Good Reads

Here is a recommendation  for the New Year, " A Land More Kind Than Home," by Wiley Cash. It is a first novel, beautifully written, and recommended to me by Julie Smith, one of the book reviewers here at Tipp City Public Library that I can trust. From the back cover, " The narrative is strong, clean, direct and economical. He is very familiar with this part of rural North Carolina, its mountains, valleys, rivers, vegetation and farms. " by Ernest Gaines.
I am in the middle of "Memory of Running," by Ron McLarty. Julie has been trying to get me to read it for years now, and my to be read pile has dwindled until I finally caught up with it and I needed something light. Julie has recommended this book to many people and I have finally taken up her offer. I am not disappointed. It's a good read so far.

Ray Bradbury

I read this poem today and the 1974 introduction to Ray Bradbury's Dandelion Wine, a novel that is close to autobiographical. It looks like an interesting novel that I am just getting into. I like this poem as it is a celebration of his home town of Waukegan, Illinois. I like to read about other people's childhoods. He makes an interesting statement about how everythingis beautiful to a child, at least the child he was. Beautiful to a poet, at least.

Byzantium, I come not from,


But from another time and place

Whose race was simple, tried and true;

As boy

I dropped me forth in Illinois.

A name with neither love nor grace

Was Waukegan, there I came from

And not, good friends, Byzantium.

And yet in looking back I see

From topmost part of farthest tree

A land as bright, beloved and blue

As any Yeats found to be true.

So we grew up with mythic dead

To spoon upon midwestern bread

And spread old gods’ bright marmalade

To slake in peanut-butter shade,

Pretending there beneath our sky

That it was Aphrodite’s thigh…

While by the porch-rail calm and bold

His words pure wisdom, stare pure gold

My grandfather, a myth indeed,

Did all of Plato supersede

While Grandmama in rockingchair

Sewed up the raveled sleeve of care

Crocheted cool snowflakes rare and bright

To winter us on summer night.

And uncles, gathered with their smokes

Emitted wisdoms masked as jokes,

And aunts as wise as Delphic maids

Dispensed prophetic lemonades

To boys knelt there as acolytes

To Grecian porch on summer nights;

Then went to bed, there to repent

The evils of the innocent;

The gnat-sins sizzling in their ears

Said, through the nights and through the years

Not Illinois nor Waukegan

But blither sky and blither sun.

Though mediocre all our Fates

And Mayor not as bright as Yeats

Yet still we knew ourselves. The sun?

Byzantium.

Byzantium.

Book Discussions

At the Tipp City Library we have two book discussion groups. For the Booklovers we read a variety of books, from literary, non-fiction, to memoirs. Sometimes I will even throw in a romance, a light read, or a mystery. I have tried to eliminate reading an author more than twice, but it happens a few times. The goal of Booklovers is to introduce new types of books to our patrons to read. Many times the books on hold  will be picked up and read by the patrons who do not want to participate in the discussion. I like to see that. For Booklovers our next read is Ape House by Sara Gruen. She also wrote Water for Elephants which turned out to be very popular and was even made into a movie. Ape House is a novel about the bonobo apes that communicate with sign language and have special computer skills to show what they wish to have such as pears or special blankets for their "nests". Join our discussion on Agust 27, Monday night at 7 pm, the fourth Monday of the month.
      The Tipp City Library hosts a Mystery Lovers Book Discussion on the second Monday of the month. The next discussion will be Monday, September 10th at 7 p.m. The group will be discussing a Susan C. Shea Dani O'Rourker mystery: Murder in the Abstract. This a debut novel, with hopes for more demand for the series. Books are available at the front desk to pick up. Both of these groups are open to the public at any time, so feel free to join the discussion.
        For the Mystery Lovers group the fall selction is October 8: The Victoria Vanishes by Christopher Fowler; November 12: Body Line by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles; and December 10: The Confession by Charles Todd.
        The Booklovers group also have their schedule set for the fall. September 24: Every Secret Thing by Ann Tatlock; October 22: In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin; November 26: Where Lilacs Still Bloom by Jane Kirkpatrick. Booklovers does not meet in December.

Book Discussion 2012

Just trying to keep the Booklovers Book Discussion list up to date:

So far this year we have read:

January: The Big Burn by Timothy Egan

February: State of Wonder by Ann Patchett

March: Lost in Shangri-La by Mitchell Zuckoff

April: Zeitoun by Dave Eggers

May: The First Wife by Paula McLain

June: A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway

July: Catherine the Great by Robert K. Massie

coming up
August: The Ape House by Sara Gruen

September: Every Secret Thing by Ann Tatlock

October: In the Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson

Espionage Fiction

While this book is still fresh on my mind I'd like to make a note that this was not one of my favorite books by Alan Furst. Maybe because it was too short, or because the drama or suspense was not up to his usual standard. Everything just seemed a little too easy. Granted it was a quick read, something I like in the summer, but I have grown to expect more from Alan Furst, one of my favorite authors. Compared to the Sebastian Faulks novel, Charlotte Gray, it seemed to be missing a lot. The story is about a film star, Fredric Stahl, who comes to Paris in 1938 to make a movie. He is Vienna born as Franz Stalka, now living in Hollywood. Thinking he will enjoy Paris again, he finds he is drawn into a spy ring and isn't too sure he likes the consequences. As he finds himself being followed, he realizes the danger he is in, along with his friends. I have to go back an reread some of my favorites that he wrote, Dark Star comes to mind. Try this other review from another source. NPR rates in on this thriller.

