Who's Afraid of a Little Pink Cover?

I may be like many of you, a skeptic.  Our library is currently hosting a Blind Date with a book. The Blind Date books are completely covered and has three descriptive words written on the cover. Based on the three written words you select a book that you will read.  As I said I am a skeptic, there are some authors I know if they write a book, I want that book in my hot grubby little paws, NOW!  However there are other titles I am confident I would not enjoy. Consequently I judge the book by its cover and I do not pick it up.  It's true--I am prejudiced against pink covers. There I said it... I am biased who wants to read a book of fluff?  Give me a suspensful thriller, murder mystery or adventure.  There can be romance, but there's got to be some kind of thrill involved.  A pink fluffy book, that is just not for me...or so I thought.

I picked up a Blind Date Book the words on the cover were flirty, irreverant and romance.  When I got it home I opened it.  It was pink. Not just any pink, hot pink and I thought really? I saw the author's name was Sophie Kinsella and again I thought, really. I have never read any of her books (that's right never). I watched Confessions of a Shopaholic, but never read the book.  I told myself that this is just one book I'll read it and get it over with.  The title was Can You Keep a Secret?

I can honestly tell you Ms. Kinsella had me from the first page.  I loved it!  It was funny, light hearted, a bit of a mystery. I enjoyed the quirkiness between the main characters and was deeply unhappy when Emilie, the main character was betrayed. It was a terrific  story.  I read a few other Blind Date with a Books, not all were loved by me, but they were good. Here are a few of their names in case you were uneasy about reading a book when you cannot see the cover.

Last Dog on the Hill by Steve Duno---This is the story of Lou a feral puppy who grows up to be an amazing dog. A wonderfully, funny and perhaps sad true story. If you like dogs you'll love this book!

Glow by Amy Kathleen Ryan-- this is a young adult fiction title filled with adventure, love and peril. This had adventure and peril, but...I did not like the ending. There was plenty of foreshadowing yet the evil in the story will grow again and the downfall will be wrought by the heroine in the story. Hmm I guess I am intrigued enough to check out the next book in the series, Spark. I really do not want Seth, the antagonist to win.

American Gothic: Joyce Carol Oates

Utter the name Joyce Carol Oates and what comes to mind? Novelist. Essayist. Critic. Poet. Short-story writer. Critically acclaimed. Prolific. Brilliant. Oates is the author of over one-hundred books and has scaled the pinnacle of the New York Times Best Sellers list with her novel We Were the Mulvaneys (1996), which also became an Oprah Book Club pick and a film of the same name. Reading Oates, however, is not for the faint of heart, so fans of light-hearted mysteries and bubbly Chick Lit may want to steer clear. Violence is a theme that appears often in her novels and short stories, and she makes no apologies for it: "I am a chronicler of the American experience. We have been historically a nation prone to violence, and it would be unreal to ignore the fact. What intrigues me is the response to violence: the aftermath in the private lives of women and children in particular." Oates "writes all over the aesthetical map," and creates a bewitching, if not shocking, collage of realism and surrealism, the gothic and the grotesque, in her tales. But her literary art is top notch and she has the awards to prove it, from the 1970 National Book Award (Them) to the 2012 PEN Center USA Award for Lifetime Achievement, and numerous others in between. Undeniably, Oates has mastered both the long and short form of fiction writing, and she has this to say to her detractors: "Perhaps critics (mainly male) who charged me with writing too much are secretly afraid that someone will accuse them of having done too little with their lives." Ladies and gentlemen, this author does not pull her punches! If Joyce Carol Oates sounds like your kind of writer, then do yourself a favor and add her latest novel, The Accursed, to your reserve list now.

The Name of the Rose

So I have read some of Umberto Eco’s nonfiction works for various projects, school and occasionally for fun and I opted to grab one of his fiction books and give it a try. Being a fan of the antiquity and the medieval era, I opted to pick up Name of the Rose (which I am told is also a movie starring Sean Connery).  In short, Rose is a fairly hefty, but imminently enjoyable read.

