UnCovered review by Frank Tomasello, ACLS Mays Landing Branch
The Atrocity Archives is the first in the
Laundry Files Series by English author Charles Stross.
“Capitol Laundry Service” is the alias for a super-secret British agency who
“cleans up messy situations.” There is so much going on in Stross’
writing that it is nearly impossible to put a label on his works.
The story centers on reluctant hero, corporate
IT guy, Bob Howard. Picture James Bond, a frat boy crossed with bored cubicle
dweller a la Dilbert; who is also a trained computer geek, who has the ability
to master unseen technology at a glance; who is reluctantly tasked to save
humanity by fighting inter-universe evil creatures; escaped Nazi occultists and
garden variety terrestrial terrorists, simultaneously, all the while being
haunted by mid-level bureaucrats at his “day job” seeking his response
to the paper clip audit, and you get just an idea of what Stross’ Bob Howard is
like.
The plot develops methodically as Bob
progresses from minor acts of theft for the people he works for (presumably as
an alternative to the mind-numbing boredom of his job) until he is tasked to
rescue a female science professor in California and bring her to England where
the Laundry is headquartered. In the parlance of “Laundryspeak,” the mission
quickly goes “pear shaped” and Bob is forced to become a full-blown agent for
the Laundry. It turns out that he has stumbled into Saddam Hussein-era Iraqi
terrorists who accidentally created an occult opening to a parallel universe
controlled by H.P. Lovecraft-type entities out to rob our universe of all of
its energy. It turns out that the Nazi SS Anenerbe had sought refuge with these
creatures trying to escape their downfall after World War II, thus putting our
universe on these creatures’ radar. Bob must quickly master ancient mystical
traditions, ultra-modern whiz bang technology, vast amounts of historical
counter espionage, save the world and be able to justify his expense account in
the end. It is a fascinatingly entertaining page turner.
Mónica Guzmán’s new book, “I Never Thought of It That Way,” examines our polarized culture and helps us find common ground.
Flirt with romance--whether you like your lovin' with ghosts, spies, or knights in shining armor, this newsletter will deliver, sealed with a kiss. Monthly.
Delivered: 3/7/2022 12:00:00 AM
In “Glory,” a dictatorial elderly horse is unseated from his rule over the fictional African nation of Jidada.
It’s probably been awhile — and that’s a problem, Oliver Milman writes in his new book, “The Insect Crisis.”
William P. Barr’s memoir, “One Damn Thing After Another,” recounts his life and, in particular, his time as Donald Trump’s attorney general.
In “Sounds Wild and Broken,” David George Haskell celebrates nature’s trills, calls and peeps.
Author: Hutchings, Peter (Director), film director. Dal Farra, Claude, producer. Mengert, Christina, screenwriter. Hale, Lucy, 1989- actor. Stowell, Austin, 1984- actor.
Published: 2022 2021
Call Number: HATING
Format: Video disc
Summary: When a businesswoman decides to achieve success without compromising her ethics, she discovers that she has become attracted to her cold and efficient office nemesis. Resolving to achieve professional success without compromising her ethics, Lucy embarks on a ruthless game of one-upmanship against cold and efficient nemesis Joshua, a rivalry that is complicated by her growing attraction to him.
Author: Small, Ron, film director, film producer, screenwriter. Jones, David M. (David Michael), 1951- screenwriter, editor. Keyserling, Billy, film producer. Spitz, Mark, film producer. Eger, Edith Eva, on-screen participant.
Published: 2021 2019
Call Number: 940.53
Format: Video disc
Summary: At the age of sixteen, Edith Eger was sent to Auschwitz. Hours after her parents were killed, Nazi officer Dr. Josef Mengele (The Angel of Death), forced her to dance for his amusement. This dance saved her life.
Author: Mascaro, Gabriel, 1983- film director, screenwriter. Ellis, Rachel Daisy, film producer, screenwriter. Bezzara, Esdras, screenwriter. Paraizo, Lucas, screenwriter. Paes, Dira, 1969- actor.
Published: 2021 2019
Call Number: DIVINE PORTUGUESE
Format: Video disc
Summary: In the year 2027, in a dystopian Brazil, a deeply religious woman uses her position in a notary's office to advance her mission to save struggling couples from divorce. Whilst waiting for a Sign in recognition of her efforts, she is confronted with a crisis in her marriage that ultimately brings her closer to God.
Author: Duras, Marguerite, film director, actor. Sanda, Dominique, 1948- actor. Carrière, Mathieu, actor. Ogier, Bulle, 1939- actor. Icarus Films, publisher.
