Blog Posts by Ultra Violet
Ultra Violet is an artist, but not the one who hung out with Warhol at the Factory. She is also the only library staff member who was a Shakespearean research scholar and a member of the Meat Cutters' Union in the same year.
Meeks
04/07/11
Weird, funny, unsettling, and intense. Meeks is a post-modern fairy tale filled with unreasonable laws, bizarre characters and the feeling that there is something deeply true nestled in the surreal landscape Julia Holmes has painted. A great companion read to one of my former blog-posts, Light Boxes.
Tags: contemporary fiction, politics, satire
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The Orange Eats Creeps
03/30/11
Teen vampires on meth wander the backroads and railyards of the Pacific Northwest in this intense, original story. The author was a MacDowell Colony Fellow, and this book proves that she is an artist. This is raw, real, surreal, psychological fiction that stays with you long after you read it.
The Detroit Electric Scheme
03/27/11
On a cold November night in 1910, Will Anderson is summoned to a meeting with John Cooper, a man who was once his close friend, but is now his romantic rival. Cooper has told Will that he needs to meet him at Detroit Electric, the automotive company owned by Will's father. Cooper says that Elizabeth Hume is in great danger. Elizabeth was Will's fiancee and now is engaged to Cooper. When Will goes to the automotive works late at night to meet with John Cooper, he finds the man brutally crushed beneath the steel stamping machinery. When Will hears footsteps and voices he runs. Fleeing the scene of the murder for which he has such a strong motive puts Will in a pretty tough spot. Things go from bad to worse as more bodies show up and more evidence piles up against Will.
Detroit Electric Scheme is a fun, suspenseful mystery, but it is also a well-researched historical novel that sets the reader firmly in early 20th Century Detroit. Two of the main characters are struggling with addiction problems. This is also a story of redemption and overcoming oneself in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds.
Tags: auto industry, Mystery
Freedom
03/24/11
The 30 articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights are each celebrated by some of the most talented authors of our time in this riveting anthology published by Amnesty International. With a foreword by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and contributions by writers are varied as Paulo Coelho, Henning Mankell and Banana Yoshimoto, there is something here for every reader. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is sixty years old, but it is as relevant today as when it was drawn up.
Tags: human rights, short stories
Kings of Colorado
03/21/11
William Sheppard is a thirteen year old boy from Chicago who is sent to the Swope Ranch Reformatory in Colorado for killing his abusive father. There is no mercy for the boys at the prison where they break wild horses to be sold to ranchers. This is a painful, but profound story filled with symbolism and depth.
Tags: 1960's, Colorado, reformatories
I remember nothing : and other reflections
03/17/11
I picked this up because I wanted something light and fun. It was certainly witty, but it was much more than I expected in terms of the insight into women's rights. Nora Ephron's stories of her struggles as a young journalist were fascinating, and they were so clearly, objectively written that I felt like I was getting a real sense of what it was like in New York in the 60's for a young woman with ambitious career goals. Some of the other essays included in this book are about aging and her memory loss. Her anecdotes were poignant and charming.
I remember nothing: and other reflections is an enjoyable, pleasant read. Women of Ephron's age can relate to her personal stories, while younger readers can take away some valuable women's history told first hand.
Tags: essays, journalism, memoir
Mink River
03/17/11
Imagine a cross between Garrison Keillor's Lake Wobegon and Twin Peaks. That's a little of what you will get in Mink River. There is a talking crow and strange and wild characters, but at its heart, this book is a day in the life of a small town in Oregon written in a whimsical, poetic style.
Tags:
Bitter in the Mouth
03/10/11
Linda finds out about her past, her family and herself when she returns to the small, North Carolina town where she was born to meet the mother she never knew. Linda has synesthesia and can "taste" words. Monique Truong won several major awards, including the New York Times Notable Book Award, for her debut novel, The Book of Salt.
Tags: family, identity, synesthesia
The Little Book
03/08/11
The Little Book is a debut novel that took thirty years to write. Wheeler Burden is a wealthy heir of a famous family living in San Francisco in the 80s when he suddenly finds himself in Vienna in 1897. Trying to unravel the mystery of his journey into the past, he gets involved with Sigmund Freud and finds new insight into his family history.
Tags: romance, Time travel, Vienna
Geek Love
03/02/11
Geek Love is a tale of a family of carnival people who breed new freaks on purpose to make money. Ensuring the success of their act by altering her pregnancies with various drugs, the couple creates a family unlike any other.
Tags: carnivals, magical realism
