You Are Not a Stranger Here by Adam Haslett

The “Novel Ideas” book group meets at the Jarrettsville branch of HCPL at 10:30 AM on the fourth Monday of each month. Recently they selected a title that strikes me as being an innovative choice and a difficult book to discuss. They chose You Are Not a Stranger Here by Adam Haslett, a debut short story collection that explores different aspects of depression and mental illness.

As Claire Dederer, a reviewer at Amazon.com says, “Adam Haslett drags into the light subjects often left in the cellar.” Most of the stories are told from the viewpoint of the mentally ill, though one is told by the doctor in the case. Others are stories are about closeted homosexuals: boys who are coming to terms with their identity and men who never have.

Despite the sensational topics, Haslett writes quietly, plainly and with truth and sensitivity about the people in his stories. As Ms. Dederer said, “this is a beautifully written collection that's as heartfelt as it is intelligent.”

Members of the Novel Ideas group, and anyone else who has read the book, do please add your comments to this posting. Below are some questions that might bear discussion, or contribute your own insights to the dialog.

Did you find a book of short stories difficult to discuss? Did you find that the collection had any themes that made it hang together?

What did you think of the beauty of the writing?

In The Good Doctor, Haslett writes of Frank, a young MD, "The fact was he still felt like a sponge, absorbing the pain of the people he listened to." In your opinion, is the reader of these stories likely to be able to cope with all the pain of all the people?

The next meeting of the Novel Ideas will be at 10:30 AM on Monday, April 23, 2007. They will discuss When the Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka. For information call (410) 692-7887.

The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan wins Texas Book Award

Timothy Egan, a reporter for the New York Times, has won the fourth
biennial Texas Christian University Texas Book Award for The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl. The $5,000 award is sponsored by the Friends of the TCU Library and TCU Press.

The book has also won other awards:

The 2006 National Book Award for nonfiction
The Oklahoma Book Award
The Western Heritage(Wrangler)Award from the National Cowboy Hall of Fame.

The Worst Hard Time would be a good book to read following The Children’s Blizzard by David Laskin. A few days ago I posted a description of The Children’s Blizzard, which was read recently by one of HCPL’s book groups.

In The Worst Hard Time, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author Timothy Egan follows, in a similar scheme to Laskin, a few pioneering families and an overwhelming disaster that overtook them, this time during the period of the Dust Bowl. In this book the disasters the families lived through, both economic and ecological, were man-made. Egan writes how eight years of drought on the windy plains, which had been ploughed up for wheat, led to an endless series of dust storms or “black blizzards.” "Dust clouds boiled up, ten thousand feet or more in the sky, and rolled like moving mountains." As Egan shows, the plains were not suited to arable farming and with the drought all the topsoil was blown into the air. Like Laskin, Egan spends a while describing the hardy Americans and immigrants who settled the area, desperate in the Depression for a piece of land and lured there by the false claims of promoters. Egan interviewed actual survivors of those hard times, and the book is filled with tales of courage and suffering. As well as stories of privation, there are horrific accounts of the effects of the black blizzard, such as the "dust pneumonia" which killed both young and old. Publishers Weekly said, “With characters who seem to have sprung from a novel by Sinclair Lewis or Steinbeck, and Egan's powerful writing, this account will long remain in readers' minds.”

BlogaBook Points of Discussion

Publishers Weekly compares The Worst Hard Time to the novels of Steinbeck and Sinclair Lewis. What do you think?

What remains most in your mind when you have finished this book?

The Children's Blizzard by David Laskin

The Children’s Blizzard by David Laskin

In January the Books By the Bay book group met in the Havre de Grace branch of Harford County Public Library and discussed The Children’s Blizzard by David Laskin.

On January 12 1888 a blizard struck the Great Plains region, killing about 500 people, 100 of whom were schoolchildren, who were totally unprepared and unprotected from what happened. The children’s parents were the brave immigrants who had recently settled the area. They are portrayed as totally naïve about the land they had settled, and so ignorant of what the local weather could do that on an unseasonably warm day many allowed their children to attend school without coats, hats and mittens. During the day the temperature dropped rapidly, and a blizzard ensued that many remembered as the worst that the area had ever seen.

