Mearra, Selkie from the Sea by Linda Marie Smith

Chicago singer/songwriter Linda Marie Smith seems to think big. When she writes songs, she write song cycles. On her 2006 album Artemisia, she performed 14 songs that she wrote for a show about the 17th century Italian painter Artemisia Gentileschi, a rare woman among the men of Renaissance art. Her show was filled with music and images from the paintings by the artist. We had the show at our library. It was mesmerizing.

Now she has a new album and show, which we will present at the Thomas Ford Memorial Library in May. I have been listening to the album Mearra, Selkie from the Sea as we prepare to write our library newsletter and plan other publicity. There are 11 beautiful and varied songs about a magical seal who longs for love and life as a human. The show promises to have a mixture of live music, lights, and animation. I am sure it will be a special evening, if the wonderfully melodic songs of the album are evidence.

Smith says that she was influence by the music of Carole King and Carly Simon, and she has been compared with Lucinda Williams, Sarah McLachlan, and Natalie Merchant. She has won a Billboard songwriting award and recognition from the Illinois Arts Council and National Endowment for the Arts. She teaches at Chicago's Old Town School of Folk Music.

I am amazed that we can offer music of this caliber at the library. There is so much talent in the Chicago area, and Smith is on a roll.

Smith, Linda Marie. Mearra, Selkie from the Sea. 2014.

All the Stories of Muriel Spark

In late December, I noticed on the old librarian's desk that we use for displays several complete-short-stories-of-an-author-in-one-volume books. Several tempted me, but I chose All the Stories of Muriel Spark, having had a personal Muriel Spark reading phase between 2004 and 2005. I had then intended to read much more of her work, but other books and authors were also calling to me. I read Spark's autobiography Curriculum Vitae in 2005 and the wickedly funny The Abbess of Crewe in 2008, but I had not really gotten back on track to reading the whole oeuvre. Reading all of the short stories was an important step toward my goal, so I borrowed the volume.

It took me nearly a month to finish, having other reading commitments as well as other reading opportunities. Spacing the reading of the 41 stories has let Spark's writing style and wit sink in deeper than if I had whipped quickly through them. It also seemed more polite to take time. It took the author most of her writing career to write the collection. I could surely give her a month of my attention.

The month was time well spent. All the Stories of Muriel Spark is an entertaining collection with great variety. I especially like the stories set in Africa drawn from Spark's experience in Southern Rhodesia in the late 1930s and early 1940s. These include the story that she wrote to get prize money "The Seraph and the Zambesi," which launched her career in fiction, and my favorite "The Go-Away Bird." The latter, the longest story in the book at 52 pages, tells the tragic story of Daphne du Toit, an orphaned daughter of Afrikaner and British parents, who fails to escape a fate that the reader foresees. One of Spark's great talents was to tell readers how a story will end in her opening sentences and charm into reading every word.

All the Stories of Muriel Spark is a great companion to Curriculum Vitae, the autobiography mentioned above, as she wrote stories that reflect every stage of her life. The fun is then in trying to decide how much of her fiction was about her long and unconventional life. Ask for a renewal if the book is due before you finish.

Spark, Muriel. All the Stories of Muriel Spark. New Directions, 2001. 398p. ISBN 081121494X.

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark

When I borrowed The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark to read for a book discussion, I thought that I had not read it, despite having read a lot of Spark's books between 2004 and 2005. As I read and got halfway through the book, my memory had not changed, but I did go to my reading spreadsheet to remind myself what Spark's titles I had read. I discovered that I had read this book about the flamboyant teacher at a private girls school in 1930s Edinburgh. To the end, I still had no recall, which is strange because I think now that The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie is such a strikingly memorable book.

This short novel about Miss Brodie and her girls proved to be a great choice for a book discussion. We shared a great variety of interpretations and feelings about the teacher who was determined to shape the lives of her chosen girls. No one considered her simply well-meaning, but the degrees to which we judged her self-centered and sinister differed. She is a complex character, as is her student Susan Stranger (Spark was known for picking indicative surnames).

An interesting part of the discussion was comparing the book to the 1969 movie, which won an Oscar for Maggie Smith in 1970. The six girls were reduced to four, some of Miss Brodie's characteristics were exaggerated, and key facts were changed. If you have only seen the movie, you will be surprised how different the book is.

If you have not read any works by Muriel Spark, I recommend starting with a different book, either Memento Mori, The Girls of Slender Means, or one of the short story collections. I will review her short stories in my next post. As good as The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie is, many readers will find more to like in other titles.

Spark, Muriel. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. J. B. Lippincott, 1962. 187p.

What We Lost by Ben Bedford

I've said it before. A benefit of running a concert series is performers or their booking agents send us music CDs. It does not seem to matter that we have only five concerts per year and cannot hire the majority of the acts. Perhaps we get more CDs because the acts have to impress us.

I have been listening to a very well-produced album by singer/songwriter/guitarist Ben Bedford called What We Lost. I won't use the work "slick" in my assessment because that word can have a negative tone. There is nothing to fault in the making of this CD recorded in Nashville. Bedford and his producer have chosen an excellent variety of songs that flow together well. The brightest, possibly most memorable is "Cahokia," an anthem in celebration of a small Illinois town. There was a time it could have been a top 40 hit. It has sticking ability.

Images of the Midwest run through many of the songs. There are also Bible themes, especially in the songs "John the Baptist" and "Cloudless." Like many singers in the folk or country tradition, Bedford evokes travel and getting back to people and places that he loves. There is even current events. Close listeners will find much embedded in his stories. What We Lost is worth seeking.

Bedford, Ben. What We Lost. Waterbug, 2012.

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley

I recently saw a review of the seventh Flavia De Luce mystery by Alan Bradley, which I later found Bonnie reading (the book not the review) at home, just as I came home with book one The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie. Bonnie was surprised I had not read it. She has read all the books in Bradley's mystery series and encouraged me to get started. I did that night.

With heightened expectations I opened the book to the first chapter to discover eleven-year-old Flavia describing how dark it was in the closet where her two older sisters had tied her and presumably left her to die of starvation. Knowing escape tricks, she was already plotting her revenge, a plan involving her great knowledge of chemistry. I could see right away that Flavia was not a typical child.

