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If I could save time in a bottle….

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I think it’s because I study history when not at the library, but I’ve always been fascinated by the idea of time travel.  Partly, I’d love the chance to see what “the good old days” were really like.*  What was it about Lord Byron that made him so compelling?  What stories did those prospectors tell while panhandling for gold in the Klondike?  I would give a great deal to be able to watch the Wright Brother’s first flight (and jump up and down in giddy delight, obviously); I’d love to hear Queen Elizabeth’s speech before the battle with the Spanish Armada.  Maybe you could even hang out with Amelia Earhart, and be able to record what really happened on that fateful final flight…

But that brings us to the moral dilemma of time travel.  Can we really affect any change–positive or negative?  Do we really know that saving the Titanic from hitting that iceberg, we could prevent World War I?  How do we know it wouldn’t lead to some catastrophic alternate possibility that we never foresaw?  Or that we would discover it is all predestined, and the fates found a way for war to break out in 1914 regardless of our meddling?  Do we have the right to say what should and shouldn’t happen?  And what if we bump into ourselves whilst wandering around?  Would time literally implode, as some writers have theorized?  Or could I be able to catch my 10-year-old self before she falls off her roller skates and fractures her wrist?

84e7a931-39b5-4ad3-939c-30612f6d5207This, dear readers, is the precious gold of which fiction is made…maybe not me fracturing my wrist, but the deep, moral complexities of our power in the world, and our agency within time and space.  Television shows have reveled in these issues…Doctor Who, for example, which is a delightfully entertaining series, often dances with the serious and dangerous aspects of time-travel, giving the show its suspense and daring.  Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander has shown us the soul-changing power of time travel, blending the fantastic and the romantic in a way that has captured two generations of fans.

And books have been showing us the way for even longer.  For those brave enough to tackle the uncertainties of time travel, the results can be wildly entertaining, relentlessly inventive, powerful, and often challenging.  These books offer us the chance to escape into a kind of alternate, “what-if” universe, but still tie us to our present, or our pasts, in a way that lingers once the final pages have turned.  Those are some of my favorite kinds of literary adventures–and if they are yours, as well, then check out these selections on time travel and adventure from our shelves!

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If you need me, I’ll be hanging out with Wilbur…

*…and partly, I’d like to know that I could escape those “good old days” and, you know…take a shower.  And wear zippers.  And vote.  But since I didn’t win Powerball, I won’t be building a time machine.  Which leaves more time for reading, at least….

51Z3WahX33L._SX322_BO1,204,203,200_The Smithsonian Institute: A world-renown historian, Vidal’s insight into time travel and change is also a heartfelt study of American history, and a tribute to its most iconic museum.  In this book, ‘T’, a young man, arrives at the Smithsonian Museum at the beginning of World War II, having been hired to work on a secret part of the Manhattan Project.  But what he discovers is that, when no outsiders are watching, the exhibits come to life.  And while such a setup lends itself to comparisons with the Night at the Museum films, the journey that T takes within the walls of the Smithsonian is a wholly unique–and a deeply moving one.  My favorite scene, bar none, occurs the night after the attack on Pearl Harbor, but you’ll have to read it to find out why.  *A note: some editions of this book have a really wacky bodice-rippery cover.  There is no bodice-ripping in this book.  At least nothing that would require a cover that kitschy…

1161903Making History:  Stephen Fry has one of the best minds, and one of the most inventive imaginations at world today, and all of his books have a charm, wackiness, and brashness all their own…but this book is something special.   Cambridge graduate student Michael Young has recently finished his dissertation on the early life of Adolf Hitler when he meets a German physicist who believes he has figured out how to travel in time.  Both men decide to ignore the horrendous danger of changing history, and ensure that Hitler was never born–but can they live with the results.  This is a marvelously well-constructed plot that shifts time, place, and viewpoints with lightning-quick ease (at one point, it is also told like a film script), but, as a whole, it functions beautifully, providing readers with a tragically human story that is ultimately, surprising hopeful.

