Passing of Margaret Truman

Mystery writer Margaret Truman passed away today.

Read a book in her memory.

Surprises and Disappointments

One of the considerations for Long Island Reads was the novel Lucia Lucia by Adriana Trigiani. The novel was a bit fluffy but it was a lot of fun to read. It takes place in Greenich Village in the 1950s and is a bit love story, a bit mystery, a bit fluff. So I was excited to give Trigiani's series Big Stone Gap a try. The first book was a total yawn. The characters are not engaging and the plot .... wait, what plot? You find out early that the main character's daddy is not really her daddy but then there are pages about her pharmacy, then pages about the coal mines, then pages about the chubby girl in town who gets picked on. To be honest, I didn't finish the book. I really didn't care if she finds her real daddy.
On the other hand, I am very impressed with Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky. This is a beautiful and sad portrait of normal people living in and around Paris in 1940. As the city is evacuated, each person deals in a different way, not really believing what is happening, always expecting the war to end. Knowing what we know now, and knowing that Nemirovsky was shipped to Auschwitz and killed before her book was completed, heightens the saddness and meaning in each story.

Rebecca: Book of the Month!

I just loved Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier. This book - originally published in 1938 - lets you escape to a time with no cell phones, televisions or Internet but still reads like a "modern" suspense novel. Mysteries set in this time period are completely different from any mystery set today due to technology. I feel the suspense and the sense of loneliness and desperation can be greater. Plot descriptions and art work for most of the editions make the book appear to be a romance but I would NOT call this book a romance. It is a suspense/mystery set in an old Cornish estate called Manderley. The descriptions of the rooms, the servants, the afternoon tea, the grounds and the ocean beyond had me so deep into the story that I lost huge spans of time. The mystery is intriguing and the answer is satisfying; although I wish there were just a few more pages at the end ... we are left wondering what happens to some characters.
I am impressed with Daphne du Marier's writing and look forward to reading more by her. There is also a biography (with fabulous photos) by Margaret Forster called Daphne du Maurier : the Secret Life of the Renowned Storyteller that I would like to read.

Shakespeare: Fact and Fiction

I wish I had more time to read. I can't put Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier down, it's so much fun and so creepy. Full review coming soon.
February's book discussion at RM library will be Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare by Stephen Greenblatt. I'm looking forward to learning more about Shakespeare because there is so much controversy and myth surrounding him. Shakespeare, as a character, seems to be everywhere (movies like Shakespeare In Love for example). I searched around for fictional books with big S and I found plenty.
1. Mrs. Shakespeare - Robert Nye
2. The Late Mr. Shakespeare - Robert Nye
3. Young Will: The Confessions of William Shakespeare - Bruce Cook
4. The Players: A Novel of the Young Shakespeare - Stephanie Cowell
5. The Book of Air and Shadows - Michael Gruber
6. Interred With Their Bones - Jennifer Lee Carrell
7. Time's Fool: A Mystery of Shakespeare - Leonard Tourney
8. Will: A Novel - Grace Tiffany
9. Hark! A Novel of the 87th Precinct - Ed McBain
10. Chasing Shakespeare - Sarah Smith

So if you are in the mood for Shakespeare non-fiction style, read Will in the World. If you want some Shakespeare doing things he probably never did, try one of the above.

More New Books!

James McBride, author of The Color of Water, (last year's Long Island Reads pick) has a new book coming out! Song Yet Sung will be published February 5th. What's more, Jennifer Finney Boylan, author of She's Not There, (and a Mainer!) published I'm Looking Through You yesterday. The reviews of this book remind me of another fabulous growing-up book by Alison Bechdel called Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic. Boylan's is in novel form and Bechdel is in graphic novel form but you get the idea.

Who doesn't love a good bibliomystery?

Bibliomysteries are mysteries that involve books or book sellers (usually antiquarian). Two of my favorites are The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova and The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield (which was given to me by my friends Heidi and Sascha for my birthday). Bibliomysteries that I am excited to read soon include:

The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

A bibliomystery that I did NOT enjoy and do NOT recommend is The Secret of Lost Things by Sheridan Hay (and I was so excited about this book because the author used to work at the Strand Bookstore in NYC and used her experiences there. It started out interesting but just got weird and boring).

There are also a number of bibliomystery series. Marianne Macdonald's Dido Hoare series is so much fun ... and at the end of the book you don't have to leave the characters forever!

