City of Dark Magic

I've probably read some books in the last couple of years that are more literary or more more meaningful, but I'm not that I've read a book in that last five years that is more fun than the City of Dark Magic.  I am a middle-aged woman with a young child; I go to bed early.  I was up past 1 am one night just that eager to see what would happen next.  When I finished the story, I was digging around the Internet to see when the next book would be out. 

The author listed on the cover, Magnus Flyte, is the pen name of writing duo Meg Howrey ( a novelist) and Christina Lynch (a television writer).

The bulk of the story is set in modern day and not so modern day Prague.  Time becomes fluid in this story.  There are, as the title suggests, elements of dark magic.  The protagonist is a smart young doctoral student of musicology.  I learned a few things about Beethoven.  That's enough.  Read the book, have fun. 

Stardust

I chose this audio book based on the cover and based on Neil Gaiman's reputation.  I loved his Newberry Award winning children's novel, The Graveyard Book.  I liked Stardust even better.

Gaiman is what I would call a master storyteller.  He takes a format that readers are already comfortable with, in this case the quest story or fairy tale, and makes it fresh and alive. 

Stardust is set in an English town called wall, for the stone wall that separates the town from Faerie.  For the most part, the one opening in the wall is well watched, keeping the two populations separate, but every seven years the Faerie folk hold a festival just beyond the wall and the mortals and magical mingle. 

The author reads the story for audio version, and at first I thought his reading a bit formal, but that impression lasted all of about three minutes.  Soon I was swept in by his voice and adjusted to his British accent. 

I looked up the story later to learn that the book is also available as a graphic novel and the story has been made into a movie with Claire Danes, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Robert De Niro.  I watched it last night, not expecting much as I new the plot details had been changed, but was pleased that the spirit of the story was for the most part intact.  The special effects and scenery were awesome.

The novel, audiobook and movie are all available at Peter White Public Library.  The graphic novel is available through interlibrary loan. 

EM--Reference Desk

Love in a Nutshell

Janet Evanovich joined author Dorien Kelly to co-write a funny and romantic comedy entitled Love in a Nutshell.  The story begins when Kate Appleton arrives in Keene's Harbor, MI, to reclaim her family’s summer lake house and transform it into a modern bed-and-breakfast business. Kate loves the old family home and takes refuge there after a double whammy--her marriage ends in divorce and she’s fired from her job as magazine editor.

Shortly after she arrives in Keene’s Harbor, it becomes apparent that she must find a job if she is going to keep a roof over her head and update her home to create her bed-and-breakfast. Broke, Kate needs a job. She finally hears about one at the microbrewery. Owner Matt Culhane, who suspects an employee is sabotaging his brewery, hires Kate as a spy to infiltrate his employees and find the culprit.  She also wants to earn the special “finder’s” bonus of $20,000 to renovate her house.

But several problems present themselves. Kate despises beer. No one seems to trust her. And she is falling hard for her boss. Can these two find the saboteur, save Kate's family home, and keep a killer from closing in? And resist their growing attraction to one another?

Evanovich and Kelly worked well together to create a book filled with humor and appealing characters.  Love in a Nutshell is delicious fun to read or listen to.

The Sandcastle Girls

“How do 1.5 million people die and no one hears about it?”  This is the question that puzzles Laura Petrosian, the modern day character in Chris Bohjalian’s book The Sandcastle Girls.  Inspired by his grandparent’s background, Bohjalian tackles the Armenian genocide that occurred as the Ottoman Empire crumbles at the start of World War I. 

This fascinating tale travels between Bronxville, New York in 2012 to Aleppo, Syria in 1915.  In this novel, a fictional American woman missionary, Elizabeth, comes to the aid of the people and falls in love with an Armenian man, Armen, whose family was part of the death marches out of Turkey into Syria.   Years later, her American granddaughter, Laura Petrosian, researches her family history and crafts a moving story which is a tribute to all those who have died. 

Elizabeth comes to Aleppo and joins in with her father in serving the people that are arriving there.  She stays pretty much confined to the American compound but does venture out to help in the hospital and in the orphanage.  The Armenians that arrive are just about dead on their feet.  The people are malnourished and in need of clothing.  In the city the orphanage for children is overrun by the stronger who prey on the weaker.  Officials say that they are going to help.  Robberies are commonplace.  No one can be trusted. 