3508308The Shining Girls: Lauren Beukes is a remarkably inventive, ruthlessly creative author who doesn’t pull punches in coming up with deeply unsettling, but irresistibly engaging stories.  This story features a serial killer with the ability to travel through time, the very opposite of the kind of hero we’ve been discussing up to now.  Harper Curtis found a key that allowed him to escape the hell of  Depression-era Chicago, and gave him the opportunity to enact some of his most fearsome desires.  However, one of his victims, Kirby Mazrachi from 1989, discovers his secret, and begins hunting Harper across time, with only her wits, and a single detective to help her.  Though bleak and genuinely scary at times, this book is also a brilliant re-invention of  the time-travel genre that should not be missed.

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“And the stars look very different today…”

“Don’t you love the Oxford Dictionary? When I first read it, I thought it was a really really long poem about everything.”

–David Bowie

This week has seen a profusion of grief, memories, and thoughts regarding the passing of rock star David Bowie.  And while his legacy is still being debated and contested by those who knew him, and those who were touched by his life and his art, one fact stands out–the world has lost a quintessential bookworm.

According to Geoffrey Marsh, the curator of the Bowie exhibit at the Victoria and Albert Museum, Bowie was a “voracious reader” who may have consumed a book a day (and possibly as many as eight!), from an incredibly diverse range of genres.  Several of his songs, including “Big Brother” and “We Are the Dead” were originally intended for a musical version of Orwell’s 1984.  In 1998, Vanity Fair published Bowie’s responses to the Proust Questionnaire, a personality test first given to author Marcel Proust by his friend Antoinette.  You can read the whole survey here, but my personal favorite part of the survey is the question, “What is the quality you most like in a man?”  Bowie’s response?  “The ability to return books.”  Amen.

73f9d46a9b7f47260d5799c6012734abIn addition, having grown up during the the age of austerity in Britain, Bowie never forgot the power of libraries to change people’s lives.  So while the internet continues to debate the legacy of David Bowie, and we hear more stories about how Bowie, and his alter ego, Ziggy Stardust, gave individuals the courage to become the person they were meant to be, we thought we’d share with you this list of David Bowie’s 75 favorite books.  Interestingly, this list was organized chronologically, rather than in order of preference, giving us an intriguing timeline of the star’s literary life.

In perusing this list, it’s also clear that Bowie would have been right at home in the Library’s Classics Book Group, as a number of our selections are also featured on his list, including:

bowie-reading-3The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie

 Lolita

The Master and Margarita

A Clockwork Orange

You can check out the rest of the list right here, and plenty of Bowie’s music, as well, at the Library.

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Happy Birthday, Charles Perrault!

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Courtesy of Google


If you’ve checked Google today, you’ll see that they’ve set up a Doodle to celebrate Charles Perrault, the French author who gave us such classics as Little Red Riding Hood, Sleeping Beauty, and Cinderella, among others.

perraultIt’s no secret that we here at the Free For All are big fans of fairy tales, magic, fantasy, and those who write them.  Last week, we celebrated the birthday of Jacob Grimm, who, along with this brother, became the most renowned mythologists in western culture.  Their work focused primarily on collecting stories from around Germany, concentrating on how they differed, agreed, and evolved over place and time.  But what sets Charles Perrault apart from the industrious Grimms is the fact that he invented his stories, based on pre-existing French fables, some two centuries before the Grimms began their work–and he was so popular that the Grimms actually recorded a version of Sleeping Beauty that made its way to Germany via word-of-mouth.

Perrault was born on this day in 1628 in Paris, and trained as a lawyer before turning to a career in government service, and finally, to writing, though most of his work dealt in the realm of fables.  He helped Louis XIV design 39 fountains for the labyrinth at the Palace of Versailles that were constructed between 1672 and 1677.  Each fountain featured an animal from Aesop’s Fables, and the water that jetted out of each creature’s mouth was designed to look like conversation between them all.   Perrault also wrote the guidebook to accompany the labyrinth for visitors.