The story has two main threads. The first is the story of five immigrant families and what happened to them in the storm. The families are put into the context of the great push into the upper Great Plains, especially by immigrants from Norway, Germany and Russia. Laskin goes into considerable detail of the immigrant experience, the hardships they faced, what made them leave home in the first place.

The second main thread is the story of the inner workings of the US Army Signal Corps, which was then in charge of weather forecasting. There is considerable detail about the formation of severe storms and the science of meteorolgy at the time.

When the storm hit, many children were trapped at school. Laskin relates the differing and sometimes heroic actions of the teachers. There are stories of heroism and also of senseless tragedy.

BlogaBook Discussion Points

Chapters about the settlers are alternated with chapters about the fledgling weather service. One reviewer felt that, “Laskin is at his best when he relates the heartbreaking stories of the storm’s victims; the chapters on weather history interrupt the book’s flow.” Would you agree with this?

Another reviewer found the book to be, “somewhat information-heavy.” Would you agree, or do you think with the reviewer that the possible drawback of the density of the detail is balanced by the empathy we feel for the children? How do you think Laskin provokes this empathy in the reader?

More reviewers found the story to be, “gripping,” “spellbinding,” “well-told, “adroit,” “sensitive,” and “horrific.” Was this true for you, or did you get bogged down in all the separate threads and the historical detail?

Click on “comments” to post your own comment. You may be anonymous. Comments may be edited for things like bad language, but generally your comments stand as you post them.

Books By the Bay meet on the third Friday of the month at 11:30 AM. For details contact 410-638-3151.

Free Online Book Clubs

If you like to talk books, there are a number of new venues online where you can participate in a book club without leaving your computer. In my last blog I suggested a few websites where book group leaders and members might go to get suggestions for titles for future discussions. The sites I am suggesting this time go beyond recommending good books and providing discussion guides and author interviews to allowing members to post their own comments and be part of an ongoing book discussion.

Booklist Online Book Club is a partnership between Booklist and the Downers Grove Public Library in Downers Grove, Illinois. Every month they add new book discussions moderated by Downers Grove staff. They post a short critique of each book and one or two comments or questions to spur discussion. Then members or guests can go online and add their comments or view what other people have said.

Bookspace at Hennepin County Library has a book clubs blog. Registration is required, but it is free. A new feature of Bookspace allows readers to add their own booklists to the website. Book clubs can view what other clubs have been reading. Readers can also post their own comments on the blog.

Barnes and Noble has introduced a new service: free online book clubs. This is intended as an online community of writers, literary experts, and readers. There are over 25 discussions happening right now, including conversations with authors, expert-led book groups, writing advice, discussions on topics such as Mystery, History, Romance, and more.

And finally, there is Harford County Public Library! BlogaBook is your very own opportunity to find out what book groups in your community are reading and thinking. Your editor and your book group leaders will be posting critiques of books just read by HCPL book groups, plus discussion questions, and sometimes comments on how the discussions went and what participants felt.

Join Blogabook with your comments and enrich the dialog! All you have to do is click on “post a comment” and then type in the box, then “publish your comment.” You can be anonymous if you wish. Though the comments may be edited for things such as bad language, generally your opinion will stand as you write it. We welcome a chance to talk with you about books!

Elizabeth

Finding Good Books For Your Book Club

Sometimes it can be a bit of a daunting task finding good books for your book club. Not every book will spark a lively and meaningful discussion, no matter how good it is of its kind, so looking at what is popular and in the news at the moment is not always a good strategy. Sometimes it’s just hard to think of where else to start looking for suggestions. The more voracious readers in your club may have lots of suggestions, but they have already read the books and want to try something new. Other club members may have joined for a bit more guidance in their reading, and they are stumped. Most successful book clubs prefer to choose their books by consensus rather than be directed by a leader; so where do you start?

Now that book clubs and reading groups are all the rage, it’s actually easy to find lots of guidance, particularly online. In fact, it might almost be said that book groups are now faced with a fresh problem of choice: which book discussion group site to go to first for help!

HarperCollins.com Reading group and reading tips, reading guides, invite the author, newsletters, etc

Penguin Group (USA) Click on “Special Interest” and then on “Reading Guides”

Reading Group Center The Reading Group Source Vintage Books – Anchor Books ”Vintage and Anchor Books invite you to discover today's best selections for reading groups and access useful resources to facilitate your group discussion here at the Reading Group Center.

