Five Book Friday!


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From the Jefferson County Public Library

Guess what?  It’s still February.

And, to add insult to injury, the Valentine’s Day Candy is gone.

However, the Cadbury Eggs have arrived, and many a Library Blog Keeper runs on Cadbury Eggs, so things aren’t all that bad, I suppose…

But for those of you looking for a reason to celebrate this month, here are some obscure, but fun (and often delicious) holidays to observe in the coming weeks:

February 21: National Sticky Bun Day
No one knows who originally created this swirly treat, but they first arrived in this country along with German immigrants, who called the treat schnecken.  

February 22: National Cook A Sweet Potato Day
I’m not making this up.  The sweet potato is loaded with Vitamins A, C, and B-6 (which is good for your brain), as well as magnesium, and is the state vegetable of North Carolina.

February 26: National Tell A Fairy Tale Day
How cool is this day?!  I have a feeling that Lady Pole and I will have great fun celebrating, and here are some ideas for your celebration, courtesy of Grammarly.

February 28: National Chocolate Souffle Day
Here are some ideas for your celebration of this day.  We here at the Library are willing to taste-test your creation–as an act of public service.  Obviously.

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Did you also know that February is Library Lovers Month, too?
You can show your support for this holiday by visiting your local library–and maybe even checking out some books!  Here are some ideas to get you started, chosen from the books that have appeared on our shelves this week:

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3690159The Quality of SilenceIn this beautifully imagined and viscerally real novel, Rosamund Lupton tells the story of astrophysicist Yasmin, who arrives in the remote wilds of Alaska, along with her deaf daughter, Ruby, to be told that her husband Matt is dead.  Yasmin refuses to accept this information on blind-faith, however, and sets off into a growing storm, and into the unforgiving wilderness with Ruby to find answers…but it isn’t long before Yasmin beings to realize that someone else in out in the storm with them…and that turning back could cost them both their lives.  Lupton’s story-telling skills are very well known, and it is that talent that makes this book something more than a thriller.  As The Guardian observes, “The Quality of Silence is an elegant and icily unique thriller: you won’t read anything like it this year. I’ll bet it leaves you (like me) longing for a trip to Alaska, even if you don’t plan on swiping a truck once you’re there.”

3660905The Ex-Patriates: Janet Y.K. Lee earned a legion of fans with her novel The Piano Teacher, so the arrival of this new work is sure to bring joy to many hearts.  Here, Lee tells the intertwined stories of three American women living within the small ex-pat community in Hong Kong.  Each has a life before them, but secrets, doubts, and fears behind them, which Lee describes with poignant insight.  But it is how these women’s lives collide, and the results of their meeting that will change each of their paths forever…for better or for worse.  This is a book that manages to be both a cultural commentary and a personal journey, and Lee’s ability to navigate the different perspectives within her work is earning rave reviews.  The Christian Science Monitor hails “At turns illuminating, entertaining, cringe-inducing, piercing . . . With meticulous details and nuanced observations, Lee creates an exquisite novel of everyday lives in extraordinary circumstances. . . . How Lee’s triumvirate reacts, copes, and ventures forth (or not) proves to be a stupendous feat of magnetic, transporting storytelling. . . . Mark my words: The Expatriates will appear repeatedly on year-end award nominations and all the ‘best of’ compilations.”

3703972Lovecraft Country: “Lovecraft Country” has become a literary term that describes the somewhat bleak, mysterious New England landscapes that Lovecraft described so well in his stories, but Matt Ruff uses this term as a way to get under the skin of some of the darker, much less savory aspects of Lovecraft’s character….Frankly put, Lovecraft was a horrific racist–even by the standards of his own time he was considered rather repugnant (even by his friends), and it’s created a great deal of tension amongst many readers.  Ruff bashes through that tension with a book about a young African-American army veteran named Atticus Turner, who travels to “Lovecraft Country” in a search for his missing father along with his uncle George, the author of The Safe Negro Travel Guide–a real book that was intended to offer traveling African Americans help in navigating Jim Crow America.  Along the way, they encounter monsters aplenty, of both the mythical and all too human variety in a timely and very brave work that Booklist calls “Nonstop adventure that includes time-shifting, shape-shifting, and Lovecraft-like horrors … Ruff…vividly portrays racism as a horror worse than anything conceived by Lovecraft in this provocative, chimerical novel.”

