Ocean Fiction

"Sussex, England. A middle-aged man returns to his childhood home to attend a funeral. Although the house he lived in is long gone, he is drawn to the farm at the end of the road, where, when he was seven, he encountered a most remarkable girl, Lettie Hempstock, and her mother and grandmother. He hasn't thought of Lettie in decades, and yet as he sits by the pond (a pond that she'd claimed was an ocean) behind the ramshackle old farmhouse, the unremembered past comes flooding back. And it is a past too strange, too frightening, too dangerous to have happened to anyone, let alone a small boy. Forty years earlier, a man committed suicide in a stolen car at this farm at the end of the road. Like a fuse on a firework, his death lit a touchpaper and resonated in unimaginable ways. The darkness was unleashed, something scary and thoroughly incomprehensible to a little boy. And Lettie—magical, comforting, wise beyond her years—promised to protect him, no matter what. A groundbreaking work from a master, The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman is told with a rare understanding of all that makes us human, and shows the power of stories to reveal and shelter us from the darkness inside and out. It is a stirring, terrifying, and elegiac fable as delicate as a butterfly's wing and as menacing as a knife in the dark." (from Goodreads.com)

"Few first novels receive the kind of attention and acclaim showered on this powerful story—a nationwide bestseller, a critical success, and the first title chosen for Oprah's Book Club. Both highly suspenseful and deeply moving, The Deep End of the Ocean by Jacquelyn Mitchard imagines every mother's worst nightmare—the disappearance of a child—as it explores a family's struggle to endure, even against extraordinary odds. Filled with compassion, humor, and brilliant observations about the texture of real life, here is a story of rare power, one that will touch readers' hearts and make them celebrate the emotions that make us all one." (from Goodreads.com)

"In the year 1740, Commodore (later Admiral) George Anson embarked on a voyage that would become one of the most famous exploits in British naval history. Sailing through poorly charted waters, Anson and his men encountered disaster, disease, and astonishing success. They circumnavigated the globe and seized a nearly incalculable sum of Spanish gold and silver, but only one of the five ships survived. This is the background to the first novel Patrick O'Brian ever wrote about the sea, a precursor to the acclaimed Aubrey/Maturin series that shares the excitement and rich humor of those books. The protagonist is Peter Palafox, son of a poor Irish parson, who signs on as a midshipman, never before having seen a ship. Together with his lifelong friend Sean, Peter sets out to seek his fortune, embarking upon a journey of danger, disappointment, foreign lands, and excitement." (from Goodreads.com)

In The Deep Blue Sea for Beginners, "a legendary island steeped in the mystery and wisdom of centuries… A runaway heiress learning to trust life, and love…A mother and daughter, separated for years, searching for a way to face the future together…New York Times bestselling author Luanne Rice tells a powerful story of love, family, and friendship through the lives of two women who reunite at a place where dreams begin—and where they may be fulfilled at last….Years ago, Lyra Davis left behind a world of wealth and privilege and the people she loved most in the world, unable to reconcile the expectations of her celebrated family with the longings of her own wild heart. Now she lives quietly among a community of expatriates on the isle of Capri, slowly, carefully learning to live fully for the first time, flourishing in the friendship of a singular man who recognizes in her a kindred spirit. Granddaughter of the reigning doyenne of Newport, Rhode Island, wise beyond her sixteen years, Pell Davis is poised to take her place at the pinnacle of society. Yet she and her young sister still long for the mother who ran away from them when they were children so that they could be raised by the father they adored. Pell knows that Lyra felt she loved them best by leaving. But with her father now dead and her sister veering dangerously into fantasy, she will travel across an ocean to find the mother she remembers and the deeper truths they all need so desperately….Lyrical, unforgettable, Luanne Rice’s new novel unfolds against a background of timeless beauty, as an unlikely love affair reshapes the meaning of devotion and three generations of women resist the pull of memory and tradition to find a new way forward." (from Goodreads.com)

