The Night Guest by Fiona McFarlane

An elderly woman, Ruth Field, lives alone in a remote area of Australia. Despite suffering from back pain, she is self-sufficient and content with her life. However she regularly dreams that there is a tiger in her house. Only when she discusses this with her son during their occasional phone calls does she realize it was only a dream. One day a woman named Frida arrives at her door. Frida says she has been sent by a government agency to help Ruth. Ruth allows her in and Frida, taking charge of the cooking and cleaning chores, does make Ruth’s life much easier. But is Frida actually a government health care worker? Sometimes she appears to be bullying Ruth or taking advantage of her. Is she really? Ruth is obviously suffering from dementia, or at the least confusion, and cannot always trust her memory of Frida’s mistreatment. Neither can the reader.  The Night Guest is an unusual novel of suspense and Fiona McFarlane expertly uses domestic events to create a sense of uneasiness.

Check out The Night Guest @ the library!

Dear Committee Members by Julie Schumacher

Over the course of a year, Professor of Creative Writing, Jay Fitger, is asked to write numerous Letters of Recommendation for students and fellow faculty members. Dear Committee Members by Julie Schumacher is an acerbically funny novel told exclusively through these letters. Being a creative writing professor, Fitger can write skillfully and passionately about the qualities and accomplishments of his students and former students, whether they are applying for scholarships, fellowships, internships, or jobs as nannies, grocery clerks or RV park attendants. Conversely, he can also use his writing skills to cleverly damn, with faint praise, fellow, undeserving (in his mind) faculty members seeking promotions or new positions. Disgruntled with the modern world, he inevitably strays off point in these letters to complain about the state of higher education, the lack of respect for the English Department (as compared to the Economics Department), remodeling projects on campus, the difficulty of using modern technology and the unhappy state of his private life. Although he appears to be a relentless curmudgeon, Professor Fitger is actually a man who simply cares too much. As one colleague explained: “Fitger behaves like more of an ass than he actually is.”

Check out Dear Committee Members @ the library!

The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell

The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell is not easy reading. It is nearly six hundred pages long and spans 159 years, 1984 to 2043. If you choose to accept the challenge this book presents, you will be rewarded with excellent writing, good stories, interesting characters and a wide plot line with a clear divide between good and evil. Holly Sykes is the constant that unites the six novellas that comprise this book. In 1984 she is a rebellious, boy-crazy fifteen-year-old running away from home. Over the years and chapters, she loses a brother to kidnapping, mingles with the rich and privileged, works at an Alpine ski resort, has a child, marries a war correspondent, is widowed, tours world-wide with her bestselling book, becomes involved in a supernatural battle between the forces of good and evil, and ends up trying to survive in a world ravaged by climate change. Holly was born with paranormal abilities she didn't understand.  Although she rejects anything supernatural, mysterious individuals insert themselves into her life at various times.  She becomes unavoidably entangled in the final battle between the Horologists (good) and the Anchorites (evil). After the battle, the world continues on its self-destructive path. However, the outcome of the battle will eventually affect Holly and her descendants.  

Check out The Bone Clocks @ the library!

Texts From Jane Eyre by Mallory Ortberg

This reviewer isn’t even sure where to begin with this book.  Imagine your favorite classic authors and famous book characters had access to cell phones.  Add in some goofy modern day language and text-speak and you have Texts From Jane Eyre by Mallory Ortberg.  The result is a book that will have you snorting and LOLing from the very first page.  Here is an example in the form of a short exchange between Jo and Meg from Little Women:

"MEG

MEG

MEG WHAT’S ALL THIS

WHATS ALL THIS I’M HEARING 

ABOUT YOUR GETTING MARRIED

tell me it’s a wretched lie

Jo I don’t know how many more times 

we have to have this conversation

I’ll have it a THOUSAND TIMES if I must

But yes

I’m still marrying John tomorrow

OH GREAT TRIPLE-HORNED GOD

Just like I was planning to yesterday

This is unbearable

And also last month

Answer me this, then

Who exactly do you think is going to play Mercy when 

we put on my version of The Pilgrim’s Progress this summer?

