Oct. 22 - Limited parking at Standley Lake Library today due to parking lot repairs.

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Read this!

by: 
Tana, Arvada Library

The world is a big, awesome, crazy place full of amazing weirdness!  If you keep your eyes open for it, you can spot it all around.  Some of my favorite weirdness comes in the guise of… SCIENCE!

Here are a couple of my favorite ‘science’ books that put a new spin on things.  They might make you reconsider how you view the universe.

The Dancing Wu Li Masters : An Overview of the New Physics
by Gary Zukav: This book introduced me to particle physics but not in a boring, academic way.  The voice is conversational, the science is real, and the possibilities that exist in and around us are mind blowing!  You will never look at the world the same way again.

The Hidden Messages in Water by Masaru Emoto: Water holds memory and, according to the studies of Dr. Masaru Emoto, intention as well.  Dr. Emoto exposed water to words and then froze the water into snowflakes which he would film.  He noticed that positive words like ‘love,’ and ‘truth,’ would cause the water to transform into beautiful, perfect snowflakes.  Negative words like, ‘hate’ or ‘pollution’ caused the water to transform into distorted, ugly snowflakes.  This happened whether you spoke to the water or just put a sign close by the water with the word written on it.  Crazy!  But sooooo neat!

by: 
Tana, Arvada Library

Look for FICTION CLINE

I'm late to this party, but I still want to blab to everyone I know about this book!  Ready Player One by Ernest Cline came out in 2011 and is set in the not too distant future.  A future that is so bleak with fuel, job and food shortages, that most people on earth would rather plug into a virtual reality known as the OASIS (Ontologically Anthropocentric Sensory Immersive Simulation) than deal with reality.  In the OASIS you can do anything you want, be anything you want, explore any and every universe ever created -- Star Wars, Arrakis, Star Trek, Tolkien... it's all there. 

Our hero, Wade Watts was a young teen when the creator of the OASIS died and set in motion a crazy scavenger hunt for an 'Easter egg' hidden somewhere in the virtual world that is worth a fortune.  Five years later no one has even come close to solving the puzzle until Wade finds the first of the three keys needed to find the Easter egg... 

This book is filled with trivia about pop culture from the 1980's, gamer references galore, fast action and really likeable characters.  I was really bummed when it ended, but I am hopeful that the rumors of an upcoming movie adaption are true.  Then I will be able to lose myself in the game all over again!

 

by: 
Jessie, Columbine Library

Have you read The Selection yet? I think it reads like a cross between a reality TV dating show and the royal wedding. When the prince needs to find a wife, 35 young women are selected to live with him in the palace. They are sent home as he weeds them out until only one woman remains--the one who will become Queen. All this is broadcast on TV and the families of the women are rewarded depending on how far the girls make it in the competition.

The Selection was optioned for a TV show right when it came out, and now the CW has approved a script for the pilot. I'm excited to see how this turns out because it was such a fun book! Here's a trailer for the book, which may give you some ideas for what the show could look like:

While we wait for the show, get yourself on the hold list for the sequel, The Elite, which comes out April 23.

by: 
Arra, Lakewood Library

Will Henry is the assistant to Dr. Warthrop, a monstrumologist who studies those dark creatures who haunt our nightmares.  When a strange corpse is delivered to their doorstep Will Henry and Dr. Warthrop discover and attempt to destroy a pod of Anthropophagi living in their home town.  Warning!  This book is not for the easily scared (like me). 

by: 
Erin, Golden Library

 

At last! The long wait is over!  The second book, following Cinder, in The Lunar Chronicles is here and it does not disappoint! Meyer has a really accessible writing style and this novel is fast paced with engaging characters. There's also a nice re-imagining of the Little Red Riding Hood tale just for good measure.

In this installment Cinder's trying to break out of prison--even though if she succeeds, she'll be the Commonwealth's most wanted fugitive. Halfway around the world, Scarlet Benoit's grandmother is missing. It turns out there are many things Scarlet doesn't know about her grandmother or the grave danger she has lived in her whole life. When Scarlet encounters Wolf, a street fighter who may have information as to her grandmother's whereabouts, she is loath to trust the stranger, but is inexplicably drawn to him, and he to her. As Scarlet and Wolf unravel one mystery, they encounter another when they meet Cinder. Now, all of them must stay one step ahead of the vicious Lunar Queen Levana, who will do anything for the handsome Prince Kai to become her husband, her king, her prisoner.

