October Book of the Month: The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling

via goodreads.com:
When Barry Fairbrother dies in his early forties, the town of Pagford is left in shock.
Pagford is, seemingly, an English idyll, with a cobbled market square and an ancient abbey, but what lies behind the pretty façade is a town at war.
Rich at war with poor, teenagers at war with their parents, wives at war with their husbands, teachers at war with their pupils...Pagford is not what it first seems.
And the empty seat left by Barry on the parish council soon becomes the catalyst for the biggest war the town has yet seen. Who will triumph in an election fraught with passion, duplicity and unexpected revelations?
The Casual Vacancy is J.K. Rowling’s first novel for adults.

Curse of H. H. Holmes

Something you may have picked up upon over the last several months is that the background image each month changes to display the cover of our book club reading. Knowing that you have wondered why the current image still reflects our last selection (Devil in the White City) and not our current selection (Bitter Seeds). Well, its not for lack of trying. I have uploaded an image of Bitter Seeds, yet it won't change. If you look deeper into the design settings, it shows the cover of Bitter Seeds as the background. I have even deleted the Devil in the White City cover from the blog's image files, yet it remains.

To Be Continued...

September Book of the Month: Bitter Seeds by Ian Tregillis

Via goodreads.com

It’s 1939. The Nazis have supermen, the British have demons, and one perfectly normal man gets caught in between

Raybould Marsh is a British secret agent in the early days of the Second World War, haunted by something strange he saw on a mission during the Spanish Civil War: a German woman with wires going into her head who looked at him as if she knew him.

When the Nazis start running missions with people who have unnatural abilities—a woman who can turn invisible, a man who can walk through walls, and the woman Marsh saw in Spain who can use her knowledge of the future to twist the present—Marsh is the man who has to face them. He rallies the secret warlocks of Britain to hold the impending invasion at bay. But magic always exacts a price. Eventually, the sacrifice necessary to defeat the enemy will be as terrible as outright loss would be.

Alan Furst meets Alan Moore in the opening of an epic of supernatural alternate history, the tale of a twentieth century like ours and also profoundly different.

The World's Fair Still Exists?

I wonder how many people, like me, thought the last World's Fair was many decades ago if not longer. I vaguely remembered that there was a World's Fair in Queens, NY in the sixties thanks to Men In Black, but never heard of anything more recent.

Here are some notes from the research I've done on this subject.

1. The last World's Fair (now called Expo) in the US was 1984 in New Orleans
2. The 2012 World's Fair is in Yeosu, South Korea http://www.worldexpo2012.com/
3. There seems to be no rule to the amount of years in between each Expo. Some are four years apart, some are only one year apart. Sometimes you even have two in the same year!
4. The next Expo is in Milan, Italy 2017 (I suggest a book club field trip. Let's start those fundraising car washes now!)
5. Unlike 160 other nations, the United States is no longer a member of the Bureau of International Expositions. Congress withdrew funding in 2001.

6. This is the logo of the B.I.E. Don't ask.

Bradbury Landing

via the LA Times

Ray Bradbury touches down on Mars. One of Ray Bradbury's most enduring books explores a future version of Mars colonized by humans. Sixty-two years after the publication of The Martian Chronicles, the late author's fiction came one step closer to becoming fact when the the Curiosity rover touched down on Mars. Now, NASA has announced that they will name Curiosity's landing site Bradbury Landing after the science fiction writer. The news of Bradbury's enshrinement on the red planet came through Curiosity's Twitter feed. "In tribute, I dedicate my landing spot on Mars to you, Ray Bradbury. Greetings from Bradbury Landing!" the rover tweeted yesterday, on what would've been Bradbury's 92nd birthday.

