Jenn Reads: “A” Is For Alibi

August 3, 2013July 31, 2013 / Jenn / Leave a comment

“A” Is For Alibi by Sue Grafton was the July pick for our mystery book club, chosen by one of our members.

Here is another “Jenn Reads” that is not a newer book! I’m a huge fan of book

“A” Is For Alibi by Sue Grafton

clubs picking books that are not necessarily new, something every other book club in the world is reading (Can I tell you how many times I’ve seen Gone Girl or The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Societyhas been read by book clubs?), and perhaps a little off the beaten path.

Grafton’s W Is For Wasted comes out in September, so it was appropriate that our member chose this title. Grafton started this series more than 30 years ago and has been plugging away at the alphabet ever since. Wonder how relieved she’s going to feel when she finishes this series and can start another?!

“A” Is For Alibi starts with the main character, Kinsey Millhone stating that she murdered someone just days before. Well! How about that for a setup! Makes you curious to know whom she killed. Kinsey, a private investigator, has been hired by Nikki Fife to investigate the murder of her husband, which she has just spent eight years in prison for.

Laurence Fife was a divorce lawyer, excellent at his job, but a scoundrel, adulterer, and abusive man. So there are many who would have liked to do him in. The story twists when it comes out that his accountant, Libby Glass, was killed in the same manner he was. It was suspected the two were having an affair.

Kinsey sets off on an investigation that takes her to Las Vegas and Los Angeles. Most of the story takes place in Santa Theresa, California and Grafton does a fantastic job at describing the location. I could feel the California sunshine on my face as Kinsey went on her runs (which, by the way, I didn’t need to know every time she went for a run) and the sand at my feet as she visited her lover Charlie while he dog sat.

Kinsey displaces some very rookie moves for a season private investigator and former police officer, specially trusting people she shouldn’t trust. She wipes down her room in Las Vegas, thinking the police might tie her to a murder there, but forgets that she checked in and paid with a credit card.

What I do like about Kinsey is her doggedness, want to do right, and perseverance. Unlike Stephanie Plum, who is just terrible about being a bounty hunter and lucks into a lot of her leads, Kinsey actually sits down and does the work, and follows through.

I’ll probably continue with the series, as it is one of my mother’s favorites, and I’d like to see how Kinsey develops as a character. “A” Is For Alibi is a good start to the series.

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

See you in the stacks,

Jenn 🙂

What is Zinio?

July 31, 2013July 25, 2013 / Louise / Leave a comment

If you’re a regular visitor to our website, you may have noticed a new service we started offering recently – digital magazines! Cheshire Library has partnered with Zinio to bring you digital versions of some of your favorite magazines, available free with your Cheshire Library card.

Flip through vivid, full-color magazine pages identical to the print version–only better. Unlike the library’s paper copies, digital magazines can be viewed by many people at the same time and include links, audio/video features, and a clickable index. Back issues of the same magazine will be available.

Zinio is the ultimate app for magazine lovers, with digital magazines that can be read on an iPad, iPhone, Android, Mac & PC. Anyone with a computer or mobile device can use Zinio as a paid service, but as a Cheshire Library card-holder, you receive the additional benefit of having free access to over 60 popular magazine titles. The interface was updated in June to make it easier than ever to use!

Give Zinio a try and let us know what you think!

Susan Reads: The Immortal Game: A History of Chess

July 30, 2013July 15, 2013 / Susan O. / 1 Comment

People have been doing it for more than 1300 years. James Bond did it. So did Kirk and Spock. Ben Franklin was addicted to it. Harry Potter did it the wizard way, but never once did Doyle ever directly say Sherlock Holmes did. I picked up The Immortal Game: A History of Chess, expecting it to be the dorkiest book ever written, a checkered feather in my Nerd cap. I expected it to be boring and confusing, full of that chessy shorthand I can’t seem to follow despite its simplicity, and I never expected to actually finish it.

I was so wrong.

Author David Shenk presents a surprisingly fascinating history of the game, starting with its roots in India in the 600’s, played in similar fashion on a squared but monochrome board. The game spread to the Middle East just as Mohammad was gathering his followers, and the spread of Islam throughout the Mediterranean carried the game to Spain, where it spread upwards all the way to the Vikings. Chess underwent several incarnations as different kings and clerics tried to ban it, adding the familiar two-toned board to make it easier to follow. In the late 1400’s, the king’s minister became the all-powerful queen, in response to the presence of several very strong queens in Europe at the time, such as Isabella of Spain and Mary, Queen of Scots. It was during this renaissance that our current game was born.

