bookclubbing in April (1 of 2)

Under the Sabers by Tanya Biank

Subtitled "The Unwritten Code of Army Wives", Under the Sabers looks at the culture of Army spouses by focusing specifically on the lives of four women whose husbands are stationed at Fort Bragg in North Carolina.

Author Tanya Biank is a journalist and Army brat who reveals only at the end of the book that she too is an Army wife. Under the Sabers was inspired by a rash of spousal murders involving individuals stationed at Fort Bragg. Those murders made Biank want to look more closely at the relationships between military men and their wives (was there something inherent in army life that could have led to the murders?). While Under the Sabers is not about the murders, its action takes place during that same time period and Biank does incorporate them into the book (one of the main characters is one of the murder victims and the other murders are mentioned when they occur).

They way Biank writes about the characters (characters probably isn't the best word as the individuals whose lives are chronicled in Under the Sabers are real, live people, but it'll do) makes it very easy for readers to become invested in them (I got teary-eyed when one of the husbands died in action even though I knew it was coming). That being said, it's hard to tell how true-to-life the depictions are. That Biank treats the murdered woman with the same level of detail as the other women despite never having talked to her makes one wonder just how much of what Biank wrote is "real". Also how much were the stories sanitized in order to get buy-in from the individual women (whose real names are used in the book)?

Only one member of the group had seen the Lifetime television show inspired by the book (Army Wives) and only after reading Under the Sabers. She reported that the characters seemed to be inspired by the individuals in the books, but that in the tv show they are all friends.

During our discussion we found ourselves straying from the book and talking more generally about military life and culture as experienced by us or those close to us. The one part of the book that we dwelt on the most was the death of Gary Shane (son of one of the four women). We understood that the death itself was inexplicable, but we were curious about what Biank wasn't saying about Gary Shane's family.

biweekly reading update

I haven't gotten much reading done lately, which I assume is obvious based on my lack of recent posts.

I have finished a few books:

• Dark Roots by Cate Kennedy (see post)
• Rumspringa by Tom Shachtman (online book club selection for April; we've just started discussion so I probably won't post about the book until next week)
• Under the Sabers by Tanya Biank (library book club selection for April; post to come later this week)

Right now the only book that I'm actively reading is Innocent Traitor: A Novel of Lady Jane Grey by Alison Weir. Of course I have a whole pile of books that I've started, but not yet finished, but really they are all languishing at the moment.

Dark Roots

I believe this is the first time I've used a short story collection as the book of the month...

Dark Roots by Cate Kennedy

Dark Roots is a short story collection by critically-acclaimed Australian author, Cate Kennedy.

In the volume's title story a 39-year-old woman begins dating a 26-year-old man. At first the love affair makes her feel invigorated, sexy and powerful, but slowly insecurities begin to take over to the point where she begins to unconsciously sabotage the relationship.

The seventeen stories included in Dark Roots are full of individuals like this, true-to-life characters confused and unsure about their futures. Their actions, though, range from eerily familiar (things you can imagine yourself doing if you were in that situation) and completely inexplicable (things that leave you wondering just how desperate you'd have to be to take such risks).

Dark Roots explores what it means to be human. In these stories there is comedy and there is tragedy and in many cases it is Kennedy's subtlety that is her greatest strength.

In the story I mentioned above, the protagonist is reading the list of side-effects of her new birth control pills, among them is a "tendency to hirsuteness". I didn't recognize the word and was intrigued when, in the following sentence, the character resolves to avoid alcohol except in moderation, something that didn't seem to relate to any of the other side-effects. So, I looked it up and it seems that alcohol doesn't relate to hirsuteness either, as hirsute means "hairy" or "covered with hair".

belated weekly reading recap

I really didn't get a lot of reading done this week. In fact, I only finished one book: The Calligrapher's Daughter by Eugenia Kim (post to come).

I'm anxiously awaiting the arrival of the two books I need to read for my book clubs this month: Rumspringa by Tom Shachtman and Under the Sabers by Tanya Biank.

In the meantime I'm currently in the middle of quite a few books:

• Dark Roots by Cate Kennedy (short story collection; to be the book of the month for April)
• If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things by Jon McGregor
• Innocent Traitor: A Novel of Lady Jane Grey by Alison Weir

I'm also finally knitting one of the patterns from Cookie A's Sock Innovation: Knitting Techniques & Patterns for One-Of-A-Kind Socks.

weekly reading recap

Finished this week:

• Day of Confession by Allan Folsom (see post)
• The Glassblower of Murano by Marina Fiorato (see post)
• Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll
  the LibriVox audio version (I found Through the Looking Glass horribly irritating, which is probably why it took me so long to finish it)

I'm currently reading:

• The Calligrapher's Daughter by Eugenia Kim
• If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things by Jon McGregor

The Elegance of the Hedgehog or book clubbing in March part 2

March was the first discussion month for the online book club my friend Lizzie started. The selection: The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery

Reading The Elegance of the Hedgehog was an interesting experience for me. After hearing all the buzz I was really looking forward to reading the book, in fact it was one of the ones I suggested for inclusion in the reading list, but tracking down a copy was a case in frustration (as per usual, at least for me, the "on the shelf" copy wasn't on the shelf in Lockwood. After checking twice, I put a trace on the book and it yielded nothing). Eventually I gave in and ordered a copy, which I didn't receive until after the discussion period had already started. I planned to read it right away straight through (as I'm wont to do) so I could participate in the discussion, but once I started it soon became apparent that The Elegance of the Hedgehog is not a book that can be read quickly.

When Paloma (the 12-year-old protagonist) on page 37, in only the third line of her narration, announces that she's going to be committing suicide in a few months I was shocked and horrified and I really wasn't sure whether I'd like the novel. Nevertheless I continued to read, persevering through all the dense philosophical passages, and ending up loving the novel.

Europa Editions has a really fantastic discussion guide available on its website. Our discussion leader brought it to our attention and pointed us to questions 1, 2, and 9 as starting points for our discussions.

The philosophical interludes, for me, were the most difficult portions of the book. I had to fight my desire to skim when they came up. Because of my educational background I have a better grounding in philosophy than many, but I was still overwhelmed by the amount and detail included the novel. I had to laugh, though, at the passing reference to Melanie Klein because I only know about her because one of the characters in Alexander McCall Smith's 44 Scotland Street books is obsessed with her.
The fact that Barbery is a philosophy professor explains the inclusion of the interludes (as does Renée's solitary and intellectually inquisitive character), but I do think they are off-putting to many readers. The philosophical musings decrease as the plot progresses, making the novel easier to read and Renée easier to relate to.

One of the most interesting things about the novel is how very easy it is to relate to the protagonists and how utterly unsympathetic they can be. Both Paloma and Renée are experiencing things we all experience--being misunderstood, un(der)appreciated, feeling alone even when surrounded by others--but they way that they act distances them from the reader. In particular, one can't help being turned off by the self-righteous way that both of them describe the others who inhabit their world. The Elegance of the Hedgehog is essentially about the humanization of Paloma and Renée so as each of them changes she becomes more sympathetic.