New Adult Graphic Novels

The Day the Klan Came to Town by Bill Campbell is "a fictionalized retelling of the riot, focusing on a Sicilian immigrant, Primo Salerno. He is not a leader; he’s a man with a troubled past. He was pulled from the sulfur mines of Sicily as a teen to fight in the First World War. Afterward, he became the focus of a local fascist and was forced to emigrate to the United States. He doesn’t want to fight but feels that he may have no choice. The entire town needs him—and indeed everybody—to make a stand. The year is 1923. The Ku Klux Klan is at the height of its power in the US as membership swells into the millions and they expand beyond their original southern borders. As they grow, so do their targets. As they continue their campaigns of terror against African Americans, their list now includes Catholics and Jews, southern and eastern Europeans, all in the name of “white supremacy.” But they are no longer considered a terrorist organization. By adding the messages of moral decency, family values, and temperance, the Klan has slapped on a thin veneer of respectability and has become a “civic organization,” attracting ordinary citizens, law enforcement, and politicians to their particular brand of white, Anglo-Saxon, and Protestant “Americanism.” Pennsylvania enthusiastically joined that wave. That was when the Grand Dragon of Pennsylvania decided to display the Klan’s newfound power in a show of force. He chose a small town outside of Pittsburgh named after Andrew Carnegie; a small, unassuming borough full of “Catholics and Jews,” the perfect place to teach these immigrants “a lesson.” Some thirty thousand members of the Klan gathered from as far as Kentucky for “Karnegie Day.” After initiating new members, they armed themselves with torches and guns to descend upon the town to show them exactly what Americanism was all about." (from Amazon.com)

 "Bestselling author Neil Gaiman and Eisner Award-winning comics legend P. Craig Russell breathe new life into the ancient Norse stories in this comic-book adaptation of the hit novel Norse Mythology. Gaiman and Russell team with a legendary collection of artists to take readers through a series of Norse myths, including the creation of the Nine Worlds, the loss of Odin's eye and source of his knowledge, the crafting of Thor's hammer and the gods' most valuable treasures, the origin of poetry, and Loki's part in the end of all things--Ragnarök. You also get more Norse myths brought to life, including the origins of poetry and a mead that many will die for, Thor and Loki’s eventful trip into the land of giants, the gods’ woeful bargain that might lose them eternal life, and the beloved god Frey’s journey to Valhalla and beyond to find a certain missing something." (from Amazon.com)

Tomo Kitaoka brings us The Walking Cat: A Cat's-Eye-View of the Zombie Apocalypse. "A survival horror tale about a cat’s journey after society collapses. Zombies roam the earth and civilization as we know it is dead. When Jin—a young man trying to survive the chaos—rescues a cat from certain death, the unlikely duo sets off on a quest to find a mysterious island where Jin’s wife may be alive. Witness the zombie apocalypse through the eyes of a fearless feline whose curiosity may kill him yet." (from Amazon.com)

"Bestselling author and artist Reza Farazmand brings us his first graphic novel about a young monster who moves to a big city. City Monster is set in a world of supernatural creatures and follows a young monster who moves to the city. As he struggles to figure out his future, his new life is interrupted by questions about his mysterious roommate—a ghost who can’t remember the past. Joined by their neighbor, a vampire named Kim, they explore the city, meeting a series of strange and spooky characters and looking for answers about life, memories, and where to get a good beer. With Reza's signature style, and familiar snark, this graphic novel is equal parts irreverent and insightful, the perfect vehicle for conveying the utter absurdity of our bizarre and confusing times." (from Amazon.com)

New Media Players

Bestselling author Neil Gaiman's contemporary masterpiece combing mythology, adventure, and illusion is called American Gods. Released from prison, Shadow finds his world turned upside down. His wife has been killed; a stranger offers him a job and Shadow, with nothing to lose, accepts. But a storm is coming. Beneath the placid surface of everyday life, a war is being fought – and the prize is the very soul of America. An inspired combination of mythology, adventure, and illusion, American Gods is a dark and kaleidoscopic journey deep into myth and across an America at once eerily familiar and utterly alien. It is, quite simply, a contemporary masterpiece. (from Amazon.com)