In this situation, Elizabeth comes of age.  She falls in love with Armen, an Armenian engineer.  She puts herself into primitive conditions in the hospital and orphanage.  Her maternal instincts come out as she has one Armenian woman and one Armenian child stay with her in the American compound. 

Bohjalian brings forth a world that may seem daunting.  There is violence and struggles but the authors brings forth hope and goodness and the idea that love prevails in the telling of this amazing story.  Even when tragedy strikes there is always that hope that love will come again.  That is the beauty of the story.  Bohjalian tells this rich story with a sensitivity that respects the Armenian experieince.  Thus, I highly recommend  this novel, not necessary as a summer beach read but as a great read to better understand this topic.

A.B.--Technical Services

The Witness by Nora Roberts

The inside front flap and its accounting of the events first drew me to this Nora Roberts’ book.  In The Witness, Ms. Roberts begins the story of Elizabeth, a 16-year old young woman, who has excelled

academically, but is behind in interpersonal skills for teenagers.  Following a string of defiant acts, Elizabeth witnesses a double murder.  Murders that involve illicit activity and the Russian mafia. She runs to

the police who get her into the federal witness protection program.  As her eye-witness story proves unbreakable, the safe house is compromised. Two more murders at the hands of the Russian mafia and Elizabeth runs again.  This time she runs for her life; this time she disappears and goes into

hiding.

Her hiding lasts for twelve years and undergoes numerous moves and identity changes. Just as she finds a place where she feels safe and loved, Abigail (aka Elizabeth) must make the BIG decision: does she come

out of hiding to aid the FBI in prosecuting this mafia group, does she continue her latest, new life and bring her new loved ones into danger, or does she run yet another time?

The novel was compelling and difficult to put down.  Ms. Roberts drew me into the story.  At times, I felt that I was there experiencing exactly what Elizabeth/Abigail was going through.

VM – Reference Desk

Clara and Mr. Tiffany

I was attracted to this novel because I am attracted to stained glass.  What surprised me was that the parts of the novel that take place outside the Tiffany studio were often my favorite.  In Clara nd Mr. Tiffany, author Susan Vreeland explores the relationship between previously little known designer Clara Driscoll and Louis Tiffany.  Under his employ, she designed most of the famous lamps commonly attributed to him.  While not at work, Clara spends her time with an eclectric group of creative individuals who live in the same bording house.  The events of the novel take place early in the twentieth century, enableing this group witnesses changing gender roles, the birth of sky scraper, bicycles, the first subway line and changing social expectations.

A Mountain of Crumbs

When the children were hungry during the Russian Revolution, Elena Gorokhova's grandmother would break their bread into a mountina of crumbs to make a little seem like plenty.  In preschool Gorokhova learned about vranyo, a mutual understanding that everyone is pretending.  Vranyo seems to be the glue that holds her whole world together.

A Mountain of Crumbs is Gorokhova's memoir of growing up in the Leningrad during the cold war.  Beautifully written, this book takes us through familiar coming of age territory but is a setting where none of the stuff of childhood and adolesence (shoes, toys, bluejeans or books) is taken for granted. 

A Mountain of Crumbs is the Fall 2012 One Book One Community Read selection for Marquette. 

A Smile as Big as the Moon

A Smile as Big as the Moon is the first person account of high school special education teacher Mike Kersjes's amazing journey with his students from an isolated classroom in Grand Rapids to Space Camp at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama.
The strength of this book is the story, not the style.  Kersjes idea, that his class of special needs kids would benefit from participating in Space Camp with the brightest and most advantaged kids in the country, was not supported by his school principal or even the special education superintendent.  But he persisted and proved that given a chance, these kids could be successful. 
The events in this book took place in 1988-1989.  The book was orignally published in 2002.  It came to my attention about a couple of weeks ago when a patron told me about the Hallmark Hall of Fame movie based on this story.   I wanted to read the book first so I would know which parts of the movie were true.  As it turns out, the movie is mostly true to the book.  One of the neatest things about the movie is the casting of the kids in Kersjes's class.  Many actually had the same challenges as the characters they were portraying. 

E.M. -- Reference Desk

Best of 2011

(The following Best of 2011 list was orginally published in the Marquette Mining Journal.)

Goodbye 2011, hello 2012! The New Year is already upon us, so this is an excellent time to look back at the best new books I have personally read in the last year. Working at the Peter White Public Library provides a great opportunity to see all the new and interesting books that come in, and I’m always on the lookout for something good to read. Here is my Top 5 from 2011, and just for fun let’s make it a countdown.

