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New and upcoming books, author events, book groups and more!
May 5, 2008
My mother and I went to a great book event at Bay Path College yesterday and heard local authors Elinor Lipman, Suzanne Strempek Shea, Linda Cardillo, and Deborah Noyes. I really love Elinor Lipman’s work (her novel The Inn at Lake Devine is one of my all time favorites) and enjoyed hearing her read from a forthcoming novel. It also reminded me to pick up the one book of hers that I have not read, The Dearly Departed. I was was also intrigued by Linda Cardillo’s reading from her book Dancing on Sunday Afternoons. My mother and I both plan on reading it and I’ll be sure to share both of our impressions! We also heard interesting readings from Sundays in America: A Yearlong Road Trip in Search of Christian Faith by Suzanne Strempek Shea and Angel and Apostle by Deborah Noyes.
May 2, 2008
Celine commented on my last post and asked whether Iris Johansen has any new books coming out. Actually, Johansen is incredibly prolific right now. In April, she published Quicksand - in our network, there are still around 50 people on the waiting list, although there are LOTS of copies, so the wait shouldn’t be too bad.
In July, she’s coming out with a new thriller, Silent Thunder, which she wrote with her son Roy. Reviews on that look super - it seems that having her son writing with her has resulted in a particularly muscular book. In December, she has still another title, Treasure, due out, although there’s not much information on that one yet.
I wanted to take this opportunity to explain a bit about our book ordering. If you follow the Silent Thunder link above, you’ll see that Springfield does not have the book on order. Our fiscal year ends on June 30, and after that, there is a period of a couple of weeks in which we can’t receive and pay for any new library materials as the city’s accounting system closes out the old year and opens the new one. Thus, the blockbusters to be published in early July can’t be ordered until purchasing resumes - as soon as we get the green light, we’ll be ordering all of the early summer hits. Meanwhile, in most cases, other libraries with different purchasing practices will still be ordering, so you should be able to place your holds on upcoming titles by your favorite authors before we order them. By the end of July, multiple Springfield copies of all of the summer blockbusters will be on the shelves and available to fill holds. Stay tuned to hear all about an upcoming online service that will deliver lists of new titles right to your e-mail!
April 23, 2008
To kick off the April 23 book group, I reviewed three very different titles, each excellent in its own way.
  
The Story of Forgetting, by Stefan Merrill Block. This amazing debut by upcoming young (24-year-old) author Block perceptively explores the impact of Alzheimer’s Disease, a “full reversal of life,” on individuals and families. Block’s grandmother, who suffered from a genetic form of early-onset Alzheimer’s, lived with them as he was growing up, so he has witnessed the ravages of the disease up close. Still, this story of forgetting and loss manages to be upbeat as well in its depiction of our ability to create meaning despite the forgetting. The path of a hunchbacked 68-year-old Dallas-area hermit eventually crosses that of a gifted, scientifically-inclined teenager from the Austin suburbs as the latter seeks to discover the history of the family of his mother, who has been diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s. Both have grown up hearing tales about the mythical land of Isidora, where the inhabitants have no memory, and are thus perpetually happy. Very affecting.
Note: NPR journalist Scott Simon interviewed Block recently on Weekend Edition (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89785584).
The Crystal Skull, by Manda Scott. This Shropshire author has written both Edgar-nominated suspense and Celtic history/fantasy. This one is an apocalyptic thriller centered around the Mayan prophecy that the end of the present era will take place on December 21, 2012. This catastrophe can only be averted - or humanity given the strength to transcend it - if the 13 crystal skulls that the Mayans crafted thousands of years ago are all placed in exactly the right place at exactly the right time. Only then, the energy from the skulls will unleash the sacred beast, a dragon of mythic proportions, who will have the power to save humanity. In the mid-sixteenth century, we meet Cedric Owen, an English scholar and physician whose family has been keeper of a sapphire skull - the heart-stone - for generations untold. Owen voyages to New Spain to learn what he needs to know in order to determine where and when the skull should be placed in the future, as well as where to hide it in the present, and how to code the information of where it is hidden so that those who would seek to destroy it or use it for their own power-hungry ends will be stopped, but the rightful keeper can find it when the time comes. In the present day, Cambridge astrophysicist Stella Cody and her husband Kit O’Connor, who is obsessed with the skulls and has been deciphering Owen’s many volumes of journals, find the skull while on a caving honeymoon. They are being followed, though, and disaster ensues. Will Kit live? Will Stella be able to de-code the journals to figure out what she needs to do to save the world while evading those who are on her trail? A ripping good yarn, even if the plausibility factor is rather low.