                In essence, Rose is a murder mystery that takes place in a 14^th cen. Franciscan Italian abbey. In typical murder mystery fashion, there are enigmatic deaths and strange circumstances and a stalwart investigator, one Brother William of Baskerville. Yet, Eco looks to his academic career as a semiotician and medieval scholar throws in heavy doses of medieval history, theological debates, and post-modern semiotic examinations. Now, any one of those additions seems potentially dry on their own and may have the potential to detract from the whodunit plot, but Umberto Eco weaves all of it together in an incredible fashion.

The murder mystery aspect of Name of the Rose is done so well that it is reason enough that I would highly recommend it to anyone. However, the layers of history and examinations of language and symbols make the story incredibly rich and enjoyable. I will warn you though, if you pick this book up, do not plan on reading it over a weekend, it is a very chewy read!

The Burgess Boys

Elizabeth Strout won a Pulitzer Prize for her novel, Olive Kitteridge. Her new novel, The Burgess Boys is also an amazing success. The story of the Burgess children, Bob, Susan and Jim, does not disappoint.  There is no doubt this novel is as impressive as her last one. In this novel she untangles the relationships between siblings and also addresses the prejudices that still reverberate throughout American culture since the 9/11 attacks.

She paints a story that makes you feel as you watch the Burgess family struggle to understand what happened to their lives. Like all families the Burgess boys do not always get along. Most families argue or bicker amongst themselves, but when there is a crisis family usually comes together; this is no different for the Burgess boys. When Susan notifies her brothers that her son made a serious mistake and the situation is grave, Bob and Jim both return to Shirley Falls, Maine to help. Their nephew committed a rash prank which is being considered not just a prank, but a hate crime. The situation is even more intense because of Shirley Fall's poor economy and the influx of Somali immigrants.

The tension between the brothers as they work to resolve the family crisis and their own relationship drives this novel. Strout does an amazing job in evoking emotions of envy, guilt, bigotry, selflessness and love.  Her story shows family life through all the good times and the bad times. However, this is not just a family story but also a social commentary.  It’s a poignant and emotional story that is so realistic you will feel like you are looking in the Burgess' window or maybe even your own.  This is a must read novel that will make you think, feel, wince, laugh and wish you were home.  

First comes love, then comes prison...

Dorothy Koomson’s books have been described as “heartwarming” in the past, but her book The Ice Cream Girls lacks the warm fuzzies you may be familiar with from Koomson.

The story introduces us to Serena and Poppy--two girls that were brought together under very unusual and unsavory circumstances. The both make some serious mistakes as teenagers that land one of the girls in prison for a high-profile crime that rocks their hometown. Poppy bears the brunt of the punishment and spends years in prison for the crime. When she is released into a world that left her behind, she sets out to find Serena to demand that her name be cleared. Serena has a normal life as a wife and mother, but has worked very hard to conceal her past from everyone—including her husband. When Poppy and Serena are brought together as adults, the plot thickens as each woman maintains her innocence, but refuses to believe the other.

Koomson brings the reader into the mind of both Poppy and Serena in alternating chapters. We are given equal time to ponder the differing points of view and the reality of the punishment that only one of the girls was required to face, though, Serena’s life is not exactly golden for quite a while. The book has a few slow points where you will feel left in the dark and somewhat frantic to get to the bottom of things, but how could it be a mystery without delaying the outcome?

What do you do if the only suspects are truly innocent? Keep reading.

Celebrate Jewish Authors and Movies

Help us celebrate Jewish literature and film this month at the library!

Pick up a great book to take home from one of our Jewish Author displays at both libraries and try some of the following talented writers:

Naomi Alderman--This award-winning British author and novelist is a Professor of Creative Writing at Bath Spa, University in England.

Peter S. Beagle--This award-winning American author and screenwriter is best-known for his fantasy fiction.

Max Brooks--Son of Mel Brooks & Anne Bancroft, this comedic author and screenwriter loves zombies.