Reading Group Choices: Selections for Lively Book Discussions Reading Group Choices is an opinionated guide of great books to read and discuss that have been published by independent presses as well as major publishers

ReadingGroupGuides.com ReadingGroupGuides.com is part of The Book Report Network and is the first website built especially for reading groups, providing them with all they need to make their book club experience better than ever. Features include reviews, over 1400 reading group guides, a newsletter, and book group interviews.

The Modern Library: Reading Group Guides Modern Library's Reading Guides are starting points for book discussions led by readers. Modern Library is an imprint of Random House.

Now that you have a range of resources to help you find the perfect book that will spark discussion in your group, spend some time surfing the sites and all the tempting reviews, author interviews, and discussion guides. I guarantee that you will have almost as much fun as reading the books! You will find lots of books to pick from, and almost certainly you will enrich your appreciation of what you read and discuss.

Look out for my next blog, when I will be recommending some actual online book clubs that you can join. You can make comments, or alternatively just visit and see lots of examples of people commenting on their own reading.

Elizabeth

Joppa Evening Book Discussion Group Welcomes Members

Joppa Evening Book Discussion Group had two great meetings in the last two months. In the month of February, we had a total of nine people. We discussed Anita Shreve's Light on Snow in January and Sue Grafton's A is for Alibi in February. Although these books are extremely different, the group was able to find many distinguishing things about the books. Although, one member who has a love of literature, did not like A is for Alibi overall, she was able to find things she did like. The February meeting was not only a discussion of that month's book, but other books members had recently read or want to read. The book discussion leader and members hope people will come to Joppatowne for our next Joppa Evening on March 22 at 6:30 p.m. We will be discussing Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J. K. Rowling.

Joppa Discussion Leader

BlogaBook Points of Discussion

Some members of the Joppa group found Light On Snow to be more literary than A is for Alibi. Both books have a mystery, but each book has a different purpose. What would you consider it takes to make a literary mystery?

A is for Alibi is the first in a series of very successful private eye mysteries. The success of a mystery series often depends on the character of the private detective, in this case Kinsey Millhone. What do you think there is about Kinsey that has ensured reader loyalty?

Winter Reading 2007 is winding down now. It's probably a bit late for anyone but the most voracious reader to sign up and read 5 books before March 3, but it could be done!

Many people by now have completed the program and are looking forward to the Winter Reading receptions at Bel Air, Edgewood, Fallston, Jarrettsville, and Joppa. (See "Library Programs and Events" on our webpage for details).

When completing the program, participants have the option of turning in their reading logs and starring their favorite book. Librarians at the branches are going to make lists and displays of some of the favorite books for all to see and check out.

I thought here would be another place where we could all share some of the recommended reads from Winter Reading. It's always fun to see what other people have liked, and you might be inspired to try something new!

For a start, here is a list 0f starred books from some of the book logs of readers at the Joppa Branch:

• these books can be checked out from any branch of the Harford County Public Library system
• look out for other lists very soon
• leave a comment about your own favorite book this winter

"READERS RECOMMEND"

ALL THAT AND A BAG OF CHIPS BY Darien Lee (African American fiction/Love story)

ANGRY HOUSEWIVES EATING BON BONS BY Lorna Landvik (Book clubs – fiction)

AUDACITY OF HOPE BY Barack Obama (Biography/United States – politics – philosophy)

BOOKWOMAN’S LAST FLING BY John Dunning (Mystery/ Bookselling and booksellers – fiction)

BOUNDARY BY Eric Flint (Science fiction)

THE BOY IN THE STRIPED PAJAMAS By John Boyne (Concentration camps – juvenile fiction)
THE BRETHREN BY John Grisham (Legal story)

COOKING UP MURDER BY Miranda Bliss (Mystery)

COVENANT WITH BLACK AMERICA BY Tavis Smiley (Nonfiction)

CROSS BY James Patterson (Psychological fiction)

DEATH OF A SCRIPWRITER BY M. C. Beaton (Mystery)

FOREVER YOUNG: MY FRIENDSHIP WITH JOHN F. KENNEDY, JR. BY William Noonan (Biography)

FREEFALL BY Kristen Heitzmann (Inspirational reading/love story)

