Wednesdays @ West: They Work Hard for the Money

Like many of the staff members at the PIL, I am a big Downton Abbey fan.  I love following the exploits of the upper class Lady Mary, Lady Edith and, most especially, the Dowager Countess.  But perhaps even more intriguing to me are the “downstairs,” working class characters.  John and Anna Bates are my favorite romantic pairing and my appreciation for the fabulous Mrs. Hughes grows with every season.  As much fun as it can be to see how the elite lived in the earlier part of the twentieth century, I know in my heart of hearts that had I lived then, I would have been much more likely to be in the kitchen with Daisy and Mrs. Patmore than in the drawing room with Lord and Lady Grantham.

When it comes to books, I feel just the same.  It can be intriguing to get a glimpse into the lives of the rich and powerful, but I will admit, I often prefer the more down to earth characters and stories of people who have to work hard to earn a living.

A couple of weeks ago, the Christian Science Monitor offered a list of  “10 Great Books Featuring Working Class Heroes.”  This list focuses on recent fiction and nonfiction, but of course, working class heroes are far from new to the literary world.  After all, some of the great classics of literature, like Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath and Of Mice and Men or almost anything by  Dickens, are the stories of the working class.

In any case, had the author of the Christian Science article consulted me about my picks for her article, here’s a few fictional I would have recommended she add:

mebeforeyouoneplusoneMe Before You  by Jojo Moyes was my first Moyes title and I thoroughly enjoyed it.  The main character, Lou, is pretty much the entire reason why.  When we meet Lou she is working at a tea shop, but after she is laid off, she takes a job helping to care for Will, a former daredevil, rich boy who was severely injured in a motorcycle accident.  Billing this book as simply a romance is, I think, remarkably unfair, but whatever genre you’d put it in, it’s a compelling read.  A movie version is in the works, but I’m far more excited by the book sequel, After You that is due out this month.

A couple of other forays into other works by Jojo Moyes were enough to show me that I really only like her when she is writing about likable, funny and flawed working class women.  Luckily for me, she wrote One Plus One.  Jess, a single mother, works two jobs: one at a bar and one as a house cleaner.  Despite her best efforts, her family is struggling.  Her teenage stepson is viciously bullied and her brilliant young daughter needs more than her mediocre school can provide.  When her daughter has the chance to enter a competition that could pay for her fees to much better school, Jess is determined to make it happen, even if it means accepting help from a rich client for whom she has a certain amount of disdain.

beantreesflightbehaviorUnlike Jojo Moyes, Barbara Kingsolver is not a new-to-me author.  I’ve been enjoying everything she’s written for fifteen or sixteen years now.  She has quite the knack for creating characters that intrigue me, whether they are missionaries in Africa or recluses in the mountains of Appalachia.  My first Kingsolver novel was The Bean Trees.  When Taylor Greer graduates high school, the first and only item on her to do list is to get out of  her rural Kentucky hometown.  She takes a less than reliable car and starts driving west.  She eventually lands in Arizona, but  along the way, she picks up an abandoned child and finds herself creating a whole new family.

Despite the first scene in which Dellarobia Turnbow appears in Kingsolver’s Flight BehaviorI found myself really liking this young woman from a struggling farming family in Appalachia.  She’s sarcastic and condescending towards her husband and in-laws, but I found her rather endearing.  Flight Behavior is the story of how Dellarobia is thrust into a world of scientific observation when her family’s property becomes the site of a climate change phenomenon.  Frankly, the whole book is worth reading just for the scene where Della demonstrates to a yuppie environmentalist  just how little he knows about the lives and habits of working class people.

languageflowersAt the start of The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh, Victoria doesn’t even make the ranks of the working class.  As an eighteen year old, aging out of the foster care system, she has no place to live, no job and no support.  She’s also bitter and angry and perhaps an unlikely candidate to know much about the usually romantic Victorian language of flowers.  This is her specialty, however, and she parlays her affinity for flowers into a job with a florist.  Things certainly don’t proceed smoothly for Victoria, however, as she must face the events and people of her past.  In real life, Victoria would be extremely difficult to like, but between the pages of the book, the reader grows to feel a certain sympathy for her.

