Ruby Red

Ruby Red by Kerstin Gier. Translated from German by Anthea Bell.
Teen Zone New Fiction – Main Level – GIER

16-year-old Gwyneth grown up living life as a normal kid, especially compared to her cousin Charlotte. Charlotte, glamorous and sophisticated, has been trained all her life to prepare her to be a time traveler. Except that Gwyneth turns out to be the one with the time travel gene, something she never wanted. Time travel is dangerous unless controlled – Gwyneth ends up in the same place but a different unknown period in the past for an unpredictable length of time, with only a few minutes of nausea and dizziness for preparation. To counteract them, the secret organization known as the Guardians trains time travelers and owns the Chronograph, a clockwork machine that can send time travelers to a planned place for a planned length of time. Gwyneth is the Ruby, the last of twelve known time travelers, each represented by a jewel. The other time traveler in her generation is handsome 18-year-old Gideon de Villiers. The previous two time travelers, close friends with Gwyneth’s mother, fell in love and are hiding in the past with the only other existing Chronograph. The Guardians want to send Gideon and Gwyneth on missions to meet with all of the previous time travelers and complete the Chronograph – but what will that mean? Should Gwyneth trust the Guardians, or Lucy and Paul, the couple she’s never met but whom her mother trusted? Though the prologue makes it seem that Lucy and Paul are Good Guys, Gwyneth and her best pal and research buddy Lesley have yet to figure out why Lucy and Paul distrusted the Guardians enough to give up their lives in the present. There’s a slowly percolating romance between Gwyneth and Gideon, which helps nicely to make Gwyneth’s choices harder, as Gideon has no reason to distrust the Guardians.

Despite the dangers of time travel and the potential evil nature of the Guardians, the book never gets bogged down in seriousness. There’s the romance, more fun than fraught; Lesley and Gwyneth’s friendship, and – I really loved this part – costumes. The Guardians hire a full-time French costume designer, whose sole job is to make historically accurate clothing for each of the trips back in time, which are all described in detail. I really like the original German cover, right, which I think shows the light-hearted nature of the story a little better. This is the first of a trilogy, all of which are now published in Germany but which English speakers still have to wait on. The translation is done by the inestimable Anthea Bell, who also translated the Inkheart books as well as many others. The time travel, romance and history combined to make this a quite lovely book, and I’m now anxiously waiting for the next installment to arrive.

Three and Out: Rich Rodriguez and the Michigan Wolverines in the Crucible of College Football

Three and Out: Rich Rodriguez and the Michigan Wolverines in the Crucible of College Football  by John U. Bacon

Adult New Nonfiction 796.332 B


The Rich Rodriguez era of Michigan football can best be described as one thing, a nightmare. From the disorganized search to replace Lloyd Carr to the two day media circus surrounding Rich Rod’s dismissal, it’s a three year period we would all like to forget. However, John Bacon was given unfettered access to the program over these three years and now we can relive this period of tumult and learn what really happened. The results will come as no surprise to some, while others will have to begrudgingly accept what has been written here.

It all began with Michigan’s historic loss to Appalachian State and blowout loss the following week at the hands of Oregon. After these losses, public opinion began to turn against Coach Lloyd Carr, who announced his retirement at the end of the 2007 season. The process of finding a new coach was poorly handled as multiple candidates turned down the job. On the morning of the SEC Championship Game, ESPN reported that Michigan’s own Les Miles had agreed to come back and coach the Wolverines. However, Les was preparing his current team, LSU, for that SEC title game and a possible National Championship appearance. Miles held an impromptu press conference that afternoon denying the reports. The real story of that day, revealed in the book, will enrage most Michigan fans.

Rich Rodriguez’s tenure began on the wrong foot and the program was engulfed in controversy and losing for the next three years. Many have placed the blame solely of Rich Rod’s shoulders, but this is a mistake. Certainly he could have done more to help Michigan succeed, but various media members, boosters, and a former coach did whatever they could to undermine Rodriguez. If you would prefer to believe the narrative that Rodriguez was not good enough for Michigan and he alone damaged Michigan football, avoid this book. However, if you want to know what really happened in Ann Arbor from 2007 – 2010, this is definitely the book for you.

The Last Speakers

The Last Speakers: The Quest to Save the World's Most Endangered Languages by K. David Harrison
Adult Non-Fiction Upper Level - 408.9 H

This is a fascinating book, published by National Geographic. It is written by a linguist who traveled around the world to places where indigenous languages are still spoken. He wanted to bring attention to, and preserve, these rare and unknown languages. Of course, along the way he met really interesting people and had exciting adventures in places most of us will never visit. I was especially interested in the Tuvans of Siberia, who are known for their "throat singing." He also visited places like Papua New Guinea, Australia, and Mongolia, among others.

