We are a branch of the Los Angeles Public Library located in Highland Park. Keep yourself updated on our doings here...
Tanya Huff introduces us to a new world in The Silvered. It is a world
with mages and science (Victorianish science) and shape shifters and a mad
emperor. Our heroine is on a mission to
rescue a pack of mages caught and held by the emperor. All in all it is an
exciting adventure with the requisite happy ending. I’d recommend it to any lover of fantasy.
April is a fiction month.
This month we are taking a look at British maritime life in the 19th
century via Master & Commander by Patrick O’Brian. This is the first book of O’Brian’s Jack
Aubrey series. We meet the principal series
characters and see what life aboard a man-of-war was like during the
Napoleonic Wars. It should be quite an
adventure.
This week's question was which historic hotel-turned-apartment building
in downtown Los Angeles is rumored to be haunted by a ghost called the Lady in
Black?
The Friday Society by Adrienne
Kress is steampunk mystery written for teens and telling the story of a trio of
girls each working as a “girl Friday” in this vaguely London, vaguely late
1800’s novel. The book was sort of cute
but I couldn’t really get into it. I
had no empathy for the characters and, in fact, kind of wanted to give one of
them a slap for being so ridiculous.
Furthermore the completely modern use of idiom (things were awesome,
guys were hot) was jarring in a novel set in the 1800’s even though it isn’t
really OUR 1800’s.
These Things Happen by Richard Kramer is a
little slice of life. It follows
(switching viewpoints) a 15-year old boy, his friend, his father, his mother,
his father’s boyfriend, and his mother’s husband over the course of about 2
days and through a rather traumatic event.
What I liked best about the book was the author’s use of language. The book engages in a lot of following the
thoughts of these people but when it breaks into dialogue it is especially
captivating.
Which historic hotel-turned-apartment building in downtown Los Angeles is rumored to be haunted by a ghost called the Lady in Black?
This week's question was: What is the name of
the type of gun that Colonel Custer left behind when he set out for the Battle
of Little Big Horn? This gun is also where a common slang term for a gun came
from.
The book The Genius of Dogs by Brian Hare
and Vanessa Woods explores the world of dog cognition. It is an easy to read examination of the
science that has been done in the quest to understand dogs and the dog-human
relationship. This book provides an
introduction to the subject and an overview of the material that is easy to
understand (i.e. there is no depth of specific scientific information to hinder
the scientifically illiterate).
Set in Northern Ireland in 1983, The Cold Cold Ground by Adrian McKinty follows a Catholic police officer in the
Royal Ulster Constabulary as he investigates a series of murders. The book does an excellent job of evoking a
period and a mood. The mystery was
interesting but I found the ending troublesome.
This week's trivia question was:The answer is James Butler “Wild Bill” HickokThe question, and answer, were found on pages 124-125 of The Historical Atlas of American Crime by Fred Rosen. The book was published by Facts on File in 2005.
Quite Ugly One Morning by Christopher Brookmyre
opened with one of the most graphically described, gruesome murder scenes I
have ever read. I had to assume the
author was competing for some kind of “most gross scene ever” prize and for a
while there I had my doubts about the book.
Once I got past that scene and into the book itself, though, it turned
out to be a very good book. It had
interesting characters, a reasonable plot, and made interesting points about
“managed medical care.”
A bit delayed but---> last's week's question was: Where have the
largest numbers of meteorites been discovered in the past decade?
The Ninth Circle by R. M. Meluch
is straight up space opera. It is quite
enjoyable. It is part of a series. Although it can be read alone the characters
are established across the series so you will get a clearer idea of who is who
if you read them all. This one centers
on political machinations (which in this universe essentially means war) on a
planet that has been recently discovered to host DNA based life. All in all a recommended read for those who
like science fiction.