5. Mission of Honor by David Weber – This is the twelfth book in the acclaimed military science fiction series, and it may have been the best one yet. For those who don’t know, The Honor Harrington series is basically Horatio Hornblower in space. If you are looking for a new series to read for 2012, you may want to take a look at this series. It should appeal to all military and science fiction fans.

4. The Quants: How a New Breed of Math Whizzes Conquered Wall Street and Nearly Destroyed It by Scott Patterson – This book provides an incredible inside look at the enigmatic world of the top hedge fund managers on Wall Street.  This is certainly one of the more interesting books of 2011, and if you have ever seen a Wall Street executive on C-SPAN being grilled in front of Congress and wondered how he got where he is today, The Quants is the book for you.

3. Life Itself by Roger Ebert – Ebert is one of the greatest newspaper writers of all time, not just one of the greatest film critics. This memoir tells his entire story, from when he was a small boy growing up in Urbana, Illinois all the way to his much publicized fight with thyroid cancer and beyond.  Ebert also writes about his favorite actors and directors and his decades long battle with alcoholism.

2. Those Guys Have All The Fun: Inside the World of ESPN  by James Andrew Miller and Tom Shales – If you are like me and have been watching ESPN for years then this is a must read. Did you know that ESPN stand for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network? Were you aware of the rampant allegations of sexual harassment in the early days of the company? There are a lot of things you would never have guessed about one of the most successful cable companies of all time, and if you want to know more then you need to definitely give this a try.

1. Ready Player One by Ernest Cline – When I pulled this book out of the bin one Saturday morning did I know this would be the best book I would read all year? No, but after reading the inside cover I knew it would be one of the most interesting. The story takes place in the year 2044, and the real world is falling apart, so everyone is logged into a virtual reality network called OASIS which has supplanted reality in every aspect. People go to school, have jobs and spend the majority of their lives on OASIS. When the billionaire creator dies and leaves his fortune to one lucky individual who can solve an in-game quest, it sparks a worldwide hunt that has real world implications. This book will appeal to any science fiction fan, or anyone interested in the future. It is jammed full of sci-fi and 80’s references. If you read this you will not be disappointed.

B. S. – Circulation Department

Something different

I thought I'd share a neat story forwarded to me by a cousin in Georgia about some libraries in Scotland.  I think this story gets at part of why we love to read:  to expand our world and to connect with other minds. 

This blog from Scotland traces the mysterious appearance of ten paper sculptures in libraries and museums in Edinburgh.

E.M.--Reference Desk

That used to be us : how America fell behind in the world it invented and how we can come back

In That Used to Be Us, Thomas L. Friedman and Michael Mandelbaum speak out and say the things Americans need to hear.  They identify four challenges --globalization, the revolution in information technology, the nation's chronic deficits, and our pattern of excessive energy consumption--and spell out what needs to done to sustain America's position as a world leader. Although I don’t agree with every point they make, I admire their candor.  The points they make about education are especially on-target. 

DM—Reference Desk

Possession

A.S. Byatt's Booker Prize winning novel is one of my favorites.  I sometimes hesitate to recommend it as it might be a bit too "English Major" for some as the characters are for the most part Victorian poets or contemporary scholars.  People like me love all the literary references.  When I read this book aloud to my husband on a long car trip, it was wonderful characters--some pure of heart, others villanous--and the deft story telling that won him over.  The research of the scholars becomes like great detective work, the clever unfolding of the plot will make any reader want to stay up late turning pages. 

EM--Reference desk

Global Girlfriends: How one mom made it her business to help women in poverty worldwide

This book tells the story of Stacey Edgar, a Colorado mom, who invested her $2,000 income tax refund to begin a program that would help poor women around the world.  She founded Global Girlfriends to help create a fair trade market that would specialize in handmade clothing, jewelry, baskets and other items.  As you read this book, you can follow the steps of growth of the project and meet some of the women in distant places in Africa, Asia and South America.  Her organization is now affiliated with Greater Good (another fair trade group) and the Whole Foods markets.  Her products are also available through the website http://www.globalgirlfriend.com/  The book includes links to other groups that are helping women worldwide. If you are interested in fair trade products, I would urge you to explore this book and website.

