Loving Frank: a Novel by Nancy Horan

Find this book in our catalog.

Last month my book club got together to discuss this novel based on a little-known period in the life of Frank Lloyd Wright, the famous architect of the Prairie Style. Loving Frank is written from the point of view of Mamah Borthwick Cheney, who with her husband really did become a client of Frank's in Chicago in 1903. The two families became friends, but Frank and Mamah were increasingly attracted to each other, having in common their love of art and nature. In 1907 they succumbed to their passion and began an affair that ended only with Mamah's horrific murder at their home, the renowned Frank Lloyd Wright house, Taliesin. Frank built the house for Mamah. Though scholars pay little attention to the period of their affair, Nancy Horan maintains that Mamah influenced Frank's work considerably. As the book notes say, "In this groundbreaking historical novel, fact and fiction blend together. While scholars have largely relegated Mamah to a footnote in the life of America's greatest architect, author Nancy Horan gives full weight to their dramatic love story and illuminates Cheney's profound influence on Wright."

As do many other aspects of the book, the degree to which Frank was influenced by the opinions of any other person was the subject of some very in-depth discussion at our book club. We all agreed this book is an ideal title for a book club because it contains so much to talk about! Horan shows Frank's personalty to be self-absorbed, opinionated, and vain and we had a lot to say on the subject.

Several of my friends were deeply moved by the idea that Frank had found the love of his life. Both parties were hounded by the Chicago press for leaving their families and both felt the loss of their children most keenly, but felt they had a sort of artistic obligation to abandon their marriages if there was no love in them. The book is very interesting in its description of early 20th century ideas on free love and feminism and also about the conventional place of middle class women of the time. We were able to talk a lot about these ideas. We discussed to what extent in the book Mamah and Frank lived their ideals and to what extent they followed their own selfish wills.

The book is also full of absorbing details about art, architecture, styles, and culture between 1900 and 1914. Conversations, letters and diary entries reveal Frank Lloyd Wright's aesthic ideals, as well as Mamah's inmost thoughts and aspirations.

It was a time of great social and artistic upheaval, which we felt was exhaustively researched by the author; for instance, she found forgotten letters from the real Mamah Borthwick to her mentor, Swedish philosopher and feminist Ellen Key, which cast a light on Mamah's struggle to find her own identity. The book's narrative, as it says in the book notes, "Portray[s] the conflicts and struggles of a woman forced to choose between the roles of mother, wife, lover, and intellectual. Horan's Mamah is a woman seeking to find her own place, her own creative calling in the world, and her unforgettable journey, marked by choices that reshape her notions of love and responsibility..." You will decide for yourself whether or not Mamah was successful in finding her own place in the world.

Awards Round-Up late October - National Best Books; Margaret Atwood accepts Prince of Aturias Prize

USA Book News Names Best Books 2008 Winners
More than 500 winners were named for the National Best Books Awards, sponsored by the online magazine and review Web site.
A complete list of the winners and finalists of the USABookNews.com National "Best Books" 2008 Awards are available online at http://www.usabooknews.com/.

Prince of Asturias Prize for Literature
Margaret Atwood was awarded Spain's prestigious prize for literature, named after Crown Prince Felipe, on Friday, October 24 in Oviedo.

Click here to read what the Award foundation has to say (in English) about Atwood's achievements.

Atwood's latest nonfiction book, Payback:Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth (Find this book in our catalog) has hit the bookstores and libraries just in time for the worst world economic crisis since the Great Depression. This is what the summary in our catalog has to say about the book: "In Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth, literary legend Margaret Atwood delivers a surprising look at the topic of debt - a timely subject during our current period of economic upheaval, caused by the collapse of a system of interlocking debts. In her wide-ranging, entertaining, and imaginative approach to the subject, Atwood proposes that debt is like air - something we take for granted until things go wrong."--BOOK JACKET.

Books like the mysteries of Tony Hillerman, RIP

The New York Times Reported on Monday, October 27, 2008 that Tony Hillerman died Sunday at Presbyterian Hospital in Albuquerque. He was 83. Click here for the article.

Tony Hillerman became a best-selling author with his series of mysteries set in the Southwest and featuring two protagonists in the Navajo tribal Police, Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee. He wrote with the avowed purpose of instilling in his readers a respect for Native American culture. “It’s always troubled me that the American people are so ignorant of these rich Indian cultures,” Mr. Hillerman once told Publishers Weekly. “I think it’s important to show that aspects of ancient Indian ways are still very much alive and are highly germane even to our ways.”

I believe I have read most of his mysteries and I revelled in the depth of cultural details revealed. Most stories revolve around the conflict the protagonists feel between the modern world and their personal need to retain contact with their roots. Usually the mystery is solved by applying ancient and also common-sense wisdom, though the mysteries are satisfyingly complex, multilayered, and involve very modern crimes.

