Fantasy novels often have unicorns, fairies, and dragons, and these days werewolves and vampires are very popular. Not many books though have griffins as the main characters. Rachel Neumeier’s new adventure, Lord of the Changing Winds, features amazingly original griffins.

These griffins (part eagle, part lion) are purely creatures of fire, bringing a stark red desert with them wherever they roost. Having recently been driven out of their home lands, the griffins have shifted to the green, fertile lands of Feierband without seeking either permission or forgiveness for the encroachment of their desert.

The griffins were displaced after losing battles to earth mages who can damp their fires. They were in desperate need of a fire mage who can heal. The sole remaining griffin mage finds just such a person in a young girl, Kes. She has talent that  would have made her into an earth mage, except that the griffins changed her nature to fire. Many people become outraged on Kes’ behalf, although she seems to accept her changing fate with relative equanimity.

By the time I had figured out the griffin characters (who have unwieldy names) and pieced together the basics of the story, I still wasn’t entirely invested in the story. It takes a little while to become fully absorbed. However, once the introductions and scene are established, the second half of the book provides a fast, furious story full of battles — both of might and of will.

Given the stressed political backdrop, the author has her characters ponder some fairly weighty questions. Among them: What is the appropriate use of military force to maintain a country’s integrity? What constitutes open and informed consent for making decisions? The griffins are so totally alien that basic human assumptions for interaction do not hold true. If the two aggressors have so little common ground, how can negotiations begin? Neumeier gives them a common enemy to combine forces to fight. It will be interesting to see in the next volume whether a common enemy will continue to unite such different races.

Kristen Blount – Administrative Office

Fourteen-year-old Lindiwe Bishop is sitting on her family’s veranda reading Sue Barton: Senior Nurse, when she hears a loud commotion next door. There is a fire, and her white neighbor, Mrs. McKenzie, is fatally burned. Lindiwe and her parents live in the middle class neighborhood of Bayview in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe where the McKenzies are one of the few remaining white families.

When the constable arrives at the Bishop household to question her father, Lindiwe does not offer any knowledge of hearing anything out of the ordinary. The sixteen-year-old stepson of Mrs. McKenzie is implicated in her murder. A year later, the charges are dropped, and seventeen-year-old Ian McKenzie returns home. When Lindiwe and Ian meet, there is an instant attraction, although Lindiwe’s mother has warned her to stay away from him. Lindiwe is totally mesmerized by her charming, unpredictable, and troubled neighbor, Ian.

Who is really responsible for the fire and death of Mrs. McKenzie? What is the secret harbored by Lindiwe? The Boy Next Door by Irene Sabatini combines mystery along with a fascinating study of social life during the 1980s in war torn, post-independent Zimbabwe. Sabatini is to be commended for her fully developed characters. 

Elaine Johnson – Central Library

Simple, sheer delight. Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones provides the almost perfect fairy tale for readers of all ages. Wynne Jones’ graceful prose provides an easy transition into a world of magic of all sorts from mundane to the frighteningly bizarre.

Sophie is a young girl who works as a milliner in her stepmother’s shop. She seems content with her ordinary life — until she meets the handsome young wizard Howl, after which her life is never the same. She has a nasty encounter with the Witch of the Wastes that leaves her a young woman in an old woman’s body, flees town, becomes Howl’s housekeeper in his mobile castle, meets a strange scarecrow, corrals Howl’s apprentice, befriends the talking fire Calcifer, and her escapades have only just begun. At the end of her courageous quest, she discovers her true self and helps others do the same.

Howl apparently has two goals in life: 1) To be admired by as many people as possible, and 2) To stop a war. One is obviously a more worthy goal, but it’s amusing to see how the two intertwine. Howl is frightfully self-absorbed, and one of the most interesting characters in decades. He’s a vain and extremely talented wizard who wants to save the world. The book revolves around the mystery of Howl’s heart, and whether Sophie can save it.

Too often adapted screenplays don’t respect their literary origins. How often do you just know that the book is going to be better than the movie? Hayao Miyazaki’s animated feature not only respects the novel, but celebrates its playfulness and serious underlying themes. This is a beautiful and faithful rendition of the novel (even if the book is still better). It also relies on some great voice talent, including Lauren Bacall and Billy Crystal. So read the book, then watch the movie. This is a story I love in any format.

