Staff Picks - Urban Tigers: tales of a cat vet

I have to confess up front that I am a long-time cat lover. I do love our one dog Bella (a beautiful golden retriever) but my heart beats for the three cats who currently make-up part of my family. And if you're anything like me the stories about my pets are plentiful. The occasional time when I do run out of my own stories and anecdotes, I go looking for others. I was thrilled to discover local author Kathy Chisholm's new book Urban Tigers: tales of a cat vet. In this book Chisholm tells the tale of Dr. Emily McBride's first year at the fictional Ocean View Cat Hospital in Halifax. I laughed out loud a few times and the tears threatened to overflow on a few more occasions. The cast of characters, human and feline, carried this story and left me wishing for more! Chisholm tells her tale in a human, funny and realistic way and takes us behind the scenes with the people who care for our beloved four-legged family members.

Whether you live with cats, love them from afar, or sit on the fence, this book will leave you delighted.

P.S. When Kathy recently read from this book at the Keshen Goodman library she let it slip that there was a sequel to this book already in the works. Keep a watch out in our catalogue for the next installment.

Louise

Read You Way Around the World - Channel Islands

Read Your Way Around the World Invites you to the Channel Islands.

The Channel Islands - Guernsey, Jersey, Alderney, Sark and Herm - those feisty little Bailiwicks. Channel Islanders are British citizens but they are not a part of the United Kingdom and not a part of the European Union Over the years they have had such strategic importance. The Islands had a hard time of it during World War II being the only part of the British Commonwealth occupied by the Germans. One the most famous literary factoids associated with the Channel Islands is that Victor Hugo wrote Les Miserables there. In addition T.H. White, author of The Once and Future King  spend the latter part of his life on Alderney.

Making waves in recent years is, of course, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer. Sadly this was her first and only book and she died the same year it was released in 2008. Shaffer, an American, was intrigued by Guernsey's wartime experience during a visit there in the 1970's. She writes about the courage of the islanders in midst of the occupation. Told in letter format, the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society was born of a ruse to protect residents from the Germans. It is a story equally of the power of the human spirit and the power of literature.

Another American, Elizabeth George, is a prolific mystery author. Minor characters from her Linley series are featured in A Place of Hiding. China River and her brother Cherokee are hired to deliver blueprints to a millionaire living on the island of Guernsey. He plans to build a museum honouring the islanders' resistence during World War II. When he turns up dead River involves forensic scientists Deborah and Simon St. John. Brouard, the millionaire, was himself forced to flee the Nazis in Paris as a child and there are many who might have a reason to wish him harm.

 
 We'll leave Guernsey and travel to the island of Jersey with Jack Higgins' Night of the Fox. Back in time to the German occupation an American colonel turns up, injured, on Jersey with knowledge of the forthcoming D-Day landings. It is imperative that he is rescued or eliminated before he is captured by the enemy.  This fast-paced spy story is complete with appealing good guys, horrible bad guys and lots of action.

G.B. Edwards is a native of Guernsey and wrote what many consider to be the novel that most accurately describes life in the Channel Islands. The Book of Ebenezer Le Page  is the life story of one Ebenezer Le Page whose life spans the dramatic events from the late nineteenth century to the 1960's. He tells his life story as an old man who has spent his entire life on Guernsey. It is a book that deals with both the big issues of the twentieth century and how they affected this tiny island, and the intimate issues that sprout from life - love, secrets, friendships and feuds.

  One of the most famous people to hail from Jersey is the Jersey Lily herself Lillie Langtry. Lillie Langtry made her way from Jersey to London to become a professional beauty, an actress and mistress of the future King Edward VII. Roy and Lillie: a love story by Loren D. Estleman Roy Bean and his fascination with Lillie Langtry. Although they never met Bean named his hotel and ultimately his town after her.Roy Bean was a hardened law man who became enamoured of this beautiful woman. They corresponded, but unfortunately, he died before she was able to fulfill her promise to visit Langtry, Texas.