--Marquette Township Patron 

The Sandalwood Tree

The Sandalwood Tree by Elle Newmark tells two stories that take place in the same bungalow in India, almost 100 years apart.  The more contemporary story takes place just as the British are preparing to leave, and the other takes place during an uprising that took place in 1857.  The 1947 story revolves around an American couple that has travel on one of the first Fullbright fellowships.  The historian husband is emotionally wounded from World War II, and his wife is struggling to keep their marriage together.  The Victorian occupants, two young women, are struggling to dodge their parent's plans to marry them off.  The stories are skillfully entertwined and engaging.  Fans of historical fiction and novels about the meetings of different cultures will enjoy this novel.

--EM Reference Desk

The Lazarus Project

Billiantly written and set in both 1908 Chicago and contemporary Chicago and Bosnia-Herzegovina, Aleksandar Hemon's book The Lazarus Project links the murder of Lazarus Averbuch, an Eastern European immigrant, by Chicago's Chief of Police in 1908, with a contemporary fictional trip to Eastern Europe. The trip's purpose is to trace Lazarus's early life and journey to America but it also provides the narrator, a recent immigrant from Bosnia, a chance to visit his homeland which has been destroyed by the recent war. Hemon builds an awesome parallel structure between the two stories filled with irony and dark humor. He links attitudes and actions of his characters and history to current American attitudes and biases.  It's a very complex book and can be frustrating--not every question finds an answer-- but it is a very impressive work of literature.

Cathy Sullivan Seblonka, Youth services

South of Superior

I just finished reading South of Superior this weekend and now I miss it.  If you haven't already heard, it is the first novel from Ellen Airgood who runs the West Bay Diner with her husband in Grand Marais.  Not only is this story set in the U.P., it's the kind of story that is likely to have wide appeal.  I'm already creating a list of friends and relatives who live in far away places to whom I could give a copy for Christmas. 

The story revolves around two elderly sisters who have lived their entire lives in a small U.P. community, quite similar to Grand Marais.  One sister has had some serious health complications so the sisters have hired a younger, thirty-something woman from Chicago as a live-in caretaker.  This third woman has family ties to the area but has never before been to the U.P.  Though the novel stays closest to this younger woman's point of view, it is in many ways as much a story of the entire community as it is about her. 

One of the strengths is the sense of balance in this book.  The characters are all flawed, all make grievous mistakes.  Almost all have something likeable about them as well.  The pacing of events is just right.  The descriptions-- beautifully written.  The balance of story and character and setting--dead-on.

EM - Reference desk

Three multicultural titles

If you are interested in multicultural books, I would recommend the following books:

Little Princes: One man's promise to bring home the lost children of Nepal by Conor Grennan  

A young American begins by volunteering in an orphanage and returns to reunite Nepalese children with their families after long separations due to war and child-trafficking.

I Shall Not Hate by Izzeldin Abuelaish

This is a memoir of a Palestinian doctor whose three daughters were killed by the Israeli shelling of Gaza.  He is working for peace and reconciliation by encouraging dialog between all the people of the area.  It is his hope that the deaths of his daughters will be the "last sacrifice on the road to peace between Palestinians and Israelis."

The Sweetness of Tears by Nafisa Haji

This fictional account of a young American woman who discovers her roots in Pakistan covers a wide range of geography and history reaching from present day Iraq and Pakistan back to returning veterans of the Vietnam War.  Her family history helps us to learn about Muslim traditions and how family members can come together and heal.

Marquette Township Patron

Could it be B12? : an epidemic of misdiagnoses by Sally M. Pacholok

When loved ones get ill and questions arise as to what is wrong, sometimes the library is a good place to find answers. A new PWPL book did just that for me recently; it answered questions. Large doses of B-12 were given to my father after a recent fall and mild concussion because a B-12 deficiency was discovered during the array of tests. As I read this book, I saw many of his symptoms come alive right before my eyes. As I got deeper into the book, more of his symptoms showed up. I wouldn’t use a library book to diagnose myself, but after reading this book, I’m glad they have my dad on doses of B-12 and wish they were still giving him the mega-doses.

vjm, Reference Desk Staff

Knowing your value : women, money, and getting what you're worth by Mika Brzezinski

As fans of MSNBC’s Morning Jo already know, Mika Brzezinski has a knack for keeping a balance to any political argument.  In knowing your worth, Brzezinski uses her talent for seeing issues from all sides to look at the age old salary gap problem.  She interviews both successful men and women (such as Susie Essman and Joy Behar) to examine why women have so much difficulty getting the compensation they deserve. 

