Tag Archives: reading

Historical Fantasy

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Do you enjoy reading fantasy? What about historical fiction? If you’re a fan of both, you might enjoy one of these historical fantasies, books that have fantastic elements but which are based on historical events. Some books are set in a place almost the same as our world, and some are quite different, but all of them are pretty great!

For adults:

Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke: English magic has died out, or so everyone thinks. Those who call themselves magicians are scholars of magic, rather than practitioners. It is a shock for everyone when a gentleman named Gilbert Norrell demonstrates undoubtable magical ability. Eventually he takes a pupil named Jonathan Strange, whose approach is as different from Mr. Norrell’s as night from day. This book tells their story, in effortless and beautiful prose.

His Majesty’s Dragon, and sequels, by Naomi Novik: Best described as Master and Commander with dragons, His Majesty’s Dragon follows the British Navy’s Captain Laurence as he unwillingly becomes a dragon captain. Full of adventure and intrigue, this is a great series!

The Curse of Chalion, and sequels, by Lois McMaster Bujold: Three in a planned five-book series, the Chalion books take place in a world roughly analogous to early Renaissance Spain. There are plenty of courtly intrigues and a few good battles, and even a little bit of romance.

For teens:

Chime by Franny Billingsley: I know I’ve already said I enjoyed Chime a lot. One of the reasons for that is the fantastic setting, which takes its inspiration from the atmosphere of the English fen country in the early 1900s. That sounds kind of boring, but it’s a great way to look at a changing world, with an added sense of gloomy atmosphere and tension.

Foundling, and sequels, by D.M. Cornish: Probably geared toward younger teens, Cornish tells the story of Rossamünd, a Foundling in the Half-Continent, a world something like Baroque Europe. Cornish spent years inventing this world, and his work shows. He’s also a skilled artist whose drawings add depth and realism to the story.

The Thief, and sequels, by Megan Whalen Turner: This is one of my all-time favorite series, so I take every chance I can to mention it. But really, it’s also a great example of historical fantasy, with a meticulously-detailed world based on Byzantine Greece. With plenty of twists and surprises, plus awesome characters, this is definitely one to check out!

The Vespertine by Saundra Mitchell: A neat book by an Indianapolis author! Set in the high society of Baltimore in 1889, The Vespertine tells the story of a girl who is not what she seems to be. Mitchell nails the voice from the beginning of the book and I totally bought the romance. A nice blend of authentic detail and contemporary drama.

For younger readers:

The Wolves of Willoughby Chase, and sequels, by Joan Aiken: This book is the first in the series of the same name. In an England that never was, wolves are crossing the ice to threaten London. Meanwhile Sylvia must escape from an orphanage with the help of Simon the gooseboy. Madcap fun.

The Cabinet of Wonders, and sequels, by Marie Rutkoski: Set in 17th century Prague, The Cabinet of Wonders and its sequels tell the story of Petra Kronos, daughter of a master metal-worker whose ability to work metal with his mind lands him on the wrong side of the mad Prince of Bohemia. Petra is a fantastic, spunky character, and Rutkoski writes a chilling, thrilling story.

Kat, Incorrigible by Stephanie Burgis: Set in Regency England, this is the story of Kat Stephenson, the youngest of three sisters. While Elissa and Angeline try to be proper young ladies, Kat doesn’t care for polite society, or its decrees that magic is improper. Kat is a great character and her trials and tribulations are at times hilariously funny.

~Maureen

Cozy Mysteries

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There’s nothing I like better than to curl up with a good, curious mystery book.  Whether it’s during my lunch break, on the couch in the evening, just before bed, on an airplane, on the beach, in a waiting room…doesn’t matter where.  I love a good murder mystery!

The literary establishment calls them “cozy mysteries”.  I call them entertaining.  A brief step out of reality.  Not only do I get to work on honing my detective skills while reading, I often learn a new recipe or tip for brewing a good cup of tea.  My husband thinks the titles are funny—like Scones and Bones,  Hail to the Chef or Scrub-a-Dub Dead.

Two websites that are especially good for finding cozy mysteries are:

www.stopyourekillingme.com

www.cozy-mystery.com

Both places will help you find authors to read, find the books in chronological order (a must-have if you’re reading an authors series), and alert you to upcoming titles and new authors.  Plainfield-Guilford Township Public Library belongs to Evergreen, which means if you can’t locate a title in our collection, you can most likely find one at another Evergreen library and have it sent here for you!

