In the Company of the Courtesan by Sarah Dunant

This is a book that I chose to bring to a librarians’ discussion of fiction about artists and the artistic life. In my opinion it is a versatile book that I could recommend equally to individuals who are looking for historical romance and intrigue and also for books that feature real artists in fictional settings.

The cover, featuring the cool and alluring gaze of the semi-clad and reclining Venus of Urbino by Titian signals very clearly what the book is about – a 16th century courtesan - and also by reproducing a real painting, places it among other titles such as Girl With A Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier.

The plot is exciting and grabs your attention at once when Fiametta Bianchini, a beautiful, intelligent, and talented courtesan in the eternal city of Rome is forced to flee from the troops of the Holy Roman Emperor who are sacking the city. She flees with her major-domo, the dwarf Bucino, in whose disillusioned and bitter voice the story is narrated. Having between them swallowed the best jewels from Fiametta’s casket, they head for Venice, where Fiametta’s mother lives. They arrive in Venice after many harrowing adventures which have left them nearly penniless, to discover all is not well in Fiametta’s mother’s house. The pair of them set out to create a reputation for Fiametta which will enable her to set up a salon for gentlemen of power and culture such as she had had in Rome. As Bucino travels the Venetian canals and alleys, the reader gets a vivid picture of the 16th century city. Bucino has a hard task preserving Fiametta’s reputation and even her life, from violence, despair, and simply from starvation. His efforts are made more difficult by Fiametta’s relationship with a blind healer who insinuates herself into their lives and brings them into potential danger from the religious establishment. Fiametta’s path is smoothed to a degree by her patrons among the art intelligensia of Venice. Fiametta numbers among her friends the painter Titian, and the writer Aretino. Readers of Tracy Chavalier and Susan Vreeland will love this glimpse into the art world as they will appreciate this story of an independent and intelligent woman overcoming adversity.

This would be a good book club book since it has lots of discussible features:

Titian and the artistic/creative life

The role of courtesans

16th century Venice

an interesting relationship between Bucino and Fiametta

Fiammetta's childhood and its effects

16th century medicine and superstition

religious bigotry and intolerance

16th century views on physical disabilities and illness

the cover art - what about the enigmatic look on the face of Venus? Suitable art for this book?

Big Stone Gap by Adriana Trigiani

Big Stone Gap by Adriana Trigiani

In May the Norrisville book group read and discussed Big Stone Gap by Adriana Trigiani. This book was the first in a series set in a delightful town in Virginia, called, no surprise here, Big Stone Gap! Not a lot happens to 35-year-old Ave Maria Mulligan in this quiet backwater. The highlight of her week comes on Friday, with the arrival of the Bookmobile. The novel concerns the family scandals that befall Ave Maria in this seemingly uneventful town. Greed, lust, envy all manifest themselves even in this hamlet of "ordinary folk."

Ave Maria Mulligan is the daughter of the late pharmacist of Bit Stone Gap, Va., and an immigrant Italian seamstress. She inherited the pharmacy when her father died, but it's only her mother's recent death that has made Ave realize that, at 35, she's on the shelf. When her best friend, the handsome high school band and choral director proposes and then takes it back, and the mountain-man Jack McChesney also proposes – she thinks – out of pity, Ave is in despair. To add to her emotional turmoil, a letter from her mother tells her her real father is a man who lives in Italy. All of this takes place against the backdrop of Big Stone Gap, its history, and its summer Bluegrass festival. How will Ave cope with the unexpected arrival of her entire newly discovered Italian family, and will she be able to recognize true love before it’s too late?

These are some things to consider when reading or discussing the book:
This is part of what Publisher’s Weekly had to say about Big Stone Gap: “A wholesome Cinderella story with a winning blend of '70s nostalgia and Appalachian local color, Trigiani's debut introduces a likable heroine who's smart but obtuse, needy but rejecting, and generous with affection but afraid of love.” The reviewer places Ave squarely in the tradition of romantic heroines the world over. Would you agree that she conforms to the stereotype?

Publisher’s Weekly thought the book was almost too sentimental. Would you agree with the reviewer who wrote: “What saves the narrative from sentimentality and invests it with charm is Trigiani's witty voice, her tart-tongued but appealing heroine and her ability to recall the cultural details that immerse the reader in the atmosphere of her little mining town.”

There is a lot of local color in the book – there is even reference to an actual 1978 visit to Virginia of senatorial candidate John Warner and his wife, Elizabeth Taylor – did you find this contributed to the story or was it irrelevant?

Some reviewers found the writing awkward and some of the characters overblown. What did you think?

