Pioneer Library System

In the month of February, it may feel like hearts, chocolates, and mushy sayings are all around you. Well, if you are looking for an escape, the staff members have reviewed some books that are not romantic, but still great reads for every age group. Young people exploring new places and meeting new people, historical fiction, and even a guy's book on basketball. So find a place not surrounded by hearts or candy and read one of these books.

Madapple by Christina Meldrum
Staff Reviewer: Leanne Cheek, Moore Public Library

Aslag is a young girl raised in isolation with her mother Maren, a stormy woman with little compassion and a multitude of mood swings.  All Aslag knows is what her mother teaches her, which includes a limited selection of world religions, multiple languages and herbology. Her mother suddenly dies and Aslag is thrown into the world of cars, police, and people.

Her life takes a confusing turn when she discovers she has an aunt and two cousins living in a neighboring town. When she begins living with them she discovers that her mother claimed she was born of a virgin birth, a fact that her cousin, Suzanne, completely believes. Science and religion take an even stranger twist when Aslag herself becomes pregnant, the result of what appears to be divine intervention. Mystery and despair begin to intertwine as the story continues to unfold.

The plot of the story fluctuates between the present tense in which Aslag is on trial for murder and the time, five years earlier, when her mother dies and she begins living with her aunt and cousins. More questions and mysteries arise than answers are provided. From the beginning of the story, the dilemmas continue until the end of the book when the past and present collide and all is revealed.

Meldrum's story takes a unique look at religion, blending it with science and family until a true mystery is created. Each chapter focuses on a different plant that is important to Aslag and her world, as well as the story itself. This book uses strong imagery and a rotating point-of-view that makes it unique from other teen novel.

Too Much Flapdoodle! by Amy MacDonald; illustrations by Cat Bowman Smith
Staff Reviewer: Mary Lea Wallace, Norman Public Library

Parker is a rich kid who has it all: every game and gadget invented and catering to his every whim. Then his parents go on a cruise and leave him on Great Uncle Philbert's run-down, old-fashioned farm. Parker had thought this would be easier than summer camp, plus his cousin Simon said it might be fun. But modern ideas of fun end at the old farm, and Parker's life begins to change. By the time his parents return, Parker grows to appreciate the wacky life of his aged relatives and their assorted animals. He also learns to face his worst fears.

Piper Reed, Navy Brat by Kimberly Willis Holt
Staff Reviewer: Jenny Metheny, Moore Public Library

Piper Reed is an independent nine year old in the throws of moving to another new city in the middle of the school year. She is the daughter of a navy aircraft mechanic and the middle of three strong willed sisters. Despite all of the challenges that are thrown her way, and there are a lot, Piper has a creative way of finding her way through them.  For example, she struggles with leaving behind old friends, but makes new ones by inviting several kids to join her gypsy club, with a "real" fortune teller.

Piper Reed, Navy Brat is an enjoyable early chapter book that is easy to read. It is the first book in the Piper Reed series written by award winning author Kimberly Willis Holt. The author was inspired to write this series from her own childhood as a navy brat.

The black and white illustrations every few pages bring the characters to life. Illustrator Christine Davenier has illustrated other children's books including the Iris and Walter series and Nobody Here But Me.

The Wet Nurse's Tale by Erica Eisdorfer
Cindy Stevens, Center for Reader's Services

A spunky and lovable protagonist makes this fictional tale of Victorian times very enjoyable.  Susan Rose's mother is a wet nurse, having raised several children of her own with a ner'do well husband.  Susan Rose and her sister, Ellen, work in the Manor house. Ellen, being blonde haired and blued eyed, unfortunately catches the eye of the master of the house. Things do not go well. Susan Rose, not as comely but voluptuous with a generous heart, befriends the son of the house. She soon finds herself with child and so starts her journey as a wet nurse herself. When she finds herself in a position to lose her child she must be smart, think quick and willing to take chances.

This is a debut novel by Ms. Eisdorfer and I look forward to any other works she may produce. I very much enjoyed the pace and freshness of the story. Susan Rose is an indomitable character with many qualities to recommend her - not the least her determination and intelligence. Entertaining and not without some educational qualities, The Wet Nurse's Tale is a great read!

