Category: Books

The Courtship of Two Doctors by Martha Fitzgerald

- Ann Leave a comment

From a private collection of nearly 800 courtship letters, the daughter of two remarkable physicians has crafted a timeless valentine to long-lasting love and the healing profession.

Senior medical students from New Orleans and Omaha meet in 1937 and begin a two-year correspondence across 1,100 miles. They set their sights on a return to Mayo Clinic, the medical mecca where they found each other and danced to the haunting Harbor Lights. Grave illness and career setbacks shake their confidence, but the two decide to face an uncertain future together, trusting in each other and the relationship they built letter by letter.

The Courtship of Two Doctors recreates the medical era before antibiotics, when health workers were at risk of serious infection, and vividly illustrates the 1930s social barriers challenging two-career marriages. It is also an inspirational and charming love story. (description from publisher)

 

Beautiful Winter

- Ann Leave a comment

beautiful winterWhy not celebrate winter and bring a touch of nature indoors by creating a charming bark wreath bursting with red roses or a twig globe entwined with delicate amaryllis?

 In Beautiful Winter, author and florist Edle Catharina Norman shows how to use seasonal materials and flowers to put together 53 entrancing — and easy to assemble — home projects. From festive garlands to fun table decorations (including candlesticks made of apples), you’ll find an array of unique ideas to inspire you. Illustrated with more than 55 full-color photographs, this book presents glorious decorations that will warm your heart on even the coldest winter day. (description from publisher)

The Rook by Daniel O’Malley

- Ann Leave a comment

the-rookAs soon as I saw this book described as “The Bourne Identity meets The X-Men”, I knew I had to read it.  In The Rook by Daniel O’Malley, Myfanwy (rhymes with Tiffany) Thomas wakes up on a rainy street in London, having clearly been beaten to a pulp.  The bigger problem?  She has no idea who she is.  Luckily her past self was prepared for this to happen, because in her jacket pocket Myfanwy finds a letter that directs her to a bank, where she will have two choices: safe deposit box #1 contains lots of money and everything she needs for a new identity, and safe deposit box #2 contains information about who she is and what happened to her.  After being attacked for a second time, Myfanwy opts to learn the secrets of safe deposit box #2: she is part of a secret government organization called The Chequy, comprised of British citizens with supernatural abilities, working together to protect the country from its more unusual threats.  Moreover, past-Myfanwy is certain that a fellow member of The Chequy is the one who ordered the attack on her.  With nothing but a big stack of letters from her past self, Myfanwy must protect the country from imminent danger all while trying to protect herself from a threat close to home.

This was a really fun concept for a book, and I liked the main character a lot.  She’s really snarky and funny, particularly when she’s re-learning about her powers or trying to cover up the fact that she’s lost her memory (and doing a poor job at it).  However, I almost didn’t finish this book because it’s a LOT longer than it needs to be.  Much of the first half moves pretty slowly with at least one subplot that could have easily been disposed of.  Luckily things picked up at the halfway point, and I couldn’t help but tear through it all the way to the exciting end.

Sketchbook Challenge by Sue Bleiweiss

- Ann Leave a comment

sketchbook challengeHave you ever bought a new sketchbook, opened to the first page, and thought, “Now what do I do?” Sue Bleiweiss and the talented minds behind The Sketchbook Challenge are here to help. Imagine a supportive community of artists sharing the innermost pages of their sketchbooks and offering you tips and techniques for overcoming creative blocks. That’s what The Sketchbook Challenge is all about, and the popular blog of the same name has already inspired thousands.

Inside this book, you’ll find: · Themes that will motivate you to start your sketchbook–and, more important, keep at it · Tutorials spotlighting such mixed-media techniques as thread sketching, painted papers for collage, digital printing, and much more · Strategies to get off the sketchbook page and start creating inspired art–whether you’re into painting, collage, fiber art, or beyond. · In-depth profiles of artists who have taken the Sketchbook Challenge and used it as a launching pad for their own meaningful artwork. (description from publisher)

Building Stories by Chris Ware

- Ann Leave a comment

Building_Stories_coverA flurry of positive buzz at the end of 2012 made Building Stories by Chris Ware one of the most talked about books of the year (at least, on the geeky book review blogs we librarians read). Certainly the most ambitious and successful graphic novel I’ve ever read, Building Stories is very much a novel: a story told in a visual medium that takes several hours of cooperation between your brain and your eyes to interpret. There are words – lots of them – in addition to the illustrations, and one could not survive without the other. There are two main characters: an unnamed woman living in Chicago and the three-story building she lives in. Each of the particles of this novel (it’s printed on a collection of 14 different paper products, ranging from hardcover book to cardboard broadsheet to flimsy pamphlet) zooms in on a short period in her life or the lives of the other people in the building, which provides a delicate but firm link between all the characters. There’s no defined order (which is intentional), so you sift through the vignettes of her life in much the same way you sift through your own memories: not sequentially, or always with a logical connection from point A to B, but arbitrarily and unpredictably.

