Princeton Library Lounge

Spiritual Quest, Physical Quest, Emotional Quest
Humorous, self-examining and ironic, NJ author (for the moment, in Summer of 2007) Gilbert has interesting tales to tell. She may be naive, but she's gutsy to undertake her year of exploration, travel, and self-examination. I enjoyed the simplicity and lack of pretense of this book. SR2007

This book is very well written although the authors style is a bit unusual. The book is about a man who is left widowed with two small children. He moves to a small fishing town and starts working for the local newspaper. His adventures help him find confidence and love. This book won a pulitzer prize so others thought it good also. "SR 2007"

In June, I heard a Harvard Professor of Religion give a talk on Islam, and afterwards I asked if there was a good overall book on the topic. He said that though it is difficult to find books on the topic that are free of specific agendas, he could highly recommend "Following Muhammad", by Carl Ernst, as an objective and readable book. Since then I've bought several copies as gifts for family members. I appreciate the respectful manner that Ernst uses when speaking of the sources and the religion of Islam, and I like the clarity with which he outlines the often distorted Western views of Islam. Ernst also distinguishes between the basic tenets of Islam and fundamentalist versions of those tenets, and he offers helpful explanations of controversial topics such as veiling. I'm very grateful that the library made this book available for Princeton readers. (SR2007)

Keeping a fledgling government on a steady path was no easy task after the first founding fathers went out of office. Dolley Madison and her husband James had a formidable task coming to office after Washington, Adams and Jefferson. With James’ highly developed intellectual skills and Dolley’s highly developed social/political skills, they pulled it off in spite of war and political intrigue. In Catherine Algor’s biography, A Perfect Union – Dolley Madison and the Creation of the American Nation we learn that the stakes then were very high. The new nation came dangerously close to falling apart. Had it not been for Dolley’s fierce commitment to dialog and social interaction the political players of the early 19th century may have lost everything gained in the American Revolution. Given the role of women in those times her actions were remarkable and made her a beloved figure. This book contained a great deal of repetition in the author’s attempt to emphasize Dolley Madison’s feminism. Over all it is a fascinating study. -Mary Louise Hartman

In this brilliant, entertaining book, Michael Lewis, formerly a reporter
for the Wall Street Journal, demonstrates how rational assessment of
talent can make all the difference in the success of a sports franchise
(in this case, the Oakland Athletics). All the more surprising is how
benighted many baseball organizations remain, relying on the primitive
guesswork of scouts and old-time general managers. The book also has a
lesson to teach most businesses: if baseball executives, who have a wealth
of information to evaluate talent in their profession do such a poor job,
what does that say about other fields, in which much less information is
available and methods of evaluation are even more imperfect?
-D.Venturo
SR 2007

I really was impressed with this novel about Korean-Americans, since it dealt so squarely with the importance of money in people's lives (as does Middlemarch, the great 19th c. novel which Min Jin Lee so clearly admires). The book, essentially realistic, was slightly marred by some improbable touches more suitable to a romance novel,and I wasn't quite as taken with the lead character as everyone seemed to be (there was occasionally a whiff of chick-lit about her); also the story didn't have the elegance or stylistic distinction of "The Namesake," for example. However, it had charms of its own, including an extraordinarily compelling plot and a wide range of lively characters. I look forward to future books by this author. (SR - 2007)

I usually enjoy Anita Shreve's somewhat slick but very skillfully written novels, but I feel "Body Surfing" is one of her weakest, basically because the various romantic entanglements of Sydney, the main protagonist, seem unbelievable and the ultimate plot twist is a severe disappointment. However, the descriptions of summer spent on the New Hampshire seacoast are authentic and unfailingly lovely. Shreve also has a keen eye and ear for social conventions and interactions. (SR 2007)

It's a pleasure to read a book about snow during the humid months of summer, and when the book is Orhan Pamuk's fascinating novel about a poet's return to a snowy city in Turkey, the pleasure is sharply heightened. There are many strands of story in "Snow", including the failed marital relationship of Ka and Ipek, the wearing of head scarves in Turkey, and the larger issue of a citizen's response to political domination and change. All are woven into a tale which features Pamuk's humor and wonderful use of language. Somehow, though, I think that the sensual descriptions of snow - its softness, its peacefulness, "the large snowflakes floating so elegantly through the air... the silence of the snow-packed side streets... the beautiful snow-covered Russian houses and the oleanders..." will linger long after other aspects of this story have faded. (SR2007)

This is an amusing and sometimes touching book about the author’s travels to small, even tiny, towns throughout the United States. The people in these towns have festivals and museums to celebrate such mundane things as the watermelon, the tow truck, a frozen dead guy, a headless chicken and dried out cow dung, otherwise known as cow chips. I laughed out loud when I read about the United Baggage Center, where your unclaimed luggage goes when it gets off the plane and doesn’t get to you, and the Church of the Holy Barbeque, a Texas restaurant that serves brisket, ribs, and chicken that is “more than lunch; (it’s) a life experience.” Interspersed between several chapters are essays on the art of traveling through small-town America with tips on how to tell if you’re having a bad flight (tow truck arrives to jump-start your plane) or if you’ve checked into a less-than ideal motel (half-eaten burrito under bed).

