Staff Review: Birdseye by Mark Kurlansky

I can't say that I loved reading a book about the man behind the frozen food industry. It wasn't at all my usual sort of book, but I'm very glad that I pushed beyond my comfort zone to read it.

I checked out Birdseye by Mark Kurlansky because I wanted to read a book for the microhistory category in the Great Reading Challenge. I don't read very much nonfiction of any sort and have never tried a microhistory, so this seemed like a great way to Challenge my Reading habits.

Kurlansky is known for his microhistories (nonfiction books that go in depth on one, relatively small, topic in history), and his books often focus on food-related topics (yum!). However, the most important factor in my choice of Birdseye was the fact that an eBook was available in OverDrive at ten p.m. and I could start reading right there on my couch.

Happily, this was not a strenuous read. Kurlansky didn't expect me to have any special knowledge or familiarity with the history or science behind the development of frozen foods. I learned some interesting facts and enjoyed some amusing anecdotes about Clarence "Bob" Birdseye's colorful life. This is exactly the sort of book that my 70-something father would love, and I can see the appeal. In fact, I'll probably track down a copy to give my father so that we can have a nice chat about frozen vegetables over the holidays.

Am I glad that I checked out this book? Yes! Am I now a devoted fan of microhistories? Not so much, but I'm definitely willing to check one out the next time I need a brain break from my usual Science Fiction and Romance!

~Sarah, Adult Services

Staff Review: Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger

One of the great things about working in a library is that you get to track the books that everyday readers -- not reviewers, prize panels, or critics -- genuinely love, titles like The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah or All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr or, recently, just about every title released by Frederik Backman. I always take note of these books, so I can recommend them to others but also so I can eventually get to them myself. Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger is one such book.

Published in 2013, it's beautifully written, warm-hearted, poignant, and suspenseful. It's a standalone work by an author best known for his Cork O'Connor mystery series set up in northern Minnesota, a series that is also well-loved. Krueger is known for his evocative descriptions of landscapes and places and his incorporation of Native American characters and culture into his books, both features prominent in Ordinary Grace.

The novel relates the events of one hot summer in Minnesota in 1961. Kennedy is president and the mood of the country hopeful, but the sleepy town of New Bremen experiences a series of unfortunate -- no, make that tragic -- events.

We see these incidents unfold through the eyes of thirteen-year-old Frank Drum, son of the town's Methodist minister, whose family is a happy one despite the usual assortment of disappointments and challenges: Frank's mom, an aspiring singer, isn't thrilled to have landed in a backwater leading a church choir; Frank's spiritually gifted younger brother struggles with a stutter; Frank's brilliant older sister bears the scars of a surgically repaired hairlip; Frank's father conceals psychic scars from the second World War. All five family members are very well drawn and the large supporting cast of townspeople is rendered just as skillfully.   

Frank begins the summer a regular kid, pre-occupied with baseball and the usual early-teen boy things. Then, a series of three unrelated deaths occur that cause his world to crack open. These deaths set off a chain of further unfortunate events, perhaps to an extent that stretches the reader's credulity just a bit. I was willing to suspend my disbelief because Krueger writes so well, in such convincing detail, and with so much compassion. He keeps the reader turning pages too, to find out who did what to whom. But what he really examines through these plot detonations is the harsh truth that awful things do happen to good people, but those people can find the strength and courage -- and enough ordinary grace in this world -- to go on.

There's nothing saccharine about Krueger's cast or facile in the ways they cope in the aftermath. Krueger offers no easy answers. His people are flawed, they spend nights in the drunk tank, they make big mistakes, they can't always forgive. But they are caring and authentic and thoughtful. In the end there is something so life-affirming in the world Krueger creates. His book is exquisitely graceful.

~ Ann, Adult Services    

NaNoWriMo Coming Soon!

Hello, my literary friends. It's that time again - leaves, freshly fallen, cool night air, bonfires and snuggling under blankets to read on a cozy afternoon. In other words, it is almost November - which means time for frantically trying to meet your daily word count to finish writing an entire novel in 30 days. Right? Sound familiar?

In case you hadn't heard, November is officially National Novel Writing Month, also known as NaNoWriMo. Once a year, a bunch (like thousands!) of wild-at-heart folks try to write an entire book in 30 days. It might seem crazy, it might not seem possible, but people do it every year. When you complete a novel of 50,000 words (or more) you become a winner. Awesome, right?

The goal of NaNoWriMo is to get people writing daily, but with no editing, no second-guessing, just get the words out on paper. When you complete the NaNoWriMo challenge, you have written a novel. You get to say, officially, that you are a novelist - because, hey, you just wrote a book!

