Archive for January, 2010Two 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.
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
Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour - an Introduction 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.
Seldom, Nebraska (population 395) is a quiet place–not too many visitors. Then one day Nathalie, a 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.
Now on to nonfiction. I’m sure you’ve all seen trailers for the movie The Men Who Stare at Goats. Did you
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
The Cartoon History of the Modern World
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 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.
Jan
15
2010
 
What I’ve Been Digging So Far in 2010, by CathyPosted by: childrensroom in Books, DVDs, Music, Online ResourcesYou will need a sturdy coffee table, a DVD player, a cast iron dutch oven, some yarn, your favorite device for listening to music, access to the Internet and, possibly, a set of earplugs if you are inclined to pursue any of the things I’ve been smitten by since ringing in 2010. It all starts with the coffee table, which is where you will want to put the following items so that you have them at the ready:
I didn’t think it was possible to love my husband more than I already do (I mean, he plays guitar, for crying out loud!), until he started baking gorgeous loaves of bread with our cast iron dutch oven using the recipes in this book, My Bread: The Revolutionary No-Work, No-Knead Method, by Jim Lahey. His first attempt proved swoon-worthy and I’ve been mildly fainting with each loaf. We initially borrowed this book from the library but it quickly was purchased and given as a gift to the baker for Christmas. Oh, and we haven’t purchased a loaf of sliced bread since.
Three newly published books that make me happy to be a children’s librarian:
The Boy In the Dress by David Walliams, illustrated by Quentin Blake. Brand new to the States, this novel for children has the warmth, wickedness and hilarity of Dahl, and the good fortune to be illustrated by Quentin Blake. A very funny, sweet, and touching story about a boy who is ridiculously good at soccer, misses him mom terribly and loves wearing dresses.
Finally, I am beginning to wonder what Joe Pernice can’t do. He’s most well known for his bands Scud Mountain Boys, The Pernice Brothers, and Big Tobacco, three bands Boston music lovers are proud to call their own, despite the fact that he no longer lives in Massachusetts. But Pernice also holds an MFA in creative writing and in 2003, pubished a novella for the 33 1/3 series inspired by the Smiths’ Meat Is Murder. His first novel, It Feels So Good When I Stop, was published in 2009 and is about living in and around the obsession of music. He also had the very good idea to put out a companion recording of covers for songs are mentioned in the novel. His show at the Lizard Lounge on January 14th provided the audience with a chance to sample both the novel and the covers, and hear a preview of the almost-ready new recording from The Pernice Brothers. Let’s just say, there’s a lot to look forward to! If any of this sounds appealing - it is all accessible, one way or another, at your library. All are invited to attend a community vigil and healing ceremony in honor of the victims of the Haiti Earthquake, to be held on Monday, January 18th (Martin Luther King Day) beginning at 7pm in the Somerville High School auditorium, located at 81 Highland Ave. Please join the City of Somerville for an evening of remembrance, and to express your thoughts and emotions about this tragic event. All are welcome.
On Friday, January 15, the Somerville Haitian Coalition will be hosting a town hall meeting to discuss ways to help earthquake victims. The meeting will be at 6 p.m. at the Arthur D. Healey School, 5 Meacham Street, Somerville. If you have doubts about the magnitude of this disaster, you can read an extensive news report and see photos here. Note to Twitter users: if you see notices on Twitter that UPS is shipping packages of food and clothes weighing fewer than 50 pounds to Haiti for free, be aware that is not true. The same goes for Internet rumors that JetBlue and American Airlines are flying doctors to Haiti for free. As promised, here is our next installment of best books read during the last decade. My list is widespread, but each book now has a very special place in my heart. They are the books I am constantly remembering, constantly suggesting to friends and patrons, and constantly glancing at on my home bookshelf, all with a smile. I remain envious of those who can experience these wonderful books for the first time. My time as a children’s librarian has greatly influenced this list, so that’s where I’m going to start.
Following the children’s literature path, another fascinating book for me during the last decade was Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book. Gaiman is a master storyteller and his story of Nobody “Bod” Owens, a boy adopted and cared for by a dead couple living in a graveyard, is completely enthralling. The illustrations by Dave McKean enhance the dark elements of the story and are simply outstanding - I found myself staring at them over and over again, fascinated by this dark, mysterious world. Gaiman’s inspiration for the book is cool, too. His young son used to ride his tricycle between gravestones in a neighboring graveyard..twenty-something years later, we have this great story. I don’t think I’ll ever look at a graveyard the same again.
