Hand-Selling Titles

As most library staff know, there are hundreds (thousands?) of captivating, mesmerizing, over-the-top wonderful titles out there that most people don't know about. And because it's fun (and our job) to link people with these yummies, we hand sell our favorite unknowns to customers. Here are some of my favorite lesser known fiction and non-fiction titles:

Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane
Trustee from the Toolroom by Nevil Shute
Sin Killer by Larry McMurtry
Telegraph Days by Larry McMurtry
Dead Man's Walk by Larry McMurtry
The Devil You Know by Mike Carey
American Gods by Neil Gaiman
Resurrection by Tucker Malarkey
Mistress of the Art of Death by Ariana Franklin
Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen
In the Bleak Midwinter by Julia Spencer-Fleming
American Gods by Neil Gaiman
The Beekeeper's Apprentice by Laurie King
The Spellman Files by Lisa Lutz
Speed of Dark by Elizabeth Moon
The Next Thing On My List by Jill Smolinski
Can You Keep a Secret? by Sophie Kinsella
My Dream of You by Nuala O'Faolain
Match Me If You Can by Susan Elizabeth Phillips
Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks
Austenland by Shannon Hale
Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr
The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder
The Last American Man by Elizabeth Gilbert
A Trip to the Beach by Melinda Blanchard
84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff
Almost There by Nuala O'Faolain

If you have little known treasured titles that you recommend to friends, please share with us!

Working at the Library

Working at the library is amazing for many reasons (other than just being cool, of course). The other day I went out to lunch with a coworker and we found ourselves promoting the library. Our waitress saw our library t-shirts and overheard that we were on our lunch break. She got so excited and starting asking where the library was. We were right down the street but she had no idea she had a Columbus Metropolitan Library branch so close. She talked about using the Main Library but how it was so far away and she didn’t have a chance to go as much as she would like to.

It’s always interesting to me that the moment I mention I work at the library, everyone starts to get all giddy about it. I really do like my job for the most part, but it’s nice to get that extra boost from the community. Seeing people get all excited about where I work gets me excited about where I work too!

It always amazes me too that there are still so many people that have no idea where their closest library is. Do you know where your nearest library is? Do you use just one library or do you check out different branches for different needs? What’s your favorite thing about your local library?

Current Read: The Abortionist’s Daughter by Elisabeth Hyde

Gems of the African American Section

At first glance it may appear that the average African American section of a library or bookstore offers two types of books – the Terri McMillan-esque romantic rope-a-dope at one end and gritty thug lit at the other. In reality the range of work that actually appears in these sections is actually far vaster.

This isn’t true simply because institutions typically thrust books of any genre in this section so long as the author is a black American (though it doesn’t hurt). If we took out all of the books that have stand-alone sections in our collection now - mysteries, romance, science fiction, westerns, horror and fantasy – there would still be a lot of books left on the shelves.

The African-American sections located in our libraries typically contain some remarkable jewels that don’t fall easily into genres or, thankfully, stereotypes. My highest recommendations include:

Faraday’s Popcorn Factory by Sandra Lee Gould
If like love stories but want a twist now and then, this one may be for you. A woman working in a popcorn factory catches the eye of an otherworldly being who begins to woo her. There is some down-to-earth courting, some dramatic swells and some danger involved, and in the end the book is sweet and heady. Multiple narrators keeps it spinning a little more than it should, but it’s forgivable stuff. A truly unique story for the intellectual in you.

Dreamer by Charles Johnson
Written by multiple-award winning author Charles Johnson, this book is a tight, accessible story about Chaym Smith, a man who, thanks to his stunning resemblance to Martin Luther King, Jr., is asked to act as a stand-in for the icon during periods of the Civil Rights Era. Smith is almost everything that King is not, and the image of seeing King as a drunk, loud, boorish ex-veteran was an irresistible drama of the book. A great idea executed by a master storyteller.

Song Yet Sung by James McBride
An ensemble cast of characters set during the era of slavery participate in an epic adventure about the hunt for a young slave girl who has visions of the future. A sly commentary on contemporary culture and where it comes from, this book is adventurous and full of close-calls and wonderfully drawn characters on both sides of the issue. A must read!

Erasure by Percival Everett
Everett is one of the most prolific authors around, yet no one has heard of him. Erasure is as close as he’s ever come to a bonafide bestseller, and considering its premise, that’s no small feat. The book centers on Thelonius Ellison, a professor who, in a fit of frustration at being thought of as writing “too white” and suffering in the publishing industry for years, composes a parody of commercial street lit under a pseudonym, which subsequently becomes a bestselling book, lauded by critics and audiences alike. The book is something of a rollercoaster ride from there as his alter ego is asked to be on television, is offered millions for movie rights and more (or worse!). This is one of my favorite books, period, and is a stunning criticism of mainstream publishing today.

