What E-town's Reading, Watching and Listening to....

100 Notable Books of 2008

2008-12-01T19:12:00.003-05:00

Have a little time to read?

Need to buy some Christmas gifts?

Follow the link below to discover outstanding fiction/nonfiction/poetry suggestions from the New York Times.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/07/books/review/100Notable-t.html?_r=1&ref=arts

Neil Gaiman's "Anansi Boys"

2008-11-03T20:42:00.004-05:00

From Publisher's Weekly:

""Fat Charlie" Nancy leads a life of comfortable workaholism in London, with a stressful agenting job he doesn't much like, and a pleasant fiancée, Rosie. When Charlie learns of the death of his estranged father in Florida, he attends the funeral and learns two facts that turn his well-ordered existence upside-down: that his father was a human form of Anansi, the African trickster god, and that he has a brother, Spider, who has inherited some of their father's godlike abilities. Spider comes to visit Charlie and gets him fired from his job, steals his fiancée, and is instrumental in having him arrested for embezzlement and suspected of murder. When Charlie resorts to magic to get rid of Spider, who's selfish and unthinking rather than evil, things begin to go very badly for just about everyone. Other characters...are expertly woven into Gaiman's rich myth, which plays off the African folk tales in which Anansi stars. But it's Gaiman's focus on Charlie and Charlie's attempts to return to normalcy that make the story so winning—along with gleeful, hurtling prose."

I've long loved Anansi stories. If you can suspend disbelief for a while, you'll be rewarded with a wonderful story. Charlie and Spider discover how intertwined their gifts are and how balanced their lives can be if they work together. It all starts with a song and it ends with a song.

Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln

2008-09-17T14:30:00.004-05:00

Join the Friends of the High Library Book Club as they delve into Doris Kearns Goodwin's exploration of Lincoln's political genius. They meet on Wednesday, Sept. 24th at 7 pm in the Library Conference Room on the entrance level of the library.

Historian Goodwin took ten years to complete this work. She examines the leadership style of Lincoln as he worked with William H. Seward as secretary of state, Salmon P. Chase as secretary of the treasury and Edward Bates as attorney general. Each of these men were Lincoln's opponents for the Republican nomination in 1860. Lincoln turned personal and political competitors into allies for the sake of the greater good.

Come join the Friends and share your insights.

Heartbreaking book that will lift your soul and spirit...

2008-08-22T11:44:00.004-05:00

Why did I survive? Immaculee Ilibagiza's soul-wrenching work about the 1992 Rwandan genocide is the author's answer to the question she asks herself and us throughout ... she was left to tell. And tell she does - in this heart-breaking, honest, naked, and portrait of a nightmare. Immaculee was one of seven Tutsis women hidden during the genocide in a small bathroom of a pastor's home. Time and again we come to realize that survival for these women was nothing short of a miracle. For Immaculee, her imprisonment within the bathroom cell only serves to empower her belief in God and the ultimate goodness and redemption of man. Her act of forgiveness when meeting face to face with the man who ordered her family to be butchered in the streets, is beyond words. Immaculee's closing words are haunting in their overpowering truth that the genocide which inflicted so much pain and suffering in Rwanda, was really a crime which inflicted suffering on us all. To read this book brings us much much closer to this truth and how we act against such crimes of humanity in the future.

"Is Google making us Stoopid?" by Nicholas Carr

2008-08-22T08:52:00.012-05:00

"Is Google making us Stoopid? What the Internet is doing to our brains." by Nicholas Carr.
Atlantic Monthly. July/August 2008. 302:1 56-63.

Having trouble concentrating?

How's your memory?

Do you want only the main points?

Is your writing style more telegraphic than ever?

This fascinating article begins with the author's observation that his brain has changed over the past ten years. He compares his experiences with those of his colleagues, who anecdotally note that they have difficulty concentrating for extended periods of time and that the duration of comfortably reading has shrunk considerably. Although people read more today, particularly text messages and web pages, the amount of "deep reading" has declined.

Brains can be affected by technology. Carr notes that Nietzsche's writing changed as his vision failed and as he moved to writing with a typewriter. His writing became even terser. Analogously, clocks changed the way that people interacted with time. Instead of people deciding when to eat, sleep, and work using their bodily senses, clocks became the dominant technological way to organize personal activities.

The appearance of the printing press led to concerns about the undermining of religious authority, intellectual laziness and weakening minds, and the spread of sedition and dabauchery. In some people's minds, those predictions have come true. However, there are many benefits to the populace from the easy availability of the printed word.

I'm in a public service job where interruptions are constant. Add to that the break in focused work by email. An attention span which once could last for several hours has dwindled to several minutes. I worry that my problem solving abilities are deteriorating. My writing skills have declined immensely as has my vocabulary over the past few years. I'm hooked on young adult literature--I could say that it was related to the ages of my children, but is that true? My memory is only minimally better than that of my 80 year old aunt. I don't have to use my memory anymore, because I can look up whatever I need on Google!

What are your experiences?

What do you think of the Carr's analysis of the impact of Google on our brains?

From on-campus you can read the article here: http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=32562106&site=ehost-live

Guests of the Sheik: An Ethnography of an Iraqi Village

2008-06-26T12:58:00.003-05:00

Curious about the life of Muslim women in the 1950's in Iraq? Trained as a journalist, Elizabeth Warnock Fernea travels with her anthropologist husband to a conservative Shiite village of El Nahra. She involves herself in the daily lives of the village women. For a year and a half, she lives as the native women do, in purdah, veiled from head to foot.

Check it out at the High Library!

915.67 F364g

Bill on Will ...

2008-04-24T14:02:00.004-05:00

I'll make this brief as well ... I LOVE Bill Bryson! I will read anything this author puts out, and he has never failed to surprise and enlighten. I was pleasantly amused to find that Bill's latest book is on the Bard himself. Bryson is himself an ex-pat now living quietly in the England he so loving explored in Notes from a Small Island. Loving the UK as he does, it is no surprise that he turns his attention and pen to the life of William Shakespeare. This is a nice, neat addition to the Eminent Lives Series - and thankfully the Bryson wit, wisdom and tenacity for the facts are all here.