In The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, set in 1950s rural England, Flavia vividly recounts how she solves the mystery of why a tall red-headed man died in her family's cucumber patch. Her efforts required a lot of bicycle riding, reading stacks of old newspapers in the village library (housed in an outbuilding of an old garage), and interviewing elderly neighbors. She also meets a police inspector who is willing to bend a few rules.

With an eleven-year-old sleuth, you might think The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie would be a juvenile title, but it is marketed to adults and shelved with adult mysteries in public libraries. I do not see any reason a good younger reader willing to take on a few Latin phrases and quotes from Shakespeare could not tackle it. Flavia's spunky attitude and the fact that adults are trying to hog the book might make it even more attractive to youth.

Bradley, Alan. The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie. Delacorte Press, 2009. 373p. ISBN 9780385342308.

Law of the Jungle: The $19 Billion Legal Battle Over Oil in the Rain Forest and the Lawyer Who'd Stop at Nothing to Win by Paul M. Barrett

In the middle of Law of the Jungle: The $19 Billion Legal Battle Over Oil in the Rain Forest and the Lawyer Who'd Stop at Nothing to Win by Paul M. Barrett, I was struck by obvious surface similarities between the book about a series of environmental lawsuits and Bleak House by Charles Dickens. I suspect other readers have made the same observation. Both cases stretched over two decades and enriched many lawyers. Late in his book Barrett even calls the case Dickensian.

The set of cases that began with Maria Aguinda v. Texaco Inc. and may have ended with Chevron Corp. v. Steven R. Donziger is a fascinating legal battle, and Barrett devotes more text to the legal issues than Charles Dickens did with Jarndyce v. Jarndyce. Instead, Dickens had sympathetic characters to develop in his complicated story line. Barrett did not have that option. Almost everyone in Law of the Jungle is guilty of something. The only people for whom the readers can express sympathy are the rarely considered poor Ecuadorian peasants for whom the legal battle was initiated. Corporations, politicians, and lawyers make and lose huge sums of money, while the peasants get no relief from the soil, air, and water pollution of their rain forest caused by the oil industry.

I started Law of the Jungle because it was recommended to me by a reader to whom I have often suggested books. I was leery of it, for it sounded so depressing, which it is, but the story is gripping and important. We should know what it going on in our world. There is a big fight over all the world's natural resources. Barrett tells you how it is being fought and the possible consequences.

Barrett, Paul M. Law of the Jungle: The $19 Billion Legal Battle Over Oil in the Rain Forest and the Lawyer Who'd Stop at Nothing to Win. Crown Publishers, 2014. 290p. ISBN 9780770436346.

The Lunchbox, a Film by Ritesh Batra

Friday night January 9, 2015 was a historic occasion for the Thomas Ford Memorial Library, as we showed our first film with our newly-installed projection and sound system. While that is not news that made the Chicago Tribune, it was a big deal for us. Our film fans will have a better viewing experience, and our staff will be saved many set-up hours each year.

I was grateful for the seven people who braved the bitter cold to come see and discuss The Lunchbox, a very fitting film for our upgrade debut. We specialize in showing independent and foreign films. The Lunchbox is a critically-acclaimed 2013 film from India set in Mumbai where a very efficient delivery system drops many thousands of lunch boxes on desks in offices daily. Many of these lunches are lovingly made by wives or other family members and carefully packed in stacking tins zipped into thermal cases. It is unlike anything we see in the United States.

Though the Harvard Business School has studied and held up the Mumbai lunchbox deliveries as a model worth emulation, in The Lunchbox, the unthinkable has happened. A lunch has been delivered to the wrong person. The ensuing situation connects two lonely people of different generations. Will a romance develop? Is there just more heartache ahead? In his first film, director Ritesh Batra builds dramatic tension as the young woman and older man deal with difficulties of their lives.

It was all thumbs up at the film discussion and the discussion was lively. It was worth bundling up and coming out in the cold to see.

The Lunchbox. Sony Pictures Classics, 2014. 105 minutes.

Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky

When I see articles about nonfiction readers' advisory or attend a workshop on that topic, I invariably notice a plug for the now considered-classic title Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky, published in 2002. Even librarians who mostly tout fiction seem to say they enjoyed it. It has been on my wishlist for years, and I finally borrowed it as an audio download in the final days of 2014. Was it really going to be as good as everyone said?

One positive for the audiobook is that it is read by the very talented Scott Brick. I have listened to numerous books by him. He can put life into a telephone directory. Luckily for Brick and for listeners, Kurlansky has filled his wide-ranging book with history from seemingly every place and period, noting many interesting facts, making intelligent observations, and providing recipes for food items that most people just buy at the store. Can you imagine adding 12 and a half ounces of salt to 25 pounds of sturgeon eggs to make your own caviar? Much of the text is entertaining, and the idea that salt has played a large role in agriculture, industry, commerce, cuisine, diplomacy, and empire-building is fascinating.

Still, I found the book at times more a historical litany than a plot-driven story. I considered dropping out at several points, but then I would be re-engaged by some country, person, or issue in which I have continuing interest.

I am glad to have stuck with Salt: A World History as the final chapters are some of the most engaging, including a section on the Morton Salt company of Chicago. Kurlansky addresses our current salt economy at the end. Another good reason staying the course is seeing that l there is a consistent thread through world history - something that is more than salt but revealed by salt.

I am sure that I will be noticing links to the salt trade in history books and in my travels for years.

Kurlansky, Mark. Salt: A World History. Walker and Company, 2002. 484p. ISBN 0802713734.

Audiobook: 14 compact discs. Phoenix Books, 2006. ISBN 1597770973.

Minnesota Days: Our Heritage in Stories, Art, and Photos

When Laura and Luke, who live in Minneapolis, asked what I might like for Christmas, I suggested a book about Minnesota. I have been to the state 10 or 15 times since Laura moved there in 2011 and like the place. So I suggested something about its history, land, and culture. Minnesota Days: Our Heritage in Stories, Art, and Photos covers all three of those topics well.

Minnesota Days is a beautiful book filled with short pieces written by notable Minnesotans illustrated by Minnesota art works and photographs. Readers from any state will recognize some of the authors, including F. Scott Fitzgerald, Sinclair Lewis, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Gordon Parks, and Garrison Keillor. Others journalists, historians, and novelists will be new to non-Minnesotans. Having read this book, I would like to read more by Grace H. Flandrau, Bill Holm, and Jon Hassler.

