An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination: a Memoir by Elizabeth McCracken

McCracken writes in her memoir this simple sentence: “This is the happiest story in the world with the saddest ending.” She was a successful novelist and writing instructor in her 30’s when she met her husband and decided to start a family. Always resigned to be a spinster, McCracken was surprised when she quickly became pregnant and embraced her growing family. What happens next is the basis of this beautiful, poignant memoir. Days away from giving birth, she loses her baby and is forced to deliver her stillborn son in a hospital in France, where the new couple is living.

Powerful, bittersweet, but never self-pitying, McCracken explores what her life was like during that horrible time in France. The memoir is also humorous, uplifting, and happy in the end, when readers learn that McCracken is typing the manuscript with her new son (born a year after losing her first child) in her lap. One of the best examinations of grief, this memoir topped many “must read” lists in 2008, and would be perfect for those who loved The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion. - Reviewed by Sarah

Stand Up by Jethro Tull

How do I love this album? Oh, let me count the ways!! First of all, there's the cover, which I love so much that I got a t-shirt with it on the front. It is a drawing done from woodcuts off all four Jethro Tull members, which at the time consisted of vocalist/ flutist/acoustic guitar player Ian Anderson, bassist Glenn Cornick, drummer Clive Bunker and (then) new guitarist Martin Barre. The combination of yellows and browns and the leaves in the background and the band members' attire give the cover a very woodsy feel, which suits the music to a t...shirt. The artist even gives Ian Anderson an extra finger, maybe to better help him play his flute! Secondly, I like how if you put the last three song titles together without any commas (We Used to Know Reasons for Waiting for a Thousand Mothers) that you get a sentence! Third, I have some very pleasant memories of my walk back from the music store after buying this on vinyl in the summer of 1980. Fourth, and most importantly, there are the songs themselves, which I adore; even some of the lesser ones, like Back to the Family and For A Thousand Mothers, have one or two things to recommend about them.

The blues (which was all over the Tull’s debut album, This Was) still shows up on the album’s opening number, A New Day Yesterday, where Ian Anderson plays both harmonica and flute. Great tune - I think it sounds a bit like early Black Sabbath (Tony Iommi was in Jethro Tull for a few weeks before Martin Barre and I am now thinking that perhaps he had a hand in creating this song). Tull’s jazzy rendition of Bach’s Bouree is a pure delight, with Ian Anderson singing, breathing, sneezing and grunting into his flute. It also features a short but memorable bass guitar solo. Look Into The Sun and Reasons For Waiting are two overlooked and very folksy sounding tunes, both of them full of beautiful and sad vocal melodies, the latter featuring a string section and guitarist Martin Barre on flute. Nothing Is Easy is an up-tempo, bluesy hard rock number, during which each band member gets a chance to show off on their respective instruments. Fat Man, which shows off Ian Anderson’s unique sense of humor, sees Tull experimenting with world music and has balalaika and bongo drums on it.

Elsewhere, We Used to Know has a chord progression that Ian Anderson says The Eagles later stole for Hotel California (I think that's bollocks myself!) and is a fun song to play on guitar. Jeffrey Goes to Leicester Square is a short, but odd number, with Ian Anderson playing mandolin and guitarist Martin Barre once again on flute. The other two previously mentioned tunes, Back To the Family and For a Thousand Mothers are a bit too sloppily produced and played for my liking, but they still rock out quite a bit.

Overall, I think Stand Up is one of Jethro Tull's finest albums. It may not be as sophisticated musically and production wise of some of their later albums, but it is still a great record. And it's more than worth having on vinyl, as well, especially if you can find an original pressing, which comes with a pop-up of the band members! - Reviewed by Rich

Knucklehead: Tall Tales and Mostly True Stories of Growing Up Scieszka by Jon Scieszka

Every single page of this book made me laugh with unadulterated delight at the antics and adventures Jon grew up with that shaped his life and his work. It also made me extremely glad that I didn’t have to grow up with five brothers...wow, it sounds dangerous!

I don’t think anyone could come away from this book without enjoying (vicariously) growing up in the Scieszka household. His mom was a nurse with a wild sense of humor plus a determination to give her boys a good education and encourage them to excel, however hard they might try to avoid it. Their father, a principal in a school on the other side of town, was “more of a quiet joker” but had the best tool for raising a pack of boys - being a respectful listener. It was he who dubbed the pack “knuckleheads” – it was easier than saying all 6 of their names when he needed to get all six of their attentions! Jon’s life was filled with sparring, broken bones, jokes, pranks, one-upmanship, hand-me-downs, fun, learning experiences (LOTS of learning from mistakes and bad behavior!) and humorous affection.