Admittedly, this is a very brief book as we know very little about Shakespeare, which it seems would best be spelled Shakspere if we were in keeping with what we do know of the man. Bryson gives us wonderful detail about Elizabethan London - a place of plague, pestilence and wonderful theatre! Bill does a magnificent job of countering the anti-Stratford arguements that Will in one man did not exist. It is great fun and I offer that this is the perfect book to read if you little time and wish to learn a great deal about a great man who we happen to know nearly nothing about!

Al's short course on discourse ...

2008-04-24T13:37:00.002-05:00

I'll make this brief ... read this book. The now Nobel Prize winning vice-president and global champion returns to his political roots and turns in a very simple lesson for us all. If you are like me and have found yourself asking how one might possibly try and address (let alone try and fix) the varied political problems facing our democracy, Gore does us all the favor of suggesting that we look no further than the core of the American constitution and return once again to reason and the power of a well-informed citizenry. The key word being well-informed. The self-proclaimed father of the Internet does an excellent job making the case for not mistaking quantity for quality in the role that information plays in our lives. Once we arm ourselves with solid information and facts, the central role of reason and discourse can return to our democracy. It seems like a simple lesson that we all did learn at one time in our American History class. For Al Gore it is a lesson which bears repeating. I would agree. An excellent and easy read. Do not spend too much time considering the overall layout of the book. The chapters have little discernable order and so flow from one idea to the next. The resulting effect is that you will be given pause to think and hope once again.

Suspension by Richard Crabbe

2008-03-12T15:17:00.005-05:00

The Friends Book Club's newest reading selection is Suspension. This historical thriller centers around the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge. Here's a synopsis from Publishers Weekly.
"The saboteurs, led by former Civil War Capt. Thaddeus Sangree, view the bridge as a symbol of the North's moral corruption and misguided desire for unity. Sangree's own secret motivation is personal: his brother, Franklin, was killed at Gettysburg, and Sangree holds former Union Col. Washington Roebling responsible for his brother's death. Roebling's father designed the Brooklyn Bridge and the younger Roebling is its chief engineer. The scheme has been meticulously planned for years, with saboteurs obtaining jobs working on the bridge so they can understand its weak points. However, when they kill a bridge mason who has caught on to their plan, the murder attracts the attention of bulldog police detective Tom Braddock. Braddock sniffs out the plot through a combination of dogged pursuit, investigative cunning and the brute force that was common practice in 19th-century law enforcement."
(Nov.) Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Join the Friends on Wednesday, March 26th at 7pm in the High Library conference room for a lively discussion!

A sense of the mysterious by Alan Lightman

2008-03-05T08:40:00.002-05:00

I was hooked by Alan Lightman's writing after reading Einstein's Dreams. Lightman is both a physicist and a novelist, giving him the tools to write this volume that is subtitled Science and the Human Spirit. Metaphors to explain scientific phenomenon fill these essays and your mind. For example, from cosmology, the use of a slowly inflating balloon covered with dots to represent the expansion of the universe with no known center. Lightman celebrates these unions of science and the humanities. His biographies of Albert Einstein (the contradictory genius), Richard Feynman (the one and only), Edward Teller (megaton man), and Vera Rubin (dark matter) explore each person's imagination, creativity and personality as they wrestle with science and the world. Lightman ends the book with two insightful essays. One essay explores the ramifications of turning 35 and thereby becoming an "old man" in theoretical physics. Most discoveries in that field are made scientists in their twenties! The final essay examines the wired world and the lack of time to waste. Wasted time for Lightman is time that feeds curiosity, creativity, and the inner soul.

Let us know what you think about this book or other books by Lightman.

Beguiled by the Wild: The Art of Charley Harper

2008-02-28T09:42:00.005-05:00

I was introduced to the art of Charley Harper through a recent issue of Audubon magazine. By doing a little more digging, I uncovered this gem of a book.
Each colorful picture is accompanied by a paragraph of succinct information about each illustrated bird or animal. Mr. Harper labels his illustrations and fills the descriptions with a multitude of puns.
Some of my favorites include "Dolfun", "Family Owlbum", "Lovey Dovey", "Skimmerscape", and for the zebra picture above "Serengeti Spaghetti"!

The Summer of a Dormouse by John Mortimer

2008-01-28T16:45:00.000-05:00

The Friends Book Club continues to meet.

Next meeting is Wednesday, Feb. 27th in the High Library Conference Room at 7pm. The Friends meet on the 4th Wednesday of the month. They select books from Bestsellers, National Book Award winners, Classics and the lighter side.

This month's selection is written by John Mortimer who is a retired barrister and is the creator of Rumpole. The Friends have characterized this book as "how not to grow old graciously." This witty book is filled with entertaining tales about Mortimer's childhood years in England during World War I, travels in Morocco, travel filmmaking with Franco Zeffirelli, panhandlers in New York as well as serous concerns such as prison reform.

Enjoy the book, then enjoy the company of other readers. See you there.

Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson

2008-01-15T16:41:00.002-05:00

I came to this book from first watching the movie at the recommendation of my daughter. It's about an entering high school freshman and some blurred memories of an incident over the summer.

The writing is clear, insightful and funny.
"The ninth graders are herded into the auditorium. We fall into classes: Jocks, Country Clubbers, Idiot Savants, Cheerleaders, Human Waste, Eurotrash, Future Fascists of America, Suffering Artists, Goths, Shredders. I am clanless. I wasted the last weeks of August watching bad cartoons. I didn't go to the mall, the lake, or the pool, or answer the phone. I have entered high school with the wrong hair, the wrong clothes, the wrong attitude. And I don't have anyone to sit with."

"The orchestra plays an unrecognizable tune. Heather says the school board won't let them perform Christmas Carols or Hanukkah songs or Kwanzaa tunes. Instead of multicultural, we have no-cultural."

"The rest of the Marthas sigh on cue. Apparently, beets are Not Good Enough. Real Marthas only collect food that they like to eat, like cranberry sauce, dolphin-safe tuna, or baby peas. I can see Heather dig her nails into her palms under the table. The peanut butter molds to the roof of my mouth like a retainer."

