Somerville Public Library Blog

February 2, 1709: Alexander Selkirk is rescued after being marooned on a desert island for four years. It’s 300 years too early for him to become a consultant for a reality TV show, so he has to settle for inspiring Robinson Crusoe.

February 7, 1839: In the Senate Henry Clay makes his famous pronouncement, “I’d rather be right than be President.” Which is just as well, considering he ran for President (and lost) five times.

February 16, 1899: Knattspyrnufelag Reykjavkur, Iceland’s first football club,  is established, but they don’t actually play for another six months, which is how long it takes them to figure out how to fit  Knattspyrnufelag Reykjavkur on their jerseys.

February 17, 1766: The first volume of Edward Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire is published. No one buys it because the title gives away the ending.

February 20, 1927: Golfers in South Carolina are arrested for violating the Sabbath (makes you wonder what they would have done to Tiger Woods).

February 25, 1932: Austrian-born Adolf Hitler is granted German citizenship, allowing him to run for national office. And people have the nerve to think we have an immigration problem?

While trying to prepare my list of favorite movies of the last decade, I have decided that I cannot move on until I include one more favorite book.  This book makes me giddy just thinking about how much I enjoyed every single page.  If you haven’t had the pleasure of reading Erik Larson’s The Devil in the White City, you are missing out.  This nonfiction story of the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893 reads like a novel and tells the story of 2 men: Daniel Burnham, the mastermind and architect behind the Exposition and H.H. Holmes, one of America’s first serial killers.  Burnham, despite numerous obstacles, setbacks and a daunting 2 year deadline, created the “White City” which covered more than 600 acres and featured over 200 buildings of European Classical Architecture.  Reading about the fair is amazing - 46 nations participated in the fair and it attracted close to 26 million visitors.  There is the world’s first Ferris Wheel, appearances by Buffalo Bill Cody and Thomas Edison, not to mention the world’s first hamburger!

But every great story has a dark side: enter H.H. Holmes.  Masquerading as an eager & well-meaning doctor, he opens the World’s Fair Hotel, where he lures countless people, mainly single women, to their death.  As gruesome as some of these eerie passages are, I couldn’t tear myself away.  Larson’s writing is magnificent and will send chills up your spine.  Holmes was every bit as crafty as Burnham.  His hotel was windowless and thus the perfect place to perform his ghastly activities.  Many rooms were soundproof and equipped as gas chambers with secret chutes to send the bodies to the basement, where he had a dissection table and crematorium for disposal.  It’s simply shocking (and amazing) that Holmes is so successful and so good at being a murderer!  I know, this book sound scary.  But don’t be afraid to read it.  Larson’s storytelling is flawless and addictive.  You don’t want to miss this fascinating slice of American history.

Have you seen wild animals in Somerville, such as hawks, falcons, wild turkeys, songbirds, skunks, possums, raccoons and rabbits? Many of us have seen at least a few of these wild animals in our city, or even in our backyards. Do your children ever wonder what these animals do or how they go about their lives in a busy urban setting? If so, bring them to the Somerville Public Library for a series of workshops where they will learn about Somerville’s wild life and write an original musical about them.

Beginning Wednesday, Feb. 24, Liza Kitchell will host a program for children ages 8 to 12 called “Wild Tails.” During the program’s three sessions, children will learn about urban wildlife, create a story and write songs about the wild animals that live in Somerville, and present their work as a musical play in the Growing Center’s garden in June.

The original idea for “Wild Tails” began last year when puppeteer Frances Furlong created an original puppet show about urban wildlife with volunteers from the Growing Center. After the success of the puppet show, Aileen Bellwood, site manager for the Growing Center, and Kitchell, musician/educator, began talking about creating programs to reconnect children with nature, using the Growing Center as a focal point. In support of this idea, Kitchell was recently awarded a Somerville Arts Council grant to create a musical performance with children about Somerville’s wildlife.

“Wild Tails” has been organized into three sessions consisting of four meetings each.
In Session I (Feb. 24, March 3, 10 and 17 from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m.), children will learn about Somerville’s wildlife through dramatization and reading. They will play games, read about their chosen animals, and imagine what it looks and feels like to be a wild animal in Somerville. Story ideas will be discussed for the musical.

In Session II (March 24, 13, April 7 and 14 from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m.), children will create songs for the musical using ideas from their dramatizations, games and story ideas.

In Session III (May 5, 12, 19 and 26 from 3:30 to 5 p.m.), children will help construct costumes, sets and props for their musical, and then rehearse their final work.

Sessions I and II will be held at the Central Library at 79 Highland Ave. Session III, as well as dress rehearsal and final performance, will be held in the Growing Center at 22 Vinal Ave.

