Author Archive
I admit it, sometimes I need a little bit of fluff. I can get really bogged down with very serious novels, usually teen fiction, that feature death, abuse, drugs, suicide and other generally depressing topics. What is a reader to do? Take a break and read something fluffy.
My latest foray into the fluff genre was Sleeping With the Fishes by Mary Janice Davidson. Fred, the main character, is half human, half mermaid. She works as a marine biologist at the New England Aquarium. One day she is visited by Artur, a merman and a prince, and helps him to solve a pollution mystery. There is also a love triangle between Fred, Artur and Thomas (another marine biologist). The plot is simple but fun and the characters are hilarious. My favorite is her metrosexual best friend who falls in love with her boss, Dr. Barb, and embarks a steamy affair.
If you are looking for a quick read with a lot of spirit, try Sleeping With the Fishes or the sequel, Swimming Without a Net. Both are wonderfully funny and ironic, for example, Fred suffers from sea sickness and is allergic to fish. Can you imagine, a mermaid allergic to fish!
April 3rd, 2008
Kelly - Central
Repossessed by A.M. Jenkins is a hilarious account of a fallen angel (a demon from Hell) possessing the body of a teenage boy, Shawn. The humor is in the fallen angel’s expectation of his experience. His goals are many, to taste food, to experience family, to pet a cat, but especially to have sex. This last expectation becomes more difficult then he thought, due to his selection of a teenage boy to possess. In the beginning, the angel experiences many common human things for the first time. He likes ketchup and dislikes food that do not have ketchup. He does not understand the attraction of video games or why Shawn spent hours playing them.
The heart of the story is how the people around Shawn change with his changed behavior. Shawn was mean to his brother but “new” Shawn sees the value in having a sibling and being nice to that person. The fallen angel’s vacation from Hell is cut short by instant messages he receives warning him to return to his duty of torturing damned souls, but he ignores the warnings and continues to live as Shawn. What will happen? You will have to read this short but very funny tale.
October 16th, 2007
Kelly - Central
Are you afraid of zombies? If so, this is not the book for you. Rick, a police officer, awakens from a coma to find that the hospital is overrun with zombies. He manages to escape and heads for his home, only to discover his wife and son are gone and the only thing left in town are zombies. Eventually, Rick meets up with other survivors and begins a long journey in a Winnebago in search of other towns that have not been effected by the plague.
Robert Kirkman creates a well developed cast of 
characters with distinctly different personalities. The sense of confusion following a plague of zombies is well portrayed with the black, white and gray illustrations by Tony Moore. In The Walking Dead Volume 1: Days Gone Bye, readers are not told the cause of the plague, but instead the book focuses on the aftermath for the survivors. This is an exciting storyline with real emotional depth, but also enough zombie killing to satisify any horror junkie. There is gore, but due to the gray artwork, it is not as gory as you would see in a full color zombie film. I got so into this book that I now collect the individual comics and the story just keeps getting better!
October 5th, 2007
Kelly - Central
A previous post featuring Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight made me want to comment upon the latest in Bella and Edward’s teen vampire love saga, Eclipse. Edward and Bella have returned from Europe and stepped back into their lives. It seems that everything is going back to normal, but Bella’s relationship with Jacob has changed forever due to the hatred between werewolves and vampires, in fact she has been forbidden to see him. Bella’s strong desire to be Jacob’s friend clashes with Edward’s desire to keep Bella safe. She betrays his wishes and begins seeing Jacob. Bella’s relationship with Jacob begins a powerful love triangle storyline. Who will Bella choose? Will she agree to marry Edward and be converted to a vampire?
Bella’s love life is the main plot line, but Meyer also provides interesting backstory on Rosalie and the werewolves of La Push. This book does not have the action of the previous titles in the series, but the emotional struggles move the plot along at a quick pace. I was extremely upset by Bella’s choice in the end, what did you think and how will this effect the next book in the series?
The wait for this book could be a little long, so if you need to satisify your teenage vampire love saga craving try Tantalize by Cynthia Leitich Smith.