Booklovers Book Discussion

Our next book for discussion at the Tipp City Public Library is Ape House by Sara Gruen. This is a very scientific book of fiction. Sara Gruen wanted to meet the bonobos and to communictae with the apes. She had to pass a thorough program to be admitted to the lab. In the story, Isabel Duncan is a scientist in the lab, helping to teach the apes sign language and use of a computer with symbols for items the apes want. When there is an attack on the lab, she doesn't know who to trust in getting the apes back. A fascinating look at these unique apes and the communication skills they have mastered. Discussion of this book will be Monday, August 27 at 7 pm. Books are available at the desk for discussion. Discussion questions can be located by clicking onto the title of the book in this blog.

Signs of Life: a Memoir

Signs of Life is the story of a widow who has lost her young husband to a terrible accident. Natalie Taylor's book about her year of grieving the loss of her husband when she was twenty four has captivated me. I especially like her description of the students in her English Class. Because Gatsby is so special to me, I liked hearing her voice when she is speaking about her students discussing the book. Knowing she is pregnant now without a husband, her students are more compassionate to her. It is interesting to her what her students are saying. Each step of this new life is detailed with amazing clarity. She manages to capture the reader's attention without overwhelming sentimentality. She is grasping at her new life with amazing courage, but the grieving process is always there. She has trouble at first coping with her new young son, but you know in the end it is the joy of this new life that is bringing her to her next step in this journey of life.

It has been so long since I have posted anything. I was beginning to think I couldn't read anymore, but I think it is stress related. The Classics Book Discusson group at the Tipp City Library will not be meeting anymore. There doesn't seem to be an interest, or the timing isn't good. I read Catch 22 by Joseph Heller, then Passage to India by E.M Forster. Both books were difficult to get through, but were worth the effort. Just last night I was recommending to my daughter that if she is looking for a good book to read, check out books that were made into movies. The books are  better, and usually hold up to time. Just to get back into the swing of finishing a book in a few days I checked out one of my favorite author, Cynthia Harrod-Eagles, and she didn't let me down. Body Line was an intriquing mystery, with the good characterization and suspense that I look forward to. Just finishing that book made me breathe a sign of relief. I can still read. Even if some evenings I am just too tired and all I want to do is sleep. Happy summer reading. Check out Dead Days of Summer by Carolyn Hart. It's a fast read, with glimpses of summer on the eastern coastline of the States. It is a Death on Demand mystery, with Bookstore owner, Annie Darling doing most of the sleuthing with help from her friends, This time her husband, Max is being framed for a murder and she will stop at nothing to get him off. Risking her own life, she investigates a young female's murder, knowing that her Max is innocent. An easy read.

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.

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-

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:

Daffodils

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

Rachael Herron

I read Rachael Herron's new book, Life in Stitches: Knitting My Way Through Love, Loss, and Laughter, 20 Pieces this past winter. This book is a memoir of her life as a knitter, but more importantly, it's about her life of finding herself and her work.She received her MFA in writing from Mills College, but she is more than a romance author. She has been knitting since she was five years old, and it is truly her passion. I found out from the book she supports herself with her job as a emergency dispatch operator. She has been keeping a blog since 2003. And she writes romantic fiction built around Cypress Hollow Yarn with knitting as the theme. Each book of the series features a new character. The books in the series are:

1. How to Knit a Love Song: a Cypress Hollow Yarn novel

2. How to Knit a Heart Back Home: a Cypress Hollow Yarn novel 

3.Wishes and Stitches: a Cypress Hollow Yarn novel. I enjoyed meeting Rachael in her book, and left feeling as if I had found a friend. She lives in Washington state and she is in love with Venice. The link to her blog yarnagogo is in the title of this blog.

     I have been knitting more than ever, but since my sock knitting class at the library is winding down this week, I am turning back to quilting. I want to add classes on hand-piecing for the summer. It's light weight, portable, and busy work if you are traveling. That is where I am going next in my future focus at the library.

     But first I have to think about National Poetry month, and I am trying to have a series of things going on. Susan Hoke will be teaching on Friday afternoons during April, using the book, Poetry Matters: Writing a Poem From the Inside Out by Ralph Fletcher. Those classes will be 4-5 pm on Fridays in April. Then during the week of April 23 we will be celebrating with "A Poem in Your Pocket." Poems can be picked up off the bulliten board for your own personal pleasure. Then on April 26th, A Poem in Your Pocket Day, I will be handing out poems in town. On Friday, after Susan's class, we will be hosting a Poetry Reading. Bring your poetry or your favorites and share them with a group of like-minded people. I think I'll share some of the Mayor of New York City's poetry found on NYC Poem in Your Pocket Day.

Lost in Shangri-la by Mitchell Zuckoff

Lost in Shangri-La: A True Story of Survival, Adventure, and the Most Incredible Rescue Mission of World War II  by Mitchell Zuckoff gets mixed reviews, but for me it held my interest. I was impressed by the courage of the rescuers and by the rescue plan itself, something that hadn't been tired in that type of terrain. The Booklovers Book Discussion group will be talking about this book on Monday, March 26th at 2pm and at 7 pm. You may pick up a copy at the front deak of the Tipp City Public Library if you want to join the discussion. It's an easy read, capturing your imagination immediately , and if you like historical events you will find it fascinating. The author, Mitchell Zuckoff has been awarded for his writing for the Boston-Globe. Now a professor at Boston University College of Communication, Mr. Zuckoff lives in Boston with his wife and two children. Originally I had heard the author was from Cincinnati, but maybe that was earlier in his career.

