Books Blog

Go Outside!

Shh_ImReading@evpl — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 17:23:00 GMT

It's springtime! Time to leave the house and enjoy the outdoors! Two recent books you should know about if you're planning on going further than the park down the street are Botanic Gems: Indiana Public Gardens, Including Greater Chicago, Dayton, Cincinnati & Louisville by Alan McPherson and The Complete Guide to Kentucky State Parks by Susan Reigler.

Botanic Gems includes more than 40 gardens in or near Indiana. Before this book, I had no idea that there are so many public gardens in Indiana! There are color photographs and maps for each location. The book includes Evansville's own Mesker Park Zoo & Botanic Garden.

The Complete Guide to Kentucky State Parks is truly complete. The parks are covered in regional sections: north central, south central, eastern and western. The parks closest to the Evansville area are in the western section, which includes Henderson's John James Audubon State Park, a favorite of my family. Kentucky State Parks fall into three categories: resort, recreation & historic sites. Each regional section in the book begins with a great chart that breaks down the parks vertically by those three categories, and the going across, by features like park acres, lake acres, lodge & dining room, cottages, campgrounds, golf, marina, swimming, trails, tennis courts, museums, etc. Following the chart, each park in the section gets its own write-up with photographs.

These books are great resources if you're looking for some outdoor fun!

Making Rounds with Oscar: The Extraordinary Gift of an Ordinary Cat by David Dosa, MD

HRevvdon@evpl — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 22:44:00 GMT

Making Rounds with Oscar: The Extraordinary Gift of an Ordinary Cat (2010) by David Dosa, M.D. is not what I expected. I expected a heart-warming story, maybe with a little humor, about a cat on the floor that is devoted to Alzheimer’s disease within a nursing home. One summary of the book states “the story of a unique nursing-home cat whose uncanny, apparently precognitive vigils at the sides of residents who are about to die has enabled staffers to administer patient care and notice to loved ones.” So I expected the author, Dr. Dosa – a gerontologist – to write about the cat, you know, concentrate on its behavior. The book really doesn’t do that. It does start out that way.

Dr. Dosa has a hard time believing what the nurses and aides tell him about Oscar’s ability to know when a patient is dying and to then stand vigil at the side of the patient. So he starts interviewing the family members of the patients that have died. What he hears are the heartbreaking stories of the families living with and surviving this terrible disease, and they are survivors even if the loved one afflicted does not survive; and, the families do express how Oscar’s behavior comforts them. Dosa gains a better understanding of the disease and how a family member learns to deal with it. Oscar is written with a physician’s perspective on the disease, death, and dying; and, Dr. Dosa believes he is a better doctor and a more empathetic doctor as a result of the talks with the family members.

I have been blessed not to have a family member fall victim to this form of dementia, so I have no firsthand knowledge. I don’t believe I would recommend this book to someone who has experienced the death of a loved one with dementia, but those who may first be dealing with it or are concerned they will be, may have a different perspective after reading Oscar.

Is Gardening Too Tame For You?

Shh_ImReading@evpl — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 15:51:00 GMT

Do you find pansies and impatiens a little dull? Would you rather grow something that eats, than grow something to eat? If so, check out these books on carnivorous plants. Even if you're not interested in planting venus fly traps, pitcher plants or other insect-eaters in your yard, the pictures in these books are fun to look at!

The Curious World of Carnivorous Plants by Wilhelm Barthlott, Stefan Porembski, Rudiger Seine & Inge Theisen

Carnivorous Plants: Care and Cultivation by Marcel Lecoufle

Insect-Eating Plants & How to Grow Them by Adrian Slack

The Savage Garden by Peter D'Amato

Gardening With Carnivores: Sarracenia Pitcher Plants in Cultivation & in the Wild by Nick Romanowski

My Life in France by Julia Child

HRevvdon@evpl — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 00:09:00 GMT

Several months ago I read Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen (2005) and I also blogged about the book. I was less than impressed by the book – mostly because I felt that the author, Julie Powell, was disrespectful to Julia Child and most of the time the language was unnecessarily vulgar.

When the film Julie & Julia (2009) came out with Meryl Streep as Julia Child and Amy Adams as Julie Powell, I had to go see it because of Streep. It is a charming movie! Both Streep and Adams are wonderful, as is Stanley Tucci as Paul Child. Streep was so good she was nominated for an Academy Award. The sequences about Julia and Paul Child in France were obviously not in the book Julie and Julia – where did that come from?

