Staff Picks Format: Book

Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman by Robert K. Massie [Book]

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This is a detailed biography of Catherine II, from her childhood as a minor princess in a small German principality to her long reign as empress and autocrat of all the Russias and one of the most powerful women in Europe. My favorite part: when Catherine donned a uniform and the led the army to arrest her husband and seize his throne! And what lover of books and libraries can resist the story of how Catherine made Denis Diderot her personal librarian? When Catherine heard that the great encyclopedist had run into financial difficulties and wished to sell his library, Catherine bought the entire collection for more than his asking price, insisted that the books stay with Diderot in Paris, and paid him a handsome salary so he could continue his work.

Catherine’s life was full of court politics, international intrigues, subtle power struggles, and secret plots, but also scholarly pursuits, intimate correspondences, lavish parties, extravagant gifts, and love affairs, secret and private. Massie pays great attention to Catherine’s personal life—the excerpts from her love letters are wonderful to read.

Massie’s approach is direct and readable, with chapters based upon subject matter more than chronology.In this book he provides an interesting slice of European and Russian history, a fascinating glimpse of 18th century politics and the influence of Enlightenment thought on a powerful monarch, and an appealing tale of personal struggle and transformation.

The Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt and the Fire That Saved America by Timothy Egan [Book]

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What does a fire in the Bitterroots have to do with Teddy Roosevelt and the Forest Service? The Forest Service was started by Teddy Roosevelt and Gifford Pinchot, the first chief of the USFS, in 1905. However, many politicians wanted to sell off the forests to large corporations, and thought conservation was a horrible idea. That might sound familiar, but this was at the beginning of the 20th century. A huge fire in 1910 was the catalyst to prevent this new agency from being blown away. Interesting look at the politics of the time, and an adrenaline-inducing account of the front lines of the fire. This book is a coming-of-age story for the United States Forest Service.

October Mourning: a song for Matthew Shepard by Lesléa Newman [Book]

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Matthew Shepard was a gay college student who was lured out to the prairie by two young men who brutally beat him, tied him to a fence and left him to die. Using a variety of poetic forms and various perspectives including from the fence, the victim and the perpetrators, Newman has created a book of poetry that is powerful to read and works extremely well as a tool to discuss important issues surrounding Shepard’s tragic death. Excellent forward, epilogue and explanation of the poetic forms used adds to the reader’s understanding and makes this an especially valuable book to use with high school students.

The Homemade Pantry by Alana Chernila [Book]

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The Homemade Pantry: 101 Foods You Can Stop Buying and Start Making, written by Great Barrington’s Alana Chernila is a practical guide to becoming more self sufficient in the kitchen. The book is cleverly organized by aisle and features staples that many people buy at the grocery store including pasta sauce, jelly, granola bars, and even a homemade version of the beloved Pop-Tart. Every recipe is accompanied by a personal story so if you don’t have a lot of time for cooking you can still enjoy some light reading.

I recently tried the recipe for whole wheat sandwich bread. Bread is one of those things I always really want to make for myself but usually the product is blatantly inferior to the local bakery or even the grocery store version. The instructions had the bread slowly rise in the fridge for up to three days so after nervously waiting, I finally baked my bread yesterday and was delighted to find that it was a success!
If you just can’t get enough of Alana, she also has a blog, Eating From the Ground Up.

American Gods by Neil Gaiman [Book]

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Okay, this book did come out in 2001 and it is a New York Times bestseller and winner of the Hugo and Nebula awards so you may have heard of it or even read it already. If you haven’t read American Gods yet, if it has been sitting on your “to read” list, or has slipped through the cracks in some other way, I would like to confirm that it is a great read.

Part modern day epic, part rambling road narrative, American Gods has something for a variety of audiences. Neil Gaiman, best known for the Sandman graphic novel series, has again proven his abilities in adult fiction writing with this masterfully crafted piece of storytelling. I found myself sucked into the intricately woven plot line and fascinated by the combination of modern and ancient mythological characters. While at times dark and a little graphic (the main character is an ex-con after all), the story has an element of gritty realness not often found in fantasy novels.

I honestly don’t want to give anything more away because I enjoyed learning every new piece of the plot as I read and I think you will too.Whenever anyone asks me for a book recommendation, this is almost always the first title that comes to mind.

Down the Nile: alone in a fisherman’s skiff by Rosemary Mahoney [Book]

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I liked this independent, determined woman. In the late 1990s, Mahoney, an American writer and experienced recreational rower, got the idea of rowing herself down the Nile.  This is not allowed and virtually never done — tourists always travel on cruise boats or feluccas (small sailboats piloted by their owners). When she set out to buy a small rowboat in Egypt, she was met with disbelief.  Women, even western women, did not travel alone. To a fisherman, rowing was work, so why would she want to do it herself?  Felucca captains and boat owners assumed a woman couldn’t know how to row. Eventually she succeeds in her adventure, and it’s both more and less than expected but always fascinating.