Some of my favorite cozy mystery authors are:

(And yes, I know…they’re all female writers!)

If you’re in the mood for something light, fun, and entertaining—why not try a cozy mystery?  If you need a suggestion, I’ll be glad to help!

~Reann

Meet Jessica

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Working upstairs in Administration at the library means I don’t always have the opportunity to meet everyone, so I thought I would introduce myself. My name is Jessica, and I am the Financial Manager. Once a month I have the privilege of helping out downstairs, which I really do enjoy. I have been working here for just over a year, but because I have been a library fan and patron for almost 15 years, it feels like I’ve been here all along.

The primary reasons for my visits early on were for the wonderful children’s programming. My children were signed up for just about every age-appropriate program possible. I’d get the most current program calendar to see what they could do next! After the program was over, exploring books and puzzles and toys was just another reason they couldn’t wait to get here. And, I’ll be honest, it was a great break for me too! The activities that are currently offered here continue to be outstanding. And though my kids have outgrown the programs that they attended as little ones, (we do still love Silly Safaris! Sign up for the June 2 Silly Safaris “Creatures of the NIGHT” after May 1!) there are great activities in the children’s and teen area for them as they get older.

My mom is another big library fan, and would be the first to tell you that she would not have ever considered the idea that she would enjoy reading books electronically. But because of the great services offered here, she found the joy of virtual book borrowing. She still loves to thumb through the pages of a good book, but now knows she has the best of both worlds. So, from kiddos to grandmas, our library is a treasure for everyone, no matter what age, and continues to be a place where we love to be.      

~Jessica

Maureen Loves ALA Book Awards!

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On January 23rd, the ALA awards, including the Caldecott, Newbery, and Printz were announced. Because I care a bit too much, I watched the live webcast from Dallas. It was pretty neat to see the reaction from the people in the audience, and all the book lovers watching and tweeting.

Shamefully, I hadn’t and haven’t read the Newbery winner or either of the Honor books. But I have read four of the five Printz books.

What won:
Where Things Come Back by John Corey Whalley

Honor books:
Why We Broke Up by Daniel Handler
The Returning by Christine Hinwood
Jasper Jones by Craig Silvey
The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater

Full disclosure: I may have screamed a little bit when The Returning and The Scorpio Races were announced. Both were among my favorite books of 2011 and I was totally on board with their Honors.

I hadn’t read Where Things Come Back at the time of the announcement, but I have now. It’s a strong book, well-written and interesting. At the same time, I feel like it has stereotypical Printz winner written all over it. It’s contemporary realistic fiction, with a self-aware male narrator and a plot that hints at bad things happening but ultimately resolves tidily.

More disclosure: I’m a huge fantasy fan and I think it’s a shame that the Printz award has never gone to a science fiction or fantasy book. You can make a case for last year’s Ship Breaker being science fiction, but I don’t tend to think of it in that category. (It’s still a fantastic book.) At any rate, here are a few of the books I think could have been Printz contenders, which ultimately weren’t honored. And either The Returning or The Scorpio Races could have easily won, in my opinion.

Chime by Franny Billingsley: Billingsley is a sadly under-rated author in my opinion. Chime, her second book, features a strong narrator, a mystery, and the intriguing first line, “I’ve confessed to everything and I’d like to be hanged. Now, if you please.” Briony’s narration might put some readers off a bit, but I found it extremely compelling.

Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor: This one has been hugely popular since it was published, with good reason. Taylor’s writing is effortless and beautiful, and the depiction of Karou’s two worlds is amazing. However, it probably suffered from the fact that it was very obviously the first in a series, rather than a stand-alone.

Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson: Johnson has been pretty much a contemporary realistic writer until Name of the Star, which takes a turn for the paranormal. It’s fairly light-hearted, despite the subject matter, but the mystery is wonderfully plotted and the characters are a lot of fun.

Blood Red Road by Moira Young: A gritty dystopia, more along the lines of Patrick Ness’s Knife of Never Letting Go than, say, Divergent or Matched. As with Chime, Blood Red Road features a narration style that not all readers will enjoy. But Saba is a fantastic main character, prickly and tender at the same time.