Agatha Christie Queen of Crime Sweepstakes

Acorn is hosting a Queen of Crime Sweepstakes. Win a trip to London. Follow the link in my title and enter by April 30, 2012. I have loved Agatha Christie since I was thirteen and saw the movie, And Then There Were None, followed by reading the book, Ten Little Indians, released in 1965 in the US by that name. Yes, I was thirteen in 1965, but like an elephant I can remember a lot from that time. I was a Girl Scout, I lived in Beavercreek, Ohio, and I loved to read. Ten Little Indians takes place on Indian Island. Ten people are given a written invitation to join the host for a weekend, then one by one, the guests are murdered. The movie version has the guests on a mountain that they can only access by a ski lift. I can still see someone trying to cut the cable. Try it for good escapism. So much for cozy mystery.

The Available Man by Hilma Wolitzer

.I just finished this book last night. I was taken with the characters, a widower, his two step children, his mother-in-law and all the other characters in the book. It is a slow paced novel, but the humor definitely connected with me. Edward Schuyler has been grieving the death of his wife for over three years. He is a sixty-four year old teacher, married for over 20 years to a wonderful woman that he had felt so lucky to find after 15 years of bachelorhood. His children wanted him to date, so they had set up an ad in the newspaper. Edward's dating adventures after all these year are sad and funny, and real. After reading this book I'm sure you will want to look for some of her others, I certainly did. She has written: Hearts; Summer Reading; and The Doctor's Daughter to name a few. Here is her biography from Barnes and Nobel. Her writing reminded me of Elinor Lipman who writes domestic fiction also. Lucky for us more of Elinor Lipman's books can be found at the Tipp City Public Library. Try The Pursuit of Alice Thrift for a fun novel.

Accelerated Degree host Blog Award

I have been nominated for the distinction of Most Fascinating Blog of 2012 in the category of Librarian Blog.
Here is the letter I received.

Hi there, It's finally here - voting starts today! The voting will continue to March 6 at 11:59 P.M (EST). The site with the most votes will win the grand prize, a $200 restaurant gift card as well as permission to display the prestigious "Winner" emblem on their website! All blogs listed on the ballot are randomized every time the poll is accessed to ensure the fairness and integrity of the results. All votes are 100% anonymous and secure through the use of a 128 bit SSL connection. The ballot contains a list of 100 nominees which have been chosen by our editorial staff and were selected from a pool of over 2,300 submissions. Click here to view the voting page. Share this link in a blog post and on your facebook/twitter to maximize your votes. Good luck and thank you for your participation! Matthew Pelletier Director of Public Relations Accelerated Degree Programs

The Healing by Jonathan Odell

This powerful novel begins in the 1933 when a woman's dead body and her small child, Violet, who was around seven years old show up at Gran Gran's home. A white man brought them to Gran Gran, an older woman who was once the healer on the slave plantation, and who knew the mysteries of root magic and birthing. Gran Gran is unsure what to do with this mute child who is traumatized by the death and disappearance of her mother. Gran Gran begins to dose her with sleeping remedies, and slowly the girl is not shaking, and twitching, and is beginning to be drawn to Gran Gran, following her around in the small home. The child finds clay masks hanging in a back room, and seems confused. Gran Gran explains about the clay masks that she had made many years ago to remember that people who once lived on the slave plantation with her. She relates her story to Violet, of how she had been brought up in the master's mansion when the master's daughter dies of fever. She is dressed up in the dead daughter's dresses on Sunday to soothe the master's wife who is dealing with her grief. When the master suddenly brings home an expensive slave woman, Polly Shine, to heal the sick slaves, Polly decides that she needs to help this young girl, called Granada, remember her people and teach her how to heal them. The book is full of slave stories that go back generations, and it is Polly who helps the people remember that the master doesn't own their freedom, and they must remember that it is God who created the world, not the master. This powerful mystery that Granada is just learning about, heals Granada herself and gives her the vision that had been lost to her. And it is these stories that are also used to heal Violet, who remembers her own story. This is an excellent story that could begin a dialog about race and personal power.

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close

I read this book over the winter, but I didn't know there was a movie coming out. Often I read the book and listen to the audio book. The audio version had various narrators to give voice to the mother, the child and the grandmother. The questions that kept coming up in my mind, the parts that didn't make sense, many of them were resolved at the end of the book. The boy, Oskar Schell, has lost his father during the attack on the Twin Towers in New York City on 9/11/2001. He lives with his mother, and his grandmother lives in an apartment across the street. he is very close to his grandmother, in fact he would stay with her when he was younger and his parents were at work. Now he is about nine, can go home by himself, but still he will call his grandmother and ask if she is okay. He is not coping with the death of his father very well. He is tormented by the phone calls that his father made to the apartment during the attack, but he cannot bring himself to talk to his mother about those calls. His father kept saying, please pick up, we may be going to the roof to be rescued, but he never said goodbye, or I love you, and this is something that Oskar wants to keep to himself. He is going through his father's things and finds a vase, with a key inside. He decides that this key must be important, he must find the lock it belongs to, and thus the story begins; he is meeting many people in New York City as he tries to solve the mystery his father has left for him. There are flashbacks into the grandmother's life, her childhood in Germany, the death of her family in the bombing during the war. Little by little we find out the deep secrets of her marriage, her husband, and why Oskar's father was raised by his mother alone. The story has twists that make it interesting, things the child doesn't know, but his mother does, and his grandmother cannot tell him. Those little revelations make up the book, and how all of us have to deal with grief in our own way and find our own answers. I look forward to the movie, but I know beforehand that some characters were mixed together, and that in itself makes it seem weird. My first reading of anything by Jonathan Safran Foer, a young writer.