Mahoney is empathetic and eloquent. She engages in conversations with Egyptian men and women she meets, learning a great deal about cultural differences, rampant poverty, and the restricted status of women. She quotes extensively from 19th-century European travelers, notably Florence Nightingale and Gustave Flaubert, and gives a selective history of tourism in the region (including colonialism and theft of artifacts) which puts the present-day in context.  So much has changed and so much is the same.  In particular, her descriptions of the river and its natural environment — the wildlife, vegetation, water and sky — are poetic and timeless.

All a Novelist Needs: Colm Tóibín on Henry James by Colm Tóibín [Book]

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All a Novelist Needs is beautifully written with fascinating insights into Henry James and his creative process. Anyone who likes Tóibín or James will enjoy this book.

The Great Railway Bazaar by Paul Theroux [Book]

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Have you ever considered traveling from England to Russia via Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Burma, Thailand, Vietnam, China, and Japan by train? Me either. Paul Theroux does just that and survives to tell about it in his 1975 travel narrative The Great Railway Bazaar: By Train Through Asia. This long journey is broken up into chapters by train, starting with the 15:30 London to Paris and ending with the Trans-Siberian Express. Though Theroux embarks from London on his own, he meets a number of colorful characters and manages to have interesting interactions (usually over a drink) despite linguistic and cultural barriers.

Theroux’s writing style is at times so rich with description that you can practically smell the pungent passenger sitting across from him. In other instances, he is blunt and to the point, relaying only that he is in a particular place to catch a train.The writing style mimics the ups and downs of traveling alone in foreign country and truly makes the reader feel as if they were riding the train alongside the narrator. Though Theroux rarely spends more than a day or two off the train, he manages to convey a surprising amount about each of his destinations through descriptions of the train and characters.

Dodger by Terry Pratchett [Book]

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Dodger is the latest novel by Sir Terry Pratchett, best known for his satirical Discworld series of fantasy novels. Pratchett’s usual wit and love of language shine through in this historical piece set in Victorian London and with a cast of characters that includes Charles Dickens, Benjamin Disraeli, Angela Burdett-Coutts, and Queen Victoria.

Dodger takes place above and below London, with the city’s ancient Roman sewers playing a prominent part. Much of the drama comes from the meeting of the upper and lower classes, the rich and poor, and the politics of the street vs. the politics of the state.

Pratchett has, very consciously, taken liberties with the setting and refers to the work as a historical fantasy, not a historical novel. The most obvious example is the inclusion of the almost certainly fictional Sweeney Todd. Less noticeable to most readers will be the the adjustment to the lives of Sir Robert Peel and John Tenniel whose careers did not, in fact, overlap as suggested in the novel. These changes may bother some, but if you take them in stride you will find Dodger to be a very enjoyable adventure story brought to life by its rich setting and colorful language.

The 100 year old man who climbed out the window and disappeared by Jonas Jonasson [Book]

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I picked this up because of the intriguing title and because it was Swedish without being a grim, dark thriller.  It does have crime though, so you won’t feel deprived.  Anyhow, this crazy old character escapes from a nursing home and goes off on a series of adventures that recall his long and fascinating life.  It’s ironic, absurd, clever and surreal, populated by unique and sometimes famous figures from the past and present.  It shares the unlikely Forrest Gump just-happened-to-be-in-the-right-place-at-the right-time premise, so be prepared to suspend your disbelief once and for all.  Once you do, it’s wickedly entertaining, fast paced and very funny.

Where’d You Go, Bernadette? by Maria Semple [Book]

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A couple of creative, perceptive and witty misfits star in this novel.  Mother, wife and lapsed architect Bernadette lives in Seattle with her high-tech superstar husband and too-smart-for-social-success teenage daughter.  They live in a beyond weird old house and can’t cope with their perfectly privileged and PC neighbors or private school.  The format is as original as the characters: the story unfolds through letters, emails, diary entries and school documents.  Maria Semple wrote for TV’s Arrested Development, so you’d expect the dialogue and plot twists to be hilarious, and they are; there are scenes that would be fabulous onscreen.  There’s also sincerity and real character development in these quickly-turning pages.

Birth House by Ami McKay [Book]

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This book made me think about the births of my children as well as family tales I’ve heard from my mother and grandmother about their very different birth experiences. The clash between midwifery and “modern” medical care is at the center of this engaging story. The author does a great job of weaving in historical events and of setting the story during the nineteen-teens in a remote Nova Scotia village.