The books are humorous and wry in places because Hillerman brought great human insight to his books. In the short space of a mystery novel he managed to draw believable and engaging protagonists, and also believable bad men.

Everyone's actions are driven by the social, cultural, and economic situations on the contemporary reservation, which is described very vividly, as is the stark and beautiful scenery of the area, which inevitably plays a great part in the plots.

You can find Hillerman's books in our catalog. If you would like similar books by other authors, you could check out Novelist, a book recommendation website provided by the library and found on Readers Place.

Some similar books are:

The Three Sisters by James D. Doss Find this book in our catalog
Turquois Girl: an Ella Chah Novel by Aimee and David Thurlo Find this book in our catalog
Spirit Sickness by Kirk Mitchell Find this book in our catalog

The Girl Who Stopped Swimming by Joshilyn Jackson

Laurel Gray Hamilton’s life begins to unravel when the ghost of her daughter’s best friend visits her. Needing help, she turns to her tempestuous older sister, Thalia. The two are polar opposites as far as their lifestyles and temperaments and they clash head on. Laurel is a mild suburban wife with a rather distracted husband. They live in a community of manicured lawns and apparent perfection. Thalia and her gay husband run a small theater. Thalia despises her sister's life and Laurel does not understand Thalia's. Yet they share a love of Laurel's daughter, Shelby, and each in their way strives to protect her. Bet, Shelby's visiting pen pal from DeLop plays a pivotal role.

The author says the central theme of her book concerns poverty, but the poverty is not just literal, it is the poverty of relationships that are not honest, and the poverty of living a blinkered life. There are also many secrets being harbored, in the family, in the neighborhood, and what is on the surface is not always the same as what lies beneath. Location is also important. Victorianna, where Laurel lives is supposedly a middle class paradise, DeLop, a dirt poor collection of run down houses next to an abandoned mine, reflects literal poverty and is the place that Laurel & Thalia's mother escaped from when she married their father. Ghosts also play a role, Molly, the drowned girl, and Uncle Marty who was shot. Are the ghosts real or imagined? You decide.

The Abingdon Library book group read this novel for October. It prompted a lot of discussion. It was interesting and raised many issues. Secrets, ghosts, how we dispense charity, relationships, honesty, how we approach life.

For book groups and interested readers, there is a very good blog of discussion questions written by a teacher called Mary Zorro. See her blog at http://booksiread-zorro.blogspot.com/2008/06/girl-who-stopped-swimming.html

Jackson wrote a previous novel called Gods in Alabama and prior to that, Between, Georgia. Both books were No. 1 Booksense Picks and made her the first author to win this accolade with back to back titles. She currently lives with her family outside Atlanta. For more about the author and her books go to her website at http://joshilynjackson.com/bio.html.

In Secret Service by Mitch Silver

One of our library customers sent me this book review of In Secret Service by Mitch Silver. Find this book in our catalog.

"Mitch Silver has written a captivating thrilling novel of at his first attempt in this competitive genre. I found it hard to put down. Silver’s approach was one that I have not seen before and made easy reading of a complex plot that spans the period from 1936 to the present.

The cast of characters includes many well known people from both sides of the Atlantic. A few examples are: Winston Churchill, Ian Fleming, Hitler, Rudolf Hess, Anthony Blunt (a notorious Russian mole in the British Secret Service), Princess Diana, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor (Mrs. Simpson from Baltimore) Errol Flynn, FDR as well as many other well known personalities.

The story links Ian Fleming’s historical intrigues of James Bond and crafts them into a modern day mystery in which the heroine, Amy Greenberg a lecturer in the Arts faculty at Yale, inherits a manuscript of Ian Fleming’s confidential memoirs that leads her unwittingly into the world of intrigue, treason and mortal danger.

It is sometimes difficult to distinguish fact from fiction; however, the author provides clarification in a note at the end of the book.

If you enjoy spy thrillers you must not miss this one!

I think that this novel should be particularly appealing to book clubs. Silver’s unique style and the way he has linked an historical myth with a contemporary spy thriller mystery should provide a recipe for some lively and interesting debate." Submitted by Mike Pratt

Anyone can send me a book review by clicking on "Feedback" on our Home page. You can also share your reading by going to Readers Place and creating for yourself a My Next Good Book account.

Anthony and other Mystery Awards at Bouchercon in Charm City

This year’s American Guest of Honor at Bouchercon 2008 in Charm City this October 9-12 was Baltimore’s own Laura Lippman. She was also was a triple award winner: her What the Dead Know won the Barry, MacCavity, and Anthony Awards for Best Mystery Novel. Find this book in our catalog.

Other winners at the conference included Irish author Tana French, whose In the Woods won the Barry, Macavity, and Anthony Awards for Best First Novel. Find this book in our catalog.

