Shelf Talk: Your Seattle Public Library

The librarians and staff of your Seattle Public Library share their favorite books, movies, music and more, together with tips for research and resources to make your life easier and more interesting.

Monthly Archives: April 2010

Apr 30, 2010

World War Two in Fiction, Part Two: The Home Front

PictureA War is not one story, but many.
Here is the second of three lists of fiction that views the war through many eyes, reflecting the diverse experiences of civilians and soldiers around the world whose lives were drawn into the Second World War.

  • A Place on Earth, by Wendell Berry.
  • As the war draws to its close, the lives of men and women in a rural Kentucky town are indelibly changed whether they are returning from the front lines or waiting back at home.

  • Red Sky at Morning, by Richard Bradford
  • Humor and pathos punctuate this coming-of-age novel in which Josh, a witty 17-year-old, navigates Continue reading

Apr 29, 2010

World War Two in Fiction, Part One: Europe.

PictureA War is not one story, but many.

Here is the first of three lists of fiction that views the war through many eyes, reflecting the diverse experiences of civilians and soldiers around the world whose lives were drawn into the Second World War.

  • Articles of War by Nick Arvin. Sent to Normandy in 1944, Iowa farm boy George ‘Heck’ Tilson’s all-too-human response to the war’s perilous chaos – to run away – will lead him through the fire towards an unforeseen and terrible duty.
  • Five Quarters of the Orange by Joanne Harris. Now sixty and a widow, Framboise Dartigen returns to her childhood village in France, to uncover painful secrets in her family’s past, and her mother’s curious relationship with the town’s German occupiers.
  • The Stalin Front by Gert Ledig. Eastern front veteran Ledig fully conveys the nightmarish enormity of total war in this gut-wrenching novel of the hell unleashed on earth when Hitler Continue reading
Apr 28, 2010

Desert Island Books, really!

There seem to be a lot of lists of Desert Island books out there, such as Picturethis one here on Nancy Pearl’s Booklust site, or this person’s Flickr album, or this cute cartoon thingy. What bugs me is that no matter how many interesting or worthwhile titles one finds on these lists, almost none of them take place on islands, desert or otherwise! I mean call me crazy, but doesn’t that seem like false advertising to you? To correct this all-too-common omission, here is my own list of bonafide, 100% Desert Island books:

  • The Cure at Troy, by Seamus Heaney, is a good recent version of Sophocles’ play Philoctetes, the tale of a wounded warrior abandoned on a tiny island by his so-called brothers-in-arms.
  • The Tempest, by William Shakespeare. By the time Prospero is through, this desert island gets pretty crowded. (If you don’t ‘get’ the bard, seeing felons rehearsing this play in Shakespeare Behind Bars could make you a believer).
  • Robinson Crusoe, by Daniel Defoe. A childhood favorite of mine, this one’s so influential that pretty much every other book on this list falls into the genre “Robinsonade.” As in Johann David Wyss’s 1812 Robinsonade, Swiss Family Robinson(ade). Or Nobel Prize-Winning South African author J.M. Coetzee’s 1986 Robinsonade, Foe, which has a modern woman stumbling into the mix. Read sordid details about the real life castaway who inspired Defoe in Diana Souhami’s Selkirk’s Island.
  • The Mysterious Island, by Jules Verne. A motley crew of five intrepid souls escape the Civil War in a hot air balloon, only to find themselves in a brave new world. A thumping good read, possibly Verne’s best.
  • The Island of Doctor Moreau, by H.G. Wells. Speaking of mysterious islands, here’s a prescient tale about a castaway who bioengineers some wierd company.
  • Lord of the Flies, by William Golding. You read this in school, right? If not, it is sort of like the children having an island adventure in Arthur Ransome’s Secret Water, except for the part where they do horrible things to each other, revealing mankind’s essential savagery. (See: Evil Children.) Not content to maroon little kiddies, Golding also wrote Pincher Martin, in which he plops a sailor onto a tiny barren rock..
  • Island of the Blue Dolphins, by Scott O’Dell. This timeless childen’s classic about a young girl stranded alone on an island for eighteen years casts a spell all its own. A book to read early, and to return to in later years. Other worthwhile children’s desert island books include The Cay, by Theodore Taylor, and Kensuke’s Kingdom, by Michael Morpurgo.
  • Concrete Island, by J.G. Ballard. Perhaps the strangest Robinsonade of all, concerning an architect who crashes his car and finds himself stranded in a small hidden median at the intersection of three highways. (Here’s an interesting hunt for the real concrete island). Meanwhile for the hero of Umberto Eco’s The Island of the Day Before, a desert island would be a godsend. As it is, he’s shipwrecked on a ship.

