The New Albany Public Library
Staff Picks -- see what the Library staff is reading
Diane Moody:
Fiction-
God of Small Things by Arunhati Roy. In 1969, in Kerala, India, Rahel and her twin brother, Estha, struggle to forge a childhood for themselves amid the destruction of their family life, as they discover that the entire world can be transformed in a single moment.
Nonfiction -
Dark Remedy: the impact of thalidomide and its revival as a vital medicine by Trent Stephens
Tells how the infamous drug that caused a medical disaster has made a comeback as a life-saving treatment for autoimmune disorders. Stephens teaches anatomy and embryology at Idaho State University
LaRee Bates:
Fiction-
A Yellow Raft in Blue Water by Michael Dorris
A powerful novel of three generations of American Indian women, each seeking her own identity while forever cognizant of family responsibilities, loyalty, and love. Rayona, half-American Indian, half-African American daughter of Christine, reacts to feelings of rejection and abandonment by running away, not knowing that her mother had acted in a similar fashion some 15 years before. But family ties draw Rayona home to the Montana reservation. As the three recount their lives, often repeating incidents but adding new perspectives, a total picture emerges. The result is a beautifully passionate first novel.
Nonfiction-
The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America by Erik Larson. Bringing Chicago circa 1893 to vivid life, Erik Larson's spellbinding bestseller intertwines the true tale of two men--the brilliant architect behind the legendary 1893 World's Fair, striving to secure America's place in the world; and the cunning serial killer who used the fair to lure his victims to their death. Combining meticulous research with nail-biting storytelling, Erik Larson has crafted a narrative with all the wonder of newly discovered history and the thrills of the best fiction.
Laurel Langenwalter:
Fiction-
Galway Bay by Mary Pat Kelly - follows an Irish family during the Great Starvation and eventually their migration to the United States.
The Help by Katherine Stockett - about a group of women, Caucasian and African American, in the South during the 1960's.
Sing Them Home by Stephanie Kallos - somewhat Alice Hoffman-like, with a little fantasy, but an excellent story about three siblings whose Mother disappeared in a tornado.
She also wrote Broken For You.
John Burton:
Thirst, Poems by Mary Oliver 811.6 Oliver
I like poems. Maybe I like them because they are often short and sweet. They go for the jugular, heart, or soul often in an almost instantaneous manner. Most poetry I find inaccessible, so when I find a poet who reaches me in a fashion that resonates within I am ready for more. Mary Oliver reports on the mundane events and sights of her life and the natural world that surrounds her. I can relate to her experiences and find that I come away with a new and refreshed sensibility with regards to what she reports and that I clearly did not see so well the first time around. Her poems start innocently enough. They end in revelation.
Scott Keeney:
Ziggy Marley will get your two, twelve, or thirty-two year old heads bobbin' and knees shakin' with his sweet reggae children's music on "Family Time," new in the Children's Room music racks. Toots, Jack Johnson, Paul Simon, and even croaky old Willie Nelson join him in the happy riddims and sunny uplift: "Lift up your heart with a smile/Lift up your feet with a dance."
Lynn Kauffman:
NonfictionStiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach
The Human head is of the same approximate size and weight of a roster chicken." pg. 1 "Uproariously funny" doesn't seem a likely description for a book on cadavers. However, Roach has done the nearly impossible and written a book as informative and respectful as it is irreverent and witty. From her opening lines ("The way I see it, being dead is not terribly far off from being on a cruise ship. Most of your time is spent lying on your back"), it is clear that she's taking a unique approach to issues surrounding death. Roach delves into the many productive uses to which cadavers have been put, from medical experimentation to applications in transportation safety research (in a chapter archly called "Dead Man Driving") to work by forensic scientists quantifying rates of decay under a wide array of bizarre circumstances. There are also chapters on cannibalism, including an aside on dumplings allegedly filled with human remains from a Chinese crematorium, methods of disposal (burial, cremation, composting) and "beating-heart" cadavers used in organ transplants. Roach has a fabulous eye and a wonderful voice as she describes such macabre situations as a plastic surgery seminar with doctors practicing face-lifts on decapitated human heads and her trip to China in search of the cannibalistic dumpling makers. Even Roach's digressions and footnotes are captivating, helping to make the book impossible to put down.
Naming Opportunities
Please contact LaRee Bates at laree.bates@cityofalbany.net or (541)791-0112. Or the Friends of the Albany Public Library for further details (541) 917-7590, or inquire further during your next visit! For more information.
