FDL Reads: Chef Yasmina and the Potato Panic
Chef Yasmina and the Potato Panic by Wauter Mannaert
Reviewed By: Alice Mitchell, Youth Services Manager
Genre: Science fiction (graphic novel)
Suggested Age: Kids (7-12)
What is This Book About? Yasmina loves cooking delicious food every day for her dad. She gets fresh vegetables from her friends’ gardens and sends him to work every day with a beautiful lunch. Life is going perfectly until Tom de Perre buys up her friends’ gardens to start industrially farming some suspicious potatoes. Everyone in town starts acting strange except Yasmina and her friends, and when Yasmina’s dad comes home behaving like a dog she has to get to the bottom of those funky spuds.
My Review: I really enjoyed this Dutch import because of its focus on family, friends, and good food. Yasmina is a scientifically-minded and energetic kid who only wants the best for her dad, even going so far as to write him notes in his lunch every day. As science fiction goes this is very accessible, so readers who prefer other genres don’t need to find Yasmina intimidating. This was a neat way to start conversations about different gardening practices, including genetically modified crops and industrial farming. All in all, a fun book to read that’s sure to get you hungry (though maybe not for these French fries).
Three Words that Describe this Book: delicious, fresh, community
Give This A Try if You Like… cooking with your family, Measuring Up by Lily LaMotte, Katie the Catsitter by Colleen AF Venerable, Stepping Stones by Lucy Knisley
Rating: 4/5
#FDL: Gaming Fiction for International Games Day
Saturday is International Games Day at FDL! Check out these books and various gaming opportunities (12-4 P.M.) at the library.
By day, seventeen-year-old Kiera Johnson is a college student, and one of the only black kids at Jefferson Academy. By night, she joins hundreds of thousands of black gamers who duel worldwide in the secret online role-playing card game, SLAY.
No one knows Kiera is the game developer – not even her boyfriend, Malcolm. But when a teen in Kansas City is murdered over a dispute in the SLAY world, the media labels it an exclusionist, racist hub for thugs. With threats coming from both inside and outside the game, Kiera must fight to save the safe space she’s created. But can she protect SLAY without losing herself?
In Real Life by Cory Doctorow and Jen Wang
Anda loves Coarsegold Online, the massively-multiplayer role-playing game where she spends most of her free time. It’s a place where she can be a leader, a fighter, a hero. It’s a place where she can meet people from all over the world, and make friends.
But things become a lot more complicated when Anda befriends a gold farmer–a poor Chinese kid whose avatar in the game illegally collects valuable objects and then sells them to players from developed countries with money to burn. This behavior is strictly against the rules in Coarsegold, but Anda soon comes to realize that questions of right and wrong are a lot less straightforward when a real person’s real livelihood is at stake.
Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
In 2044, reality is an ugly place. The only time teenage Wade Watts really feels alive is when he’s jacked into the virtual utopia known as the OASIS. Wade’s devoted his life to studying the puzzles hidden within this world’s digital confines, puzzles that are based on their creator’s obsession with the pop culture of decades past and that promise massive power and fortune to whoever can unlock them.
The company says Otherworld is amazing — like nothing you’ve ever seen before. They say it’s addictive — that you’ll want to stay forever. They promise Otherworld will make all your dreams come true.
Simon thought Otherworld was a game. Turns out he knew nothing. Otherworld is the next phase of reality. It’s everything you’ve ever wanted.
Annotations from the publishers.
– Post by Susie Rivera, Reference Specialist
#FDL is an update on all things Fondulac District Library and books.
FDL Reads: The Raven Boys
The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater
Reviewed by: Susie Rivera, Reference Specialist
Genre: Paranormal Fantasy
Suggested Age: Teens, Adults
What is the book about? Blue lives with her psychic family in a small town in Virginia. She doesn’t have any special powers herself, aside from the ability to amplify the powers of others. For years, Blue has been aware of a prophecy that she will cause the death of her true love. One night, she sees an apparition of a young man named Gansey, who she feels very drawn to. Days later she runs into the real Gansey and his friends, students at the local college. Blue never gets involved with these “Raven Boys,” but when she learns more about them and their search for magical pathways of spiritual energy, Blue can’t resist.
My Review: Based on the synopsis of this book, I definitely expected more romance along the lines of West Side Story, but it throws some curveballs in terms of plot. I had to settle with the fact that this is the first book in this series and there is more to come in the sequels. There are several mysteries that keep you wanting to read more and a bit of a cliffhanger that sets up the next book in the series. I liked Blue and most of the Raven Boys. They seemed a bit interchangeable at first, but then the characterization gets better as you read more. If you like YA, paranormal fantasy, and dark academia, then check this one out!
