Staff Review: Z by Therese Anne Fowler & A Wilder Rose by Susan Wittig Albert

Z: an novel of Zelda Fitzgerald by Therese Anne Fowler gives a Lost Generation view from Zelda’s eyes rather than from her more famous spouse, F. Scott Fitzgerald.

A Wilder Rose by Susan Wittig Albert relates the story of Rose Wilder Lane, who should have shared credit for the authorship of the Little House series along with her better known mother, Laura Ingalls Wilder.

The books have a number of similarities. Both are fictionalized accounts of actual people facing similar hardships and share the same basic time-frame from the 1920s through the 1940s. Both are well reviewed, irresistible reads with a common underlying theme: Zelda never escapes Scott’s shadow, just as Rose Wilder Lane is overshadowed by her mother, full well knowing the Little House books would not have been successful but for her editing.  

Alabama belle Zelda Sayre, daughter of a well-to-do judge, meets and marries Lt. Scott Fitzgerald post World War I. Zelda is a free spirit, ready to escape the strictures of Southern womanhood. The couple moves from Alabama to New York to Paris to Italy, encountering Dorothy Parker, Pablo Picasso, Ernest Hemingway and many more luminaries of the era.  Despite Scott’s success as an author and the couple’s glittering social life, the Fitzgeralds live on a financial roller coaster. Zelda serves as a sounding board for Scott’s writing and finds some success on her own, but some of her articles are sold under Scott’s name because he could command a better price.

Rose Wilder Lane has a Midwest upbringing in South Dakota and Missouri. Her parents are Almanzo Wilder, the central character in Farmer Boy, and Laura Ingalls Wilder. The family suffers the loss of an infant son, Almanzo’s ill health and financial hardships. Rose escapes by becoming a telegraph operator than an author of increasing repute. The stock market crash forces Rose back to Missouri, and she begins helping her mother market her pioneer stories to provide some income to support her parents.

These two biographical fiction books have led me to consider how fact and fiction can come together to create great reads. My curiosity will point me towards Zelda’s letters and Rose’s work under her own name. The best reads to me are ones that make me want to read more.

 - Michelle, Adult Services

Staff Review: Orphan Black

Whether I'm reading a book or watching TV, the most important element to me are the characters. I like a clever plot, I appreciate beautiful language, and if a story's set in outer space, I'll at least check it out, but more than anything else, I need interesting characters.

Orphan Black, I'm happy to say, is absolutely a character-driven story. Not that there isn't a fascinatingly twisted plot, but the real treat, for me at least, was watching how the different characters reacted to the story. The fact that many of those characters are played by the same actress (Tatiana Maslany) is what really sets this show apart.

If you don't want to risk any spoilers, this is where you should stop reading, and instead check out the first season on DVD. Not that I'd risk ruining this for anyone with major spoilers! As someone without cable TV, I've been trying my best to avoid spoilers for the second season before the DVD release on June 24th.

Sarah Manning (Tatiana Maslany) has decided to make a clean break with her troubled past (drugs, abusive ex, petty crime, etc.) to regain custody of her daughter. Unfortunately, a clean break requires funds and Sarah is broke, but then, on an otherwise deserted train platform, a woman who could be her wealthier doppelganger commits suicide. Sarah sees an opportunity and takes it, and of course, by it, I mean the dead woman's purse. Sarah plans to clean out Beth's (the dead woman, also played by Tatiana Maslany) bank account, fake her own death, and live  happily ever after.

Of course, this is not at all how things go, and Beth, we quickly learn, is not the only woman who looks disturbingly similar to Sarah. Conspiracy, murder, dark humor, and did I mention how amazing Tatiana Maslany is? Because she (and the rest of the cast and crew) take what could've been another somewhat goofy science fiction conspiracy show (not that I don't love goofy science fiction conspiracy shows) and create something obsessively watchable.

~Sarah, Adult Services

Popular Photography and The Artist's Magazine are our May Magazines of the Month

Get inspired and explore your artistic side this spring! Carnegie-Stout has a broad collection of books dedicated to painting, woodworking, and any number of other crafts. To fit with this theme, our May magazines of the month have a creative bent.

 
Popular Photography began publication in 1937, and is today the most popular photography periodical on the market. They cover information for beginners and experts, traditional film photography and modern digital methods. You can check out the latest print issue or borrow a digital issue through Zinio 

More monthly features and tips are available on their website: www.popphoto.com

The Artist’s Magazine is celebrating their 30th anniversary of publication in 2014. Each issue is devoted to the work of visual artists, primarily those interested in painting. In addition to advice and interviews, they offer competitions and contests.

More features, including videos, can be found on their website: www.artistsnetwork.com/the-artists-magazine