Skeletons at the Feast, by Chris Bohjalian. This author’s 12th novel is a harrowing WWII love story, based on a diary written by a friend’s grandmother. In January of 1945, it is becoming clear to all that the war is going badly for the Germans. The Emmerichs, a family of Prussian aristocractic landowners, are forced to leave their sugar beet farm as the Russians invade from the east. The father and the two older sons head east to try to hold back the Russians, while the mother, their lovely 18-year-old daughter Anna and sweet 10-year-old son Theo join the thousands of refugees heading west, over the Vistula, past Berlin, and ultimately aiming for the Allied lines. With them is a young Scottish POW, Callum Finella, who had been serving as forced labor on their farm. He is with them to offer protection on the journey and safety when they reach the Allied lines. Anna is especially pleased that Callum is going with them, since they have been lovers for months. Their little group is soon joined by Wahrmacht corporal Manfred. Callum is suspicious at how casual Manfred seems about locating and re-joining his company. There’s a very good reason. In reality, “Manfred” is Uri Singer, a young Jew who has escaped from an Auschwitz-bound train, and has survived by killing German soldiers and assuming their identities. Uri is the stronger man, and soon becomes their real protector. Possibly, he might supplant Callum as Anna’s lover. What will Uri do to survive, though? Might he ultimately betray the Emmerichs, who had been solid Hitler supporters? As they travel, the Emmerichs see and hear things that make them realize that the vague rumors they had heard about Nazi atrocities just might have a basis in reality. Intercut with this journey is another - the death march of a group of Jewish women, sent from their concentration camp as the Russian approach. They look on the Russians not as sub-human monsters but as their possible saviors. Hard to read at times, but an important glimpse of an aspect of the Holocaust.
Following this opener, the eleven members in attendance reviewed and commented on over thirty different books. There were a few books that reviewers didn’t like at all, such as Alice Sebold’s The Almost Moon and David Baldacci’s The Camel Club, but reviewers were positive, in varying degrees, about most of the books they described. Here’s just a sampling of the day’s enthusiastically-reviewed books, with at least one good possibility for every reading taste:
Whistling Season, by Ivan Doig. A Montana widower hires a whistling housekeeper to help with work on his homestead in the early 1900s, and her well-educated brother takes over as teacher in the area’s one-room schoolhouse. The author, who clearly loves Montana, does a wonderful job at presenting the history of the west as it is and as it was.
Crow Lake, by Mary Lawson. In this debut novel, four children in rural northern Ontario try to keep their family together after their parents are killed in a terrible accident. Excellent!
A Pale Horse, by Charles Todd. In the 1920s, Scotland Yard Inspector Ian Rutledge heads to a Yorkshire village to investigate the death of an unidentified man, whose body was found wearing a hooded cloak and a respirator. The boys who were at the abbey ruins the night the man was murdered are afraid to speak, since they’re convinced that their incantations raised the devil himself. A great entry in a great series!
This Republic of Suffering, by Drew Gilpin Faust. This history by the first woman president of Harvard explores the immense impact and cost of the American Civil War, and how the country changed as a result, from battle tactics to medical advances. Fascinating.
Staggerford, by John Hassler. Explores life in a small Minnesota town in the late 1950s-early 1960s from the point of view of a teacher in town. The characters are beautifully described. It’s both funny and sad - like Garrison Keillor with more depth.
The Romanov Prophecy, by Steve Berry. This straightforward novel of suspense is based an intriguing idea with a twist of history. The Russian people vote to bring back the Tsar, and interesting things start to happen while one of the candidates is being investigated. Very exciting, with good, solid writing, this one would make a great movie!
Lady MacBeth, by Susan Fraser King. The reviewer really liked this portrayal of Lady MacBeth, based on the few remaining records of the times, and said that it will forever change her picture of Macbeth and his wife.
The Keep, by Jennifer Egan. ”Weird!” began the reviewer, who proceeded to describe how she couldn’t put it down once she got started. In this unusual novel of psychological suspense, a boy does a terrible thing to his cousin at a picnic - he pushes the cousin into water in a cave, then pretends he has no idea what happened. Decades later, the cousin, now living in a medieval castle in Eastern Europe, plans his revenge.
