Westport Public Library BOOK blog

Set in the present day, Robert O. Greer’s sixth C.J. Floyd mystery The Mongoose Deception drags the reluctant Black bail bondsman turned Western collectibles dealer detective back through time into the JFK assassination.

An earthquake which damages the Eisenhower Memorial Tunnel in Colorado reveals the corpse of Antoine Ducane, who had hinted that he knew the truth behind the murder and then disappeared in the 1970s.

The discovery sets off a chain of violent events that soon involve Floyd and take him all the way from the crisp and clear mountains of Colorado to the muggy swamps of Louisiana.

Greer provides us with flashbacks to mobsters Santo Trafficante and Carlos Marcello discussing the need to kill the president.

Another treat for conspiracy buffs – less vintage in nature – is Tom Cain’s The Accident Man.

One summer night in 1997, hired assassin Samuel Carver is positioned in a Paris tunnel ready to make a hit on a dangerous terrorist.

After causing a speeding black Mercedes – in which he believes his target to be the passenger – to smash into a stone pillar, he realizes that he has caused the death of Princess Diana.

He vows revenge on those who set him up and must work his way through the assassin underground while being pursued by the very forces that hired him.

Tom Cain is the pseudonym for an award-winning British journalist [David Thomas] with a twenty-five-year history of investigative reporting. The Accident Man is his first novel.

The Hero with a Thousand Faces was written in 1949 by Joseph Campbell. In it he explained the “monomyth” (a term he borrowed from James Joyce) or what has come to be called the “heroic journey.” Dorothy’s adventure in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is an example of this universal pattern. Whether enjoyed as a simple adventure story for young people or a symbolic morality lesson for everyone, the book by L. Frank Baum has been the subject of analysis and enjoyment for over 100 years.

Hear Dr. Mark Schenker, Associate Dean at Yale College, examine the tradition of the heroic journey as it informs The Wonderful Wizard of Oz on Monday March 31 at 7:30 in the McManus Room.

This is the concluding event in WestportREADS 2008

Do you pause on your way to the trash barrel, as you start supposing all the alternate futures in which your trash will suddenly be your treasure? Are you re-assured by the published pictures of some genius’ office in which every surface is piled high with papers and books? (The latest was the office of William F. Buckley, Jr.) By now, you have figured out that I am a certified “pack rat.”

Recently, a kindred soul shared with me the October 6, 1996 issue of The New York Times Book Review- 100 Years edition. In the midst of the Westport Library 100 Years celebration, a look back at the world of book reviewing is appropriate. The only specific reference to the Library birth year of 1908 was in the Oops! column- a collection of comments that turned out to be not too prescient.
From July 18, 1908: on Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery:
“The author’s probable intention was to exhibit a unique development in this little asylum waif, but there is no real difference between the girl at the end of the story and the one at the beginning of it. All the other characters in the book are human enough.”

Other reviewers through the years revealed some astute assessments of newly-published books:
1903: The Soul of Black Folk by W.E.B. DuBois
“…very interesting to the student of negro character…”
1920: A General Introduction to Psychoanalysis by Sigmund Freud
“Freud realizes that psychoanalysis is still undeveloped science….”
1933: My Battle by Adolf Hitler
“It is with sadness, tinged with fear for the world’s future, that we read Hitler’s hymn of hate…”
1936: Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
“She has set herself a hard mark to match with a second book, and I hope only that she will not set too soon about it.”
1949: Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell
“…the most contemporary novel of this year and who knows of how many past and to come…”
1957: On the Road by Jack Kerouac
“The non sequitars of the beat generation become the author’s own plotless and themeless technique….”
1969: Portnoy’s Complaint by Philip Roth
“…the existentially quintessential form for any American-Jewish tale bearing – or baring- guilt.”
1979: The Executioner’s Song by Norman Mailer
“The very subject … a nihilism antithetical not only to literature but to most other forms of human endeavor…”
1981: July’s People by Nadine Gordimer
“demonstrates with breathtaking clarity the tensions and complex interdependence of whites and blacks in South Africa.”
1987: The Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe
“Malice is a powerful spice. Too much can ruin the stew, and Mr Wolfe comes close.”

