Here is what you can find on the shelves that is new next week. Come in and visit us, or put your items on hold from home! We will let you know when they are ready for you to pick up!

Could this week have been more glorious?  This is why we live here People!  Our Sweet Ann update?  It would appear she is just about done!  Also please check out our really cool new service that is available to Darien residents!  Zinio is a service that will deliver magazines to the device of your choosing.  We are wild for it and I think you will be too. This week we have The Lord of Death, more Chicks with Bricks (Yes. Again. Get on it or get over it!), falling hard, bribery, combat, Swan Lake and fluttering hearts.

Let us begin! 

Miss Elisabeth of the CL took advantage of this glorious weather stretch to get some reading done! “After reading nothing all week last week, I took advantage of the beautiful weather and Central Park, and finished three books this weekend! I was in the mood for something dark and dense, and Grave Mercy by Robin LaFevers perfectly fit the bill! Ismae's mother used poison to try and expel her from the womb. The poison permanently scarred her body but left her alive and otherwise intact, causing the midwife to declare that she must have been sired by Death himself. Many years later, betrothed to a pig man and beaten near daily by her father, Ismae learns that the midwife wasn't speaking lightly - she is the daughter of St. Mortain, the Lord of Death, and has been chosen to serve her father's will by the convent of St. Mortain. At the convent, Ismae learns the deadly art of the assassin and prepares to do her true father's bidding, but as she is sent out on her first assignments, she realizes that nothing the convent has taught her can prepare her for the intrigue and villainy of the royal court of Brittany in the 1500's. Ismae will need to use all her father's gifts to save her country, her Duchess, and her heart. "

Barbara M. is joining our legion of obsessives! “I am totally absorbed and fascinated by the book everyone else on staff has already read, Anne Perry and the Murder of the Century by Peter Graham. This true story of how two teenage girls murder one of their mothers is made even more remarkable by the fact that one of the girls is the world renowned author, Anne Perry. Absolutely amazing!”   

Stephanie is sort of a mess this week.  In the best possible way. “I don’t always love quiet books, but Ghana Must Go by Taiye Selasi is so beautifully written that I fell for it, hard. When people talk about writing as a craft, they’re talking about writing like Selasi’s. I finished this book on the train and then worked on some writing of my own; this ended up mirroring an experience I usually have during the Olympics while watching ice skating, because they make it look simple to skate backwards in a circle and then launch their body into a triple whateverthehell, and then I stand up to go get more tea and skate myself down the hall in my socks, humming, and then trip on the floor and bruise a knee. She makes it look easy because the prose is basically perfect, so there’s no comparison, until you crash back to reality in your own journal. This is a beautiful family saga of sorts that brings not just her characters, but also contemporary Africa and the United States, to pulsing, vibrant life.”

Sweet Ann is reading The Edge of the Earth by Christina Schwarz.  “This novel is quite the page turner.  The story begins in Milwaukee in 1898 and introduces us to Trudy who is engaged to be married.  She wants more to life than just becoming a housewife and living in the city of her birth.  She meets her fiance's cousin, Oskar, who is a free spirit and offers Trudy the adventure she is yearning for.  She marries Oskar and they are off to his job as a worker at a remote lighthouse in California.  There they meet the Crawley family including the wife's strange brother.  The adventures soon begin centered on the mysterious woman on the island who the children refer to as a mermaid.  This book will keep you guessing about what is actually happening on the island.  This novel also makes you think about the choices one makes and the consequences that follow.  This is a quick enthralling read.”

Patty fills us in! “Let me start by saying that nowadays I rarely read fiction. Much of my time is spent perusing the stacks of non-fiction, looking for something to add to my own knowledge and propensity to noodle thoughts or ideas.  I was reminded this week about a book that is as much a book about parenting as it is about managing staff or teaching.  My choice this week was mentioned at a recent YWCA Parent Awareness talk about positive parenting and was acknowledged by the presenting speaker, Dr. Julia Trebing, as a major influence on her as a psychologist.  It was a book that was a major influence on me as well. Alfie Kohn’s book, Punished by Rewards: The Trouble with Gold Stars, Incentive Plans, A’s Praise and Other Bribes is a must read.    As a parent and through years of experience working with young children, I’ve always had a problem with the notion of extrinsic motivation.  The idea of dangling an incentive in front of a child, or anyone for that matter, never sat well with me.  Highly regarded books on education and best practices will point out that in order to encourage lifelong learners, students need to be intrinsically motivated.  Mr. Kohn points out through extensive research and psychology just how extrinsic rewards undermine intrinsic motivation. “      

