Author: Lynn

A “Feel Good” Novel

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If you’re looking for book that will just plain make you feel good, look no further. I’ve just discovered Joyce Stranger, a prolific English author who writes novels about animals. That may sound horribly middle-brow and non-literary, but The Go-Between is surprisingly engaging and unpredictable.

The book focusses on Flyer, a Siamese kitten who loves people. He begins life with one family and ends up with a completely different, though equally loving, owner. Through the force of his personality, determination and will to survive , he influences everyone he meets. He also acts as a catalyst – bringing together neighbors who  create a new sense of community.

If you ever need a recommendation for someone who wants  a good story, with a little romance, and is completely G-rated, here you go.

Never Too Much George

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How many of you hit the cineplex this holiday season?  And enjoyed adaptations of books like Walter Kirn’s Up in the Air? Did you know that Natalie didn’t even exist in the book? The author explains in an NPR interview that a “whole new character had to be introduced. A sort of sidekick had to be given to a lonely hero who spends most of the time in the novel observing and thinking about his world. But now we had to give him a chance to talk about his world.”

Another George Clooney vehicle., The Men Who Stare at Goats, is based on a  book by Jon Ronson. This is  even more mind twisting. The viewer wonders how much of the film (which inevitably alters a book) is true even though it’s based on a non-fiction work. The caption “More of this is true than you would believe” precedes the movie which sets up the question, “which particular parts are true?

What follows is the  depiction of the military’s  experimentation with New Age psychic phenomena.  Apparently, the Jeff Bridges character was based on a real officer (Lt. Col. Jim Channon) who led a hippie army called the First Earth Batallion (or the New Earth Army in the movie) , according to Wired magazine.

And don’t forget Roald Dahl’s wonderful Fantastic Mr. Fox, starring the voices of George Clooney and Meryl Streep. There is an insightful article about the Wes Anderson adaptation  in November/December’s  Film Comment.

I don’t know about you, but I always want to get back to the library and check out the book that inspired the movie in the first place. And then read about the book and the movie in our great magazine collection.

If You Like Sherlock Holmes…

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We have a display for you! At both Main Street and Fairmount Street libraries, we have mysteries and DVDs of Sherlock Holmes spinoffs.

The Beekeeper’s Apprentice by Laurie King  is the first in a series featuring a feminist Mary Russell. A teenager at the time, she meets the great Holmes  while she is wandering the Sussex countryside. Holmes mentors Mary as they investigate the kidnapping of an American senator’s daughter. The World WarI era , an Oxford setting – where Mary is a student, and the evolving relationship in which Holmes mentors his young protegee are all strong points of the novel.

The Italian Secretary by Caleb Carr is a humorous paranormal twist on the Holmes canon. The setting is a ghostly Holyrood Palace in Edinburgh,Scotland. Watson and Holmes are called in by Sherlock’s brother to investigate murders that Mycroft fears may threaten Queen Victoria. The author of The Alienist “reflects a deep knowledge and understanding of Holmesiana.” Publisher’s Weekly

Undomestic Goddess

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Undomestic GoddessThis   Sophie Kinsella novel is much better than the Shopoholic series, IMHO. Samantha Sweeting is an ambitious lawyer in a cutthroat London law firm. One day she makes an incredibly costly mistake and  starts wandering the city and, eventually, the countryside blindly. She ends up outside an English manor house where, it happens, they need a  housekeeper.

Samantha, hilariously, pretends to be an expert cook, laundress and housecleaner when she is really completely clueless, or, as the title says “undomestic.” Her attempts to bluff her way through the most basic of tasks are described with typical English deadpan absurdity.  The unusual couple that she works for and the gardener who turns out to be her accomplice round out an appealing cast of characters.

Undomestic Goddess has it all – humor, romance, plot, and a satisfying resolution. Put your feet up and take a break from all that housework.

“Create Your Own Haven in a Hectic World”

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Shelter for the SpiritVictoria Moran believes that housekeeping is actually a form of affection for your home. All caregiving (for people or things)  should  lead one to gradually love what one cares for. Thomas More says in the introduction to Shelter for the Spirit,  “Ordinary chores satisfy primal longings.”

This book is not about practical tips and tricks, or full of lists of the many tasks you need to do, year-round. It’s more about changing your attitude and savoring everyday acts. This is an inspiring work for those of us stressed and depressed about how much endless, repetitive work is involved in taking care of a house.

The author says, “Human beings need a place to foster an inner life….It is about reclaiming home as the primary center for our spirituality, our resourcefulness, and the best moments of our lives.”

Besides the high-flown spirtual benefits of creating your own personal haven, you, as  Moran says, “feel more in control of your life when your house is in order.”

Martha, Martha, Martha

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Published by Martha Stewart, Simple Home Solutions is divided into Kitchen, Home & Garden, etc. No one produces more elegantly laid out, beautifuly lit photos than Martha herself.  This is the old-school Martha, not the newer glitzier version. She was truly the master of the quietly serene way of life.

