Welcome to FDL Reads, weekly book reviews from Fondulac District Library. Librarians (and possibly some other guest reviewers) review all types of books, from children’s picture books, young adult favorites, to the latest adult thriller, and share their thoughts each week. If the book is owned by Fondulac District Library (or another local library), you’ll see a direct link to the catalog entry and whether or not it is available. If it is checked out or at another local library, you will be able to place a hold as long as you have your library card and PIN numbers. As with any book review, these are our opinions…we disagree amongst ourselves about books frequently. We all have different likes and dislikes, which is what makes the world an interesting place. Please enjoy, and keep on reading!
FDL Reads: Everything Awesome about Sharks
Everything Awesome About Sharks and Other Underwater Creatures! by Mike Lowery
Reviewed By: Alice Mitchell, Youth Services Manager
Genre: Nonfiction
Suggested Age: Kids (7-12)
What is This Book About? So many cool things are hiding in this mammoth book of ocean facts. Did you know the largest mountain range in the world is underwater? And that some sharks eat plants? In this book we learn about sharks, including some neat prehistoric sharks, before talking about ocean habitats and other ocean animals. The fifth section might be the most important, discussing actions that we can take in order to protect sharks and all other ocean life. Plastic is one of the biggest threats to our oceans, and there are some easy ways anyone can follow to help reduce the amount of plastic reaching our oceans.
My Review: This book is about so much more than just sharks! The cartoon illustrations reminiscent of Dav Pilkey and Ben Clanton make this book fun for kids without taking away from its informative nature. Kids are guaranteed to find something new and fascinating here – I certainly did! Even people who aren’t artistically inclined will be able to follow the directions in the back of the book on how to draw sharks. The call to action at the end of the book has practical, easy-to-follow tips that will inspire any reader. This is a great book for shark enthusiasts and reading for fun.
Three Words that Describe this Book: informative, funny, engaging
Give This A Try if You Like… Narwhal and Jelly by Ben Clanton; Ultimate Oceanpedia by Christina Wilsdon, Wild Kratts, Shark Week
Rating: 5/5
FDL Reads: The Rom-Commers
The Rom-Commers by Katherine Center
Reviewed By: Deanna, Adult Services Assistant
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Suggested Age: Adults
What is This Book About? Emma Wheeler desperately longs to be a screenwriter and has spent her life studying, obsessing over, and writing romantic comedies but she’s also been the sole caretaker for her dad who needs full-time care. Now, when she gets a chance to re-write a script for famous screenwriter Charlie Yates it’s an opportunity too big to pass up. Emma quickly realizes sometimes its best not to meet your heroes since Charlie Yates doesn’t want to write with anyone and what’s worse is the romantic comedy he’s written is so terrible it might actually bring on the apocalypse. Emma’s is determined to make this work but what if the love story they’re writing breaks all Emma’s rules―and comes true? – Annotation from the publisher
My Review: Katherine Center has quickly become an auto-buy author for me because she writes insanely lovable, flawed, relatable characters you cannot help but want to know more about. Her writing definitely leans more towards women’s fiction with romance being prevalent but not the entire focus of the book. She delves heavily into her characters backgrounds and family lives that you immediately feel invested in them as a person. Would recommend to any romance reader who wants to read about a non-traditional take on love.
Three words that describe this book: Entertaining, Comedic, Gut-Wrenching
Read this if you like… The Paradise Problem, Happy Place, Just for The Summer
Rating: 4/5
FDL Reads: Kitchen
Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto
Reviewer: Deb Alig, Circulation Assistant
Genre: Contemporary Japanese fiction
Suggested Age: Adult
What is this book about? Kitchen is a novel that features two different stories that have similar themes but different characters and plots. The first story is Kitchen named after the novel. The second story is Moon Shadow which I think should be a stand alone book. Kitchen is about a young Japanese woman named Mikage who is raised by her grandmother after her parents die when she was young. She faces loss again when her grandmother unexpectedly passes away. She experiences loneliness and despair and can only find comfort sleeping in the kitchen which is her favorite place to be. Fortunately for Mikage, a young friend of her grandmother’s named Yuichi Tanabe, invites her to come and stay with him and his transgender mother Eriko. Without any living relatives, it’s easy for her to accept. Yuichi and Eriko live in a very comfortable home with a wonderful kitchen which brings Mikage much joy. The three form a little family, but eventually Mikage has to move out to start a culinary job. Months pass without Mikage hearing from Yuichi, and that is because tragedy has struck again. Mikage receives a difficult call from Yuichi. Eriko is dead. She was murdered by a stalker. Now Yuichi is the one falling apart, and Mikage is devastated too. Though the two feel like orphans, they have each other. Can their love for each other overcome their despair?
In Moonlight Shadow, a young woman named Satsuki loses her boyfriend Hitoshi in a terrible car accident. She becomes friends with his brother Hiirgi whose girlfriend was killed in the same crash. One evening, while out for a run to the site of the crash, a woman bumps into Satsuki and knocks her thermos out of her hands and into the water below. The woman apologizes and introduces herself as Urara. Urara arranges to meet with Satsuki to give her a new thermos. She meets up with her at the crash site on the bridge and shares some magical insight with her. She explains that once every hundred years or so, near a big river, when supernatural forces are aligned just right, paranormal phenomenon may occur. People who know about this call it The Weaver Festival Phenomenon. It’s when “[t]he residual thoughts of a person who has died meet the sadness of someone left behind, and[a] vision is produced” (147). And so magically, Satsuki sees a vision of Hitoshi at the crash site where he was killed. He smiles and waves to her as he walks off into the mist. Will this experience finally help Sastuki attain some closure? Can she now grow emotionally closer to Hiirgi?