HUNTERS BY W. E. B. Griffin (Suspense fiction)

JUDE BY Kate Morgenroth (Young adult crime fiction)

LADY OF FORTUNE BY Mary Jo Putney (Large print Regency romance)

THE LIFE AND TIMES OF THE THUNDERBOLT KID BY Bill Bryson (Memoir)

MAMA, I’M IN LOVE WITH A GANGSTA BY Joy (Urban fiction)

SNIPPED IN THE BUD BY Kate Collins (Mystery)

UNLIKELY ANGEL BY Ashley Smith (Nonfiction/hostages)

PROMISE ME BY Harlan Coben (Detective and mystery story)

QUIET GAME BY Greg Iles (Legal story)

A SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE EVENTS Series by Lemony Snicket (Youth fiction)

SHADOW DANCE BY Julie Garwood (Romantic suspense)

SIDETRACKED HOME EXECUTIVES BY Pam Young (Nonfiction/time management)

STRENGTH TO LOVE BY Martin Luther King (Sermons)

THROUGH A GLASS DARKLY BY Donna Leon (Mystery/Venice)

VENDETTA BY Fern Michaels (Suspense fiction)

The Space Between Us by Thrity N. Umrigar

Fallston Friends Evening Book Group discussed this challenging book at their December 2006 meeting. Please call the branch for more information on the group: 410-638-3003.

The Space Between Us is an examination of whether and in what circumstances the gulfs between people separated by traditions of class and gender can be narrowed down or swallowed up. Umrigar, journalist and Case Western Reserve professor, sets the book in modern day Bombay; but an interesting topic of discussion might be the spaces that exist between people wherever they might live.

The heartbreaking similarity of their lives appears for a while at least to close up the space between a wealthy Parsi widow, Sera Dubash and her hardworking domestic, Bhima. Despite class disparity, they have suffered equally the abuse of men, the loss of love, and the joys and sorrows of motherhood; however, their relationship is full of contradictions. Though Sera says she views Bhima as “one of the family” and is sponsoring Maya, Bhima’s granddaughter through college, she cannot truly shake off her ingrained class prejudice. Though Bhima takes tea with her employer, she is still not allowed to sit on the furniture and must use her own cup. Bhima is grateful for her employer’s patronage, though often resents her condescension.

A crisis occurs when Maya becomes pregnant, quits school and will not name the baby’s father. It remains to be seen as the plot unfolds whether personal connection will win out against class allegiance and gender inequality.

I recommend this book to anyone who likes to read about the universal lot of women, or the joys and sorrows of marriage or motherhood. Set as it is in Bombay, the book evocatively describes a complex culture very much in flux and it should appeal also to anyone who likes contemporary stories set in other lands.

Elizabeth

Mysteries of the Middle Ages: The Rise of Feminism, Science, and Art from the Cults of Catholic Europe by Thomas Cahill

Mysteries of the Middle Ages: The Rise of Feminism, Science, and Art from the Cults of Catholic Europe by Thomas Cahill

Mysteries of the Middle Ages is the fifth book of the Hinges of History series, which examines the history of the Western world through known and lesser-known figures: the “gift-givers” who gave us or preserved for us some of the treasures of our civilization. See Thomas Cahill’s web site for descriptions of his other books and for a description of his eminent scholarship and his varied career in academia, journalism and publishing: http://www.randomhouse.com/features/cahill/bio.html

In this latest book , Cahill examines the rise of Feminism, science and art from the cults of Catholic Europe. In the High Middle Ages Europe experienced a rebirth of scholarship, art, literature, philosophy, and science leading to ideas and institutions current in Western civilization today. According to Cahill, the importance of the cult of the Virgin Mary in medieval church and life led by degrees to the 20th century rise of feminism. The Incarnation in the communion service led to the formulation of questions of reality and substance, pushing philosophers to a way of thinking that led to the methods of modern science. In the same way, artists asked themselves similar questions about the depiction of reality in their compositions.

