The Sandman, Vol. 1: Preludes & Nocturnes

Gaiman, Neil. The Sandman, Vol. 1: Preludes & Nocturnes. 1995. 234p. ISBN 9781563890116.

Morpheus, the Dream Lord, has just managed to escape his imprisonment at the hands of an occultist who had sought to capture Death instead. For seventy years, Morpheus has denied his captors his power, despite their promises of violence or reward. Meanwhile, the world stopped dreaming. People who were already in dreams remained caught, and were not able to escape what became known as the sleep sickness.

A mistake on the prison guards' part allowed Morpheus to escape, but he did not find his tools, the mask, the ruby, and the pouch of sand. These were stolen from the cult a long time ago. With so much work to do now that he is released, Morpheus returns to his castle, and plots the retrieval of his missing items. However, powerful forces stand in his way. First, Morpheus seeks his sand pouch, which has been abused by a former drug addict. He enrolls a private detective to help him retrieve it. He then visits Hell, to secure his mask. Finally, he confronts Doctor Destiny, who seeks to make everyone mad through the use of the ruby amulet.

With his items secured at last, Morpheus sets out to rebuild his kingdom, but not before having a conversation with Death ...

The story continues in Sandman, Vol. 2.

An Appetite for Miracles

Kemp, Laekan Zea. An Appetite for Miracles. 2023. 448p. ISBN 9780316461733.

Danna knows she's a little on the chunky side ... actually, a lot on the chunky side. She loves food. She loves to cook it, and she loves to eat it. Her mother is always after her to lose some weight, and she closely monitors what Danna eats. Danna wishes her mother would just accept her as she is, not as she could be. The family has bigger problems anyway. Danna's grandfather, who lives with them, suffers from Alzheimer, and he is gradually forgetting more and more as the disease progresses. It's becoming difficult to keep hum safe.

Raúl loves to play music, and his favorite thing is to play guitar for the elderly. It helps them remember their lives' happy events and memories. And it lets Raúl forget that his mother has been in prison for the last two years. Raúl and his uncle travel to old folks' homes, and also play in people's homes. This is how he ends up at Danna's house, and a spark is lit between the two of them.

When Danna comes across a journal he wrote in his youth about the places he visited with his wife and the wonderful foods they ate, Danna decides she will prepare those dishes, with the hope that it will spark a memory and help slow her grandfather's descent into a deeper state of Alzheimer. Raúl, meanwhile, is dealing with his mother being released early from prison. The two years she was gone were rough, but now she's a changed person, and not necessarily for the better. 

As Raúl and Danna navigates the waters of a budding relationship while dealing with dramatic family issues, can they rely on each other to get through these changes?

Fancy Bear Goes Phishing: The Dark History of the Information Age, in Five Extraordinary Hacks

Shapiro, Scott J. Fancy Bear Goes Phishing: The Dark History of the Information Age, in Five Extraordinary Hacks. 2023. 432p. ISBN 9780374601171.

The rise of the Internet facilitated communications and the exchange of information, but it also exposed vulnerabilities in a system not designed with security in mind. Hackers became infamous as they exploited weaknesses and accessed sensitive information. From the leak of Paris Hilton's sex tape to Edward Snowden's exfiltration of millions of NSA documents, and from the graduate student who built the first virus to Russian hackers attempting to influence the 2016 American election, cyber incidents and hackers routinely make the news.

But how is cybersecurity organized? What does it mean when your computer has a virus? How are denial of service attacks executed? Fancy Bear Goes Phishing provides clear explanations to these and more questions as Shapiro reviews five specific incidents that have taken place since the early 1980s, and what lessons we can draw from these to better protect ourselves. Ultimately, Shapiro argues, the current structure of the Internet remains oriented more towards the free flowing of information than the protection of this information, though humans remain the greatest vulnerability. 

Readers interested in computers, in programming, or in exploring what happened behind the scene of some of the world's most famous hacks will thoroughly enjoy Shapiro's incisive and crisp writing style.

Wait Till Helen Comes: A Ghost Story Graphic Novel

Peterson, Scottt, Meredith Laxton, and Russ Badgett. Wait Till Helen Comes: A Ghost Story Graphic Novel. 2022. 160p. ISBN 9780358536895. Available in the graphic novels section of the library.

