Friday Reads: The Stranger Diaries

This week, Judith Koveleskie tells us about The Stranger Diaries by Elly Griffith.

Stranger Diaries by Elly Griffiths

This mystery that reads like a novel has three main characters: Clare (A high school English teacher specializing in the Gothic writer R. M. Holland), Georgia (her daughter) and Harbinder (a gay Indian Detective Sergeant). 

When another teacher is murdered, Harbinder is called in to investigate.  Clare soon discovers that someone else is leaving mysterious entries in her diary commenting on what she writes and seemingly tying her to the murder.  Other clues seem to indicate that events in a Holland short story may be coming true.

Descriptions of what is happening are presented in separate sections from the point of view of each of the three  women.  The story also deals with family relationships, especially those between mothers and daughters.

As usual, Elly Griffith weaves a spellbinding tale that is gripping to the very end.

Friday Reads: Let Us Now Praise Famous Men

Happy Friday!  Adam Pellman shares the nonfiction book he's reading: Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, written by James Agee, with photographs by Walker Evans.

Adam Pellman is reading Let Us Now Praise Famous Men
by James Agee and Walker Evans

I first discovered the American writer James Agee when I was in film school as an undergraduate.  Agee wrote the screenplay for one of my favorite films, The Night of the Hunter (which you should absolutely watch if you've never seen it), and he was also a noted film critic.  I have yet to read his celebrated novel A Death in the Family, but I'm currently reading this nonfiction book, in which he chronicles the lives of poor tenant farm families in rural Alabama during the Great Depression (fun!).  The families live in utter destitution, but Agee describes their existence in some of the most elegant prose I've ever read.

In fact, at times Agee's writing is almost too poetic, so much so that I sometimes lose focus a bit as, for example, he spends several pages describing the furniture and personal belongings in a farmhouse bedroom.  Still, I find myself feeling a great appreciation for his mastery of language, and for the ways he reflects upon his own role as an outsider who has come to "spy" on these poor families.  Agee includes little bits of self-reflexive humor (e.g., including a brief quotation before the start of the main text, with a footnote that reads, "These words are quoted here to mislead those who will be misled by them"), and he is such a talented writer that his descriptions sometimes make me go back and re-read them.  One of my favorite passages reveals the backbreaking hardship of these families' daily lives, describing how one of the wives awakens in exhaustion each morning:

"She has not lacked in utter tiredness, like a load in her whole body, a day since she was a young girl, nor will she ever lack it again; and is of that tribe who by glandular arrangement seem to exhaust rather than renew themselves with sleep, and to whom the act of getting up is almost unendurably painful."

I've been pretty blown away by the writing in this book, so I'm looking forward to reading Agee's fiction in the near future.

Friday Reads: The Library Book

Kelly Clever is listening to another audiobook, but this week it's non-fiction: Susan Orlean's The Library Book.

Kelly Clever is listening to The Library Book by Susan Orlean

This was my book club's pick for last month. My library hold came in the day after our meeting, but I decided to listen to it, anyway.

I'm sure that I must have learned about the 1986 Los Angeles Public Library fire when I was in graduate school, but if so, the knowledge was long ago buried under detritus about gray literature, Princeton files, and how to clear paper jams out of the public printers. The Library Book takes a thorough look at the day of the fire and the herculean salvage efforts that followed. It also delves into the life of the man who may or may not have deliberately started the inferno.

In addition to talking about the fire, Orlean meanders through the history of libraries and also takes a look at their present day. She's surprised to learn that modern libraries are de facto homeless shelters; that they offer lectures and classes; that a director is part social worker, part properties manager, and part scholar; and that a central library's shipping department packs and sends out an entire branch library's worth of books and other materials every single week.

My book club friends liked the book well enough, but none of them were riveted. Personally, I'm loving it. If you're a librarian or an aspiring one, or the particular kind of book lover who daydreams about Belle's library from Beauty and the Beast, you'll probably love it, too. The author reads the audiobook, and she speaks very slowly, so I'm listening to it at 1.5x speed. If you haven't already downloaded the Libby app from OverDrive, do that and enter your public library card number so you can explore the wealth of audiobooks and ebooks that are at your fingertips!

Research Award deadline just around the corner!

Remember to get your Research Award entries in by 11:59 p.m. on Sunday, March 17th!

Reading Theme: California Dreaming

For March, we’re dreaming of sunnier climes… particularly California.

Image courtesy of Pixabay.com

The Postman Always Rings Twice by James M. Cain

An amoral young tramp. A beautiful, sullen woman with an inconvenient husband. A problem that has only one grisly solution--a solution that only creates other problems that no one can ever solve. First published in 1934 and banned in Boston for its explosive mixture of violence and eroticism, The Postman Always Rings Twice is a classic of the roman noir . It established James M. Cain as a major novelist with an unsparing vision of America's bleak underside, and was acknowledged by Albert Camus as the model for The Stranger. (Publisher’s summary)



Home Free: A Novel by Elizabeth Forsythe Hailey

On Christmas Eve, two life-altering events are thrust upon Kate, a traditional middle-class housewife, without warning. Cliff, her husband of 25 years, announces he is leaving her for his old flame. Then, Ford, who is living in a dilapidated station wagon, appears at Kate's doorstep. Having lost their Iowa farm, Ford and his family have moved to California to begin a new life. Desperate for shelter, Ford leaves his wife and children in a seedy hostel for women while he searches for work. When Kate reunites Ford's family under her roof, her life begins anew as she champions the plight of the homeless. (Publisher’s summary)



