August 2010 Staff Book Reviews

Last Updated on Friday, 30 July 2010 15:22

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August often signals the end of the summer as school begins for many children and adults and the lazy days of summer are filled with activities. The Pioneer Library System staff have picked out some books that are great to squeeze in before the summer ends and you get busy. Find one you like and check it out today!

The Girl Who Chased the Moon by Sarah Addison Allen
Staff Reviewer: Julie Kreft, Moore Public Library

Emily Benedict had lived a fairly ordinary life, that is until her mother passed away and she was sent to live in a small Southern town with a grandfather she didn’t know existed. To make matters worse, this is definitely no ordinary town and no ordinary grandfather. Vance Shelby is a giant, ducking under door frames and causing stares everywhere he goes. Yet, Emily soon finds out that her grandfather’s height is not the strangest thing in town. From the Mullaby “giant” to the Mullaby “lights,” there is one after another unexplained yet accepted oddity in Emily’s new life. To make matters worse, everyone seems to dislike her based on the sins of her mother, a mother Emily knew to be kind and generous. Then there is her strange attraction to a boy with so much to hide, and so much to share. Luckily, Emily finds friendship and wisdom with Julia Winterspoon, a woman who knows the raw pain of being the outsider in this strange town. Together, they discover their places among a town of shadow and light, learning about themselves, their history, and the beauty surrounding them.

Memory by Philippe Grimbert
Staff Reviewer: Mark Heisey, Noble Public Library

If you’re looking for a book that is a quick read but will linger in your thoughts long after you’ve returned it, Memory may be the book for you.  I read this book in two short afternoons in March, but have been thinking about its little nuances the past four months resulting in this review.  The story involves the unraveling of a families’ past through the eyes of a quiet, reserved boy of fifteen.  The secrets he seeks to unlock involve his parents and their lives as Jews during WWII France.  Our protagonist has always had a sense that there was something else about his family, some silent “other” thing that was never discussed but was always present although not quite tangible.  This struggle to figure out what that “thing” is leads the boy to seek answers from family friends and journey into the past.  If you are thinking to yourself, “I’ve already read Night by Elie Wiesel” or “I’ve seen Schindler’s List; I don’t need to revisit that,” I ask that you think again.  This isn’t the same kind of work.  It isn’t as heavy in the same way although it is haunting in its own right.  What’s really interesting about this book is the way space works.  The book is full of short revelations and insights, often just a couple pages, some even less.  The space at the end of each of these acts almost as a breath, allowing you a chance to, in a sense, inhale the experience and think on it in the same manner as when you take a conscious breath.  This is one of those simple, concise works that pulls you in and then never quite lets you go…highly recommended.

Nubs: The True Story of a Mutt, a Marine & a Miracle by Brian Dennis, Kirby Larson and Mary Nethery
Staff Reviewer: Lenore St. John, Moore Public Library

Nubs, a pack leader of wild dogs in Iraq, lived a tough life as an Iraqi dog of war. He never had a home or a person of his own. Everything changes for Nubs when he meets Marine Major Brian Dennis and becomes his friend. When duty requires the Marines to relocate over 70 miles away, Nubs makes an incredible journey through the desert to find his friend Dennis. This touching story of friendship will warm the hearts of readers.

Lyonesse: The Well Between the Worlds by Sam Llewellyn
Staff Reviewer: Mary Lea Wallace, Norman Public Library

This is high fantasy at its best. Idris, gifted son of honest working folks in a dying coastal town, is sentenced to death on false charges. Saved at the last minute, he is spirited away to begin a perilous new life as a monster-catcher and groom. From then on, he faces ever more dangerous escapades as he moves toward his true destiny. He was born to save his dying land from the powerful forces of greed and darkest evil. How can one twelve-year-old boy hope to defeat the incredible powers that rule the land? Will those he loves survive the conflict? Lyonesse: the Well Between the Worlds begins the coming war.

Paradise General: Riding the Surge at a Combat Hospital in Iraq by Dave Hnida
Staff Reviewer: Nancy Rimassa, Norman Public Library

In a folksy, conversational story-telling style, Dr. Dave Hnida, 48 years old and recently enlisted in the US Army Reserves, tells us the story of how he came to be a doctor at Combat Support Hospital in Iraq. The journey from the wheat fields of Colorado through Ft. Benning, Georgia to Camp Speicher, Tikrit, Iraq is filled with the personal details that make such a narrative readable. He meets new friends, endures the boredom of “hurry up and wait” and marvels at the condition of troop transport.

At last, reaching his assigned quarters and gearing up for three months of 24/7 duty, Dr. Dave shares the character quirkiness of his medical cohort and the horrific job that they are in Iraq to perform. It is a part of the war that many of us do not think deeply about. This book, in a compelling narrative style will bring it home.

Voices of Dragons by Carrie Vaughn
Staff Reviewer: Cindy Stevens, Center for Readers Services

Taking a page from all the Big Foot stories and the Loch Ness Monster debates, Voices of Dragons tells the story of dragons, fabled creatures that had been living deep in the recesses of mountains and remote areas until they decided that they needed more room and went to war with humans. A treaty was signed after years of war and now, on one side of the border is the “real world” with work, television, internet, school and cell phones. On the other side live dragons.  Humans don’t go into dragon territory and dragons leave humans alone.

Kay Wyatt is seventeen. Her mother works for the agency that monitors the border and makes sure that no humans trespass into dragon territory. Kay loves to rock climb. One day she is climbing by herself and ends up falling into a river and dragged into dragon territory. She is saved by Artegal – a young-ish dragon.  They become friends. Can a young human and a young dragon keep the world from entering into a war that will be devastating to both?

This is a fun book about relationships: friends, parents, authority. Kay is a strong heroine. For those readers that like dystopias, fantasy and dragons, this is a winner!