Monthly Archives: June 2017

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Announcing the New Poet Laureate!

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Big news today from the Librarian of Congress:  See this press release for full details:

Librarian of Congress Names Tracy K. Smith Poet Laureate

Photo by Rachel Eliza Griffiths

Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden today announced the appointment of Tracy K. Smith as the Library’s 22nd Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry, for 2017-2018. Smith will take up her duties in the fall, opening the Library’s annual literary season in September with a reading of her work at the Coolidge Auditorium.

Smith, a Pulitzer Prize-winning poet and a professor at Princeton University, succeeds Juan Felipe Herrera as Poet Laureate.

“It gives me great pleasure to appoint Tracy K. Smith, a poet of searching,” Hayden said. “Her work travels the world and takes on its voices; brings history and memory to life; calls on the power of literature as well as science, religion and pop culture. With directness and deftness, she contends with the heavens or plumbs our inner depths—all to better understand what makes us most human.”

“I am profoundly honored,” Smith said. “As someone who has been sustained by poems and poets, I understand the powerful and necessary role poetry can play in sustaining a rich inner life and fostering a mindful, empathic and resourceful culture. I am eager to share the good news of poetry with readers and future readers across this marvelously diverse country.”

Smith joins a long line of distinguished poets who have served in the position, including Juan Felipe Herrera, Charles Wright, Natasha Trethewey, Philip Levine, W.S. Merwin, Kay Ryan, Charles Simic, Donald Hall, Ted Kooser, Louise Glück, Billy Collins, Stanley Kunitz, Robert Pinsky, Robert Hass and Rita Dove.

The new Poet Laureate is the author of three books of poetry, including Life on Mars (2011), winner of the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry; Duende (2007), winner of the 2006 James Laughlin Award and the 2008 Essence Literary Award; and The Body’s Question (2003), winner of the Cave Canem Poetry Prize.  Smith is also the author of a memoir, Ordinary Light (2015), a finalist for the 2015 National Book Award in nonfiction and selected as a notable book by the New York Times and the Washington Post.

Born in Falmouth, Massachusetts in 1972, and raised in Fairfield, California, Tracy K. Smith earned a B.A. in English and American literature and Afro-American studies from Harvard University and an M.F.A. in creative writing from Columbia University. From 1997 to 1999, she was a Stegner Fellow in poetry at Stanford University. Smith has taught at Medgar Evers College of the City University of New York, at the University of Pittsburgh and at Columbia University. She is currently the Roger S. Berlind ’52 Professor in the Humanities and director of the creative writing program at Princeton University.

Background of the Laureateship

The Library of Congress Poetry and Literature Center is the home of the Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry, a position that has existed since 1937, when Archer M. Huntington endowed the Chair of Poetry at the Library. Since then, many of the nation’s most eminent poets have served as Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress and, after the passage of Public Law 99-194 (Dec. 20, 1985), as Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry—a position which the law states “is equivalent to that of Poet Laureate of the United States.”

During his or her term, the Poet Laureate seeks to raise the national consciousness to a greater appreciation of the reading and writing of poetry. The Library keeps to a minimum the specific duties required of the Poet Laureate, who opens the literary season in the fall and closes it in the spring. In recent years, Laureates have initiated poetry projects that broaden the audiences for poetry.

For more information on the Poet Laureate and the Poetry and Literature Center, visit loc.gov/poetry/.  Consultants in Poetry and Poets Laureate Consultants in Poetry and their terms of service can be found at loc.gov/poetry/laureate-2011-present.html. To learn more about Poet Laureate projects, visit loc.gov/poetry/laureate-projects.html.

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In praise of distractions

Last week, we mentioned that you, our dear readers, might need a distraction.  And, in typing that, it made me consider how many times we use the word “distract”, and all its grammatical forms (distraction, distracting, etc.,) to refer to something in a negative light.

But the truth of the matter is that distractions can often be a good thing, and a positive addition to your work, learning, or daily life.  This is especially true if, as in so many things in life, you are healthy and mindful about your distractions.

Studies have shown that people who open themselves up more to sensory perceptions and engagement–listening to other people talk, hearing music, touching different surfaces and textures–actually engage more of their brain, and thus, their creativity, than people who force their brain to focus, without any outside input.  Distractions can also give your lizard-brain–the part of your brain always on the lookout for threats, danger, and stampeding elephants–a break, lowering generalized anxiety, and aiding in relaxation.