My favorite part of the novel, I think, is when Paloma puts Dr. T., the psychoanalyst, in his place:

'Listen carefully, Mr. Permafrost Psychologist, you and I are going to strike a little bargain. You’re going to leave me alone and in exchange I won't wreck your little trade in human suffering by spreading nasty rumors about you among the Parisian political and business elite. And believe me--at least if you say you can tell just how intelligent I am—-I am fully capable of doing this.' (209)

I have to admit that I think part of the reason I like this bit so much is because of how I feel about Dr. Fairbairn from the 44 Scotland Street books. I think Fairbairn is even more deserving of Paloma's vitriol than Dr. T.

I'm always interested in the meaning of books' titles, especially when it isn't apparent. In this case the title's genesis is Paloma's description of Renée:

Madame Michel has the elegance of the hedgehog: on the outside, she's covered in quills, a real fortress, but my gut feeling is that on the inside, she has the same simple refinement as the hedgehog: a deceptively indolent little creature, fiercely solitary--and terribly elegant. (143)

One of the reasons I was drawn to The Elegance of the Hedgehog was its intriguing title, but I appreciate the title even more now that I know that it's meaningful.

Day of Confession

Day of Confession by Allan Folsom

In Italy, the Cardinal Vicar of Rome is assassinated during a papal celebration. In Los Angeles, entertainment lawyer Harry Addison receives a desperate message from his long-estranged brother, Father Daniel Addison, a Vatican priest. Hours later a tour bus with Father Daniel aboard explodes on the road to Assisi.
When Harry arrives in Italy to claim his brother's body, he discovers that not only may Father Daniel still be alive, but he is the prime suspect in the murder of the Cardinal Vicar. In a sudden turn, Harry finds himself framed for the murder of an Italian policeman. Now on the run and on his brother's trail, Harry is thrust into a terrifying world of horror and deception where an international terrorist hunts Father Daniel as relentlessly as the authorities...and where a monstrous conspiracy arises from the very heart of the Vatican.

I've been listening to Day of Confession (read by Michael Kramer) while in the car for quite a while. I finally finished it this afternoon.

Day of Confession is another one of the inside-the-Catholic-church conspiracy thrillers. I liked the book overall, particularly how layered its plot is, but I'm not sure it's one that I would have chosen to read had it been in traditional book form.

The one thing that I found most interesting is that the two biggest villains both suffered from some sort of mental illness. I'm not sure if Folsom is using that instability to justify their actions. Is he trying to imply that people can't be evil by choice, that all depraved behavior is a result of mental imbalance?

The Glassblower of Murano

This book arrived in the mail on Wednesday and even though I had multiple books in progress I started it right away because it looked good.

The Glassblower of Murano by Marina Fiorato

The Glassblower of Murano is the story of Leonora Manin, a venetian-born Brit who decides to explore her roots after her divorce. It is also the story of Corradino Manin, Leonora's ancestor, a famous 17th century glassblower. While the majority of the narrative follows Leonora, Corradino's part is significant and does not exist solely as a foil to Leonora's storyline.

The Glassblower of Murano is both a historical mystery and a contemporary romance. The novel is full of Venice and Murano and the details of glass-making. Leonora in particular is a sympathetic character and her journey is realistic.

weekly reading recap

I finished two books this week:

• Casting Off by Nicole R. Dickson (see post)
• The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery
  the first selection for my online bookclub; post to come

I'm currently reading:

• Day of Confession by Allan Folsom (audio on cassette)
• If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things by Jon McGregor
• Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll
  the LibriVox audio version

book clubbing in March

Fantasy this month for book club!

Blue Girl by Charles de Lint

When Imogene, her mother, and her brother move to Newford, she decides to reinvent herself — this time she won't go looking for trouble.
She quickly gets to know two very different people. Maxine is a "good girl," following a strict life plan. Imogene helps Maxine loosen up and break a few rules, and in turn Maxine keeps her on the straight and narrow.
Imogene's other new friend is a little more unusual. His name is Adrian. He is a ghost. Adrian was killed when he jumped off the high school roof in 1998, and hasn't left since. He has a huge crush on her — so much so that he wants her to see the fairies that also haunt the school. The fairies invade Imogene's dreams, blurring the line between the unreal and the real. When her imaginary childhood friend Pelly actually manifests, Imogene knows something is terribly wrong. With Maxine, Adrian, and Pelly's help, Imogene challenges the dark forces of Faery.

I was really pleased when Blue Girl ended up on our reading list for book club. I've been reading de Lint since middle/high school (though I have to admit that it's been a while since I cracked one of his books open) and I've had a copy of Blue Girl sitting on my shelf since Russell bought it off my wishlist a couple of years ago.

Blue Girl got mixed reviews from the book club members, though I am happy to report that at least two of the book club members expressed interest in reading more de Lint. I liked Blue Girl, but I have to say that I thought that the ending was a bit anticlimactic.

During our meeting we discussed

• fantasy as a genre and urban fantasy as a subgenre (and I did a horrible job of explaining how urban fantasy has changed over time),
• what makes a YA/teen novel,
• whether we related more to the teenage characters or to their mothers,
• how we felt about the mothers (both in terms of their authenticity and whether we agreed with their outlooks),
• the nature of the faeries in novel, specifically the brownies/house faeries and how they were similar to house elves in the Harry Potter books,
• why Imogene has such difficulties believing in faeries when Adrian first tells her about them,
• the nature and role of angels in Blue Girl and how different it is from how angels are normally portrayed,
• how the various characters developed over the course of the novel,
• whether there was a happy ending for Adrian, and
• how we felt about certain decisions that Imogene makes during the course of the story, among other things.

Casting Off

Casting Off by Nicole R. Dickson

Academic Rebecca Moray receives a grant to do study both the history of Aran sweaters and the techniques and stories behind them. Her best friend Sharon grew up on the island* and Rebecca has been dreaming of this research trip for years. She also hopes that three months away will help ground her 6-year-old daughter Rowan, whose childhood has been marred by the loss of her father and frequent moves made necessary by Rebecca's career.

As soon as she and Rowan step off the dock, Rebecca begins to realize that she'll be getting more than she bargained from this trip. Everyone greets her and Rowan by name, treating them like long-lost relatives, but they all have very clear ideas about what Rebecca should be doing with her time. Amid all the friendly interference, the only cold reception comes from Sean Morahan, an enigmatic and troubled old man.

Casting Off is the story of Rebecca's research trip, of how the people of the island changed both Rebecca and her daughter, and how the Morays, in turn, changed them.

