Fall. As summer’s last warm breezes give way to a small chill in the air, our thoughts turn to snuggling in on the longer evenings with a pile of good books at our sides, reading to our heart’s content. Our erudite and engaging staff – those wonderful professionals who choose all of our latest books – have ordered a virtual abundance of choices for your pleasure in the autumn months. The books chosen below are just a small sampling of the diverse offerings available.
Self-help and inspirational books abound on our bookshelves these days. Too many offer a short-term “fix”- not the words and phrases that will stick with us long after we have read the book. Fortunately, there are exceptions. And I have found one in a small, handmade, lovingly put-together volume called When I Loved Myself Enough by Kim McMillen. Filled with honesty and universal truths, the pages should be read in order, page by page, to the very end in one short sitting. I personally found that it had a lasting and unexpected impact like no other in the last months. It is also a caring gift for a special friend. Another – an intimate, candid, and engaging book, this time about widowhood called It Must Have Been Moonglow: Reflections On The First Years Of Widowhood, chronicles the emotional roller-coaster of author Phyllis Greene’s first years alone. In journal entries like small essays, she captures the sadness, the humor, and the triumphs of life alone after 56 years of marriage. Don’t miss her story of going out with a group of single, older women, none of whom can drive very well anymore! Again, a small volume writ large with the wit, insight, and honesty of a personal journey into widowhood. Very special.
And now to fiction, and Crow Lake. Canadian writer Mary Lawson’s debut novel is my head-and-shoulders favorite this time around. The story, narrated by 26-year-old Kate Morrison, is set in an isolated northern Ontario community where time has stood still. Its land and its climate literally become characters. The reader is swept into a year’s worth of childhood memories as Kate and her brothers and sister struggle to stay together after their parents die in an auto accident, and the tragedy of another local family spills into their lives with earth-shattering consequences. Our Book Sale guru, Helene Cox, said of Crow Lake, “I could hardly put the book down to do anything else. The author folded me into the story, letting it grow back and forth in time. Even if Mary Lawson has only one book in her, it is enough.” I concur. Wonderful story, wonderful characters, and a very good read!
A forgotten 1942 masterpiece by Hungarian author Sandor Marai – a book that has been compared to the work of Thomas Mann – Embers has been finally released in the United States. A small, beautifully crafted masterpiece, I consider it the find of the year to date. Two old men, once the best of friends, meet after a 41-year break in their relationship. They dine together in the old castle of their childhood as one slowly and deliberately traces the course of their dead friendship. It is the story of one night – a night in which the author captures the pandemonium of all human relationships: the smoldering embers of our feelings of love, lust, revenge, and hate. To say more would spoil the central spell of this exceptional novel. Highly recommended.
Certain characters, certain unexpected twists and turns of plot can turn what is essentially “a good read” into something a bit more. Michael Frayn’s Spies is one of those. On the surface it is a story of two boys spending a summer at play in England at the beginning of World War II. But as the novel progresses, layer after layer of this idyllic scene peels away as a childhood version of spying and espionage takes a sinister and unexpected turn. What seemed to be a mother’s simple errands and a family’s ordinary rituals – the focus of the boys’ childish speculation – become the tragic elements of adult catastrophe. The author manages to capture the dynamics of childhood friendships in a way not often seen. You find yourself remembering the story long after you have read the book.
A new book already optioned for a major movie, The Curve Of The World transports us into a remote jungle area of Africa’s Congo basin where a plane has made an emergency landing, finding itself surrounded by rebel militia that look to be up to no good. Only one American escapes, finding himself lost in a forest world where no rules apply and there seems no way out. The plot thickens when his estranged wife and son, determined to find him, join the search in the war-torn wilds of central Africa. The pace is lively, and author Marcus Stevens captures the landscapes in vividly descriptive detail, a fact that will not be lost on adventure travel lovers. Readers will already find themselves casting the movie as I did.
In Joan Anderson’s 1999 memoir A Year By The Sea, she described her yearlong break from marriage and a time of independent self-discovery as she approached middle age. Several years later and it is still being swept out of the bookstores. Now, in its sequel An Unfinished Marriage, the author returns to a husband who is an emotional quandary of his own, trying to find his place in a world of retirement. This reader is left with the question “Can this marriage last?” – but you must see for yourself as you follow Anderson into uncharted ground as she negotiates another of the “passages” of marriage.
And now a book to be shared with the entire family. I promise the ohhs and ahhs will abound as they open Yann Arthus-Bertrand’s Earth From Above – 365 Days. Photographs – an eye-popping treasure trove of breathtaking images of our world taken from above – are not to be missed. Working from helicopters and ultra-light aircraft at altitudes of 90 to 9000 feet over a period of 5 years, Bertrand took over 100,000 shots that would be distilled into the best of the best. Whether it is remote wilderness (my own favorite being a camel caravan in Mauritania, casting elongated shadows on desert sand) or the patterns of cities, farms, lakes, mountains, or monuments, the effect is extraordinary. This is a visual extravaganza that should not be missed. Mind-blowing.
Passionate liaisons, love, infidelity, are all wrapped up into 10 well-crafted short stories by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Richard Ford in his latest: A Multitude of Sins: Stories. The author is able to pull you into the affairs themselves, but seems more interested in what happens when intimacy fails to provide the anticipated satisfaction. Regret is often a common theme. I’d suggest reading its novella “Abyss” – the collection’s finest entry and one with Flannery O’Connor overtones – where an illicit visit to the Grand Canyon by two fellow realtors reveals a vastness far more profound. But as you move on to the shorter stories, you will be rewarded by an unsettling but very rewarding read.
Ah! And a new mystery by a Grand Master mystery writer whose heroine, Amelia Peabody Emerson, makes sleuthing the Sahara an eagerly awaited adventure for author Elizabeth Peters’ eager fans. What other mystery heroine do we know who is intrepid, tastefully dressed, and carries a sword within her prim parasol – just in case? What other author do we know who has a Ph.D. in Egyptology from University of Chicago’s Oriental Institute and is praised by fellow Egyptologists for scholarly accuracy? In The Golden One, her 14th book in the Peabody series, mystery lovers will enjoy the mixing of Egyptian World War I espionage with a who-done-it replete with grave robbers, a murder, and discovery of a richly furnished tomb in the desert. When this heroine picks up her parasol and charges full steam ahead, bringing intelligence and spirit to bear on her escapades, we are hooked.
So many choices. So just drop in to the library and browse the new books
and the rental books by the circulation desk for our wonderful new finds
before drifting off to visit more of our collections that you will see
around you. It’s time once again for you to find the joys of reading.
-- Joan Larsen