Book Review: The Stand by Stephen King (downloadable audio)

The Stand
by Stephen King (downloadable audio)

I never thought this, my FAVORITE BOOK OF ALL TIME, could get better! I really didn’t! I knew I’d always love it, but I just didn’t think it could be any more perfect than it already was. Then I LISTENED to it! Oh. My. Gosh!!! I loved it so much more!!! All my friends — my favorite characters, both good and bad — seriously came to life when I had this story read to me! I highly recommend listening to this — it was fabulous!!!

[If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try Firestarter, by Stephen King, or The Fireman, by Joe Hill (Stephen King’s son).]

[ Wikipedia page dedicated to The Stand ] | [ official Stephen King web site ]

Read Scott C.’s review of The Stand from October 2004

Recommended by Tracy T.
Anderson and Bethany Branch Libraries

Have you read this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

Book Review: Three Parts Dead by Max Gladstone

Three Parts Dead
by Max Gladstone (downloadable audio)

Three Parts Dead is the first novel in Max Gladstone’s Craft Sequence, though it works perfectly fine as a stand-alone novel that ties everything up neatly at the end.

I picked this book up based on (1) the gorgeous cyberpunk-looking cover, and (2) the fact that Max Gladstone is coming to Lincoln’s science fiction and fantasy convention, ConStellation, in Spring 2020. I was pleasantly amazed to find that it is — I kid you not — a fantasy world legal thriller!

In this world, gods are real beings who form legal agreements and reward worshipers in tangible ways. When the story opens, a god of fire who powered an entire city has died. His church quietly hires a magical legal firm to represent their interests in the aftermath. As readers, we primarily follow the engineer priest who was on duty when the god died and a just-out-of-school Craftswoman on her first assignment. Things get dangerous right away when a judge connected to the case is murdered.

One thing I really enjoy about this book series is that, culturally, their setting is contemporary or even slightly futuristic. It’s as if an alternate Earth had magic to power its mechanisms rather than electricity, but art, music, philosophy and the like developed in very similar ways. ‘Three Parts Dead’ a fun read, with smartly-written dialogue and lots of whodunnit suspense.

[For more speculative fiction legal thrills, I recommend Fuzzy Nation, by John Scalzi.]

[ official Craft Sequence page on the official Max Gladstone web site ]

Recommended by Garren H.
Bennett Martin Public Library

Have you read this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

Book Review: Out of Body by Suzanne Brockmann

Out of Body
by Suzanne Brockmann (Hoopla downloadable audio)

Funny, paranormal, gay, male/male romance. I give this novella a PG rating.

It all begins on Halloween with a Ouija board when Henry’s best friend since college, Malcolm, suddenly disappears during the casting of a spell, and is presumed dead. Mal awakens to discover he’s a ghost; Henry is startled to learn he now has a ghost in the house.

Henry researches other spells to try to help Mal “move on” and some end up disastrously. Not to mention that Henry’s other friends think he’s going insane talking to himself – they don’t believe Mal is a ghost. Mal is convinced he’s a ghost with unfinished plans and that he’s to help Henry find a boyfriend, which also isn’t working out well because each is secretly in love with the other.

Hijinks ensue.

Brockmann writes with laugh-out-loud wit and interesting characters. She always provides an HEA (Happy Ever After) with her books and it was interesting to see how that worked out between a ghost and a very-much-alive human. But she made it work and I wasn’t anticipating the solution.

A quick, enjoyable story you can devour in an evening.

[If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try Old Loyalty, New Love, by Mary Calmes (as a Hoopla e-book). Shape-shifters, more of an “R” rating.]

[ official Out of Body page on the official Suzanne Brockmann web site ]

Recommended by Charlotte M.
Bennett Martin Public Library

Have you read this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

New Booklist: If You Like...Superheroes in Film and TV

New "If You Like..." Booklist

Are you a fan of the 20+ films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe that culminated in Avengers: Endgame? Do you follow the various interconnected television series on the CW network that are part of the "Arrowverse"? Or perhaps you're more old-school, and prefer classic older superhero TV series like Lois & Clark, The Greatest American Hero, Wonder Woman, The Adventures of Superman, or Captain Nice? Or Christopher Reeve as Superman, or Michael Keaton as Batman?

Whatever your preferred superhero flavor, you'll find them all listed on the If You Like...Superheroes in Film and TV "booklist" of DVDs. Take a trip down memory lane and explore some of the history of costumed heroes in popular visual media -- many of which are owned by the Lincoln City Libraries, and some of which you can get through our InterLibrary Loan service from other libraries around the country!

Check out the list of recommended viewing at the following link: 

If You Like...Superheroes in Film and TV

DVD Review: Yesterday

Yesterday
[DVD Yesterday]

I started looking forward to this film after seeing the earliest “teaser” trailers, back in 2018. Directed by Danny Boyle (Trainspotting, Sunshine, Slumdog Millionaire), from a screenplay by Richard Carpenter (writer of Notting Hill, Love Actually, Pirate Radio), this film ended up being a completely charming experience, with an unforgettable soundtrack.

