Westport Public Library BOOK blog

The New Age movement began in the second half of the 20th century. It spread from religious and spiritual ideas to social phenomenon that eventually infused medicine, food, music, literature, art and life style. Ancient beliefs and practices were blended with contemporary culture. “New Age” referred to the coming astrological age of Aquarius. Surprisingly, one of the books published in 1908 was The Aquarian Gospel of Jesus the Christ by Levi H. Dowling. The true story of the life of Jesus transcribed from Askashic records, it included all the years missing in Biblical accounts according to the author.

The Children’s Encyclopedia (published from 1908-1964 in England) was a didactic educational tool sold door-to-door. It reflected the times and the views of the editors on eugenics, sexism and racism. It was also used in schools and for teacher training. Where did I read about this? On Wikipedia!

In 1908, Bram Stoker’s collection of short stories was published. Snowbound: The Record of a Theatrical Touring Party includes the intriguing titles: The Slim Syrens, Mick the Devil, A Star Trap and A Moon-Light Effect. If you are very curious, used copies are listed on amazon for around $100. Or, you could re-read the classic Dracula, which Stoker wrote in 1897.

A 1908 title still available and enjoying popularity is A Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck by Beatrix Potter. This charming story of a mother duck getting ready for the arrival of her babies will give you and your young listeners a break from today’s electronic fare for the young. Potter who became financially independent through her writing, died in 1943 and left 4000 acres of land, cottages and 15 farms to the National Trust in her will.

“When angry, count four; when very angry, swear.”

“Few things are harder to put up with than the annoyance of a good example.”

“Familiarity breeds contempt-and children.”

“All you need in this life is ignorance and confidence; then success is sure.”

Few literary lions are more quotable than Mark Twain. As we celebrate 100 years of the Westport Library, we remember Twain’s impact on the culture of 1908 America…and Connecticut. The next program in the Library Spoken Word series on Mark Twain and the Emergence of the American Voice is Wednesday May 14 at 7:30 pm. Daniel Cruson, President of the Archaeology Society of Connecticut will speak on The Impact of Mark Twain in Connecticut. On Monday May 19 at 7pm, beTwixt, beTween & beTwain an original musical revue of Twain’s stories will be performed by composer Danny Ashkenasi and cast members.To hear the previous programs in the series, listen to the Library podcasts.

If you are inspired to re-acquaint yourself with Mark Twain, you can find most of his writing on our fiction shelves under Twain. The DVD of Tom Sawyer & Huckleberry Finn is also available. We have Essays and Correspondence by Twain, as well as his Autobiography. Did you see the production of the rediscovered comedy, Is He Dead?

“Good friends, good books, and a sleepy conscience.” No matter how aroused your conscience,
good friends and good books have always been found at the Westport Library!

One of my favorite web sites is Reading Group Choices. This site has lots of information for book clubs, including lists of favorites from other book clubs. Book Browse is another web site that has a special section for book clubs. Not only are there suggestions for books, but there is also lots of advice on how to choose books for your group. One of the most comprehensive web sites around, and another favorite of mine, is Bookreporter.com. This site has quite a bit of information about books and authors in addition to a direct link to Reading Group Guides.com.

Westport Public Library has some great resources right on our own website. Novelist is a database filled with information about novels for both adults and children. One of my favorite features is Author Read-alikes. If you like a book by a certain author this feature will help you find other authors that you might want to try. What Do I Read Next? is a database that will also help you find non-fiction books for your book club.

On our Great Web Sites page, I would highly recommend that you check out the Reviews page, which is under the Books and Literature section, for direct links to many book review resources. Also the Reading Lists and More page has links to more book suggestions. And of course, Marta Campbell, head of Collection Management at the library has put together a considerable amount of information on the book club section of our website. Besides our Speaking of Books Collection and Discussion Guides, you will find Best Books of 2007, under Reading Suggestions. There are many more links on this page to other suggestions including Sybil Steinberg’s list which covers the last few years.

I hope this gives you some ideas for putting that book list together. And if you’re still having trouble choosing something, please feel free to e-mail me. I’m always happy to help.

