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Monthly Archives: March 2009

Bitten – April Paranormal Book Discussion Group

paranormal3I launched the Paranormal Book Discussion Group during horror fest, and I was really happy to see it so well attended.

The book under discussion for April is Kelley Armstrong’s Bitten. This work starts her “Women of the Otherworld” series. Here is the blurb from Publishers’ Weekly:

Elena Michaels is a self-described “mutt,” a werewolf who left her secretive pack in upstate New York for a life among humans. In the year since she relocated to Toronto, she’s embarked on a career as a journalist and begun a pleasingly mundane relationship with a decent man. All this is jeopardized when she agrees to help her old packmates hunt some troublesome mutts who are converting common criminals to werewolves and leaving a trail of conspicuous carnage. Reunited with her former lycanthrope lover and forced into brutally predatory confrontations, Elena finds the call of the wild subtly reasserting itself. Armstrong prepares readers for her tale’s twists with several key revisions of werewolf lore the werewolf taint is mostly hereditary, and werewolves can be killed as easily as any human or wolf. Her true achievement, though, is her depiction of werewolf nature in believably human context. Elena’s feral sensibility, like her psychological vulnerabilities, seems a natural outgrowth of her abusive childhood, and her relationship with the pack is that of any prodigal child to a close-knit family. The sensuality of Elena’s transformations and the viciousness of her kills mesh perfectly with her tough personality. Filled with romance and supernatural intrigue, this book will surely remind readers of Anne Rice’s sophisticated refurbishings of the vampire story.

This will be the first Kelley Armstrong I’ve read, and I’m looking forward to it. I hope you can join us on April 25 for the discussion.

 
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Posted by on March 22, 2009 in book discussion, events

 

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Bookstacks Weekend Events for March 20-22

On Friday, we are participating in the World Storytelling Day Story Quest, which is organized by Jenaia Morane of The Virtual Worlds Story Project. I can’t wait to see the stories produced from the Quest! This is an all day event, starting at midnight.

As always, we have book trivia scheduled for Saturday at noon. This week’s topic is speed. Simeon chose the topic, and I don’t know if it is a reference to the literature or the quickness with which folks are expected to answer the questions.

After the quiz, Simeon and I will be participating in the West of Ireland Library’s charity Read-a-thon. I hope you can make some time to stop in to listen. It should be a great way to discover some new authors!

We will discussion books featuring “local color” or “regionalism” on Sunday at 11 a.m. What is local color? According to Donna M. Campbell’s website,

Local color or regional literature is fiction and poetry that focuses on the characters, dialect, customs, topography, and other features particular to a specific region. Influenced by Southwestern and Down East humor, between the Civil War and the end of the nineteenth century this mode of writing became dominant in American literature. According to the Oxford Companion to American Literature, “In local-color literature one finds the dual influence of romanticism and realism, since the author frequently looks away from ordinary life to distant lands, strange customs, or exotic scenes, but retains through minute detail a sense of fidelity and accuracy of description” (439). Its weaknesses may include nostalgia or sentimentality. Its customary form is the sketch or short story, although Hamlin Garland argued for the novel of local color.

Some key authors include the following:

  • Harriet Beecher Stowe
  • Rose Terry Cooke
  • Mary E. Wilkins Freeman
  • Sarah Orne Jewett
  • Kate Chopin
  • Charles W. Chesnutt
  • Bret Harte
  • Mark Twain

I hope to see you at the discussion.

Our final event on Sunday is the Poetry Libre open mic event. Hosted by Leonardo Zimring and Serene Bechir, this well attended event is a great way to hear some of Second Life’s best poets.

 
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Posted by on March 18, 2009 in events

 

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The First Episode of Off the Shelf is Now Available

If you missed the taping, you can now listen to our first episode of Off the Shelf.

 
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Posted by on March 16, 2009 in off the shelf, Uncategorized

 
 
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