Have you read . . .?

MOVING to Facebook

Gentle readers, the UGLi is moving the book discussion to Facebook. Our group, The UGLi @ University of Michigan, is open to all comers. Feel free to join in the discussion - post your own reviews, comment on others', etc. Thanks for reading!

POSSIBLE CHANGE OF LOCATION

Howdy readers. We need to get a pretty accurate idea of how many of you there are. The UGLi is considering moving the contents of this blog to its group page in Facebook. That way, you all can easily add your own book reviews/comments and we can continue to push interesting things out to you.

So, please:
1) let us know if you're reading this blog,
2) let us know if you have access to Facebook, and
3) let us know if you have an opinion on the move.

It would be very helpful to have your answers by Tuesday 8/14. THANKS!

"Ibid: A Novel" by Mark Dunn

Author Mark Dunn becomes a character in his own story, in "Ibid: A Novel." This is an odd book. In the early pages of the story, Mr. Dunn sends the one and only copy of his biography of Jonathan Blashette to his editor. This editor prefers to read books in the bathtub, which sets us up for the mishap of his toddler son dumping the manuscript in the filling tub. Dunn is unwilling to spend another two years recreating his book, so the editor decides to publish the only remaining part of the work -- the footnotes.

As a literary experiment, this is sort of interesting. We follow the story through the sidebars of the footnotes. But as a novel it makes it a bit awkward to read. Things don't flow like they typically do in a novel since we jump from footnote to footnote, so the regular continuity of ideas is less structured than in a normal novel. The content is interesting enough -- Blashette, is an unusual man -- was born with three legs, worked as a "circus freak" as a boy, served in WWI, started a successful deodorant company and became a philanthropist. His love life was less successful (the women he loved die young and in Boston).

Though I wouldn't consider this a great read, it is an interesting premise.

ISBN: 978-0156-03100-4

Pam, reserves

"The Amber Room" by Steve Berry

Are you looking for a quick summer read for the airport or beach? If so, then “The Amber Room” by Steve Berry might just fit the bill. Atlanta judge Rachel Cutler takes off to Germany following clues left by her father who recently died. A Russian immigrant, he had spent time in a Nazi concentration camp during WWII and later served in a Soviet post to track art lost/stolen during the war. Rachel heads off in search of The
Amber Room, one the treasures never recovered. She is soon followed by her ex-husband, probate lawyer Paul, and they end up following clues and fighting for their lives as they get caught between two competing groups of “bad guys” who are also searching for The Amber Room. A little slow going at the beginning, the second half of the book keeps up a rapid pace.

ISBN: 0-345-46004-9

Pam, reserves

"Acqua Alta" by Donna Leon

A while back I wrote about Donna Leon’s “Death and Judgment.” I recently finished the next book the series about Commissario Guido Brunetti, “Acqua Alta.” In this fifth episode, Brunetti is called upon to solve the brutal beating of an American archaeologist (who readers met in an earlier book “Death at la Fenice” along with her lover an opera singer) and the related murder of a crooked museum director. This series continues to be a well-written police procedural with the added ambiance of Venice (Acqua Alta is the flooding of Venice, a relatively frequent occurrence during high tides and heavy rains and plays a nearly constant role in this book). The story also brings into the plot Chinese antiquities, the Mafia, sexual orientation discrimination and hate crimes, opera, and the ever present theme of corruption and government inefficiency. I was reading this book during breaks while attending a conference. Two of the people sitting in the row in front of me noticed the book and we got into a lively conversation of how much we enjoy this series (both of them had read the book) and our conversation must have been animated enough that the two people sitting directly behind me asked for information on the author/title, etc., so they could start the series.

ISBN: 0-14-200496-0

Pam, reserves

"The Memory Keeper's Daughter" by Kim Edwards

Two or three times a week for the course of more than two months, I would pick up and then put down “The Memory Keeper’s Daughter” by Kim Edwards. I had heard good things about this book from several friends, but the thought of reading a book about someone who gave away his imperfect child was just so distasteful to me, I wasn’t sure I wanted to commit a day or two to reading the story. Obviously, I finally took the plunge, and found it worthwhile.

The story starts in 1964 when Dr. David Henry’s wife Norah goes into labor during a snowstorm. Their obstetrician is unable to make it through the storm, so David and his nurse, Caroline handle the delivery. Paul is born and he is unexpectedly followed by Phoebe, who has Down’s syndrome. Ostensibly to save his wife the pain of likely losing this child soon to heart problems, David asks Caroline to take Phoebe to an institution for children with Down’s syndrome. David tells his wife, who was sedated during the delivery, that their daughter died at birth. Caroline, after seeing the institution and being appalled by it, decides to keep Phoebe and raise her as her own. The story then moves forward through time, with glimpses into the lives of these characters every few years for the next 25 years. We see David and Norah’s marriage fall apart as Norah continues to mourn the “death” of the daughter she never got to see and as David lives with his guilt over lying to his wife and his unresolved pain over this sister’s early death due to a lingering illness. Paul struggles to live up to his father’s expectations and Caroline struggles to get Phoebe medical care and educational services. There is resolution in the end, but without an unreasonably pat happy ending.

