LIBRARY NOTES

August 26, 2010 

We are about halfway finished with our cataloging project, the end result of which will be our entire catalog available online from your home or in the library. It’s not yet possible to see all of our materials or reserve or renew books as it will be eventually, but it is already possible to see at least some of our collection. Click the “Online Catalog” link on our website (www.joslinmemoriallibrary.com) and you’ll be able to see many items we own. If you’re looking for a new book, I’m entering all new purchases as they arrive so you can see if we’ve purchased a new book. For now a call or visit to the library is necessary to see if a book is available, but at least you can tell from home if it’s worthwhile to make that trip or call.

The website also now has a link to our Facebook page. This page announces upcoming events, library news and has pictures from recent library happenings. Anyone can access our page from the website, and people with their own Facebook account (which is free) can comment on what’s posted, make suggestions for book purchases or share other ideas and, of course, become a “friend” of the Joslin Memorial Library. I would love for this to become a way for people to easily communicate how they feel about what’s going on at the library. And remember the website also has contact information for the library and trustees, lists of recently purchased books, copies of the articles from the Valley Reporter, and more.

August’s new books purchases include some popular authors: The Glass Rainbow, by James Lee Burke, Burn, by Nevada Barr and Cure, by Robin Cook. There are also some less well known but very powerful books on the new book shelf. Cry of the Giraffe, by Judith Oron, is a heart-wrenching story of a young Ethiopian Jewish girl trying to make her way to Israel. Discriminated against in Ethiopia for generations, unable to own land and accused of witchcraft, the “Beta Israel” people of this story survived by selling their crafts and maintaining hope of emigrating to Israel. Political strife in Ethiopia, corruption and the physical demands of actually making the journey to Israel created almost insurmountable challenges. Wuditu, the main character of Oron’s book, is just nine years old when the book begins. The story takes place over the next seven years as she attempts to make her way, mostly alone, to the people who she hopes will help her rejoin her family and get to Israel. Wuditu endures near-starvation, servitude, rape and incredible emotional and physical hardship. At times she almost loses hope but she remains determined and always finds a new path forward when her circumstances become unbearable. This reads like intense but fast paced fiction but what makes it most powerful is that it is based on a true story. The author of the book is the Canadian woman who eventually found Wuditu and reunited her with the members of her family who had made it to Israel.

Orange Crush, by Simone Muench, is a collection of strange but intriguing poems. The title is a reference to 17th century women who would stand at theater entrances selling oranges and sometimes themselves. Muench uses this history as a point of departure for poems about historical as well as contemporary women in states of oppression and sometimes violence. The poems are disturbing to read yet I found myself drawn to reread them because the language is so vivid and expressive. A prose version of these same ideas might be impossible to stay with, but these short but powerful injections simultaneously shock and captivate.

July 26, 2010

Of course some of the most fun times at the library are when big boxes of new books arrive. There are all sorts of pages to browse and decisions to be made since, sadly, it’s impossible to read all of them. Less anticipated but equally delightful is coming across books that have been here for years that simply must be read. And as we’ve spent the last several months cataloging, weeding and rearranging, old books sometimes turn up in rather odd places.

A friend from Nashville told me a few weeks ago that I had to read Life Among the Savages, by Shirley Jackson. Not only is Shirley Jackson an interesting writer, but this book is about raising children (the savages of the title) in an old house in Vermont. It certainly seemed like the sort of thing we would have in our collection, but when I looked in the usual places there were no signs of it. Then a few days ago I was going through one of the many stacks of books piled in various parts of the library office (this one underneath the card catalog) and there it was. I spent a most enjoyable evening reading laugh out loud anecdotes about Jackson’s family life. Jackson is such a good writer that even being practically evicted from her city apartment makes a good story. And when she and her husband go looking for a house to rent in Vermont things get even more entertaining.

Jackson shares the house (which has almost as much character as the people) with two, then three and at the very end four children, various pets and an endearingly distracted husband. Descriptions of her bumbling husband trying to kill a bat, her attempts to manage alone when he is out of town and her desperate attempts to maintain composure while about to go into labor are  detailed, affectionate and quirky. Serving breakfast turns hilarious, a shopping trip with the kids becomes an adventure and all the while the personalities of all the kids and even the pets come through strongly. It must have been a lot of fun to be in that family.

Heading back to the “New Books” shelf, there are some things worthy of mention. We have two copies of Justin Cronin’s The Passage, which is getting great reviews from many different sources. Also two copies of The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest. And Anthony Bourdain is as irreverent and opinionated as ever in his new book, Medium Raw.

In the children’s room, Waitsfield Elementary has generously lent us their DCF books for the summer so adding that to our own collection gives us multiple copies of almost all this year’s titles. We also have two new audio books for kids, Artemis Fowl The Time Paradox and Rick Riordan The Red Pyramid.

July 8, 2010

July is the time for the summer reading program at the Joslin Library. This year's theme is "Make a Splash." Children's Librarian Stacy Werner has put together 5 programs using this idea. Every Thursday afternoon in July from 3:30 to 4:30 there will be a variety of crafts, performances, stories, snacks and other entertainment for children ages 6-12.  

July is also a good time for patriotic books and local color. Two new additions in the children's room are Emma's Poem, by Linda Glaser, and The Sons of Liberty, by Alexander and Joseph Lagos. Emma's Poem is a beautifully illustrated book telling the story of Emma Lazarus, the author of the famous "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses" poem at the Statue of Liberty site. Accessible to preschoolers, this book also has enough information to keep the interest of older readers and does a good job of introducing Emma as a person and how she came to write her famous words.   

The Sons of Liberty, by Alexander and Joseph Lagos, is a graphic novel about early America. It is a mix of fact and fiction, combining historical events and figures with the fictional story of two slaves on the run. The struggle for independence, abolitionism, African lore and even some superpowers successfully interact to create a story compelling to a wide range of readers. The art work is exciting and engaging.  

Two Vermont books new to the library are History of Shelburne Farms: A Changing Landscape, an Evolving Vision, by Erica Donnis, and Nothing Hardly Ever Happens in Colbyville, Vermont, by Peter Miller. Donnis's book tells the history of Shelburne Farm from its beginning as a manifestation of the Webb family's wealth to the formation of a nonprofit in 1972 to its current commitment to cultivating sustainability practices. The unique character of multiple generations of the Webb family make this a human interest story as well as a historical and agricultural story, especially since their ideals are mostly responsible for the farm's successes. The archival photographs serve as a visual history and to write that some of them are stunningly beautiful is an understatement.    

Nothing Hardly Ever Happens in Colbyville, Vermont is a collection of stories and essays about the place Miller lives. It is practically the backyard of Ben and Jerry's but many people don't know there is a town there separate from Waterbury. Miller is funny, caustic, entertaining and also adept at social commentary as he describes the changes in the area he's witnessed over the past several years.     

And of course we continue our automation project at the library. We're happily experiencing quicker progress now that we've moved from cataloging skinny little picture books that are about a hundred books per shelf to the thicker (and often less obscure) tomes of the adult section. Watch the thermometer at the circulation desk fill up as progress continues.