Through art class, Melinda Sordino finds her voice.
Even though this was written for a juvenile audience, I found many truths here.

100 Notable Books of 2007

2007-12-10T18:21:00.000-05:00

Have a little time to read?

Need to buy some Christmas gifts?

Want to make a reading list?

Follow the link below to discover outstanding fiction/nonfiction/poetry suggestions from the New York Times.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/02/books/review/notable-books-2007.html?ex=1354510800&en=a3e0be2831179b73&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

These titles were culled from the New York Times Book Review since December 3rd, 2006.

Enjoy.

American Gospel: God, the founding fathers, and the making of a nation.

2007-12-02T20:46:00.001-05:00

This book came to my attention from two campus colleagues. Here's what others have said.

Library Journal: "Newsweek managing editor Meacham here holds that, despite the strong religious differences of the Founding Fathers, religion became a force for unity, not division; it shaped the Constitution and the nation without strangling it. This is quite an argument to make given the history chronicled. Quakers were at odds with Anglicans, and New Englanders engaged in witch trials while building a "City of God." Others massacred Indians. The Virginia charter provided for Christian mission but also for taking land and searching for gold. To boot, early settlers of that state purchased slaves. Meanwhile, deists Jefferson and Franklin looked at Jesus as the great moral teacher. The religious spirit was "more sectarian than ecumenical," the author maintains, yet it was recognized that a moral and religious force that God provided could and would serve as a uniting factor. Meacham provides a balanced account of this "American Gospel" as to how it was formed and how it is shaping our history down to such present-day challenges as holiday displays, prayer in schools, abortion, euthanasia, and gay rights." --George Westerlund, formerly with Providence P.L., Palmyra, VA Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

The title is a bit misleading, since the book chronicles these issues through the late twentieth century. Current and past presidents have struggled with the implications of decisions as they relate to religion and politics. Share your insights here.

Tomorrow by Graham Swift

2007-11-26T11:01:00.000-05:00

Friends of the High Library Book Club meets Wednesday, November 28th in the High Library Conference Room at 7pm.

Come join the discussion of this recent book.

"From Amazon: Graham Swift wants to keep us awake with Tomorrow, a monologue in which a mother lies next to her husband, worrying about a revelation that will soon alter their lives."

Graham Swift is a previous Booker Prize award winning author. This novel is written from a woman's point of view and is primarily an interior monologue. Does this writing style work or is it just tedious?

Join the discussion either in person or on the blog. Let us know what you think.

The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell

2007-11-08T15:26:00.000-05:00

Malcolm Gladwell's The Tipping Point, subtitled "How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference" could be sub-subtitled, "a paradigm-changing experience." I'm having my first-year seminar read large selections from this book for several reasons. One, as Deirdre Donahue says in USA Today, "it reaffirms that human beings are profoundly social beings influenced by and influencing other human beings, no matter how much technology we introduce into our lives." Two, while Gladwell posits that ideas are viral, I also believe that information is viral in how it gets spread. There's no better way to understand the global information environment and the Internet than via Gladwell's metaphors. Third, Gladwell is able to synthesize phenomena from epidemiology, psychology, sociology and group dynamics, bringing, as Paula Geyh says in the Chicago Tribune, "insights gleaned from these disparate fields together and applying them to an impressive array of contemporary social behaviors and cultural trends. Such knowledge, properly applied, could have enormous potential." I hope that all readers of Gladwell's work will be able to make further connections after they read this book.

Marker by Robin Cook

2007-10-24T12:27:00.001-05:00

Physician Robin Cook is a writer of medical thrillers that focus on current technological and/or ethical issues.

Genetic tests for a variety of medical conditions are available to individuals who are at increased risk based on family history or ethnic background. With the completion of the human genome project, Cook explores medical insurance issues related to genetic markers--hence the title.

In this instance an intelligent pathologist notices a pattern of unexpected cases of healthy young adults in the hospital morgue to be autopsied. Soon she has amassed a cohort of cases.

Health insurance is based on pooling risk within specified groups. Since markers have been mapped throughout the human genome, risk can now be determined. "Marker" deals with the negative impact of the ability to predict illness. When confidentiality is breached and the information is obtained or otherwise falls into the wrong hands, patient care could be compromised.

Cook provides an exciting read and thought-provoking content.

Meet the Author: David Downing Wednesday, October 17th at 7pm at the High Library

2007-10-12T08:38:00.000-05:00

Professor David C. Downing from Elizabethtown College’s Department of English, has written a popular history of dissent in the South during the Civil War, titled A South Divided. Documenting the numerous examples of exceptions to the “myth of the Solid South,” Downing shows that there were regions as well as individuals in the South that did not agree with the Confederate stance of separation from the Union. One region seceded from Virginia to form an entirely new state, West Virginia. Other examples discussed are of individuals or groups leaving the South to fight for the Union side. Downing states that roughly 200,000 black and 100,000 whites crossed the battle lines to fight for the North. This latter category of dissidents included a regiment of cavalry, the “First Alabama, USA.”

In a very readable prose style, this is an engaging book that helped clarify for me the context and meaning behind the first stanza of Robbie Robertson’s classic song about the Civil War, The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down:

Virgil Caine is the name and I served on the Danville train

‘Til Stoneman’s cavalry came and tore up the tracks again

In the winter of ’65, we were hungry, just barely alive

By May the tenth, Richmond had fell,

it’s a time I remember oh so well.

One of the little written about causes regarding the Confederacy’s collapse, and the accuracy behind the lyrics above, can be found in A South Divided.

Peter DePuydt

Meet the authors of Amish Grace

2007-09-21T09:50:00.000-05:00

Amish Grace: How forgiveness transcended tragedy

Donald B. Kraybill, Senior Fellow, Young Center, Elizabethtown College
Steven M. Nolt, Associate Professor, History, Goshen College
David L. Weaver-Zercher, Associate Professor, American Religious History, Messiah College

Tuesday, September 25, 2007
4:00-5:00pm
The High Library , Elizabethtown College

Amish Grace explores the questions raised in the wake of the October 2006 Nickle Mines shooting about the religious beliefs that led the Amish to forgive so quickly. In response to the intense demand for information about Amish ways, the authors got together to create this book. Please join the authors as they discuss the challenges of collaborating on the writing of this book.