But distractions don’t just have to be mental.  They can be physical.  Getting up and moving engages muscles, and our bodies work better when more than one muscle group is engaged at any one time, usually doing the most mundane of tasks.  This is why you get your best ideas in the shower.  Or while going for a walk.  Or gardening.  You get the idea.

Finally, and this may be more a personal observation than a citeable fact…life is too short.  There are flowers blooming out there.  There are cat videos that will make you laugh.  There are interesting people doing interesting things, and your brain is wired to want to take those things in.  So rather than deny you, your mind, and your heart all those great things that make them happier, work better, and feel more fulfilled, why not just be more mindful of your distractions?  Perhaps plan them out?

Perhaps, let the Library help you find a few terrific distractions!  Here are some that I’ve come to appreciate enormously:

Making things:

Knitting is one of the few things in my life that I am totally confident in doing.  Thus, when I’m really stressed, or facing a particularly intimidating challenge, I usually bring my knitting along with me.  Taking a few minutes to walk away and knit, and get a few rows finished, gives me the morale boost I need to finish.  And best of all, when all is said and done, I actually have something to show for it!

If you, like me, finds solace in a ‘maker’s break’, then use your distraction time to try a new craft, like Brioche Knitting, Soutache (orate braided craftwork), or even baking eclairs!  A note: as ever, the Library Staff are more than happy to taste-test any pastries that you make using Library materials.

Listening to music:

I have music playing almost constantly while I’m working, as to many of the people I know.  But how often do you really, actually hear the music in your ears?

One day, when I was in the middle of Academic Writing and wishing I were somewhere and someone else, I read this post from Michael J. Nelson (yes, of Mystery Science Theater 3000 fame), that not only gave me pause to think, but provided one of those pieces of music that I just love to sit and hear.  Here is his post below:

Full text of the post, in case you need it:

Samuel Barber’s “Adagio for Strings” is so obviously great you are tempted to think that it’s always existed and take it for granted. It’s like Frost’s “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”: you so want to dismiss it because it’s been around too long and you’re supposed to like it.

But listen to it in its original form before he expanded it; the 2nd movement of his Op. 11 string quartet and you may hear it with fresh ears, to use a term that is anything but fresh.

Incidentally, the story goes that Barber sent the only existing score to Toscanini who returned it without comment. They met later and a visibly irritated Barber snubbed Toscanini, who caught up with him and said, “I know you’re angry because I sent the score back to you, but I plan to premiere it with the NBC Symphony.” A dumbfounded Barber asked how that was possible as it was the only score. Toscanini tapped the side of his head with a finger and said, “It’s all up here.”

True? Hell, I don’t know. But that’s the story and I’m sticking with it.

(if the link doesn’t go to the 2nd movement, it’s at about 8:40)

http://youtu.be/W2yY6OIiA9o?t=521

Watching Things:

Let’s be honest; sometimes there is nothing whatever to be done but just let your brain rest and enjoy some quality tv or movie time.  And here, the Library is also the perfect place to feed your need!  Check out Hoopla for free streaming videos, and our extensive DVD collection.  Might I recommend Fortitude, a phenomenally weird murder-mystery series set in the Arctic?  Or perhaps Pretty Little Liars, a show that has captivated patrons of all ages?  Or a raucous spoof like Mel Brooks’ Blazing Saddles?  Whatever your tastes, we are here, and delighted to help you find the perfect productive distraction for your busy lives!

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Five Book Friday!

Happy Friday, dear readers.  And…happy summer?  It looks as if my grumpy post about wearing sweaters may have finally persuaded Mother Nature to cut us some slack.  So you can bet I’ll be whining about the heat very very shortly.

But, until then–and after then, and always–there are books.  Here are some of the new titles that leapt onto our shelves this week and are eager to make your acquaintance!