Anita Diamant--This American former freelance journalist is best known for her novel The Red Tent.

Harlan Ellison--This multiple award-winning writer of speculative fiction hails from Cleveland, Ohio.

Myla Goldberg--This Bee Season author and Oberlin College graduate is also a musician.

Howard Jacobson--He is a Man Booker Prize winning British author and journalist best-known for his comic novels.

Walter Mosley--He is a multiple award-winning American novelist who is best-known for his crime fiction.

Irene Nemirovsky--She was a Russian-born, French novelist who was arrested by the Nazis and died in Auschwitz at age 39.

Amos Oz--He is an award-winning Israeli writer and journalist who has been published in over 41 languages.

Sara Paretsky--This Kansas-born, Chicago native is best-known for her female detective series featuring V. I. Warshawski.

Ayelet Waldman--She is an Israeli-American former attorney known for her mysteries and books on motherhood.

The Library is pleased to be a sponsor of the 2013 Dayton Jewish International Film Festival, April 18 - May 9. For more information go to the library website.

A Big Little Life

You've all heard of bestselling author Dean Koontz, but how many of you know about the other bestselling Koontz, Trixie? Not ringing any bells? Well you're in luck, because Dean wrote a book all about her: A Big Little Life: A Memoir of a Joyful Dog. Oh, I guess I forgot to mention that Trixie was a golden retriever, but that's an honest mistake since Dean always believed she was so much more than a dog. Trixie came to live with Dean and his wife, Gerda, "not as a puppy but as a highly educated and refined young lady of three." She'd been trained as an assistance dog by the Southwest Chapter of Canine Companions for Independence in California, and due to her early retirement from the program, she needed a home. It was love at first sight, and both Dean and Gerda noticed right away that Trixie was special--innocent and joyful, but also mysterious and solemn. Ever the prankster, she lived up to her name time and time again, whether she was getting laughs at a dinner party with a cowboy doll or repeatedly fooling Dean into taking a look at what she'd found beneath the furniture (hint: nothing). Trixie was also a fountain of doggie wisdom, and her first published book, Life is Good (with Trixie Koontz) actually sold more copies than Dean's first hardcover novel. She followed that up with Bliss to You: Trixie's Guide to a Happy Life, and the philosophy she expressed in both could be summed up as follows: "Love and sausage are alike. You can never have enough of either." Trixie spent almost nine years with Dean and Gerda, and though she was just a little thing in this big world, in "all the ways that mattered, including the effect she had on those who loved her, she lived a big life." If you're a fan of Dean Koontz, or you just love dogs, or both, give A Big Little Life a try. Trixie Koontz is sure to bring a smile to your face and a sense of wonder to your heart. 

A Con Man and an Art Forger

A con man with delusions of grandeur, his talented but unwitting accomplice, counterfeit records, and hundreds of crimes trailing across all of Europe and the United States: it almost reads like some international spy thriller. But I am actually describing the book Provenance: How a Con Man and a Forger Rewrote the History of Modern Art by Laney Salisbury and Aly Sujo. They track the real story of the conman John Drewe as his ensnares the down-and-out artist John Myatt to sell hundreds of forgeries to some of the biggest auction houses, galleries and museums in the world. While the artistic talent to create the forgeries is certainly impressive, it is Drewe’s ability to perceive the weak point in the system and exploit it. In order to sell art, especially high value works, you have to have the documentation to support that it is fact an authentic work. Drewe realized he could infiltrate archives of various institutions and create the supporting documentation.

Provenance is very well researched and exceptionally written. The thriller plot and extraordinary characters almost seem too well done for real-life events. Yet, the tale is a bit biased toward Myatt and heavily villainizes Drewe. In fact, I would have loved to hear the thoughts of the conman and why he started this grand con and then continued to push it until he got caught. However, the book is still an entertaining and informative tale that does not require vast knowledge of art or cons to follow. Certainly a good read for those interesting in either modern art or a true con.