Books Blog : sequels

Harry Potter eBooks, downloadable audiobooks now available

professor.knowsitall@evpl — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 14:27:00 GMT

Harry Potter eBooks & downloadable audiobooks are now available in our OverDrive collection!

Harry Potter & the Sorcerer's Stone: eBook | MP3 Audiobook
Harry Potter & the Chamber of Secrets: eBook | MP3 Audiobook
Harry Potter & the Prisoner of Azkaban: eBook | MP3 Audiobook
Harry Potter & the Goblet of Fire: eBook | MP3 Audiobook
Harry Potter & the Order of the Phoenix: eBook | MP3 Audiobook
Harry Potter & the Half-Blood Prince: eBook | MP3 Audiobook
Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows: eBook | MP3 Audiobook

Why did it take so long? The Harry Potter titles haven't been available in digital formats until now. They released to the general public on Tuesday, with availability to libraries starting yesterday.

Now that they're available in digital formats, will you be reading/re-reading these books?

Visiting Another World - Welcome to Westeros

kiya@evpl — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 18:57:00 GMT

Lately, my reading time has been spent in Westeros, a world created by George R. R. Martin for his series, A Song of Ice and Fire. My son is a longtime Martin fan, and many library customers are as well: all are anxiously awaiting Book 5 in the set. Meanwhile, HBO is producing a TV series based on Martin's works. Called A Game of Thrones (also the title of the first book), the first episode airs April 17, and the first season is supposed to roughly correspond to the first book. I decided it was time to read the books - before the TV show airs. I'd been putting it off, because these are big books, and I have to be in the mood to read fantasy. I was soon captivated by the world of Westeros, and the intrigue and complications of life in a somewhat medieval society.

Martin has lots of realistic, complicated characters. It isn't easy to tell the heroes and villains apart. The heroes have flaws and make mistakes, and even the worst villains have some redeeming qualities (well, maybe not one of them...). Entranced by the first book, I started the second as soon as I finished the first. I enjoy piecing together bits of information to figure out something, and that happens in these books.

When I finished reading the books, I listened to the audiobooks and caught some details I had missed. Roy Dotrice, who performs the first 3 audiobooks, is marvelous; he brings the characters to life. Realistic characters I can care about are very important to my enjoyment of a book, and Martin's books are well and intricately plotted, too. There is profanity in the books, as well as graphic violence and sex. If that isn't a problem, then I highly recommend these books for folks who like to spend some time in another world.

Writing this, I‘ve remembered some of the other worlds I have loved to visit. I was in junior high when I discovered Sylvia Louise Engdahl, and her 3-book Children of the Star series, as well as her Enchantress from the Stars/The Far Side of Evil set. These are favorites which I reread every few years. Mercedes Lackey has written several related series taking place in a world she calls Valdemar. Marion Zimmer Bradley created a world called Darkover, and even invited readers in to play. Along with Bradley's books, there are collections of short stories by other writers which take place in the world Bradley created.

I love getting immersed in another place and time, and seeing the world from that different point of view. J. K. Rowling created a wonderful magical world with her Harry Potter series. In his Artemis Fowl series, Eoin Colfer created another magical world, just as wondrous, and completely different from the Potter world. I enjoyed Patrick Rothfuss' The Name of the Wind, and am hoping that the sequel, The Wise Man's Fear, will be just as wonderful when it comes out this week.

Book Characters as old friends

kiya@evpl — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 21:11:00 GMT

Long-running series sometimes grow a bit stale, but some authors are great about keeping their characters alive, growing, and interesting. I was lucky enough this past month to revisit three old friends.

Kinsey Millhone, the prickly PI from Sue Grafton's Alphabet mysteries, shows up in U is for Undertow, which came out late last year. Since Grafton started with A is for Alibi, it is clear Kinsey has been around for awhile. There were a few in this run where I was getting a little tired of Kinsey, but in the latest book, she is fresh and likable again, as she struggles with a long-cold case of a missing 4 year old girl. She struggles even more to adjust her ideas and attitudes about her own long-estranged family as she discovers that she didn't have the whole story before.