World Book Night

The Tipp City Library supports World Book Night, April 23, 2012. I will be handing out books to new readers to encourage reading. I have chosen the title from a list of free books. I am going to chose a place to hand books out so that I can reach people who don't normally come to the library. In addition to World Book Night, April 23 is Tipp City Library's Big Read Book Discussion night at 7 pm. The Big Read for Dayton this year is Zeitoun by Dave Eggers, a true story of a Muslim man caught up in the drama of Katrina. This also coincides with the anniversary of the Flood in Dayton. Some Big Read events will be on the Dayton flood. The Miami Conservancy has on online display of pictures of the flood in the area. I was surprised to note that when they had to build the dams in Dayton, two town were moved, Fairfield and Osborne, thus Fairborn was created. Allan W. Eckert's book, A Time of Terror: The Great Dayton Flood, 1965 tells first-hand accounts of that time.

Pauline Persing has been teaching art to young people for many years. She has provided at display at the library for the month of February. She posted information about the art and the techniques she is teaching on her blog. http://www.paulinepersing.blogspot.com/ Click on to see the display at the library.

I have been nominated for the 2012 Most Fascinating Blog of the year under the category Librarian Blogger for my post on the Classics Book Discussion on The Great Gatsby. Maybe my love of the novel came through on my blog. It has been a wonderful year reading the classics and discussiong them with library patrons. We have announced the books for the next four months:

For March 5th at 7 pm and March 15th at 1 pm: Middlemarch by George Eliot, 1871
For April 2nd at 7 pm and April 12th ar 1 pm: The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka, 1915
For May 7th at 7 pm and May 10 at 1 pm: Catch 22 by Joseph Heller, 1961
For June 4th at 7 pm and June 14 at 1 pm: A Passage to India by E. M Forster, 1924
I hope to draw more people in by offering the discussion at two different times.
Let me know what you think about reading these books. and vote for my blog.

Announcing Poetry Appreciation Class for April 2012

Interested in poetry? Want to learn more? Tipp City Library is hosting a poetry class on Fridays in April of 2012 from 4-5 pm. Hosted by Susan Hoke, teacher and poetry writer; she will be using the book Poetry matters : writing a poem from the inside out / Ralph Fletcher. This is a very basic book. She will be introducing terms and styles of poetry. Registration is requested, drop-ins will be acceptable. We will order the books for the participants and make them available for check out. The title of the 5 week class, running from April 6th through May 4th is "April is the Coolest Month for Poetry." Once you have some of the basics down more help on poetry can be found in Stephen Fry's book, The Ode Less Travelled: Unlocking the Poet Within. Funny thing happened to me last night. I was searching through the magazine donation box, and a man reading poetry in the rocking chair by the window asked me to recommend a poem. The first that came to mind was, "When Your Father Dies" by Diana Der-Hovanessian.  This was shared by my brother when my father died, and I love it. Of course I couldn't put my hand on it that moment. He had a big book of poems and wanted me to recommmend a poem in the book, so I found a poem by W. H. Auden , " In Memory of W. B. Yeats." It was a beautiful moment, a man sharing his love of poetry with me on the day Susan had offered to teach an appreciation of poetry class. Check out this website about Ohio Writers: http://www.wiredforbooks.org/

AncestryPlus

Just checking out some of the databases that the OPLIN libraries provide for the libraries in the state of Ohio and I just noticed that they added Ancestry, in-library version.  At the library on Feb 25 I am going to present a demonstration of AncestryPlus. It will be a computer hands-on computer class so sign-up is limited. Log in is available in the library only. Check it out, you never know what you will find.

Humor for the New Year

I have been reading so many humorous books that I have lost track. My first was "If It Was Easy, They'd Call the Whole Damn Thing a Honeymoon" by Jenna McCarthy. This was my introduction to Jenna McCarthy,  She is an author who writes for magazines. On the Self magazine website I found a listing of articles that she wrote on how to keep your relationship sexy. Her book was all about the "men are from Mars" take, how annoying he can be, and she gathered lots of quotes from women with titles that said,"at least I'm not married to him." I loved reading all the little stories of their relationship and how she adapts to his style, and how patience he is with her idiosyncrasies, especially since she is writing about their relationship. And I can understand that many of the stories were probably exaggerated but, there had to be some tiny element of truth. I found the book hillarious.

Getting ready for the New Year

I am looking to the New Year here at the Tipp City Public Library. Our staff of two adult service librarians, Carolyn Rector and Sue Hofer are trying their best to bring new programs to the Tipp City Library. Sue Hofer offers a Mystery Book Discussion on the second Monday evening of the month at 7 pm. For January their first meeting will be on January 9th. The book under discussion will be A Grave Denied by Dana Stabenow. This novel is from the series on Kate Shugak, an Aleut who live  on a National Park in Alaska. Beginning with the novel, A Cold Day for Murder, the series now has eighteen novels in the series, with number nineteen, Restless in the Grave coming out in February 2012. If you are interested in joining the discussion pick up the book at the front desk of the library. Carolyn Rector will lead the discussion of Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, in the Classic Book Discussion group that meets on the second Thursday, January 12th of the month at 1 pm. Moving away from the Big Read novels of the National Endowment of the Arts, discussion will be about Pip and Estelle and Miss Havisham. Largely autobiographical, this is one of Charles Dickens most famous novels. Discussion questions can be found on Lit Lovers: a Well-Read Online Community.  Most of us have read this novel in school, or at least an abridged version, but what will this coming-of-age- story hold for the more mature reader. Continuing with our book discussion groups, Carolyn also hosts the Book Lovers Discussion on the fourth Monday night, January 23rd at 7 pm. This month we are reading The Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt and the Fire that Saved America by Timothy Egan. Jon Foro wrote for Amazon.com, "It's another incredible--and incredibly compelling--feat of historical journalism." This book tells about the 1910 fire that consumed acres of National Park land in three different states and made a compelling case in Congress to support the small ineffective Forest Service. Copies of this book should be arriving in the library this week for patrons to pick up for the discussion group. Copies of the discussion questions can be found on Lit Lovers.com. My review of  The Big Burn can be found in the archives of this web site. It was a very interesting account of a time in American history that I knew little about, even though I had been a fan of Teddy Roosevelt when I was younger. Join one of our discussions at the Tipp City Library this coming New Year and I hope you find the experience worthwhile. 