Some of us try this every year and don't make it very far (*cough *cough, self) But the real point here is - like so many other things in the world - at least we tried! Its a fun experiment. You never know where it will take you or what you'll end up with in 30 days. Carnegie-Stout is listed as an official "Come Write In" location. This means we are encouraging you to stop by and write your novel at the library! Also, three Sundays in November, the 6th, 13th and 20th, from 1-4 PM, we will have a room dedicated to participants. You can come and write and chat/commiserate with other folks.

For more information about NaNoWriMo, click here.

New Item Tuesday

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Sarah's Favorite Bingeworthy TV Series

You might think that, as a librarian, I spend all my free time reading books, but in my downtime I'm just as likely to be sitting on the couch watching TV. I was inspired by my colleague Amy to share a few of my favorite bingeworthy TV series that don't appear on HGTV.

I've mentioned two of my favorites here before: Orphan Black and How to Get Away with Murder, so I'll trust you to read my earlier blog posts if you're curious and instead talk about some new favorites!

Elementary A variation on the classic character of Sherlock Holmes transplanted into modern day New York City and featuring Lucy Liu as Dr. Joan Watson. This isn't a series that requires you to watch every single episode to enjoy or understand the plot.

Mindy Project Mindy Kaling stars in her own Rom Com-inspired TV series that isn't afraid to change up the cast. Although some episodes rely a bit more on frat boy humor than I'd prefer, when this show is good, it is crazy good.

You're the Worst The humor in this series is very adult and very dark. Casual sex, drug use, and profanity are just the tip of the iceberg of reasons why you might not enjoy this show. At some point I have declared each of the main characters as the Absolute Worst, but I still love these deeply flawed and vulnerable fictional people.

Brooklyn Nine-Nine I avoided this series for three years because I was somehow convinced I wouldn't like a series about a scrappy Brooklyn police department. I was wrong: I love it. This is my new go-to upbeat ensemble comedy (I miss you, Parks & Rec!) and it is the show I turn to when I've had a bad day.

Leverage When I've had a really bad day, I turn on Leverage. Absolutely any episode leaves me feeling better about humanity. It's quirky, goofy, and most importantly, this team of bad guys always helps the normal people hurt by the rich, powerful and corrupt to get justice.

~Sarah, Adult Services

Staff Audiobook Review: The Boys of My Youth by Jo Ann Beard

I don't know why it has taken me almost twenty years to notice the essay collection The Boys of My Youth by Jo Ann Beard and read (or, rather, listen to) it. First published in 1998 to a loud chorus of high praise, the book led to Beard's being awarded both a Guggenheim Fellowship and a Whiting Award.

The collection constitutes a patchwork memoir. At the time of its publication, it drew most attention for one piece, previously published in the The New Yorker. That essay, "The Fourth State of Matter," is a meticulous and heartbreaking narrative of the 1991 mass shooting at the University of Iowa by a disturbed physics graduate student, which claimed six lives, including the shooter's, and left another victim paralyzed from the neck down. The narrative of that horrific event is woven into finely-grained depictions of the author's own domestic woes: a dying dog and dissolving marriage. It makes for a poignant weave that in no way diminishes the relative magnitude of the shooting.

Jo Ann Beard, a graduate of the University of Iowa and of Iowa's MFA writing program, was an editor of the physics department's academic journal at the time of the shootings and very close to several of the victims. She had left the office early that day to tend to her old, ailing pet. At home, her phone soon began ringing off the hook. In her essay, which, like all the essays in the book, is precisely detailed, wryly but not inappropriately funny, and strikingly well-written, Beard conjures the tragedy in such a vividly authentic way that I listened, heart in throat, grieved for the victims, and glimpsed the scale of the incident's extensive collateral damage.

Other essays breathe life into Beard's early childhood, adolescence, high school and college beaus, and her ultimately failed marriage. She presents her life in a non-linear way, each essay forming its own discrete story. Beard is a master of the exquisite detail and one has to wonder at her powers of recollection and suspect some poetic license in the telling. Usually I'm pretty particular about strict truth in the memoirs I read, but this book is so artfully written and profoundly affecting that I was willing to park my skepticism at the door.

Her masterful handling of a seemingly infinite number of precise details results in one stunning piece after another. Her mother, especially, is finely-wrought and we see exactly where Beard gets her cleverness and wry humor, which are powerful mechanisms in a book that depicts so much dysfunction, disorder, death, and divorce. As I listened, my heart's pangs were frequently accompanied by my laughter. I've rarely experienced such a seamless blend of humor and sorrow.

The author reads this audiobook and does a serviceable job. She sounds a little hypnotized, but she has written a hypnotic book so maybe it's fitting. And her deadpan delivery of very funny material only accentuates the humor. Jo Ann Beard is one sharp woman and I highly recommend this audiobook.

~Ann, Adult Services