Monthly Archives: February 2017

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Saturdays @ the South: Mexican Literature

Image discovered on LitHub

I fully admit that my reading list isn’t as diverse as it could be, partly because the bookternet (bookish + Internet) makes it so easy to reach for books already in my wheelhouse. Favorite authors mention other authors they enjoy, Goodreads points me to books I might like based on what I’ve already read and my wonderful bookish friends and fellow colleagues at the library are constantly dropping book references. This is one of my favorite parts of the bookternet (and the bookish community in general) because I know that I will never run out of great reading material in my to-be-read pile. But it also means that, if I’m reading books like what I’ve already read, I’m not reading books that aren’t like anything I’ve ever read before.

We’ve talked a fair amount about diversity in literature here on the Free For All, but mentioning it occasionally isn’t quite enough. It’s important to continue to talk about diversity, particularly in literature, on a regular basis lest it become relegated to shadows, ensuring that nothing ever changes. In an effort to talk more about diverse literature, I’m starting a regular feature for Saturdays @ the South where I talk about books from a particular area of the world in an effort not only to introduce you to diverse voices, but to also introduce myself to new voices and ideas that I haven’t been exposed to previously. It won’t be every week; there will still be the weird bookish ramblings and musings you’ve come to expect on a Saturday, but I’d like to feature a new country or region every month to ensure that the conversation continues.

Today, we’re talking about our neighbors to the south, Mexico. Mexican literature has a rich heritage and many of it’s classic works, as well as new contemporary authors, are beginning to become more widely available in translation. My high school and college Spanish is very sadly rusty, so I’m grateful for the efforts of organizations like Deep Vellum and UNESCO and resources like Three Percent who promote translations of works into English. While there are always issues with reading any work that has been translated from the author’s original language, the best will try to keep the lyricism and ideas of the author in tact to ensure a reading experience that is still rich. Here are some books by Mexican and Mexican-American authors that can expand our reading experiences together:

Pedro Paramo by Juan Rulfo

Will Evans wrote on LitHub  he “believe[s] the greatest Mexican novel ever written is Pedro Paramo…” because it “changed the way that literature is written, read, processed and remembered when it was published in 1955.” Wow. That’s a bold statement to make for any novel, but it’s enough to make me want to read this one sooner rather than later.

The Story of My Teeth by Valeria Luiselli

The Culture Trip mentioned that Valeria Luiselli, a Mexico City native, is “described as one of the brightest literary talents in the entire world right now.” Again, wow. How have I missed this on my reading radar? This book is her latest novel (published in 2015) follows the adventures of Highway, a world-traveler, auctioneer and general bon-vivant, whose most precious possessions are the teeth of the “notorious infamous” like Virginal Woolf, Plato and more.

Signs Preceding the End of the World by Yuri Herrera

This is a book about borderlands that takes a great deal from Pedro Paramo by Juan Rulfo. The narrator is trying to bring her brother back to Mexico from across the US border, but the book tackles much more than immigration as it is steeped in mythology as well. A quick note here: Yuri Herrera has at least three books mentioned on the Best-of-Mexican-Literature lists I found, so I’m guessing that any of his books would be a good place to start.

Sudden Death by Alvaro Enrigue

LitHub voted this one of the best books of 2016, period. No ethnic qualifier or best of Chicano/a literature. They just thought this book was awesome, and boy, does it sound cool. This book is quasi-historical, mostly meta-fictional about “a 16th-century tennis match between Spanish poet Francisco de Quevedo and Italian painter Caravaggio, playing with a ball stuffed with the hair of Anne Boleyn.” Seriously, how quickly can I get this book?

What You See in the Dark by Manuel Munoz

This book is set in the 1950s in an Alfred Hitchcock-style narrative. This tale of a doomed love affair set against the backdrop of a filmmaker who comes to Bakersfield, CA to scout locations for a film about murder at a motel peeks into character’s private thoughts, jealousies and dreams. Mexican-American author Munoz has received high praise for both this book (his first novel) and his previous short story collections.

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Saenz

Alire Aaenz is another Mexican-American author who has managed to pull together a novel that is both about two teenagers falling in love, but also a sweeping character study of teenagers, their parents, Mexican-American identity in the modern age and LGBTQ perspectives that shatters stereotypes. His characters are undeniably real, his writing is gorgeous and the range of emotions through which he guides both the characters and the readers is nothing short of an astounding accomplishment. The audiobook,is narrated by pre-Hamilton, post- In the Heights, Lin Manuel Miranda and is perfectly executed. This book is a favorite of mine and was recommended to me by more than one librarian here in the library. It’s a great example of a book that I probably wouldn’t have been exposed to because it’s not like what I usually read, but was an incredibly rich and rewarding reading experience that I’m so glad to have had.

