Cavendish Library Blog

Henry’s Sisters by Cathy Lamb Copyright 2009 352 p.

This is an excellent book.  Heartbreaking and funny at the same time.  It is about three sisters, Cecilia, Isabelle and Janie and their domineering mother. Their mother, who is a holy terror, needs open heart surgery and so the two sisters who live away from their home town come home to help out and take care of Henry who is mentally challenged.  As the book unfolds we see that all of the family is damaged in different ways and all face their challenges as the book progresses, from a cheating husband, to a problem with alcohol and obsessive compulsive disorder.  Throughout the book, one gets the sense that Henry, while not the main character is the glue that holds the family together.

There is a note of humor with the grandmother who thinks she is Amelia Earhart.  The book is wonderful and heartbreaking.  I loved it.   The character of Henry reminded me of my brother, Matt, who is also mentally challenged, though not the degree Henry is. The things that happened to Henry remind me that they can also happen to Matt, which is terrifying.  

This is a wonderful book for fans of Jodi Picoult and anyone else who loves a gripping story with strong female characters.  I strongly recommend it. 

Young adult fiction is fiction that generally has adolescents and teens as protagonists dealing with the issues facing youths today; with many being “coming of age” stories. Young Adult fiction is targeted to adolescents age 12-18. 

          The main distinction between Juvenile Fiction (chapter books for children ages 6-11) and Young Adult Fiction is the challenges the protagonists face.  In Juvenile Fiction, protagonists face issues which confront elementary school aged children such as friendship, peer pressure, school and the occasional problems at home.  In Young Adult fiction, the protagonists face more complex problems including substance abuse, peer pressure, relationships, sexuality and bereavement.  Also, young adult fiction often includes graphic language.  In the Cavendish Fletcher Community Library, both Manga (Japanese comic books) and Graphic Novels (hardbound comic books) which include violence, language and some nudity, may be found in this section.

          Why is this in the library?  Not only is the Cavendish Fletcher Community library a school library, it is a town library.  As such we have a responsibility to serve the needs of all patrons, including young adults with as much quality reading materials as possible.  Young Adult fiction can be quality reading materials.

          Can my child check this stuff out?  At this time we actively discourage children under grade 6 from checking out the books.  If a young child is adamant about checking out an item from this section, we request a parent phone call or note before allowing the materials to go out.

The Actor and the Housewife by Shannon Hale 339 pages, copyright 2009.

I generally don’t write reviews about books I don’t really like, but I’m going to make an exception in the hopes of saving the time of unsuspecting readers.  The Actor and the Housewife tells the tale of Becky Jack, a Mormon housewife who writes movie scripts in her spare time. She flies to Hollywood to discuss the sale of a script and meets Felix Callahan, a movie star.  The two become friends. 

The story twists on and on with Becky and Felix deciding not to spend time together because it bothers a spouse, then getting back together.  The only novelty in the book is that they are friends who are not of the same gender.

There are a few predictable plot twists, some crying and wringing of hands.  I kept reading it because I was stuck under a hairdryer at the beauty parlor and I kept hoping it would get better.  Really, the best part of this book was the ending, and it was unsatisfactory. 

Don’t read this book.

This book will be hidden behind a potted plant at the Cavendish Fletcher Community Library.  Please don’t ask for it.

Seriously, it can be found on the shelves in the library, but spare yourself the trouble. I can suggest a much better book.

The Constant Princess by Philippa Gregory 416 p. Touchstone 2006

            Before I was lucky enough to pick up this book on a whim, all I really knew about Catherine of Aragon was what I learned from watching Anne of a Thousand Days: A religious middle aged woman begging not to be divorced.  This book traces her life from her parents, Ferdinand and Isabella’s conquest of Spain through her two marriages. Her first to Arthur, the Prince of Wales whom she loved, which lasted only five months before he died and the second to Henry VIII.  The most compelling part of the book is when she is widowed and she fights to stay in the country and to ultimately marry Henry and complete her destiny and her deathbed promise to her late husband. It is fascinating to watch her develop and become a powerful queen to Henry VIII’s spoiled king, leading men into battle and accomplishing Henry’s greatest victory in his name.  The book ends with her speech begging Henry not to divorce her.

            Henry is treated poorly in this book, as he is the other Philippa Gregory books in this series.  He comes across as spoiled and an incompetent ruler whose desire for a son overwhelms his good sense.  Granted, with the War of the Roses just behind him, it was not unreasonable for him to be concerned with the succession.  

            Regardless, this is a wonderful work of historical fiction.  I could not put it down and am anxious to read the other books in the series.  I highly recommend it to any fiction lover who enjoys strong female characters.

