How are you enjoying Throne of the Crescent Moon by Saladin Ahmed? For me, the jarring part was adapting to the different assumptions of fantasy worldview outside pseudo-medieval west Europe or east Asia. Even when we read Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny, the frame of reference was still Western even if the setting was pseudo-Indian.

Join us June 11 at 6:30pm when we will discuss Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer. Books On Tap meets at Jimmy's Pub on the 2nd Tuesday of the month.

When Jon Krakauer reached the summit of Mt. Everest in the early afternoon of May 10, 1996, he hadn't slept in fifty-seven hours and was reeling from the brain-altering effects of oxygen depletion. As he turned to begin his long, dangerous descent from 29,028 feet, twenty other climbers were still pushing doggedly toward the top. No one had noticed that the sky had begun to fill with clouds. Six hours later and 3,000 feet lower, in 70-knot winds and blinding snow, Krakauer collapsed in his tent, freezing, hallucinating from exhaustion and hypoxia, but safe. The following morning he learned that six of his fellow climbers hadn't made it back to their camp and were in a desperate struggle for their lives. When the storm finally passed, five of them would be dead, and the sixth so horribly frostbitten that his right hand would have to be amputated.

Krakauer examines what it is about Everest that has compelled so many people - including himself - to throw caution to the wind, ignore the concerns of loved ones, and willingly subject themselves to such risk, hardship, and expense. Written with emotional clarity and supported by his unimpeachable reporting, Krakauer's eye-witness account of what happened on the roof of the world is a singular achievement.

Tuesday night 17 people showed up at Jimmy's Pub for a lively discussion of Dog Stars by Peter Heller. While not everyone enjoyed the book as much as I did, people pointed out and discussed the parts of the book that spoke to them.

For more information about the book or the author visit www.peterheller.net.

Enjoy apocalytic fiction? Try some of these titles!

Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank
A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller
I Am Legend by Richard Matheson
The Passage by Justin Cronin
The Postman by David Brin
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
The Stand by Stephen King
World War Z by Max Brooks
The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood

Feel free to post any of your own favorites!

Our book for April was The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender. It is about a girl who can taste emotions and history in food. When she eats cake, she can tell how the baker felt and where the eggs came from and whether the cows were milked by hand. Our protagonist spends her life avoiding her potential and what makes her special. This is also a metaphor for the book, which carefully avoids its potential or making anything of its premise. This is a book about hiding from emotions and escaping from life. The writing is good but the story is poor.

This year's Edgars, awarded by the Mystery Writers of America for the best mysteries of the year, were announced Thursday night.

This year's winners are:

Best Novel - Live by Night by Dennis Lehane
Best First Novel - The Expats by Chris Pavone
Best Paperback Original - The Last Policeman: A Novel by Ben H. Winters
Best Fact Crime - Midnight in Peking: How the Murder of a Young Englishwoman Haunted the Last Days of Old China by Paul French
Young Adult - Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein

For a complete list of winners visit www.theedgars.com

Canceled: Tonight's (4/24) Book Friending Program at (SCENE) Metrospace. We plan to reschedule, new date to be announced soon. We apologize for the convenience.

The Burgess Boys by Elizabeth Strout is more than the story of a dysfunctional family, it also deals with religion, race and cultural issues in a small town in Maine after a large number of refugees from Somalia relocate there.

The shortlist has been released for this year's Women's Prize for Fiction which was formerly called the Orange Prize. This prize "celebrates excellence, originality and accessibility in women's writing from throughout the world."

The 2013 finalists are:

Life After Life by Kate Atkinson
May We Be Forgiven by A.M Homes
Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver
Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel
Where'd You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple
NW by Zadie Smith

The winner will be announced June 5 in London.