3700424The Immortals: The multi-talented Jordanna Max Brodsky has launched a new urban fantasy series set in Manhattan, and featuring all the Gods of Olympus–though they currently wear the faces of ordinary New Yorkers.  But when the solitary young Selene DiSilva discovers a murdered woman washed ashore and wreathed in laurel, a rage she has held in check for centuries begins to rise, as does the memory of a promise she made when her name was Artemis…This book, and Brodsky’s inventive story-telling, is winning a good deal of attention, with Publisher’s Weekly giving it a star review and cheering, that it “Plays with more modern mythology, employing New York’s own secret places and storied history to great effect. This intelligent, provocative fantasy breathes exciting new life into old, familiar tales.”

 

3677997Citrus: If there is anything that tastes like summer and sunshine, it is citrus.  There is, perhaps, nothing better for the winter doldrums than making the food in this book…and then sharing it with your local Library Staff.

 

 

Until next week, Beloved Patrons–happy reading!

On Wanderlust…

“Now more than ever do I realize that I will never be content with a sedentary life, that I will always be haunted by thoughts of a sun-drenched elsewhere.”
(Isabelle Eberhardt)

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It’s February.

It may be the shortest month of the year, but, for many, it seems like the longest.  As I write this, I am looking out a bleak, gray, drizzling sky that honestly hasn’t seemed to have changed in about fourteen years.  And if the conversations I’ve had with any number of you charming, winter-weary people, is that we could all use a long vacation, to a place full of sunshine, and adventure…and maybe a miniature golf course or two…

So, in honor of our collective wanderlust, we at the Free For All are celebrating the birthday of Isabelle Eberhardt, a Swiss explorer and writer, born on this day in 1877.

Isabelle_EberhardtEberhardt’s parents, Alexandre and Nathalie, both abandoned previous marriages and families to be together–they met because Alexandre was hired to tutor Nathalie’s children–and set up a life in Geneva, where Isabelle grew up.  In such a non-conformist family, it was no surprised that young Isabelle grew up exceptionally well-educated, and when she expressed a desire to dress in boy’s, and later, men’s clothing, because they allowed a greater physical and social freedom.  She began writing and publishing fascinating, avant-garde fiction under the name of Nicolas Podolinsky when she was eighteen, and, when her father was sent to North Africa with the French Foreign Legion, she begged him to keep a detailed diary of everything he saw there, so that she could write about his adventures, as well.

Isabelle and her mother visited North Africa two years later, and, much to the approbation of their fellow French colonists, refused to live within the French settlement, instead renting a house from an Arab family.  Isabelle also adopted native male dress because women were unable to travel unveiled and unchaperoned under Islamic tradition.

Slimane Ehnni
Slimane Ehnni

Both of Isabelle’s parents died within the next two years, and, having declared herself free of any human attachment, Isabelle decided to live the life of a vagrant, and, after a brief stay in Paris, moved to Algeria (then a French colony).  There, she fell in love with a soldier named Slimane Ehnni, with whom she would live for the rest of her life.  Her less than conventional choices completely ostracized her from the French colonists in Algeria (and she blamed a near-fatal attack on a French attempt to assassinate her) but Isabelle was openly welcomed by the Algerian natives, was accepted into the Sufi order known as the Qadiriyya without question, where she found protection, and was given and Arabic name, as well.

Isabelle Eberhardt was killed in 1904 when a flash flood swept away the mud hut in which she was living.  Her husband, Slimane Ehnni, survived, and buried her in Aïn Sefra, Algeria, and ensured that her tombstone carried both her French and Arabic names.

A number of manuscripts were found following Isabelle’s death, and, with help from a French journalist in the area, they began to be published around 1906.  She was decidedly anti-imperialist, arguing for the freedom of native peoples, and several historians credit her as the first voice of decolonization in French Algeria.  The Library has a number of her works in translation, so you can get to know Isabelle, too.

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Isabelle Eberhardt, around 1900

So, in honor of the remarkable Isabelle Eberhardt, let’s embrace our wanderlust today, and start reading of all the places we can’t manage to get to see firsthand.  Perhaps it won’t make the sun shine any brighter, but it might make the days brighter, for all that.