A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier, by Ishmael Beah. In this autobiography, a former child soldier in Sierre Leone, now a human rights activist, describes the horrors of civil war. The book is gruesome in parts, but the author is amazingly articulate. The reviewer heard the author speak, and worries how he, who is now 28, will be holding up by the time he reaches middle age, with all the memories that haunt him.
April 11, 2008
On April 9, the Wednesday Book Group welcomed the second new member in the past two months. If you think this group might interest you, please give it a try - you won’t be the only newbie! If you like the format but aren’t free on Wednesday mornings, try the First Thursday Group at our Pine Point Branch, which meets on the first Thursday of each month at 6:30 pm.
I previewed four very different titles, all of which are well worth a look.
   
The Calling, by Inger Ash Wolfe. This original and compelling crime novel was written pseudonymously by a “prominent North American literary novelist,” a description which has sparked much speculation. In the small town of Port Dundas, Ontario, 61-year-old Detective Inspector Hazel Micallef is dealing with a divorce after 36 years of marriage, a spunky live-in mother, severe back pain, recovery from alcoholism, staffing shortages, and a lack of respect from her boss in another town. When a religiously inclined serial killer comes to town, keeping one of his appointments with his terminally ill victims, Hazel uses unconventional - some would say unprofessional - methods to crack the case. This one is completely involving from start to finish. Whoever the author is, I hope he or she brings Hazel back for another case soon.
The Cure for Modern Life, by Lisa Tucker. Philadelphian Matthew Connelly has risen to top management at a big pharmaceutical company, largely because he brought top-selling pain medication Galvenar to market, and is reaping substantial financial benefits. Emotionally, though, he is much poorer. He has just completed some successful matchmaking between his best friend and his former girlfriend, Amelia, although his motives are less than pure; Amelia, an idealistic bioethicist who left him because he wouldn’t give up his lucrative position with “Big Pharma” (inevitably evil and greedy, in her view), has concerns about Galvenar’s side effects and its potential for addiction, and is poised to cause major trouble for Matthew and his company. Matthew hopes to soften Amelia by playing cupid. Meanwhile, a clever 10-year-old homeless boy and his toddler sister take up residence in Matthew’s fancy apartment while their mother is sent off to rehab. As fast-paced as a thriller, this intriguing relationship novel explores, often with both humor and insight, some of the moral issues of our time.
The House at Riverton, by Kate Morton. 14-year-old Grace is sent to be a housemaid at Riverton Manor in Oxfordshire in the years before the Great War. Caught up in the lives of Frederick Hartford’s three children, Grace is also witness to the death of emerging WWI poet Robbie Hunter at a soiree on the estate in the summer of 1924. When a director working on a film about Hunter approaches the now-elderly Grace, she recollects everything about those crucial years. Australian Morton’s debut is an atmospheric historical with generous dollops of mystery and romance.
Unaccustomed Earth, by Jhumpa Lahiri. The author of The Interpreter of Maladies and The Namesake returns with a second collection of stories. Eight longish stories explore the intricacies of family life and the immigrant experience. I confess I only had time to read the title story, but found that it contained more insights and sensitive turns of phrase than most full-length novels. Splendid!
The thirteen attendees reviewed over 30 titles, with ratings ranging from a “I guess quirky is just not my thing” (N. M. Kelby’s Whale Season) to “5 1/2*, I loved it even though it was a 6-hankie book” (Jean-Dominque Bauby’s The Diving Bell and the Butterfly).
A reviewer who had been away for the winter seconded the previous enthusiastic review for Chelsea Cain’s Heartsick, in which a beautiful serial killer insinuates herself into the life and mind of the detective who caught her (or whom she caught?) - from her prison cell.
Maisie Dobbs fans will want to check out An Incomplete Revenge, by Jacqueline Winspear. The reviewer declared that this fifth mystery in the series, in which Maisie explores a series of fires in a village in Kent, is the best one so far. Another series favorite is Peter Robinson’s Detective Chief Inspector Alan Banks, most recently featured in Friend of the Devil. A reviewer was struck by how realistic the book was, not just the description of the crime and its solution, but the psychologically astute and realistic portrayal of both Banks and his one-time partner (and lover) Annie Cabbot.
Thriller fans who have not yet discovered Mark Gimenez might want to check out his second, The Abduction, a page-turner about the kidnapping of a young girl which the reviewer absolutely loved.
Another reviewer found Mary Doria Russell’s Dreamers of the Day latest, about a 40-year-old Ohio schoolteacher who gets caught up in the 1921 Cairo Peace Conference when she takes the trip of a lifetime to Egypt, “fabulous.” Other attendees enthusiastically recommended all of Russell’s previous novels as well.
