Brrrrrr...yep, it’s cold. Even to a native Michigander such as myself, for whom layering clothes is a genetically acquired trait. But, since you’re all bundled up anyway, why not stop in at the library to 1. warm up on your way across campus, and 2. pick up some leisure reading material for cold winter evenings by the fire (or reasonable facsimile – I do not want to take the rap as accessory to arson).
New this week to the Leisure Reading Collection:
The Magician’s Book: A Skeptic’s Adventures in Narnia, Laura Miller
A writer, editor and co-founder of Salon.com reflects on a lifetimes’ fascination with the works of C.S. Lewis. Miller has revisited The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe many times, as a youth, angst-ridden teen and most recently as an adult in search of the magic that originally captivated her imagination. Part biography (of Lewis), part memoir with some criticism thrown in, The Magician’s Book is a must for those of us still longing to find the secret passage in the back of the wardrobe.
The Art of Conversation: A Guided Tour of a Neglected Pleasure, Catherine Blyth
In a time when an array of communication technologies and social networking opportunities vie for our attention and devotion, this book extols the virtues of the face-to-face conversation. Blyth offers tips on overcoming shyness, listening techniques, steering the conversation, and the importance of artful small talk. This is not an exhaustive sociolinguistic treatise; it’s more of a conversation, for lack of a better word. It’s interesting, useful and probably should be required reading for the IM-obsessed. As Simon Doonan says on a cover blurb, “Don’t let modern technology turn you into an uncommunicative ninny”.
Scarpetta, Patricia Cornwell
For those of you already familiar with Kay Scarpetta, forensic pathologist and solver of gruesome psychological crimes, this book is probably already on your nightstand or in your bag. Each new Scarpetta novel takes the reader deep into the mind, often exposing the most horrid and undesirable aspects of the human psyche. In this book, Scarpetta is off to New York to consult on a case at Bellevue Hospital at the insistence of the patient himself. To say more will give away the story, and as true fans understand, it’s better to let the story unfold in Cornwell’s words. Highly recommended for anyone suffering from Gil Grissom withdrawal after this week’s episode of CSI.
Shadows at Dawn: A Borderlands Massacre and the Violence of History, Karl Jacoby
Referred to at the time as the Camp Grant Massacre, this book is a revealing look at one of the worst Indian massacres in American history. In the early morning of 30 April 1871, a group of Americans, Mexicans and Tohono O’odham Indians attacked an Apache camp, killing 150 - mostly women and children. Using a nearly forgotten incident, the author details a difficult period in American history – violence against Indians during the “Peace Policy” period, and how it shaped the way in which American western history is remembered, and retold, by the various groups involved.
Other recent additions to Leisure Reading:
Fiction:
Lark and Termite: A Novel, Jayne Anne Phillips
The Independence of Miss Mary Bennet, Colleen McCullough
NoVA: A Novel, James Boice
Plum Lucky, Janet Evanovich
Gears of the City, Felix Gilman
Calling Mr. Lonely Hearts, Laura Benedict
Non-Fiction:
Hope Endures: Leaving Mother Teresa, Losing Faith and Searching for Meaning, Colette Livermore
Digging for Dirt: The Life and Death of ODB, Jaime Lowe
The Adventures of Arthur Conan Doyle, Russell, Miller
Story Collections:
The First Person, and Other Stories, Ali Smith
The Red Convertible, Selected and New Stories, Louise Erdrich
This is just a brief sampling of titles available in the Leisure Reading Collection, located on the second floor of the library. Stop in and warm up with a good book, it’s just the thing for cold winter days!
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