Book News and New Book Reviews
Just a sampling of our new materials (right side)!
by Doug Saunders (Get the Book)
Alarmed by the uptick in anti-Muslim sentiment in the Western world (as horrifically evidenced by Anders Breivik's shootings in Norway in 2011), Saunders, the European bureau chief of The Globe and Mail, sets out to correct the rumors and misinformation that plague the world's second largest religious group. Acknowledging that xenophobia is nothing new (much of the same rhetoric has been lobbied at some point against Catholics, Jews, and other groups), Saunders blames much of the pernicious propaganda on "a large group of writers and political leaders who should have known better," namely Bruce Bawer, Newt Gingrich, Bat Ye'or, and the Financial Times' Christopher Caldwell, whose inflammatory remarks and falsehoods have spread like wildfire, and with significant consequences-Breivik cited Bawer's work as being influential to his beliefs. Saunders (Arrival City) proceeds to systematically denounce numerous alleged "facts" or perceived trends (e.g., the rate of Muslim immigration will increase; Muslims are guided by an ideology rather than a faith; terrorism is inherent in fundamentalist Islam; etc.), and then offers some solutions. Rather than vilifying immigrants, he argues, Western societies should work to ease their integration into society and embrace multiculturalism rather than merely paying lip service to it. Saunders is quick to admit that the vilification of Muslims is a complex problem requiring many big- and small-picture changes, but his argument is nevertheless cogent and timely. --Publishers Weekly
by Gillian Flynn (Get the Book)
This impressive debut novel is fueled by stylish writing and compelling portraits of desperate housewives, southern style. Troubled newspaper reporter Camille Preaker is sent back to her Missouri hometown in a bid to get the inside scoop on the murders of two preteen girls--both were strangled and had their teeth removed. Almost as nasty as the brutal crimes are Camille's twisted family dynamics. She intends to stay with her zombielike mother, whom she has hardly spoken to in 8 years; her cipher of a stepfather; and her twisted, overly precocious 13-year-old half sister. Wading back into the insular social dynamics of the town proves to be a stressful experience for Camille, a reformed cutter whose body is riddled with the scars of words such as wicked and cupcake. In a particularly seductive narrative style, Flynn adopts the cynical, knowing patter of a weary reporter, but it is her portraits of the town's backstabbing, social-climbing, bored, and bitchy females that provoke her sharpest and most entertaining writing. A stylish turn on dark crimes and even darker psyches. --Booklist
C. Brene Brown (Get the Book)
Brown (The Gifts of Imperfection) examines vulnerability and imperfection in her latest, which takes its title from Theodore Roosevelt's speech "Citizenship in a Republic." Brown, a research professor at the University of Houston Graduate College of Social Work, is the first to admit that vulnerability makes her uncomfortable, but posits that daring to fail is the only true way to be wholeheartedly engaged in any aspect of life. "Experiencing vulnerability isn't a choice-the only choice we have is how we're going to respond when we are confronted with uncertainty, risk and emotional disclosure," she says. Laying out a roadmap for change, the author includes chapters on eliminating blame and shame from work and education, and daring to be the adults we want our children to be. At the same time, she explores what drives people to feel vulnerable and how to address common coping mechanisms in what she calls the "Vulnerability Armory." But the core of her message is understanding the difference between guilt and shame, and developing "shame resistance." Brown's theories-complete with personal and not always flattering examples from her own life-will draw readers in and have them considering what steps they would dare to take if shame and fear were not present. --Publishers Weekly
by Amanda Coplin, (Get the Book)
Coplin's mesmerizing debut stands out with its depictions of uniquely Western personalities and a stark, gorgeously realized landscape that will settle deeply into readers' bones. In the early twentieth century, Talmadge lives alone amid his huge spread of fruit trees in Washington's Wenatchee Valley. He remains haunted by his teenage sister's disappearance some 50 years earlier, so when two raggedy, smudge-faced girls appear on his land, untrusting, hungry, and pregnant, he feels immediately protective of their safety. Jane and Della have just escaped a terrible situation, and Talmadge aims to do right by them, but tragedy results when their former captor and his thugs come calling. He and a kindly neighbor guide Jane's daughter, Angelene, into young adulthood, and the tender affection this improvised family shares isn't diminished by their reluctance to speak their minds. The prose abounds with poetic imagery, and the quotation-mark-free dialogue, which could seem like an affectation in a different type of story, emphasizes the melding of these solitary characters with the vast, wild place they choose to call home. --Booklist
by Stuart Firestein (Get the Book)
This profound book, a quick read, reverses the perception of science. It is based on a course that neuroscientist Firestein gives at Columbia University, where he makes an excellent case for the following proposition. The driving force behind how scientific research is conducted and how the results are perceived is based more on ignorance than knowledge of what is factual. Science is more than a collection of facts--what is known--but more about what is unknown--ignorance--and what needs to be done. Showing the possibility of an achievement can motivate accomplishment. However, ignorance is not an excuse for poor planning. The eight-chapter book begins with a brief introduction to ignorance. Other chapters include "Limits, Uncertainty, Impossibility, and Other Minor Problems," "Unpredicting" (perils of predictions in science), "The Quality of Ignorance," and "Coda" (applications to public discussions of science and education). The author also provides four case studies related to cognitive psychology, theoretical physics, astronomy, and neuroscience, the author's educational and career path. Brief notes, a reading list, and a bibliography support the text. A valuable acquisition for academic libraries, given the current emphasis on STEM education and undergraduate research. --Choice
