Books to Borrow Williamsburg Public Library Recommends

Brent Spiner’s “Mem-Noir” is essentially a celebrity writing fan-fiction of his own life featuring the same show for which he rose to fame. There’s a strange relationship a star can have with fans. Fans come to know celebrities intimately. A moment alone in public must be sacred, especially in this day and age of technology. A celebrity’s life can become a bigger story than the ones they act out on the screen.

This story begins when young Brent Spiner leaves Texas for the first time, throwing himself into the brightly lit and fast-paced uproar of New York City carrying the typical entertainer’s dreams of becoming a star. He achieved those dreams as Data in Gene Roddenberry’s “Star Trek: The Next Generation.”

Just as Spiner is beginning to realize his stardom, he also realizes he has fans. Reading fan mail, he’s flattered and at the same time a bit flummoxed. Some letters are nice, showing admiration. Some are odd and a little unsettling. One woman seems to believe they’ve been communicating regularly and have been having an affair in real life. Then, one comes with something in a package, covered in blood and a foul stench. That’s when the police become involved, and then the FBI and private security. With Spiner’s wit, charm, and sense of humor, none of this is run of the mill. The investigations and interactions with cast members as well as other people from Spiner’s life go from bad to worse, sad to exciting, to down right hilarious. There may even be a happy moment or two. This book will make you laugh out loud while sitting on the edge of your seat waiting to know what happens next. It’s a great read for fans of Star Trek, Hollywood actors, and noir detectives.

We will follow this young actor where no man has gone before, believing much of it to be true, though we’ve been told otherwise. Through flashbacks and one dangerous event after another, Spiner is propelled forward through a terrifying and bizarre journey.

This isn’t your traditional noir fiction since our narrator isn’t a tough Private Eye, but the anxiety-ridden victim who eventually jumps at every shadow to cross his path. Not that he hasn’t got the right, considering some crazed fan wants him dead. Involving Paramount Security, the LAPD, FBI, twins, obsessed fans, and possibly murder, “Fan Fiction” takes the reader into the inside of the Hollywood scene, introducing us to Spiner’s costars and friends, both real and some completely imagined. Featuring cast-mates such as Patrick Stewart and Levar Burton as well as Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, Spiner’s hilarious debut novel is a treat for Trek and sci-fi fans across the universe.