Favorites
Karen ... The Book of Night Women by Marlon James
Lilith was born into slavery on a Jamaican sugar plantation at theend of the eighteenth century. Even at her birth, the slave women around her recognize a dark power that they--and she--will come to both revere and fear. The Night Women, as they call themselves, have long been plotting a slave revolt, and as Lilith comes of age and reveals the extent of her power, they see her as the key to their plans. But when she begins to understand her own feelings and desires and identity, Lilith starts to push at the edgesof what is imaginable for the life of a slave woman in Jamaica, and risks becoming the conspiracy's weak link. (from the MORE Online Library Catalog)
Tina ... Selected Short Stories by Thomas Hardy
Hardy's short stories are distinguished by vividly drawn and accurately observed characters -- overbearing wives, faithful and faithless lovers, hangmen, smugglers, sheep rustlers: even the Emperor Napoleon makes an appearance. The book's contents range from a poignant love story, "The Melancholy Hussar of the German Legion," to the dark dreams of an unwilling witch in "The Withered Arm." (from the back of the book)
Mom ... The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood (woo hoo!)
The times and species have been changing at a rapid rate, and the social compact is wearing as thin as environmental stability. Adam One, the kindly leader of the God's Gardeners--a religion devoted to the melding of science and religion, as well as the preservation of all plant and animal life--has long predicted anatural disaster than will alter Earth as we know it. Now it has occurred, obliterating most human life. Two women have survived: Ren, a young trapeze dancer locked inside the high-end sex club Scales and Tails, and Toby, a God's Gardener barricaded inside a luxurious spa where many of the treatments are edible. Have others survived? Ren's bioartist friend Amanda? Zeb, her eco-fighter stepfather? Her onetime lover, Jimmy? Or the murderous Painballers, survivors of the mutual-elimination Painball prison? Not to mention the shadowy, corrupt policing force of the ruling powers. Meanwhile, gene-spliced life forms are proliferating: the lion/lamb blends, the Mo'hair sheep with human hair, the pigs with human brain tissue. As Adam One and his intrepid hemp-clad band make their way through this strange new world, Ren and Toby will have to decide on their next move, but they can't stay locked away. (from the MORE Online Library Catalog)
April ... Evil at Heart by Chelsea Cain
Portland detective Archie Sheridan hunted Gretchen Lowell for a decade, and after his last ploy to catch her went spectacularly wrong, remains hospitalized months later. When they last spoke, they entered a detente of sorts---Archie agreed not to kill himself if she agreed not to kill anyone else. But when a new body is found accompanied by Gretchen's trademark heart, all bets are off and Archie is forced back into action. Has the Beauty Killer returned to her gruesome ways, or has the cult surrounding her created a whole new evil? (from the MORE Online Library Catalog)
Bryan ... A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway
Begun in the autumn of 1957 and published posthumously in 1964, Ernest Hemingway's A Moveable Feast captures what it meant to be young and poor and writing in Paris during the 1920s. A correspondent for the Toronto Star, Hemingway arrived in Paris in 1921, three years after the trauma of the Great War and at the beginning of the transformation of Europe's cultural landscape: Braque and Picasso were experimenting with cubist forms; James Joyce, long living in self-imposed exile from his native Dublin, had just completed Ulysses; Gertude Stein held court at 27 rue de Fleurus, and deemed young Ernest a member of rue génération perdue; and T. S. Eliot was a bank clerk in London. It was during these years that the as-of-yet unpublished young writer gathered the material for his first novel, The Sun Also Rises, and the subsequent masterpieces that followed. (from Amazon.com)
Amanda ... The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga
Balram Halwai is a complicated man. Servant. Philosopher. Entrepreneur. Murderer. Over the course of seven nights, by the scattered light of a preposterous chandelier, Balram tells the terrible and transfixing story of how he came to be a success in life--having nothing but his own wits to help him along. (from the MORE Online Library Catalog)
Sarah ... The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
When we first meet Susie Salmon, she is already in heaven. As she looks down from this strange new place, she tells her tale, in the fresh and spirited voice of a fourteen-year-old girl. And in the weeks following her death, Susie watches life continuing without her--rumours about her disappearance, her family's hopes she will be found, her killer covering his tracks. As months pass, her family and friends pass through grief and begin adjusting to the loss, and Susie explores the place called heaven. Everything she ever wanted appears as soon as she thinks of it--except the thing she wants most: to be back with the people she loved on Earth. (from the MORE Online Library Catalog)
Nancy ... Moon Called by Patricia Briggs
Mercy Thompson's life is not exactly normal. Her next-door neighbor is a werewolf. Her former boss is a gremlin. And she's fixing a VW bus for a vampire. But then, Mercy isn't exactly normal herself. (from the MORE Online Library Catalog)
Peter ... Manhood for Amateurs by Michael Chabon
Already less than awed by "alternative" parenting memoirs by moms and dads, many critics seemed primed to dislike Manhood for Amateurs. But Chabon comes out on top, impressing reviewers with his usual balancing act: on the one hand, a multitude of finely examined details, anecdotes, and references; on the other, a solid core of a story. That he could extract such a core greatly impressed some reviewers, although a couple noted that a few of the essays felt as if they had been written for men's magazines—for which they indeed already had. Others found his balancing act not so exceptional in an era of confessional fiction; nevertheless, they were impressed that Chabon could pull it off without falling into the usual pitfalls of the form. (from Bookmarks Magazine, via Amazon.com)
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Least Favorite
Mom ... Of Human Bondage by W. Somerset Maugham
From an orphan with a clubfoot, Philip Carey grows into an impressionable young man with a voracious appetite for adventure and knowledge. Then he falls obsessively in love, embarking on a disastrous relationship that will change his life forever. (from Amazon.com)
April ... Shanghai Girls by Lisa See
In 1937, Shanghai is the Paris of Asia, a city of great wealth and glamour, the home of millionaires and beggars, gangsters and gamblers, patriots and revolutionaries, artists and warlords. Thanks to the financial security and material comforts provided by their father's prosperous rickshaw business, twenty-one-year-old Pearl Chin and her younger sister, May, are having the time of their lives. Though both sisters wave off authority and tradition, they couldn't be more different. Pearl is a Dragon sign, strong and stubborn, while May is a true Sheep, adorable and placid. Both are beautiful, modern, and carefree--until the day their father tells them that he has gambled away their wealth and that in order to repay his debts he must sell the girls as wives to suitors who have traveled from California to find Chinese brides. As Japanese bombs fall on their beloved city, Pearl and May set out on the journey of a lifetime, one that will take them through the Chinese countryside, in and out of the clutches of brutal soldiers, and across the Pacific to the shores of America. In Los Angeles they begin a fresh chapter, trying to find love with the strangers they have married, brushing against the seduction of Hollywood, and striving to embrace American life even as they fight against discrimination, brave Communist witch hunts, and find themselves hemmed in by Chinatown's old ways and rules. (from the MORE Online Library Catalog)
Bryan ... The Poetry and Prose of E.E. Cummings by Robert Wegner
I couldn't find a description. Congrats, b.
