December 2005

My Life in Orange : Growing Up with the Guru by Tim Guest is the autobiographical account of a boy whose mother and father separated when he was very young. When he was six, his mother joined a commune organized by the Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. The author tells of the teachings of the Bhagwan, who taught one thing, and lived another. It was very difficult for this boy in the commune, because he felt abandoned by his mother, and felt he had no guidance. This book is very vivid and touching to read.

James Frey tells his account of going through drug and alcohol rehab in the book A Million Little Pieces. As the book opens, the author is on an airplane. He has no idea where he got on, or where he is going. His nose is broken, he is missing his front teeth, and he has a hole in his cheek. The plane lands in Chicago, and his parents meet the plane, and take him to a rehab facility. Frey’s account is very powerful. The authorities in the rehab center feel that the only way to get “clean” and stay “clean” is through the 12-step program. Frey does not agree, and often clashes with those trying to help him. He is addicted to crack cocaine and alcohol, and he writes of his time in detox, and his strong cravings. This book is not for the squeamish. The language is quite strong, and the material at times very disturbing. A sequel to this book is My Friend Leonard. In this book, Frey tells of a man he met in rehab, Leonard, who is connected with the Mob. Leonard befriends Frey, and is a very positive influence on him, even though he is a criminal. Leonard goes through some changes himself, to try to leave his life of crime.

In Taught by America : A Story of Struggle and Hope in Compton, the author, Sarah Sentilles, tells of graduating from Yale, and wanting to work in public service before she enters graduate school. She joins the association Teach for America and is sent to teach first grade in Compton, California. She grew up in middle-class America, and had no idea of the poverty and racism in some parts of our country. Her students lived with violence and poverty every day. The school was in terrible shape. Ceilings were falling down, the playground was just dirt, the buildings needed paint, the bathrooms didn’t work, and there were no supplies for the classroom. Teaching in this environment changed the author’s life. This is a very touching story.

The Lincoln Lawyer is a novel by Michael Connelly about a defense lawyer who works out of the back of his Lincoln car, taking on criminal cases. It is a fast-paced good read. Connelly usually writes detective stories (starring Harry Bosch), but this time he writes about lawyers, and how they work. This is a real page-turner!

OCTOBER 2005

Book Savvy by Cynthia Lee Katona is a wonderful guide for readers. The author has chosen a list of books and rated them by difficulty of reading, genre, etc. Each book is given a short summary. The reader is encouraged to read deeply, and get the most out of what is read.

Another fascinating book is Who We Are : On Being A Jewish American Writer. Some of the authors who have written essays for this book are Chaim Potok, Philip Roth, Saul Bellow, Grace Paley, and Erica Jong. Chaim Potok tells of how members of the Hasidic Jews were angry when his books were published, and shunned him. Philip Roth also experienced anger from many of his readers. It is interesting to read these authors’ points of view.

Danielle Ofri is a doctor who lives in New York City. She wrote of her experiences in medical school in the book Singular Intimacies. Now she has written Incidental Findings : Lessons from My Patients in the Art of Medicine. She tells stories of how she handles certain situations, and what her patients themselves have taught her. When she needs medical care herself, she becomes aware of how her patients must feel when she asks them to do certain things.

Leaving the Saints is the story of Martha Beck. She and her husband were teaching at Harvard when they learned they were expecting a child that had Down Syndrome. Her friends and colleagues assumed that she would abort the child. After having the child, the couple decided to move back to Utah, where they had grown up in the Mormon faith. They felt they would receive family support. They were welcomed back with open arms. The author got a job teaching at Brigham Young University, and over the course of time, saw many things that disturbed her. She and her husband decided to leave the Mormons, and this is their story.

Ten Green Bottles : The True Story of One Family’s Journey from War-Torn Austria to the Ghettos of Shanghai by Vivian Jeanette Kaplan tells of a family who owned several department stores in Vienna in the 1930s. When the Nazis started to come into power, all assets from the business were frozen. The family was able to escape to Shanghai, China in 1939. When they arrived in Shanghai, they were appalled at the living conditions. However, they found a place to live, and were able to start a business. What they endured is incredible to read about, and a wonderful account of what grit and determination can do.

A great read-aloud for children is Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo. It is the story of a little 10-year-old girl named India Opal Buloni. She and her father move to Florida. The mother has left the family years ago, and the girl misses her terribly. Also, she feels lonely in the new area, and doesn’t have any friends. Then she finds a dog. She names the dog Winn-Dixie because she found the dog in a supermarket. This is a heart-warming story.

August 2005

Although summer is almost over, you might want to check out a beautiful gardening book called P. Allen Smith’s Container Gardens. This book has gorgeous color photographs, and also maps of what to plant in which area of the container. There are even some container gardens for winter plants.

Serving Crazy with Curry by Amulya Mulladi is a novel of a family who moved from India to the Silicon Valley area in California. The book opens with Devi, one of the main characters, trying to commit suicide in her bathtub. After her mother finds her and rescues her, she goes home with her parents to recuperate. She stops talking and starts cooking Indian food the way she wants it. Recipes are included in the novel. The characterizations are great, and the story involves three generations of women. Amulya Mulladi also wrote The Mango Season.
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In Our Hearts, We Were Giants : The Remarkable Story of the Lilliput Troup – A Dwarf Family’s Survival of the Holocaust by Yehuda Koren and Eilat Negev is a riveting account of a family with ten children, seven of whom are dwarfs. They travel around Europe singing and acting. During World War II, they are sent to Auschwitz, where Dr. Mengele selects them for his medical research. The dwarf family is unable to be on their own because although their heads and torsos are normal size, their legs are not and they need help to even get into a bed. A family of neighbors had helped them at home, and Dr. Mengele was deceived into believing this neighbor family was related to the dwarf family. Because of this, both families were able to survive.