I wrote that part for YOU

Wrote it beautifully in fact

I don’t know darling

She gets a cracking scene with the villain Rodrigo where 

he tries to poison her and she screams and faints and everything

I don’t remember anyone named Rodrigo 

in The Pilgrim’s Progress

THAT’S NEITHER HERE NOR THERE MEG

I’m very sorry

This production will be ruined

Why don’t you ask Amy?

I’m not even going to dignify that with a response"

[end scene]

Ortberg takes you through the text convos of such classics as Rebecca, Hamlet, Les Miserables, Great Expectations and many more.  You’ll even get to see what Edgar Allen Poe was thinking while he wrote The Raven!

In all seriousness, this book is absolutely delightful and with the holiday season fast approaching, would make a wonderful gift for any classic literature lovers in your life. 

Check out a copy of Texts From Jane Eyre from the library today!

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!

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.

Check out My Salinger Year @ the library!

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.

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!

I Work at a Public Library: A Collection of Crazy Stories from the Stacks

As librarians, our job wouldn't be what it is without all of you, our beloved library patrons. Whether you're a librarian or a devoted library patron, there is no doubt that this book will make you chuckle while you're reading it. Compiled by Gena Sheridan, a public reference librarian, this book is just that..."a collection of crazy stories from the stacks." The author, in true librarian fashion, classifies the entries in terms of their Dewey Decimal number including such subjects as computers, reading interests and habits, human anatomy, and telephones.

These brief library anecdotes talk about interesting librarian/patron interactions, lost library books, and intriguing reference questions. If you're looking for a fast read, appreciate your local library (and its librarians!) take a little bit of time out of your day to read this book. It'll make you smile, shake your head, and go huh all at the same time. These are the things that library school surely didn't prepare us for.

And we promise, we're not collecting any stories.


Check out I Work at a Public Library: A Collection of Crazy Stories from the Stacks @ the library! 
 

Lock In by John Scalzi

John Scalzi’s newest work, Lock In, explores the different themes of greed, disability culture and rights, and the role of government spending on society. In the near future a flu like virus, Haden’s syndrome, kills millions of people. Some of the survivors experience lock in where they are aware of their surroundings but cannot move their bodies. Other survivors become Integrators, those that can allow the locked in to use their bodies through computer implants to experience physical sensations. The lock in survivors also use “threeps,” or robots which they use in place of their physical bodies. FBI agent, Chris Shane, is a lock in survivor that uses a threep to investigate cases with veteran agent, Leslie Vann. They examine what appears to be a murder involving an Integrator, but what seems to be a simple answer becomes a more complicated question as their inquiry continues. The book is a clever mash-up of science fiction and police procedures with a wonderful “buddy” aspect between the two FBI agents.

Check out Lock In @ the library!

Heroes Are My Weakness by Susan Elizabeth Phillips

Annie is down on her luck, broke and off to the only place she can call home. Her home is also the last place in the world she wants to return to. Peregrine island, off the coast of Maine, should have held happy memories of her youth, however a near death experience at the hands of a close friend leaves her a bit scared, and not looking forward to her stay. With her mother's death, Annie's debts and her lack of jobs or housing, it looks like the Moonraker Cottage is the only place she can go this winter.

If it wasn't bad enough to be on this island in the dead of winter, now she has another issue to deal with, Theo Harp, the boy who broke her heart and almost killed her all those years ago. He's back on the island to write his next best seller, and morn for his own loss. Old friends, and some of the nicer locals help her find her footing, but how can she find her footing if she's always in the shadow of Harp House and Theo. Theo, who she should hate, but who may not be the bad guy she has him pegged as. Will the past be their undoing, or have they both changed enough to let the past stay in the past?

Fans of Susan Elizabeth Phillips will enjoy the traditional banter between the two characters and the mysteries the pop up during her stay. The local characters are charming, and a bit disarming at the same time. Then there are Annie's puppets, who are always in her mind speaking, advising and warning her about what is going on in her life. Romance fans looking for a bit of substance behind the story will want to check out Heroes are My Weakness.

Check out Heroes Are My Weakness @ the library!

