Don’t forget, beloved patrons–tomorrow is PILCON, the Peabody Institute Library’s 2nd Annual all-ages Comic Con! The event is 100% free to all, and the day will be chock full of exciting and creative workshops, crafts, and hear presentations by artists, podcasters, and gamers for all ages. You can learn more (and reserve your free tickets at the PILCON website! We look forward to seeing you there!
And even while PILCON is underway, there will be any number of new books, movies, music, and audiobooks for you to enjoy. Here are just a few of the new books that flew on to our shelves this week that are eager to have an adventure with you!
Ursula K. Le Guin : Conversations on Writing: The world lost an enormous talent when Ursula K. Le Guin left us this past January. But her works and her words live on. In this insightful, funny, and delightfully varied series of interviews with David Naimon, Le Guin discussed the craft, aesthetics, and philosophy in her fiction, poetry, and nonfiction respectively, as well as the genre wars, the patriarchy, the natural world, and what, in her opinion, makes for great writing. With excerpts from her own books and those that she looked to for inspiration, this volume is a treat for Le Guin’s longtime readers, a perfect introduction for those first approaching her writing, and a tribute to her incredible life and work. Publisher’s Weekly penned an lovely review of this book, calling it “An enlightening conversation about the writing process. Both authors adopt the tone of artisans discussing their craft, and each’s delight at debating with a like-minded professional is evident throughout. . . [Le Guin’s] expansive knowledge of the SF genre provides, most strikingly, a sharp perspective on how its female practitioners have too often been forgotten in favor of their male contemporaries. Her rapport with Naimon results in an exchange that is both informative and charming.”
The Life of Mark Twain: And speaking of great writers, we are also pleased to present the first in Gary Scharnhorst’s new three-part biography of Samuel Longhorn Clemens, perhaps known better as Mark Twain. This installment cover Clemens’s life in Missouri, along the Mississippi River, and in the West, using recently-discovered and under-used documents from private and public archives around the country. This is only the beginning of a series that is already being hailed as a definitive and masterful biography of a man whose influence on American literature is still being felt and discussed to this day. Many Twain biographers have contributed positive blurbs for Scharnhorst’s work, including Bruce Michelson, author of Printer’s Devil: Mark Twain and the American Publishing Revolution, who said, “With the facts about Sam Clemens’s life scattered through countless volumes and archives, we have long needed a biography that brings them together, winnowing out the myths, and telling the true story with clarity and grace. Gary Scharnhorst has taken up this prodigious task, and as a veteran Mark Twain scholar still at the top of his game, he’s certainly right for the challenge. Clear and engaging, Scharnhorst’s prose keeps you rolling happily through this consummate American adventure.”
Tin Man: Tender, heartfelt, and beautifully engaging, Susan Winman’s newest novel is sort of a love story…but only sort of. Ellis and Michael are twelve-year-old boys when they first become friends, and for a long time it is just the two of them, cycling the streets of Oxford, teaching themselves how to swim, discovering poetry, and dodging the fists of overbearing fathers. And then one day this closest of friendships grows into something more. But then we fast-forward a decade or so, to find that Ellis is married to Annie, and Michael is nowhere in sight. Which leads to the question: What happened in the years between? The answer lies in a story that is emotional and eloquent, and speaks to how we let ourselves as humans love. This is a book that is charming readers and reviewers alike, and earned a starred review from Publisher’s Weekly, who called it “[An] achingly beautiful novel about love and friendship…Without sentimentality or melodrama, Winman stirringly depicts how people either interfere with or allow themselves and others to follow their hearts.”
The Feather Thief: Beauty, Obsession, and the Natural History Heist of the Century: True crime devotees, history fans, and and naturalists alike will find something to savor in this compelling, bizarre tale of passion and theft. On a cool June evening in 2009, after performing a concert at London’s Royal Academy of Music, twenty-year-old American flautist Edwin Rist boarded a train for a suburban outpost of the British Museum of Natural History. Home to one of the largest ornithological collections in the world, the Tring museum was full of rare bird specimens whose gorgeous feathers were worth staggering amounts of money to the men who shared Edwin’s obsession: the Victorian art of salmon fly-tying. Once inside the museum, the champion fly-tier grabbed hundreds of bird skins—some collected 150 years earlier by a contemporary of Darwin’s, and escaped into the darkness. Two years later, Kirk Wallace Johnson was waist high in a river in northern New Mexico when his fly-fishing guide told him about the heist. He was soon consumed by the strange case of the feather thief: what would drive someone to such a theft–and what had happened to him after the crime? In his search for answers, Johnson was catapulted into worldwide investigation over the course of several years. He reveals all in this fast-paced, thoroughly well-told tale that has reviewers around the globe delighted. In fact, the Christian Science Monitor called it “One of the most peculiar and memorable true-crime books ever. . . . Johnson is an intrepid journalist . . . [with] a fine knack for uncovering details that reveal, captivate, and disturb.”
Second Wind: A Sunfish Sailor, an Island, and the Voyage that Brought a Family Together: You might know Nathaniel Philbrick as the award-winning author of such works as In the Heart of the Sea and Bunker Hill, but he is also a national sailing champion, and in this book, he tells his own tale about trying to reclaim his title. In the spring of 1992, Nat Philbrick was in his late thirties, living with his family on Nantucket, longing for that thrill of victory he once felt after winning a national sailing championship in his youth. Determined to find that thrill again, Philbrick earned the approval of his wife and children, and used the off-season on the island as his solitary training ground. He sailed his tiny Sunfish to Nantucket’s remotest corners, experiencing the haunting beauty of its tidal creeks, inlets, and wave-battered sandbars. On ponds, bays, rivers, and finally at the championship on a lake in the heartland of America, he sailed through storms and memories, racing for the prize. But, as with all good stories, this isn’t just about championships and competition. This is a book about self-discovery and life-changing revelations that sailing fans, nature lovers, and those in need of a good story can all enjoy. Booklist agrees, noting in its review, “Describing his races tack-by-tack and gust-by-gust, Philbrick crosses the finish line with sure-to-be satisfied readers interested in sailing and the personal life of this highly popular author.”
Until next week, beloved patrons–Happy Reading, and we hope to see you at PILCON!
Because one of our goals here at the Free For All is to bring a little poetry into your life, we are looking forward to sharing some verses with you this National Poetry Month. Keep an eye out for our “Raining Poetry” Event as well, which is taking place on Monday, April 9, beginning at 3:30pm. Using stencils created with the library’s laser cutter, participants will transfer poems to Peabody sidewalks. We’ll treat the stencils with a solution, so that poems appear up and down Main Street when it rains. The spray used to write the poems is invisible; when the surrounding pavement is darkened by rain, the dry words emerge and treat pedestrians to the secret poems that quietly wait to be read. This particular art-instillation is brought to you by Mass Poetry, the Peabody Cultural Council, Peabody Institute Library, the Friends of the Peabody Institute Libraries, and a mother-daughter team of locals: Jennifer and Chloe Jean.