2011 Man Booker longlist

Man Booker longlist has been announced. This award recognizes authors from Britain, Ireland and the Commonwealth countries. This year we find three Canadian titles on the list. They are Alison Pick, Esi Edugyan and Patrick deWitt. The shortlist and ultimately the winner will be announced in the fall. A few of these titles aren't yet available in Canada or are just plain sold out. Once they are available we'll be sure to get copies.

The Sense of an Ending
by Julian Barnes

On Canaan's Side
by Sebastian Barry

Jamrach's Menagerie
by Carol Birch

The Sisters Brothers
by Patrick deWitt













Half Blood Blues
by Esi Edugyan

A Cupboard Full of Coats
by Yvvette Edwards

The Stranger's Child
by Alan Hollinghurst

Pigeon English
by Stephen Kelman













The Last Hundred Days
by Patrick McGuinness

Snowdrops
by A.D. Miller

Far to Go
by Alison Pick

The Testament of Jessie Lamb
by Jane Rogers

Derby Day
by D.J. Taylor

Staff Picks! Pigeon English by Stephen Kelman

It's pretty rare that I manage to read a book before it has been nominated for an award. I just learned that Pigeon English by Stephen Kelman is on the longlist for the 2011 Man Booker Prize. Kelman is a first time novelist from Luton, England.

Can a novel be both charming and gritty? Harri Opoku is an engaging eleven year old boy who has recently emigrated to London from Ghana. Along with his mother and older sister he lives in a council estate, while his father and beloved baby sister remain in Ghana until enough money can be amassed to reunite the family. Told through the eyes and voice of Harri, we're treated to a child's view of a rather dangerous world. Harri and his friends embark on an investigation when a school mate is murdered.

Harri's world is a dangerous place. Bullies carry weapons and will not hesitate to inflict violence. Harri gravitates from this world to home where there is love, comfort and religion. He is proud that he is the fastest runner in his year, worries that his charity shop runners aren't good enough and delights in his first girlfriend Poppy. When he leaves home there are drug dealers, petty criminals and gangs. Home may not be safe enough to protect Harri and his family.

Harri's voice is the key to this bittersweet story. Kelman appears to have a keen sense of an eleven year old's view of the world. Harri speaks in English laced with Ghanian expressions (glossary included in the back) and London slang slight misused. After a few pages it becomes very natural. Pigeon English has very powerful messages about urban society and I'm sure will be a popular choice for book groups. Many reviewers are predicting that it will find its way into school curriculum very soon.

As I was reading other novels with child narrators would come to mind.

Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha by Roddy Doyle "The 1993 Booker Prize winner. Paddy Clarke, a ten-year-old Dubliner, describes his world, a place full of warmth, cruelty, love, sardines and slaps across the face. He's confused; he sees everything but he understands less and less." publisher

Room by Emma Donoghue "To five-year-old Jack, Room is the entire world. It's where he was born and where he and his Ma eat and play and learn. At night, Ma puts him safely to sleep in the wardrobe, in case Old Nick comes. Room is home to Jack, but to Ma, it's the prison where Old Nick has kept her for seven years, since she was nineteen. Through ingenuity and determination, Ma has created a life for herself and her son, but she knows it's not enough for either of them. Jack's curiosity is building alongside Ma's desperation -- and Room can't contain either of them for much longer... Told entirely in the inventive, often funny voice of Jack, Room is a celebration of the resilient bond between parent and child, and a brilliantly executed novel about a journey from one world to another." publisher

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime by Mark Haddon "Narrated by a fifteen-year-old autistic savant obsessed with Sherlock Holmes, this dazzling novel weaves together an old-fashioned mystery, a contemporary coming-of-age story, and a fascinating excursion into a mind incapable of processing emotions. Christopher John Francis Boone knows all the countries of the world and their capitals and every prime number up to 7,057. Although gifted with a superbly logical brain, Christopher is autistic. Everyday interactions and admonishments have little meaning for him. At fifteen, Christopher’s carefully constructed world falls apart when he finds his neighbour’s dog Wellington impaled on a garden fork, and he is initially blamed for the killing." publisher

Six Degrees of the Library Collection: from Margaret Mitchell to Roald Dahl

It has certainly been awhile since I did my last Six Degrees of the Library Collection post (a series where we highlight random connections between the books and the authors you can find in the library's collection). These posts are a lot of fun, but a lot of work to write, so they often fall down the priority list. However, a recent radio piece gave me a bit of inspiration.