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The Gardens of Versailles

He was also involved in the evolution of opera, which was developed as an art form during Perrault’s lifetime.  When a close family friend came under attack from critics for writing a modern opera (one not based on Greek mythology), Perrault wrote a now-famous editorial stating that, thanks to the Enlightenment and the scientific and philosophical progress of the current age, that modern art was better than anything that had been produced by the Ancients.
images (1)It is interesting, then, that Perrault used ancient folktales and fables as the basis for his own fairytales; to be fair, though, he reinvented each so much that they became new and unique, a genre unto themselves (though he did publish his first collection of these stories under his son’s name…just to be safe…).  Many of these stories were inspired by the world Perrault saw around him–one of his friends, the Marquis of the Château d’Oiron, because the inspiration for the Marquis de Carabas  Puss in Boots, while the nearby Château d’Ussé was the model for the castle in Sleeping Beauty.  Like the originally Grimm tales, these stories are far more gruesome and disturbing in the original text than in the versions we read today–these were cautionary tales, meant to warn children of the danger of strangers (like the Big, Bad Wolf) and wandering off alone (usually into the woods), and don’t hold back on the dangers that wait for children who misbehave.  But despite, or, perhaps, because of the unsettling, vivid realities that these stories create, Perrault’s tales live on, and still form the basis of some of our earliest literary experiences.

So come into the library today, and pick out some of these books to help celebrate the birthday of Charles Perrault!

1665863The Complete Fairy Tales of Charles Perrault: This beautifully illustrated edition of Perrault’s tales brings together not only his most well-known tales (like”Little Red Riding Hood”, but also “Puss in Boots”), but also some of his lesser-known ones, like “The Fairies”.   The Library also has a collection of Perrault’s tales illustrated by Gustave Doré in 1867.  These illustrations show a completely different side of these tales, and its truly fascinating how much Doré’s imagination changes the tone of the tale.

3168598Puss in Boots: Ok, so perhaps this Dreamworks production isn’t quite an adaptation of Perrault’s original tale, but I’m going to list it here anyways, because it’s just that cute, clever, and funny (and because the feline star looks remarkably like my cat, Oscar Wilde).  This film is, technically, a prequel to the Shrek films, but it’s also a brilliant stand-alone film about the adventures of one of literatures most courageous and charismatic felines that will entertain kids and adults alike.

farjeon_glassslipperThe Glass Slipper: This retelling of Perrault’s “Cinderella” by Eleanor Farjeon is one of the most beautiful and engaging versions you can read.  This version takes out a good deal of the Perrault’s violence and cruelty, and substitutes character analysis and insight in order to make this a story with heart, soul, and substance (the inclusion of Cinderella’s father makes this story even more interesting.  Even better, this version features illustrations by E.H. Shepard, who created the classic illustrations for Winnie the Pooh.

1932474Beauty: Robin McKinley is one of my favorite YA authors, and this retelling of Perrault’s “Beauty and the Beast” remains among my favorite of her books.  Like Farjeon’s retelling, this story sticks close to the original story–a young, beautiful girl is forced to live in a castle with a prince who has been transformed into a hideous beast, and helps him break the spell that is slowly killing him–but adds layers of complexity and dimension to the plot and characters that transforms this story into a novel with depth and power.  McKinley’s writing style is stunning, making this story, as well as her numerous others, easy to read, and impossible not to love.  For another adaptation of this story, check out  Beastly, which was also adapted into a film.

Wishing you a day of Happily Ever After, dear readers!

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At The Movies: The Danish Girl

“It is not with my brain, not with my eyes, not with my hands that I want to be creative, but with my heart and with my blood.”