Kate Shugak, an Alaskan park rat, PI, and Native tribal chief is back in Dana Stabenow's latest: A Night Too Dark. Tensions are high as a huge new gold mine prepares to open within the park boundaries. It means great things for the economy, but major changes in the daily life of Niniltna. Throw in environmental activism, a suicide who won't stay dead, and there is plenty of excitement to keep you up until you finish the book. There are so many things I liked about this book: the mystery is great; Kate is learning to live with some peace and happiness; and there are some beautiful passages describing the short but intense growing period of Alaska.

Maisie Dobbs, a private investigator/psychologist in England between the World Wars, is a creation of Jacqueline Winspear. I really enjoy the thoughtful and deliberate investigations Maisie does, as well as the fact that she doesn't feel a case is over until her client is at peace with the answers. Winspear does sometimes withhold some of the information Maisie discovers for a "reveal" later on in the book, but that is a minor irritation compared with the magnificent characters she creates for us to meet. The latest book is The Mapping of Love and Death, and quite a worthy successor to the earlier books in the series.

Coming Soon!

Shh_ImReading@evpl — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 23:13:00 GMT

I thought you might like to know about some new titles from authors myself and others have written about here before.

Rene Gutteridge has a new book titled Listen that should be arriving at a library near you any day now. Blog writer this.is.not.here@evpl wrote about Rene Gutteridge's Boo series here.

Alan Bradley has written a sequel to The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, expected out on March 9, 2010. It's titled The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag. Blog writers HRevvdon@evpl and evillebibliophile@evpl have written about The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie here and here.

Sarah Addison Allen's third novel, The Girl Who Chased the Moon, is expected out on March 16, 2010. HRevvdon@evpl wrote about her novel The Sugar Queen here. She is also the author of Garden Spells.

Lisa Lutz continues her Izzy Spellman series with Spellmans Strike Again, also expected out March 16, 2010. This series has been written about here and here.

Rene Gutteridge's website
Sarah Addison Allen's website
Lisa Lutz's website

Halloween Thrillers are treats for your eyes and ears.

this.is.not.here@evpl — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 22:54:00 GMT

Since it's Oct. and Halloween is just around the corner it is only fitting to dip into the library's collection of thrillers. There's a new chapter in the Chelsea Cain trilogy of terror. The newest one is called Evil at Heart. in which Gretchen Lowell, female serial killer is once again on the trail of the long suffering (in more ways than one) detective Archie Sheridan. In the first book, Heartsick , Archie is married with 2 kids when he first crosses paths with Gretchen. He's in charge of The Beauty Killer Task Force and has been unsuccessfully trying to catch the killer for 10 years. Enter Gretchen Lowell, a beautiful seductive blonde who is more than willing to lend a helping hand. But wait---maybe there's a reason she knows so much about the Beauty Killer. Too late Archie discovers Gretchen's true colors and is held captive for 10 days as she tortures him in all manner of horrible ways including removing is spleen. If you love blood, gore, torture, and scattered body parts, and psycho-sexual obsession then this one is for you. Then there's Sweetheart where she's turned herself in to the authorities but has managed to escape. And she's after Archie again. He's trying to kick the vicodin and she's still feeding them to him and has found new ways to tempt and torture him. In fact she's so "over the top" with her ‘bag of tricks" that it's almost comical. Now in Evil at Heart she's at large and on another killing spree with a seeming affinity for eyeballs. Or is she? She's become the object of a cult following and is perhaps tutoring a new, really confused group of young people on the internet in the ways of torture. Gretchen has become super villain and Archie is super victim. How he's managed to stay alive is the biggest mystery of all.

Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict

KickinLibrarian@evpl — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 16:07:00 GMT

I am a bit of a Jane Austen fan. Sometimes I just need to pull Pride and Prejudice off my shelf and curl up with Mr. Darcy. It seems that I am not the only person with a fondness for Jane Austen and her fabulous stories. In the past few years there has been an influx of spin-offs, remakes, and sequels. The latest has been the introduction of zombies to Pemberley. I am not quite sure how Ms. Austen would feel about that...