            This book may be found in the Cavendish Fletcher Community Library under FIC GRE.

After seeing the hype about the movie, I finally decided to sit down and read Alan Moore’s graphic novel Watchmen.  I am no stranger to either graphic novels (kind of big comic books) or Alan Moore, having enjoyed his work in such titles as V for Vendetta  and Saga of the Swamp Thing.

The story of Watchmen is compelling. It is 1985 and an alternate reality.  The cold war is going strong and it looks as though World War III could happen any moment and Richard Nixon is in his third or fourth term as President.  Someone is killing or trying to get rid of a group of retired superheroes. The surviving members are coming together to try and find out who is doing it and why.  The book shows their story in flashbacks and what looks like supplemental material while the mystery is unraveling.

Originally published in the 1980’s, the story has aged rather well, helped by the fact that it is a period piece. Though the story is not as revolutionary and shocking as it is when it was first published, the heroes are portrayed warts and all, or in this case, with some nudity.  There is an abundance of blood and death.  Probably the coolest thing about this story is a subplot and the way it intertwines with the main story.  In a continuing subplot, a supporting character is reading a horror comic book, reminiscent of a 1950’s EC comic book.  Various frames are shown from the story, and the narration and dialogue of the piece is shown over the action in the main story.

Overall, the story is well written, well paced and engaging.  It is one of the best graphic novels I have ever read.  If I have one complaint, it is that the art is good, but doesn’t live up to the quality of the writing.  I highly recommend reading this book.

Ok I’m coming out of the closet.  I LOVE Star Trek.  I have since I discovered it in reruns in the 1970’s when I was still in elementary school.  One of my first memories is watching the episode “I, Mudd” where Harcourt Fenton Mudd, a somewhat ridiculous pirate, is on a planet covered with beautiful women in spangly dresses.  I was hooked, a passion that continues to this day, more than 30 years later.

I was a hard sell on the movies and on the “Next Generation” ten years later, but have come to enjoy them as a continuation of the Star Trek mythos.  My brother and I have an ongoing debate as to who the best captain was.  He votes for Picard (Next Generation) I for Kirk (Original Series) all the way.  Anyway, this is why I love Star Trek.

1) William Shatner as Kirk.  Yum, yum.  Handsome, sexy, forceful and that….WAY…he has of talking.  Of course the real William Shatner was a bit of an egomaniac…even he admits it.  We’re glad you grew up Bill.

2) It shows a future that is neither heavily post apocolyptic (though there were some catastrophies) nor devoid of love or emotion or anything.  The future has problems, but it is a reasonably healthy, normal place, where people get together to solve problems.

3) Gene Roddenbury was a humanist.  He believed that people could overcome their problems.  I believe that too.  See number 2.

4) The costumes and hair.  I loved Grace Lee Whitney’s woven hair, the velour mini skirts and all of the glittery alien costumes. 

5) Aliens, especially Mr. Spock.  Let’s show the world that we are not alone in the universe.

6) Women on the bridge, and in the Enterprise.  Kudos to Roddenberry for putting Uhura on the bridge and showing that women have a place aside from nursing in exploration and the military.  But come on…did Kirk have to kiss so many?

7) The stories.  Some of the best written science fiction ever. 

New Movie coming out based on the old series.  I can’t wait!

I have always been a comic book junkie.  I had stacks and stacks of them when I was a kid.  I used to organize and cross reference them and make lists of what I had.  I should have known back then I was fated to be a librarian. I still have them, each in their own special plastic bag in special boxes that keep them from being crushed.  My son eyes them hungrily, but, luckily for me, he’s afraid of the dark and won’t go where they’re being kept.  Keeping this in mind, I was thrilled about 20 years ago when I came across my first graphic novel- The Dark Knight.  While this is about Batman, it doesn’t have that much to do with the recent movie.  It was Frank MIller’s take on the Batman of the future.  It is dark and creepy and very well written.  The next one I came across was “The Killing Joke” which is in my humble opinion the best thing ever written, though Alan Moore’s stink on “The Swamp Thing” was pretty awesome too as was his “V for Vendetta” (skip the movie and read the book).   While I could write an entire blog on Moore and his work, I will restrain myself.  If you do want some funky reading, check out his wikipedia entry.  One gets the feeling he’d be an interesting person to sit next to on a plane.

Anyway, when I became a librarian and moved to a library that had young adults, I seized upon the opportunity to purchase some graphic novels based on comics I had enjoyed as a child, and to explore the changes that the genre has gone through in the last 20 or so years.   It has gone from simple rebinding of a series of comics (though those are still popular) to a way to tell a story.