Jeanne as usual is doing two things at once.  It is nice to be able to count on some stability in this uncertain world! “ In the car I am listening to The Yellow Birds by Kevin Powers. I think audio (especially with Holter Graham narrating!) is a good way to experience this emotional book about looking out for your fellow soldiers in war.  The combat scenes, the guilt, the sense of returning to civilian life as a misfit are made more poignant in the listening. Using his own experiences in Iraq in 2004 and 2005, Powers writes a "fictional" account of the ugliness of war through language that is at once horrible, beautiful and riveting. Very powerful. Everywhere else I am reading The Homecoming of Samuel Lake by Jenny Wingfield. I love this book! I love the way it is so deeply human in plain-spoken words; with knowable characters. There is sad and funny; warm and tragic as most close-knit families can be. The setting is rural Arkansas and it is the coming-of-age story of Swan Lake (really), a precocious 11-year old who lights up the pages with her undaunted fearlessness and unquenchable curiosity through Wingfield's clever, well-paced narrative. I am looking forward to following Swan through the pages on her mission.”

The Amazing Amanda has a confession to make.  “Confession (this is not a surprise): I love Japanese graphic novels (manga) and anime (Japanese animation). The art style and the cultural differences paint the illustrated landscape of Japan as a magical place that makes your heart flutter. In the Ouran High School Host Club, you have six different beautiful boys who woo their classmates with the princess treatment. The girls respond with avid devotion to their male ‘type’ of perfect boy. Enter Haruhi, a female scholarship student that is just looking for a place to study. When she accidentally enters the Host Club’s paradise, she accidentally breaks an extremely expensive vase. The boys put her to work to pay off her debt. However, the Club’s president has made a mistake in assuming Haruhi is a boy thanks to her looks. So she is drafted into serving as one of the male hosts. When the president discovers her “secret”, enter a mad-cap romantic comedy as the Club works to obscure Haruhi’s gender. There are lots of laugh-out-loud worthy plots and schemes for the Host Club to gets themselves into. Haruhi is a heroine who stands on her own two feet and stays true to herself despite being surrounded by the extremely affluent.  The graphic novels are heartwarming, funny, and each character is revealed – to themselves and to the reader – to be capable of much kindness. I discovered the anime before the novels and watched it in one long marathon. This is one of my favorite light-hearted ways to while away an afternoon or a lunch!

Here is what you can find on the shelves that is new next week. Come in and visit us, or put your items on hold from home! We will let you know when they are ready for you to pick up!

Back in the pre-internet, pre-cell phone days, the largest national communications network was the telephone. Using a rotary dial and some patience, you could reach someone on the other side of the country in just a few minutes, which was a revelation. The system worked amazingly well but it had a major security flaw, and this flaw made the network the personal playground of an underground band of "phone phreaks."

The phreaks discovered that they could re-route calls and bypass the system, using whistles, taps, and brazen ingenuity. College students, blind teenage prodigies, and various outlaw characters (including Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs) created "blue boxes" for their underground operations, which, according to Jobs, presaged the creation of Apple Computers.

Eventually, Ma Bell and the FBI caught up with them and everything unraveled...but not before the phreaks left their mark on the industry. Phil Lapsley's history of that era reads like the very best of espionage fiction except that it's true. Modern technology makes such a David and Goliath story unlikely to ever happen again -- and Exploding the Phone uncovers the whole fascinating secret history.
 

This week we have nothing but joyful proclamations. Ann has left Appalachia in the dust and reports that she is now the proud owner of a home with running water and electricity.  I think we can safely declare the arrival of spring. Also, don’t forget that our current favorite book Anne Perry and the Murder of the Century aka Chicks with Bricks will be released this week!  Keep watching this space for a cool new service we will be offering you.  I know you all are going to love it.  See?  Nothing but good this week! This week we have a shock, a skilled fighter, A Library Legend Speaks! smart yet light,3 Danish, some gypsies, sweetness, a crisis, a Charlotte sighting, and some Chicago! 

Let us begin!

