Monthly Archives: December 2016

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From the Information Desk…

We here at the Library are constantly thinking of new ways to help you, our readers, our patrons, and our community, and novel programming to whet your intellectual appetite, or pique your crafty curiosity.  And nowhere is that more true that at the Information Desk, where we are busy cooking up a whole mess of new programs, how-tos and displays in order to do the most good for you.  Here are just a few of the neat things you can find at or behind the information desk:

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New Document Scanner

Ever been sad to come into the Library and find our public scanner is in use?  Well, weep no more!  The Main Library now has a Fujitsu ScanSnap S1300i document scanner available for in-library use. The automatic document feeder accepts up to 10 pages at a time, and is capable of two-sided multi-page color scanning at up to 12 pages per minute. Files scan directly to PDF, searchable PDF, JPEG, or to office applications like Word or Excel®. The ScanSnap S1300i supports wireless scanning to iPad®, iPhone®, Android™ and Kindle™ devices for convenient viewing via the mobile app ScanSnap Connect Application.  This is a perfect alternative to our public scanner, and a quick, and easy-to-use piece of technology to help you preserve your important documents
For more information, please call 978-531-0100 ext. 24.

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Career Corner

Your friendly reference staff are also in the process of setting up a “Career Corner”, which will reside between the Information Desk and public computers. This space will feature announcements about career-oriented programming and training from us and local organizations, employment opportunities, and simple advice to make your job search as easy as possible.  This is a work-in-progress, but any information you would look to see–or to contribute–to this space is always welcome!  Also, be sure to check out the programming currently being offered by the North Shore Career Center.  For more information, please call 978-531-0100 ext. 24.

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Introduction Classes and Open Lab

Open Lab has now become a staple of the Information Desk’s range of programming, allowing patrons and technology users in need to of help to drop by with their devices and questions.  Open Computer Lab is offered on Mondays, 2:00-4:00 p.m. and on Select Saturdays 10:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m.  Just a note….While we have open computer lab this week, Mondays will be cancelled until late January because of staff absences and holidays.
Additionally, we will be offering a wealth of “how to” and introductory programming this winter to allow you to brush up on your skills, and try something new heading into 2017.  Check out our schedule online, or our brochures in the Library to see all the neat stuff we’ll be doing in the coming year at the branches, the Creativity Lab, and in the Tech Lab, as well–and don’t forget to sign up, in person, online, or by calling the Library!

 

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Making Magic: Laser Art

*This post is part of Free for All’s “Making Magic” series, which will focus on Kelley’s exploration of the opportunities in the library’s Creativity Lab.

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Bookmarks designed by “Laser Art: Bookmarks” students.

If you’re a creative person, you know there is nothing better than learning something that expands your idea of what you can do with your work. And if you’ve been following this blog, you’ve read about my excitement at learning to use the Creativity Lab’s laser cutter for the first time. That two-hour class entirely changed the way I thought about graphics designed in Adobe Illustrator. Suddenly, instead of being useful only for computer and print images, I could take my graphic drawings and cut or etch them into a variety of materials including plywood, leather, driftwood, cork and denim. Once two dimensional images could become  earrings, coasters, wall art and more. In fact, I was so excited that I decided that I wanted to teach other people how to do the same, and so Laser Art was born.

Last week marked the end of the Creativity Lab’s first Laser Art class.  Many Lab users are just learning to use the equipment, so they cut free pre-designed work downloaded from the internet. The idea of a laser art class is to teach people to use the Lab’s laser cutter to make original artwork. Classes are project based, and participants learn the basics of Adobe Illustrator along with step-by-step instructions for safe laser cutter operation. Students all work on a similar project, but the assignments are carefully chosen to leave plenty of room for unique and creative design work.

Being as the Creativity Lab is in the lower level of a public library, it seemed appropriate that our first Laser Art class focus on bookmarks. The Lab always has ⅛” thick plywood available for makers to use for learning and independent projects, but for the Laser Art class we wanted something special and gift-worthy, and also something thinner to be more in keeping with the dimensions of a bookmark. After some searching, we purchased 1/16” thick bamboo for the class. The smooth texture, warm color, and unique woodgrain of the bamboo makes it truly something special for artistic work. Over the course of four two-hour classes, students learned the basic skills necessary to make and cut their designs. Everyone left with a completed bookmark.

