A few months ago, I reviewed The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, by David Mitchell, a novel about the Dutch enclave off the coast of Japan. The Shogun restricted the foreign concession to an island near Nagasaki in the eighteenth century. To my surprise, The Ghost Brush by Katherine Govier is a sort of literary twin because it describes the lives of the Japanese, with the Dutch making highly regulated visits to the mainland at the discretion of the Shogun. Although The Ghost Brush takes place over a hundred years later, the extreme control over the lives of the population is, if anything, more onerous.

Oei is the daughter of a master Japanese painter, Hokusai, who gains international fame via the despised Dutch. However, in Japan art is a family craft.Oei and his apprentices all participate in the painting of Hokusai’s masterpieces. As Hokusai ages, Oei takes a greater role in her father’s painting, until in his very old age she paints new artworks in his style to raise funds to keep the household solvent. Oei is a ghost in the official records, barely seen behind the reputation of her father.

Over the years, Oei develops her own style and gradually gains commissions for her own paintings. In a time when women were virtually obliged to be subservient and to marry, Oei stays on the dangerous path of artist. The Shogun’s officers declare and enforce sweeping laws against artists and publishers, correctly discerning that paintings and books contain barely disguised criticism of establishment figures. But even the officials need entertainment, so they hypocritically patronize the district of prostitutes, nightclubs and restaurants. Oei straddles this night-world and the slums where she and her father so often relocated his studio to hide from the officials.

Katherine Govier entertains us with a magical story of historical importance, gleaned from ghostly records. Her beautiful language paints scenes in the seething city as well as in the forested countryside. The details that build the action convey how Japanese painting is done and why it is universally admired.

Judith Umbach

Last weekend was pretty exciting for all the self-proclaimed nerds in the city: it was the 2012 return of Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo! This was the biggest year yet, including the entire cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation, cameos by James Marsters of Buffy the Vampire Slayer fame and those Weasely twins from the Harry Potter movies. Along with a team of likeminded nerds, I attended the Comic Expo as a representative of Calgary Public Library where we showcased the great collections of sci-fi, horror, fantasy and graphic novels available in our catalogue. We got to meet hundreds of convention goers, most in elaborate costumes and super committed to the characters they were portraying – like Wario, Mario’s evil counterpart, who we managed to photograph at the Calgary Public Library table!

I was super inspired after this comic-book fueled sci-fi weekend that I thought I’d pull together a list of great reads that showcase our collection. If you’re at all interested in exploring our sci-fi/fantasy, horror and graphic novel collection, hopefully this list will get you started!

Aurorama: a novel by Jean-Christoph Valtat

A startling, seductive literary novel that entwines suspense, science fiction, adventure, romance and history into an intoxicating new genre. 1908: New Venice--"the pearl of the Arctic"--a place of ice palaces and pneumatic tubes, of beautifully ornate carriage-sleds and elegant victorian garb, of long nights and vistas of ice. But as the city prepares for spring, it feels more like qaartsiluni , "the time when something is about to explode in the dark." Local "poletics" are wracked by tensions with the Eskimos circling the city, with suffragette riots led by an underground music star, with drug round-ups by the secret police force known as the Gentlemen of the Night. An ominous black airship hovers over the city, and the Gentlemen are hunting for the author of a radical pamphlet calling for revolt. Their lead suspect is Brentford Orsini, one of the city's most prominent figures. But as the Gentlemen of the Night tighten the net around him, Orsini receives a mysterious message from a long-lost love that compels him to act. What transpires is a literary adventure novel unlike anything you've ever read before. Brilliant in its conception, masterful in its prose, thrilling in its plot twists, and laced with humor, suspense, and intelligence, it marks the beginning of a great new series of books set in New Venice-and the launch of an astonishing new writer. (Syndetics )

House of Doors by Chaz Brenchley

The first in Chaz Brenchley's chilling new haunted house series - War widow Ruth Taylor arrives at RAF Morwood, the great house formerly known as D'Esperance, hoping that nursing badly wounded airmen will distract her from her sorrows. But almost as soon as she enters the house, she experiences strange visions and fainting spells, and the almost overwhelming sensation of her late husband's ghostly presence. For D'Esperance is a place of shadows and secrets -- and as the strange occurrences become increasingly menacing and violent, Ruth is forced to confront a terrible possibility: that her dead husband might be the cause... (Syndetics)