A local author, Steven Hay, wrote God’s Provisions : A Step-by-Step Guide to Authentic Tlingit Smoked and Dried Salmon. This little book is full of photographs and instructions of how to cut the salmon, and how to smoke or dry it.

Another local, Kathleen Menke, has written Haines for All Seasons. This book is full of color photographs of the area, and also photos of the euchalon harvest.

A new children’s CD “Choo Choo Boogaloo” by Buckwheat Zydeco is lots of fun…not only for children, but adults as well!

Marriage Most Scandalous is a new romance by Johanna Lindsey. It takes place in Regency England. Fans of Ms. Lindsey’s might enjoy A Loving Scoundrel, which is also a romance.

Judith Guest has written about a murder in her novel The Tarnished Eye. A family is found murdered in their vacation home on a lake in Michigan. A detective is assigned to the case. There are some bad feelings in the community about “summer people”, as opposed to people who live in the area year-round.

The Uprooted : A Hitler Legacy – Voices of Those Who Escaped before the Final Solution by Dorit Bader Whiteman is the true account of Jews who escaped going to the Nazi camps during World War II. Sometimes they went into hiding, and sometimes were able to get out of Europe. These are fascinating accounts of survival.June 2005

Have you ever waited years to read a book? Heather Lende’s book If You Lived Here, I’d Know Your Name was worth the wait. Heather writes stories about our town of Haines, and this book is a wonderful tribute to our place and way of life. This book is heart-warming, and reaffirms our choice to live in such a great place.

Pat Conroy has written several novels (Prince of Tides, The Great Santini, Beach Music). These books are set in the South, where Mr. Conroy grew up. He has now written The Pat Conroy Cookbook : Recipes of My Life. Each chapter deals with a certain period of his life, and some tell of the places he lived while writing certain books. I found the parts about Mr. Conroy’s life even more interesting than the recipes themselves. This was an enjoyable book to read.

Anne Lamott wrote about the birth and first year of her son’s life in Operating Instructions. Her latest book Plan B : Further Thoughts on Faith is a series of essays detailing her life and feelings as her son is a teenager. Ms. Lamott also discusses her feelings about today’s politics, her faith, and the people she deals with on a regular basis. The reader may not always agree with her, but she is an excellent writer.

The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls is a memoir that begins with the author telling about when she was three years old, standing at the stove cooking hot dogs, wearing a tutu. The tutu catches on fire and she is badly burned. The author’s parents are very unsettled and not responsible in their actions, especially when it comes to raising a family. How the author survives her childhood is simply amazing. Truth really is stranger than fiction!

John Grisham fans will be glad to know that he has written another book, The Broker. The broker is a person who is involved in some rather shady deals. The CIA and FBI want him dead, but they don’t want to be the ones who kill him. They arrange for the broker to go overseas to Italy, and figure he will be killed by the intelligence services of another country.

Amos Oz is a well-known Israeli author. He has written a memoir called A Tale of Love and Darkness. His parents left Eastern Europe in the 30s to go to Palestine. Amos was born in 1939. His parents struggled in their new country, and it was even harder for them after they lost so many of their families and friends in the Holocaust. The author’s mother died when he was twelve. At that time, he decided to go live on a kibbutz rather than to continue living with his father. He spent over 30 years on the kibbutz. This is a poignant story, and you will learn about Palestine becoming a state, and what that meant to the Jewish people.

May 2005

Voices of the Shoah : Remembrances of the Holocaust is a book and set of four CDs. It is an oral account of the Holocaust, told by survivors who are now living in the Los Angeles area. It is very moving to hear the voices of the survivors, and to see photos of them and some of their relatives.

Stiff : the Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach is interesting, although somewhat gruesome. The author discusses how medical students have benefited from working with cadavers. Also, forensic scientists have studied how the body decays, so that they can make decisions about when and how people die.

Trisha Meili has written I Am the Central Park Jogger. She was jogging through Central Park when she was savagely beaten and left for dead. Her whole life changed the day she was attacked. She had a high-powered job in New York City that she was no longer able to perform. She had to learn to walk again. The reason she decided to write the book was so that others who have suffered a traumatic head injury could be encouraged to work through their pain and frustrations.

PS I Love You by Cecelia Ahren is a novel set in Ireland. A young couple tease each other. The husband tells his wife that he needs to write her a list so that she will know what to do if he isn’t there. Not long after this, the husband gets terminal cancer. After his death, his widow discovers that he has left her 12 envelopes – one for each month in the year after his death. She is instructed by his “list” each month. Sometimes the list is funny, and other times it is very serious. The author of this book is the daughter of Ireland’s prime minister.

Last month a book called Change Me into Zeus’s Daughter by Barbara Robinette Moss was reviewed. The author told how she was raised in poverty and malnourishment. Her story continues in the book Fierce. She tells of her marriages and relationships, and how she struggles to feel “normal” after being disfigured for so many years. She had plastic surgery, but finally pursued counseling to deal with her feelings. She has a son, and tells of what she went through as a single parent.