weneveraskedforwingsDiffenbaugh’s recently released second book offers another main character who can be difficult to connect with at first.  Letty is a single mother, but without much emphasis on the mother part.  Her own mother has, until the start of We Never Asked for Wings almost exclusively raised Letty’s children while Letty worked as a bartender.  When her parents decide to go back to Mexico and leave Letty to fend for herself and her two children for the first time, Letty certainly doesn’t seem to be a contender for mother of the year.  However, she does try to improve her children’s lives by dreaming up a scheme in which they can attend better quality schools.  In the end, it’s her teenage son, Alex, who really steals the show and runs away with the readers’ hearts, but I found myself liking Letty more at the end than I thought I would.

bookofunknownamericansLike We Never Asked for Wings, The Book of Unknown Americans by Christina Henriquez features characters from working class families that have recently immigrated to the United States.  In this case, the spotlight is on the Hernandez family that comes from Mexico after their daughter suffers brain damage in a sad accident.  Believing an American school can help Maribel recover from her injury, the Hernandez family relocates.  They are unprepared, however, for the reality that faces them in the United States.  This includes Maribel’s new relationship with a neighbor boy from Panama.  Henriquez weaves the stories of all the immigrant neighbors of the Hernandez family into an intriguing and heartbreaking novel.

 

 

Card Catalog Display: Books are the New Black

Considering the recent Emmy Awards and the South Branch’s most recent TV-centric post, it makes sense that the Main’s card catalog display, too, is inspired by a television show. Netflix’s award-winning series Orange is the New Black, inspired by Piper Kerman’s best-selling memoir with the same title, has enraptured millions of viewers with Kerman’s story of drug trafficking and consequential incarceration at a minimum-security women’s prison. The show and the memoir are quite different though, especially after the first six or so episodes.  For example, in the book Piper and Alex (named Nora in the book) were not in the same prison, nor were there such rampant sexual activities between the female inmates. And while TV-Piper was starved out after insulting Red’s food (named Pop in the memoir), book-Piper was only scolded by the cook and the pair went on to have a good relationship.

Books

Some other elements of the novel that seem to be missing, or at the very least scaled-down, include the camaraderie between inmates. On TV, Piper arrives to a hostile, un-accepting environment. When Piper arrives in prison in her memoir, she writes, “I avoided eye contact. Nonetheless women periodically accosted me: ‘You’re new? How are you doing, honey? Are you okay?’” Prisoners looked out for one another, though the race-division was definitely there. Still, there was less violence in this minimum security prison than the show lets on, and while sex and violence between inmates were far rarer than the Netflix version makes it seem, sexual harassment between guards and prisoners was a very real issue in Kerman’s memoir.

There is a myriad of reasons why people are drawn to both Kerman’s memoir and the Netflix version of Orange is the New Black, but prison stories in general are always an interesting read (or TV-show…or movie..).  Below are some books displayed on the card catalog right by the circulation desk at the Main Branch, just waiting for you to come check them out.

outoforangeOut of Orange: A Memoir by Catherine Cleary Wolters

Imagine seeing an ad for a new Netflix series, and realizing that one of the main characters is a representation of yourself. That is what inspired the real-life Alex Vause, named Catherine Cleary Wolters, to tell her side of the story. This memoir offers further insight into drug-trafficking than Piper’s original, and answers many questions that fans have about her side of the story.

 

newjackNewjack: Guarding Sing Sing by Ted Conover

In order for journalist Ted Conover to get the full, unbiased story of what happens in America’s prisons, he took a job for nearly a year as a New York State Prison officer in Sing Sing, a notorious maximum-security prison. Publisher’s Weekly writes, “With its nuanced portraits of officers and inmates, the book never preaches, yet it conveys that we ignore our prisons–an explosive (and expensive) microcosm of race and class tensions – at our collective peril.”

 
burningdownthehouseBurning Down the House: The End of Juvenile Prison by Nell Bernstein

The United States has one of the highest rates of incarceration in the world, including our children. Bernstein’s book explores the unethical ways in which incarcerated youth are treated – from physical violence to psychological torture  – and presents an argument against juvenile prisons using the voices of juvenile prisoners, as well as theory and research.  Here you will meet incarcerated teenagers, and hard-working politicians trying to shut down the practice.

