J. D. Salinger died on Wednesday. He was famous for not only his small but enduring collection of writings, but for his solitude for over 5o years. I read Catcher in the Rye in the mid-70’s. I believe my parents had to sign a permission slip for me to do so in my high school English class!The New York Times has an interesting and lengthy obituary about Salinger.
Beth, Reader’s Services
A new dramatic adaptation of Jane Austen’s Emma will air this Sunday on Masterpiece. It is a three-parter and then last year’s adaptations of Northanger Abbey and Persuasion will be shown again. I very much enjoyed Sally Hawkins’ portrayal of Anne Elliott in Persuasion.
Beth, Reader’s Services
We have just posted our new list for the current season of the Contemporary Book Discussion Group. If you haven’t joined us previously, we invite you to “resolve to read and discuss” some great books this year!
Copies of the next book are always provided at the meetings. Copies of previous discussion titles are available to outside groups. We can also help your group find supplementary material. Please contact me at Beth@wheatonlibrary.org .
Beth, Reader’s Services
The lists are everywhere! “The best books of 2009 …” And such a variety! What does make a book ‘the best book’? I think it’s the reader. What knocks me over, may be a book that couldn’t catch you after three tries! One title that seems to appear on many ‘best of’ lists this year is The Help by Kathryn Stockett.
We have collected many of the best book lists here. Is your book on any lists? What were some of your favorite books from 2009? Let us know! Check out our display of books from 2009 near the Reader’s Help Desk starting the first week in January.
Beth, Reader’s Services
Bookreporter.com has a different author each day writing about his or her memories of books and the holidays. The Chicago Tribune’s literary editor, Elizabeth Taylor, has her favorites of 2009. For fun, I have put together some reading, listening and watching for the holiday season. Check out the link here or at the top of the page, Beth Decks Her Shelf.
I just finished a collection of Lake Wobegon stories by Garrison Keillor. While I may smile or think ‘Oh yes’ at passages in a book, I’m not usually given to laughing out loud while I’m reading but Life Among the Lutherans made me laugh about myself, my family and my fellow Lutherans. Keillor is right on target when displaying our follies and the craziness in life! He has a wonderful way of using humor to gently remind us of what is important and what isn’t important.
I laugh when he writes about sitting in the same pew year after year. Then I pause and remember that, yes, I did get upset when I showed up later than usual and someone was sitting where “I ALWAYS SIT THERE! And don’t you think he would know that!” But being the lifelong Lutheran that I am, I just continued on and sat even further back than I normally do! I attended a former Sunday School student’s confirmation once and had to sit on the lectern side of the church and I felt disoriented (but with the newness, I found that I paid more attention to the sermon!). And then I laugh again because Keillor has reminded me of how silly I am.
Although Keillor writes about his mostly Lutheran people in Lake Wobegon, I think most of us would see ourselves, our neighbors and the world in this little Minnesota town. If you enjoy Garrison Keillor, I would also recommend the American Masters’ documentary, Garrison Keillor: the man on the radio in the red shoes.
Beth, Reader’s Services
Autumn is here! Let’s hope it stays for awhile before we see any snow drifts! I’m not a regular poetry reader but I’ve been browsing through some books by W. H. Auden and Rainer Maria Rilke. I came across Autumn Day by Rilke:
Lord: it is time. The huge summer has gone by.
Now overlap the sundials with your shadows,
and on the meadows let the wind go free.
Command the fruits to swell on tree and vine;
grant them a few more warm transparent days,
urge them on to fulfillment then, and press
the final sweetness into the heavy wine.
Whoever has no house now, will never have one.
Whoever is alone will stay alone,
will sit, read, write long letters through the evening,
and wander on the boulevards, up and down,
restlessly, while the dry leaves are blowing.
Ahead of All Parting: the selected poetry and prose of Rainer Maria Rilke / edited and translated by Stephen Mitchell (Modern Library edition, 1995)
Beth, Reader’s Services
Today, October 3, is Captain Kangaroo Day. On this day in 1955, Bob Keeshan launched his children’s television show, Captain Kangaroo. I remember this show vividly-Captain Kangaroo, Mr. Green Jeans, Mister Moose (and the falling ping pong balls), and Grandfather Clock. This show introduced me to many wonderful stories. Captain Kangaroo would read a story and show pictures from the book. My favorites were Mike Mulligan and his steam shovel, Caps for Sale and Stone Soup. In the sixties, my sister, my brother and I grew up in a small town outside of Omaha and did not have a public library near us. Our parents and grandmas gave us our own books but I thought having stories read to us by Captain Kangaroo was great!
As a librarian, I often hear people lamenting the demise of reading among adults. I believe that you “raise a reader.” One way or another, get those books in front of the children. Bob Keeshan said in his book, Good Morning, Captain, that his philosophy for the show was “education through entertainment.” I thought he did a wonderful job! Happy Captain Kangaroo Day!
Beth, Reader’s Services
Re-reading novels can be hard to justify when so many new books are calling to be discovered. But revisiting books that I read as a young person has been a revelation. After my War and Peace re-reading project, I took a little break, then decided that Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre required my attention next. I hadn’t much cared for Jane Eyre when I read it as a teen-ager, preferring sister Emily’s wild Wuthering Heights. I remembered Jane as prim and moralizing. Critical appraisals that I’ve run across recently led me to suspect that I had been too young to understand and appreciate Jane Eyre. I didn’t remember much of it, except for the famous ending, “Reader, I married him.” There’s so much more to Jane Eyre than Mr. Rochester and the secret in the attic. Under a quiet demeanor Jane is a very passionate person, who knows that passion can get you into a lot of trouble. You see her struggling from childhood to retain her integrity and selfhood. Jane refuses to be a victim, a martyr, or a trophy. Really, I was astonished at how much I like Jane Eyre now.
How about other books I have re-visited as a, shall we say, mature reader? Rudyard Kipling’s Kim, still a wonderful adventure story, is much more interesting now with a historical and political context to put it in. Robert Louis Stevenson’s Kidnapped is still a fine swashbuckling story. And Great Expectations is more great than I realized as a high school freshman. On the other hand, what ghastly prose in Moby Dick! How did I ever get through it, not once, but twice? And Brothers Karamazov, nyet Dostoevsky’s people never SHUT UP. My reaction says as much about me, then and now, as about the books themselves. Like I said, a revelation.
Bev, Great Books Coordinator
Some books are undeservedly forgotten; none are undeservedly remembered. W. H. Auden, The Dyer’s Hand
What books do you think should be remembered?
Beth, Reader’s Services