Fiction

If you loved James McBride's NBA-winning Good Lord Bird, we recommend these:

Cloudsplitter by Russell Banks - Another fictional approach to John Brown narrated by his young son.

Beloved by Toni Morrison - a modern classic about a haunted former slave

Midnight Rising by Tony Horwitz - a gripping nonfiction account of the raid on Harper's Ferry

Middle Passage by Charles Johnson - A young man is transformed after becoming an accidental stowaway on a slave ship.

     Are you going through withdrawals from your favorite book or T.V. series now that they are complete? Why not try fan fiction?  What is fan fiction? Well, the answer is in the name.  Fan fiction is stories written by fans set in the worlds, or using the characters of their favorite T.V. shows, books, movies, video games, or comics.  These stories can be anywhere from under 100 words long (drabbles) to over 800,000 words long (a Hey Arnold! story by Azure129 called Learning to Be Helga).  Some of these stories are famously horrible while others are so popular they turn into best-selling novels (i.e.

Normally, I write about books that live strictly in the romance genre and about topics more than specific titles.  I recently finished one that is making me break out of my rut and post a review of a book that is more fiction than romance -- The Rosie Project by Graeme C. Simsion.  Imagine the character of Sheldon from The Big Bang Theory was Australian and actually someone interested in finding a wife. Then set him in a romantic comedy worthy of Richard Curtis.  I found this book to be that funny and cinematic -- I think it is actually already optioned to become a film.

This month, Harris County Public Library, along with other libraries in the Greater Houston area, celebrates Gulf Coast Reads 2013. This year’s novel is The Dog Stars by Peter Heller. The Dog Stars follows the struggles of a man and his dog, taking refuge in a Colorado airport hanger after a flu pandemic wipes out most of the world’s population.

Novels depicting the world after apocalyptic events have always been prevelent, and television and movies are no different. Perhaps it is the conflicting emotions of the story that pull in readers and viewers: a fierce desire to survive and build a new civilization despite loneliness in the face of total devestation. The recent rise in popularity of books and movies about dystopian civilizations (e.g., The Hunger Games) feed this same desire to see a small group of people struggling together to overcome seemingly hopeless situations. Or maybe viewers just want to leave theaters knowing that no matter what happens, humanity will survive.

If you’re in the mood for a post-apocalyptic thriller this weekend, browse the HCPL catalog and request a movie or television show today!