Smashed : Story of a Drunken Girlhood by Koren Zailekas is a true account of a girl who started drinking from her parents’ liquor cabinet when she was only 13 years old. She drank for ten years. Mostly she drank just to be drunk to the point of oblivion. She was not an alcoholic (she quit cold turkey and had no withdrawal symptoms). However, she lost all her friends – her drinking buddies – when she decided to quit. She refers to her ten years of drinking as lost years, because she couldn’t remember what she did. This book is very frank about high school and college age students and their drinking habits.

Sarah Turnbull is an Australian journalist who went on an assignment in Romania. While she was there, she met a man who lived in the Paris area. He invites her to come and visit him. She goes to Paris, falls in love, and stays. She has written an account of her life in France called Almost French. This is a delightful book, so descriptive that you can smell the food shops and see the streets. She and her mate buy an apartment right in downtown Paris, and you feel that you are experiencing life in France right along with them.

April 2005

Now that it looks like spring outside, you might want to do some spring cleaning. Don Aslett has written two books that can help you! One is called For Packrats Only, and the other is Clutter’s Last Stand. Mr. Aslett was a professional house cleaner, and he realized that in many of the homes he cleaned, he spent more time moving clutter to clean around it than he did doing actual cleaning. He has written practical, humorous tips on how anyone can control their clutter.

Ruth Reichl wrote two great books about her life. Tender at the Bone is the story of her growing up years. Her mother was a terrible cook, and often served spoiled food. Ruth became a fantastic cook (perhaps out of self defense). She also tells about leaving home, and her time in college. Comfort Me with Apples continues her story. She moved to Berkley, California and worked in a restaurant, and eventually became a food writer. She is so descriptive in her writing that you can almost smell and taste the meals. As a food critic, she also travels to other countries, and writes of her experiences there.

Light on Snow, a novel by Anita Shreve, is about a widower and his young daughter who are out snowshoeing. They come across an infant, wrapped in a sleeping bag, who has been abandoned in the snow. The events that unfold after the discovery of the child make for an-edge-of-the-chair read.

Whiteout by Ken Follett is another edge-of-the-seat thriller. It is about a biomedical laboratory in the countryside of Scotland. During a stormy Christmas holiday, one of the viruses from the laboratory goes missing. The author did quite a bit of research on biohazards and how they are handled.

Tobias Wolff has written a memoir about growing up in the Pacific Northwest, called This Boy’s Life. He and his mother flee from the Midwest, where his mother has been in a bad relationship. They move to the Seattle area, and she remarries. Tobias is often dishonest and unruly. He fakes some documents, and gets accepted into an exclusive prep school. Mr. Wolff is a compelling author. In his novel Old School, you feel that he has drawn on his real-life experience in the prep school. The protagonist was raised in a poor environment, and his colleagues are almost all raised in the lap of luxury. The protagonist feels like a misfit. A third book by Tobias Wolff continues his memoir. The title is In Pharoah’s Army and gives the account of the author’s time in the army, and his tour of duty in Vietnam.

Save Karyn by Karyn Bosnak is the true account of a young woman who goes to work in New York City and runs up tremendous credit card debt. Not knowing how she will earn enough money to make her payments, she sets up a website and asks anyone who views the site to donate at least one dollar toward her debt. Amazingly enough, she pays off over $20,000 in debt just from donations!

Passing for Thin : Losing Half My Weight and Finding Myself by Frances Kuffel is another true account about a young woman who moves to New York City. Ms. Kuffel has been overweight all her life, and she finally decides to change her life. She writes poignantly of what it is like to be overweight, and how others treat her because of her obesity. She lost over a hundred pounds by joining a twelve-step program for overeaters.

Barbara Robinette Moss, who wrote Change Me Into Zeus’s Daughter, is a survivor. She tells of growing up impoverished in Alabama. Her father was an alcoholic and very abusive. You might think this would be a depressing read, but the love of the mother and the siblings shines through the memoir. The author was so malnourished as a child that it caused the bones in her face to grow distorted, so not only did she suffer from poverty and abuse, she also suffered from the cruelty of her peers. How she overcomes what life has dealt her makes for an inspiring read.

March 2005

The Bookseller of Kabul is written by a Norwegian journalist, Asne Seierstad. The author met the bookseller of the title when she entered his bookshop and bought seven books from him. After becoming acquainted with the bookseller, she arranges to live with his family for a year so that she can write about the culture and living conditions in Kabul. The bookseller started his business because when he was in engineering school , no textbooks were available in his country. He journeyed to Pakistan, bought up textbooks, came back to Kabul and sold them for a profit. Several times his inventory was destroyed by the different regimes ruling his country. His family life is another story in itself. Even though the Taliban is no longer ruling in this area, its effect is still felt.

Some darling new children’s CDs have been added to the library’s collection. Brent Holmes sings Bear Tunes for Kids, Cow Tunes for Kids, and Moose Tunes for Kids. The songs are catchy tunes that children will be singing along with, and maybe parents will sing, too!

Bill and Anna Bell Carey generously donated the funds for the library to purchase a children’s CD about manners. The title is “Everybody Needs Good Manners” by Judi Johnston Vankevich, also known as “The Manners Lady”. The author is a Canadian woman who has written songs that make it easy for children to learn proper manners.