Kristen Blount – Administration Office

One summer, Octavia and her older sister Talitha (Tali) reluctantly travel cross-country from California to a family reunion in Alabama with their stylish, 80-something grandmother, a " skinny-cigarette-smoking-fake-finger-nail-wearing" eccentric, who prefers to be called Mare, like the French word mère for mother. Mare also drives a red car and wears stilettos. The sisters are at first repulsed by Mare’s very frank tales of growing up in a tiny southern town with her troubled mother and younger sister Josephine (Feen). When their mother sends Feen to live with an aunt in Philadelphia, Mare decides to run away and join the military, although she is only seventeen.

Mare’s War is craftily told in alternating chapters from three points of view, seamlessly switching back and forth between the war-filled 1930s to contemporary life. Sisters Octavia and Tali send cute, humorous postcards home to their parents and friends — allowing the reader to really feel their innermost thoughts. Author Tanita S. Davis fills her novel with keen insights on life, love, and true happiness. The story follows the lives of the young women who were members of the 6888th African American Battalion of the U. S. Women’s Army Corps during World War II.  

What a refreshing change from the typical young adult fare of vampires, school grudges, and mean girls! I actually learned quite a few revealing facts about the history of African American World War II WACs. Although I knew that many women served in the military during the "great war," I was surprised that black women were segregated from their white female colleagues, just as their male counterparts were separated from white military personnel.

I recommend Mare’s War to middle school girls, adults of all ages, and mother-daughter book clubs. If you enjoy Mare’s War, you may also like the author’s debut young adult fiction novel A La Carte, which features seventeen year old Lainey, who dreams of becoming a world famous chef.

Elaine Johnson – Central Library

In 44 BC, Julius Caesar was assassinated in the Roman senate by Brutus. But do you know why, and what compelled the Senate to look the other way? HBO’s Rome tackles this topic by telling the story of two soldiers –  Lucius Vorenus and Titus Pullo — who served with Caesar in the Gallic Wars and have returned to Rome as heroes. Lucius discovers his wife now has a baby, while Titus finds himself in need of work. They part as soldiers, but remain friends as they navigate the treacherous streets of Rome.

Although the series is full of sex and violence, it does tell a compelling story. There are historical characters like Mark Antony, Cicero, Pompey, and Cleopatra. Brutus and Cassius also play roles in the fall of Caesar, and jockey for power as the people react to Caesar’s return. Meanwhile Atia, Caesar’s niece (and Mark Antony’s lover), manipulates the family and the men in her life so she can maintain power.   

Season Two depicts the chaos surrounding the events that take place after Caesar’s assassination. Atia’s young son, Octavius, is named heir in Caesar’s will, but Mark Antony is enjoying ruling Rome. And, to make matters worse, Cleopatra is claiming that her son should rule since Caesar is his real father. Alliances are made and broken as a new power struggle occurs. Meanwhile, Lucius Vorenus is trying to deal with a personal tragedy; his household believes that the only person who can help him is his old friend, Titus Pullo.

Rome may be as historically accurate as Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare, but it’s also just as entertaining. Against a backdrop of political intrigue in the early Roman empire, there is a story of friendship. And when lovers and leaders let the people down, there is the hope that friends will remain loyal and true.

Robert Bates – Glenwood Branch

“War is like a disease. Until you’ve had it, you don’t know it.”

On an overcast August afternoon in Nagasaki, Hiroko Tanaka loses her German fiancé in the flash of the second atomic bomb. Ravaged by the blast, her back engraved with scar like black birds, Hiroko survives. She seeks out her fiancé’s family in India, discovering a whole nation on the brink of independence. With Pakistan’s creation approaching, what will become of Hiroko’s friendship with the colonialist family, the Burtons? And what of her budding relationship with Sajjad, her young, kindhearted Urdu teacher?

Author Kamila Shamsie takes us from Nagasaki to Delhi, Karachi to New York, stopping by the way of Dubai, Islamabad, Kandahar. Hiroko’s story evolves into the tale of her family, trying to hold themselves together over the decades. Over and over again, history shatters what little stability they can find. The Afghan war of the 1980s and 9/11 overwhelm the second half of the book, tying the personal with the political.