To get to know Isabelle Eberhardt better, check out:


3370041Writings from the Sand: Collected Works of Isabelle Eberhardt & The Oblivion Seekers and Other Writings
, both of which are Isabelle’s own words, describing French Algeria, her wanderings around North Africa, and her own observations of life there.  The editor’s introduction and notes throughout put these essays into context, and provide marvelous insight into the world that Isabelle inhabited, offering you the chance to take a visit through both time and space along with her.

Annette Kobak has also written a biography of Isabelle, for those who wish to get to know her a bit better, and for those  who prefer fiction, try William Bayer’s Visions of Isabelle for a fictional account of this remarkable woman.

Bibliophile Confessions…On Love Triangles

There are tropes in literature that every reader loves…and hates.

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“Tropes” are the very common and recurring themes in literature that help us, as a species that loves categorization and patterns, keep stories straight in our heads.  Tropes let us know, essentially, what happens in the course of the story, and define several rules for the book from the outset.  There are “locked room” mysteries, for example, in which a detective character must solve a seemingly impossible crime, or a “trouble with robots” trope in science fiction, where the line between human and machine inevitably becomes blurred, or the “unlikely hero/heroine” trope, where the least likely character somehow manages to rise to the occasion and save the day.

In many ways, tropes are like foods in a grocery store.  We are familiar, to some extent, with most of them, and we know the ones that we love, ones that we hate, and ones that we really intend to try one of these days.  Largely, it’s all a matter of personal taste, and there is no shame in loving–or hating–a particular trope.

For example, I cannot handle love triangles.
….you know those stories where the heroine (and it’s usually a heroine) must choose between two potential love interests?  Yeah.  Those.

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Casablanca: One of cinema’s most famous love triangles.

As an objective reader, I can wholly appreciate the value of love triangles…it gives the heroine (let’s just stick with the idea of a heroine here) a chance to choose her own future, with each of her potential heroes symbolizing the potential paths for her to choose.  It also adds bucket-loads of drama to a plot, because of all the uncertainty, hope, and despair implicit in every scene.

My problem with love triangles?  In probably 97% of cases, I choose the wrong person.

It all started when I was in sixth grade, with a historical adventure novel that isn’t in the NOBLE system, so it shall remain anonymous, in which a young heroine who had travelled out to Colorado territory was being courted by two gentlemen: one a young journalist whom she met on the train at the outset of her journey, and the other, a cattle rancher who was tied to the land and devoted to the promise of the American West.  I was in love with the journalist.  Absolutely head-over-heels dippy over him.  And in the end…the heroine chose to stay in with the cattle rancher.

And I didn’t speak to anyone for three days.

Love-TriangleAnd ever since then, I invariably fall in love with the unsuccessful suitor.  That’s why I was inconsolable at the end of Tale of Two Cities (which made for an extremely awkward high school English class); it’s why I could never enjoy Wuthering Heights as much as I should; for crying out loud, even if one of them turns out to be a villain, I’m still the weirdo sitting there with a little pennant, rooting for him have a happy ending!

Again, this is in no way a judgement on love triangles, or those who love them.  I wish I could.  However, there are a few books with love triangles that I could enjoy, and I figured, as a show of good faith, that I’d point them out to you.  Hopefully those readers who revel in the drama of love triangles will find some new stories to savor, and those who, like me, tend to shy away from them, will find the incentive to give one a try.

3176362A Rogue By Any Other NameSarah MacLean is one of my favorite romance authors of all time, so when the opening book of her Rule of Scoundrels book featured a fairly prominent love triangle, I forced myself to hold on tight and brave it out.  Her heroine, Penelope, has been convinced by years of unsuccessful courtships and a broken engagement that true love is not for her, especially after her father places an enormous dowry on her head in order to attract suitors.  But when the Marquis of Bourne, Penelope’s first love who was forced to flee society a decade earlier, suddenly returns, demanding Penelope’s hand, she finds that true love may be far more complicated than she ever imagined.  This is one of those books where the two heroes of the story represent perfectly the two paths open to the heroine, and MacLean makes Penelope’s choice emotional without beings devastating.  Best of all, she always provides all of her characters with agency and humanity, and in this case gives Penelope’s unsuccessful suitor the chance to be a hero in his own right.