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine: Here’s a book that’s been getting stellar reviews and press coverage since it was first announced, and seems to be an ideal pick-me-up for your summer reading list.  Eleanor Oliphant struggles with appropriate social skills and tends to say exactly what she’s thinking. Nothing is missing in her carefully timetabled life of avoiding social interactions, where weekends are punctuated by frozen pizza, vodka, and phone chats with Mummy.  But everything changes when Eleanor meets Raymond, the bumbling and deeply unhygienic IT guy from her office. When she and Raymond together save Sammy, an elderly gentleman who has fallen on the sidewalk, the three become the kinds of friends who rescue one another from the lives of isolation they have each been living. And it is Raymond’s big heart that will ultimately help Eleanor find the way to repair her own profoundly damaged one.  Funny, breezy, and full of hope, heart, and humor, Gail Honeyman’s debut earned a starred review from Booklist, which said in its review “Walking in Eleanor’s practical black Velcro shoes is delightfully amusing, her prudish observations leavened with a privately puckish humor. But readers will also be drawn in by her tragic backstory, which slowly reveals how she came to be so entirely Eleanor. Witty, charming, and heartwarming, Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine is a remarkable debut about a singular woman. Readers will cheer Eleanor as she confronts her dark past and turns to a brighter future. Feel good without feeling smarmy.”

The Grantchester Mysteries: Sydney Chambers and the Persistence of Love: Some time back, Lady Pole wrote about her appreciation of the Grantchester series, and, because I take all her literary advice to heart immediately, I myself have become fond of the full-time priest, part-time detective Sidney Chambers–and I hope you will, too!  In this sixth installment, set in 1971, now Archdeacon Sidney Chambers is walking in the woods with his daughter Anna and their aging Labrador, Byron, when they stumble upon a body. Beside the dead man lies a basket of wild flowers, all poisonous. And so it is that Sidney is thrust into another murder investigation, entering a world of hippies, folk singers, and psychedelic plants, where love triangles and permissive behavior seem to hide something darker.  Sidney is kept on his toes in this series of clerical who-dun-its, along with his old friend, Detective Inspector Geordie Keating.   Between the disappearance of an historic religious text from a Cambridge college, and the later disappearance of Sidney’s nephew, and the burgeoning free love movement, which complicates a number of relationships in this deceptively quiet parish, this is a collection that series’ fans and newcomers alike will enjoy immensely.  The New York Times Review of Books agrees wholeheartedly, saying “Taken individually, each of these clerical whodunits poses a clever puzzle for armchair detectives. Viewed as a collective study of British life as it was lived when Elizabeth II first ascended the throne, these stories present a consistently charming and occasionally cutting commentary on ‘a postwar landscape full of industry, promise and concrete.”

The Answers: Catherine Lacey has already established a strong reputation for herself as a genre-bending author, and this book shows her challenging conventions–literary, grammatical, social–with relish, gusto, and style.  Her tale focuses on Mary Parsons, who is broke.  Like seriously broke.  Between an onslaught of medical bills and a mountain of credit card debt, she has been pushed to the brink. Hounded by bill collectors and still plagued by the painful and bizarre symptoms that doctors couldn’t diagnose, Mary seeks relief from a holistic treatment called Pneuma Adaptive Kinesthesia―PAKing, for short. Miraculously, it works. But PAKing is prohibitively expensive.  So Mary, like so many of her generation, decide to scour Criagslist for work.  And it is there that she finds a job…as Emotional Girlfriend in the “Girlfriend Experiment”―the brainchild of a wealthy and infamous actor, Kurt Sky, who is looking for a scientific solution for how to build and maintain the perfect romantic relationship, with himself as the constant. There’s a Maternal Girlfriend who folds his laundry, an Anger Girlfriend who fights with him, a Mundanity Girlfriend who just hangs around his loft, and a whole team of girlfriends to take care of Intimacy.  As Mary falls deeper and deeper into Kurt’s ego-driven universe, Catherine Lacey gives us a brilliant feminist analysis of modern-day romance, society, and an utterly unique story that Vogue called a “darkly funny, tartly feminist look at the tender state of our bodies and souls in the Information Age . . . [Lacey’s] work …captures the absurdity of a culture that persists in thinking that enlightenment is a matter of the right purchase, hashtag, or Google search.”