The next laser art class will be in the spring and we have an Intro to Illustrator class coming in February, but the topics are to be decided so let us know if you have any suggestions! In the meantime, you might want to take a look at our new digital books collection from the American Graphics Institute. You’ll find books, video tutorials, and lesson files for learning digital design software, office applications, and web coding skills. Of course, Adobe Illustrator is included in this package, and is my main reason for pointing it out in this post. Please note that access to this collection is limited to patrons at the library.

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Saturdays @ the South: The Ghost of Childhoods Past

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quote-i-am-the-ghost-of-christmas-past-long-past-inquired-scrooge-no-your-past-charles-dickens-305003The holidays (and by that I mean any holiday, not just those that appear during this particular holiday season) are times when I like to indulge in my inner child. I’ve mentioned several times about my love for children’s books, but I also have a great love for classic children’s holidays shows. These are rarely in the form of movies. Instead, I’m a sucker for the half or one-hour specials that punctuated my childhood and that my mother dutifully recorded for me so I could watch them year after year. Some of these are newer traditions, but most come from my earliest childhood days and are among the things I most look forward to for each holiday.

It happens that this particular holiday season is an embarrassment of riches in this department. Easter, Thanksgiving, Halloween and even Election Day all have their moments in the sun, but Christmas is when producers, writers and networks traditionally pull out the big guns and slather us with specials. Not all of these specials are good, nor are they necessarily lasting classics. NPR’s All Things Considered recently wondered why recent Christmas specials are either bad or seemingly a corporate mechanism. While there may be a couple of exceptions (I, personally liked the Madagascar and Toy Story Christmas specials), I tend to agree that the modern specials aren’t always up to the holiday snuff of their classic predecessors.

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ABC Photo Archives/ABC via Getty Images

That’s why it is often so good to dust off those old classics and relive childhood in a way that few other activities can achieve. it’s also why I’ve guarded collection of recorded holiday specials so closely throughout my life. I’ve flabbergasted college roommates at the breadth of my collection and we spent many an evening firmly entrenched in childhood nostalgia. I recently re-introduced a friend, who did not have the luxury of repeated viewings as a wee one, to the pleasures of holiday nostalgia and I have to say, part of the pleasure I derived was not just in the viewing itself, but in the sharing and being able to watch someone else take similar glee in reminiscing about these particular holiday memories.

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From TNT’s adaptation of A Christmas Carol. Joel Gray makes an oddly creepy Ghost of Christmas Past, no?

With that spirit in mind, I invite all of you to take a trip down memory lane with me with a few of my favorite titles:

3465729Mickey’s Christmas Carol – This is easily one of my favorite Christmas specials. It was surprisingly true to Dickens’s original text (albeit abridged) but with added humor that is simple enough for a child to get, but classic enough for adults to enjoy. The addition of favorite Disney characters in the classic roles of Scrooge, the Cratchits and the Christmas ghosts were all delightful, but Goofy as Jacob Marley will forever be my favorite rendition of that character.

2048621A Charlie Brown Christmas – I probably don’t really need to mention this one because this is one of the few specials of my childhood that has never been lacking for air time. And yet, few specials fill me with as much nostalgia. Maybe it was the fact that Schultz insisted on having his characters played by actual children, and not grown actors. Maybe it’s because this is one special that everyone I know has memories of and so it’s easy to compare nostalgia. Either way, few things get me into the holiday spirit as easily as watching Snoopy skate so gracefully in the opening scene.

2017291How the Grinch Stole Christmas – This is in a similar category as A Charlie Brown Christmas in terms of air time, but it’s celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, so I think that alone makes it worth mentioning. I’ll be honest here and tell you I’ve never seen the Jim Carey version as I’m just too afraid that it will mar my viewings of this classic that I’ve loved wholeheartedly for as long as I can remember. I even have the audio of the story, plus all the song tracks on my iPod because I can’t get enough.