I originally wanted to read Casting Off because it is a knitting novel. I'm happy to report that it was much better that I expected to be. The story has real meat, the characters are sympathetic, the setting is bucolic and well-described, the knitting tidbits are interesting (the author even has a blog dedicated to the stitches featured in the novel), and the nothing that happens in the course of the novel is too terribly implausible.

I'm loaning my copy to a friend, but after that I think I'll keep it around for a while because I'm pretty sure that I'll want to re-read it.

* Casting Off is set on an unspecified Aran isle.

weekly reading recap

Finished this week:

• Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
  the LibriVox audio version; the book was much shorter that I remembered
• Exodus by Leon Uris (see post)
• The Girl with Glass Feet by Ali Shaw (see post)

Reading now:

• Casting Off by Nicole R Dickson
• Day of Confession by Allan Folsom (audio for car)
• Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll
  the LibriVox audio version

Exodus

Recently I forced Russell to read The Handmaid's Tale (Atwood) so it seemed only fair that I read one of the books he's been wanting me to read.

Exodus by Leon Uris

Russell likes Exodus because its plot is compelling (particularly with the inclusion of the various characters' backstories) and it's pretty accurate. He also appreciates the fact that Uris covers some parts of the history that are usually completely overlooked (like the evacuation of all the Yemeni Jews). When he first read the novel, it compelled him to do research on his own to find out what actually happened.

I have to admit that I was a bit intimidated by Exodus's page count especially when coupled with its small text and narrow margins. But, while it's not a novel you can tackle in one afternoon, Exodus is not a difficult read. That's not to say that there aren't some sections that are hard to read, but that's to be expected given the subject matter.

Overall I thought Exodus was a very good read. Uris is heavy-handed at time and the romantic aspect of the story is unexpectedly tame, but neither of these things keeps Exodus from being an extremely compelling read. The inclusion of the main characters' various backstories (in one case going back generations) is the novel's biggest strength, not only do those stories provide context for the individual characters, they also provide a framework for understanding the broader history of the Jews.

Reading Exodus also made me realize how much I don't know about the foundation of the nation of Israel.

Russell says, now you have to read Trinity...

The Girl with Glass Feet

The Girl with Glass Feet by Ali Shaw

I was really pleased when I was offered an advanced reader copy of Ali Shaw's debut novel. I was intrigued by the synopsis. It seemed like just the kind of book I enjoy most.

The Girl with Glass Feet is the story of Midas Crook, a young man who uses his camera to shield him from the world, and Ida Maclaird, the titular character (and if there is a single protagonist it is Midas not Ida). The novel is also very much concerned with its setting, the strange, snowbound archipelago of St. Hauda's Land. The Girl with Glass Feet is a love story and a fairy tale; its also a bildungsroman.

I found The Girl with Glass Feet extremely compelling and I know it's a novel that I will want to read again. While my favorite thing about the novel were the descriptions of the creatures that Henry (a secondary character) is raising, I was also intrigued by the fate of Midas' father's manuscript and the implications of said fate.

The Girl with Glass Feet is atmospheric and sometimes dreamlike. It's not a cheery book, but it is ultimately redemptive. St. Hauda's Land is vividly imagined and hauntingly beautiful. The novel's characters, even when faced with the impossible, are authentic.

When asked about his inspiration for the novel, he replied:

I remember being on an escalator in a railway station when I suddenly saw in my mind a girl with feet made of glass. I couldn’t tell you whether something prompted it – the image is the most vivid thing I can remember about that railway station. I got home and started exploring it, asking what kind of person had feet made of glass, and how on earth would she cope? And I loved the idea that she hadn’t always had feet of glass, but that slowly they had transformed into it. Which of course meant the rest of her body was in danger of turning into glass as well.

Shaw's sketches for the book on the publisher's website. The sketches don't appear in my advanced reader copy and I'm not sure that they'll appear in the published version, but they are quite interesting to see.

The Floating Brothel

Nonfiction for the student services blog this month...

The Floating Brothel: The Extraordinary True Story of an Eighteenth-Century Ship and Its Cargo of Female Convicts
by Sian Rees

The convict ship Lady Julia set sail from England in 1789. Its cargo was a bevy of “disorderly girls”, unemployed women reduced to petty thievery or prostitution, who had been sentenced to “Transportation to Parts Beyond the Seas.” These women were destined for Sydney Cove in New South Wales to provide companionship and children for the many male convicts already peopling the area.

Ostensibly the true story of the voyage, The Floating Brothel is also a work of imagination. Rees admits that the primary sources available to her were limited and that she relied heavily on probably-unreliable diaries of one of the ship’s crew. That being said, she does a fantastic job of bringing the 18th century to life for her readers. And, while The The Floating Brothel is not as salacious as its title suggests, it is a fascinating read.

Broken Glass Park

A review that appears in the latest issue of Library Journal...

Broken Glass Park by Alina Bronsky

This debut novel, which was nominated for the prestigious Ingeborg Bachmann Prize, reveals a strong voice that's simultaneously biting and accessible.
Its narrator, precocious 17-year-old Sacha, lives in a housing project in Berlin populated by Russian immigrants. She's at the top of the class in her exclusive private school and has two goals in life: to kill her stepfather and to write a book about her mother tentatively titled "The Story of an Idiotic, Redheaded Woman Who Would Still Be Alive if Only She Had Listened to Her Smart, Oldest Daughter." This modern coming-of-age story follows Sacha as she interacts with the characters that populate her world and ventures further afield.

It is unfortunate that Bronsky's depiction of the immigrant community veers into stereotype because, as an émigré herself, she is uniquely situated to critique her fellow travelers. Additionally, while translator Mohr's prose is pitch-perfect, the way his notes are inserted in the text distracts from the flow of the narrative.

Broken Glass Park is the kind of book one expects to see on high school reading lists. It faces difficult issues head-on and its edginess will appeal to teens.

weekly reading recap

I only finished one book this week: Vampyres of Hollywood by Adrienne Barbeau and Michael Scott (see post).

Reading now:

• Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
  the LibriVox audio version
• The Calligrapher's Daughter by Eugenia Kim
• Day of Confession by Allan Folsom (audio for car)
• Exodus by Leon Uris

word: mondegreen

A mondegreen is the mishearing or misinterpretation of a oft-heard phrase (usually something like a line in a poem or a song lyric), due to near homophony,* in a way that gives it a new meaning.
Like
"Our Father who art in Heaven, Harold be his name" for
"Our Father who art in Heaven, hallowed be his name"

The term mondegreen was coined by Sylvia Wright in a 1954 Atlantic article. As a child Sylvia had listened to a folk song that included the lines "They had slain the Earl of Moray / And laid him on the green," which she'd misheard as "They had slain the Earl of Moray / And Lady Mondegreen."