Night of the living trekkies by Kevin David Anderson and Sam Stall

Journey to the final frontier of sci-fi zombie horror! Jim Pike was the world's biggest Star Trek fan-until two tours of duty in Afghanistan destroyed his faith in the human race. Now he sleepwalks through life as the assistant manager of a small hotel in downtown Houston. But when hundreds of Trekkies arrive in his lobby for a science-fiction convention, Jim finds himself surrounded by costumed Klingons, Vulcans, and Ferengi-plus a strange virus that transforms its carriers into savage, flesh-eating zombies! As bloody corpses stumble to life and the planet teeters on the brink of total apocalypse, Jim must deliver a ragtag crew of fanboys and fangirls to safety. Dressed in homemade uniforms and armed with prop phasers, their prime directive is to survive. But how long can they last in the ultimate no-win scenario? (Syndetics)

The Death-Ray by Daniel Clowes

Teen outcast Andy is an orphaned nobody with only one friend, the obnoxious - but loyal - Louie. They roam school halls and city streets, invisible to everyone but bullies and tormentors, until the glorious day when Andy takes his first puff on a cigarette. That night he wakes, heart pounding, soaked in sweat, and finds himself suddenly overcome with the peculiar notion that he can do anything. Indeed, he can, and as he learns the extent of his new powers, he discovers a terrible and seductive gadget - a hideous compliment to his seething rage - that forever changes everything. The Death-Ray utilizes the classic staples of the superhero genre - origin, costume, ray gun, sidekick, fight scene - and reconfigures them in a story that is anything but morally simplistic. With subtle comedy, deft mastery, and an obvious affection for the bold pop-art exuberance of comic book design, Daniel Clowes delivers a contemporary meditation on the darkness of the human psyche. (Syndetics)

Want more?

For more great reads, head on over to the Readers' Nook homepage and subscribe to our NextReads monthly and bi-monthly newsletters, including genres like Fantasy/Sci-Fi and Horror. These newsletters let you in on what's new in our collection and give you bunch of suggested reads as well.

The Grave Doug Freshley

(as revealed to John Hechinger and depicted by mpMann)

When Shane McNally hired his childhood friend Douglas Freshley to help out on the McNally homestead, it was understood that half the job for the former schoolmaster would be tutoring the McNally s bright, but rambunctious boy, Bartholomew, called Bat. But the ruthless Delancey Gang ended Doug's employment in a cattle raid, killing Bat's parents, killing Doug himself, and setting the McNally homestead ablaze with Bat still inside. Not one to let a little thing like a bullet between the eyes stand in the way of meeting his personal and professional obligations, Doug returns as a walking corpse in time to save Bat. Together, they set out to deliver a little frontier justice to the ones that done them wrong. However, as they track down Hatch, Taz, Rocco and Ray Delancey, they find that Doug is being stalked by the Deadliest Gun in the West (Or Anywhere): the Grim Reaper hisownself. Equal parts Sergio Leone and Looney Toons, The Grave Doug Freshley is a comedy/adventure about the bond between a boy and the cowboy who wouldn t die because, after all, he'd made a promise.

Calgary Public Library

and

The University of Calgary Bookstore

have the pleasure of welcoming the Scotiabank Giller Prize winning author

Vincent Lam

as he shares from his new book

The Headmaster’s Wager.

Tuesday, May 1st, 2012, 7:00 - 9:00 @ John Dutton Theatre

Purchase tickets online at http://www.calgarybookstore.com/tickets/

Ticket price includes a copy of the novel.

From Giller Prize winner, internationally acclaimed and bestselling author Vincent Lam comes a superbly crafted, highly suspenseful, and deeply affecting novel set against the turmoil of the Vietnam War. Percival Chen is the headmaster of the most respected English school in Saigon. He is also abon vivant, a compulsive gambler and an incorrigible womanizer. He is well accustomed to bribing a forever-changing list of government officials in order to maintain the elite status of the Chen Academy. He is fiercely proud of his Chinese heritage, and quick to spot the business opportunities rife in a divided country. He devotedly ignores all news of the fighting that swirls around him, choosing instead to read the faces of his opponents at high-stakes mahjong tables. But when his only son gets in trouble with the Vietnamese authorities, Percival faces the limits of his connections and wealth and is forced to send him away. In the loneliness that follows, Percival finds solace in Jacqueline, a beautiful woman of mixed French and Vietnamese heritage, and Laing Jai, a son born to them on the eve of the Tet offensive. Percival's new-found happiness is precarious, and as the complexities of war encroach further and further into his world, he must confront the tragedy of all he has refused to see. Blessed with intriguingly flawed characters moving through a richly drawn historical and physical landscape,The Headmaster's Wager is a riveting story of love, betrayal and sacrifice.

For all of you who are also interested in All things Sherlock, just a quick update on Sherlock Season Two--it's in!!! (Well, listed in the Catalogue, now.) Place your hold today!

You may have heard that the Pulitzer Prize board has decided not to award the prize this year in the fiction category. Read more from one of the jurors if you're curious about the how and why.

