Books Blog : books and reading

My Dick Francis addiction

kiya@evpl — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 00:46:00 GMT

Dick Francis jockey, mystery writer 10/31/1920 - 2/14/2010

My friend Theresa turned me on to Dick Francis and his mysteries. Her whole family was already hooked. And it only took one before I was, too. Francis' books followed a certain formula, but that formula included honorable men of integrity, often with a secret sadness or some emotional damage, and a determination to get to the bottom of whatever problem the bad guys were causing, no matter the cost. The heroes in these books are people you feel good about liking. They did tend to get beat up a lot, and because of that, I don't recommend reading too many in a row. Dick Francis is very realistic in his descriptions of pain - as a steeplechase jockey, he was well-acquainted with injury and pain.

In addition to having characters I liked, the books were very well-researched. I always learned things I didn't know while reading a Dick Francis novel. It might be about horses and racing, but it could just as well be about photography, wine, glassblowing, planes, acting, marksmanship, investment banking, or hurricanes. Folks often had the perception that because he had been a jockey, Dick Francis only wrote about horses. Not only was that wrong, even the books that were about horses and racing, were also about life, and loyalty, and knowing when you had to stand up for something, no matter how difficult. The critic John Leonard once said, "Not to read Dick Francis because you don't like horses is like not reading Dostoevsky because you don't like God."

If you've never read Dick Francis, you have a treat in store. Where do you start? Nearly all are standalone novels [exceptions: 4 about Sid Halley: Odds Against, Whip Hand, Come to Grief, and Under Orders; and 2 about Kit Fielding: Break In and Bolt], so you can start almost anywhere without worrying about order. So what about my favorites? Reflex is great, and you'll learn a lot about cameras. Risk introduces you to the most interesting accountant. Blood Sport is his first set in the US, and gave me the first glimpse at depression where I thought I actually understood for a moment what living with depression is like. Nerve was the first I ever read, I'm pretty sure. Oh, and The Danger looks at the psychology of kidnapping. The Edge takes place on a train ride across Canada......well, it's clear I can't pick a favorite for you. So, start with his earlier books. His later books, written with his son, are good, but not quite as wonderful as the ones he wrote with Mary, his wife. And if you like it, don't read them all at once. Promise yourself the next one at a certain time in the future - re-create the sense of anticipation his fans always felt as the seasons changed and it was almost time for this year's Dick Francis. Ah well, rereading Dick Francis is almost as good as reading him for the first time.

EVPL books and audio books by Dick Francis
Dick and Felix Francis website
BBC obituary
Dick Francis Books fan site: home of the Dick Francis, complete with favorite DF quotes and trivia questions
Earlier blog entry re: Dick Francis

How To Find Books in a Series

evillebibliophile@evpl — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 16:56:00 GMT

Do you ever have trouble remembering which book comes next in the series you are reading? Do you ever find yourself staring at the copyright page, only to realize you still don't know which book is next?

To all of you who have ever tried to find the next book in a series (or discover the first one!) I offer to you the Kent District Library's What's Next Database!

This database allows you to search by author, name of book, or series name. It quickly lists all the books in the series, in order! I have used this database countless times and it has never let me down. I hope that some more of you find this helpful - let me know if you have every used this database, or if you use it for the first time after this post, let me know how you like it!

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie

evillebibliophile@evpl — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 17:20:00 GMT

What a delicious piece of fiction! A truly precocious eleven year old girl delves into the gory details of a murder in her family's cucumber patch with the zeal and insight of Sherlock Holmes. The year is 1950 and Flavia de Luce lives in a giant manor house with her older sisters and her reclusive father. But Flavia is no ordinary little girl. She has a knack for chemistry and a penchant for poison, spending most of her time performing experiments in the manor's giant chemistry lab.
When a man breathes his dying breath into her face, exhaling a smelly "Vale!" as he expires, Flavia realizes that the man was murdered - she could smell the poison on his breath. Knowing that she is smarter than everyone around her, she throws herself into discovering the secrets surrounding the murder. She is Sherlock Holmes, in manner and intelligence, in a little girl's body.
What a truly fun read! And good news! There are to be six more in the series!

AND! If you are uber-nerdy, there is a Flavia de Luce fan club:
http://flaviafanclub.ning.com/

The Girl With Glass Feet by Ali Shaw

evillebibliophile@evpl — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 15:02:00 GMT

I just finished this book a few days ago, and I still have yet to find the right words to describe it. Here is what I wrote on GoodReads right after I read it:

At once monochrome, dull, and gray and at the same time hauntingly beautiful, The Girl with Glass Feet is a timeless love story doomed from the beginning. But though it is full of hopelessness it is also full of hope. Though it is unrealistic in its portrayal of the natural order of things, it is at the same time uncannily pure in its portrayal of the pain and wonderfulness of love. It takes the reader on a journey that is strange and unearthly but at the same time to a place of which we all, as human beings, are painfully familiar. This is a story of pain, of loss, of cowardice, of bravery, but most importantly, of what we can accomplish because of the love of others. It shows us that we need not be bound by our past. In a word, it is beautiful.