From Publisher's Weekly: "the authors establish that forgiveness is embedded in Amish society through five centuries of Anabaptist tradition, and grounded in the firm belief that forgiveness is required by the New Testament. The community's acts of forgiveness were not isolated decisions by saintly individuals but hard-won countercultural practices supported by all aspects of Amish life. Common objections to Amish forgiveness are addressed in a chapter entitled, What About Shunning? The authors carefully distinguish between forgiveness, pardon and reconciliation, as well as analyze the complexities of mainstream America's response and the extent to which the Amish example can be applied elsewhere. This intelligent, compassionate and hopeful book is a welcome addition to the growing literature on forgiveness."

Signed copies of Amish Grace will be available for purchase.

Contact the High Library at 717-361-1451 or hyderl@etown.edu for more information.

Isabel Allende's House of Spirits

2007-09-18T11:40:00.001-05:00

The Friends Book Club meets on the 4th Wednesday of the month in the High Library Conference Room. Join them on Sept. 26th at 7pm as they discuss Isabel Allende's "House of the Spirits."

Here's a quick book review from Amazon. "In it, she chronicles the life of a family, as the patriarch grows from a child to an elder, with the world changing all around him while he tries to keep it the same. Through the lenses of the Trueba family, we follow the portion of Chilean history that eventually leads to the 1973 coup. Of course, the author is niece of Salvador Allende, the socialist president democratically elected that was removed from power and killed by Pinochet."

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows? Discuss ...

2007-08-09T08:59:00.000-05:00

Louise: So I decided to read the seventh and final installment of the Harry Potter series on my recent summer vacation. Everyone, and I mean everyone was reading this book. In airports, young and old were sprawled on floors, drapping lines of terminal seating and stuffed in congested coffee shops. Harry Potterites were not only on planes, but on trains, cabs, boats, and cars. The "book" was everywhere. Having spied the give-away candy-corn/hazard cone orange cover under my arm (a brilliantly intentional color choice by Rowling to aid those in league with Potter to identify others in the Order ... ) I was approached by complete strangers and asked my thoughts on whether Harry should seek the Horcruxes or focus on the Hallows. So while some many prefer to argue whether Rowling's books indeed elevate witchcraft as an artform - I prefer to marvel in the shear enjoyment I got over the past two weeks watching people of all languages, cultures, economic status and occupation reading a book together - all reading and racing to get to the final outcome together! For a brief moment in time - mesmerized by the same story and cast of characters - we were on the same global olympic team and heading for gold.

So, forget my adding one more individual review to the pile. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, as with all the Potter books, was written for discussion. Rowling's books are as simple or as complex as the reader wishes to make them. This final book was no different and I found it to be the most complex of the series.

At this point, I believe it would be appropriate for me to make clear that this discussion may prove to be a SPOILER. I am in awe of the secrecy and respect Potter readers show to one another - no one ever attempted to give away the ending to the book - except my son, who tried to get out of mowing the lawn one night - "Mom, I'll tell you if Potter lives or dies if I have to mow the lawn again." - The ending remained a secret ... and he mowed the lawn.

So, I welcome all to the discussion. Proceed knowing that SPOILING may appear at any time.

Question/Discussion point: I believe Snape was Rowling's best character creation. Yes, Harry was the focal point - but the entire good/evil argument was great fun and I was relieved when Rowling reserved the final acknowledgement for Snape at the end of the book. That was the page that made me cry - much like I believe that Tolkien's Sam Wise is one of the greatest characters of the trilogy. I think it in the relationship of Potter, Dumbledore and Snape - it is Snape who is the most pivotal - not Dumbledore ... what do you think? Also, does anyone understand the reason that Draco Malfoy is the true owner of the Elder Wand? I still do not understand that connection at all.

Louise

A Science Read for the Summer

2007-06-15T12:32:00.000-05:00

Walking Zero: Discovering Cosmic Space and Time along the Prime Meridian by Chet Raymo (526.6 R267w)

The review from Science Books and Films states: "Though short, this work is an thought-provoking, highly enlightening discussion of some of the most fascinating concepts in physics, astronomy, and geology, among other subjects. Raymo's actual walk, starting from the chalk cliffs bordering southern England and proceeding northward into the English countryside, occupies little of the story, although points of interest along the way serve as references to the well-written essays contained in the book. The real strength of the volume lies in its wonderful portrayal of science's efforts to understand the vastness of cosmic space and time in such an interesting fashion."

Spring Time Read--Jeanne DuPrau trilogy

2007-04-20T12:08:00.000-05:00

This series was recommended to me by my daughter (12) and is well worth taking the time to read. The setting is deep underground in the "City of Ember". The main characters, Lina and Doon have finished with their schooling at the age of 12 and are being randomly assigned their life jobs. Lina is a messenger who travels throughout the city and Doon is a Pipeworker, repairing the plumbing in the tunnels under the city. For the past 250 years there have been plenty of lightbulbs and food, but now more and more shelves are empty and the lights flicker and go out. The inhabitants of Ember become anxious, since they don't understand how electricity is generated. Their only light during the 12 hours of "day" comes from floodlights. What will happen if the lights never come back on? They have no portable light sources. Lina discovers a very old paper with "Instructions for Egress" With Doon's help in deciphering the instructions, they set out on their mission.

The second book in the series is entitled "The People of Sparks". Lina and Doon lead the 400 inhabitants of Ember up out of the earth. The Emberites meet the citizens of Sparks, one of the few towns on Earth that has survived The Disaster. The people of Sparks begin to feed and house the Emberites but resent the drain on their resources at a time when they have just begun to be able to feed themselves comfortably. Lina has seen the devastation left by the disaster. Mistrust and false accusations between both groups lead them to the verge of bloodshed. Doon and Lina make brave moves of reconciliation.

