Spotlight: Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Charles Taylor

Charles Taylor, former President of Liberia, has been in the news recently due to his recent conviction for war crimes committed in Sierra Leone during the '90s. This was a turbulent and violent period for both Sierra Leone and Liberia, fueled by corruption and blood diamonds.

If you're interested in learning more about the trial of Charles Taylor, the website www.charlestaylortrial.org provides a day by day account of the trial itself, along with background information, a glossary, and an acronym cheat sheet.

For the story of how Mr. Taylor was removed from power and Liberians transformed their country into the stable democracy it is today, check out Mighty Be Our Powers: how sisterhood, prayer, and sex changed a nation at war by Leymah Gbowee and Carol Mithers. Ms. Gbowee and current Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf (and Tawakkul Karman of Yemen) were awarded the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize for their accomplishments.

For more on blood diamonds and their impact on Liberia and Sierra Leone, try:

In A Long Way Gone (966.404 BEA), the autobiography of Ishmael Beah, today a human rights activist, Mr. Beah tells the compelling and gritty story of his experience as a child soldier in Sierra Leone.

Aminatta Forna, the British daughter of a Sierra Leone physician executed for his political beliefs, has worked as a journalist, a documentarian, and novelist. Her lyrical second novel, The Memory of Love, tackles the impact of civil war on the lives of individuals.

Diamonds of War (DVD 553.82) is a 2002 National Geographic documentary shows the impact of the demand for diamonds on Sierra Leone.

Blood Diamond (Feature DVD), this 2006 thriller starring Leonardo DiCaprio, is loosely based on events of the Sierra Leone Civil War, and the creation of the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme, which attempts to curtail the trade in illegal diamonds.

Kanye West's Grammy award winning second album, Late Registration, includes the track, "Diamonds from Sierra Leone," which addresses the trade in blood diamonds.

Other books and DVDs that might be of interest:

What is the What (Fiction Eggers), Sudan

War Child  (962.404 JAL), Sudan

Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight (Biography Fuller), Zimbabwe

Beasts of No Nation (Fiction Iweala), West Africa

One Day the Soldiers Came (302.2309 LON), Various

Little Bee (Fiction Cleave), Nigeria

Hotel Rwanda (Feature DVD), Rwanda

An Ordinary Man (967.57104 RUS), Rwanda

Running the Rift (Fiction Benaron), Rwanda

The Last King of Scotland (Feature DVD), Uganda

The Last King of Scotland (Fiction Foden), Uganda

Unbowed (Biography Maathai), Kenya

King Peggy (Biography Bartels), Ghana

Please stop by the Recommendations Desk on the first floor, check out NoveList Plus on the library's website, or visit W. 11th & Bluff next week for more reading suggestions. Or submit a Personal Recommendations request, and we'll create a reading list just for you!

The Hunter by Darwyn Cooke

My book review this time around is for The Hunter, which we’ll be discussing at the next meeting of Graphic Content, the library’s graphic novel discussion group. This means we’ve got several copies of the book sitting at the Circulation Desk, so come grab one if my review makes it sound interesting. Love it or hate it, we’d love to hear your opinion when we meet at 7:00 p.m. on June 12.

The Hunter opens with twenty nearly wordless pages in which the main character, Parker, walks into New York City dirty, worn, and broke. Through a quick succession of thefts and scams he gets food, cash, new clothes, a hotel room, and a bottle of vodka. With impressively minimal effort, Parker has secured everything he needs for his immediate comfort. At the same time, and in the same slick fashion, writer/artist Darwyn Cooke has shown us everything we need to know about the character: he’s cold, confident, highly skilled, and angry. It’s a pitch-perfect introduction and you can see the whole thing on the publisher’s website.

As the book progresses, we learn that Parker was a very successful thief until his wife and one of his partners double-crossed him and left him for dead. After some recuperation, Parker has come for his revenge. His goals and simple: he wants to kill his wife and his partner and get his money back. Unfortunately, the partner has become involved with a national crime syndicate and Parker soon finds himself waging a one-man war against overwhelming odds.

Before I go any further, I feel the need to spend a little time unpacking the history of this book, since the plot is bound to sound familiar to a lot of readers. The original novel was written in 1962 by Richard Stark, a pseudonym of prolific and much-celebrated mystery author Donald Westlake. Westlake followed The Hunter with 23 more Parker novels. It’s been adapted into three movies: Point Blank (1967), Full Contact (1993), and Payback (1999).

It’s easy to see why this novel and character have been so popular. Parker is much too cold and calculating to be sympathetic, but there’s something very compelling about his ruthless and efficient pursuit of what his personal code defines as justice. His appeal is like that of a shark; however abhorrent his goals and methods may be, it’s hard not to respect his effortless competency. Parker may not have as much fun as Danny Ocean, but, like Ocean’s Eleven, The Hunter exploits the joy we find in watching a bad guy stick it to a bigger bad guy.

Clearly, Cooke can’t take any credit for the creation of Parker but he shows a very clear understanding of the character’s appeal and how to convey it to the reader. A lot of that comes from the art. Cooke’s known for throwback 60s Modernist style, so this project is right in his wheelhouse. The clothes, cars, and architecture are all straight out of a Mad Men episode. Cooke restricts himself to just two colors, black and gunmetal blue, which plays right into both the cold tone and retro feel of the book.

Cooke followed The Hunter with 2010’s The Outfit, which brought more of a fun caper-movie feel. A third book, The Score, is due out at the end of the month. If you’re crime and mystery reader who’s curious about comics and graphic novels, The Hunter’s a great place to start. Cooke’s art is really clear and easy to follow and the story doesn’t require you to know a bunch of obscure facts about some guy who runs around in long underwear and a mask.

~ Andrew, Adult Services

"Working Mother" is May's Magazine of the Month

In honor of Mother's Day on May 13th, we've selected Working Mother as our Magazine of the Month. This magazine is designed to support the growing number of women who balance career and family every day.

In addition to the print magazine, Working Mother's website has a large number of interactive features from a community of more than a 150 bloggers, to a family organizer. You can check out the magazine here at Carnegie-Stout or their website by following this link: www.workingmother.com

Other mom friendly magazines available at Carnegie-Stout include:

More
Country Woman
Family Circle
Vogue
Lucky
Cosmopolitan
InStyle

Woman's Day