You can learn much just looking at the pictures, some of which are by famous Minnesotan photographers and artists. They show landscapes, wildlife, people, cities, and cuisine. I particularly want to call your attention to the topical map on page 106, "Minnesota Principle Hot Dishes by Region." Cheese scalloped potatoes, corny burger bake, wild rice casserole, German pork chop casserole, and jiffy tuna hot dish all appeal to me. A wandering tour of "the Land of Sky Blue Water" would be caloric.

If you are not in Minnesota, your library may not have Minnesota Days. Ask for an interlibrary loan. I am lucky to have my own copy. Thanks you, Laura and Luke.

Minnesota Days: Our Heritage in Stories, Art, and Photos edited by Michael Dregni. Voyageur Press, 1999. 160p. ISBN 0896584216.

The Book with No Pictures by B. J. Novak (A Review with No Pictures)

I have seen lots of books with no pictures, but they are not aimed at young readers. So The Book with No Pictures by B. J. Novak is unusual.

You could easily write a easy book for kids with no pictures and have it be nothing special. Maybe it could be a little story, such as how dust settles under furniture or which trees lose their leaves first in the autumn. Maybe it could be instructive, telling how to tie shoe laces or how to sharpen pencils. Maybe a book listing all of your cousins and their favorite colors would be interesting. Of course, all of these books would be better with some pictures.

The idea behind The Book with No Pictures is that it has to be read aloud (every word) by one person to another person. You might assume that would be an adult to a child. That would be fun. It might also be fun to listen to a child read it to another child.

The first time you read it should be aloud to someone else without having any idea what will be on the next page. This is the way to maximize dramatic tension.

There are some colored parts and larger than normal words.

I do not want to say too much and give anything humorous away. Try it.

Novak, B. J. The Book with No Pictures. Dial Books for Young Readers, 2014. ISBN 9780803741713.

The Port Chicago 50: Disaster, Mutiny, and the Fight for Civil Rights by Steve Sheinkin

With Black History Month in February, now is a good time to read The Port Chicago 50: Disaster, Mutiny, and the Fight for Civil Rights. This mostly forgotten story about segregation in the military during World War II recounts events that preceded the well-reported integration of major league baseball in 1947 and the civil rights protests of the 1950s and 1960s. The author Steve Sheinkin poses that the courage of the black sailors who refused to load ships Naval ships with bombs and ammunition days after an explosion that killed 320 black sailors gave direction to later civil rights efforts.

On July 17, 1944 at San Francisco Bay's Port Chicago, only black sailors died because only black sailors were on the docks loading Naval ships at the port. Many of them had wanted to be on battle ships in the Pacific, but the Navy had refused to assign them. Instead, they were assigned to very dangerous work for which they had no formal training. White commanders pressed them to load heavy weapons with increasing speed. According to some accounts, disaster was inevitable.

Few whites noticed the story of the disaster in newspapers filled with other war stories. Black newspapers and the NAACP noticed. The latter sent its attorney Thurgood Marshall to defend the 50 sailors who refused to load ships until safety issues were addressed.

A key part of The Port Chicago 50 is the military trial with examination of witnesses and impassioned arguments by the prosecutors and defending attorneys. After weeks of proceedings, the 50 were all found guilty within minutes and sentenced to 15 years of hard labor. Sheinkin recounts appeal efforts and how the men were very quietly released after the war ended.

The Port Chicago 50 is aimed at young readers by the same author who won awards for The Bomb. It is worth reading in print with illustrations or as an audiobook by readers of all ages.

Sheinkin, Steve. The Port Chicago 50: Disaster, Mutiny, and the Fight for Civil Rights. Roaring Brook Press, 2014. 200p. ISBN 9781596437968.

audiobook: Listening Library, 2014. 3 compact discs. ISBN 9780804167444.

Between Man and Beast: An Unlikely Explorer, the Evolution Debates, and the African Adventure That Took the Victorian World by Storm by Monte Reel

I had never heard of the African explorer Paul Du Chaillu. According to author Monte Reel, few people have, which was part of the appeal for him to write a book. Writing about Du Chaillu also gave Reel a vehicle for exploring the Victorian Age and its controversies and prejudices. The result of his research is Between Man and Beast: An Unlikely Explorer, the Evolution Debates, and the African Adventure That Took the Victorian World by Storm.

That Du Chaillu is called an African explorer can be interpreted a couple of ways. The obvious is that he explored Africa. He took two extended journeys into the interior from coastal Gabon in the 1856 and 1863 and is thought to be the first European to see a live gorilla. Before that only gorilla skeletons and skins had been collected and sent to the scientific societies in the capitals of Europe, where there was much skepticism of such an animal truly existing. After his first expedition, Du Chaillu took preserved gorillas to New York and London to both great acclaim and charges of fraud.

Du Chaillu's origins were obscure. His father was French and his mother was rarely mentioned. He said at different times that he was born in France, in New Orleans, and in French colonies. Many of his supporters believed him to be dark skinned from his years in the Africa sun. In fact, he was part African, born on the island of Reunion east of Madagascar. The author poses that perceptions of Du Chaillu's race factored in his failure to impress men of science with his observations, stories, and specimens. Though his books sold well initially, his fame was short-lived.

Reel's sympathetic account of Du Chaillu's brief career is filled with big names in science, including Sir Richard Burton, Richard Owen, Roderick Murchison, Charles Darwin, and Thomas Henry Huxley. They and others used Du Chaillu's accounts in their arguments over evolution. The explorer tried to stay neutral but others implied his allegiance or opposition. After two African trips, he gave up gorilla studies and devoted himself to less volatile Scandinavian topics.

Readers who enjoy history of exploration and science will appreciate Between Man and Beast. If you library does not have it, request an interlibrary loan.

Reel, Monte. Between Man and Beast: An Unlikely Explorer, the Evolution Debates, and the African Adventure That Took the Victorian World by Storm. Doubleday, 2013. 331p. ISBN 9780385534222.