Horrorstör by Grady Hendrix

At first glance, this novel looks like an Ikea catalog that someone snuck onto the library shelf.  This is entirely intentional.  Grady Hendrix tells the tale of Amy, Basil, Ruth Anne, Matt and Trinity and their jobs at Orsk, an Ikea superstore knockoff.  Amy is at the end of her rope.  She’s perpetually behind on rent and her roommates are threatening to kick her out.  And she thinks someone will be lowering the boom on her soul-crushing job at Orsk any day now.  Amy’s convinced that because she dropped out of college the only other job she could get would be something that pays minimum wage- which would land her back at home in her Mom’s trailer.  She’s hoping to get transferred back to a different Orsk location and hopes that if she can just avoid her manager, Basil, long enough she can return to the other store before getting fired.  But how to give Basil the slip when he seems to notice her every move?

The day the novel opens seems like any other: Amy is trying to avoid Basil while clocking into work.  But something is seriously wrong.  The escalators at the store are running backwards.  Seeing that Basil is distracted by trying to find a way to fix the employee entrance, Amy enters the store the long way hoping to beat him to her station.  Then strange thing number two happens: Amy notices a man in the store who is not an Orsk employee.  But the store hasn’t opened yet.  Before Amy can do anything about it, the guy disappears and Amy is cut off by Basil who needs her to shepherd a group of new Orsk trainees.  Later that day, Amy and another coworker, Ruth Anne, are called into a meeting with Basil.  Things are sliding downhill fast.  If he’s firing Ruth Anne, there is NO WAY Amy isn’t getting fired too.  An more than that, Ruth Anne is possibly the nicest, most dedicated Orsk employee Amy has ever met. 

After Amy starts the meeting by shouting at Basil that it would be an outrage to fire Ruth Anne, Basil assures the two ladies that he isn’t firing anyone.  In fact, Basil knows that Amy has applied for a store transfer and will make sure it goes through without a hitch- if they both help him with something and keep it a secret.  For weeks, damaged merchandise has been appearing after closing.  Things have gotten so bad that corporate is sending a team early the next morning to investigate.  Basil thinks someone is hiding in the store after closing and wreaking havoc.  All Amy and Ruth Anne have to do is stay for a secret night shift and help Basil sweep the store and find whoever is responsible.  And they’ll  get paid double over time. 

But things quickly spiral out of control.  A few minutes into their first sweep, Amy and Ruth Anne run into Matt and Trinity- two other Orsk employees who have snuck in after hours to try and document ghosts that they think inhabit the store.  This Orsk location was built on the same location where a very creepy prison once stood.  Matt and Trinity are convinced that if they can capture the souls of the restless prisoners on tape, they’ll be sure to get a TV deal with Bravo.  Things turn from creepy to deadly in the blink of an eye and now Amy wonders if she’ll even make it out of the store alive.

Just in time for Halloween, check out this great new horror novel with a unique style, Horrorstör by Grady Hendrix is filled with equal parts humor and fright.

Check out  Horrorstör @ the library!

Next: A Novel by James Hynes

Kevin Quinn is suffering a midlife crisis. Unhappy with his job, his girlfriend and his life in general, he has decided to interview for a new job. Telling no one of his plans, he takes a one day trip, leaving Ann Arbor, Michigan, early in the morning for an afternoon job interview in Austin, Texas. During this long day, Kevin has basically three things on his mind—the many possibilities of a terrorist attack, pursuing any beautiful woman who crosses his path, and the random events of his life that led him to take this chance at radical change. Once in Austin, Kevin has many hours to wait until his afternoon interview. He wiles away the time by stalking (rather innocently) several women who attract his attention, eventually meeting one, a doctor, who generously helps him when he trips and falls while pursuing her. Despite his shallow and self-absorbed pre-occupation with his own wants and needs, Kevin is a likeable guy. The examination of his life is filled with honest criticism as well as funny and to-the-point observations about American culture. Despite his somewhat risky behavior during his day in Austin, Kevin manages to arrive for his appointment clean, composed and on time. But he is not prepared for what happens while he waits for his interview. Events take an unexpected turn and the NEXT part of his life does not turn out as expected.

Check out Next @ the library! 

