The Taking by Kimberly Derting

Reading Level: Young Adult
(4 out of 5)

Coming April 29, 2014

I was so lucky to get my hands on an advanced e-galley of this book.  I love Kimberly Derting's Body Finder series and this first book in her new series about alien abductions did not disappoint.  I don't want to say too much about the book and give anything away.  Just know I read this in two days.  I couldn't put it down, it was that good.  I can't wait to read the next one!


A flash of white light . . . and then . . . nothing.
 
When sixteen-year-old Kyra Agnew wakes up behind a Dumpster at the Gas 'n' Sip, she has no memory of how she got there. With a terrible headache and a major case of déjà vu, she heads home only to discover that five years have passed . . . yet she hasn't aged a day. 

Everything else about Kyra's old life is different. Her parents are divorced, her boyfriend, Austin, is in college and dating her best friend, and her dad has changed from an uptight neat-freak to a drunken conspiracy theorist who blames her five-year disappearance on little green men. 

Confused and lost, Kyra isn't sure how to move forward unless she uncovers the truth. With Austin gone, she turns to Tyler, Austin's annoying kid brother, who is now seventeen and who she has a sudden undeniable attraction to. As Tyler and Kyra retrace her steps from the fateful night of her disappearance, they discover strange phenomena that no one can explain, and they begin to wonder if Kyra's father is not as crazy as he seems. There are others like her who have been taken . . . and returned. Kyra races to find an explanation and reclaim the life she once had, but what if the life she wants back is not her own?(from http://www.kimberlyderting.com/taking.php)

We are Closed: Happy Holidays

All locations of the Lake County Public Library are closed in observance of Christmas Eve (12/24/13) and Christmas Day (12/25/13).  Regular hours will resume on Thursday (12/26/13).

Vixen 03 by Clive Cussler

Reading Level: Adult Fiction
Submitted by Max

Full of mystery, action, and suspense, Vixen 03 is just another literary triumph authored by the acclaimed Clive Cussler.  Involving military secrets, chemical weapons, South Africa and even a battleship, and edge-of-your-seat suspense.  Every chapter is comparable to turning a dark corner, never knowing what lies around the bend.  In this case, if you read this book, excitement, interest, and a great story are around the corner.  Cussler has never failed to create a masterful adventure novel, and this installment is just another example of his consistency.  Some might say the plots are too predictable, but I say, it's the same core story with almost everything completely replaced with something new and creative.  The characters are well thought-out and equally interestingly developed.  Even a bit of humor is thrown into this mix of surprising, entertaining adventure.  I highly recommend Vixen 03 and pretty much any Cussler novel to everyone.  If you do decide to indulge yourself in this first class thrill ride, enjoy.

We are Closed: Happy Holidays

All locations of the Lake County Public Library are closed in observance of Christmas Eve (12/24/13) and Christmas Day (12/25/13).  Regular hours will resume on Thursday (12/26/13).

In the Heart of the Sea by Nathaniel Philbrick

Reading Level: Adult Non-Fiction
Submitted by Gerti

I read this book because the story behind the Essex tragedy is what inspired author Herman Melville to write the classic "Moby Dick," read grudgingly by every American high school student.  I have also read that book, and despite the larger themes and leitmotif's-whatever-this is a far better and more interesting account of the matter.

Author Nataniel Philbrick comes from a family of intellectuals who have been inspired by tales of watery daring-do for several generations now.  But given that fine nautical pedigree, Philbrick scores in this book for me by having access to two accounts of the Essex tragedy-the original account published in the 1820's by First Mate Owen Chase, which inspired Melville, but also a newly found recounting by the cabin boy, Thomas Nickerson, which adds much to the story.

The basics-the Nantucket based whaleship Essex was sunk by an enormous sperm whale which rammed into it twice.  That incident alone made it fairly unique among whalers of that time, who weren't used to prey fighting back.  But what adds pathos to the account is that after the ship was sunk, the survivors made every wrong decision they could have made: heading off in the wrong direction, going east toward South America against prevailing winds instead of west, toward Tahiti; not lashing the 3 lifeboats together and hence wasting time looking for other survivors and backtracking to find them; not taking all the food available from the wreck (tortoises from the Galapagos Islands) when they had the chance, and therefore having to resort to cannibalism to get meat to survive.

