The Morgue and Me

by John C. Ford



Christopher Newell took a summer job doing a little janitorial work at the morgue. It wasn't really his first choice, but it sort of fit in with his life-long goal to become a spy; learning forensics and all that jazz, so it wasn't too bad of a gig. Little did Chris realize that his summer would end up heavy on the spying and light on the cleaning.

Something needed cleaning up, all right, but it wasn't the floor. There was a body and it had been declared a suicide. But it had a few too many bullet holes in it and the doctor doing the examination had a few too many stacks of hundred dollar bills sitting in a bag in his office.

Chris knew he couldn't go to the police with this one. The sheriff was the one who brought the body in. So Chris went to the local paper where he finds Tina, a new-in-town reporter looking for her big break. Before he knows what he's doing, he's holding on for dear life in the passenger seat of Tina's Trans Am as they go hunting all over town for clues.

The Morgue and Me is a great mystery. It's fast-paced and funny with enough twists you keep you guessing until the very end. If you like "whodunnits" then definitely check this one out at the LFHS library. Act fast, though, because book check out end May 7th!

Going Bovine

By Libba Bray
It’s not every day you see a talking yard gnome or a punk angel with pink hair. You probably haven’t had to save the universe from black holes and fire giants either. But you’re not Cameron Smith and you probably don’t have Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, otherwise known as the human form of Mad Cow Disease.

The disease is slowly turning Cameron’s brain into Swiss cheese and the doctors don’t give him very long to live. But what if the doctors are wrong? What if it’s not CJ (Mad Cow) at all? This is where the angel comes in. Dulcie, the angel, visits Cameron in his hospital room and tries to explain to him that something is eating his brain, but it’s not what the doctors think. It’s something much worse that won’t stop at Cameron’s brain. It will destroy the universe and only Cameron can stop it. But he’ll need some help. Dulcie suggests that Cameron bring along Gonzo, the guy in the next hospital bed.

So begins their adventure to save the universe and find the mysterious Dr. X and play jazz and rescue a short, wooden Norse god and be on a spring break TV show and locate a time-travelling pop group and… well, all sorts of crazy things. It’s a wild ride and you can join in by checking out Going Bovine from the LFHS library!

The Maze Runner

By James Dashner

He arrives in a box without any memories except his name and a vague feeling that he’d been here before. His name is Thomas, but everybody is calling him “Greenie” as in, the new guy. They’re all kids and they’re all boys. One new boy arrives each month, Thomas being the newest. Each boy has a job to do and now they have to find something for Thomas to do as well.

After learning about the different job possibilities, Thomas decides he wants to be a runner. He needs to be a runner. He can just feel it. But newbies can’t be runners. Being a runner is the most dangerous job you can have in this place, whatever this place is. They all call it the Glade. From what he’s learned so far, Thomas begins to understand that outside of the Glade’s walls is a maze. Every day, the walls open up and the runners take off into the maze with the task of mapping out the maze’s twists and turns. The job sounds simple enough, except for the fact that the maze changes every day. The walls of the maze move. Despite their best efforts, the runners have yet to find the exit to the maze. Some in the Glade doubt they ever will.

The day after Thomas arrives, everything changes. Another person has come through the box. They’ve never had two kids come through the box on consecutive days. But that’s not the strangest part. This kid is a girl.

So what does it all mean? Is this girl somehow linked to Thomas? Just like he feels he needs to be a runner, Thomas also feels like he knows this girl. Is Thomas special? Is being special a good thing in the Glade? Check out The Maze Runner from the LFHS library to find out!

Happy New Year!

It's a new year and it's cold! It's a great time to knock out a bunch of books! This month we'll be tackling books about giant mazes that change their paths and adventures with mad cow disease and other fun and weird stuff like that.

Have something to say? Leave a comment! But what if you have something to say about a different book? Why don't you write your own review?! Write something up and send it to lfhslibrary@gmail.com and we'll add it to the blog. If you'd rather talk about a book, we can have you do a video or podcast review. It's your blog, LFHS, take charge!

Holidays on Ice

by David Sedaris

The winter holidays are upon us and one of my favorite winter reads is Holidays on Ice, a collection of holiday-themed short stories and personal recollections. The first story, “SantaLand Diaries,” is a tale about David’s life as a full-time elf at Macy’s department store. The elves have many different duties, some worse than others. David recounts an experience as a Cash Register Elf, “The worst part is that after I have accumulated three hundred dollars I have to remove two hundred, fill out half a dozen forms, and run the envelope of cash to the drop in the China Department or to the vault on the balcony above the first floor. I am not allowed to change my clothes beforehand. I have to go dressed as an elf. An elf in SantaLand is one thing, an elf in Sportswear is something else altogether.”

Sedaris’ humor is usually pretty dry, but in “Season’s Greetings to Our Friends and Family!!!,” the author delves into the absurd as he spins the tale of Dunbar family and their annual family newsletter. One might think that Mrs. Dunbar would forego the tradition this year in light of her upcoming court date resulting from the death of her unexpected grandchild, Satan (Don), at the absentminded hands of her really unexpected new, 22-year-old Vietnamese daughter, Khe Sahn. But, no! The holidays must go on! Mrs. Jocelyn Dunbar won’t let a few “hassles” dampen her spirits.

The holiday humor doesn’t stop there, though. Sedaris also strings together tales of inappropriate, yet fascinating, dinner guests and scathing theatre reviews of elementary school Christmas pageants. In “Christmas Means Giving” the author explores the rivalry between neighboring families, each trying to out-do the other with exuberant giving. “If practiced correctly,” Sedaris writes, “generosity can induce feelings of shame, inadequacy, and even envy, to name just a few.” That certainly captures the spirit of the season!

So if you’re looking for something a bit different to read this holiday season; a little less “Rudolph, the Red-nosed Reindeer” and little more “Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer,” then check out Holidays on Ice from the LFHS library! And if you like it, we have more Sedaris books for you to read.

Uglies

by Scott Westerfeld

In Kurt Vonnegut’s classic short story “Harrison Bergeron,” society attempts to balance out the inherent inequalities of its population by handicapping those born with above average features, skills, or intelligence. If everybody is “equal” then nobody will feel inferior. That’s the theory, anyway.

Scott Westerfeld’s Uglies takes Vonnegut’s story and turns it upside down. Instead of making everybody average through handicaps, he makes everybody pretty through surgery. Tally Youngblood can’t wait to be pretty, but she’s not quite 16. Her best friend, Peris, was already made pretty and now Tally is alone with little to do but wait the few remaining months until it’s her turn. But she can’t wait. She’s afraid Peris will forget about her. After all, the Pretties are allowed to come and go as they please and Peris hasn’t been back to visit once since the surgery. Tally really can’t blame him, though. After all, she is still just an Ugly.

Before her birthday, Tally becomes friends with Shay, another Ugly who, like Tally, enjoys pulling pranks and other tricks. On one of their adventures, Shay takes Tally outside of town on their hoverboards to the ruins of an older civilization, the Rusties. Shay hopes to run into somebody out in the ruins, but nobody lives out there, do they? Why would anybody want to live out there when they could live in New Pretty Town and go to “bubbly” parties every night? But that’s exactly what Shay has in mind and she wants to take Tally with her. Is she crazy? Why would anybody choose to stay Ugly? Check out Uglies from the LFHS library to find out!