Himesh Patel stars as Jack Malik, a struggle folk/pop composer/singer, whose efforts to become a success with his music have proven fruitless. Despite the support of his closest friends, including not-quite-girlfriend Ellie Appleton (Lily James), Jack decides it may be time to give up on music. Then, one night, while riding his bicycle home, he is hit by a bus during a freak global blackout. After recovering in the hospital, at a party to celebrate being released, he is gifted with a replacement guitar by his friends. To christen it, he decides to play “Yesterday”, one of the most beautiful songs for the guitar. Only — his friends don’t recognize the legendary song by Lennon and McCartney, nor do they know who The Beatles are.

At first disbelieving, Jack eventually realizes that, following his accident, nobody in the world except himself remembers The Beatles and their music. Initially suffering pangs of guilt and conscience, Jack eventually transcribes several Beatles songs and performs them himself, gaining the notoriety and attention he’s sought for his own music for years. What follows is a roller-coaster ride as Jack becomes a star, ostensibly for being a musical wonder, but constantly battling the guilt of playing someone else’s music and pretending it’s his own.

In addition to the great music — Himesh Patel is very competent and doing single-voice versions of classic Beatles hits — this film explores his moral quandry, and the relationships he has to the people who surround him. Patel’s performance is flawless, as is Lily James’ as Ellie. Joel Fry, as friend and “roadie” Rocky is amusing. Pop star Ed Sheeran is great as…Ed Sheeran. The only performance I didn’t care for was the usually reliable Kate McKinnon, who was way over the top as a music agent. Robert Carlyle (Once Upon a Time) has an uncredited cameo near the end of the film that provides for an emotional high point.

Suffice it to say, I really liked Yesterday. I’ve run into others who can’t stand it, so it might not be your cup of tea, either. But I found it an intriguing and effective tribute to the unforgettable music of The Beatles while still being a compelling personal story about an original character. Your mileage may vary.

[If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try the Yesterday soundtrack, currently available from the libraries only digitally on Hoopla.]

[ Internet Movie Database entry for this film ] | [ official Yesterday web page ]

Read Scott C.’s review of the soundtrack to the film Yesterday, from just last month (September 2019)

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library

Have you watched this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

Book Review: And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie (audiobook)

And Then There Were None
by Agatha Christie (Compact Disc Christie)

For the September meeting of the libraries’ Just Desserts mystery book discussion group, participants were assigned to talk about a memorable “stand-alone” mystery novel they’d read recently or in the past. I looked through my reading history list on LibraryThing to see what “stand-alones” jumped out at me — it was surprising how many books I have read (and loved) that are parts of ongoing series. But then I remembered Agatha Christie — in addition to her Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot series (among others), she had several significant “stand-alone” novels, including And Then There Were None, which has the distinction of being the top-selling mystery novel of all time, at over 100 million copies sold!

I originally read this back in high school, mumble-di-mumble years ago. I decided to revisit it for Just Desserts and took the opportunity to listen to the Book-on-CD audio adaptation, narrated by actor Hugh Fraser (who co-starred as Hastings in the Poirot television series opposite David Suchet). Fraser is a superb audio narrator, and gives each of the ten characters in this book a different audio personality. This story is legendary, and to say too much about it is to spoil the enjoyment of experiencing it (if you’ve never read it before). The book has evolved a little over the years, originally having been released in 1939 under a title that would be considered offensive today. Later American editions used the title “Ten Little Indians”, tied into a plot point of the story, but in the past 50 years, all editions have been titled And Then There Were None.

The plot, in a nutshell: Ten strangers find themselves lured to an estate on an island off the coast of Devon, England — either hired as employees or invited by distant and not-well-remembered associates. Once on the island, they are shocked by the playing of a recorded message, accusing each and every one of them of having committed murders for which they were never punished. Trapped on the island, with no way off, tensions rise as some of the ten die — first in what could be accidents, but later obviously by someone’s hand. And the fact that ten little carved Indian figures in the dining room begin disappearing to match the body count, means that the killer must be one of the remaining survivors. But who is it, and can anyone be trusted?

In true Christie fashion, the murders generally occur “off stage”, and are not overly gruesome. Which means this is a true psychological suspense novel. The story is told from the point of view of nearly every character, at one time or the other, and the reader gets to explore the psychology of each of them as the situation becomes more and more dire.

Christie said she felt And Then There Were None was the most complicated novel for her to write, with having to make sure so many characters’ stories matched up so effectively. In retrospect, having listened to it again, I can see a few flaws in the storytelling. But it is still an enthralling read, and Fraser’s audio version is marvelously entertaining!

[This novel has been adapted for film and TV several times (1945, 1965, 1974, etc.) — almost always with major changes made to the plot. I particularly enjoyed the TV mini-series version of it done in 2015, featuring Charles Dance and Aiden Turner (among others). The novel was also adapted (by Christie herself) into a stage play, which is a staple of community theaters around the US and UK. The play features two potential endings, one of which differs significantly from the novel.]

[ official And Then There Were None page on the official Agatha Christie web site ]

Read Elizabeth J.’s review of the print edition of And Then There Were None, from August 2005

Read Kristen A.’s review of the audiobook of And Then There Were None, from December 2017

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library

Have you read this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!