Peabody Library Summer Staff Selections! (Part 2)

Every year, we at the Free For All ask the Peabody Library staff about the books, films, and music recordings that they would like to recommend to you for your summer reading/viewing/listening pleasure, and every year, we are delighted with the variety, the diversity, and the genuinely excellent recommendations that we receive.  We will be offering suggestions over the course of the summer, beloved patrons, in the hopes of helping you find a new favorite story to savor over the coming summer months.  Feel free to share your favorites with us, as well!

From Circulation:

Mr. g by Alan Lightman: Once before time existed, Mr g woke up from a nap and decided to create the universe. In the shimmering Void, where he lives with his Aunt Penelope and Uncle Deva, he creates time, space, and matter. Soon follow stars, planets, animate matter, consciousness,and intelligent beings with moral dilemmas. But the creation of space and time has unintended consequences, including the arrival of Belhor, a clever and devious rival. Belhor delights in needling Mr g, demanding explanations for the inexplicable, offering his own opinions on the fledgling universes, and maintaining the necessity of evil. As Mr g’s favorite universe grows, he discovers how an act of creation can change everything in the world—including the creator himself.  This is a book that eschews traditional creation stories and religious dogma, instead choosing to marvel at the wonders around us, and the stunning beauty of even chaos itself.
From our Staff: I am halfway through “Mrg” and I can already tell this is going to be one of my favorite books of all time. This was the one I sent Mo’s way and they have been bugging me to read it ever since. I’ve never read read a piece fiction that spoke so beautifully about physics and nature.

From the Upstairs Offices: 

Love Medicine by Louise Erdrich: Set on and around a North Dakota Ojibwe reservation,Louise Erdrich’s first novel tells an epic story of the intertwined fates of two families: the Kashpaws and the Lamartines.  Told in a number of real, empathetic voices, this is a book where black humor mingles with magic, injustice bleeds into betrayal, and bonds of love and family marry the elements into a tightly woven whole that pulses with the drama of life.  This specific edition has been updated by Erdrich herself.  As she notes, “I have worked over a few small sections that were added in 1995, but the biggest change is this: I have deleted one of the chapters (“Lyman’s Luck”) added in the 1995 expanded edition, and moved another (“The Tomahawk Factory”) to the P.S. section at the back of the book”–a fascinating opportunity for fans of the book to enjoy it anwew!

From the Children’s Room: 

The Milk Lady of Bangalore: An Unexpected Adventure by Shoba Narayan:  When Shoba Narayan—who has just returned to India with her husband and two daughters after years in the United States—asks whether said cow might bless her apartment next, it is the beginning of a beautiful friendship between our author and Sarala, who also sells fresh milk right across the street from that thoroughly modern apartment building. The two women connect over not only cows but also family, food, and life. When Shoba agrees to buy Sarala a new cow, they set off looking for just the right heifer, and what was at first a simple economic transaction becomes something much deeper, though never without a hint of slapstick.
From our Staff:This is great for a bit of summer escapism. Narayan moved back to her native India and found an unexpected acquaintance in a woman who sells fresh milk and keeps cows. This is a story about their friendship, but Narayan also examines Indian culture with humor and sensitivity as she parses what led these two women together but also to lead vastly different lives.

From Reference:

Beneath a Ruthless Sun : A True Story of Violence, Race, and Justice Lost and Found by Gilbert King: In  December 1957, Blanche Bosanquet Knowles, the wealthy young wife of a citrus baron, was raped in her home while her husband was away.  She described her attacker as a “husky Negro” , and the sheriff, the infamous racist Willis McCall, did not hesitate to arrest every Black male in the area.  Within days, McCall turned his sights on Jesse Daniels, a gentle, mentally impaired white nineteen-year-old.  Jesse was incarcerated in the state hospital for the insane, locked away without trial.  But crusading journalist Mabel Norris Reese refused to stop questioning over the case and its baffling, unjust outcome. Who was protecting whom, or what? She pursued the story for years, chasing down leads, hitting dead ends, winning unlikely allies. Bit by bit, the unspeakable truths behind a conspiracy that shocked a community into silence begin to surface.
From our Staff: King does an impressive job creating a world in this book, discussing all the characters, relationships, secrets, and prejudices that shaped this world.  As a result, readers can’t help but feel both infuriated and utterly heartsore over the crimes that ruined Jesse Daniels’ life–and the lives of so many other Black men and women, as well. The parallels and connections to our own historic moment are chilling, as well.