Saturday, April 13th
2-3 pm
For children in grades 4-6

Join us for juice and bagels, discussion of the book Breadcrumbs by Anne Ursu, and a fun activity! This fantasy book is full of interesting content that provokes a wide range of responses in readers. Listen to a fascinating interview with Anne Ursu from NPR's 

Join us May 14 at 6:30pm when we will discuss The Dog Stars by Peter Heller. Books On Tap meets at Jimmy's Pub the 2nd Tuesday of the month.

Celebrate National Poetry Month by reading some poetry or writing a poem of your own. Check out some of the books in our collection or get inspired by visiting some of the following sites.

poemflow.com
POETS.org
Poetry Foundation

Got a smart phone? Get the poetry app and discover new poems on the go!

Join us April 9 at 6:30pm when we will discuss Arc of Justice by Kevin Boyle. Books on Tap meets at Jimmy's Pub, located at 16804 Chadler Road.

An electrifying story of the sensational murder trial that divided a city and ignited the civil rights struggle.

In 1925, Detroit was a smoky swirl of jazz and speakeasies, assembly lines and fistfights. The advent of automobiles had brought workers from around the globe to compete for manufacturing jobs, and tensions often flared with the KKK in ascendance and violence rising. Ossian Sweet, a proud Negro doctor-grandson of a slave-had made the long climb from the ghetto to a home of his own in a previously all-white neighborhood. Yet just after his arrival, a mob gathered outside his house; suddenly, shots rang out: Sweet, or one of his defenders, had accidentally killed one of the whites threatening their lives and homes.

And so it began-a chain of events that brought America's greatest attorney, Clarence Darrow, into the fray and transformed Sweet into a controversial symbol of equality. Historian Kevin Boyle weaves the police investigation and courtroom drama of Sweet's murder trial into an unforgettable tapestry of narrative history that documents the volatile America of the 1920s and movingly re-creates the Sweet family's journey from slavery through the Great Migration to the middle class. Ossian Sweet's story, so richly and poignantly captured here, is an epic tale of one man trapped by the battles of his era's changing times.

Arc of Justice is the winner of the 2004 National Book Award for Nonfiction and a Michigan Notable Book for 2005.

Looking ahead:
May 14, The Dog Stars by Peter Heller

Enjoy reading Science Fiction and Fantasy books? Then check out this year's best novel nominees for the Nebula Award.

Throne of the Crescent Moon by Saladin Ahmed
Ironskin by Tina Connolly
The Killing Moon by N.K. Jemisin
The Drowning Girl by Caitlín R. Kiernan
Glamour in Glass by Mary Robinette Kowal
2312 by Kim Stanley Robinson

Want to meet with other people and talk about Science Fiction/Fantasy books? Then try our Out Of This World book group.

Join us March 12 at 6:30pm when we will discuss Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn. Books on Tap meets at Jimmy's Pub, located at 16804 Chandler Road.

On a warm summer morning in North Carthage, Missouri, it is Nick and Amy Dunne’s fifth wedding anniversary. Presents are being wrapped and reservations are being made when Nick’s clever and beautiful wife disappears from their rented McMansion on the Mississippi River. Husband-of-the-Year Nick isn’t doing himself any favors with cringe-worthy daydreams about the slope and shape of his wife’s head, but passages from Amy's diary reveal the alpha-girl perfectionist could have put anyone dangerously on edge. Under mounting pressure from the police and the media—as well as Amy’s fiercely doting parents—the town golden boy parades an endless series of lies, deceits, and inappropriate behavior. Nick is oddly evasive, and he’s definitely bitter—but is he really a killer?
With his twin sister, Margo, at his side, Nick stands by his innocence. Trouble is, if Nick didn’t do it, where is that beautiful wife? And what was in that silvery gift box hidden in the back of her bedroom closet?
With her razor-sharp writing and trademark psychological insight, Gillian Flynn delivers a fast-paced, devilishly dark, and ingeniously plotted thriller that confirms her status as one of the hottest writers around.

Looking ahead:
April 9, Arc of Justice by Kevin Boyle