Molly and Michael have not been very happy since their mother remarried. Dave, their new stepfather, came with a young daughter of his own. At seven, Heather has already been through a lot. A house fire when she was three killed her mother. Heather is very manipulative, and Molly's parents always take Heather's side. 

When the family moves out of Baltimore and into an old church next to a graveyard, Molly is ill at ease. She feels the presence of a ghost, and Heather has been acting even more mean than before. With their parents involved in their respective art projects, and with Michael not believing in ghosts, Molly is as lonely as she's ever been.

Heather seems to have fallen under Helen's spell, a young girl who died a century ago in a house fire. Helen wants Heather to join her in the palace of mermaids. As Helen's malevolent intentions create havoc on her family, it's up to Molly to stop Helen, before it's too late...

Fractured Tide

Lutz, Leslie. Fractured Tide. 2020. 336p. ISBN 9780310770107.

Like a fish in water, Sia loves to dive and explore shipwrecks. Running a charter boat with her mother and younger brother, Sia takes passengers out into the Florida Keys, where they can explore ships that sank years ago. Homeschooled on the boat, there's nowhere else Sia would rather be. And her life would be perfect, if only her dad wasn't in prison following a violent assault.

A dive at an old World War II wreck that starts just like the others, filled with the odd tourist, ends terribly when one of the divers Sia was charged with drowns. At first, Sia can't explain what happened to her mother, who is devastated. Sia can't or won't comprehend the huge grey shape with wiggling tentacles that seized the man and killed him. When their boat stops working, they are rescued by another charter boat, this one captained by a jerk named Phil and carrying students who are conducting a science expedition. Among these students are people Sia knows. Ben, a boy she kind of likes, and Stephanie, a girl she got in trouble and who happens to be Ben's ex-girlfriend.

When that ship is attacked by the monster and sunk, Sia washes ashore on a seemingly deserted island with her younger brother Felix, Ben, and Stephanie. Sia is confronted by another shipwrecked guy, who has a gun, but he disappears in the jungle. Without food or water, the teens must survive on the island, but they soon notice that everything seems to repeat over and over. And Sia has visions of things that have happened before, giving her hints as to actions she has taken in previous iterations of the loop they are caught in. 

With a monster still lurking in the water, with an island filled with secrets, and with a lunatic man who thinks he's a sailor from the sunken World War II wreck, Sia will need all of her survival and diving skills to keep her friends alive one more day ...

A great science fiction story reminiscent of the movie Ground Hog Day and the series Lost, the protagonists are caught in a perpetual loop that they must escape. Sia's feelings, experiences, and emotions are raw as she struggles with her current reality. Told in the form of diary entries, Fractured Tide captures the angst and agony of being caught with no way to escape.

Big Men Fear Me

Bourrie, Mark. Big Men Fear Me. 2022. 320p. ISBN 9781771964937.

George McCullagh was born in 1905 in Canada to a working class family. As a youth, he began delivering the daily newspaper, and he eventually sought to become a reporter, but was instead offered the job of booking subscriptions for the newspaper. Dropping out of school at 16, McCullagh was so successful at selling subscriptions that he was promoted to work at the Toronto headquarters of the newspaper, where he became assistant editor. He also specialized in mining that was taking place in Northern Ontario, which eventually led him to work at the Toronto Stock Exchange as a mining and oil specialist. There he invested wisely and built a fortune on purchasing and trading mineral rights.

In his early thirties, he returned to his first love when he purchased two Toronto newspapers, the Globe and the Mail and Empire in 1936, before merging them in a new entity called The Globe and Mail. A major donor to the Liberal Party of Ontario, McCullagh got involved in provincial and federal politics, with some expecting him to eventually become Canada's prime minister. Unfortunately, McCullagh suffered from mental illness and physical ailments, and his demons were never far behind. At age 46, following a third heart attack in a few years, McCullagh committed suicide, ending a tumultuous life.

Attack on Titan, Vol. 4

Isayama, Hajime. Attack on Titan, Vol. 4. 2012. 192p. ISBN 9781612622538. Available in the graphic novels section of the library.

