Crocodile on the Sandbank

Today’s post is from Cynthia at Harrington Library:

Crocodile on the Sandbank by Elizabeth Peters

Crocodile on the Sandbank is the first book in a series of addictive mystery novels. It is 1884 and Amelia Peabody has decided to see Egypt after inheriting a substantial fortune from her father. Amelia is a Victorian gentlewoman with an unflagging self-confidence, a strong will, a dash of feminism, and a journal to record events. Amelia and her companion Evelyn Barton Forbes sail down the Nile to see the pyramids. They meet Radcliffe and Walter Emerson two Egyptologist brothers who are excavating. A mummy makes nocturnal appearances that throw the excavation into turmoil and someone tries to kidnap Evelyn. Amelia in her inimitable way must find the culprit behind the mayhem. Interesting characters, the colorful background of Egypt during the first modern excavations of the ancient sites, big doses of humor, and a bit of social commentary makes the Amelia Peabody series a winner. Amelia will make you laugh out loud.

If you like audio books, Barbara Rosenblat’s superb narration of the series brings the characters to life.

Lark and Termite

Today’s post is from Cathe at Davis Library:

Lark and Termite by Jayne Anne Phillips

The novel opens in North Chungchong Province, South Korea, on the oppressively hot afternoon of July 26, 1950, as a platoon of American infantrymen leads a straggling, retreating band of Korean refugees toward an abandoned tunnel at a crossroads called No Gun Ri. Corporal Bobby Leavitt, age twenty-one, is one of the soldiers.

Lark and Termite are brother and sister, abandoned by their mother Lola, growing up with their aunt Nonie in a small West Virginia town. Lark is seventeen, and Termite nine; Termite is unable to speak or walk, but Lark loves him and cares for him with absolute devotion. During three days in late July 1959,  a great rainstorm and river flood will change their town, their families, and their lives forever.

How exactly these two sets of circumstances are connected is the heart of this story, Phillips’ first work of fiction in nine years.

A brief summary can’t do justice to the novel’s complex structure, or its ornate, beautiful language. It must be read attentively and slowly, but it amply rewards the effort it requires.

Going Bovine

Today’s post is from Cecily at Haggard Library:

Going Bovine by Libba Bray

I would never have thought that a book about a high school boy dying of mad cow disease could be laugh-out- loud funny.  But add a crazy spring break road trip to Daytona Beach, Florida, a midget named Gonzo, and a talking yard gnome who is really the Norse god Balder, and you’ve got a trippy story that is one of the most unusual and bizarrely entertaining books I’ve read this year.

Cameron is 16 and something of a let-down to his parents – he’s not a stellar student, he’s not popular, and he’s not athletic.  But in the last few weeks of his life, as his mad cow disease breaks down his nervous system, Cameron manages to meet a dead jazz musician, bring down a religious cult, bring a yard gnome to life, hook up with the girl of his dreams from high school, and save the world.  And he does all this under the guidance of a pink-haired punk rock angel named Dulcie.  Or does he?  The question hanging over your head the entire book is how much is real, and how much is a product of Cameron’s increasingly spongy brain?  And in the end, what does it mean to die?  What does it mean to live?

For readers looking for a slightly absurd and delusional book about a serious subject, this one is worth the 500 pages.

Shanghai Girls

Today’s post is from Ellen at Parr Library:

Shanghai Girls by Lisa See

Two sisters, May and Pearl, are living the good life in Shanghai in the mid 1930’s.  They are young, educated, and earn extra money by posing as “beautiful girls” for artwork used in advertising.  The girls’ father, however, has incurred some large debts that he settles by arranging for them to be married to two wealthy Chinese businessmen from America.  When they arrive at Angel Island off the coast of California, they are detained for several weeks which works to their advantage since May is pregnant. 

Their life in San Francisco’s Chinatown is anything but the future they were promised.  Their husbands are not rich.  One is not a legal citizen and the other is slow in both mental and physical development.  The sisters work hard in the family owned cafe and small gift shop, and the culture shock is great.  For a long time, May works getting extras and costumes for Hollywood films and the more she becomes Americanized, the more Pearl clings to old customs and traditions.  Eventually their differences and small hurts escalate into a giant argument with unforseen results. 