Hopefully one of these books will pique your interest in reading a little more internationally. As Japanese author Haruki Murakami once wrote: “If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking.” It’s good to get into someone else’s head for a while. If you’re intrigued and would like more suggestions, feel free to mention that in the comments or stop by the library and ask! Till next week, dear readers, do your best to read a little out of your usual sphere of influence. You never know what next great read you’ll discover just beyond our backyards.

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Five Book Friday!

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And a happy February to you all, dear readers!  According to Punxsutawney Phil, the fattest groundhog I ever saw, we have six more weeks of winter before us…and do you know what that means?!

Magic Weather-Predicting Rodents!

More time for books!!

I think I might be in the minority about being excited for more winter, but if you’re looking for some fun days about which to be excited during the coming, apparently wintry weeks, here are a few quirky holidays in the month to keep your spirits:

February 7: National Periodic Table Day

On February 7, 1863, English chemist John Newlands published one of the first table of elements, which divided the known 56 elements into 11 groups based on the “Law of Octaves.” This suggested that any one element will have similar properties to elements eight places before and behind it on the table (Dmitri Mendeleev amended this table in 1869, placing the known elements by atomic weight, which is the table we use today).  So take some time to appreciate a neon sign today, or take a deep breath of air, made up of oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen, and enjoy!

February 14: National Ferris Wheel Day

Along with being Valentine’s Day, the 14th is also the birthday of George Washington Gale Ferris, the man who invented the eponymous Ferris Wheel for the World’s Columbian Exposition in 1893.  Ferris was inspired by a challenge laid out by the fair’s director, Daniel H. Burnham, who wanted a centerpiece to the fair that will rival the Eiffel Tower in Paris.  He got the idea in a Chicago chop house, and sketched out his first draft on a napkin.  If you’d like to learn a bit more about Ferris, his wheel, and the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893, check out Erik Larson’s Devil in the White City, or any of these other selections!

February 23: National Toast Day

If you, like me, believe that toast may perhaps be the greatest of all foods, then turn your eyes to the toaster this day, my friends, and hold your jam pots high!  National Toast Day was started in 2014 by The Tiptree World Bread Awards in the UK, but has found a following in the US.  And this year seems like the perfect one to make this a Thing.

February 26: National Tell a Fairy Tale Day

Though I can’t track down the origin of this day, there are any number of outlets that advocate this holiday as one to celebrate story-telling and imagination.  So take a day to spin some magic with a fairy tale from your childhood, or one of your own making!  If you need some help, you know the Library is full of stories just waiting to be shared.  Which leads us to….

The books!  Here are some of the shiny new books that climbed up onto our shelves this week.  It’s a week of fiction here, dear readers, so gather up your imaginations and enjoy!

4 3 2 1: Paul Auster’s newest release has the book-world all abuzz, and is already being called one of the best books of the year.  Though inspired (somewhat) by Auster’s childhood in Brooklyn, this novel centers around Archibald Isaac Ferguson, who is born on March 3, 1947.  From that single beginning, Ferguson’s life will take four simultaneous and independent fictional paths, with differing fortunes, talents, and experiences.  Each Ferguson falls under the spell of the magnificent Amy Schneiderman, but each in their own way.  Utterly realistic and yet wonderfully fantastical, this is a book about life in all its variety, vagaries, and fundamental truths.    Kirkus agrees, giving this book a starred review and noting, “Auster’s sense of possibility, his understanding of what all his Fergusons have in common, with us and one another, is a kind of quiet intensity, a striving to discover who they are. . . . [He] reminds us that not just life, but also narrative is always conditional, that it only appears inevitable after the fact.”
And just a note: if you try to look this up in NOBLE, you will need to enter a space between each number.