Next Sunday at 2 in the McManus Room, The Usual Suspects Mystery Reading Group will be discussing the first title in the series, Sacred Cows, which Publishers Weekly called a “spirited debut.”

Annie Seymour is a police reporter at the fictional New Haven Herald. She is tough, smart and has a self-deprecating sense of humor. She lives in a brownstone in the city's Wooster Square neighborhood, just around the corner from the best pizza in the world.

In Sacred Cows, when a Yale student is found dead, Annie's investigation into the girl's secret life brings her closer to home than she expects.

We will a brief discussion and a chance to chat with our special guest. Olson is a New Haven native and was herself in the newspaper business for 20 years.

Light refreshments (not pizza) will be served. All are welcome.

Phone 291-4821 for a copy of the book. Call 291-4836 for more information on The Usual Suspects.

The summer discussion series, “Paper Chases”, begins on Sunday, June 15th with a discussion of The Bookman’s Wake by John Dunning. Other titles will include A Letter of Mary by Laurie R. King (July 13th) and The Burglar Who Traded Ted Williams by Lawrence Block (August 17th).

Claire Malloy – widowed mother of a teenage daughter and a bookseller in Farberville, Arkansas – has finally married town police Lt. Peter Rosen.

They are on their honeymoon in Luxor, Egypt, accompanied by her daughter Caron and Inez, Caron's best friend and frequent partner in (mis)adventure.

The girls claim they’re being followed by a sinister Arab with a scar, and then a young American woman is kidnapped and an archeological expedition is beset by murderous mishaps.

Enter one Lady Amelia Peabody Emerson, reputed to be the descendant of famous English archeologists!

Publishers Weekly says “Manipulating everything with a practiced hand, Hess concludes the story in a manner worthy of Hercule Poirot in the classic Death on the Nile.”

Joan Hess is the author of both the Claire Malloy and the Maggody mystery series.

Amerotke enters the twilight world of glorious Thebes where life can be so rich and yet death so swift and brutal when three prominent Egyptian scribes are poisoned.

PW says “Doherty, the author of a number of other historical series, manages to include an impossible crime among the puzzles the sage and insightful judge must solve.”

Hope that all of you mummies out there enjoy your special day on Sunday!

Social, literary, biblio-therapeutic, or competitive, book clubs have long been an adjunct to the Westport Library. From 1908 on, the Library has always been a place to expect some conversation about reading. In the 1970s, there was a Great Books discussion group and also a Seniors Book Club, which met in the YMCA in the winter and under a tree by the water at Longshore in the summer. (That was a pleasant assignment in many ways.)

Now, the Library sponsors two groups, The Usual Suspects and Pageturners, which meet at the Library each month. In addition, the Library supports 52 local area book groups who depend on suggestions, multiple copies and discussion guides from the Library. The collection of multiple copies, Speaking of Books, is funded by the Friends of the Library. A club may request that all ten copies of a book be held for them. Each title in the collection also has a discussion guide available. Discussion guides are added for other books, too, as requested. Discussion guides may be checked out or copies may be printed.Today, we have over 480 titles in our collection of discussion guides.

Book clubs enjoy the expertise of Library staff. Jane Murphy leads the Usual Suspects and oversees the Mystery area of the Library collection. She is truly our Mystery Maven. Susan Madeo knows all the intricacies of the InterLibrary Loan system (for those titles not in Speaking of Books) and, also, what books are available and which ones lead to good discussions. Multiple copies request form. Joan Hume selects and facilitates the Page Turners monthly discussions. For discussion guide requests or to suggest additions to the Speaking of Books collection, you may contact me.

Recently, I heard of a new model for book clubs: each member reads a different book. Each gives a short book talk and then they swap the books. Need ideas? Take a look at these: Reading List, Title Swap, Sybil’s List. And that book that you just can’t stop talking about? Tell us about it!

The Agathas were awarded at the Malice Domestic conference banquet. I was happy to be seated with author Kathryn R. Wall, whose 8th Bay Tanner mystery, The Mercy Oak, has just hit the Library shelf this week.