No one who went to Catholic school, as all six of the Scieszca boys did, could come away without lots of crazy stories about nuns and their particular style of teaching. Many of them were extremely frightening, but there was one nun, Sister Helen Jude, who was convinced that loving attention works much better than fear when teaching children. Jon gets to prove that with his grateful (and hilarious) chapter on schooling.

The chapter titled “Crossing Swords” gets my vote for “most hysterical”. Six boys, finally in the car, ready for church. One HAS to go pee, (“No, urinate” says Mom, who wants her children to grow up intelligently). Of course then the next one has to go and the next and the next. O.K. so, it takes way too long for them to go one at a time, so...well you’ll have to read it to believe it...

It’s hard to describe the general hilarity of this book with my own words, so I will just entreat you - if you need to have renewed faith in the world, if you want to know what kind of a life makes a writer like Jon Scieszka, if you could just use a really good laugh, then pick up this book and read it! You won’t regret it. - Reviewed by TCPL staff

World War Z: an Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks

This is, quite simply, one of the more interesting books I've read in the last year. It’s not exactly a novel - somewhat in the spirit of The Good War - it’s a collection of (fictional) reports about an outbreak of zombie-ism that nearly wipes out the human race. Ten years after humankind manages to survive this worldwide effort to wipe out the living dead, a U.N. worker is compiling these oral histories into a report on what happened - for better understanding of the events and to prevent them from reoccurring.

While it would seem that dozens of stories might get confusing, or at least not give a very clear picture of the war, the author makes it easier by setting things up linearly, moving forward in time from the earliest signs of the upcoming plague, through the sudden massive outbreaks, the disastrous first responses, the turning point, the end, and the aftermath of the war. One can get a clear impression of the general order of the plague and the war.

While a zombie "novel", if one can call it that, the focus isn't actually on the zombies. They are omnipresent, of course, but these are very human stories. Stories about how doctors failed to understand the problems at first. Stories about government corruption. Stories about panic. Stories about heroism, villainy, triumph, and failure, about tough moral choices and about how morality can go out the window in times of difficulty. In short, the horror in this book is less about the zombies and more about the humans.

And above all, the human stories are so real. While one or two may force you to suspend disbelief (in particular, a blind swordsman) most are quite realistic, perhaps even painfully so. People head north because the zombies tend to freeze in cold temperatures, forgetting that, frankly, so do humans. A company releases a placebo vaccination that people buy by the scores - even after it’s revealed it doesn't work, just for that glimmer of hope. And so on, and so on. Almost every action taken, good or bad, you completely believe that the human being there might have taken it.

Another strong point of this book is that while all the stories are written by one man, he manages to give the individual people telling their stories their own voices. Each story doesn't just read like the same person telling it, a great danger in this kind of book. What lapses there are can be easily explained by the fact that one man is collecting the stories, but all in all the rural Chinese doctor and the hardline Israeli soldier and the scared Japanese youth all sound different enough for it to be believable.

This book doesn't exist in a vacuum, it has a companion, somewhat more lighthearted book called How to Survive a Zombie Uprising which I admittedly have not read, and there is an audio-version of World War Z, with different actors playing the parts, which is supposedly brilliant (I've not listened to it yet). It may not be everyone's cup of tea, but it can appeal to a far wider audience than just "the horror crowd", because it’s a human story. – Reviewed by John

The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness

I have just finished The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness, a YA novel by a new American author living in the UK. It was reviewed in the Financial Times as a book that should be read by adults and not allowed to sit buried on the YA shelves. The reviewer said that like The Golden Compass, it would appeal to adults. It is one of the fastest paced books I have read and once I got into it, I found it difficult to put down. The language takes some getting used to. The graphic design of the novel is important and one must pay attention to it. It requires one's full attention when reading. The book is the first in what is planned to be a trilogy. I can't wait for the next book to be published. I finished this one feeling like I was almost falling off the edge of a precipice. I almost regret reading it as I so desperately want to know what is going to happen next. The story is about a boy running away from the community where he has been living where there are no women, and everyone can hear everyone's and everything's thoughts. From the incessant thoughts of men, animals, strange swamp creatures, the noise is everywhere and palpable.

I am really hoping our Teen Librarian will arrange an adult/teen book discussion group to discuss this novel. - Reviewed by Sally