Other titles by this author are Peony in Love, and Snow Flower and the Secret Fan.  This book is a good read by a popular author. 

 

 

 

The Fire

Today’s post is from Brent at Schimelpfenig Library:

The Fire by Katherine Neville

Twenty years after completing The Eight, Katherine Neville takes us into the complex world of the Montglane Service chess set in The Fire.   After finding many pieces to the service in The Eight, Cat Velis thought the chess game that  had spanned centuries was over.  Someone has started it again and now it threatens her daughter Alexandra Solarin.  The story moves back and forth between the present and 1822, following the movement of the chess pieces and the chess board.  The people involved try to discover the power that makes the chess set more than just a set of chess pieces.  The book is fast paced and exciting.  I would highly recommend reading The Eight before this title. 

 

Generosity: The Lemonade in Today’s Lemons

Today’s post is from Annie at Parr Library.

It’s official.  Trendspotting.com, one of the world’s foremost consumer trend firms, has identified “’generosity’ as a leading societal and business mindset” for 2009 and 2010.  Dubbing the growing number of practitioners as “Generation G,” Trendspotting.com says consumer disgust at the financial excesses that resulted in the recession has led to a longing for giving, sharing, community, and corporate responsibility in this social networking age.  You can read about this growing trend here. 

In support of this culture of giving, here are books you can check out FOR FREE at your local library: 

The Life You Can Save: Acting Now to End World Poverty by Peter Singer
This is my Christmas present to almost everyone on my list this year.  It gives reasons for donating money to fight global poverty, allays fears about donations  going to waste, and suggests different worthy organizations.  A wonderful book. 

One Simple Act: Discovering the Power of Generosity by Debbie Macomber
True stories about the results of intentional acts of generosity. 

Giving: How Each of Us Can Change the World by Bill Clinton
Examples of both citizen and corporate activism in the world today. 

Showing Up for Life: Thoughts on the Gifts of a Lifetime by Bill Gates, Sr.
This is more a memoir of the senior Gates’ tenets for a successful life:  Hard work, generosity, and curiosity.  I include it because this man, along with Melissa Gates, has obviously had a great impact on the generosity of his famous son Bill Gates, Jr. 

And here are two inspirational tales about what a difference one person can make in the world:

Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace…One School at a Time by Greg Mortenson
Details about a former skiing bum’s  ten year mission to build schools in Pakistan’s and Afghanistan’s impoverished regions. 

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Creating Currents of Electricity and Hope by William Kamkwamba
A teenager in famine-stricken Malawi devises a windmill out of bicycle parts and other scraps and changes the life of his family and community. 

Happy Thanksgiving and good reading!

Dirty Dealing

Today’s post is from Eva at Parr Library:

Dirty Dealing: Drug Smuggling on the Mexican Border & the Assassination of a Federal Judge: An American Parable by Gary Cartwright

This fast-paced, mesmerizing story of the murders of El Paso lawyer Lee Chagra and John H. “Maximum John” Wood proves that truth really is more far-fetched than fiction.  I started out reading this on my brother’s recommendation because we grew up in El Paso.  What started as a quaint reminiscence of favorite hometown locales quickly became engrossment in the stories of these driven Lebanese lawyers, their human passions and weaknesses, and the greed and corruption of those they chose to associate with.  The Chagra family name was constantly in the newspaper when I was in high school and now I realize why.  Author Gary Cartwright uses personal interviews and court transcripts to bring to vivid life the saga of the larger-than-life criminal lawyers Lee and Joe Chagra, their drug-smuggling brother Jimmy, and the federal judge who had vowed early on to give the maximum sentence to anyone convicted of drug dealing.  Judge Wood’s harsh sentences and the ill will they generated probably contributed to his death at the hands of Charles Harrelson, assassin-for-hire and father of actor Woody Harrelson.  There are so many players in this story it can be hard to keep up, but the action is steady and compelling and makes for an exciting, too-wild-to-be-fiction tale.