I felt that Cahill tackles these scholarly ideas in an extremely accessible way. He uses the lives of various individuals to illustrate his points; for instance Hildegarde of Bingen, Francis of Assissi, Giotto, Abelard and Heloise. To me, each biography was fascinating and told in an engaging way that totally opened up the person to me. Cahill frequently makes the point that the medieval mind was not like ours, but he writes so as to help us understand it in human terms. In such a case, perhaps Cahill’s occasional use of 21st century slang is necessary; however, I sometimes found that a bit jarring. Also jarring is Cahill’s ocasional descent into diatribe, for instance about George Bush’s Iraq policy or the pedophilia scandal in the Catholic Church.

Throughout the book I felt that I was being led into looking at history through a new lens, and that delighted me, even though I felt that Cahill was sometimes too vehement in inserting his own opinions. He probably has a right! because his scholarship is formidable, and the footnotes prove that the book is very deeply researched. I was totally intrigued by the ideas presented here and swayed by Thomas Cahill’s accessible writing style. I made the resolution to try and find out what other historians have written on the subject.

Elizabeth

The Spellman Files by Lisa Lutz

My colleague Rosemary e-mailed this recommendation to me yesterday after reading an advance reader's copy:

"I read The Spellman Files by Lisa Lutz and loved it! One of the most enjoyable and original books I have read in a long time. I am a fan of light mystery/humor books like the Stephanie Plum series, so it suited me well. Rosemary"

The Spellman Files is due to be published in March 2007. This clever debut mystery featuring Izzy Spellman, a 28-year-old PI who works for her parents' San Francisco firm, also features several members of the dysfunctional Spellman clan. A reviewer in Booklist, January 2007 wrote, "Scenes showcasing the relationships among the various Spellmans are often laugh-out-loud funny." It looks as though The Spellman Files might be the first in a series to give Janet Evanovich a run for the money!

Do you, as Rosemary does, have other authors you can recommend to go to while waiting for the next Stephanie Plum mystery to come out?

Elizabeth

Books Add Color - Winter Reading at Harford County Public Library

Harford County Public Library's highly popular winter reading program is in full swing once again right now! This year the program is called, "Books Add Color." How true; and we certainly need a bit of color at this grey time of year!

The program is intended for high school students and adults. Sign up between now and March 3. Adults read 5 books and high school students must read 3 books. Return your completed reading book log by March 3 and receive a Winter Reading journal.

For more information, click on the bright red cardinal on HCPL's home page, or ask your local branch librarian.

Those winter reading book logs are a great resource, so don't let them go to waste! Your fellow book-lovers would love to hear what you have been reading. There is nothing like a personal recommendation to pique someone's interest. Just think how popular the returned book cart is in just about any public library you have ever visited.

So click and leave a comment on this posting and tell us the titles on your personal book log.

My own titles are: Indiscretion by Jude Morgan; Silent in the Grave by Deanna Raybourn; And So Victoria by Vaughan Wilkins; The Complete Father Brown G. K. Chesterton; and Dust by Martha Grimes

The Old Way: A Story of the First People by Elizabeth Marshall Thomas

When Elizabeth Marshall Thomas was a young adult, her family traveled to southern Africa to study the Bushmen of the Kalahari Desert. Based on her experiences there, she wrote The Harmless People, a book that has not been out of print since it was first published in 1959. In The Old Way, Thomas takes a fresh look at the people of the Kalahari – before the incursion of whites and other African people, before the Bushmen were forced from their old way of life into a modern and destructive world, before the end of their culture as she saw it in the 1950’s.
The Bushmen, or San, as some call them, were hunter-gatherers, who lived in harmony with their natural surroundings. As part of the ecosystem of this hot, dry land, they neither disturbed nor damaged the land, and so they lived there for tens of thousands of years. Thomas and her family, then, witnessed what was the longest surviving culture humankind has ever experienced, one of 50,000 years or more in age.

Thomas, the author of The Hidden Life of Dogs, Tribe of Tiger, Reindeer Moon, and Animal Wife, is always respectful of the people whom she is studying. As she reveals their way of life to us, she connects their strategies for survival with how all of our ancestors must have lived in those distant years of our development into the people we are today.

Reindeer Moon and Animal Wife, both novels of prehistoric times, ring with authenticity, and no wonder. Thomas based her novels on what she had observed of actual hunter-gatherer societies.

Her anthropological methods also figure into her studies of cats and dogs in Tribe of Tiger and The Hidden Life of Dogs, as she studies our “domestic” animal companions and how they fit into our lives.