As I made up this list, I noticed that all of these books have a common thread. They’re mostly first person (Daughter of Smoke and Bone is the exception), by female authors and with female narrators. They’re all some brand of fantasy. So clearly, I have my own biases when it comes to YA books. Still, I think that choosing a book outside the comfortable stereotypes of the Printz award would open up the medal to a new audience.

Agree? Disagree? Have a book you think should have been awarded or honored? Tell us in the comments!

True Crime: Serial Killers

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My curiosity regarding serial killers began during my second semester at Marian College in 2004. I was taking a speech class and we all were given an assignment where we were to present an informational speech. I had recently read an article on a serial killer who had been captured in Asia that had both chilled and fascinated me. So, without much thought as to what I might discover, I signed up to research and present a speech on serial killers.

I began my research on serial killers on www.crimelibrary.com. The website had an entire section just for serial killers and I went through page after page reading about the horrible deeds these people committed. After finding out about some of the more well-known serial killers, I searched for books at the library. I was thankful that the Plainfield-Guilford Township Public Library had a large true crime section. I checked out the book My Life Among the Serial Killers by Helen Morrison, M.D. The book is written by a forensic psychiatrist who interviewed and profiled more than eighty serial killers, all the way from John Wayne Gacy, to Ed Gein to Richard Macek. 

I was chilled by the stories I read, but also strangely pulled in. It was difficult for me to believe that we walk this earth with people who are capable of such horrible actions. After my speech I found myself continuing to read books and do research on serial killers. Last year I read Erik Laron’s Devil in the White City, a novel about the infamous serial killer H. H. Holmes who killed dozens of fairgoers during Chicago’s 1893 World Fair. Recently I read I, Monster by Tom Philbin. This book is by far the most unnerving book about serial killers I have read, as nearly all of it is pieces of writing from actual serial killers. At one point while reading the book I hid it in my car while I slept at night. It really shook me up.

Now, just to set the record straight: I read other things besides books about serial killers. I am a non-fiction fan, so true life stories are always calling my name. Several people know about my strange serial killer curiosity and joke about it with me. I am sure I am not the only person on this earth who finds this topic interesting.

Joanna amidst a favorite non-fiction subject of hers: true crime & serial killers

What is something you have an odd curiosity about? Please share them with us in the comments below!

~~Joanna

Meet Maureen…

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Hi everyone! I’m Maureen, and I work in the Children’s Room at PGTPL. I’ve been here since August 2011.
Libraries have always been a big part of my life, from when I was little and one of our treats was going to the ‘Big Library‘ in our city. My parents were also big supporters of my reading habit. They had always read to me and my siblings before we were old enough to read on our own. When we could pick out our own books, we would take an old canvas laundry bag to the library and fill it up. I remember graduating to the chapter book area, and then branching out into the teen and adult sections.
When I was in middle school, the school librarian took me under her wing and let me check out as many books as I wanted to. In high school, I volunteered in the school library before school started and in my study halls.
In college, I worked in the circulation department of my university’s library. This is when I really started to consider working in libraries after I graduated. I knew it was something that I enjoyed a lot and would be happy doing in the future. But I also knew that I wanted to work in a public library, where you can meet all kinds of interesting people, and that I was more interested in children’s and teen literature than in adult.
When I graduated, I spent over a year looking for a job. I kept interviewing and eventually applied for a Children’s Assistant position at PGTPL. I had never even seen it before I arrived for the interview, but I was immediately impressed by how friendly everyone was.  I was very excited when I found out I got the job! I’ve only been working here for a few months, but I’m still impressed by how friendly and committed all my fellow staff members are. Yay PGTPL!

Judging a Book by the Cover

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Some very plain books have wonderful, exciting stories inside. That’s why we say “Never judge a book by the cover.” It’s true of people too, that’s why we say “Still waters run deep.”

But let’s face it, when it comes to picking library books, what the cover looks like is a factor, and it’s hard to know much from the spine! That’s why in the Children’s Room we have put a whole lot of books ‘face out’ to inspire you. If you want help, ask us – we are experts at finding things and pretty friendly, too. If you see a book on display that looks good, of course you can check it out- and 99 of its friends!