August Book of the Month: Devil in the White City by Erik Larson

via goodreads.com

Author Erik Larson imbues the incredible events surrounding the 1893 Chicago World's Fair with such drama that readers may find themselves checking the book's categorization to be sure that 'The Devil in the White City' is not, in fact, a highly imaginative novel. Larson tells the stories of two men: Daniel H. Burnham, the architect responsible for the fair's construction, and H.H. Holmes, a serial killer masquerading as a charming doctor.

Burnham's challenge was immense. In a short period of time, he was forced to overcome the death of his partner and numerous other obstacles to construct the famous "White City" around which the fair was built. His efforts to complete the project, and the fair's incredible success, are skillfully related along with entertaining appearances by such notables as Buffalo Bill Cody, Susan B. Anthony, and Thomas Edison.

The activities of the sinister Dr. Holmes, who is believed to be responsible for scores of murders around the time of the fair, are equally remarkable. He devised and erected the World's Fair Hotel, complete with crematorium and gas chamber, near the fairgrounds and used the event as well as his own charismatic personality to lure victims.

A Bit of Irony?

Many moons and one child ago I was a book reviewer for the Pleasant Hill Community Focus. This was just one of the many extra-curricular activities I partook in on top of being a full-time teacher. About four months into my second child I realized that I needed to start trimming my work load. Sadly, one of the activities that I needed to cut was the monthly book review for the Pleasant Hill Community Focus.

I went back to their website a few days to see if the articles were still available and found something very surprising and ironic. To be clear, I was not surprised (or upset for that matter) to see that my reviews had been taken down. The last one I wrote was December of 2010 (I think). What I did find surprising (and ironic) was that the new book reviewer is non-other than Pleasant Hill City Councilman Micheal G. Harris!

For those new to the blog and/or don't see the irony...
http://pleasanthillbookclub.blogspot.com/search/label/Michael%20Harris

Maybe it's the healing power of time or the fact that the Pleasant Hill Library has shown some solid improvement recently, but I am actually very excited to read his work. In his first post Harris gives an introduction to his life as a reader.
http://www.ourcommunityfocus.com/pages/full_story/push?article-Read+My+Mind%20&id=19176610#comments_19176610

It seems like he'll bring a lot of enthusiasm to his work and I am looking forward to reading his first review which I presume will be published in the August issue. You can find a link to the Pleasant Hill Community Focus book reviews on the right of this page just under the PHBC Book-Montage along with the book reviews of other publications. To see some of my old book reviews, you can travel even further down the right of the page and find them located under the interviews with local authors.

Goodreads Interview With Seth Graham-Smith

Watch live streaming video from goodreads at livestream.com

Some Funny From the Onion

http://www.theonion.com/articles/film-adaptation-of-the-brothers-karamazov-ends-whe,2787/

I wonder how many of us can relate to this.

2012 Annual Book Giveaway!

The World's greatest book giveaway (that I know of) is coming again this August 16th through August 31st from 9am-5pm! Located in the loaded docks of the Pleasant Hill Library, there will be thousands of free books to pick-up!

In years past I have left with literally HUNDREDS of books! I assume the best pickings are early, but I usually go toward the end and still find great picks. If you are also a teacher, this is a great way to built a solid classroom library.

Details:
75 Santa Barbara Road
Pleasant Hill, CA 94523

Books will be sorted into the following sections:
Children’s Fiction
Children's Non-fiction
Adult Fiction
Adult Non-Fiction
Paperbacks
Hardcover books in all subjects

Please bring your own boxes or bags

Because We Love Quizzes!

Here is a fun Stephen King one. I scored 28/30.

Enjoy!

http://www.sporcle.com/games/MrChewypoo/koning-konungur-konge

Best Tweet I've Read In a While

From Steve Martin @SteveMartinToGo

"Just bought an amazing new pen that writes in any language"

If you are on Twitter and don't follow Mr. Martin, I highly recommend that you do.

Can't wait to read one of these

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/technology-blog/book-printed-disappearing-ink-eventually-goes-blank-155955712.html



Though, I wonder what affect it will have on libraries.