The Savage Garden by Mark Mills

It's been a week since I finished this book. Having finished the last page last week, I put down The Savage Garden with a great feeling of satisfaction. I'm sure most readers will too, especially those who liked The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield. I took up The Savage Garden having read the reviews and hoping to feel again the somewhat unhealthy thrill of an over-charged and fevered, but totally absorbing mystery rooted in a past of culture and privilege. Both books feature a mysterious garden, both feature an ancient and decayed family, and both feature a young scholar and stranger who goes to a remote locale to carry out a task to ensure the posterity of an elderly grand dame. In the case of The Savage Garden the locale is Tuscany in the present day. Publisher's Weekly of 3/5/07 summed up the plot very neatly:

"Two murders committed 400 years apart form the core of British author Mills's outstanding second novel (afterAmagansett , which won a CWA Dagger Award). In 1958, Cambridge undergraduate Adam Strickland, who's studying a curious Tuscan Renaissance garden for his art history thesis, is equally intrigued by both the garden of the Villa Docci estate and its elderly owner, Signora Francesca Docci. Built by the villa's first owner, Federico Docci, in 1577, the garden was intended as a memorial to his wife, Flora, who died when she was only 25. In the course of his research, Adam begins to sense that events, both past and present, are not as clear-cut as they appear. In particular, he discovers that there are several versions of the death of Signora Docci's oldest son, Emilio, who was shot by the villa's German occupiers at the end of WWII. Adam is hailed by all when he comes up with a novel theory explaining Flora's death in 1548, but when he begins to speculate on Emilio's demise, he finds himself in serious danger."

I enjoyed the descriptions of the Tuscan countryside, which I thought was very convincingly brought to life. The garden also is described in such detail that one really begins to feel the atmosphere of the place which so effects the main character. As in The Thirteenth Tale, there are a lot of unresolved issues from the past, people with long memories and secret and puzzling motivations. The book is not billed as a gothic tale, but in my opinion it really is. It is also somewhat of a coming of age story: the undergraduate, Adam is a sexually athletic but crass 22-year-old who grows up during his stay in Tuscany. The mistaken assumptions Adam makes about other characters sometimes seem unbelievable, and not all of his gaffes are necessary to the plot. For me this was the only false note in the book.

The Known World by Edward Jones

In April 2007 a group in Edgewood discussed The Known World by Edward Jones. This book has won multiple prizes, including the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. The ideas in it are complex, of moral weight and intellectual and emotional power, yet subtly expressed through a story that draws you in and then unfolds in a book that is difficult to put down; though sometimes you just have to take a breather!

The book begins with a crisis which precipitates many changes in the "known world," the circumscribed world of an antebellum slave plantation. The crisis is the death of the plantation owner and the upheaval that this creates for his "property" - including his slaves - and his family. The interesting thing is that Henry Townsend, the property owner, was once a slave himself.

This is a book that takes a commitment of time, as it is so dense and complex. There is a large cast of characters, and the minutiae of the life they lead is woven in fascinating detail into the story. The characters, their relationships and motivations, are so convincing and compelling that the reader becomes emotionally involved in their fates.

The time-line of the plot is not straightforward but moves from the present and Henry’s death, to the past, and then back to the future. The past reveals how a former slave became a slave-owner. The future is revealed rather like a prophecy. It is this prefiguring, together with the simple, measured, factual narrative, that at times gives the book an almost Biblical character.

The book delivers without ever being heavy-handed a decided indictment of a society that depended on slavery. Subtly revealing the motives of the characters through their actions, the author inexorably builds up a picture of how slavery really ruined every part of society.

It is difficult to make suggestions for book discussion points without giving away the pleasures of the book to people who have not read it. I believe this book will appeal to readers who enjoy complex characterization and like to see characters develop. Edward Jones' characters are complicated: the good ones do bad things and the bad ones do good things. Enjoy coming to understand what drives them. See if you agree with me that Edward Jones' depiction of people and society in the era of slavery is remarkably free of stereotypes.

This book will certainly appeal to lovers of historical fiction, especially historical fiction that shows a depth of research into the period. For me, the book helped me understand more how such an inhumane institution as slavery could persist, especially after it ceased to benefit anybody. Look for occasions where Jones shows how slavery affected both white and black in the most insidious ways.

The Highest Tide by Jim Lynch

Valerie Ryan at Amazon.com wrote this about The Highest Tide: "This absolutely luminous first novel has all the earmarks of a classic. The Highest Tide is destined to be read, re-read, and to remain on bookshelves for the enjoyment of generations to come."

Find this book in our catalog.

The Darlington book group chose this for their discussion title in January 2007. I'm hoping that one of the group will comment on how the discussion went, as I can imagine that it sparked all sorts of side discussions on humankind's relationship with the natural world.

