Category Archives: Books

On the shelf: ‘Haatchi and Little B’ by Wendy Holden

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haatchiBy Lisa Boss
Anyone without a heart of stone will be moved by this brave boy and the fateful circumstances that brought Owen and the Anatolian together. Born with a genetic time bomb, Owen belongs to of one of those clubs that no one wants to join — those with very rare diseases.
Eventually diagnosed with Schwartz Jampel Syndrome, Owen’s muscles could not relax normally, causing pain and deformity.
At the same time that Owen was realizing the extent of his disability, withdrawing, and withering under the stares of strangers; not far away, a five-month-old puppy
was fighting for its life.
The puppy was the size of a large dog already, since he was one of the Turkish working guard breeds, bred for size, fearlessness, and the loyalty to never abandon their flock. A man had clubbed the puppy and left him for dead on some London train tracks. He was run over and grievously injured, but a series of incredible interventions saved him.
How the life journeys of these two fighters came together, along with the people, families, and institutions that supported them, really makes for a thoughtful, and incredible read. Yes, they’ve been featured on YouTube, and in several magazines, but you really want to read the whole story.
The book’s cover features a very small boy, holding on to a towering dog with gentle eyes, and Owen’s quote about his friend, “When Haatchi came, I wasn’t scared… he changed my life.”

On the shelf: The Good Good Pig: The Extraordinary Life of Christopher Hogwood by Sy Montgomery

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pigBy Lisa Boss
I’m always afraid that a book with an animal on the cover will not offer more than a superficial helping of cuteness, so perhaps I was scared off from “The Good Good Pig,” imaging a type of “Green Acres” horror. But now I am kicking myself for waiting so long to enjoy such a wonderful read!
Part of the great appeal is the author’s style, then the wide ranging subject matter, and the rest is up to Christopher Hogwood himself, who carries a small memoir very well. Born a runt among runts, he was adopted out to the author and her husband when he was so small that he fit into a shoebox. But he was a pig with a powerful heart and will, and he grew up, fulfilling his dharma, and touching many lives in unexpected ways.
Fans of James Herriot, Temple Grandin, or Bill Bryson, may enjoy Sy Montgomery, as she combines a page-turning story with historic, scientific, and cultural
asides. A naturalist, author, and screen writer, Sy has gone to some of the world’s most unique areas to unravel ecological puzzles. She has passed through dark places in her life and travels, which makes her writing all the more insightful, and her love of her bucolic town in New Hampshire all the more special.

On the shelf: Into the Beautiful North by Luis Urea

Books, Entertainment, , ,
north2By Jen Andrews
Nineteen-year-old Nayeli works at a taco shop in her Mexican village and dreams about her father, who journeyed to the U.S. to find work. Recently, it has
dawned on her that he isn’t the only man who has left town. In fact, there are almost no men in the village — they’ve all gone north. While watching “The Magnificent Seven,” Nayeli decides to go north herself and recruit seven men —
her own “Siete Magnificos” — to repopulate her hometown and protect it from the
bandidos who plan on taking it over.
Luis Urrea took a serious issue, the U.S.-Mexico border, and wrote a comic, terrifying, uplifting book about it. His descriptions of places are vivid and his characters colorful and memorable. The reader will fall in love with each of them, laugh at them and root for them until the end.
Urrea tells a great story that is hard to put down.

On the shelf: ‘Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness’, by Alexandra Fuller

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cocktail-hour-under-the-tree-of-forgetfulnessOn the Shelf Book Review
By Lisa Book, Main Library
Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness completes a cycle that the author began with Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight: An African Childhood, and Scribbling the Cat: Travels with an African Soldier, spanning a time from the last throes of white-rule Rhodesia, to majority-rule Zimbabwe.
Cocktail Hour comes full circle, and instead of a child’s point of view of the family’s struggles, it’s the author as an adult, looking back on her parent’s long journey. How and why did they come to Africa? Did they really think that there was a place for them there?

“…[T]hose who shed our ancestry the way a snake sheds skin in winter… We white Africans of shrugged-off English, Scottish, Dutch origin…”

There were accidents, assaults, near death and actual death, all against the backdrop of the implacable African landscape, and laced with an extraordinary amount of alcohol.

If you like memoirs like The Glass Castle, Angela’s Ashes or All Over But the Shoutin’, this is another one of those rare tales of family hardship and pain, but also of love and courage, with a generous amount of black humor.