Do you think current reviewers are as far-sighted?

Well, editor Ranjit Dighe in his book, The Historian's Wizard of Oz, tells us that “Democrats tend to stress an economic populism, in which they claim to be the defenders of working-class Americans against the excesses of big business, while Republicans tend to stress a cultural populism, in which they claim to be the defenders of traditional values against intellectual elites, and an economic populism of their own, aimed at big government and “tax-and-spend liberals.”

Sound familiar? The current media frenzy of political coverage spews forth these very ideas every day. Populism in the late 19th century has been detected in the symbolism of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum. Populism was the big story of the tumultuous 1890s and must have influenced Baum’s thinking, even if he claimed to write a simple story for children. A newspaperman, he was no stranger to the politics of the time.

Want to learn more about the politics & economics of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz? Maybe like me, you are feeling as if you should have paid more attention to those American history courses! Dr. Ranjit Dighe, Associate Professor of Economic History at SUNY Oswego will provide a unique view of the classic book and teach us a little economic history.
Come hear Dr Dighe on Thursday March 27 at 7:30 pm in the McManus Room.

Agathas are handed out in five categories: Best Novel; Best First Mystery; Best Short Story; Best Non-Fiction; Best Children's/Young Adult Mystery.

This year’s nominees in the Best Novel category are:

The Penguin Who Knew Too Much by Donna Andrews.
In her 8th outing, Meg Langslow and her fiancé are moving into their new house when Meg's dad announces that he has discovered a dead body while digging a pool in the basement for penguins fostered from a bankrupt local zoo.

Her Royal Spyness by Rhys Bowen.
Her family is quite broke, and when someone murders the man who had planned to seize the family estate, the killer's attention turns to Lady Georgiana when she starts asking questions to save her brother, who is the prime suspect.

Hard Row by Margaret Maron.
In this 13th Deborah Knott mystery, body parts begin to appear that turn out to belong to a farmer known for his exploitation of cheap immigrant labor. Deborah's new sheriff husband is charged with finding his killer.

A Fatal Grace by Louise Penny.
In his second case, Inspector Armand Gamache investigates when a much disliked woman is murdered, wading through a deep pool of potential murderers ranging from the victim's lover to her friends in a small Canadian community.

Murder with Reservations by Elaine Viets.
In her 6th appearance, Helen Hawthorne is working as a maid in a hotel where, six months earlier, a bank robber supposedly stashed his loot before he was killed in a shootout and now one of her co-workers has gone missing.

Ballots will be cast by attendees of the Malice Domestic XX Conference in Arlington, Virginia at the end of April. Fans are encouraged to attend.

Visit the Malice website to view a list of the nominees in all categories.

For the spice of variety, I am skipping the Top Ten this week.

Instead, I will tell you about the second ten most popular titles at the Library.
11- Lush Life by Richard Price - An urban thriller- social realism tinged with psychological nuance and steeped in violence.
12-The Secret Between Us by Barbara Delinsky – The story of a lie and a strong mother/daughter bond- family fiction that stretches the limits of love and understanding.
13- Four Wives by Wendy Walker – Four affluent suburban women reveal the truths behind their lavish lifestyles.
14- First Patient by Michael Palmer – A country doctor must care for his old friend who happens to be the President and is probably being sabotaged by unknown enemies.
15-7th Heaven by James Patterson & Maxine Paetro- #7 in the Women’s Murder Club series- a missing teenager and a serial arsonist keep the action moving.
16- Sail by James Patterson & Howard Roughan – the “king of page turners” sets this one on a ten-day boat trip- the family that sails together, fails together.
17-T is for Trespass by Sue Grafton – the formula works, yet again- # 20 in the Milhone series.
18- In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan – “Eat Food. Not too much. Mostly plants” – read on for the details.
19-Commoner:a novel by John Burnham Schwartz – heart-wrenching re-telling of the lives of the women who marry the Crown Princes of Japan- research into the mysteries of elaborate court life enhance the story.
20-Beautiful Boy: a Father’s Journey Through his Son’s Addiction by David Sheff- the anguished truth of meth addiction.