The piece I heard highlighted that this year is the 75th anniversary of Margaret Mitchell's book Gone With the Wind. First published in May 1936, the book was a best seller, a Pulitzer Prize winner and, of course, the inspiration for one of Hollywood's most enduring films. The southern US setting for the novel was a familiar one for Mitchell, who was born and raised in Atlanta. A startling fact about Mitchell that I hadn't known was that she died at the age of 48 after being struck by a car.

A grim point of inspiration, but I have to admit that it got me wondering if there were other authors who'd had similar accidental deaths. In a strange double tie to Mitchell (and her famous character Scarlet O'Hara), American poet Frank O'Hara was also killed in an automotive accident—he was struck by a dune buggy while walking on a beach. O'Hara was an American Poet of the New York School and his largely autobiographical poetry frequently focused on his New York surroundings. The website frankohara.org offers selections of his poetry (including some read by the poet) and the library owns a few collections.

Before his career as a poet, Frank O'Hara was a student and then served in the military in the Pacific during World War II. Another famous American author who was a World War II veteran was J.D. Salinger. The author of Catcher in the Rye was drafted and served in Europe beginning in 1942: he was involved in active combat, and was eventually assigned to a counter-intelligence unit. At the war's end, he returned to the US and published the books that would bring him fame. You probably know where I'm going with this, because aside from his writing, the other thing that Salinger is famous for is being reclusive: he published nothing since the 1960s and was rarely seen in public. He died at home in 2010.

Another famously reclusive author is Thomas Pynchon: in fact his reclusive nature is so similar to Salinger's that at one point there were rumors that the were the same person. Pynchon is an important author of postmodern fiction, and is cited as an influence by many acclaimed writers (both of the postmodernists and not) including T. C. Boyle, David Foster Wallace, Don DeLillo and Ian Rankin. Unlike Salinger, Pynchon has been actively writing over the years: his most recent novel was 2009's Inherent Vice. Hiding from public view has not entirely kept Pynchon out of pop culture: he has made cameo appearances in two episodes of the animated TV series the Simpsons. In both cases the animated likeness appears with a bag over his head.

Cameos on the Simpsons have become one of my favourite aspects of that show, and lots of famous folks (including lots of authors) have done them. In one of the Pynchon episodes—Diatribe of a Mad Housewife—Marge publishes a romance novel and among other things the Simpson family visits a book fair. Sharing the animated stage with Pynchon at that fair is Tom Clancy.

Fans of political thrillers and page turning adventures likely know Clancy's name. In fact, even if you've never read a Tom Clancy book at all, you've probably heard of him, and maybe even seen one of the film adaptations of his bestselling books, including Patriot Games and Clear and Present Danger starring Harrison Ford in the lead role. Movie adaptations are standard fare for popular novels, but did you know that several of Tom Clancy's books have been made into board games? It's true! Both The Hunt for Red October and Red Storm Rising have board game editions.

You know who else has had a book made into a board game? Ken Follett. His historical novel The Pillars of the Earth was adapted as a board game by a German company that is known for its games based on novels. Pillars of the Earth was a big change in writing style for Ken Follett. Before the 1989 historical epic was published, Follett was more known as an author of thrillers. The switch to historical fiction had a big payoff for the author, Pillars of the Earth was a huge bestseller as was its 2007 followup World Without End.

Ken Follett hails from Cardiff, Wales, a fact that links him to another famous writer, Roald Dahl. If you're like me, you probably have great memories of Dahl's children's classics like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, but Dahl also penned short stories that were geared toward adults. The library owns a few collections of these stories (including The Best of Roald Dahl,) which wikipedia notes often feature "a dark sense of humour and a surprise ending"

There you have it: from Margaret Mitchell to Roald Dahl in six steps. Have two authors you'd like to see connected? Make a suggestion in the comments field below.

