Where you can find more reviews, library/book humor, and infographics

We've an active presence on Facebook -- https://www.facebook.com/Mendocino.County.Library

on Pinterest --  http://pinterest.com/ukiahlibrary/boards/ 

and on Goodreads --http://www.goodreads.com/MendocinoCountyLibrary


We'd love to share more good books and library events with you and hear about the awesome books you've discovered.

For example, I just posted a comment about Dick and Jane and Vampires on Pinterest. It's silly, I know, but when I first saw the cover, I thought, "Finally, those kids are going to get it. Hopefully, Spot goes down too." Bad thoughts, but hey, I HATED those readers when I was a kid. I wanted to read REAL books.

Books we've read and listed on Goodreads recently include M.J. McGraths' White Heat and Jodi Picoult's The Storyteller.

 So--link up with us. 

posted by Anne Shirako

The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman

The latest adult novel from Neil Gaiman--a fantastical piece featuring a 7 year old boy who stumbles into a magical and incredibly dangerous reality, where no one is as they seem. I have no idea what this book "means," but I REALLY like it. Tender, intriguing, mystifying, and horrifying all in one shortish story. Check it out.

Briefly reviewed by Anne Shirako, Reference Librarian, Ukiah Branch

Airtight by David Rosenfelt

David Rosenfelt is one of my light favorite mystery writers—I adore his Andy Carpenter series with its dry humor and abundance of golden retrievers. So, when I began Airtight, I was hoping for more Andy and not a little bit disappointed that this newest book features neither Carpenter or goldies. To tell the truth, I continued reading it just because I didn’t have any other TBR books at home. And then, little by little, I was sucked in until I found that I couldn’t put Airtight down. 

That’s one great job of turning a reluctant reader into an eager one, Mr. Rosenfelt.

After a newly appointed judge is murdered, Lt. Luke Somers is told to find the killer and close the case as quickly as possible. When Luke tries to interview a young drug addict and sees a gun in his hand, he shoots in self-defense. Case closed, until…

The junkie’s older brother, back from Special Forces duty, desires revenge and after kidnapping Luke’s brother, gives Luke seven days to find the real murderer and save Luke’s brother from a suffocating death.

Desperate to rescue his brother, Luke runs pell-mell after any and all possible alternative murder scenarios. 

Pick up a copy of Airtight and let us know what you think. 

Reviewed by Anne Shirako, Reference Librarian, Ukiah Branch

Fooling Houdini: Magicians, Mentalists, Math Geeks and the Hidden Powers of the Mind by Alex Stone

Fooling Houdini: Magicians, Mentalists, Math Geeks, and the Hidden Powers of the Mind, by Alex Stone 

Why would a physics PhD student leave Columbia University to study magic? Why do we enjoy being fooled? What does math have to do with it? Answers to these questions and more can be found in Fooling Houdini: Magicians, Mentalists, Math Geeks, and the Hidden Powers of the Mind, by Alex Stone.

Stone was enchanted at age six when he received a magic kit. Enthralled, he immediately began showing off his magic “skills” to everyone he could wheedle into watching. It wasn’t until after he was hauled off the stage in disgrace at the World Championships of Magic in 2008 that he became serious about studying and practicing the magic arts.

Stone’s book is part memoir, part investigation into the hidden subculture of magicians (and street-side con men), and part a look into how and why magicians can fools us—a personal journey rather than a textbook. Obfuscation, distraction, and endless hours of practice all have their part in the success of an illusion. Stone explains how inattentional or perceptual blindness, the “failure to notice an unexpected stimulus that is in plain sight” (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inattentional_blindness), is used by magicians to bamboozle their audiences. He describes how the classic short cons (three card Monte and the shell game), well orchestrated ,multi-casted street theater acts, work to fleece carefully selected suckers; how he can distract a patsy while snatching his watch; and how psychics are able (well, actually not) to read minds.