The Book of Basketball by Bill Simmons
Aaron Pence, Moore Public Library

Bill Simmons (ESPN's popular "Sports Guy") has just released his second book, call unassumingly The Book of Basketball.  It is a recounting of basketball's history and greatest players, heavily biased (Simmons is an unaplologetic Celtics fan, although perhaps any basketball book should be biased towards the Celtics), with an emphasis on the post-merger (1976-)era.

Simmons has a great sense of comic timing and it plays out in his footnotes:   

'part of me wishes [Dave Cownes] had flamed out in dramatic style, crashing a motorcycle into a polar bear in Alaska at 130 miles an hour or something'

He consistently makes me laugh out loud and knows more about basketball than anyone realistically should.  He is an excellent writer who will keep you entertained and engrossed for days on end.

The Book of Basketball is friendly; it is smarmy without being condescending to the reader, it is inviting to the novice and fascinating to the expert (or so I'd assume), and it's hilarious.  Simmons' well-timed swears, his impressively deep knowledge, his engaging personal stories and his ability to capture the spirit of an event place him right up there with the very best sportswriters.

Simmons himself states that the book is intended to be the counterpart to Bill James' amazing baseball abstracts.  I don't think that he accomplishes this (really, how could you?), but I do think that he's put together a marvelous read, engaging and engrossing - to the point of my wife asking me to quit reading and get back to work - and it's over seven hundred pages long!  The book is too biased and emotional (and, although it's a strength, it's also too amusing) to be the successor to James, but, as Simmons says, basketball is too unstatistical a sport to create a book quite like the Abstract, and it in fact demands that you capture its spirit in quotes, anecdotal evidence, and by saying unscientific things like "Iverson played with a compelling, hostile, bloodthirsty energy that nobody else had . . . and none of this makes sense unless you watched him live."

I think this is much more of a door-opener for someone to write the basketball abstract than it is the abstract itself, but that doesn't denigrate the accomplishment.  It's easily the most encyclopedic basketball book I've ever seen attempted, it's funny and informative, and it's an ambitious project that falls short because of its ambitions, not because of its shortcomings.  So brace yourself for a lot of laughing, a lot of information, and a lot of Paul Mokeski jokes; The Book of Basketball  has you rapt and giggling in about five pages and doesn't let go until the end.

Homer and Langley by E.L. Doctorow
Staff Reviewer: Susan Gregory, Pioneer Library System

Home and Langley Collyer were the two damaged sons of a wealthy, prominent New York family: Homer's blindness in his adult years shattered his self-confidence and Langley was forever changed by the mustard gas he'd inhaled while serving in World War I.  Their claim to a place in the history books would not result from their social prominence or noteworthy careers, however.  At the time of their deaths in 1947, they would become known for one thing: Homer and Langley were hoarders.

The brothers were increasingly dependent on one another after their parent's deaths and retreated deeper into seclusion as the years went by.  Langley's habit of collecting "items" began as a mild eccentricity and degenerated into full-blown madness.  Homer listened while Langley filled their brownstone over the years with cartons of cables and wires, flower pots and rubber tires, magazines and broken furniture, piano parts and old typewriters, figurines found in the garbage, moldy food and whatever else appealed to his senses while in a manic mood.  Homer listened helplessly while his brother had a Model-T lifted through the windows into what had once been the family dining room.  The car would be found in 1947 under moldy mountains of newspapers, intact.  Long at odds with the utility companies, Homer and Langley would die in the cold, dark tomb that they created: Langley from a fall and Homer from starvation.

E.L. Doctorow has done it again: he's a master of historical fiction and has the ability to paint a powerful picture of an era by using actual people as the focal point.  He's written of the Collyer brothers with great power and great sympathy.  Using artistic license, he's extended the brother's lives by a few decades, with interesting results.  This is a great read for anyone who enjoys good historical fiction written by a master.  It will also be a great inspiration to anyone who needs to clean out a few closets . . ..