Snowblind: The market for Icelandic mysteries doesn’t seem to be shrinking any time soon, and this debut novel from Ragnar Jonasson is guaranteed to keep all of you who love the dark and mysterious north delighted.  Set in a quiet, remote fishing village, accessible only by a mountain tunnel, our detective is Ari Thor, a rookie policeman on his first posting, haunting by his past and yearning for his girlfriend in Reykjavik.  When a young woman is found lying half-naked in the snow, bleeding and unconscious, and a highly esteemed elderly writer falls to his death, Ari finds himself forced to work in with a community he doesn’t trust (and who doesn’t trust him), in a land that knows how to hold its secrets close.  This book is a smart twist on the classic ‘locked room’ mystery, and is drawing a number of comparisons to Agatha Christie, making it a great choice for classic mystery readers, as well.  The Washington Post has declared it “A chiller of a thriller…It’s good enough to share shelf space with the works of Yrsa Sigurdardottir and Arnaldur Indridason, Iceland’s crime novel royalty.”

No Man’s Land: J.R.R. Tolkien took inspiration from his time as a a stretcher-bearer during the First World War when crafting The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit (anyone who recalls passages about the mud and the muck and the mire might not be too surprised by this).  Now, the author’s grandson, a novelist in his own right, has penned a story inspired by his grandfather’s experiences on the Western Front.  His hero’s name is Adam Raine, a boy born into poverty in London at the turn of the century.  When his mother is killed, Adam’s father moves them to a coal-mining village in which Adam never quite fits in.  When he finally finds love and earns a scholarship to Oxford, he begins to believe the future may be brightening–until the outbreak of war in Europe.  Tolkien’s book isn’t the kind of sentimental story we so frequently hear about the First World War, where everything is beautiful and happy until 1914.  This book delves into the gritty reality of life in England during the Edwardian period, from its poverty to its brutal classist mentality, and shows that life for many was no better at home than at the front, even if war experience did change them forever.  The result is a tour-de-force that is surprising and moving and deeply insightful, and which NPR called ” a page-turner, an opera, a costume drama to binge watch. Simon Tolkien knows how to keep a story moving, and he does it well.”

Bookburners: I panicked when I saw the title of this book, but it actually turned out to be a sensational read that absolutely panders to those of us who have ever felt consumed by a book.  Originally part of a Serial Box, this single collection brings together all the stories of Team Three of the Societas Librorum Occultoru, a Vatican-backed operation that seek out the dark magic hidden in demon-haunted books around the world.  Our heroine is Val Brooks, a woman whose brother was attacked by just such a book, and who joins Team Three in order to save others.  With stories by Max Gladstone, Margaret Dunlap, Mur Lafferty, and Brian Francis Slattery, there is a whole lot of fun to be had.  RT Book Reviews agrees, calling this book ” funny, unsettling, and downright creepy by turns, but also strangely touching.  The format of the bookallows the protagonists as well as minor characters become fully realized, and each interaction with Team Three are described with haunting sympathy, ensuring that each tale will hold readers rapt and eager for more.”

Caraval: Here is another book that is garnishing quite a bit of attention lately, and will hold great appeal for fans of The Night Circus.  Scarlett has never left the tiny island where she and her beloved sister, Tella, live with their powerful, and cruel, father.  But when she learns she is to be married, Scarlett decides to enjoy one night of freedom by visiting Caraval, the far-away, once-a-year performance where the audience participates in the show.  She’s received her invitation–but no sooner is she whisked off to the show by a mysterious Sailor than Scarlett learns that Tella has been kidnapped by the show’s organizer, Legend, and the winner of Caraval will be the one who finds Tella first.  Though she’s been told that everything about Caraval is a performance, that everything around her is an elaborate fiction, Scarlett finds herself immersed in a dangerous and enticing world of magic, romance, and heartbreak, caught up in the race to find her sister before the show closes and steals her away forever.  This is escapism at its finest, and Stephanie Garber’s book is winning huge praise from critics, including Kirkus, who said of it “Caraval delights the senses: beautiful and scary, described in luscious prose, this is a show readers will wish they could enter. A double love story, one sensual romance and the other sisterly loyalty, anchors the plot, but the real star here is Caraval and its secrets. Immersive and engaging…destined to capture imaginations.”

Until next week, beloved patrons–happy reading!

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The Romance Garden!

Ramón Casas, Jove decadent, 1910

Goodness gracious, dear readers…..it’s been a pretty intense month, hasn’t it?  No matter what side of the proverbial fence on which you sit, it’s easy, in “interesting times” like these to feel a lot of negative things.  Those feelings are as contagious as colds, and do just as much–if not more–harm to us all.  Which is why is critically important to take care of ourselves, and to take care of each other.  To ensure that each of us, and all of us, have a space to feel safe, and at peace.  Here, in our monthly romance post, we try to bring you some literary suggestions that feature happy endings, emotional resolutions, and the kind of human connections that we all need right about now.  So we hope that these books inspire you to try a new book, a new author, or to share your new literary love with someone else!