Social Networking for Book Lovers

evillebibliophile@evpl — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 18:37:00 GMT

I have a librarian friend who is constantly telling me about the books she has read that she thinks I need to read. We are talking two and three books in a day! She always has good suggestions and I do want to read them, but I was struggling for a way to keep track of all the things she wanted me to read! Thankfully, I stumbled upon a social networking site called GoodReads. GoodReads helps you keep track of all the books you've read and has an area for you to list books that you want to read in the future. You can write reviews of your books and give them a star rating for others to see. You can become friends with others on the site, just like Facebook, and see what they've read. You can even add books you see on their 'shelves' to your shelves! This website is a great way for book lovers to share their 'good reads' and keep in touch with other bookish people. It's a lot of fun and it gets really addicting. Enjoy!

The Library: An Illustrated History by Stuart A. P. Murray

Bufkinite@evpl — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 23:01:00 GMT

This very readable and lavishly illustrated book is a survey of libraries, from the earliest gatherings of clay tablets in the library at Nineveh to the present grandeur of the Library of Congress. It is full of the characters of library history as well: from King Assurbanipal in 700 BCE, Mansa Musa, the sultan of Mali in Timbuktu in the 1300s, and the Mughal emperors Akbar in the late 1500s, to Thomas Bodley, Melvil Dewey, and Andrew Carnegie. All of themhave anecdotes attached to them which help to illustrate and flesh out the development and evolution of those institutions we call libraries today.

The Library: An Illustrated History tends to focus on Europe and the United States, but spends a chapter discussing Asia and Islam and their influence on the history of the book and libraries, and another, called "People of the Book," discussing the interplay between Judaism, Christianity, and Islam in the history of library development.

One of the themes running through this book is how the libraries of the victors are enlarged and enriched throughout history by the pillaging of the libraries of the vanquished. The Bibliotheque nationale de France, the Vatican Library, and the British Library have all broadened their substantial collections in this fashion. Another theme mentioned frequently was how war influenced which ideas were given currency in a given culture and time: "It was usually the sword that decided whose teachings would be supreme in any given land."

In this regard, this book compliments the message in Matthew Battles's book Library: An Unquiet History, but that book is only marginally illustrated, and does not bring the reader the wonderful survey of world libraries with which Murray's book ends. Anyone wanting a good overview of library history would find their time well spent reading this book.

Love As Always, Kurt: Vonnegut As I Knew Him, by Loree Rackstraw

Bufkinite@evpl — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 06:21:00 GMT

In September of 1965 Lorree Rackstraw was a graduate student in her second year at the Iowa Writer's Workshop, apprehensive about her new teacher, a relatively unknown writer named Kurt Vonnegut. Vonnegut had published just three books: The Sirens of Titan, Mother Night, and Cat's Cradle. He'd also finished writing God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater the previous spring, and was struggling to get onto paper what he referred to as his "Dresden Book."

Love As Always, Kurt, recounts the friendship that began that summer, and lasted over 40 years, until Kurt Vonnegut died in April of 2007. To call it a friendship cheapens the care that this memoir makes clear they shared with one another. Rackstraw is now Professor Emeritus and the University of Northern Iowa & former editor of The North American Review.

This memoir of Rackstraw's forty-year relationship with Kurt Vonnegut is a very personal and deep look into both the human and the writer behind the name Kurt Vonnegut. We see clearly how, as a writer, he labors in draft after draft of everything he wrote from Slaughterhouse Five to Man Without a Country, and down to the speeches he gave at countless colleges, universities, graduations, and memorial services. We see, just as clearly, how he champions common humanity, and simultaneously enjoys the company of the famous and relatively well-to-do. We see how, despite periods of darkness and cynicism, this relationship buoyed Vonnegut, and provided Rackstraw with an escape from the pressures of her academic career as well.

We see, most plainly, a deep and abiding friendship that transcends all normal definitions. Was it love? Definitely. What it friendship? In the most useful meaning of the word, yes. But it was more: it was a collegial relationship - Vonnegut sent her page proofs of everything from Slaughterhouse Five forward; it was an intimate relationship, certainly: "Kurt and I toured the town of Key West, hand in hand like kids, and took photographs of each other beside somebody else's catch of a huge fish... Later, we danced barefoot under moonlight on that beach, to ragtime music from the piano bar;" and ultimately, it was a lifelong relationship, that saw a parting of the ways only in the death of one.

Being a long-time Vonnegut fan, I loved this book. It represents a first-hand account of four decades of his life by someone who he consistently loved, and who loved him in return. A tender portrait.