D.M. – Reference desk. 

God Bless You Mr. Rosewater by Kurt Vonnegut

Eliot Rosewater is heir to a large fortune. In the mean time, he runs the family's charitable organization. Though it was originally intended as a tax shelter, he takes the job to heart.

God Bless includes biting social commentary and depicts the troubles of post-industrialism in a way that is still relevant today. Written in 1965, it is less complicated than Vonnegut's later work.

BAM-- Circulation Department

A Spell on the Water by Marjorie Cole

When Mary Leader’s husband died the summer of 1957, everyone expected her to sell the lakeside resort in northern lower Michigan where they had been spending their summers, settle down in Chicago and collect welfare while she raised their five children with the support of her in-laws.  When she returned to the resort that fall to close it down, she devised a different plan. 

A Spell on the Water is told from alternating points of view of different family members and spans 15 years.  One of the strengths of this book is how well balanced it is.  Each scene is carefully drawn out; the pacing is exactly right.  Each family member is a developing character.  Mary learns both her strengths and limitations as a parent and provider.  Each child in turn learns how to survive childhood and forge a path outside of the family. 

When I first met Marjorie Cole in 1988, she was a librarian and I was a graduate student in a creative writing program at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.  Little did I know then that almost 20 years later she would be visiting me in Marquette, MI.  In 2006 she came to give a reading from her first book, Bellwether Prize winning Correcting the Landscape,  here at the Peter White Public Library.  Marjorie died of cancer in 2009, shortly before this latest novel was accepted for publication.  She was an environmentalist, an expansive thinker, and a role model. 

E.M. -- Reference Desk

Smokin' 17 by Janet Evanovich

This book was just a hoot.  Bounty hunter Stephanie Plum is back with her best friend and co-worker, Lula, and Lula’s ever expanding spandex wardrobe.  Through the course of this page turner, Stephanie undergoes a series of curses that first makes her insatiable, despite having two handsome love interests at her disposal, and then leaves her exhausted.  Meanwhile, her mother is trying to introduce a third “nice boy who cooks.”  As it turns out, he’s not as nice as he looks, and is just another in the list of people trying to kill her. 

D.G. -- Circulation

The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield

 

“Do you intend to tell me the truth?”  This debut novel tells the story of two women: Vida Winter, a famous author, whose own life story is coming to an end, and Margaret Lea, a young, book loving girl who is a bookseller in her father's shop.  Vida has told her “story” many times but differently each time, to her biographers over the years.  Vida invites Margaret to finally record her last biography because of some of her previous biographical work.  Margaret stays with Vida in Yorkshire, where she interviews the dying writer, walks the remains of her estate at Angelfield and tries to untangle the old woman's tale of a governess, a ghost and more than one abandoned baby.  In all of this Margaret wonders if Vida is really telling the truth or if this is another one of her “stories.”  Full of intrigue and suspense, this book is one that will stay with you. 

AB--Tech services and reference

Dead Reckoning.

My daughter and I are True Blood fans, and we have been avid readers of Charlaine Harris' books featuring Sookie Stackhouse ever since reading Book #1, Dead until Dark.  And we are not alone.  I was delighted (although not surprised) to read that her newest book, Dead Reckoning, is at the top of the New York Times Best Sellers list. Harris' mixture of Southern hospitality, a surreal community fey consisting of vampires, werewolves, fairies, elves, demons, etc., evangelicals and violence is truly an addictive experience. Read a couple of pages and I caution that you may develop an insatiable appetite for things weird and wonderful.

L.S., Reference Department

Winter Garden by Kristin Hannah

 
The death of the head of the family, Evan who adored his two adult daughters, Meredith and Nina, and his Russian wife Anya rocks this family into understanding one another better.  Evan had his daughters promise to get their mother to tell them again the elaborate fairy tales she used to tell them as children.  Nina jumps on this and convinces her mother to tell the stories and eventually Nina understands that they are actual stories of her mother’s life in Leningrad during World War II.  Nina and Meredith decide to try and get the whole truth out of her.  To see that their mother had an entirely different life than they could have imagined, Meredith and Nina come to terms with the love that Anya has for a former lover, their father, and even themselves.  This is a little laughter and a little tear-jerker of a book that brings a family closer together.