And They Write too: Josh Ritter, celebrity writers and their novels

What is it with modern celebrities? Why can't they be famous for just one thing and leave a little bit of hope left for the rest of us? Over the years working at the library, I've noticed time again the phenomena of celebrity novels: you know, where some one famous for something else also becomes a published author. Sometimes I think these efforts are sincere. Sometimes I think the authors are actually good writers in addition to being good at what ever else they are famous for. And sometimes it's all just a bunch of marketing to try and capitalize on someone's already established fame. Still, I'm interested: whether out of passion for reading or passion for celebrity trivia, I'm not sure, but I'm interested nonetheless.

What got me thinking about the topic again recently, is news of a new novel from American songwriter Josh Ritter. To tell you the truth, I'm not even sure if Josh Ritter is all that famous as a musician, but his book is being promoted as the first novel from the musician you love. Bright's Passage is historical fiction set during and following World War I. From the publisher: "Henry Bright is newly returned to West Virginia from the battlefields of the First World War. Grief struck by the death of his young wife and unsure of how to care for the infant son she left behind, Bright is soon confronted by the destruction of the only home he's ever known. His only hope for safety is the angel who has followed him to Appalachia from the trenches of France and who now promises to protect him and his son." As a musician, Ritter is praised for his lyric writing and many of the reviews of the novel are making a tie between that and his move into fiction writing. With this book, Ritter seems poised to create readers out of fans of his music, and draw the book crowd to his music.

So, I might not be sure that Josh Ritter is famous, but I'm certainly sure that the authors that follow are. If you've watched their careers in other venues, perhaps you'll be interested in one of their works of fiction.

Steve Martin. He's funny, he plays the banjo, and he's also become a well respected author of contemporary American fiction. My recollection is that people were skeptically curious when Martin's novella Shopgirl was released in 2000. Publisher's Weekly described it as "neither a triumph nor a disaster", but it was well received enough that folks were curious to see what would follow. With each book, praise for Martin's serious writing seems to grow. His most recent is Object of Beauty, which brings in yet another element of Martin's expertise. Set in the art world, it draws on Martin's experience as a collector to create a detailed portrait of a world of wealth and privilege in New York City.

James Franco. 6 months ago it seemed like James Franco was everywhere: on the big screen, on the small screen, hosting the Oscars, featured in articles in the New York Times and just about everywhere else you looked, including the new release book shelf. His first collection of short stories Palo Alto was released by Scribner in October. The publisher describes the stories as "[tracing] the lives of an extended group of teenagers as they experiment with vices of all kinds, struggle with their families and one another, and succumb to self-destructive, often heartless nihilism" but this quote from BookList's review answers the question you're probably asking: "These stories were not published because James Franco is a movie star but because they are good."


Carrie Fisher. The actress best known for her role as Princess Leia is also a successful author. Although recent news stories about her writing career most likely relate to her 2008 memoir Wishful Drinking (which subsequently became a stage show and an HBO documentary), Fisher has also authored 4 novels, beginning in 1987 with the (thought to be somewhat autobiographical) Postcards From the Edge.

William Shatner. You may know him best from his role on Star Trek, or possibly as the guy from the Priceline ads, but Canadian actor William Shatner is also a prolific novelist. Many of his books are set in the Star Trek world, and many are co-authored, but Shatner also has two series of non-Star Trek books that are officially credited to just him. For fans of space opera style science fiction: how could you go wrong with books from Captain James T. Kirk?

Anthony Bourdain. I figured we needed someone in here who wasn't an actor or singer: how 'bout a chef? Bourdain came to fame as the executive chef of Brasserie Les Halles in New York, but his brash personality as well as his cooking skills have taken him beyond the kitchen and into the spotlight. He's well known for his memoir Kitchen Confidential, but did you know that he is also the author of several mystery novels?