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Eddie Redmayne and Alicia Vikander, Universal Pictures

Lili Elbe, the first person to successfully undergo gender assignment surgery, and the subject of the new film The Danish Girl, was born Einar Wegener on December 28, 1882 in Denmark.  Einar married fellow artist Gerda Gottlieb, and the two launched successful careers, with Einar painting landscapes, and Gerda painting portraits for popular magazines such as Vogue and La Vie Parisienne.  Though critics and historians are consumed to this day with which of the two was the “better” artist, it’s very clear that they both helped each other to become better artists, as well as better human beings.

In fact, it was Gerda who championed Einar’s transition into Lili sometime before 1912.  As captured in  The Danish Girl, it was while modeling for Gerda (after the model she had hired cancelled their appointment) that Einar realized how much more comfortable he felt in women’s clothing.  By 1912, the couple had moved to Paris where Einar was far more free to live as Lili.  Gerda also found considerable inspiration from Lili, painting a number of portraits of her and inspired by her, that won her lasting fame and notoriety.

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Gerde and Einar Wegener in front of Gerde’s painting, 1924

However, as the years passed, Einar was growing more and more despondent, feeling thoroughly torn between the two lives he was living, lamenting, “I am finished.  Lili has known this for a long time. That’s how matters stand. And consequently she rebels more vigorously every day.”  Doctors were unable to help, as there simply was no proper language at the time to describe how it felt to be a person trapped in the wrong body and forced to live a charade every single day.  They diagnosed schizophrenia, hysteria, and any number of other psychological disorders, offering rudimentary cures that often did more harm than good in an attempt to render a “cure”.  But, as Einer explained, “I said to myself that as my case has never been known in the history of the medical art, it simply did not exist, it simply could not exist.”

Thankfully, however, Einar found Magnus Hirschfeld, a German physician, as well as the founder of the the world’s first gay rights organization, known as the World League for Sexual Reform.  It was a result of Hirschfeld’s medical theories, and the talents of Doctor Kurt Warnekros (and the support of Gerda) that Einar was able to physically transform, physically, into Lili.  Very little information is known about these surgeries, since all of Hirschfeld’s publications and notes were destroyed by the Nazis, but we do know that the first two surgeries were successful, making Lili the first person to undergo sexual reassignment surgery.

Though the third and final surgery would prove ultimately fatal for Lili, she still rejoiced in the fourteen months in which she was fully allowed to be herself.  “That I, Lili, am vital and have a right to life I have proved by living for 14 months,” she wrote, knowing that she would not survive. “It may be said that 14 months is not much, but they seem to me like a whole and happy human life.”

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Lili Elbe, 1930

 

1915572Though the current film starring Eddie Redmayne as Lili and Alicia Vikander as Gerda is partially based on facts, the title and inspiration were taken from David Ebershoff’s novel The Danish Girl, which used Lili Elbe’s life only as inspiration for a fictional story (Gerda appears nowhere in the novel; instead, the main character is married to an American, in an attempt to attract a wider audience).  This does raise some problems for those looking for the facts in the matter, but what arises, both in the (stunning) film and Ebershoff’s book, is the fierce, enduring, and transformative love that existed between Lili and Gerda throughout both of their lives.  This love gave both of them the courage to be the people they wanted to be, and endures both in Lili’s writings and Gerda’s portraits, which show us the soul of the person that was Lili Elbe.

For those looking for some more information on this film, and the themes within it, here are a few ideas.  First and foremost, of course, is Ebershoff’s The Danish Girl.  In addition, check out:

41whrVMfofL._SX331_BO1,204,203,200_Undoing Gender:  Judith Butler’s work is not always easy to understand, but her philosophy of gender, and her ability to cut through our collective cultural inhibitions, is remarkable.  Butler’s career was built on her theories that gender is not something with which we are born, but something that we develop, based on the culture in which we live, and the person that we become.  This book, however, deals more with how gender affects our lives and relationships.  Her first chapter, which discusses what makes a “grieveable life” is one of the most poignant and frank discussions about love, humanity, and loss that you can hope to read, and provides a terrific counterpoint to The Danish Girl.