In the meantime, we thought that with so many incredible fiction books out there this year, why not vote for our own unofficial winner? Or simply recommend a book you feel is worthy of a prize. We may not be able to offer the intended $10,000 cash prize (which the Pulitzer Prize awards for fiction), but we can certainly recommend "winners" for fellow readers of fiction to enjoy!

The criteria used by the Pulitzer Prize jury to narrow down their shortlist is "distinguished fiction by an American author, preferably dealing with American life." Here are the three fiction finalists that were nominated for the prize (note that we ALREADY put you on to 2 of the 3 books right here on this blog!):

Train Dreams by Denis Johnson

Denis Johnson's Train Dreams is an epic in miniature, one of his most evocative and poignant fictions. Robert Grainer is a day laborer in the American West at the start of the twentieth century--an ordinary man in extraordinary times. Buffeted by the loss of his family, Grainer struggles to make sense of this strange new world. As his story unfolds, we witness both his shocking personal defeats and the radical changes that transform America in his lifetime. Suffused with the history and landscapes of the American West--its otherworldly flora and fauna, its rugged loggers and bridge builders--the new novella by the National Book Award-winning author of Tree of Smoke captures the disappearance of a distinctly American way of life.

Why you should read it: We recommended it to you FIRST!

Other good reasons: If you like Westerns. Or if you'd like to impress your friends by reading an example of great American literature... this short read is just over 100 pages.

Swamplandia! by Karen Russell

From the celebrated twenty-nine-year-old author of the everywhere-heralded short-story collection St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves ("How I wish these were my own words, instead of the breakneck demon writer Karen Russell's . . . Run for your life. This girl is on fire"-- Los Angeles Times Book Review ) comes a blazingly original debut novel that takes us back to the swamps of the Florida Everglades, and introduces us to Ava Bigtree, an unforgettable young heroine. The Bigtree alligator-wrestling dynasty is in decline, and Swamplandia!, their island home and gator-wrestling theme park, formerly #1 in the region, is swiftly being encroached upon by a fearsome and sophisticated competitor called the World of Darkness. Ava's mother, the park's indomitable headliner, has just died; her sister, Ossie, has fallen in love with a spooky character known as the Dredgeman, who may or may not be an actual ghost; and her brilliant big brother, Kiwi, who dreams of becoming a scholar, has just defected to the World of Darkness in a last-ditch effort to keep their family business from going under. Ava's father, affectionately known as Chief Bigtree, is AWOL; and that leaves Ava, a resourceful but terrified thirteen, to manage ninety-eight gators and the vast, inscrutable landscape of her own grief. Against a backdrop of hauntingly fecund plant life animated by ancient lizards and lawless hungers, Karen Russell has written an utterly singular novel about a family's struggle to stay afloat in a world that is inexorably sinking. An arrestingly beautiful and inventive work from a vibrant new voice in fiction.

Why you should read it: We recommended it to you FIRST!

Other reasons: Unforgettable. You've never read anything like it before! Just read a few pages and see if you can put it down.

The Pale King by David Foster Wallace

The agents at the IRS Regional Examination Center in Peoria, Illinois, appear ordinary enough to newly arrived trainee David Foster Wallace. But as he immerses himself in a routine so tedious and repetitive that new employees receive boredom-survival training, he learns of the extraordinary variety of personalities drawn to this strange calling. And he has arrived at a moment when forces within the IRS are plotting to eliminate even what little humanity and dignity the work still has. The Pale King remained unfinished at the time of David Foster Wallace's death, but it is a deeply compelling and satisfying novel, hilarious and fearless and as original as anything Wallace ever undertook. It grapples directly with ultimate questions---questions of life's meaning and of the value of work and society---through characters imagined with the interior force and generosity that were Wallace's unique gifts. Along the way it suggests a new idea of heroism and commands infinite respect for one of the most daring writers of our time.

Why you should read it: Think about it. This book was unfinished at the author's death. Posthumously published. Now shortlisted for a $10,000 Pulitzer prize? Must be good.

Who would you vote for? What other books would you nominate? Tell us in the comments.

