An Embarrassment of Riches

Who's That Knockin' on My Door?; or amusement while waiting for Trick or Treaters - by Alison

Some Halloween thoughts for things that we lend 
while waiting for all of those young costumed friends.
What's not to like in weird combinations
Of regency style and zombie nations?

While waiting for ghosties and ghoulies arrival
Peruse our advice about zombie survival

Or perhaps a movie one can easily pause
About barbarous creatures with blood on their claws
But just remember as you open the door
You can't rescind invites to guests you abhor.

   Ding dong! You gonna get that?....

True Life Comic Book Heroes - by Alison Comic books are full of charismatic leaders locked in desperate struggles, but a vast majority of these are fictional. It's perspective-changing when comics are used to tell stories of real people. One such book is Louis Riel: A Comic Strip Biography, by Chester Brown. Riel is a character of mythic proportions in Canadian history. He butted heads with the newly established government of Canada, starting in 1869 when he led the Red River Rebellion. Riel was a leader who believed he was divinely chosen to protect and defend the rights of the Metis - descendants of First Nations people and Europeans who suffered persecution from the wider culture. Brown tells the story of Riel's fights and flights back and forth across the Canadian border, from Manitoba, to Montana and then to Saskatchewan, where he was eventually arrested for treason and hanged. The minimalist color scheme and Brown's crisp drawings create a suspenseful story that could otherwise come across as a dry recitation of historical fact. If you never thought you'd read a comic book, but are a history buff, give this a try. Find out more about the intriguing Louis Riel here.

Happy to Be Here - by Alison

The story of this country is the story of people coming and going, but mostly coming. The very concept of America has captured the imaginations of millions, among them writers, artists and bloggers. I was reminded of the amazing pastiche of people who have come here after looking at artist Maira Kalman's latest on her blog The Pursuit of Happiness. In "I Lift My Lamp Beside the Golden Door", Kalman takes a long view of the history of this country, beginning with Leif Ericson and ending with a trip to a cemetery in the Bronx, where the diminutive immigrant Irving Berlin is buried, the one who gave us the line "heaven, I'm in heaven...".

New York is a fine place to start if you want to hear stories about outsiders and newcomers. A recent trip there inspired me to read, watch and listen to everything I could find about the city. Intrigued by the Tenement Museum in the Lower East Side, I searched for some fiction of that era and discovered Up From Orchard Street  by Eleanor Widmer. It's a 'slice of life' story about a family living in a crowded apartment in 1920's Manhattan and trying to make ends meet by running a restaurant out of their front room. A earlier and grittier portrayal of immigrants is the movie Gangs of New York. Though Scorsese took artistic liberties in describing the rivalries between immigrant gangs, he did draw from the book of the same name Gangs of New York: An Informal History of the Underworld, by Herbert Asbury, first published in 1928. Be sure to watch the extra footage provided on the DVD if you're interested in the environs of 1800's Lower East Side.

A recent album by Steve Earle, who himself 'immigrated' to Greenwich Village from Tennessee, celebrates his adopted home. Washington Square Serenade includes several love letters to the city. "Down Here Below" tells the story of Pale Male, a red-tailed hawk who took up residence near Central Park and became a media darling. Another song rejoices in the diversity of NYC: "I've no need to go traveling; open the door and the world walks in, living in a city of immigrants."

For more fiction about the immigrant experience, take a look at our list of multicultural reads.

Escape the Tyranny of the New - by Alison

I'm as anxious as the next person to lay my hands on the latest, hottest title from the New York Times Best Seller List. But with a queue of close to 400 holds on Malcolm Gladwell's latest, The Outliers, over 300 people waiting for the Austen/ Grahame-Smith mash-up Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (now with ultraviolent zombie mayhem!) and over 170 people anxious to read the highly acclaimed 2666 by Robert Bolaño, are we forced to go bookless?

No!

Here's one trick for finding a good book that isn't also in high demand. Take a look at what was hot, say, a couple of decades ago. July 7th, 1991 saw Amy Tan's The Kitchen God's Wife on the New York Times Best Seller list. Publishers Weekly said, "it is a triumph, a solid indication of a mature talent for magically involving storytelling, beguiling use of language and deeply textured and nuanced character development." In 1955, MacKinlay Kantor's Andersonville was top of the pops, and was called "the greatest of our Civil War novels."  For more acclaimed but long forgotten bestsellers, you can peruse this list from Cader Books.

There are plenty of other sources for good reads. Though you may have already resigned yourself to waiting a while for the newest Pulitzer prize winner Olive Kitteridge, in the meantime take a look at Abe Books' "Most Forgotten Pulitzers" where you'll notice Advise and Consent by Allen Drury, a book that tackled the topic of Communism and generated so much interest that it stayed on the New York Times bestseller list for close to two years.

