And a very, very happy birthday to Douglas Adams!

Adams was born on this day in 1952, in Cambridge, England–and stood out from a very early age.  It wasn’t just the fact that he was six feet tall by the time he was twelve years old (his final height was 6’5″), but it was also his very early talent for storytelling.  He was the only student in his primary school to be award full marks for creative writing–a fact that remained a source of pride his whole life.  It was on the strength of his writing that he was able to matriculate to St. John’s College, Cambridge, where he formed his own review show, and was elected to the Footlights, a comedy troupe that also included Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie.

Following graduation, he wrote for, and appeared in sketches for Monty Python, but it was The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, which he originally wrote as a radio performance in 1977, that changed everything.  According to Adams, he was lying drunk in a field in Innsbruck, Austria, and looking at the stars one night (with a copy of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Europe in his hand), when the idea for the story came to him.  Whether this is strictly true is a little unclear, but Innsbruck still celebrates “Towel Day” in honor of Adams’ story.  The novel version of Hitchhikers was released in 1979, and became the first in a five-volume series.  He was also the author of the Dirk Gently series, which are just as delightful and remarkable insightful.

One of Adams’ final public appearances was at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he delivered a speech titled “Parrots, the Universe and Everything“, in which he talked about books, his adventures, and his deep, abiding environmentalism, in his own magical way.  The video is available here for your enjoyment:

Personally, I first read The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy in high school (and loved it), but it wasn’t until I was living in London, and had no money whatsoever, that I truly read that book, along the whole subsequent series, thanks to the Stoke Newington Library, and the world’s most benevolent used bookshop owner, who let me sit on the floor for hours and absorb the books via osmosis.  So this birthday wish comes with sincere thanks, not only to Douglas Adams, but to the wonderful people who helped me discover him.

And, speaking of books–here are some more that have made it on to our shelves this week!

A Midsummer’s Equation: This is the sixth mystery novel featuring Manabu Yukawa, the physicist known as “Detective Galileo”.  In this adventure, Yukawa arrives at a run-down summer resort to speak at a conference on the highly controversial underwater mining operation slated to begin soon.  But when a local police officer is found murdered, Yukawa will soon be putting his detecting skills to work, along with his professional acumen.  Keigo Higashino has sold millions of copies of his work in Japan, and his fame has finally begun to spread in the US, as well.  Of this latest installment, The New York Times Book Review says, “To dispute a common complaint: They are indeed writing confounding puzzle mysteries the way they used to. They just happen to be writing them in Japanese. And by “they,” I mean Keigo Higashino, whose elegant whodunits… are feats of classic ratiocination.”

Borderline: Mishell Baker’s debut is a genre-bending urban fantasy that has all the critics buzzing.  Her heroine, Millie, has lost her legs–and her filmmaking career–in a failed suicide attempt.  But her second chance comes in the form of the Arcadia Project, and organization that protects the borders between our world and the parallel reality that is home to fairies and monsters alike.  In her first assignment, Milie is charged with locating a missing movie star (who is also a fairy nobleman)–but her investigation soon turns up a conspiracy centuries in the making that could end both worlds in a cataclysmic war.  Library Journal gave this book a starred review, saying “Baker’s debut takes gritty urban fantasy in a new direction with flawed characters, painful life lessons, and not a small amount of humor.”

Spill Simmer Falter Wither: Here we have another acclaimed debut, this time from Ireland’s Sara Baume.  Her tale features two outcasts: an unnamed man, whose whole life has been utterly overlooked by those in his village, and the one-eyed dog that he takes in, and to whom he tells his stories.  This is a story of outcasts, transformed into something magical through Baume’s incredible insight and magnificent use of language.  She already been awarded a number of Irish literary awards, and the Irish Times has raved: “This is a novel bursting with brio, braggadocio and bite. Again and again it wows you with its ambition…At its heart is a touching and inspiriting sense of empathy, that rarest but most human of traits. Boundaries melt, other hearts become knowable…This book is a stunning and wonderful achievement by a writer touched by greatness.”…and it seems high time that we get a chance to enjoy it, too!

The Family Tree : A Lynching in Georgia, a Legacy of Secrets, and My Search for the Truth: In 1912, Harris County, Georgia, a white man, the son of the local sheriff, was shot and killed on the porch of a black woman.  Several days later, the sheriff sanctioned the lunching of four innocent black residence in revenge for the death of his nephew.   Karen Branan is the great-granddaughter of that sheriff, and this book is the result of some two decades of research, not only into the lynchings, but into the history and society in which permitted such behavior to occur.  This is not only a history, but also a consideration of one women’s privilege, guilt, and courage to confront the darkest moments of the past in order to move forward.  This book is being acclaimed by critics and activists alike, with W. Fitzhugh Brundage, the Chair of the History Department at UNC saying, “Branan has written a book of exceptional courage.  She gives us a rare glimpse into the lives and minds of white southerners who lynched their black neighbors, engaged in moonshining, lived desperate lives, and yet were held in high esteem in their communities.  As much as any book I know, The Family Tree gives a human face to the tragic human relations of the Jim Crow South.”

Bowl : Vegetarian Recipes for Ramen, Pho, Bibimbap, Dumplings, and Other One-Dish Meals: I dare you to take one look at the pictures in this book and not want to try each and every dish found within its pages.  I am so hungry right now, it’s difficult to actually put into words.

Until next week, dear readers, and in the words of Douglas Adams, “Don’t Panic”.  And happy reading!