Everything I Need to Know I Learned from a Little Golden Book by Diane Muldrow

Little Golden Books--they're timeless and a part of almost every kid's little library, but this Little Golden Book is a bit different than the ones that we grew up with. Even though it has the traditional golden foil spine and a place to scrawl your name in the inside front cover, this book isn't for children; it's for adults.

The longtime editorial director for Golden Books and author of this new Golden Book argues that "there's a good chance that many of us learned pretty much everything that really matters about life from what we read between those sturdy, gilt-bound cardboard covers." Who would've thought that classics like The Poky Little Puppy, Doctor Dan, and Saggy Baggy Elephant that we read and our parents read before us, would be the key to our success as an adult?

In this fast, nostalgic read Muldrow gives us the keys to success while pairing good advice like, "daydream," "stargaze," and "savor the seasons as they roll around" with original illustrations from various Little Golden Books. The artwork, which is now a vintage style, will make you fondly remember your childhood while offering a bit of inspiration during the often chaotic daily routines we all have.

If you're looking for something fast to read, beautiful illustrations to look at, or you want to feel like a kid again, this is the book for you.

Check out Everything I Need to Know I Learned From a Little Golden Book @ the library!

Talking Pictures: Images and Messages Rescued from the Past by Ransom Riggs

In a world obsessed with selfies, a picture is just something we take for granted, but photographs weren't always as easy to take and develop as they are today. Talking Pictures: Images and Messages Rescued From the Past by Ransom Rigg, the author of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, tells various stories using old photographs. If you enjoy human interest stories, have an interest in history, or just love looking at old photographs, this is the book for you. As Riggs mentions in the forward of his book, he has long had an interest in old photographs that he's found at antique stores and resale shops. While questioning how families can just discard a piece of their familial history, Riggs began to buy the old photographs, but only old photographs that had some kind of caption or writing somewhere on them. 

With the sometimes adorable, sometimes quirky, sometimes awkward photos he bought, Riggs tells a story by intertwining pictures of complete strangers into chapters that focus on love, war, and illness, among others. Not only are some of these pictures funny, many are thought provoking, endearing, heartwarming, and some even tug at your heart strings.

Talking Pictures: Images and Messages Rescued from the Past is a fast read, coffee-table-type book that is sure to make you wonder just exactly who the subjects are in the photographs and what their long lost story actually is.

Check out Talking Pictures: Images and Messages Rescued from the Past @ the library.

Wild Things: Acts of Mischief in Children's Literature by Betsy Bird, et al.

The world of children's books is easily imagined as an idyllic place full of fluffy bunnies. The authors should always be upstanding, proper citizens, and the books they write are happy, moral teaching tombs that will both stand the test of time and entertain audiences of all ages. Yeah right.

Three bloggers, Betsy Bird, Julie Danielson and Peter D. Sieruta bring to light the stories and the history behind some of the biggest names and books for children. From picture books being called subversive to authors of theses works choosing to live adult lives, no stone of scandalous behavior in and out of print, is left unexplored.

Fans of authors like Shel Silverstein may be surprised that he started out writing for Playboy, and Mary Poppins author may have more in common with E.L. James than most parents would care to share with their children. Beyond sex, there are issues of subversive themes in picture books, the private relationships of popular authors, and even those lovely books that booksellers,Wild Things: Acts of Mischief in Children's Literature by Betsy Bird, et al. librarians and teachers love, yet children are not drawn to (and vice versa).

Teachers, and those who work with children will want to check out Wild Things, and maybe learn a bit of the scandalous history behind the books we love to share with children.

Check out Wild Things: Acts of Mischief in Children's Literature by Betsy Bird, Julie Danielson and Peter D. Sieruta @ the library!

The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith

Cormoran Strike and Robin Ellacott are back in a new mystery!  Approximately nine months after solving the Lula Landry case, things are looking slightly better for gritty private investigator Cormoran Strike.   He’s now sleeping in the flat above his office (instead of *in* the office itself) and has a steady stream of rich socialites who have hired Strike to spy on their wives/husbands/girlfriends.  But Strike is bored.  Soon, a shabby, mousy woman arrives at the office saying that her husband has gone missing.  Leonora Quine insists that though Owen may be an unfaithful husband who often disappears for days at a time, he would never leave for too long because of their daughter.  Owen Quine is a has-been writer known for novels of a very graphic nature.  The newest book that he’s just finished and is ready to publish, Bombyx Mori, is more of the same or so it first appears.  Cormoran’s gut tells him that this is no ordinary case and is soon on the hunt for the missing Quine.