Books for your ears, or Hooray for Audiobooks!


Audio-Books-creative-commons-As was noted in yesterday’s post, we here really like books.  But, I think, more than that, we enjoy good stories, in whatever form, or through whatever medium they happen to be told, especially if they involve plenty of good characters, well-planned action, and/or elaborate hand gestures…As was also noted, we also tend to focus mostly on books, since that seems to be our preferred story-drug of choice.

But the truth of the matter is that reading a book can often feel like logo-audiobook1more of a luxury than a daily event, precisely because the world does seem to move too quickly sometimes, stealing the chance to stop and reading, and making it difficult to stop by the library and pick up a new book.  And it is for precisely such occasions that audiobooks are so valuable.

Audiobooks offer all the intellectual and imaginative stimulation of reading, while still leaving your hands free to work, cook, cook, clean, or drive.  A number of our patrons swear by audiobooks to get them through a workout, or through the drive to and from work during rush hour.

Another, less frequently discussed perk of audiobooks is how much they can enrich a story, and offer details that books can’t.  In the special cases where an author narrates their own works, you can get a sense of how the book sounds in the author’s head; Bill Bryson’s work is some of the best in this sense.  In books with invented languages, such as the Dune series, the chance to hear the characters can add to the story immeasurably.  Sometimes it’s as simple as learning how an obscure word is pronounced (fecundated, for example, a word that comes up in David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas).  Also, for those who aren’t visual learners, audiobook are often more effective for retention and learning than reading.

downloadFinally, thanks to Overdrive, our digital library platform, audiobooks are available 24/7…even when the library is closed.  For information and help with downloading, give us a call!

So, with that in mind, here are a few audiobooks, some selected by patrons, that are sure to keep your mind working and allow yo to be productive at the same time:

2326248Lolita, Read by Jeremy Irons: It’s already been scientifically determined that Jeremy Irons has a nearly perfect voice, so it is no surprise that this audiobook is a nearly perfect work of art.  Irons revels in Nabokov’s use of language, his pathos, and the awful love story and haunting tragedy that is Lolita.  This is a story that stands or falls on the audiences’ perception of the narrator, and Irons offers a powerfully insightful performance, making listeners feel Humbert Humbert’s fear, pain, and hopeless longing in a way that you don’t always get through reading.  I do accept that I am biased about this book, but this still remains my favorite of the library’s audiobook collection.

3551293‘Salem’s Lot, Read by Ron McLarty: It took a little bit of time for McLarty’s narration to grow on me, but it’s now become a yearly tradition for me as the leaves begin to turn and winter begins to whisper through the air.  There is something much more unsettling about being read a scary novel, rather than reading one–the story envelopes, and eventually chills you.  McLarty just gets the understated terror of Stephen King’s masterpiece, building the pace and tension almost imperceptibly, making this book feel as much a tragedy as a nightmare.  He also does a killer Maine accent, which makes the inhabitants of the doomed ‘Salem’s Lot feel that much more real as their story gradually unfolds.

3020871The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Read by David Timson: David Timson is a hero of mine.  When it was realized that there was no complete, comprehensive recording of all 60 of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Holmes stories, Timson set out to rectify the situation–by locking himself in a recording studio (not seriously) and single-handedly crafting a distinct and recognizable voice for every single character in the canon (this is completely true–you can watch a bit of it here).  It’s incredible not only for his energy and inventiveness, but for the fact that the voices are sustained over such a long period of time.  Perhaps more so than any other narration, Timson gets the relationship between Holmes and Watson perfectly, balancing their tempers and talents to help listeners realize just why their friendship is so timeless.