2340402A Muppet Christmas Carol – This is the only full-length feature to make the list. While I wish NOBLE had Jim Henson’s Muppet Family Christmas special with John Denver on DVD somewhere in its catalog, this is my second favorite Muppet Christmas special. Statler and Waldorf may not beat Goofy as my favorite Jacob Marley, but Rizzo and Gonzo’s delightful banter makes this movie both fairly true to text and wonderfully innovative and original in a way that only the Muppets can be.

the_stingiest_man_in_townThe Stingiest Man in Town – What can I say, I’m a huge fan of A Christmas Carol. This hand-drawn animated special was created by the same team that brought us the stop-motion Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. There was a time when the team of Rankin and Bass seemed unstoppable in their Christmas merrymaking. They created a slew of Christmas specials  in the 1970s and, with all due respect to Rudolph, this one is my favorite of theirs. It stars vocal talents like Walter Mattheau and Tom Bosley and was an adaptation of a little-known live-action musical adaptation of Dickens’s classic tale from the 1950s. The overlay of the Ghost of Christmas Present with Santa Claus in a musical number alone makes this show worth seeing, but it is actually one of the better musical adaptations of A Christmas Carol that I’ve seen (and given my love for the story, I’ve seen a LOT).

Till next week, dear readers, I encourage you to not only indulge yourself in these viewings, but to share them with someone you think may enjoy the nostalgia just as much, or maybe even someone who will experience them for the first time. There’s nothing like a fresh set of eyes to get you looking at something you’ve seen dozens of time in a brand new way.

 

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Five Book Friday!

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The star-scape over Boston, MA

The days are growing shorter and chillier, dear readers, and I know for many of you, that can make life tough.

I lived in London for a while, as I’ve said too many times already here.  And it was beautiful.   London is a city that is awake and dancing and thriving at all hours of the day.  And the result is that there are a lot of lights on all the time.  And while it’s great that there is always a place to get a sandwich or see a film or some such…the number of lights really inhibit the number of stars that you can see.  It wasn’t a fact I particularly minded, since there was so much else to see, but I vividly remember coming home for the holidays and being stunned at the number of stars in the sky over my house.  Having grown so used to comparatively blank sky, just seeing all those little fiery balls of gas and space debris twinkling down through the frosty night air was magical.

So I thought today I’d share this post from Harvard’s Center for Astrophysics with you today–it show all the amazing things you can see in the dark this month: At mid-month, it will be possible to see all four planets of the inner Solar System near the western horizon as darkness falls (if you count the Earth, upon which you are standing….).  And, if you squint, you’ll be able to see Neptune!  Neptune!  A planet that will be 2.7 billion miles away when it peeks out next to the Moon.

So I hope, that in the midst of the winter darkness, you’ll be able to look up and see some stars, dear readers…or even some planets.  And I hope they bring you light.

And now, on to the books!  This week, we have had a perfect storm of terrific non-fiction books drifting onto our shelves, so get ready for a fully factual Five Book Friday!

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3756357Stamped From the Beginning: As we reported here, Ibram X. Kendi’s book won the National Book Award for non-fiction this year, which was only the latest in a series of awards and accolades for this stunning and thoroughly researched book.  Writing in direct opposition to the notion that America is a “post-racial”, “color-blind” society, Kendi uses the lives of five major American intellectuals to offer a window into the contentious debates between assimilationists and segregationists, as well as between anti-racists and racists: from Cotton Mather to Thomas Jefferson, from William Lloyd Garrison to W.E.B. DuBois, as well as Angela Davis, this book holds that racism in America is not the result of ignorance or hatred, but that racist ideas were created and popularized in order to defend deeply entrenched discriminatory policies that protected those in power.  This is by no means an easy read, but Xendi also shows that while racist ideas are easily formed and consumed, they can also be discredited, and a better world built, lending hope to what often feels like a hopeless situation.  Kirkus gave this book a starred review, and also named it a “Best History Book of 2016”, saying “In this tour de force, Kendi explores the history of racist ideas—and their connection with racist practices—across American history. Racism is the enduring scar on the American consciousness. In this ambitious, magisterial book, Kendi reveals just how deep that scar cuts and why it endures, its barely subcutaneous pain still able to flare.”