The third book in the series "Prophet of Yonwood" is actually a prequel, but I would leave it to the end of the series. It demonstrates how easily prophets can be misinterpreted.

Louise reviews new author: Joshua Ferris

2007-04-09T19:33:00.000-05:00

Then We Came to the End (2007) is the debut novel by former ad-man Joshua Ferris. This is one seriously and insightfully funny book that hits home on so many fronts. Ferris not only knows everything about the lives and minds of the people who occupy the office spaces and cubicles of the Chicago ad agency which overlooks the 1990's Magnificent Mile - he knows everything about us as well. Ferris knows people and his wit is beyond razor sharp - he has mastered the genius of true comedic writing - comedy and pain go hand in hand. We laugh at Chris Yop who steals office furniture, Benny and his ability to turn any story into an epic saga of office lunacy, the creation of Cold Sore Guy and Tom Mota's email ramblings. What jabs at the heart is how quickly we can see our own shortcomings in the lives Ferris creates. The focus first shifts when lay-offs begin and the group must create an ad campaign (the only "work" they have) to make breast cancer patients laugh at their plight. Add to this the fact that the boss may or may not have the disease herself. Ferris has the collective fear down cold and in this case, you just can't wait until you do indeed come to the end to find out what becomes of this freakish and loveable cast of oddballs. An extremely worthwhile read!

Louise reviews Ella:Princess, Saint and Martyr

2007-03-22T14:47:00.001-05:00

Ella: Princess, Saint and Martyr by Christopher Warwick (2006) is the remarkable tale of Grand Duchess Elisabeth Feodorovna. Ella, as she was called, was the daughter of Princess Alice of Great Britain and granddaughter of Queen Victoria. Born into royalty and considered the most beautiful princess in Europe at the time, Ella's life is one marked by privilege, war, death, religious conversion, terrorism and sainthood. Warwick has authored previous best-selling biographies of British nobility and has an exquisite skill for breathing life into 19th century European history.
Under Warwick's pen, the life of the princess who would become a beloved saint of the Russian Orthodox Church is meticulously presented in a manner free from the gossip, innuendo and rumor. Although some reviewers do take exception to Warwick's treatment of historical fact as it relates to the Prussian Wars, his handling of the personal lives of these historical figures is sublime.
Ella married Grand Duke Serge Alexandrovich, fifth son of the then Russian Emperor Alexander II. It was Ella's younger sister Alexandra who was to later marry Tsar Nicholas II, thus becoming Russia's ill-fated Empress Alexandra. Tragically, it was the fate that Ella herself would share. In 1905, as revolution loomed in Russia, Serge was assassinated by the Bolsheviks; literally blown apart by a bomb thrown into his carriage.
Ella refused to leave Russia amid protests from friends and family. Intense religious conviction and an entrenched compassion to help the poor and suffering, which Ella had acquired from her mother Princess Alice, kept her from fleeing to safety after the revolution. In 1909 she established the first religious community of its kind in Russia, the Order of the Saints Martha and Mary. Her devotion was to the poor, sick and forgotten of Moscow. While considered a living saint to those she helped, she could not escape history and in 1918 she and the last surviving Romanov princes and sisters from her convent were executed in the pine forests of Sinyachikha two days after the execution of the Tsar, Tsarina and all members of the Russian Imperial family.
The reader cannot help but be mesmerized by the follies of Imperial narcissism in the face of Russia's famines reflected in this book. The rigid Victorian social tenets endured by so many and the complex arrangements of royal intermarriages. The book pulls the reader through some of the most momentous periods in history. The perspective is not merely regal as the reader also comes to understand the many class conflicts of the time. Warwick is attentive to courtly details and ceremonies, but refrains from being too tedious. It is the poignant and yet, melancholy gaze of Ella from the cover photograph that fixes the reader. We are drawn closer to her, and to her magnificently tragic life.

2007 Notable Nonfiction

2007-03-20T17:13:00.000-05:00

Bechdel, Alison. Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic.
From Publishers Weekly: "This autobiography by the author of the long-running strip, Dykes to Watch Out For, deals with her childhood with a closeted gay father, who was an English teacher and proprietor of the local funeral parlor."

Egan, Timothy. The Worst Hard Time: The Untold of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl.
From Publishers Weekly: "Egan tells an extraordinary tale in this visceral account of how America's great, grassy plains turned to dust, and how the ferocious plains winds stirred up an endless series of "black blizzards" that were like a biblical plague: "Dust clouds boiled up, ten thousand feet or more in the sky, and rolled like moving mountains" in what became known as the Dust Bowl. But the plague was man-made, as Egan shows: the plains weren't suited to farming, and plowing up the grass to plant wheat, along with a confluence of economic disaster—the Depression—and natural disaster—eight years of drought—resulted in an ecological and human catastrophe that Egan details with stunning specificity."

Flannery, Tim. The Weather Makers: How Man Is Changing the Climate and What It Means for Life on Earth.
From Publishers Weekly: "Much of the book's success is rooted in Flannery's succinct and fascinating insights into related topics, such as the differences between the terms greenhouse effect, global warming and climate change, and how the El Niño cycle of extreme climatic events "had a profound re-organising effect on nature." But the heart of the book is Flannery's impassioned look at the earth's "colossal" carbon dioxide pollution problem and his argument for how we can shift from our current global reliance on fossil fuels [...]. Flannery consistently produces the hard goods related to his main message that our environmental behavior makes us all "weather makers" who "already possess all the tools required to avoid catastrophic climate change." "

Greene, Melissa Fay. There Is No Me Without You: One Woman’s Odyssey To Rescue Africa’s Children.
From Publishers Weekly: "Not unlike the AIDS pandemic itself, the odyssey of Haregewoin Teferra, who took in AIDS orphans, began in small stages and grew to irrevocably transform her life from that of "a nice neighborhood lady" to a figure of fame, infamy and ultimate restoration. In telling her story, journalist Greene who had adopted two Ethiopian children before meeting Teferra, juggles political history, medical reportage and personal memoir."