As part of my job, I teach library skills classes to grades K-6.  One of the things I teach is graphic novels.  Usually it’s one of the most popular units I do in sixth grade.

I have had patrons ask me why I put “comic books” on the shelves instead of real books.  My answer is that, they are real, and they are books, and they should be read and judged on their own merit.

  A graphic novel is a chance to really experiment with a character.  Comic books series bank on a status quo.  Batman will never marry.  If he falls in love, she will die or they won’t stay together.  It’s kind of like Captain Kirk, James Bond and any of the guys on Bonanza. When you have a graphic novel, you can take the character and put him or her in a different set of circumstances. There are some great ones out there, like “Wonder Woman: Amazonia” where her character is 100 years in the past.  There are also some characters who maybe can’t sustain an entire comic series, but have a truly fascinating story to tell.

Not to mention, graphic novels are not only based on comic books.  Maus by Art Speigelman illustrates the Holocaust and the costs of it better than most regular novels. And “Caught in the Middle” has a great series of short stories about what it’s like to be in middle schools. There are some wonderful graphic novels for adults, such as Frank Miller’s “300″ and “Cancer Vixen” by Marisa Acocella Marchetto.  There are more graphic novels than  I care to name.

Stop by and read one.  You might be pleasantly surprised.

Every year the Cavendish Fletcher Community Library has two Scholastic Book Fairs, one in the spring and one in the fall. Right now we are in the midst of the fall fair.  The theme is “Bookfair Safari”.  I know that book fairs can have a very bad reputation for being full of “junk”. Some of that is warranted and some of it isn’t.  Looking at my fair I can say that it is about 80% books and 20% junk. We don’t put all of the junk out.  Some of it, especially software, I don’t put out.  It’s too expensive and the same titles can usually be purchased for less at K-Mart.  Of the junk I do put out, about half of it is weird pencils and pens and the other half is, well, junk.  I know that other libraries and other schools refuse to put anything besides books on their fair, and I’m glad that works for them, but it doesn’t for us.  Here’s the reason why.  The cheapest book is $2.00.  That particular title is a “Barbie” book.  There are a few others around that price, but they are all left over from past years’ sales, are dated and look it.  The cheapest new books are $4.00.  Meanwhile pencils are $.45.  I have children who come in with $1.13 in pennies (really!) who want to buy something and participate in the fair and I am thrilled there is something they can purchase.  I would rather it be a book, but there is nothing on the fair for that price.

            Not only that, for each dollar someone spends we get money for books.  And that’s what we spend it on: books for the children’s section of the library, putting books into the hands of children, whether by buying them themselves or by having those books available for check out in the library.

            The bookfair is a lot of work.  It has to be stored when it gets here, be set up and taken down.  I have a small army of volunteers who bravely sling boxes helping me to set up and take down.  We decorate, put up posters, run daily contests and collect donations for patrons who need help purchasing books and worthy causes.  I always have to worry about keeping the shelves stocked, theft (thankfully almost non-existent) things taken out of their packaging (all too often) and parents who aren’t happy with the books their children have selected (I’m OK with exchanges as long as they are in the same condition as when they were purchased). Not to mention paperwork! Oy!  The less said about that the better.  I’m always excited when it begins and relieved when it is over.

            All that complaining aside, why do I bother?  That’s easy.  The kids love it and we get books for the children’s section of the library.  In addition, the principal (who has a wonderful sense of humor) will dress up as various related things, most memorably Captain Underpants.  The photo opportunities alone make this worthwhile.….Almost…..Ask me again in the New Year. I should be recovered by then.

My husband and I of fourteen years agree to disagree on a lot of things.  In fact when we were first together, I wrote a poem about it.  Naturally since that poem was in the first flush of love, it’s not something I really want other people to read.  Probably the most frequent thing we disagree on is books.  Mainly that I always want to buy more and that he thinks I have too many.

When I buy a book, the chances are about 80% that after I read it, it will end up in the guest room of the house, where I have three big book cases, double and triple stacked full of books.  Naturally I have them sorted by author and genre….If I didn’t, what kind of a librarian would I be?  Frequently, I will be in the “mood” for a specific book and will go digging through my stash and pull out a book or two.  He will look over at me with that slightly sneering look on his face and ask “Are you going to read that again?”

I generally purse my lips at him and say “Yes”.  He doesn’t understand why I need to read a book more than once, and I don’t understand how he can read a book only one time then never look at it again.  Not that he’s much of a reader, but I’m working on that.  That’s usually when we have a discussion about watching television re-runs and how many times he has seen the same John Wayne movies, especially “The Green Berets” the less said about that movie the better.