Biographical and Autobiographical: Best Biographies and Memoirs of 2015

If best books lists are used as evidence, 2014 was a big year for biographical and autobiographical books. When I examined the lists from the eight review sources that I used last year, I found a surprisingly larger number of titles. In 2013, Amazon's editors named 16 biographical titles to their top 100 books. This year the number is 22. Booklist included 11 such titles in 2013 and 16 in 2014. If I kept counting, I suspect I would find similar results in most cases.

What I also noticed this year is the lack of agreement among the book reviewing editors. Most of the titles were chosen only once. Only one biography made seven of the lists: The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace: A Brilliant Young Man Who Left Newark for the Ivy League by Jeff Hobbs. Another biography made five of the lists: Thirteen Days in September: Carter, Begin, and Sadat at Camp David by Lawrence Wright. One memoir made five lists: Little Failure: A Memoir by Gary Shteyngart.

As you scan the lists below, you may wonder at some of the inclusions, such as Thirteen Days in September, which many readers would consider a history instead of a biography. I think it is both, representing the category of collective biography. Someone interested in any of the three figures named in the title would enjoy reading this book.

The result of the long and diverse lists is there are many excellent titles from which readers may choose. Kirkus offers 53 biographical titles! Enjoy and have a happy new reading year.


Amazon

Biographies

Astoria: John Jacob Astor and Thomas Jefferson's Lost Pacific Empire: A Story of Wealth, Ambition, and Survival by Peter Stark

Cosby: His Life and Times by Mark Whitaker

A Deadly Wandering: A Tale of Tragedy and Redemption in the Age of Attention by Matt Richtel

The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution by Walter Isaacson

Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy: Four Women Undercover in the Civil War by Karen Abbott

Napoleon: A Life by Andrew Roberts

No Place to Hide: Edward Snowden, the NSA, and the U. S. Surveillance State by Glenn Greenwald

Savage Harvest: A Tale of Cannibals, Colonialism, and Michael Rockefeller's Tragic Quest for Primitive Art by Carl Hoffman

The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace: A Brilliant Young Man Who Left Newark for the Ivy League by Jeff Hobbs

A Spy Among Friends: Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal by Ben Macintyre

Untamed: The Wildest Woman in America and the Fight for Cumberland Island by Will Harlan

Updike by Adam Begley

War of the Whales: A True Story by Joshua Horwitz

Memoirs

Bad Feminist: Essays by Roxane Gay

Badluck Way: A Year on the Ragged Edge of the West by Bryce Andrews

Blood Will Out: The True Story of a Murder, a Mystery, and a Masquerade by Walter Kirn

Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant?: A Memoir by Roz Chast

I'll Drink to That: A Life in Style, with a Twist by Betty Halbreich

Not That Kind of Girl: A Young Woman Tells You What She's "Learned" by Lena Dunham

Sous Chef: 24 Hours on the Line by Michael Gibney

Tibetan Peach Pie: A True Account of an Imaginative Life by Tom Robbins

Yes, Please by Amy Poehler


Booklist

Biographies

The Birth of the Pill: How Four Crusaders Reinvented Sex and Launched a Revolution by Jonathan Eig

Brando's Smile: His Life, Thought and Work by Susan L. Mizruchi

Charlie Chaplin: A Brief Life by Peter Ackroyd

The Crusades of Cesar Chavez by Miriam Pawel

The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution by Walter Isaacson

John Quincy Adams: American Visionary by Fred Kaplan

Lines of Descent: W. E. B. Du Bois and the Emergency of Identity by Kwame Anthony Appiah

Michelangelo: A Life in Six Masterpieces by Miles J. Unger

No Place to Hide: Edward Snowden, the NSA, and the U. S. Surveillance State by Glenn Greenwald

A Royal Experiment: The Private Life of King George III by Janice Hadlow

Sally Ride: America's First Woman in Space by Lynn Sherr

The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace: A Brilliant Young Man Who Left Newark for the Ivy League by Jeff Hobbs

Thirteen Days in September: Carter, Begin, and Sadat at Camp David by Lawrence Wright

The Trigger: Hunting the Assassin Who Brought the World to War by Tim Butcher

Victoria by A. N. Wilson

Memoirs

The Ogallala Road: A Memoir of Love and Reckoning by Julene Bair


Kirkus

Biographies

Astoria: John Jacob Astor and Thomas Jefferson's Lost Pacific Empire: A Story of Wealth, Ambition, and Survival by Peter Stark

Boy on Ice: The Life and Death of Derek Boogaard by John Branch

Careless People: Murder, Mayhem, and the Invention of The Great Gatsby by Sarah Churchill

A Deadly Wandering: A Tale of Tragedy and Redemption in the Age of Attention by Matt Richtel

The Double Life of Paul De Man by Evelyn Barish

Factory Man: How One Furniture Maker Battled Offshoring, Stayed Local - And Helped Save an American Town by Beth Macy

Five Came Back: A Story of Hollywood and the Second World War by Mark Harris

Hope: Entertainer of the Century by Richard Zoglin

The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution by Walter Isaacson

The Invisible Bridge: The Fall of Nixon and the Rise of Reagan by Rick Perlstein

Isabella: The Warrior Queen by Kristin Downey

The Lagoon: How Aristotle Invented Science by Armand Marie Leroi

Lincoln and the Power of the Press: The War for Public Opinion by Harold Holzer

A Man Called Destruction: The Life and Music of Alex Chilton, from the Box Tops to Big Star to Backdoor Man by Holly George-Warren

The Mantle of Command: FDR at War, 1941-1942 by Nigel Hamilton

On His Own Terms: A Life of Nelson Rockefeller by Richard Norton Smith

One Way Out: The Inside History of the Allman Brothers Band by Alan Paul

Respect: The Life of Aretha Franklin by David Ritz

Savage Harvest: A Tale of Cannibals, Colonialism, and Michael Rockefeller's Tragic Quest for Primitive Art by Carl Hoffman

The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace: A Brilliant Young Man Who Left Newark for the Ivy League by Jeff Hobbs

The Snowden Files: The Inside Story of the World's Most Wanted Man by Luke Harding

Soldier Girls: The Battles of Three Women at Home and at War by Helen Thorpe

A Spy Among Friends: Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal by Ben Macintyre