Chuck Klosterman X: A Highly Specific, Defiantly Incomplete History of the Early 21st Century:  Chuck Klosterman has written about, I think, nearly every subject in the human experience, from sports to politics to food to pop culture…and this last is the main topic of this latest collection of essays, culled from his writings in Esquire, Vanity Fair, GQ, and other media sources.  What’s even neater is that Klosterman presents many of these articles in their original form, featuring previously unpublished passages and digressions that didn’t make the final cut in other outlets. Subjects include Breaking Bad, Lou Reed, zombies, KISS, Jimmy Page, Stephen Malkmus, steroids, Mountain Dew, Chinese Democracy, The Beatles, Jonathan Franzen, Taylor Swift, Tim Tebow, Kobe Bryant, Usain Bolt, Eddie Van Halen, Charlie Brown, the Cleveland Browns, and many more cultural figures and pop phenomena.  These are interesting times in which we live, friends, but Klosterman somehow manages to keep them interesting, engaging, and somehow just a little bit worthwhile.  Plus, the page-ends are black, giving this book a very exciting ninja quality that I’m sure you’ll appreciate.  Paste magazine wrote a terrific review of this book, saying, in part: “Klosterman is a master of the high-low…He injects a level of intellectual rigor into subjects that receive precious little…With X, Klosterman wallows in the trivial…but he’s not trivializing…proving that culture essays can teach us something about ourselves and the people around us…Each of his essays is a love letter to a moment.” 

American Eclipse: A Nation’s Epic Race to Catch the Shadow of the Moon and Win the Glory of the World: I love this title, and the subject matter of David Baron’s book sounds just as lofty and exciting.  On a scorching July afternoon in 1878, at the dawn of the Gilded Age, the moon’s shadow descended on the American West, darkening skies from Montana Territory to Texas. This rare celestial event―a total solar eclipse―offered a priceless opportunity to solve some of the solar system’s most enduring riddles, and it prompted a clutch of enterprising scientists to brave the wild frontier in a grueling race to the Rocky Mountains.  This book details the fascinating, sometimes absurd, sometimes terribly poignant adventure, as eclipse-seekers around the country raced to become the Gilded Age’s Galileo–including Maria Mitchell, a female astronomer who faced down not only rough conditions, but the prejudices of her profession to be a part of the events.  Baron–a gifted and celebrated science writer–has had a lifelong fascination with eclipses, and that passion shines through in this bizarre and beautiful story that has drawn praise from critics, other writers, and readers alike.  Publisher’s Weekly gave the book a starred review, saying “Baron shares a timely tale of science and suspense in this story of rival Gilded Age astronomers contending with everything from cloudy skies to train robbers to overserve the historic total solar eclipse of July 29, 1878. . . . Baron skillfully builds tension, giving readers a vivid sense of the excitement, hard work, and high stakes in play. With the first total solar eclipse to cross the U.S. in 99 years set to occur in late August 2017, this engrossing story makes an entertaining and informative teaser.”

Until next week, beloved patrons–happy reading!

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The New Baileys Prize Winner Announced!

Hey there!  If you’re one of our UK or Northern Irish readers, stop reading and go vote!  If you’re in the US, and would like a distraction from…well, mostly everything, then we have an important announcement for you:

Naomi Alderman’s The Power has won the Baileys Prize for Women’s Fiction!

Courtesy of http://www.womensprizeforfiction.co.uk/

Alderman’s book is also the first science fiction work to win the prize, which is a huge win for genre fans (like me…and you, I’m sure). Alderman’s win comes just over a decade after her debut novel Disobedience, won the 2006 Orange Award for New Writers.

Tessa Ross, 2017 Chair of Judges, said: “The judges and I were thrilled to make this decision. We debated this wonderful shortlist for many hours but kept returning to Naomi Alderman’s brilliantly imagined dystopia – her big ideas and her fantastic imagination.”

As The Guardian describes:

From bbc.co.uk

The novel has been described as feminist science fiction, and asks the question what is power: who has it, how do you get it, and what does it do when you have it? And, when you have power, how long before power corrupts you? It follows four main characters: Roxy, the daughter of a London crime lord; Tunde, a journalism student in Lagos; Allie, from the southern states of the US and Margo, a low-level politician. They all feature in a combination of page-turning thriller and thought experiment that attacks some of the biggest issues of our times, including religion, gender politics and censorship.

And if this sounds a bit like Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, there’s some good reasons for that; Margaret Atwood actually took Alderman under her wing when her career was just beginning, and the two remain close friends.  So those of you currently reading or watching The Handmaid’s Tale, be sure to add this one to your list!

Unfortunately, Alderman’s super-sensational book won’t be released in the US until October of this year, but you can bet we’ll be making a big deal about it when it does!  Here’s the cover image to whet your appetite:

Congrats to Naomi Alderman from the Free for All!