Amanda ... Handle With Care by Jodi Picoult
After her daughter contracts a fatal disease, Charlotte O'Keefe must confront some serious questions that ultimately lead to one final epiphany: what constitutes a valuable life. (from the MORE Online Library Catalog)
Sarah ... Son of a Witch by Greg Maguire
Liir is an adolescent boy last seen hiding in the shadows of the castle after Dorothy did in the Witch. Bruised, comatose, and left for dead in a gully, Liir is shattered in spirit as well as in form. But he is tended at the Cloister of Saint Glinda by the silent novice called Candle, who wills him back to life with her musical gifts. What dark force left Liir in this condition? Is he really Elphaba's son? He has her broom and her cape--but what of her powers? Can he find his supposed half-sister, Nor, last seen in the forbidding prison, Southstairs? Can he fulfill the last wishes of a dying princess? In an Oz that, since the Wizard's departure, is under new and dangerous management, can Liir keep his head down long enough to grow up? (from MORE Online Library Catalog)
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Reading Now & What We'll Read Next
Karen ... Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahme-Smith
A mysterious plague has fallen upon the quiet English village of Meryton--and the dead are returning to life! Feisty heroine Elizabeth Bennet is determined to wipe out the zombie menace, but she's soon distracted by the arrival of the haughty and arrogant Mr. Darcy. (from the MORE Online Library Catalog)
Tina ... The Woodlanders by Thomas Hardy
Love, and the erratic heart, are at the centre of Hardy's 'woodland story'. Set in the beautiful Blackmoor Vale, The Woodlanders concerns the fortunes of Giles Winterborne, whose love for the well-to-do Grace Melbury is challenged by the arrival of the dashing and dissolute doctor, Edred Fitzpiers. When the mysterious Felice Charmond further complicates the romantic entanglements, marital choice and class mobility become inextricably linked. Hardy's powerful novel depicts individuals in thrall to desire and the natural law that motivates them. (from Shelfari.com)
Mom ... The Robber Bride by Margaret Atwood
Margaret Atwood's The Robber Bride is inspired by "The Robber Bridegroom," a wonderfully grisly tale from the Brothers Grimm in which an evil groom lures three maidens into his lair and devours them, one by one. But in her version, Atwood brilliantly recasts the monster as Zenia, a villainess of demonic proportions, and sets her loose in the lives of three friends, Tony, Charis, and Roz. All three "have lost men, spirit, money, and time to their old college acquaintance, Zenia. At various times, and in various emotional disguises, Zenia has insinuated her way into their lives and practically demolished them. To Tony, who almost lost her husband and jeopardized her academic career, Zenia is 'a lurking enemy commando.' To Roz, who did lose her husband and almost her magazine, Zenia is 'a cold and treacherous bitch.' To Charis, who lost a boyfriend, quarts of vegetable juice and some pet chickens, Zenia is a kind of zombie, maybe 'soulless'" (Lorrie Moore, New York Times Book Review ). In love and war, illusion and deceit, Zenia's subterranean malevolence takes us deep into her enemies' pasts. (from Shelfari.com)
April ... Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Few have failed to be charmed by the witty and independent spirit of Elizabeth Bennet. Her early determination to dislike Mr. Darcy is a prejudice only matched by the folly of his arrogant pride. Their first impressions give way to true feelings in a comedy profoundly concerned with happiness and how it might be achieved. (from Amazon.com)
April will read ... Mr. Darcy, Vampyre by Amanda Grange
Sourcebooks Landmark, the leading publisher of Jane Austen-related fiction, is excited to announce a major release : Mr. Darcy, Vampyre by international bestselling author Amanda Grange. Amanda Grange, bestselling author of Mr. Darcy's Diary , gives us something completely new—a delightfully thrilling, paranormal Pride and Prejudice sequel, full of danger, darkness and deep romantic love… Amanda Grange's style and wit bring readers back to Jane Austen's timeless storytelling, but always from a very unique and unusual perspective, and now Grange is back with an exciting and completely new take on Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet. Mr. Darcy, Vampyre starts where Pride and Prejudice ends and introduces a dark family curse so perfectly that the result is a delightfully thrilling, spine-chilling, breathtaking read. A dark, poignant and visionary continuation of Austen's beloved story, this tale is full of danger, darkness and immortal love. (from Shelfari.com)
after that, April will read ... Angels of Destruction by Keith Donahue