3140489Anna and the French Kiss: This book turns the love triangle trope on its ear a bit, by making the heroine one of two women in the hero’s life–but doing it in a way that doesn’t compromise the heroine’s individuality or either woman’s potential for happiness.  Anna first meets Etienne St. Clair when her father unexpectedly ships her off to a boarding school in Paris for her senior year of high school.  Though Anna knows, deep down, that Etienne could be perfect for her, she also knows that he’s taken–and she still hasn’t forgotten the crush she left back home in Atlanta.  What I particularly loved about this book was the real and honest friendship that developed between Anna and Etienne.  Their genuine concern for each other, regardless of the other people in their lives, made this love triangle work for me, because they always had each other’s best interests at heart, no matter what.  It doesn’t hurt that this is a ridiculously romantic and heart-picklingly sweet story, making it impossible not to smile while reading, no matter what.

1603939The Phantom of the Opera: Gaston Leroux’s classic is surely the love triangle to beat all triangles, as the innocent, beautiful, and talented opera singer, Christine, finds herself torn between her recently-returned childhood love, and the mysterious, masked man who hides in the cellars of the Paris Opera House, and teaches her how to sing like an angel.  Remember when I said that even when a character turns out to be a villain, I still root for them?  Yup, this is that book.  But I would argue it’s pretty hard for a reader not to feel for Erik, the man behind the mask, after his long, fascinating and painful history is revealed, or want to follow him, even after the final pages have turned….

By My Valentine?

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Quote by Oscar Wilde Print by http://www.etsy.com/shop/JenniferDareDesigns

This week, one of our favorite blogs, Book Riot, came out with this Valentine’s Day themes post about “Romantic Heroes I Wouldn’t Date“, which very wisely points out the fact that a number of the men in literature that have been traditionally regarded as romantic leads….but through a twenty-first century gaze really so seem to be rather odious/abusive/creepy/smarmy.  Though I do take exception to some of the piece (Rhett Butler will never trump Rochester.  Never.), it’s an interesting piece.

Thankfully, classic literature is full of admirable, humane heroes who may have gone a bit overlooked and under-appreciated in comparison to their brooding, smarmy, snooty counterparts.  So I thought that today would be an appropriate day to counter Book Riot’s list with one of my own.  Here are some ideas of heroes who won’t lock you in an attic at the end of your first date…

DiggoryDiggory Venn: Members of the Library’s Classics Book Group have heard of my adoration for Thomas Hardy’s Return of the Native, but I don’t think anyone has quite appreciated how besotted I was as a teenager for the reddleman, Diggory Venn–which is also among the greatest literary names ever.  If I ever need to go on the lam, I shall call myself Diggory Venn.  When he first appears, Venn seems like a specter of the heath himself–mysterious, a little ragged, and oddly colored, thanks to his job, which involves traveling the country supplying farmers with a red mineral called “reddle”, the slang term for the dye used to mark sheep.  But we soon learn that, for all his strangeness, he is a smart, insightful, and eminently capable young man who isn’t afraid to get his hands dirty–literally and metaphorically–and is really the reason that anything happens in this book at all, and there are times when it seems that Venn may just have some superhuman powers…but what really earned my eternal adoration was his love for his heroine, Thomasin Yeobright.  Thomasin rejected Venn’s proposal two years ago, and while he never makes her feel guilty for her choice, or tries to change her mind.  What he does however, is everything within his power to make her happy, without asking for thanks or attention, even when she marries someone else.  True love is more than putting someone else’s happiness above your own.  It’s letting the one you love make their own choices…and being there with a handkerchief (albeit one that has some red dye stains all over it) when they need you.