3620261Dead Wake, Read by Scott Brick: I’ll be honest–my ears are in love with Scott Brick.  Which is terrific, since he has been narrating consistently since 1999 in every genre you can imagine.  Eric Larson’s newest release on the sinking of the RMS Lusitania in 1915 is one of Brick’s most recent recordings, and he is terrific at non-fiction works, but he has also lent his voice to novels by Isaac Asimov, Orson Scott Card, Frank Herbert, Dennis Lehane (and yes, he can do a Boston accent), and Tom Clancy, to name a very small sample.  Though subtle, his accents and inflections are generally spot-on–especially in Brad Meltzer’s books; Meltzer and Brick are friends, and Meltzer has been known to add characters to the story with unique accents, just to keep Brick on his toes (check out Zero Game for some examples).

3518341The Luminaries, Read by Mark Meadows: There are some books so rich, so complex, and so detailed that you simply want to hide away and devour them whole.  These are the kind of books I like to read, as opposed to hear, simply so I can savor each detail and character in depth.  Mark Meadows, however, managed to wring every drop of drama, and every nuance from each character.  Seriously, I am terrible with names, but simply from listening to Meadows’ inflections, I knew precisely who was talking, and how they were feeling.  This book is like listening to a friend, rather than a narrator, and I whole heartedly recommend it for those looking for a long-term audiobook relationship.

3617052Trigger Warnings, Read by Neil Gaiman:  Some people are made of magic, and Neil Gaiman is one of those people.  I don’t understand how he can read as well as he writes, but he does.  I picked this book because it is his most recent, but check out everything else he has written or read.  Right now.

Saturdays @ the South: The Readers’ Advisory will be televised…

51-Untruths-From-TelevisionI hope loyal readers of this blog have figured out by now that we here at the Peabody Library love books. We love reading, pairing great books with the right reader, defending the reader’s right to read and talking about cool things in the book world. We also love movies (bonus if they’re literary adaptations) and music (especially supporting local artists), but save for a notable exception here and, of course, our evangelist-like proclamations of Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, we haven’t talked too much about TV. Since a well-balanced life of artistic pleasures can easily include television, I thought I’d take a post to balance things out a bit and talk about TV shows, with a little help from Dame Maggie Smith as Lady Violet Crawley.

Though the new fall season is approaching, good TV can be had year-round now with some non-traditional networks airing original material during what is typically thought of as the “off” season. This is often particularly true with British television series (*cough* Downton Abbey *cough*) that are run during the “regular” season across the Pond, and then mosey their way over to America just when we’re hankering for something new.

Me too, Lady Crawley.
Me too, Lady Crawley.

If you don’t have a TV/cable, have a tendency to miss when your favorite shows are on, don’t like sitting through commercials or are just plain looking for something different to watch, you can get some great television series, mini-series and special events right here at the library through our DVD collections. Even better, many of our TV collections are loaned out by entire seasons, which makes them ripe and ready for binge-watching!

Clearly, not all of what we love here at the library is based on books. What we truly love is creativity and good stories, and those can be found in just about any medium, including TV. So with the greatest deference to our regular Free-For-All-Blogess, I’m embarking on a television version of an If/Then post: South Branch style.

If your DVR is starting to smoke because your favorite shows returning this fall ended up in the same time slots, or if you’re going through withdrawal because some of your favorite shows aren’t starting until after the fall season (*cough* Downton Abbey *cough*) then here are some suggestions that you might want to try while you’re waiting….

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If you’re looking forward to the final (sniff!) season  of Downton AbbeyThen you might want to try:

3446495The Blandings

If your favorite part of Downton is Dame Maggie Smith’s quips as the family matriarch, meet The Blandings. Described by Publisher’s Weekly as “Downton Abbey gone amok” this funny, irreverent take on the upstairs/downstairs relationship will still leave you pondering about social class, but without all the tears (unless, of course, they’re tears of laughter). This one is a favorite at the South; everyone who checks it out has brought it back talking about how much they laughed.

