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The Eyre Affair

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The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde
Format: Book, eBook
Who it’s for: Adults

The Eyre Affair introduces Thursday Next, a literary detective living in a parallel universe with a time traveling father and an uncle experimenting with literal bookworms. Thursday works for SpecOps 27, the division that investigates manuscript forgeries and other literary crimes. The Eyre Affair sees Thursday battling with literary villain Acheron Hades. Hades has stolen the Prose Portal, allowing him to enter manuscripts and kidnap characters for ransom. He starts with Martin Chuzzelwit, but his ultimate goal is to remove Jane Eyre from the pages of Jane Eyre. If he succeeds, Jane will be removed from all copies of the novel. It’s up to Thursday to stop him and save Jane Eyre. 

The first book in the Thursday Next series (there are seven in total), The Eyre Affair immerses the reader in Thursday’s alternate universe. The Crimean War never ended, Russia still has a tsar, and cloning animals is widespread (Thursday’s pet is a dodo v1.2 named Pickwick). This sets the stage for the rest of the series – we learn in the second book about the BookWorld, occupied by literary characters with its own police force (Jurisfiction). 

For readers with an interest in classic literature (Fforde constantly drops in references to classic novels and poems) and inventive, sometimes absurd alternate realities, The Eyre Affair is a fun and exciting introduction to a great series.

Find The Eyre Affair in the catalog.

Humble Pi: When Math Goes Wrong in the Real World

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Humble Pi: When Math Goes Wrong in the Real World by Matt Parker
Format: Book, eBook
Who it’s for: Adults

What do you get when you cross a stand-up comedian with a math enthusiast? You get Matt Parker, and his chuckle-inducing book Humble Pi. Math typically works quietly behind the scenes of life, ensuring that your internet works, your train runs smoothly on its tracks, and the calendar marches steadily onward…until, suddenly, it doesn’t.

Parker reveals the math mistakes behind some of the world’s most spectacular failures, from a bridge collapse to a stock market meltdown to an election debacle. For an entertaining tour through humanity’s mathematical stumbling blocks, find it in the catalog.

Claymates

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Claymates by Dev Petty, Illustrated by Lauren Eldridge
Format:  Book
Who it’s for:  Children

This fun children’s book is recommended for younger children.  It is also available as a VOX book, which means that a headphone can be plugged in to it so the child can listen as it is read to them or listen with others without headphones.

Two balls of clay, with eyes, are transformed by the artist into a gray wolf and a brown owl.  The sculptor spends a lot of time creating them to be just perfect and then she leaves the room.  It isn’t long until the two creatures become friends and then they start goofing off.  They stretch and pull at themselves to become many other different critters.  They look totally weird, with lots of sculptor’s tools sticking out of them.  Suddenly they hear the artist returning.  Oh, no!  What will they do?  They try to fix themselves but they just can’t.  Find out what happens next to these two  crazy claymates.  Find it in our catalog.

The Department of Sensitive Crimes

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The Department of Sensitive Crimes by Alexander McCall Smith
Who it’s for: Adults
Format: Book, eBooks, Audiobook on CD, eAudio

Scandi-noir is big these days – Stieg Larsson, Jo Nesbo, and Peter Hoeg are just a few of the authors known for this crime fiction genre set in any one of the Nordic countries. Scandi-noir is known for being dark, moody, and often grisly. Alexander McCall Smith’s newest series about a Swedish police department assigned to investigate crimes that are a bit too quirky for the rest of the police force is a bit of a different take on the genre. The series deals with crime in a Nordic country, but it lacks the bleakness typically associated with Scandi-noir. McCall Smith refers to it as “Scandi-blanc,” defined as “Scandinavian crime fiction without much crime and without any bodies.”

The cases the title team takes on are strange, but not so bleak and gory as typical Scandi-noir: a man stabbed in the back of the knee and the disappearance of an imaginary boyfriend are just the start. The complicated lives and relationships of Detective Ulf Varg and his team are also explored: Will Ulf and Anna admit their feelings for each other? Will Varg’s deaf dog Martin overcome his depression?

Fans of Alexander McCall Smith will enjoy his familiar writing style, while fans of Scandi-noir might just like this tongue-in-cheek play on the genre.

Do you prefer listening to digital audiobooks? The eAudio version of The Department of Sensitive Crimes is only available through RBdigital, so create an account with your St. Mary’s County Library card and download the app to get started listening!

Find The Department of Sensitive Crimes in the catalog.

The Book Hog

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The Book Hog by Greg Pizzoli
Format: Book
Who it’s for: Kids

Hog has quite the growing collection of books. He scoots around town on his moped and searches out great deals on them too. He’ll look anywhere–from garage sales to garbage cans! Any books that Hog gets his hands are sure to become part of his collection. There’s only one problem…Hog can’t read a single one of his beloved books. In fact, he doesn’t know how to read at all!

One day, out on his search for more books, Hog stumbles into his local library and joins in a storytime. With the help of a friendly librarian, Hog gains confidence in himself and strives to learn to read. And slowly but surely, he does! By the end of the story, Hog becomes a frequent library patron who no longer needs to buy books to enjoy a good story.

Pizzoli’s The Book Hog contains charming illustrations and is an absolute joy to read. It also highlights the fact that the value of libraries cannot be defined simply in terms of their material offerings, but rather in the additional services they offer such as their dedication to encouraging early literacy skills. This fun story with its book-lovin’ main character would be a great read to share with young children curious about reading on their own.

Find it in the catalog.

 

The Unhoneymooners

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The Unhoneymooners by Christina Lauren
Format: Book
Who it’s for: Adults

Olive and her twin Ami are identical in looks but completely the opposite in luck. Ami met the perfect guy, has the perfect wedding which she won and financed through internet contests and is all set to go on the perfect honeymoon (another contest win). Olive, on the other hand, lost her job, has no love life to speak of, and has a tendency to ruin anything she touches. So when Olive is only one of two people to not get horribly debilitating food poisoning from the free seafood buffet at Ami’s wedding (there was a silver lining to that life-threatening seafood allergy after all) it seems like her luck is changing. After all, she will get to go on the honeymoon trip in Ami’s place and spend a week relaxing at a tropical resort. But soon Olive learns that the other person to come away from the meal unscathed is her new brother-in-law and mortal enemy, Ethan. Ami’s husband insists that Ethan take his place on the trip, so now Olive and Ethan will be forced to spend a week in paradise together, filled with rage and hate. Though, perhaps with some heat and hijinks his hating pair might become something entirely different. Check out The Unhoneymooners by Christina Lauren for a funny and sexy story of falling for the last person on earth you’d ever want to date. Find it in the catalog