The novel opens on a winter's night, when a young girl appears at the home of Mrs. Margaret Quinn, a widow who lives alone. A decade earlier, she had lost her only child, Erica, who fled with her high school sweetheart to join a radical student group knows as the Angels of Destruction. Before Margaret answers the knock in the dark hours, she whispers a prayer and then makes her visitor welcome at the door. The girl, who claims to be nine years old and an orphan with no place to go, beguiles Margaret, offering some solace, some compensation, for the woman's loss. Together, they hatch a plan to pass her off as her newly found granddaughter, Norah Quinn, and enlist Sean Fallon, a classmate and heartbroken boy, to guide her into school and town. Their conspiracy is vulnerable not only to those children and neighbors intrigued by Norah's mysterious and magical qualities but by a lone figure shadowing the girl who threatens to reveal the child's true identity and her purpose in Margaret's life. Who are these strangers really? And what is their connection to the past, the Angels, and the long-missing daughter? (from the MORE Online Library Catalog)
and then April will read ... The Day the Falls Stood Still
Ontario, 1915: the dawn of the hydroelectric power era in Niagara Falls. Seventeen-year-old Bess Health has led a sheltered existence as the youngest daughter of the director of the Niagara Power Company. After graduation day at her boarding school, she is impatient to return to her picturesque family home near Niagara Falls. But when she arrives, nothing is as she had left it. Her father has lost his job at the power company, her mother is reduced to taking in sewing from the society ladies she once entertained, and Isabel, her vivacious older sister, is a shadow of her former self. She has shut herself in her bedroom, barely eating--and harboring a secret. The night of her return, Bess meets Tom Cole by chance on a trolley platform. She finds herself inexplicably drawn to him--against her family's strong objections. He is not from their world. Rough-hewn and fearless, he lives off what the river provides and has an uncanny ability to predict the whims of the falls. His daring river rescues render him a local hero and cast him as a threat to the power companies that seek to harness the power of the falls for themselves. As their lives become more fully entwined, Bess is forced to make a painful choice between what she wants and what is best for her family and her future. (from the MORE Online Library Catalog)
Bryan ... Wayward Girls and Wicked Women, ed. Angela Carter
Again, can't find a description. A book of short stories by various women throughout history, including Angela Carter who, in my personal opinion, is a kick-ass short story writer.
Sarah ... The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova
Discovering a medieval book and a cache of letters, a motherless American girl becomes the latest in a series of historians, including her late father, who investigate the possible surviving legacy of Vlad the Impaler. (from the MORE Online Library Catalog)
Amanda ... And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks by Jack Kerouac and William S. Burroughs
In the summer of 1944, a shocking murder rocked the fledgling Beats. William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac, both still unknown, were inspired by the crime to collaborate on a novel, a hard-boiled tale of bohemian New York during World War II, full of drugs and art, obsession and brutality, with scenes and characters drawn from their own lives. Finally published after more than sixty years, this is a captivating read, an incomparable literary artifact, and a window into the lives and art of two of the twentieth century's most influential writers. (from the back of the book)
Nancy ... Blood Bound by Patricia Briggs
Mechanic Mercy Thompson has friends in low places-and in dark ones. And now she owes one of them a favor. Since she can shapeshift at will, she agrees to act as some extra muscle when her vampire friend Stefan goes to deliver a message to another of his kind. But this new vampire is hardly ordinary-and neither is the demon inside of him. (from Shelfari.com)
Peter ... The Surrogates: Flesh and Bone by Robert Venditti
In a dark, downtown alley in Central Georgia Metropolis, a juvenile prank goes too far and a homeless man is killed. When the ensuing investigation reveals that the attackers aren't who they appeared to be, justice depends on the testimony of a single missing witness - a street snitch with a history of providing information to a cop named Harvey Greer. Harvey is placed on special assignment to track down the informant, but others have their own designs, including a wealthy socialite and an ex-con turned religious leader known to his followers as The Prophet. As days pass and anger among the anti-surrogate population grows, the city stands on a razor's edge. Will punishment be exacted in a courtroom or on the streets? Set fifteen years prior to the events of the original Surrogates graphic novel, Flesh & Bone sheds light on the past that binds the cast together. From the streets of Central Georgia Metropolis to the boardroom of Virtual Self, Inc., Flesh & Bone takes us on a journey through a city struggling to come to grips with its present. Not only a suspenseful thriller but also a cautionary tale, this book reminds us that tomorrow will be determined by the choices we make today. (from Shelfari.com)
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Quote Quorner
"I slogged through Of Human Bondage."
-Mom, complete with disdainful eye-roll
"It made me want to stab myself in the head."
-Sarah, about Son of Witch
Amanda: "I'm reading And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks."
Nancy: Aww! Poor hippos!
Sarah: It was good eatin', though.