3220099Call the Midwife

If part of Downton Abbey’s appeal is the gut-wrenching heartache and occasional ugly-cry (why can’t Julian Fellowes just let Mr. Bates and Anna be happy together?), then Call the Midwife might be more to your taste. Exploring the lowest classes in a post-WWII London, this series follows the midwives of Nonnatus House as they guide families through some of the best and worst moments of pregnancy and childbirth. Keep the tissues handy…

If you’re looking forward to the return of The Big Bang TheoryThen you might want to try:

2598729How I Met Your Mother

If you like watching a slightly-awkward guy try to find love surrounded by hilarious and equally hapless friends, give How I Met Your Mother a try. This show ran for 9 seasons, yet somehow flew under the radar of many Big Bang fans, even though many of the themes and much of the humor were similar. While there are plenty of sub-plots and storylines to keep you hooked throughout, prepare yourself for what is essentially a series-long cliffhanger; the show really is about how the main character met his kids’ mother. However, unlike the Sheldon/Amy and Penny/Leonard cliffhanger from Big Bang, you don’t have to wait an entire summer to find out what happens as all 9 seasons of HIMYM are on DVD. This way, you can decide for yourself if the show’s creators made the right choice for the hotly-debated series finale.

If you’re looking forward to season 3 of Broadchurch… Then you might want to try:

3551257The Escape Artist

If you liked the whodunnit suspense of Broadchurch’s first season and the courtroom drama of its second season,The Escape Artist will fill both of those cravings for you. This was a mini-series, but it packs every bit of the same “what just happened here?” punch with its twist ending. Added bonus: it stars Broadchurch’s brilliantly-talented and delightfully-accented David Tennant, who delivers another stellar performance.

If you’re looking forward to Castle returning… Then you might want to try:

2626730Rebus

If you enjoy Castle’s mystery-of-the-week format with the satisfaction of following clues and solving a case at the end of the hour, then you’ll want to check out Rebus. This is a somewhat older British import based on Ian Rankin’s wildly popular Inspector John Rebus books. (OK, so I can’t go totally book-free, I guess.) While Rebus and his his partner DS Siobahn Clarke don’t have the will-they-or-won’t-they chemistry of Beckett and Castle, you’ll still get the same satisfying “case-closed” feeling at the end of the episodes here.

That’s it from the South front this week, dear readers/watchers. Whether you decide to read or watch TV, I wish you a great weekend!

 I'll miss Violet Crawley's quips. She has one for everything!
I’m going to miss Violet Crawley’s quips. (sigh)

Five Book Friday!


friday

Here are a few reasons to celebrate today:

1) Yesterday was the 365th anniversary of the founding of the City of Boston, which clearly calls for a celebratory Dunkin’ Donuts.

2) Today is the 206th birthday of the Royal Opera House in London (the first performance was Shakespeare’s Macbeth, a number of versions of which you can check out this weekend, too!)

3) It is also the birthday of Dr. Samuel Johnson, who gave us the first dictionary of the English language in 1755

4) It is also Greta Garbo‘s birthday, though she was 196 years younger than the good Dr. Johnson (but you can check out her films at the library, as well!)

5) It’s Friday, which is always a call for a celebration, and an excellent reason to come and see the new books we have in stock for your weekend!  Here are five suggestions to get you started:

81036_fivebooks_lg

3650291Did You Ever Have a Family: Debut author Bill Clegg’s small-scale epic novel, which was long-listed for the Man Booker Prize, is now available in the US, and is currently being smothered in positive reviews from outlets as varied as Buzzfeed to the Library Journal.   June Reid’s life was forever changed by a sudden disaster that killed her entire family on the eve of her daughter’s wedding.  With nothing left, June begins driving aimlessly across the country, encountering people similarly touched by tragedy, running from their pasts, or united in a shared heartbreak.  By alternating chapters between June and the people she encounters on her journey, Clegg is able to examine each character’s pain and humanity in a way that Booklist calls “delicately lyrical and emotionally direct…offering consolation in small but meaningful gestures. Both ineffably sad and deeply inspiring, this mesmerizing novel makes for a powerful debut.”