In Attack on Titan, Vol. 3, Eren was given the mission to transform into a Titan and move a giant rock to block the entrance to the city so that Titans could no longer come in and feast on humans. Embedded inside the Titan, however, Eren lost contact with his humanity. With Titans converging on Eren's prone form, Armin jumped on his back and tried to reconnect with Eren's humanity, reminding him of his desire to explore the world and rid it of Titans.

His desperate gambit works, and Eren regains control of his faculty. Hauling the large boulder towards the gate, his friends form a shield to protect him from attacks by other Titans. His mission accomplished, Eren, Misaka and Armin are rescued and evacuated, and soon the remaining Titans within the city walls are killed. This is the first human victory against Titans!

But Eren is arrested and interrogated, his allegiance still in question. As he sits in prison, he remembers how he joined the military and his days as a Survey Corp trainee. The bonds and the friendships he formed during this period loom large in his mind as he awaits a decision by the Captain of the Survey Corp on whether he will be accepted ...

The story continues in Attack on Titan, Vol. 5.

Hamlet is Not Okay

Spratt, R. A. Hamlet is Not Okay. 2023. 224p. ISBN 9780143779278.

To say that Selby is not a fan of reading would be an understatement. In fact, Selby positively hates reading. It is difficult, and she often doesn't comprehend the text. Which is ironic, considering her parents own a bookstore and Selby works there part time. A couple years ago, Selby realized that she didn't have to read the assigned texts in class to still pass. Until she got to Shakespeare. Seeing her failing grade in English, her parents ground Selby. No more television, no more hanging out with friends. Now it's all about staying home, working, and reading Hamlet so Selby can pass her English class.

But when Selby begins reading Hamlet, with the help of Dan, another teen who works in the bookstore, they find themselves transported into the play itself, where everything comes to life. Armed with modern sensibilities and the overconfidence teens possess, Selby and Dan set off to avoid, or at least prevent, many of the tragedies that occur in the play. Her interventions reveal that Hamlet's fateful decisions were guided not by madness, but by the fact that he was slowly being poisoned by his uncle.

Transported back to their time, Hamlet makes quite an impression on Selby's parents, and his promise of marrying her is borne more from grief than from true love. Selby decides she must return Hamlet to his own story, before he takes over her own. And in the process, Selby develops a deep appreciation and understanding of the story and of the characters, allowing her to finally pass her English class and prove to her parents that she "read" Shakespeare.

A very cool take on a classic of English literature, Selby's adventures with Dan and Hamlet provides a hilarious take on what could be if one had the ability to rewrite a story. Fans of Shakespeare will appreciate this wonderfully crafted take on a book that can be hard to understand!

The Woman Who Split the Atom: The Life of Lise Meitner

 Moss, Marissa. The Woman Who Split the Atom: The Life of Lise Meitner. 2022. 264p. ISBN 9781419758539.

From a young age, Austrian Lise Meitner was fascinated by science, and she was especially attracted to physics. Encourage by her father to study science despite the fact that girls did not attend high school, much less university, Lise persevered and fought against prejudices to eventually gain admission at the University, where she earned a doctorate in physics in the early 20th century. 

Her talent and grasp of physics allowed her to remain in an otherwise all male field, and she secured a teaching position in Germany, albeit at a much lower salary than her colleagues. Regardless, Lise was never happier than working in her own lab, conducting experiments. She had several discoveries and published numerous papers in the 1910s and 1920s, but by the 1930s, restrictions on Jews in Germany severely constrained her work. In 1938 she escaped Germany and arrived in Sweden, where she settled for the rest of her life.

Still working with German colleagues, Lise discovered nuclear fission in mid 1938, following her escape. This proved Einstein's theory, and revolutionized the field of nuclear physics. This discovery was ascribed to a male colleague of hers, however, who eventually won the Nobel prize for something Lise had done. The possibility of splitting atoms to create energy was a step forward in the development of humanity, but it came with the very real fear that it could also be used as a weapon. Lise supported nuclear energy for power, but was aghast at the idea that Germany would build a nuclear weapon. 

The destruction of Nagasaki and Hiroshima in August 1945 horrified Lise , who was even named the mother of the bomb in the press. Over the years, Lise was nominated 19 times for the Nobel Prize in Chemistry and 30 times for the Nobel Prize in Physics, but never received it. Her gender and her religion continued to affect her for the rest of her life. An assumed pacifist, Lise continued to study and teach physics for the rest of her life.