Staff Picks
Some Staff Favorites to Read in 2008
Anita's Pick
ELIZABETH and HER GERMAN GARDEN
By Elizabeth Von Arnim
Many great gardeners are also gifted writers and I have a stack of favorite books that I reread often - usually at this time of year when, teased by a few emerging bulbs, I tire of winter and yearn for the spring planting to begin. Published anonymously in 1898 to immediate acclaim, Elizabeth and Her German Garden is an unusual and engaging little book. Elizabeth von Arnim was the irrepressible and emancipated young English wife of German Count Henning August von Arnim-Schlagenthin. Two years after their marriage, she persuaded the reluctant Count to buy the enormous Pomeranian estate, Nassenheide, ninety miles north of Berlin and unoccupied for a quarter of a century. Here, away from the suffocating formality of upper-class German life, and while supposedly supervising the painting and decorating, she created a pastoral delight from a derelict wilderness. On his first visit, her husband was not impressed by her Bohemian lifestyle and hurt that she was thriving on his absence and spending her ‘pin money’ on manure. Disgruntled, the “Man of Wrath” as he is known from then on, returns to Berlin, leaving Elizabeth to her idyll. She apparently resented any intrusion - although the Von Arnims played host to many famous names (later in life, after the Count’s death, she would have an affair with H.G Wells) - and wrote that she had been “much afflicted again lately by visitors…not stray callers, but people staying in the house and not to be got rid of at all”. Her husband she treated with combative geniality and her five children with tolerant affection. But this book is primarily about her love-affair with her garden and written with a caustic wit and exuberance that are utterly delightful.
By the end of her life, Elizabeth had published twenty-two books, including The Solitary Summer, companion to this book, and The Enchanted April, which was made into the charming movie starring Joan Plowright and Miranda Richardson.
Cathy's Pick
The Gathering by Anne Enright
The blessing and the curse of family bonds have been addressed by some of our best writers from Tolstoy to Franzen. Now Irish novelist and Mann Booker prize winner Anne Enright spins another tale of familial agony: Veronica Hegerty’s grief in the wake of her wayward brother Liam's suicide. Past and present merge as Veronica recalls their childhood growing up in Dublin in a family of 14, with never enough money or enough attention from their overburdened parents. She's convinced it all went wrong when Liam was sexually abused by a family friend, and her recollections of that day alternate with sunnier ones of their endless roughhousing and joking. When Liam drowned himself, with a tide of "blood, sea water and whiskey" running in his veins, he took Veronica's sense of purpose with him. Inconsolable, and suffering from insomnia, she spends her evenings driving and writing, trying to come to terms with the fact that "someone you love is dead, and the world is full of people you don't." Enright's hypnotic prose turns her desperation into something touching and beautiful.
Ann's Pick
Gentlemen Of The Road by Michael Chabon
Reminiscent of those great old movies we used to enjoy on leisurely Saturday afternoons, Pulitzer Prize-winning Chabon has recreated the old-time swashbuckler complete with a couple of daring buddies, an enemy turned tag-a-long friend, bloodthirsty villains, weapons with nicknames, improbably intelligent horses and a mischievous elephant. No strangers to tight scrapes or close shaves, political intrigue draws in two con artists to escort a young Khazar prince on a journey to reclaim his rightful throne. The book is short by contemporary standards, full of suspense, action and humor. What made this one of the best books I’ve read in a long time is the impeccable writing. It behooves the reader to go slowly and savor every word as if each were the most delightful, savory yet sweet, morsel. The following is Chabon’s description introducing one of the ‘Gentlemen’: “With his skin that was lustrous as the tarnish on a copper kettle, and his eyes womanly as a camel’s, and his shining pate with its ruff of wool whose silver hue implied a seniority attained only by the most hardened men, and above all with the air of stillness that trumpeted his murderous nature to all but the greenest travelers on this minor spur of the Silk Road, the African appeared neither to invite nor to promise to tolerate questions.” I imagine the author had almost as much fun writing this novel as I did reading it
Jenny's Pick
The Friendly Persuasion by Jessamyn West.
Heart-piercing nostalgia for a time and place we've never actually known; the Germans undoubtedly have a word for it. I've just read the perfect literary illustration of that sensation; Jessamyn West's oldie-but-goodie, "The Friendly Persuasion", on which the excellent Gary Cooper film was based. It's a series of short stories, woven into a novel, about a loving family of Quakers farming in the Midwest, around the time of the war between the states: a loving marriage, surviving the bumps and flusters of the years; their children navigating the choppy waters into adulthood, challenging their parents and their closely-held faith; a birth, a death, and ultimately a continuation of what's good. West's deft, humorous touch and eye for telling detail keeps it from becoming sappy. Think Copland, or "Our Town". I'll be reading more of her.