--AB, Technical services and Reference

The latest Jayne Ann Krentz Arcane Society titles

Jayne Ann Krentz has just published her eleventh book in the Arcane Society Series. Each of the eleven titles in this paranormal suspense series can be read as a stand-alone, but it is more enjoyable to read the series in the order that they were written. The books are also written under her pen names Amanda Quick and Jayne Castle. Ms. Krentz has a website for the series that can be found at http://www.krentzquick.com/arcanehouse/interior.html

The Looking Glass Trilogy is the newest addition to the series.

Scargill Cove, California is the setting for In Too Deep, book one in the new trilogy.  

Fallon Jones has moved the headquarters of the Jones & Jones detective agency to Scargill Cove, a town of unusually strong physic energy. This character is seen in previous Arcane books as a  solitary man who looks for and finds logic patterns in everything with his physic talent. In In Too Deep, he hires Isabella Valdez to organize his office, not knowing that she is running away from very dangerous men out to kill her.

The attraction between these two is strong and mutual, but a woman on the run, a woman who's undocumented and who lives her life as a conspiracy theory, would seem a bad match for an ultra-logical detective who only believes what he can prove. Isabella’s physic gifts help her realize that the haunted house she is investigating for J&J is not just haunted by a ghost. Together Isabella and Fallon find an antique clock, infused with dark energies. They are forced to fight for their lives and solve a century old conspiracy in the Arcane Society.

The second book in the Looking Glass trilogy is Quicksilver, written under Krentz’s pen name Amanda Quick. This book takes place in Victorian era London, England.

Virginia Dean is in trade as a powerful glass-reader, which means she can see the historical imprints like photographs in mirrors. One day, she wakes up in a room surrounded by mirrors next to a dead body with absolutely no memory of what happened to her.  There seems to be no way in or out.  Owen Sweetwater, a “psychical” hunter and a gentleman, literally swoops in to her rescue and gets her out of that mirrored room.

Owen has inherited his family talent for finding the psychical monsters that prey on innocent women & children. With the aid of Mrs. Crofton, Virginia’s housekeeper, they follow the clues that lead them to the man who murdered two other glasslight readers with his Quicksilver Mirror weapon and clockwork toys.

Both books are good summer reads. They are a mixture of paranormal flavored suspense and romance.  Krentz  has the propensity for creating inventive plots with two perfectly matched protagonists. Her women are always strong and her men have a fatal flaw that only one woman can help them overcome.

--S.S. Reference Department

Mozart and the Whale

I was eavesdropping in a bookstore when I learned about this jointly written memoir of a couple, both savants on the autistic spectrum.  He's a mathematical genius, she's a visual artist and musician.  I rushed back to work at the library only to learn we don't have a copy. Then I did what I always do when Peter White Public Library doesn't have something I want; I searched the other libraries that share our catalog and obtained an interlibrary loan copy a few days later. 

The couple meets at a support group Halloween party (he’s dressed as a whale, she’s dressed as Mozart’s sister). Much of the book is dedicated the their life stories.  Both grew up before Asperger Syndrome made it to the diagnostic manual and were seen as problem kids and both had pretty much given up finding a soul mate before they met.  And it took several years and separation for them to learn to manage their relationship. 

Further research told me there’s a fictionalized movie of their story with the same title.  Again, Peter White doesn't have a copy, but I put a hold on it.  I hope I get it today.

EM Reference Department

The Widower's Tale

I listened to this Julia Glass novel on CD.  Julia Glass drew a lot of attention when her first novel, Three Junes (2003), won the national book award.

I love audio books.  I know a lot of people who drive for a living check them out.  Our collection gets hit particularly hard between Thanksgiving and Christmas when many of our patrons hit the highways on the way to visit relatives.  I listen to books while I knit. 

I chose The Widower's Tale because I liked Three Junes so much-- I liked how Glass got into her character's heads and seemed equally apt at covering male and female points of view, old and young, gay and straight.  I liked how even though the characters told the story, the reader (or listener) had a better understanding of the events and connections within the plot than the characters did. 

The Widower's Tale is also told from a variety of character's point of view, but it doesn't cover as much ground as does Three Junes.  The narrators are all male and they all live in Massachusetts.  In an interview Glass said she likes to use male voices as a way of fictionalizing parts of herself, but that she identifies with all her characters.  The first voice you hear in the book is that of Percy, a 70-year-old, retired Harvard librarian.  I was initially turned off by his stodginess but won over by his sense of humor and wit. 