PS: There is one new title on the Top Ten list in the #10 spot. It’s Remember Me? by Sophie Kinsella, who lavishes her wicked humor and charm on a new heroine whose lifestyle is familiar, but whose memory is missing.

Beginning reference librarians are often startled by some of the questions they receive. Like: “why is the sky blue?” or “does water swirl clockwise or counterclockwise as it goes down the drain?” Actually, one of the best aspects of my career is the daily chance to learn something new and (hopefully) to keep my brain functioning! I was reminded of the swirling water question, when I decided to investigate cyclones, like the one that lifted Dorothy out of Kansas and into her dream of Oz. Just like the draining water, the direction of cyclone swirling is determined by the hemisphere of the earth in which it occurs. Find out more about cyclones and other weather facts and beliefs on Tuesday March 25 at 7:30 pm when WABC meteorologist Bill Evans will speak about strange weather (in Dorothy’s Kansas and elsewhere.)

Evans has written a thriller, Category 7 in which a monster storm is created and escapes control as it heads for New York City. Copies of the book will be available for sale and signing.

A novel in words and pictures got rave reviews from a few staff members. The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick is a mystery for 9-12 year olds, but this Caldecott Medal winner is lauded by all ages who read it. The Caldecott is awarded annually by the American Library Association to the artist of the most distinguished picture book for children. Selznick was one of the Rabbit Hill Festival authors to appear at the Library.

Seeing the movie prompted some to read The Diving Bell and the Butterfly by Jean-Dominique Bauby. Both film & book have fans; this autobiographical story of a man whose only way to communicate is by blinking an eye is about his immobile body and his soaring spirit.

Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson is the current & popular Community Read choice of Fairfield. Readers report an interesting and inspiring account of one man’s quest to improve lives in Afghanistan & Pakistan.

The Maytrees by Annie Dillard received mixed reviews from staff. Some praised the nature writing, but disliked the characters. Others found the life and death story both engaging and atmospheric.

If you enjoy outdoors sculpture, or art assembled from nature, you will want to see the new book by Andy Goldsworthy. Enclosure is highly recommended, as are Goldsworthy’s previous books- especially Passage.

Jodi Picoult appears on everybody’s favorite list; Vanishing Acts was the book recommended this time. Walter Mosley is another favorite; his latest is Blonde Faith. Historical novels with positive staff reviews include: Vivaldi’s Virgins by Barbara Quick and Loving Frank by Nancy Horan.

The children’s book Eleven: a Mystery by Patricia Reilly Giff was enjoyed, as was The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum. (It's not too late to come to some WestportREADS 2008 events!)

Richard Cohen’s Strong at the Broken Places: Voices of Illness, Chorus of Hope is an inspirational collection of true stories about those who are chronically ill. The author who suffers from multiple sclerosis is the husband of television’s Meredith Vieira.

The Geography of Bliss: One Grump's Search for the Happiest Places in the World by NPR commentator Eric Weiner is a "breezy read" about how where we are makes us happy - or not. A different kind of travel book. Take a look at his entertaining website.

Magdalen Nabb was the author of the Marshal Salvatore Guarnaccia novels, which are set in modern day Florence, although they often refer back to the recent or distant past and are mostly based on real crimes committed in the city.

A recent piece about her death in Booklist magazine says “Over the 14 Guarnaccia novels, Nabb developed her hero into a working-man’s Maigret, a bit of a plodder, yes, but hypersensitive to human nuance and to the sometimes overwhelming sadness that lurks beneath the surface of daily life.”

Nabb would have been pleased at this comparison, for, as her website biography relates, “Having been a fan of Georges Simenon’s novels for as long as she could remember, she was astonished and overjoyed when Simenon wrote to congratulate her on her first novel. Their correspondence continued until his death and, until then, the first copy of each book went to him. His presence is very much missed but in difficult moments she could still get advice from him by browsing through his books and his letters.”

