Book Reviews & Lists

We cannot conceive of another’s reality, especially when we are young. Growing up in a safe household, I was insulated from the difficulties that some children, such as the author, encounter every day.  Breaking Night is an autobiographical account of Liz Murray, who was born into a severely dysfunctional family.  Her parents loved their daughters, but were consumed by an over-riding and consuming need for their drug-induced high.  Liz was so protective of her parent’s safety that as young as 5 years old she watched over them preparing their paraphernalia and made sure that they didn’t hurt themselves in their eventual euphoria.  The stress of this home life led to a life of school truancy and eventual homelessness at age 15.  Her gritty account of several years on the streets of New York led to her discovery of an alternative high school which made all of the difference in her young life.  She was able to pull herself together and begin the hard work of creating a stable life for herself and the family that remained. 
 
This book was very reminiscent of The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, not only in its basic theme of a child working through terrific difficulties,  but the forgiveness and love the child still holds for her damaged parents.

Adrianna Trigiani writes about her grandmothers in her latest, Don’t Sing at the Table.  Both of my grandmothers were similarly born near the turn of the century, and I found myself musing about my own grandmotherly memories while reading this book.  Their generation needed to know how to do all of the domestic chores and niceties that Martha Stewart is teaching our generation, such as canning, baking, knitting, making sausages, etc.  My Nana made bread every week and I especially remember when she pinched some of the dough off at breakfast to make fried cakes with brown sugar.  Don’t Sing is full of advice, admonitions and anecdotes from Viola, her no-nonsense businesswoman grandmother; and Lucy, her gentle seamstress grandmother.  Both lost their husbands at an early age and never remarried, but lived fulfilling and long lives delighting in their grandchildren.  Trigiani used some of their characteristics in her Big Stone Gap fiction series.  Some advise from the back cover; make your own living, leave your children your values not your stuff, be bold, be direct, be different.  Trigiani specifically wrote the book for her daughter Lucia, but its universal advice spans the years and generations.
 

Putnam native David Margolick has made a career of chronicling our nation’s historical records through the people who lived it.  A contributing editor of Vanity Fair, Margolick has written four books, including Strange Fruit: Billie Holiday, Café Society and an Early Cry for Civil Rights about Billie Holiday and Beyond Glory: Joe Louis vs. Max Schmeling.  Elizabeth and Hazel follows the lives of Elizabeth Eckford, one of the “Little Rock Nine”, and Hazel Bryan, who was photographed yelling racial slurs to Elizabeth on the fateful morning of September 4, 1957. Both girls were 15 years old and starting the year at Central High School in Little Rock.  The picture, which is deliberately placed on the front cover, evokes the sentiments which divided Little Rock when desegregation was mandated by Brown vs the Board of Education in 1954. Elizabeth walked alone before a crowd of children and adults who were not in favor of blacks and whites attending the same school.  Years later Hazel contacted Elizabeth to apologize, but the complications of race relations in their Southern society made the relationship difficult to sustain.  Margolick skillfully tells the stories of the two women with compassion and candor.

This book has been sitting on our shelf at the Putnam Library for the past 6 years and as many times as I have shelved it, I avoided reading it because it was so unlike anything Wally Lamb has ever written. Now I wished I had not judged the book by its cover. It was one of the most enlightening reads about people whose experiences in life were so different from my own. It was like visiting a foreign culture, but this one just happens to take place in our own backyard.
 
This collection of short stories was written by ten female inmates of the York Correctional Institute in Connecticut, through a writer’s workshop with the author Wally Lamb. As I read each story my eyes were opened, my heart broke at the atrocities that humans inflict on one another, but mostly it provoked my way of thinking. These testimonies were at time overwhelming to read, and except for the grace of God, I can honestly say that here is little that separates me from the women of York.
 
As I pass this book on to others, there is just one message…while most prisoners commit crimes that put them where they are, please remember, that’s not WHO they are. Many of them are wounded and damaged, and if they had been given the love, compassion and kindness that is every person’s right, perhaps their lives could have been changed.
 