In addition, Stone reveals some of the math and science behind conjuror’s tricks. For example, shuffling, on the average, must be done seven times to mix the deck--a hypothesis tested out by Perci Diaconis, a Harvard mathematician and magician. Shuffling only one or two times still allows the card magician to see out-of-order cards. This mathematical discovery not only tightened up casino security, it strangely enough also had significant impact on the medicine mixing strategies of pharmaceutical companies.

                                                                                                                 

Being a muggle, I didn’t know that there is a world class magic library, The Conjuring Arts Research Center, in New York City. Like Hermione, serious magicians search here for ancient magical secrets. “‘If you want to fool magicians…you’re not going to fool them with a new move. You’re going to fool them with some hundred-year-old mathematical principle…Go dig up some ancient book. Go to the library’” (emphasis gleefully added).

If you’re a budding magician or a mathematician, request Perci Diaconis’ book, Magical Mathematics, the Mathematical Ideas that Animate Great Magic Tricks (793.85 Diaconis) from our catalog. Stone refers to Diaconis as a “naturally gifted magician [and] an underground legend.” Why not learn from the best?

UPDATE. We’re happy to announce, especially for our magic enthusiasts, that we now have the documentary Make Believe, the Battle to Become the World’s Best Teen Magician, in our library. Make Believe follows the journeys of six young magicians from around the planet as they vie for the title of Teen World Champion of Magic. What's more, the magicians share card trick tutorials in the Bonus Materials.

Reviewed by Anne Shirako, Reference Librarian, Ukiah Branch, Mendocino County Library, 3/2013

Gone Girl, A Novel by Gillian Flynn

  The sheer number of reviews, the high accolades, and the number of inclusions on “Best of 2012” lists make even thinking about reviewing Gone Girl a daunting challenge. So, just let me say, it’s an exciting psychological thriller and worthy of the praise (and high sales figures) it has received.

I wasn’t intrigued at the beginning, however. Just for starters, I didn’t really like either Nick or Amy, whose marriage dissolves in this book. For that matter, I didn’t like anyone in Gone Girl, except perhaps, Nick’s twin sister, Go. Amy’s parents, psychologists both, made their fortunes writing a series of children’s books, Amazing Amy…based on the exploits of their “perfect” daughter—a fantasy perfect child that the real Amy can’t possibly emulate. Nick has his own demons—for example, his angry misogynistic father, now afflicted with Alzheimer’s, who once told his son, “There are all kinds of men…and you are the wrong kind.”

Amy, well, who is Amy anyway? We only know her from her diaries and from Nick’s inner monologue. She says she’s a sweet loving wife, “fat with love! Husky with ardor! Morbidly obsessed with devotion! A happy, busy bumblebee of marital enthusiasms.” Nick however, feels cold toward Amy and acts as though she were made of razor wire.

And Nick? Is he just a corn-fed putz from flyover country and a disaffected trembling husband?  Why then does he see the sun as an “angry eye in the sky.” It’s noon when he says, “My gut twisted and I moved quicker. I needed a drink.” Is he angry enough, motivated enough, devious enough murder his wife, then pretend innocence?

Fair warning: Gone Girl will take you on a journey through dysfunction, through pathology, through an ugliness that will astound you. The language is raw, the characters are malicious, and the relationships are toxic and destructive, twisted beyond understanding. That said, it’s an engrossing read.

As always, we welcome your comments and feedback.

Anne Shirako, Reference Librarian, Ukiah Library

Precious by Sapphire.

Precious, based on the novel Push by Sapphire, read by Bahni Turpin.

If you’ve heard about Precious or watched the movie derived from it, you’ve heard that it’s rough, with almost no smooth corners. It’s hard to write about this book and it was hard to listen to this story of a pregnant teenager with no love or human kindness in her life. But, I think this story should be shared, and this audiobook is a wonderful way to experience it.