John is moving on to the next book on the stack.  I finished Old School and really enjoyed it.  It would be a great way for anyone to be introduced to great (and not so great) writing.  If you've ever wanted to meet Robert Frost, or see what Ayn Rand is like in person (apparently she had nice legs), then this is your ticket.  As for my next book, I just started Jojo Moyes' Me before You.  An abrupt and shocking first chapter has left me wondering where it goes next.

The Amazing Amanda continues her love affair with fantasy fiction. “I have a weak spot for strong female characters. This week was no exception when I listened to Graceling by Kristin Cashore. Katsa is a lady killer in the service of her uncle the king. He gives her orders of who to maim or kill and she does his bidding. However, she feels disgusted by the self-serving greedy kings who harm ordinary people. So she starts a Council that carries out separate missions to help people. While doing Council work, she runs into a highly skilled fighter. He recognizes her and to her own astonishment, she decides to let him live. This one moment of hesitation on Katsa’s part completely changes her life. As the story continues, Katsa grows from a cold, no-nonsense character into  to a compassionate woman. She defies two treacherous kings and uncovers a 35 year old deception that has harmed thousands. The man she spared becomes her true companion.   The full-cast audio production was a bit jarring as each spoken part was read by a different voice actor. When I read a book, I usually ‘hear’ the voices inside my head which are really just variations of my own thought ‘voice’ if that makes any sense! So to listen to a book with multiple voices was a strange experience. After a while, I settled into the story which I loved. This is possibly the best book I’ve read in a while – even beating out Seraphina for recent female-driven fantasy novels. The world building is realistic, detailed, and the struggles of Katsa and the people she encounters feel real. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants action, adventure, and a dash of romance.”

Library Legend Blanche joins us for the first time this week!  Welcome Blanche!   She is reading The Fever Tree by Jennifer McVeigh.  “This novel is set in South Africa in the 18th century and it deals with the inhuman conditions of diamond mining, the exploitation of a land and its people.  There is also an emotional love story that will capture you from the moment the character leaves her home in England to live in Africa.”

Stephanie asks a question for the Ages! “Everybody wants a smart, light book for summer (or, as people usually ask at the desk: “Do you have anything that’s easy to read but won’t make me feel like I’m losing brain cells?”), and I have already found one for 2013: The Smart One by Jennifer Close. I loved her first book, Girls in White Dresses, and I think this one is even better. So funny and compassionate, and a brilliant look at that new strange not-a-teen-not-quite-a-grownup experience so many people are having (from both the perspective of the twenty-somethings and that of the mom whose kids are all moving back home). Close has a great eye for subtle details, especially in dialogue. My only complaint is that I can’t figure out what the heck is going on with that lady’s dress on the cover?”  I think I can answer that one.  It looks like a Von Furstenberg wrap dress to me.  Any other thoughts on this one?

Abby is back but what she is reading is really not a surprise if you know her.  “I splurged on Danish during my vacation. Yes, I read all 3 of Sara Blaedel's Danish crime novels. Dubbed the Queen of Danish mysteries, her lead character Detective Louise Rick works major crimes in Copenhagen. Her cases all happen to intersect with her best pal Camilla Lind, the city's top crime reporter. The three books in order are: Call me Princess, Only One Life, and Farewell to Freedom. I enjoyed the books which definitely had the Scandinavian touch I enjoy. It will be interesting to see how the Rick character develops, and if the constant intersecting of Rick's detective work and Camilla's intrepid reporting continues to be an effective narrative.”

Barbara M. is not reading Paris or World War II.  But this week I am cool with it because she is exploring another one of her obsessions:  Gypsies!  “I just started Gypsy Boy on the Run: My Escape from a Life Among the Romany Gypsies by Mikey Walsh. I enjoyed and learned so much from his first book, Gypsy Boy that I expect to like this one too.”

Sweet Ann is reading something, well, for lack of a better word, sweet; As Sweet as Honey by Indira Ganesan. “Yes I know the word "sweet" is in the title of this book and yes it is a sweet story of a family living on the fictional island of Pi in the Indian Ocean.  The novel is told by ten year old Mina who is the niece of the main character, Meterling.  Meterling is twenty eight when the story begins and soon it will be her wedding day.  She is marrying Archer, a British national, who works his family's gin business on the island.  She loves him very much and as they share their first dance together as husband and wife, Archer drops dead.  Meterling is devastated, as is her family who will be shocked to learn she is pregnant because they thought she was waiting to be with Archer on their wedding night.   Meterling's family suppports her totally and she thinks she will live the rest of her life with them on Pi.  She then meets Simon, Archer's cousin, who can offer her a new life.  This is a lovely story about love, family and moving on with one's life. “

Pat T.  has just started reading The Burgess Boys by Elizabeth Strout. “This is a novel about a family whose lives have been affected by a tragedy from their childhood, their adult relationships with each other and how they individually handle the latest family crisis that brings them together again in their hometown of Shirley Falls, Maine. As with Olive Kitteridge Elizabeth Strout, draws you into her characters who are not easily likable, but redeemable.”