Well, it came from My Life in France (2006) by Julia Child and her grand-nephew Alex Prud’homme. This memoir is much more than Julia’s living in France for several years, it is about how she became the famous French cook, her life as a wife of someone in the diplomatic core, writing her famous cookbooks, and becoming one of the forerunners of home and food shows on television. It has tidbits of her early life as well. She was a basketball star at Smith College in the early 1930’s and she worked for “intelligence” during WWII!

Child and her grand-nephew put together this special book using years of saved correspondence and her special remembrances. The story begins to unfold when she and Paul move to Paris in 1948, she tells the story that you expect and saw in the film, but it is also interspersed with comments about post-Nazi Germany, McCarthyism, Kennedy vs. Nixon, etc. There are social and political side stories throughout; and, it is also a love story. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and highly recommend it.

The Canterville Ghost and The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

HRevvdon@evpl — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 02:41:00 GMT

A couple of years ago I spent Christmas week in Paris with a friend and one of the odd little walks we took was through Père Lachaise Cemetery. A fascinating walk through what seemed an ancient cemetery to my American eyes. You actually pick up a map of the graves. Amongst the common and famous interned there are Balzac, Maria Callas, Moliere, Collette, Yves Montand – and most famously Jim Morrison. Also interned there is Oscar Wilde. While Morrison is probably the most visited grave, the monument for Oscar Wilde is larger and bizarre in both the style and the remembrances left by admirers – heavy lipstick impressions of kisses.

I had not read anything by Wilde that I could recall, but I knew that he was the playwright of The Importance of Being Earnest. I had seen the film and have seen the play a couple of times. It is funny and witty; you have to listen closely as its fast paced dialog soon will outpace you if you don’t. He also wrote An Ideal Husband, a witty play and a fun film.

Finally getting around to reading Wilde, I chose a short story called The Canterville Ghost (1887) and The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890). Dorian Gray is his only published novel, his writings were mostly short stories and plays.

The Canterville Ghost takes place in an old English manor house that has been sold to a newly rich American family called the Otis’. The father, mother, twin boys, eldest boy, and young sensitive daughter are caricatures of how Victorian England must have envisioned Americans. Too naïve to realize that they should be terrified of the resident ghost, Sir Simon, the twins terrorize him and tease him! The oldest son keeps washing out the “permanent” blood spot in the library with an American cleaner and the father gives Sir Simon a patent lubricant to prevent his chains from rattling! The story is told from Sir Simon’s point of view and he is not happy! Soon the sensitive daughter, the only one to simply leave Sir Simon alone, comes to his rescue.

As I read this delightful but old-fashioned story I realized that I had seen an old movie years ago based on this story – only instead of being set in Victorian England, it is set during WWII and is a comedy with Robert Young as a GI and Margaret O’Brian. Too funny! The plot is essentially the same, but everything else is pure Hollywood. Alas it is not available on DVD – at least not at EVPL or at Netflix.

The Picture of Dorian Gray is so different! Its high Victorian style where ten words are used when one will suffice is not the easiest read. It is sardonic, witty, funny, and at times it seems Wilde writes to simply write or to impress the reader, and not for the story itself. The story itself is melodramatic but good. A young, rich, and extremely handsome young man has his portrait painted. The portrait is so good that the man becomes enamored of himself and vain when he was not beforehand. He dramatically declares that he wishes his portrait would grow old while he stays young – and he gets his wish. He begins a life of hedonistic debauchery that I expect only Wilde could write so dramatically and all the harm Gray does is reflected in the painting and not on his face.

The Picture of Dorian Gray was made into a black and white film in 1945 with innovative color sequences to emphasize the changes to the portrait. I have checked it out from EVPL and plan to watch it this weekend. It stars Angela Lansbury, Donna Reed, and George Sanders in their prime.

The Associate by John Grisham

HRevvdon@evpl — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 00:21:00 GMT

John Grisham’s new book, The Associate (2009), is predictable Grisham, almost too predictable. The premise is good, the fast paced style is good, but the characters are not as fully developed or as interesting as you expect to get with a Grisham legal thriller.

Kyle McAvoy is a Yale Law School student, editor of the Yale Law Review, who expects to do public service work for a couple years and go on to a successful law career. His father is a small-town lawyer, but Kyle expects to do more. Shortly before graduation Kyle is contacted by a paid thug and blackmailed into accepting a position with the largest law firm in the world – with the objective of forcing Kyle to become a spy or mole and retrieve documents that are critical to a huge lawsuit. It is never clear who the thug(s) work for – one of the corporations, the opposing firm, or possibly the government. It is never clear if Kyle is the only spy.

