Blog Category: Director's Notebook
Posted by KChin on Mon, Mar 05
Library Director’s NotebookMarch, 2012
Most people choose cook books for the recipes, right? Cookbooks that feature Italian, vegetarian, or low calorie recipes etc. usually offer hundreds of recipes, often with mouthwatering photos. It is rather unusual however, to choose a cook book more for the pleasure of reading it than for the recipes it provides. Such a cook book is An Everlasting Meal by Tamar Adler.
For such a young woman, (she...
Posted by KChin on Thu, Feb 02
Library Director’s NotebookFebruary 2012
I don’t like to think of fiction as “just a story” or something that “isn’t true.” The best fiction transcends its own storyline and holds an element of universal truth that has much more impact than “just the facts”.
This is the case with Andrea Barret’s novel The Air We Breathe. Set during the later years of World War I, in the Adirondacks, The Air We Breathe is on the...
Posted by KChin on Tue, Jan 03
Library Director’s Notebook January 2012
While losing weight, getting organized, or saving money may be some of the more popular new year’s resolutions that many people, myself included, make each year, I thought that this year I would concentrate on something more enjoyable and satisfying. I enjoy my garden, but I have one of those unruly gardens that could easily be mistaken for a wild garden, not because I planned it that way, but because I didn’...
Posted by KChin on Thu, Dec 01
Library Director’s NotebookDecember, 2011
In her latest collection, The Tiger’s Eye: New and Selected Stories, Gladys Swan continues to write about people living on the edge, whether that edge is defined as social, financial, or psychological. Reviewers of Swan’s stories often note her compassion and her empathy, something a writer needs if she is going to explore the inner lives of characters, some of whom may not automatically be...
Posted by KChin on Tue, Nov 01
Library Director’s Notebook November 2011
I wonder what is harder for a writer? Creating a character “from scratch”, or taking a well known character from the past and imagining his or her daily life? In The Paris Wife, writer Paula Mclain takes the latter approach, writing about the Paris years of Ernest Hemingway and his first wife Hadley Richardson.
Their brief, intense marriage has been chronicled...
Posted by KChin on Fri, Sep 30
Library Director’s NotebookOctober, 2011
October is the month of ghosts and goblins and spooky things that go bump in the night. It’s the month I like to read ghost stories or mysteries or slightly spooky books. I’ve just finished a book that seems to fall into a class of its own, so haunting and disturbing is it, yet there are no ghosts, no goblins and nothing paranormal about it. In fact, Room by Emma Donoghue is frightening just because it is of this...
Posted by KChin on Thu, Sep 01
Library Director’s NotebookSeptember, 2011
Historical fiction is a very popular genre for readers, and it is one of my very favorite forms of novel. Yet, quite a bit of historical fiction falls flat as far as I’m concerned because too often it is loaded with both physical and psychological anachronisms. Physical anachronisms are just the result of poor research; for example, having someone talk on the telephone when it may not have been invented at the time the novel takes place. ...
Posted by KChin on Mon, Aug 01
Library Director’s NotebookAugust, 2011
I like reading how-to, self- help books every now and then. Who doesn’t want some tips on how to lose weight, be more organized, or grow bigger tomatoes? However, the book I recently read, The Happiness Hypothesis by Jonathan Haidt takes on a bit more serious topic: how to find happiness by studying what the ancients had to say on the topic.
I like that The Happiness Hypothesis searches many ancient texts from many lands,...
Posted by KChin on Thu, Jun 30
Library Director’s Notebook July, 2011
Like many others who use the library, I often find I have great luck selecting books from the special displays or the annotated lists compiled by library staff. The topics vary greatly and often change month to month. I’m always certain to find books to enjoy no matter what the topic or genre.
One library display I’ve had great luck with is the collection of mysteries in series. I guess since I first...
Posted by KChin on Tue, May 31
Library Director’s NotebookJune, 2011
If you check out the Barrington Library webpage at www. barringtonlibrary.org, you’ll see a regular blog feature called “The nub of the book”. These are very brief reviews of books recommended by staff. I check the nubs out often, because I can get some wonderful ideas for “what to read next”.
One book that was recently “nubbed” is Old Filth by Jane Gardam. Frankly, this is my kind of book! As an unrepentant Anglophile, as far...