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Consumer Reports Now Available Online!

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We here at the Library are always looking for shiny new items, services, and technology for you, our beloved patrons.  And this week, we are delighted to tell you about just one of those terrific resources: Consumer Reports!

Consumer Reports has been published since 1936 by Consumers Union, a nonprofit organization dedicated to unbiased product testing, consumer-oriented research, public education, and advocacy.  They deal in reviews and comparisons of consumer products and services based in part on reporting, but mostly on results from its in-house testing laboratory and survey research center. The magazine accepts no advertising, pays for all the products it tests, and, as a nonprofit organization has no shareholders.  So, essentially, you can count on what they say.  Take it from me.  I bought the washing machine they told me to.  I love it.

So if you, too, are looking for some product advice, here’s a quick guide to accessing Consumer Reports via the Library website.

Start at the Library’s homepage.  Click on the “eLibrary” tab, then “Articles/Databases” Note: Click on any of these pictures to enlarge them for easier viewing:

From there, navigate down the list to Consumer Reports:

The list is alphabetical

When you click on Consumer Reports, you will be redirected to a page where you will enter your Library Card number Note 1: This page will not appear if you are using a Peabody Library Computer.  Note 2: This service is only for Peabody residents with Peabody Library Cards.   Sorry about that one!

From there, click on “ConsumerReports.org”:

This will launch the Consumer Reports website.  From here, you can utilize all the resources that Consumer Reports has to offer, including a product-specific search option, articles on home improvement and DIY projects, news, and product comparisons that can help you with purchases from digital cameras to dryers, from laptops to blenders.  Click on the three little lines in the upper left-hand corner of the Consumer Reports home page to see all the super features they offer!

 

We truly hope this feature proves helpful to you, beloved patrons.  Feel free to give us a call, or stop in and chat with one of us at the Information Desk to see how Consumer Reports can help you, and about all the other terrific resources on offer!

 

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Five Book Friday!

And a very happy June, beloved patrons!  If the longer days and the promise of some prolonged sunshine in our future isn’t enough to get your celebration sandals on, here are a few more reasons to celebrate in June.

June is Pride Month, and a lot of Libraries around the area are planning some nifty events.  Check out the Boston Public Library’s Calendar of Events, in particular, for some great offerings!  In addition, the BPL also created its first ever “We Are Pride” booklist for children, teens, and adults, which you can access here.

June 2 is National Doughnut Day, which actually has a historic origin!  American women serving with the Salvation  Army during the First World War made doughnuts to serve to the troops, and their ingenuity became a symbol, of the Salvation Army’s work on the front lines, as well as a meaningful part of women’s history.  So have a doughnut today, and have a read of this article from the Salvation Army.

June 10 is National Ballpoint Pen Day, which commemorates the filing of the patent for the ballpoint pen by brothers Laszlo and Gyorgy Biro.  The ballpoint pen transformed who could write, because it made ink and pens so much cheaper, but also how we write.  Check out this nifty article from The Atlantic for just how.

June 18 is Father’s Day, an American holiday established by a woman named  Grace Golden Clayton after the Monograph Mining Disaster, which killed 361 men and left around 1,000 children fatherless in December 1907.  So celebrate the parental figures in your life today (and everyday!)

June 22 is National Onion Rings Day.  So go do your patriotic duty and enjoy!

And, because no celebration is complete without a few books, here are some of the new titles that gallivanted onto our shelves this past week–enjoy!

There Your Heart Lies:  Mary Gordon’s newest book is a part historical fiction, and part contemporary coming-of-age–a trend that is becoming super-popular these days.  Marian cut herself off from her wealthy, conservative Irish Catholic family when she volunteered during the Spanish Civil War—an experience she has always kept to herself. Now in her nineties, she shares her Rhode Island cottage with her granddaughter Amelia, a young woman of good heart but only a vague notion of life’s purpose. Their daily existence is intertwined with Marian’s secret past: the blow to her youthful idealism when she witnessed the brutalities on both sides of Franco’s war and the romance that left her trapped in Spain in perilous circumstances for nearly a decade. When Marian is diagnosed with cancer, she finally speaks about what happened to her during those years, inspiring Amelia to make a trip of her own.  A story of female bonds, of romance, and of the real challenge of defining a life, this is a book for arm-chair adventurers, history buffs, and literary aficionados alike.  Kirkus Reviews particularly loved the “Shifting points in time and points of view reveal a young woman shaped by the zealotry that can emanate from family, faith, or war . . . An emotionally and historically rich work with a strong character portrait holding together its disparate parts.”

