Traveling Literature

Greetings from the Morris Public Library!  Last weekend I visited family in Texas and noticed, not for the first time, just how many people read while in airports and during flights.  Intrigued by what my fellow travelers were reading, I asked several of them to share their current selection with me.  Here is a brief list of their “traveling literature”:

• The Shack by William P. Young
• Cross Country by James Patterson
• Step on a Crack by James Patterson
• Robert Ludlum’s The Bourne Deception by Eric Van Lustbader
• The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown
• Tracks by Louise Erdrich
• The Tomb of Hercules by Andy McDermott
• The Bourne Sanction by Robert Ludlum

Most of these titles are available through the Morris Public Library; Tracks and The Tomb of Hercules are available through interlibrary loan.  Audiobook versions are also available for most of these titles.  If you are interested in checking out any of these books for your own travels, you can call the library at (815) 942-6880 and ask library staff to place the item on hold for you.

Happy traveling!

-Kyla Waltermire, Director

What the President Is Reading

As reported by John Dickerson at Slate.com, President Obama packed the following books for his recent family vacation:

• The Way Home by George Pelecanos, a crime thriller based in Washington, D.C.
• Lush Life by Richard Price, a story of race and class set in New York’s Lower East Side
• Tom Friedman’s Hot, Flat, and Crowded, on the benefits to America of an environmental revolution
• John Adams by David McCullough
• Plainsong by Kent Haruf, a drama about the life of eight different characters living in a Colorado prairie community

The Morris Library owns copies of all these titles.  You can place these titles and more on hold by calling the library at (815) 942-6880, visiting our online catalog, or stopping by at 604 Liberty Street.

The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane by Katherine Howe

The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane

Everyone has heard the old and somewhat worn-out cliché, “Don’t judge a book by its cover.” In this case, don’t judge a book by its title. The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane seems like a strange title at first, but it is guaranteed that you won’t want to put this book down. Beautifully written and positively engrossing, this novel weaves between contemporary times and one of the most disturbing yet fascinating times in American history—the Salem witch trials.

Connie Goodwin is a Harvard graduate student that needs to spend her summer doing research for her doctoral dissertation. While Connie has just begun to focus her attention on this, her mother asks her to clean up and handle the sale of Connie’s grandmother’s abandoned home near Salem. Connie reluctantly agrees but soon finds that this house holds much more than rotting wood and a colony of mice. While piecing through the near-ancient artifacts of her family house, Connie discovers an antique key hidden within a seventeenth-century Bible. The key contains a yellowing piece of parchment that reads “Deliverance Dane.” This discovery launches Connie on a quest to find out who this woman was and what power her physick book held.  As the puzzle of Deliverance’s story begins to make sense, Connie is haunted by visions of the long-ago Salem witch trials and begins to fear she is much closer to this mystery than she bargained for.

While The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane is the story of a graduate student’s time-consuming research, it is also much more than that.  Readers will feel driven by the mystery of Deliverance Dane while feeling the pain of the women sentenced to death during the Salem Witch Trials.  This chilling yet heartfelt story will not disappoint and will leave readers craving more.

A Voyage Long and Strange by Tony Horwitz

A Voyage Long and Strange

(This review is based on the unabridged audio edition)

It’s a pretty fair assumption to say that most people find history boring. It’s static and darn near impossible to relate to—one cannot connect on a personal level with people and events that didn’t happen within living memory, right?

Wrong. Tony Horwitz offers an invigorating, personable narration of the discovery and exploration of the United States up through the landing at Plymouth Rock in this engaging body of work. From the ventures of the Viking sailors to the misdirected hopes of the conquistadores to the relationships between native peoples and the first English settlers, Horwitz breathes life and energy into the pages of history and offers a bold, colorful, and full-bodied account of the earliest years of our country.

Horwitz brings history to life by focusing on the relevance of these early American events as they relate to the present day. He visits descendents of the Vikings and Native Americans to discover firsthand what it meant to live those lifestyles, even now in the 20th century. He travels up and down the eastern coast, deep into the prairies and deserts, and to exotic locations such as the Dominican Republic in search of the answer to the question, “What did (and does) this event mean for you?” What does Columbus mean to the people of the West Indies and Caribbean in today’s world? What legacies did de Soto and Cabeza de Vaca leave for modern residents of Tennessee and Arizona? How have the relationships between English settlers and native peoples affected the descendents of both groups as they struggle to identify themselves within a cultural and historical context? Horwitz’s biting wit, dogged determination to experience the same things as the people he profiles (among other things, he treks through the unmarked prairie and dons over 60 pounds of Spanish armor), and knack for telling a story and bringing to life the quirky cast of characters—both living and long gone—that he encounters along the way makes this historical account extremely accessible for all readers and listeners. Highly enjoyable and highly recommended.

Still Alice by Lisa Genova

Still Alice by Lisa Genova

Alice Howland, the main character of Still Alice, is a respected Harvard professor of linguistics. She is starting to notice that she is becoming very forgetful. At first, Alice blames it on stress, her busy schedule, and menopause. Then one day, while she is taking her daily run, she gets lost only a couple blocks from her house. She realizes that the buildings are familiar and she’s supposed to know where she is, but her mind is completely blank. She is horrified with this experience. Alice realizes she can’t just brush this off.