Enrollment is on a first-come, first-served basis. Parents must sign in their child for each meeting attended. Parent contact information will be required. Arrive early, as each meeting is limited to 15 students.

If the recent disaster in Haiti has piqued your interest in this country these Internet sites will introduce you to its history, geography and culture.

World History Archives

Foreign and Commonwealth Office - Haiti

BBC News Country Profile- Haiti

CIA World Factbook

Wikipedia - Haiti

Haiti before the earthquake.

We had so much fun telling you about our “Best Books of the Decade” that we’ve decided to continue on with the best movies!  Well, “best”…come to think of it, that word doesn’t really do much for me.  But these were some of my favorites, definitely.

Whale Rider (2002) Thirteen-year-old Keisha Castle-Hughes received an Academy Award Best Actress nomination for her role as Pai, a young girl who believes that she should become the next chief of her people, the Whangara tribe of New Zealand. This puts her in conflict with her grandfather Koro, the current chief, who insists that only males are eligible to be leaders. He is frustrated in his attempts to find a boy to succeed him, or to convince his uninterested ex-pat son to take his rightful place as chief. Pai and Koro love each other dearly, and their clash of wills hurts both of them. Some unexpected things happen that prevent this movie from becoming the pat empowerment story it could have been. It’s a real original, a fascinating glimpse into another culture, and it’s also beautiful to look at.

Sideways (2004) Paul Giamatti (my favorite actor) plays Miles, a divorced and depressed middle-school English teacher, would-be novelist, and wine connoisseur. His mismatched best friend Jack (Thomas Haden Church) is a small time actor who’s about to be married, in spite of the fact that he’s a committed womanizer. The two take off on a pre-wedding road trip through the California wine country with rather different objectives in mind: Miles wants to drink a lot of wine, Jack wants a last fling before settling down. They meet two women, Maya (Virginia Madsen) and Stephanie (Sandra Oh) and begin to romance them in their very different ways. All four characters are multi-dimensional and believable, and the acting is superb. The dialogue is sometimes hilarious and sometimes genuinely touching. And like “Whale Rider,” the scenery is magnificent.

Me and You and Everyone We Know (2005) This film tells about a few weeks in the lives of a bunch of disparate people who are all connected to each other in various ways. Christine (Miranda July) is a video artist who delivers meals to the elderly and who falls for Richard (John Hawkes), a recently divorced shoe salesman and father of two boys. His older son, fourteen-year-old Peter, has a series of interesting encounters with other kids, including his ten-year-old neighbor Sylvie and two bold and curious teenager girls. Meanwhile, Peter’s six-year-old brother Robby establishes an online relationship with an unknown person. As I write this, I’m realizing the futility of trying to describe this movie by writing about the plot(s). It’s just a lovely and unusual film filled with magical incidents and images: a goldfish in a plastic bag accidentally left on the roof of a car that’s cruising down a freeway; two shoes labeled “Me” and “You” that move together, apart, together in a simple and moving ballet. And of course, ))<>((…but you’ll have to see the movie to discover the meaning of that.

Hot Fuzz (2007) A ridiculous movie that made nobody’s “Best of Decade” list, and that made me laugh until my ribs hurt. Simon Pegg plays Nicholas Angel, a London cop who’s so good at his job that he makes all his colleagues look like slackers, so they ship him off to a remote and very quiet village called Sandford. His new partner Danny (Nick Frost) is a frequently tipsy butterball with a love for (and encyclopedic knowledge of) American cop movies with names like “Bad Boys II” and “Die Harder.” Initially at odds, they eventually form a bond that is tested when it dawns on Angel that although Sandford’s crime rate is low, its accident rate is through the roof…but why? The supporting cast includes Jim Broadbent, Bill Nighy, and Timothy Dalton, and there are cameos by Cate Blanchett, Steve Coogan, and Peter Jackson. If these folks wanted in on this lunacy, what more do you need to convince you?

Since I can’t go on and on about every movie I loved in the past decade, that will have to be that. But I’ll leave you with a short list of some others that I really enjoyed:

Monsoon Wedding (2001)

Waking Life (2001)

Secretary (2002)

Lost in Translation (2003)

The Incredibles (2004)

The Squid and the Whale (2005)

The Namesake (2006)

Bottle Shock (2008)

And just to make it a baker’s dozen, a 90s movie that I re-watched recently and loved all over again:

Nobody’s Fool (1994)

Two of America’s - and the world’s - most beloved writers have died in the past 24 hours: celebrated historian Howard Zinn and the legendary J. D. Salinger. They will be sorely missed.