Scarlet has a long hold list but it is well worth the wait. It is also one of our Lucky Day titles so check the library when you are here and see if you get lucky!

 

by: 
Tana, Arvada Library

Trapped inside a chain superstore by an apocalyptic sequence of natural and human disasters, six high school kids from various popular and unpopular social groups struggle for survival while protecting a group of younger children.

OMG! OMG! OMG!

Ok. Look. By the middle of the second page I was in it to win it with this book.  Not sure if it’s the locality of the story (Colorado Springs), if it’s the ages of the characters (first graders through high school) or if it is the crazy-non-stop-tell-me-this-can-not-ever-happen-here--WHAT!?-it-might-happen-next-week-OMG! aspect that made Monument 14 by Emmy Laybourne so riveting for me, but… HOLY COW.

I’ll tell you what, though… my new end of the world survival plan includes a Super Target now.  ‘Nuff said.

by: 
Briana, Evergreen Library

Set in the not-too-distant future, Robopocalypse describes a world in which robots have made our lives a lot easier – they fight our wars, clean our homes, and drive our cars. Then, under the control of a childlike yet sinister artificial intelligence called Archos, the robots turn against humanity in a terrifying and bloody attack known as Zero Hour. A group of international survivors – including a Japanese scientist, a London hacker, and a cop on an Oklahoma Indian reservation – stage an inventive counterattack in this action-packed thriller. The author, Daniel H. Wilson, has a PhD in robotics, so the story is full of astonishing technical detail. His latest novel, Amped, is also available. Fans of World War Z and other dystopian thrillers should give this one a try!

by: 
Arra, Lakewood Library

Did you see the movie / read the book Life of Pi?  Want to read some other books that give you a good sense of Indian culture and life?  Try some of these great reads:

Tiger's Curse by Colleen Houck
Seventeen-year-old Oregon teenager Kelsey forms a bond with a circus tiger who is actually one of two brothers, Indian princes Ren and Kishan, who were cursed to live as tigers for eternity, and she travels with him to India where the tiger's curse may be broken once and for all.

Karma by Cathy Ostlere
After her mother's suicide, Maya and her Sikh father travel to New Delhi from Canada to place her mother's ashes in their final resting place. On the night of their arrival, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi is assassinated.  Maya and her father are separated when the city erupts in chaos, and Maya must rely on Sandeep, a boy she has just met, for survival.

Anila's Journey by Mary Finn
In late eighteenth-century Calcutta, half-Indian half-Irish Anila Tandy finds herself alone with nothing but her artistic talent to rely on, searching for her father who is presumed dead.

Climbing the Stairs by Padma Venkatraman
In India, in 1941, when her father becomes brain-damaged in a non-violent protest march, fifteen-year-old Vidya and her family are forced to move in with her father's extended family and become accustomed to a totally different way of life.

Born Confused by Tanuja Desai Hidier
Dimple, whose family is from India, discovers that she is not Indian enough for the Indians and not American enough for the Americans. Where does she fit in when she is constantly pulled between these two opposing cultures?

by: 
Pam, Standley Lake Library

Humans and dragons engineered a fragile peace nearly forty years ago, but as the anniversary of the treaty nears, tensions escalate with covert factions on both sides instigating war. Seraphina, an unusually gifted musician, hides not only the extent of her talent but her heritage. Dragons can assume human form and a few live among the people of Goerdd as ambassadors and scholars; they are mathematical, rational and precise musicians, but they disdain emotion. Seraphina is half-dragon and half-human, something that everyone else presumes impossible. She must hide her true nature at risk of death for herself and her father, but her knowledge of dragons is uncanny. When the Crown Prince is murdered, Princess Glisselda and her betrothed, Prince Lucien rely on Seraphina’s courage and knowledge, drawing her deeper into an intrigue rooted in treason.

Vivid world-building at its best, Seraphina is an adventure that tests the boundaries of love, loyalty and what it means to be human.

by: 
Arra, Lakewood Library

Anya doesn’t fit in a school or home.  Her mom wants her to respect her Russian immigrant roots but she wants to be a normal American teen.  When she falls down the well in the park she finally gains a best friend, one that has been dead since 1918. Emily may have been dead for a century but she is determined to help Anya transform into a popular girl at school.  As the saying goes, the grass isn’t always greener on the other side of the fence and sinister secrets follow Emily from the grave.  This is a well drawn story with images that perfectly capture what it is to feel like an awkward teen trying to fit in.  I loved this story from start to finish.

 

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