Big City, Bad Blood by Sean Chercover which won the Private Eye Writers of America 2008 Shamus Award for Best First Novel.

Reed Farrell Coleman’s Soul Patch, took the Shamus for Best Hardcover. Find this book in our catalog.

Nominees for National Book Awards announced

The nominees for the National Book Award were announced October 15. The National Book Awards are given each year by the National Book Foundation. Click here for more info.

Here are the lists of nominees for books for adults:

Fiction
The Lazarus Project by Aleksandar Hemon
Telex from Cuba by Rachel Kushner
Shadow Country by Peter Matthiessen
Home by Marilynne Robinson
The End by Salvatore Scibona

Nonfiction
This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War by Drew Gilpin Faust
The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family by Annette Gordon-Reed
The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned into a War on American Ideals by Jane Mayer
Final Salute: A Story of Unfinished Lives by Jim Sheeler
The Suicide Index: Putting My Father’s Death in Order by Joan Wickersham

Poetry
Watching the Spring Festival by Frank Bidart
Fire to Fire: New and Collected Poems by Mark Doty
Creatures of a Day by Reginald Gibbons
Without Saying by Richard Howard
Blood Dazzler by Patricia Smith

National Book Award Week starts November 17

Books to Movies October

New movies based on books:

The Duchess. Based on the biography, Georgiana: the Duchess of Devonshire by Amanda Foreman Find this book in our catalog
From the Summary in our catalog: "...this wonderfully readable biography offers a rich, rollicking picture of late-eighteenth-century British aristocracy and the intimate story of a woman who for a time was its undisputed leader. Lady Georgiana Spencer was the great-great-great-great-aunt of Diana, Princess of Wales, and was nearly as famous in her day. In 1774, at the age of seventeen, Georgiana achieved immediate celebrity by marrying one of England's richest and most influential aristocrats, the Duke of Devonshire. Launched into a world of wealth and power, she quickly became the queen of fashionable society, adored by the Prince of Wales, a dear friend of Marie-Antoinette, and leader of the most important salon of her time. Not content with the role of society hostess, she used her connections to enter politics, eventually becoming more influential than most of the men who held office. Her good works and social exploits made her loved by the multitudes, but Georgiana's public success, like Diana's, concealed a personal life that was fraught with suffering..."


Blindness. Based on Blindness by Jose Saramago. Find this book in our catalog.
From the Summary in our catalog: "A city is hit by an epidemic of "white blindness" which spares no one. Authorities confine the blind to an empty mental hospital, but there the criminal element holds everyone captive, stealing food rations and raping women. There is one eyewitness to this nightmare who guides seven strangers-among them a boy with no mother, a girl with dark glasses, a dog of tears-through the barren streets, and the procession becomes as uncanny as the surroundings are harrowing."

Choke. Based on Choke by Chuck Pahahniuk. Find this book in our catalog.
From the Summary in our catalog: ""Fight Club" established Palahniuk as a brilliant satirist of deranged times. Victor Mancini, the protagonist of his new novel"Choke, " needs to pay for elder care for his mother, who is suffering from Alzheimer's. An antihero for millennial America, Victor finds that his whole existence is a struggle to wrest an identity from overwhelming forces. Copyright #169; Libri GmbH. All rights reserved."

Body of Lies. Based on Body of Lies by David Ignatius. Find this book in our catalog.
A CIA agent tracks a terrorist in Jordan under the direction of an arrogant U.S. government official.

October is National Reading Group Month

Celebrate National Reading Group Month (NRGM) throughout the month of October! An initiative of the Women’s National Book Association (WNBA), NRGM promotes the joys of shared reading, strengthens the community of the book, and promotes a more literate, engaged community.

Book Group Buzz, a Booklist Online blog, is the official partner blog for NRGM. You can find a link to Book Group Buzz in the right sidebar of this blog. According to Book Group Buzz, their contributors, "Offer informative, wise, witty, and salutary posts, as well as links to a wide range of free book group-related guides, tips and other resources."

Random House Reader's Circle is also celebrating National Reading Group Month with a special month-long event: Book Club Fest. During the month there will be podcasts of author interviews, sweepstakes, recipes, newsletter sign-ups, and much more.

Look up our ReadersPlace for a list of good books for book groups.

Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar... Understanding Philosophy Through Jokes by Thomas Cathcart & Daniel Klein

Available as a book or audio CD. 2007.

And now for something completely different - no not Monty Python, but a small quirky book that teaches philosophy through jokes. The authors of Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar, call Groucho Marx their philosophical grandfather and use jokes to illustrate the vagaries of philosophical thought.

