Staff Recommendations
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The ocean at the end of the lane
by Gaiman, Neil.
Reviewed by: Daryl M., Librarian, West Valley Regional Branch LibraryJuly 14, 2014
Neil Gaiman is one of the world’s best known fantasy writers. His work can be found in comics/graphic novels (Sandman, Batman and Swamp Thing), television (Neverwhere, Babylon 5), motion pictures (Coraline, Mirror Mask) and radio--and, of course, in his novels and short stories. Gaiman’s books range from picture books (Chu’s Day, The Dangerous Alphabet, The Wolves in the Walls) to large adult “doorstop” novels (American Gods) and almost any and... Read Full Review
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The kept girl/ by Kim Cooper.
by Cooper, Kim, 1967-
Reviewed by: Robert Anderson, Librarian, Literature & Fiction DepartmentJuly 7, 2014
Call Number: M
During the first few decades of the twentieth century, Los Angeles had more than its share of medical and/or religious celebrities who offered their worshipful followers a cure for ailments both physical and mental. In her first novel, Kim Cooper, who has made a career out of sharing her knowledge of the more bizarre episodes in local history on her Esotouric bus tours, focuses on one such Southern California cult of the 1920s: the Great Eleven.
Run by a mother-daughter team, the Great Eleven used "Mother May"... Read Full Review -
French cooking in ten minutes : or, Adapting to the rhythm of modern life (1930)
by Pomiane, Edouard de, 1875-1964.
Reviewed by: Sheryn Morris, Librarian, Literature & FictionJuly 1, 2014
Call Number: 641.5944 P786-1 1986
Ten minutes to cook a French meal? Sacre bleu is what some purists might scream, and a few of them did just that in 1930s’ Paris. Edouard de Pomiane’s little book, with its very practical advice about cooking and eating well with the least amount of fuss, was a big hit, as were his other books and radio programs. He was not a trained cook or chef, but a scientist at the Louis Pasteur Institute in Paris, with cooking as a hobby and a second-act career. De... Read Full Review
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Stand Up Straight and Sing!
by Norman, Jessye
Reviewed by: Sheryn Morris, Librarian, Literature & FictionJune 25, 2014
Call Number: 789.14 N842
A true diva is a distinguished female opera singer who strives for the best in her own work and expects the same from everyone with whom she works in order to create a marvelous experience for an audience. Jessye Norman is the full embodiment of a diva on stage and off, always striving for the best in life and art. In the introduction James Levine, operatic and symphonic conductor, verifies that this is not a ghost written autobiography, but is definitely in the author’s own words because no one else could do it better than Jessye Norman.
Jessye Norman grew up in a loving,... Read Full Review
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Brutal youth
by Breznican, Anthony.
Reviewed by: Daryl M., Librarian, West Valley Regional Branch LibraryJune 16, 2014
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times”. This quote from Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities has been used to describe many and various situations and circumstances. One place for which this quote can be particularly apt is high school. For some people, the time they spent in grades 9-12 will come to be the happiest in their lives, their “glory days,” and will represent the lifelong pinnacle of their personal achievements. Others will experience the opposite: four years of seemingly endless antagonism and disrespect possibly... Read Full Review
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Dorothy must die
by Paige, D. M,
Reviewed by: Daryl M., Librarian, West Valley Regional Branch LibraryJune 9, 2014
Call Number: YA
Oz. The mere mention of the name can conjure up images of roads of yellow brick cutting through landscapes of oversaturated colors (and, we imagine, scents), towards the Emerald City. For more than a century, children and adults alike have cherished L. Frank Baum’s original The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and its 34 sequels (13 written by Baum, and the remaining 21 written after his death by Ruth Plumly Thompson). But the original novels can be just the jumping-... Read Full Review
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Kinslayer
by Kristoff, Jay.
Reviewed by: Daryl M., Librarian, West Valley Regional Branch LibraryJune 2, 2014
At the end of Stormdancer (book one of The Lotus War series), chaos is reigning. Yoritomo-no-miya, Seii Taishogun of the Shima Isles, is dead, and he has no heir. The other clans look at the throne with hunger, making plans and hurtling the entire country towards civil war.
As Kinslayer begins, Yukiko and Buruu, her thunder tiger (what we would call a gryphon), are now seen as heroes of the Kagé rebellion. As Yukiko struggles with the death of her father, her power to hear the thoughts of other living things has begun to grow erratic and dangerous. More... Read Full Review
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Lamberto Lamberto Lamberto
by Rodari, Gianni.
Reviewed by: David Turshyan, Librarian, International Languages DepartmentMay 19, 2014
There is an ancient wise saying – almost a secret of the pharaohs – “The man whose name is spoken remains alive.”
Twice upon a time there was an exceedingly elderly gentleman named Baron Lamberto, who lived in the villa on his private island of San Giulio in the middle of Lake Orta. Baron Lamberto had the greatest chamomile collection on our planet. He had chamomiles from the Alps and the Caucasus, the Sierras and the Andes, and even from the Himalayas. In addition, he had collections of umbrellas, seventeenth-century Dutch paintings, banks, mansions and... Read Full Review
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On Heaven and Earth: Pope Francis on Faith, Family, and the Church in the Twenty-First Century
by Francis, Pope, 1936-
Reviewed by: David B., Librarian, InfoNowMay 12, 2014
Call Number: 261 F818
In 2010, Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio (now Pope Francis) had a series of religious dialogues with a fellow Argentinian, Abraham Skorka, a Conservative Rabbi and biophysicist. The two religious leaders discussed the principle that the role of faith plays in dealing with contemporary issues such as economic inequality, euthanasia, treatment of the elderly, political corruption, abortion and materialism. More controversially, they shared their opposition to gay marriage, their respect for some communists, their agreement that the Catholic Church had a mixed record during the... Read Full Review
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Gideon Smith and the mechanical girl
by Barnett, David, 1970 January 11-
Reviewed by: Daryl M., Librarian, West Valley Regional Branch LibraryMay 5, 2014
Take some traditional pulp elements (a heroic protagonist, a grand adventure, a hidden treasure awaiting discovery); mix them with some features of a decidedly steampunk variety (airships, fantastical technologies and, of course, Queen Victoria); throw in some horror (mummies and vampires – okay, these could be found in the pulps as well); add a heaping helping of historical figures and alternate history; and for good measure put in some contemporary sensibilities and a strong sense of fun. Mix well and, if you’re lucky, you’ll end up with David Barnett’s new... Read Full Review
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Clash of civilizations over an elevator in Piazza Vittorio
by Lakhous, Amara, 1970-
Reviewed by: Sheryn Morris, Librarian, Literature & FictionApril 21, 2014
Murder is the obvious problem, but finding out who did it leads to smaller issues with bigger implications--the loves and hates which immigrants from diverse backgrounds have for each other and their adopted city, Rome.
Who killed Lorenzo Manfredini aka the Gladiator? Amedeo aka Ahmed Salmi is the key suspect because he has disappeared, which is what perpetrators always do--run away. Don't they? Not so quick... Read Full Review
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An unnecessary woman
by Alameddine, Rabih,
Reviewed by: Sheryn Morris, Librarian, Literature & FictionApril 14, 2014
What is a woman to do? What is this particular woman to do? For a woman in her time and place (last half of the 20th century in Beirut), Aaliya (meaning the high one and the above), audaciously decided early in her life what to do. When she speaks to us, she is seventy-two-years old, divorced, without a profession or extended education, an avid reader of select books who has taken on the unassigned job of translating some of them, but not from the original language--she is translating from a translation. She lives alone in a family apartment which came to her when she married A... Read Full Review