"Written with the intense pacing and masterful suspense that have made Michael Connelly a bestselling author, The Night Fire continues the unofficial partnership of two fierce detectives determined not to let the fire with burn out. Back when Harry Bosch was just a rookie homicide detective, he had an inspiring mentor who taught him to take the work personally and light the fire of relentlessness for every case. Now that mentor, John Jack Thompson, is dead, and his widow gives Bosch a murder book, one that Thompson took with him when he left the LAPD twenty years before -- the unsolved killing of a troubled young man. Bosch takes the murder book to Detective Renée Ballard and asks her to help him discover what about this crime lit Thompson's fire all those years ago. As she begins her inquiries -- while still working her own cases on the midnight shift -- Ballad finds aspects of the initial investigation that just don't add up. The bond between Bosch and Ballard tightens as they become a formidable investigation team. And they soon arrive at a disturbing question: Did Thompson steal the murder book to work the case in retirement, or to make sure it never got solved?" (from Amazon.com)

"In this fast-paced historical thriller, the #1 New York Times bestselling author introduces Archer, a WWII veteran forced to investigate a small-town murder -- or risk returning to prison. It's 1949. When war veteran Aloysius Archer is released from Carderock Prison, he is sent to Poca City on parole with a short list of do's and a much longer list of don'ts: do report regularly to his parole officer, don't go to bars, certainly don't drink alcohol, do get a job -- and don't ever associate with loose women. The small town quickly proves more complicated and dangerous than Archer's years serving in the war or his time in jail. Within a single night, his search for gainful employment -- and a stiff drink -- leads him to a local bar, where he is hired for what seems like a simple job: to collect a debt owed to a powerful local businessman, Hank Pittleman. Soon Archer discovers that recovering the debt won't be so easy. The indebted man has a furious grudge against Hank and refuses to pay; Hank's clever mistress has her own designs on Archer; and both Hank and Archer's stern parole officer, Miss Crabtree, are keeping a sharp eye on him. When a murder takes place right under Archer's nose, police suspicions rise against the ex-convict, and Archer realizes that the crime could send him right back to prison . . . if he doesn't use every skill in his arsenal to track down the real killer." (from Amazon.com)

Maleability of Memory

I just finished Neil Gaiman's newest work, The Ocean at the End of the Lane and I must say that I was blown away by this short, but lyrically beautiful tale for adults. Neil Gaiman is a wonderful writer and he excels in creating modern fairy tales. When our story opens, the narrator (who is never named) is visiting his boyhood home in Sussex, England after attending a funeral. Fiftyish and looking for something he cannot pinpoint, he travels down to the end of the lane where he used to live. There he visits the Hempstock farm he thinks he remembers from when he was seven years old. It was there that he met his friend Lettie Hempstock, who, along with her mother and grandmother, tend the farm and its animals. The boy and his father walk down their lane to look for the family car that seems to have gone missing. In so doing, they find the body of their lodger slumped in the seat; an apparent suicide. So, the boy is shuffled off to the Hempstock farm so that the police can do their duty. Lettie shows the boy her "ocean"; a small duck pond behind the house. The boy cannot understand why Lettie calls it this, nor can he understand why she talks in riddles and seems to be wise beyond her years. The reason is that Gaiman has interwoven magic into this seemingly innocuous story about a young boy finding more adventure than he wants. Lettie and her family are not really human; they are ancient beings who look out for the world and raise cows and chickens and help little boys who get into trouble with monsters. Although the boy has great adventures and survives darkness and death, thanks to his friend Lettie, he doesn't remember any of it until he returns to contemplate his life beside the "ocean". And that is what this book is really about; how we alter our own memory as we age to gloss over painful and tragic times and to punctuate those glowing victories. If this all sounds a little confusing, it is. To tell you more would give away the ending and I wouldn't want to deprive you of the joy of reading this short, sweet tome.

How to Catch a Falling Star

(The following is another guest blog entry from library patron Ashley N. Please e-mail Jennifer at jensmith@warren.lib.ms.us if you'd like to become a guest blogger too!)