6102843493_394a9b170bGilbert Markham: Everyone swoons over Heathcliff and Rochester, but nobody ever gives Anne Brontë’s hero enough credit.  Gilbert, the narrator of The Tenant of Wildfell Hall stars out as fairly unrecognizable from other young men around him.  He’s got a temper, and he is rather overly-confident in his own good looks and talents; but when he meets independent artist Helen Lawrence Huntington, he realizes that there are things in this world bigger than himself, and people who need more than a crooked smile to make them whole.  The Tenant of Wildfell Hall is a remarkable book for the simple reason that it features a tortured heroine, a woman with a past, and a man who has to prove himself worthy of her.  And Helen doesn’t make it easy.  But Gilbert has the good sense to realize that understanding Helen’s fear and reticence is worth the effort…and as he learns the hell that Helen has survived before moving to Wildfell Hall, he realizes that he is going to have to become far more than a pretty face in order to win her heart.  Because real love makes you grow up, face the world, and realize it doesn’t revolve around you.

c207c9c81133eb750d2d4f675f17915aProfessor Baher:  When crafting a love interesting for the quirky, self-determined heroine of Little Women, Jo March, Louisa May Alcott intentionally created a man who was the very opposite of what mainstream fiction dictated a hero should be.  But, in the end, Professor Frederic Bhaer turned out to be precisely what a hero should be.  He meets Jo when she has moved away from her home, family, and friends in order to make her own way in the world, and, though he finds her fascinating, he lets her do her own thing–but encourages her to be the best version of her that she can be.  The discussion (argument, really) that results from his criticism of her writing isn’t a pretty, or a comfortable one, but the result is that both Jo and the good Professor learn what it really means to respect each other, and to realize that they both have room to grown–as individuals, and together.  Louisa May Alcott knew that love isn’t easy, and the answers aren’t always simple ones.  But, in the end, love isn’t about the sunny days–it’s about sharing your umbrella with someone when it starts raining.
Note: This selection does not in any way detract from Theodore Lawrence, who was my first love.

So, Happy Valentine’s Day, dear readers.  May it be full of love and literature!

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Saturdays @ the South: On Short Stories

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This week, I’ve found myself wishing I could be a little more French. While there are many wonderful and worthwhile possibilities for this wish the reason du jour (see what I did there?) is because in Grenoble, France, they have short-story vending machines and they are awesome. These machines are setup in commuter stations and spit out stories (in French, naturally) based on the length of your commute. You can choose a 1, 3, or 5 minute story (approximately, since everyone reads at his/her own pace) to accompany you on your travels. Word has spread and these vending machines are now even a bit of a tourist attraction and who can blame them when the concept is just so cool?

As a reader, I’ve always wished that I was more into short stories than I am. As a librarian and someone who spends some of her free time discovering new books through articles, podcasts (here’s a personal favorite of mine) and general internet rovings, some short story collections come across my notice and too often, I tend to pass them by. It’s tempting because short stories are, well, short. They make it seem like it will be nothing to read them, but often, much like poetry, their length belies their depth. Bottom line, short stories can be work for the reader and unlike a novel that can give you more to unfold, a short story leaves you with precious little to go on while still trying to impart a meaningful idea.

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This is not to say, however, that I’m completely recalcitrant towards short stories. I’ve recently found myself enjoying them more and, again, much like poetry, I think it’s a matter of finding what appeals to you and your reading style. My first step to try and infuse short stories into my reading life was by exploring stories written by authors I know and have enjoyed. I’ve also found some terrific online resources for short fiction that make the process a little easier. Much like the short-story vending machines, these can be digested during a quick break or when I have a few moments, but not necessarily enough time to feel like I can delve into a book. When I asked my friends about their transit reading habits, one of them responded about liking short stories during her commute for this exact same reason.

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Given the vastness of the internet, there are likely infinite possibilities for finding short stories on the web, but I’ve come across a few that may spark your interest. Some of the stories are curated, some are open entry and others may even be works in progress. I can’t offer them to you you based on the amount of time you have, but hopefully you’ll be able to enjoy something from these options anyway:

Maple Tree Literary Supplement: curated site that offers free access to its essays, poetry and fiction. It came across my desk in a Letter to the Editor in Library Journal when one of the authors in this supplement noted that his short story is available to read for free online, but is unlikely to end up in a collection anytime soon, which means library traditionally wouldn’t offer access to his fiction. Hopefully this is at least, in some small part, a remedy to that dilemma.

Catapult:  similar site to the Maple Tree, but it’s run by a publishing endeavor that curates its content. This content includes how-tos, writing encouragement and community offerings.

Electric Literature:  a non-profit organization that offers and eclectic combination of features, recommendations and original fiction.

Wattpad: an uncurated site that connects readers with stories and gives them the opportunity to post writings as well. You may encounter some works in progress, so you have the option to filter just completed works.

