Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

Published in the age of Ebola, SARS, swine flu, bird flu and measles, Station Eleven is a book in step with the current fears of reasonable people. Emily St. John Mandel has written a thoughtful and plausible dystopia in which nearly the entire population of the world is wiped out by a flu pandemic.   

The story begins in present day Toronto, where an unsuspecting audience watches an unsuspecting cast in a production of King Lear. When these people leave the shelter of the theater, they unknowingly enter a world that has been ravaged by the Georgian Flu in the space of a few hours, a world where people die suddenly -- in their cars, in planes, buses and trains, on sidewalks and streets. The few pockets of survivors are those who are sheltered in isolation at home for weeks until the televised news went off the air and they exhausted their supply of food and water. Then they start walking, for what purpose they are unsure. Some twenty years later, many of the survivors have banded into widely scattered tribes, troupes, communities and cults. The Traveling Symphony is a group of musicians and actors who travel up and down the eastern coast of Lake Michigan performing Shakespeare and classical music. One of their members, Kirsten, was a child actress in the King Lear production. She carries with her some possessions from her previous life, including a few graphic novels entitled Station Eleven. As the story toggles between pre-pandemic and post-pandemic times, the books and some other objects connect the past to the present. The new world is dangerous and filled with hardships. People survive by scavenging from abandoned houses and stores, hunting wildlife and stealing from one another. Mistrust is the prevailing attitude and with good reason. The Georgian flu, like flus and plagues before it, was an equal opportunity disease, striking down rich and poor, young and old alike.  But in the post-pandemic world, survival of the fittest is the rule of life. After a particularly difficult journey, the Symphony reaches its destination and finds a small glimmer of hope for the future.  Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel is ultimately a tale of the survival of ordinary people who adapt to extraordinary circumstances. 

The Book of Words by Jenny Erpenbeck

The Book of Words by Jenny Erpenbeck is a very short book that bears reading twice. A second reading reveals many subtle clues missed during the first. The story takes place in an unnamed South American country where a young girl is raised by loving parents in a well-to-do household. She is surrounded by servants and given the many advantages of a privileged life. An observant and thoughtful girl, she often ponders the meaning of words and events she cannot fully comprehend. Her parents exert great effort to shelter her but they cannot hide from her the dangers of living in a totalitarian country. Shops she frequents close and people she knows disappear. Although she hears reports of and even witnesses acts of outright violence, for the most part, she accepts her parents’ explanations of these events as vacations, illnesses and lovers’ quarrels. Eventually, the violence grows too pervasive to ignore. She and her family must face the truth about their country and its government. Author Jenny Erpenbeck was born and raised in East Germany and, while it was not a South American country, it was a true totalitarian state. Therefore, she knows whereof she writes. 

American Cornball: A Laffopedic Guide to the Formerly Funny by Christopher Miller

 

Not the foolish joke book or bathroom reader suggested by the title, American Cornball: A Laffopedic Guide to the Formerly Funny  is rather a thoughtful and detailed study of the history of humor in America. Using jokes, cartoons, postcards, movies, and radio and television shows, this book gives the reader a clear picture of the ordinary American’s sense of humor and how it has changed. The boarding houses and leftover hash that were a staple of humor during financial hard times are now non-existent, nor are there many vacuum cleaner salesmen or icemen still knocking on doors. Broad changes in the American way of life can be seen through the decades of jokes and cartoons in this book: the husband who washes dishes is no longer a laughingstock, although his frilly apron might be; men still ogle women but it is no longer their ankles that catch the eye; the Irish, who once bore the brunt of American ethnic humor, are now upstanding and successful citizens. Other nationalities have replaced them as butts of jokes. Hillbilly jokes still abound but now they are red-neck jokes. The author digs into the minutiae of humor: which middle initials are considered funny; why is the husband’s mother-in-law is funnier than the wife’s; is the trombone or tuba the funnier musical instrument? Some things never change, such as the speed with which anvils fall off a cliff or the incomprehensibility of modern art. Many formerly funny jokes would now be considered cruel and offensive. This book clearly explains why, in their own time, they were widely appreciated. And, after you read Christopher Miller’s examination of a psychologist’s five-page study on why children find the “moron throws a clock out the window” joke funny, you’ll realize (if you hadn’t before) that some jokes are best left unexamined.

Check out a copy of American Cornball: A Laffopedic Guide to the Formerly Funny @ the library!

Ellis Island by Kate Kerrigan

The first in this historical fiction trilogy by Kate Kerrigan follows young Ellie Hogan as she comes of age, goes to boarding school, and marries her first love. Set in the 1920s, Ellis Island tells the tale of a young couple, so in love, trying to live their lives amid war torn Ireland as the Irish battle the British for Hole Rule (or the right to rule Ireland by the Irish). When Ellie's husband is injured in battle, and times get exceptionally tough, Ellie receives a letter from a friend in New York offering her a job as a lady's maid for a wealthy woman.

Promising to send money back to Ireland to pay for her husband's medical care, Ellie takes the job, setting sail for New York. After seeing the beckoning Statue of Liberty and making it through Ellis Island, Ellie realized just how different New York is. Having never been this far away from home before, Ellie starts to miss home, her "normal" life, and her husband, John.

Once she's finally settled into life in New York, this book follows the story of what it was like to be a young woman in the 1920s. Filled with 1920s fashion and cultural references, read along as Ellie encounters all of the new, exciting, and often overwhelming things that are changing in her life. While she starts to assimilate in New York, she can't help but feel like a piece of who she is was left behind in Ireland.

Kate Kerrigan writes this book in a way that makes you feel as if you're living in lush, green Ireland and traveling aboard the crowded RMS Celtic with Ellie. When she finally makes it to New York you can't help but relate to the awe-inspiring sight of  Statue of Liberty and the great hall of Ellis Island (especially if you've been there to see such an amazing, humbling historical sight). Be sure to read Ellis Island and the other books in this trilogy.

Check out Ellis Island @ the library today!

Nora Webster by Colm Toibin

Nora Webster by Colm Toibin is an unusual novel of development. The protagonist is not a young woman who changes by venturing into the wider world but rather grows emotionally while remaining in her small Irish community. In the late 1960s, Nora Webster, a woman in her forties, is widowed when her husband dies of heart disease. She is the mother of four children; two adult daughters and two adolescent sons. Her reaction to her husband’s death is to withdraw from society, annoyed by the seemingly endless condolences offered by friends and neighbors. The book is a slow-moving but beautifully written description of a domestic life. The defining event of the book, a husband’s death, occurs before the story begins. The rest of the book is comprised of small events and decisions that contribute to the changes in Nora’s life.  She reluctantly accepts a job someone has arranged for her and grows in that position. She joins a music society, takes singing lessons and redecorates her home. She stands apart from her sisters and in-laws and confidently cultivates her own tastes and opinions. Toibin has based Nora on his own mother and describes her difficulties with great understanding. If you are looking for a book with action, or even a defined plot, this is not the book for you. Nora Webster is a study in the quiet courage required to live an ordinary life.

Check out Nora Webster @ the library today!

The End of Days by Jennie Erpenbeck

Sometimes a life may be extended by a stroke of good luck or ended by a slight misstep. Did the car run through the intersection or stop just in time? Did a stranger at the restaurant know the Heimlich maneuver or not? Did a slip on the ice result in a broken wrist or a broken neck? What does fate have in store for us?

In The End of Days, Jennie Erpenbeck considers the many ways a life may end or continue for another year or more. Her heroine, unnamed until the last chapter, was born in the Austro-Hungarian Empire at the beginning of the twentieth century. She dies five times in this compact novel.  After each death, the author considers small changes that could have allowed the infant, girl and woman to survive. Then, in the next chapter, her life goes on. In this way, the history of an ordinary life in turbulent 20^th century Europe is depicted with many possibilities. And so, the surviving infant lives to become a teenage girl who suffers the deprivations brought on by World War I. The girl becomes a woman who dies in a Russian prison camp during World War II. The woman who survives dies in an accident in East Berlin, leaving behind a teenage son.  And then, ninety year old Frau Hoffmann, confined to a wheelchair and suffering from dementia, dies her final death, a death caused by old age. From death there ultimately is no escape. 

Check out The End of Days @ the library!

Craft Fail: When Homemade Goes Horribly Wrong by Heather Mann

In a world of pinning cute DIY craft projects on Pinterest and shopping Etsy for unique, one-of-a-kind items, we all stop to think, "Hey, I could totally make that." But thinking about and successfully executing a project are two completely different things...

In her book, Craft Fail: When Homemade Goes Horribly Wrong, Heather Mann, avid perfectionist, crafter, and blogger shares some of the most epic fails to be submitted to her "Craft Fail" titled blog. From marbled nail art that looks like a few bottles of your favorite nail polish broke open to completely gone wrong cakes, this book gives readers (including expert and novice crafters alike) comfort in knowing that not every project is going to turn out craft show worthy. 

This little book, filled with wit and pictures is a quick, hilarious read. Whether you steer clear of craft projects because you're afraid of failing or if you are constantly pinning to-do projects on Pinterest, this book is sure to give you a laugh.

Check out Craft Fail: When Homemade Goes Horribly Wrong @ the library today!