Submitted by Patricia Jensen from the Putnam Public Library.

     Having trouble navigating the holiday hub-bub? The following books will restore your love, joy and peace on earth.
     In Hundred Dollar Holiday, Bill McKibben frees us from the tyranny of Christmas present by taking a look at celebrations from Christmas’ past, and suggests a more creative Christmas by setting self-imposed limits on what you will spend during the holidays. Unplug the Christmas Machine by Jo Robinson & Jean Coppok Staeheli is a workbook for combating holiday commercialism. It includes Q & A sections and chapter-end exercises that will help you understand your own values regarding the holidays, sort through the competing possibilities and establish family traditions accordingly.
      Startling Joy, by James Calvin Schaap is a collection of short stories, each with a moment of Christmas epiphany, where love and light are revealed in odd ways to odd people in odd places. My favorite may be the woman pondering her daughter’s unplanned pregnancy while enduring a presentation on how to make the perfect present with used panty hose and empty Kleenex boxes.
      Perhaps the best Christmas story ever is The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. In this classic by Barbara Robinson, the incorrigible Herdman children take over the church Christmas pageant - Imogene (Mary) smokes cigars in the girls room, Ralph (Joseph) wants to burn down the inn, Gladys (Gabriel) shouts “Shazam!” and Leroy (a Wise Man) shows up with a ham instead of frankincense. You’ll want to make this hilarious and unorthodox but completely authentic retelling of the Christmas story a part of your own family traditions.
 
Submitted by Laurie Bell, Pomfret Public Library

     His image was bigger than life as a football coach and leader of men, but how many of us actually knew Vincent Thomas Lombardi From Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, NY?
Author Maraniss takes us through the remarkable life of Vince, beginning with his upbringing in Brooklyn, his schooling, and his playing and coaching days at Fordham University, and coaching at Westpoint under the immortal Colonel "Red" Blake. At 46 years of age, he was hired to coach the hapless Green Bay Packers in 1959. The rest of the story is football history, as the Packers became one of the most storied franchises in NFL history, winning five championships in nine seasons, including the first two "Super Bowls", which were not called Super until later.
     By the time he died of cancer in 1970, after one season with the Washington Redskins during which he transformed them into winners, Vince had become a mythical character who transcended the sport, and his legend has grown in the decades since. Many now turn to him in search of characteristics they fear have been lost, such as discipline, obedience, loyalty, character and teamwork. To others he symbolizes something less romantic, that is, modern society's obsession with winning and success.
     In reading this account of Vince Lombardi, I found Maraniss' description of him as a flawed and driven yet misunderstood heroic figure. He was more complex and authentic than any of the other stereotypical images from critics and admirers. The author goes into much detail about his family life and how Vince's personality and image affected his wife and children.
     This is one of the better biographies I have read in the last few years. I hope readers will enjoy David Maraniss' descriptions of Vince's complex life as a coach, husband, father and legend.

Submitted by Peter Ciparelli, Killingly Public Library
Villager Papers, November 5, 2010

Anyone who has felt the pleasure of taking their own hot loaf out of the oven will understand the drive of the author of 52 Loaves: One Man's Relentless Pursuit of Truth,Meaning, and a Perfect Crust.
William Alexander tasted superb bread at a restaurant and endeavored to bake every week for a year to replicate it. Growing up with Wonderbread as a child, Alexander tinkered with the bread ingredients - four, water, yeast, heat, steam and different ovens. He went to the lengths of growing his own winter wheat, building a clay oven in the backyard and acting as a master baker at a French monastery. His recipes at the end of the book can start your own obsession! Lately, there have been a number of books written with the "do it for a year" theme, such as Julie and Julia by Julie Powell; Animal, Vegetable, Mracle by Barbara Kingsolver; Year of living biblically by A.J. Jacobs; and 365 Nights: A memoir of intimacy by Charla Muller. The process of discovery in a chronological year appeals to me. Excuse me, but I have to get to the kitchen. I can smell the bread now!

submitted by Priscilla Colwell, Putnam Public Library
Villager Papers, October 29, 2010