This book was suggested as a good alternative to generic western fantasy and I really enjoyed it. Master Li is a scholar in china who has a certain flaw in his character and Number Ten Ox is a strong peasant youth who has a way with the ladies. I found this omnibus to be hilarious and it was certainly something unique to read. Master Li and his youthful cohort run amuck throughout china, dealing with myths legends and deities.

Each story is like a mystery with supernatural elements and are full of humor and lots of interesting character. I highly recommend trying this series out if you want to dip your feet outside of the typical western fantasies.

~John

Night Watch is an urban fantasy set in Russia. It tells the story of two factions of magic at war: The forces of Light and the Forces of Darkness. 50 years ago after the russian revolution a peace treaty was signed, and now for every act of good the light does the dark gets to perform an act of evil and vice versa, that is if you get caught by the watches! Now in a magical cold war the sides are reduced to espionage, backstabbing and trickery.

Anton is our hero a middling mage in the Night Watch, he and his coworkers spend their days watching the forces of dark and making sure they don’t step out of line, as he hunts down a rogue vampire he begins to find  that everything is not as it seems.

I found the book very entertaining it was the first fantasy book I have read that was translated from another language and it is well worth the time. The story is told in three connected short stories and I can’t wait to read the sequels!

~John

I recently loaded this to my kindle on the recommendation of a friend, I planned to slowly ready it over the course of a week. Unfortunately that did not work out I read the entire book in one sitting then loaded the sequel and read that entire thing right after that. Sandman Slim is the story of a wizard who was banished to hell by his friends, he survived in hell fighting in gladiator pits and eventually escaped and now he wants answers and revenge!  Make no mistake this is popcorn fare but it sure was fun reading these books and it’s a good addition to the urban fantasy genre.

~John

Invictus is the story of Nelson Mandella and how the South African rugby united a torn nation. It’s an inspiring story and it shows how the love of sport and team can bring people together. It is an integral part of the story of South Africa. There will be a book discussion focused on this book July 15th at 7:00. The library has both the book and the movie if you are interested!

-John

It’s hard for me to put into words how incredibly awesome this series is. It is literally the best fantasy saga I have read and the author is putting out the books like a machine. The series is set during a tumultuous time in a fantasy land ripped by wars of conquest and wars of rebellion. In these books you will meet multiple near immortal badasses who wander the earth in search of answers, revenge, or just being awesome. You would think a book with so many seemingly overpowered characters would be cheesy and uninteresting especially since they seem to be around every corner; however, Erikson pulls it off well, because there aren’t just these ascendant beings in the books, there’s also simple soldiers just trying to survive, clever mages, manipulating noblemen, and many others.

The first book is Gardens of the Moon and can be a bit hard to grip because it just throws you into the middle of a war with tons of characters you don’t yet know and love. If you need to be spoonfed you won’t like this series but if you tough it out I am sure you will come to love it as much as I do.

P.S. No elves

-John

Most people are familiar with The Wonderful Wizard of Oz but you might not know he wrote thirteen other books about OZ.  We have several of them on Seknfind. I read these books as a kid and was surprised to find out that most of them were published before 1914 so they are freely available on sites like Project Gutenberg. I loaded several of them on my iphone via the stanza app for my vacation and found that they have generally aged quite well. Start with The Marvelous Land of Oz and work your way through them all, you won’t be disappointed.

John

Cormac McCarthy is probably  one of America’s most unique authors, his style of writing, his reclusive nature and the fact that his books are very good are what helps him remain unique. McCarthy’s stark novels typically do not have happy endings and his sparse use of punctuation and style of writing make his books difficult to read.  I would say his two most accessible books are The Road, and No Country for Old Men.

The Road is a story of a man and his son trying to survive after a devastating event brought the world to its knees. They contend with starvation, brutal weather, and bands of roving cannibals. This might sound kind of bleak and believe me it is, but it makes for a good tale I highly suggest this book and will be leading a Book Discussion Saturday, May 1st at 2:00 PM. If you are interested pick up a book at the front desk.

John Long

Tim O'Brien artfully weaves truths and half truths in a stunning series of connected stories all based on a fictional squad he was a member of in Vietnam. The great majority of the stories are a mixture of gallows humor mixed with moments of stark violence and tragedy. I picked the book up not knowing it was fiction and it was only half way through when he started talking about the merits of truth that I began to doubt myself. A quick check verified that it was indeed a "Fiction" book.
Truth or not I think that the feelings the soldiers in this book felt are probably pretty close to what a lot of the soldiers who served in Vietnam felt and I didn't put the book down until i was on the last page.

Thursday, January 28th  at 5 PM I will be leading a book discussion centered around this book. Feel free to join us books are available for checkout at the main desk.

John