There are many different reasons to reread a book.  Here is my list:

1) A sequel or a book in the same series has come out and you want to refresh your memory and get the details of the last book firmly in your mind.  This is especially good with a book like “Harry Potter”.

2) You’ve just read a book by an author or in a series where there was a revelation that you want to see if you could have told it was coming.  This is especially good with a book like “Harry Potter”.

3) You read a book by the same author which is either much better or much worse that anything else by him or her that you might have read and want to read another book to see if maybe you misjudged the prior book.  It does happen.

4) You liked it.  You really liked it.

Reading a book is a much more personal experience than watching a television show or a movie.  When you read a book, you control the speed and the input….like in The Outer Limits : “If we wish to make it louder, we will bring up the volume. If we wish to make it softer, we will tune it to a whisper. We will control the horizontal. We will control the vertical. We can roll the image, make it flutter. We can change the focus to a soft blur or sharpen it to crystal clarity.”  I find when I read a really good book, like Stephen King’s “Carrie” I can pick up different nuances that I missed in the past. There is a greater depth of subtlety in a book that is different from the “We’re going to club you in the head with it” thrust of modern television. 

That is not to say that all books are good and all television is bad.  I have read my share of bad books and watched my share of good television.  I have watched the same episodes of television series before, to my great enjoyment.  The episode of Frasier where Niles and Frasier try to open a restaurant together still makes me laugh until I cry.  My point is rereading books is a good practice.  Every so often I will stumble across something on the shelves in the library that I read once several years ago, flip it open and find myself enjoying it immensely (Earth Abides by George Stewart) .  Then again, I will do the same thing, read for about a minute and wonder what I ever saw in the book in the first place.

A good book is a like a mirror to the reader.  Our taste in books reflects who we are as a person when we connect with it.

My husband making that face

When a reader finds himself or herself in a book rereading is a wonderful exercise in self realization.   Even when the book doesn’t live up to our memories we can look at it and think of how we once loved it and realize how far we have come.

When I go to library conventions and talk with other libraries about what they put on the shelves, many (but not all) look down their noses at me when I tell them I purchase romance novels for my shelves.  Not necessarily best selling romance like Nora Roberts and Jayne Ann Krentz, but paperback novels with women with low cut dresses in the arms of men in low cut shirts.

I get shocked looks and questions about whether they circulate.  The answer is “Yes.”  Then I ask the other librarians: “Do you read them?”  Many refuse to make eye contact with me at this point or say “I’m too busy reading other books.”  Or “I have to keep up with my library reading.”  Frankly there is a lot of reading that a librarian has to do.  I don’t mean pleasure reading either.  I myself am at the verge of completing a long and grueling class that had me reading a textbook that was so big it could double as a nightstand, but I still took some time out to read trashy romance novels from time to time. Usually in the bathtub.

Why do people read them? Let’s look at a typical plot.  Once upon a time there was a beautiful girl, who lived with a mean parent or sister or aunt or was just abused by someone.  She meets a man who is rich, heroic, has some troubles of his own and isn’t looking to fall in love.  They meet. They can’t stand each other (usually) but their bodies know better (usually) they fall in lust, overcome a big problem together, fall in love and get married (Not necessarily in that order) and live happily ever after.  Think of it as a grown up fairy tale.

There are different variations on the theme.  Sometimes there are vampires or werewolves involved (I love those!).  Sometimes the male is somehow saved by the female, but he often saves her back.  They are contemporary with strong female characters.  They are historical with fiesty characters. There is time travel, history (some better researched than others) and sometimes embarrassingly bad writing and far too detailed descriptions of things better left to the privacy of ones imagination featuring a lot of heaving, panting and throbbing.

OK given all of that, why do I read them, and why should you? Trashy romance novels are escape pure and simple.  There’s usually not a lot of redeeming literary values, but sometimes writing stars develop from the genre.  Life is short.  Times are getting tough.  We all need a break.  Romance novels are not fattening, expensive or immoral.  Taking time for yourself is important.  Fill up the bathtub, barricade the door to keep your children from coming in (I would like to dig a pit fall trap to get privacy in the tub) and take a trashy novel in with you.  It’s a luxury you can afford.

If your library doesn’t carry a line of trashy romance novels, I can suggest going to your local used book store.  You can pick up books for less than half the cover price, then trade them in when you are done.  Or keep them. I have several of my favorites stacked three deep on bookcases in my house. Better yet, donate them to your local library.  I bet you’ll be surprised how many people read them.