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

I took the long weekend to read this book for Book Club. I have seen the movie, I was definitly motivated, but for some reason everytime I took this book home I couldn't start it. I think it was the dialect. So, I bought my copy from Amazon and kept it til I was ready to read it. Sunday was jam day and that's want I did, all day, and into Monday morning. It is an excellent book, everyone knows that by now. Kathryn's voice was so true. All of her characters are fully developed, showing their good side as well as the difficult parts of their personalities. A native daughter of Mississippi, the author used stories from home, stories from the help that lived with her family, and stories from her Grandaddy. Demetrie was the name of the domestic help that came into the family life when her dad was a boy, who brought the babies home from the hospital, and cared for them for many years. She told stories to the children and told Miss Kathryn that, "she was beautiful," even if she wasn't, just like Abileen tells dear poor little Mae Mobley, That part of the story really toched me, I want to be the fairy godmother who whispers into my grandchildren's ear as they fall off the sleep, "you is kind, you is smart, you is wonderful." As I read this book, I became more aware how very dangerous life in Mississippi was during the turbulent years of the Civil Rights movement. The author mentions in in an interview on a website that, "Skeeter was the hardest to write because she was constantly stepping across that line I was taught not to cross. Growing up, there was a hard and firm rule that you did not discuss issues of color. You changed the subject if someone brought it up, and you changed the channel when it was on television." At the end of the book the author tells someone in New York that, My hometown is number three in the nation for gang-related murders." Because that surprised me I had to google Jackson, Mississippi gang-related murder and found this story from August 2011. This disturbs me, but we are living in a hate filled society, and the race issues are as prevelant as ever. Another thing that was brought out in our discussion was the amount of attention that a white women receives for writing the black views of the domestic help, when clearly books have been written form the black point of view and have received less attention. From the back of the book, Telling Memories of Southern Women by Susan Tucker is mentioned by the author. Interviews with forty women from both races are recored in this book published by  Louisiana State University Press in 2002. I remember a book by Dori Saunders, Clover, that shares her farming life stories from South  Carolina. Maybe other readers can suggest books that have been written by African American authors on this subject.

Intimidated by Pie Crust? or Just Love Pie

I am writing to promote a Pie Crust Program for this Thursday at the library at 1 pm. Lois Anderson and I are going to demonstrtae 2 easy pie crust recipes, and we will bring fresh home baked pie for you to sample after the demonstration. This is for the "intimidated by pie crust folks", or for the folks who just love pie. Tell me you don't need a break this week. I hope to see some friends out there. Registration is requested so we have enough pie! Even Anthony is going to get into the pie making mode if we have a lot of people sign up.http://www.tippcitylibrary.org/

ah, the Kindle question

So much is about ebooks. I was noticing that certain patrons weren't showing up in the the library, and then they told me they had received a Nook, Kindle, or a ebook reader for Christmas, anniversary, or just because. Even my daughter told me after I gifted her with a beaded bookmark, "I don't read books any more, Mom, I have  a Nook. But, I'll put it in the Bible you gave me." She went on to tell me that me that she loved her Nook, to take on trips, instead of three or so books. She liked to read in bed, it was light weight, and  the size of the font could be changed. Of course we had the patrons who needed help with their ebook reader, we learned about them when they came into the library for tips on downloading. And they also asked, can I download a library ebook onto my new Kindle? Well, Amazon caught on pretty fast and yes, you can now download a ebook from the library catalog onto your Kindle. The procedure will take you back to  your Amazon account where you will log on the complete the download. If you buy your Kindle at Staples or the like, you will need to create an Amazon account. Just this morning on the blog, Everyday I Write the Book, Gayle Weiswasser wrote about receiving a Kindle and those were the typical comments I hear from many of the book lovers that I meet every day. I suggested a Kindle to an elderly man with a handicap that he would be the perfect candidate for a Kindle, because of the weight of the books he liked to read, but also because of his eyesight was going bad, and some of those books he likes to read don't come in Large Print. I hear from a Random House representative that they may be printing less Large Print in the future, because the Baby Boomers will most likely have the ebook readers. Do you want to weight in on this? What format do you use to read your books or newspapers with? Personally, I always have a book on audio in my car, and then a different book for my night reading. Some audio book readers are better than others and then I like to browse the library catalog for performer to find them and listen to that actor read. Now if I could only convince my husband to read to me at night, I'd be covered. Must be reverting back to my childhood, it was my Dad who read to us at night. I was blessed with parents who loved books, and they passed that on to their children, with reading to us, buying lots of books for us, and then discussing their favorites with us as we became adults. Wherever you find your books, I hope you are sharing your enjoyment of them with the next generation.

A Highland Christmas by M.C Beaton is a cozy mystery that is part of the Hamish Macbeth series. It is the first I've read of the series, and I was surprised by how enjoyable it was. It is the perfect Christmas cozy, as there is no murder, just a few mysteries to be solved by the local police. My introduction to Hamish finds him a caring copper, interested in people, what makes them tick, and what is really worrying them. There is a little history here of the Scottish traditions at Christmas. Who knew that there is this Calvinist influence up in the Highland so that people don't want to put out Christmas lights and celebrate the pagan aspects of Christmas, not me? This introduction to Hamish has encouraged me to try more of this delightful character. Okay, I know I'm a late convert to M.C. Beaton's charms, but better late than never. Similar to when I discovered Cynthia Harrod-Eagles, I had to read every Bill Slider mystery there was, and since she was still writing I had more to look forward to.I'm in the middle of a Bill Slider mystery right now, and it feels good to come home to a familiar character with all the charm of an English city including the fish and chips.Fell Purpose finds Inspector Bill Slider trying to understand his victim, beautiful Zellah Wilding, a young teenage strangled at the end of the woods. Who were her friends, and what was an intelligent and talented young girl doing out so late in defiance of her strict father? Zellah had a holiday and told  her parents she would be staying with her girl friends for the weekend. Her parents couldn't agree, father wants her home and protected and her mother wants her to meet young friends in rich neighborhoods and make the right connections. How could they have made such a terrible mistake? Join Bill Slider and his crew of detective in this London police procedural mystery series compared to Ian Rankin and John Harvey.