Jeanne,  as usual,  2 things at once.  Discuss:  “There are so many good memoirs about so many different kinds of people. I was reading With or Without You: a Memoir by Domenica Ruta and I really wanted to like her story of self-made success about growing up Italian American with a drug-addled single mother on welfare in Danvers, MA. But, as I tell my dog when she picks up something she shouldn't, "That's yucky, Charlotte. Leave it!" So I did and I moved on to another memoir, After Visiting Friends: a Son's Story by Michael Hainey. In a way, both authors have experienced the loss of a parent, one to drugs, but still living; and one to death when the son was young. Hainey believes there is a mystery to be solved about the sudden death of his dad, a rising star at the Chicago Sun-Times. He wants to dig into the past without upsetting his mother and family members by uncovering secrets. The difference is in the writing. Hainey's writing, for me, is just more readable, more compelling and definitely more page-turning.”

Did you get a book?!

This year, many Darien Library staff members were givers for the second annual U.S. World Book Night, a celebration developed to promote a love of reading and to help connect potential readers with great books. As the folks at WBN say: "Books are fun--and they can also be life-changing." We couldn't agree more, so here's what we did!

Pat T: “I received a box of 20 copies of The Tender Bar by J.R. Moehringer, my first choice book selection, so one of my co-workers suggested I distribute them at a Darien bar, The Goose, since the book is about a young man who spent many of his formative years in a bar where his uncle was a bartender. At first, people were a bit hesitant since they didn’t know what to make of us presenting them with a book, rather than a bottle of beer or glass of wine, but they ended up being pleasantly surprised and thankful for the book. One gentleman said he only had time to read when he traveled since he had three young children at home, so I replied that business trips are the perfect opportunity to enjoy reading a good book and suggested he pass it on when he finished it. The bar owner thought her patrons were very receptive to our program and ask if we would plan on doing it at the bar again next year, with a bit of notice, so she can advertise it to the community in advance. I already have 4-5 new WBN ambassadors for 2014. Overall, it is a very worthwhile program that I enjoyed being part of and we had fun along the way!”

Krishna: “Pat and I handed out our books at The Goose. We gingerly approached the patrons, with prior permission from the owners and soon there was a buzz all around the bar. Lynn Gagliardi, one of the owners, told us it was a home run and invited us back next year. Lynn also stated she wanted to do more publicity for it and after World Book Night she wanted to have a book group at The Goose featuring the books we give out. Those are excellent community connections and I'll raise a glass to that!”

Abby: “I was very excited to offer City Of Thieves by David Benioff in celebration of World Book Night. I went a mostly cyber route due to scheduling, and am thrilled with the response. A few book recipients have even asked how they can get involved next year. I'll be shipping copies of the book to 8 different states for folks ages 28 to 80. A few copies I hand-delivered went to neighbors. One recipient was a woman I've seen at school pick-up for years but have never spoken to. She was in the car next to mine reading when I went over explained World Book Night and gave her a copy. A second copy went out in the parking lot when I saw a neighbor I know to be a big reader walking by. Both seemed surprised and excited to be given a book out of the blue! I hope to be a giver again next year. It's a wonderful thing to share a book you love.”

Elizabeth: “I was a giver of David Benioff's City of Thieves. I contacted Stamford's Yerwood Center and made arrangements to give the books out to high school students at the center for their afternoon study hall.  I gave a quick booktalk which helped to get the teens interested. Yerwood Center is dedicated to providing Stamford youth with educational and personal development opportunities that will empower them to reach their potential. Everyone was very appreciative including the supervisor who shyly asked "Can I have one too?" Answer: Of course! My 6 year old daughter also helped hand out the books, which was a good teachable moment for her to learn about community service.”

