Merry's Book Club
Brought to you by The Merry LibrarianArchive for Stacey Rottiers
“The Vast Fields of Ordinary” by Nick Burd
The plot:
Dade, a closeted gay teenager, has just graduated from his Iowa high school, ready to head off to college and away from the people he’s known most of his life. Unfortunately, his jock love interest, Pablo, is more interested in keeping quiet about their activities, not to mention occasionally being violent with Dade when Dade mentions the “l-word.” Through a friend of a friend, Dade meets Alex, who is cute, funny, and almost the exact opposite of Pablo, and really falls hard.
Why You’ll Love It:
While there are obvious GLBT themes (Burd won the ALA Stonewall Award for this novel), at its heart, Vast Fields is a story of first love and first lust, and the awkward time between high school, college, and adulthood, when the kid can sometimes be more mature than his parents. There are hints of ghost story within, when a local girl goes missing and “appears” all over town, but it fits in nicely with Dade’s own feelings of being lost.
Who Will/Should Read It:
Teenage readers, even guys, should like this hard-to-put-down novel. If you’re an adult fan of YA fiction, pick it up as well; you will be glad you did.
Review by Stacey Rottiers
“Rex Libris #1: I, Librarian” by James Turner
The plot:
Rex Libris, an immortal librarian first employed by the Library of Alexandria, writes his life story, including how he came to be in the present (with lots of help from futuristic gadgets and gizmos) and his daily job at the Middleton Public Library. Rex works with the sorceress Circe, who is rather hilariously stuck baking cookies and staying behind the reference desk. In this first collection, interspersed with conferences with Rex’s editor, who wants a story ever more fantastic than even an immortal can give, is the story of a demon samurai attacking the library, and Rex’s journey to retrieve a very overdue book from a space warlord.
Why You’ll Love It:
You don’t have to be a librarian to enjoy Rex’s humor, but it certainly doesn’t hurt. This first edition is truly laugh-out-loud funny, especially when Rex is talking to Thoth (the library administrator), his sidekick Simonides, and the editor who insists that any comic can make sense given even scantily clad women.
Who Will/Should Read It:
Librarians, of course, if you haven’t already. Of course, anyone with a good sense of humor and vault of literary knowledge will also get laughs out of Rex’s adventures. If you enjoyed Javier Grillo-Marxuach’s Middleman series, Rex Libris will amuse with the way it takes its silliness seriously.
