The Blue Sweater: Bridging the Gap between Rich and Poor in an Interconnected World, by Jacqueline Novogratz

Imagine the experience of a high school student who donated a sweater to Goodwill and then eleven years later seeing a young boy wearing that same sweater in Africa?   This is a great memoir, but also an opportunity to learn about microfinance and the positive forms of helping those in need help themselves for the long-term.

RATING:  * * * * * One of the best
Reviewed by: Nancy J.

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Why is My Mother Getting a Tattoo?: And Other Questions I Wish I Never Had to Ask, by Jancee Dunn

If you need a good laugh and a break from the hectic pace of life, take the time to read this book about the dynamics (and surprises) of family life.  Entertaining and poignant plus a quick read.

RATING: * * * A good read
Reviewed by: Nancy J.

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Unlikely Disciple: A Sinner’s Semester at America’s Holiest University, by Kevin Roose

Some college students spend a semester at the Sorbonne, but Brown University undergraduate, Kevin Roose, choose to spend his semester at Liberty University, the largest Christian fundamentalist University in the United States.  Raised a Quaker in a socially progressive household, Mr. Roose goes undercover and discovers a complex environment making friends and finding his way through a dramatically different world.   Well written, funny, filled with interesting observations, I hope we’ll have the opportunity to be reading other works in the future from this first time author.

You can learn more about the book on the author’s blog, or in this interview on NPR’s All Things Considered.

RATING: * * * A good read
Reviewed by: Nancy J.

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Remembering Anne Frank

June 12 is the 80th anniversary of the birth of Anne Frank, whose Jewish family was forced into hiding during World War II. Though she lived only until the age of 15, Anne recorded her girlish hopes and her private fears in a diary that has become one of the most widely read books in the world. First published in 1947, it became an immediate bestseller and has since been translated into 67 languages. You can find Library copies in the Children’s Room, Young Adult, and Adult areas, as well as in Large Print, CD and tape. 

To learn more about Anne and her family, the Library owns many biographies and other books about Anne Frank for both children and adults.  Consider such selections as Anne Frank Remembered: The Story of the Woman Who Helped Hide the Frank Family, by Miep Gies, Roses from the Earth: The Biography of Anne Frank by Carol Ann Lee, or Ellen Feldman’s moving novel, The Boy Who Loved Anne Frank.  Or listen to the recording of Elegy for Anne Frank, by Lukas Foss.

You can also visit the website for the Anne Frank Museum in Amsterdam, with information on worldwide events to mark the occasion of Anne Frank’s birth.

11 Books in 15 Minutes

1)  Joy School – Elizabeth Berg – Yes, she writes chick lit, but she captures the innermost thoughts of people that they’d never want anyone else to know about and she does it in incredible detail. This book in particular, about a 13 year old girl trying to find her way, is particularly beautiful and heartbreaking.

 

2)  Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafon – Very Gothic in style, which is not my thing – but this book kept me reading breathlessly all the way through. What a storyteller! I’ve recommended this to everyone who will listen, and they have all LOVED it.

 

3)  Neither Here nor There – Bill Bryson – this guy is absolutely hilarious as he takes you on his travels through Europe. He is probably better known for his book about the Appalachian Trail (A Walk in the Woods), but this one is my favorite.

 

 

4)  Stiff – Mary Roach – About all the different things that can happen to dead bodies. Sounds absolutely horrific, but she makes it fascinating – and hilarious! I would like to be friends with this person as she would at turns inform me and make me laugh.

 

5)  Julie and Julia – Julie Powell – Yes, this is coming to a multiplex near you this summer, but this book had me laughing out loud the whole time I was reading. This woman who is unsatisfied with her work-life decides to spend a year cooking every recipe in Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Particularly great read for foodies, but I found Julie to be a very worthwhile companion when discussing what happened around the recipes too.

6)  Eat, Pray, Love – Elizabeth Gilbert – some found this to be self-satisfied rambling, but I loved it. Did not care so much for the India section, but Italy and Indonesia were wonderful. This is another woman that I’d like to have dinner with sometime -she writes about her personal struggles in a very endearing and at times hilarious way.

 

7)  Wallflower at the Orgy – Nora Ephron – Wonderful essays from the 1970s. You get a little history and a lot of hilarity.

8)  The Soloist – Mark Salzman – novel about a failed violin prodigy and a court case in which he serves on jury duty. Beautifully written.

9)  The Music Teacher – Barbara Hall – an incredibly finely wrought main character. This book drew me right in from the first page. A somewhat quiet, personal novel about the human condition.

 

10)  From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler – E. L. Konigsburg – One of my favorite novels from childhood. This adult woman writes about the lives of children SO evocatively. All her books contain characters you’re not likely to forget. The first book that made me realize I loved reading.

 

11)  The Hours – Michael Cunningham – Depressing as all get out, but SO beautifully written. I just love how he connected 3 seemingly disparate stories – all equally gorgeous, evocative and sad… yet with a sense of grace when all is said and done.

All books reviewed by:  MFB

Without a Map, by Meredith Hall

In 1965, when Meredith Hall became pregnant and gave her child up for adoption, she was expelled from school, and her parents and neighbors in her small New Hampshire town shunned her.  Powerful and unflinchingly honest, this memoir recounts the life journeys through which she came to terms with those early losses, as well as her reunion with her son years later.  While that reunion is more complicated than a fairytale ending, this story is ultimately full of both hope and forgiveness.

You can hear an NPR interview with the author and read an excerpt here.

Rating:  **** Very, very good
Reviewed by:  stc

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Dry, by Augusten Burroughs

This second memoir by the author of Running with Scissors chronicles his efforts to overcome alcoholism at a Minnesota rehab clinic ’s 30 day inpatient program and afterwards back in Manhattan. Who would have thought this could be a funny topic? Witty and entertaining on this very serious issue, Burroughs comes across as “sympathetic even when he is neither likeable nor admirable.” I listened to the audio version narrated by the author.

RATING: * * * A good read
Reviewed by: kh

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Seldom Disappointed: A Memoir, by Tony Hillerman

Since I have read all of this author’s Navajo mysteries I was interested to learn more about his life. Hillerman was a World War II vet whose childhood during the Depression was spent in rural Oklahoma. A combat wounded infantryman, he saw battle action in Europe. College on the GI bill lead to his newspaper career and later a life in academia. A fascinating 20th century life, the author narrates the audio version. Take a look at the book for the photos of his family, army buddies, friends and collegues.

RATING: * * * * Very, very good
Reviewed by: KH

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West of Kabul, East of New York: An Afghan American Story, by Mir Tamim Ansary

This book grew out of an email composed by the author that was widely forwarded after Sept. 11th. Ansary is an Afghan-American who paints a picture of life in Afghanistan in the 1950’s and 1960’s and what it has meant to him to have a foot in two worlds, American and Afghani. I found his meditation on his late father especially moving. The author himself reads the book on cd version.

RATING: * * * * Very, very good
Reviewed by: kh

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Twisted Head: An Italian-American Memoir, by Carl Capotorto

The author, The “Sopranos’” Little Paulie, tells the funny, poignant story of growing up in the Bronx in the 1970’s as he struggled against his overbearing father to become his own person.

RATING: * * * A good read
Reviewed by: kh

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