2071649Scanty Particulars: Though Lili Elbe was a pioneer in many ways, there were others before her who flaunted convention and experimented with gender expressions in their lives.  Rachel Holmes’ biography deals with one remarkable and still mysterious case–that of Sir James Barry, one of Queen Victoria’s most well-respected military doctors.  Throughout his career, Barry insisted on the rights of women, natives, and the poor, fearlessly causing scandal in every colony in which he was stationed.  He also performed the first successful cesarean section in British medical history.  It was only after Barry died that it was reveal that Barry was actually a woman.  Though Holmes makes a number of liberties in her history, and leaps to some thoroughly unfounded conclusions, this is still an incredible story about a person who fearlessly flaunted convention in a lifelong desire to do the most good possible, and died penniless and alone as a result.

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Saturdays @ the South: Cookbooks Count As Reading!

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In the ruminations about reading resolutions and challenges appearing here over the past two weeks was a link to a counterpoint article from the blog Broke by Books in which the blogger makes many great points, but when she talks about cookbooks (albeit lovingly) she says “I didn’t feel like I could legitimately say I ‘read’ a cookbook.” While she goes on to say that cookbooks will be part of her reading goals for 2016, she still doesn’t justify adding them to her Goodreads list as being “read.” As someone who has proudly and enthusiastically added cookbooks to her Goodreads “Read” list, I heartily declare the reading of cookbooks as “legitimate” reading.

I understand where the idea of not really “reading” a cookbook can stem from. While Julia Child, Irma Rombauer and their counterparts blazed a trail for standby recipes, tips, hints and a certain amount of “foolproof-ness” to their extensive works, their books aren’t necessarily the type of tome one wants to cozy up with in front of a fire. This is, of course, unless you’re like me and consider the listing of ingredients (6 tablespoons unsalted butter / 2 c. yellow cornmeal / 1 tsp baking powder / 1 tsp baking soda … etc.) to be pure poetry. Modern cookbooks owe a great deal to their venerated predecessors, but have added so much more to the cookbook, and as a result, the cooking process.

Best-Cookbooks
So many options… so little time

Cookbooks are now generally accompanied by glossy photos, which to some may only add a bit of sparkle to the production value, but I maintain is an important, possibly essential part of cookbookery. Anyone who has made a dish and said “it tastes good, but is it really supposed to look like that?” will likely understand where I’m coming from, here. Modern cookbooks also often have a theme that functions very nearly as a storyline. Some are more abstract than others, but some take the combination of personal history and recipes to new heights, adding paragraphs about the history of the recipe, why it was included in the cookbook and/or why it is an important recipe to the author. I can’t express how much I’ve learned about flavor combinations, kitchen experimentation and other cultures by taking time to really examine (i.e. read) a cookbook. The tidbits embedded among the ingredients and instructions often make for a compelling tale in which the reader can get to know the author and the food. And learning about food, its history and its importance to people can provide that essential, but often ineffable quality of truly good food.

There's a reason people's cookbook shelves get stocked like this... they're good reading!
There’s a reason people’s cookbook shelves get stocked like this… they’re good reading!

This week I’m offering you a very small selection among many possibilities that can make for legitimate cookbook reading. If you happen to gloss over the ingredients lists or instructions in the process, let’s all remember the time-honored reading tradition of “skimming.” Skimming over a passage of lengthy description that’s not holding your attention in a novel is no different from reading the parts of a cookbook that bring the food to life and skimming over the lists in the middle. In either case, you’re going through a book cover-to-cover and getting something out of the text you’ve read. So if you’ve gone through an entire cookbook, even if you have no intention of making a single dish from the book, don’t let it stop you from calling it legitimate reading and checking it off your list!