I was impressed with all of the new names and faces at Fresh Blood, the New Authors Breakfast, which is hosted by Mystery Scene magazine and met up with Rosemary Harris, whose first offering, Pushing Up Daisies is set right here in Connecticut.

On one of Sunday’s author panels, Harris had a few words in defense of the traditional mystery (Malice’s theme) when she answered the point blank “Are cozy mysteries credible?” with remarks about the credibility of Lee Child’s Jack Reacher, traveling around with only a toothbrush and the clothes on his back. So much of fiction requires that “suspension of disbelief,” doesn’t it?

The very last book I cataloged right before I left for the conference was Elizabeth Zelvin’s Death Will Get You Sober and Liz was also at the breakfast. She had a short story which was up for an Agatha this year, although veteran writer Donna Andrews was the winner in that category.

This year’s Malice Lifetime Achievement Award went to Peter Lovesey, who in an interview with the venerable Robert Barnard shared his life story and how he came to love (and write) mysteries. For a young boy in bombed-out London books were hard to come by, but Lovesey’s father managed to get his hands on two. Lovesey devoured the first, which was a biography of the judge who presided over the numerous poisoning trials of the late 19th century. He put off picking up the second book, fearing it was a religious biography, but desperate for something new finally took Alias, the Saint in hand – and the rest is history.

There are not enough superlatives to cover Lovesey’s body of work which includes several outstanding stand-alones as well as series featuring Sergeant Cribb, a Victorian Scotland Yard detective, “Bertie,” Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII), Peter Diamond a modern-day Bath, England police detective, and his newest series to date which features Hen Mallin, a woman police detective.

Mallin is featured in Lovesey’s very recent release, The Headhunters.

The Cribb stories were adapted for television and the series proved so popular that Lovesey wrote some original screenplays after all of the published titles were exhausted. He also adapted his novel Dead Gorgeous for television – another critical success – and was the consultant for the delightful Rosemary and Thyme series.

The next major mystery conference will be Bouchercon, to be held October 9-12 in Baltimore. Laura Lippman, will be the Guest of Honor and Lawrence Block will receive a special award for Distinguished Contribution to the Genre. All mystery fans are welcome!

Make sure to mark your calendars for the evening of Tuesday, July 15, when Lawrence Block will be speaking right here at our Library.

1-Exile, identity and disappointment infuse these tales of families straddling two cultures and uncomfortable in both. Lahiri’s writing is seamless, her characters strike no false notes, her understanding of immigrant experience gives unusual emotional depth as the generations sort out their lives. Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri

2-The world’s largest defense contractor stars in this terrifying thriller. Events are set in motion to change the world. Whole Truth by David Baldacci

3-A condemned inmate offers an organ transplant. Picoult builds her dramatic story around current issues of transplants, capital punishment, justice and redemption and glues it all together with family ties. Change of Heart by Jodi Picoult

4-Political and legal intrigue informs the campaign for a seat on the state’s Supreme Court. Meeting the standard for legal thrillers set by The Firm in 1991, this is Grisham’s 20th novel. The Appeal by John Grisham

5-Lower East Side Manhattan – its history and culture revealed in perfect dialogue as a random shooting reverberates through the neighborhood. Revelatory detail from the master of urban crime fiction. Lush Life by Richard Price

6-Alex Delaware returns to examine the depths of the criminal mind and solve the mystery of Los Angeles depravity. Compulsion by Jonathan Kellerman

7-A young woman sets out to find her missing brother, who calls home once a year, but cannot be found. Danger and mystery build to a deadly confrontation. Where Are You Now by Mary Higgins Clark

8-A sadistic killer in the suburbs. A maybe-suicidal teen. Distracted parents. Domestic troubles. Career concerns. Privacy issues. Coben touches all our vulnerabilities in this thriller. Hold Tight by Harlan Coben

9- The third time you share tea with a villager, you have become family. So goes (more or less) the proverb. Read this for inspiration and hope, as unlikely friendships chip away at hostility and distrust. Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson

10- The opt-out generation up close. What happens when educated women choose not to work.
Ten-Year Nap by Meg Wolitzer.