At any moment in your reading, you can see the woman in various states of dissatisfaction, from the crushing loneliness of single life to the dispirited letdown of motherhood in the suburbs. It’s not a happy book, but there are moments of levity – you’ll be charmed by the short interlude of Branford, the Best Bee in the World, whose brief bee life is indeed connected with the human characters. Watch out for the scene where the woman finds a copy of Building Stories itself: a moment of humorous, metafictional, mildly unsettling genius that (like the book entire) asks some very real questions about the physical and emotional nature of books.

The Missing Ink by Philip Hensher

- Ann Leave a comment

When Philip Hensher realized that he didn’t know what a close friend’s handwriting looked like ( “bold or crabbed, sloping or upright, italic or rounded, elegant or slapdash” ), he felt that something essential was missing from their friendship. It dawned on him that having abandoned pen and paper for keyboards, we have lost one of the ways by which we come to recognize and know another person. People have written by hand for thousands of years – how, Hensher wondered, have they learned this skill, and what part has it played in their lives? The Missing Ink tells the story of this endangered art.

Hensher introduces us to the nineteenth-century handwriting evangelists who traveled across America to convert the masses to the moral worth of copperplate script; he examines the role handwriting plays in the novels of Charles Dickens; he investigates the claims made by the practitioners of graphology that penmanship can reveal personality. But this is also a celebration of the physical act of writing: the treasured fountain pens, chewable ballpoints, and personal embellishments that we stand to lose. Hensher pays tribute to the warmth and personality of the handwritten love note, postcards sent home, and daily diary entries. With the teaching of handwriting now required in only five states and many expert typists barely able to hold a pen, the future of handwriting is in jeopardy. Or is it?

Hugely entertaining, witty, and thought-provoking, The Missing Ink will inspire readers to pick up a pen and write. (description from publisher)

 

The Truth About Style by Stacy London

- Ann Leave a comment

The hilarious, beloved cohost of TLC’s What Not to Wear examines the universal obstacles all women–including herself–put in their way With her unique talent for seeing past disastrous wardrobes to the core emotional issues that caused these sartorial crises, style savant Stacy London has transformed not only the looks but also the lives of hundreds of guests who have appeared on What Not to Wear. Now for the first time in print, London turns that expert X-ray insight on herself.

Like the women she’s transformed, London has plenty of emotional baggage. At eleven, she suffered from severe psoriasis that left her with permanent physical and mental scars. During college, she became anorexic on a misguided quest for perfection. By the time she joined the staff at Vogue , London’s weight had doubled from binge eating. Although self-esteem and self-consciousness nearly sabotaged a promising career, London learned the hard way that we wear our insecurities every day. It wasn’t until she found the self-confidence to develop a strong personal style that she finally became comfortable in her skin.

In The Truth About Style , London shares her own often painful history and her philosophy of the healing power of personal style–illustrating it with a series of detailed ‘start-overs’ with eight real women, demonstrating how personal style helps them overcome the emotional obstacles we all face. For anyone who has ever despaired of finding the right clothes, or even taking an objective assessment in a full-length mirror, The Truth About Style will be an inspiring, liberating, and often very funny guide to finding the expression of your truest self. (description from publisher)

 

Resolving to Read

- Ann Leave a comment

2013Let DPL help you realize your reading goals in 2013! Whether you need books, recommendations, or just a quiet spot to devour the newest Stephanie Plum/Alex Cross novel, we can help.

Numeric resolutions: I will read X books in 2013.

  • Do you have 45 minutes a day? Count up your free time: lunch hour, breaks, waiting at the curb for your kids to get out of school, before bed, while your spouse does the dishes, while you’re on the treadmill. If you do, you could read 52 books in 2013. One book* per week = 39 pages (about 45 minutes) per day.
  • Only 15 minutes per day? Maths out to about 17 books for 2013. Not too shabby!
  • 20 minute drive to and from work? Not even counting all the other trips you make, you can listen to 21 books* this year (bonus: no more annoying radio ads).
  • Children’s books, audiobooks, graphic novels, comics, short stories, magazines, newspapers, and internet articles ABSOLUTELY. COUNT. You are more of a reader than you think; don’t sell yourself short!
Content resolutions: I will read more (insert genre) books in 2013.
  • Branching out into new content areas can be frustrating, but the librarians at DPL are here to help! We’ll cook up a list of books for you based on any criteria, and we offer 100% forgiveness for those who abandon books without finishing. Life is too precious to waste on finishing a book you don’t like.
  • Broadening your genre horizons is rewarding; more often than not, a single title will blend influences from many genres. I love fantasy, but some of my favorite fantasy titles are shelved in regular fiction or romance. If it sounds confusing, we’ll happily help you navigate.