Throughout, Percy remains the most interesting.  As the story opens, he has a daily routine, grown daughters who live nearby, he's lived in the same house since he was a young man, and even his status as a widower is something he is well used to, having lost his wife over twenty years ago.  It could be that his 71st year proves to be the most eventful of his life. 

All the voices in this book are conveyed by reader Mark Bramhall, himself a Harvard graduate.  Though all male, the four narrative voices that tell this tale range in age from 70 down to 20 and in ethnicity from Eastern US to Antigua, Guatemala.  Each character's voice is fully developed by this talented reader.

--EM PWPL Reference Desk

I Remember Nothing

November, 28, 2010 On the Road Again…I was lucky enough to visit family downstate for Thanksgiving.  It’s great to visit and also get a chance to indulge in listening to audiobooks.  As long as the weather doesn’t get too dicey, I’m transported to another world and the miles fly by.  This trip was enlivened by Nora Ephron’s  I Remember Nothing and other reflections.  I’d read her previous book  I Feel Bad About My Neck and other thoughts on being a woman and expected another humorous look at aging—a topic with which I’m all too familiar. She certainly didn’t disappoint.  In her wry but aging 69 year old voice, Ephron makes memory loss as amusing as it can be. Her rift on the “joy” of email reminded me of the short lived paean to snow shoveling that made its way around the web a few years ago.  In addition she describes how she broke into reporting and the stages of divorce—“giving a candid, edgy voice to everything women who have reached a certain age have been thinking…but rarely acknowledging”.  All in all a three hour visit with a talented writer, producer, and screenwriter. 

CJ, PWPL Reference Desk

NoveList -- What every avid reader needs

Everyone knows that libraries aren't just about books any longer-- we provide movies, music, a cafe, programs, and even downloadable audio and e-books.  But a lot of people still love the library because, well, they like to read books--good ones.  And as many books as they can either get their hands on or make time for. 

But if you're an avid reader, sometimes it's hard to find enough new and wonderful titles that speak to your own set of criteria of what makes for a good read.  That is why the library provides NoveList. 

NoveList is a database that comes to PeterWhite Public Library via MeL (aka Michigan electronic Library).  To find it, go the "Resources" button on the Library main web page and select MeL databases.  From the left side of this page, choose the "Books and Reading" gateway from the green column, and you'll find NoveList about two-thirds down the alphabetical list.  If you're doing this search from your home computer, you'll need to enter a Michigan Drivers License or library card number to get access. 

Once you access NoveList, you'll find a search field across the top, some great browsing links down the left side, and rotating through the middle, you'll find book-jacket images of some of today's most popular reads, each with three recommended read-alikes.  Today's featured titles included both Room and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets Nest--the two books I've heard the most talk about recently.  When you click on the book jackets, you get a description of the book, links to other books by the author, links to book reviews and more information about other similar recommended titles and a list of criteria (Such as "character-driven storyline" or "set in Sweden") that you can select from to find even more similar reads.

If you're interested, the staff at the Peter White Reference Desk would be more than happy to demonstrate how to use NoveList.  Call or stop by anytime the Library is open.

EM, Reference desk.

Waiting on a Train

What book did I pack when my husband, daughter, and I rode the train from Milwaukee to Portland, Oregon this summer?  Why Waiting on a Train:  The Embattled Future of Passenger Rail Service by Marquette's own James McCommons.  Not only is this title highly relevant to the trip we took, it's just plain well-written. 

McCommons spent a year riding Amtrak and interviewing people in preparation for this book.  Not only did he talk to fellow riders and staff on the trains he rode, he talked to railroad executives (both passenger and freight), lobyists, and politicians.  In Waiting on a Train, he tries to get a deeper sense of what works, what doesn't, and what needs to be done to make passenger rail service as funtional as possible.

This book was selected as a Library Journal best book of 2009.

EM Reference Desk

Another title from the Great Start Regional Early Childhood Resource Collection

Every time my daughter sees Ants in their Pants:  Teaching Children Who Must Move to Learn on my night stand, she wants to meet the boy on the cover, she wants to play with him.  She recognizes a kindred spirit when she sees one. 