Short Story Thursdays:  is what initially re-piqued my interest in reading short stories because why wouldn’t I have time for 1 short story once a week? The founder and selector of the  stories chooses only public domain short-stories so what you get is mostly “classics” but always interesting. This is an e-mail only offering (it is free and as I long-time subscriber I have never received anything from Tomsky outside of the one email each Thursday). A quick note on SST: the content of the stories can be read privately on an e-reader or tablet, the profanity-infused introductions to each story in the e-mail is definitely NSFW (not safe for work). While any story has the possibility of profanity based on the author’s artistic goals, I felt it fair to warn you of this particular instance since the stories are often “clean” but profanity in the e-mails is all but guaranteed.

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If you’re looking for more traditionally formatted short stories, here’s a small sample of collections you can find at the South Branch:

3646955100 Years of the Best American Short Stories

This collection has been an institution for, well, 100 years, collecting what the editors consider to be the best short fiction by American writers. You’ll find plenty of recognizable names here, plus a few that might surprise you.

3713071Trigger Warning: Short Fictions and Disturbances by Neil Gaiman

This is what I mean when I talk about finding an author I love and trying out that author’s short fiction. Gaiman didn’t disappoint with this collection. His introduction alone, I think makes it worth taking a look at this book. Plus, he narrates the audiobook, which I’ve mentioned adds just a little extra magic to his books.

3653483Ghostly by Audrey Niffenegger

I’ve mentioned this collection before, but it’s such a unique blend of old and new that I think it’s worth mentioning again. Ghosts can come in many different forms, and this book runs the gamut form traditional specters to is-it-or-isn’t-it personal hauntings.

This weekend, dear readers, consider spending a brief moment of your downtime with a short story. Perhaps you’ll feel a bit more French, or perhaps you’ll discover something new. In my humble opinion, any time spent reading is time well spent, so perhaps this may be a way to infuse a bit more reading into a busy life.

Five Book Friday!

So it’s really cold out there today.  Like, record-breaking, it-hasn’t-been-this-cold-on-this-day-in-over-a-century cold out there.  Do you know what that means?

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Buzzfeed

 

According to the entry in Wikipedia, blanket forts are “a staple of early childhood entertainment”, however, we here at the Library know that blanket forts are for everyone, and blanket forts are for always.  In case you need some inspiration, there are a number helpful hints here, though we recommend bringing your books into the fort, rather than using them as counterweights.  Books work much better as books.

And speaking of books….why not pick up a few books from the library to bring into your fort?  Here are five new titles that have graced our shelves this week that would love to come and visit:

3699037My American Duchess: There are very few writers, especially romance writers, whose every release is a sure-fire success, but Eloisa James is absolutely one of them.  Instead of building a story around a tragic event, or a dark, traumatic past, or a lurking secret, she tells stories about real, honest, troubled, lovely, loveable people who are empathetic and whose relationships are wholly believable; in sort, she writes real, honest-to-goodness love stories that are just irresistible.  In this newest release, Merry Pelford arrived in London with two failed engagements in her past, but she has vowed that her third engagement will be a success, no matter what.  And things seem to be going along swimmingly–until she meets the Duke of Trent.  Trent could very well be everything that Merry wants in a man…if she weren’t already engaged to his brother.  This trope is a tricky one, but James pulls it off in a story that is light, wise, and perfectly charming.  RT Book Reviews agrees, cheering “Smart heroines, sensual heroes, witty repartee and a penchant for delicious romance have made James a fan favorite … readers will be hooked from beginning to end.”

3690168Youngblood: Non-fiction writer Matt Gallagher’s first novel begins as the American Army is about to withdraw from Iraq, but newly-minted lieutenant Jack Porter can’t seem to find any reason to celebrate.  A series of backhand deals and schemes have made this withdrawal possible, and he knows that chaos still looms just around the corner.  But even as the arrival of a new, brutal commanding officer unleashes Jack’s worst fears, he finds himself growing increasingly intrigued by a tale of a lost American soldier, and Rana, a local sheikhs’ daughter, a story that could bring down Jack’s new commander–or lead to his own destruction.  But as his fate grows intertwined with Rana’s, Jack realizes that the truth may be worth any price.  This book has been getting a good deal of attention, partly because it manages to tell a kind of parable out of such hard and true facts, and partly because of Gallagher’s intense humanity in depicting some of humanity’s greatest shortcomings.  Kirkus gave this book a starred review, calling it, “A complex tale about the Iraq War, intrigue, love, and survival…Gallagher subtly weaves throughout this excellent, brutal tale intrigue, a mystery, and two compelling love stories… A fresh twist on the Iraq War novel adds depth to this burgeoning genre.”