Stalin: Volume I: Paradoxes of Power, 1878-1928 by Stephen Kotkin

The Tastemaker: Carl Van Vechten and the Birth of Modern America by Edward White

Tennessee Williams: Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh by John Lahr

Thirteen Days in September: Carter, Begin, and Sadat at Camp David by Lawrence Wright

The Trigger: Hunting the Assassin Who Brought the World to War by Tim Butcher

Uncertain Justice: The Roberts Court and the Constitution by Laurence Tribe and Joshua Matz

War of the Whales: A True Story by Josshua Horwitz

William Wells Brown: An African-American Life by Ezra Greenspan

Memoirs

The Answer to the Riddle Is Me: A Memoir of Amnesia by David Stuart MacLean

Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant?: A Memoir by Roz Chast

A Cup of Water Under My Bed: A Memoir by Daisy Hernandez

Dear Leader: A Poet, Spy, Escapee - A Look Inside North Korea by Jang Jin-Sung

Getting Schooled: The Reeducation of an American Teacher by Garret Keizer

The Great Floodgates of Wonderworld by Justin Hocking

History Lessons: A Memoir of Madness, Memory, and the Brain by Clifton Crais

If Only You People Could Follow Directions: A Memoir by Jessica Hendry Nelson

Internal Medicine: A Doctor's Stories by Terrence Holt

Little Failure: A Memoir by Gary Shteyngart

Man Alive: A True Story of Violence, Forgiveness, and Becoming a Man by Thomas Page McBee

My Age of Anxiety: Fear, Hope, Dread, and the Search for Peace of Mind by Scott Stossel

My Life in Middlemarch by Rebecca Mead

The Other Side by Lacy Johnson

Out of the Woods: A Memoir of Wayfinding by Lynn Darling

Pandora's DNA: Tracing the Breast Cancer Genes Through History, Science, and One Family Tree by Lizzie Stark

Perfectly Miserable: Guilt, God, and Real Estate in a Small Town by Sarah Payne Stuart

The Sea Inside by Philip Hoare

Take This Man: A Memoir by Brando Skyhorse

There Was and There Was Not: A Journey Through Hate and Possibility in Turkey, Armenia, and Beyond by Meline Toumani

Trespassing on Einstein's Lawn: A Father, a Daughter, the Meaning of Nothing, and the Beginning of Everything by Amanda Gefter

Unremarried Widow: A Memoir by Artis Henderson


Library Journal

Biographies

An American Cardinal: The Biography of Cardinal Timothy Dolan by Christina Boyle

Dr. Mutter's Marvels: A True Story of Intrigue and Innovation at the Dawn of Modern Medicine by Cristin O'Keefe Aptowicz

Five Came Back: A Story of Hollywood and the Second World War by Mark Harris

Liar, Temptress, Soldier, Spy: Four Women Undercover in the Civil War by Karen Abbott

No Place to Hide: Edward Snowden, the NSA, and the U. S. Surveillance State by Glenn Greenwald

Memoirs

Bulletproof Vest: The Ballad of an Outlaw and His Daughter by Maria Venegas

Duty: Memoirs of a Secretary at War by Robert M. Gates

Eating Wildly: Foraging for Life, Love, and the Perfect Meal by Ava Chin

The End of Eve by Ariel Gore

Gone Feral: Tracking My Dad Through the Wild by Novella Carpenter

The Great Floodgates of Wonderworld by Justin Hocking

History Lessons: A Memoir of Madness, Memory, and the Brain by Clifton Crais

Living with a Wild God: A Nonbeliever's Search for the Truth About Everything by Barbara Ehrenreich

My Life in Middlemarch by Rebecca Mead

Not That Kind of Girl: A Young Woman Tells You What She's "Learned" by Lena Dunham

The Other Side by Lacy Johnson

Smoke Gets in Your Eyes: And Other Lessons from the Crematory by Caitlin Doughty

So We Read On: How the Great Gatsby Came to Be and Why It Endures by Maureen Corrigan

Things I've Learned from Dying: A Book About Life by David R. Dow

Weightless: My Life as a Fat Man and How I Escaped by Gregg McBride


National Public Radio

Biographies

Another Man's War: The Story of a Burma Boy in Britain's Forgotten Army by Barnaby Phillips

Beethoven: Anguish and Triumph by Jan Swafford

Bolano: A Biography in Conversations by Monica Maristain

Empress Dowager Cixi: The Concubine Who Launched Modern China by Jung Chang

Hold Tight Gently: Michael Callen, Essex Hemphill, and the Battlefield of AIDS by Martin Duberman

Josephine: The Dazzling Life of Josephine Baker by Patricia Hruby Powell and Christian Robinson

A Long Way Home: A Memoir by Saroo Brierley

The Loudest Voice in the Room: How the Brilliant, Bombastic Roger Ailes Built Fox News - And Divided a Country by Gabriel Sherman

The Map Thief: The Gripping Story of an Esteemed Rare-Map Dealer Who Made Millions Stealing Priceless Maps by Michael Blanding

Philip Larkin: Life, Art and Love by James Booth

The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace: A Brilliant Young Man Who Left Newark for the Ivy League by Jeff Hobbs

Memoirs

Bad Feminist: Essays by Roxane Gay

Blood Will Out: The True Story of a Murder, a Mystery, and a Masquerade by Walter Kirn

The Broken Road: From the Iron Gates to Mouth Athos by Patrick Leigh Fermor

Brothas Be, Yo Like George, Ain't That Funkin' Kinda Hard on You? A Memoir by George Clinton

Brown Girl Dreaming by Jaqueline Woodson

Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant?: A Memoir by Roz Chast

Delancey: A Man, a Woman, a Restaurant, a Marriage by Molly Wizenberg

Duty: Memoirs of a Secretary at War by Robert M. Gates

El Deafo by Cece Bell

Fresh from the Farm: A Year of Recipes and Stories by Susie Middleton

Geek Sublime: The Beauty of Code, The Code of Beauty by Vikram Chandra

The Good Spy: The Life and Death of Robert Ames by Kai Bird

How I Discover Poetry by Marilyn Nelson

How the World Was: A California Childhood by Emmanuel Guibert

Little Failure: A Memoir by Gary Shteyngart

Loitering: New and Collected Essays by Charles D'Ambrosio

Man Alive: A True Story of Violence, Forgiveness, and Becoming a Man by Thomas Page McBee