My Review: I enjoyed each story of the novel, but I would have rather read them separately. While both stories shared similar themes, their plots were very different. I think that Moon Shadow could have been longer on its own allowing for better plot development. I also would have been more satisfied just reading Kitchen as it is. I’m not quite sure why the editor chose to include these two very different stories in one novel.
Rating: 3/5
Three Words That Describe This Book: despair, compassion, hope
Give this a try if you like: Lost Souls Meet Under a Full Moon (The Go Between, #1) by, Mizuki Tsujimura; The Lantern of Lost Memories by, Sanaka Hiiragi; and The Kamogawa Food Detectives by, Hisashi Kashiwai
FDL Reads: Above the Noise
Above the Noise: My Story of Chasing Calm by DeMar DeRozan and Dave Zarum
Reviewed By: Jacob Roberts, Youth Services Specialist
Genre: Memoir
Suggested Age: Adults, Teens
What is This Book About? DeMar DeRozan, a 6-time NBA All-Star, and player for the Sacramento Kings, shares his story of trial and fame as he rose up out of Compton from a young age and onto the world stage as a professional athlete in the NBA. He relives trauma, addresses what it’s like to be in the NBA, expresses the importance of family, and most importantly, tells the reader that mental health is real and important to find help with when you need it most.
My Review: Although many celebrities and athletes can feel distant and removed from the average person’s experience, DeRozan’s story and mindset proves to be down-to-earth and frank. He is straight-forward and acknowledges repeatedly how he is forced to reconcile where he came from with where he is now. I believe that having such a down-to-earth voice and athlete speak out on mental health is a great example for generations to come. The book shows that you can be both masculine and vulnerable at the same time. Most importantly, it tells the next generation that they don’t have to know all the answers to be successful in this world. DeRozan continues to stress that he is healing, rather than having been “healed,” and continues to work on his mental health when he has the strength.
Three words that describe this book: inspiring, real, down-to-earth
Read this if you like… Becoming Kareem, Kobe: The Mamba Mentality, Michael Jordan: The Life
Rating: 5/5
FDL Reads: What Moves the Dead
What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher
Reviewed By: Julie Nutt, Communications Specialist
Genre: Gothic horror
Suggested Age: Adults, Teens
What is This Book About? In a reimagining of Edgar Allan Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher, a retired soldier is summoned to the home of their childhood friends, Roderick and Madeline Usher, as Madeline is dying from a mysterious, undefined malady. Upon arrival at the looming, decaying house of Usher and its frightening landscape, it becomes clear to the retired soldier that both of their friends are afflicted with some sort of dark, physically and mentally-consuming possession. Could it be the very land and water around them that is about to swallow every resident of the Usher house?
My Review: This truly is a retelling of Poe’s Usher, almost to a T, but with more physiological causes behind the Usher madness, and the clever addition of an LGBTQ (nonbinary) narrator. The narrator’s gender identity in What Moves could parallel the fact that the narrator in Poe’s Usher is never identified.
The scientific aspects of What Moves are fascinating: the prospect that naturally occurring parasite might take over a living being and cause terrifying, terminal results. Another interesting parallel is that the novel was published in 2022, meaning it was probably written during the COVD pandemic, and published just as the pandemic wound down.
I will admit, the grotesque cover art is what caught my eye initially, but as soon as I began reading, I knew I had correctly judged the book. What Moves the Dead is a quick, but definitely not light, read. I can’t wait to read the sequel, What Feasts at Night, as well as Kingfisher’s novels The Hollow Places and The Twisted Ones. If What Moves the Dead were made into a movie or limited series, I would definitely watch just to see it play out on screen.
Three words that describe this book: dark, disturbing, suspenseful
Read this if you like… Edgar Allan Poe, Shirley Jackson, Stephen Graham Jones
Rating: 5/5
FDL Reads: The Tyranny of Faith
The Tyranny of Faith by Richard Swan
Reviewed By: Jeremy Zentner, Adult Services Assistant
Genre: Fantasy
Suggested Age: Adults
What is This Book About? Judge, jury and executioner. Imperial Justice, Sir Konrad Vonvalt has spent two years distributing justice to subjects of the Empire of the Wolf, but it is time to report back to the capital. Vonvalt and his apprentice, Helena Sedanka, enter the center of civilization to bring the Emperor news of dark wizardry discovered to be in the hands of traitors, as depicted in the first book, The Justice of Kings. The Emperor rewards Vonvalt with a promotion he doesn’t want, entrusting him as head of the Magistratum in order to root out corruption that is suspected within the law-giving institution. But before the Magistratum and the Empire can be fully cleansed, the grandson of the Emperor goes missing and Helena and Vonvalt are tasked to rescue the young prince.
My Review: The Tyranny of Faith is a riotous journey through a secondary fantasy-world as Vonvalt and Helena travel to the Empire’s heart, the realm of the dead, and the frontier of mankind. Helena goes from a loyal novice law-clerk to a demon-killing, death-walking, champion for true justice. We also see Sir Konrad Vonvalt show his true colors as he is given unbridled authority in an empire full of ruin and rot. What I also enjoyed about this book is that it was part investigative and part horror story within the grim realities of a medieval-based world that’s on the edge of a Roman-style collapse. We get horrifying images of the spiritual plane as well as hidden monsters within the land of the living. All things considered, this book takes everything I love in varying genres and fuses them into a spellbinding epic.
Read this if you like… The Justice of Kings, Mistborn: The Final Empire, Dracula, The Exorcist, Hellblazer
Rating: 5/5