Books From Our Bookshelves, Part Two

Posted on by Library User

This morning I had the great pleasure of talking books with Mindy Todd on The Point and joining us was author Peter Abrahams. It was part two (and the third show done from home) of Books From Our Bookshelves, as Peter returned to share with us more books from his home bookshelves. What was particularly delightful about this show was how many people called and emailed us with what they are reading during the pandemic. Here is the list of everything that was mentioned, both digital and non-digital, with some bonus content.

“The contents of someones bookcase are part of their history like an ancestral portrait.” Umberto Eco

And one of my favorite bits from the novel Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh:

“I’ve got a motor-car and a basket of strawberries and a bottle of Chateau Peyraguey – which isn’t a wine you’ve ever tasted, so don’t pretend. It’s heaven with strawberries.”

“On a sheep cropped knoll under a clump of elms we ate the strawberries and drank the wine – as Sebastian promised, they were delicious together – and we lit fat, Turkish cigarettes and lay on our backs, Sebastian’s eyes on the leaves above him, mine on his profile, while the blue-grey smoke rose, untroubled by any wind, to the blue-green shadows of foliage, and the sweet scent of the tobacco merged with the sweet summer scents around us and the fumes of the sweet, golden wine seemed to lift us a finger’s breadth above the turf and hold us suspended.”

“If it could only be like this always – always summer, always alone, the fruit always ripe and Aloysius in a good temper …”

Peter’s Picks

A Handful of Dust by Evelyn Waugh
Farnsworth’s Classical English Style by Ward Farnsworth (We don’t own this title, but we do have a copy of Farnsworth’s Classical English Rhetoric.)
Chaucer’s Tale: 1386 and the road to Canterbury by Paul Strohm
Heart of Lions: the history of American bicycle racing by Peter Nye
Idiot by Elif Batuman
Last Train to Memphis: the rise of Elvis Presley by Peter Guralnick

Jill’s Picks

Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh, audio, narrated by Jeremy Irons
And here is a lovely article from the New York Times about the PBS version.

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge either the Philip Hoare version (in which Jeremy Irons reads the first verse) or the paper version.
US (a.) by Saul Williams. His interview with Paul Holdengräber can be heard as part of The Quarantine Tapes.
The Cape Cod Bicycle War and other stories by Billy Kahora
The Sum of the People: how the census has shaped nations, from the ancient world to the modern age by Andrew Whitby
Reading Art: art for book lovers by David Trigg

Listener Picks

The Lives of Margaret Fuller by John Matteson
The Roman Years of Margaret Fuller; a biography by Joseph Dey Deiss
And I would add to the Margaret Fuller list Maria Popova’s book Figuring
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon
When Bad Things Happen to Good People by Harold S. Kusher (or anything else that he has written.)
Blackout a podcast
Homegoing: a novel by Yaa Gyasi
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
A Constellation of Vital Phenomena by Anthony Marra
By Nightfall by Michael Cunningham
Midnight in Siberia: a train journey into the heart of Russia by David Green
Rascal by Sterling North
Mama’s Last Hug: animal emotions and what they tell us about ourselves by Frans de Waal
Horse People: scenes from the riding life by Michael Korda
Robbins Pathologic Basis of Disease by Stanley L. Robbins, Ramzi S. Cotran & Vinay Kumar.

Hoopla AudioBook Review : The Shootist by Glendon Swarthout, read by J. P. O’Shaughnessy

Posted on by Sue

(reviewed by Josh)

An aging gunfighter rides into El Paso, looking to die quietly — and anonymously — from the cancer that has taken root in his prostate. Word of his condition spreads quickly, though, and soon the town is overrun by former foes looking to settle old scores, up-and-coming gumen hoping to make a name for themselves, and a few nosy fans who just want to shake his hand. Needless to say, this is neither quiet nor anonymous. It is violent. Very violent. Yet also very funny. There’s a rich, character-based vein of dark comedy that runs throughout The Shootist that makes it as fun to read as a novel by Elmore Leonard or Janet Evanovich. Blend that with the overarching theme of facing one’s own mortality, and you’ve got a story that’s perfect for these dark times.

Falmouth Public Library cardholders have free access to Hoopla, which offers an audiobook version of this book here.

Learn how to get Hoopla in this post!

Are You a ‘Gateway Reader’?