Ghost Stories

I am a sucker for a good ghost story. I don't necessarily mean a scary story, just stories with ghosts in them. I once read a book where a child was haunted by the ghost of another child who died on the Titanic. Through information provided by the ghost, they were able to expose the child's mother for abandoning him to save herself. I have no idea what the title was, but if it sounds familiar to anyone let me know. I've found a few books that stand out featuring ghosts.

Jodi Picoult's Second Glance brings a ghost hunter with a death wish to a rural Vermont town where a ghost helps him expose the shameful eugenics experiments conducted on the local Abenaki Indian tribe in the 1930's as well as uncover a murder. This is the only book I ever read by Picoult and as far as I can tell, the rest are nothing like this one. People often recommend her other work to me, but I just can't get over the lack of ghosts.

The Mercy of Thin Air by Ronlyn Domingue features the ghost of Raziela "Razi" Nolan, a young woman who died in 1928 when she slipped on the side of a swimming pool, bumping her head and then drowning. Razi follows a young couple home from a yard sale when they buy a bookcase that once belonged to Razi's fiance. Razi tells us the story of her life and how she wonders whatever happened to her beloved Andrew. Razi watches as the young couple, Amy and Scott begin to have problems. It turns out that Amy lost her fiance years before in a car accident and is having difficulty dealing with it now that she and Scott are thinking of starting a family. In the end we find out that Razi and Amy share a common connection.

Stephen King's Bag of Bones features both a good ghost and several bad ones trying to get revenge on a mean old man who did them wrong. Writer Mike Noonan retreats to his lake front home in Maine after the sudden death of his wife. Once there, he encounters a young girl and her mother living in a trailer park. The girl is the granddaughter of the richest man in those parts. He had disapproved of his son's relationship with a woman from the wrong side of the tracks and blames her for his alienation from his son and his subsequent death. The old man sets out to take the little girl from her mother until Mike starts meddling. He is encouraged to get involved by the ghost of his wife who leaves him messages on the refrigerator spelled out in alphabet magnets.

If you have read any novels featuring ghosts that you would like to recommend, let me know. I've only ever stumbled upon them on the shelf. It is hard to find them in the catalog without getting a lot of horror stories or non-fiction books about the paranormal.

Out of Africa

Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathai grew up in a lush corner of Kenya in the 1940s--two decades before the country wrested its independence from Great Britain. During her lifetime she saw her people oppressed by greed and corruption--first by the Western government that colonized Kenya, and then by those Kenyans who freed the country and claimed to represent its interests.

In her memoir Unbowed, Maathai depicts colonization from the perspective of the colonized: she describes how Kenya's natural resources were devoured by an enormous colonial government, how Kenya's people lost their identity when their land was taken from them, and how they have struggled to recover it since. She ties Kenyans' disconnection from their land to the political oppression and discontent in the country today, and she offers a radically simple solution: the Green Belt Movement, an initiative to reclaim Africa's green spaces.

Maathai's involvement with Kenya's political, educational, and health care systems; her battles with the government to preserve Kenya's land and resources; her advocacy for women's rights and civil rights; her Kenyan upbringing and her Western education; and her personal struggle for equality as a woman, a Kenyan, and a human being--all make for an absorbing history of one woman's refusal to follow the status quo. It is en engrossing and inspirational read.

Have any other recommendations for an inspiring memoir?

ASRC: The Case of the Missing Detectives!

Adult Summer Reading Club here at Parsons has been packed with wall-stuffing displays!

We generated three separate displays for patrons at every age level that they could interact with to advance on their reading records. Here was the adult one, a little thing I like to call "The Case of the Missing Detectives!" Originally, I had it laid out so that there was a whole mystery aspect to it where you not only guessed who the detectives were, but who kidnpapped them. I removed the villain, but the rest of the project remained intact. Also, I primarily used detectives who were not only popular, but had been filmed at least once. That way people who might not read mysteries could also participate. And of course, the icing in any display should always be our collection: the mysteries themselves.

There was only one ringer!

American Wife and Me

I would never have expected to be able to listen to 19 CDs about Laura Bush -- not so much because of what I assumed would be our political differences, but more because I never thought her worth thinking about. (That is, for 19 CDs.) What makes American Wife remarkable is that it is a compelling portrait of a maybe-not-so-compelling person. Well, wait that's not fair -- Alice Blackwell isn't "plain" as much as the opposite of charismatic. Is that it? Has anyone else read or listened to this who can figure out why it worked? (Or didn't?)

(Also, for those who do know about Laura Bush's real life: did you find it rang true? I'm curious to know which parts were more fictionalized than others.)