The Center of Everything by Laura Moriarty is a novel told through the eyes of a young girl being raised by a single mother. The story takes place in Kansas, and starts when the girl is in fourth grade. It is an excellent coming-of-age story.

Author Uri Orlev writes fiction based on true events. The Man from the Other Side takes place at the time of the Warsaw Uprising during World War II. A teenage boy meets a Jewish man on the “Aryan” side of Warsaw, and decides to help hide him. This novel reads like a thriller. Another title by the same author is Lydia, Queen of Palestine. It also is set during World War II, in Romania and Israel. The Lydia of the title is a single child whose parents send her to Palestine to escape the Germans. Lydia is an extremely spoiled child. The feelings of uncertainty and chaos are vividly portrayed. Both of these books are available from the Haines Elementary Media Center.

Jerome Groopman is a hematologist-oncologist who shares case studies from his decades of practicing medicine. During his time as a physician, he has learned from his patients about hope in the face of extreme illness. The Anatomy of Hope is a well-written, inspiring book that explores the mind-body connection.

Marcia Muller has written another detective story in her Sharon McCone series called The Dangerous Hour. This fast-paced story takes place in San Francisco. Sharon McCone’s detective business is being threatened, and she works to find out the reason why.

The Aleutian Sparrow is a fictionalized account of the Aleuts who are forced to evacuate to Southeast Alaska during World War II. The living conditions were horrendous, and many of the Aleuts died. Karen Hesse has written a vivid account of their ordeal.

Eats, Shoots & Leaves : the Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation by Lynne Truss is not just for English teachers to read. It is a plea for the salvation of the English language, written by a British author. You would be surprised how entertaining a book on punctuation can be!

The Falconmaster by R. L. La Fevers would be a great read-aloud for families. The main character is a boy who is crippled and half-blind. He lives in medieval times, and people believe his physical problems are caused by a devil’s curse. He is shunned, and as a result spends a lot of time in the woods. It is there that he comes across some falcons, and learns how to care for them.

Skinny Dip by Carl Hiassen is the story of Chaz Perrone, who is a biologist who is faking water sample results from the Everglades. He thinks his wife Joey has caught on to his misdeeds, so he takes her on a luxury cruise for their second anniversary and pushes her overboard. What he has forgotten is that she was a champion swimmer in college. She survives the attempted murder, and is rescued by an ex-cop who lives on an island. She and the ex-cop hatch a scheme to punish Chaz (who assumes she is dead). This is a well-written, hilarious novel.

Hiccup the Seasick Viking is a darling children’s story by Cressida Cowell. Hiccup is a little Viking who has to go out on a Viking ship with his father. He is very prone to seasickness, and fears going out on the ocean. This story shows how he overcomes his fears. The illustrations show a very green-tinged little boy!

Scribbling the Cat by Alexandra Fuller is an account of her journey to Zambia (where she was raised) and her relationship to a Rhodesian war veteran she calls “K”. “K” has definitely been scarred mentally from his time as a soldier, and he shares his memories and feelings with Alexandra. Ms. Fuller is a very descriptive author, and the reader feels, sees, and hears the African countries she visits. She was also living in Africa at the time of the war, and it is obvious that she also has some unresolved issues from that period of her life.

Lucy Grealy wrote Autobiography of a Face, a memoir of her childhood and young life. When she was nine, she was diagnosed with Ewing’s Sarcoma, which attacked her jawbone. She endured radiation and chemotherapy, and intense pain. After her first treatment, her mother told her that she was NOT to cry. Lucy paid a high price by holding her emotions and feelings inside, and never expressing them. Her middle school years were especially painful because she was disfigured, and her classmates were cruel in their comments to her.

Truth & Beauty : A Friendship by Ann Patchett is a companion volume to Lucy Grealy’s book. Ann Patchett and Lucy met while they were in college, and later became roommates. Lucy is a very needy person, and I am really amazed that this friendship endured as it did. Ann is the award-winning author of Bel Canto. It is interesting to get another viewpoint of Lucy Grealy’s story.

Michael Connelly writes crime fiction with a flair. In his book The Poet, a serial murderer is on the loose. A journalist whose brother was killed decides to trace the killer. A companion/sequel to this book is The Narrows. Readers familiar with the detective Harry Bosch will enjoy The Narrows. The setting is Los Angeles, and the narrows refer to the Los Angeles River. Harry Bosch is an ex-homicide detective who gets involved in the case. References are also made to characters that appeared in Michael Connelly’s book Blood Work.

Nicholas Sparks has written several novels (The Notebook, The Wedding). His latest book is a memoir titled Three Weeks with My Brother. Nicholas and his brother Micah take a three week trip that takes them around the world. The author alternates his chapters with travel accounts and flashbacks to his family history.

Hornet Flight by Ken Follett is an exciting read. It is a novel that takes place in 1941 in the country of Denmark. The main character, Harald, finds a Hornet bi-plane that is damaged, and begins to repair it. He also becomes involved inadvertently with the Danish resistance against the Germans. Ken Follett is an excellent storyteller, and will keep you on the edge of your seat. This story is based on factual events.

The Rapture of Canaan is a novel by Sheri Reynolds. Ninah, the narrator of the novel, is a 15 year old who is living with her family within a religious colony. The church is led by her grandfather, who is a hellfire and brimstone type of preacher, very rigid in his beliefs. Ninah becomes a “prayer partner” with James, a teenage boy. The relationship that develops between Ninah and James is tragic and touching.