* the linguistic phenomenon whereby words of different origins become identical in pronunciation

Vampyres of Hollywood

Vampyres of Hollywood
by Adrienne Barbeau and Michael Scott

Hollywood, California: three gruesome deaths within two weeks and every one of them a major star - an Oscar winner, an ingenue, and an action hero. A serial killer is working through the Hollywood A-list and celebrities are running scared.
Each crime scene is worthy of a classic horror movie, and all three victims share a connection to the powerful scream queen, Ovsanna Moore. The stunning and formidable Moore is the legendary head of a Hollywood studio, as well as the writer and star of seventeen blockbuster horror films (and a few that went straight to DVD).
She's also a 500 year old vampyre... but this is Hollywood after all, and no one ever looks their age.
Beverly Hills Police Detective Peter King knows a lot about the City of Angels, but he certainly doesn't know that most of the famous actors in town are actually an established network of vampires. Or that secretive and seductive Ovsanna Moore happens to be their CEO.
Moore and King may be from opposite sides of the Hollywood Hills, but both have something to gain by stopping the killer who the tabloids have dubbed the Cinema Slayer. Ovsanna must protect her vampire legacy and her production schedule, while King just wants to keep his Beverly Hills beat as blood-free as possible. But when the horror queen and the cop with the movie star looks form an unholy alliance, sparks fly and so do the creatures of the night.

Vampyres of Hollywood showed up this week courtesy of BookMooch, a book trading site. Because its a "light" book, it got read right away (like most of the "light" or "fluffy" books that have come through our door lately).

A paranormal mystery set in the glamorous and tawdry world of Hollywood, Vampyres of Hollywood is both funny and gory. I'm not sure the authors' take on vampires is particularly novel (different types of vampires with different kinds of skills, vampires that change as they age, a society full of rules and complex power structures), but I enjoyed the idea of real vampires as the creators of vampire mythology and how the authors made connections with famous and historical personages (though there may be a bit too much name-dropping).

The narrative flip-flops between Ovsanna and Detective King and that change of perspective with each chapter is what propels the narrative along. That being said, Vampyres of Hollywood isn't so much of a page-turner that I had to stay up late to finish it. I didn't find the novel compelling. The writing isn't that great, it's finale tied things up too quickly, and the romance seemed tacked on at the end. Lackluster, in a word.

weekly reading report

Books finished this week:

• The Book of Lost Books by Stuart Kelly (this one wasn't what I expected)
• The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova (see post)

Reading now:

• The Calligrapher's Daughter by Eugenia Kim
• Day of Confession by Allan Folsom (audio for car)
• Exodus by Leon Uris (since I'm making Russell read The Handmaid's Tale it seemed only fair for me to read one of the books he's been wanting me to read)

The Historian

The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova

The Historian, Kostova's debut novel, was published to much acclaim in 2005. The novel is full of archival research (what I mean here is that the characters spend lots of time in archives, not that Kostova did archival research for the novel though maybe she did) so it's been on my must-read list. It's just taken me years to get around to it.

I started reading the 642-page novel last weekend. I didn't mind that it was long and mired in historical detail (like others have), I was just a bit disappointed in the ending. With all the build-up, the final encounter was a bit anticlimactic. Not to mention the fact that the climax, short-term tie-up, and epilogue are all accomplished in 25 pages. After reading 600+ pages of build-up, I felt a bit robbed.

There were a number of things I liked about the novel: the prominence of archives,* the fact that main characters were sympathetic (and many of the secondary characters full-bodied and interesting), pondering the meaning of the title (who is the historian), and the epigraphs. I enjoyed the interplay of the two storylines, but while I was following Helen and Paul I was wondering what the narrator was up to (and vice versa). That tension, wanting to know what was going to happen (especially wanting to find out what became of the narrator's mother) is what kept me reading, but based on my general dissatisfaction with the ending I don't think I'd recommend The Historian.

* One thing that I just have to share -
Dracula: "I will put many archivists at your disposal--the finest of them--and you shall bring more under our power" (577). Yes! who wouldn't want to serve evil if they were promised an army of archivists.

Friday Find #12

I'd heard about this book last month, but was reminded about it again today.

After reading all the dire predictions* of Taiga (courtesy of a thread on the ExLibris listserv), I was cheered to see How Librarians Can Save The World (an an NPR review of This Book is Overdue) shared by one of my friends on FaceBook.

Below is the publisher's blurb, but there's also an excerpt from This Book is Overdue available on the NPR site underneath Heller McAlpin's review.

This Book is Overdue: How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All
by Marilyn Johnson

Buried in info? Cross-eyed over technology? From the bottom of a pile of paper and discs, books, e-books, and scattered thumb drives comes a cry of hope: Make way for the librarians They want to help. They're not selling a thing. And librarians know best how to beat a path through the googolplex sources of information available to us, writes Marilyn Johnson, whose previous book, The Dead Beat, breathed merry life into the obituary-writing profession.
This Book is Overdue is a romp through the ranks of information professionals and a revelation for readers burned out on the cliches and stereotyping of librarians. Blunt and obscenely funny bloggers spill their stories in these pages, as do a tattooed, hard-partying children's librarian; a fresh-scrubbed Catholic couple who teach missionaries to use computers; a blue-haired radical who uses her smartphone to help guide street protestors; a plethora of voluptuous avatars and cybrarians; the quiet, law-abiding librarians gagged by the FBI; and a boxing archivist. These are just a few of the visionaries Johnson captures here, pragmatic idealists who fuse the tools of the digital age with their love for the written word and the enduring values of free speech, open access, and scout-badge-quality assistance to anyone in need.
Those who predicted the death of libraries forgot to consider that in the automated maze of contemporary life, none of us--neither the experts nor the hopelessly baffled--can get along without human help. And not just any help--we need librarians, who won't charge us by the question or roll their eyes, no matter what we ask. Who are they? What do they know? And how quickly can they save us from being buried by the digital age?

* Taiga Forum Provocative Statements (2006) and Taiga 4 Forum Provocative Statements (2009)

Margaret Atwood

Margaret Atwood was on campus on Wednesday as part of the University's Distinguished Speakers Series.

I went to hear her speak and I have to say that it really wasn't what I expected. Atwood herself was funnier than I imagined. Her talk was on the short side and its topic was "questions people have asked me and their answers" so the whole program ended up being like one huge question-and-answer session.

What she chose to include in her talk was interesting, particularly her discussion of how the questions she's usually asked have changed over the years. She touched on her hair, feminism, speculative fiction, and hope. Her answer to the question of which of her characters is most like her is Zenia from The Robber Bride because she's a pathological liar who's able to spin tales appropriate to her audience.

The audience questions covered a variety of topics. Atwood was asked about her arctic vacations and whether she had any advice for graduate students. Individuals requested that she comment about one character or another and share her feelings about the film adaptation of The Handmaid's Tale (she wishes they'd release an original cut because the voice-over bits were cut out and, while she understood that they had to change the ending, she didn't think what they decided to do was logical).