Dido Hoare series by Marianne Macdonald

Cliff Janeway series by John Dunning

Mobile Library Mysteries by Ian Sansom

Thursday Next series by Jasper Fford

Cotton Malone series by Steve Berry

Red Lion series by Yxta Maya Murray

New Books! New Books!

I'm super excited about two new books. Actually, one is an old book that was just published.
A Father's Law is a book that Richard Wright was working on when he died in 1960. His daughter has just published the unfinished novel, as is. Wright's first novel (Native Son, published in 1940) is one of my favorites. I can't wait to read his "new" one!
Another new book that I am axiously awaiting is Francesca Lia Block's Quakeland. Most of this amazing writer's works are YA, but this will be a collection of adult short stories. If you are saying, "Who is this writer with three names??" then go to your library and take out Dangerous Angels. Read it, then you too will count the days until Quakeland's April release.

I love Alison Weir

I accidently picked up a book called The Six Wives of Henry VIII by Alison Weir when I was in high school. It was the first non-fiction book that I read cover to cover and enjoyed as if it were fiction. Weir is a great writer but her books can be lengthy with periods of dry spells - however, if you have an interest in the history of English royalty than she is your best bet. She has some other great titles, like The Life of Elizabeth I and the Princes In the Tower, but just recently she published her first ever historical fiction! It is called Innocent Traitor and it is the life of Lady Jane Grey, a brilliant and educated girl who became queen (for nine days) due to her parent's finagling and was beheaded at age 16. This book was so much fun and so well researched. It reminded me of some other great historical reads about fascinating women:
Passionate Minds: The Great Enlightenment Love Affair by David Bodanis (about Émilie du Châtelet - a genius and Voltair's mistress)
The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory (Through the eyes of Anne Boelyn's sister Mary, how the two of them seduced Henry VIII). Movie coming soon!
Little House on the Praire series by Laura Ingalls Wilder. I re-read this every few years. An amazing life story.
Savage Beauty: The Life of Edna St. Vincent Millay by Nancy Milford (poet from Maine. Milford also wrote a biography called Zelda, about the wife of F. Scott Fitzgerald).
Frida: A Biography of Frida Kahlo by Hayden Herrera (Keep a big book of her paintings by your side. Amazing paintings, amazing woman.)

I'm sure there is more ... I'll have to go browse my home library.

PS I hope everyone knows what I mean when I say Long Island Reads! If not, you missed a great book and a lot of great events last year, including an amazing talk by James McBride, the author of last year's pick, The Color of Water. Well, there is plenty of time to jump on the LIReads bandwagon this year. We picked Aloft by Chang-rae Lee. This is a beautiful and quiet book about family and about Long Island. I found myself reading entire sections outloud, to whomever would listen. So please go borrow a copy from your library and read it. Then get ready for April! Chang-rae Lee is going to speak and sign books! Check the LIReads website for updates!

Welcome to Bethany the Librarian's Blog!

I am a librarian at Harborfields Public Library in Greenlawn, New York and Rogers Memorial Library in Southampton, New York. This blog is part experiment and part reading log. I hope to learn how to be a better blogger, better librarian and perhaps inspire some more reading out there with some book reviews.

The reading club at RM library (which has yet to be named ... any suggestions??) will be discussing Waiting by Ha Jin. While I enjoyed Ha Jin's writing style and simple yet beautiful descriptions, I found the plot and nearly every character to be frustrating and depressing. I just kept Waiting for the book to end. That being said, I will try another of Ha Jin's books in the future. Should be an interesting discussion!

I just began Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier, suggested by RM librarian Margaret. I'm already getting completely drawn into the time and place with the language, descriptions of old English castles and crumpets. du Maurier is a new author to me. She had an interesting life - check out her wikipedia biography.

During my travel time between the two libraries, I am listening to Lisey's Story by Stephen King. I have a soft spot in my heart for Mr. King since we went to the same college - University of Maine at Orono. Mare Winningham, the woman reading the book, is doing a nice job. King tends to put a lot of stream-of-conscience thoughts in parenthesis within dialog or descriptions so poor Mrs. Winningham has to go from southern accent to french accent to crazy-old-man accent quickly. The story was a little slow to start but now I can't wait to hop in the car and listen. This one is not as gruesome as some of his can be. It is more of a psychological scary story but, boy! It keeps me up at night on that ride home!!

More updates to come!