October 30, 2007
Overdue Finds
By Michelle Souliere
Drama and trauma are the bywords of this installment of Overdue Finds.
From bad monkeys to boarding schools, postcard concoctions to conspiracies,
it's all new at the Portland Public Library.
Title: Bad Monkeys
Author: Matt Ruff
Jane Charlotte is in jail on murder charges, confined to the psychiatric
ward. Why? Well, her claim to be a member of the Department for the Final
Disposition of Irredeemable Persons, a.k.a. "Bad Monkeys,"
is a start. Jail psychologist Dr. Vale listens to her personal history,
starting with her recruitment into the secret organization at the age
of 14, after she discovered that the janitor at her school was the Angel
of Death. It turns out the Bad Monkeys were already on this case, but
Jane didn't find that out until it was almost too late.
American anthropologist and poet Loren Eiseley once said, "I am
not nearly so interested in what monkey man was derived from as I am in
what kind of monkey he is to become." So too the reader swings back
and forth as they hear Jane's tale: is she a good monkey or a Bad
Monkey? Her story unfolds in a way that will seem eerily familiar to fans
of the underground classic The Illuminatus! Trilogy. It's
a quick read, because you won't want to put it down.
Title: Silent Cry
Author: Julie Bigg Veazey
Aristotle, who said, "The roots of education are bitter, but the
fruit is sweet," obviously never attended Winthrop Academy, the
upstanding New England boarding school where this story takes place. Set
in the late 1950s, Silent Cry combines all the elements you expect
from an all-girl boarding school potboiler: late night snack raids, cliquish
alliances and rivalries, a sultry rendezvous with a professor, run-ins
with local hooligans in the woods, and secrets from each girl's
past that return to become the explosive ingredients of the story's
climax.
Nancy is dropped off at Winthrop in the middle of the school year. Abandoned
by her parents, surrounded by strangers, pursued by her hall's religious-zealot
housemother, and distressed by the nonstop, sex-crazed chatter of her
roommate, she wonders if she will ever enjoy life again. Then she finds
a kindred soul in her classmate, Heather. But little does Nancy know that
events at Winthrop Academy are coming to a most unexpected head at the
end of spring semester. Melodrama and murder, ahoy!
Title: Rex Zero and the End of the World
Author: Tim Wynne-Jones
Life is difficult. As youngsters, we think it will be easier as adults;
as adults, we wistfully remember those "simpler" days of childhood.
Let's stop complaining about life and just live it for a change!
That's all Rex Zero wants to do. But a number of problems are making
this difficult for him in the summer of 1962.
First of all, the Communists are going to invade North America at any
moment. Everyone wants a bomb shelter in their backyard, and Rex's
sister, Annie Oakley, is pretty sure there's suspicious activity
afoot in their new neighborhood in Ottawa. Secondly, where are all the
other kids their age? Every time Rex has seen other kids, they've
seemed to be running away from something.
Then one night he goes on a walk through the park with his untamable dog,
Kincho, and surprises something in the bushes – something large,
black and furry, with a terrifying roar. After finally catching up with
some of the local kids, Rex finds out it's an escaped panther, but
none of the adults believe the panther's there.
Rex decides to help the kids capture the panther. Along the way, he meets
a beatnik and a strange, derelict old man named Dump Orbit, finds a treehouse,
makes some friends, and loses his dog. Things are not always as they seem,
but in this book, things are definitely not what they seem to
be. Tim Wynne-Jones has crafted a highly entertaining novel that is also,
in many respects, an autobiography.
Title: Postcards: True Stories That Never Happened
Editor: Jason Rodriguez
I'd been looking forward to reading this book since I saw it in
a local bookstore last summer. When it arrived at the library, I found
it different than what I was expecting, though still a good read.
Editor Jason Rodriguez approached 16 different teams of writers and illustrators
and enlisted them to create stories based on used postcards he found at
an antiques shop. The results are mostly serious in nature. Perhaps the
teams felt an obligation of sorts to the writers of the original cards,
such that they didn't want to assume the sometimes cryptic messages
were as frivolous as some of the illustrations on the other side of the
cards would imply.
In any case, Postcards is a collection of very human tales, each
executed in a very individual style – contributors include Harvey
Pekar and Joyce Brabner, Stuart Moore and Michael Gaydos, and Joshua Hale
Fialkov and Micah Farritor. There is beauty in these pieces, and there
is pain, but above all, they celebrate the stories each of us weave in
our everyday lives.
From the A/V Stacks…
Title: Scotland, Pa.
Just when you think the relationship between the Macbeths and King Duncan
has been explored in as many creative ways as possible, someone comes
along to prove you wrong. Witness the darkly comedic approach taken in
Billy Morrissette's murderous movie, Scotland, Pa. Who
would have thought the old man's murder could have had so many jokes
in it?
It's 1975, and at a small greasy-spoon diner in Scotland, Pennsylvania,
the Duncan clan is about to find themselves usurped by the cunning, ambitious
and clumsy McBeths. The future is calling, and the past isn't fading
fast enough for sly vixen Pat McBeth (Maura Tierney), who wants her husband,
Joe "Mac" McBeth (James LeGros), take over the diner and revolutionize
the fast food world with the innovations that came to him in a dream.
Between three witchy bohemians and his wife, Mac finds himself in the
thick of a messy murder mystery. When Lieutenant McDuff (Christopher Walken)
lays into the scene and paranoia levels rise, so too does the body count.
Michelle Souliere works at the Portland Public Library.
To find or reserve these materials, visit www.portlandlibrary.com.
Links to past editions...
Overdue
Finds
October 8, 2007
Overdue
Finds
August 27, 2007
Overdue
Finds
July 24, 2007
Overdue
Finds
April 29, 2007
Overdue
Finds
March 15, 2007
Overdue
Finds
January 22, 2007