Some of my favorite additions to the number of Austen fanfics being written are by Laurie Viera Rigler. Her first in the series, Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict, was published in 2007 and features modern-day Courtney Stone who wakes up in nineteenth-century England. Courtney has left behind her L.A. life of a broken engagement and lost friendship to inhabit the body and life of Jane Mansfield. Courtney has little time to figure out how she ended up two hundred years in the past before she is swept away in an Austen-like land full of dinners, balls, and beaus. One man in particular, Charles Edgeworth, seems to have interest in Jane Mansfield, but Courtney doesn’t know what the means to her. Courtney struggles has her two lives mesh together and she wonders if she will ever go back to her own life. Jane Austen even has a cameo in this addition to Austen-lit.

Rigler's latest novel, Rude Awakenings of a Jane Austen Addict, introduces us to the real Jane Mansfield from the previous novel. It seems when Courtney took over Jane's life in 1800s England, Jane had been thrown into modern-day L.A. Jane awakens one morning to a pounding headache and someone at the door. It seems Courtney (whose body Jane now inhabits) has had a bit of a rough time lately, and her friends are worried about her. Jane struggles to adapt to the 21st century while figuring out who the strangers are that keep jetting her around in fast-moving carriages, why men and women are allowed to dine together in outdoor bistros, and how the music keeps coming out of the tiny picture frame with buttons.

In both novels, Rigler takes us to the world of Jane Austen while maintaining a firm foothold in the present-day. We get to experience the daily things we take for granted while Jane humorously tries them for the first time. Both books are highly recommended.

I Heart The Spellmans!

Shh_ImReading@evpl — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 16:17:00 GMT

Back in January, I wrote a little bit about Lisa Lutz's Spellman series. Last night I finished the third installment, Revenge of the Spellmans. It is EXCELLENT! This has become my new favorite series, since I've begun to grow tired of Janet Evanovich's Plum series. Private investigator Izzy Spellman might come from a fantastically dysfunctional family of fantastic private investigators, but the Spellmans love one another... for the most part... and they make endearing characters. This time 31-year-old Izzy is in court ordered therapy, living in a secret location and trying to solve a case that looks simple on the surface but only gets more complicated as she digs deeper. David revamps his life and Rae tries out new deviations. Henry Stone loses his patience with more than one Spellman. This third book introduces two new characters that I think might appear again-- Connor, an Irish bartender with a very thick accent and Maggie, a defense attorney who's almost as quirky as the Spellmans themselves. As usual, there are investigations of family members, investigations of friends of family members, a few arrests for spice and a dash of blackmail too. I couldn't possibly tell you all of the goings-on and I wouldn't want too; read it for yourself!

Lisa Lutz's website

Give It Up

Shh_ImReading@evpl — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 19:41:00 GMT

It is time for Janet Evanovich to stop writing Stephanie Plum novels. I mean it. I started reading the series seven years ago when Seven Up was the most recently released book in the series and it quickly became my favorite series. I still read the new ones as they come out; I can't stop. They really aren't very good anymore, though. So I really wish Janet Evanovich would just stop writing them so I'd no longer feel compelled to read them. I suppose the real problem is that people can't seem to stop buying them, so then the publisher tells her to "Write more, plea$e!".

For those of you who are not familiar with the series, Stephanie Plum is a bounty hunter in Trenton, New Jersey and she's... well... not always very good at her job. There's a whole cast of great characters that includes her long-suffering mother, her spunky grandmother, Joe Morelli (a cop and also Stephanie's boyfriend... usually), Ranger (her hot bounty hunting mentor) and Lula (an ex-hooker turned file clerk). It begins with One for the Money, and keeps going with titles like Two for the Dough and Three to get Deadly-- they all have numbers in the titles. Well, they all have numbers in the titles except for the "between-the-numbers" books like Visions of Sugar Plums, Plum Lovin', Plum Lucky and the one I finished reading just last night, Plum Spooky.