D’arc : a novel from the war with no name: I hadn’t actually realized that The War With No Name was a series, but now that I have, I am thrilled that I will have more tales to share with my cat, who thinks these are among the best books we have on offer.  In the aftermath of the War With No Name, the queen used a strange technology to uplift the surface animals, turning all the animals in our world into intelligent, highly evolved creatures who must learn to live alongside their sworn enemies—humans.  Far removed from this newly emerging civilization, a housecat turned war hero named Mort(e) lives a quiet life with the love he thought he had lost, a dog named Sheba. But before long, the chaos that they escaped comes crashing in around them, bent on resuming the destruction of the war.  No longer able to run away, Sheba and Mort(e) rush headlong into the conflict, ready to fight but unprepared for a world that seems hell-bent on tearing them apart.  Not quite a fable, and not quite a science fiction book, these create a whole new world that is similar in its emotions, and yet utterly alien, making for a reading experience like no other.  Publisher’s Weekly gave this story a starred review, and called it “Fantastic . . . Well-drawn characters and emotional heft are hallmarks of this unusual series about the power of myth, love, and redemption in a dangerous time.”  My cat said it was almost better than his nighttime tuna.  Almost.

The Scribe of Siena: Remember how I said fiction that crossed the past with the present was big right now?  Well, Melodie Winawer’s debut falls into that category, but is also a romance, a thriller, and a time-traveling adventure that make it something wholly and wonderfully unique.  When neurosurgeon Beatrice Trovato’s life is disrupted by tragedy, she welcomesa trip to the Tuscan city of Siena . There, she discovers intrigue she never imagined—a 700-year-old conspiracy to decimate the city.  After uncovering the journal and paintings of Gabriele Accorsi, the fourteenth-century artist at the heart of the plot, Beatrice is suddenly transported to the year 1347 in a Siena menaced  by the Plague.  Beatrice meets Accorsi, and falls in love—not only with Gabriele, but also with the beauty and cadence of medieval life. As the Plague and the ruthless hands behind its trajectory threaten not only her survival but also Siena’s very existence, Beatrice must decide in which century she belongs.  Fans of Outlander, this is a story for you–and for anyone looking to be transported to another world.  Publisher’s Weekly gave this one a starred review as well, saying “The vivid descriptions of the people, way of life, food, and other details of medieval Italy deepen the plot, making the book a truly immersive experience…Winawer has created a prodigious, vibrant tale of past and present that transports readers and fills in the historical gaps. This is a marvelous work of research and invention.”

Walking to Listen:  At age 23, Andrew Forsthoefel had just graduated from Middlebury College and was ready to begin his adult life, but he didn’t know how. So he decided to take a cross-country quest for guidance, one where everyone he met would be his guide. In the year that followed, he faced an Appalachian winter and a Mojave summer. He met beasts inside: fear, loneliness, doubt. But he also encountered incredible kindness from strangers. Thousands shared their stories with him, sometimes confiding their prejudices, too. Often he didn’t know how to respond. How to find unity in diversity? How to stay connected, even as fear works to tear us apart? He listened for answers to these questions, and to the existential questions every human must face, and began to find that the answer might be in listening itself.  Few of us have the resources or the time to do what Forsthoefel , but the lessons that he learned during his trek are ones that we can indeed apply to our everyday lives.  This work, first and foremost, is one of hope, and that’s something that we can all use a dose of right about now.  Booklist agrees, saying “[Forsthoefel’s] openness provides a window into the extraordinary lessons to be learned from ordinary people. This is a memorable and heartfelt exploration of what it takes to hike 4,000 miles across the country and how one young man learned to walk without fear into his future.”