Close to a dozen other books, from authors ranging from Gail Tsukiyama to Peter Carey, garnered 4-5* ratings. Join us to hear about them all, and share your own opinions!
March 28, 2008
Join us at the Sixteen Acres branch at 1187 Parker St. on Saturday, March 29, at 1 pm for the final event in our Massachusetts Book Award author series. Dawn Clifton Tripp, author of the 2006 Fiction Award winner, The Season of Open Water, will be speaking and signing. While her atmospheric novel is set in the small Massachusetts coastal town of Westport in the late 1920s, she has strong ties to Springfield. Her mother was born and raised here, and her grandfather was formerly headmaster of the MacDuffie School. Come and welcome her back to Springfield at this literary event, generously sponsored by the Friends of the Springfield Library.
March 27, 2008
The March 26 meeting of the Central Library’s Wednesday Book Group was an especially lively one. The thirteen attendees and I reviewed over forty books from every genre, and heard a few intriguing side stories in the bargain. Chief among the latter was a discussion of the independent film, Paranoid Park, directed by Gus Van Sant. This film about a teen who accidentally causes a death in a Portland skateboard park has been garnering both rave reviews and awards - many say it is Van Sant’s finest work. Check it out if you get the chance, although it’s not currently playing widely. The connection to Book Group is that one of our members is related to the author of the young adult novel upon which the film is based.
Among the three books I featured, there are two very good reads and one “can’t miss” title:
  
1. Mary Doria Russell’s Dreamers of the Day. Don’t miss this one! Like Russell’s haunting A Thread of Grace (another book not to be missed), this is a historical novel, although unlike that title, this one is told entirely in one spirited woman’s distinctive voice. Plain spinster schoolteacher Agnes Shanklin takes the trip of a lifetime in 1921, arriving in Cairo at the time of the Cairo Peace Conference that shaped the modern Middle East. Based on a connection with T.E. Lawrence, Agnes is drawn into the inner workings of that conference, and is drawn into romance with a German Jew who might well be a spy. Russell captures the time and place perfectly. As Agnes says: “My little story has become your history. You won’t understand your times until you understand mine.” Wonderful!
2. Mameve Medwed’s Men and Their Mothers. This upcoming title by the author of the award-winning How Elizabeth Barrett Browning Saved My Life is equally warm and witty. Anyone who has had issues with a mother-in-law - or a daughter-in-law -will warm to the adventures of plucky and likeable Cambridge divorcee Maisy Grey Pollock. If you enjoy Elinor Lipman, try Mameve Medwed.
3. David Levien’s City of the Sun. This screenwriter’s debut suspense novel has a few implausibilities and predictable twists, but the fast pace and particularly the well-fleshed-out characters more than compensate. An Indianapolis couple is torn apart when their 12-year-old son disappears while on his paper route. The police are sympathetic but not aggressive about the case, so over a year after their son’s disappearance, they hire ex-cop Frank Behr, a loner with demons of his own, to work the case. Fans of Michael Connelly’s Harry Bosch and Robert Crais’ Elvis Cole will want to make the acquaintance of Frank Behr.
Members gave “five-star” ratings to too many books to list here. Remember, this group is a fantastic way to get exposed to lots of super books, new and old, fiction and nonfiction - new members are always welcome! The most enthiasistic praise went to:
John Elder Robison’s Look Me in The Eye, his memoir about his struggle with Asperger’s. The reviewer just loved this book, and said she learned a lot about what it’s like to go through life with Asperger’s.
John Hart’s Down River. The reviewer loved this story of murder in a small North Carolina town amid complicated personal relationships, and thought she might even want to read it again.
Chelsea Cain’s Heartsick. The reviewer enjoyed this graphic, fast-paced thriller so much, she was delighted to learn that there will be two more in the series! I’ve had a couple of library customers asking about this title as well, so word of mouth seems to be working for this one.
The best non-glowing review comment was about Debbie Macomber’s 16 Lighthouse Road, which the reviewer said was “like reading Days of Our Lives. The end never stops.” Many who enjoy every-changing relationships among a large cast of characters have enjoyed this series very much, though.
And finally, an avid reader re-read Charles Dickens’ classic A Tale of Two Cities (numerous editions available) for another book group, found it a completely different book than she remembered from her youth, and said it is “wasted on high schoolers.” Another group member said that this was the first “serious” book that had made a lasting impression on her when she was in high school. In any case, if you haven’t read this book in decades, it’s worth another look.