Stephanie: "I gave out my favorite book: The Phantom Tollbooth, by Norton Juster. It's technically for kids, but I've read it many times as an adult and still love it. I handed copies out in a Brooklyn park, to dog walkers and tourists, and then at my favorite sports bar during commercial breaks of the Celtics-Knicks game. Many adults who hadn't read it were not convinced until I told them it was my FAVORITE BOOK OF ALL TIME with a lot of emphasis, but those who had read it eagerly snapped up a copy to take to read to a child in their life, because they already knew how great it was. I had even more fun than last year!"

Here is what you can find on the shelves that is new next week. Come in and visit us, or put your items on hold from home! We will let you know when they are ready for you to pick up!

Your Ann update of the week does seem hopeful.  She seems to think The Sandy Nightmare may just about be close to completion.  She reports that the Appalachian aspect of their home (i.e. no electricity or running water) has ended and that the workmen seem to be actually finishing various tasks.  Here is hoping that is indeed the case.  I am also happy to report that  Barbara M. is back to normal, so there will be some Nazis and Paris in our future. This week we have some small town, Old School style, the Blitz, toast masquerading as a cookie, memory loss, all that and a bag of chips, Anastasia, some quirk  and a lot of distractibility.

Let us begin!

Marilyn of MatMan is joining us for the first time this week!  Welcome aboard!  “I just finished reading Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger.  It is labeled a Detective Mystery which is not my normal genre of reading so I almost didn't check it out.  I am so glad that I did.  I loved it!  The story is set in 1961 in a small town in Minnesota.  The narrative is told through the voice of Frank who was thirteen that year, the middle child of a Methodist minister father and an artistic mother.  There are several tragic deaths that summer in their small town which provides a page turning story with many twists and turns.  It is also a moving story of family relationships, friendships, prejudice, painful loss and faith.  For anyone who would not normally read a D-M (and for those who do), I would highly recommend this wonderful book.”

John says, “Because Sally spoke so highly of it, and because I told her I would read it, I've just started Old School.  As an English major, I can totally relate to it and so far I'm thoroughly enjoying it.”

Sweet Ann is reading my favorite book of the year so far, Life After Life by Kate Atkinson.   Let’s see her take on it. “This novel is a breath of fresh air in that it takes you as a reader on different adventures with the main character, Ursula, as she is ‘reborn’ into different scenarios.  Ursula was born in England February 11, 1910.  In one scenario she survives and in another she doesn’t.  During the Blitz she works to rescue victims of bombings and at the same time in another experience she is married to a German living in Germany.   This book is so well written that you can follow all the twists and turns of Ursula's life and you care deeply for her in every situation.  You will cheer for her as well as cry for her.  This was a really good read.”

Barbara M!  I am so relieved and you all should be too! “I am back in France and reading The Perfect Meal: In Search of the Lost Tastes of France by John Baxter, an Australian who has been living in Paris for twenty years. Baxter wanted to create a classical French meal, which seems to be disappearing in today’s world so worried about health. As he researches each part of the banquet he travels around France and relates the origin of each dish. I was surprised to learn that in Proust’s original manuscript, the famous madeleine was actually a piece of toasted bread. I am thoroughly enjoying this mouthwatering book but nonetheless, I don’t think I’ll be ordering lampreys as a fish course anytime soon.”

Miss Elisabeth of the CL is reading a rather grown-up choice! “I am late to this bandwagon, but I just finished Before I Go to Sleep by SJ Watson, and wow, what a read. I picked the book up because I saw on Early Word that Nicole Kidman has been cast to star in the movie, and I am so glad I did! Christine wakes up every morning with no memory of where she is or how she got there. After suffering an extreme trauma 20 years early, she has been living with amnesia. When she sleeps, she forgets every memory she has made that day. Luckily she has her loving husband, Ben, to take care of her and remind her who she is. But when Christine starts keeping a journal to help her remember her day-to-day life, she feels a growing sense of unease. Is Ben keeping things from Christine? Is her new doctor? Or is she keeping dark secrets from herself? I could not put this book down. To borrow from the late, great Roger Ebert, two thumbs up!”

Stephanie has been insisting that I pick this one up.  I just may need to obey her.  “This week I could not put down The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer, the story of four friends who meet at summer camp and think they are going to change the world and be fascinating their entire lives—that then follows them through their adolescence and adulthood and their entrance into the real world. There are a lot of things to say about this book, and smarter people than me are going to say them, so I will just note that I loved it and very highly recommend it to pretty much everybody I know. How much did I love it, you ask? So much that I accidentally ate an entire bag of chips while reading it because I was so engrossed.”

