Noragami Stray God, Vol. 16

Adachitoka. Noragami: Stray God, Vol. 16. 2016. 200p. ISBN 978-1-63236-257-5. Available in the Graphic Section of the library.

The Heavens are in uproar. Armed with the legendary blessed vessel Nana, a powerful shinki who once rebelled against the Heavens, Bishamon, the goddess of war, has vowed to eliminate the crafter of Ayakashis once and for all. But by retrieving and freeing Nana from her eternal prison in Noragami Stray God Vol. 15, Bishamon has incurred the wrath of the Celestial Court, and a bevy of gods have been tasked to execute her for high treason.

Yato joins the execution squad, but finds himself torn. On the one hand he reluctantly wishes to protect the crafter, his father, from Bishamon. On the other hand, Bishamon has helped him many times, and Hiyori has begged him to help her. Faced with an impossible choice, and prodded on all sides, Yato decides to stand with Bishamon against the Heavens. Meanwhile, Kazuma, who has been captured by the Heavenly guard, is forced to answer questions about Bishamon's betrayal.

As the battle rages, only one side can triumph. Did Yato make the right choice?

20th Century Art, 1940-1960: Emotion and Expression

Gaff, Jackie. 20th Century Art, 1940-1960: Emotion and Expression. 2000. 32p. ISBN 978-0-8368-2851-8. Available at 709.04 GAF on the library shelves.

The Second World War affected everyone, including artists, and the mood of pessimism and dread trickled down into the works of the period. But as the war reached its climactic end and the Nazis and Japanese were defeated, a sense of optimism rekindled the art world. Artists reached deep within them to make sense of the consequences of the war, and their art reflected a darkness brought about by discovery of the Holocaust and the indiscriminate violence of a vicious war. With Europe devastated, the center of gravity of the art world shifted to New York City, and American artists rose in prominence.

Jackson Pollock made famous the dripping and flicking techniques of painting, creating expressive abstract paintings. Others returned to the subconscious to draw forth images and inspiration, creating bold and visually attractive art. Very large expanses of colors on canvases allowed artists to display art that overwhelmed and surrounded the viewer. Sculptures also evolved, moving from a conscious inspiration to a stream of consciousness that displayed surprise and celebration.

Other art currents ebbed and flowed through the decades, but towards the end of the 1950s Pop emerged as the dominant form. Inspired from magazines and luxury lifestyles, Pop involved everyday images and objects depicted in new and surprising ways.

Apocalypse Taco

Hale, Nathan. Apocalypse Taco. 2019. 128p. ISBN 9781683354796. Available as an ebook from Overdrive.

Sid and Ivan are siblings, and they spend a lot of time with the high school drama club. Their mother is the drama coach, and they are rehearsing the high school's latest performance. Near midnight, with the whole crew hungry, the boys are sent to the local Taco place to purchase food for everyone. The restaurant appears busy, but no one seems to be hearing them. Suddenly an alien monster emerges from the shadows, and a pursuit ensues. The Taco restaurant is the epicenter of an alien outbreak, with monstrous copies of items around the world emerging from deep inside the restaurant.

Armed with nothing but a desire for life, the brothers, their driver, and the monsters they encounter fight off against a hive spirit determined to copy and remake the world. Discovering clues along the way, they manage to fight off the monsters, only to realize that destroying the original cause of the aliens will be deadly.

Quirky, Apocalypse Taco features strange artwork and a stranger storyline. The whole story holds together, however, and reveals truths about what it means to be an individual. Fans of graphic novels will appreciate Hale's take on a dystopian world. For more work from Nathan Hale, take a look at Treaties, Trenches, Mud and Blood.

Grace and Fury

Banghart, Tracy. Grace and Fury. 2018. 320p. 519 mins. ISBN 9781549172595. Available as an audiobook from Overdrive.

In a world where girls are not allowed to read and have very limited options, being a Grace is one of the most attractive positions in Viridia. Upon her birth, Serina's parents saw that she would be very beautiful. They spent their meager income insuring that she would learn the proper skills necessary to be a Grace, a consort to the Superior. Every three years, three Graces are selected by the Superior to join his household. They provide entertainment, companionship, and heirs. Serina has grown up training mercilessly to ensure that she would be one of the girls picked, which should secure her family a future free from wants.