The Noble Hustle: Poker, Beef Jerky, and Death by Colson Whitehead

A Painter's Progress: A Portrait of Lucian Freud by David Dawson

Showa 1944-1953: A History of Japan by Shigeru Mizuki

The Splendid Things We Planned: A Family Portrait by Blake Bailey

Things I've Learned from Dying: A Book About Life by David R. Dow

Three Minutes in Poland: Discovering a Lost World in a 1938 Family Film by Glenn Kurtz

Thrown by Kerry Howley

The Universal Tone: Bringing My Story to Light by Carlos Santana


New York Times

Biographies

American Mirror: The Life and Art of Norman Rockwell by Deborah Solomon

Demon Camp: A Soldier's Exorcism by Jennifer Percy

Dying Every Day: Seneca at the Court of Nero by James S. Romm

Eichmann Before Jerusalem: The Unexamined Life of a Mass Murderer by Bettina Stangneth

Elephant Company:The Inspiring Story of an Unlikely Hero and the Animals Who Helped Him Save Lives in World War II by Vicki Constantine Croke

Embattled Rebel: Jefferson Davis as Commander in Chief by James M. McPherson

Factory Man: How One Furniture Maker Battled Offshoring, Stayed Local - And Helped Save an American Town by Beth Macy

Gandhi Before India by Ramachandra Guha

Hotel Florida: Truth, Love, and Death in the Spanish Civil War by Amanda Vaill

The Invisible Bridge: The Fall of Nixon and the Rise of Reagan by Rick Perlstein

The Invisible Front: Love and Loss in an Era of Endless War by Yochi Dreazen

Limonov by Emmanuel Carrere

Napoleon: A Life by Andrew Roberts

Penelope Fitzgerald: A Life by Hermione Lee

The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace: A Brilliant Young Man Who Left Newark for the Ivy League by Jeff Hobbs

A Spy Among Friends: Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal by Ben Macintyre

Thirteen Days in September: Carter, Begin, and Sadat at Camp David by Lawrence Wright

The Trip to Echo Springs: On Writers and Drinking by Olivia Laing

True American: Murder and Mercy in Texas by Anand Giridharadas

Memoirs

Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant?: A Memoir by Roz Chast

Duty: Memoirs of a Secretary at War by Robert M. Gates

Fire Shut Up in My Bones by Charles M. Blow

Geek Sublime: The Beauty of Code, The Code of Beauty by Vikram Chandra

Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson

Little Failure: A Memoir by Gary Shteyngart

The Madwoman in the Volvo: My Year of Raging Hormones by Sandra Tsing Loh

Not I: Memoirs of a German Childhood by Joachim Fest

On Immunity: An Inoculation by Eula Biss

Thrown by Kerry Howley


Publishers Weekly

Biographies

Boy on Ice: The Life and Death of Derek Boogaard by John Branch

Factory Man: How One Furniture Maker Battled Offshoring, Stayed Local - And Helped Save an American Town by Beth Macy

The Invisible Bridge: The Fall of Nixon and the Rise of Reagan by Rick Perlstein

Jerry Lee Lewis: His Own Story by Rick Bragg

John Wayne: The Life and Legend by Scott Eyman

Limonov by Emmanuel Carrere

Penelope Fitzgerald: A Life by Hermione Lee

The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace: A Brilliant Young Man Who Left Newark for the Ivy League by Jeff Hobbs

Soldier Girls: The Battles of Three Women at Home and at War by Helen Thorpe

Tennessee Williams: Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh by John Lahr

Thirteen Days in September: Carter, Begin, and Sadat at Camp David by Lawrence Wright

True American: Murder and Mercy in Texas by Anand Giridharadas

Memoirs

A Fighting Chance by Elizabeth Warren

Fire Shut Up in My Bones by Charles M. Blow

Little Failure: A Memoir by Gary Shteyngart

Man Alive: A True Story of Violence, Forgiveness, and Becoming a Man by Thomas Page McBee

On Immunity: An Inoculation by Eula Biss


Washington Post

Biographies

The Birth of the Pill: How Four Crusaders Reinvented Sex and Launched a Revolution by Jonathan Eig

The Good Spy: The Life and Death of Robert Ames by Kai Bird

The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution by Walter Isaacson

The Invisible Bridge: The Fall of Nixon and the Rise of Reagan by Rick Perlstein

John Quincy Adams: American Visionary by Fred Kaplan

Limonov by Emmanuel Carrere

Lincoln and the Power of the Press: The War for Public Opinion by Harold Holzer

Little Demon in the City of Light: A True Story of Murder and Mesmerism in Belle Epoque Paris by Steven Levingston

The Nixon Defense: What He Knew and When He Knew It by John W. Dean

Sally Ride: America's First Woman in Space by Lynn Sherr

Savage Harvest: A Tale of Cannibals, Colonialism, and Michael Rockefeller's Tragic Quest for Primitive Art by Carl Hoffman

The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace: A Brilliant Young Man Who Left Newark for the Ivy League by Jeff Hobbs

Soldier Girls: The Battles of Three Women at Home and at War by Helen Thorpe

A Spy Among Friends: Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal by Ben Macintyre

Tennessee Williams: Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh by John Lahr

Thirteen Days in September: Carter, Begin, and Sadat at Camp David by Lawrence Wright

Unreasonable Men: Theodore Roosevelt and the Republican Rebels Who Created Progressive Politics by Michael Wolraich

Updike by Adam Begley

War of the Whales: A True Story by Josshua Horwitz


Memoirs

Duty: Memoirs of a Secretary at War by Robert M. Gates

Hard Choices by Hillary Rodham Clinton

Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson

Little Failure: A Memoir by Gary Shteyngart

My Age of Anxiety: Fear, Hope, Dread, and the Search for Peace of Mind by Scott Stossel

S Street Rising: Crack, Murder, and Redemption in D. C. by Ruben Castaneda

Worthy Fights: A Memoir of Leadership in War and Peace by Leon Panetta

Zhivago Affair: The Kremlin, the CIA, and the Battle Over a Forbidden Book by Peter Finn

Catching Up with Alexander McCall Smith Books

Over the holidays, some people borrowed our television series on DVD to have viewing marathons. Instead of devoting myself night and day to episodes of Dexter, Gilmore Girls, Lost, Mad Men, or Downton Abbey, I borrowed six books or audiobooks written by Scotland's Alexander McCall Smith in December and had my own little read-a-thon.