Bridget:

Dare to Lie by Jen McLaughlin

In the interest of full disclosure, I really can’t get into romances set amongst criminals–whether they are in a motorcycle gang, a mob, or in prison, I find the trope really troubling and often full of some really problematic misogyny.  So imagine my genuine surprise when I discovered Jen McLaughlin’s Sons of Steel Row series, featuring a gang in the gritty streets of Boston (which feel more like mid-90’s Dennis Lehane than today, but that is perfectly ok with me).

In this third book in the series, we meet Scott Donahue, a man living a double life as a DEA agent undercover with Sons of Steel Row, determined to make his world a better place, even as he finds himself sinking deeper and deeper into the life of a Son.  But when Tate, the gang’s leader, asks Scotty to keep an eye on his younger sister, and ensure her safety during a particularly violent gang war, Scotty finds himself compromising in a way he never before imagined.  Because Skylar is a stunning, vibrant, and wonderfully strong woman that Scotty can’t keep at a distance, even if he wanted to.  Tate can never know about their clandestine relationship…and Skylar can never know Scotty’s real identity…until war comes to their very doorstep, forcing Scotty to choose, once and for all, who he really is.

I love that McLaughlin calls all her heroes on their macho nonsense, providing them with strong, self-assured women who love them, and keep them on their toes.  As a result, the relationships here are wonderfully fulfilling and revelatory, and makes the stakes of Scotty’s mission even higher.  Normally, I hate when people aren’t honest, but the way it was handled and resolved here was really skillfully done.  Even more so, I loved that McLaughing took the chance to analyze the real effects of violence on those it touches, and what a life like Scotty’s and his fellow Sons really does to people.  It’s a discussion we don’t have often enough in books–romances, especially, and really made this book something special to me.

Kelley:

Because of Miss Bridgerton  by Julia Quinn

Poking through the shelves at my local library and looking for a fun read for a frigid Saturday afternoon, I came across Julia Quinn’s Because of Miss Bridgerton. Julia Quinn is a new author for me, so I didn’t know what to expect, but being as the list of “Top Ten Reasons to Read this Book” had me laughing out loud, I knew that this was just the sort of romance I was hoping to find for a blanket fort worthy afternoon.

The “Miss Bridgerton” of the title is Billie Rokesby, a tomboy more interested in helping to run her father’s estate than in learning to host the perfect house party. Having grown up next door to the Rokesby family, she spent most of her childhood playing with their two youngest sons, and it’s assumed that someday Billie might marry Edward or Andrew Rokesby. As to the third and eldest Rokesby son, George, the dislike between him and Billie is mutual…until it’s not.

Of course, dear readers, you know exactly which Rokesby will work to capture Billie’s heart! This is a delightful romance full of fun, humor, heartwarming family dynamics, and of course, love. So if you’re looking for a lovely way to spend a chilly weekend afternoon, grab yourself a cup of tea, and join the Bridgertons and the Rokesbys to build a card house, play a game of croquet, and maybe just fall in love.

Until next month, beloved patrons–happy reading!

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Wednesdays @ West: DIY Hygge

Have you ever gotten so excited to see a new book you’ve been dying to get your hands on that you forget to watch where you are going and walk into a pole?  No?  Ok, well then we’ll assume that’s just me.

In case you’re curious, the book I was recently so distracted by is The Little Book of Hygge by Meik Wiking.  To keep up the appearance of professionalism, we’ll pretend the only reason I was so eager to see the book was so that I could share the information it contains with you, our faithful blog readers.  And indeed, it has been a great help as I plan the remaining posts in the Hygge Library Style series.  This little hygge treasure trove was written by Meik Wiking, a Dane and the CEO of the Happiness Research Institute (how’s that for a job?) in Copenhagen.  Consistent with his professional goal of sharing the secrets of happiness with the world, Wiking’s book is a how-to-guide for those of us who have the misfortune of living outside of the world happiness headquarters.  The Little Book of Hygge contains definitions, a hygge dictionary, plenty of lists, tips and recipes to help you get started.