A non-fiction account of living within a religious group, Predators, Prey, and Other Kinfolk : Growing Up in Polygamy, is by Dorothy Allred Solomon. Her father was married to seven wives, and she was the 28th child of 48 children (a middle child, you could say). She writes of the history of her family, and how they were pursued by the law. The different “sisterwives” and children had to separate and flee Utah, their home. Solomon tells of the hardships of these women and children. They were usually unable to work outside the home, as they feared being prosecuted for polygamy. Sometimes they didn’t have enough to eat. The group they practiced polygamy with was often violent; Solomon’s father was shot by a rival group of polygamists.

Eat Cake by Jeanne Ray is a delicious little novel. Ruth, a Minneapolis housewife, has a teenage daughter at home and a son in college. Her mother is also living with her and her husband. One day she gets a call from her father, who left her and her mother when she was young. He has broken both wrists, and needs someone to help him…so he moves into the household as well. The mother and father don’t get along. Every time that Ruth feels stressed, she bakes a cake. There are recipes in the back of the book for all the cakes the protagonist describes.

The 37th Hour by Jodi Compton is a mystery involving a police officer and her husband. The police officer works finding missing persons. One day her husband “goes missing”, and she gets involved in the case to find him.

An Innocent, A Broad is by Ann Leary, the wife of the comedian Denis Leary. She and Denis traveled to London for him to work for the BBC. After they arrived in London, she delivered her baby three months early. This is her experience in dealing with the National Health Service. She is a great writer, and many of her scenes are hilarious. You will learn lots of details about Jack’s stay in the neonatal unit of the hospital, and his mother’s feelings of helplessness and loneliness.

Going to Bend by Diane Hammond is a novel about the friendship between two women who live in a small coastal town in Oregon. They are employed by a local restaurant to make the daily soup. This is the story of their relationship with their employers, their families, and each other. The town they live in is economically depressed, and the main economy is tourism.

Brendan O’Carroll has written a trilogy about growing up in inner-city Dublin. The first book in the series, The Mammy, is about a 34 year old woman with seven children who loses her husband. She learns to cope. The scenes concerning her best friend are especially touching. Book two in the series, The Chisellers , continues the story of the children growing, and the different problems they encounter in adolescence. (I will review The Granny, the last in the series, at a later date.)

Hana’s Suitcase by Karen Levine is a true account of a teacher in Tokyo who wants children to learn about the Holocaust. She writes to the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C., and to the museum at Auschwitz, asking for something tangible (like shoes or glasses) that she can use to teach the children. A suitcase is sent, with the name and birthdate of Hana on it. The teacher does some detective work, and is able to trace Hana’s story, and what happened to her and her family when the Germans came to her town. This book has lots of photographs, and although it is written for children, is a book that adults will find interesting reading.

Holy Fools is a new novel by Joanne Harris. The author is half-French and half-English, and her books are mostly set in small French villages. In this novel, the main character, Juliette, is a woman who is pregnant and alone. She goes to a convent where she delivers and raises her daughter. The time is the 17th century. One day a man comes to the convent in the garb of a priest. Juliette knows he is NOT a priest, as she knew him before she came to the convent. Juliette lived as a gypsy acrobat before she came to live in the convent. This is a well-written book, with strong characterization.

A Man to Call My Own, a new romance by Johanna Lindsey, takes place in the 1870s. It is about identical twins who look alike, but one is sweet and the other is mean. They are sent to Texas to a ranch, and are told they can’t claim their inheritance unless they are married. The mean twin always “takes away” any boyfriend the sweet twin is interested in, so there is friction between the sisters. This is a historical romance.

Jennifer Lauck has written a sequel to her memoir Blackbird called Still Waters. Ms. Lauck was orphaned, and when she was eleven, she was sent to live with her grandparents. They were not able to keep her for very long, so she was sent to live with an aunt and uncle. Her brother was sent to live with a different aunt and uncle. She discusses her growing up years, and her feelings of loss and abandonment. When she became an adult, she had trouble in her relationships, and was finally able to find a counselor who was able to help her with her problems.

Song of Names by Norman Lebrecht tells about a nine year-old Polish boy who is a prodigy on the violin. In 1939, his father takes him and leaves him with a family in London. The father in the home works arranging concerts in England. There is also a son in the home who is the same age as the Polish boy. They become friends. The Polish boy is being groomed to give a concert (his debut) and the day of the concert, he disappears. Forty years later, the two friends meet again, and the reader finds out the reason for the disappearance. The author of this novel is a well-known English journalist.

In the novel Single Wife by Nina Solomon, the main character, Grace, is married to Laz. Laz disappears, which is not an unusual occurrence. Grace pretends that he is still there. She leaves his clothes in piles like he usually does, and puts dirty dishes out so the housekeeper will think he’s still around. Laz always provided the doorman with a cup of coffee on the counter downstairs, so she does that as well. She lies to her family, his family, and their friends. The plot is somewhat hard to believe, but it does make a good story.

The Great Gallery of Ducks and Other Waterfowl by Richard LeMaster is a gorgeous book that was just recently donated to the libray. It has beautiful photographs of the birds.

Grand Theft by Timothy Watts is a novel about a car thief who only steals “high-end” cars like Porsches and Jaguars. He is successful at this because he dresses the part - like a yuppie. He meets a waitress in an exotic club, and gives her a ride home. On the way to her apartment, he gets a flat tire. When he stops and opens the trunk, he finds the body of the leader of an organized crime family. This is a fast-paced story with snappy dialogue.