13-year-old Miles O'Malley is a naturalist and worshipper of Rachel Carson. One summer he obtains a licence to collect marine specimens for money from the mud flats of Skookumchuck Bay, at the South end of Puget Sound where he lives. One night he goes out in his kayak, coming eye to eye with, instead of his usual collectibles, a giant squid! In the book initially no one can credit Miles' discovery because no giant squids live in the Puget Sound and when humans have seen them elsewhere they have always been dead.

I wonder if the Darlington book group thrilled when they were reading this in January 2007, with the knowledge that in the real world only the previous December a giant squid had indeed been seen alive and had been captured on film? On December 22 this news article appeared on National Geographic News:

"December 22, 2006—Like pulling a shadow from the darkness, researchers in Japan have captured and filmed a live giant squid—likely for the first time—shedding new light on the famously elusive creatures. Tsunemi Kubodera, a scientist with Japan's National Science Museum, caught the 24-foot (7-meter) animal earlier this month near the island of Chichijima, some 600 miles (960 kilometers) southeast of Tokyo."

For pictures of the squid, see http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/12/061222-giant-squid.html

In The Highest Tide the discovery of the live giant squid is confirmed by Professor Kramer, a biologist and Miles' friend, and then the unwelcome attention from scientists, camera crews and a local cult begins.

For Miles this was a bewildering summer. As the narrator he says, "People usually take decades to sort out their view of the universe, if they bother to sort at all. I did my sorting during one freakish summer in which I was ambushed by science, fame and suggestions of the divine."

Miles has a lot to cope with as he sorts his place out in the adult world. His parents are considering divorce, his elderly best friend, Florence is dying of a degenerative disease, his sex-obsessed buddy makes fun of his science knowledge, and he himself has a desperate crush on the 18-year-old girl next door, which humiliates him further. Tension builds as the date approaches of a predicted record high tide.

Here are some things you might consider when reading this book:

The coming of the high tide is obviously very important in the book. Do you think there is any symbolic significance to it, and if so, what is it?

The beauty and the complexity of nature informs the whole book. A reviewer at PW wrote, "The fertile strangeness of marine tidal life becomes a subtly executed metaphor for the bewilderments of adolescence ." Would you agree? Why else is nature important?

Author Jim Lynch's deep knowledge of and sense of wonder at the natural world gives him an ability to tell a story "that glows on every page"(Valerie Ryan). Would you agree? for instance, one early morning Miles says, "...the water was so clear I could see coon-stripe shrimp ... and the bottomless bed of white clam shells ... Those shells, as unique and timeless as bones, helped me realize that we all die young, that in the life of the earth, we are houseflies, here for one flash of light."

As Miles says when a reporter asks him why he thinks that the giant squid has turned up in Puget Sound, "Maybe the earth is trying to tell us something." Do you think the earth is meant to be telling us something in this book? Some reviewers have written that Jim Lynch was maybe trying to cram too much into a small book. What do you think?

The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield - a book you can't put down!

The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield.

One of our book group moderators sent in this review by e-mail. This is what he said:

"This engrossing tale is a paean to the classic Gothic novel in the mold of Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, and The Woman in White. It is an atmospheric tale of reclusive geniuses with riveting stories to tell, eccentric families with secrets to hide, haunted houses, and murder. Ms. Satterfield manages to pull us in bit by bit, until we realize we can’t put the book down. Her descriptions are lush, her characters fascinating and unique, and her mastery of a presumed-dead genre dead-on.

Alan Z."

I couln't agree with Alan more: I couldn't put the book down either! For my own review of this book, and a couple of other comments, see this Blog and the posting for February 1, 2007.

Thinking about The Thirteenth Tale and how much I enjoyed it, I realised that I am repeatedly drawn to Gothic tales of eccentric characters with mysteries to solve or secrets to hide. I have just finished The Pale Blue Eye by Louis Bayard, in which a retired New York City detective is hired by the Commandant of West Point in 1830 to solve the particularly gruesome murder of a cadet in the grounds of the academy. Gus Landor, the detective seeks the help of an eccentric cadet, none other than Edgar Allan Poe. Nothing in this book is without significance, including the reference to the Pale Blue Eye in the title. The book will appeal to readers who enjoy codes and puzzles and to readers of mysteries with literary allusions. People who liked the multiple layers of secrets in The Thirteenth Tale will enjoy The Pale Blue Eye. In both books the story is told by a narrator, and both involve family secrets, hauntings, grisly murder and a unique and somewhat bizarre setting.

If you can think of another similar title that you could recommend, please leave a comment!

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!

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