Making your resolutions real

  • If you use a social reading log website (Good Reads, Librarything, and Shelfari, for example), you and your friends can share progress on whatever resolution you make. Nifty!
  • Use your library account online to keep track of saved title lists, saved searches, and even maintain a list of ALL the books you’ve ever checked out! (Note: for privacy and security purposes, only you can elect to maintain a reading list. It does not happen automatically and library staff cannot create the list for you.)
  • For old-fashioned paper lovers, get yourself a reading notebook: write down the titles you read and a little note about what you thought of the book. That way you won’t lose track of what you’ve read.
  • Resolve to share your love of books: Promise that you’ll read out loud to your kids or grandkids, bring a friend with you to the library, give copies of your favorite titles as gifts, or donate your pre-loved books to the Friends of DPL or another book charity. Books are best when they’re shared!

*For math purposes, a “book” is 275 pages or 8 hours of audio recording. Bonus points for reading something longer!

Best Books, Part 3

- Ann Leave a comment

As you might have guessed, the librarians that blog for the Info Cafe blog are a diverse lot and as a result, we read and like a diverse range of books. Unusually this year, four of us (out of seven) picked the same book. To avoid a knock-down, drag-out fist fight over who got the honor of picking it, we all choose a runner-up and we’ve bestowed this title as our Best Book of the Year (surely an honor that will rank right along with the Pulitzers and National Book Awards)

fault in our starsThe Fault in Our Stars by John Green

Despite the tumor-shrinking medical miracle that has bought her a few years, Hazel has never been anything but terminal, her final chapter inscribed upon diagnosis. But when a gorgeous plot twist named Augustus Waters suddenly appears at Cancer Kid Support Group, Hazel’s story is about to be completely rewritten.

Insightful, bold, irreverent, and raw, The Fault in Our Stars is award-winning-author John Green’s most ambitious and heartbreaking work yet, brilliantly exploring the funny, thrilling, and tragic business of being alive and in love. (description from publisher)

“You would think that a book about two teens with cancer would be nothing but tears from beginning to end, but there are many laughs and happy moments in this story (and yes, plenty of tears too). Hazel and Augustus don’t feel like stereotypical kids with cancer who you might find in other novels; they are complex and compelling, and their struggles feel real. This novel is beautiful and moving, easily my favorite of John Green’s books and certainly my favorite of the year”. – Lexie

Far and away my 2012 favorite – nothing else I read even comes close. The most genuine modern love story I’ve ever read, The Fault in Our Stars manages to lift your spirits and break your heart at the same time. On top of that, it’s quotable, witty and even laugh-out-loud funny.” – Maggie

“There is no romanticized stereotype of the “brave cancer patient.” The people here are real – funny and sad and inquisitive and so angry, struggling with the Big Questions but also not waiting around for death. I don’t know anyone that hasn’t been touched by cancer or other serious illness and you’ll recognize these emotions as real and honest. This book takes on the fear and the unknown, acknowledges them and then does battle with them. It’s a battle well worth joining.” – Ann who also blogged about it here.

There you have it – our favorites of 2012! What about you? What did you read this year that was especially memorable? Let us know in the comments.

Wishing you a Great Year of Reading in 2013!

Best Books, Part 2

- Ann Leave a comment

Here are more Best Books of 2012 as chosen by our blogging librarians. Be sure to look check yesterdays blog post for other winners!

cold cold groundHere’s Lynn’s pick: “In The Cold, Cold Ground, Detective Sean Duffy is a Catholic cop in a a heavily Protestant town near Belfast during the height of The Troubles. Duffy is an appealingly sarcastic, yet idealistic narrator. Irish author Adrian McKinty grew up in that time and place, and the small details of everyday life during that turbulent time are fascinating and authentic”.

 

twenties girl

 

 

Maggie choose the audiobook of Twenties Girl by Sophie Kinsella, read by Rosalyn Landor. “A near-perfect audiobook! Compelling and snappy, so you stay interested on your commute, but not so dense that hearing it in short spurts keeps you from enjoying it. Fun characters, saucy dialog and plenty of romance and mystery.” Maggie blogged more about it here.

book thiefThe Book Thief by Markus Zusak is Lexie’s winner. “Death himself narrates the story of a young girl growing up in World War II era Germany with her foster parents, who are hiding a Jewish man in their basement. Zusak’s descriptive writing makes the story come alive; I don’t think I’ve highlighted so many beautifully written passages in one book in a very long time. It feels very fitting that the novel is all about the power of words, because Zusak’s writing had me completely captivated from beginning to end”.

There’s one more book in our list of Best Books of 2012 – read all about it tomorrow!