Best of the year show! Ours’ is superior in that you get our favorites from the library. Because we are human, we mention some things we absorbed in 2012 but were not necessarily released in 2012. We end with a teary-eyed look back at the year that was in Popmatic Podcast land. Are those tears of laughter or tears of rage?
Of all the events happening at the library in December, the one that gets us most excited is Amanda’s holiday concert featuring herself and her students.
Needing a Hunger Games itch scratched? This newish young adult series by Veronica Roth can help! Set in a future Chicago, Divergent is the first in a dystopian trilogy that features Beatrice (later “Tris”) Prior. Beatrice’s Chicago is one in which society is separated into five factions that roughly fit into the following respective characteristics: Brave, Truthful, Intelligent, Selfless, and Peaceful. Until the age of 16, children are in the faction they were born into, but are allowed to choose which faction they will join permanently during a Reapingchoosing ceremony.
The factions have their own Hunger Games initiation in which tributes initiates must win pass or die face becoming factionless (a fate equal to death). Meanwhile the districts factions are at odds with each other and the system that they created. Complete with body modification, child on child violence, and a bit of a lurrrrrve story, it’s hard not to compare this series to the Hunger Games. However, there is enough uniqueness to set it apart and make for an enjoyable and suspenseful read nonetheless. Not to mention, this series has a dose more character choice built in to the plot and a bit more “science” in its science-fiction than Hunger Games. I should also say that I didn’t realize the overt similarities to Suzanne Collins’ trilogy until writing this review. While reading Divergent, I just enjoyed the read.
The sequel, Insurgent, is out and available, but this reviewer has not read it yet as the final book in the trilogy is not set to come out until Fall of 2013 and I’m not that patient, so I’m pacing myself.
Did Prometheus leave you too scared and confused to leave your house? We dissect the movie and provide you with a plethora of other alien themed SF titles for you to check out. We end with what is tickling our fancy (besides tentacles).
Ray Bradbury was the homey wizard of American science fiction. Most often associated with SF in public consciousness, he also dedicated much of his working life to poetry and drama. Before his death at age 91, he had earned the National Medal of the Arts and was named a Commandeur by the French Order of Arts and Letters. He gained fame in the 1950s with the publication of The Martian Chronicles, but his most beloved title to librarians is probably Fahrenheit 451due to its provenance being a pay typewriter in a California library and its anti-censorship theme. Some of my colleagues swear by Dandelion Wine(a great summer reading choice by the way). For those into the creep, check out Something Wicked This Way Comes, a horror-fantasy classic. I’d put my money on Truffaut’s 1966 interpretation of Fahrenheitfor which Bradbury himself wrote the screenplay.
I remember being at panel where a number of big chair types were taking swipes at Bradbury when a brave 15-year old jutted up his leather banded wrist and declared that kids don’t like to read but if you give them something like Fahrenheit 451 then they might actually like to read. I thought to myself: this kid’s the future.
Do you have a Bradbury memory? Leave it in the comments.
Special thanks to Adam Deane for the rad new theme song. The crew gives our unprofessional opinion on ebooks and ereaders. Tickling our fancy is (surprise, surprise) other book-themed podcasts, wizards, science fiction nonfiction on TV, and hunky men. Best of all – Jesse’s predictions!
- Bryan Note: Jesse is spot-on with the ebook privacy breakdown. Private library member data is not shared with Overdrive or Amazon. All borrowing transactions occur over secure connections.
- Kyle
Iconic science fiction writer Philip K. Dick, PKD to non-noobs, had a series of religious, or psychotic, or neuro-farting episodes during months of February and March of 1974. You know: visitation from angels, pink beams, gnosis from the Lord and / or aliens. The kind of stuff you find on other side of the rainbow. Dick referred to these events as “2-3-74.” “2-3-74” informed all his novels thereafter. The theological bent of these novels divided fans, but I think they are some of his best. Those novels are only a gleaming of the thousands of pages he wrote trying to make sense of “2-3-74.” Dick called this unending (unendable?) nonfiction work as his “exegesis.” Fans called it the holy grail. Locked away for years, it has been unearthed and edited to a somewhat manageable size (800+ pages) by Jonathan Lethem and Pamela Jackson. So now we can dig into the raw stuff. Dick’s real reactions to his mystical experiences.
This probably isn’t the best place for noobs to start but who knows maybe it is best to just dive right in the deep end. For those not interested in SF novels, I would recommend this book for the seekers, the wanderers, those that still haven’t found what they are looking for (though this text might be a cruel joke) or anyone whose knowledge of Christianity is sufficient enough to be familiar with the word Parakletos. For years critics have been saying Dick is our Dostoyevsky, our Borges, and now he can also be our Jung, our Swedenborg, our Meister Eckhart. Go non-noob yourself.
Just in time for Halloween, Bill brings us an interview with director Stuart Gordon. Mr. Gordon has directed Re- Animator, From Beyond, Dagon, and Space Truckers. Mr. Gordon has seen it all while on the set. Parental discretion is advised.
Space Truckers will be shown on Saturday October 1, 2011 at the Nashville Public Library at 2 p.m.
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Comments (3) 
Best of the year show! Ours’ is superior in that you get our favorites from the library. Because we are human, we mention some things we absorbed in 2012 but were not necessarily released in 2012. We end with a teary-eyed look back at the year that was in Popmatic Podcast land. Are those tears of laughter or tears of rage?
Themocracy