3779040How to Survive a Plague: The title of this book calls to mind thriller movies and apocalyptic warnings, but rather than science fiction, this is a real-life story about the grassroots movement that battled the AIDS epidemic of the 1980’s and 1990’s, culminating in a comprehensive treatment plan that, to date, has saved some 16 million lives.  In the face of mysterious illness, torturous death, and public approbation (to put it lightly), groups like ACT UP and TAG (Treatment Action Group) that started an underground drug market to oppose the prohibitively expensive…and often deadly…AZT treatments available, educated millions around the world, and forced reform in the nation’s top disease-fighting agencies.  David France brings first-hand knowledge and comprehensive oral testimonies to this book, opening up a terrifying and incredibly moving period of American history that, because so many involved did not live, has gone largely undiscussed today.   Again, this is a difficult book to read, but also a deeply necessary one, because it shows human resilience and determination, even in the face of the most overwhelming opposition.  The New York Times named this one of their Notable Books of the Year, and Newsday praised it as “Flawless. Masterfully written, impeccably researched, and full of feeling for the living and dead heroes of the AIDS movement… There can be no clearer picture of the uphill battle against ignorance and bigotry… No better person to write this book, which had to be written, creating a complete and correct record of this terrible story and its heroes.”

3796101-1Unmentionable : The Victorian Ladys Guide To Sex Marriage And Manners: For all that we fawn over the pretty costumes and romantic ideals of bygone eras, the reality, especially for women, was really quite different…and painful….and degrading….and, occasionally, utterly ridiculous.  In this brazenly funny, quick-paced, and marvelously well-researched book, Therese Oneill brings all the unsavory, absurd, and totally quirky tips, tricks, hints, guides, and advertisements aimed at women in the 19th century; everything from diet to beauty, from courtship and marriage to hygiene and medicine, this book will make you think about history in a much more personal way–and will no doubt provide plenty to think about in considering what we do to and think about ourselves today.  The Editors of Library Journal made this book one of their top picks, calling it “A down-and-dirty perusal of the realities of hygiene and womanhood in the Victorian era. The truth behind slimming corsets, virtuous nuptials, and strict morals is sometimes shocking, occasionally alarming, but always funny with Oneill’s wry commentary.”

3783228The Wood for the Trees: One Man’s Long View of Nature: A few years ago, award-winning scientist Richard Fortey purchased four acres of woodland in the Chiltern Hills of Oxfordshire, England.  This book the tale of what he found there, and how a forest changed his life.  Each chapter in this charming and wonder-filled book covers a month in Fortey’s year, detailing his moth hunting and wood-cutting, the friends he made, and the new paths he as his roots pushed deeper and deeper into his new home, and he realized just how much live four acres could contain.  The result is a funny, sometime snarky, but always interesting work that focuses deeply–and emotionally–on place and its meaning in our lives.  The New York Times Review of Books loved this book, calling it “Fascinating…vivid…striking…an immensely detailed portrait of the flora and fauna contained in four acres…Fortey creates an astounding portrait of multilayered life in one relatively restricted space, reviving the great tradition of natural history…[and] conveys unforgettably the staggering variety and abundance of the whole natural world.”

3839732Butter Celebrates!: Last week, we showcased a book on the history of butter, and this week, we are highlighting a new cookbook by Rosie Daykin, owner of Butter Baked Goods in Vancouver.  Just in case you needed some more butter in your life.  And who doesn’t, honestly?  Filled with over 100 recipes that are perfect for any holiday or festivity you may be planning, this is one of those books that make you hungry just looking through its stunning pages…..So very, very hungry……

Until next week, beloved patrons–happy reading!

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Wednesdays @ West: A War Which Will Live in Infamy

Today marks the 75th Anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor, which officially spurred the entry of the United States into World War II.  The following day, President Roosevelt addressed Congress and famously dubbed December 7, 1941 as “a date which will live in infamy” (here’s a transcript and audio recording of FDR’s full speech).

