An Embarrassment of Riches

Plumbing the Depths of a Good Story - by Ruth Sometimes once is not enough for me - seeing the movie Amadeus over and over again, eating corn on the cob four days in a row when it's in season, visiting Britain multiple times, walking along Nye Beach, and hiking in the Columbia Gorge.  For some authors, writing a story just once is not enough.  In recent years, a number of books for teens and kids have come out that are based on books written for adults.  This week I read a fantastic book for older kids and teens called Chasing Lincoln's Killer by James Swanson which is based on his Edgar Award winning book Manhunt: The Twelve Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer. Swanson first describes the days leading up to the assassination, the prior plot to kidnap Lincoln, and the final plan to kill three of the most important political players of the day:  President Abraham Lincoln, Vice-President Andrew Johnson, and Secretary of State William H. Seward.  He then takes the reader through the assassination and assassination attempts, the various get-aways, the eventual discovery of the culprits and their fates.  He gives just the right amount of detail about the major figures in the story, keeps the action moving, and provides well-placed illustrations including photos of the people involved, newspaper clippings and a map detailing the route of the assassins. 194 pages was probably enough for me, but if you want the full scoop, you can read all 448 pages of Manhunt.

Several other non-fiction adult books and their younger companions to check out are:
Nathaniel Philbrick's In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex and Revenge of the Whale: The True Story of the Whaleship Essex
Mark Kurlansky's Cod: A Biography of the Fish that Changed the World and The Cod's Tale
Eric Schlosser's Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal and Chew on This: Everything You Don't Want to Know About Fast Food

Truth Through Fiction and The Known World - by Felicia I could never understand how free blacks could own other blacks. How could they justify this? The Known World, by Edward P. Jones, sheds some light on the topic, while making the devastation and tragedy of slavery in our country all too real. The main characters in this novel, both black and white, help us to understand the impact of this institution and how it affects us to this day.

Henry is a slave until the age of 14. Although he witnesses the atrocities of slavery, he is never a recipient of his master's abuses. A few years after his parents purchase his freedom, Henry purchases his own slave, and is reluctant to tell his parents he has done so. The scene that ensues is heartbreaking. His parents' question is a simple one: How could he become a slave owner when he himself has witnessed its evilness? His decision creates a schism between him and his parents that is never repaired.

Both black and white slave owners believe that they are doing the slaves a favor. Of course, the slaves are better off than they would be in Africa, where they were just savages. The way that the black slave owners view the slaves is particularly disturbing. They seem to feel no kinship with any of them, even those who were former slaves themselves. And if they must beat or maim their slaves, it's because they deserve it. How else to keep them from doing wrong?

One of the least surprising parts of the novel occurs when some free blacks are sold back into slavery. While a common practice, the affects of this practice are hard to read. In this one instant, the story changes from tragedy to horror.

Jones' story, though fiction, is all too real in its portrayal of the relationships among whites, free blacks and slaves and really helps us understand how the history of slavery still affects our morals and beliefs.

More Good Reading - by guest blogger Felicia

Our guest blogger is Felicia, the government documents librarian at the Central library. In her spare time, she likes to read, work in the yard with her husband and chase geese in the park with her black lab Floyd.

I am a voracious reader, so I always have to have a book in hand. I read almost entirely fiction, but I will read nonfiction that catches my eye. As another poster mentioned, it’s hard to get your hands on the latest books through the library because the hold list can be very long. So I picked two books that I really enjoyed that are older and should be available at the library.

Plainsong by Kent Haruf takes place in a small town. The characters are rich, and the stories intertwined in a way that will make you feel like you grew up with them. My favorite character is Victoria, a pregnant teenager who is thrown out by her mother and goes to live with two elderly brothers. Their relationship by itself is well-worth reading this book. The brothers have never married, so at times it’s poignantly funny how they deal with Victoria and her pregnancy. You also get a chance to meet Tom, a high school teacher whose home life is painful for both him and his sons because of his wife, who will not get out of bed. I don’t remember the word “depressed” ever being used in the book, but it’s obvious she is suffering. Then there’s Maggie, a fellow teacher who struggles with her feelings for Tom.

