Set sail for murder

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Eowyn Ivey's debut novel is on our "staff picks" list. Julie Smith just finished it and wanted to recommend it to the other staff members. She said that it is beautifully written. The story takes place in the 1900's in Alaska. It depicts the harsh reality of homesteading in the Alaskan wilderness. The story is based on a fairy tale so there is a magical quality to the story. Eowyn Ivey gives credit to several books in the acknowlegements for the influence on her writing, "The Snow Child as retold by Freya Littledale and illustrated by Barbara Lavallee; Russian Lacquer; Legends and Fairy Tales by Lucy Maxym, in particular the story of 'Snegurochka'; amd 'Little Daughter of the Snow' from Arthur Ransome's Old Peter's Tales." I have heard more than one person recommend this book so I am putting it on my To Be Read pile. Check our catalog to request a copy.

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

The Importance of Kafka

This week the Classics Book Discussions is going to take under consideration, "Metamorphosis" by Franz Kafka. Born in Czechoslovakia, he studied German, finally finding his voice in writing at the age of 32. This short story is the tale of a traveling salesman who discovered upon waking, he has morphed into a giant cockroach. He is unable to speak and communicate with his family; they all assume he cannot understand them either. At first they have sympathy for him and his plight, but as the story progresses, they take a considerate amount of their frustration out on him, to the point of attacking and starving him to death. It was not the nightmare that I expected, but just the natural human tendency to take care of themselves at any cost and to blame all of their troubles on him. We are the reader, sympathetic to his arrangement, being locked in his room, with food thrown onto newspapers. Before long all the belongings in the household are being tossed into his room to make room for boarders the family is forced to take in to make ends meet. Since he had been the major breadwinner in the family, soon everyone is working and exhausted, and too busy to really care for him. Kafka is remembered for his addition to the literature of the world as someone who changed literature, having a great influence on the literature of his time. He died at the age of 41 probably of  tuberculosis. Here is a quote of his that shows him to be a sensitive man, in his 20’s:

"We are as forlorn as children lost in the wood. When you stand in front of me and look at me, what do you know of the grief's that are in me and what do I know of yours. And if I were to cast myself down before you and tell you, what more would you know about me that you know about Hell when someone tells you it is hot and dreadful? For that reason alone we human beings ought to stand before one another as reverently, as reflectively, as lovingly, as we would before the entrance to Hell."Franz Kafka written at 20 years of age-

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Reading for the Month

This month is National Poetry Month, and I am going to read more poetry. I'm lucky I work in the library beacause I can browse the shelves and find interesting poetry books, and books about poetry. I have the "Complete Works" by Shaklespeare at home right now and I am going through the sonnets. I need to read commentaries about his sonnets, the first ones seem to address Queen Elizabeth, who died without having children. Sonnet I "From fairest creatures we desire increase, That thereby beauty's rose might never die." I am also reading right now a memoir, "Signs of Life: Finding the Best in Yourself During the Worst Life Has to Offer a Memoir" by Natalie Taylor. Mrs. Taylor lost her husband ina terrible accident during her fourth month of pregnancy. She isn't afraid to share her most intimate thoughts, her fears and her feelings about the future. She teaches English in Royal Oak, Michigan.
     I like to read books that deal with the weather, or time of year when I am reading them. One book I have at home is "The Crossing Places" by Elly Griffiths. The library owns a book in the series, "The House at Sea's End ". I thought I'd start the first in the series, but it starts in the raw of winter and I think I'll save it for next winter if it snows maybe. Another winter book I am saving is, "An English Murder" by Cyril Hare. I have read the first 30 pages and it promises to be a good read for a cozy, wrapped up in quilts in front of the fireplace kind of day. Cyril Hare was born in 1900, and his books are a treat.
    I think I'll share a appropriate poem for the season:



I wandered lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o'er vales and hills,

When all at once I saw a crowd,

A host, of golden daffodils;

Beside the lake, beneath the trees,

Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.



Continuous as the stars that shine

And twinkle on the milky way,

They stretched in never-ending line

Along the margin of a bay:

Ten thousand saw I at a glance,

Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.



The waves beside them danced; but they

Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:

A poet could not but be gay,

In such a jocund company:

I gazed--and gazed--but little thought

What wealth the show to me had brought:



For oft, when on my couch I lie

In vacant or in pensive mood,

They flash upon that inward eye

Which is the bliss of solitude;

And then my heart with pleasure fills,

And dances with the daffodils.

William Wordsworth