The Radiation Sonnets : for My Love, in Sickness and in Health is written by children’s author Jane Yolen. When her husband is diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor and has to have radiation treatments, Ms. Yolen’s way of dealing with the stress of this is to write a sonnet every night after leaving the hospital. Some of the sonnets are very intense and sad, but some of them are humorous.

Blackbird : A Childhood Lost and Found is a memoir by Jennifer Lauck. When the author is five years old, her mother is very ill, and nearly paraplegic. She has to care for her mother, doing the work of an adult. Her mother dies when she is seven, and her father remarries a woman who is the epitome of a wicked stepmother. After the author’s father dies, it is incredible what happens to her. This is a very intense, touching story, and there is a sequel which the library has ordered. This is not only a memoir, but also a survival story.

Elmore Leonard writes the best dialogue of any author I know. His latest novel, Mr. Paradise, is the story of a man in his 80s, who has a very young girlfriend. When the girlfriend and HER girlfriend come over for a “party”, a double murder occurs.

Step-Ball-Change by Jeanne Ray is the story of a couple in their 60s. The wife runs a tap-dance school, and the husband is a lawyer. As the couple sits down to dinner one evening, the phone rings. It is their daughter, who is sobbing so hard they can hardly understand her. What she is trying to say is that she is engaged. Meanwhile, their second phone line rings, and it is the wife’s sister telling them that her husband has dumped her, and she needs a place to stay for a while. This is a very cute, funny, heart-warming story.

Milkweed by Jerry Spinelli was written for young adults. It is the story of a young boy in the Warsaw Ghetto. He is so small that he is able to slip under the wall of the ghetto and smuggle food in from the “Aryan” side. He is an orphan, and runs around with several boys who are in the same circumstances. Although this is fiction, it is based on fact.

Christmas at The New Yorker is an anthology of stories, cartoons, old magazine covers, and personal memoirs. One memoir I especially enjoyed was about a woman whose husband decided to get in touch with his Italian roots. He decides that the family should eat fish instead of turkey for Christmas!

Judy Collins, the singer, has written Sanity & Grace : A Journey of Suicide, Survival and Strength. Her son committed suicide when he was 32, and she tells how hard it was for her to cope with not only his death, but also with the taboo of suicide.

Meant to Be : A Memoir by Walter Anderson is the true story of a son who discovers he is his mother’s deepest secret. Walter grows up in an abusive situation. His father, who is alcoholic, beats him frequently. One of the things he is beaten for is reading books. It angers his father that he is doing so well in school. Walter always felt like he didn’t belong to his father, and after his father dies, his mother finally confesses the secret of his birth. This is a poignant, well-written story of one man’s success after a painful childhood.

Home Baking : The Artful Mix of Flour and Tradition Around the World is more than just a recipe book. It is a gorgeous, coffee-table sized book, full of photos of bakers around the world. The authors, Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid, are a husband and wife team who travel to many areas of the world to learn how different people make bread. They visit Portugal, Ireland, Nepal, Brazil, Greece, and many other countries. There are recipes for flatbreads, soda breads, tortillas, braided Easter breads, and bagels (to name a few!) that will delight your senses!

The Complete Pebble Mosaic Handbook by Maggy Howarth is a how-to book for creating beautiful mosaics from different colored pebbles and slate. The author not only gives detailed instructions (with photos), but she also shows photos of mosaics that have lasted centuries. Some of the mosaics shown are in Greece, Spain, and Portugal.

If you are considering having a child, or already have children, you might enjoy Mother Shock : Tales from the First Year and Beyond by Andrea J. Buchanan. Andrea and her husband decide to have a child, and she expresses her feelings about the change her daughter brings into her life. Although the book is well-written, I found myself feeling amazed at how little this woman seems to have been exposed to children. She must never have had a babysitting job!

The Righteous : The Unsung Heroes of the Holocaust by Martin Gilbert is not an easy book to read because of the subject matter. However, it is very interesting. The author writes about how gentiles (non-Jews) hid Jews during World War II. He goes through Europe, country by country, and tells how different ones hid Jews in their area. This was a life-and-death risk, because if the Germans caught civilians hiding Jews, they killed not only the Jews, but the entire family that hid them. Although the stories are heartbreaking, they are also heart-warming, because the courage and decency of those that hid the Jews are incredible.

After reading The Righteous, I read Run Boy, Run by Uri Orlev. It is easy to see how real this story is after reading the true accounts. It is the fictionalized story of a Polish Jewish boy who escaped from the Warsaw Ghetto and hid in the Polish countryside until the war was over. He was helped by some farmers, who hid him as long as they were able to. Although the book is fiction, it is based on a true story that the author heard about while he was in Israel.

The Mango Season by Amulya Malladi is a novel about a woman who leaves India when she is 20 years old to go to school in the United States. When she is 27, she returns to India to visit her family. Her parents and extended family are appalled that she is not married at the ripe old age of 27, and they want to arrange a marriage for her to an Indian man. What the woman (named Priya) does not seem to be able to tell them is that she is engaged to an American. This is a romance with cultural conflict. The characters in this novel are well-developed, and the setting is beautifully described. The reader can almost smell , see and feel India. The author also includes some authentic Indian recipes.