Yet, life goes on. Burnt Shadows‘ strengths are not so much in the heart-wrenching tragedies that befall Hiroko and her family, but rather, the lovely moments of peace, the belief in love, and family over all things ideological. Hiroko herself is an emblem of this: literally scarred by war, she still manages to find love in a strange land, and learn new languages, becoming an enigma of identity in a world of conflicting creeds.

The novel is broken up into five sections, oceans and decades apart. Shamsie’s prose flows throughout, keeping a steady pace, but still taking time to detail the minor beauties, the intricate sentiments of these characters. In the relatively tranquil moments of family drama, we grow to love Hiroko’s confidence, and Sajjad’s enthusiasm. Thus, when the burn of history scorches their home life, the pain is visceral. Burnt Shadows is a breathing tale of our times, encapsulating a half-century of conflict as well as the plurality of identities that populate this world of ours.

Khaleel Gheba – Miller Branch

Most stories are told with a beginning, middle, and end. Over the course of a novel, problems arise and are solved; characters learn something about themselves; the world resumes its rhythms with the closing of the final page. But then there’s Gravity’s Rainbow. Thomas Pynchon’s “novel” spans over 700 mind-boggling pages and won the National Book Award in 1974, but, after reading it, I cannot say what this book is really about.

In the heat of World War II, as A-4 rockets rain down on London, dream-reading bureaucrats, sadistic Pavlovian scientists, ghostly mediums, and lustful American liaison Tyrone Slothrop live and work under the threat of the Rocket, the tyranny of instantaneous annihilation. Meanwhile, in the defeated German state, known as the Zone, all chaos has broken loose. The “schwartzgerat,” a prototypical piece of a lost rocket, is missing and Slothrop is dedicated to finding it. But what exactly is it? And why are suicidal African commandos, power-hungry Russian spiritualists, smuggler pornographers, and the twisted agents of the British command searching for it too?

This is not an easy book to describe, much less to read. Pynchon’s narrative rarely stays in one location, style, or perspective for more than a page. On top of that, Slothrop, the closest thing we have to protagonist, is never really the center of the story, as the cast totals hundreds by the book’s end. And I haven’t even mentioned the many times that Pynchon will break into song, mid-scene. But in the mess, there is a tremendous beauty. Both the moments of clarity and the confusion are written in wondrous prose, astounding in detail, heart-wrenching in delivery. I cannot think of another novel that can go from maddening sadness to apocalyptic hilarity in the span of a single page, but Pynchon accomplishes this. Paragraphs will trail through your mind, haunting you for months after finishing this book.

Although the narrative is proudly puzzling and consistently offensive, Gravity’s Rainbow rewards those who are willing to forsake narrative cohesion in order to explore the treacherous, delirious Zone. The 1974 Pulitzer board didn’t call it “unreadable, turgid, overwritten and obscene” for nothing.

Khaleel Gheba – Miller Branch

I was initially bored with the descriptions of stylish clothing worn by the "beautiful girl" sisters — 21-year-old Pearl and 18-year-old May. However, as I persisted listening to the CD of Shanghai Girls by Lisa See, I became totally immersed in the imagery of the sights and sounds of 1930s Shanghai. The sisters were somewhat "modern" Chinese girls, living with traditional parents, while hiding their modeling job for a local commercial artist. The two also enjoyed late night dining and entertainment.

Here is what Pearl said about her relationship with her younger sister May: "Whenever you have two sisters – or siblings of any number or either sex – comparisons are made. May and I were born in Yin Bo Village, less than a half day’s walk from Canton. We’re only three years apart, but we couldn’t be more different. She’s funny; I’m criticized for being too somber. She’s tiny and has an adorable fleshiness to her; I’m tall and thin. May, who just graduated from high school, has no interest in reading anything beyond the gossip columns; I graduated from college five weeks ago. "

When their father’s financial circumstances decline, Pearl and May are shocked and dismayed to learn that he has arranged marriages for them in exchange for monetary assistance. 