When Atwood was asked which genre she prefers to write she answered that if she really and truly enjoyed one more than the others that'd be the only genre in which she'd write. She continued that the bit of writing that she finds most difficult is the book review. As a result she reviews infrequently and only books that she likes. She mentioned reviewing E.O. Wilson's first novel Anthill.

She was also asked which authors she always snaps up: Alice Munro and Hilary Mantel. She also threw in a plug for Yann Martel's new book, Beatrice and Virgil (forthcoming in April).

When asked about the impending death of the book (in the wake of e-readers), Atwood mentioned that she'd written a post on her blog detailing three reasons to keep paper books: solar storms, energy shortages, and internet overload.

Books that were mentioned in the program (ordered, more or less, from most-mentioned to least) were The Handmaid's Tale, The Year of the Flood (which we'd expected her to talk more about than she did), Oryx and Crake, The Robber Bride, and Alias Grace. Atwood mentioned her poetry, but generally.

Of course I can't mention everything here, but that was a taste of it.

word: alack

Who doesn't like a good interjection? I know I do.

The word alack popped up in a book I'm reading (The Historian I think, though it could have been in The Blue Girl) and it seemed like a good word to feature. The phrase "alas and alack" comes to mind, but in the novel, alack was used on its own.

Alack is used to express sorrow, regret, or alarm

The OED adds:

Especially in phrases alack the day! alack-a-day! originally ‘Shame or reproach to the day! Woe worth the day!’ but in later usage of mere surprise, and aphetized* lack-a-day!

* aphetize, another good word. A linguistic term: having undergone aphesis (the removal of an unstressed initial vowel).

Weekly Reading Report

Books finished this week:

• Abhorsen by Garth Nix (3rd in the Abhorsen Trilogy; see post)
• The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
  one of my favorite books. I've convinced Russell to give it a try and will post about his reaction and our discussions after he's done
• Lirael by Garth Nix (2nd in the Abhorsen Trilogy)
• Moral Disorder by Margaret Atwood
  our February book club selection; see post

The two books that I'm actively reading now are The Book of Lost Books by Stuart Kelly and The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova.

Abhorsen Trilogy

Abhorsen Trilogy by Garth Nix

Garth Nix's Abhorsen Trilogy (Sabriel, Lirael, and Abhorsen) is set in a world that in some ways is very much like our own. The norther border of Ancelstierre (an England-like country), however, is heavily fortified because beyond its wall is the Old Kingdom, a land where magic is both commonplace and dangerous.

While Charter Magic is a force that unites and stabilizes the Old Kingdom, Free Magic (and those who wield it unscrupulously) has the potential to tear it apart. A guardian of the Charter, the Abhorsen's powers blend both Free and Charter Magic. A special kind of necromancer, the Abhorsen doesn't bring the dead to life, but banishes them further and finally into Death.

I really enjoyed the Abhorsen books. They are engaging and fast-paced. The books' target audience is young adult and their protagonists are all teens (well, Lirael's protagonists appear as adult secondary characters in the other two books). The world that Nix creates is what makes the series stand out. Not only does Nix imagine the Old Kingdom and all of its mythos, but the texture of Death itself.

One of the things that was most interesting to me is that while Lirael and Abhorsen are clearly part of a series (Lirael ends with a horrible cliff-hanger), Sabriel (the 1st book) reads like a stand-alone novel. I wonder whether Nix wrote Sabriel as a stand-alone and then wrote the other two when the first was well received.

book clubbing in Feburary

Margaret Atwood is going to be speaking on campus on March 3rd, so we decided that we should read one of her books for February. Our selection was Moral Disorder, her most recent collection of short stories (2006).

Moral Disorder and other stories by Margaret Atwood

Moral Disorder is for the most part a series of interconnected stories featuring the same set of characters, but there are some notable exceptions.

The group had mixed feeling (tending toward ambivalence and annoyance) about Moral Disorder. The biggest complaint was the fact that Atwood didn't fully commit. Moral Disorder is neither a traditional collection of short stories nor a novel masquerading as a set of short stories. The fact that only a small portion of the prose was not interconnected made Atwood's choices all the more perplexing.

While I am a fan of Atwood, I had a hard time with Moral Disorder. I do think, however, the most of my difficulties came from the fact that I was listening to an audio version. Now, I love audio books, but the way this one was presented made it a real challenge to read. Many of the stories in Moral Disorder don't really come to an obvious conclusion (we assume this is because the overarching story is going to continue) and the reader of the audio version did nothing to signal to the listener that story A was done. The title of story B would be said in the same exact tone as the rest of the narration so unless the listener was paying close attention, the stories just merged into one. In other collections this would be less of a problem, but in Moral Disorder with the majority of the characters appearing in multiple stories, it was horribly confusing. The only time I was really able to appreciate Moral Disorder properly was when I set aside a huge chunk of time and devoted myself to it completely, allowing no other distractions.

It's Monday! What are you reading?

With Olympic events to watch, I have to admit that I didn't do a lot of reading this week. I only finished one book: Sabriel by Garth Nix (post to come).

The two books that I'm actively reading now are Lirael by Garth Nix (the sequel to Sabriel) and Moral Disorder by Margaret Atwood (short stories; February's book club selection).

Case Histories

A few years ago I reviewed the sequel to Case Histories, One Good Turn (see post). At that time I'd really wanted to read Case Histories so when I was trying to figure out what book to highlight on the student services blog in February (a fiction month) Case Histories came to mind as the perfect choice.

Case Histories by Kate Atkinson

A unique and engaging mystery novel, Case Histories focuses on three cold cases: a beloved child disappears from her backyard without a trace (1970), a 20-something is brutally murdered by a mysterious man who barges into her father's law office on her first day of work there (1994), and a young mother essentially orphaned her daughter when she attacked her husband with an ax in a fit of rage (1979).

One way or another police inspector-turned-private investigator Jackson Brodie becomes involved in the cases, forgotten by all but the people personally affected by the traumatic events, and endeavors to find ways of bringing closure to those same individuals.

While the storylines in Case Histories are myriad, they are balanced in such a way that the reader never becomes overwhelmed. All of the characters in are multilayered and Atkinson's understanding of the psyche is what makes this novel stand out.

a new book club

My friend Lizzie is organizing an online book club. We just settled on the schedule of books to discuss and I'm really excited about it.

March: Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery

April: Rumspringa: To Be or Not to Be Amish by Tom Shachtman

May: The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins

June: March by Geraldine Brooks

July: You Are Not a Gadget by Jaron Lanier

August: Wings of the Dove by Henry James

September: The Children's Book by A.S. Byatt

October: Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard by Dan Heath, Chip Heath

November: Bleak House by Charles Dickens

It's Monday! What are you reading?