The first 10 or so are good, fun reads but sometime after that they start to slip. They all have entertaining moments, but I haven't found any of the last four or five to be wild roller coasters of hilarity like the earlier books are. This most recent one (Plum Spooky) was even kind of anti-climatic. The stories are not as entertaining as they once were and then there are the inconsistencies. It's not that her pet hamster Rex seems to be immortal or that cell phones and the internet sort of appeared out of nowhere a few books back. What bothers me is that at some point Joe Morelli became only mostly her boyfriend while Ranger became a sort of alternative. A lot of people are going to disagree with me here. Most fans have their own personal preference for one man or the other and my preference is for Joe. I suspect she cooled things down between Stephanie and Joe because Ranger is actually the more popular pick. Fine; everyone is free to have their own opinion, but I don't think it did anything for the on-going story of Stephanie Plum's life; the background for all of her bounty hunting escapades. It also bothers me that her sister Valerie has sort of disappeared. It's true she got annoying for awhile with her and her husband Albert calling each other Cuddleumpkins and what-not, but why is she gone? The last several books have only just mentioned her or left her out completely. Stephanie's niece (one of Valerie's daughters) Mary Alice would have fit in perfectly with the plot of Plum Lucky, but she was nowhere to be found.

Worse still, the "between-the-numbers" books are getting out of hand. Plum Spooky is just as long as most of the number books, meaning she's now trying to turn out two full-length Stephanie Plum novels a year, plus her other writing. Oh, yeah, by the way Finger Lickin' Fifteen is due out in June. I just don't see how this could be good.

Janet Evanovich's website

Lisa Lutz's Izzy Spellman Novels

Shh_ImReading@evpl — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 20:41:00 GMT

I read The Spellman Files by Lisa Lutz during our 2008 summer reading program, how about you? It was good enough, I read Curse of the Spellmans right afterwards. What a quirky family! The books focus on a wild private investigator named Izzy Spellman, but her whole family (mother, father, older brother & youner sister) of private investigators and a few special friends complete the character cast. Part mystery, part family drama and part "What did I do last night?", these funny books are a treat. Now a third installment, Revenge of the Spellmans, is set to be released in March!

A Good Sequel!

Shh_ImReading@evpl — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 16:46:00 GMT

I am always skeptical of sequels. The more I love the first book, the more skeptical I am. This does not mean I don't look forward to sequels, just that I try not to get my hopes up too high. Knit Two by Kate Jacobs is a good book which is fantastic, because I loved The Friday Night Knitting Club and really didn't want to be disapointed. So, if you're a fan of The Friday Night Knitting Club too, get ahold of a copy of Knit Two and enjoy spending a little more time with your favorite knitting club characters!

Knit Two by Kate Jacobs

Knit Two by Kate Jacobs (CD audiobook)

The Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs

The Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs (Large Type)

The Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs (CD audiobook)

The Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs (downloadable audiobook)

previous post-- Kate Jacobs' Knitting Novels

Kate Jacobs' Knitting Novels

Shh_ImReading@evpl — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 15:41:00 GMT

I have never knitted and rarely do I crochet. So, when I first heard about The Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs, I dismissed it as just another of the trendy knitting-themed novels to hit the shelves since yarn crafts started making their big comeback. I just wasn't interested in reading about a craft I don't do. It wasn't until Kate Jacobs' second novel, Comfort Food arrived that I wondered if I should take a closer look. I recently read both books and I have to say that Jacobs writes wonderful characters. Her stories, while perhaps not as strong as her characters, are warm and charming. I would recommend both books, but I especially enjoyed The Friday Night Knitting Club. I was so drawn in, I did very little this past Sunday other than read FNKC. So, I'm very excited that at the end of the month a sequel, Knit Two, will be released!

Sequel Smequel. Hate to wait series.

bookchick@evpl — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 18:10:00 GMT

I love an epic tale as much as the next person. Stories that span generations and tell tales of grand adventures are stories in which I can get lost for hours. Usually meaning that I will be tired the next day because I couldn't be bothered to put the book down to go to sleep. But, there is one thing that I find nearly unbearable. When I discover, about two-thirds of the way through a book, that there is no way, without ruining the story, that the author can finish a tale in one volume I start to panic. That means a sequel! That means I have to wait! I don't wait well when there are stories on the line! What will happen to those wonderful characters that I have come to love? How will their problems be solved? Where will they go next? More importantly, how will I survive without knowing? Some authors, and publishing houses, are, I think, sensitive to this and release books on a fairly regular basis. But some, and I loathe to name names but, Diana Gabeldon when is your next Outlander book coming out? It's been years and I can't stand not knowing what is happening in Jamie and Clare's lives. What of Brianna and her family? AHH!!!

I'm just saying...

Here are a few of my favorite hate to wait series:

Through Through

Through Now Concluded?