Friday, November 28, 2014

Happy Thanksgiving!


The West Allis Public Library Staff Reads blog is taking a break during the week of Thanksgiving. 

Remember that the library will be closed November 27th and 28th, but we'll reopen at 9 am Saturday, November 29th. 

We'll be back again next week with our favorites reads. Enjoy the holiday!

Friday, November 21, 2014

My Salinger Year by Joanna Rakoff


In 1996 Joanna Rakoff left her graduate studies in London, moved to New York and took a job as an assistant to a literary agent at a well-respected company. But the job was not the literary dream job she had expected. Rather than reading manuscripts and hobnobbing with authors, her duties consisted mainly of typing form letters on an old electric typewriter. In the mid 1990’s, working in an office that refused to use computers, her primary job was to type the same form letter over and over again and mail them to the fans of The Agency’s most famous author, J.D. Salinger. Salinger, a recluse who had not published an original work since 1965, refused to accept the large amount of fan mail he received daily.  Hence, it was Ms. Rakoff’s duty to read and answer each letter. And, no matter how plaintive the message, she was to send the same typed form letter. This was a directive she eventually felt compelled to ignore. Feeling compassion for some of the letter writers, she broke the rules and responded with heartfelt sympathy and some good advice.
She could have used some sympathy and good advice in her personal life.  She lived with her inconsiderate, self-absorbed boyfriend in an apartment that had neither heat nor a kitchen sink. (No problem! They had a bathtub and sweaters.) Poorly paid, she was not able to stretch her salary to cover all her expenses. Her boyfriend expected her to shoulder the entire responsibility for the rent so he could work on his novel. And her well-to-do father surprised her with the bills for student loans she had not known had been taken out in her name.

However her life was not all stress and struggle. She loved living in New York and her descriptions of the city are quite enticing. She adjusted to working at The Agency and eventually was assigned more interesting work. Her descriptions of an office and agents that seem to have come right out of a 1940’s comedy film are amusing. She spoke to Salinger on the phone and met him once. She eventually came to love his books as much as the writers of the fan mail she answered. And she developed the self-confidence to leave the job and the boyfriend and move on to a more fulfilling life. My Salinger Year by Joanna Rakoff is an account of a young woman maturing, helped into adulthood by the creator of Holden Caufield, the eternal teenager.

Friday, November 14, 2014

Some Luck by Jame Smiley


Jane Smiley’s newest novel is the first in The Last Hundred Years trilogy.  The Pulitzer prize winning author intends to cover 100 years in the life of an Iowa farm family and the first novel, Some Luck, covers the years 1920-1953.  Smiley follows the Langdon family of Denby, Iowa through childbirth, death, the Great Depression and World War II in a unique fashion.  Not only does the author write from many of the different characters points of view, but each chapter itself represents one year. 

We begin with Walter, the 25 year-old father and owner of the farm.  His wife Rosanna is about to give birth to their first child, Frank, and he is ruminating on all of the things that farmers think about: which crops to plant this year, how many animals are there to take care of and can I really afford to farm all of this land? As the years move forward, Smiley introduces us to all of the Langdon children: Frank, Joe, Mary Elizabeth, Lillian, Henry and Claire and their unique personalities.  We see Walter struggle with changing technologies (horses vs. tractors) and Rosanna has her own challenges with loss and religion. 

Each of the Langdon children is different than the last, and we hear a lot from the point of view of Frank, the handsomest and, arguably, the most cunning Langdon child.  When the US gets involved in World War II, he joins the army and becomes a sniper while his sensitive younger brother Joe stays home on a II-A deferment and takes care of the family farm.  Lillian falls in love with a handsome stranger and Henry devours books as fast as he can get his hands on them.  The reader is quickly absorbed into the world that Smiley creates and is soon laughing and crying along with the family. 

Some Luck has been shortlisted for the National Book Award and is a profound family saga.

Friday, November 7, 2014

Once Upon a Playground: A Celebration of Classic American Playgrounds, 1920-1975 by Brenda Biondo


Are you interested in taking a walk down memory lane? Do you long for those thrilling days of yesteryear when children were free to go to the neighborhood playground alone? Brenda Biondo’s book is filled with nostalgia of the sweetest kind--the idealized childhood. A collection of old and present-day photographs as well as pictures from advertisements and catalogs of the past, Once Upon a Playground: A Celebration of Classic American Playgrounds, 1920-1975 examines the development of not only the American playground but also the concept of playground safety for children. Swings, slides and jungle gyms changed a bit over the course of the twentieth century while merry-go-rounds and teeter-totters became hard to find. Indeed, the towering metal slide, the six-person climbing swing and the swaying merry-go-round look like they’d be great fun until someone gets hurt. From the 1920’s to the 1950’s playground equipment consisted of basic sturdy metal bars and wooden seats to climb, swing and spin on. In the 1960’ and 70’s, playground equipment was designed to be a bit safer, more colorful and more fanciful. Swings and climbing apparatus were based on cartoon and movie characters, rocket ships and mythical creatures. However, the basic actions of swinging, sliding and climbing could not be improved upon. They remained the mainstay of the fun throughout the twentieth century.  This book contains many interesting pictures showing a life gone by, even a few from Milwaukee! (pages xiii and 13). 

Check out Once Upon a Playground: A Celebration of Classic American Playgrounds, 1920-1975 @ the library!