Now for my two favorite adults novels of the decade. First up is a novel originally published in 1997: Cold Mountain, by Charles Frazier. I first read this book in my high school senior English class. It was newly published and I was only 17, but I’ll never forget how much the story moved me. Growing up in the glorious South (Virginia, Capital of the Confederacy), a Civil War novel was easily considered curriculum. But this was so much more than an assignment for me. I reread the book a few years ago and loved it all over again. War, love, a long journey, colorful characters (Inman, Ada, Ruby Sue, Stobrod) the mountains of North Carolina…irresistable. The book was also made into a movie, which as good as it is, pales in comparison to Frazier’s rich story. So much is missed! I will say, the soundtrack is great - Jack White, folk, bluegrass - check it out! I have seen my last choice on a lot of decade lists, but it still warrants a spot here as well. The Time Traveler’s Wife, by Audrey Niffenegger, is an urban love story whose main character, Henry (a Chicago More staff picks to follow this week. Stay tuned. All over the universe media outlets are publishing lists of The Best Books of the Decade - here’s one from The Boston Globe, and another from Salon.com - so who are we to be behindhand? But wait; our lists will have a twist. Instead of limiting ourselves to books published in the last decade, we’re listing favorites from among the books we’ve read in the past decade, regardless of when they were published. Why? Because we’re like that, that’s why. Here goes.
Which, I now realize is what all of these books are - just good fun (and for some reason, all British…hmmm.) Maybe my colleagues, who will be posting their lists later this week, will choose some books that aren’t British and that offer a little more food for thought than my list. Maybe they won’t. As for me, the next books I read will be two that I chose from the Globe’s Best of the Decade list: Orhan Pamuk’s My Name is Red and Jhumpa Lahiri’s Interpreter of Maladies. We’ll see how that works out. |
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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.
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.
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).
The TOON Treasury of Classic Children’s Comics, edited by Art Spiegelman and Françoise Mouly, is introduced for younger eyes by Jon Scieszka, and for the bifocal crowd by Spiegelman & Mouly. When my husband and I gave this book to friends of ours with children we received two favorable responses, “Lincoln immediately took the book and brought it with him to the bathroom…he’s never done that with a book!” and, “Lauren takes it to bed with her every night.” It’s a glorious collection of comics from the 1940s through the 1960s that will be devoured by kids of all ages. (Clifford in “Crossing the Street” by Jules Feiffer is a personal favorite.)
Wholphin. A DVD magazine from the ubiquitous McSweeney’s that highlights short films, both fictional and documentary, which I am so grateful for because how else can one find these hidden gems? Time was spent catching up on back issues and Volume 6 was a particular favorite for exploring the possibilities of Big Foot, following the adventures of a seeing-eye pony with Nike kicks, and experiencing the trials and tribulations of introducing the concept of democracy to a classroom of young students in China.
I am smitten with Bittman. Mark Bittman’s column, “
Call Me Gorgeous! by Giles and Alexandra Milton. A beautifully-illustrated companion for Eric Carle’s “The Mixed-Up Chameleon.” Large, boldly-drawn illustrations invite young readers to guess at what this remarkable creature could be. A new storytime favorite.
It’s Perfectly Normal: A Book About Changing Bodies, Growing Up, Sex, and Sexual Health. Written by Robie H. Harris and illustrated by Michael Emberley, it is updated for its 15th anniversary. A comfortingly humorous, detailed and informative introduction to, well, life. Published by Somerville’s own Candlewick Press!
After a long hiatus I am back to knitting with a frenzy. Ravelry, the online community for knitters has been my latest obsession. Have one skein of yarn and are wondering what to do with it? 
Here is where you might consider earplugs. Legendary Boston band Mission of Burma released their latest recording, The Sound, the Speed, the Light (Matador), just as the leaves were turning and are headlining two live shows at the Paradise Rock Club this weekend to support this new, loud, delicious effort.
Our hearts go out not only to the people living in Haiti but also to Somervillian Haitians who have lost loved ones or are anxiously awaiting news about them. Fortunately there are ways we can help. If you want to do something immediately, NPR has a list of organizations 
I grew up with a younger brother and was often that girl who longed for a sister. 
librarian), is a prisoner of time. With no warning at all, Henry is swept away from the present to either the past or the future. He once meets his wife, Claire, when she is only 6 years old; another time he visits the future and learns his own fate. The narration is clever and switches between Henry and Claire’s perspectives. Love is the anchor in this novel, but the fear of not knowing when a moment will escape you and the sadness of losing the present, is what lingers.
The Globe makes a point of leaving J. K. Rowling’s 
Evidently I have a soft spot for adventurous English children, as my love of the Potter books and my collection of tattered 
Speaking of escapism (not to mention England between the wars) I went on quite an 
Nick Hornby’s 