Staff Picks

The Djinn in the nightingale’s eye by A.S. Byatt [Book]

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A collection of fairy tales for adults. The title novella is on a middle-aged Englishwoman attending a writers’ conference in Turkey. She picks up an antique bottle and as she is washing it a djinn appears, offering to grant her three wishes. She is aware of the untoward consequences of hasty wish-making so after careful consideration, she asks for a younger body, then requests he make love to her. Very fun!

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon [Book]

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This is a terrific novel about an autistic boy who tries to solve a mystery in his neighborhood and ends up exploring much further both geographically and emotionally. The main character is very real and also very endearing. It is available on CD too and the reader is wonderful.

American Theocracy by Kevin P. Phillips [Book]

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This book offers useful insight into American hubris. Fascinating background on the SBC (Southern Baptist Convention) and the intertwining of oil, religion and debt.

Born to Kvetch by Michael Wex [Book]

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A humorous history of the Yiddish language from the middle ages to today traces the origins of numerous everyday terms, citing events throughout the past one thousand years that contributed to Jewish European communication practices while offering insight into Yiddish relationships with nature, sex, food, and more.

In the Dark Places of Wisdom by Peter Kingsley [Book]

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Kingsley aims primarily to situate properly the spiritual teaching and practice of Parmenides and his successors in ancient Creek wisdom traditions. This fifth-century BCE philosopher is commonly described as the “father of Western metaphysics and logic” because he was the first thinker formally to discuss the nature of being. Recent archaeological discoveries indicate that this same Parmenides was a priest in the cult of Apollo the Healer. Kingsley argues that the magical and ecstatic aspects of this healing cult–incubation, meditative quieting of the mind, dream interpretation, and shamanic journeys to other worlds, all rooted in the Anatolian Apollo cult–made up the practical, experiential foundations of Parmenides’ philosophy. This book is a marvelous paradox: despite its overtly scholarly aim (20 pages of dense notes at the end), it is paced like a detective thriller; yet the central aim is to awaken the longing for self-transcendence.

Leaving church : a memoir of faith [Book]

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A leading female preacher chronicles her personal odyssey of faith and the tensions of her religious life, a conflict that leads her to leave the church in order to maintain her relationship with God and that takes her on an unexpected path of belief.

Letters of E.B. White by E.B. White [Book]

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Honest, engaging and witty letters by essayist, children’s author and poet, E.B. White. Includes letters from White’s childhood until just before his death. This book of letters paints an incredibly intimate portrait of White’s relationships with his friends, family and co-workers. Farm animals, dogs, New York City and rural Maine are featured prominently as well.

Letters to a Young Contrarian by Christopher Hitchens [Book]

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If you often find yourself at odds with conventional wisdom or society this book is a worthwhile read. Hitchens offers useful advice on how to think about this condition. There is no better purveyor of erudition.

Fire & grace by Alasdair Fraser and Natalie Haas [Music CD]

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A fantastic collection of new and old Scottish fiddle tunes, with Alasdair Fraser on fiddle and Natalie Haas on cello. Alasdair Fraser is a master and Natalie Haas’s cello playing his perfect complement. Natalie plays beautiful counterpoint, but she has also mastered the fiddler’s “chop”, and uses it effectively in her driving rhythmic accompaniments. Having listened to this recording I find it difficult to understand why the cello is not used more often in this style of music!

The complete Flanders & Swann by Donald Swann and Michael Flanders [Music CD]

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I fell in love with the songs of Michael Flanders and Donald Swann as a teenager when I discovered At the Drop of a Hat among my parents neglected collection of LPs. I couldn’t imagine any songs more wonderfully silly than “The gnu song” and “The reluctant cannibal”, and Flanders and Swann’s delivery was charismatic, charming, more than a little endearing. The same album also contained the wonderfully clever “Ill wind”, which consisted of an amusing text set to the music of a Mozart horn concerto—complete with a cadenza. I was hooked.

The Complete Flanders and Swann contains all those familiar songs from At the Drop of a Hat, as well as songs from At the drop of another hat, The bestiary of Flanders and Swann, and some previously unreleased material. I recommend it!

My Latest Grievance by Elinor Lipman [Book]

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Chafing under the stifling and claustrophobic care of her liberal parents, Frederica Hatch finds her snug world transformed by Laura Lee French, a new college dorm mother and wannabe former Rockette who had once been married to Frederica’s earnest and unglamorous father.

The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri [Book]

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Follow Gogol and his traditional Indian family as they confront issues of belonging and non-belonging in the US. This is an engaging story that tackles questions of cultural identity.