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Seven and a half decades later, few survivors of this historic event are still here to tell their tales, so a concentrated effort is being made to record their stories.  The West Branch’s history book group reads a great deal about World War II and each time we discuss another great book that captures one facet or another of the war, we comment that there is no end to the stories that exist about this fascinating and horrifying era in human history.  So today on this somber occasion, I offer reading suggestions from the library’s new nonfiction section that tell a few more of the stories that focus on the war in the Pacific.

countdowntopearlharborFirst, about the bombing of Pearl Harbor, there’s Countdown to Pearl Harbor by Steve Twomey.  Twomey is a Pultizer Prize winning journalist.  His book examines the series of missteps and mistakes that led to the American intelligence community’s failure to recognize the Japanese’s plan to attack the naval base.  Also published to coincide with the 75th anniversary of the attack is Pearl Harbor: From Infamy to Greatness by Craig Nelson.  pearlharborfrominfamytogreatnessNelson focuses on the how and why of the attack, as well as sharing the stories of a number of survivors.

Bill O’Reilly’s history books have, without killingtherisingsunexception, always landed him on the bestseller list.  His latest Killing the Rising Sun focuses on the Pacific theater of the war and covers the battles between MacArthur’s forces and the Japanese military, the development of the nuclear bomb and Truman’s decision to deploy it.

douglasmacarthurSpeaking of MacArthur, the author of Gandhi and Churchill, Arthur Herman’s newest work is Douglas MacArthur: American Warrior.  MacArthur is, of course, a much disputed character in American history.  Herman is overall an admirer of MacArthur and this biography takes a look at some of the many lingering myths about the general and his role in World War II and Korea.

The legacy of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor touches many infamyaspects of American history, including a grim episode in our country’s history: the internment of Japanese Americans.  Historian Richard Reeves wrote Infamy: the shocking story of the Japanese American internment in World War II  which covers the historical and political decision making process that led to the internment policy, the daily life in the camps and the stories of some Americans who vehemently opposed the imprisonment of Japanese immigrants and American citizens of Japanese descent.  If this is area you wish to learn more about, you may also want to check out today’s NPR interview with a woman that was in one of this prison camps.

For those of you who would rather read history that has a little bit of eveofahundredmidnightsreal-life romance and adventure to it, you could try Eve of a Hundred Midnights by Bill Lascher.  This fast paced tale of two married journalists details their harrowing experiences trying to cover the Pacific theater after the fall of Manila.

If you are a fan of history reading, keep an eye out for upcoming Wednesdays @ West posts.  In the coming weeks, I’ll be offering a list of the best books our book group  explored in 2016 and (drum roll) an announcement of a whole year of history reading for 2017.

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Winter Is Coming….

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…Or, judging by the frost on my car this morning, dear readers, it might actually already be here.

I’ll be honest with you–I love winter.  I love the cold, I adore snow.  I was one of those kids who went tearing out of the house without a coat on and flung themselves at the nearest snowdrift (ok, I still do that, who am I kidding?).  But I realize that I am most likely in the minority here.

As much fun as it can be to sit cozily inside and watch the snow fall, or to flaunt your new boots and scarves this time of year, the truth of it is that human bodies really really don’t like to be cold.  It’s one of those primal fears built into all our brains, just like a fear of the dark, and a fear of being alone.  All of these things aren’t modern-day constructions; they are primal triggers that have been passed down to us from our single-celled organism ancestors.  Because all of them are, potentially, mortal dangers.

And this is what makes a genre that I am hereby terming Arctic Horror such a rip-roaring success.  We could also call it ‘Polar Horror’ or ‘Cold Horror”, but what we’re discussing are books that are set in remote, usually the Arctic, sometimes on Antarctica or a really high mountain, where it’s really, really cold.  And dark.  And isolating.  If done right, these books are not only fascinating journeys to places that most of us will never see–they are also absolutely terrifying, precisely because they tap into those brain-stem fears that we all have in common.  Even while you rationally know you are safe and warm and connected to the outside world, the visceral feeling of experiencing these harrowing expeditions, these brutal quests, or these races against time are experiences that linger long after the final page has turned.

