Matt's blog

Check out the New Science Fiction and Fantasy Shelves this month for tales of superhero noir, southern vampire hunters, the Halo™ Universe, dragons in search of a home, Sith Lords, a fantastic take on Arabian Nights, and human biochemical experimentation.

Featured this month is Adam Christopher’s genre blended debut novel, Empire State. In an alternative world, New York (known as the Empire State), resembles what-we-know as the prohibition-era, except for some notable differences. For starters, there are airships hovering over the city to keep an eye on the citizens, while financially, an endless war with an unseen enemy, has rendered the economy bankrupt … oh yeah, and superheroes exist. Caught up in this world is detective Rad Bradbury (…), a detective who follows a femme fatale down a rabbit hole of mysteries which might just uncover the reason for the Empire State’s existence. In a book that SciFiNow Magazine calls a mix between Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, and Alan Moore, Christopher manages to create a marvelously dark sci-fi atmosphere while crafting a fast-paced plot with multiple threads of intrigue.

You can find Empire State, along with any of the other titles listed below in the New Release section of the Library or you can click on the following links for more titles on the New Fantasy Shelf and the New Science Fiction Shelf.

Get ready for the 2012 Oscars with the Brookfield Library?

• Have you entered 2012 Oscars Challenge? The person whose picks are closest to Academy's will win a copy of this year's Best Picture!

• Sign up to come see the The Help (4 nominations) at the Library on Saturday February 13th at 1:00pm.

• We wil have Oscar Nominees and Winners past and present on display in the Library! 

It was a big year for big-screen adaptations as six of the nine Oscar Nominees for Best Picture (Hugo, The Descendants, The Help, War Horse, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, and Moneyball) were based on books. Some interesting notes about the list is that there are two first time novelists on it (Kaui Hart Hemmings and Kathryn Stockett), it contains for the second time in three years a Michael Lewis non-fiction sports book (The Blind Side, 2010), and the first time since 1940 there are novels by two female authors nominated (Gone with the Wind and Wurthering Heights).

Continue on to see all the Oscar Nominated books and to put your request in for their DVD counterparts.

“It was an age of miracle, it was an age of art, it was an age of excess, and it was an age of satire.”
-F. Scott Fitzgerald – Echoes of the Jazz Age

Set roughly in the decade between the end of WWI and the collapse of the Stock Market in 1929, the Jazz Age (coined by F. Scott Fitzgerald) was a era mythologized in American culture. It was a time of speakeasies and gangsters; the Charleston and Prohibition; bathtub gin and dance halls croning out African-American music to a young white socialite crowd. During this period the United States was introduced to the "Flapper Girl", a newly liberated, flaming youth, characterized her socially defiant bobbed haircut, rich makeup and baggy dresses, along with the radio, accessible automobiles, and Harlem Jazz Clubs. It was also a time where Paris became a hot-bed for artists looking for inspiration and collaboration. Writers, such as F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway, could be found discussing their craft in bars, while Gertrude Stein critiqued the works of Dali, Matisse, and Picasso at her apartment. In the corners of clubs, Cole Porter could be found crooning out hits such as "C’est Magnifique" and "Let's Do It" near a dimly lit piano. All-in-all the Jazz Age still remains an era of time immortalized in the American psyche through fiction. From the works of the time period like Fitzgerald's Jazz Age Stories and Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises to the recent blockbusters, The Paris Wife and Midnight in Paris, the Jazz Age will forever be a staple of eloquence, liberation, creation, and hedisom that took hold of the United States during the 1920s. For more on the Jazz Age, check out some of these books which capture an era long gone. 

Check out the New Science Fiction Shelf for these tales a robot uprising fueled by the Positronic ™ Brain, Lovecraftian Mythos, time-traveling killing machines, the mysterious Palmer Elderitch, space trade in a capitalism-driven future, a demon bounty hunter, and interstellar kidnapping.

Featured this month is Mickey Zucker Reichert’s I, Robot to Protect, the first book of an estate-authorized trilogy based on Isaac Asimov’s, I, Robot.  When Science Fiction master, Asimov, wrote the original I, Robot, it existed as a series of short stories that described the rise of Asimov’s robot history. In this new prequel to Asimov’s history, Reichert fills in the backstory of main character, Dr. Susan Calvin, a surgeon who begins to notice unwelcome changes in patients who are part of a secretly funded experiment that involves nanobots.  Part medical drama and part science fiction thriller, Reichert holds true to the concepts of the original stories while updating the science and technology, including, Asimov’s classic ‘Rules of Robotics’ to suit a more contemporary society.

You can find I, Robot to Protect, along with any of the other titles listed below on the New Science Fiction Shelf below or you can click on the following link for more titles on the New Science Fiction Shelf.

Did you enter the world of Le Cirque des Rêves and never want to leave?

In, Emily Morgenstern’s, The Night Circus, young magicians Celia and Marco, enter into a mysterious competition set up by their mercurial guardians. The challenge is set through the venue of the circus and the rules are not defined. As the two competitors face off, their creations become performances which are wondrous, exhibits that are mysterious, and attractions beyond this world. If you found yourself enchanted with the Night Circus and want to find some more books similar to it, then check out some of these titles.

In Stacy Carlson’s historical novel, Among the Wonderful, you can watch the P.T. Barnum’s makeover of the circus from glassed-in exhibits to wonderful stage performers, animals and wonders. Carlson captures how the magical setting of the circus in enhanced through fan interactions and participation as well as mood enhancing illusions. If you found yourself fascinated by the side performers and the everyday dealings of Le Cirque des Rêves, then you may want to check out The Circus in Winter, by Cathy Day. However, if it was the magic and the magician competitions of The Night Circus that drew you in, then check out Susanna Clarke’s, Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norwell. Similar to Morgenstern, Clarke sets up a magic and a magic history that is somewhat explained through tomes and glyphs but still remains mysterious, secretive, and elusive. In Daniel Wallace’s, Mr. Sebastian and the Negro Magician, the life of a downtrodden illusionist (similar to Celia’s father, Prospero) and the secret to his magic is uncovered after he disappears. Maybe it is the actual history of the circus and circus performers that you are interested in, if so check out Circus Mania, by Douglas McPherson. If the love story gave you goosebumps, then the circus-based tale, Water for Elephants, and the fantastic-based, Kingdom of Ohio, might be up your alley.

You can find the Night Circus along with any of these tales in the Library today, or you can continue reading for a full plot description of all of the titles listed below.

Were you a fan of Rise of the Planet of the Apes? If you were maybe then you would like to check out some of these titles that involve animal experimentation that went too far and is now out of control, revolting animals who unsubjugate themselves from humans control, and worlds whom barely survive a man-made Apocalypse.

Continue Reading for a full description of all the titles listed below.