Another author of what has been called the “renaissance of Italian crime fiction,” Michael Dibdin,
gave us Aurelio Zen, one of the quirkiest detectives in all of crime fiction.

Throughout the 11 titles in the series he is constantly appalled by the savagery of his fellow countrymen and entangled in the horrors of Italian bureaucracy, forever bending the rules to achieve results, much to the annoyance of his superiors.

Each title is set in a different region of Italy, starting in the beautiful medieval city of Perugia.

If you are a Michael Kitchen (Foyle’s War) fan, I highly recommend his reading of Dibdin’s Blood Rain and A Long Finish.

The late Batya Gur’s groundbreaking Chief Inspector Michael Ohayon mysteries took us across the Mediterranean to Jerusalem.

The 5th and final title in the series, Bethlehem Road Murder, got a starred review in Publishers Weekly, which called it an “outstanding police procedural” that “can hold its own with the best work of P.D. James.”

The brooding Ohayon is a restrained and understated figure who has often been called the Israeli Adam Dalgleish.

Visit our list of international detectives if you are shopping for a new series to read, and don’t forget to check Stop, You’re Killing Me! for a list of the series titles in their order of publication.

Cnn.com/travel reports that “More choices in food, activities, itineraries and luxury are some of the trends shaping the cruise industry for 2008. “

Most cruises still offer formal dining at 8:30 p.m. and midnight buffets. But many ships now offer casual dining that does not involve scheduled seatings and formal dress at large tables with strangers – Love Boat style.

Some ships have added bowling alleys and mechanical waves for surfing as well as rock-climbing walls and ice-skating rinks. Cunard's Queen Victoria, launched in December 2007, became the first ship to offer fencing lessons at sea.

Excursions can include kayaking, wildlife watches, bike tours and dolphin encounters.

In 2007, the Caribbean accounted for 43 percent of cruise bookings, Alaska 15 percent, the Mexican Riviera 8 percent, and Europe/Mediterranean 8 percent.

And while more than 50 percent of travel overall is booked online, only 7 percent of cruises are booked online due to the complexity of cruise bookings and the need for advice, especially for first-time cruisers.

If you are looking for some information before you call your travel agent, or some suggested destinations, check out the Library’s cruise guidebooks collection.

By the way, if you want to have the cruise ship experience with ever leaving port, beginning in 2009 the QE2 will be permanently berthed at a specially-constructed pier in Dubai to serve as a luxury floating hotel, retail and entertainment destination.

Baum asserted that he wrote The Wonderful Wizard of Oz “solely to please the children….” The simple story of a child’s adventure with its triumph of good over evil, its underlying optimism and its happy homecoming ending has pleased children for over 100 years. And yet…even a perfunctory look into the various interpretations of the book affords many different interpretations.

There are the strong connections to Romanticism, poetry, pastoral philosophy and theosophy. There’s the intriguing question of just who does have the power in this saga and why. A symbolic & ironic lesson about self-discovery drives the tale, as each character looks for the characteristics already possessed. What is illusion? Reality? How are they distinguished?

Then there is the whole economic and political allegory explicated by critics and professors for years. Dorothy = the American people: plucky, good-natured, naive.
Oz= the almighty ounce of gold
Yellow Brick Road = a path paved with gold bricks that leads nowhere
Dorothy’s Silver Slippers walking on the yellow brick road = the bimetallic standard
All the good guys = populists
Bad guys = Eastern banking & industrialists
Wizard = President McKinley
Et cetera.

Think that’s far-fetched? How about the theory that the story parallels the Book of Exodus? Dorothy & companions are enslaved, water is essential in their deliverance, they are “prisoners in a strange land” and the day of deliverance will be a holiday then and forever after.

Then there is the theory of colors. The colors of Oz are not arbitrary, but change from region to region in accordance with the principles of color theory. The three major areas are each a primary color. The travelers must journey through a secondary color to get to another primary one. For example, the green country of the Emerald City is the link between the blue land of the Munchkins and yellow Winkie country.
(Baum also wrote The Art of Decorating Dry Goods Windows and Interiors in 1900.)