Hessler, Peter. Oracle Bones: A Journey Between China’s Past and Present.
From Publishers Weekly: "Hessler, who first wrote about China in his 2001 bestseller, River Town, a portrait of his Peace Corps years in Fuling, continues his conflicted affair with that complex country in a second book that reflects the maturity of time and experience. Having lived in China for a decade now, fluent in Mandarin and working as a correspondent in Beijing, Hessler displays impressive knowledge, research and personal encounters as he brings the country's peoples, foibles and history into sharp focus."

Horne, Jed. Breach of Faith: Hurricane Katrina and the Near Death of a Great American City.
From The Washington Post's Book World: "It is hard to imagine that, less than a year after the worst natural disaster in modern U.S. history, there would be much appetite for reliving the horrors of Hurricane Katrina -- manmade or otherwise. And it is equally difficult to imagine encountering anything fresh on a subject that's been so thoroughly dissected. Yet in this solid if somewhat detached recounting, New Orleans journalist Jed Horne has provided new insights into how a ferocious storm, governmental ineptitude and racially tinged inequities conspired to permanently jeopardize one of the nation's cultural gems."

King, Ross. The Judgment of Paris: The Revolutionary Decade That Gave the World of Impressionism.
From The Washington Post's Book World: "In The Judgment of Paris, Ross King describes "Olympia" as "easily the most notorious painting of the nineteenth century," placing it at the center of his fluent account of the years that ushered in the age of Impressionism. With the solid craftsmanship that characterized his previous two popular histories, Brunelleschi's Dome and Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling, King's new book impressively synthesizes research on the culture, politics and personalities of an era that was anything but uncomplicated."

Kohlberg, Elizabeth. Field Notes from a Catastrophe: Man, Nature, and Climate Change.
From Scientific American: "In the 1990s the inhabitants of Shishmaref, an Inupiat village on the Alaskan island of Sarichef, noticed that sea ice was forming later and melting earlier. The change meant that they could not safely hunt seal as they had traditionally and that a protective skirt of ice no longer buffered the small town from destructive storm waves. Shishmaref was being undone by a warming world. To survive, the villagers recently decided to move to the mainland. Soon Shishmaref on Sarichef will be gone. Pithy and powerful, the opening of Elizabeth Kolbert's book about global warming, Field Notes from a Catastrophe, echoes that of another book that also originated as a series of articles in the New Yorker magazine. Rachel Carson's Silent Spring starts in much the same way, with a fable about a town that lived in harmony with its surroundings and that fell silent. "

Philbrick, Nathaniel. Mayflower: A Story of Courage Community, and War.
From Publishers Weekly: "In this remarkable effort, National Book Award–winner Philbrick (In the Heart of the Sea) examines the history of Plymouth Colony. In the early 17th century, a small group of devout English Christians fled their villages to escape persecution, going first to Holland, then making the now infamous 10-week voyage to the New World. Rather than arriving in the summer months as planned, they landed in November, low on supplies. Luckily, they were met by the Wampanoag Indians and their wizened chief, Massasoit. In economical, well-paced prose, Philbrick masterfully recounts the desperate circumstances of both the settlers and their would-be hosts, and how the Wampanoags saved the colony from certain destruction."

Phillips, Julie. James Tiptree, Jr.: The Double Life of Alice B. Sheldon.
From The Washington Post's Book World: "If you lived in McLean, Va., in the 1960s and '70s, you probably ran into Alice B. Sheldon. You might have seen her shopping for dresses at Lord & Taylor's or buying gardening supplies at Hechinger's. But you would not have known that under the pseudonym "James Tiptree Jr.," she wrote works that were at the vortex of gender wars that raged in the world of science fiction.
Sheldon (1915-87) was the most important sf writer ever to live in the Washington area. She also was, in her varied career, a psychologist, a CIA officer and a chicken farmer. Her biographer, Julie Phillips, combines diligent archival work with more than 40 interviews to successfully portray one of sf's most brilliant -- and tortured -- authors."

Zoellner, Tom, The Heartless Stone: A Journey Through the World of Diamonds, Deceit, and Desire.
From Publishers Weekly: After his fiancée dumps him and he's left with a diamond ring to unload, Men's Health contributing editor Zoellner crisscrosses the globe unlocking the mystique of this glittering stone "that brings misery to millions of people across the world." Zoellner probes how "blood diamonds" are used to fund vicious civil wars in Africa; how De Beers, seeing new markets to exploit, linked diamonds to the ancient yuino ceremony in Japan and played on caste obsession in India; and how India is pushing Belgium and Israel out of the gem trade.

Carol Warfel reviews Thirteen Moons

2007-03-08T08:22:00.000-05:00

Charles Frazier’s second novel, Thirteen Moons, returns to the 19th century North Carolina of his best selling first novel, Cold Mountain. However, rather than the Civil War, this novel focuses on the Cherokee Indians with emphasis on the famous Trail of Tears removal of the Cherokee Nation to the West in 1838.

Written as a memoir, the novel covers the life of Will Cooper, an orphan who was adopted by a Cherokee Chief and became a trader, a lawyer, a real estate tycoon, a senator, a colonel, a de facto Cherokee Chief, and acquainted with Andrew Jackson, John Calhoun, Davie Crockett and other notables. (Frazier certainly owes a debt to Thomas Berger’s Little Big Man in his main character's exploits and his broad plot outline and structure.)

Even though Cooper’s adoptive father, Bear, and his clan are not members of the Cherokee Nation, but live in the rugged mountains of North Carolina, land considered useless by many, the U.S. government wants them removed to the territories along with the Cherokee Nation. Cooper negotiates with the government to exempt Bear’s people from the removal.

The novel is somewhat episodic and covers about 80 years, but it is held together by the themes of the Indians’ struggle to maintain their lands, the changes wrought by white settlement, and the beauty of the unspoiled landscape. Another thread that holds the novel together is Cooper’s love for Claire, a love which is experiences loss time after time.