The Probable Future is a novel by Alice Hoffman. It is really a story of the generations of a family - the grandmother, mother, and daughter. Each generation receives a “gift” on her thirteenth birthday. The grandmother has the ability to tell if someone is lying to her. The mother is able to “see” other people’s dreams, and the daughter is able to “see” the deaths of people in advance. The setting is a small town in Massachusetts, and the story tells how small town life influences people. I like how the author writes about family relationships.

The densest population of grizzly bears in the world is in Kamchatka, Russia. Grizzly Seasons : Life with the Brown Bears of Kamchatka by Charlie Russell and Maureen Enns is a gorgeous book full of photographs of these bears. This couple gets a little too close to the bears, in my opinion, but the photographs are splendid.

Speaking of bears, The Bear’s Embrace : A Story of Survival by Patricia Van Tighem, is the account of a bear attack in British Columbia. The author and her husband were out hiking when the bear attacked. Patricia saw the bear attack her husband ; she screamed, and the bear charged her. She had climbed a tree, and the bear shook the tree. She fell 20 feet and the bear bit her repeatedly on the head. She describes the attack in great detail, and also her many weeks in the hospital. This survival story goes beyond just the physical attack. Although the physical injuries were great, the mental anguish was greater. The author tells of intense nightmares and depression.

Mountains Beyond Mountains : The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, A Man Who Would Cure the World is by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author Tracy Kidder. This is the best book I have read in a long time. Dr. Paul Farmer is truly a genius…a compassionate genius. He went to Haiti, and was appalled at the poverty and disease he witnessed. He established a clinic, and began to treat people for no charge. The foundation he created to finance this endeavor is called Partners in Health. After a close friend of his died of Multiple Drug Resistant Tuberculosis (MDR-TB) in Peru, he went to Peru and set up a similar clinic to what he had established in Haiti. It is truly amazing what this one person has done toward world health. He also spent time in Russia trying to stem an epidemic of MDR-TB that broke out in prisons in Siberia.

Homesick : My Own Story is a fictionalized autobiography by Jean Fritz. She spent two years in China during 1925-1927, and writes of her experiences there. She was 10 years old at the time. This book would make a great family read-aloud. It is available at the Elementary Media Center, and all Haines Borough Public Library cardholders are able to use the school’s library.

Julie and Romeo is a love story between two 60 year olds. Think about Romeo and Juliet…young teenagers whose families are feuding…in this case, Julie and Romeo’s children are aghast that their parents are dating each other, because of a family feud. This is a heart-warming story, and has some very funny scenes in it. The setting is Boston, and Julie and Romeo each run a florist shop.

Are you dreaming of a vacation? We have several new Lonely Planet Guides: Chile & Easter Island, Ireland, Australia, Tramping in New Zealand, New Zealand, India, Switzerland, Thailand, and Italy. We also have new Footprint Guides: East Africa Handbook, India Handbook, and Peru Handbook.Happy travels!

Heart Full of Lies : A True Story of Desire and Death is the latest book by Ann Rule. Ann Rule used to be a policewoman in King County, Washington, and is well aware of police procedures. She wrote this book about a woman who married her third husband, who was a pilot for Hawaiian Air Lines, so that she would receive his benefits and privileges as an airline employee. When the marriage began to fall apart, she murdered him. Ann Rule goes through the investigation step-by-step, and the book reads just like a novel.

John Grisham usually writes novels about lawyers, but his newest book, Bleachers, is about football. The main character in the book was a star quarterback when he was in high school, and the story is about how his coach had an effect on his life. The coach has died, and several of his players come back to their home town for the funeral, and remember the events in their high school years, and how playing football helped shape their lives.

Love : A Celebration of Humanity is a book of photographs showing human emotion. There were photographers from over 164 countries who submitted pictures for this book. I thought the photos of grandparents and children were the most poignant. The introduction to the book is written by Kim Phuc, the little Vietnamese girl who was photographed running down the road after napalm had burned her. She tells how that photograph changed her life - after the photographer took her picture, he helped her to get medical care. Louise Rafkin is a woman who loves to clean, and she has written Other People’s Dirt to tell about it. She even daydreams about cleaning showers! Sometimes she never even meets the people she cleans for, but because she is in their homes, she learns a lot about their habits and lifestyles.

Anyone You Want Me to Be : A True Story of Sex and Death on the Internet by John Douglas is another true crime story. John Robinson is an embezzler who spent some time in prison. While he was in prison, he got training on how to use the computer. When he got out of prison, he used the Internet to meet women in chat rooms. Several women came to visit him, and consequently disappeared. This account is quite scary; however, at the end of the book are some pointers about safety when using computers.

Off the Beaten Path : A Travel Guide to More Than 1000 Scenic and Interesting Places Still Uncrowded and Inviting is published by the Reader’s Digest. The book is broken down state by state, and in the Alaska section Haines is mentioned.

If you like to read about doctors and medical cases, you will enjoy Singular Intimacies : Becoming A Doctor at Bellevue by Danielle Ofri. Bellevue is one of the oldest hospitals in New York City, and is a place where indigent people receive care. The author shares her experiences of training at this hospital, her dealings with patients, and also with her fellow students and residents.

Isabel's Daughter by Judith Ryan Hendricks is the story of a child who is left on the steps of an orphanage. When she is 15 years old, she runs away and lives in a small town in New Mexico with an old woman who teaches her many things about life. After high school, she heads for the big city, and gets a job as a caterer. One day she sees a painting that looks exactly like her, and realizes the portrait is of her mother. She starts to ask people in the area about her mother, and learns more about her past. This book is very well written, and the descriptions of the cuisine of New Mexico leave your mouth watering.

