Small Crimes in an Age of Abundance, by Matthew Kneale

This series of short stories takes the reader around the globe, to a diversity of places, but all are set in our modern era and each deals with a morally ambiguous situation in some way. This is not, however, some kind of dry, didactic series of fairy tales for adults; each story is fully realized [...]

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Pretty Monsters, by Kelly Link

This terrific anthology of short stories caught my eye in our Young Adult collection the other day. Equal parts fantasy and horror genre, I was impressed with how complicated and mature these stories are. Each has a young adult main character and the stories are told through their eyes, but this is definitely a collection [...]

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Black Juice, by Margo Lanagan

Bring on the Shorts! It may still be too chilly to wear shorts outside, but this week I’m sharing some great collections of short stories, in honor of springtime. The short stories in Lanagan’s Black Juice have some of the best qualities of a fantasy short story—everything is contained within the few pages of the [...]

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The List: All Things British

Being something of an Anglophile, I couldn’t resist making a list of great (library circulating) British miscellanea. The list includes books, music, movies, and people that help make England more interesting. I have omitted what some may think of as obvious choices like James Bond (my Bond of choice is Scottish) and the Rolling Stones [...]

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The Unsung Hero, by Suzanne Brockmann

Brockmann has long appeared on recommended book lists for fast-paced contemporary romances—but I had not read any of her books until now.  What was I waiting for?  This is terrific! Unsung Hero has three plot lines, all of which are easy to follow and engaging. The main storyline is about Tom Paoletti,  the commanding officer of [...]

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A Matter of Class, by Mary Balogh

Looking for something light to while away an afternoon? Pick up A Matter of Class. It’s a short book, only 190 pages, but the story is a delightfully satisfying romance set in the Regency period. Bernard Mason has a fortune to match many in the ton, but he is not accepted by polite society because he [...]

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The Pull of the Moon, by Elizabeth Berg

Nan feels as if she is drowning in the routine of her life.  As she sits across the table from her husband, Martin, she feels a howl rise up in her.  She tries to tell her husband what she is feeling, but there are no words.  So she leaves him a note, hops in her [...]

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Shades of Grey, by Jasper Fforde

Mandy Malone of Circulation Services provides today’s review: Jasper Fforde’s Thursday Next series, which includes The Eyre Affair, Well of Lost Plots and Something Rotten, was one of my favorite series of recent years.  I especially liked how he playfully integrated elements of parody and literary allusion with rather traditional plot structures.  Even when the [...]

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Mudbound, by Hillary Jordan

Connie in Outreach Services shares this review: Mudbound is set in the deep South after World War II.  It is the gripping and heartbreaking story of what happens to Harry McAllen, a Mississippi cotton farmer, and his city-bred wife, Laura, as they settle on a farm with their children and Harry’s father, Pappy. After the [...]

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The List: Going to Extremes

My daily commute is all about the North and South poles lately, as I work my way through audiobooks about Captain Sir John Franklin, explorer (and casualty) of the Arctic north, and Robert Falcon Scott, who is about to meet his end in the Antarctic. My personal polar obsession started years ago with an Annie [...]

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Stars Above Us, by Geoffrey Norman, illustrated by E. B. Lewis

Noreen Bernstein of Youth Services provides today’s review: At first, Stars Above Us appears to be a beautifully crafted addition to the cadre of books that help children with their fear of the dark. When Amanda confesses her fear of the dark because it is full of scary things, Dad takes her outside. Together they [...]

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Clementine, by Sara Pennypacker

One of the perks of being a children’s librarian is that no one makes fun of you for reading a book written for 2nd to 4th graders. That’s how I came to read Clementine. As 8-year-old Clementine would say, that’s called Doing My Job. Within days, I’d also read The Talented Clementine and Clementine’s Letter. [...]

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Schooled, by Gordon Korman

Schooled is the compelling story of a home-schooled hippie kid who has been raised in a 1960s eco-commune. As the story begins, the commune has dwindled down to two people, 13-year-old Cap and his 72-year-old grandmother. Rain, the grandmother, breaks a leg falling from a tree while picking plums. With no telephone to call an [...]

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Shiver, by Maggie Stiefvater

Noreen Bernstein of Youth Services provides today’s review: Move over, Edward and Bella, Sam and Grace have come to town!  As books about vampires, werewolves, zombies, and the undead crowd library and bookstore shelves, the reader begins to notice a similarity among the plots and characters.  The Twilight series for many reasons has become a [...]

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The Willoughbys, by Lois Lowry

Children’s literature is full of plucky, good-hearted orphans looking for a home. In The Willoughbys, Lois Lowry gives us a set of plucky, good-hearted children looking to become orphans. This spoof of the “deserving orphan” story has all the necessary plot elements: a baby delivered at a doorstep, a tragic accident, a grieving rich person, [...]

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The List: Tip of the Iceberg: The Honor Roll from the Best of 2009 Megalist

For the whole iceberg–the spreadsheet containing every one of the 140 sources compiled into a list with votes for nearly 1700 different best books of 2009–check yesterday’s post. Here’s just the tip of the iceberg, the top of that longer list–an honor roll of the 105 books that received the most votes. Fiction Wolf Hall, [...]

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The List: Best of 2009 Megalist Complete!

It’s done! After counting the votes from 140 different authoritative sources, the Best of 2009 Aggregated Megalist is complete, and it’s bigger and better than ever. This is THE final word on the best books published last year. The full Megalist, which shows every source and every vote in a spreadsheet that you can sort [...]

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Galaxy Quest (1999)

The cast of the  popular but long-canceled sci-fi show Galaxy Quest are languishing at yet one more convention of fans. The Thermians are alien looking creatures in desperate need of help who think they have found it on a place called Earth.  The burned-out cast of characters connects with these aliens in this very funny [...]

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