The Librarian Writer

Title: Exquisite Corpse Author: Penelope Bagieu Publisher: First Second Publication Date: May 5, 2015 ISBN-13: 978-1626720824 128 pp. ARC provided via NetGalley Fun fact: "Exquisite Corpse" was a game invented by Surrealists where a piece (of art, of literature) was constructed by each participant adding to what the earlier participant had created.   This French import by graphic novelist Penelope Bagieu plays with that conceit in Exquisite Corpse . Zoe is a "booth babe" with a ne'er-do-well boyfriend and no real direction in life. Then she has a chance encounter with famous author, Thomas Rocher. Except she doesn't recognize Thomas as a famous author. And she certainly doesn't know that Thomas is supposed to be dead. All she knows is that she's met a lonely, kind of weird guy who treats her so much better than she's used to. But when she finds out the truth, everything about their relationship changes. I absolutely loved th...

Title: Mort(e) Author: Robert Repino Publisher: Soho Press Publication Date: January 20, 2015 ISBN-13: 978-1616954277 368 pp. ARC provided by publisher "I, for one, welcome our new insect overlords."  Kent Brockman Mort(e) by Robert Repino was an ARC I picked up at last summer's ALA Annual Conference and I finally found the time to read it. I was intrigued by its animal apocalypse premise: superintelligent ants bring sentience to animals, who rise against humans in "the war with no name." A neutered housecat, Sebastian, becomes a soldier and possibly a messiah. You don't expect something like that to be especially realistic, and the science given to explain how the ants brought about the war is nonsensical. The author would have better served his readers by making this a Great Unknown. (Not particularly spoilery: the ants put hormones in the water to mutate the animals. And yet it doesn't affect the humans. If you...

Title: The Time Machine Author: H.G. Wells Narrated by: Sir Derek Jacobi Publisher: Listening Library Publication Date: June 11, 2013 Listening copy via Sync H.G. Wells' The Time Machine is one of those science fiction classics that I just never got around to reading, so I thought listening to a free Sync copy would be a perfect way to finally get around to it. I've seen the Hollywood movie adaptations (the Rod Taylor version is infinitely better than the Guy Pearce version) and knew the basic plot already ... Victorian inventor creates time machine that takes him millennia into the future where the human race has evolved into the docile Eloi and the subterrestrial Morlocks. But this audiobook also has Sir Derek Jacobi, one of the top ten dulcet speakers of the English language. He reads this unabridged edition of The Time Machine with appropriate wonder, charm, and suspense. This recording is delight from beginning to end. And speaking of the end, the ...