I now pronounce you husband and wife...and wife...and wife...and wife

I can say with a lot of certainty that until a few weeks ago, I knew nothing about the polygamist lifestyle beyond the salacious details reported with arrests of characters such as Warren Jeffs.  I have enough trouble managing my own small family of four that I can't comprehend the complexities involved with dozens of children and multiple spouses (my mind recoils at the idea of trying to make a meal that would please everyone...).  My library basket was so full that I couldn't handle another book, let alone another spouse.  But, I'd read such good reviews of The Lonely Polygamist by Brady Udall that I decided that if the main character could handle another wife, I could handle another book.

This book was so comprehensive, multi-faceted, and multi-layered in its treatment of a polygamist family that I made the reader's attribution error: It was so engrossing that began to wonder if Udall had a history of ties to a polygamist sect himself (turns out his great-great-grandfather was, in fact, polygamist, and Udall is around because of that).  Rather than treating the characters as one-dimensional caricatures, Udall presents a complex, nuanced set of characters in the patriarch of this family, Golden; his fourth wife, Trisha; and Rusty, one of his 28 children.

This is an interesting novel of a desperate search for human connection, affection, and attention, even and especially amidst many, many family members.  It's definitely a recommended read. 

Have a Little Faith

So, if someone came up to you and without warning asked you to to write and deliver their eulogy, how would you respond? While you're thinking that over, let's up the ante a bit: let's say this person is your minister...but you don't really attend church anymore, except maybe when the holidays roll around. In fact, you haven't been a regular at church in over 25 years. At this point, you'd probably be thinking, Why me? You wouldn't be alone. In Have a Little Faith: A True Story, Author Mitch Albom (Tuesdays With Morrie) found himself in just this predicament when his long-time rabbi, Albert Lewis, cornered him after a speech and popped the question. A few days later, Albom agreed to Lewis's request, but only if the two of them could spend some time together so Albom could learn more about him. What began as an awkward first meeting at Lewis's home grew into an eight-year friendship that gave Albom an invaluable education on the importance of faith, family, and tradition. Along the way, Albom befriended another man of faith, Pastor Henry Covington, from whom he learned that even the worst among us can be transformed and changed, and in turn can change others. Have a Little Faith: A True Story is a slim volume that packs a healthy wallop of goodness, and fans of Tuesdays With Morrie as well as those who've never read Albom before won't be disappointed.

A book worth a cup of coffee

If you're a regular reader, you might have caught my cantankerous rant slightly contrarian post a few weeks ago, in which I listed a few of the heralded books of the year that I had no interest in reading.  Miss Betty here at the library noticed and challenged me to overcome my apathy about Tom Rachman's debut novel, The Imperfectionists.  We have often discussed books and have had similar reactions to many books, so Betty's recommendation alone would've had me rethinking my aversion to the book.  But then she took it a step further: she was so sure I would like the book that she bet me a cup of coffee I would like it.  This was serious -- I do not mess around when it comes to coffee, which Betty everyone who's known me for ten minutes knows, so I accepted the caffeine-infused gauntlet that had just been thrown. 

Well, dear reader, I now know what Betty takes in her coffee.  I'll admit: for the first chapter, I thought that I was surely going to be sipping on my brew from atop my high horse.  After a slow start, though, I started to understand the story and before I knew it, I was nearly finished.  The Imperfectionists is about the people who comprise the staff (and one reader) of an English-language newspaper in Italy.  Just as the paper struggles to maintain its relevance in the 24-hour-news-cycle 21st century, each of the individuals profiled is struggling to maintain relevance in his or her own personal life.  Some were more likable than others, but each struggled with this sense of relevancy.  Intertwined between the chapters, Rachman tells the story of the newspaper's creation and its successes and failures over the subsequent years.

The Imperfectionists reads a bit more like a collection of short stories connected by an inky thread.  The book reminds me of the idea that we are all extras in the movie of someone else's life.  The short story feel serves to strengthen, rather than diminish, the book's message of discovering the personalities that lie behind the surface of the extras who surround us.  It's a great book, and I now publicly, gladly, concede it merits the buzz surrounding it.  It also goes great with a cup of coffee.   

Best Friends a story of Hope.

I was looking at books for an upcoming book list that features animals. What I found was a remarkable book and a place that is home for thousands of unwanted animals. The book entitled, Best friends: the true story of the world's most beloved animal sanctuary is a glimpse of hope. Best Friends began as a dream to create a place for the dogs, cats, horses and other furry friends who are "unadoptable". Some animals at the sanctuary have feline leukemia, are scarred, have behavior problems or are somehow not quite the cute and fuzzy creature people want to adopt and cuddle.