Book Review: Isadore’s Secret

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6518631Isadore’s Secret
by Mardi Link
I have been familiar with the story of the missing nun from Leelanau County for years and was anxiously awaiting Mardi Link’s second true-crime book last summer. I was lucky to be able to read it in Leelanau County, not far from the scene of the murder: the small community of Isadore, where the Holy Rosary Catholic Church is the predominant presence in the landscape.
“Isadore’s Secret” is the story of Sister Janina, a young Felician nun who mysteriously disappeared one summer day in 1907, and the cover-up and controversy that followed when her decayed remains were found ten years later in the basement of the very church she served. The story is interwoven with the parish priests, the bishops, the townspeople, the local sheriff and the suspect housekeeper in a tale of secrets, scandal and intrigue.
Mardi Link has captured the flavor of the small Polish rural community in the early 1900s and the historically accurate background gives depth to the story. Link has done extensive research on the case, carefully constructing the story with original research using church records and other documents, newspaper accounts, and interviews with family members of those involved. The resulting tale would
seem to be the basis for a great crime novel, but Link’s book is pure non-fiction.
Link’s gripping account of the despicable crime, the sins of omission of the Catholic Church, and the insight into Sister Janina’s convent life makes for a great Halloween read.

Book Review: ‘The Heretic’s Daughter’

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41jq6eyes9l-_sy344_bo1204203200_The Heretic’s Daughter
by Kathleen Kent

As a young girl, I read a book that was given to my mother by my Great Aunt.

The book, Mrs. Mike was a fictional recounting of the real-life experiences of Katherine Mary Flannigan as the young wife of a Mountie in the wilds of Canada. I have never forgotten it or the affect it had on me at such a young age. I had never read anything like it until I came across The Heretic’s Daughter by Kathleen Kent.

I can’t remember the last time I purchased a book in hardcover, but after reading the novel, The Heretic’s Daughter,  I knew I could not wait for the paperback version to come out so I made a trip to the bookstore.

Set in the American colonies in the late 1600s, this story is told as a reflective narrative of a grandmother to her granddaughter about the witch trials in the town of Salem and how they affected her life.

Kent’s descriptive writing totally pulled me into the story. I could feel the biting winter wind, and the dust of the summer clogged my throat along with Sarah Carrier’s as I shared the saga of her family’s struggle to survive in early America. The characters were limited to those who directly interacted with Sarah and her impressions of them as she recalled the events leading up to her mother’s accusation as a witch, but each character was portrayed with depth and insight.

Kent’s writing was at the same time very moving and uncomfortably accurate in offering a glimpse into the lives and experiences of Puritan Americans. Once I got into The Heretic’s Daughter, I could not put it down.

Whether you’re a fan of historical fiction or not, I highly recommend reading The Heretic’s Daughter. It’s not a tale you will soon forget.

Book Review: Night Film

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night-filmNight Film
by Marisha Pessl
If you are looking for a thrilling page-turner similar to Gillian Flynn’s “Gone Girl,” “Night Film” by Marisha Pessl is for you! Follow along on Scott McGrath’s daring and creepy adventure to discover how Ashley Cordova died in an abandoned warehouse. Was it suicide? Or could growing up with Ashley’s father, Stanislas Cordova, somehow led Ashley down the wrong path?
Cordova is a reclusive cult-horror-film director, and he has not been seen for more than thirty years. Find out what happens when McGrath and two helpful sidekicks unearth clues involving the mysterious family.
“Night Film” will leave you saying, “Just one more chapter…”.
“Night Film also contains captivating photographs and gripping news articles to add to the suspense, and technology fans will love the interactive app that contains hidden bonus material. Check out the back of the book for details.

Book Review: The Scavenger’s Guide to Haute Cuisine by Steven Rinella

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51npxrbdnhl-_sx321_bo1204203200_What happens when you want to cook a meal from a 1903 cookbook, only to find that your local supermarket does not carry the bladder of a wild boar?

 

 

If you are author and avid outdoorsman Steve Rinella, you embark on a yearlong quest to hunt or scavenge the ingredients you need to complete your feast.

 

In 2003, Rinella discovered one of the greatest cookbooks ever written, “Le Guide Culinaire” by renowned French chef August Escoffier. Known in his day as the “King of Chefs and Chef of Kings,” Escoffier’s cooking methods revolutionized French high or haute cuisine and used many ingredients that are not readily available to us today, such as sparrow, black bear, eel, pigeon and stingray. Rinella’s quest would take him to the far-flung corners of the country, hunting, fishing and scavenging the ingredients he would need to create a forty-five course feast from Escoffier’s tome that would be served over a three-day period to his family and friends.