Avenger by Frederick Forsyth is a thriller/adventure story. This book is set in Croatia and Serbia, and although it is fiction, many facts about this area are presented. A young man is murdered by paramilitary men, and a family member seeks to avenge his death.

It is possible for anyone with a Haines Borough Public Library card to use the Elementary Media Center or the high school library. One book located at the Elementary Media Center is Ten Thousand Children: True Stories Told by Children Who Escaped the Holocaust on the Kindertransport by Anne L. Fox and Eva Abraham-Podietz. Many children from Germany and Austria were sent on transports to England, where they lived with English families for the duration of the war, 1939-1945. The children faced the pain and loneliness of being away from their families, as well as language and cultural differences. Some were reunited with their families after the war, but many others were orphaned. A good video tie-in with this book is available at the public library, Into the Arms of Strangers . Many people are interviewed who went through this painful experience.

All My Mothers and Fathers by Michael Blumenthal is a memoir of a boy born in 1949. His biological parents were recent immigrants from Germany and Palestine, and they "gave" him to his aunt and uncle to raise as their own child. At age ten, Michael's "mother" died, and his father remarried a year later to a woman who had no care or feeling toward Michael. Circumstances in the author's childhood years have had an impact on him all of his life, but he is able to express himself well in this autobiography.

Tim O'Brien has written a novel called In the Lake of the Woods. The main character is a man who has just lost an election for senator in the State of Minnesota. The setting is a fairly remote area of lakes in Minnesota near the Canadian border, and the description of the setting is very well done. The novel discusses past events in the character's lives -- their courtship, marriage, the man's childhood and time in Vietnam -- and how these events had an impact on the election. The author leaves this story open-ended; the reader has to choose what to believe. The author is a poet, and has a wonderful way with words.

If you have an itch to travel, the library has added some new guidebooks to the collection.

In A Cup of Tea by Amy Ephron, a "random act of kindness" is performed by the character Rosemary Fell. She is very wealthy and privileged, and one rainy night she invites a stranger, the woman Eleanor Smith, into her home for a cup of tea. The result of this invitation is far-reaching. The novel takes place in 1917, and the characterization and plot are excellent. Often plots are used over and over, and as a result, many novels are extremely predictable.

However, Rose, a novel by Martin Cruz Smith, was a pleasant surprise. Jonathan Blair, an adventurer who has had to leave Africa because of scandal, travels to Victorian England. He is asked to find a missing man, who is from a coal town named Wigan. This is great entertainment, and besides being entertained, I learned something about life working in a coal mine.

The Sacred Heart: An Atlas of the Body Seen Through Invasive Surgery by Max Aguilera-Hellweg is not for the faint of heart. It is a pictorial work of differnt surgeries performed on the body. The photographs are quite graphic, so if the sight of blood bothers you, don't check this book out! However, it is a fascinating look at the human body, and the treatment of some diseases.

Zabelle is the main character of a novel written by Nancy Kricorian. Zabelle is an Armenian girl who survives the Turkish massacre in Armenia. She loses her family, is taken in by another family, and eventually is married. The marriage is an arranged marriage, and she comes to America to meet the new bridegroom. This book is warm, funny, and moving. Zabelle has a mother-in-law you will love to hate, and a best friend with lots of vigor. This story of Zabelle and the family she raises in America will touch your heart.

Dave Barry's books never fail to tickle my funny bone. His latest collection of columns from The Miami Herald is titled Dave Barry Is from Mars and Venus. One of my favorite columns is "Good for What Ails You", about medical procedures. Laughing is like jogging on the inside...so read this and get fit!

Ken Follett usually writes adventure stories. Pillars of the Earth takes place in the Middle Ages, and tells about the building of cathedrals. Although this is a work of fiction, it is full of detail about the construction of these works of art.

Want to read a heartwarming Christmas story? Try Papa's Angels by Collin Wilcox Paxton & Gary Carden to get yourself in the holiday mode. This account is told through the eyes of Becca, one of five children in a family that has just lost "Momma". "Papa" is full of grief, and doesn't give his children any hope of celebrating Christmas like the family was used to celebrating.

Mary Stewart is one of my favorite authors. She usually writes romantic suspense novels. Rose Cottage is her latest novel. The setting is in the English countryside, and the author's way with words is such that you can smell the roses and lilacs, and savor your scone as you sit out in the June sun. The main character is Kate, a World War II widow. She has gone to Rose Cottage on an errand for her grandmother, and while there uncovers some family secrets. The only thing I didn't like about this novel is that it ended too soon.

Titanic: Legacy of the World's Greatest Ocean Liner by Susan Wels is full of pictures and details of the 1912 sinking of the great ship. There are chapters telling about how items were recovered from the shipwreck, and also photos of the ship in all of her glory. A list of the passengers lost is on the endpapers of the book.

Plum Island by Nelson DeMille is a fast-paced thriller/mystery. It takes place in a Long Island town. The main character is John Corey, who is a homicide detective who is recuperating from being wounded on the job. When two of his neighbors are murdered, the local chief of police comes to John for help solving the case. The author is a Long Island native, so is able to fill the story with great details of that area.

All books reviewed are available at the Haines Borough Public Library.