 

This Republic of Suffering

Today’s post is from Cynthia at Harrington Library:

This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War by Drew Gilpin Faust

The generation of the American Civil War had to deal with death on a scale unknown before or since. An estimated 620,000 soldiers died on both sides of the conflict. An equivalent proportion today would be 6 million dead. Faust explains how the living responded to the devastating carnage. How does one make sense of individual death in the face of mass death? Gilpin explores the change in attitude regarding the government’s responsibility to the massive army of citizen soldiers. For the first time the federal government awarded widow and orphan pensions to the families of Union casualties. The rise in importance of the undertaking profession is discussed. The development of necessary bureaucratic methods of counting the dead is a result of the Civil War and the search by so many bereaved families for what happened to their loved ones. The evolution of the military cemetery system also was a result of the carnage. The fact that only Union dead were reinterred and honored in these military cemeteries was a source of bitterness in the South for decades to come. Gilpin gives us a window on a previously unexplored aspect of the Civil War. This is a fascinating and poignant book of social history.

National Novel Writing Month: An Update!

Today’s post is from Erik at Schimelpfenig Library:

Book With No Title…Yet: Possibly a Memoir but More Likely just a Bunch of Crazy Fiction by Erik Knapp

I mentioned a while back that I was going to participate in the National Novel Writing Month event and I thought, because I am largely an ego-maniac, that you all would like an update on said participation.  To jog your memory, the National Novel Writing Month event is a deal where you sign up on the website and agree to write a 50,000 word novel during the month of November.  This tallies out to be 1, 667 words a day (I’m doing that from memory so if my math is off, there you go).  It’s all about the writing, moving forward and not worrying about such concepts as proofreading, plot and, in at least my case, intelligibility.  It was under those guidelines that I started my story.

I settled on the idea of a Candide-esque sort of story thinking that the modular nature of it would fit in pretty well with the need for speed.  I could take my hero anywhere or anywhen I wanted and it would at least be semi-plausible.  I gave him a partner on his journey so I could fill space with dialogue and also, thanks to a tip from Blackswan one of my fellow bloggers, I gave him an arch-enemy and dogged pursuer in the form of celebrated French actor Gerard Depardieu.  From there, off we went!

Today is November 16th and according to my math I should have over 25,000 words written.  I am sorry to say that according to this expectation my participation can only be considered an epic fail.  At least it would be if I were just concerned about word count (which is technically exactly what I should be concerned with).  However, I have discovered what I consider to be the secret joy in this event.  It’s the anticipation of the whole thing, the world of possibilities that opens up in your mind when you decide to give it a try; that has been the fun part for me.  I’ve had some technical difficulties this month trying to get it done and I sincerely doubt I will get all 50,000 words in there unless I decide to go all Jack Nicholson in The Shining on myself (which has been suggested).  But that doesn’t really matter to me…I plan to keep plugging away at it until the end of November and see what I can do and where I am and then keep going until it’s done.  I actually like the story I’ve come up with and I am interested in seeing where it goes.  So, technically you could say, barring some unforseen miracle or sickness that  gives me about 7 straight idle days, my participation wasn’t a full success.  I, however, would have to respectfully disagree.

Dreaming in French

Today’s post is from Carole at Haggard Library:

Dreaming in French by Megan McAndrew

This engrossing saga about a family of Americans living in Paris features Frank Sanders, an attorney and a quiet intellectual, his wife Astrid, who loves fashion and worthy causes, and their high-school-age daughters Lea and Charlotte.

Through the girls and their friends at their elite international school, we learn about a world of glamour, but also one of loneliness and confusion about first love and other challenges of growing up. Charlotte is the main focus of the story, which goes on to include marital strife and international intrigue, but is told with humor, irony and tenderness.

I grew to care deeply about the well-drawn characters, and I couldn’t put this book down. I would love to have some, but certainly not all, of their experiences.