"We went to the moon to have fun, but the moon turned out to completely suck."

From Feed a book by M.T. Anderson

As previously noted (Book Report ) the Monona Public Library Board (Public Library) takes a little time at the end of each meeting to share a few books. This month Philip Heckman offered Feed (Amazon link) a story about the near-future where everyone gets an implant at birth that connects them to some sort of hyper-consumerist super Internet - except one girl who doesn't get hers until she is seven and it later begins to fail. A cyberpunk book for the YA audience that should be read by us OA's too.

Here's an interesting review: Feed by MT Anderson - an infinity plus review

Here's a link to the library's catalog (so you can check it out from the comfort of your wherever): Feed /

Philip also offered the somewhat more conventional True grit : a novel / (LinkCat catalog) and as usual it appears the book is better than the movie (which is going some in this case). The author has been described as "one of the most inventively comic writers of western fiction. With an unerring ear for the rhythms of speech and idiosyncrasies of language, he delivers deadpan humor as his characters strive to come to terms with their own limitations and an increasingly cockeyed world." Portis

I enjoy good literature set in the Old West, like A.B. Guthrie (The Big Sky and The Way West)and Larry McMurtry (Lonesome Dove: A Novel (Simon & Schuster Classics) and Comanche Moon : A Novel) and Guy Vanderhaeghe (The Last Crossing), but have somehow missed Charles Portis.

By the way, I see that the LinkCat catalogs lists 22 copies of True Grit, but none of them at the Monona library. We have a beautiful building with great staff, but we need to improve the collection! And the city council will have a chance to do that tomorrow night.