Some works by Howard Zinn:

You Can’t Be Neutral on a Moving Train: a Personal History of Our Times

A People’s History of the United States: 1492-Present

Declarations of Independence: Cross-Examining American Ideology

Howard Zinn on War

Works by J. D. Salinger:

The Catcher in the Rye

Nine Stories

Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour - an Introduction

Franny and Zooey

I know my co-workers have given you enough book recommendations to keep you busy for the next few months, but can there really be too much of a good thing? Pundits have been lamenting the woes of the publishing industry and the end of reading for years now, but you wouldn’t know it from the fabulous books that have been making their way into readers’ hands–particularly mine.

Let’s start with fiction. Specifically, a religious novel. In my experience, fiction with religious themes often fails miserably. For example, Brideshead Revisited is really more about social class than Catholicism, and I could grasp what the author was trying to do in Mariette in Ecstasy, but the book didn’t  work for me.  When exceptions to this literary trend occur, they’re nothing less than wonderful.

Fourteen-year-old Francesca Dunn is the teenager parents and teachers dream of: she’s a smart student, a decent cellist, and a welcome volunteer at a restaurant that feeds the homeless. But behind this mask of good behavior Francesca is panicking. She’s been missing her periods–and getting sick every morning.  Soon not only are people spreading the news through town with lightning speed, but they add something else in breathless whispers: Francesca’s never had sex.  Thus begins The Annunciation of Francesca Dunn, a truly moving, beautifully written novel that explores the tension between rationality and religion and the fluid boundaries between madness and holiness.  It’s one of those rare novels that leaves you looking at the world with new eyes.

Seldom, Nebraska (population 395) is a quiet place–not too many visitors. Then one day Nathalie, a young, pretty French librarian on a bus tour of America  shows up. She’s followed by her fiancee Pierre–although the purpose of her trip was to get some time away from him.  While in Seldom Nathalie attracts the eye of local rancher Dick Tupper, and Pierre becomes infatuated with a local girl named Iona who, by the way, is in love with Dick. Meanwhile Owen, a local gas station owner and amateur wine maker, decides Pierre (who’s the heir to a French wine business) is just the man to get his made-in-Nebraska vintage onto the world market.  In  Isn’t It Romantic? Ron Hansen tells a delightfully funny story of hearts at cross-purposes and paints a wry, affectionate portrait of small-town America.

I don’t like mysteries as such: when I’m in a bookstore or a library I don’t go to the mystery section to browse, and the only time I ever went to the late and lamented Kate’s Mystery Books was to gift-shop for my mother. But every now and then I get totally hooked on an author.  One of them is Ian Rankin,  a Scottish novelist and the creator of Detective Inspector John Rebus. Rebus is an alcoholic, his personal life is a shambles and he’s always in trouble with his superiors–none of which stops him from being the best detective in Edinburgh. I envy any reader who hasn’t yet stepped into the dark, gritty and wholly enthralling world of Rebus. You have a lot to look forward to (and yes, I realize that wasn’t a recommendation of a specific book, but if I started mentioning specific titles this blog post would go on forever). There are a lot of Inspector Rebus novels. A lot.

Karl Bazinger is a German officer in occupied Paris. As a soldier he’s proud of the German army’s recent successes. But as an old school German aristocrat he’s uncomfortable with the thuggishness of the Nazis and their police state.  And it turns out the Nazis aren’t too comfortable with him: he’s outspoken in his opinions and his fluency in English raises eyebrows. And then Karl’s old friend Hans Bielenberg arrives in Paris, but the reasons he gives for coming and his accounts of his activities while in town raise more questions than they answer. On the other side of Europe in  German-occupied Ukraine Ekaterina Zvedsny practices medicine and cares for her insane father. Her closest friends are her Jewish neighbors, the Wassermans, and she is immediately suspicious when she learns they have been asked to report for a “census…” Nella Bielski’s The Year is ‘42 is a series of poignant, interlocking snapshots of life during wartime, of people trying not just to survive but to stay human in a world going more insane by the day.

Now on to nonfiction. I’m sure you’ve all seen trailers for the movie The Men Who Stare at Goats. Did you know it was a book? And yes, you read that right, I have moved on to nonfiction. In the last quarter of the twentieth century the U.S. Army took the concept of “unconventional warfare” to a new level: they hired “psychics” for espionage, a general tried to “train” himself to walk through walls, and according to some, selected soldiers tried to develop telekinetic powers so they could be psychic assassins.  In this journey into the fringe side of black ops, author Jon Ronson examines CIA use of LSD, ponders the role of Fleetwood Mac in Gitmo interrogations, and crosses America looking for the man who claimed he killed a goat just by looking at it.