Happy Friday, dear readers, and Happy Birthday to long-time bibliophile, and father of some of the longest sentences in literature–Victor Hugo!

Aside from being a great, empathetic, and engrossing author, Hugo was also a champion of human rights around the world. He spoke out in favor of freedom of the press and self-government for Poland, and, though he was elected to the French Parliament as a Conservative, he broke with his party to speak out on behalf of the poor, advocating for universal suffrage, free education for all children, and the abolition of the death penalty.  After being sent into exile by Napoleon III, he moved to Britain, where he not only helped spare the lives of six Irish Republicans who were on trial there, and also helped abolish the death penalty in Columbia and Portugal.  He waited until the death of Napoleon III to return to France in 1870, and remained there until his own passing in 1885 (at the age of 83).  When it was opened, it was discovered that his will contained only five sentences:

“I leave 50,000 francs to the poor. I want to be buried in their hearse.  I refuse [funeral] orations of all churches. I beg a prayer to all souls.  I believe in God.”

So, while you are toasting the literary and personal heroics of Victor Hugo today, why not check out of a few of his books–or perhaps these new works that made their way onto our shelves this week?

Native: Dispatches from an Israeli-Palestinian Life: This collection of satirical articles written by Sayed Kashua for the the Israeli newspaper Haaretz are phenomenal for their bone-dry wit, droll observations, and also their utterly sympathetic humanity.   In documenting his own life, as well as the lives of his children, neighbors, and friends, Kashua is able to speak to a common humanity living in the midst of some often inhuman circumstances, and bring to light a place that many of us have heard of, but have seldom come to understand.  Publisher’s Weekly has hailed this collection as “Startling and insightful. . . . Kashua conveys devastating social critique through dry wit, precise metaphor, and seemingly innocent subjects. . . . Kashua’s subtly shaded, necessarily complex, and ultimately despairing account of the tensions within his homeland, ‘so beloved and so cursed,’ is bound to open the eyes and awaken the sympathies of a new swath of loyal readers.”

And After Many Days: Nigerian author Jowhor Ile’s debut is both a personal story about one family’s loss and a broad, searching history of Nigeria’s past that works beautifully on both levels.  When seventeen-year-old Paul Utu disappeared from the busy town of Port Harcourt, in Nigeria, his family is not only forced to deal with the loss of one they dearly loved, but also to search their own past for answers.  Traveling to their ancestral village, the family, and, in particular, Ajie, the youngest of Paul’s siblings, relive the myths of their people, and the scars of past conflicts that still affect life in the present day.  Kirkus Review loved this book, saying “The story gracefully weaves back and forth in time from the siblings’ early childhood to the present day in their Port Harcourt, Nigeria, neighborhood, and suddenly, every little thing is imbued with deeper meaning, made fateful through retrospect…This engrossing novel, couched in poetic, evocative language, creates a suspenseful yet sophisticated narrative from the first page.”

Free Men: Katy Simpson Smith’s latest novel is as much about a time and a place as it is about the four men who inhabit its pages, and her blend of historic detail and narrative insight have delighted critics and readers alike.  Set in the American South in 1788, this novel tells the story of Cat, a white man from South Carolina, Bob, a black man on the run, and Istillicha, who has been forced out of his Creek town’s leadership, who meet in the woods of Alabama, each on their own quest.  Within a few days, the men commit a murder that brings the force of the law on their heels in the person of a French tracker named Le Clerc, who is as intrigued by these three unlikely comrades as he is repulsed by their actions.  Publisher’s Weekly calls this searching novel for its willingness to probe “connection and isolation, forgiveness and guilt…this novel evokes the complexity of a fledgling America in precise, poetic language…it is rich with insights about history and the human heart.”

Ginny Gall: Charlie Smith’s work also deals with race, murder, and the American South, but this time, the setting is the Great Depression, and the heo is Delvin Walker, a young man abandoned by his mother after she murders a white man.  As racial tensions around him escalate, Delvin realizes that to survive, he has to flee, and takes to riding the rails across the United States, until another murder pulls him into the prison system himself, falsely accused of the murder of two white girls along with several other young black men.  But Delvin is a man whose strength only grows through adversity, making this novel a fascinating, grim, and powerful tale that is creating quite a buzz.  The New York Times Book Review wrote that this book is “An intricate examination of the coming-of-age of a young black man caught in the cross hairs of American racial history… A story that is equal parts-and often simultaneously-moving and harrowing… The quotidian country world is full of magic in [Smith’s] hands.”

The Plague of Thieves Affair: This fourth entry in Marcia Muller’s and Bill Pronzini’s historical detective series set in late 19th century San Francisco, and  featuring Sabina Carpenter and John Quincannon sees the two detectives facing their most quizzical case yet: Sherlock Holmes–or, rather, the man who is pretending to be him, and who insists on meddling (albeit helpfully meddling) in their cases.  While Sabrina begins a hunt for this Holmes’ real identity, John finds himself on a case that will put his reputation on the line, as several brewmasters are found drowned in their own vats of beer.  This story is more like two novellas, but both author’s bring such a sense of fun and professional acumen to their work to keep readers enthralled.  The San Francisco Chronicle has loved this series thus far, saying “Marcia Muller and Bill Pronzini have brought together the distinctive personalities and differing investigative styles of their fictional snoops. The result is a team that is as memorable as Nick and Nora Charles…. When they combine forces, they double our pleasure.”

Until next week, beloved patrons–happy reading!