3686865The Killing Forest: Sara Blaedel’s work has flown off the shelves in her native Denmark, and her series featuring DI Louise Rick has grown into an internationally-bestselling one, so now seems like a perfect time to jump on the bandwagon!  In this eighth series installment, Louise Rick has returned to work at the Special Search Agency, an elite unit of the National Police Department, and is quickly assigned the case of a 15-year-old boy who disappeared the previous week–but Louise soon realizes that this new case dovetails with her own personal investigation into her long-ago boyfriend’s death.  But the farther she digs into the past, and re-enters the complex world of her hometown, the more she realizes that some secrets are better left uncovered, and some truths are too dark for the light of day. Booklist loves Blaedel’s work, and calls this book “Another suspenseful, skillfully wrought entry from Denmark’s Queen of Crime.”

3693317 (1)Shylock is My Name: Howard Jacobson takes one of Shakespeare’s most memorable characters from out of the pages of The Merchant of Venice, and re-imagines him in the present day, as an art dealer named Simon Strulovitch.  While remaining faithful to the basic premise that Shakespeare set out, Jacobson uses Shylock’s feelings of betrayal, his anger, and his shocking bargain (in the original, a pound of flesh, but Jacobson gets a bit more creative….) to explore questions about Jewish and English culture that makes this story feel wholly original.  Critics in the UK are going wild over this book, and the Independent has declared it “Supremely stylish, probing and unsettling…This Shylock is a sympathetic character in his private life…In his dialogues with Strulovitch he is both savagely funny and intellectually searching, both wise and sophistical, intimate and coldly controlling… Jacobson’s writing is virtuoso. He is a master of shifting tones, from the satirical to the serious. His prose has the sort of elastic precision you only get from a writer who is truly in command.”

3694314In Europe’s Shadow: Two Cold Wars and a Thirty-Year Journey Through Romania and BeyondJournalist Robert Kaplan has made his career by writing about the Balkans, and all of his books are beautifully sympathetic and insightful, offering a fascinating blend of history and current events that will make you feel like you’ve lived there with him for some time.  In this newest release, he focuses on Romania, a country that exists somewhere between the East and the West, a place that experienced some of the worst effects of Communism, that is now, somehow, transforming itself into a place for Western tastes and tourism.  Kaplan makes the generations of history that have formed Romania’s ambiguous relationship with Europe, and it’s very tense, storied experience with Russia clear, accessible, and deeply empathetic, and may just make you want to back your own bags for a visit.  The New York Times Book Review seems to agree, calling this work a “haunting yet ultimately optimistic examination of the human condition as found in Romania . . . Kaplan’s account of the centuries leading up to the most turbulent of all—the twentieth—is both sweeping and replete with alluring detail.”

Until next week, beloved patrons, keep warm and happy reading!  If anyone needs me, I’ll be in my blanket fort….

A Bit More On Love Letters…


This week, we are celebrating the literary love letter (or love letters from the literary) as our contribution to your Valentine’s Day celebrations.  Today, we focus on perhaps the most famous love letter of all times, not only because of the timeless composition it inspired, but because of the mystery in which it is shrouded…

1949145Ludwig von Beethoven was never known to be a very charming individual.  He suffered from chronic stomach pains from his early twenties and began going deaf at about age 26, and both conditions made him quite short-tempered (to learn more, I can’t recommend Beethoven’s Hair any more highly).  He was known to stop performances in the middle of a piece if he thought the audience was not giving him the attention and respect he deserved.  His patron in Vienna, Archduke Rudolf, was forced to decree that the composer was exempt from the standard etiquette rules of court, so that his grumpiness wouldn’t cause a scandal.