There’s more, but you probably get the idea. So, if you have been hesitating to read a simple child’s story, give it another read. See what interesting implications you can unearth.

Did you know that Baum's mother-in-law was a suffragette?

The National Women’s History Project established March as the month to recognize the unique role that women have played in the history of our country, to educate and increase public awareness about women’s contribution to our society. With all the excitement lately about this year’s presidential primary race and the role women are playing in it, what better way to celebrate Women’s History Month than to add an inspiring biography to your book club’s list?

Hillary Rodham Clinton is not just the only “first lady” to be elected to the U.S. Senate, she now has a good chance to be our first female president. Carl Bernstein has written a very thorough picture of Ms. Clinton in his book A Woman in Charge: the Life of Hillary Rodham Clinton. Or why not read Hillary’s own autobiography, Living History, or one of the many other books about the former first lady. Most likely lots of heated discussions will take place about her place in women’s history, particularly as she remains at the top of the news for the next several months.

Personal History by Katharine Graham is the fascinating story of the former publisher of the Washington Post. Taking over the newspaper after her husband’s death, Ms. Graham became one of the most powerful American women of the 20th century. She became a leader in a male dominated world of business and journalism.

If your group would rather read something a little more fun, how about My Life in France by Julia Child? Julia Child really changed the way America thinks about food. The gourmet food and wine industry that we enjoy today had its basis in those fabulous cook books and her original cooking shows. This book chronicles her early years in France and how she mastered the “art of French cooking”.

One of the most intriguing women of the last century was Connecticut’s own Katharine Hepburn. Winner of four Academy awards, Hepburn was both unconventional and outspoken. She lived life by her own set of rules. Two of the more complete biographies of her are Kate: the Woman Who Was Hepburn by William Mann, and Kate Remembered by A. Scott Berg. Either one would be a good choice for a great discussion about her life.

Women’s stories need to be shared and talked about, so celebrate women’s lives and accomplishments this month. These are some of my favorite women in history. Who are some of the women that have inspired you?

The gothic is widely acknowledged as the forerunner of the modern mystery novel.

In the twentieth century the gothic was revived by Daphne du Maurier. Rebecca (1938) is in many ways a re-working of Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre.

Du Maurier inspired a substantial body of writers of the 1950s, 60s and 70s, a list which includes Joan Aiken, Victoria Holt, Barbara Michaels, and Mary Stewart.

This was where many female baby boomers, myself included, turned once they had checked off every title on the Nancy Drew list. There was no such genre as “Young Adult” or “Teen” fiction in those days and the adult mystery section was definitely off-limits to this 60s teenager.

Author Diane Setterfield has been hailed for breathing new life into an old form with The Thirteenth Tale the next title for discussion by the Usual Suspects Mystery Reading Group, scheduled for Sunday, March 16th.

A story with echoes of Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights, at 406 pages it might prove a bit daunting for the mystery reader used to a slimmer volume, but I found it a thoroughly engrossing story.

I actually “read” this book via compact discs, which at nearly 16 hours playing time was a big investment of time, and I often carried an unfinished disc from my car player into the house to resume the story. The narration is done by two separate readers, a clever way of carrying the story which centers on two women and their loss of twin sisters.

There is a very clever little website devoted to this book which includes a Q&A session with the author, a reading guide for the book, traditional English recipes (!) and a bibliography of the finest gothic tales to be had.

Hope you can join us on Sunday at 2. New members are always welcome.

Have you read Junot Diaz’s novel, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao? Everyone who mentions it is effusive with praise. No negative comments. I have it at home now and am eagerly anticipating a “good read.” His previous book, Drown is a collection of short stories published in 1996. With his writing often compared to that of Russo and Roth, his stories have frequently appeared in the New Yorker.
Recently, the National Book Critics Circle celebrated literature and literacy in America by announcing winners of the 2007 awards. Diaz won for fiction.