3635907New England Open House Cookbook by Sarah Leah Chase

While the tag-line for this book is “300 recipes inspired by the bounty of New England” and this book certainly lives up to that promise, each recipe is introduced with a thoughtful paragraph or two bringing each entry to life in a way a isolated recipe could never accomplish. Chase infuses history, delightful anecdotes or background on how the recipe came to be a New England or family favorite into each offering making this book so much more than a cookbook. The essays in the beginning of the book will give the reader a great sense of what a labor of love it was to bring this tome about.

3595256Everyday Easy by Lorraine Pascale

Pascale’s cookbook is another that introduces each recipe with a paragraph that gives the reader a solid sense of what’s to come. With recipe introductions like “Pancetta. It’s that porky, tasty yumminess that I love so very much,” I defy anyone not to be at least a little tempted to make something from this book. Full-page images of what every dish should look like (in its best form, anyway) will leave the reader with no doubt about the mouthwatering potential of Pascale’s recipes.

3545897Mediterranean Cookbook: Fast, Fresh and Easy Recipes by Marie-Pierre Moine

This is a DK published book, which is pretty much a guarantee that even just browsing the pictures in this book will give you an eye-popping experience. But this book does so much more. The popular Mediterranean style of cooking is highlighted by course with interludes about the regions (North African, Middle Eastern, Italian, Iberian, Greek) that create the Mediterranean cooking experience. These interludes give the reader an introduction to the food culture of that region along with menu suggestions that will pull from the sections in the book (with page references, naturally). It works well to give the reader a sense of how different flavors will work and meld together.

3488257Wintersweet by Tammy Donroe

This book has a fascinating focus, using ingredients found during the late fall/winter harvest and making delectable desserts with a combination of that harvest and pantry staples. What results is an amazing, successful effort by Food on the Food blogger Donroe to create a book that has a sense of place (most ingredients are regional to and/or sourced from New England) and sense of history as Donroe includes some wonderful family anecdotes and recipes from her family’s own cache of trustworthy gems. You’d be hard-pressed to find a cookbook infused with more personality and genuine charm than this one.

3617330Food52 Genius Recipes by Kristen Miglore

I’ve mentioned this book before. I will likely mention it again. The subtitle for this book is “100 recipes that will change the way you cook”; I’d venture to say it will change the way you view cookbooks in general, particularly in terms of reading them. This book is set up with an introduction to each recipe that gives the reader a mouth-watering sense of why it was included in the book, why the recipe works the way it does and often suggestions for variations so you can adapt the recipe to your personal style. I’ve yet to find a picture that doesn’t make my mouth water. They have a great philosophy of unfussy preparation and presentation which makes the recipes completely accessible and the blurbs before the recipes as relatable and interesting as any food memoir. If ever there was a page-turner of a cookbook, this is it. (And if you’re as hooked on this book as I am, you’ll also want to check out Food52 Baking.)

This week, dear readers, I highly recommend that you cozy up in whatever spot is most comfortable to you (especially if your book fort is still up), with whatever hot drink you find most tempting (tea, coffee, hot chocolate, mulled cider) and discover the possibilities a new cookbook can offer. You might even find it as engrossing as your usual reading material, in which case, once you’re done you should proudly claim that you did, indeed “read” a cookbook!

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Five Book Friday!

Book Sandwich
A note: Eating a sandwich while reading a book is great. Eating a book sandwich is not a good idea.

 

A New Year, a new Five Book Friday, in which we introduce you to some of the new books that have found their way on to our shelves this week.  Because the end of December and the first week in January is so flat-out insane, the book publishing industry as a whole takes a wee bit of a break during this time…however, they compensate by bringing out a whole slew of new books in January and February, so we are all looking forward to some of the super-terrific books slated to arrive shortly.  If you’re interested in seeing some, here is a list to get you in the bookish spirit, courtesy of the lovely Lady Pole!

