Summer Reading Suggestions

Here is a list of books we thought you might enjoy this summer. If you have any recommendations of your own, leave us a comment.  Happy reading!

 

 The Lucky One  by Nicholas Sparks

Is there really such thing as a lucky charm? The hero of Nicholas Sparks’s new novel believes he’s found one in the form of a photograph of a smiling woman he’s never met, but who he comes to believe holds the key to his destiny. The chain of events that leads to him possessing the photograph and finding the woman pictured in it is the stuff of love stories.

 

The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid : A Memoir 

by Bill Bryson

Bill Bryson was born in the middle of the American century–1951–in the middle of the United States–Des Moines, Iowa–in the middle of the largest generation in American history–the baby boomers. As one of the funniest writers alive, he is perfectly positioned to mine his all-American childhood for memoir gold. Like millions of his generational peers, Bill Bryson grew up with a rich fantasy life as a superhero . . . more

 

The Story of Edgar Sawtelle: A Novel  by David Wroblewski

A tale reminiscent of “Hamlet” that also celebrates the alliance between humans and dogs follows speech-disabled Wisconsin youth Edgar, who bonds with three yearling canines and struggles to prove that his sinister uncle is responsible for his father’s death.

 

 

Digging to America  by Anne Tyler

Two families awaiting the arrival of their adopted infant daughters from Korea meet at the airport. The families lives become interwined after the Donaldsons, a young American couple invite the Yazdan’s, Maryam, her son and his Iranian American wife to an arrival party, which becomes an annual event . . . more

 

 

 The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society  

by Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows

As London is emerging from the shadow of World War II, writer Juliet Ashton discovers her next subject in a book club on Guernsey–a club born as a spur-of-the-moment alibi after its members are discovered breaking curfew by the Germans occupying their island.

 

 

The Rope Walk  by Carrie Brown

The Rope Walk brings us the dazzling story of a pivotal summer in the life of Alice, a redheaded tomboy and motherless girl who is beloved and protected by her five older brothers and her widower father, a professor of Shakespeare. On Memorial Day, at her tenth birthday party in the garden of her Vermont village home, Alice meets two people unlike any she’s known before. Theo is a mixed-race New York City kid visiting his white grandparents for the summer. Kenneth is a cosmopolitan artist with AIDS who has come home to convalesce with his middle-aged sister . . . more

 

The Spiral Staircase: My Climb Out of Darkness  by Karen Armstrong

Karen Armstrong begins this spellbinding story of her spiritual journey with her departure in 1969 from the Roman Catholic convent she had entered seven years before—hoping, but ultimately failing, to find God. She knew almost nothing of the changed world to which she was returning, and she was tormented by panic attacks and inexplicable seizures . . . more

 

 

 The Watsons Go to Birmingham–1963  by Christopher Paul Curtis

The ordinary interactions and everyday routines of the Watsons, an African American family living in Flint, Michigan, are drastically changed after they go to visit Grandma in Alabama in the summer of 1963.

 

 

  Sandrine’s Letter to Tomorrow  by Dedra Johnson

Despite being a straight-A student and voracious reader, nine-year-old Sandrine Miller is treated like a servant by her mother, who forces Sandrine to clean house, do chores and take care of her younger stepsister, Yolanda. On top of the despair of her life, Sandrine must confront the harshness of life in mid-1970s New Orleans, where older men prey on young girls and she is ostracized because she is a light-skinned black girl . . . more

 

 The Secret  by Rhonda Byrne

Fragments of a Great Secret have been found in the oral traditions, in literature, in religions and philosophies throughout the centuries. For the first time, all the pieces of The Secret come together in an incredible revelation that will be life-transforming for all who experience it.

In this book, you’ll learn how to use The Secret in every aspect of your life — money, health, relationships, happiness, and in every interaction you have in the world. You’ll begin to understand the hidden, untapped power that’s within you, and this revelation . . . more

 

Reconciliation : Islam, Democracy, and the West  

by Benazir Bhutto.Akhund

Writing a few months prior to her assassination, Bhutto explores the complicated history between the Middle East and the West. She traces the roots of international terrorism across the world, including American support for Pakistani general Zia-ul-Haq, who destroyed political parties, eliminated an independent judiciary, marginalized NGOs, suspended the protection of human rights, and aligned Pakistani intelligence agencies with the most radical elements of the Afghan mujahideen. She speaks out not just to the West . . . more

 

 Charlie the Caterpillar  by Dom DeLuise

A caterpillar is rejected by various groups of animals, until he achieves his beautiful wings and is able to befriend a similarly unhappy caterpillar.

 

 

 

Have a great summer!

The Story of Edgar Sawtelle

Ahhh. This novel was a great read.  In fact, I’m sad I’m finished with it. 

The title is straightforward; the book is indeed the story of Edgar Sawtelle. Edgar is born completely mute; he can hear yet he cannot speak. (In fact, he cannot even cough. He is unable to vocalize anything.) The Sawtelle family breeds and trains dogs, a special breed they engineered. Like Edgar, the dogs read different hand signs, and their ability to understand their trainers and owners is unsurpassed. Edgar’s relationship with his dogs, particularly his beloved Almondine, is touching; he knows his dogs and, more remarkably, they know his heart and mind.

There’s so much more to this story than Edgar and his dogs, though. There’s a family drama based on Hamlet (a father, mother, a nefarious uncle), a beautiful setting on a small Wisconsin farm and a large red barn that’s almost a character in itself.

This is one of those novels that still has me contemplating the story days after I finished it. If anyone else has read it, I’d love to know what you thought.