This week I finished reading:

• Case Histories by Kate Atkinson (which will be February's book of the month; I'd planned on posting about this book last week, but I didn't get around to it)
• The World According to Bertie by Alexander McCall Smith (the fourth book in the 44 Scotland Street series after Love over Scotland; a New York Public Library on-demand audio book)

Mozart's Sister by Nancy Moser seems like it'll be on indefinite hold as a New York Public Library on-demand audio books are currently MIA. This is the error I get when trying to access them: this eAudiobook is not included in your library's collection and is unavailable for download.

I'm in a bit of a rut, it seems. This week I started and then put down a whole host of books because I wasn't in the mood for them. The majority of them I'll probably pick up again at a later date. Capt. Hook: The Adventures of a Notorious Youth by J. V. Hart and Brett Helquist I'm sure that I won't as I read quite a bit of it before I decided to stop.

Here are the books that I have in progress and am attempting to read:

• Moral Disorder by Margaret Atwood (short stories; February's book club selection)
• Sabriel by Garth Nix

Handke's Don Juan

I reviewed this book in November, but waited until it's on sale to share it with you.

Don Juan: His Own Version by Peter Handke

Austrian Handke's latest to be translated into English is narrated not by Don Juan as its title would suggest, but by a lonely French innkeeper into whose garden the protagonist tumbles one day. The innkeeper becomes Don Juan's confidant and during his stay Don Juan recounts his previous week's adventures. Over the course of that "womanweek" Don Juan travels as far as Damascus and Norway encountering a new woman each day. At first Don Juan is like a mythological character. The narrator describes him as a veritable St. Francis, nourished by sorrow (he was orphaned by the loss of his only child), with the ability to magic rare and wonderful foodstuffs. The narrator's impression of Don Juan, however, changes after the week of storytelling has concluded. Whatever was awe-inspiring seems to dissipate and Don Juan becomes just a regular man with irritating quirks.

Don't come to Don Juan expecting tales of excitement and seduction or detailed accounts of the lothario's encounters or you'll be disappointed. The novel is literary and philosophical rather than sensational.

Read the official review at Library Journal...

It's Monday! What are you reading?

This week I finished reading:

• Her Fearful Symmetry by Audry Niffenegger (see post)
• The Professor’s Daughter by Joann Sfar and Emmanuel Guibert (see post)
• Still Waters by Jennifer Lauck (see post)

Here are the books that I have in progress and am attempting to read:

• Case Histories by Kate Atkinson (which will be February's book of the month)
• Moral Disorder by Margaret Atwood (short stories; February's book club selection)
• Mozart's Sister by Nancy Moser (a New York Public Library on-demand audio book)
• The World According to Bertie by Alexander McCall Smith (the fourth book in the 44 Scotland Street series after Love over Scotland; a New York Public Library on-demand audio book)

Still Waters

Still Waters by Jennifer Lauck

I received Still Waters on cassette from a friend who was clearing out all of her audio books. Apparently Still Waters picks up after Blackbird, Lauck's earlier memoir. Normally I'd want to read Blackbird before starting Still Waters, but I needed an audio for a car trip so I decided to go ahead with it anyway.

Still Waters begins with a University of Oklahoma police report detailing the disappearance and subsequent death of a Bryan Lauck. The book will end many years after that report was written when Lauck looks into her brother's death and comes to terms with it.

The memoir's narrative opens with 12-year-old Jenny arriving at her maternal grandparents, where she expects to stay for good (both her parents have died and she's been abandoned by her stepmother, her brother sent off to live with another relative). Jenny is then shunted off to live with her father's youngest sister and her husband and young daughter. Although Aunt Georgia and Uncle Dick adopt Jenny, she feels profoundly unwanted and has to earn her keep. Still Waters follows Jenny as she grows up in this unloving home and sets out on her own. It unflinchingly chronicles her failures and disappointments. But, ultimately, Still Waters is an affirming book. Readers to follow Jenny past her tumultuous early adulthood as she comes to peace with her past and is able to trust herself enough to become a mother.

The version I listened to was read (and abridged) by Lauck. I really think Lauck being the reader added to the experience because the book is a memoir. I found it very compelling.

Friday Find #11

Here's another interesting-sounding book I've discovered through the Powell's Review a Day mailings:

The Unnamed by Joshua Ferris

"He was going to lose the house and everything in it.
The rare pleasure of a bath, the copper pots hanging above the kitchen island, his family-again he would lose his family. He stood inside the house and took stock. Everything in it had been taken for granted. How had that happened again? He had promised himself not to take anything for granted and now he couldn't recall the moment that promise had given way to the everyday."

Tim Farnsworth is a handsome, healthy man, aging with the grace of a matinee idol. His wife Jane still loves him, and for all its quiet trials, their marriage is still stronger than most. Despite long hours at the office, he remains passionate about his work, and his partnership at a prestigious Manhattan law firm means that the work he does is important. And, even as his daughter Becka retreats behind her guitar, her dreadlocks and her puppy fat, he offers her every one of a father's honest lies about her being the most beautiful girl in the world.

He loves his wife, his family, his work, his home. He loves his kitchen. And then one day he stands up and walks out. And keeps walking.

The Unnamed is a dazzling novel about a marriage and a family and the unseen forces of nature and desire that seem to threaten them both. It is the heartbreaking story of a life taken for granted and what happens when that life is abruptly and irrevocably taken away.

The Professor’s Daughter

The Professor’s Daughter
by Joann Sfar and Emmanuel Guibert

Set in Victorian London, The Professor’s Daughter is the story of a 3,000 year-old mummy who falls in love with the daughter of the academic who’s studying him. The affair between Lillian Bowell and Imhotep IV seems ill-fated, not because Imhotep IV is a mummy, but because he falls on the wrong side of the law… among other things.

The Professor’s Daughter is a comedic romp that’s at times quite serious. A joy to read; its artwork is truly lovely, the sepia tones giving the story a real period feel.

Her Fearful Symmetry

Her Fearful Symmetry by Audry Niffenegger

When Elspeth Noblin dies of cancer, she leaves her London apartment to her twin nieces, Julia and Valentina. These two American girls never met their English aunt, only knew that their mother, too, was a twin, and Elspeth her sister. Julia and Valentina are semi-normal American teenagers — with seemingly little interest in college, finding jobs, or anything outside their cozy home in the suburbs of Chicago, and with an abnormally intense attachment to one another.

The girls move to Elspeth's flat, which borders Highgate Cemetery in London. They come to know the building's other residents. There is Martin, a brilliant and charming crossword puzzle setter suffering from crippling Obsessive Compulsive Disorder; Marjike, Martin's devoted but trapped wife; and Robert, Elspeth's elusive lover, a scholar of the cemetery. As the girls become embroiled in the fraying lives of their aunt's neighbors, they also discover that much is still alive in Highgate, including — perhaps — their aunt, who can't seem to leave her old apartment and life behind.

I enjoyed The Time Traveler's Wife (see post) so I'd been looking forward to getting my hands on a copy of Her Fearful Symmetry.