Frazier makes a disclaimer in his "Author's Note" that "Will Cooper is not William Holland Thomas, though they do share some DNA." However, in Cherokee Nation: a History, author Robert Conley describes William Thomas as "a white man who had been raised by the Cherokees, spoke the language, and was generally well thought of among the Cherokees." He continues to describe an account of Thomas helping U.S. soldiers to track down and execute a family of Cherokee who had killed several soldiers. Frazier uses this event in his novel and the description of Thomas fits Cooper exactly.

Frazier successfully puts a human face on the conflict and injustice experienced by the Cherokee during this time. Frazier's evocative descriptions of the North Carolina mountains and the life of the Indians living there are beautiful and worth the time to read the novel.

Carol H. Warfel

2007 Notable Books--Outstanding Fiction

2007-02-25T19:31:00.001-05:00

The American Library Association's Notable Books Council use the following criteria to select award winners. A book may be selected as notable for at least one, and preferably more than one, of the following reasons:

it possesses exceptional literary merit;
it expands the horizons of human knowledge;
it makes a specialized body of knowledge accessible to the non-specialist;
it promises to contribute significantly to the solution of a contemporary problem

Bigsby, Christopher, Beautiful Dreamer.
from Publishers Weekly "English author Bigsby unflinchingly explores a mushrooming tragedy that begins when a black man walks through the front door of a white-owned store in turn-of-the-century rural Tennessee."

Dean, Debra, Madonnas of Leningrad.
from Booklist "Her granddaughter's wedding should be a time of happiness for Marina Buriakov. But the Russian emigre's descent into Alzheimer's has her and her family experiencing more anxiety than joy."

Desai, Kiran, The Inheritance of Loss.
from Publishers Weekly "This stunning second novel from Desai (Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard) is set in mid-1980s India, on the cusp of the Nepalese movement for an independent state."

Doig, Ivan, The Whistling Season.
from Washington Posts' Book World "Ivan Doig writes about a vanished way of life on the Western plains with the kind of irony-free nostalgia that seems downright courageous in these ironic times. ... In pursuit of greater efficiency and rigor, the state has decided to close all its one-room schoolhouses."

Grenville, Kate, The Secret River.
from Publishers Weekly "Grenville's Australian bestseller, which won the Orange Prize, is an eye-opening tale of the settlement of New South Wales by a population of exiled British criminals."

Khadra, Yasmina, translated from the French by John Cullen, The Attack.
from Publisher's Weekly "Dr. Amin Jaafari is a man caught between two worlds; he's a Bedouin Arab surgeon struggling to integrate himself into Israeli society. The balancing act becomes impossible when the terrorist responsible for a suicide bombing that claims 20 lives, including many children, is identified as Jaafari's wife by the Israeli police."

Lansens, Lori, The Girls.
from Publishers Weekly "Conjoined twins Rose and Ruby Darlen are linked at the side of the head, with separate brains and bodies. Born in a small town outside Toronto in the midst of a tornado and abandoned by their unwed teenage mother two weeks later, the girls are cared for by Aunt Lovey, a nurse who refuses to see them as deformed or even disabled."

McCarthy, Cormac, The Road.
from Publishers Weekly "Violence, in McCarthy's postapocalyptic tour de force, has been visited worldwide in the form of a "long shear of light and then a series of low concussions" that leaves cities and forests burned, birds and fish dead and the earth shrouded in gray clouds of ash. In this landscape, an unnamed man and his young son journey down a road to get to the sea."

Meek, James, The People's Act of Love.
from Publishers Weekly "Set during the waning days of the Russian revolution, Meek's utterly absorbing novel (after The Museum of Doubt) captivates with its depiction of human nature in all its wartime extremes."

Mitchell, David, Black Swan Green.
from School Library Journal "Thirteen chapters provide a monthly snapshot of Jason Taylor's life in small-town England from January 1982 to January 1983. Whether the 13-year-old narrator is battling his stammer or trying to navigate the social hierarchy of his schoolmates or watching the slow disintegration of his parents' marriage, he relates his story in a voice that is achingly true to life."

Murakami, Haruki, Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman.
from Publishers Weekly "Murakami's new collection of 25 stories, many of which have appeared in the New Yorker and other publications, also describes these epiphanic instances. ...Murakami's stories are difficult to describe and one should, I think, resist attempts to overanalyze them. Their beauty lies in their ephemeral and incantatory qualities and in his uncanny ability to tap into a sort of collective unconscious. In addition, a part of Murakami's genius is that he uses images as plot points, going from image to image."

Savage, Sam, Firmin: Adventures of a Metropolitan Lowlife.
from Booklist "In Savage's darkly comic debut, the titular metropolitan lowlife is a rat, albeit one with lofty literary ambitions. The runt of 13 siblings spawned in the basement of a shambolic Boston bookshop, Firmin survives his lean first weeks by munching on the edges of books. He quickly develops a predilection for actually reading them, too."

Coming soon--Notable Nonfiction

Legacy of Love

2007-02-09T10:59:00.000-05:00

Mr. Arun Gandhi has spent a lifetime putting into practice the philosophy of nonviolence that he learned at the hand of his grandfather, legendary peace fighter and spiritual leader Mohandas Gandhi. Keep checking here to see when his lecture will be re-scheduled.

Book Description from Amazon

Called a messenger of peace, Arun Gandhi -- Mahatma Gandhi’s grandson -- has dedicated his life to spreading his grandfather’s teachings around the globe. This compelling memoir begins in the heart of apartheid South Africa where the author lived under conditions of zealous racism until he was 12 years old. Following are the two pivotal years he spent with his grandfather in India, learning the lessons that would undo his anger and cultivate a profound activism. His account also describes living with his parents in religious and socially activist communities in South Africa and India. This book presents the practical wisdom the author learned from his grandfather revolving around family, men and women, simplicity, religious unity, humility, truth, and nonviolence.

The Sea, The Sea by Iris Murdoch

2007-02-08T11:40:00.000-05:00

Library Journal describes this book as "farce, philosophy, madness, melodrama. " Originally published in 1978 by Iris Murdoch, who has been described as one of the best British woman novelists, The Sea, The Sea displays much inventive writing, tortuous plots and tangled relationships between a number of characters.