 

 

“The Scavenger’s Guide” chronicles this adventure in enjoyable, easy-to-read (and sometimes hard to stomach) format. As someone who has never gone hunting, killed an animal, and to be honest, doesn’t even put the worm on the fishing hook, I found this book to be a reminder that we are never far removed from our food source. Although graphic in spots, the book will appeal to outdoorsmen and foodies alike. Rinella only kills what he intends to eat and the book is seasoned with respect for nature, the camaraderie of family and friends (including a vegetarian girlfriend) and the love of good food. A book that will at the same time leave you sated and curious to know what pigeonneaux crapaudine really tastes like.

 

Bon appetite!

 

 

Book Review: William G. Milliken: Michigan’s Passionate Moderate by David Dempsey

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millikenWhen I was a kid, I read a lot of biographies – explorers, sports heroes, presidents. Somehow, reading about those outstanding individuals of the past gave me pride and hope for the future. Dave Dempsey’s new biography of William G. Milliken evoked that same kind of feeling.

 

 

Milliken became Governor of Michigan in 1969, when then Governor George Romney left for Washington to take a post in President Nixon’s Cabinet. Milliken was subsequently elected to three consecutive four-year terms when he retired in 1982, he had served longer than any previous individual as the state’s chief executive. These were not easy years. Riots had scarred Detroit, the automobile industry was battered by foreign competition disrupting the state’s economy, and the battle to protect the environment was just beginning.

 

 

Through it all, Milliken acted with confidence, optimism and a spirit of conciliation. He stood, and still stands, as an example of the decency and civility that raises politics from the level of mud-slinging to the high plain of public service. Like all good writers, Dempsey uses many specific examples to paint a clear picture of Milliken’s general character. He describes the time when the Governor and his wife were taken on a hiking tour to film the television program “Michigan Outdoors” and 60-year-old Gene Little was lugging a huge TV camera on his shoulder. Dempsey lets one of the hikers, David Smethurst, tell the story:

 

“. . . we walked on and on. Pretty soon Gene is huffing and puffing. We stop more often for him. I walk ahead with Ned and Mrs. Milliken and look behind. Gene is still slogging along, but the Governor is now carrying his TV camera . . .I made up my mind about the Millikens that day. Good people make good leaders.”

 

 

 

The book is filled with these firsthand observations from friends of the Governor and his political adversaries, from newspaper editorials, journalists and reporters. Dempsey has done an excellent job of weaving this material into his text which provides a broader historical perspective. It’s like being there and then stepping back to reflect on the impact of major events form the time period. Often he lets Milliken speak for himself as in these words from his first speech as the acting Governor:

 

 

“[I hope my administration] is known for its compassion, its idealism, its candor and its toughness in pursuit of public ends.”

 

 

This high standard is the Milliken legacy something we citizens can hold up with hope and pride for our future political leaders.

 

Book Review: Listen to the Landscape by Linda Nemec Foster and Dianne Carroll Burdick

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listenListen to the Landscape is a magical book. The collaboration between artist and poet dance in a visual-verbal blending of words and color.

 

The color comes in the form of hand-colored photographs by Dianne Carroll Burdick, which have a luminous quality. Starting with a black-and-white photograph, the artist has transformed the reality if the image into a soft reflection of a dream world.

 

 

Photographed in her travels throughout the country, Carroll Burdick features scenes from California, Massachusetts, Michigan and other places where the landscape caught the artist’s eye. She is a freelance photographer well known in local artistic circles.

 

 

These photographs inspired Linda Nemec Foster to create haiku that capture the spirit of the landscape scenes. Written in the traditional Asian-style, Nemec Foster’s haiku resonate with the movement of a wave, the breath of a cloud, the green of trees.

 

 

She has written six other volumes of poetry and in 2003, she was selected to be the first poet laureate of Grand Rapids. This slim volume offers a tactile, yet spiritual experience. A meditative book for yourself or a perfect gift to share with friends, it even inspired this writer to try a haiku book review:

 

Scenes wet with color

Haiku captures the moment

Pages turn like waves

 

 

Book Review: A Stronger Kinship: One Town’s Extraordinary Story of Hope and Faith by Anna-Lisa Cox

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kinshipEvery so often I feel compelled to suggest a book not only for the skill of the author’s writing ability, but also for its social importance. The book, A Stronger Kinship, by Anna-Lisa Cox is such a book.

 

A true story describing the town of Covert, Michigan during the late 1800s, it tells the tale of the town’s unique population. People settled in the area because the “land was abundant, fertile and cheap, supporting themselves first through lumbering and then through fruit farming. Families developed churches, schools and” formed businesses, creating a small community. What set this town apart was that the population of Covert was integrated at a time when the rest of America was not.