Unfortunately, though, I can't write about Her Fearful Symmetry properly without including spoilers so I'm just going to have to be vague. Overall I really enjoyed the book, but I have to say that at one point I absolutely hated it. It has some fantastic/horrific twists, but its story was always compelling and its ending, at least to my mind, was satisfying.

The strongest part of Her Fearful Symmetry really is the way that the characters (and our perception of the characters) change throughout the course of the novel.

It's Monday! What are you reading?

This week I finished reading:

• Daughter of Kura by Debra Austin (see post)
• Love over Scotland by Alexander McCall Smith (the third book in the 44 Scotland Street series)

I also finished up a review of Archives Power by Rand Jimerson for Archival Issues. I'll probably post some observations to the blog later this week.

Here are the books that I have in progress and am attempting to read:

• Her Fearful Symmetry by Audry Niffenegger
• The World According to Bertie by Alexander McCall Smith (the fourth book in the 44 Scotland Street series after Love over Scotland; a New York Public Library on-demand audio book)

Daugther of Kura

Daughter of Kura by Debra Austin

Daughter of Kura is a coming-of-age story set in southeastern Africa during prehistoric times. Snap's grandmother is the Mother of Kura, the leader of their ukoo. One day Snap will be the clan's Mother, but for now she is concerned with having to choose her winter mate for the first time.

At the end of the summer, the Kura women return to their village from their nomadic harvesting and men from other clans arrive in the hopes of being bonded to one of the Kura women for the winter. While the bonding is usually a cause for celebration, sadness prevails in Snap's kao after the unexpected death of her mother's usual mate. Whistle (Snap's mother) chooses a newcomer named Bapoto who is famed for his hunting skills, while Snap chooses a young long-walker named Ash.

While Snap and Ash seem to be a perfect match, there is tension in the kao. Bapoto has strange ideas and is constantly talking about the Great One. He encouraged the men to perform rituals before their hunts. He expects others to thank the Great One for any and all blessings and becomes upset with anyone who does not acquiesce to his request. He also begins to receive visions from the Great One, which only he can interpret. After the death of Snap's grandmother, Whistle becomes Mother and Bapoto the highest ranking male. In his new position Bapoto is able to exert much more control over the people of Kura. When Snap questions Bapoto one too many times, she must risk her life to be true to herself and her ukoo's traditions.

Daughter of Kura was very slow going for me at the start (this was confounded by the fact that the majority of the characters have sound names like rustle and warble making it difficult for me to keep the secondary characters straight), but once I got into the story, I found it very compelling. Despite the fact that Snap is in many ways very different from the reader, she is surprisingly sympathetic.

The world Austin imagines for Snap and the rest of the Kura is finely-wrought and her author's note serves to put it in context. Austin notes that "the geologic features, technologies, and social systems that form the structure of [the protagonist's] life are constructed from a combination of reasonably secure scientific facts, plausible theories, and wild (but not provably wrong) speculation" (303).

Second Thyme Around

Second Thyme Around by Katie Fforde

For years, things have run quite smoothly for Perdita and her organic gardening business. So what if her hair needs a complete overhaul, her sweater has more holes than Swiss cheese, and there's no hope of a boyfriend on the horizon? The last thing Perdita wants is a meddlesome man in her life--but she's about to get one, in the form of her completely infuriating ex-husband, Lucas. Lucas is disagreeable, curt, arrogant, and smolderingly gorgeous. He's also the new chef at Grantly House, Perdita's number-one customer. Worse, Mr. Grantly has the insane idea of starting a television cooking show that will put Lucas and Perdita together as "The Gourmet and the Gardener." Now, things are heating up in the kitchen--and elsewhere. With the bright lights blazing and old feelings stirring the pot, it could be a recipe for disaster...or absolute delight.

Second Thyme Around is a quick, but enjoyable read. Beyond the usual chick lit hate-turned-to-romance, there's a secondary plot about the death of a loved one and the drama caused by the unexpected appearance of a long-lost relation with his eyes on the estate.

Perdita is a sympathetic character and is much less obtuse than chick lit heroines can sometimes be. Perdita's neighbor Kitty despite being a secondary character is really the star of the show. Kitty (and her storyline) adds so much depth to the novel.

The Night Villa

We discussed The Night Villa by Carol Goodman at our book club meeting yesterday. I've read quite a few of Goodman's other novels--The Drowning Tree, The Ghost Orchid, The Lake of Dead Languages, and The Seduction of Water--and I love how atmospheric they are.

The eruption of Italy’s Mount Vesuvius in A.D. 79 buried a city and its people, including their treasures and secrets. Classics professor Sophie Chase travels to the beautiful island of Capri in to unravel the secrets of one unusual household, immersing herself in a culture simultaneously fascinating and frightening.

Beneath layers of volcanic ash lies the Villa della Notte, home to first-century nobles who engaged in pagan rituals and a slave girl named Iusta whose life may have ended during the eruption—or may have helped to alter the course of Italy’s religious history. As Sophie and her team piece together Iusta’s story, they unearth a subterranean labyrinth and a set of invaluable antique documents believed lost to the ages. But for both women, suspicion, fear, and danger lurk in the tunnels and chambers beneath the estate. As Iusta races to escape Vesuvius’s impending fury, Sophie rushes to uncover what happened to Iusta before all traces of her life disappear—or are erased.

With parallel modern/historical storylines and some unexpected twists, The Night Villa provided lots to discuss: the role and treatment of women during the Classical period, how difficult it was to figure out who the "bad" and "good" guys were during the story (I'll admit that I didn't suspect the real informer), the role of religion in the story, why certain characters acted the way that they did, the portrayal of the ancient manuscript deciphering and translation (and how authentic it was), how we left about the opening of the novel and whether that scene was really necessary, our take on Phineas (the Roman traveler whose scroll the team has uncovered), the ancient cult and its rites, etc.

One of the most interesting things to me was the Pythagorean cult (Tetractys), that features predominantly in the current-day portion of the book. After finishing The Night Villa, I did a little research because I wondered whether the Tetractys was a real cult. It's not, which makes Goodman's imagining of it all the more wonderful.

The book starts out with a bang, then proceeds agonizingly slowly, picking up once Sophie is in Italy. I can't say that I loved The Night Villa, but it's definitely interesting and I have recommended it to at least one classicist in my life.

For another take on The Night Villa, see this blog post by another one of our book club members.

word: blue-stocking

As I'm sure I've made abundantly clear, I find Alexander McCall Smith's 44 Scotland Street series thoroughly enchanting. One of the series' main characters is frequently described as a "blue-stocking," a term I'd never heard before.

From the OED:

Blue Stocking lady: orig. one who frequented [Elizabeth] Montague's "Blue Stocking" assemblies; thence transferred sneeringly to any woman showing a taste for learning, a literary lady. (Much used by reviewers of the first quarter of the 19th c.; but now, from the general change of opinion on the education of women, nearly abandoned.)