Chess has been used throughout the ages as a teaching tool of the masses, from teaching peasants their place in society, to teaching the peasants that they are just as powerful as kings and helping to fuel revolutions (Ben Franklin allegedly told a player who check-mated him to go ahead and take his king; America had no need of kings and he would continue to play without it), to teaching battlefield strategies, to almost freeing the imprisoned Napoleon, but the man sent to tell him of the rescue plans stored in the game died en route.

Shenk alternates his chapters of history with play-by-play explanations of one historic game, explaining why each move was important. This breaks up the history with examples of strategy, without delving too deep into QH4/BH3 shorthand, and makes for an enjoyable and educational read. Shenk argues that chess masters are made, not born (reiterating M. Gladwell), and that any person can become a Grand Master at any age, if enough practice is given. I am no chess master, playing on an entertainment level in a very random and haphazard fashion and doing rather well at it. However, after reading the book, with very little thought effort on my part, I was able to beat my computer chess program – four times in a row.

A very painless and interesting book whether you actually play or just want to read about it. As Spock would say : Fascinating.

10 Tasty Zombie Novels

July 28, 2013July 15, 2013 / Louise / Leave a comment

Developing a taste for zombies after World War Z? Here are 10 more zombie novels to whet your appetite.

1. Feed by Mira Grant. The infection spread, virus blocks taking over bodies and minds with one, unstoppable command: FEED. Now, twenty years after the Rising, Georgia and Shaun Mason are on the trail of the biggest story of their lives–the dark conspiracy behind the infected.

2. The End Games by T. Michael Martin. In the rural mountains of West Virginia, seventeen-year-old Michael Faris tries to protect his fragile younger brother from the horrors of the zombie apocalypse.

3. Z by Thomas Michael Ford. In the year 2032, after a virus that turned people into zombies has been eradicated, Josh is invited to join an underground gaming society, where the gamers hunt zombies and the action is more dangerous than it seems.

4. The Walking Dead : The Road to Woodbury by Robert Kirkman & Jay Bonansinga. The zombie plague unleashes its horrors on the suburbs of Atlanta without warning, pitting the living against the dead. At first, Woodbury seems like a perfect sanctuary. A mysterious self-proclaimed leader named Philip Blake keeps the citizens safe. But all is not as it seems. . . . Blake, who has recently begun to call himself The Governor, has disturbing ideas about law and order.

5. Zone One by Colson Whitehead. A plague has sorted humanity into two types: the uninfected and the infected, the living and the living dead. The novel unfolds over three surreal days, as it depicts the impossible job of coming to grips with the fallen world. And then things start to go wrong.

6. Zom-B by Darren Shan. When news reports start appearing of a zombie outbreak in Ireland, B’s racist father thinks it’s a joke– but even if it isn’t, he figures, it’s ok to lose a few Irish. That is, until zombies attack the school. B is forced on a mad dash through the serpentine corridors of high school, making allegiances with anyone with enough gall to fight off their pursuers.

7. Paul is Undead: the British Zombie Invasion by Alan Goldsher. Can the Beatles sublimate their hunger for gray matter, remain on top of the charts, and stay together for all eternity? After all, three of the Fab Four “are” zombies, and zombies live forever …

8. Rot & Ruin by Jonathan Maberry. In a post-apocalyptic world where fences and border patrols guard the few people left from the zombies that have overtaken civilization, fifteen-year-old Benny Imura is finally convinced that he must follow in his older brother’s footsteps and become a bounty hunter.

9. The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan. Through twists and turns of fate, orphaned Mary seeks knowledge of life, love, and especially what lies beyond her walled village and the surrounding forest, where dwell the unconsecrated, aggressive flesh-eating people who were once dead.

10. The New Dead : a Zombie Anthology. 19 provocative, haunting, and genuinely unsettling original stories in this zombie anthology move the genre beyond its usual apocalyptic wastelands. Includes stories by Kelley Armstrong, Max Brooks, Joe Hill, and David Liss.