This is a  timely book, because, ultimately,  Martha is very frugal.  Some of my favorite tips are: to put rubber bands around a lid and a jar to open a stubborn jar lid, remove sweater pills with a fine toothed comb, put candles in paper towel tubes to store them, hang chalk to de-humidify a closet, or loosen a lock by rubbing a pencil on a key. One tip I actually did (and it works great) is to apply self-adhesive felt pads to the bottom of coffee makers or other counter utensils to make them slide across the counter top.

Some criticize Martha for her perceived elitism, but she also celebrates the ordinary. For example, the book explains how to root the very commonplace coleus and  how to smooth caulk with a plastic spoon. Even if you don’t act on any of the tips, it’s a soothing world to visit.

Everything You Need to Know about Homemaking

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Subtitled the “Art and Science of Keeping House,” Home Comforts is an 800+ page book , with an incredible index.  Cheryl Mendelson has written a work of reference, but it’s very readable. It’s a combination of the ultimate in practicality and an appreciation of the home as a place of refuge and the comfort that can be derived from home keeping.

The author grew up on a farm where she learned the domestic arts.  She is a spiritual Martha Stewart concerned about how daily life affects the soul. Mendelson has an soothing tone; the tasks addressed in the huge tome seem entirely doable, not overwhelming.

The book is divided into sections such as Food, Cloth, Cleanliness, Daily Life (which includes caring for books,  and “some quiet occupations”), Sleep and Safe Shelter. Like How to Get Things Really Flat, there are sections on clothing care labels and how you should sometimes disregard them. This book not only tells you how to do things, but why.

“A Man’s Guide to Ironing, Dusting and Other Household Arts”

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It’s Clean and Tidy Week at the Davenport Library Info Cafe blog! Over the next five days Lynn will tell us about some great books that will inspire you to organize, straighten and scrub and otherwise make you into a finer human being. She starts us off with a bang with a book that not only is useful, it’s funny!

How to Get Things Really Flat

Andrew Martin’s eccentricity, English wit and  male point-of- view and his eye for the odd historical detail make laundry, ironing and “washing up” funny and (somewhat) inspiring in How to Get Things Really Flat. Martin casts himself as the bumbling amateur when he interviews experts on topics such as vacuuming and dishwashers.

The targeted audience are English “blokes” who should be doing housework, but women will find it informative and funny. His footnotes are tongue-in-cheek factoids that are  useful for American readers. For example, he lets us know that a pram is “short for peramulator, bigger and generally more heavy-duty than a stroller, since the baby lies flat. Any man pushing one is halfway to wearing a dress, or so he thinks.”

He is interested in the sociological aspect of housekeeping , with sections on “How Much Do Women Know About Housework?” (the primary subject being his long-suffering wife).

If you’ve overdosed on straight-forward, “how-to” books, try this unique addition to the  homemaking ouevre. In this work, previously unanalysed tasks are viewed through a slightly sqewed anthropolical lens combined with a Bill Bryson sensibility.

The Best Christmas Special Ev…er

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Lynn wraps up our week of holiday recommendations with a favorite for kids ages 2-92.

Heat MiserDuring the Christmas season, appointment tv for me is The Year Without a  Santa Claus (the original 1974 Shirley Booth version).

Kids can really relate to the story, which is based on the Phyllis McGinley book. Among other things, it features sibling rivalry in the form of brothers, Heat and Snow Miser, fighting over the earth’s climate. Their mother, (Mother Nature) is constantly mediating their feuds. Also cool, the brothers each have super powers (melting and freezing objects).

But, really, it’s the catchy tunes and the chorus lines of miser dancing that I  love. Just try to get his out of your head now:

“He’s Mr. White Christmas, he’s Mr. Snow. He’s Mr. Icicle, He’s Mr. 10 below.” and “He’s Mr. Green Christmas. He’s Mr. Sun. He’s Mr. HeatBlister. He’s Mr. Hundred-and-One….”

Backyard Chickens

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chickensCity officials in Davenport, Iowa City and Cedar Rapids aren’t the only ones to be considering how to deal with the recent vogue of urban chickens. The locovore movement and a struggling economy have combined to produce the “It” Bird, as Susan Orlean calls chickens. There are those that say that the Obamas should have a few at the White House. You can even find plans on the internet for building a coop out of Ikea furniture.

Orlean, author of the Orchid Thief, turns her eye to small-time chicken raising  in the September 28th  New Yorker. She traces the history of keeping fowl  in America, how they went out of favor in the fifties and  how they were gentrified by Martha Stewart’s gourmet chickens and pastel eggs. You may or may not know that Iowa is the home to the “largest rare-breed poultry hatchery in the world.”

Orlean herself finds the perfect solution for her needs…just a few chickens (guaranteed to be hens) and a small plastic coop. ( A British company called Omlet manufactures the Eglu).

If the subject intrigues you, check out The Joy of Keeping Chickens by Jennifer Megyesi, Living with Chickens: Everything You Need to Know to Raise Your Own Backyard Flock by Jay Rossier, and, of course, Raising Chickens for Dummies.