The writing is just magical and the rural town could be any place in the country. What makes this story stand is that the author actually makes you feel what the characters are going through without being melodramatic and syrupy. I found this book hard to put down. Being from a small town, I could picture the farm where the brothers lived and the small town at the center of the story. It’s a very satisfying read.

Another book that I recently discovered is a fictionalized account of the life of Mary Todd Lincoln. Mary, by Janis Cooke Newman, takes a woman who has been vilified by history and makes her simply human. I’ll admit that I didn’t know much about Mary Todd until I read this book. Though fiction, it bases a lot of the story in fact. Yes, Mary Todd was materialistic, but the book does point to the often overlooked fact that she lost two sons when they were children and a third son he was an adult. This could have caused her infamous spending sprees on everything from ball gowns to expensive artwork and dishes for the White House. The book also delves into her obsession with séances, explaining that she was desperate to contact her loved ones.

Mary Todd was an intelligent, opinionated woman who lived during a time when these qualities weren’t considered attractive in women. And let’s not forget that she encouraged her husband to enter politics and was his steadfast ally when he sought the presidency. Although history smiles much more favorably on President Lincoln, his wife played a crucial part in history. She was pivotal in his run for the White House. This book is enlightening because it gives us another way of thinking about Mary Todd.

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.

Drawn To It - by Steve

I used to be a voracious reader. My time spent riding the bus everywhere usually involved a thick novel balanced carefully on my lap. However, with summer creeping slowly closer, I have been riding my bike more and my reading time has been trimmed considerably. I find myself turning to graphic novels more often to get a great story, but in a condensed version.

I discovered FreakAngels by accident. Warren Ellis is truly an icon when it comes to graphic novels. I read his first full-length novel, Crooked Little Vein, a while back, thoroughly enjoying every word. When I saw that he was working on a new online webcomic, I had to check it out.  Each Friday, I get a little delivery of genius to my RSS reader.  FreakAngels is an excellent post-apocalyptic tale of survival. The twelve main characters, each with their own special ability, were the cause of something cataclysmic for which they're now trying to repay humanity. Murder, mayhem, and community gardening: a match made in heaven. Lucky for me, the second volume was recently added to our collection.

Speaking of murder, Whiteout takes place in Antarctica where the U.S. Marshall stationed there to keep the peace has to solve a gruesome murder. Then another. Then the killer comes after her. Will she survive the incoming storm while running for her life? Yes, because there’s a volume two. Greg Rucka’s storytelling is dark, and Steve Leiber’s illustrations match the writing perfectly.

I recently finished the first volume of Bayou by Jeremy Love. Another book that started as a webcomic, this lilting story from the Antebellum South follows a special girl trying to clear her father’s name. He’s been lynched for abducting a white girl, but she saw what really happened, and knows that it was actually a monster.  She travels to a bizarre land where she befriends a hulking giant.  Unfortunately, the story ends as they start their quest together, but I managed to track down the whole story on the site where the comic first started.

Everything Old is New Again, and Vice Versa - by Ruth The other week a colleague alerted me to a nifty website from Penguin Books (UK) entitled Red Recommendations  that matches contemporary books to classics. So you enjoyed Barbara Kingsolver's The Poisonwood Bible? Check out Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart. Adore the rich atmosphere, characters and descriptions in Fingersmith by Sarah Waters? You should finally get around to reading Great Expectations by Charles Dickens. You read Chocolat and it's sequel by Joanne Harris and don't know where to turn next? Why not try Old Goriot by Honore de Balzac? So I was amazed when I picked up The House at Riverton (previously reviewed by Helen here), a new book by Kate Morton, and read the first two lines: "Last November I had a nightmare. It was 1924 and I was at Riverton again." Was this to be Rebecca all over again? And if so, how fabulous would that be! I finished it last night and it was great - family secrets, an interesting time and place in history (early 1900s England), characters I didn't particularly like, but was fascinated by, and some really decent writing. A perfect summer read (even though summer feels like it will never come to Portland). If you're on the waiting list for Riverton, go pick up Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier. And if you've read and loved them both, try these other great titles: The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield, The Dark Lantern by Gerri Brightwell, Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear, and The Crimson Portrait by Jody Shields.