The Bad Beginning is the first book in the funny and sarcastic Series of Unfortunate Events. Full of orphans, despicable villains, and plenty of melodrama, this cover doesn’t begin to suggest the humor inside.

The Story of Ferdinand has been around since 1936 (not this copy.) If people didn’t love it, it would be long gone -like nearly every other book from 1936. The cover doesn’t shout READ ME! but that might be too screechy for this story of a gentle bull who prefers to sit in the shade and smell the flowers.

~~Jan

And the Winner Is…

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You’ve all been wondering….

You decided to subscribe to follow the blog to receive awesome, funny, totally informative and cool news from your favorite library’s new blog, and well… the potential to win Panera Bread for a year was a great incentive, too. So who won?

Liddy is our bread-loving winner! She’s won a certificate to receive Panera Bread for an entire year.

But don’t be sad if you’re not Liddy. There’ll be plenty more opportunities to win things, plus you’ll be up-to-date with what’s going on in the library, and being able to communicate with us here isn’t bad, either. In fact, head to the library lobby tomorrow at 3:00pm and say the magic words “Be a Smart Cookie: READ!” to get a tub of Papa Murphy’s chocolate chip cookie dough while supplies last.

Congratulations, Liddy!!

Tales of a Library-aholic

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Michelle Peltier

Hello all. I’m Michelle, and I’m a Library-aholic. 

I have loved coming to the library since I was young. I remember walking into the old children’s room and seeing Paula Gilmour’s smiling face at the desk. I remember the yellow and orange paint. I remember picking out Mary Poppins to watch with my grandma. The library was always a fun place when I was little.

Fast forward to 2007…I just moved back to Plainfield after an out-of-state move. I was a new mom, new wife, and moving home after being away for six years was a little scary. I began stopping by the library as often as I could because it felt familiar, even though the building, staff, and I had changed. I took comfort in knowing that I could learn something new every time I checked out a book: from trying to figure out how to raise a kid, to learning about how to deal with financial stress, to figuring out how to cook dinner without making something from a box every night.

I have been jealous of my friend Laura Brack, the PPL Tech Goddess, because of her library gig she started over 10 years ago. In October 2010, Laura informed me of a 12 hour per week job opening in Youth Services, so I jumped at the chance to interview even though I was already working 40 to 50 hours per week. I scored the position, started in November 2010, and continued to work my full time job and part time at the library until the day before I gave birth to my youngest son. After I came back to work from maternity leave, I left my full time job and took the Librarian’s Assistant position in area T. I now work primarily with the YA fiction collection.

Even though I work at the library, I still bring my kids in on my days off. I feel like it’s important to instill a respect and admiration for libraries, learning, and play. I love reading to my oldest son at bedtime, and I hope to add my youngest to our book club when he’s old enough to not chew on the books when he sees them.

And even though I’m busy with two kids under the age of four, a husband, a dog, a job, a garden, I could go on…I still make myself read every day. I think if one stops reading, one stops learning, and that’s important enough to me to keep on.

~Michelle

Winter Reading Club 2012: Be a Smart Cookie!

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It’s no secret I’m a cookie fanatic. I rarely turn down a cookie, especially if there’s chocolate involved. Chocolate chunk, snicker doodle, sugar, peanut butter, no-bake, you name it, I’m game. Throw in a glass of ice cold milk and I’m all set.

Are you drooling on your keyboard about right now? Good! The reason I’ve got cookies on my mind is because of the library’s Winter Reading Club theme, Be A Smart Cookie – Read! What’s the Winter Reading Club, you ask? It’s a winter-long reading program that encourages people of all ages to read during the winter months (Jan. 14 – Feb. 29).

Adults, teens and children can register for the Winter Reading Club online at www.plainfieldlibrary.net. Once you start logging your books in your online reading log you will automatically be entered for a chance to win the grand prize. The adult grand prize is a Kindle, the teen prize is a bundle of gift cards to Hot Topic, Rave, Starbucks and Cold Stone, and the children’s grand prize is a Winter Reading gift basket full of goodies. Throughout the Winter Reading Club we will be doing random prize drawings for Papa Murphy’s Pizza cookie dough tubs, too!

Sign-up for the Winter Reading Club today and start reading!

   

~Joanna