The cause of Kyle’s blackmail is an incident that happened while he was in college, involving fraternity brothers, drugs, booze, etc. Kyle and the brothers don’t learn a morality lesson. They learn pretty much to be careful what you do – not because it is wrong but because someone could be watching.

Grisham’s The Associate is a decent read despite the lack of good character development, right up until the end. The end was disappointing; it made me think “that’s it?” There could have been so much more to this book. I would like to read another Grisham that is as good as The Firm or The Pelican Brief…

EVPL has The Associate in print, large-print, audio, and as a download. For other books by this author, click here.

"Secrets of Eden" by Chris Bohjalian

Meditatinglibrarian@evpl — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 15:47:00 GMT

I am always blown away by Chris Bohjalian's writing. I love the way he uses the language - his choices of words, the way he creates scenes and characters, his storytelling. I get caught up in the language and construction. I also tend to find his choice of themes/subjects thought-provoking and even disturbing at times. This was all true in my reading of his latest novel, Secrets of Eden. Bohjalian is a master at writing about ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances, and the four voices of Secrets of Eden are that. One of the interesting experiences of this novel is trying to figure out how much of what each narrator says is actually true. The book begins with Baptist minister Stephen Drew having a crisis of faith and remembering the very recent baptism of Alice Hayward. Eight hours after that baptism, which was a rebirth and new start for Alice, both she and her husband are dead in an apparent murder-suicide. In addition to the Rev. Drew's voice, we hear from Alice's 15-year-old daughter Heather, the deputy state attorney Catherine, and popular author Heather Laurent, who believes in angels and whose own parents died in a murder-suicide when she was a teen.

Links:

Chris Bohjalian's web site

YouTube video of Bohjalian talking about Secrets of Eden

My Dick Francis addiction

kiya@evpl — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 00:46:00 GMT

Dick Francis jockey, mystery writer 10/31/1920 - 2/14/2010

My friend Theresa turned me on to Dick Francis and his mysteries. Her whole family was already hooked. And it only took one before I was, too. Francis' books followed a certain formula, but that formula included honorable men of integrity, often with a secret sadness or some emotional damage, and a determination to get to the bottom of whatever problem the bad guys were causing, no matter the cost. The heroes in these books are people you feel good about liking. They did tend to get beat up a lot, and because of that, I don't recommend reading too many in a row. Dick Francis is very realistic in his descriptions of pain - as a steeplechase jockey, he was well-acquainted with injury and pain.

In addition to having characters I liked, the books were very well-researched. I always learned things I didn't know while reading a Dick Francis novel. It might be about horses and racing, but it could just as well be about photography, wine, glassblowing, planes, acting, marksmanship, investment banking, or hurricanes. Folks often had the perception that because he had been a jockey, Dick Francis only wrote about horses. Not only was that wrong, even the books that were about horses and racing, were also about life, and loyalty, and knowing when you had to stand up for something, no matter how difficult. The critic John Leonard once said, "Not to read Dick Francis because you don't like horses is like not reading Dostoevsky because you don't like God."

If you've never read Dick Francis, you have a treat in store. Where do you start? Nearly all are standalone novels [exceptions: 4 about Sid Halley: Odds Against, Whip Hand, Come to Grief, and Under Orders; and 2 about Kit Fielding: Break In and Bolt], so you can start almost anywhere without worrying about order. So what about my favorites? Reflex is great, and you'll learn a lot about cameras. Risk introduces you to the most interesting accountant. Blood Sport is his first set in the US, and gave me the first glimpse at depression where I thought I actually understood for a moment what living with depression is like. Nerve was the first I ever read, I'm pretty sure. Oh, and The Danger looks at the psychology of kidnapping. The Edge takes place on a train ride across Canada......well, it's clear I can't pick a favorite for you. So, start with his earlier books. His later books, written with his son, are good, but not quite as wonderful as the ones he wrote with Mary, his wife. And if you like it, don't read them all at once. Promise yourself the next one at a certain time in the future - re-create the sense of anticipation his fans always felt as the seasons changed and it was almost time for this year's Dick Francis. Ah well, rereading Dick Francis is almost as good as reading him for the first time.

EVPL books and audio books by Dick Francis
Dick and Felix Francis website
BBC obituary
Dick Francis Books fan site: home of the Dick Francis, complete with favorite DF quotes and trivia questions
Earlier blog entry re: Dick Francis

Two Mysteries

Meditatinglibrarian@evpl — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 13:35:00 GMT

I recently read a couple of mystery novels, one a new title by an author, and in a series, that I've enjoyed for many years; the other a debut title starting a series by a new author. I enjoyed them both, and especially discovering a new author to follow.

