Adult Services Librarian Recent Read: Major Pettigrew's Last Stand

In her charming debut novel, Simonson tells the tale of Maj. Ernest Pettigrew, an honor-bound Englishman and widower, and the very embodiment of duty and pride. As the novel opens, the major is mourning the loss of his younger brother, Bertie, and attempting to get his hands on Bertie's antique Churchill shotgun—part of a set that the boys' father split between them, but which Bertie's widow doesn't want to hand over. While the major is eager to reunite the pair for tradition's sake, his son, Roger, has plans to sell the heirloom set to a collector for a tidy sum. As he frets over the guns, the major's friendship with Jasmina Ali—the Pakistani widow of the local food shop owner—takes a turn unexpected by the major (but not by readers). The author's dense, descriptive prose wraps around the reader like a comforting cloak, eventually taking on true page-turner urgency as Simonson nudges the major and Jasmina further along and dangles possibilities about the fate of the major's beloved firearms. This is a vastly enjoyable traipse through the English countryside and the long-held traditions of the British aristocracy. (Publisher's Weekly, Reviewed on 1/4/2010)

Book Review: The Devil All the Time by Donald Ray Pollock

A compelling and eerie novel, The Devil All the Time follows a demented cast of characters throughout their lives in rural Ohio, during the 1960s. At the center of this story is Arvin Russell, a young boy who watches his father slowly seep into insanity. Arvin subsequently grows to become a dangerous but righteous man himself. Surrounding Arvin's sprial from boyhood to adult are a menage of crazy characters including: crooked Sheriff Bodecker who is more of a villian than a protector, Carl and Sandy Henderson who spend their "vacations" serial killing, and an evangelical preaching duo, Roy and Theodore, who sink to the very pith of blackness they foreworn against. As the story progresses, the character's lives twist and intertwine into one another, creating a dark wreath of sin that circles in on itself and leaves the reader with a most satisfying ending.

See if this book is in at EWML!

Books to Movies 2012

If you are like me, you like to read the book BEFORE you see the movie. For many readers, the book is almost always better than the film. If I see previews for an coming movie that intrigues me-I usually try to find the book that it came from, so I can read that first. Sure, it spoils the movie for me. But, Hollywood really never can seem to get the big screen version to match up to the absolutely wonderful version I dreamed up in my own head anyway. So, in the event that you are looking to do the same for 2012, here's a list of upcoming book to movies for 2012-so you can get ahead of the game yourself. Enjoy!

One for the Money by Janet Evanovich
Woman in Black, A Ghost Story by Susan Hill
Big Miracle by Tom Rose
John Carter of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs
Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Abrahm Lincoln: Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahm Smith
Borne Legacy by Eric Von Lustbader
The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
Life of Pi by Yann Martel