Her younger sister, Nomi, has trained as a handmaiden, the girl that accompanies a Grace, and the sisters hope to stay together. Whereas Serina is compliant and graceful, however, Nomi is willful and strong-headed. She learned how to read when her brother illegally taught her, and she wants more from life than servitude, even if it is to help her sister. She wishes to break the bonds that tie women to a second-class status.

At the Superior's court, Nomi catches the eye of the Heir, who appoints her one of his three Graces. Serina is humiliated but agrees to serve Nomi as her handmaiden. Both girls find themselves in roles for which they have not been prepared. Nomi, who stole a book from the Superior's library, is resistant to the Heir's approach. Serina is caught with Nomi's book, and to protect her sister she takes the blame, but is condemned to prison on Mount Ruin. There she discover a deadly world where girls fight against each other under the watchful eye of the male prison guards. Nomi, meanwhile, becomes part of a plot designed to overthrow the Superior and free her sister. Both of them make deadly choices, however, and soon find themselves in a perilous situation ...

Another example of girls pitted against themselves for the hand of the crown, Grace and Fury is nevertheless different enough to be intriguing. By flipping the roles on Serina and Nomi, the reader experiences the sudden change in their life circumstances, and roots for both of them to emerge unharmed, if not psychologically unscathed, from their experiences. Fans of The Selection, Red Queen, and others will appreciate the story and grit displayed by both main characters.

This is Your Brain on MusicThis is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession

Levitin, Daniel J. This is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession. 2007. 314p. 490 mins. ISBN 9781101929162. Available as an audiobook from Overdrive as well as at 781 LEV on the library shelves.

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For most people, music is something we enjoy listening to, but we don't really think about what impact music has on our brain. Sophisticated artists have figured out how to appeal to various aspects of our brain by creating music that resonates with the audience. Behind all of this, however are neurological and behavioral sciences that explain what actually happens to your brain when you hear music, what evolutionary part music played in humanity's history, and how it continues to be enjoyable from our formative moments in our mother's womb to our teenage years and beyond.

Music is like any skill. Though there are some prodigies who master it very quickly, for most it is countless hours of practice that leads to mastery. Music itself plays upon the same neuron pathways that language uses, and can be used to communicate information. We may not consider ourselves musical, but our ears are perfectly evolved to detect and appreciate harmonics that even a super computer has trouble processing. How music affects our brain helps us understand not only how our brain works, but how our species evolved rhythms and sounds to attract mates and how this then led to actual language.

Fans of music will appreciate the research behind how we hear and appreciate music, as well as the history of how it has come to be an important part of humanity.

Dark Shores

Jensen, Danielle. Dark Shores. Book 1 of the Dark Shores series. 2019. 368p. ISBN 9781250317728. Available as an audiobook from Overdrive.

The Maarin people are seafarers who travel up and down the coast of the Celendor Empire, a continent-wide conquering power. Backed by its powerful legions, the Senate leads with an iron fist. Only the Maarins, who transport valuable goods between distant locations, are exempted from the harsh rules that apply to all Cel citizens, such as taxes and the giving up of the second boy of every family to the legions.

Teriana lives on the Quincense, her mother’s ship. As second in command of the ship, she is also heir to one of the three leaders of the Maarins. When their ship arrives in the capital in time for the election of the next Consul, she realizes that all is not well in Celendor. Two full legions have gathered on the outskirts as one of the candidates plans a power play.

Marcus commands one of the two legions, the 37th. This is the Empire’s blood-thirstiest legion and is known to have massacred a whole island, enslaving over 160,000 people and glutting the slave markets. Cassius, one of the senators running for the post of Consul, blackmails him into voting for him with his entire legion otherwise he will reveal Marcus’ secret of being an ill first son who was swapped in favor of his  younger brother. Not wanting to bring ruin to his family, Marcus agrees.

Cassius then proposes to send Marcus, his legion and the 41st to the other side of the world on Maarin ships. The Maarins, much like Marcus, have secrets they wish to hide, and one of them is that their trade routes take them to another vast continent across the ocean. They protect this secret with their lives, but a mistake on Teriana’s part has revealed this information to Cassius, who now wishes to direct imperial forces to seize these new lands.

A pariah to her own people, Teriana is forced to act as a guide to Marcus and take his forces across a watery magical way to a continent where people still believe in gods and where these very gods play an active role in the lives of their people. With secrets upon secrets, Teriana and Marcus become involved in a deadly dance where they both need each other to survive the journey and free the Maarins, but only at the cost of enslaving a whole continent....