If you’re looking for a real creative master of the medium, look no further than our recently added Lynd Ward novella collections: Prelude to a Million Years/Song Without Words/Vertigo and Gods’ Man/Madman’s Drum/Wild Pilgrimage.
Ward, born in 1905, used images to tell stories in the print medium. By creating prints from his woodblock carvings, Lynd Ward’s haunting art brought stories to life in the most eerie of ways. Check it out.
It’s time to scream like a Twilight fan in 2007: Mockingjay, The third book from the Hunger Games series has arrived on the JCCC shelf… AND IT IS GONE! But on the bright side, we currently have only 3 (count’em! 3!) holds on the book including the lucky patron who’s going to get it first. Our fabulous friends at Johnson County Library have a good amount of copies, but also have 441 people on the wait-list according to my extensive Outstanding Holds list with them.
This Hunger Games business is the story of a future North America that has turned into an epic police state which frequently forces a random member from each poor area to compete in a to-the-death “reality TV” show. It focuses on one particular girl, Katniss, one of the most popular competitors in the history of “The Hunger Games.” People are going absolutely nuts for this series, so you might as well check it out.
So today’s book is a fictional compilation of interviews from an author’s past lovers and friends, so a fictional biographer can piece them together. The author in question? John Coetzee. The real author of this work of fiction? John Coetzee. Yeah. I know.
J.M. Coetzee’s Summertime: fiction is an incredible tale about other people trying to find a human side to a man who produced mopey, often shallow or inhumane novels, only to discover the the man who wrote them wasn’t all that sharp or personable. An absolutely incredible work that takes some brass to even write. It is equal parts self-deprecating, entirely ambiguous with reality, and insane spectacle. Though it may sound like an over-indulgent and vain work, Coetzee balances his fictional self in a well-evened manner that takes some real self control to accomplish. Audacious? Yes, in the negative way. Brilliant? Yes, in the most positive of ways.
In a world now without bees, five people in distant parts of the world become the first sting victims in years, and engage in a prophetic search for the planet’s future. Pulled from the world of drugs, the world of technology, and in one case, The World of Warcraft, a secret militant group apprehends the sting victims as a prophecy unfolds. This is the story in Douglas Coupland’s Generation A.
I’m not gonna lie, this book is pretty crazy. On the other hand, it’s a funny and thoughtful look at technology, society, and pop culture. Though technically a sequel in theme to the author’s book, Generation X, it can certainly be enjoyed on its own.
… but these literature events were! In Literary Hoaxes : An Eye-Opening History of Famous Frauds by Melissa Katsoulis, you’ll find out about fake Shakespeare notes, an imposter Hitler diary, ancient Roman tomfoolery, and some recent shannanigans pulled by authors trying to make a quick buck off of forgery and lies. This isn’t really a book for conspiracy theorists, but is perfect for those interested in proven fakes in literature.
As for this post’s title? I just really like Refused.
Andrea Kempf is a Professor/Librarian at JCCC. She’s also really smart. Here’s a book + review she passed along to me a few days ago, which I’m finally posting.
Smile as they Bow by Nu Nu Yi. In the first contemporary novel from Burma, published since a dictatorial regime has virtually closed the country, Nu Nu Yi writes about a festival where spirit mediums (called Natkadaws who are usually transvestites) are paid to pray for solutions to people’s problems for steep payments. The main character is an aging medium whose young lover has become interested in a beggar girl. The novel not only explores gay life in Burma but is also a window on a little known part of the world.
I’m a huge fan of graphic novels, but despite this fact, I’ve never been able to get into Neil Gaiman’s Sandman. If you’re big on comic books, you are aware how grievous this sin is to most.
That being said, I can say I’ve enjoyed his novels, and the film Stardust is amazing, and today’s book of the day is Dangerous Alphabet, a collaboration with artist Gris Grimly. The premise? Two kids and their gazelle sneak out of the house to fight pirates while the narrative’s pacing is controlled by the alphabet. I don’t know a better way to sell a book to you than giving that description. If you find the clever campiness of Gaiman to be just camp (and you find that a bad thing), the book is still worth a flip-through for the art alone. But hey, while you’re looking, check out some of our other great graphic novels!