One of the wonderful things about being a librarian is the chance to come across material you might never have looked for or even noticed on the shelves, but somehow it comes into your hands and suddenly you are reading something you didn't expect to read. I took this home for my husband who read it twice he enjoyed it so much, and who recommended it to friends. Then I read it. It is a long time since either of us studied philosophy, and this was a great refresher. It is not difficult to read, the jokes are funny and truly act as illustrations of the topics. If you can't remember what Kant or Sartre or Descartes said, why Sherlock Holmes never used deduction, or what Platonic Virtue is, here is your chance to find out. If you want something to tease your brain and give you a laugh at the same time, give this book a try.

The authors majored in philosophy at Harvard, pursued their careers, appeared on NPR's Weekend Edition, and their book became a New York Times Bestseller.

They also wrote Aristotle and an Aardvark Go to Washington, taking world leaders and politicians to task while deconstructing their quotes.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, a Novel by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

Having lost nearly a whole night's sleep to this unusual and delightful book, I feel compelled to add my own voice to all the others praising The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society. Find this book in our catalog.

This is a book worth reading, if only to find out about the strange and quirky title. Guernsey is an island in the English Channel occupied by the Nazis in 1940 and only abandonned by the defeated occupiers at the end of the war. The Society began as a fiction invented to cover the illicit activities of a group of islanders after curfew. They were caught going home after a party at which an illegal pig was shared out and consumed. Being caught keeping back a pig from the Nazi war machine would have meant transportation to a labor camp. Having invented the existence of the Society, the friends thought they had better for appearances' sake go through with the whole thing properly. They stripped the closed used book shop and began to hold monthly meetings, at which they shared what they had been reading. Thus were old friendships cemented and new ones begun.

One of the main delights of the book is the unfolding for us of all the friendships. The entire book is written as a collection of letters from all these people. I thought the device was very succesful in getting the reader under the skin of the characters. I really began to feel I knew them, and I was sorry when I had to leave them at the end of the book. You will see what you think.

The first letters introduce us to Juliet, an author who has spent the war writing a Spectator column on wartime in London. She is looking for a subject for a new book, when she receives a letter from a member of the Guernsey Society who has found her address in a used book and who enlists her help to obtain a biography of Charles Lamb. Guernsey is still devastated by the occupation, communication has only just been reestablished, and the islanders are bereft of resources.

Juliet has been asked to do a series of columns on the joys of reading, so she asks for more letters from other members of the Society to give her some ideas. The letters she receives so intrigue Juliet that she decides to go to Guernsey to research a book on the occupation. When she gets there she finds a wonderful loving community and her life is changed forever.

The picture of life during the occupation of the island is fascinating and shocking. Lovers of historical fiction will really dig in to this story of a little-known aspect of WWII. Both sides of the conflict suffered tremendously in Guernsey. There are scenes of immense cruelty, and also of humor, kindness, and humanity on both sides.

There is an awful lot to savor in this book; however, I thought that it was mainly about the transformative power of reading. You might also like these other books with this theme:

The Uncommon Reader, a Novella by alan Bennett

The Jane Austen Book Club by Karen Joy Fowler

Bouchercon in Baltimore this October 9-12

Bouchercon 2008, the annual World Mystery Convention takes place from October 9-12 at the Sheraton City Center Hotel, Baltimore, Maryland. In honor of Charm City, this year's convention title is Charmed to Death. Also fittingly, this year's American Guest of Honor is to be Baltimore author, Laura Lippman. Click here for Convention details.

The Anthony Awards will be announced at the convention. Click here for details and a list of 2008 nominees.

Awards Round Up October 2008

Aravind Adiga has won the 2008 Man Booker prize for his debut novel, White Tiger. The prize was awarded at the Frankfurt Book Fair on Tuesday, October 14. Click here for more information.

Michael Connelly has won the 2009 Carvalho Prize. The prize is awarded by a jury of Spanish writers, booksellers and journalists. The prize is named for a literary private detective, Pepe Carvalho, created by the late Manuel Vázquez Montalbán. Connelly's new book, The Brass Verdict was published October 14.

Larry Doyle has won the 2008 Thurber Prize for American Humor for his first novel, I Love You, Beth Cooper. One judge, Firoozeh Dumas, called the book "a hilarious yet painfully accurate account of high school in all its pimply glory."

Consumer Reports ShopSmart gives our DearReader online book clubs a "We Love It"

This piece of news just passed on to me from DearReader.com, the company that provides the Harford County Public Library online book clubs:

"Our online book clubs passed the Consumer Report test! The September issue of Consumer Reports ShopSmart gave DearReader.com a "We Love It" cheer for our library sponsored Online Book Clubs."

Access to the online book clubs is through ReadersPlace on the HCPL website. The book clubs send you daily e-mails of excerpts from a book so that you can decide whether or not you want to check it out from the library. Click here for more information or to sign up.