If you like light serialized fiction and are not familiar with McCall Smith, you should be. He is the prolific author of several series, including No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency, Sunday Philosophy Club, 44 Scotland Street, Corduroy Mansions, and Portuguese Irregular Verbs series. Each is different. The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency and the Sunday Philosophy Club series can both be classified as cozy mysteries, but they are set in very different places, Botswana and Scotland. 44 Scotland Street and Corduroy Mansions are domestic comedies (similar to sit-coms) that focus on the residents of apartment buildings. The first is set in Edinburgh and the latter in London. Both were first published in daily installments in British newspapers, in much the way the novels of Charles Dickens were released in the 19th century. Portuguese Irregular Verbs is an academic farce featuring a very silly linguistics professor.

I read three No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency books and now have only The Handsome Man's De Luxe Cafe to read to catch up with all the stories of Ma Precious Ramotswe. I listened to two 44 Scotland Street audiobooks and know everything that has happened with entertaining cast, including the painter Angus Lordie, the narcissist Bruce Anderson, and the beleaguered six-year-old Bertie Pollack. I also read A Conspiracy of Friends to finish what I think may stop as a trilogy. The last Corduroy Mansions title came out in 2011 and the author seems to have resolved its story lines. Life goes on, however, so McCall Smith could return to these characters in the future. The latest Portuguese Irregular Verbs title appeared about nine years after the original three. No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency, Sunday Philosophy Club, and 44 Scotland Street come out annually. There are now fifteen books featuring Ma Ramotswe.

I have enjoyed December but am now bringing my McCall Smith marathon to a close. There are so many other books to read.

Books That Mattered in 2014 and Year in Review

2014 was a good year for reading. Here are the books, music, and movies I liked best in the year. As in previous years, it is an eclectic collection of titles, so there are choices for many tastes in reading, listening, and viewing.


Recent Nonfiction

Touching the Wild: Living with the Mule Deer of Deadman Gulch by Joe Hutto

In a Rocket Made of Ice: Among the Children of Wat Opot by Gail Gutradt

Lives in Ruins: Archaeologists and the Seductive Lure of Human Rubble by Marilyn Johnson

A Feathered River Across the Sky: The Passenger Pigeon's Flight to Extinction by Joel Greenberg

The Age of Radiance: The Epic Rise and Dramatic Fall of the Atomic Era by Craig Nelson

Elephant Company: The Inspiring Story of an Unlikely Hero and the Animals Who Helped Him Save Lives in World War II by Vicki Constantine Croke

Field Notes from a Hidden City: An Urban Nature Diary by Esther Woolfson

Splitting an Order by Ted Kooser

Eye to Eye: Photographs by Vivian Maier


Recent Fiction


The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry: A Novel by Gabrielle Zevin

Bark: Stories by Lorrie Moore

Dear Committee Members by Julie Schumacher


Great Older Books 

Songbird Journeys: Four Seasons in the Lives of Migratory Birds by Miyoko Chu


Children's Books  

Elizabeth, Queen of the Seas by Lynne Cox

Look Up! Bird-Watching in Your Own Back Yard by Annette LeBlanc Cate

On the Wing by David Elliot

Yoko Finds Her Way by Rosemary Wells

Gus and Me: The Story of My Granddad and My First Guitar by Keith Richards


Audiobooks 

Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital by Sheri Fink

This Land That I Love: Irving Berlin, Woody Guthrie, and the Story of Two American Anthems by John Shaw

My Life in Middlemarch by Rebecca Mead

The Astronaut Wives Club: A True Story by Lily Koppel


Films

Tim's Vermeer

The Waiting Room


Music 

Mark Dvorak at Friday at the Ford

Jim Green in Concert at the Library 

American Hornpipe by Dana and Susan Robinson

Why Do Ducks Have Webby Toes? by Mim Eichman and Doug Lofstrom


Library Matters 

The Public Library: A Photographic Essay by Robert Dawson

The Shape of the Reference Desk, A Panel Discussion

Libraries in the Ancient World by Lionel Casson

Public Library in the Marketplace: The Business of Digital Content

Filtering Out Internet Censorship: Advocacy, Professional Ethics, and the Law

Blue Horses: Poems by Mary Oliver

I woke
and crept
like a cat

on silent feet
about my own house ...

I have already read a book of poetry today. It is a small book, I admit, but it is tremendous. I checked it out from the library at the last moment last night to have another book for the two-day holiday. I woke just before 2:00 a.m., crept from bed and read a bit, then I woke again to read a little more at 4:30 a.m. I finished the collection at breakfast. The book is Blue Horses: Poems by Mary Oliver, from which the lines above came.

In Blue Horses, Oliver speaks her mind with humor and compassion. As I read the poems, I could imagine them all put together into a sort of one-woman show that would be appropriate for stage or perhaps on PBS's Great Performances. As she would read her poems, we would see stills and videos of the woods and wildlife about whom she frequently writes. We'd also see her at home, perhaps at her window looking out. It would be spellbinding to listen to her define our world and how to live in it.

The book title Blue Horses refer to her poem "Franz Marc's Blue Horses" in which she tells about the art and death of the young artist in World War I.

I do not know how to thank you, Franz Marc.
Maybe our world will grow kinder eventually. 
Maybe the desire to make something beautiful 
is the piece of God that is inside each of us.

As a bird lover, I appreciate Oliver's frequent avian references that include a heron, kingfisher, mockingbird, wren, vulture, song sparrow, bluebird, and a variety of hummingbirds. She observes frogs and wasps and expresses a wonder for rocks. Her poems resonate with people who would gladly spend much of their time in wild settings. I hope many of them find Blue Horses under their trees this Christmas.

Oliver, Mary. Blue Horses: Poems. Penguin Press, 2014. 79p. ISBN 9781594204791.