The book is written in the straight-forward style of a reporter, the author after all is a CBS correspondent, with a lot of color provided by quotes from the local folks and the Geist’s own dead-pan sense of humor. It makes for a thoroughly entertaining read about “the vanishing rural world from whence we all came…” SR 2007

I love mysteries and police procedurals, especially those that take place in unlikely places or times. One of my favorites, the relatively unheralded Monkey House by John Fullerton, sets a murder mystery against the backdrop of war torn Sarajevo. The description of the details of life in a city torn by war and ethnic strife are actually more fascinating than the mystery itself, and, in fact, by comparison, make the murder being investigated seem insignificant.

Now I have discovered Olen Steinhauer’s Bridge of Sighs, which takes place in an unnamed Eastern European country (think Yugoslavia or Romania) in the chaos just after World War II. The country is ruled by a Soviet puppet and liberating Russian soldiers still crowd the streets along with the rubble of “liberation.” Loyalties are tenuous and complicated, and treachery and betrayal over everyday necessities is common. Food and housing are scarce. The country is in a difficult transition period between two occupations—the Nazis who have been defeated, and Soviet Russia, who is spreading its tentacles across Eastern Europe.

Young Emil Brod, just 22 years old, joins the People’s Militia, which is what the police are now called in this new Soviet satellite country. No one wants him there and he is given an impossible murder case, a case no one wants to solve, because finding out what really happened might be more terrible than not knowing. Again, the details of what it was like to live in this place and time drive the plot, as in this remark from a Polish woman from the city of Brest that Emil is questioning. When she denies she is Polish, he points out that Brest is in Poland. She replies, “For a long time, yes. Then one day it wasn’t. When the war was over someone told us we were living in Belarus… We live here now and that’s what matters.”

This is the beginning of a series of five, (Confession, 36 Yalta Boulevard, Liberation Movements, Victory Square in that order) featuring different detectives in the same People’s Militia. I am looking forward to finding out if the quality can be sustained to the end.

Submitted by Jane Brown.

No Graves as Yet is the first of Anne Perry’s new mystery series set in England before and during World War ! which includes five entries in all (Shoulder the Sky, Angels in the Gloom, At Some Disputed Barricade, We Shall Not Sleep in that order). Her previous two very popular series took place in Victorian London.

The story centers around the Reavley family in and around Cambridge on the eve of World War I. The description of the beauty of Cambridge and the lives of the young men who study there, many of whom will not survive the war, is bittersweet in the extreme and is an absorbing backdrop to the plot of the mystery. John and Alys Reavley are killed in a car accident on the same day that a Serbian dissident assassinates Archduke Ferdinand of Austria. He is carrying an alarming document to his son Matthew who is in the secret service. It is soon discovered that their deaths are not an accident and intrigue begins to mount.

In stark contrast to this is A Test of Wills by Charles Todd. This is the first of the Inspector Ian Rutledge series of mysteries that take place in England just after the war. The massive destruction and death wrought by the war, which few ever believed could be possible, is now a reality. Virtually everyone has been affected or damaged by it in some way, including Inspector Rutledge, a veteran who regularly has to fight his own demon to maintain his sanity.

A famous and popular colonel is murdered in a small country village, and the main suspect is an equally famous and popular war hero, decorated by the King himself. The main witness is a shell shocked veteran who has descended into alcoholism and madness, an object of shame and disgust.

The portrayal of a community recovering from a terrible war, now having to face a crime to which there seems to be no easy or comfortable solution is excellent. Inspector Rutledge is an extremely sympathetic well drawn character, and the mystery story itself is fascinating. As a police procedural series goes, this is one of the best. (NOTE: Charles Todd is a pseudonym for a mother and son writing team who live in the United States. I find this amazing. I never would have guessed—they seem quite genuinely English to me).

Submitted by Jane Brown.

Distracted : the erosion of attention and the coming Dark Age
Jackson, Maggie, 1960-

This slim little book contains a wealth of information about the thought processes of the human race. The subtitle sounds ominous and indeed it could be if the wealth of "brain" studies which are currently taking place go unheeded. In the first of the three sections - exploring the "landscape of distraction" the author looks at life as we live it now –wired to our supersonic cell phones, beepers, MP3 players, television, emails, chat rooms, blogs and all things computers. There is no moment for deep reflection. What does this do to our brain cells? What does it do to our abilities to act for ourselves, make informed decisions and act responsibly? In part two she zooms in on the big three of healthy brain function, focus, judgment and awareness. Each of these is deeply affected by distraction from our mechanized world. In words meaningful to every librarian she reasserts the basic value of reading as a tool to develop reflective powers. Part three gives us a glimpse of current studies zeroing in on the importance of attention which may be the key to helping homosapiens deal with the unstoppable deluge of modern distractions. These are exciting developments and offer us hope that our children and grandchildren won't be turned into robots. Next time I travel I will think twice before popping my laptop, my MP3 player, my cell phone, palm pilot and all the chargers into my suitcase. Taking time to smell the roses, is good brain health.

Submitted by Mary Louise Hartman.