But horror novels are more than just the scary stuff.  In order for the scary stuff to be scary, in order for us to feel for the characters who are enduring these hardships, we need to care about them.  We need to see ourselves in them, and we need to want them to survive.  So along with creating powerfully affecting settings, authors of Arctic horror also have to create genuinely real characters, and powerful relationships between them that ground us in their realities and make thier journeys that much more fraught.

So I thought I’d share some of the highlights of Arctic Horror that I’ve found recently, for those of you looking for a high-stakes, low-temperature thrill.  They may help you pass the next long, winter night–or give you the itch to go out on an adventure of your own!

indexDark Matter: Although this book only lives at the Boston Public Library, it’s a piece of cake to get those books, either by getting your own BPL card (any resident of Massachusetts is eligible), or by having one of your friendly Reference Librarians put in an Inter-Library Loan request for you.  Believe me, this little book is worth it.  In it, we follow Jack, a penniless, desperate, but adventurous young man who, in January 1937, manages to get himself accepted on board an Arctic expedition as a radio operator.  He and his small team weather the journey north, and prepare to make their winter home at a deserted bay known as Gruhuken.  But as the nights grow longer Jack begins to realize that there is more to fear in Gruhuken than the plummeting temperatures.  Members of his expedition team are being forced to leave, one by one, until Jack is the only man left–but he knows he isn’t alone.  And he knows whatever is outside is watching him.  Michelle Paver does a brilliant job creating Jack, and giving him both the wonder we would no doubt feel at his adventures, as well as the annoyance we would all feel at being stuck in cramped quarters with near-strangers for months on end.  The terror here builds slowly, but with the strength of a blizzard.  Once it hits, there is no turning back, and eventually reaches a climax that is disorienting, overwhelming, and genuinely frightening. (See the end of this post for a tiny, but helpful spoiler)

3839094Stranded: Bracken MacLeod’s haunting new novel opens in the midst of a massive Arctic storm that is remorselessly battering the Arctic Promise, a supply ship headed to an Arctic Drilling platform called the Niflheim.   Though the ship and crew survive, their radio and communications equipment completely stops working, stranding the ship in an impenetrable fog. Then, slowly, the crew begins falling ill–not with a cold or a fever.  They just begin to waste away.  Deckhand Noah Cabot is the only man who seems unaffected–and thus, becomes the first man to volunteer to leave the ship when a shape is spotted on the horizon.  With no hope left onboard the Arctic Promise, Noah and a small crew set out across the ice…but what they find on the horizon is more dreadful than anything Noah could have imagined, and forces him to reconsider all the choices he’s made to this point.  MacLeod does a sensational job of building the terror slowly around Noah, first by isolating him from his crew (his backstory with his captain is heartbreaking and critically important here), and then by sending him into a kind of frozen purgatory, not unlike the Niflheim of myth.  Though the twist here would seem utterly ridiculous if I told you here, it works in the context of this story, and leads to a climax that is shocking, but no less believable and tragic for all that.  There are no easy answers here–there are few answers at all, come to that–but in some ways, that makes this book even more haunting.

3370892The Abominable: Dan Simmons is one of those authors that we here at the Library can always turn to for a wonderfully told, immersive story, and this tale only further cements his reputation.  Like Dark Matter, this book is a historical tale, set just after the disappearance of George Mallory and Sandy Irvine on Everest in 1924.  One year after the loss of Mallory and the hopes of reaching the top of Everest, three climbers–a British war poet,a  French Chamonix guide, and an adventurous American–decide to try again.  Financed by a grieving mother whose own son disappeared on Everest, the team sets out to conquer the tallest, and most terrifying of all mountains.  But what they find on those treacherous, wintery slopes is far more than they expected.  Something is following them.  And even if they reach the top–even if they discover what happened to Mallory and the other victims of Everest, even if they survive…there is still the challenge of climbing down, and facing the terror head-on.  Simmons pulls a few narrative tricks here to make his story feel real from the outset, which is helped considerably by his innate talent for crafting historical settings, making this hefty book fly by.  By blending the real-life tragedy of Mallory and the First World War into the tapestry of this book, he gives his tale a pathos and a drive that makes the threat to our climbers feel so much more terrifying, because we want them to succeed so badly.