Posted on by Sue

My high school’s D.A.R.E. program (a well-meaning, misguided, state-funded attempt to keep kids off drugs) used to use the term ‘gateway drug’ to describe any drug that appeared harmless (cigarettes, pot, leaning in too close to one’s magic markers), but inevitably led to other, more dangerous narcotics (crack, crystal meth, permanent markers). In recent years, I’ve begun to rework the ‘gateway’ moniker to fit the needs of my own vice of choice — books.

Gateway Books are books that are so darned good that they make you want to read any and all the other books name-dropped within.

One of the first gateway books I remember coming across was S.E. Hinton’s ‘The Outsiders’. Not only did I pick up some random Robert Frost in hopes of finding ‘Stay Silver’ and ‘Stay Bronze’ (his lesser works), I also rented the videotape of ‘Gone With The Wind’ (the book looked too long and too boring to my fourteen year old self — and still does!). A decade or so later while reading all of the Elmore Leonard novels, I had an ongoing ‘secondary syllabus’ made up of all the crime fiction paperbacks Leonard had his characters reading.

The ultimate Gateway Book for me, though, has been Mike Davis’ ‘City of Quartz’. Davis, a Los Angeles historian with a photographic memory and a gift for finding the threads that bind seemingly disparate subjects together, had me watching film noir classics like ‘Detour’ and ‘The Big Sleep’, gobbling up the South Central-centered pulp fiction of Chester Himes, the dark, satiric, science fiction of Aldous Huxley, and becoming a salivating fan boy at the altar of Joan Didion’s 1960s suicidal California travel lit. I’m not exaggerating — I literally spent an entire year exploring the books, movies and music mentioned in ‘City of Quartz’. If that ain’t the obsessive-compulsive behavior of an addict, I don’t know what is. [we have since ordered ‘City of Quartz’ for the library, and hope to have it soon!]

How about you? Do you have any ‘Gateway Books’ that sent you tumbling deeper and deeper down the reading rabbit hole? If so, please share them in the comments!

This blog written by Josh M.

Link to eBooks in Overdrive where available, here!

The Outsiders

Elmore Leonard (some available in Overdrive, via CLAMS or other MA library networks!)

Robert Frost-bio, and links to some of his poems, here.

Aldous Huxley, ‘Brave New World’ ebooks here.

A Note from Falmouth Library’s Newest Harry Potter Fan

Posted on by Sue

I don’t know that any self-respecting Teen Librarian can get away with not having read the Harry Potter series. So, as a new Teen Librarian, I’m somewhat embarrassed to say I’ve never read any of the books or watched any of the movies – until yesterday, when I started the first book.

I used my Libby app and borrowed the audiobook version-it can be accessed here, once you create an Overdrive account-see below! I know you don’t need me to tell you that it’s a fantastic book – no news there. But, what you might not know is how wonderful the audiobook version is. Even if you’ve read the books before, I think it’s worth a listen. The narrator, Jim Dale is an award winning Broadway actor, and he’s absolutely perfect as the voice of these books. The way he distinguishes characters with different voices and the overall warm energy he brings to the narration makes it a joy to listen to.

Luckily, for those of us spending a lot of time at home right now, there’s also a LOT to listen to. There are 7 books in the series, which adds up to a total of over 117 hours of audiobook! That’s almost 5 straight days. I’m only a few hours into the first book, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, but I’m already a huge fan and looking forward to the many, many hours I’ll be spending listening to Jim Dale bring these books to life for me over the next few weeks.

From Meg Krohn, our Teen Librarian!

(We have many eBooks and audiobooks on Overdrive, on your computer, or on most devices with the Libby app. You just need a CLAMS card! Give us a call, or email us, if you need help getting started!)

Graphic Novel Review: All-Star Superman by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely

Posted on by Sue

(reviewed by Josh M.)

With All-Star Superman, writer Grant Morrison takes nearly a hundred years of kooky comic book lore and condenses it into 12 episodic issues of inspired and inspiring magic.

The basic Superman elements remain the same: Alien on Earth. Dauntless do-gooder. Eternal optimist. Lois Lane. Jimmy Olsen. Lex Luther. Etc.

The basic Superman story lines remain the same: Alien invaders. Awkward office romance. Peacekeeping through punching. Lex Luther. Etc.

Yet much like a chef intensifying the flavor of a sauce by boiling it down, Morrison manages to make these tried and true ingredients feel fresher, bolder and richer than they have in years.

