Howdy everyone and welcome to our final week of the Adult Summer Reading Program at
Blackwater Regional Library! I've truly enjoyed reading everyone's comments on the books they've read. As I mentioned earlier today, next Wednesday, August 10th, will be the last day of drawings. We have the final weekly drawing for the prize of a $10 Walmart gift card as well as the Grand Prize drawing for a $100 Walmart gift card. Everyone who has filled out an entry slip has a chance to win the grand prize; we've kept all of the slips from the weekly drawings and thrown them in one large pot.Thus, the more slips you've filled out, the more likely you are to get picked! So good luck!
This week I actually moved on my reading list a bit, yay! I finished reading
The Last Werewolf by Glen Duncan. What piqued my interest the most was the cover (I know, don't judge a book by its cover); it's a simple, rich black with simple lettering and small images of the phases of the moon. The page edges are a deep (blood) red, which was also fascinating since you don't see publishers color page edges anymore. The novel is written in an attempted journal format (the narrator acts as if he is writing in a journal, but using chapters and no dates lessens the effect) written by the protagonist, Jacob Marlowe, who in the first few pages finds he is the last remaining werewolf in the world; a product of being hunted to extinction by a loosely-religious organization as well as an apparent (unconfirmed) virus that has destroyed the ability for the werewolves to pass on the "curse." What follows is action mixed with (sometimes) lengthy self-analysis by Jacob of his loss of desire to continue living. Then, as he prepares to give himself up a new discovery turns his world around and he has to fight the Hunt as well as vampires to stay alive. I found the novel to be an interesting take on the werewolf genre but it is definitely not for the light-of-heart. As a werewolf he has to eat people one a month and characteristic of modern supernatural fantasy, there is sex, both of which can be graphic at times. If you're a lover of the genre, though, I'd definitely suggest reading it as something a little different from the inundation of supernatural fantasy out there. Blackwater has
3 copies so take a look.
I also started on a new cookbook,
At Elizabeth David's Table: Classic Recipes and Timeless Kitchen Advice compiled by Jill Norman. Elizabeth David was a British cookery writer who came to prominence in the 1960s in Britain for her writings about Mediterranean food, exposing ingredients and foods rarely seen in the drab cooking of post-war England. Sharp-wit and at times sharp-tongued, David promoted intelligent, flavorful, and simple cooking with high-quality ingredients. As warned in Jill Norman's Introduction, David's recipes are not formulaic like recipes common today, rather they are simple, sometimes brief or even vague, but all assume a level of intelligence and confidence in the kitchen and "they do not let you down" (p. 16). This is neither low-fat cooking, nor vegetarian cooking, but it is flavorful and gives you a lovely view of Mediterranean and European cooking. Even if you require more guidance with your recipes, this book is still enjoyable due to David's writings interspersed through the sections. Her timeless kitchen wisdom, heavy research into old cooking methods, and clever musings on various cookery subjects are simply fascinating to read. And it has pictures! Blackwater has only
one copy in the system, so if you're interested go on and request it and force me to read a little faster ;)
Didn't mean for such a lengthy post, but hope you enjoyed and have fun reading!
To get started this week, can we talk about the number of book to movie adaptations that are occurring? It seems that more than ever Hollywood is adapting books to movies due to present reader-followings. EarlyWord posted a list of upcoming young adult titles coming out in 2013 - particularly popular is the first of the Mortal Instruments series by Cassandra Clare, The Host by Stephanie Meyer of Twilight fame (and Breaking Dawn, pt. 2 is due out in November), and the long-awaited adaptation of Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card.
Always a Witch by Carolyn MacCullough (sequel to Once a Witch)
