Westport Public Library BOOK blog
February 8, 2010
February 1, 2010
Sudoku showdown
Join us for our first mystery program of the new year. Author Parnell Hall will be discussing his newest entertaining and fun-filled mystery, The Puzzle Lady vs. the Sudoku Lady, on Thursday evening, February 4, at 7:30 pm in the McManus Room ... the perfect warm-up for the Library’s eleventh annual Crossword Puzzle Contest on February 6. Nominated for the Edgar, Shamus, and Lefty awards, Hall is an actor, screenwriter, and former private investigator, as well as the author of two popular mystery series. Fans of his Stanley Hastings (New York City actor and private investigator) series will be pleased to hear that there will be a new Hastings mystery, Caper, coming out this July.January 31, 2010
"What if...?"
Guest blogger Frank Corbo gives a mathematician's reaction to The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa. Mr. Corbo is the K-12 Mathematics Coordinator for the Westport Public Schools. ********************************************************************************** As a mathematician, I think that three themes emerge from my reading of this extraordinary little book. *There has always been tension among mathematicians concerning the nature of mathematics itself. Is mathematics a function of the human condition, or does it transcend the human condition? Is mathematics a human invention or do we humans merely discover that which was always there? On page 23, the professor says: "There were numbers...
January 28, 2010
Marta's Reading Insight
A few of the books I have read recently…and my opinions about them. DEFY GRAVITY: HEALING BEYOND THE BOUNDS OF REASON by Caroline Myss I think of myself as a veteran of the New Age heyday and so, probably have a greater tolerance for this type of book than others do. I have followed Myss’ books since the first one, Why People Don’t Heal and How They Can, after I heard about her at a seminar This book is repetitious and it bothers me when a self-help author talks about her previous erroneous beliefs. On the other hand, Myss always...
January 24, 2010
Victoria’s secrets
Between the recently released Sherlock Holmes movie and the new film, The Young Victoria, everything Victorian is suddenly in demand. A Foreign Affair, the first book in a Victorian mystery series by Caro Peacock, begins in England at the moment of Victoria's ascent to the throne. Receiving word that her father has been killed in a duel in 1838 England, Liberty Lane, who knows her father would never have taken a part in such an act, sets out to catch his killer and takes on a government assignment to pose as a governess and move in with an influential and sinister family. In the follow-up, A Dangerous Affair, Liberty’s attempt to settle down to a quiet life is thwarted by a public rivalry between two beautiful dancers that culminates in a poisoning murder of one and a death sentence for the other. Publishers Weekly says “Peacock skillfully interweaves figures of real Victorian London, while avoiding the genre's typical focus on aristocracy.”January 19, 2010
Morse
Colin Dexter maintains that he had but one simple aim in mind when he started writing – “to tell a story that would entertain whatever readers might be coming my way,” despite being well aware, as an academic with a background in the classics and literature, of Dr. Johnson’s famous remark that “no man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money.” For his Morse endeavours – fans will forgive the pun – Dexter has won numerous awards and he was presented with the Cartier Diamond Dagger for Lifetime Achievement in 1997. There have been thirteen Morse novels, a short story collection, Morse’s Greatest Mystery and Other Stories (1993), and a hugely successful television series starring John Thaw in the title role. Produced by the ITV in Britain and shown in the States on PBS, thirty-three episodes were filmed between 1987 and 2000, concluding with Morse’s death in the final episode The Remorseful Day.January 15, 2010
Remember Enatsu?
On Wednesday January 20th at 7:30 pm Harry Sakamaki will be at the Library to talk about Japanese baseball. In The Housekeeper and the Professor, baseball is the glue in the connection between the Professor and Root, the Housekeeper’s son. Math is the language they use to discuss the game. Baseball in Japan is similar to …and different from… American baseball. Mr. Sakamaki, President of the Japan Society of Fairfield County, will explain. Here’s a little quiz to get you thinking about Japanese baseball: 1. In what year was baseball first introduced in Japan? 2. Who played and who won...
January 13, 2010
Bleak Midwinter
Julia Spencer-Fleming’s In the Bleak Midwinter was the winner of the 2001 St. Martin's Press/Malice Domestic Best First Traditional Mystery Award, given to an unpublished author, and went on to win the 2003 Agatha, Anthony, Barry, Dilys, and Macavity Awards after publication. Publishers Weekly raved “The vivid setting descriptions will bring plenty of shivers, but the real strength of this stellar first is the focus on the mystery.” So, grab an afghan, and join the Usual Suspects on Sunday, January 18th at 2 pm, as they discuss this first title in the Fergusson and Van Alystyne series.One Day at a Time
Snowy days and frigid temperatures are the perfect combination for curling up and reading a good book. Making the best of our recent weather conditions, I just finished two books that should make great book club selections. Both deal with a similar topic: alcoholism. Although they approach the topic from a different perspective, there are some parallels in the way the main characters handle the issue. Each book can stand alone as a great discussion book.English, Japanese, Math
If you are of a certain age (like me) you may remember when math was not a subject for girls. Rather it was a specialty of only some boys and girls were exempt from even trying to understand it. It was when I was in college and required to take Statistics that I realized that math is basically another language…and there is nothing exclusively male about it. Math had been taught to me as problem- solving that had to be done in exact steps and in exact order. If I reached the correct answer in a different way, it was...
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