Addiction to Books

I have totally been there. When I finished the Harry Potter series, the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and most Jane Austen novels.

How about you? Have you ever read a book that you adored so much you just couldn't bring yourself to start something different for a while?

Geekery: iPhone Case

Need an iPhone case? Well, I think this one is preeeeetty cool. Han Solo Groovin in Carbonite on Etsy

Do you have an iPhone or iPod? Do you keep yours in a case?

Librarians Pick of the Week: The Book of a Thousand Days

Title: The Book of a Thousand Days
Author: Shannon Hale
Genre: Historical Fiction
Published: 2007
Age: 12+

Synopsis: When Dashti, a maid, and Lady Saren, her mistress, are shut in a tower for seven years for Saren's refusal to marry a man she despises, the two prepare for a very long and dark imprisonment. As food runs low and the days go from broiling hot to freezing cold, it is all Dashti can do to keep them fed and comfortable. But the arrival outside the tower of Saren's two suitors--one welcome, and the other decidedly less so--brings both hope and great danger, and Dashti must make the desperate choices of a girl whose life is worth more than she knows. With Shannon Hale's lyrical language, this forgotten but classic fairy tale from the Brothers Grimm is reimagined and reset on the central Asian steppes; it is a completely unique retelling filled with adventure and romance, drama and disguise.

Review: The author of the Newbery Honor Book Princess Academy (2005) offers another captivating fantasy filled with romance, magic, and strong female characters. The story, based on a little-known fairy tale from the Brothers Grimm, takes place in an imagined ancient Central Asia. Orphaned Dashti is a hardworking, pragmatic girl, who grew up in the open, windswept steppes. She finds work in the city with a young noblewoman, Lady Saren. Then Lady Saren refuses an advantageous marriage, and as punishment, she and Dashti are sentenced to seven years in a sealed tower. A tiny window is the tower's only connection to the outside world, and it's there that Saren's two suitors, the terrifying Khasar and the handsome Tegus, come calling. Written in diary form in Dashti's voice, the gripping tale follows the two young women through their imprisonment and their escape into a grim world of warring societies. Readers will quickly embrace Dashti, an invincible storybook heroine with a healer's touch, who accomplishes battlefield heroics while nurturing a powerful, secret love for a lord. Fans of Gail Carson Levin's Fairest (2006) will embrace this similar mix of exotic, fully realized setting; thrilling, enchanted adventure; and heart-melting romance. - Booklist

If you're intrigued, don't forget to check our library's catalog for this book!

New Arrivals!!

These are the newest additions to our Young Adult collection.  Click the covers to read more about the book!

September 1st - 15th

Librarian's Pick of the Week: Sabriel

Title: Sabriel
Author: Fantasy
Genre: Garth Nix
Published: 1994
Age: 12+

Synopsis: Sabriel, daughter of the necromancer Abhorsen, must journey into the mysterious and magical Old Kingdom to rescue her father from the Land of the Dead.

Review: The mage Abhorsen is an "uncommon necromancer," who, rather than raising the dead like others of the art, lays the dead back to rest or binds those that will not rest. Sabriel, his daughter, has been sent for her safety to boarding school outside the Old Kingdom, where she is in her last year when she receives her father's sword and necromancy tools, which means that Abhorsen is either dead or trapped in the realm of Death. Determined to find her father, Sabriel enters the Old Kingdom, which is under attack from the minions of Kerrigor, an evil being who once was human. There, with the aid of Mogget, a Free Magic elemental who is bound in feline form to be the servant of Abhorsen, and Touchstone, a young man whose past harbors a terrible secret, Sabriel goes up against Dead spirits, Shadow Hands, gore crows, and the like, in a desperate quest to find her father's body and fetch his spirit back from Death. Nix has created an ingenious, icy world in the throes of chaos as Kerrigor works to destroy the Charter that binds all things for the good of the land and its inhabitants. The action charges along at a gallop, imbued with an encompassing sense of looming disaster. Sabriel, who entered the Old Kingdom lacking much of the knowledge she needs, proves to be a stalwart heroine, who, in the end, finds and accepts her destiny. A page-turner for sure, this intricate tale compares favorably with Philip Pullman's The Golden Compass. - Booklist

If you're intrigued, don't forget to check our library's catalog for this book!

Geekery: Van Gogh Meets LOTR

Say "Hallo!" to Sauron in fine art.

Librarian's Pick of the Week: The Goblin Wood

Title: The Goblin Wood
Author: Hilari Bell
Genre: Fantasy
Published: 2003
Age: 12+

Synopsis: When young hedgewitch Makenna witnesses the murder of her mother by their neighbors, she flees to the forest and forms an unexpected alliance with an army of goblins and leads an attack on the humans--who are now their common enemy.

Review: After her mother is drowned as a sorceress, young hedgewitch Makenna flees into the woodlands. While there, she accidentally antagonizes some goblins, who plague her until she captures one, Cogswhallop, and inadvertently puts him in her debt. As she travels with Cogswhallop, she learns goblin rules about repaying a favor, and she soon finds herself united with goblins in a battle against the ruling Hierarchy, bent on eradicating all magical creatures. Five years later, a young knight comes to Goblin Wood to trap a powerful human sorceress who is thought to lead an army of enslaved goblins. By this time, Makenna has become a strategist par excellence and the Hierarchy's greatest threat. Leavened by humor and a dollop of romance, this well-crafted fantasy adventure demonstrates Bell's talent for creating enduring characters and worlds. It also has a cliffhanger ending that begs a sequel.

If you're intrigued, don't forget to check our library's catalog for this book!

New Arrivals!!

August 16th - 31st

 

Roald Dahl Mugs

Who wouldn't want to drink hot chocolate from one of these delightful cups!? As a Roald Dahl superfan, I think I'd take the Matilda cup, pleaseandthankyou.

Librarian's Pick of the Week: Witch Child

Title: Witch Child
Author:  Celia Rees
Genre: Historical Fiction
Published: 2000
Age:  13+

Synopsis: The year is 1659, a time of fear and lies. For Mary Newbury, it is a time of desperation. While she watches, unable to intervene, her wise and beloved grandmother is falsely condemned, tortured, and hanged as a witch. Soon the relentless crowd may turn upon Mary. When a mysterious stranger offers her a way out -- safe passage to America -- she knows she must go. But she doesn't know that the turbulent voyage will bring her to yet another society where differences are feared and defiance is deadly.

Review: "I am Mary. I am a witch." Thus begins the journal of Mary Newbury, writing in the spring of 1659 as she watches her beloved grandmother being tortured and hung as a witch in her English village. Before the crowd can turn on Mary, she is whisked away and placed on a ship headed for America. Although Mary finds a new "family" and friends who understand and believe in her, her new surroundings are not a safe harbor. Witches are blamed for every death, every poor harvest, every strange phenomenon, and the lovely, aloof young Mary who finds solace in the forest and her few friends is immediately suspect. The terrifying, insidious climate of fear and blame is palpable in this work of historical fiction. The journal format is so convincing that teens may believe that Mary actually existed, and the story opens the way to ponder such issues as the destructive nature of fear and the power of a mob. - Booklist

If you're intrigued, don't forget to check our library's catalog for this book!