Like librarians, these intellectual women were considered dowdy. Apparently the term blue-stocking is in reference to that frumpiness. In the mid-1700s, one should be out and about in fashionable black silk stockings, rather than hose knit of blue worsted-weight wool.

For more on the term, check out World Wide Words' take on it.

It's Monday! What are you reading?

This week I finished reading:

• Archives Power by Rand Jimerson (which I am attempting to write a review of)
• Blue Bloods by Melissa de la Cruz (see post)
• Second Thyme Around by Katie Fforde (post to come)

Here are the books that I have in progress and am attempting to read:

• Daughter of Kura by Debra Austin (received through the LibraryThing early reviewers program)
• Love over Scotland by Alexander McCall Smith (the third book in the 44 Scotland Street series after Espresso Tales; a New York Public Library on-demand audio book)

Blue Bloods

Blue Bloods by Melissa de la Cruz

Melissa de la Cruz has a really interesting take on the origins of the vampires (blue bloods, as opposed to the human red bloods), but Blue Bloods (the first in a series) spends far too much time on the usual dramas of upper-crust New York teens before getting into the meatier part of its story.

The novel's protagonist is Schuyler Van Alen, a sophomore at the prestigious NYC prep school, whose influential family is down on its luck. An natural outsider, Schuyler is forced to involve herself with members of the school's most notorious clique when she learns that she is coming of age as a vampire just like many of the most popular kids at school. When teens begin to die under mysterious circumstance, Schuyler realizes that the vampire elders may be concealing something.

Blue Bloods is definitely not one of the best teen vampire books, but I am interested in seeing how the storyline will play out in the subsequent books.

It's Monday! What are you reading?

This week I finished reading:

• Even Cat Sitters Get the Blues by Blaize Clement (the 3rd book in the Dixie Hemingway series, a series I highly recommend for mystery and/or animal lovers)
• Lucky by Alice Sebold (see post)

Here are the books that I have in progress and am attempting to read:

• Blue Bloods by Melissa de la Cruz (the first book in a series)
• Love over Scotland by Alexander McCall Smith (the third book in the 44 Scotland Street series after Espresso Tales; a New York Public Library on-demand audio book)
• The Ruby in Her Navel by Barry Unsworth

Lucky

Lucky by Alice Sebold

"In the tunnel where I was raped, a tunnel that was once an underground entry to an amphitheater, a place where actors burst forth from underneath the seats of a crowd, a girl had been murdered and dismembered. I was told this story by the police. In comparison, they said, I was lucky."

I'd had Lucky sitting on my bookshelf for over three years now. I got it after reading The Lovely Bones, an absolutely fantastic novel (see post), but I was reluctant to start reading it because, based on the subject matter, I expected it to be a very difficult read. I needed a non-fiction title for January's book of the month so I decided to give it a chance. When I did, I was pleasantly surprised. While Lucky is not a fun read, it was much less arduous than I expected it to be. That's not to say that the memoir isn't both brutally honest and graphic.

Lucky begins with the rape, but its scope is much broader. Readers follow Sebold through her recovery, the rapist's trial, revelations of other rapes (both close to home and not), and what might be the most horrific thing of all. Through it all Sebold's openness and honesty is what makes the book accessible.

I'll be posting about Lucky on the student services blog next week.

It's Monday! What are you reading?

This week I finished reading:

• Espresso Tales by Alexander McCall Smith (see post)
• The Night Villa by Carol Goodman (our book club pick for January)
• Prime Witness by Steve Martini (not my usual fare, but I listened to the tapes in the car)

Here are the books that I have in progress and am attempting to read:

• Love over Scotland by Alexander McCall Smith (the third book in the 44 Scotland Street series after Espresso Tales; a New York Public Library on-demand audio book)
• The Ruby in Her Navel by Barry Unsworth

Friday Find #10

Have I mentioned lately how much I like Powell's Review a Day?
Here's another fantastic-sounding book I've discovered through the Review a Day mailings:

The Kingdom of Ohio by Matthew Flaming

An incredibly original, intelligent novel — a love story set against New York City at the dawn of the mechanical age, featuring Nikola Tesla, Thomas Edison, and J. P. Morgan.

After discovering an old photograph, an elderly antiques dealer living in present-day Los Angeles is forced to revisit the history he has struggled to deny. The photograph depicts a man and a woman. The man is Peter Force, a young frontier adventurer who comes to New York City in 1901 and quickly lands a job digging the first subway tunnels beneath the metropolis. The woman is Cheri-Anne Toledo, a beautiful mathematical prodigy whose memories appear to come from another world. They meet seemingly by chance, and initially Peter dismisses her as crazy. But as they are drawn into a tangle of overlapping intrigues, Peter must reexamine Cheri-Anne's fantastic story. Could it be that she is telling the truth and that she has stumbled onto the most dangerous secret imaginable: the key to traveling through time?

Set against the mazelike streets of New York at the dawn of the mechanical age, Peter and Cheri-Anne find themselves wrestling with the nature of history, technology, and the unfolding of time itself.

Espresso Tales

Espresso Tales by Alexander McCall Smith

Espresso Tales is the second book in the 44 Scotland Street series (see my post on the first book, 44 Scotland Street, here. I've been listening to the audio (just finished it yesterday) and I just can't get over how much I like the series. I've already started the third book Love Over Scotland and am already a bit worried about running out of books in the series. McCall Smith has only published five 44 Scotland Street books and none since 2008 so it would seem that book number five will be the last in the series.

It's Monday! What are you reading?

This week I finished reading:

• The Grand Tour by Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermer (see post)

Here are the books that I have in progress and am attempting to read:

• Espresso Tales by Alexander McCall Smith (the sequel to 44 Scotland Street; a New York Public Library on-demand audio book)
• The Night Villa by Carol Goodman (our book club pick for January)
• The Ruby in Her Navel by Barry Unsworth

The Adventures of Cecy and Kate

I just finished reading Sorcery and Cecilia and The Grand Tour by Patricia C. Wrede and Caroline Stevermer. I'd been looking forward to reading the books since I first got my hands on The Grand Tour, but I had to wait until I got a copy of Sorcery and Cecilia. I enjoyed the books very much, but I though the first book was definitely better than the second (which I assume was written because the first was so successful).

The novels are set in a Regency England in which magic is part of everyday life. Sorcery and Cecilia is an epistolary novel. The two main characters, cousins Cecilia and Kate, are separated when Kate is sent to London for her debut season. In addition to the usual society drama and difficulties finding appropriate husbands, there are two evil wizards that whose plans need thwarting.

The Grand Tour follows Cecy and Kate on their honeymoons. Because the two take a joint honeymoon, instead of letters the novel is narrated through Kate's diary entries and excerpts from a deposition given by Cecilia. I don't think the story works quite so well without the characters interacting the way they did through the letters.