AHML Staff Choices

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Paulo Coelho has written a fable about life, taking chances, love, growing up, and finding your own personal destiny.

Santiago, a simple shephard, moves his flock from field to meadow across the countryside. But his life is not without tension: he has seen a girl and fallen in love. And he has had a dream- more than once- and is caught up in what the dream might mean. What should he do in response to that dream?

Across lands, cultures, and through enough time for a boy to become a man, this story advances and speaks to some of the inner questions that confront us all. Originally published in Brazil in 1988, this fable has been translated into 56 languages; people in more than 150 countries have purchased 65 million copies of this tale (per Wikipedia). There is enough here to spark serious thought in all of us- and there is enough to engender some great discussions in that Book Group you have been meaning to start. (!)

Is this the perfect book? What a great question for discussion! For myself, I’ll only say that this novel grew out of the culture of South America- and I look forward to reading how a certain young lady begins her own quest.

I’d say it’s definitely worth investigating… What do you think?

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Includes the first three mysteries in the Stephanie Plum series:

One For The Money

Two For The Dough

Three To Get Deadly

The Stephanie Plum books are incredibly popular! As I write this, Janet Evanovich is about to release the fourteenth mystery in this series: Fearless Fourteen. And that count doesn’t include Ms Evanovich’s other “stand-alone” books featuring Ms Plum.

These mysteries remind me of Sue Grafton’s Kinsey Millhone books, but with a healthy dose of humor- and a thread of romance. Though, oddly, I think the crimes in these books are more gruesome than those in the Grafton mysteries.

Entertaining, and, as I say, incredibly popular. I enjoyed them!

And… if you like even broader humor (there’s a pun in there), try Sarah Strohmeyer’s mysteries featuring Bubbles Yablonsky. Wild!

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The last of Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy. Award winning. Great action/adventure story of a young girl growing up. But parents might want to consider the dark cosmology and theology that runs through this series. This cosmology/theology may be disturbing for younger readers.

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This is the second book in Mr. Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy, continuing the action (and there’s lots of action) from The Golden Compass. (And- The Golden Compass is now a new movie). All of the books in this trilogy have won prestigious awards. But parents may want to consider that some scenes include children in serious danger. There is also a rather dark cosmology and theology that runs through all three books, becoming ever darker in the later volumes.

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Quiet, understated, and elegant, SATURDAY follows the life of one man through a single day: Saturday, February 15, 2003. Henry Perowne awakens in his London home, and…

Love, family, the massive protest against the pending international invasion of Iraq; as Henry’s life spins out among the events of his day, McEwan traces the forces which shadow our post-9/11 world.

Ian McEwan, articulate and perceptive, has created a deceptively simple story that illuminates our current lives. Highly recommended. Excellent for discussion groups; you will find much here to explore. Saturday won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize. Hope you enjoy it. Curt

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When you find a work of fiction for young people (or even one for us older types) that begins with a verse from Milton’s Paradise Lost, you know you have encountered something unusual.

Philip Pullman’s The Golden Compass is something unusual: a book that changed the meaning of “literature for young people”. This is an adventure that never stops, in a world similar but utterly different from our own. Rich and strange and always believable, this book dazzled me with suspense, adventure, imagination, and intrigue. Not bad for a book found in our Kid’s World and Young Adult collections. And many bookstores shelve it in their Adult Science Fiction section.The Golden Compass is just the first of a trilogy that continues in The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass. These three books have picked up all kinds of awards. I can’t wait to continue with the next two books.…And, of course, The Golden Compass is soon to be a “Major Motion Picture.” We’ll see if the movie can approach the book. But it may be good- there are amazing graphic opportunities in this story.