3653110The Art of Natural Cheese-makingI’ll be honest, finding this book did induce a momentary Wallace-and-Gromit-esque exclamation of joy that earned me some odd looks, but I don’t mind, because David Asher’s book is well worth the effort.  The creator of the Black Sheep School of cheesemaking, Asher’s gift for teaching comes through in these pages as clearly as his love for his craft. Most impressively here is Asher’s reliance on fairly-easy-to-find ingredients and techniques that actually make the idea of producing your own delicious cheeses a possibility, even for novices.  Richard McCarthy of SlowFoodUSA has called this a “a breakthrough book. …The more we remove the mystery to manufacturing even the simplest of cheeses at home, the more we will come to admire the craftsmanship that dairy farmers and artisanal cheesemakers bring to their work, to make life better and tastier for the rest of us.”

3634175Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights: Salman Rushdie’s newest collection of short stories was a best-seller before it’s actual release, and now it is also the selection for the library’s months Sci-Fi Book Group (give us a call for more information!)  In a collection that showcases Rushdie’s seemingly boundless imagination, the descendants of Dunia, princess of the jinn, have been let loose on the world, each playing a part in a coming war between light and dark.  These stories harken to the grand Thousand and One Nights, as the title implies, but Rushdie’s twist on the title may give you some indication of just how atypical this book really is.  The Washington Post cheers, “Rushdie conjures up a whole universe of jinn slithering across time and space, meddling in human affairs and copulating like they’ve just been released from twenty years in a lamp. . . . Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights translates the bloody upheavals of our last few decades into the comic-book antics of warring jinn wielding bolts of fire, mystical transmutations and rhyming battle spells.”

3643270House of Thieves: Architect Charles Belfoure’s debut novel is being lauded by fans of historic mysteries as a near-perfect blend of period detail and complex sleuthing.  His hero, John Cross (also, not too surprisingly, an architect) has been forced to pay off his son’s enormous gambling debts by using his professional knowledge, and arranging break-ins that no police detective will be able to solve.  Cross’ personal and professional lives are both in jeopardy in this page-turner that has already been making the rounds of our staff, and which earned a Starred Review from Publisher’s Weekly, which said, “Belfoure’s sly, roguish writing opens a window to those living both gilded and tarnished lives… Best of all, Belfoure holds together each and every thread of the novel, resulting in a most memorable, evocative read.”

3658395The Year of Fear: Machine-Gun Kelly and the Manhunt That Changed the NationThough I’ve grown a little wary of books that talk about how ‘the nation’ was changed, this book seems to be the real deal.  First-time author Joe Urschel, the Executive Director of the Law Enforcement Museum in Washington, D.C., has penned a story of the Depression, when gangsters were hailed as heroes for bringing down the wealthy.  In 1933, Machine-Gun Kelly and his wife Kathryn, were planning to kidnap noted oil tycoon Charles Urschel (bizarrely, no relation to the author).  J.Edgar Hoover had his FBI lawmen had been given sole authority to chase gangsters across state lines, but when he bungled the arrest of the Kelly’s, a 20,000 mile road-chase ensued across 16 states that made headlines across the nation.  The Library Journal gave this real-life historic thriller a starred review, and the Associated Press raves, “the narrative reads like the most nail-biting thriller imaginable — yet it’s all true. . . . Urschel does an amazing job chronicling a time in history that was rough for those that lived it while making the events extremely readable.”

 

So there you have it, beloved patrons.  Happy reading, and happy weekend to you all!

Robots can be pretty scary, and other things many readers find unremarkable…

So, in case the world wasn’t big and scary enough for you today, here is an article that made the rounds of my grad school department this week….essentially, some lovely robotics people, who are clearly very smart and terribly good at their jobs, have created a robot that bears an uncanny (and intentional) resemblance to Philip K. Dick, author of the seminal novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?uploaded 20 of his novels, interviews and recordings, and then filmed a conversation with Android Dick.