Published: 2021 1979
Call Number: NAVIRE FRENCH
Format: Video disc
Summary: Writer and filmmaker Marguerite Duras (L'Amant, India Song) explores the matrix of love, desire and language in her characteristically oblique and experimental style. The film's lovers are never allowed to meet in person, instead carrying out their conversations over the phone, using unlisted phone lines leftover from the German occupation of Paris. Elliptical sequences play out in empty streets, nocturnal cityscapes and shadowy interiors, linked together only by the spectral presence of the character's voices. At once dreamlike, intimate and fundamentally anonymous, this film challenges the conventional relationship between sound, image and narrative. A particularly uncompromising expression of Duras's subversive approach to filmmaking, it stands to this day as an equally challenging and rewarding experiment in cinematic modernism.
Author: Hutchings, Peter (Director), film director. Dal Farra, Claude, producer. Mengert, Christina, screenwriter. Hale, Lucy, 1989- actor. Stowell, Austin, 1984- actor.
Published: 2022 2021
Call Number: HATING
Format: Video disc
Summary: When a businesswoman decides to achieve success without compromising her ethics, she discovers that she has become attracted to her cold and efficient office nemesis. Resolving to achieve professional success without compromising her ethics, Lucy embarks on a ruthless game of one-upmanship against cold and efficient nemesis Joshua, a rivalry that is complicated by her growing attraction to him.
Author: Small, Ron, film director, film producer, screenwriter. Jones, David M. (David Michael), 1951- screenwriter, editor. Keyserling, Billy, film producer. Spitz, Mark, film producer. Eger, Edith Eva, on-screen participant.
Published: 2021 2019
Call Number: 940.53
Format: Video disc
Summary: At the age of sixteen, Edith Eger was sent to Auschwitz. Hours after her parents were killed, Nazi officer Dr. Josef Mengele (The Angel of Death), forced her to dance for his amusement. This dance saved her life.
Author: Mascaro, Gabriel, 1983- film director, screenwriter. Ellis, Rachel Daisy, film producer, screenwriter. Bezzara, Esdras, screenwriter. Paraizo, Lucas, screenwriter. Paes, Dira, 1969- actor.
Published: 2021 2019
Call Number: DIVINE PORTUGUESE
Format: Video disc
Summary: In the year 2027, in a dystopian Brazil, a deeply religious woman uses her position in a notary's office to advance her mission to save struggling couples from divorce. Whilst waiting for a Sign in recognition of her efforts, she is confronted with a crisis in her marriage that ultimately brings her closer to God.
Author: Duras, Marguerite, film director, actor. Sanda, Dominique, 1948- actor. Carrière, Mathieu, actor. Ogier, Bulle, 1939- actor. Icarus Films, publisher.
Published: 2021 1979
Call Number: NAVIRE FRENCH
Format: Video disc
Summary: Writer and filmmaker Marguerite Duras (L'Amant, India Song) explores the matrix of love, desire and language in her characteristically oblique and experimental style. The film's lovers are never allowed to meet in person, instead carrying out their conversations over the phone, using unlisted phone lines leftover from the German occupation of Paris. Elliptical sequences play out in empty streets, nocturnal cityscapes and shadowy interiors, linked together only by the spectral presence of the character's voices. At once dreamlike, intimate and fundamentally anonymous, this film challenges the conventional relationship between sound, image and narrative. A particularly uncompromising expression of Duras's subversive approach to filmmaking, it stands to this day as an equally challenging and rewarding experiment in cinematic modernism.
Author: Thor, Rosiee, author.
Published: 2022
Call Number: Y THOR
Format: Books
Summary: In a world where magic can be bottled and power sipped, seventeen-year-old Ingrid Ellis tries to rise in society on the arm of Lindon Holt, but when she agrees to spy on his father's political opposition in exchange for his approval, she begins to question where her true allegiances lie. In Rosiee Thor's lavish fantasy novel with a Jazz Age spark, a politically savvy teen must weigh her desire to climb the social ladder against her heart in a world where magic buys votes. Flare is power. With only a drop of flare, one can light the night sky with fireworks...or burn a building to the ground--and seventeen-year-old Ingrid Ellis wants her fair share. Ingrid doesn't have a family fortune, monetary or magical, but at least she has a plan: Rise to the top on the arm of Linden Holt, heir to a hefty political legacy and the largest fortune of flare in all of Candesce. Her only obstacle is Linden's father who refuses to acknowledge her. So when Senator Holt announces his run for president, Ingrid uses the situation to her advantage. She strikes a deal to spy on the senator's opposition in exchange for his approval and the status she so desperately craves. But the longer Ingrid wears two masks, the more she questions where her true allegiances lie. Will she stand with the Holts, or will she forge her own path?
