Staff Picks: Books
Staff-recommended reading from the
KPL catalog.
Gabriel Coats, his mother, Sewing Annie, his fiancée, Mary, and his sister, Ellen buy their freedom after great suffering, and open a tailor shop and laundry in Washington, DC, just before the Civil War. Not surprisingly, their master tries to regain control of his former property and the family is forced to pay for their “freedom” again and again.
Stand the Storm is an uplifting love story of men and women attempting to free themselves from slavery. The strength of the story lies in the character development and the exploration of their relationships with each other during a time when former slaves fought for their lives almost on a daily basis.
I realize I knew little about slaves who had bought their freedom before the Civil War. This is a compelling story of injustice and sadness, yet also with joy and hope.
Book
Stand the Storm
9780316007047
I found Gifts of War, Mackenzie Ford’s first novel, an enjoyable historical fiction/romance that combined a World War I history lesson (including an amazing “you are there” description of the “Christmas Truce”) with interesting romantic intrigue. It’s a moral tale, exploring unintended consequences without being too preachy. Ever hear of an “Alice band?” If not, it’s something you’ll be compelled to check out on Wikipedia as you read the book. I enjoyed the book, but prefer tidy, though not necessarily always happy endings – you’ll understand if you read it. I also found it somewhat difficult to like the main characters. See what you think. I would definitely try another book by this author. Despite my reservations I thought this was an intriguing story.
Book
Gifts of War
9780385528955
The author of Three Day Road, Joseph Boyden, teaches writing at the University of New Orleans, where my brother is also on the faculty. Boyden's Canadian heritage comes through dramatically in this first novel as does his knowledge of World War I trench warfare, acquired through research and his grandfather's first hand accounts of battle. Three Day Road braids the stories of Native Canadian friends, Xavier Bird and Elijah Wiskeyjack, who enlist in the Canadian Army and become snipers on the western front, and an elder aunt, Niska, who retrieves her broken nephew at war's end. The journey by canoe to their northern wilderness village, Moose Factory, is the metaphorical three day road of the title. As the canoe glides through calm waters, Xavier and Niska, a prophetic Cree healer, share their wrenching stories in alternating voices and in stark contrast to the peaceful surroundings. This book brought to mind other favorite novels of war, All Quiet on the Western Front, Johnny Got His Gun, The Things They Carried, The Captain, and Beach Red. The weaving of rich Native cultural traditions into stark scenes of battle, however, offers a fresh telling of timeless tales. Three Day Road won the Books in Canada First Novel Award in 2005 and was a selection of the Today Show Book Club the same year. In 2006, it was shortlisted for Canada Reads, a unique literary competition sponsored by the CBC.
Book
Three Day Road
0143037072
I have always gravitated toward books set in the sixties, specifically those having to do with the Civil Rights Movement, perhaps because I was at such an impressionable age during that time. Regardless, I've recently added another to my list of favorites, The Help, a debut novel by Kathryn Stockett. Set in Jackson, Mississippi in 1962, the story is told in alternating chapters by two African American maids and the young white woman who has decided to write a book that anonymously chronicles their lives along with those of several other black maids in the city at that time. Central to their story, for instance, is the irony of being entrusted to care for the children of their employers while at the same time being relegated to use a separate bathroom for fear of diseases thought to be carried by black people. Strong characters, regrettably accurate accounts of race relations in the South at that time, and good pacing made this an especially captivating and fast read. I look forward to more by this author.
The Help
9780399155345
Book
London in the early 1900’s is the setting for the first book in a promising new series by Kenneth Cameron. Jack Denton, an American in his fifties, is living in England after moving from the United States. He wrote best selling crime novels in the States, and achieved notoriety there after tragic events in his own life.
Now in England, Jack is approached by a terrified man who claims to have witnessed a murder by Jack the Ripper. Jack discounts the tale, until a young woman is discovered murdered, and he begins his own investigation. Scorned by the police and hampered by them as well, he encounters London’s dark side as he tries to uncover the truth.
Well drawn and quirky characters add much to this story, and so do the descriptions of London as a great city in the midst of industrial growth and change. You can almost feel you are there, walking down a wet, dimly lit alley….