Beyond the story, though, the author has researched several subjects which add to the depth of the reader's understanding.  He has access to modern medical information about the nature of starvation, and therefore is able to draw some conclusions about what the crewman actually went through during their long weeks at sea.  He looks at whether racism played a role in the survivors (many of them Quakers) cannibalizing black crew members, who died first.  He understands the strong bond between the crewman who came from off-island versus those who hailed from Nantucket, and explains why that group had the highest number of survivors.  Best of all Philbrick doesn't really pass judgement as much as he brilliantly profiles those sad fellows who were forced to live through more than average people have to, in terms of physical endurance, moral compunction and psychological stresses, and draws clearly understandable portraits that a modern audience of non-seafarers can grasp.

Finally, he looks at the survivors, and how they carried on after going through so much.  Were they able to summon the strength to succeed?  You'll have to read to find out, but oh gentle reader!  It's such a worthwhile journey! I loved this book!

Nano by Robin Cook

Reading Level: Adult Fiction
Submitted by Gerti

I picked this book by Robin Cook up from the library "New Releases" shelf because I have read a number of Cook books in the past, and always liked his topics and characters.  The topic of nanotechnology holds little interest for me, however, which is why I am happy to say that Cook deals with it in a way that involves little scientific mumbo-jumbo and lots of action.

The main character is Pia Grazdni, a woman who works at a nanotechnology firm out west.  She has graduated from medical school (where she apparently solved a murder/kidnapping-story from a previous book I hadn't read) and one of her med school colleagues is in town to check up on her, for his own romantic reasons.  Cook draws her as a cold fish, however, and she is not interested in him, or any of the other male characters drawn to her smoking body and exotic looks.  She is secretly the daughter of a mobster out east who hails from Albania, and who helped her solve the previous mystery I mentioned from an earlier Cook novel.

The CEO of the company she works at is working with the Chinese to program mini-robots which increase the respiration ability of their athletes.  In the process, he is using Chinese prisoners as guinea pigs, and Pia eventually finds this out before disappearing herself.  Her former bf George works with a local doctor and then Pia's estranged mobster father to track her down, and the fact that she is not located by the end of the book is one of its huge disappointments.  While the character of Pia is not truly likeable, I kink of expect the protagonists to emerge unscathed and the evil-doers to get their just desserts, but that doesn't happen here.

So I give Cook credit for not being formulaic with this novel, but in that, it is a departure from his previous books i have read, in which the good guys win.  I wonder if it's a refection of the fact that Robin Cook has gotten older that he no longer believes in the happy ending, or if he's just setting this book up for a sequel.  Regardless, it was an entertaining ride through the world of competitive science, with a cast of characters who are sometimes stereotypical, but often just odd enough to be interesting.

The Energy of Slaves by Leonard Cohen

Reading Level: Adult Poetry
Submitted by Gerti

This is the second book of Leonard Cohen's poetry that I have read, the first book being written when he was younger, and the change is obvious!  "The Energy of Slaves" is a more mature work, although some of this themes remain constant-women/romance, religion, and politics.

Just like "The Spice-Box of Earth," the young Canadian's first volume of poetry, "The Energy of Slaves," has a confessional tone which at times is uncomfortable to read.  But the quality of the poems is better, and I liked more of them as a result.

I'm now on this 3rd book of poetry that I checked out of the library, and it is a compilation of his best work, so I'll be curious to see if those I selected as my favorites were also selected by poet and his editor for inclusion in that volume.  It includes the poem "Suzanne," which Cohen turned into a lyric which has acquired quite a bit of fame, and is in fact one of the songs/lyrics of his for which he is known. 

A slim 127 pages, but there are about 8 poems in this book that I really liked.  This book is worthier of your time than "The Spice-Box of Earth," and it's easy to read a few poems whenever there are free moments in the day.  So yes, if you like poetry and especially confessional poetry with a strong feel of the 70s, this might be the volume to keep on the nightstand, in the car (or in the bathroom!) "The Energy of the Slaves," is still not a work of genius for me, but once again, there are lines, verses and topics that show the promise of things to come.