And now, without further ado, we present our first Five Book Friday of 2016 for you to, ahem, devour…

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3698391The Match of the Century: Cathy Maxwell is one of the stars of historical romance, and this new series opener has been garnered rave reviews from fans and critics alike.  Some may think Elin Morris lucky because she doesn’t have to hunt for a husband–she’s been engaged since she was born–but Elin knows differently.  Because she’s in love with her fiance’s brother, Ben.  Even though duty and loyalty state that Ben must forget the woman who stole his heart so many years ago, he can’t seem to drive Elin, or his memories of her, away.  And when Elin finds herself in danger, Ben resolves to do anything to keep her safe–even if it means losing her forever.  RT Book Reviews said of this new release, “Maxwell infuses the first of her new series with great depth of emotion. Readers will experience her characters’ anger, frustration, sadness and joy, and they’ll sigh with satisfaction at this master storyteller’s ability to create a delightful, emotional read.”

37007992016 Pushcart Prize XL : Best of the Small Presses: The Pushcart Prize has become an institution in American literature, celebrating small presses and the authors who keep them running, and this 40th Anniversary Collection, with 65 essays, poems, and stories from around the country, is being hailed as their best collection to date.  Editor Bill Henderson (who created the Pushcart Prize, and still keeps it running today) and over 200 contributing editors are to thank, and, of the contents, Booklist has declared it, ““One of the zestiest and most impressive installments in Pushcart’s proud reign as the most bountiful and exciting of literary harvests.”

3212540My Brilliant Friend: Elena Ferrente’s Neapolitan Novels have been hailed as the some of the best books of the year–collectively and individually, with each book being hailed as a triumph.  This book begins the tale of two friends, Elena and Lila, focusing on their childhood and adolescence in 1950’s Naples.  With nothing to reuly on but each other, Elena and Lila begin to develop into brilliant, complex women, at once dependent on each other, and wholly independent spirits.  The New York Times Book Review has declared, “Elena Ferrante is one of the great novelists of our time . . . In these bold, gorgeous, relentless novels, Ferrante traces the deep connections between the political and the domestic. This is a new version of the way we live now — one we need, one told brilliantly, by a woman.”  Thankfully, we now have each of the four novels in this much-celebrated series for your enjoyment.

3651513Forty Thieves: Thomas Perry’s latest stand-alone novel features the husband and wife detective team of Sid and Ronnie Abel, both retired from the LAPD, who are teamed up with another husband and wife–of trained assassins, however.  Together, they are ordered to do damage control on the murder of a local research scientist, whose death may be a cover for some shocking and deadly secrets.  This book certainly looks wholly original, and Booklist gave it a star review, saying “Along the way to a knockout finale . . . Perry offers a master class in narrative sleight of hand . . . . Perry’s books, whether series or stand-alone, absolutely resist easy categorization, thoroughly melding character and plot, light and dark, and totally immersing the reader in the irresistible narrative.”

3680617City of Thorns: Nine Lives in the World’s Largest Refugee Camp: The makeshift city of Dadaab, in the hostile desert of northern Kenya, is a place where building are made of mud and plastic, the inhabitants live on rations and luck, since nothing will grow there but thorns, and where whole lives are lived entirely in limbo.  Human Rights Watch researcher Ben Rawlence spent four years getting to know the refugees at Dadaab, from former child soldiers to peddlers, to schoolchildren, and tells their life stories in this heart-wrenching, and vitally necessary book.  Writers and readers around the world are hailing this book as a tour de force of journalistic writing, and Booklist praises, “That Rawlence has managed to capture so much of this unlikely city’s chaos and confusion in a narrative that is very nearly impossible to put down is an achievement in reportage that few have matched. Dadaab’s half a million residents could not have asked for a better champion…and while the facts and figures he shares are stunning, it is the nine individuals whose stories he focuses on who give the book its hearT.”

 

Until next week, beloved patrons–Happy Reading!

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“We must always travel with hope”…A Downton Abbey Edition of If/Then

It’s that time of year again…

 

Downton Abbey season is upon us.