ISBN: 9-780-14-303714-9

Pam, reserves

"The Monk Downstairs" by Tim Farrington

If you are looking for a gentle story about life and love, you may want to consider Tim Farrington’s novel “The Monk Downstairs.” After 20 years in a monastery, Michael Christopher leaves to start life “in the real world.” He rents an in-law apartment in the bottom of Rebecca’s house. Rebecca, a former hippy/beach bum is a graphic artist and single mother to six year old Mary Martha. Rebecca has an uneasy relationship with Mary Martha’s father, a professional surfer who has never really grown up. Friendship and then love grows between Mike and Rebecca. We learn move about the inner thoughts and feelings of Mike and his reasons for leaving the contemplative religious life, through letters he writes to a monk back at the monastery who is trying to “save” the former Brother Jerome. Rebecca, a strayed Catholic, struggles with some of Mike’s beliefs and as woman who has had poor luck with men, isn’t sure she wants to fall for Mike. The comfort and support he provides during the harrowing days following Rebecca’s mother’s stroke lead to a stronger bond between Rebecca and Mike. I am looking forward to the next part of their story – “The Monk Upstairs.”

ISBN: 978-0-06-112242-2

Pam, reserves

"The Case of the Missing Books" by Ian Sansom

Israel Armstrong is a young librarian from North London. He has landed his first permanent position as a librarian and moved to a small town in Northern Ireland to take up his post -- but things are not quite as he expected. The library has been closed and he is told he will provide service from an old, run down, rusty mobile library (i.e. bookmobile) and even worse than that, all of the library’s books (15,000 volumes) are missing – likely stolen. Trapped in a job he no longer wants (but is contractually required to keep), in a town where he doesn’t fit in (he can’t even find a decent cup of coffee, let alone an espresso), Israel must locate the missing books to be released from his contract. Israel is out of his element, doesn’t understand much of what the villagers say, and stumbles from clue to clue as he rather ineptly, but comically, searches for the missing books. As the weeks progress he repeatedly gets hurt (black eye, broken nose, etc.), his clothes catch on fire (so he is reduced to wearing a teenager’s t-shirts) and he lives on little more than potatoes (not a lot of culinary options for a Jewish vegetarian staying at a pig farmer’s house – living in the chicken coop). “The Case of the Missing Books” is the first in a new mystery series (A Mobile Library Mystery) by Ian Sansom. This gentle mystery full of interesting small town characters and culture clashes is likely the start to a charming new series.

ISBN: 978-0-06-082250-7

"The Camel Bookmobile" by Marsha Hamilton

Marsha Hamilton’s novel “The Camel Bookmobile,” tells the story of a 36-year old, New York librarian who moves to Kenya for a year as part of a program to run a mobile library that uses camels for transporting the librarians and books to remote villages. The narrative changes each chapter to tell the story from the perspective a different character including the American, the librarian from Nairobi who oversees the program, the teacher in Mididima, one of the small, nomadic villages, and several others in Mididima. The camel library causes turmoil in Mididima: the teacher wants the library to help increase literacy and options for the people of his village; but the tribal elders are concerned the exposure to books, especially those that are irrelevant to their nomadic lifestyle, will destroy their oral traditions of storytelling. A bigger problem looms when one of the town’s young men, Scar Boy, refuses to return the books he borrowed. Due to the small number of books available for the program, the Kenyan librarian considers loss of a book reason to stop visiting the village. The American librarian and local teacher try to figure out how to retrieve the books from Scar Boy so the camel library can continue to visit, while the town elders push for the return of the books to protect the reputation of the village prior to refusing to allow the library to return. This a gentle story about the clash of cultures and ethics, the development of friendships, and the fragility of family life.

ISBN 13: 978-0-06-117348-6

Pam, reserves

"Buffy the Vampire Slayer #1: The Long Way Home, part 1" by Joss Whedon

Were you a fan of the television series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer? If so, there is a new comic series you must check out! Joss Whedon is writing Buffy, season 8, as a follow up to to the series. The comic picks up where the show left off, with legions of Slayers all over the world. Buffy is heading up what seems to be a special ops unit, Xander has taken his "Scooby gang" role to a more official level (and looks rather rakish with his eye patch), and the rest of the gang make appearances as well. The issues only come out once a month, so it's not quite as satisfying as weekly tv installments, but this new format looks to be a fun and creative way to keep the Buffy series alive.

