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Nassau County Library

Are you trying to decide what book to read next? Want to know more about what your friends are reading? Well, you've come to the right place.  Here you can find book reviews from Nassau County library staff members, and you can share your feelings about particular books in the comments.  Let us help you find your next favorite book today!

"The Returned" by Jason Mott

2/26/2014

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In a small town in North Carolina, a couple gets a not-unexpected knock on the door from a government agent with a small boy in tow – the couple’s fifty-years-dead son.  He, along with hundreds of other Returned people, has come back just as he was before his death and with no apparent memory of being gone.  As the Returned increase in number, the rest of the world struggles to figure out who the Returned really are, why they’ve come back, and what to do with them.

I love how Mott takes a question everyone has asked themselves – what would you do if you had one more chance to be with a person you had lost? – and takes it to this extreme place that is frightening and thoughtful all at once.  I found myself agreeing with or at least understanding every character, “good guys” and “bad guys” alike, and wondering which character I would end up most like in this situation.  I still don’t know!  Recommended for people who want a book they’ll be thinking about for weeks after finishing it.  

--Alison McCarty, Callahan Branch Library

Find The Returned in the Nassau County Public Library System catalog.

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"The Testing" by Joelle Charbonneau

2/19/2014

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Like a nerdier The Hunger Games, The Testing pits the best students of a post-nuclear-war world against each other in a fight to attend the prestigious University and become the next leaders of the recovering country.  Students are tested on their knowledge and ability to work with others, but a wrong answer or a misplaced trust can lead to death.           

I enjoyed this book, even through all the gruesome violence, because of its emphasis on brains and cunning and escaping fights rather than winning them.  I also liked that the obligatory love storyline was not the usual love triangle, although it may not be as straightforward as it seems.  I am definitely looking forward to the sequel.  Recommended for fans of these post-apocalyptic or dystopian futures and those who can deal with more than a little gore and violence.  

--Alison McCarty, Callahan Branch Library

Find The Testing in the Nassau County Public Library System catalog.

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"Lexicon" by Max Barry

2/13/2014

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What if you could convince a person, any person, to do whatever you wanted if you just knew the right four words?  In the world of Lexicon, there is a school that teaches a select, persuasive student body to do just that, calling its graduates “poets” and naming them after famous writers.  But in this world there is also one word, a dangerous word, that can control anyone and everyone – and it’s gotten out.            

I loved this book for its basic concept (words are powerful!) and for its two storylines that trade off, with one main character in the thick of the action and danger, and the other character giving us the back story leading up to the current events.  Barry also plays some tricks with the timeline that keeps the reader guessing as to what’s really going on.  Highly recommended for all readers, but be aware of some violent scenes.

--Alison McCarty, Callahan Branch Library

Find Lexicon in the Nassau County Public Library System catalog.

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