I was pleased to see that I was right on target when I urged our readers to write letters when they are in hyggehjornet (in the mood for hygge).  Both writing and reading letters earn a spot in Wiking’s “Hygge Emergency Kit.”  Also on that list are your favorite tea, your favorite book, your favorite TV series and some great music.    And naturally, the library is here to help you discover just the right book, TV, music and tea selections for your personalized kit.  If you’re puzzled as to how the library will help you discover your favorite tea, you must have missed the West Branch’s Literatea program.  No worries, though, there’s another one next week.

One thing that does give me pause in regards to the the hygge hype, which I have clearly enthusiastically embraced, is the criticism that hygge has really just been appropriated by non-Danish countries to sell people things they don’t really need.  A British writer has leveled that charge and others in this article, which I offer as a way in order to balance my personal hygge bias.

The consumerist charge is one that gives me pause, since the library is definitively not about selling you things.  And the criticism is also not without merit, since many retailers have co-opted hygge in their advertising.  Wiking, however, slaps down the idea that hygge can or should be bought.  He says, “Hygge is about appreciating the simple things in life and can be achieved on a shoestring budget.”   In fact, he goes on to assert that, “The more money and prestige is associated with something, the less hyggeligt [hygge-like] it becomes.  The simple and more primitive an activity is, the more hyggeligt it is.”  Whew.  That’s a relief.

In that spirit, I have decided to spend the rest of this post encouraging you to discover how hyggeligt it can be to discover your DIY side.  Those who know me might find it amusing that I am extolling you to get crafty, since that is not known to be one of my strengths.  But there is something undeniably cozy about certain crafty past times.  As a native Dane, Wiking agrees with me:  “knitting is extremely hygge.  It is a sign of ‘everything is safe’- it has a certain grandma vibe to it- and even the sound of knitting is hygge.  Knitting also brings calmness to the situation and atmosphere.”  If you, like many of us, could use a little extra calm, perhaps knitting will be your preferred way to experience hygge this winter.  Thanks to the passion of one of our former staff members, the West Branch has a rather good collection of books on both knitting and crocheting.  If you’re new to knitting, it has always seemed to me that a good place to start would be with Arm Knitting.  A recent book about this topic has been written by Amanda Bassetti.

If knitting doesn’t warm your heart,  you might try candlemaking.  In fact,  surveys show that candles are one of the items that Danes most associate with hygge.  And according to Wiking, Danes consume more candles per capita than any other country on earth.  So candlemaking must get very high hygge points.  Candlemaking for the First Time by Vanessa-Ann seems like a great place to get you started.

If I were to pick a hyggeligt crafty hobby, it would be quilting.  I have long harbored a desire to learn to quilt.  I have made one quilt in the Introduction to Quilting class that it regularly offered in the Creativity Lab.  If you are a novice quilter, I highly recommend this class.  The last session of the current class is tonight, but if you keep an eye on the Creativity Lab calendar, I’m sure it will be offered again soon.  In the meantime, you could check out Quilting for the Absolute Beginner by Cheryl Owen, which can get you started on some simple quilting

My one attempt at quilting, made with much help from a patient and talented library instructor.

I’ll freely admit that my attraction to quilting probably largely stems from a number of fictional portrayals of quilters and quilting that I have enjoyed.   In my humble opinion, these novels would be a great way to add even more hygge to your life, so I offer them as the final book suggestions from the West Branch this week:

Elm Creek quilts series by Jennifer Chiaverini.  The ladies of Elm
Creek seem to know a thing or two about hygge.  Not only do they make lovely, warm quilts perfect for snuggling into while you read, drink hot beverages and bask in candlelight, but they create their beautiful blankets together, which is a very Danish thing to do.  The audio book version of these novels win my personal stamp of approval, which would allow you lovers of books and crafts to enjoy both your hobbies at once.

The Last Runaway by Tracy Chevalier is engaging historical fiction that features a quilter with a social conscience.  Honor is a Quaker and a new arrival to America.  She is a talented quilter, who finds herself repeatedly drawn into the work of those smuggling slaves to freedom, despite the dangers and reservations of her new family members.  Similarly, The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd, draws in themes of quilting and slavery.  Quilting does not play a central role in Kidd’s fictionalization of the life of one of the Grimke sisters, a Southern plantation daughter turned abolitionist.  But the story quilt created by one of other main characters, a slave on the Grimke plantation, is one of the images of the book that has stuck with me ever since I read it.  And again, I can highly recommend the audio book versions of both The Last Runaway and The Invention of Wings.

Whether you choose to try to find a sense of coziness and contentment in the coming weeks through making crafts or just reading about those who do, I will leave you now with the common Danish farewell, “Have hygge!”