by Jonathan Evison (Get the Book)
Evison's follow up to West of Here is a personal, focused work rather than a sweeping epic. Benjamin Benjamin Jr. is a former stay-at-home dad. His two young children died in a tragic accident after which his wife left him. Broke and grieving, Ben signs up for a caregiver class and lands a job tending Trev, a teenage boy with muscular dystrophy. The unlikely duo set out on a cross-country road trip to take in as many bizarre highway attractions as possible en route to visiting Trev's estranged father. They pick up Dot, a runaway, and Peaches, a pregnant farm girl, and learn about forgiveness, especially about forgiving oneself. VERDICT Evison injects some levity with Trev's horny commentary and Ben's wry retorts, blending humor, sharp dialog, and a rich and detailed backstory into a sympathetic, bittersweet novel. This is one of the more successful entries in the "Sad Dad Lit" subgenre (think Thelma Adams's Playdate, Greg Olear's Fathermucker, or Emily Jane Miller's Brand New Human Being). A worthy purchase. --Library journal
by Dennis Drabelle (Get the Book)
Both the Central Pacific and Union Pacific railroads were beneficiaries of immense federal government largesse as incentives and rewards for building the transcontinental railroad. For example, the Central Pacific received a series of huge long-term government loans. By 1896 payment was due, and the railroad, aided by an army of lobbyists and a bankroll generously distributed to legislators, sought to gain extended payment terms. When William Randolph Hearst got wind of the dodge, he tapped Ambrose Bierce to write a series of scorching muckraking articles attacking railroad practices. A decade later, the novelist Frank Norris wrote a fictionalized account of these abuses in his classic The Octopus. Drabelle, a contributing editor to the Washington Post Book World, places this war within the context of the reformist impulses that characterized the progressive movement at the turn of the twentieth century. He also offers interesting background on the careers of Bierce and Norris as well as the growth of the railroad industry. This is a fast-moving account and a paean to investigative journalism. --Booklist
by Ivan Doig (Get the Book)
If we were to expand the definition of the traditional western to include historical fiction about the American West, then Doig's acclaimed body of work would fit squarely within the genre's redefined borders. His latest stars Tom Harry, owner and chief barkeep (a classic western archetype) of a saloon called Medicine Lodge in Gros Ventre, Montana, which itself lies in the heart of Doig's version of Yoknapatawpha County, the Two Medicine country, which straddles the Continental Divide in northern Montana and is the setting for many of the author's best novels (including English River, 1985). Tom's story, narrated by his precocious, 12-year-old son, Rusty, begins in 1960 but quickly flashes back to the Depression, when Harry ran another bar at the site of the Fort Peck dam construction (the subject of Doig's Bucking the Sun, 1996). Tom and Rusty enjoy an unconventional but loving and mutually supportive relationship until Proxy, a dancer Tom knew at Fort Peck, and her hippie daughter, Francine, show up, with Proxy claiming that Francine is Tom's child. A reunion of dam workers draws all the principals back to Fort Peck, where past and present collide. Rusty's coming-of-age drama is involving and subtly portrayed, but Doig fans will be especially drawn to the set-pieces that surround the action: a fishing contest, a mudslide, a trip to a brewery, and, most of all, daily life at the saloon, including a delightful seminar on pouring a beer ( For without a basic good glass of beer, properly drawn and presented, a saloon was merely a booze trough ). It's that kind of detail that has made Doig essential reading for anyone who cares about western literature. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Doig rarely hits best-seller lists, but he has a strong, devoted readership, especially in libraries, and his books are book-club naturals. --Booklist
by Jeanne Marie Laskas (Get the Book)
In this thoroughly entertaining study of what some people do that other people would never do, journalist Laskas (The Balloon Lady and Other People I Knew) makes her subjects sing. She homes in on jobs that the rest of us take for granted-or deny exist-interviewing the people who perform and even like onerous tasks: coal miners, Latino migrant laborers, La Guardia air traffic controllers, Arizona gun dealers, Texas ranchers, Alaska oil-rig roughnecks, a rare female long-hauling trucker, and California landfill workers. Refreshingly, Laskas eschews sentimentality but imbues her portraits with humanity and authenticity: guided by veteran landfill workers, for example, she confronts a mountain of rubbish and learns all about the wonders of alternative electricity and recycling. Waddling through Hopedale Mining Company's Cadiz, Ohio coal tunnels, she gets lessons on pride in accomplishment from such workers as Pap, Ragu, and Foot. The Ben-Gal cheerleaders are shown to be disciplined professional women who, in their other lives, attend school and toil as single moms. Laskas's depictions are sharply delineated, fully fleshed, and enormously affecting. --Publishers Weekly
by Doug Saunders (Get the Book)