Have any of you read any of Thomas’s books? If so, you may want to add to your list The Old Way: A Story of the First People.

By a Harford County Librarian

A Dirty Job by Christopher Moore

Today I want to highlight one of the book groups that meet in branches of the Harford County Public Library. “Lite at Night – Books With a Touch of Humor” meets at the Abingdon Branch the second Monday of the month at 6:30 PM. Recently they discussed A Dirty Job by Christopher Moore.

Christopher Moore is the author of the previous bestsellers Fluke and The Stupidest Angel, and current best seller, You Suck. The jacket notes call the book an, “absurdly outrageous, howlingly funny, scathingly satiric novel about a neurotic, just-widowed father of a newborn whose life takes a really weird detour.” Charlie Asher’s wife dies soon after giving birth. Charlie swears he saw an impossibly tall black man in a mint green suit standing beside Rachel as she died. After a series of spooky and terrifying things happen to him, Charlie discovers that he and the green man are Death Merchants, whose job is to gather up the souls of the newly dead before the forces of darkness get to them. A series of weirdo assistants and Underworld creatures are coopted to mind Charlie’s shop and his new baby while he goes about his task, a task leading to a final showdown with Death in Gold Rush era San Francisco.

One reviewer (Publishers Weekly 02/20/2006) wrote, “If it sounds over the top, that's because it is-but Moore's enthusiasm and skill make it convincing, and his affection for the cast of weirdos gives the book an unexpected poignancy.”

I would be interested to read the comments of any member of the Abingdon book group who attended the discussion of A Dirty Job. The “Lite at Night” group focuses their choice on books that are humorous or light-hearted. These kinds of book often disguise a more serious purpose. Does anyone have an opinion in the case of A Dirty Job? Would anyone else who has read the book care to comment?

Harford County Public Library has many book groups and each one of them has a different character. If you are interested in joining one, please look on the Book Groups page of our website for details.

Elizabeth

The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield

Along with friends in my book club, I have just finished reading this first novel by British author, Diane Setterfield. The book caused great excitement in England by the size of the advance Ms. Setterfield was paid – remarkable for an untried author. The Thirteenth Tale also topped the best seller lists in U.K. for a while.

In this gothic story of lies and family secrets, Margaret Lea, an outwardly colorless antiquarian bookseller and biographer is contacted out of the blue by Vida Winter, currently England’s most popular novelist. For fifty years, flamboyant yet dissembling Ms. Winter has succeeded with lies in completely obscuring her identity and origins. Now terminally ill, she asks Margaret to write her authorized biography and promises she will not lie to her. Margaret travels to a remote house on the Yorkshire moors to hear Ms. Winter’s story. The story that she tells is a story of madness, orphaned twins, a governess, a ruined English estate and a deadly fire. The reader, as Margaret transcribes Ms. Winter’s stories of what happened at Angelfield, perhaps during the 1900s, is drawn in to a dark tale of guilt, murder, and forbidden love. Mystery is piled on mystery, is perhaps explained, and then is complicated by further revelations.

My book club thought that the plot was too rambling and could perhaps have done with some editing. I thought that the complexity was appropriate for what one critic called an homage to the gothic genre. The book is full of references to works such as The Turn of the Screw, Jane Eyre, and Rebecca. Some of my friends enjoyed these references, but others thought the book was too derivative.

I think lovers of such fevered tales will appreciate the dark and looming presence of the house and garden at Angelfield. This estate is as important to the characters as was Manderlee in Rebecca. Lovers of good writing will appreciate the beautiful language, which tends to a nineteenth century elegance.

One theme in this book which has many themes is the nature of the relationship between twins. Another important theme is the consequences that follow from keeping secrets or denying truths.

I hoped this has piqued your interest without giving too much away. I was totally engrossed by the book, and eager to see if my solutions for all the mysteries were the right ones. I heartily recommend The Thirteenth Tale.

Kindred by Octavia Butler

Kindred was chosen by the Whiteford book group for their November 2006 discussion. It was published over 25 years ago and it has become a sort of modern classic. It has been published by Beacon Press in their Black Women Writers series, is recommended on reading lists, and is still very much in demand.