Alternatively, on our Readers page, you'll find a list of award winning fiction. And here's a handy link to Multnomah County Library staff picks, going back to 2005, where you'll find our favorite fiction and non-fiction.

An Autodidact's Delight - by Alison

The world is so full of a number of things, I'm sure we should all be as happy as kings. I'm often reminded of this phrase when I look at the sheer amount of material the library houses, on such a wide range of topics. The other day I came across a DVD called The Art of Requeening. Was it a new method for playing chess? A treatise on the politics of filling royal vacancies? Actually, it turned out to be about bee culture and honeybee breeding. Who knew there was such a thing, and that the library owns it?

That's just the beginning. My friend borrowed a copy of The Bodhrán DVD, in hopes of learning the ancient art of celtic drumming. I've gotten some good out of the video course Understanding the Fundamentals of Music from the Teaching Company, publishers of CD and DVD lectures by professors from universities across the country. Another friend built a lovely bookcase by studying the art of biscuit joinery.

So what do you want to study? Want to learn fingerstyle guitar, Bollywood dancing, Hula, magic tricks East Coast Swing, the art of spey casting? There's a DVD for that. Maybe you want the Monks of New Skete to show you how to make your dog behave? There's a DVD for that. Perhaps you've been hunting and would now like to learn how to tan that deer you bagged? There's a DVD for that. You can even learn 5 string banjo from the inimitable Pete Seeger. Browse our whole list of instructional videos. Maybe you'll discover a talent you never knew you had.

PDX sounds good - Loch Lomond - by Alison

The first time I heard Loch Lomond it was amazing I could hear them at all. The local band was playing the Pickathon festival when the sound system died. The audience responded by getting as close as possible to the stage. From there it was possible to hear all the nuances of the music and admire the range of instruments - including melodica, clarinet and vibraphone. It was fun to watch the looks passing between the band members as they did their best to give a good show under the circumstances. The sight-seeing planes circling overhead didn't help with the acoustics and yet the audience was charmed anyway.

Loch Lomond's music has been described as "mesmerizing" and "lush". Lead singer Ritchie Young has an ethereal voice that seems to float above the music. The songs move from sweet and dreamy to sinister - what does he mean "the sounds of children laughing makes my eyes bleed"? For a visual representation of the music's sense of mystery and foreboding, go to their MySpace page and take a look at the video for "Blue Lead Fences" from their soon to be released album.
It's hard to pin down exactly what genre Loch Lomond falls into. Though I love all those descriptions that music critics come up with (otherworldy folk? circus pop? chamber folk?), maybe you should just have a listen for yourself.

Epiphany Fic - by Alison

In the spring it's hard to resist the urge to turn the house upside down, plough up the garden and in general give everything a thorough cleaning. But what about those cobwebs in our brains? After spending many a dark and rainy day curled up with the likes of Cormac McCarthy and listening to The Smiths, spring just seems to require more redemptive reading. I like to call this epiphany fiction. These are the kind of books featuring protagonists undergoing life-changing events. With any luck maybe some of it rubs off on you, the reader.

One such is The Poet of Tolstoy Park by Sonny Brewer. Henry, a 67 year-old retiree and widower is told that he has a terminal illness. Determined to make the most of his last days, he sells everything and moves to a Utopian town in Alabama. There he tends to his soul and is surprised at the number of lessons he has to learn. It's a gentle read that celebrates community and self-reflection.

Equally enjoyable and a bit more complex, Philosophy Made Simple by Robert Hellenga tells the story of Rudy, an avocado dealer in Chicago. He too is a widower who has lost his bearings after the death of his wife. He should be contemplating retirement, but instead, in a move that stuns his children, he sells everything and buys an avocado farm in Texas. His only road map for this new life is a book - Philosophy Made Simple. As he reads about the great thinkers of history he tries to find meaning in his new life, which now includes the care of a painting elephant named Norma Jean. 

But my favorite epiphany fic choice of recent years is The Life of Pi by Yann Martel. Pi Patel is a boy driven by curiosity. As a zoo-keeper's son, he's constantly studying animals. Unable to decide on one religion, he practices Hinduism, Christianity and Islam with equal fervor. When Pi is 16 his father decides that the family and the zoo will emigrate to Canada via cargo ship. The ship sinks and Pi is forced to share his lifeboat with the only other survivors, a hyena, an orangutan, a wounded zebra, and Richard Parker, a 450-pound Bengal tiger. What's a boy to do but to get really serious about the big questions of life and philosophy?

I hope I've given you a reasonable excuse to put down the mop and pick up a book. Happy spring and happy reading!