You can leaf through this book at random and learn something interesting on any page!

Once Upon a Cool Motorcycle Dude

Once Upon a Cool Motorcycle Dude written and illustrated by Kevin O’Malley. Illustrated by Carol Heyer. Illustrated by Scott Goto.
Picture Book Shelves – Lower Level - OMA

Two children, a girl and a boy, are assigned to give a school report on their favorite fairy tale. Only as they couldn’t agree on a favorite fairy tale, they decide instead to write their own. The girl starts, telling a romantic tale of the sweet and beautiful Princess Tenderheart, whose beloved unicorn ponies are tragically being kidnapped by a giant. Then the boy interrupts, having a cool motorcycle dude come and battle the giant every night while the princess spins golden thread for him in payment. Then the girl interrupts again, incensed at her princess’s new role. Princess Tenderheart now goes to the gym to pump iron and becomes Princess Warrior, so she can rescue her ponies herself. From here, the interruptions from one side and the other become more and more frequent, until the children find a story and characters that they can both enjoy. The story is funny to start with, and the illustrations really make it. O’Malley draws the two children in a fairly realistic cartoon style with pen and ink. Heyer illustrates the girl’s story in oil paintings that you might find in a straight-up Beautiful Fairy Tale book, except for the obviously little girl elements like having Princess Tenderheart wear only bright pink and purple dresses. Goto illustrates the boy’s story in bright, vigorous pastels where the motorcycle dude and his motorcycle vie for space with the hideous giant and exploding volcanoes. This book was a hit with everyone who saw it, including adults, my son and his K-1 class, and my two-year-old.

Try these other funny, nontraditional fairy tale-inspired picture books, too:

The Princess and the Pizza by Mary Jane and Herm Auch.

Fairly Fairy Tales by Esme Raji Codell. Illustrated by Elisa Chavarri

An Undone Fairy Tale by Ian Lendler. Illustrated by Whitney Martin.

A Discovery of Witches

A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness
Adult Science Fiction-Main Level- Sci Fic Harkness

Diana Bishop comes from a long line of witches dating back to the very first Salem Witch Trial that put her ancestor, Bridget Bishop to death. After her parents’ deaths at a young age, Diana decides to stay as far away from magic as she can, despite her family legacy and the powers that run through her blood. Diana graduates from high school at a mere sixteen years old and enters college. After acquiring her PhD and getting a tenure track position at Yale University, she goes to back to familiar Oxford, England where she once studied abroad, to conduct some more research on the history of science, specifically, alchemy. While at Oxford, she runs into a few…shall we say, creatures, that are after something that she has found in the Bodleian Library. What will happen when Diana is cornered by a warlock, other witches, daemons, and vampires who will do anything to get this magical book, Ashmole 782? Check out, Deborah Harkness’, A Discovery of Witches to find out! This gripping plot will pull you in and bring you to a place of fascination, excitement, and intrigue.

After Life

After Life by Kore-eda Hirokazu
Dvd Collection - Main Level - FOREIGN AFT

What if the afterlife is not what we expect? What if heaven was simply one happy memory from a person’s life that would be repeated for eternity? Would you be able to pick just one memory to take with you to heaven and let go of everything else? This is the premise of the Japanese film After Life . In this world, when a person dies they are sent to a way station building where they have three days to decide on the perfect memory they want to forever relive in heaven. The departed souls are given case worker type individuals to help them along the process and chose their memory. Several of the souls are having trouble making a decision because some feel their lives were empty while others do not think one memory can sum up an entire life. Throughout the story, one of the caseworkers, Takashi, comes to re-evaluate his own afterlife when a client turns out to have married his former fiancée after Takashi was killed in the Second World War.

The film is incredibly low key. It poses many existential questions and naturally examines the nature of life and death. Learning to let go but also to celebrate the goodness in our lives are important themes of the movie. The bureaucratic nature of limbo was both amusing but might seem alarming at first to some people. Would you really want the first part of your afterlife to seem like the start of a job or loan interview? But it is clear that the caseworkers do have compassion and are just trying to comfort these people. The film presents a multitude of life stories from people that come from all walks of life during the client interviews. I have learned that some of the stories were actually real people telling about their lives to the camera. Yet despite all the differences between these people and their stories, they all want the same thing: to simply be happy and find a way to define their lives. That is an uplifting message that can apply to everyone no matter where they are from.