Bookmarks: Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane

Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane. Summer, 1954. U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels has come to Shutter Island, home of Ashecliffe Hospital for the Criminally Insane. Along with his partner, Chuck Aule, he sets out to find an escaped patient, a murderess named Rachel Solando, as a hurricane bears down upon them. But nothing at Ashecliffe Hospital is what it seems. And neither is Teddy Daniels. Is he there to find a missing patient? Or has he been sent to look into rumours of Ashecliffe's radical approach to psychiatry? Or is there another, more personal reason for his presence? The deeper Teddy and Chuck's investigation goes, the more elusive the truth becomes, and the more they begin to believe that they may never leave Shutter Island--because someone is trying to drive them insane.
After seeing the trailer for the movie version of Shutter Island I had to check out the book. I have read a few of Lehanes other books and enjoyed them, but this was a huge surprise to me. I LOVED LOVED LOVED this book. It had great pacing and some of the best dialog I have read in a while. The plot is exciting and it takes you places you never see coming. This is a book that when you finish you may want to start again right away. I cant recommend it enough.

Bookmarks: The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters

The Little Stranger follows the strange adventures of Dr. Faraday, the son of a maid who has built a life of quiet respectability as a country doctor. One dusty postwar summer in his home of rural Warwickshire, he is called to a patient at Hundreds Hall. Home to the Ayres family for more than two centuries, the Georgian house, once grand and handsome, is now in decline-its masonry crumbling, its gardens choked with weeds, the clock in its stable yard permanently fixed at twenty to nine. But are the Ayreses haunted by something more ominous than a dying way of life? Little does Dr. Faraday know how closely, and how terrifyingly, their story is about to become entwined with his.
I had high hopes for this book after Stephen King named it one of the best books of 2009. I love a good ghost story and this book had been compared to The Haunting of Hill House, which in my opinion is one of the best haunted house books ever written. I started reading and soon found myself over 100 pages in and realized that nothing was happening and I was getting bored. That was a real problem for me with this book. Nothing seemed to happen and what did happen was told to the narrator. He never experienced anything. The book was well written and I did finish so it was not terrible but it was just to boring for me.

Beading @ the library!

Join us for extra beading time: 3-5pm Wed 1/27/10
No experience necessary, beads provided.
February's beading day is 3 pm Thu 2/18/10

Happy Taxes!

Some federal and state forms available now.

Top 5 of 2009

I love New Years. I think its because I love to see all the "Top" lists that everyone seems to make. Now is my chance to make my Top 5 books of 2009. All of these books were published in 2009. First I have to say 2009 was a GREAT year for books. I read over 25 books that were published in 09 and I could probably recommend almost all of them. So getting the list to 5 was tough. Here we go

5. The Angels Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
After reading "The Shadow of the Wind" I fell in love with this author and his writing. Then I heard there was a prequel in the works and I was over the moon. When The Angels Game came out I was so excited and I was not disappointed.
In Barcelona in the 20's a Young David Martin make his living as a writer of pulp fiction novels under a pseudonym. He stays in an abandoned mansion in the heart of the city hiding from his troubled childhood. In this mansion David finds a locked room full of pictures and letters that lead him to believe that the previous owner may have died from unnatural causes. David receives a letter from a strange reclusive french editor offering him a deal that is too good to be true.
Zafon ties all this together while giving us a look at Barcelona in the 1920's.

4. Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood
Just this year I was introduced to Atwood and I cant get enough of her dystopic fiction. Her novel Oryx and Crake tells the story of a virus that destroys a large part of the worlds population. Year of the Flood tells this same story but from other characters points of view. Overall just a great novel.


3. The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson
The much hyped and anticipated sequel to last years breakout hit "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo". This book picks up soon after the last and takes everything that was great about the first and adds an incredible amount of action and drama. There is not much else I can say about this book just read it!


2. The Unit by Ninni Holmquist
The second dystopic novel on my list. The Unit takes place in a future where men and women who have no children and unimportant jobs are taken to the unit where they are taken care of and every need is met a perfect life, the one drawback is that they are required to give donations. These donations come in the form of medical experiments, tissue donations and even limb donations until they give the final donation. Dorrit Weger is admitted into the unit and everything is grand. Until she falls in love.
I am not sure what it was about this year and my reading of dystopic fiction but this is one of the best.


1. Columbine by Dave Cullen
No one is more surprised by this pick than me. I don't read a lot of non-fiction but this book hit a cord with me. The book tells the complete and untold story of the Columbine school shooting. It is the best true crime have ever read. I thought I knew allot of what happened it turns out most of what I knew was false and I really knew nothing. I compare this book to "In Cold Blood" by Capote. This book has stayed with me for a long time and I urge you to read it.