Read it Yourself Poetry - by Helen and Alison Does anyone read poetry anymore? If I find a piece of poetry under my nose, I'm likely to read it. If I'm sitting on the bus, I will read it. If there's a poem in the newspaper, I'll read it. If it's stuck up on someone's cubicle wall, I will definitely read it. But I don't keep up with the latest in the poetry world.
I think part of the problem is that many poems are really meant to be read aloud, rather than being left to bounce around in the confines of our skulls. Hip hop artists and poets who perform in poetry slams have it right - to really appreciate the cadence, to savor the words, you have to hear it aloud. So in honor of National Poetry Month, here is our modest rendition of  "Book Lice" from Paul Fleischman's Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices. Do try this at home, or borrow the audio book and let someone read to you. (Listen to the podcast here. For more podcasts from the library visit http://multcolib.libsyn.com/)

Storytime for the Grown Ups - by Alison

Sometimes kids get all the breaks. I ask you, when was the last time that you sat at the knees of someone who was willing to read a book to you, AND was reading upside down so you could study the illustrations? It happens everyday in schools and libraries, though there's rarely an adult sitting cross-legged among the children. 'All well and good', you might say, 'but who writes picture books for adults?' Maira Kalman, that's who.

I've been a fan of Kalman's work ever since I came across Ooh-la-la (Max in Love). The book, admittedly written for kids, tells the story of the poet dog Max, who goes to Paris, gains enlightenment and falls in love. At one point he is awakened by "a k-k-k-k-knocking" and into his hotel room enters "a long mustache followed by a man". The words 'long mustache' form the thing itself curled under the Parisian waiter's nose.

Not content to stick to children's books, Kalman is a frequent contributor to the New Yorker, and has since illustrated The Elements of Style. Yes! How? You'll just have to take a look at it - it's hard to describe.

But my favorite of her recent offerings is The Principles of Uncertainty. The book is a mix of memoir, philosophical musing and photographic record - but the photographs are actually paintings. Paintings of people caught in different aspects: of the museum guard who sits in Proust's room; of elderly New Yorkers walking the streets; of her sister sitting at a kitchen table eating honey cake and telling stories. And all of it accompanied by prose that is matter-of-fact and poignant at the same time:

"MY sister and I go to Israel during the short, furious, the world-is-doomed war. For a wedding. Because you CANNOT postpone weddings in DARK TIMES - especially in dark times. Who knows when the light will come on again. Are things normal? I don't know. Does life go on? YES." 

Through her pictures and words, Kalman captures what is essential about life. So think about it. Do you know of an adult who misses storytime?

More of Maira Kalman's art here.

End of the World, as We Know It - by Alison (read)

Why is it that the beginning of a new year often stirs up predictions of catastrophe and end-of-world scenarios? A recent posting on News Notes reminded me of post-apocalyptic novels and movies. I enjoy them, but it's hard to say why. Is it schadenfreude? I'd like to think I'm not the kind of person who takes joy in other people's sorrows. Maybe it's more about the 'what would you do?' possibilities. While the world is crumbling and everyone is fleeing, no doubt you would have the presence of mind to jump on your bike and find the less traveled way out of town. No doubt you would know how to produce flour from cattails and create shelter from a tree stump, thanks to your keen memory of My Side of the Mountain.

There's no dearth of such novels. Many readers enjoyed the bleak vision presented in Cormac McCarthy's The Road. Around the time Oprah was promoting The Road, I was reading Jim Crace's The Pesthouse, the story of a world that has reverted to a sort of medieval dark ages following a super-plague. A man falls in love with an outcast woman, and they journey across a ravaged landscape in an effort to leave the U.S. for the new promised land - Europe. Crace's book ends more optimistically than McCarthy's, if you need a bit of redemption in your reading.

Another, more hopeful version of the tale is World Made by Hand by James Howard Kunstler.  A small community tries to maintain justice and order while surrounded by a corrupt and decaying world. The book is populated by a cast of characters often found in such dystopias - the charismatic cult leader, the plundering villains, the benevolent dictator, and the reluctant hero. The townspeople have become models of self-reliance, with everything, as the title suggests, made by hand. The DIY ethic would probably be onerous if you were forced to engage in canning, hunting and gardening, but it's fun to imagine such a life from your armchair, with the furnace pumping and the electric lights blazing.

The library has a wealth of stories that explore a world gone awry. You might try Brave New World, The Gone Away World, The Children of Men and Life as We Knew It. It was fun to watch Will Smith navigate the deserted (except for the zombies!) streets of New York in I am Legend, based on the book by Richard Matheson. And if it all gets to be a bit too much, take a look at the humorous side of zombie chaos with Shaun of the Dead.

Have a favorite post-apocalyptic book or movie? Tell us about it in the comments section.