The Flight: Dan Hampton: On the rainy morning of May 20, 1927, a little-known American pilot named Charles A. Lindbergh climbed into his single-engine monoplane, the Spirit of St. Louis, and prepared to take off from a small airfield on Long Island, New York. Despite his inexperience—the twenty-five-year-old Lindbergh had never before flown over open water—he was determined to win the $25,000 Orteig Prize promised since 1919 to the first pilot to fly nonstop between New York and Paris, a terrifying adventure that had already claimed six men’s lives. Ahead of him lay a 3,600-mile solo journey across the vast north Atlantic and into the unknown; his survival rested on his skill, courage, and an unassuming little aircraft with no front window. Acclaimed aviation historian Dan Hampton’s The Flight is a long-overdue, flyer’s-eye narrative of Lindbergh’s legendary journey.  Using Lindbergh’s own personal diary and writings, as well as family letters and untapped aviation archives, Hampton brings us into the cockpit with Lindbergh, and gives us a pilot-eye view of this remarkable feat of daring.  Kirkus Reviews loved the trip, and gave the book a starred review, calling it “Vivid. … Offer[s] a cockpit’s-eye view of the flight. This you-are-there perspective effectively evokes the tension, risk, and skill involved, from the moment Lindbergh takes off from Roosevelt Field, crosses the coast of Newfoundland, and soars alone into the night above the roiling sea.”

 

Until next week, beloved patrons–happy reading!

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The Romance Garden!

John Singer Sargent, In a Garden: Corfu, 1909

I keep waiting for the day, dear readers, when I can talk about all the pretty flowers outside, as well as here inside our Romance Garden, but that day is not yet today.  Fortunately, though, until we have reliable sunshine and warm weather, we have books.  And here, for your enjoyment, are some of our genre specialists’ favor books that they read this month, in the hopes that they will bring a little light, levity, and happiness to your day!

Bridget: Turn Me Loose by Anne Calhoun

Anne Calhoun is back with the sixth book in her Alpha Ops series, turning gender and genre expectations upside down, shaking them out, and giving readers another surprising, exciting, and genuinely enjoyable romance.

When she was in college, right on that fine line between childhood and adulthood, Riva Henneman got caught committing a crime by an undercover cop.  But rather than throw her to the wolves, Officer Ian Hawthorn gave Riva a chance to earn her way out by working undercover herself.  Ian knows all about second chances and trying again.  Once a Navy SEAL candidate, he’s trying to put together a meaningful career taking down the baddies closer to home.  He knew damn well that there could easily be sparks between him and Riva, but her age,  his issues, and the power imbalance between them ensured they never even got close during their time together.  But when they run into each other again, and find themselves once again undercover together to take down a notorious drug kingpin, things might just turn out differently….

I love the way Calhoun openly discusses power issues, responsibility, and vulnerability in her works without being at all heavy-handed or pedantic.  This applies not only to Riva’s relationship with Ian, but to her relationship with the at-risk kids she mentors in her restaurant.  It makes every relationship in the book feel honest–and ensures that the stakes go sky high when those relationships are threatened.  I also adored the way she and Ian grew together, and learned to embrace everything that made the other person what and who they were.  From a really tense, fraught opening, this book turned into a moving and wholly redemptive romance that made me even more each to return to this world again soon!

Kelley: Blame it on the Duke by Lenora Bell

Lenora Bell has become one of my new historical romance favorites and her latest title, Blame it on the Duke, is a great place to get started if you’ve never previously read her books. This third volume in the “Disgraceful Dukes” series brings together two characters briefly introduced in previous series entries, Nick Hatherly, the next- and if he has it his way, last- in a long line of “mad” dukes, and Alice Tombs, a woman determined not to marry until she has her opportunity for an adventure in India.

Not long into the story, we learn that Nick’s father lost a game of cards and the stakes were for his son’s hand in marriage to Miss Alice Tombs. With no acceptable legal way out of the situation, Nick and Alice decide to make the arrangement mutually beneficial: after a few months together to prove the validity of the marriage, the two will largely go their separate ways, with Nick continuing with his former life at Hatherly Hall and Alice traveling and working on her scholarly research.  The arrangement sets up my favorite type of romance novel, which is one that maximizes the time the hero and heroine spend together. Whether they want to be or not, because Nick and Alice are married, most of the book revolves around scenes that put the two of them together, and that leaves plenty of room for fun banter and lots of opportunities to explore their developing relationship.

Nick and Alice’s relationship is satisfying because they empower each other to live their lives to the fullest. Alice encourages Nick to see that you can’t shortchange your life because of something that might happen, and Nick encourages Alice to embrace the idea that with the right partner, you can live your dreams and have someone to share them with you.