After a visit to Quine’s agent, Strike learns that the new novel is more than it seems.  Apparently Quine has based the characters in his book on many of his friends and coworkers in the publishing industry.  After being told that his book was unpublishable due to possible libel lawsuits, the author threatens to publish it himself as an ebook, gathers up every last scrap of the manuscript and disappears.  When Quine is discovered murdered in a way that mirrors that of the main character in Bombyx Mori, even more questions arise.  Who had a chance to read the manuscript?  Quine had dirt of a lot of people, but who would go so far as to commit murder?

Like The Cuckoo’s Calling, the first book in the Strike series written under J.K. Rowling’s pseudonym, The Silkworm jumps right back into the middle of Cormoran and Robin’s world of mystery and crime.  There is more character development: Robin’s fiancée Matthew still hasn’t come around to Robin’s career choice and Stike is still struggling with his latest breakup with Charlotte.  And yes, there is still a lot of unvoiced tension ala “Why don’t Robin and Strike just date each other?  Then they wouldn’t be so darn miserable!” which is half the fun of these books.  Readers who enjoyed The Cuckoos Calling will not be disappointed by The Silkworm and the fact that Galbraith has left plenty of room for more Cormoran Strike novels in the future.

Check out The Silkworm @ the library!

Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger

When Elspeth Noblin dies of cancer, she decides to leave her London flat to her twin sister’s daughters, who also just so happen to be twins. The catch is that her inseparable twin nieces, Julia and Valentina have to spend a year living in the flat which overlooks Highgate Cemetery.  Throughout their year living in the flat, Julia and Valentina encounter the building’s unusual neighbors including Martin a crossword-making, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder suffering genius and Richard, an expert on Highgate Cemetery, who just so happens to be Elspeth’s former lover. Perhaps the most interesting inhabitant of the building is Elspeth’s ghost, who just refuses to leave. Through a series of events, the twins are forced to see just how far their bond will go.

Check out Her Fearful Symmetry @ the library.

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

In All the Light We Cannot See, Anthony Doerr has written a World War II novel with some elements of the fairy tale: a motherless blind girl whose father has given her a (possibly) magic talisman and an orphan boy with a special gift. Marie-Laure is a French girl living in Paris with her father, a locksmith for the Museum of Natural History. Werner Pfennig is a German boy living with his sister in a home for orphans. Curious and intelligent, he has a gift for building and repairing radios, a rather new technology. Because of this talent, Werner is sent to an elite school which trains elite German soldiers. After the war begins, he travels through Germany and Russia, using radio frequencies to track down pockets of resistance fighters. Meanwhile, Marie-Laure and her father flee the war in Paris to St. Malo, a town on the Atlantic coast. Here they take refuge with Etienne, Marie-Laure’s great uncle. Here they hide a valuable diamond (or a replica) from the Museum, a stone believed by some to have magical powers.  And here, after the American invasion, the two stories briefly cross. Etienne has an illegal radio transmitter for which Werner and his patrol are searching. This leads him to Etienne’s home. Thus, Marie-Laure and Werner both shelter in the house when the American bombing begins. During a lull in the bombardment, the German boy helps the blind French girl run to safety. Then they go their separate ways. The meeting is brief and Werner’s gallantry during the attack does not affect the outcome of the war, or even the battle. However, it will prove to be of great importance to future generations.

Check out All the Light We Cannot See @ the library!