The Goodbye Look by Ross Macdonald

Lew Archer is hired to investigate a burglary at the mission-style mansion of Irene and Larry Chalmers. The prime suspect, their son Nick, has a talent for disappearing, and the Chalmerses are a family with money and memories to burn. As Archer zeros in on Nick, he discovers a troubled blonde, a stash of wartime letters, a mysterious hobo. (Publisher’s summary)



A Shooting Star by Wallace Stegner

Sabrina Castro, an attractive woman with a strong New England heritage, is married to a wealthy, older California physician who no longer fulfills her dreams. An almost accidental misstep leads her down the slow descent of moral disintegration, until there is no place for her to go but up and out. (Publisher’s summary)



How to Make an American Quilt by Whitney Otto

Meeting at their quilting circle every week, the women of the small town of Grasse share their personal stories, beginning a tradition that encompasses a half century of American history. (Publisher’s summary)



Mixed Blessings by Danielle Steel

Danielle Steel weaves a powerful tale of three couples who face decisions about having children that will test, in unexpected ways, the ties that bind them as lovers, partners, and friends. Their lives, their goals, their feelings about families, are on the line, as the word "infertility" begins to unravel their dreams. (Publisher’s summary)



“A” is for Alibi: A Kinsey Millhone Mystery by Sue Grafton

READ THE SENSATIONAL BLOCKBUSTER THAT STARTED IT ALL! Take it from the top in # 1 New York Times bestselling author Sue Grafton's knockout thriller that introduced detective Kinsey Millhone--and a hot new attitude--to crime fiction... A tough-talking former cop, private investigator Kinsey Millhone has set up a modest detective agency in a quiet corner of Santa Teresa, California. A twice-divorced loner with few personal possessions and fewer personal attachments, she's got a soft spot for underdogs and lost causes… That's why she draws desperate clients like Nikki Fife. Eight years ago, she was convicted of killing her philandering husband. Now she's out on parole and needs Kinsey's help to find the real killer. But after all this time, clearing Nikki's bad name won't be easy. (Publisher’s summary)



The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters by Robert Lewis Taylor

If Huck Finn had gone West during the Gold Rush and lived to tell about it, he might have sounded much like Jaimie McPheeters in describing his incredibly hazardous trek by wagon train to California in 1849. Jaimie shares the storytelling with his father, an intelligent Scottish doctor whose ebullient personality is only slightly undermined by a weakness for gambling and strong drink. (Library Journal review) ***Pulitzer Prize winner, 1959***

Friday Reads: West Newton

Today Judith Koveleskie shares a book about her hometown-- West Newton: Memories of an Old Town by Florilla W. Albig

Judith Koveleskie with West Newton: Memories of an Old Town

This limited edition book about my hometown was published for the Bicentennial Year. Mrs. Albig was the editor of the local paper and this book captures the town at that moment in time. Although most of the businesses and some of the structures are no longer there, the spirit of the town remains strong. Although I have not lived there for over 50 years, it is still home to me and I return as often as I can.

The book was a gift to Reeves Library from George R. Sweeney who was prominent in Westmoreland County and served as head of the Municipal Authority for nearly 35 years. News clippings about him are inserted in the back of the book.

Although I enjoyed reading this book again, I realize that it conforms to the WASP mindset that was prevalent at the time. We did have Catholics and African Americans who made contributions to the the town, but except for pictures of their churches, they are not mentioned. Perhaps in the future, someone else can write a book that is more inclusive. One of our most gifted residents was a young man in my high school class who achieved much in the world of art https://gregthompsonfineart.com/project/tarrence-corbin/

March DVD Spotlight: Comedies

We're looking to tickle your funny bone with our newest DVD display!  All through the month of March, we're highlighting the comedy films in our collection.  We've got something for every sense of humor, from witty Hollywood classics like His Girl Friday (1940) and Ninotchka (1939), to hilarious modern crowd-pleasers like Groundhog Day (1993) and The Wedding Singer (1998).  If you enjoy British humor, you might check out the hysterically funny crime caper A Fish Called Wanda (1988).  Whether you like romantic comedies, action comedies (we're looking at you, Hot Fuzz (2007)), or dark comedies, we've got you covered.

Featured titles include:

Adaptation (2002)
Nicolas Cage plays identical twin brothers, one of whom is struggling to adapt an acclaimed non-fiction book into a screenplay, in this surreal comic masterpiece.

The Big Lebowski (1998)
The Coen brothers' goofy cult classic, a noir-tinged comic caper about a lazy, Southern California stoner who gets sucked into a kidnapping plot after being mistaken for a millionaire with the same name, has inspired hordes of devotees over the past two decades.

Bull Durham (1988)
Sports, romance, and comedy meld perfectly in this film about an aging minor league catcher who is brought in to "mature" a young pitching prospect, and who falls for a local baseball groupie.

The Firemen's Ball (1967)
This Czech satire chronicles a local firemen's ball where everything goes hilariously wrong, from an ill-fated beauty pageant to a lottery in which all the prizes have been stolen.

Heathers (1988)
This blistering teen satire, about a high school girl who teams up with a sociopathic fellow student to murder the members of a snobby clique, makes Mean Girls look like a Hallmark movie.  But, we also have:

Mean Girls (2004)
A smart, hilarious comedy about a formerly home-schooled teen who struggles to navigate the social landscape of her new high school.

Trouble in Paradise (1932)
A mischievous, sophisticated romantic comedy about a thief and a pickpocket who fall in love, then scheme to rob a beautiful perfume company executive.

Waiting for Guffman (1996)
Nobody does mockumentary comedy better than writer/director Christopher Guest, and this film, about a small-town amateur theatre troupe putting on a musical to celebrate the town's 150th anniversary, may be his funniest film.

Stop by the library and check one out today!