 

And while every season of this marvelous historic drama has been memorial, the knowledge that this is the final season makes every episode, every lingering glance, ever caustic put-down, and every jauntily-angled hat that much more meaningful.  The season has already aired, and ended, in Britain, but we here in the US have only begun to savor our final season of one of the highest-rated shows in the western world.   Since it’s inception, this show has been hailed for its splendid characters, its rich historic setting, and its utterly engaging storylines, and has actually launched a shocking new generation of historical dramas, as production companies desperately try to capitalize on Downton’s success.  Not bad for a drama that deals heavily in the vagaries of British inheritance laws, eh?

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The terrific thing about Downton Abbey, apart from the actual show, is the fact that it has such a vocal fanbase.  I can’t tell you how many delightful chats I’ve had with patrons who are picking up discs of various seasons to watch, or looking for something to tide them over between episodes, or searching for another compelling and transportive show once they’ve returned from a Downton binge.

So, in honor of all those lovely chats, and with the full knowledge that we’ll all soon be casting about for some news shows to savor very soon, here are some suggestions, from both sides of the Circulation Desk, based on the delightful denizens of Downton Abbey…

If you love Downton Abbey, Then be sure to check out:

2629560The Grand:  Like Downton Abbey, it sucks you in with its lovely setting (in this case, a spectacular hotel in downtown Manchester, England, in 1919), and holds you with its complex plots, surprising characters, and shocking twists and turns.  I owe the creator, Russell T. Davis (yup, the same guy who resurrected Dr. Who!), for helping me make friends in college. In the years before Netflix and Youtube (gasp!), this was our binge-watching fodder.  Downton Abbey fans will find the same attention to detail here in spades, and similarly powerful characters, especially as Stephen, the son and heir of The Grand Hotel’s owners, deals with his return from the First World War, and the new world in which he finds himself (in season one, Stephen is played to perfection by future True Blood star Stephen Moyer).  I realize I am rambling right now.  But it’s that terrific a show.  So go watch it, then we can chat.

3679092Peaky Blinders: On the surface, this superb BBC drama (which is now a Netflix production) has much in common with Downton Abbey: a superb cast, spectacular historical detail and costumes, surprisingly and memorable storylines…but on the other, it couldn’t be different.  This series is built around the gangs of Birmingham, England, in the 1920’s–some of the toughest, scariest, and most ruthless criminals in the country.  Their name was based on the fact that they sewed straight razors into the peaks of their caps, so that a single flick of the wrist could actually kill a man.  While not for the feint of heart, this is an addictive show that comes highly recommended.  Best of all, it stars Irish actor Cillian Murphy, who is one of my favorite people, as Tommy, whose voice can chill the blood effortlessly…and Season 2 features a guest appearance by Charlotte Riley, who played Arabella Strange in Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell!

3645613The Crimson Field: If, like me, your favorite season of Downton Abbey was the second, featuring the outbreak and experience of the First World War, then this drama of the nurses of the Western Front is for you.  It is very rare to see a story that focuses so much on women in the First World War, and, by and large, this show tells that story exceptionally well.  The French hospital in which these nurses find themselves is a battelfield in and of itself, for the hearts, bodies, and minds of those who must live, work, and suffer in it, and this show doesn’t shy away from the real and painful details of those experiences.  But it also tells stories of triumph and humor and, most importantly, of power for women at a time when women were not (and still are not) properly recognized for their work.

3645616Poldark: I went on (and on) about this show last summer, when the first season aired, but it’s certainly worth mentioning again.  Not only is this an adaptation wholly worthy of Winston Graham’s beloved literary series, it revels in its historical setting, costumes and accents, and doesn’t shy away from the deep complexities of its characters’ relationships.  Season One introduced us all to Ross Poldark, a British soldier who returns from service in the American Revolution to his home in Cornwall, and begins making a life for himself as a mine owner, a caretaker, and a husband.  Happily, for fans of this super series, season 2 is set to air in Britain sometime this summer, so our turn will be coming soon after!