After a visit to her physician and later a neurologist, Alice is diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer ’s disease. Genova portrays the desperation and loss accompanied with Alice’s diagnosis with heartbreaking detail. The author’s Ph.D. in neuroscience from Harvard certainly adds a great deal of realism to the story. Since the novel is completely told from Alice’s point-of-view, the audience is given an in-depth perspective of what it’s like to have this terrifying disease. We see the charting of Alice’s decline as well as her triumphs. The effect of Alzheimer’s on family, friends, and colleagues is also prevalent throughout the pages of this book.

Everything Alice has ever considered important in her life has always revolved around the ability to communicate. When something we take for granted, such as being able to hold a conversation, becomes a challenging task for Alice, we are right there with her feeling her pain. It sometimes becomes difficult to remember that this is “just a story.” And yet, it isn’t just a story. It’s a reality for 4 million people suffering with this progressive and degenerative disease. As the book states on the cover, it’s “a story that must be told.”

ALA 2009 Notable Children’s Books

The American Library Association has release its list of notable children’s books for 2009. Books for this list are selected for being “[w]orthy of note or notice, important, distinguished, outstanding. As applied to children’s books, notable should be thought to include books of especially commendable quality, books that exhibit venturesome creativity, and books of fiction, information, poetry and pictures for all age levels (birth through age 14) that reflect and encourage children’s interests in exemplary ways.” The list includes this year’s Newbery, Caldecott, Belpré, Sibert, Geisel, and Batchelder Award and Honor books, as well as books that have also received other ALA awards, such as the Coretta Scott King Award, Michael L. Printz Award, and Schneider Family Book Award. Award and honor books are noted with a brief notation.

The 2009 ALA Notable Children’s Books

Etta by Gerald Kolpan

Etta by Gerald Kolpan

In Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid there is a great scene where Butch rides up on a bicycle and takes Etta Place for a ride while the song “Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head” plays in the background.  I loved that movie and was intrigued when I saw an advanced reading copy of this book, claiming it told the “real” story about Etta Place.  Since so little is known about the real Etta Place, Kolpan felt free to invent a life for her.  Lorinda Jameson is the daughter of a rich Philadelphia financier and it seems assured she will marry well and settle into her proper place in society.  But when tragedy strikes, Lorinda is forced to flee for her life.  The family lawyer renames her Etta Place and helps her find a job as a Harvey Girl waitress in Grand Junction, Colorado.  But a series of mishaps cause Etta to once again flee, this time with the Pinkerton Detective agency hot on her heels.  She finds refuge with the Hole-In-The Wall gang, meets the handsome Harry Longbaugh (aka Sundance Kid) and quickly becomes an accepted member of the band.  Real life characters appear thoughout the story, such as Eleanor Roosevelt, Buffalo Bill Cody and Annie Oakley.  Even though the setting takes place in the Wild West, this is not a western, but rather a combination love and adventure story of a truly fascinating, spirited woman.  The writing is superb and Kolpan incorporates Etta’s journal entries, newspaper clippings, Pinkerton “wanted” posters, and letters into the storyline.  Do yourself a favor and pick up a copy of this book – you won’t be disappointed.

A Drowned Maiden’s Hair by Laura Amy Schlitz

A Drowned Maiden's Hair by Laura Amy Schlitz

Don’t be put off by the Young Adult sticker on this book! This 2009 Caudill Award nominee is a full-bodied, absorbing gothic tale that is sure to please readers of all ages.

Eleven-year-old orphan Maud Flynn is having the best day of her life. She is unexpectedly adopted by the three elderly and wealthy Hawthorne sisters: flippant Hyacinth, stern Judith, and concerned Victoria. Maud is immediately drawn to Hyacinth and is determined to be the perfect child for her. On the trip to her new home, Maud is pampered with beautiful clothes, toys, and books. Upon arriving at Hawthorne Grove, however, Maud learns that there is a catch to all of these good things. The sisters explain that Maud must be a secret child; no one can know that she lives there. The reason for this is that Hyacinth is a medium—or at least she pretends to be—and Maud is going to help with “the family business” by acting as a spirit during séances. Maud is eager to please Hyacinth and successfully carries out her first role. She does so well, in fact, that she is taken to Cape Calypso with the sisters to adopt the identity of a child who drowned there.

While continuing to work hard on her impersonation of the dead girl, Maud comes to realize that her new paradise is anything but. She discovers that the sisters are in fact on the edge of ruin and they are relying on Maud’s performance as Caroline Lambert to save what little they have left. The pressure to succeed, as well as her desire to just be a kid, soon culminates in Maud’s nightly escapes to the carnival grounds and its beautiful carousel. On one such occasion, however, she meets Mrs. Lambert face-to-face and is worried that she will ruin the upcoming séance if she is recognized. Nonetheless Maud continues to return to the carousel night after night and slowly begins to see Mrs. Lambert as a human being rather than an easy mark. Events come to a head during the last Lambert séance when the house is accidentally and quickly set ablaze. Do Maud, the sisters, and Mrs. Lambert make it out alive? Will the Hawthornes get what they deserve? Can there ever be happiness again after such great losses?

This story is wonderful for readers young and old. It has betrayal and redemption, love and hate, and an unsinkable spirit and heart in the form of Maud Flynn.