New Books at Ramaker

Ramaker has added a number of  books to our Browsing Collection. These books, located near the entrance of the library, include current best-sellers and other contemporary titles. Recent additions include:

• My Jesus Year by Benyamin Cohen
  An Orthodox Jew spends a year visiting various Christian churches and events, trying to better connect with Judaism.
• The Eleventh Man by Ivan Doig
  A native Montanan, Doig writes about 11 starters from a Montana college football team who enter WWII together. One is assigned to be a press correspondent and writes stories on his teammates.
• The Lucky One by Nicholas Sparks
  In this romance best-seller, a man sets off to find a woman whose picture he carries and feels brings him good luck.
• The Rope Walk by Carrie Brown
  The Iowa Reads selection for 2009. The story is about a man who transformed the public library into the place to be after he returns home, dying of AIDS.  Two children visit him in the afternoon, reading aloud the journals of Lewis & Clark.

If you’ve read any of these, we’d love to know what you thought; just leave a comment here.

Book Review: Little Heathens

“My childhood came to a virtual halt when I was around five years old.”

That’s how Little Heathens begins. While this sentence sets up what could be a book of despair and sadness, I found the text to be quite the opposite. The author certainly experienced difficult times – it’s about her time during the Great Depression, so there was obviously little money, compounded by the fact that there was no father in the picture – yet I found the overall tone to be one of fond remembrance, even a little rowdy at times.

The book is about Mildred Armstrong Kalish’s life during the 1930s in a small town in Iowa. The author was in her 80s when she wrote the novel, but her memories are crisp and detailed.

While it’s a narrative, the book is interspersed with recipes — including one for head cheese, which I found stomach-wrenching – and remedies for common ailments. I thought the best parts, though, were just the author’s remembrances about her daily life. I liked reading about what games they played, what pranks they pulled, what meals they ate (head cheese excepted), what books they read, what animals they tended.

If you are interested in the personal and local side of history, Little Heathens is a thorough memoir of the Depression era in Iowa.

Kathleen Norris Writes Again

Last year, writer and poet Kathleen Norris visited our campus for the Day of Common Learning. During one of her speeches, she mentioned the book she was working on at the time. Her theme was acedia, a term few people know. The word means, literally, an absence of caring. It’s also known as sloth, malaise, ennui, apathy, “the blues,” being in a funk. Norris says she first started having episodes during her teen years, and since then she has periodically experienced the feeling or condition.

I happened to catch an interview with Norris on Minnesota Public Radio yesterday about her new book, titled A Marriage, Monks and a Writer’s Life: Acedia and Me.  She explores the condition of acedia, tracing it back in monastic life to the 6th century, and how it affects her – and others – still today. 

If you’re interested, you can listen to the interview online at Minnesota Public Radio.

Summer Reading Recommendations

Not surprisingly, most of us who work in the library also like to read. And summer is a great time for reading — no assignments, more free time, even more light.  Here is a list of books we thought you might enjoy this summer. If you have any recommendations of your own, leave us a comment!

From Dan Daily:

• The Ice Master: The Doomed 1913 Voyage of the Karluk by Jennifer Niven
  The Ice Master tells the tragic story of the 1913 Canadian Arctic Expedition. Now, the entire Canadian Arctic Expedition was not marked by tragedy, but the Northern Party of the expedition, which was abroad the vessel Karluk suffered much, lost much, and, perhaps, unnecessarily. Jennifer Niven gives us a gripping account of the decisions, mistakes, heroic efforts, and will to survive that characterized the expedition. While most of the Western world plunged into the Great War, the expedition team, under the absentee-direction of the renown explorer and anthropologist Vilhjalmur Stefansson (Stef), launched into the western Canadian Arctic. Not all would come back; some blamed Stef. Niven, whose own story is perhaps not typical of those who write polar history, gives us a fascinating, carefully researched addition to the history of polar exploration. Among the dozen or so books of polar history that sit on my bookshelves, The Ice Master is the best-told tale.

From Anne Mead:

• The Appeal 2008 by John Grisham

From Sherri Langton:

• After the Leaves Fall by Nicole Baart
• Light from Lucas by Bob Vander Plaats
• Those Who Save Us by Jenna Blum

From Anita Vogel:

• Cosmos Coyote and William the Nice by Jim Heynen
  A young adult fiction selection
• Eat, Pray, Love: One woman’s search for everything across Italy, India and Indonesia by Elizabeth Gilbert
  See Anita’s review on this
• The Peace Book by Todd Parr
  A wonderfully illustrated children’s book

From Greta Grond

• Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
  In this novel, an elderly man recalls his days on a circus train. After dropping out of veterinary school during the Depression, the narrator travels with the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth, caring for the exotic animals. With robust characters — hey, it’s the circus – and a setting so alive and unique, this book is one you will not soon forget.

If you’re interested in delving into one topic this summer, Anita suggests a collection of Karen Armstrong’s writings about comparative religion. These books are all in Ramaker’s collection:

• A history of God: the 4000-year quest of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam
• The battle for God
• Feminist theology: a reader
  Edited by Ann Loades, it contains essays by Armstrong
• Islam: a short history
• Jerusalem: one city, three faiths
• Through the narrow gate

Have a great summer!

Eat Pray Love: Book Review

 

Elizabeth is a New York journalist with amazing charisma! However she is a worrier and has bouts with depression. This book is about her journey through Italy, India, and Indonesia seeking emotional and spiritual healing. I found her honesty refreshing and her oddball sensibility amusing.