Three Words That Describe This Book: Supernatural, Magical, Paranormal
Give This a Try if You Like…Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo , Vicious by V.E. Schwab, If We Were Villains by M.L. Rio
Rating: 4/5
FDL Reads: Maxine Justice, Galactic Attorney
Maxine Justice: Galactic Attorney by Daniel Schwabauer
Reviewed By: Jeremy Zentner, Reference Assistant
Genre: Science fiction, humor
Suggested Age: Adults, teens
What is This Book About? How does an ambulance-chasing lawyer get ahead in a corrupt legal system where corporate entities have privatized due-process? Well, she just needs to catch a big fish client to brand her name. Set in a not-too-distant future, Maxine Justice is desperate for any paying client (fighting for the little guy is honorable work, but it doesn’t pay the bills). When she finds someone who pays well, and indulgently so, Maxine finds herself in over her head as she represents her new client’s interests on a galactic scale. Maxine will counsel earth’s first extra-terrestrial visitor, specifically an Iperian, who wears an “earthsuit” to appear human. This Iperian wants to gift humanity with the cure for all known diseases. The price? Only thirty percent of earth’s known gold, as it is a key superconductor for faster-than-light engines. Though at the end of the business arrangement, there’s some fine print that needs to be ironed out in order to avoid humanity’s extinction. Interstellar law isn’t easy…
My Review: This was certainly a funny take on legal thrillers! From the very start, the book hooked me in and took me for an amusing journey through the legal world of intergalactic law. It was kind of like a science fiction version of Ally McBeal. The book expertly starts Maxine off as a nonbeliever in this “Iperian” client, but as time goes on, she slowly begins to realize that his miracle cure for earthly ailments is proving true. Which makes her wonder if everything else he’s saying about the cosmos is true. At first, the alien comes off as awkward and maybe a little naïve, but there is eventually evidence of a sinister plot unfolding and humanity’s existence is soon at stake. We also get a snapshot of some of the issues that challenge the not-too-distant future, like, can AI androids have religion? All in all, this was a fun read.
This title is available to place on hold from our RSA services as well as on Hoopla in eBook format and audio.
Three Words that Describe this Book: funny, scifi, thriller
Give This A Try if You Like… Mikey7, All Systems Red: The Murderbot Diaries, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
Rating: 4/5
#FDL: Big Library Read
Fondulac District Library provides access to a large collection of eBooks and audiobooks through the Libby app. Several times during the year, Overdrive hosts a Big Library Read, an online book club for readers around the world. Featured books are chosen by librarians and announced shortly before the Big Library Read begins. Our library is provided with unlimited copies of the eBook or audiobook, and our patrons can read without wait time through the Libby app from November 2-16. A library card number and PIN are required to access the book. This fall, the Big Library Read has chosen A Snake Falls to Earth by Darcie Little Badger. Below is a little about the book from The Big Library Read’s website:
“Nina is a Lipan girl in our world. She’s always felt there was something more out there. She still believes in the old stories. Oli is a cottonmouth kid, from the land of spirits and monsters. Like all cottonmouths, he’s been cast from home. He’s found a new one on the banks of the bottomless lake. Nina and Oli have no idea the other exists. But a catastrophic event on Earth, and a strange sickness that befalls Oli’s best friend, will drive their worlds together in ways they haven’t been in centuries. And there are some who will kill to keep them apart.”
Check it out on the Libby app and join in on the Big Library Read discussion here!
–Post by Susie Rivera, Reference Specialist
#FDL is an update on all things Fondulac District Library and books.
FDL Reads: Violeta
Violeta by Isabel Allende
Reviewed by: Dawn Dickey, library volunteer
Genre: Fiction
Suggested Age: Adult
What is the Book About?: Written in the form of a letter to her grandson, Violeta details the story of Violeta’s 100 years on planet Earth. Bracketed by two pandemics – born during the 1920 flu epidemic and ending during the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 – the engrossing story of Violeta’s lifetime navigates family and national crises, tragedy, joy and passion.
My Review: Award-winning author Isabel Allende has created in Violeta, a saga that melds history and fiction. Set in an unnamed South American country, Violeta’s life story echoes Allende’s own story as Chilean exile. Reading Violeta’s story, one doesn’t know exactly what is fiction and what is taken from the pages of Allende’s personal history or Chile’s history. But that ambiguity only makes the story more intriguing; it draws the reader further into Violeta’s story and dares the reader to explore more of Allende’s and Chile’s histories. I enjoyed this book – its warmth, its heartaches, and its joys. I listened to the digital audio version and especially enjoyed the way narrator Yareli Arizmendi brought Violeta to life. I hope you will check out this engaging tale, in print or audio!
Three Words That Describe This Book: historical, passionate, heartbreaking
Give This a Try if You Like… Books or films that tell a person’s life history against a backdrop of history and national events, such as In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez or Bernhard Schlink’s Olga.
Rating: 5/5