Author: Bruni, Frank, author.
Published: 2022
Call Number: B BRUNI
Format: Books
Summary: "From New York Times columnist and bestselling author Frank Bruni comes a wise and moving memoir about aging, affliction, and optimism after partially losing his eyesight. One morning in late 2017, New York Times columnist Frank Bruni woke up with strangely blurred vision. He wondered at first if some goo or gunk had worked its way into his right eye. But this was no fleeting annoyance, no fixable inconvenience. Overnight, a rare stroke had cut off blood to one of his optic nerves, rendering him functionally blind in that eye--forever. And he soon learned from doctors that the same disorder could ravage his left eye, too. He could lose his sight altogether. In The Beauty of Dusk, Bruni hauntingly recounts his adjustment to this daunting reality, a medical and spiritual odyssey that involved not only reappraising his own priorities but also reaching out to, and gathering wisdom from, longtime friends and new acquaintances who had navigated their own traumas and afflictions. The result is a poignant, probing, and ultimately uplifting examination of the limits that all of us inevitably encounter, the lenses through which we choose to evaluate them and the tools we have for perseverance. Bruni's world blurred in one sense, as he experienced his first real inklings that the day isn't forever and that light inexorably fades, but sharpened in another. Confronting unexpected hardship, he felt more blessed than ever before. There was vision lost. There was also vision found"--Publisher's website.
Author: Myers, Adele, author.
Published: 2022
Call Number: F MYERS
Format: Books
Summary: In 1946 North Carolina, seamstress Maddie Sykes, a dressmaker for Bright Leaf's most influential women--the wives of powerful tobacco executives, uncovers dangerous truths about this lucrative industry in a place where everyone depends on Big Tobacco to survive. Maddie Sykes is a burgeoning seamstress who's just arrived in Bright Leaf, North Carolina--the tobacco capital of the South--where her aunt has a thriving sewing business. After years of war rations and shortages, Bright Leaf is a prosperous wonderland in full technicolor bloom, and Maddie is dazzled by the bustle of the crisply uniformed female factory workers, the palatial homes, and, most of all, her aunt's glossiest clientele: the wives of the powerful tobacco executives. But she soon learns that Bright Leaf isn't quite the carefree paradise that it seems. A trail of misfortune follows many of the women, including substantial health problems, and although Maddie is quick to believe that this is a coincidence, she inadvertently uncovers evidence that suggests otherwise. Maddie wants to report what she knows, but in a town where everyone depends on Big Tobacco to survive, she doesn't know who she can trust--and fears that exposing the truth may destroy the lives of the proud, strong women with whom she has forged strong bonds.
Author: Carlisle, Kate, 1951- author.
Published: 2022 2021
Call Number: LP F CARLISLE
Format: Large print
Summary: "Brooklyn and her hunky husband, security expert Derek Stone, have just returned from a delightful trip to Dharma, where the construction of their new home away from home is well underway, when a little black book arrives in the mail from Scotland. The book is a rare British first edition of Rebecca, and there's no return address on the package. The day after the book arrives, Claire Quinn shows up at Brooklyn and Derek's home. Brooklyn met Claire when the two women worked as expert appraisers on the television show This Old Attic. Brooklyn appraised books on the show and Claire's expertise was in antique British weaponry, but they bonded over their shared love of gothic novels. Claire reveals that during a recent trip to Scotland she discovered her beloved aunt was missing and her home had been ransacked. Among her aunt's belongings, Claire found the receipt for the package that wound up with Brooklyn and Derek. Claire believes both her own life and her aunt's are in danger and worries that her past may be coming back to haunt her. But just as Brooklyn and Derek begin to investigate, a man who Claire thinks was following her is found murdered, stabbed with a priceless jeweled dagger. With a death on their doorstep, Brooklyn and Derek page through the little black book, where they discover clues that will take them to the shadows of a medieval Scottish castle on the shores of Loch Ness. Under the watchful gaze of a mysterious laird and the irascible villagers who are suspicious of the strangers in their midst, Brooklyn and Derek must decode the secrets in Rebecca to keep their friend's past from destroying their future..."--
Author: Flower, Amanda, author.
Published: 2022
Call Number: F FLOWER
Format: Books
Summary: "Christmas is coming to the Western New York village of Cascade Springs, and so is the long-awaited wedding of Charming Books proprietor Violet Waverly and police chief David Rainwater. Grandma Daisy and Violet's best friend, Sadie, go all out to make the nuptials the event of the season--whether Violet likes it or not. But the reception becomes memorable for all the wrong reasons when a woman's dead body floats by on the frigid Niagara River." --Front jacket flap
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