Book Reviews & Lists

     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

    A novel of love, loyalty and intrigue set in the early days of World War II from the author of Soul Catcher and currently a professor in residence for the MFA writing program at Fairfield University. Mr. White introduces us to Tat'yana Levchenko, a fetching Russian sniper, who has killed 300 Germans since the war began in Europe. When her prowess with a rifle reaches Washington, President Roosevelt and Eleanor wish to meet this formidable woman. Little does she know that Russian plans for her include spying on the First Couple and garnering support for the opening of  much needed second front in Europe. As the novel moves forward, Tat'yana realizes that she has become a pawn in a battle for information and she is forced to question the motivations of everyone she knows and trusts, including the American captain assigned to her as her translator. But as she quickly rises to fame, Tat'yana vanishes. Defection? Assassination? Only decades later is the truth revealed. Michael White has written a powerful tale that readers will not soon forget.

Submitted by Peter Ciparelli, Killingly Public Library
Villager Papers, December 10, 2010

My previous entry featured books by male authors.  It’s only fair that I share with you my five favorite mystery series by women authors too! I enjoy reading these as they are light on violence and language; I’m not one for the gory details.

• Susan Wittig Albert – First book…Thyme of Death. Features China Bayles, an herbalist and former attorney, in Pecan Springs, Texas.
• Margaret Maron – First book… Bootlegger’s Daughter. Features Deborah Knott, a district judge in North Carolina, along with her colorful extended family. 
• Donna Leon – First book… Death at La Fenice. Features Guido Brunetti, a police commissario in Venice, Italy. 
• JA Jance – First book… Until Proven Guilty. Features J.P. Beaumont, homicide detective in Seattle, Washington.  She writes another series worth checking out also: Joanna Brady, a deputy sheriff's widow, now elected sheriff in Cochise County, Arizona.  First book…Desert Heat. 
• Lisa Scottoline – First book… Everywhere That Mary Went. Features the staff of Rosato & Associates, an all-women law firm in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
• Bonus…Series written by a man featuring a woman: Thomas Perry writes about Jane Whitefield, a Native American guide who helps people disappear, based in Deganawida, New York.  First book…Vanishing Act.

Submitted by Alison Boutaugh, Thompson Public Library
Villager Papers, December 3, 2010

The holidays can be stressful.  Why not escape into a good book that makes you laugh out loud?! Here are my five favorite funny reads…

• Spellman files by Lisa Lutz.  First in a series featuring Isabele “Izzy” Spellman, a 28-year old sleuth working for her parents’ private investigation firm, in San Francisco, California.  This family has issues. 
• Shopaholic series by Sophie Kinsella.  It all begins with Confessions of a Shopaholic.  You don’t know money troubles until you read about Rebecca’s troubles!  Her standalone books are pretty good too.
• Alexander McCall Smith, author of the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency books has written a series featuring Professor Dr Moritz-Maria von Igelfeld, it begins with Portuguese Irregular Verbs  - enough said!
• Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich (One for the money is the first).  Features Stephanie Plum, a bounty hunter in Trenton, New Jersey.  My favorite thing about these books is folks of all ages read them!
• I love all of Mary Kay Andrews books, but am particular to the Savannah series, set in Georgia and featuring Eloise "Weezie" Foley.  These books are: Savannah Blues, Blue Christmas, and Savannah Breeze.

 Submitted by Alison Boutaugh, Thompson Public Library
Villager Papers, November 26, 2010

    Once in a while a collection of short stories jumps out at me. Mrs. Darcy and the Blue-eyed Stranger initially pulled me in because I though it would be related to Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, (which it wasn't!) but it redeemed itself because every story was a little gem of its own. The settings were southern, exotic to this northerner, with a variety of ages and locales. Seven of the 14 stories were new for this volume and seven had been published before in other collections. I felt like these stories placed me in the middle of a tight-knit community and treated me like family.

Submitted by Priscilla Colwell, Putnam Public Library
Villager Papers, November 19, 2010

    I love a good mystery – especially well done series.  Here are my favorite mystery series by male authors:

• Craig Johnson – First book…Cold Dish. Features Walt Longmire, veteran sheriff in Absaroka County, Wyoming with a great cast of supporting characters.  Think Janet Evanovich meets Tony Hillerman.
• Lee Child – First book…Killing floor. Features Jack Reacher, ex-military policeman in the USA.  Jack has a white knight complex, always righting any wrongs to those he knows, and even those he doesn’t. 
• Randy Wayne White – First book…Sanibel flats. Features Marion “Doc” Ford, ex-operative, marine biologist in Sanibel Island, Florida. Doc and his hippie friend Tomlinson get into all sorts of situations, some on land, some on water.
• Philip Craig – First book…A beautiful place to die. Features Jefferson “J. W.” Jackson 30-something ex-Boston cop, in Martha’s Vineyard.  JW would rather be fishing, but trouble always finds him.     
• John Dunning – First book…Booked to die. Features Cliff Janeway, a cop and rare book expert, in Denver, Colorado. Who knew solving murders dealing with the book world could be such a page turner?!  This guy knows his books, too.
   

Submitted by Alison Boutaugh, Thompson 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

I am very excited about a new book I have just read, Cutting for Stone by author/physician Abraham Verghese. Be prepared to set aside a few days (and nights) when you begin this awesome book. I couldn't put it down. Verghese is a skilled writer and draws the reader into the book immediately. Without giving away too much of the plot, the novel focuses on the world of medicine following a man on a legendary quest to find his father. The book moves from India to Ethiopia to an inner city hospital in New York City over generations. The characters are interesting and well developed. There is a little of everything in this story - nuns, conjoined twins, medicine and civil war. This novel is majestically told, superbly structured and the most original piece of fiction that I have read in a long time. This is an unforgettable tale of a remarkable life and an epic story about the power and beauty of healing people. Pick it up. You won't be sorry.

You can easily change the setting of this story from New Mexico to our very own orchard abundant quiet corner.  The Year Money Grew on Trees is a romantic coming of age story about a thirteen year old boy, Jackson, who has an opportunity of a lifetime to take over an abandoned orchard.  If he works hard enough and can convince his sisters and cousins to be his crew, the orchard could someday be his.  The only problem is Jackson doesn’t know the first thing about growing apples or the work involved in tending an orchard.  What I wouldn’t give to be thirteen again working along side Jackson who seems to have as much to prove to his father as he does to himself.  This story did make me feel an emotion I wasn’t expecting, guilt.  Guilt over not attending my own apple trees with the determination, care and hard work Jackson tended his.  This story even taught me some tricks of the trade I intend on using starting this February.  Although this book can be found in the new Junior Fiction section at your local library, it is a wonderful read for children and adults.  It’s a fantastic book which made me appreciate even more the apples I picked and the pie I baked as well as inspiring me to work harder and do better for the nature I tend.

Kristin Lavitt, Pomfret Public Library
Villager Papers, October 15,, 2010