Blast From the Past! A Legacy by Sybille Bedford

Sybille Bedford's long life spanned the twentieth century. Though of German birth, she wrote in English, and her novels had a European or cosmopolitan feel. Much of her writing was both autobiography and fiction. She was born to an aristocratic German family in 1911. Following her father's death she lived with her unstable mother, first in Italy and then in France where she befriended Aldous and Maria Huxley. Bedford was for the most part informally educated, although she spent her life around artists and intellectuals.In the 1930's she wrote negatively about the Nazi party, this coupled with her Jewish heritage, made her somewhat of an exile.

In A Legacy Bedford imagines her late father's early married life. This complicated family life is seen through the eyes of a child in pre-WWI Germany. The marriage uneasily unites three families, Jewish manufacturers, Catholic aristocrats and politically astute intellectuals. Few family members acknowledge the reality of Prussian militarism in the newly unified Germany. The Merz's are extremely close-knit, almost closed in upon themselves, and are blind to their son's addiction. The genteel Feldens are rocked by their son's cruel treatment by the military establishment. The three families were entirely different in terms of values and religion. Each viewed their own circumstances as the norm. The daughter resulting from this marriage is somewhat a product of all three families, yet not connected with any one tradition, perhaps more European than German.

This is a difficult book to sum up succinctly. It is a portrait of a family's upheavals and tragedies set against the backdrop of events in Germany leading up to World War 1. The writing is witty (sometimes funny) and elegant. The narrative is sweeping and thoughtful. It's a novel to be read slowly and appreciated.

Set in a similar place and time is Ursula Hegi's Stones From the River. "Stones from the River is a daring, dramatic and complex novel of life in Germany. It is set in Burgdorf, a small fictional German town, between 1915 and 1951. The protagonist is Trudi Montag, a Zwerg -- the German word for dwarf woman. As a dwarf she is set apart, the outsider whose physical "otherness" has a corollary in her refusal to be a part of Burgdorf's silent complicity during and after World War II. Trudi establishes her status and power, not through beauty, marriage, or motherhood, but rather as the town's librarian and relentless collector of stories.
Through Trudi's unblinking eyes, we witness the growing impact of Nazism on the ordinary townsfolk of Burgdorf as they are thrust on to a larger moral stage and forced to make choices that will forever mark their lives. Stones from the River is a story of secrets, parceled out masterfully by Trudi -- and by Ursula Hegi -- as they reveal the truth about living through unspeakable times." - publisher

Staff Picks! Straight Man by Richard Russo - a vintage post*

*-this vintage post was first published May 2009

Someone recently asked me to suggest a good weekend read and I couldn’t help but think of Straight Man by Richard Russo. I read it a few years back after finding it listed in a magazine somewhere on an anti-Oprah list. (An explanation: the list compiler was tired of the heart-wrenching books that Oprah was fond of recommending at the time and wanted something that still told a good story but that wasn’t totally depressing). Straight Man really fits that bill.

The plot revolves around William Henry (Hank) Deveraux, Jr. who is a professor in the English Department at a small town university. Ever living in the shadow of his famous and academically successful father (William Henry Deveraux, Sr.) Hank is having something of a life crisis. He has been give the position as Interim Chair in the English Department at the university, but he’s making a bit of a mess of things; his daughter’s marriage problems are starting to be his problems too and on top of that, his father has just rolled back into town after an absence of decades.

A lot happens in this book. A lot of really funny stuff happens in this book. I don’t want to chronicle events here, because I don’t want you to miss the chance to laugh out loud when you stumble upon them throughout the narrative. But I don't want you to think this book is just fluffy comedy, because there is a real human story there as well. Henry’s problems, and his solutions, are sometimes outlandish, but you can always relate to where is coming from - even if you would handle things in a totally different way.

Richard Russo has since gone on to win a Pulitzer Prize for his novel Empire Falls - which, like Straight Man, follows a few main characters in their lives in small town America. Empire Falls is more serious - although there are touches of humour, and I actually enjoyed Straight Man a whole lot more.

For more fictional send-ups of the academic milieu you might also enjoy:

Moo by Jane Smiley - about the people of Moo University, a midwest Agricultural College

Small World by David Lodge - also set in an English Department, where the academics are competing for a newly created chair position