September 26th, 2007
Kelly - Central
Beyond Reach, the latest title in Karin Slaughter’s Grant Count series is full of action and emotion. Sara Lipton, a pediatrician and small town cornorer, is depressed due to an ongoing malpractice lawsuit. She has chosen to close her clinic and is awaiting a trial or settlement. This leaves her available to join her husband Jeffery Tolliver, the police chief, on a road trip to aid the investigation of one of his deputies accused of murder. Lena, the accused, was found at the crime scene, arrested and taken to the hospital. She escapes and attempts to solve the crime on her own. Meanwhile, Jeffery and Sara are also looking to solve the crime and exonerate Lena. The criminal activity is complex, involving meth labs and skin heads, and the action is page turning. The plot contains many twists and turns.
The conclusion of the book is where the real suprise happens (I won’t tell, but you will not see this coming) and may affect the rest of the series. Was the ending as shocking for you?
September 19th, 2007
Kelly - Central
Imagine that only one of the World Trade Center towers 
collapsed on September 11th. This is the opening premise for Brian K. Vaughan’s Ex Machina series. Mitchell Hundred was a civil engineer in New York City in 1999 and while working on a suspecious device near the Brooklyn Bridge was maimed by an explosion that gave him the ability to control machines. As time progressed Hundred begins to use his powers under the alias “The Great Machine” and begins a crime fighting spree throughout the city. On September 11, 2001 he is able to use his powers to land the second plane before it hits the World Trade Center.
Following his act of heroism, Hundred decides to leave his super hero days behind and run for the mayor of New York City. Mayor Hundred wins in a land slide and Vaughan’s first book, Ex Machina: The First Hundred Days, is a look at how the former super hero is adjusting to running the largest city in the country. The storyline focuses on corruption in government and is peppered with flashbacks to how Hundred’s actions as “The Great Machine” have effected his new position. A strong cast of supporting characters round out a well thoughtout political drama in graphic novel format. Tony Harris’s full color art grounds the reader in the New York landscape and adds to the drama of the text. Want to know what happens after the first hundred days? Don’t worry there are more Ex Machina graphic novels in the library’s collection and if you can’t wait for the next graphic novel this book is published as individual comics.
September 11th, 2007
Kelly - Central
Jack of Fables is just who you remember, Jack from the Beanstalk, and he is just as reckless as ever in this graphic novel tale. At the beginning of the story, Jack has make millions in Hollywood by making movies of his life story. Eventually, he is found by the Fabletown authorities and forced to give up his millions in order to avoid punishment, due to his crime of making the Mundanes (people) aware of Fable existance.
Now Jack has only a small amount of money and has hit the road in search of a new opportunity. He is kidnapped and taken to the Golden Boughs Retirement Community. There he meets his captor, Mr. Revise, the Head Librarian and told that this is where Fables come to die.
Jack makes plans for an escape with some of the other captives, including Humpty Dumpty. Just how does one get a 300 lb egg over a fence and headed toward freedom? You’ll have to read Jack of Fables, the Nearly Great Escape by Bill Willingham, to find out.
If you are interested in what is happening in Fabletown during Jack’s absence or before he became a movie mogel, check out the Fables series by Bill Willingham.
August 14th, 2007
Kelly - Central
What would you do if you were the last man on earth? Look
for your girlfriend, of course! But how would you find her if the world’s infastructure has collapsed? You team up with an geneticist and a secret agent to solve the mystery of why you are the only man left (and look for your girlfriend at the same time).
And so Yorick, the last man on earth due a a plague that killed everything with a Y chromosome, and his pet monkey Ampersand set forth and travel the world in this graphic novel adventure.
The characters are engaging, with Yorick being inept but very funny. Agent 355, Yorick’s protector, is strong and cunning and Dr. Mann is wickedly smart and resourceful. The banter between these three main characters pushes the story forward and really makes you root for Yorick and medical science.
This is an addicting read by Eisner award winner Brian K. Vaughan, but make sure to start at the beginning, with Y the Last Man Vol. 1: Unmanned. For those of you who don’t like graphic novels because the story never ends, you are in luck because Y the Last Man is a finite story.
June 28th, 2007
Kelly - Central