Jeanne.  Doing two things at once.  I love it when things are back to normal.  “Many may recognize John Boyne as the Irish author of The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. I am reading his latest novel, The House of Special Purpose which starts out in England with an eighty year old couple, Georgy Daniilovich and Zoya Jachmenev who decide to travel back to Russia, their homeland, to possibly put to rest ghosts of the tragic past that haunts them. The story takes the reader back through time in the early part of the 20th century to the Winter Palace of the Tsar in a time of change and bloody revolution.  I wondered at the title so I Googled it, but I didn't need to since Jen is a wealth of information on the Imperial household. Inspired by true events this is Boyne's version of a household servant of Tsar Nicholas II in a time of Bolsheviks, Anastasia and St. Petersburg. I like this author for his ability to offer an alternative historical version of an era while evoking the emotions of the personal lives in turbulent times.  That being said,sometimes I just want to read a book that doesn’t have any cultural or historical significance or isn't about someone famous. Just give me an entertaining novel, a good read with lots of fun characters and conversation. People that could materialize in your kitchen: people in believable situations but with some quirks. Elinor Lipman’s fiction usually fits that bill. I am enjoying her latest, The View from Penthouse B. It's fun and engaging and I am spending time with people who, through no direct fault of their own, survive various ‘setbacks’ and take in roommates to keep living in their NYC penthouse while hatching money-making schemes.

Like a lot of us this week, I have been finding it hard to concentrate.  There is so much going on!  Some of it heavenly, but some of it not so much.  I was so relieved to FINALLY find a good book to sink into.  The Gravity of Birds is a first novel by Tracy Guzeman.  A hidden away painting of sisters Natalie and Alice Kessler and the artist himself Thomas Bayber, is found and Thomas would like to sell it.  But first he must find the sisters who have disappeared.  The story is told in alternating voices and it reminds me a lot of Lily King.  So if you are looking for some smart, literate dysfunction, this could be yours come August.

Here is what you can find on the shelves that is new next week. Come in and visit us, or put your items on hold from home! We will let you know when they are ready for you to pick up!

Just in case you were disappointed because February was only 28 days, here is another February day.  In April.  Also we have an Ann update of sorts.  She wants all to know the egg tree has been dismantled but is confident it will reappear next year.  She also feels that the end of her Sandy Nightmare might just be on the horizon.  However I feel we need to remember that Ann is an eternal optimist and could quite possibly be a victim of Stockholm Syndrome.    This week we have some family dynamics, chicken stuff, more chicken,  the Big Reveal (squeal!), poverty, bereavement, an incident and because I can’t take it anymore, some Nazis, and some Paris.

Let us begin!

Kim who can be found on many desks, wearing many hats is working on And Then Life Happens: A Memoir by Auma Obama.  “This book begins with Auma, Obama's half-sister, talking about the day she received a letter from Hillary Rodham Clinton.  Auma describes the dynamics of her family, being raised in Kenya, how education impacted her life, and the role that women and men played in Kenya.”

Stephanie is finishing something up! “Last Friends by Jane Gardam is the final book in the Old Filth trilogy, and is the story of the final leg of the love triangle set up between Old Filth, Betty, and Veneering. As with the first two, it is the nearly flawless output of a writer at the very top of her game. On the surface level, the trilogy is comfort food: the small stories of ordinary people as Britain struggled through the twentieth century, garnished with details of shillings in gas meters, Raj orphans, tea, rationing, and all the angles of Chambers. A quiet love triangle between English people. The jade bracelets of Veneering’s Chinese wife, put onto her at birth. The egg box with eggs in it still covered in chicken detritus so you know how fresh they are; you leave some money and take some eggs and the sadness of the egg box suddenly empty. On the whole, though, Gardam is such an inventive writer that it doesn’t matter what her books are about. What this lady does with the same words all of us get to work with is incredible. What she does with dashes—yes—dashes—is incredible. It’s not just comfort food because of the subject matter. It’s comfort food because the writing is so good that it is relaxing just to read it. Jane Gardam is a national treasure. (She’s not our national treasure, but should be cherished just the same.)”