It’s a bird, no..it’s a plane; no…it’s a Star! Read Stardust by Neil Gaiman and join Tristan Thorn as he searches for his Star; a star he promised to his love, Victoria Forester. Tristan's city of Wall has everything a simple country boy could ever want, except adventure! There is a guard posted at the only opening in the wall that separates the city from the forest to the east. Tristan has served as tje guard several times; however, he has often wondered about the world beyond the wall. One night, while confessing his love for Victoria, a star falls from the sky beyond the wall. Victoria agrees to marry Tristan on the condition that he retrieves the star. Tristan figures out how to pass the guard and discovers the magical town of Faerie right before his eyes--though he has never seen the likes of this magical place, Tristan is determined to find his love’s fallen Star. What Tristan does not realize is that his father, Dunstan Thorn, had started a similar journey seventeen years prior to retrieve a gift for his love, Daisy Hempstock. When Tristan finds the Star, he quickly realizes that she will not easily become someone’s gift. Yvaine, the star, tells him how she was knocked out of the sky by something and how she is going to find herself a magic black traveling candle to get her back to her home in the sky. Tristan uses this quest to coax Yvaine into coming with him, with the promise that he will give her his remaining candle if she helps him win over Victoria, and she agrees. What the pair don't know is that there are several people searching for Yvaine, to use her for their own dark purposes. Three witches collectively known as the Lilim, are after her to regain their youth by eating her heart; the living sons of Lord of Stormhold are searching for her because they all want to be the next Lord, and since the current Lord is on his death bed, they try to kill each other while searching for Yvaine. This novel is full of suspense, mystery, and magic, and the characters are very colorful and well written. Stardust won the Alex Award in 2000, given by the American Library Association. In 2007, Stardust was made into a movie; starring: Claire Danes, Charlie Cox, Robert De Niro, Michelle Phillips, and narrated by Ian McKellan. This novel was Neil Gaiman’s first solo prose novel.

Gaiman's gods

(This blog entry was written by one of the library's patrons, Ashley N., who really enjoyed this book and wanted to share her opinion with you . Keep checking the blog for more entries by guest writers!)
American Gods is a novel about a man named Shadow, his unknown past, and his not so clear future. It’s filled with plenty of alliterations, flashbacks, and mystery. Written by Neil Gaiman, the book delves into the ancient world of mythology and the modern up-rise of technology. In the book, there is a war going on between the ancient gods and the progressive gods, as immigrants that came to America also brought forth their beliefs, cultures, and their gods. This book tells how these ancient gods came to be and how they’ve all but vanished in the modern world. These ancient gods are fading away because the people of America no longer believe, nor worship these gods. American people are more consumed with technology: computers, cell phone, and the internet. Meanwhile, Shadow is dealing with the loss of his wife and his best friend. His dead wife comes to visit him several times and Shadow tries to figure out the visions of his dreams. Mr. Wednesday, a very shady character, enters the book in order to offer a job to Shadow and together, they journey across America, visiting Wednesday’s “friends” and gathering support for his cause. This novel will take you into a world meshed between fantasy and fact. Which side will you take or will you be forgotten? Neil Gaiman is also the author of Stardust, Neverwhere, and the Sandman graphic novels. Check out his website at www.neilgaiman.com.

Find Yourself Neverwhere

Nail Gaiman is one of the most interesting and talented writers in the world of fantasy! A friend of mine insisted I read Neverwhere this past week, and I really enjoyed every moment of the book. The book is centered around the life of Richard Mayhew, who moves from Scotland to London for a new job, and is leading a perfectly average life until Lady Door comes crashing, literally, into his path. Rescuing Door from the people who are chasing her leads Richard into the dark, mysterious Underside world of London, where he encounters many strange and wondrous creatures and humans. Gaiman weaves a beautiful story, intermingled with wonderful descriptions of the encounters Richard makes. Richard ends up helping Door on her quest to discover and avenge the folks who killed her family, and along the way they gather a ragtag group of friends who are on their own quests. The book is magical and complex and intense, and I believe that once you start it, you won't be able to quit until you finish it! Neil Gaiman was born in Portchester, England, but now lives in Minnesota. Check out Neil Gaiman's website at http://www.neilgaiman.com/