Need a good book? Check out what the staff of the West Allis Public Library in West Allis, Wisconsin is reading!
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.
Labels:
American authors,
history,
Salinger
Friday, November 14, 2014
Some Luck by Jame Smiley
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.
Labels:
1920s,
1930s,
1940s,
1950s,
american life,
family,
family saga,
farming,
Great Depression,
Iowa,
literary fiction,
World War II
Friday, November 7, 2014
Once Upon a Playground: A Celebration of Classic American Playgrounds, 1920-1975 by Brenda Biondo
Check out Once Upon a Playground: A Celebration of Classic American Playgrounds, 1920-1975 @ the library!
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