For today’s column, we asked library staff and volunteers to read beyond their usual genre or style preferences and to report back.
KC Scott. Library staff:
Sci-fi is really not my genre, but tolerable compared to horror (hands off!). I listened to “Wool” by Hugh Howey (available via the Libby app) not having a clue what it was about. I had seen the cover once upon a time and it looked interesting. A dystopian tale, set in what we find out at is the remnants of the US. We don’t really know what cataclysm resulted in the devastation. That is really beside the point as science doesn’t play a big part in the story. It’s about the people who live in a “silo.” There are power plays (that part of humanity has not changed), and there is a strict control apparatus in place to keep people from communicating easily. All communications are by porters, a class unto themselves, who run up and down huge stairways to deliver messages, and there is no elevator servicing the hundred or so enormous levels. People are expelled to “clean” the portals that show the surrounding countryside as punishment for transgressions which include taboo subjects such as the power structure. Special suits are worn promising protection from the toxic atmosphere, but no one returns. The main character, Juliet, discovers that the suits are defective on purpose and when she reveals this flaw and who is behind it, she is expelled. This is a compelling story, and I’m inclined to listen to the others in the series, and at one light bulb moment, the wool of the title makes sense. Plus, the audiobook reader is terrific.
Marge Maxwell, Library staff:
I stepped out of my comfort zone into the genre of Science Fiction to read “The Power” by Naomi Alderman. Imagine you had a “skein” under your skin, across your collarbone that enables you to shoot electric jolts through your fingers, causing great pain, even death. In this story, that is the Power the teenage girls possess. Older females may also have latent powers that can be awakened by the young girls.
The book follows Roxy from London who discovers her Power after her mother’s violent death and emerges as a leader; Tunde, a young man from Lagos, who videos instances of zappings and makes them public; a US politician, Margot, who keeps her Power secret to be able to climb the political ladder, and starts a camp to teach girls to control their Power; and Allie, a foster child who flees to a convent in South Carolina and nurtures her Power to great strength. Eventually, Roxy and Allie join forces and the movement grows.
Over a period of 10 years, women gain and spread the Power, eventually treating men in ways of oppression that were once forced on females. Male extremists, accustomed to oppressing, suppressing and sexualizing women are threatened with the reversal of power and revolt in every means at their disposal. Opposition factions become more violent, leading to a devastating war known as the Cataclysm.
If you enjoy violence, betrayal, and intrigue, this story of an alternative reality is a well-written, cautionary tale of the addictive nature of Power.
Valorie Nichols-DeVita, Library volunteer:
“Bookshops and Bonedust,” a prequel to Travis Baldree’s “Legends and Lattes,” introduced me to the genre of cozy fantasy. The wholesome fantasy adventure follows Viv, an orc mercenary, who’s forced to live in a quiet fishing town as she mends from a damaged leg she got on the job. There, she discovers a bookstore and bakery that enrich her life in unexpected ways. As she connects with the hero in the book she was given, it becomes clear that this story is a love letter to book readers everywhere, complete with mystery book sales, prolific elven author events, a light Sapphic romance, and the concept of ‘the story beyond the story.’ If you could rewrite an ending of one of your favorite stories, what would it be? And, in turn, if you could rewrite your own story? While on the lookout for a notorious necromancer, Viv explores these concepts and more with her bookselling friend, Fern. A delightful, quick read for anyone who’s looking for a more wholesome fantasy story.
Sarah Murphy, Library Director:
Although I enjoy some mysteries and thrillers, I tend to avoid what I think of as “subway ad books,” i.e., those by authors prolific, popular, and well-earning enough to warrant mass market advertising campaigns. How many books and how many different series is it reasonable for one person to write?! But a recent WAMC interview between Joe Donahue and author Harlan Coben, who has published 35 books and sold over 60 million copies worldwide, convinced me to give “The Boy from the Woods” a try. I chose this title because it’s the first of a two-part series, had strong reviews, and features a protagonist (a 40-ish ex-military loner who goes only by Wilde and was found as a child living, presumably, on his own in the woods) and setting (the North Jersey suburbs, including the Ramapo Mountain area) I find compelling. Coben imbues several characters with narrative power, but it is Wilde who the reader is likely to care about. He is drawn by his godson into the mystery of a missing classmate. What seems like a simple and solved case leads eventually to something more sinister involving a teenage bully, a populist presidential candidate, and a decades-old murder cover up. Coben’s prose is solid, and his characters are thankfully full of dimension. The plot was tied up a bit too rapidly, and the main mystery was far less interesting to me than the underlying one: who exactly is this Wilde guy, and how wild was his childhood really? In typical bestselling author fashion, Coben seems to ask us to read the next book in the series to find out.
Great article......