ASIN: B000O82BZK

Amanda, outreach and instruction

"This is Chick-Lit" edited by Lauren Baratz-Logsted

Two thumbs way up! Baratz-Logsted, a chick lit author herself, has assembled a fast, fun and moving collection of short stories by chick lit authors as a rebuttal to the recently published "This is not Chick-Lit," which implied that chick lit doesn't make the grade as real literature. This collection clearly demonstrates that chick lit a)has been around for a long time and b) is here to stay.

Each entry begins with an author's note about how they conceptualize chick lit as a genre and ends with a brief biography of that author. The stories themselves are marvelous and range from a futuristic look at dating via computer, and ghost-ridden romance, and a government agent who discovers her beau on the wrong end of her rifle. At the end of the collection, Baratz-Logsted has assembled a brief bibliography - a list of "not chick lit" material recommended by her group of authors.

This collection and the contributors to it can feel confident that they accomplished their goal of putting chick lit firmly in a positive literary light.

ISBN: 1-933771-01-1

Jennifer, reference

"A Fright of Ghosts" by Helen Chappell

A Fright of Ghosts is the fifth book in the light-weight mystery series by Helen Chappell. The mystery solvers are Hollis Ball, a reporter for a small town newspaper, and Sam Westcott, the ghost of her unlamented, deceased, ex-husband. In this episode Hollis, Sam, and Hollis’ cousin Toby work to solve the murder of sleazy Sluggo Fotney to clear Hollis’ brother Robbie of the crime. The stories are pretty standard cozy fare, but the Maryland Eastern Shore scenery, struggling costal watermen economy and local vernacular add enough regional color for a change of pace.

ISBN-13: 978-0-87033-581-5

Pam, reserves

"Bel Canto" by Ann Patchett

Bel Canto, by Ann Patchett, begins at a dinner party – a birthday celebration for a wealthy, Japanese industrialist, being held at the vice president’s home in a Latin American country. Rich and power guests (diplomats, businessmen, etc.) were drawn to the party with the thought of doing business with the honored guest – he was drawn by the opportunity to have a famous soprano sing for him. All this changes, though, when the party is disrupted by a group of armed terrorists who arrive, planning to capture the country’s president. The president isn’t in attendance and what follows is the story of captives and terrorists as their forced cohabitation stretches from hours, to days, to weeks and on into months. Cut off from the outside world, except for a Swiss Red Cross negotiator who visits regularly and carries lists of demands between the terrorist generals and the government, the captors and hostages become an unlikely community as the roles each member plays changes them from their lives before the armed compound became their world. This book is so beautifully written, that I was hooked by the language and images before I had finished the first paragraph.

ISBN-13: 978-0-06-083872-0

Pam, reserves

“Murder at the Portland Variety” by M. J. Zellnik

“Murder at the Portland Variety” by M. J. Zellnik takes place in Portland, Oregon in 1894. Libby Seale is a seamstress working at a local vaudeville theater, the Portland Variety, where mysterious deaths of two young dancers have occurred. The police declare the deaths accidents that happened, probably while the dancing girls (considered women of ill-repute) were being hauled to the docks in failed abductions by white slavers. Angry at this lack of concern for justice, Libby decides to investigate the murders herself. She enlists the aid of Peter Eberle, a local newspaper reporter in her efforts and together they explore the seedy side of a fast-growing town. Secrets from her past come back to haunt Libby as her feelings for Peter grow and as she faces the consequences of running away from her family in New York. This is the first in a fairly new series that combines a plucky heroine with life in a young western city.

ISBN: 0-7387-0786-4

Pam, reserves

“Personal History” by Katharine Graham

This autobiography by the former Washington Post publisher Katharine Graham won, and deserved, a Pulitzer Prize when it was published a few years before her death in 2001. As a prominent female publisher working in turbulent times, Graham certainly led a memoir-worthy life. The early chapters of the book deal with her wealthy girlhood and privileged adolescence are frustratingly laden with famous names and personalities, but this becomes more tolerable as the story moves forward.

As Graham comes more into her own in the story, the book also comes more into focus. The book smoothly explores her development into a wife/mother/Washington D.C. hostess and so the reader is able to better understand the total upheaval in her life when she suddenly must take over as publisher of the family’s major metropolitan newspaper.

Graham’s candid language and blatant acknowledgment of her early struggles in managing the newspaper make her a far more human figure than in the first chapters of the book. In discussing events befalling her paper: the Pentagon papers, Watergate, a pressmen’s strike, it is clear that Graham’s first concern is the Post. Not the prestige of the job, not her own reputation, but the success and security of the Washington Post.

Katharine Graham definitely lived a life worth reading about, and thankfully, she has done an excellent job of writing about it.

ISBN: 0394585852

Sara, reference assistant