The Ten-Mile Trials by Elizabeth Gunn is the eighth title in her Jake Hines mystery series. Jake Hines is a mixed-race dumpster baby grown up and now in law enforcement in fictional Rutherford, Minnesota. Rutherford is near Rochester, if not actually based on Rochester. In The Ten-Mile Trials Jake is coping with budget cuts, murder, theft, an Eastern European gang, drugs, and being dad to his 3-month-old son. The ten miles that is so challenging is the drive from the babysitter to home with a crying, hungry baby.

The Crossing Places by Elly Griffiths is set in the salt marshes of England's Norfolk coast. Ruth Galloway is a college professor and a forensic archaeologist who is fairly anti-social and likes living in her remote cottage on the edge of the salt marsh with her two cats. Then the local police inspector asks her to date some bones. Those turn out to be 2,000 years old, and Ruth also finds several Iron Age artifacts in the grave. Inspector Nelson tells her of a 10-year-old unsolved case of a young girl being kidnapped, and the letters someone has been sending him about that case ever since...and off we go. Ruth is a wonderfully crusty personality, the mystery and archaeology blend well together, and the Saltmarsh setting is very evocative.

The Weed That Binds the Hangman's Bag by Alan Bradley

HRevvdon@evpl — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 22:56:00 GMT

Alan Bradley’s Flavia de Luce is my favorite new sleuth. I loved the first book, The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie (2009), so much that I think I have driven my friends and co-workers crazy talking about it. But I think a lot of them have read it and feel the same way. I found the book as an advanced reader’s copy and picked it up because of the cover and the title. I am happy I did. When I learned that the next in the six-book Flavia series was coming out, The Weed That Strings the Hangman’s Bag (2010), in March of 2010 – I started searching for an advanced reader’s copy. A co-worker brought one back from a library event, not knowing that I was searching, and gave it to me.

Flavia de Luce is a brilliant eleven-year-old sleuth with a passion for chemistry and poisons in particular. She is as brilliant as Sherlock Holmes and as observant and down-to-earth as Miss Marple. Riding the English countryside on her beloved bicycle, Gladys, Flavia solves murders. In Weed, she is faced with two deaths but are they murders?

Set in 1950, a famous BBC puppeteer and his assistant have a vehicle breakdown in Bishop’s Lacy. Rupert Porson puts on a show in the church hall to help pay for the repairs and he is electrocuted during the second show. Who did it? Did the assistant do it? Did the vicar’s wife? What’s it to do with the other death years before?

We can rely on Flavia to find out! While dealing with her insufferable older sisters, a distant father, and a crazy tyrannical aunt come to visit, Flavia will work with the trusty Dogger to solve this mystery. Dogger is a “family retainer” with a shell-shocked past that drops gems of wisdom and mysterious information. I loved the introduction of the quirky spinster aunt, I’ve a feeling she will be around in the next books.

Watch for this book to be put out on the shelves of EVPL in March, but in meantime pick up The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie now and read it. Sweetness is available to read or to listen to on either cd or download. My advanced reader’s copy is making the rounds of the Library staff now, who knows when I will get it back…

The Music Room: A Memoir by William Fiennes

HRevvdon@evpl — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 22:16:00 GMT

The Music Room: A Memoir (2009) by William Fiennes is a memoir that is a portion of this man’s growing up with an unusual family dynamic and in an unusual environment. It is powerful, but not in the way so many growing up chronicles are; there is no abuse or substance abuse, there is a very normal family in which the eldest brother has severe epilepsy due to a brain injury.

The family lives in an ancestral medieval English estate complete with castle and moat. Although the castle is almost a character itself, it does not dominate the story because it is just home for Fiennes. He has grown up with it and so does not find it unusual. What is unusual is growing up in a family that becomes dominated by the needs and emotions of one person who is mercurial. Richard can be loving and kind, then abusive and mean, then remorseful and sad – all in the space of a few hours.

Fiennes spins the story of his growing up without strict chronological order, weaving his brother’s story with his story, his family, the staff of the castle (it is open to the public for historic tours), and his perception of his home; all of which alternates with a sequence of stories outlining the development of seizures and epilepsy research. Fiennes provides a wonderful portrait of his brother who at times is a tyrant and at times an evocative wonder and at times a total bore.

The Angel's Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

HRevvdon@evpl — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 21:31:00 GMT

Carlos Ruiz Zafon’s novels feature a very human hero and several cynical malevolent bad guys in sleazy film noir settings. They are ominous and foreboding. They are also well written and unpredictable. I finished reading The Angel’s Game (2009) last week; well actually I listened to a download from EVPL. I thought listening to it would help me follow the twists and turns, which it did. However, despite a very good reader I lost some of the pleasure of reading the writing. I enjoyed The Angel’s Game more than Zafon’s other novel, The Shadow of the Wind (2005).