The China Lover

Ian Buruma

A transfixing portrait of a woman and a nation eagerly burying the past to transform the future. In his enthralling novel, Ian Buruma uses the life of the starlet Yamaguchi Yoshiko as a lens through which to understand the lure of erotic fantasies in the conquest of nations. The China Lover reveals the catastrophic results when theater and politics blend in a lethal manner. In her earliest days Ri Koran, a Japanese girl born in Manchuria, who sang and acted in Japanese and Chinese, was forced to keep her Japanese identity a secret, to become a Manchurian singer and movie star playing Chinese beauties who fell in love with brave Japanese empire builders. In U.S.-occupied Tokyo, she returned to the screen as Yamaguchi Yoshiko, starring in films approved by American censors and designed to promote American-style democracy. Before long, she decided to reinvent herself yet again by moving to the United States. Three months after Japan and the United States signed a peace treaty in San Francisco, Yamaguchi rededicated herself to pursuing a career in American movies, this time as Shirley Yamaguchi, playing exotic Japanese beauties falling in love with American soldiers. But she was not just the subject of male fantasies on the cinema screen. She married the Japanese American sculptor Isamu Noguchi, who wanted her to be the perfect traditional Japanese woman. When her many roles, in life and in film, proved impossible to reconcile, Shirley left Noguchi, retired as an actress, and married a promising young Japanese diplomat. At the outset of the 1970’s, the life of Yamaguchi Yoshiko took another dramatic turn. As host of a Japanese television show for housewives, Yoshiko accepted an assignment in the Middle East, where she met Yassir Arafat and a prominent Palestinian terrorist. A member of her crew, affiliated with the Japanese Red Army, would return to commit a terrible crime while Yoshiko became a founding member of the Japanese- Palestinian Friendship Association, and ended her career as a politician in the right-wing ruling party of Japan. In Buruma’s reimagining of the life of Yamaguchi Yoshiko, a Japanese torn among patriotism for her parents’ homeland, wordly ambition, and sympathy for the Chinese, she would reflect almost exactly the twists and turns in the history of modern Japan.

It was in the early hours of April 15, 1912, that the RMS Titanic sank, leaving only 710 survivors from a total of 2 224 people on board. On this hundredth anniversary of the tragedy, delve into some historical fiction exploring the aftermath of the sinking of the Titanic:

The Dressmaker

Kate Alcott

Seamstress Tess Collins finds her way aboard the Titanic because the maid of renowned designer Lucile Duff Gordon missed the boat. Yet this is not your mother's Titanic story; the ship hits the iceberg on page 37, and the exodus of survivors happens swiftly. What ensues back in New York is an investigation instigated by a senator who wants to prove negligence on the part of the White Star line. New York Times reporter Sarah "Pinky" Wade, however, smells stories of the wealthy and privileged vs. the poor and wants to pin blame on Lucile. Meanwhile, a young sailor and an older businessman both fall in love with Tess, and her responses to them and to the woman who could help her realize her dreams are at the core of this recounting of the tragedy.

Taking the tale of the Titanic out of the frigid sea and docking it in the courtroom and early 20th-century New York gives the familiar story a fresh feel. Tess makes a praiseworthy heroine, torn between her loyalties to the woman she so admires and her own principles, but would two men declare their love after knowing Tess for so brief a time? One fewer suitor might have been more plausible. Still, an engaging first novel in this year of everything Titanic.

A Good Woman

Danielle Steel

From the glittering ballrooms of Manhattan to the fires of World War I, Danielle Steel takes us on an unforgettable journey in her new novel—a spellbinding tale of war, loss, history, and one woman’s unbreakable spirit....

Nineteen-year-old Annabelle Worthington was born into a life of privilege, raised amid the glamour of New York society, with glorious homes on Fifth Avenue and in Newport, Rhode Island. But everything changed on a cold April day in 1912, when the sinking of the Titanic shattered her family and her privileged world forever. Finding strength within her grief, Annabelle pours herself into volunteer work, nursing the poor, igniting a passion for medicine that would shape the course of her life.

But for Annabelle, first love, and a seemingly idyllic marriage, will soon bring more grief—this time caused by the secrets of the human heart. Betrayed, and pursued by a scandal she does not deserve, Annabelle flees New York for war-ravaged France, hoping to lose herself in a life of service. There, in the heart of the First World War, in a groundbreaking field hospital run by women, Annabelle finds her true calling, working as an ambulance medic on the front lines, studying medicine, saving lives. And when the war ends, Annabelle begins a new life in Paris—now a doctor, a mother, her past almost forgotten…until a fateful meeting opens her heart to the world she had left behind.

Promise Me This

Cathy Gohlke

Taking a break from work to watch the Titanic set sail on its maiden voyage, Michael Dunnagan meets passenger Owen Allen and decides to stow away in hopes of convincing Owen to let him join his uncle's business in America. But the so-called unsinkable ship strikes an iceberg, and a dying Owen extracts a promise from Michael that he will care for Owen's relatives in America and his sister Annie, still in England. Annie can't bear the thought that Michael lived when her brother was lost, but the two develop a friendship through the letters they exchange. When World War I breaks out and Annie's letters stop, Michael drops everything to find the woman he has come to love. No matter how many times the Titanic's sinking has been depicted in film and in print, the 1912 maritime tragedy continues to fascinate us.

If you've recently watched James Cameron's Titanic in 3D and are ready for some factual information about the tragedy, here are some new releases to satisfy your curiosity: