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.