and Mary Ann Singleton, who have known and loved Anna for nearly four decades. While some members of Anna's family are bound for the otherworldly landscape of Burning Man, Anna has another Nevada destination in mind: a lonely stretch of road outside of Winnemucca where the sixteen-year-old boy she used to be ran away from the whorehouse he then called home. With Brian and his beat-up RV, she journeys into the dusty, troubled heart of her Depression-era childhood, where she begins to unearth a lifetime of secrets and dreams, and to attend to unfinished business she has long avoided. Meet Anna for the first time in Tales of the City.

A Highly Unlikely Scenario, or a Neetsa Pizza Employee’s Guide to Saving the World: A Novel by Rachel Cantor
Published: January 14, 2014
In the not-too-distant future, competing giant fast food factions rule the world. Leonard works for Neetsa Pizza, the Pythagorean pizza chain, in a lonely but highly surveilled home office, answering calls on his complaints hotline. It’s a boring job, but he likes it—there’s a set answer for every scenario, and he never has to leave the house. Except then he starts getting calls from Marco, who claims to be a thirteenth-century explorer just returned from Cathay. And what do you say to a caller like that? Plus, Neetsa Pizza doesn’t like it when you go off script.

The Wind Is Not a River: A Novel by Brian Payton
Published: January 7, 2014
Following the loss of his brother to the war in Europe, Canadian writer John Easley feels duty-bound to report the story that seems to have fallen into his lap: the 1943 Japanese occupation of the US Aleutian Islands and the Allied attempts to drive them back into the sea. But when his plane is shot down over the island of Attu, he is exposed to the full fury of a wilderness known as "the Birthplace of Winds." He soon discovers that the island's indigenous residents (U.S. citizens) have all disappeared and that he has one choice: surrender or face starvation and madness alone. Meanwhile, 3,000 miles away in Seattle, Helen Easley will not sit idly by. She invents a new identity, one designed to take her from the safety of her childhood home to the war in the North Pacific. There, Helen believes, she will find her husband and reclaim their love--if only her determination can overcome their fate.

Orfeo: A Novel by Richard Powers
Published: January 20, 2014
Composer Peter Els opens the door one evening to find the police on his doorstep. His home microbiology lab--the latest experiment in his lifelong attempt to find music in surprising patterns--has aroused the suspicions of Homeland Security. Panicked by the raid, Els turns fugitive. As an Internet-fueled hysteria erupts, Els--the "Bioterrorist Bach"--pays a final visit to the people he loves, those who shaped his musical journey. Through the help of his ex-wife, his daughter, and his longtime collaborator, Els hatches a plan to turn this disastrous collision with the security state into a work of art that will reawaken its audience to the sounds all around them.

The Kept: A Novel by James Scott
Published: January 7, 2014
In the winter of 1897, a trio of killers descends upon an isolated farm in upstate New York. Midwife Elspeth Howell returns home to the carnage: her husband, and four of her children, murdered. Before she can discover her remaining son Caleb, alive and hiding in the kitchen pantry, another shot rings out over the snow-covered valley. Twelve-year-old Caleb must tend to his mother until she recovers enough for them to take to the frozen wilderness in search of the men responsible.

Little Failure: A Memoir by Gary Shteyngart
Published: January 7, 2014
After three acclaimed novels—The Russian Debutante’s Handbook, Absurdistan, and Super Sad True Love Story—Gary Shteyngart turns to memoir in a candid, witty, deeply poignant account of his life so far. Shteyngart shares his American immigrant experience, moving back and forth through time and memory with self-deprecating humor, moving insights, and literary bravado. The result is a resonant story of family and belonging that feels epic and intimate and distinctly his own.

The First True Lie: A Novel by Marina Mander
Published: January 21, 2014
Meet Luca, a curious young boy living with his mother, a taciturn woman who "every now and then tries out a new father." Luca keeps to himself, his cat, Blue, and his words--his favorite toys. One February morning his mom doesn't wake up to bring him to school, so Luca--with a father who's long gone and driven by a deep fear of being an orphan ("part of you is missing and people only see the part that isn't there")--decides to pretend to the world that his mom is still alive. Luca has a worldly comprehension of humanity, and grapples with his gruesome situation as the stench of the rotting body begins to permeate his home.

Which one will you read first? If you need help placing a hold with your Chandler Public Library card, give us a call at 480-782-2800.

If you'd like more book recommendations, browse our Book Lists page or check out the previous LibraryReads lists.

 *Book descriptions from the publisher.