Patty  says, “I'd like to preface this by saying that this one is dedicated to all the elementary school educators out there. This week I have chosen, The Plot Chickens by Mary Jane and Herm Auch.  Yep, it's a children's picture book!   Now, who doesn't think that a chicken is hilarious? Comedians have been using that rubber chicken shtick for years for a reason. Chickens are funny and make people smile. I dare you to watch a chicken and not smile. I chose this book for my first grade son as a read aloud.  Within these beautifully illustrated pages is the story of Henrietta Hen. Henrietta is a book loving, story-telling chicken who spends lots of time in her local public library. Her passion for stories leads her into the world of self-publishing where she suffers the slings and arrows of publishers and editors.  It ultimately is a story about risk taking, following your passion and resilience. Great lessons for any age!”

And now a word from Caroline! “First off, thanks for the suggestion last week – Anne Lamott’s Some Assembly Required: A Journal of My Son's First Son. That’s actually perfect because I’m having not only 1, but 2 boys!  That’s right, they’re twins!  The library has a great collection of twin books – the best I’ve found so far for multiple pregnancies is When You're Expecting Twins, Triplets, Or Quads : Proven Guidelines For A Healthy Multiple Pregnancy. It’s a little overwhelming when they advise that drink 128oz of water a day, or make bed rest sound completely to-be-expected – but all of it is great, multiple-specific advice that you won’t find in most regular pregnancy books.  Others on my list include Double Time : How I Survived--and Mostly Thrived--through The First Three Years Of Mothering Twins” and Twin Sense : A Sanity-saving Guide To Raising Twins--from Pregnancy Through The First Year. Again, welcome your suggestions on any other books (and double strollers!). “I told you it was worth the wait!  Congratulations to Caroline and her husband!  Or should we say Mozel since she is such a Bravo head?  We who are members of the Two Boys Club welcome you!

Pat S. has raves for How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia by Moshin Hamid.  “Told using the somewhat glib structure of a self-help manual, Filthy Rich is a personal saga of love and ambition-as well as a pointed satiric commentary on the epic changes in the developing world.  Employing second person narration, each chapter focuses on a goal to improving one's station ("Get an Education," "Learn from a Master," "Befriend a Bureaucrat,") and unveils the protagonist at each different stage of life, from childhood to old age. Running parallel to the rise out of poverty is the delicately evolving but ill-fated love story with "the pretty girl". Meeting in the teenage years, the lovers cross paths over and over, pushed together and apart by the forces moving their destinies forward.  This beautifully written rags -to-riches tale succeeds in being both a fable about what is truly precious in life, and a biting social satire about what is destroyed in a 'developing' world.”

Pat T. comments on our One Book One Community pick. “I read City of Thieves by David Benioff in 2009 when it was first published, so I decided to listen to the audio book for the library's One Book One Community program. I am on the last disc and I don't want it to end! The narrator, Ron Perlman, definitely brings the book to life and the background music that plays intermittently adds to the tone of the story. So, if you have already read the book listen to the audio book. You won't be disappointed.”

Jeanne has a little problem and a confession.  “I have become audiobook dependent. I do just enough driving where it is worth it. But Sandcastle Girls by Chris Bohjalian has driven me to download this book through 3M so I can read it everywhere! Bohjalian is a master at portraying love and grief, survival and pain in a landscape of the monstrosities of the 1915 Armenian Genocide by the Turks. He toggles between the past and the present with two separate narrators by describing the journeys and horrors of characters in Turkey  and discoveries by modern day descendants in New York and Boston now through family photographs and research. This author is especially clever at including emotionally-charged twists to his characters. I will be bereaved on finishing this book.”

Sweet Ann  has just finished The Burgess Boys by Elizabeth Stout.  “I enjoyed this novel as it explored the family dynamic among three grown siblings., high achiever Jim, (keeping a family secret that has and will impact his brother and sister's lives) and twins Bob and Susan who have never gotten along. They are all living separate lives but are drawn back together by an incident that Susan's son commits.  This book contains marital relationships, friendships, prejudices and a family revelation. “

I just started Studio Saint-Ex by Ania Szado.  Twenty-two-year-old Mignonne Lachapelle is a young woman determined to make her mark in New York’s budding fashion scene in the 1940’s. When she meets the famous and married exiled French pilot, Antoine Saint-Expury, sparks fly and a romance ensues.  But the real complication is a manuscript that he is working on involving un petit prince and his journey across the planets.  So far this is a good one. It has France, Fashion and a femme fatale!  And it comes out in June.