The 40s: The Story of a Decade by The New Yorker

            When current events seem overwhelming, it can be instructive, even comforting, to read about the courage and resilience of previous generations. In The 40s: The Story of A Decade, The New Yorker has collected many articles from that dire decade when The Great Depression persisted and the entire world went to war. Begun in 1925 as a magazine of humor and local interest, The New Yorker became, during the decade of the 1940’s, a national powerhouse of reporting and opinion, employing the greatest writers of the time. These writers lived in London during the blitz, landed on Iwo Jima with the Marines and crossed the Channel on D-Day. Other well-researched articles cover subjects familiar to all Americans today: John F. Kennedy and his PT boat; the Monuments Men; and the Berlin airlift. John Hersey’s famous work, Hiroshima, about six survivors of the atomic bomb, was first published on August 31, 1946, and occupied nearly the entire issue.  

            But The New Yorker articles were not devoted solely to matters of historical and political importance. The best of the movie, book, music, fashion and theater reviews have been reprinted in this book. Alas, no cartoons! Here also are the best poetry and short stories of the 1940’s. Shirley Jackson’s famous The Lottery was first published in The New Yorker. As in many modern magazines, there were articles about celebrities of the day. Such diverse personalities as Walt Disney, Eleanor Roosevelt and Walter Winchell were featured in various issues.  Human interest articles have not been omitted. Of particular interest to all readers might be the report on the 1949 Miss America contest. The simplicity of the contest and contestants stands in stark contrast to the sophistication of the current event. Three of the forty-eight states did not send contestants. All contestants were required to compete in donated Catalina swimming suits, Catalina being a pageant sponsor. In a parade rolling down the boardwalk, each contestant, wearing an evening gown, sat on a float pushed by a couple of men.  As for talent, there was the usual singing, acting and musical instrument playing. However, Miss Nevada’s talent was raising purebred Herefords. She had wanted to bring one of her cows, but pageant officials would not allow it. And the lackadaisical Miss New York State, the contestant featured in the article, gave little thought to her talent. “Her act, as she planned it, was going to consist of getting up in her nurse’s uniform and making a little speech about her nursing experience…All I know how to do is give a good back rub.” Who would not root for this young woman!

Check out The 40s: The Story of a Decade by The New Yorker @ the library!

Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann

On August 7, 1974, a tightrope walker, Philippe Petit, walked across a high wire rigged between the newly-built Twin Towers of the World Trade Center, 1350 feet above the ground. The stunt was unauthorized and a surprise to all who saw it.  In Let the Great World Spin, Colum McCann uses this event to unite the stories of various New Yorkers: prostitutes and the Irish priest who ministers to them; the priest’s brother who works as a bartender; a group of mothers who have lost sons in the Vietnam War; a judge and his wife; an immigrant nurse; two artists visiting from upstate and various other New Yorkers whose lives intersect in surprising ways. This is a character driven novel. More than ten different voices tell the story of strangers drawn together by a trial, an automobile accident, and a death. Lurking in the background are the defining anxieties of the early 1970’s: the Vietnam War and the resignation of President Nixon. Petit kept his balance while walking between the towers. The same could not be said of some who watched him from New York’s streets. Lives fell apart. People died. “NOBODY FALLS HALFWAY,” read a sign Petit kept on his wall.  This was as true of the ordinary people in the book as of the acrobat. And those who kept their balance throughout life put their own sorrows aside and stepped up to help friends and strangers deal with theirs. A book that celebrates the generosity of the human spirit, Let the Great World Spin a heartfelt look at a city and its citizens.

Check out Let the Great World Spin @ the library!

Agostino by Alberto Moravia

Originally written in 1940’s Italy and rejected by Fascist censors, Agostino by Alberto Moravia has been retranslated and republished by the New York Review of Books. Despite being set in a different country and different time, it tells a timeless and universal story of isolation and loss of innocence. Thirteen year old Agostino is vacationing at a beach with his attractive and newly widowed mother. An only child, he has basked in his mother’s attentions all his life. So, when she seems to enjoy the attentions of a handsome young man on the beach, Agostino begins to feel jealous, confused and rejected.To avoid his mother, he hangs out with a gang of tough working class boys, boys with whom he has nothing in common. They steal and vandalize property. They communicate each other with insults and physical blows. They humiliate Agostino emotionally and physically. Nevertheless, driven by curiosity and a desire to leave behind his childhood(and his attachment to his mother), he seeks them out daily. He comes to realize that he no longer fits into either world.

Check out Agostino by Alberto Moravia @ the library!