Staff Recommendations
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The big tiny : a built-it-myself memoir
by Williams, Dee (Builder).
Reviewed by: Andrea Borchert, Librarian, Koreatown Media LabMay 27, 2015
Call Number: 690.973 W722
There are memoirs that you read because you are impressed with the author’s accomplishments. There are memoirs you read because you want to know what it’s like to live another, different life. And there are memoirs that you read because it becomes clear as you make your way through the writer's life, chapter by chapter, that this book was written by someone from whom you can learn something--a way of life or an outlook that is unusual, wonderful, and worth experiencing. Big Tiny manages to be all three types of memoirs in one. I picked it up because it was the story... Read Full Review
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So that happened : a memoir
by Cryer, Jon, 1965-
Reviewed by: David B., Librarian, InfoNowMay 18, 2015
Call Number: 812.092 C9565
Jon Cryer’s So That Happened: A Memoir is the rare celebrity tell-all that is as insightful as it is entertaining. Cryer, star of Two and a Half Men, comes across as a levelheaded person in a crazy business. The author doesn’t spare us any salacious details, particularly about his time working with Charlie Sheen, but he balances his life story with moments of compassion and empathy. In essence, Cryer manages to merge a literary sensibility with a jocular tone. Cryer grew up in a bohemian apartment house in New York, surrounded by artists of all stripes. He and his... Read Full Review
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The cutting room : dark reflections of the silver screen
Reviewed by: Daryl M., Librarian, West Valley Regional Branch LibraryMay 11, 2015
Call Number: SS
Horror stories infused with elements of the supernatural and, by design, created to fill the reader with a sense of dread and foreboding, have been around for as long as people have gathered around fires in the dark. The first published horror novels date back to the 18th century, with horror becoming a true phenomenon in the 19th with the publication of Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (1818), the works of Edgar Allan Poe (1820s-1840s), The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson (1886), The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde (1890) and... Read Full Review
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The hunting gun
by Inoue, Yasushi, 1907-1991,
Reviewed by: Sheryn Morris, Librarian, Literature & FictionMay 6, 2015
Call Number: Ed.a
The premise of this novel is a very old one: a man and a woman, each of them married to other people, have an ongoing long affair. However, Yasushi Inoue, a prolific writer of over fifty novels, numerous short stories, poetry and travel writing, has created something different in this very short, enigmatic and bittersweet novel.
The form of the novel is unique--with three letters set within the frame of another letter which is sent to a writer who has published a poem depicting a hunter trudging along with a powerful double-barreled shotgun. The letter... Read Full Review
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Karen Memory
by Bear, Elizabeth,
Reviewed by: Andrea Borchert, Librarian, Koreatown Media LabApril 27, 2015
Karen Memory is a Steampunk novel set in the mythical frontier city of Rapid City. Rapid City is a bit like San Francisco would have been during the gold rush if San Francisco had been built with Zeppelins by mad scientists in 1849. Karen is an orphan trying to make her way in the city and save up money to open a stable someday, like her father.
But the way that Karen has found to make money isn’t... Read Full Review
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The house of silk : a Sherlock Holmes novel
by Horowitz, Anthony, 1955-
Reviewed by: Daryl M., Librarian, West Valley Regional Branch LibraryApril 13, 2015
Call Number: M
While Batman is often described as the world’s greatest detective, Sherlock Holmes must be the world’s best known. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s consulting detective has been thrilling readers for almost 130 years with his masterful uses of reasoning, disguise and deduction to solve almost any crime. Doyle’s original Holmes adventures can be found in four novels and 56 short stories. These have been adapted to stage, radio, television and film, and the characters have been used by many authors for additional adventures as well. The house of silk is one of the new adventures. ... Read Full Review
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In certain circles
by Harrower, Elizabeth, 1928-
Reviewed by: Robert Anderson, Librarian, Literature & Fiction DepartmentMarch 31, 2015
The revelation of a "rediscovered" Harper Lee novel is worldwide news. A similar case involving another octogenarian author, from Australia, has generated much less media buzz but is nevertheless a significant literary event. During the 1960s, Elizabeth Harrower was considered one of the most talented younger Australian novelists. Her four novels were praised in Britain and in Australia, which included acclaim and friendship from two stellar Australian novelists, Christina Stead and Patrick White. A couple of years ago, an Australian publisher decided to reissue the four... Read Full Review
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A darker shade of magic
by Schwab, V. E., 1987-
Reviewed by: Daryl M., Librarian, West Valley Regional Branch LibraryMarch 20, 2015
Call Number: Ed.a
What if there were multiple Londons? Four vastly different but parallel cities existing simultaneously in the same location? A Grey London, dark and dirty, ruled by a mad king and almost completely devoid of magic. A Red London, bright and beautiful, where a benevolent monarchy rules over a flourishing, magic-infused empire. A White London, where the throne is attained through treachery and dominance, and the populace struggles to control a form of magic that is as rebellious and untrustworthy as they are. And a Black London, source of the most powerful--and... Read Full Review
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It's what I do : a photographer's life of love and war
by Addario, Lynsey.
Reviewed by: Sheryn Morris, Librarian, Literature & FictionMarch 16, 2015
Call Number: 770.9 A222
Lynsey Addario’s autobiography and photographs are clear, direct, candid, and not for the faint of heart, so this is a cautionary warning. Her calling is war photography and with a world rocking off its hinges with conflicts, revolts, and wars, mostly undeclared, she has been steadily employed.
Her obsession with photography began when her father casually handed over a Nikon FG to the thirteen-year-old Lynsey. At university she majored in international relations, but never imagined that photography could be a profession. A student year abroad in Italy provided... Read Full Review
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Among others
by Walton, Jo.
Reviewed by: Daryl M., Librarian, West Valley Regional Branch LibraryMarch 9, 2015
Morwenna Phelps has had an interesting--and challenging--childhood. She and her twin sister, Morganna, grew up in Wales searching for, and playing with, the fairies who live in the local industrial ruins. Their mother, Liz, is a witch and also quite mad. When Liz attempts to take control of the fairies, the twins attempt to stop her. Morganna is killed, and Morwenna is gravely injured. She is then sent to live with the father who abandoned them as babies, and he promptly packs her off to a girls’ boarding school in... Read Full Review
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Ada's algorithm : how Lord Byron's daughter Ada Lovelace launched the digital age
by Essinger, James, 1957-
Reviewed by: Sheryn Morris, Librarian, Literature & FictionMarch 3, 2015
Call Number: 92 L8978Es
Ada Lovelace was the only legitimate child of Lord Byron, the brilliant and disturbed poet who died at thirty-six after living a life of excessive debauchery. Her mother came from a wealthy, fairly open-minded family, and for a woman at that time she received a somewhat decent education. The marriage lasted a little over a year, when Lady Byron took the young baby, and ran away from her controlling husband. Because Lord Byron had led a most profligate life, rife with an abuse of drugs and sex, it was one of... Read Full Review
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All I Love and Know
by Frank, Judith, 1958-
Reviewed by: Janice Batzdorff, LibrarianFebruary 22, 2015
Lydia Rosen’s inane chatter about bourekas during the flight to Israel baffles Matt Greene. To his partner, Daniel Rosen, his mother’s preoccupation with the stuffed pastry makes total sense. “She’s trying not to have to imagine how much of her son’s body has been blown to bits,” he explains. But the grim reality intrudes when Daniel, his parents, and Matt land at the Tel Aviv airport and are transported directly to the Institute of Forensic Medicine in Jerusalem. There, amidst indescribable, horrific odors and the sound of crying and wailing, the family is asked to identify Joel’s body... Read Full Review