A Sip and a Sneak preview

I am trying to start another interest group at the Tipp City Public Library. A morning coffee group on every Friday at ten thirty am, to listen to the adult service staff present the new books that the library is just adding to their collection. Today we had a very interested group who enjoyed the donuts and the discussion of the reading interests. Patrons had a chance to look over the new books before they were sent off to other libraries in our consortium for patrons who have already put holds on the items. Now Tipp Library patrons can see the books before they go out. Patrons have a chance to post their name onto the book, I place the hold and then I check the books in. If a book belongs to the Tipp City Library, it will go to a Tipp City Library patron first. Here is the list of a few new presented books of non-fiction:
Better Angels of Our Natures: Why Violence Has Declined by Stephen Pinker, a study on the history of violence that purposes that we are not as violent as our predecessors.
Trust Me, I'm Dr. Ozzy: Advise From Rock's Ultimate Survivor by Ozzy Osbourne, a memoir with humor from the rock star who has a history of drug abuse and multiple near-death experiences.
A Thousand Lives: the Untold Story of Hope, Deception, and Survival by Julia Scheeres, gets a starred review . It is the story of the ill-fated Jonestown. Julia Scheeres is the author of the memoir, Jesus Land.
Viral Storm: The Dawn of a New Pandemic Age by microbiologist Nathan Wolfe. He has researched the global medical issues that ultimately have an effect on all of us.

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

This was our first book for our new Classics Books Discussion group at the Library. Meeting on Thursdays, once a month at 1 pm, we are choosing the books from the Big Read sponsored by The National Endowment of the Arts. We had a small group for our first discussion, but there is promise there, as people have shown an interest. We talked most about our own insecurities, our competition with others, and the American dream of acquiring wealth and what it means. All the characters in the novel were flawed in their own way. We find out that Gatsby is driven to New York to acquire his dream girl, Mrs. Daisy Buchanan, married to Tom Buchanan. After going off to the first World War, when he comes back to Louisiana, he finds that Daisy and her husband are on their honeymoon. He has to win her back by acquiring wealth and social status. He buys or rents the house across the Long Island Sound, to stare at the green light at the end of the dock at the Buchanan home. We discussed whether Jay Gatsby would ever really fit into Daisy's world. Just as Myrtle would never really stay with Tom, or that he would even take her permanently. Nick decided that the Buchanans are just careless, running away to avoid the truth if it embarrassed them. Conspiring together over the kitchen table, Nick notices the intimate world they live in that Gatsby will never be able to separate them. Gatsby is stunned. He is so sure that Daisy will call, he is still not realistic at the end. Written by F. Scott Fitzgerald when he is just 29 years old, it seems so sad that the prominence this novel has achieved could not have been realized while he was still alive. Much of Nick is Fitzgerald, always the boy looking on, from early school to his Princeton years, he was socialising with the wealthy, but never quite meeting the mark. His whole dissolution with the wealthy types is portrayed in this novel extremely well. I think is is as great as everyone says, and his writing is poetry, and it is the type of novel I love to savor and revisit. Our next novel for November 17th will be The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton, about the restrictions on the classes during the Gilded Age in New York.

Paiula McLain's Novel about the Ernest Hemingways in Paris in the early 1920's

I think this has been my favorite novel of 2011. Paula McLain does an excellent job of telling the love story between Ernest Hemingway and his first wife, Hadley Richardson. Even though she was seven years older than Ernest she was naive in many ways, and totally unprepared for the fast life in Paris in the 20's. Too much booze and too many egos clashing for attention. I like finding out that they meet up with the Fitzgeralds in Paris and follow them to a vacation spot. I had read Ernest Hemingway's "A Moveable Feast", published after his death, and sometimes referred to as a love letter to his first wife, or is it a tribute to his first wife. In my opinion, he was crazy to let her go, but that's what young men do, fall in love or lust so often and wreck their marriages. She was able to have success with her second husband and live a long life. "In 1933 Hadley married a second time, to journalist Paul Mowrer, whom she met in Paris." 
I am glad about that, I think she was a real trooper. Especially they way she adapted herself to so much of Hemingway's life style, so different than anything she could imagine on her own. I love the description of her skiing in Switzerland. Beautiful novel.

Reading another cozy mystery

 M. C. Beaton has been writing mysteries for a long time. She is Marion Chesney of the Cotswolds in England who writes romances under her own name. Born in 1936 in Scotland as Marion McChesney, she has more than one pseudonym. Before the Agatha Raison series she wrote the Hamish Macbeth mystery series that she started in 1985 with Death of a Gossip. I decided to start with the first of her Agatha Raisin series, Agatha Raisin and the Quiche of Death, written in 1992. Agatha Raisin is a divorced woman in her 50's about to retire from her London job who has always dreamed of living in a cottage in the Cotswolds. As she places herself in the perfect cottage, she immediately feels the coldness of her fellow neighbors. She decides to enter a cooking contest only to end up the suspect of a murder investigation, as the judge of the contest took her quiche home and ended up dying of poison. How could everything end up this badly. Because she is a woman of action, Agatha Raisin starts her own investigation of the murder. Murder with a little fun thrown together in a small village creates the perfect cozy mystery. If you haven't found these yet, you are in for a real treat because she has written 22 mysteries so far with a wide audience appeal. One appeal is that the reader knows that the mystery will be solved at the end of the book, and the main character may go through some dangerous and suspenseful events, she will be alive at the end. Not all mysteries can say that.  