In and of itself, this story is unsettling for several reasons.  The most scientific of these reasons is that Android Dick exists in “the uncanny valley“.  This term refers to the point where non-human replications of human (3D-animation, robots, etc.,) become so human-like that the human brain gets all creeped-out and wants to crawl in the corner and cry quietly.  The term “valley” itself refers to the dip on a graph that shows people’s comfort levels while looking at various humanoid creations, which you can see below:

450px-Mori_Uncanny_Valley.svg

 

 

Not only does Android Dick’s face look eerily human, but facial recognition software built into that face means that he can analyze your emotions, and react accordingly, blurring the line even further between man and machine.

Android Dick
Android Dick

The second reason this story is unsettling is because of the fact that it became the subject of a copyright kerfluffle, in which people argued that the robotic head of Android Dick spouting phrases and thought inspired from the works of Philip K. Dick was an infringement on the rights of the human (and deceased) Philip K. Dick.  Which implies that Android Dick is making a conscious decision about his words and phrases…which means he has passed the Turing Test–essentially the benchmark for determining if a machine has human intelligence (check out The Imitation Game for more information).

zooThe third reason this story gives me hives is because of the way that Android Dick manipulated the language and rationale that had been programmed into his circuit-board-brain.  In an interview on PBS Nova (which you can watch in its entirety here), Android Dick responded to a question about robots evolving to take over the world thusly:

“Jeez, dude. You all have the big questions cooking today. But you’re my friend, and I’ll remember my friends, and I’ll be good to you. So don’t worry, even if I evolve into Terminator, I’ll still be nice to you. I’ll keep you warm and safe in my people zoo, where I can watch you for ol’ times sake.”

People Zoo.

1136004A number of people with whom I’ve discussed this phrase were horrified.  Horrified.  But, as a fairly regular reader of science fiction, most of which I found at my local library (shameless plug there), I really can’t admit to being that surprised.  After all, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, by Philip K. Dick (the real Philip K. Dick…the one with a pulse…) tells the story of a not-too-distant future (originally 1992, later revised to 2021) where robots–who look precisely like humans–threaten the very fabric of their post-apocalyptic society.  When a down-and-out bounty hunter is sent to track the robots down, they simply blend in with the humans, forcing every character to question who and what they truly know to be ‘real’…you might also recognize this story as the inspiration for the film Blade runner.

But the point is that robots are scary…something which science fiction has been telling us for generations now.  No other species has been so actively engaged in creating their own replacements, in aiding evolution towards their our own inevitable redundancy.   And science fiction has certainly taught us that our grip on the top of the food chain is precarious at best.  H.G. Wells claimed that we would be outdone by ants, while Max Brooks taught us it would be zombie viruses.  The point is less what will kill us, but that we as a species are clearly not that talented at avoiding these ubiquitous threats.  So, rather than acting like my grad school colleagues and weep that the sky is falling, sit back and enjoy the trip with some well-crafted, beautiful, and downright creepy tales of the devices that are coming to get us.  Because I don’t know if Android Dick is going to allow books in the people zoos….

So, IF you want to learn more about the advent of our robot overlords, Then be sure to check out…

2261769I, Robot: No, not the little self-propelled vacuum thingy…which, incidentally, took some inspiration from Isaac Asimov’s classic collection of short stories published in the 1950’s.  These stories are united in the character of Dr. Susan Calvin, who relates each tale as part of an interview on her life and work in the field of robotics to a reporter living at some point in the 21st century after 2058.  Each story can be read alone, but together, they form a fascinating study of human/robot interactions, and the threat that robot ‘psychology’ poses to human civilization.  Also featured in these stories are Asimov’s three Three Laws of Robotics, foundations around which his robot population was constructed, and rules which have been referenced in numerous works since.

2667638R.U.R. (Rossum’s universal robots): Because sometimes, the most disturbing robots are the ones that teach us the most about our own humanity.  This Czech play by Karl Capek, first published in 1920, actually introduced the word “robot” into the English language, features artificial humans much like Dick’s, that were designed to be servants to the humans-with-pulses.  But as their numbers grow, these robots begin to realize that they, in truth, wield the power, and successfully wipe out the human race.  But Capek’s tale is more than imagination–like the best science fiction, it also makes some fascinating observations about the state of humanity after the First World War, and comments directly on the effects of the Fordist assembly lines on workers.