1954: The Year Willie Mays and the First Generation of Black Superstars Changed Major League Baseball Forever

I have great interest in reading about 1954, my first year on the planet. It was an interesting time. President Dwight Eisenhower warned the nation about getting involved militarily in Vietnam after he authorized limited military aid to that country. Newsmen Edward R. Murrow and Fred Friendly produced a television exposé about Senator Joseph McCarthy. Jim Crow laws were still enforced in many states. Most importantly, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Brown v. the Board of Education that American public schools should integrate all races. Much was changing during the year of my birth.

It was also a time of change for major league baseball. The Boston Braves moved to Milwaukee in the previous year, the first franchise move since 1903, showing team owners how profitable moving a weary team to a new city could be. The St. Louis Browns moved to Baltimore to become the Orioles in 1954, a prelude to the Dodgers and Giants moving to the West Coast four years later. What may have been even more important to the way the game is played and who plays it is that 1954 was the first season that nearly every team in the pennant race had black players. The team that did not have any was the New York Yankees who failed to repeat as American League champs. Sports writer Bill Madden recounts this season in 1954: The Year Willie Mays and the First Generation of Black Superstars Changed Major League Baseball Forever.

In 1954, Madden tells a mostly chronological story featuring the teams that were seriously in the pennant race: Brooklyn Dodgers, Milwaukee Braves, and New York Giants in the National League and the Chicago White Sox, Cleveland Indians, and New York Yankees in the American League. Other teams are rare mentioned except when they played the contending teams. In the account, the author focuses on important black players Willie Mays, Larry Doby, Minnie Minoso, Monte Irvin, and rookies Henry Aaron and Ernie Banks. Other players who figure importantly in the story include Al Rosen, Pee Wee Reese, Dusthy Rhodes, and Johnny Antonelli.

Madden's 1954 reminds me of end of the season assessment articles written by Roger Angell for the New Yorker that I have read in the past. The book has less currency and more historical perspective, of course. It will interest readers who are baseball fans and/or those studying racial desegregation in America.

Madden: Bill. 1954: The Year Willie Mays and the First Generation of Black Superstars Changed Major League Baseball Forever. Da Capo Press, 2014. 290p. ISBN 9780306823329.

Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything by Joshua Foer

Is memory just a game?

The ability to remember has been prized by our civilization for ages. Ancient poets recited epic tales from memory. Priests and priestesses performed religious rites unaided. Guides led travelers without maps. Hunters and gatherers remembered when and where to find the food. In more recent times, stage actors remembered all the lines of plays, and classical musicians remembered all the notes to fixed compositions without sheet music. Today, champions on the game show Jeopardy are those who can recall facts faster than their competitors. 

According to journalist Joshua Foer in Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything, our heavy reliance on written text and video recordings has cut into our ability to remember people, facts, events, and other information unaided. Not cluttering our brains with unessential memories has contributed to our technical and cultural advances and having static records gives us assurances of truth, but we may still be losing something.

Foer became fascinated by the subject of memory having reported on national memory games, competitions that bring together men and women who can quickly memorize the order of a pack of playing cards, strings of random numbers, grocery lists, poems to recite, and names with faces. Upon getting to know several of the champions, some of whom have written books on their techniques, Foer joined their racks and trained for the U. S. Memory Championship.

In Moonwalking with Einstein, Foer recounts his year of training, describes the experts with whom he studies, and reports on brain science. The book is an entertaining mixture of intellectual musings, sports reporting, and memoir with some memory tips thrown in. You, too, could become a memory champ.

Foer, Joshua. Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything. Penguin Press, 2011. 307p. ISBN 9781594202292.

Splitting an Order by Ted Kooser

"I like to watch an old man cutting a sandwich in half
maybe an ordinary cold roast beef on whole wheat bread
no pickles or onions, keeping his shaky hands steady
by placing his forearms firm on the edge of the table ... "

This is what I enjoy about the poetry of Ted Kooser. In the opening lines of the poem "Splitting an Order" in his new collection Splitting an Order, he describes something ordinary in an extraordinary way. He sees the ways hands move and what is in the sandwich. He shows how the sharing of a meal is a ritual. If you or I were in a restaurant across from an older couple sharing a sandwich, we would pay no attention to them, not seeing the clues to their lives in plain sight. Kooser is different.

"I would love to have lived out my years
in a cottage a few blocks from the sea
and to have spent my mornings painting
out in the cold, wet rocks, ... "

Kooser is a painter, as he tells us here in the autobiographical poem "A Person of a Limited Palette" and later in the grief-filled essay "Small Rooms in Time." He notices details and reproduces them precisely in verse. Paging through his collection is like walking through an art gallery with a variety of portraits and landscapes. You may linger in front of some of them today and others next time you visit.

Kooser's poems in Splitting an Order are the work of an older man. He features his contemporaries in some of the poems, often with a middle aged child, but he also writes about young couples and children, as he does in "Swinging from Parents."

I think my favorite in the collection is a poem about his father called "Closing the Windows."

"It was all so ordinary then
to see him at the foot of the bed,
closing a squeaky window, 
but more than sixty years have passed
and now I understand that it was
not so ordinary at all."

When I return to the library books of poetry after only reading four or five poems, I wonder if I like the idea of reading poetry more than actually reading of poetry. Ted Kooser refutes this notion. I liked the poems of Splitting an Order so well that I read the collection twice. They are worth getting to know. I might return to them again, as I do to galleries of art.

Kooser, Ted. Splitting an Order. Copper Canyon Press, 2014. 84p. ISBN 9781556594694.

True Stories into the Hands of Readers at RASSL

Thanks to Stephanie Miller for inviting me to the December meeting of the Reference Association of South Suburban Librarians (RASSL) held at the Calumet City Public Library last week. I enjoyed our discussion of readers' advisory. I you can see my slides for True Stories into the Hands of Readers online. I enjoyed being paired with Lynnanne Pearson from Skokie Public Library, who spoke about fiction readers' advisory.

Visiting RASSL was a homecoming for me, as I was present at its founding in 1981. I have fond memories of the leadership of Renata Ochsner of the Harvey Public Library and Jim Steenbergen of the Riverdale Public Library. Both were true believers in library sharing. In those pre-Internet days and even pre-shared library catalog days, we put together a guide to the staff and collections of neighboring suburban libraries, so we could more effective referrals to library users. It was a lot of work then and so easily done now.

Thanks also to Pat Coffey at the Calumet City Library who gave me a tour of the busy library. It is a library with a strong sense of mission.