Truman Capote was one of the most talented and versatile American writers of the last century.   In addition to writing the masterpiece of reportage In Cold Blood and  numerous excellent short stories, he was an incredibly prolific writer of profiles, travel sketches, and various first-person essays that all cross over from journalism into literature.  And in Portraits and Observations, a collection of Capote’s short work published in 2007, his incredible combination of talent  and energy is fully on display. “Handcarved Coffins” is a terrifying account of a series of unsolved murders.  “New Orleans” is a portrait of one of America’s most distinctive cities as it was in 1946.   “The Muses Are Heard” is Capote’s account of an American theatrical company’s 1955 journey to Russia to perform Porgy and Bess.  It’s a series of vivid snapshots of Stalin’s Russia, a mini-portrait of Mrs. Ira Gershwin, and most of all, a story of artistic triumph. In the engaging “A Day’s Work” Capote follows his pot-smoking housekeeper on an  eye-opening journey through the homes and lives of the other people who employ her. “A Beautiful Child” is a sad, revealing portrait of Marilyn Monroe.  Those are some of the highlights, but everything in this collection is first-rate.

And I close with a cookbook: the preposterously named French Cooking in Ten Minutes: Adapting to the Rhythms of Modern Life by Edouard de Pomaine.  First published in 1930, the cookbook was written with Parisian bachelors in mind–and eighty years later it still holds up, although in my experience the recipes take a little longer than ten minutes. This one passage captures the tone of the book: “The first thing you must do when you get home, before you take off your coat…[is] fill a pot large enough to hold a quart of water. Put it on the fire, cover it and bring to a boil. What’s the water for? I don’t know but it’s bound to be good for something.” This book is a great little primer on basic cooking techniques and assembling menus and the recipes are delicious. But don’t follow the recipes to the letter: for example, de Pomaine calls for canned vegetables in many recipes because that’s what was available to urban cooks in 1930. Substitute frozen, or if you don’t mind taking a little more time, fresh. And when de Pomaine calls for butter, I sometimes substitute olive oil. And don’t be afraid to liven things up (for example, add garlic and pepper to the batter when you’re making the Alsatian dumplings).

And this is a great cookbook for those of you trying to avoid processed foods:  meat, eggs, butter, vegetables, real cheese–it doesn’t get more basic than that.

I can’t imagine a more entertaining way of educating yourself than by reading Larry Gonick’s Cartoon Histories.  Last year Gonick, who identifies himself as an “overeducated cartoonist,” completed the fifth and final volume in what is truly a monumental work - more than 1,450 pages and 30 years in the making. Gonick’s histories are thought provoking and wickedly humorous. I can almost guarantee that as you read them you’ll laugh, learn, and maybe think about history in ways you’re not used to. What better recommendation is there than that?

The Cartoon History of the Universe
Volume I: From the Big Bang to Alexander the Great
Volume II: From the Springtime of China to the Fall of Rome
Volume III: From the Rise of Arabia to the Renaissance

The Cartoon History of the Modern World
Volume I: From Columbus to the U. S. Constitution
Volume II: From the Bastille to Baghdad

Mystery novelist, Robert B. Parker, died yesterday (1/18/10) at his home in Cambridge, MA.  He was 77.  You may know him best as the author of the “Spenser” series, a tough-talking, Boston-based private eye.  For more information about his death, you can look here and here.  Or, take a look back at an interview he did for the Globe in October of 2007. Here at the library, we have a lot of Parker’s books.  If you’re interested in reading the Spenser novels (which I highly recommend!), here is a list of all 38 books.  The Godwulf Manuscript was written in 1973 and the latest novel, The Professional, was just published in 2009.

The Godwulf Manuscript

God Save the Child

Mortal Stakes

Promised Land

The Judas Goat

Looking for Rachel Wallace

Early Autumn

A Savage Place

Ceremony

The Widening Gyre

Valediction

A Catskill Eagle

Taming a Sea Horse

Pale Kings and Princes

Crimson Joy

Playmates

Stardust

Pastime

Double Deuce

Paper Doll

Walking Shadow

Thin Air

Chance

Small Vices

Sudden Mischief

Hush Money

Hugger Mugger

Potshot

Widow’s Walk

Back Story

Bad Business

Cold Service

School Days

Hundred-Dollar Baby

Now and Then

Rough Weather

Chasing Bear: A Young Spenser Novel

The Professional

Robert Parker also wrote many other novels, including other series: Jesse Stone novels, Sunny Randall novels, Philip Marlowe novels, and Virgil Code and Everett Hitch Westerns.  He has several other fiction titles, including a personal favorite All Our Yesterdays, and four nonfiction titles, the latest being Spenser’s Boston, a photo-collection of Boston’s history as seen through Spenser’s eyes.  The library has several of these titles available in various formats - book, large print, and audio cd.  Come in and check one out!

RIP Mr. Parker

I give you the “I Have A Dream Speech.” Any American who has not heard it in its entirety owes it to him or herself to listen.