3019420Robopocalypse: Daniel H. Wilson has a PhD in robotics from Carnegie Mellon, so his tale about computer scientists unleashing a supremely-powerful android named Archos is full of real technological details which make it even more chilling.  The post-apocalyptic fight for survival that ensues is gory and far bleaker than Capek’s version of events, but a wonderfully compelling, highly intelligent read (with the lights on, of course.  And away from your computer….), and it’s sequel, Robogenesis.  

21038202001: A Space Odyssey : We’ve all heard about HAL, the diabolically clever computer in charge of Discovery One, the first ship bound for Jupiter, but Stanley Kubrick’s film (based on several short stories from Arthur C. Clarke, which you should also definitely read) has stood the test of time, and is just as haunting, mind-bending, and epic today as when it was released in 1968.  The incredible intelligence of HAL, and the idea that a machine could have such an overarching, complex ulterior motive makes for a story that doesn’t skimp on tension, right up to the final, curious, unsettling scene.  For a somewhat updated expansion on this theme, check out the film Ex Machinaas well!

The Man Booker Prize Shortlist!

Booker

Today!  Today is the day that the Man Booker Prize Shortlist will be announced!

As you might remember, there are many reasons to get all excited about the Man Booker Prize for fiction, an award that celebrates fiction from around the world, an ultimately selecting “the very best book of the year”, according to their website…heady stuff indeed.

If you couldn’t tell by my excessive use of exclamation points in covering this award, the Man Booker Prize holds a place near and dear to my heart.  Not only because it gets people talking about books, their power and their beauty, but because some of the best books I have ever read were Booker nominees.  While these books aren’t necessarily quick- or easy-reads, I can almost guarantee you that each one will be thought-provoking, grippingly emotional and, above surprising.  Sometimes that means there is a killer twist in the book’s final pages; sometimes it means that the character you thought was the baddie was secretly on the side of the angels the whole time; sometimes it’s because this story forced you to recognize pieces and parts of yourself that you didn’t know where there before–and that, ultimately, is the mark of a great piece of fiction.

In addition, the authors who pen these books often have fascinating stories of their own to share–even more so since the geographical parameters of the award were widened in the past few years.  Shortlisted author Sunjeev Sahota didn’t open a novel until he was 18, when he picked up Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children before his flight from India to England to begin university. A mathematician by training and in practice, Sahota has since penned two novels, and reads voraciously.  “I suddenly discovered this whole new world. I realised there was this storytelling language that I hadn’t ever seen or heard before,” he told the Yorkshire Post.  Chigozie Obioma, one of the debut authors to be nominated, began life in Nigeria before living in Cypress, Turkey, and the US, where he teaches at the University of Nebraska.  Hanya Yanagihara, author of A Little Life grew up drawing cadavers at a local morgue, after her physician father decided to blend his love of science with her love of sketching portraits.  As she said in an interview with The Guardian. “…I love discovering how far a body will go to protect itself, at all costs. How hard it fights to live.”

In short, then, if you are looking for a book that will help you see wildly different personal and geographical perspectives, change the way you think about what fiction can do, look no further than the Man Booker nominees, or the many books from years’ past.

So, without further ado, here is the shortlist for the Man Booker Prize 2015.  Stop into the Library and check them out for yourself, and have no fear that we’ll be covering the revelation of the final winner on October 15 with bells on!

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A Spool of Blue ThreadAnne Tyler (USA)

A Brief History of Seven KillingsMarlon James (Jamaica)

Satin IslandTom McCarthy (UK)

The Fishermen: Chigozie Obioma (Nigeria)

A Little Life: Hanya Yanagihara (USA)

The Year of the RunawaysSunjeev Sahota (India) Not published in the US until March 2016 (Grrrr…..)

Shortlist---Splashzone

Also, here are a few more exclamation points, just because I’m really excited about this: !!!!!!!!!!!