Book
The Frightened Man
9780312538965
A refreshingly bold and astute essayist, Eula Biss’ critical inquiries on race relations, globalization and cultural identity have found their way into her recently published and award-winning Notes from No Man’s Land: American Essays. Unburdened with academic theorization or political heavy-handedness, these short yet heady pieces are revelatory for their power to penetrate the opaque surfaces of subjects not often discussed with any kind of attentiveness to nuance within the broader, public discourse. Her prose flows with ease and the way in which she ponders the intersections of American culture and history reminds me of the work of another great ruminator, Joan Didion.
Book
Notes from no man's land : American essays
9781555975180
Theistic minded people have wrestled with this question ever since people have started believing in a Deity: why does evil exist? In philosophy, this has been termed the "problem of evil," and formally reads: if a) God is all good, b) God is all powerful, and c) God created the world; then d) why does evil exist in the world?
Is this the best of all possible worlds? Is evil necessary for free will? Can we not understand the transcendent ways of a totally transcendant God? In this book not only does Nadler give us three unique answers to the problem of evil, but he wraps these answers nicely into three philosophical gaints of the 17th Century--Leibniz, Malebranche, and Arnauld. We enter not only into a philosophical and theological debate, but into the lives and times of these thinkers.
book
The Best of All Possible Worlds
9780374229986
In Jump at the Sun on Audiobook Kathleen McGhee-Anderson does an excellent job of conveying the vitality, power and pride of Zora Neale Hurston’s personality. By listening to the audio version I made more of a connection with Zora Neale Hurston. Through Ms. Anderson’s voice I could almost see Zora’s eagerness and determination to live her life her way. But Zora was ahead of her time. The heartbreaks and failures did not seem to dim the light in Ms. Anderson’s voice as she communicated Zora’s spunkiness regardless of her adversities. Listening to Zora Neale Hurston’s story it is hard to understand how someone with her talents, gifts and ambitions died broke and unappreciated. A. P. Porter in the book Jump at the Sun said “Being needy didn’t make her humble.”
Music
Jump at the Sun
LWO58081297A
I always thought statistics were boring, until I started working on the Central library Reference Desk and learned how often people need statistical information. Our patrons request statistics for such varied reasons as backing up business plans for small business loans, assessing community needs for grant applications, and protesting environmental racism in specific Kalamazoo neighborhoods.
Some of the helpful resources I’ve discovered include the:
Statistical Abstract of the United States, published annually and detailing nationwide statistics on a wide variety of topics, such as “Out-of-pocket Net prices of Attendance for Undergraduates,” “Number of emergency and transitional beds in homeless assistance systems nationwide,” and “Carbon dioxide emissions;”
County and City Data Book: A Statistical Abstract Supplement, which is useful for identifying local data, and
American FactFinder, an electronic portal to data compiled by the U.S. Census Bureau.
We can thank the U.S. Census Bureau for the availability of many of the stats we provide at the Reference Desk. Read more about what data the Census collects and how it is used, then learn how data will be collected in the 2010 Census.
Book
Statistical Abstract of the United States
statistical-abstract-2009-160
www.catalog.kpl.gov/uhtbin/cgisirsi/x/0/0/5?searchdata1=0081-4741
So, summer’s almost over, and you’ve given up on "beach reading," as the weather seems set on staying cool. Now, you say, you’re looking for some deeper, brain-challenging reads to get in the mind-set for “back to school?”
Have you noticed that you can access lists of award-winning books from KPL’s catalog? For example, you could find the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction winners, all the way back to The Magnificent Ambersons, by Booth Tarkington, published in 1918 (when this prize was named Pulitzer Prize for the Novel.) Or choose to place a hold on the most recent winner, Elizabeth Strout’s Olive Kitteridge.
To find your way to the lists, simply go to the catalog, see the lists of award-winners on the left, under “Recommended Reading,” and choose a category. We have all our holdings posted in reverse chronological order. At the bottom of the lists, you’ll see “More recommended reading lists.” Go ahead, click on it, and see how many more categories of award-winning books you can access at your local library!
Book
Olive Kitteridge
9781400062089