Warning—language is raw, raw, raw. Subjects are raw, raw, raw. No need to pick this one up if you prefer to listen to cozy mysteries or Mitford novels. The violence in Precious makes The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series seem like gentle reads, but it is not Precious who is acting violently. It is violence perpetrated on her as a child and as a teen: rape, physical and emotional abuse, bullying. No wonder Precious wonders “why me?”

I’m not naive about rape or incest statistics in this country, but it is still hard for me to imagine a life as truly horrific as Precious’. I can’t imagine rising out of her life, no matter how brilliant my teacher is. Do kids like this manage to resurrect their lives? Sadly, not often. We don’t all have the guts and willpower to remake ourselves.

Why is this story appealing? It’s because despite everything that is stacked against her, Precious is determined to learn to read and write, to become independent, to get her GED and attend college. And, most importantly, she never gives up.

Bahni Turpin’s narration really sells this story—she’s not to be missed as a recorded books reader. For example, she narrated The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Sloot, among others. You can find a list of her recordings by typing her name in the “main words in author” search box in our catalog. 

 Anne Shirako, Reference Librarian, Ukiah Branch, 463-4493

Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo

An extraordinary book about life in a Mumbai slum. Review to follow. Request this one.

Difficult read, not because the writing is lacking--this nonfiction book reads like great fiction--but because the subject matter--the grinding poverty, the hopelessness, the corruption and jealousy--is overwhelming. If you've ever wondered what it might be like to be dirt poor in a 3rd world country, this book will give you insight. Tragic, really.

Selections from Dreamsongs 2 by George R. R. Martin

What an excellent recording of stories--fantasy, science fiction, horror, and sci-fi/horror crossovers. My least favorite story was "The Pear Shaped Man" about a really creepy stalker. My all time favorites were the two stories about Haviland Tuf, an ecological engineer who travels throughout the universe solving ecological problems.  Speaking of Tuf, Martin has just published a volume of Tuf stories, Tuf Voyager (request through the catalog). If you only know Martin's masterful fantasy series, The Song of Fire and Ice (known as A Game of Thrones in the HBO version), borrow this one and enjoy the wide range of his imagination.


Anne Shirako, Reference Librarian, Ukiah Branch, 463-4493

Last Dog on the Hill by Steve Duno

It is not often the star of a book is a dog probably off the pot fields of Mendocino County and a dog that changes the life of the man who rescues him. Lou was one of the many Rottweiler/Shepherd mixes that seem to abound around here. My dog Joplin is one which is probably why the minute I saw the cover of this book and found a good review, I ordered it.

Lou leads his person Steve into dog training. Lou helps. I was watching our local dog trainer, Sallie Palmer and her dog Skete last evening and this reminded me of Lou. Sallie was teaching a puppy class. Some 8 puppies from 2 to 4 months, from 5 to 35 lbs. Skete was right there when play turned to squabble.

Steve used Lou in much the same way when rehabilitating dog aggressive dogs.
The ones who missed out on a calming influence from an older dog when they were puppies. Dogs learn from the pack as Cesar Millan says. I agree having had some 350 foster dogs myself over the last 15 years. It is my dogs who teach them how to interact with dogs as Skete did with the puppies and as Lou did at the Academy of Canine Behavior as a last resort.

We all have the dog of our heart. The one who made us a better person.
This is Lou and Steve's story of love and redemption.

Eliza

Sacrifice and Awakening by S J Bolton

I just came across Sacrifice and then Awakening by S J Bolton and thoroughly enjoyed both of them. They are dark, involving human sacrifice and snake handling pentecostal cults.
The protagonists and also to some extent past and present victims are both women. One a
doctor and the other a veterinarian. Neither is for the descriptive weak of heart. It
helped me that I grew up with a grandfather for whom the first CSI lab was built and who had
books with full colored pictures of victims of gun shoot wounds (his specialty) and have
a daughter who is a veterinarian and so have been the recipient of books like "The Book of
Bodily Fluids" and a by stander in an equine necropsy.

But if just reading about these things does not both you. You will probably enjoy her books.
I am looking forward to the next one.

Eliza