The Book of William: How Shakespeare's First Folio Conquered the World

Bufkinite@evpl — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 21:34:00 GMT

Paul Collins writes in a convivial and breezy style, and is the kind of natural storyteller who brings history to life. Nevertheless, in The Book of William, his scholarship and authority are undeniable, and make this book an important entry point for those interested in learning more about Shakespeare.

This telling of the "life story" of what became known as the First Folio of Shakespeare (though the book's title, according to commonly accepted cataloging rules would be Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies) is, quite simply wonderfully done.

Written in five "Acts" subdivided into scenes, it takes the reader from the day in 1617 or 1618 that John Heminge and Henry Condell - two aging men who had actually worked with Shakespeare - approached the printer William Jaggard with the idea of publishing all the known works of the Bard, to 2006 in Meisei University in Tokyo, home of the largest university collection of First Folios in the world; 12 of them, "more than the British Library and the New York Public Library combined."

In between we are introduced to such well-known characters as Alexander Pope and Dr. Samuel Johnson, and a host of lesser-known but nevertheless interesting characters as: Dr. Anthony James West, who conducted a recent worldwide census of First Folios (locating a record 230 copies); Henry Clay Folger, collector extraordinaire and founder of the Folger Shakespeare Library (which owns an astounding 79 copies of the First Folio); Charlton Hinman, inventor of the Hinman collator; and Mitsuo Kodama, past president of Meisei University, and the only reason why Meisei University has so many First Folios.

Spanning three continents and nearly four centuries, this book is a delightful look at the one book that routinely sells for fifty-five times its weight in gold.

Link to the Shakespeare Folio Electronic Library at Meisei University.
Purchase a facsimile of the First Folio from Amazon, and benefit the Public Library Friends.

"A weed by any other name : the virtues of a messy lawn, or, learning to love the plants we don't plant" by Nancy Gift

MediaPhile@evpl — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 14:46:00 GMT

I recall a gardening workshop where I posed a question having to do with lawns. The speaker asked what kind of grass I had and I replied "weedy grass." The audience laughed, but it was a serious reply. That was the only kind of grass I knew growing up and it is the same kind of grass I have now, so rest assured I was delighted with this book.

A blog post self-describes Dr. Gift as "an assistant professor of environmental studies and acting director of the Rachel Carson Institute at Chatham University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where she lives with her husband, two daughters, and a lawn full of weeds." I love it!

Each chapter focuses on the pluses and minuses of the various "weeds" that creep into our yards -- violets, dandelions, morning glory, etc. You won't be able to finish this short book without wondering whether you really need commercial spraying of noxious chemicals to maintain a perfect monocultural lawn -- one that doesn't contribute to the viability of insects, birds, or any other life (including that of barefoot kids).

p.s. when you read about the intensive spraying done on golf courses, you might decide to switch to a different sport.

Reading Contest Deadline Approaching! July 20th!

Shh_ImReading@evpl — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 18:43:00 GMT

Adult Summer Reading Program participants, this year's program is winding down. We need your Reading Contest entry forms turned in by library closing time on Monday, July 20th for you to have your chance(s) to win a cash prize! Hopefully you've found some good books to read during the program, but remember, we're here with eight locations full of good reading all year long!

90 Classic Books for People in a Hurry by Henrik Lange

Bufkinite@evpl — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 13:20:00 GMT

This morning over my first cup of coffee I read Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness; and then Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird. I decided to read The Three Musketeers before jumping in the shower.

This delightful book reduces most of the canon of "Western Literature" into a series of four-panel cartoons. Each of the books thus encapsulated is given one two-page spread, and each 4-panel cartoon only uses 3 to tell the story, because one panel is always the book title.

I found this collection to be very funny and well thought out. It's also weird how many of the books he actually does capture the essence of in one page.

You're in a hurry, so check this one out!

Revolution In The Air by Clinton Heylin

Bufkinite@evpl — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 16:09:00 GMT

When Clinton Heylin writes about Bob Dylan, people listen. His biography Dylan: Behind the Shades, not only dug deeper than any other biographer or Dylan enthusiast, the painstaking detail of his scholarship was obvious.

So having the chance to get my hands on the first of a projected two-volume opus detailing each of the 600 songs Dylan has written thus far, I couldn’t let it go. I haven’t been disappointed. Heylin chronicles the songs in the order they were written, not the order in which they were recorded or performed (many of them have yet to be recorded, or were recorded and not released, and some of them have no known performance date), and this choice serves him well, allowing him to use his detailed knowledge of Dylan’s biography to give the songs a context that the lyrics alone might not provide.