My favorite issue is #5, ‘The Gospel According to Lex Luthor’, which is basically ‘Waiting for Godot’ starring Clark Kent and Lex Luthor, and staged in a supermax prison full of super-powered villains. The dialogue sparkles, the tension mounts, and instead of an onomatopoeic fistfight we get an extended ethical debate. (Albeit one with a few SMACK! CRACK! and POW!s laced throughout.)

If you’ve ever been a fan of Superman — heck, even if you’ve NEVER been a fan of Superman — this is a fun, funny and surprisingly poignant exploration of what makes the character endure.

All-Star Superman is available as an eBook on both OverDrive and Hoopla.

Adult Fiction Book in January-The Hate U Give

Posted on by Sue

Come join us on Tuesday, January 21st at 7 p.m., as our fiction book club at the Main branch returns! To kick off our Young Adult book theme, we will be reading The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas. All are welcome-come pick up a copy at the Reference Desk!

“This stunning debut is about a prep school student from a poor black neighborhood, whose friend gets shot by a police officer, and the aftermath. It is a long-running New York Times best-seller, and also a critically-acclaimed movie. A timely story for our era.”

Funeral and Memorial Readings

Posted on by Library User

Over the years we have often been asked for words or poems that might be read at a funeral. Recently we were asked again, and decided it might be useful to write a blog entry on this topic. We hope the list of books below might be helpful during the difficult time of planning a funeral or a memorial service.

The Book of Eulogies edited with commentary by Phyllis Theroux. This is a collection of memorial tributes, poetry, essays, and letters of condolence. It includes an index, so should you know a specific author that your loved one used to read, you can find all the names of the writers in the index. Perhaps unexpectedly, but helpfully, there is an entire section of tributes devoted to animals who have died.

Funeral and Memorial Service Readings, Poems and Tributes edited by Rachel R. Baum is sorted by the type of tribute you are planning. Thus there are sections, among others, for mothers, fathers, children, friends, soldiers, and pets.

Readings & Poems edited by Jane McMorland Hunter. Included in this volume are sections of readings and poems that would be appropriate for a funeral or a memorial service. The two sections are “a quiet door” and “love and go on” and include poems by Shakespeare, Christina Rossetti, and A. E. Housman among others. One of the loveliest things about this particular book are the illustrations. (One used to illustrate this blog.) In the introduction the author writes: “Death is one of the certainties of life, as is the fact that at some stage each of us will almost certainly have to deal with the loss of someone close. The pieces here deal first with death itself and then with solitude, but the dividing line is deliberately hazy; somehow we have to find a balance between shedding tears and moving on, remembering and being sad or forgetting and smiling.”

Bartlett’s Poems for Occasions edited by Geoffrey O’Brien with a foreword by Billy Collins. There are sections for “death and mortality” and “grief and mourning.”

The Art of Losing: poems of grief & healing edited by Kevin Young. This volume includes “150 devastatingly beautiful contemporary elegies that embrace the pain, heartbreak, and healing stages of mourning.”

The Everyman’s Library Pocket Poets series offers two possible volumes. One is Poems of Mourning selected and edited by Peter Washington and the other is Poems of the Sea selected and edited by J. D. McClatchy. Because we live by the sea Poems of the Sea feels appropriate for many an occasion, but for a person who loved the ocean you might just find the perfect poem to read aloud at a funeral or a memorial service.

Summer Reading Suggestions!

Posted on by Library User

Hello Summer! As teachers and school staff wind down the school year, children’s departments in public libraries across the country are gearing up for summer reading! Here in the FPL Children’s Room, we’ve got lots of great upcoming events for our summer reading program entitled, “Build a Better World.” Some programs that I’m particularly looking forward to are the Summer Reading Kick Off Party, Saturday Cinema at the Library, and the Stuffed Animal Sleepover. See the FPL EventKeeper calendar for more events and info!

As a supplement to school summer reading lists, I’ve created a list of FPL Summer 2017 Recommended Reads. This is my third year creating such a list and at the risk of tooting my own horn, I have to say I think this is the best one yet. Not only is the design better (highly recommend canva.com for any readers who are looking for a good, free design program), but this year I’ve added pictures of the recommended books’ covers to make finding them easier. I am also intentional in including a diverse array of quality titles that serve as windows and mirrors for all readers! There is something for everyone here so stop by the FPL Children’s Room to find the book that’s right for you!

Stephanie Seales, Children’s Room

Category: Books