With the onslaught of war, the family is torn apart and nothing is ever the same again. Pearl and May discover troubling family secrets, lies, and betrayals as they face the harsh realities of coming-of-age in a war-torn world.  Eventually they both endure the often tedious, humiliating immigration process into the United States via Angel Island — only to face even more difficult challenges in a new country.

The bonds of love, friendship, and sibling rivalry were brilliantly exposed in Shanghai Girls. Share this gem with your sisters! Chock-full of universal themes worth discussing, I would recommend See’s engaging, thought-provoking novel for most book clubs. 

A 2010 Adult Summer Reading Club recommendation

Elaine Johnson – Central Library

Sauscony Valdoria is one of my favorite heroines, tough-minded and tender-hearted. Sauscony, nicknamed Soz, is great at math, science, assembling weapons, survival, and figuring tactics. She’s not as great at figuring out people, which can lead to some funny situations. She’s completely literal minded and embodies a series of contradictions.

Soz’s family rules great expanses of the universe, but lives in a rural castle on a protected world. She’s a military genius whose father expects her to get married and have babies. She’d rather run obstacle courses and fly fighter planes than talk about emotions or feelings. In another twist, Soz comes from a family gene-gineered to be the ultimate telepaths, which means she’s empathic to the nth degree. Soz is a super-soldier who feels the hatred of her enemies.

In Asaro’s universe, three interstellar empires share the universe … Earth, The Ruby Empire (Soz’s family), and the Aristo Traders. The Rhon telepaths (mostly Soz’s family) and the Aristo Traders are absolute anathema to one another. Where Soz and her family are extra empathetic, the Traders completely lack that quality. In fact, they achieve a sort of ecstasy from the pain of others, particularly from telepaths who can broadcast their suffering. This makes for some very intense scenes in many of books. Earth plays a sort of intermediary role, trying to keep the peace to varying degrees of success.

Schism is a great place to enter Catherine Asaro’s Skolian series because it introduces Soz as she leaves home for the military academy as war looms on the horizon. Her tale continues in The Final Key, Primary Inversion, and The Radiant Seas. Her story is as fascinating as her funny, strong, ironic character. Other books in the series advance the timeline while focusing on several of Soz’s relatives (parents, siblings, and cousins). Diamond Star, about one of Soz’s brothers and his rock-star career on Earth, was published recently.

Asaro is an award-winning Howard County writer with a Ph.D in chemical physics from Harvard University. Her books have believable hard science elements, along with strong romantic elements.

Kristen Blount  – Administrative Office

Inda opens with the kids’ first war game of the spring, where, according to local tradition, the boys attack and the girls defend. The girls win!

Indevan-Dal Algara-Vayir, commonly known as Inda, is the second son of the local prince. As such, he will defend the family’s lands while his older brother attends court and fights for the king. This model, however, is about to change and wreak havoc on Inda’s life.

In Inda’s world, the Mongol-like Marloven tribes, who essentially grow up on horseback, have conquered and married into more courtly, settled lands. In fact, two languages are still in use — one for court and correspondence, and another for war. It took me a while to figure out all the changing, multiple titles, but it helps build a realistic culture.

In Sherwood Smith’s novel, a rich world unfolds as she details the fairly unglamorous life of an academy cadet. Upon unexpectedly being invited — along with other second sons — to the royal academy, Inda turns out to be a military genius, with an ability to see the strategic picture, even while directing tactical maneuvers. What Inda often loses track of, though, is the political scene. A victim of said politics, Inda is exiled from his beloved homeland, and finds a haven aboard ship. His strategic skills and fighting ability stand Inda in good stead in his new life, but he never forgets home.

Inda’s adventures are the center of this sprawling novel, but it also includes developments in Marloven-Hess. I often found myself reading ahead looking for chapters with Inda’s friends from the academy, or his sister Hadand and the other girls. Smith does an excellent job of showing how different people excel in different kinds of intelligences: military, emotional, political, ship-faring, scholarly, and others. I like Inda’s sister, in part because of her ability to operate well on many of these levels.

This is a big, fat, high-fantasy novel, and I’ve barely touched on the bare bones of the story here. Inda begins a terrific series, followed by The Fox and King’s Shield, which has a wide cast of characters, adventures galore, and a plot with enough twists and turns to satisfy any fantasy reader.

Kristen Blount – Administration Office