David Martín, is the young hero and narrator The Angel’s Game, and is tormented soul – undereducated, orphaned, and alone in the word save one or two good men who have been his benefactors while growing up. Martin is also a tormented writer turning out a “penny dreadful” newspaper serial called “The Mysteries of Barcelona.” His success with the newspaper serial does not lead him to write a great novel, but a series of books entitled “City of the Damned.” Martin is approached by a mysterious publisher, Andreas Corelli, who entices him to write a book for him, a writing espousing a new religion; he begins to believe he has made a deal with the devil. The project Corelli has hired Martin to do involve him in all manner of deceptions and crimes, including a fair number of violent deaths.

David’s saga starts in the final days of World War I and ends with a spooky epilogue in 1945 in a dark Barcelona. The plot is an elaborate pact-with-the-devil filled with love, hate, and violence.

Charles and Emma: the Darwins' leap of faith

kiya@evpl — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 20:32:00 GMT

Yesterday was Charles Darwin's birthday, and tomorrow is Valentine's Day. That makes it the perfect time to tell you about an enchanting book called Charles and Emma: the Darwins' leap of faith by Deborah Heilingman. Heilingman opens the book with the scene of Charles Darwin, newly returned from his voyages on the HMS Beagle, trying to decide whether a scientist so devoted to his work has any business getting married. Darwin wants a wife and a family, but he knows already what some of the implications of his work will mean to those close to him. Eventually he decides in favor of a family, and finds a bride in Emma, a cousin he has known and been comfortable with his entire life. Their fondness for each other deepens into love, and they both find themselves happier than they had ever expected to be. Still, there are clouds in their life as well. Like many families of their time, some of their children die young, and the grief tears at them. Those deaths also touched on one of the other tensions of their relationship: Emma was a Christian with firm beliefs in Heaven and Hell; Charles struggled with the traditional religious view in light of what he had learned from science. Still, despite the tensions these opposing world views brought to their life, their marriage remained a partnership, with Emma remaining one of his first and best readers and critics. Heililngman brings her subjects to life, helping the reader understand the importance and impact of Darwin's work. The book is relatively short, and a quick read - I heartily recommmend it for a slightly different view of Darwin.

saving Ceecee Honeycutt

GoldensRule@evpl — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 15:34:00 GMT

Beth Hoffman's debut novel is the best thing I have read/listened too since The Help. 12 year old Cecelia Honeycutt's life goes from bleak to bodacious when she is picked up by her great aunt Tootie in her cherry red Packard and whisked away to Savanah. The year is 1967 and up to this point Ceecee had been living in Ohio with a mother whose hold on reality had slipped so far that she had become the village joke. Forever locked in the year 1951, when she was crowned the Vadalia Onion Queen, she spends her days at the local Good Will buying used prom gowns. With the demise of her mother and a father who had long since walked away from his responsibility, Great Aunt Tootie adopts her and moves her into her historic home. Surrounded by stong southern women, aging belles and a house keeper who adores her CeeCee comes into her own. At times you will cry but most of the time you will laugh out loud at some of the things that these women and Ceecee get up to. Read by Jenna Lamia it is a CD that I predict will win an audie award. Of course it is avaialble at the EVPL. I cannot recommend it enough.

Fiction with an Indiana twist

googler@evpl — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 19:49:00 GMT

I tried searching the catalog under the heading of Indiana -- fiction and found a list of fascinating titles. Here are some of the most recent:

Sleeping with Anemone, by Kate Collins, is the latest installment in a series about a young female flower-shop owner/amateur sleath in small-town Indiana. Well-crafted plots, fun characters and some fast-paced, zany action make this series popular.

Many Deaths of the Firefly Brothers, by Thomas Mullen, takes the reader back to the Depression Era, where two bank-robbing brothers find themselves in a police morgue in Indiana. The novel "tells a rip-roaring yarn that manages to be both phantasmagorical and historically accurate. In its labyrinthine, luminous narrative, reminiscent of Michael Chabon's best fiction, readers will find powerful parallels to the present-day." (LA Times)

A Cousin's Prayer by Wanda E. Brunstetter is the second installment of the Indiana Cousins series. Brunstetter is a Christian author who is fascinated by the Amish way of life and tries to portray it accurately in her gentle, heart-warming novels of love and life.

If you'd like to look for this type of book in the future, log into your account and save the search.