 

The reader encounters a community who felt that all people were equal regardless of color and meets the runaway slaves, freed blacks and abolitionist New Englanders who were the backbone of this community. While elsewhere the country was experiencing racism, families here, black and white, lived side by side on farms and in the town.

 

 

Readers meet the first elected African American official, the town’s business leaders who came from both sides of the color line, and families that were integrated through marriage and accepted by the entire populace. What is remarkable is that this community has stayed true to the original conviction of the pioneer generation. Now a small town outside of South Haven, Covert is a typical rural community in Southwest Michigan – typical except for the easy blending of color that makes it a model for others. It conveys the sense that intentional community is not always impossible, and that the highest morals can be lived out in ordinary life.

Book Review — ‘Every Book Its Reader: The Power of the Printed Word to Stir the World’

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everybookWho among us, having read The Diary of Anne Frank, has not shared in the image of the personal impact of the Holocaust? Or understood the Depression as seen through the eyes of the Joads in The Grapes of Wrath?
 Books have shaped much of who and what we are. The impact on our world and our thoughts has been influenced throughout the ages by the printed word.
This subject is carefully explored and presented in the latest book by Nicholas A. Basbanes, also the author of A Gentle Madness: Bibliophiles, Bibliomanes, and the Eternal Passion of Books.
This book will delight those who are intrigued by books — collectors, readers or researchers. Basbanes describes books that have shaped our history, those that have made history, the writers who have drawn from one another and their influence on our own perceptions. The author not only provides a glimpse into the books that have influenced many of our current authors but also challenges us to consider how these works have impacted others.

Highly recommended for all who love books, the history of books and publishing, and those who want to begin their journey towards greater understanding of the printed word.

Book Review: Columbine by David Cullen

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columbineTen years after two high school students killed thirteen and critically injured 27 others, journalist Cullen creates a comprehensive look at the tragedy in Columbine. Cullen draws on hundreds of interviews, police reports and the killer’s journals and video tapes to piece together what occurred before, during and after the attack on April 20, 1999.
Right after the attack, and for years afterwards, many rumors and misinformation have been widely reported as fact. In an attempt to correct these, Cullen details the lives of Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris — they are not loners, not a part of the Trench Coat Mafia, not targeting jocks or Christians. Cullen purports that Klebold and Harris were on the surface pretty normal high school kids. They had a group of friends, went to prom, held part-time jobs, played sports, applied to college. But underneath the surface, Harris was a
psychopath, demonstrating nine of the ten trademarks of one. Klebold was depressive and suicidal. Over the two years that they planned and practiced for the attack, their goal was to be bigger than Oklahoma City. And if they had been better bomb makers, they might have succeeded.
Cullen looks at errors made by law enforcement, public reaction, and the healing that took place for the survivors, the injured, the community and the world. He examines Harris’ and Klebold’s parents, who have never spoken publicly about the attack before this book was released, but who are largely blamed for what their children did.
In the vein of Capote’s “In Cold Blood,” “Columbine” is a chilling look inside the minds of those who kill, a reminder to be watchful of those around us in a world that is often not what it seems.

Free books now available to travelers at the Gerald R. Ford International Airport

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bookprogramFree books are now available at the Gerald R. Ford International Airport (GFIA) thanks to a partnership with the Kent District Library (KDL).

 

KDL’s program “Little Free Library – Take a Book, Leave a Book” was installed today, and offers travelers a chance to pick up a book for their trip at no charge, or leave books they have finished. Shelves are located on both airport concourses, and include adult, teen, and children’s books.  Additionally, multi-language books will be available.

 

“This is a tremendous partnership for us with the Kent District Library, offering one more amenity for travelers at our airport,” said Gerald R. Ford International Airport Authority Acting President & CEO Phil Johnson. “We are happy to support an educational opportunity in our airport, and our hope is that travelers utilize these books to pass the time when they are traveling.”

 

Each item will feature a “Little Free Library” sticker. Users are welcome to take a book to keep, or return it to the airport or their closest Kent District Library. Volunteers will oversee the airport shelves to ensure they are stocked, and monitor the content.

 

“We are excited to partner with the Gerald R Ford International Airport,” said Kent District Library Director of Innovation & User Experience Michelle Boisvenue-Fox.  “The idea of adding value to the traveler’s experience while coming and going from Grand Rapids by offering a free exchange library using gently used donations and second-run library materials will help anyone beat boredom while waiting.  I realize that I am a librarian but I can’t imagine getting on an airplane without reading material.”

 

The Airport is one of several locations for KDL’s Little Free Libraries. More information on the program is available here: http://www.kdl.org/little-free-libraries