If this has you wanting more, take a look at Walter de la Mare’s Desert Islands, a survey of literary castaways up to 1930. And for some truly interesting not quite desert islands, look at Sergio Ghione’s Turtle Island: A Journey to the World’s Most Remote Island, Johannes Willms’ Napoleon & St Helena: On the Island of Exile, and – for a farcical treatment of same – Gideon Defoe’s The Pirates! in an Adventure with Napoleon. And I would be remiss if I failed to mention the most famous desert island of all. (Eat your heart out, Lost)

~ David W, Central Library

Apr 27, 2010

Bikes for Books

Picture
Picture courtesy of Jacqueline Czarnecki/degrees latitude

Boys and girls in first through third grades have a wonderful opportunity this spring. You might win a bike!

The Bikes for Books program is happening at three branch locations: Fremont, Green Lake and Lake City. Sponsored by local Masonic Lodge groups, one girl and one boy will receive a bicycle, a helmet and a lock at each branch location.

What do you have to do to join in the fun? Read! Read three books, head over to the information desk and say you want to sign up for Bikes for Books, give a short report to the librarian and drop a drawing slip with your name on it into the boys’ or the girls’ box.

The more you read the better chance you’ll have to be the proud owner of a brand new bicycle. Remember, though, you have to be present at the drawing in order to win!*

One thing to note, each participating branch has a different deadlines.

Here are the dates you need to know:

Fremont Branch:
Enter by: Thursday, June 3
Drawing: Saturday, June 5 at 4 p.m.

Green Lake Branch:
Enter by: Saturday, June 26
Drawing: Saturday, June 26 at 4 p.m.

Lake City Branch:
Enter by: Monday, May 31
Drawing: Wednesday, June 9 at 4 p.m. *(child need not be present)

We hope to see you soon! And don’t forget to wear your helmets and ride safely this summer!

Apr 26, 2010

And I Alone Survived

Do you like to take a walk on the wild side? Or would you rather read about it when you know everything turns out okay? Check out this list of daring adventure stories by some who lived to tell the tale.

Walking the Gobi: a 1600-mile trek across a desert of hope and despair by Helen Thayer

At age 50 Helen Thayer was the first woman to ski alone to the North Pole (accompanied by Charlie the dog). Thirteen years later, she and her husband started off across the Gobi Desert. Helen Thayer was named “one of the great explorers of the 20th century” by National Geographic. It’s an amazing, exciting, true adventure.

PictureA long trek home: 4000 miles by boot, raft and ski by Erin McKittrick

Two people start walking from Seattle and 4000 miles, one year and many adventures later our intrepid adventurers arrive at the end of the road in the Aleutian Islands. And it’s not even a road! Incredible tales of bear sightings, an ingenious packraft and a good cause will astound and inspire you.

Shooting the Boh: a woman’s voyage down the wildest river in Borneo by Tracy Johnston

If a rafting company offered you a free trip to an exotic locale, you might jump at the chance. Journalist Tracy Johnston did, never imagining the treacherous rapids, foot rot, hot flashes, leeches, clouds of sweat bees and sheer hard work it would entail. The trip was bad, but this book is witty and insightful. Good reading.

Hatchet by Gary Paulsen

After a plane crash, 13-year-old Brian spends 54 days in the Canadian wilderness, surviving with only the aid of a hatchet. This heart-stopping story finds Brian facing a life-and-death decision at every moment. It’s gritty and great, written for the 11-13 year old crowd but a rocking adventure for all ages.

And I Alone Survived is another thrilling tale of adventure written in the 1970s by Lauren Elder, who survived the crash of a light plane in the Sierra Nevada Mountains and walked to town for 36 hours with a broken arm and boots with 2″ heels.
~Ellen F, Central Library

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