A Victorian Mystery Series

The Inspector and Mrs. Jeffries by Emily Brightwell is another one of those cozy mysteries that are popular with people who don't want too much real life and violence. There is a slower pace to the story, a little bit more character development, and more detail to give the readers a better sense of the place and the time. These mysteries are set in Victorian England, mostly at the home of the Inspector, and his sympathetic employees. They all want him to succeed in his investigations that they are willing to "help" him out. The main character, Mrs. Jeffries, is a widow housekeeper who was married to a police investigator. She is above intelligence, known to sit and have a quiet cuppa tea with her employer and let him open up about his case. He likes her to sit with him while he has his dinner and they have a good chat as she is an excellent listener. This leads to her gathering the help of the rest of the staff as they unknowingly get involved with the investigation at hand. A good first to a series that has been going strong since 1993 with 30 separate mysteries to date.

The Beginning of a New Book Discussion Group

This Thursday, September 15 at 1 p.m. I will be having a meeting of people who are interested in starting a Classics Book Discussion Group at the Tipp City Public Library. I am following the National Endowment of the Arts book selections for the first three books:
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald: October 13th , 1 p.m.
The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton : November 17th, 1 p.m.
The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan: December 15th, 1 p.m.
After these three the group could start selecting their own favorite classics to discuss. Get on board for the beginning of this great new discussion group and you can help create this group the way you would like it to be. If you are not sure check out this link on why being in a book group is interesting.

Cutting for Stone

Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese was written in 2009, his first novel. It is a saga, a family story full of mystery and hidden symbolism. Twin boys are born in Addis Ababa, at the mission hospital of the Catholic Matron, called Missing Hospital due to the incorrect pronunciation of the title Mission. It is a small place, with a few doctors and a few nurses, trying to offer the people of Addis Ababa, capital city of Ethiopia, what little nursing and doctor's care that can. The story begins in 1947 as Sister Mary Joseph Praise leaves her village in India with another nurse, Sister Anjali, nuns of the Carmelite Order of Madras who had taken the nursing courses at the Government General Hospital in Madras. On her voyage she loses her best friend to typhus and meets Thomas Stone, surgeon at Missing Hospital. She follows him there to do the Lord's work and stays for seven years. The mystery of Sister Mary Joseph Praise and her life story is slowly uncovered, and the story is told by one of the twin boys, Marion. The novel is written skillfully, dramatically, with much information about surgery and historical aspects of Ethiopia. Woven into the story of Missing Hospital are tales of a family's love for these twin brothers, and love and service to the hospital and it's mission. Told by an surgeon who is now living in California and teaching at Standford University School of Medicine, this book is an excellent example of American literature written gracefully by a citizen with a foreign background that makes this book all the more beautiful and rich.

An Amazon Adventure Story

I read State of Wonder by Ann Patchett this summer. I found it a great book that would be very interesting for discussion. Two research doctors are researching statins for control of cholesterol at a lab in Minnesota. One is sent to the Amazon to check up on the research of their colleague and primary research partner, Dr. Annick Swenson. When Marina Singh receives word that her partner, Anders Eckman, has died in the Amazon, her boss sends her to find out the details. The elusive primary research partner, Dr. Annick Swenson has been keeping a low profile and basically keeping the whole research team in the dark. Marina is ill equipped to deal with the strange world of Dr. Swenson and the way she runs her team. Frustrated and grief stricken she tries her best to find out the true story. Fascinating and full of details, we travel along with Marina and discover the mysteries of the Amazon. An adventure story of the first rate, I would recommend this to the reader who likes lots of detail in his books, especially of the scientific kind. Check the review by New York Times for more detail.

Cutting for Stone

I have been on vacation and have been reading the September book for the book discussion group and already I am so glad that it was recommended and that we chose it. Next Monday, the 29th at 7 pm we will be discussing the book, Major Pettigrew's Last Stand. I have written about that book earlier in my blog. I found it pure enjoyment. The humor was very British, and I believe that the author was poking fun at the British culture that is or always has been prejudice against the foreigners that live in Britain. It has been a long culture of discrimination, from the Jews back in the 1500's or earlier when the empire threw out all the Jews, and then when the immigrants from the Empire were coming into England, people were uppity. I don't know the whole picture as I haven't lived there, but I have watched enough British comedy that I have picked up on the prejudice. Think of South Africa, that was the worst, but it was the British and Germans who set the stage. This book is not a serious commendation on British prejudice. But it is a human book, and the reaction of the town people to the shop owners usually exposes the class distinction, but when the shop owner is Pakistani, there is the double prejudice, irregardless if people are born in this country or not. Is this that different in America? Do we believe that we are above personal prejudice? Come for an interesting discussion. The books are available at the front desk. Next month's book Cutting for Stone will be available after next Monday. It has everything in it. A saga of the birth of twin brothers in Ethiopia, orphaned at birth by an Indian mother who dies in childbirth with an unknown or abandoned disappearing father. They are raised by two Indian surgeons in Mission Hospital, run by the Matron and priest. The author, Abraham Verghese, is a surgeon with an Indian background. He lives in California and has written My Own Country and The Tennis Player. He is a gifted author Abraham Verghese's first novel, Cutting for Stone, remains #1 on the Independent Booksellers' paperback fiction bestseller list

Summer Reading Raffle

Titles include:




Before I Go to Sleep by S.J. Watson

Cowboys and Aliens by Scott Mitchell Rosenberg

Folly Beach by Dorothea Benton Frank

The Griff by Christopher Moore

The Lantern by Deborah Lawrenson

The Legacy by Katherine Webb

The Sixes by Kate White



I am on vacation for a couple of day to read.