The first volume details the first 300 songs, from “Juvenilia” in Hibbing (1957) to 1972 and the songs associated with Pat Garret and Billy the Kid. Amazingly, 207 of these 300 songs were written in the five year period of 1962-1967, what Heylin calls “a burst of creativity that dwarfs any comparable twentieth-century figure.”

The scholarship and attention to detail are, as was the case with Behind the Shades, commendable. My only complaints are that:

Heylin tends to grouse about the scholarship of others that got there before him. For instance he says of Michel Krogsgaard’s sessionography, published in nine installments in two Dylan fanzines, that it “has become, in the fullness of time, a valuable resource. But it could have been of greater value still if he had collated his own work with that of the the only other person to use Sony’s resources [Heylin], and annotated his session listing with a clear indication of which material he had actually heard (almost none of it, I’d surmise).” 
There are few - very few - glaring omissions: places where Heylin seems to just simply have missed what most other folk music students know. For instance, Heylin lists Dylan’s #16 song as “Just As Long As I’m In This World,” a song written by Rev. Gary Davis, and first recorded by him as “I Am The Light Of This World” during his initial recording session for the American Recording Company in 1935. Heylin mentions Dylan’s studies of traditional blues music, and even the fact that Dylan would often borrow tunes and lyric phrases and call them his own. But he describes “Just As Long As I’m in This World” as “another early attempt at a would-be spiritual” that “tries hard to evoke a Pentecostal fervor, the singer suggesting he has ‘fiery fingers / I got fiery hands / And when I get to heaven / I’ll join the fiery band.’” All without ever mentioning Rev. Gary Davis, or the earlier recording, which have just exactly these lyrics as one verse.

But these are admittedly petty complaints, given the immensity of the task Heylin set for himself. No one else even made the attempt of a chronicle so daunting, so minor grouses and omissions do not constitute failure. Heylin has succeeded beyond my expectations.

The book contains a song index and a general index, and each song is keyed to books where the lyrics have appeared, and to published recordings where the song first appeared.

The second volume, entitled Still on the Road - The Songs of Bob Dylan 1974-2006, is due out later this year.

The official Bob Dylan web site.

Dylan's MySpace page, where you can listen to tracks from his forthcoming recording Together Through Life, which you can buy at Amazon.com & benefit the Public Library Friends.

Clinton Heylin's site, detailing published and forthcoming works.

The Author gave me... ...breakfast?

kiya@evpl — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 21:46:00 GMT

You never know what you might find when you go exploring on authors' websites. Maybe there will be a contest - a chance to win a signed book or other prize. Perhaps some short stories about minor characters in an ongoing series. With Google or other search engines it can be easy to locate author websites. Here are some interesting things I've located lately.

Susan Elizabeth Phillips writes modern romances with engaging characters, strong women, and very descriptive love scenes. When I went looking for her website I found an epilogue for one of her books, a contest, writing tips, information about the charities she supports, a message board, and the grand prize - RECIPES! So far, my favorite is the Baked Oatmeal - a casserole that can prepared ahead and pieces reheated in the morning for a quick and easy hot breakfast - SO much better than instant oatmeal, and just as easy in the morning. The whole family likes it, and I've started experimenting with adding different fruit before baking. My kids also liked the Harvest Soup, and the Pumpkin Dip was yummy for dipping apple slices.

Emilie Richards writes a mystery series about a minister's wife, occasional romances, and what is often called "women's fiction" - including her Shenandoah Valley Quilt series. Her website includes her blog - I loved this entry about her recent trip to Guatemala. Also included on her website is information about quilting, and the quilts she describes in the Shenandoah Valley series, along with other treasures.

Jeffrey Cohen mostly writes mysteries and screenplays, but he also has a couple of nonfiction books about raising children who are somewhere on the Autism spectrum.

Whatever he is writing, you can be sure his sense of humor shows through. Cohen's latest gift to his readers is a song about all the different subtypes of mysteries: cozies, noir, hard-boiled, etc. Take a couple of minutes to watch the video, and see why his fellow authors are taking up a collection to buy him a trench coat.

Last but not least, Len Fisher writes about science for those of us who are interested in science, but not especially well-educated in the field. At least one magazine describes him as "the guy who puts the Fizz in Physics." His website features cartoons, his blog about the writing he does, some humorous stories from the media about science.

Please share the authors' websites that you like to visit.

EVPL has books by:

Defending the Written Word: The Book Thief

lit.fic.reader@evpl — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 17:40:00 GMT

The third and final selection in McCollough's Defending the Written Word book discussion series is The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. An award-winning and best-selling novel, it is a searing and moving work set in Nazi Germany. The main character is a young German girl who finds that reading helps to sustain her in an increasingly brutal world, and whose story is told by a quite unusual narrator. If intrigued, please join us at 3:00 on Wednesday, March 25th, in McCollough's meeting room at the east end of the library. Copies will be available for checkout at McCollough's circulation desk.