A Willy Loman Kind of Day - by Alison I can't be alone in having the occasional Willy Loman day. Arthur Miller wrote the quintessential down on his luck character in the play Death of a Salesman. Loman is the guy who believes that he can achieve the American dream of wealth and prestige through optimism and boot-strapping his way to the top, but he can't seem to catch a break. It's not as if you're going to seek out Willy Loman types when you're having that kind of day, but sometimes it's good to read about characters who put your own self-pity in perspective. Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis is a funny take on the underdog story. Jim Dixon is a lecturer at a provincial college. He finds it difficult to bear the pomposity of his colleagues and as a result becomes a contortionist, trying to reconcile himself to living a life he doesn't believe in. Whenever I'm alone in an elevator I'm tempted to make grotesque faces as Jim does in private, a physical display of his roller coaster emotional life. In most tragedies there are bodies strewn about the stage at the end of the play; in Lucky Jim, Jim implodes in an excruciatingly funny scene.
James Thurber's Walter Mitty is another character who lives an exceedingly dull life mitigated only by his imaginative fantasy world. In fact, NPR's show In Character, explores the fictional lives of both Walter Mitty and Willy Loman. If you haven't heard it yet, In Character is a fascinating look at the characters who populate the world of books, film, theater and television. Do events in your life make you hearken back to certain characters? Tell us about it in the comments section.

Uncommonly Good - by Alison

I’ve just finished The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett. It took only a couple of hours to read, but what a pleasure! The premise is that the Queen, in wrangling her incorrigible corgis, discovers that the local library’s book mobile makes a regular stop by the kitchens at Windsor Palace. Stepping in to apologize for the ruckus, she thinks it only polite to borrow a book. (Listen to a podcast of this excerpt here.)

“She had still not solved her problem, knowing that if she left without a book it would seem to Mr Hutchings that the library was somehow lacking. Then on a shelf of rather worn-looking volumes she saw a name she remembered. ‘Ivy Compton-Burnett! I can read that.’ She took the book out and gave it to Mr. Hutchings to stamp.

‘What a treat!’ she hugged it unconvincingly before opening it. ‘Oh. The last time it was taken out was in 1989.’

‘She’s not a popular author, ma’am.’

‘Why, I wonder? I made her a dame.’

Mr Hutchings refrained from saying that this wasn’t necessarily the road to the public’s heart."

And so begins a love affair with books that will change forever her sense of duty and her relations with the politicians, servants and celebrities that people her life.

Bennett is a charming writer and there were many laugh out loud moments. And through it all he confirms what all librarians know: if only people would read, they would be better, smarter, more sensitive and wiser, though not necessarily more content. The Queen begins by turning her focus inward, but more and more finds her perception of things going on around her is sharpened by her reading. This leads to a stunning denouement, about which I will say no more.

Bennett is also the author of The Clothes they Stood Up In and of the screenplay The History Boys, a movie I can heartily recommend. All in all, this is a thoroughly enjoyable read.

Ghoulies and ghosties and long-leggedy beasties - by Alison

I'm unfortunate in that I like a good scary movie. Unfortunate because they come along so rarely. I can't get behind those slasher sort of films where someone leaps out from behind a door and the audience sees a knife plunging up and down to the strains of a badly tuned orchestra. No. Give me movies with a bit of mystery. A creepy old house is good, hopefully one with a troubled history. A ghost -- or I should say -- the suggestion of a ghost -- is even better. And ideally, the protagonist will have to go to the local library to research the events that took place in this strange little town back in 1890 or whenever. And may I say that looking for this information on a microfiche reader is just so much more atmospheric than seeing our protagonist jump on the internet and google "mysterious circumstances in Creepyville". In my opinion one of the best of these was The Changeling. If you were around at the time, perhaps you remember the ads for the movie which showed a creaky wooden wheelchair, unoccupied, chasing one of the characters down a long hall. George C. Scott played the unsuspecting man who moves into the house, only to find that someone is still living there. Sadly, the library no longer owns the movie, and I suspect it is long out of print. Add to that The Watcher in the Woods (a Disney film no less) and The Lady in White about a boy who gets locked in the school cloakroom on Halloween night and sees a murder from the past replayed before him. Alas! They don't make them like that anymore.

But hey, wait! They do! I recently watched Guillermo Del Toro's (Pan's Labyrinth) The Orphanage. A woman and her husband have purchased the orphange where she grew up with the idea of making a home for disabled children. Their son, Simon, soon begins telling his parents about his new friends. A sensitive kid, an old house with a past, mysterious visitors, bumps in the night, what's not to love? Though some of the reviews were less than glowing, sometimes all you want is a good atmospheric movie, someone to watch it with, and a blanket with which to cover your head.