After Harry Potter

I have to admit I haven't seen the Harry Potter movies, although I have been told they are fun. I read the first four Harry Potter novels while attending graduate school, and I have to admit to listening to Jim Dale and his fantastic job of storytelling. Hey, I was going to graduate school, when did I have time to read for fun except in the car driving back and forth to Cincinnati and Columbus. Harry Potter kept me company. And I always like the point of the story where I was hooked and the drama picked up and I couldn't wait for the next part of the story. I read Little Witch by Anna Elizabeth Bennett in grade school, so as I child I can remember the fun witch story about a little girl whose mother turned her friends into flowers in pots. Children Like magic and imagination. I came across this article on NPR and just had to share it. What comes next for the Harry Potter readers who are ready for more grown up books? Check out the recommendations of Intern Annie Ropeik. 
The Magicians by Lev Grossman
The Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
The Secret history by Donna Tartt

Tracy Chevalier

Remarkable Creatures is the latest book by Tracy Chevalier. Known for her historial fiction, with good characterization, she takes the story of two women at the beginning of the 19th century and weaves their story together in believable sequences. Mary Anning was a resident of Lyme Regis, a costal town on the shore of the English Channel in West Dorset, England. Her special gift was her abilty to invision the hidden parts of fossils on the costal cliffs. She is known for her discovery of the first complete pterodactyl in Great Britian. The name is now changed to a pterosaur. She was a villager, with a poor background, and her family would collect the "curies", a name given to the fossils which stood for curiosities as people then called them. The story is about her friendship with Elizabeth Philpot, a collector of fossils, a woman of a grander education and also a few years her senior. Both women lived in the Lyme Regis area, but this book is a work of fiction. Our Adult Book Discussion group at the the Tipp City Library will be diiscussing this book on Monday, June 27 at 7 pm. Feel free to join the discussion if you have read the book.  Lyme Regis today

Germany Under Hitler

Erik Larson is a great storyteller. His novel, The Devil in the White City tells an interesting tale of murder during the World’s Fair in Chicago in 1893. Not only are we treated to a detective story, but also a history lesson in what Chicago did to create their vision of a “White City” for the World’s Fair, trying hard to one-up the Eiffel Tower of the World’s Fair in Paris, 1889. His latest book, In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler’s Berlin takes the reader into the home of the American Ambassador called to Berlin by Franklin D. Roosevelt, Professor William E. Dodd. Dodd took his role seriously; he really believed he could influence the Germans away from their own destiny. He brought to Berlin his wife, daughter and son. Much of the story tells of the escapades of his daughter, Martha, a soon to be divorcée, who charmed many of the men she met in Berlin, including a Russian diplomat, Boris Winogradov. Naïve Martha didn’t curb her own eccentric tastes when she spent the years in Berlin bringing all sorts of interesting types to the home of the ambassador. At one point she was almost recruited to spy for Russia through her association with Boris. Dodd was ineffectual at collecting debts from the Germans, or curbing their interest in eliminating the Jews. He tried to influence the Germans when their police made attacks on Americans for not giving the Heil Hitler salute, but even that was difficult. He was eventually called back to America by December 1937, after Roosevelt was pressured to replace him. An interesting chapter in American history of a man with principles, willing to see Germany for the real threat that she was to world peace.

Ape House by Sara Gruen

The Ape House by Sara Gruen surprised me with information about animals kept in captivity for various human purposes. Bonobos in the story are kept in an enclosed but, freedom-enriching environment that is being used to study the effects of language between humans and the apes. Sign language has been taught to great apes since 1977, beginning with the famous gorilla, Koko. Similar to using sign language with human infants, the sign language helps to lessen stress as the animals can communicate their needs with their captors. Computers are instrumental helping the communication with the bonobos in the language lab. The writer, Sara Gruen, spent time with the real life language competent bonobos at the Great Ape Trust, earning her way in by studying linguistics. Sara was able to represent them accurately for her novel by studying the apes and interacting with them. This novel weaves reality and fiction, creating a suspenseful tale with strong characters and a compelling storyline.   

The Big Burn

Timothy Egan won the National Book Award for The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl written in 2005. His nonfiction narratives are interesting and they bring the history of our American heritage up front and close. Egan's 2009 nonfiction story, The Big Burn,  is about how Gifford Pinchot was first appointed 'confidential forest agent; a spy with a green eye' by President McKinley. Originally, just prior to leaving office, President Cleveland had used an act passed 1891 to put aside over  twenty-one million acres of forest reserves on February 22, 1897. However, President McKinley suspended Cleveland's order, and it was not until Teddy Roosevelt became President, after McKinley was assassinated, that Pinchot was given the power to create the Forest Service and hire forest rangers to man the National Parks. Initially, Congress gave little support, but it was the largest forest fire in American history that hit the Bitterroots Mountains of Montana and Idaho in 1910, that  created the need for an actual working Forest Service. Read this story to understand the personalities of the men and women who were active players, in this precious time in American History, in creating the National Parks. It is these parks that many Americans now take for granted, with some even proposing that they be converted back to private ownership. This story made me realize the frustrating work and the resolve required of these early forest rangers to make their dreams come true. This is a fascinating story, told well by a great writer of Natural History, that mixes the human interest story with the natural setting.