Don't let Kindred's classic status put you off - it's a fast read! Kindred is a book that I would recommend for all sorts of reasons. When I read it several years ago I found I could not put it down because I was so absorbed in the story and by the characters. Dana, a young black woman of the late twentieth century finds herself repeatedly transported through time and space to an antebellum Southern plantation. There she must make sure that Rufus, the plantation owner's son, survives to father Dana's ancestor. I would be interested to hear what other readers make of the plot, and of the premise of time travel.

The whole book is multi-layered. Complex and difficult issues are explored, such as the effect of slavery on individuals. I felt that these issues were handled very sensitively.

The book has proved to have appeal to a wide audience, black and white, adults and older teens. Not only is it a "good" book - it's a pleasure to read!

The Know-It-All: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World by A. J. Jacobs

This book was discussed at the Norrisville branch of the library in February 2006. It was written by an Esquire Magazine editor and chronicles Jacobs’ “Pilgrim’s Progress” as he reads the entire Encyclopedia Britannica in a quixotic effort to outdo is attorney father and his smart-aleck cousin Eric. While the concept sounds a bit dry, the book is really about a lot more than just a mountain of dates and facts printed in a set of dusty tomes. In reality, Jacobs’ “humble quest” is really about self-image, determination, the difference between knowledge and wisdom, the illusory nature of genius, and the record-breaking patience of his wife. The author, while jokingly referring to himself as a know-it-all, is as apt to make fun of himself as he is of his better-read relatives, the members of Mensa, and the crossword puzzle maniacs who populate his book.

As a book discussion group moderator, I had some trepidation about how the group would respond to this title. It is nonfiction, which is not everyone’s cup of tea, its author’s sense of humor is sarcastic and hip, the book is larded with gratuitous four-letter words, and the format is encyclopedic (i.e., it is made up of alphabetically arranged entries). My fears, though, were groundless. The members found the book clever and the author sympathetic. They readily recognized the various themes hidden within the book’s entries, and had lots to say about them. In addition, the book was stimulating enough to engender a wide-ranging discussion that touched on religion, politics, women’s rights, the quiz show scandals of the 1950s, and several other topics.

If there was anything to be critical of, it was the fact that most group members could only read the book in short bursts (though all were motivated to stick with it). Also, as noted above, the salty language was a turn-off to many readers.

Overall, the group found the book clever, entertaining, and thought-provoking.

By Norrisville Book Group Moderator

Silent in the Grave

Silent in the Grave by Deanna Raybourn

I received a reader’s advance copy of this first novel by Deanna Raybourn, slated to be published January 2007. I read it in record time, despite its being somewhat of a hefty tome for a mystery at 509 pages. I anticipate that reviewers will be making comparisons to the books of Anne Perry and Elizabeth Peters. Anne Perry because of the closely observed Victorian period domestic details and the social customs that drive the plot, Elizabeth Peters because of the wicked tongue-in-cheek wit with which those customs are commented upon. Just like the series by Anne Perry featuring Charlotte Pitt, Silent In The Grave exposes the dark consequences of the repressive culture of the upper and middle class Victorians. Just like the series by Elizabeth Peters featuring Amelia Peabody, Silent In the Grave features an engaging, intelligent, independent and unconventional heroine.

From the very first page I could not put this book down. It begins, “To say that I met Nicholas Brisbane over my husband’s dead body is not entirely accurate. Edward, it should be noted, was still twitching upon the floor.” The book, which is full of similar delicious understatement, goes on the describe how Lady Julia copes with her socialite husband’s demise, supposedly from a long-standing infirmity. Julia is outraged and disbeleving when Nicholas Brisbane visits her to inform her that her husband had been receiving death threats and was probably murdered. Eventually Julia finds evidence in her husband’s papers that confirms it was murder. She determines to bring her husband’s killer to justice and enlists Brisbane’s help. Brisbane himself has many secrets and is forced to leave Julia to follow the trail of clues herself, along the way exposing many more unpleasant truths.

I thought this book was just thrilling! I loved all the period details, including the attention paid to Lady Julia’s wardrobe. I loved the eccentric characters. I loved the revelations of the dark world of vice so similar to portrayals in the stories of Sherlock Holmes. The ending very definitely makes way for a sequel, and I just can’t wait for it to come out!

Hello World!

This is the new BlogaBook blog for HCPL.