March 18, 2008
This evening, you have a chance to attend not one but two activities related to the Massachusetts Book Award Author Series. At 5:30 at the Sixteen Acres Branch Library on 1187 Parker Street, their book group will be discussing Dawn Clifton Tripp’s The Season of Open Water, 2007 Fiction Honor Book. New members are always welcome. Ms. Tripp will be visiting the Sixteen Acres Branch on Saturday, March 29 at 1 pm.
The big event of the evening is at the East Forest Park Branch Library on 122 Island Pond Road at 7 pm. Mameve Medwed, author of How Elizabeth Barrett Browning Saved My Life, also a 2007 Fiction Honor Book, will be speaking. All reports are that she is as witty and warm when speaking as she is when writing. Come early for a good seat (parking is always plentiful at that branch), and enjoy some refreshments prior to the talk. Afterward, Barnes & Noble will be selling copies of Ms. Medwed’s books, and you’ll have a chance to get yours autographed. Hope to see you there!
March 14, 2008
James Cross Giblin
New York: Scholastic Press, 2000
This biography is a personal favorite; an exemplar of a great children’s biography. It possesses an ample historical treatment of the subject, with a compelling narrative. Several facets of Franklin’s character and personality are illustrated through discussions of his business practices, scientific and political activities, the tragic loss of a child, family disputes, and even his dalliances with several women while away from his wife for extended periods in France. The story, and accompanying illustrations, do an admirable job of giving one a sense of the pace and texture of life in 18th century colonial America. This is seen, for example, in the description of his arduous five day journey from New York to Philadelphia to find work, after fighting with his brother, and failing to find opportunities in Boston printshops. Similarly, there is the matter of fact telling of a two month trip across the Atlantic in a sailing ship. Includes a chronology of important dates, excerpts from Poor Richard’s Almanack, a detailed description of his many inventions, a listing of historical sites, bibliography, source notes, and an index.
March 13, 2008
Join us this evening at the Pine Point Branch Library on 204 Boston Road at 6:30 to hear Kim McLarin, author of Jump at the Sun, a Massachusetts Book Award 2007 Fiction Honor Book. Following Ms. McLarin’s talk, copies of her books will be available for sale and autographing. The Friends of the Springfield Library, Inc. have generously sponsored this event, including refreshments.
If the parking lot at the branch is full before this event, there is on-street parking on area side streets.
March 12, 2008
Doug Moench
DC Comics 1999
Classic gothic horror collides with the superhero comic in this third and final installment in the series which includes Batman: Red Rain and Batman: Bloodstorm, wherein the Caped Crusader ends up joining the ranks of the undead. Describing this work as a blood bath hardly does it justice. His bloodlust permeates the story. All is corruption and decay. Sometimes we catch glimpses of the vampire in the form of a monstrous bat/man figure soaring across the skies over Gotham in search of prey, More often he is presented as an apparition from hell, a gaunt wisp of a figure, little more than a skeleton draped in the shards of the former crime fighter’s cape, a creature of pure malevolence. The gothic elements in the Batman tale are heightened; the use of weather and the landscape, including the ruins of Wayne Mansion and the catacomb-like caves beneath it, the forshadowing of coming events, a pervasive sense of fear and horror, and the intimation of an ancient curse.
Lying in a crypt, impaled with an oak stake, he muses …
“Death for a vampire is consciousness of false death, the urge but inability to rip the throats of the living and suck the warm, ragged shreds. It is black claustrophobia in a smothering void from which there is no escape, no release.”
After he is freed, he pauses before taking yet another victim ,,,
“I feel your life’s pulse under my dead finger! It’s racing now, exciting me – and the thought of it spurting so hot, washing so fast down my throat…”
And toward the end of the tale, struggling as he has throughout, with his humanity …
“The evil I’ve taken into my veins has already seeped into whatever remains of my soul – corrupting and devouring its last remnants of decency. I have lost all life, and so I steal it, I am death, and so I bring it. I am damned, and the world may be doomed, its sheep without shepherd, ready for slaughter. And the worst horror of all… the lost shepherd was me.”
The artwork here is fabulous. The penciller’s use of perspective helps drive the story and build tension, the inker has crafted very dramatic forms, and the colorist utilizes a bold palette. The overall effect is a sumptuous and sensual feast for the eyes. This graphic novel is one of my favorites within its subgenre.
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