We all know children like this:  spirited, busy, sensory-seeking, active, dynamic, kinesthetic-- there are a lot of names for them.  If you're a parent of one, you can probably think of a few more.  And if you're a parent of one, you've probably learned by now that just because other children will amuse themselves nicely with a box of crayons and a coloring book, does not mean yours will not turn the coloring pages into confetti and throw them about the room and then create an abstract mural on your wall with the crayons. 

In Ants in their Pants, Ariel Cross helps parents and teachers identify the what makes up an extra busy nature.  Because each child is different, she provides a questionnaire  "for finding an extra busy kinesthetic child's formula for ticking."  Other valuable information includes the following:  tips for calming busy children, transitioning ideas, tips for redirecting extra energy, constructive play ides, limited-space ideas, sensory play ideas, dietary recommendations, and bedtime routine advice. 

Peter White Public Library has two copies of this title in the Adult Nonfiction Collection on the top floor. 

EM Reference Department.

New collection from Great Start--Early Childhood Resource Library

The name Great Start started popping up around Michigan on billboards last spring, I think.  So what is Great Start?  Many things!  It is a state-wide program to create bridges between all the different agencies that serve young children.  In the words of their Director, Kathi Lammi:

"We are working to enhance existing early childhood collaboration and coordination, engage all stakeholders in the planning implementation and coordination of services to promote community awareness of early childhood issues, and help advocate for quality early childhood programs and services. Our vision: a Great Start for every child in Marquette and Alger counties; safe, healthy and eager to succeed in their education and in life."

So what does this all have to do with the library and reading?  Peter White Public Library is happily housing Great Start's new Early Childhood Resource Library.  This collection of children's books, parenting books, teaching books, games, puzzles, puppets, DVDs and music Cd's are all available to our patrons for checkout. 

As a parent, every time a cart of newly catalogued items for this collection comes out of Technical Services, it feels like Christmas in the Library. 

Let me tell you about just one of my favorite items.  Manners Time, by Elizabeth Verdick and illustrated by Marieka Heinlen, is one of the most perfect board books I have ever.  The writing is clear, the pictures are engaging and in a large enough format to share with a small group, and it is fun.  Not only does this book clearly explain, in language your very young child can understand, a concept that is probably pretty important to you that they get, Manners Time makes it fun.  I am not kidding, but when I brought this book home, my child wanted me to read it to her.  And then asked for it again. 

To help celebrate and introduce this new collection, the Library and Great Start are hosting an open house on Thursday, October 15 in the Youth Services Department from 5:00-7:00 pm, refreshments will be served.

EM, Reference Departmet

The Sparrow, as you've probably heard, is this year's choice for Marquette's One Book, One Community series of events.  I finished it last week and liked it.  In truth, I didn't think I would-- I think of myself of more of a literary reader and not that much interested in stories that take place in the future and involve spaceships.  But then this is not the first time I've picked up sci-fi, thought it wasn't for me and been wrong. 

The worst part of the novel is the end.  The best part is the journey.  When I started reading, several weeks back, I had too many other things on my plate.  I'd pick it up as I climbed into bed, read a page and not be able to get any father.  I did this for a couple of weeks, not getting past the first ten pages, rereading the parts I couldn't remember, trying to figure out who was who and why did I care?  Then it all came together.  I read just a little farther, went to bed not quite so tired one night, and that was all it took.  Once I figured out who was who, I liked all the characters. 

One of the appeals to this book is that the author, Mary Doria Russell, holds a Phd. in anthropology.  Perhaps part of the reason why her characters have so much appeal, is that the author has spent a good amount of her career studying humanity.  The field of anthropolgy is both art and science, encompassing world culture, history, linguistics and mythology-- all of which play a part in this novel.

Events take place in the future, but not the distant future.  Our popular culture is still known and discussed.  The role of religion, especially that of the Roman Catholic Church and the Jesuits, is not that different from what it is today.  The variety of attitudes the different characters have toward the Catholic Church is part of what makes the Church's role interesting in this story. 

I find myself not wanting to explain the plot, not because it's not well plotted, but because it is.  I went into this book expecting something other than what I got and found that process so much fun, that I'd like to give that back to you, the next reader. 

EM, PWPL Reference Desk

Guest Book: Add your own reviews here

Read a good book that you'd like others to know about?  Type in (or copy) into the comment box below (you may need to scroll down) a brief review.  Your review will be e-mailed to the blog monitor who will add it within the next few days.