The sanctuary's main goal is to find a loving, forever home for these animals. They accept any animal, but are often given the problem cases, because the staff cares and people know it. This is not your ordinary job, this is a labor of love for all who work here.

This book is a testament to their success and tenacity. Although most of these animals have issues 75% of them find forever homes. This well written novel tells the story of the people and animals that make Best Friends home. It takes the reader behind the scenes and shows the loving care given by each worker, their love for each other and the animals they tend. The group began as friends who wanted to make a difference and they did. Read their story or go to their website, http://www.bestfriends.org/ and find out more about Best Friends Animal Sanctuary.

Zora Neale Hurston: A Genius of the South

January 7, 2011 would have been Zora Neale Hurston's 120th birthday.  This author, anthropologist, and folklorist was born in Alabama and moved to Eatonville, Florida when still a small child.  Eatonville was special because it was the first "all black" town incorporated in the U. S.  Because of this Zora would grow up seeing black achievement all around her and believed in herself.  She lost her mother at 13, worked menial jobs, traveled as a maid, went to college, and eventually found herself among the luminaries of the 1920's Harlem Renaissance.  She published short stories and articles, then novels and folklore collections.  Her most famous work Their Eyes Were Watching God, was published in 1937.  It wasn't until 1942 that she received the critical acclaim she was due but she never did receive the financial rewards she deserved.  When she died after a stroke on January 28, 1960 her neighbors had to take up a collection for her funeral and she was buried without a headstone.
 
In 1973, a young writer named Alice Walker braved the snake-infested cemetery, waded through waist-high weeds and found Zora Neale Hurston's grave.  Walker bought a plain gray headstone that says: "Zora Neale Hurston: A Genius of the South."  There is now an Anthropology Fellowship, a Festival of Arts and Humanities, Orlando city building, and a National Museum of Fine Arts in Hurston's name.
What is really interesting to me about this story besides the history is that Hurston lived in Ft. Pierce, Florida the last years of her life and is buried there.  I use to live in the town next door and my mom still does. We never knew about Hurston's story.  The next time I travel to Florida I am going to visit Zora's grave and pay my respects to one of the most acclaimed authors of her generation.

Pictures are courtesy of www.findagrave.com.

The Top 100 Books according to...somebody

For the last couple of years, every so often I get a note from friends on Facebook asking which of the BBC's Top 100 books I've read, plan to read, liked, loved, and so on.  It purports to be the classics, as defined by the BBC, and notes that the BBC estimates suggest that most people have read only six of the titles.  I've shared this note myself, and tallied up how many I've read (52, in case you're curious).  It turns out that the list that's been circulating isn't really from the BBC at all, nor has the BBC ever estimated how many of these books most people have read.  What they did do was commission a survey of the British public in 2003 to find what their favorite novels are.  That list totalled 200 titles and can be found here.  They had no estimate of how many of these most people had read. 

Whether it's the list circulating on Facebook or the original BBC list, or a different one altogether, like the Radcliffe Publishing Course's 100 Best Novels, I think the idea of using a list like this is fascinating.  I so often get caught up in what's new that I lose sight of the old classics, especially those I wouldn't normally even consider reading.  Added to this, I recently re-read Nick Hornby's complete Polysyllabic Spree collection (which also includes Housekeeping vs. The Dirt and Shakespeare Wrote for Money) in which he writes about the books he reads.  His apparent love of Charles Dickens and other classic authors has inspired me to delve into the past a bit more.

In the spirit of the new year, I resolve to read at least ten books from one of these lists.  In the meantime, I welcome your suggestions of how I should do this: Which list should I use?  Should I work my way through the list in order (1 - 100) or should I start with the books that sound most interesting to me?  However I end up choosing titles, it's likely to be the only resolution I keep this year, so I'll let you know how it goes. 

In the Queue

Electric Barracuda by Tim Dorsey

A vigilante has been leaving corpses strewn across Florida for more than a decade and one tenacious FBI agent has finally begun to take notice of the mounting body count.

Clara & Mr. Tiffany by Susan Vreeland

Louis Comfort Tiffany is world famous for his beautiful glass lamp designs.  Read about the woman who inspired him.

A Being So Gentle: The Frontier Love Story of Rachel and Andrew Jackson by Patricia Brady

If you grew up anywhere near Nashville, Tennessee you already know about the Rachel and Andrew Jackson love story.  It is an inspiring tale in spite of its adulterous beginning and its tragic end.