Zombie, Ohio: A Tale of The Undead / by Scott Kenemore

Peter Mellor, a philosophy professor at a small Ohio college, suddenly dies in a car accident while driving home one night. Only he isn't really dead. He's been "reborn" as a zombie, an oddly intelligent one at that, in a world having undergone a zombie apocalypse. While this new world is firmly infested with the living dead roaming creation and eager to feed off those still yet undead, Peter is actually one of the few (maybe the only one) who can comingle with both the hoards of lurching ghouls and the enclaves of "normies" who are eager to protect their lives at any cost. Despite suffering from severe headaches and bouts with amnesia, what's clearly evident to Peter is the the rapidly devolution of society as a whole.

Both the undead and the yet undead share a common trait of decomposition and depravity--the zombies already the embodiment of mindless parasites and the increasingly violent humans, having adopted a bloodlust of their own in loosely organized cells of militia and para-military cloisters, largely unsympathetic as beings of mass paranoia with hair-trigger mentalities. Peter soon learns that though he can still reason coherently with his former colleagues and friends, he's nonetheless hunted and preyed upon as "one of them" and must hide out to protect himself. And even though he's immune to the ravenous insanity of his zombie brethren, he finds that he's constantly having to suppress a growing addiction to the increasingly more appetizing gooey stuff inside people's heads. As if that weren't enough, Peter's also come to the conclusion that his car accident death may not have been entirely accidental and his resulting strange "afterlife" may have more to it than just a zany twist.

In a coy and intriguing take on the zombie genre and a book which may soon be seen, in some form, on the big screen, author Scott Kenemore looks at more than just what makes us alive or dead, but what in fact makes us human and, moreover, to what capacity can supposed fully rational being become mindless beasts. What is first a very humorous take on the currently en vogue horror genre, maintaining a tongue-in-cheek comedic appeal throughout its narrative, Zombie, Ohio is an innovative look at the realm of existence and the nature of conscious reality. After all, it's not staying alive which is the thing at stake in the zombie mode, but staying dead as well. (FIC KENEMORE)

Winesburg, Ohio / by Sherwood Anderson

Few writers have captured the conscious of small town America as uniquely as Sherwood Anderson. His 1916 novel Winesburg, Ohio was described by John Updike as “feverish, phantasmal and dreamlike . . . a veritable cross-section of Midwestern life”. Similar in scope to Thornton Wilder’s "Our Town" or even Joyce’s Dubliners, Anderson’s fictional Winesburg is a string of loosely interconnected short stories centering on several of the community’s more prominent (and not-so-prominent) figures.


“That’s how it’ll be. That’s how everything’ll turn out.”

20-year-old George Willard wants to write. Louise Drunnion wants a husband. Farmer Jesse Bentley wants his grandson to see things his way. Tom Foster wants another drink and Seth Richmond just wants to be left alone. All want something other than what their quiet Midwestern town of Winesburg, Ohio has to offer. Because in 1890’s America, Winesburg is still an agrarian society, a world of farming and dependence on the soil far removed from the progressive industry and accelerated pace of cosmopolitan metropolises. Little in the way of lifestyle has changed in the last 150 years. How each person manifests his and her own destiny is not just a personalized endeavor, but an enterprise reflecting the conscious and collective temperament of the entire town. Quiet desperation looms like a fog over everything, giving rise to indiscretions, misunderstandings and personal tragedies; unintended for the most part, but disheartening all the same.

Seamlessly does Anderson weave together his microcosm of 19th century American life and yet his world is one which could exist anywhere at anytime. Because, as Anderson demonstrates, all persons must encounter the human condition in one form or another. In Winesburg, though honorable and even noble ambitions aspire within each character, misfortune and disillusionment are realized as the common fate, an inevitable conclusion for anyone mercilessly thrown underfoot of carnal temptations and personal passions. (FIC ANDERSON)

October Reader's Rants

An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness /
by Kay Redfield Jamison, M.D.
Dr. Jamison is Chief of the Psychiatry Department at Johns Hopkins. She is also a life long manic-depressive making her a leading authority on this brand of bipolar disorder. Extreme despair and hyperactivity accompany Jamison from adolescence into her 40’s as she struggles through tattered relationships, spending spree manias, even a near fatal suicide attempt—all resulting from her condition. An acute perspective in the realm of depressive illnesses, her memoir is extremely insightful for anyone involved with someone suffering from a disease of this type.

The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid / by Bill Bryson
Think of Beaver Cleaver in his cuffed jeans and buzz cut eating dinner with his family. Now picture him sneaking in to a strip club. Such is the dichotomy of this authentic, humorous, and openly lascivious memoir by Bill Bryson who somehow embraces the 1950's America without censoring human nature. Bryson uproots his own Iowa childhood reminiscing on a wide spectrum of nuances like grade school drama, red scare follies, and Sunday morning TV. An easy read perhaps most aimed at baby boomers, this is for anyone wanting a laugh with a dose of nostalgia.

The Lost: A Search for Six of the Six Million / by Daniel Mendolshon

All or most of Holocaust literature is retrospective in nature. And while this book deals heavily with the past, it closes the gap between living history and the present day via Mendelshon’s passionate journey of discovery. Almost like true crime or forensic literature, we see a heavily involved man—Mendolsohn—seeking the truth behind his holocaust era Jewish relatives who vanished during the final solution. Plodding at times, readers may get too bogged down with details to appreciate the mystery.