• The General Nonfiction award went to Harriet Washington for Medical Apartheid: the Dark History of Medical Experiments on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present.
• Edwidge Danticat won for Brother, I’m Dying in the Autobiography category. You may remember Haitian Danticat’s previous books Breath Eyes Memory & The Dewbreaker.
• The win for Biography went to Tim Jeal for Stanley: the Impossible Life of Africa’s Greatest Explorer.
• Alex Ross won for Criticism with his book on modern music, The Rest is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century.
• The Poetry award went to Mary Jo Bang for Elegy. Bang is an English Literature professor and this, her fifth book of poems, mourns the death of her adult son.

Another fake memoir!! This time it’s by a white woman who claimed she was raised in poverty by a black foster mother and sold drugs for an LA gang. Love and Consequences by Margaret B. Jones has been recalled by the publisher (Penguin Group USA.) The author is actually Margaret Seltzer who grew up in a well-off area of San Francisco Valley with her biological family. She attended private Episcopal day school and never lived with a foster family or sold drugs for a gang. She managed to fool her editor and the New York Times. Her older sister called the publisher and blew the whistle after she saw the NY Times article.

Fiction as memoir seems to have a market. You remember James Frey and A Million Little Pieces. Last week Misha: a Memoir of the Holocaust Years by Misha Defonseca was discovered to be a fake also. It was published in 1997.

I wonder why these writers do not call it fiction?

How old is Dorothy? Only six or seven and hence, without the rites of passage and sexual overtones of those “older” heroines like Alice in Alice in Wonderland and Mary in the Secret Garden. So, a simpler story about basic belief in human goodness and the innate power we all have, but may not recognize. When the Wizard asks why he should help her, Dorothy answers, “Because you are strong and I am weak….” There is a moral order in Baum’s world and it rests on the natural world without reference to traditional religion. It is truly a story seen through Dorothy’s eyes; no introspection here. And no irony.

(Thanks to Professor JT Barbarese for his talk last evening on The World Through Dorothy's Eyes.)

And all those political and economic allegories? It seems unlikely that Baum wrote with those in mind. And yet, they layer onto Dorothy’s story with such a good fit, that you can’t help wondering…

(Find out on Thursday March 27 at 7:30 pm what Professor Ranjit Dighe thinks about the political implications of the book.)

What do you think? Simple story or political allegory?

Come to the WestportREADS events to learn more.

With help from none other than Judy Garland, Clark (You Made Me Love You!) Gable, and Raymond Chandler, Peters follows -- as the book description reads -- “a treacherous trail of clues … one as winding as the Yellow Brick Road, and deadlier than a field of poppies” to find a murderer even wickeder than the Wicked Witch of the West.

Have you ever heard those bizarre stories about a Munchkin suicide taking place during the filming of the Wizard of Oz?

Margaret Hamilton was badly burned when her flammable green makeup ignited, and the originally cast Tin Man, Buddy Ebsen, was sickened by his silver makeup, but absolutely no Munchlins were harmed in the making of this film!

At the end of the scene where the Tin Man has rusted shut and Dorothy oils him back to life, as the three main characters move down the road there is an image off in the background that many claimed was a hanged body – that of a munchkin who killed himself over a love affair gone bad.

Better quality prints and digitized copies of the film reveal that it simply one of the larger birds that the Los Angeles Zoo loaned MGM to give the indoor set used in this sequence a more "outdoorsy" feel.

So much for that mystery.

One of Barbara D’Amato’s freelance Chicago reporter Cat Marsala mysteries, Hard Road, also has an Oz theme.

Cat tracks down the unknown assailant who disrupted an annual Oz Festival by killing its security chief and attempting to murder the reporter herself.

In the telling of her story, D’Amato pays tribute to the extraordinary imagination of L. Frank Baum.

Hard Road includes an appreciation of Baum by D'Amato's son, Brian, and a 20-question quiz at the end – which you will surely ace after participating in this year’s Westport Reads Oz celebration.