 

Enjoy, dear readers!  And don’t forget your mittens!

 

(The dog lives.)

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The Romance Garden!

It may be growing darker and colder outside, dear readers…but that is nothing more than a good excuse to curl up with a good book (at least that’s what I tell myself around this time of year!).  And our genre aficionados at the Library are here, as ever, bring you our favorite readers from this month!

Lady Reading in the Garden (1894). Niels Frederik Schiøttz-Jensen
Lady Reading in the Garden (1894). Niels Frederik Schiøttz-Jensen

Bridget: The Fixer, Helenkay Dimon

3803359I have had a tough time with contemporary romances for a number of reasons, but largely due to issues of gender and power relations that we can certainly discuss at a later time here…but then I read the debut of Helenkay Dimon’s Games People Play series, and realized there was still hope left in the world.

Years ago, Emery Finn’s cousin vanished without a trace, and her case was never resolved.  As a result, Emery has dedicated her life to helping find other missing women, and to following every lead into her cousin’s case, no matter how cold, no matter how obscure.  It is that search that led her to a man known only as Wren–a professional ‘fixer’, whose network of influence is vast, and whose true identity is a secret worth killing to keep.  But Emery refuses to take no for an answer.  Wren has lived most of his life in the shadows, doing the work that no one else can.  But as he gets to know Emery, to see the passion that drives her and the strength that keeps her going, he finds himself drawn ever closer to her.  But the more their search uncovers, the greater the danger to Emery grows, until Wren has no choice but to put aside his dark past and fight for the woman he has come to love.

I have a bit of a hard time telling you how much this book surprised me, dear readers.  But we’ll start with the part where Wren, who, despite his wealth and power, is awkward in social situations, apologizes to the heroine for intimidating her at their first meeting.  This is not a man who “takes what he wants”, like so many other heroes whose privileges are used to justify their horrible behavior.  This is a romance of equals who respect each other and value each other’s talents and input, and of two people who aren’t used to making interpersonal connections, which adds an utterly charming artlessness and humanity to both characters.  The mystery element of the plot is strong and interesting as well, but for me, this book was about shattering genre conventions, readers’ expectations, and telling a story about a strong, healthy, and honest relationship that was as meaningful as it was engaging.  This one probably one of my favorite reads of the year, and I can’t wait until it arrives on our shelves soon!

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Lady in a Garden, Frederick Carl Frieseke (1912)

Kelley: Love and Other Scandals  by Caroline Linden

3421764Sometimes it’s nice to read a simple love story without deception and drama, and that’s just what Caroline Linden gives her readers with Love and Other Scandals. There isn’t anything unexpected in this book, but it’s impossible not to like Joan Bennet and her family, especially her aunt, and though it took a bit longer for me, once more of his past was revealed I warmed up to charming rake Tristan as well.

Joan is a spinster wallflower largely because she spends most of her life dominated by her well-meaning mother, the only person both she and her brother fear to upset. From conservative rules of propriety to a religious observance of fashion that ignores flattering individual figures, Joan’s mother imposes rules that pretty much ensure that Joan will go unnoticed by potential suitors. When Joan’s parents and brother need to leave town while her mother recovers from an illness, Joan is left in the care of her unconventional aunt and, at the request of her brother, entertained by his good friend Tristan in his absence.

You can probably guess what happens next.  Joan’s trips to the modiste and outings with Tristan are full of the kind of light and fun romance that’s perfect when you’re looking for an escape from reality. Following Joan as she learns to embrace her own sense of style and understand that some things are worth fighting for even if it means upsetting the people you love is a true pleasure.

Until next month (next year!), beloved patrons–happy reading!

Gyula Benczú, "Woman Reading in a Forest (1875)
Gyula Benczú, “Woman Reading in a Forest (1875)