Judie's Pick
Summer at Tiffany by Marjorie Hart
This wonderful memoir is set during the summer of 1945 in New York City during WWII. Two naive college girls from Iowa spend the summer renting an apartment in New York City close to some of the sorority sisters. They land themselves jobs at Tiffany & Co as pages for the summer, making them the first female employees ever to work the sales floor. From this groundbreaking vantage point, the girls see and do it all, from assisting notorious gangsters and international playboys at the jewelry counters, to rubbing elbows with celebrities at the city's legendary nightclubs, to glimpsing General Eisenhower during his triumphant victory parade, to kissing soldiers in Times Square on V-J Day. It gives a great historical view of Tiffany & Co and New York City during that era. A simple yet enjoyable read.
Bridget's Pick
The Mayflower by Nathanial Philbrick
Once upon a time, people seeking religious freedom left England aboard a boat called the Mayflower, sailed across the Atlantic, stepped out to the safety of Plymouth Rock, had a tough first winter but then made friends with the native Americans (creating our first national holiday, Thanksgiving, in the process) and lived happily ever after.
What a myth! New England native Nathanial Philbrick debunks this often repeated story of the first settlers of the New World in this even-handed and engaging book. As is usually the case, history is not so clearly summarized in that neat and oft-told tale of our forefathers. The story of our country’s beginnings is much more complicated and involves understanding multiple groups of people and interests including those Philbrick calls the Pilgrims, Puritans, Separatists, ‘adventurers’, trading companies, and many diverse native American tribes.
Not quite revisionist history, this work gives detail and context to the struggles endured in creating what we now know as the United States. And reminds us why immigrants, much like the Mayflower passengers in 1620, continue to fight their way into this country.
Sue's Pick
The Appeal by John Grisham
Grisham begins his novel in a rural town in Mississippi with local lawyers, Wes and Mary Grace Payton, taking the case of a widow, who lost both her husband and son, because of the dumping of toxic waste in the town’s water supply. A large chemical company, the Krane Company, has been dumping carcinogenic chemicals into the water for years, resulting in the worst “cancer cluster” in history. The Paytons risk everything they own to finance the case. They believe their hard work and huge gamble paid off when the jury finds against the Krane Company and awards damages of $41 million. However, Krane Company CEO, Carl Trudeau, decides to appeal the verdict and wants to ensure that the Mississippi Supreme Court will be sympathetic to his company. Trudeau decides to “buy” a seat on the Court. This is a real David and Goliath story, a legal thriller that will keep you on the edge of your seat until the very last page. Grisham deals with timely topics, such as campaign financing, rigging elections, and smear campaigns
Diane's Pick
The Glass Castle
by Jeanette Wall
Imagine a life where your parents describe homelessness as an exciting adventure. Where lunch has you rummaging through the trash for other kid's leftovers. And the toilet is a bucket in the middle of the room.
Raised by eccentric, loving, and I feel, negligent and selfish parents, Jeannette Walls tells her story without whining or asking for sympathy. Her dad, while very intelligent, was an alcoholic who had a vivid, dreamer’s imagination. Employment didn’t last long. He would quit job after job, refuse welfare and not provide even the most basic needs of shelter, food and clothes for the children so he could pursue his dream of being an inventor and drink. Her mom was an artist who had better things to do than care for kids, spending any “extra” money on art supplies. Jeanette and her three siblings had to rely on themselves for food and clothing. When there was money they ate and when there wasn't they didn't. One of the only saving graces for the children was that they were taught to read at an early age. Thanks to public libraries, Jeannette read the entire Laura Ingalls Wilder prairie series before she entered school.
Walls is a wonderful writer who expresses what it was like to live with parents who loved and educated their kids, but who were too immature, impatient, and unconventional to settle down and nurture them properly. It shows how her family existed and still enjoyed some semblance of happiness, because of the deep love that held them together through thick and thin. This memoir is an amazing look at an incredibly difficult childhood. It is proof that if you set your mind on something, you can achieve it with perserverance and hard work. She is clearly a well-educated, successful author and, according to the book jacket, a regular contributor to MSNBC.com.
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Maribel's Pick
The Constant Princess by Philippa Gregory
This is the riveting story of Catherine of Aragon, a Spanish princess who first marries Prince Arthur of England and later Henry VIII. Philippa Gregory re-imagines Katherine's life from her girlhood, where she always knew she'd be married to the Prince of Wales for political reasons, to her struggle to live in the foreign land of England, growing in both political skills and learning the reality of her parents' and her role in world events. In the end, enduring the treachery of courtiers and spies, she was undone by the ambitious Anne Boleyn and a husband who would use any reason to divorce her. A beguiling and believable story, The Constant Princess is truly captivating.
Molly's Pick
Magyk by Angie Sage
Representing the Children's room, I recommend Magyk by Angie Sage to all those readers nine years and up. It's about the downfall of a kingdom due to the overthrowing of a royal family. Magicians and friends regain control and restore peace to the kingdom by replacing the long lost princess to her proper place in the castle. The best thing about this book isn't the interesting characters or the magical castle setting, it's that it is a book of three with Septimus Heap, the seventh son of a seventh son, a magician and a most honorable sort.