Meet at 7pm on Feb 28th in the Library Director's Conference room on the entrance level of the High Library.

Tell us at the meeting or on the blog, what you're ideas were about this book.

Questions? Contact John Bacon at 717-367-2689.

Exploring the Wilds of the Commonwealth (with camera)

2007-01-25T16:24:00.000-05:00

The Best in Tent Camping by Matt Willen

Join in a conversation with Matt Willen on Tuesday, January 30th at 7pm in the High Library near the fireplace.

Matt will share his observations on some of the best places to hike and camp in central Pennsylvania and show slides by the glow of the library's new fireplace. Matt will sign copies of his book, which will be available for purchase.

Included in his book is information on day trips, suggestions for hikes and activities accessible from the featured campground, as well as local flora and fauna.

Please feel free to add comments before and after his presentation.

See you on the 30th of January at 7pm.

2007-01-15T12:23:00.000-05:00

Twice a Stranger

Written by British journalist Bruce Clark, Twice a Stranger tells the epic story of the massive population exchange between Greece and Turkey in 1923. At the end of World War I, Greece invaded Turkey’s Anatolia region in an attempt to enlarge the Greek nation by including the numerous Greek Orthodox Christians residing in Turkey. This population of Christians had lived for centuries in this area of the old Ottoman Empire before World War I. The invasion was the culmination of a long-held Greek dream, called the Megali Idea (Great Idea), to reconstitute the Byzantine Empire.

Following Greece’s defeat and the burning of the port city of Smyrna, which was reported by a young foreign correspondent for the Toronto Daily Star named Ernest Hemingway, a conference was held in Lausanne, Switzerland. Under the auspices of the League of Nations, it was agreed by both Greece and Turkey to conduct a social experiment of monumental proportions: approximately 1.2 million Greek Orthodox Christians were to be sent from Turkey to Greece, and about 400,000 Greek Muslims were to be sent from Greece to Turkey. Both of these groups had resided for centuries in their respective towns and villages. Clark interviews a number of people on both sides of this exchange who were young children during this event. The irony of this exchange is that many of the Greek Orthodox Christians in Turkey did not speak Greek, especially those from the Cappadocia region of Anatolia. Furthermore, many of the Greek Muslims sent from Crete to Turkey did not speak Turkish. Hence the book’s title, Twice a Stranger.

The implications of this population exchange resonate till this day as both Greece and Turkey are now experiencing a return to a more multi-ethnic population. With the fall of Communism in Europe, a massive influx of Albanians, most of whom are Muslim, has flooded Greece’s underground labor market. In Turkey, they are still grappling with the identities of their Kurdish and Armenian citizens. How Turkey resolves this question will go a long way in determining whether it still wants to join, or will be accepted in, the European Union. A NATO member, Turkey could possibly decide that its fate rests more with the Muslim world and will no longer be the only secular Muslim government in the region.

So two nation-states once defined by their religion and language are once again facing challenges to their identities in a modern globalizing world.

Isabel Allende's Daughter of Fortune

2007-01-05T14:23:00.000-05:00

The High Library Book Club will be meeting on Tuesday, January 24th at 7 pm in the Library Director's Conference room to discuss Isabel Allende's Daughter of Fortune. Please feel free to join them.

This is a girl's adventure story. It takes a feminist approach as Eliza leaves 19th century Valaparaiso society to follow her lover into gold-crazed California. She is befriended by a Chinese healer during her journey.

Does this book go too far as historical fiction? Does it convey the spirit, manners and social conditions of this past age with realistic detail and fidelity to historical fact?

Please post additional questions or comments using your google account. Need to create a google account?--https://www.google.com/accounts/NewAccount.

Want to write about a book you've read on this blog? Contact Sylvia.

The High Library Book Club, sponsored by the Friends of the Library, meets the 4th Wednesday of each month at 7 pm in the Director's conference room. Meetings feature lively discussions of fiction and nonfiction. Questions? Contact John Bacon at 717-367-2689.

Thanks to Amazon for the photo.

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

2006-12-18T11:47:00.000-05:00

If you’ve heard about The Kite Runner, but haven’t read it yet, we offer a brief review:
Kite Runner is the first novel written by Khaled Hosseini, a practicing physician, whose family fled Afghanistan prior to the Taliban. Set in Kabul, Afghanistan in the 1970’s, the story focuses on Amir, the son of a wealthy merchant, and Hassan, the son of one of Amir’s father’s servants. The day in 1975, when 12-year-old Amir wins the annual kite-fighting tournament, is the best and worst day of his young life. The title refers to the competitive kite-flying young people participate in, generally in teams, where the kite-flyer uses his specially-equipped kite string to cut down opponents’ kites, and his teammate attempts to collect the fallen kite as a trophy. Hosseini's harrowing story evokes the irony of life that makes a masterpiece: the brutality and compassion of man, cowardice and courage, freedom and oppression, loss and love.

Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

2006-12-07T13:07:00.000-05:00

Etown Literati has chosen Mary Shelley's Frankenstein as its next selection. They will be meeting during the week of January 22nd. Details to follow.

On rainy evenings before a fire, Mary Shelley, her half sister Claire, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Byron and his doctor Polidori entertained themselves by reading German/French ghost stories. Discussions between Byron and the Shelleys focused on natural philosophy--the nature of life. They spoke of the experiments of Dr. Erasmus Darwin, who preserved a piece of vermicelli in a glass case until by extraordinary means it began to move with voluntary motion! In this setting, Byron challenged his colleagues to write a horror story. Mary Shelley's work is the masterpiece arising from that challenge. Reading her work has brought forth these questions.

In an era of technological advancement such as cloning, what responsibility does a scientist have towards his/her new creation?

How are Victor and the monster similar--their relationship with nature and their desires for family, etc?

Does the monster's eloquence and persuasiveness make it easier for the reader to sympathize with him? How is the monster portrayed in the film versions of this story?

Post other questions and comments here.

Let us know what you think.

(Thanks to Amazon for the images.)