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Welcome to Active Reading
Reading Groups
At their simplest, Reading Groups are people who enjoy reading and
talking about books. They are informal, welcoming and fun - not like going
back to school. Some groups read a chosen book, author or subject each
month, while others just choose from the latest titles and talk about the
books they have enjoyed. Meetings take place in the mornings, afternoons
and evenings in various libraries. If your
local library does not have a
reading group, you can
search for one here.
 Feature: How Buffy Changed Everything
A guide to the new wave of Horror and
Supernatural fiction.
Joss Whedon’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer was a once-in-a-generation, mould
breaking TV series that ran for seven seasons between 1997 & 2003,
generated an almost-equally compelling spin-off series in Angel, and led
to a revolution in the way horror and supernatural fiction was written
and read.
After years of slightly grubby predictability, the supernatural was
suddenly cool, funny, sexy, and appealing to a young readership.
Here are some of the rising stars of post-Buffy fiction: stake them out
at your local library!
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Author |
Title |
Series |
Notes
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Mike Carey |
The Devil you know |
Felix Castor |
Hard boiled exorcist Castor
makes a scant living dealing with the ghostly and undead
inhabitants of a scarily down-at-heel postmillennial London |
|
Mary Janice Davidson |
Undead & Unwed |
Betsy Taylor : Undead |
Betsy Taylor has literally
a week from hell. After a disastrous day at work, she is knocked
down and killed.
She wakes in a coffin dressed in an ugly pink suit and her
wicked stepmother’s throw away shoes. This funny and inventive
book merges Chick Lit and vampire novels.
|
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Tanya Huff |
Blood Price |
Blood… |
The first of a series
featuring Toronto PI Vicky Nelson & Henry Fitzroy, the vampire
illegitimate son of Henry VIII. Wonderful characters, exciting
plot, lots of humour.
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Charlaine Harris |
Dead after Dark |
Sookie Stackhouse |
Sookie is a great character: a mind-reading, vampire dating, small town cocktail waitress
from Bon Temps, Louisiana. A sexy, fun, fast paced novel… and
the rest of the series only gets better!
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Jim Butcher |
Storm Front |
Dresden Files |
Harry Dresden, the only
Wizard in the Chicago phone book, is called in to help
investigate a grisly double murder by Black Magic. Magic : it
can get a guy killed…
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David Devereux |
Hunters Moon |
|
Tough, fast-paced, sexy
thriller in which the hero, a supernatural SAS-type government
operative, attempts to foil a plot by a coven of witches to kill
the Prime Minister.
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Kelley Armstrong |
Bitten |
Women of the Otherworld |
Elena is a strong, engaging
heroine and the only living female werewolf. Her struggles to
balance her normal human life and relationships against her
loyalty to the Pack and her werewolf lover, Clay, make a
gripping read.
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|
Kim Harrison |
Dead Witch Walking |
Rachel Morgan |
Rachel is a white witch and
police officer in Cincinnati, in a world where various
supernatural beings from vampires to pixies coexist uneasily
with the human population. After quitting her job, she has a
price on her head, and needs to dodge assassins while working
out how to get her old boss off her back. Funny and
action-packed with lots of twists and a great start to a popular
series.
|
|
Sherrilyn Kenyon |
Night Pleasures |
Dark-Hunter |
Kyrian of Thrace is a Dark
Hunter, an immortal who having sold his soul for revenge, spends
eternity hunting the vampires and demons that plague mankind.
Greek Mythology, supernatural action, sex, and a complex plot
set up one of the most popular supernatural erotic series.
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Laurell K. Hamilton
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Guilty Pleasures |
Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter |
Anita Blake, an animator, licensed vampire executioner and
necromancer who lives in St. Louis in a world where supernatural
beings mingle with humans. Against her better judgment she
investigates a serial killer preying on the city’s vampire
community. An appealing and gutsy heroine in a dark and
well-drawn supernatural setting, the beginning of a fast-moving
and popular series.
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 Feature: Get Passionate
Feel the Passion as libraries all around
the North-West cuddle up to bring you the very best of modern romance!
Following on from a successful launch at
The Atrium, Wigan Town Hall, in April, Pure Passion aims to make hearts
beat faster as the search for the region’s best romantic read continues.
Pure Passion is a promotion of Romantic
Fiction co-ordinated by the North West Libraries’ Reader Development
partnership Time To Read in partnership with the Romantic Novelists
Association and sponsored by Bertram's Books.
Vote now for your favourite romantic read! Get passionate at:
http://www.time-to-read.co.uk/promotion/default.asp?id=1
Read This!
 Heart-Shaped
Box by Joe Hill
Gollancz, ISBN 0575079126
This is a first horror novel by Joe Hill, who is (a very well known
secret), the son of Stephen King.
It starts with a great premise ; an aging rock star, Judas Coyne, buys a
ghost on the internet.
This is the start of a complex and chilling tale of revenge and
redemption, in which nothing is as it seems.
There are many genuinely chilling moments, and “Heart-Shaped Box” is a
quick and compelling read : though it does lose it’s way slightly in the
middle, as do many first novels.
Highly recommended, with a special mention for the truly gorgeous book
production which screams “read me” as soon as you see it.
Google This! Jodi
Picoult author site:
http://www.jodipicoult.com
Fine site for best-selling novelist Jodi Picoult, who writes about
ordinary American families going through extraordinary circumstances:
novels regularly recommended by Richard & Judy and other reviewers.
Includes author and tour news, a selection of images, interviews, book
details, podcasts, and a forum.
For further information,
contact:
Stephen Lythgoe, Reader-in-Residence, Turnpike Centre, Leigh Library,
Leigh WN7 1EB
Tel: (01942) 404566 Fax: (01942) 404567 E-mail:
s.lythgoe@wlct.org
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