But despite the stomach pains and the chronic curmudgeonliness , Beethoven had the soul of a Romantic–wild, passionate…and secretive.  Historians are still working to uncover the truth about a number of his relationships, particularly those that inspired him to compose.  Für Elise, perhaps one of his best known pieces, is believed to be a audible love letter to one of his students–who turned him down, truth be told.  But that shouldn’t detract (too much) from the beauty of the piece, or the sentiment behind it.  Have a listen for yourself:

But the best, the most important love letter was yet to come.  The  missive that has become known as the “Immortal Beloved” letter was discovered among Beethoven’s papers after his death in 1827, by his secretary, who kept it hidden for the remainder of his own life.  Thus, it was in 1880 that the letter made its way to the Berlin State Library, setting off a firestorm of speculation as to the letter’s intended recipient, when it was drafted, and why it never reached her.

Tests were performed on the watermark of the paper sometime in the 1950’s, and showed that the paper on which the letter was written was made in 1812, which was the year that Beethoven spent in the Czech city of Teplice.  Though we will presumably never know the truth about Beethoven’s “Unsterbliche Geliebte”–or “Immortal Beloved”–but it is generally assumed now that she was Josephine Brunsvik, another of Beethoven’s piano students.

josephine-brunsvikJosephine was 20 years old when Beethoven (who was 29 at the time) was hired to give her and her sisters piano lessons at their Vienna home.  According to his letters to her, it was nearly love at first sight for young Ludwig, but that same year, Josephine’s mother forced her to marry the exceptionally wealthy Count von Dehm, who was not only twice her age, but hated music.

Von Dehm died of pneumonia five years later, but being a widow didn’t allow Beethoven to press his suit.  Beethoven was a commoner, you see, and marriage to him would have forced Josephine to relinquish custody of her children.  Nevertheless, it is evident through their letters that the two remained close, visiting several times.  Beethoven wrote around April of 1805, in his characteristically dash-ridden way: “beloved J., it is not the drive to the opposite sex that attracts me to you, no, only you, the whole of your Being with all its singularities – has my respect – all my feelings – all of my sensibility is chained to you…Long – long – time – may our love last – it is so noble – so founded on mutual respect and friendship.”

beethovens-piano-1344527332-article-1The correspondence between Beethoven and Josephine ended with Josephine’s marriage to Baron Christoph von Stackelberg, her children’s tutor.  It was a disastrous marriage, and the baron left her in 1812.  Desperate for money, Josephine set off to see a family friend in Prague, stopping along the way in Teplice, where Beethoven was also visiting.  His sister took care of Josephine’s children during her visit, and there is no reason not to assume that the two caught up–and strengthened the bonds that had grown between them so many years earlier.  If indeed Josephine was the “Immortal Beloved” of Beethoven’s letter, it was this meeting that inspired him to write.  A few highlight of that letter are below…The full text of the letter is here, courtesy of the glorious Letters of Note:

Good morning, on 7 July

Even in bed my ideas yearn towards you, my Immortal Beloved, here and there joyfully, then again sadly, awaiting from Fate, whether it will listen to us. I can only live, either altogether with you or not at all. Yes, I have determined to wander about for so long far away, until I can fly into your arms and call myself quite at home with you, can send my soul enveloped by yours into the realm of spirits — yes, I regret, it must be. You will get over it all the more as you know my faithfulness to you; never another one can own my heart, never — never! O God, why must one go away from what one loves so, and yet my life in W. as it is now is a miserable life. Your love made me the happiest and unhappiest at the same time. At my actual age I should need some continuity, sameness of life — can that exist under our circumstances? Angel, I just hear that the post goes out every day — and must close therefore, so that you get the L. at once. Be calm — love me — today — yesterday.

What longing in tears for you — You — my Life — my All — farewell. Oh, go on loving me — never doubt the faithfullest heart

Of your beloved

L

Ever thine.
Ever mine.
Ever ours.

We can only speculate whether Josephine was the intended recipient of this letter, but we do know that Beethoven composed several pieces of music for her, among them “An die Hoffnung [To Hope]“, which bore a dedication to her on the original manuscript.  For fans of Pride and Prejudice, this is the song that Lizzie sings while Darcy gives her The Look.  His final two piano sonatas (Opus 110 and Opus 111), which were written just after her death, recall the melody of that song, perhaps offering a final farewell to the woman who would live forever in his heart, and in his music….