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Staff Review: Displacement: A Travelogue by Lucy Knisley

Displacement: A Travelogue is the fourth* book from the autobiographical cartoonist Lucy Knisley, and it is my hands-down favorite.** I've been reading her comics since 2009***, and I've admired the way she's grown and expanded in her skills as an illustrator and as a storyteller. That she focuses her pen on her own life only adds to that sense of growth; inevitably, both she as author and I as reader have gained perspective and maturity over the years.

I've encountered readers who found it difficult to relate to her earlier works because of  her youth. That generational differences are part of the focus for Displacement might add appeal to readers outside of the "Millennial" label, especially those readers who might be hearing of her work for the first time after her recent Eisner nomination.

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Displacement focuses on Lucy's experience accompanying her 90-something grandparents on a Caribbean cruise. Lucy is adrift in her mid-twenties, facing all the uncertainty of career and personal life, while her grandparents are experiencing the decline and loss of their twilight years. The change in roles and responsibilities in their relationship is an aspect that I found particularly meaningful in my own reading. There's a billboard I pass every time I drive to visit my parents showing a young girl with her parents, and then the same family thirty-forty years in the future with the phrase "Roles Change" and I have to grip the steering wheel a little harder for a mile or two.

My favorite element of the book were the passages Lucy illustrated from the diary her grandfather kept during World War II. This added a depth to the narrative, which, by the nature of a memoir, has the danger of falling too deeply into the author's own experience. These passages created a fuller image of her grandparents by giving us a glimpse into their lives when they were 20-somethings themselves. It certainly contributed to the fact that I was tearing up by the end of the book.

~Sarah, Adult Services


*not counting her self-published titles or anthologies she's contributed to

**to be fair, I'm only halfway through reading her most recent book, Something New

***Full disclosure, Lucy Knisley is part of my sister's extended social circle, to the extent that my sister appeared in a few of Lucy's online comics. We've met once or twice, but this was many years ago.

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Staff Review: Did You Ever Have a Family by Bill Clegg

Did You Ever Have a Family, a debut novel by Bill Clegg, opens with a bang. Literally. A big one. In the scale of the whole wide world, it may not be a cataclysm, but in the more modest scale of family and community it's catastrophic. In an instant the novel's main character loses everyone and everything; she's rendered family-less in the blink of an eye, yet she must find a way to go on. What choice does she have, other than suicide?

By this point you may be thinking this book does not sound like a feel-good read and that you probably ought to avoid it. But that would be a mistake. I found it to be one of the most moving, most human, and ultimately most redemptive novels I've read this past year and I heartily recommend it.

After the opening big bang, Clegg beautifully and succinctly relates not only the incident's aftermath but also years of backstory -- the relationships and events -- that lead to this particular cast of doomed characters being together in one place on the incendiary day. The wider network of relatives, friends, acquaintances, and even service workers affected by the tragedy, closely or tangentially, is painstakingly introduced, person by person within their own chapters, their individual humanities brought to life in a series of exquisite scenes that move from the affluent Connecticut 'burbs of New York City through Montana and Idaho and on to the turbulent coast of the Pacific Northwest.

What is particularly impressive about this novel is the even-handed and compassionate way in which Clegg presents his characters, people of very different income and educational levels, racial backgrounds, sexual preferences, and social standing. The catastrophe at the core of the plot has wounded them all and in their raw vulnerability they slowly rise to the occasion, becoming more rather than less, reaching out to one another, and, in the end, forming new communities based not upon occupation, class, or local reputation, but upon more basic and authentic aspects of being human.

Before tackling fiction, Clegg, a literary agent, wrote two memoirs about his own devastating drug addiction; it seems his descent into the abyss and eventual restoration are serving him well in his fiction.

~Ann, Adult Services

Book Tips for Travelers

Travel brings with it a change in your daily routine. Whether you're on the road for fun or for business, you're bound to have at least a little free time, which, if you're a book lover, translates to reading time. As a lover of both books and travel, I thought I'd share some of the tips I've learned over the years for the upcoming summer travel season.

 Switch it up! Tackle your To Be Read list

• A vacation is a great time to read a book you wouldn't usually, whether it's the sort of serious reading that demands extra attention or something light and fluffy you'd otherwise feel guilty taking time off to read.

Busy schedule? Try short stories

• Short story collections are great for when you'll only have 30-minutes or so at a time to read between everything else because you can usually read an entire story in that time!
• Added bonus, an anthology will let you sample multiple authors to see if you'd like to read their full-length novels when you have more free time.

eBooks: the easiest way to bring the entire library with you

• Already on the road? Our OverDrive collection of eBooks and downloadable audiobooks are available anywhere you have internet access.

Audiobooks: the only way to read a book while you're driving a car

• MP3 audiobooks let you listen to an entire 12+ hour audiobook on only two discs.
• In addition to our OverDrive collection, we have even more downloadable audiobooks available through One Click Digital.

Paper Books: the only books you don't have to stop reading during take-off and landing

• Nothing beats a paper book for reading in bright sun, and you never have to worry about recharging!
• They're easy to swap among friends and family, which is how I've discovered some of my favorite books.
• Don't want to risk one of your books or a library book? The Friends of the Library always have books for sale on the library's second floor, and the prices can't be beat!

Digital Magazines: we've got those too

• Check out the latest issue on your tablet or smartphone with your library card through our Zinio app.

Long Trip? Suspend your holds

• Been waiting for the latest James Patterson or Star Wars: The Force Awakens? Don't lose your spot, suspend your holds until you get back, and yes, we can do this for you over the phone.

~Sarah, Adult Services

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