| The September 2012 Staff Picks can also be viewed or printed as a PDF Staff Picks Septmeber 2012 (1.2MB) |
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 SEPTEMBER FEATURE  On a Farther Shore: The Life and Legacy of
Rachel Carson by William Souder.
This splendid, eminently readable biography
shows Carson as a writer of great style and
narrative grace, an assiduous researcher, a
persistent advocate. A biologist, she edited
reports for the Department of the Interior; a
freelance writer, she won fame with her outstanding
books – Under the Sea-Wind, The
Sea Around Us and The Edge of the Sea. Silent
Spring, her final, landmark work, published
50 years ago, created an uproar engendering the environmental
movement and is still pertinent today. ~ Louise Jones |
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| FICTION | ||
 Port Vila Blues by Garry Disher. Wyatt, an accomplished thief, steals one item too
many from a politician's safe and runs into a load of trouble, with the police, his cohorts
and his girlfriend all after him, in this clever, funny, tough thriller. Disher is an Australian
award-winning crime writer. ~ Louise Jones |
 Syndrome E by Franck Thilliez, translated from French by Mark Polizzotti.
A rare 1950s film embedded with violent images is the center of two possibly related
police cases. A detective's friend suddenly becomes blind from watching the film;
another detective investigates a link between the film and the murder of five
men. Highly entertaining noir thriller. ~ Sarah Knight |
 Battleborn by Claire Vaye Watkins. These stories, mostly set in the "Battleborn"
state of Nevada, sear and scorch the heart with hard-bitten, hopeful, broken-hearted,
unforgettable characters. Watkins' modern West echoes with haunted visions of the past. As
I finished the last line, I turned back to begin again. ~ Amy Palmer |
 Those Across the
River by Christopher
Buehlman. A
writer travels to a
small town in Georgia
to begin a history of
an infamously brutal
plantation owner and
comes face to face with the man's evil
heritage. A satisfyingly creepy horror
tale that is steeped in humid southern
atmosphere. ~ Alden Graves |
 The Shoemaker's Wife by Adriana Trigiani. A wonderful
novel based on the
author's grandparents'
love story. Full of
delightful details
about life in an early
20th century Italian
Alpine village and the journey of these
memorable characters as they emigrate
to the US, survive two world wars and
become mainstream Americans. A very
special read. ~ Karen Frank |
 The Last Hundred
Days by Patrick
McGuinness.
A young academic
witnesses the rotting
madness of Ceausescu's
Romania firsthand in
this crackling novel.
Based on McGuinness'
own experiences, the book has a
paranoid atmosphere reminiscent of
Graham Greene at his best.
~ Charles Bottomley |
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OLD FAVORITES  Fair Play by Tove Jansson. A series of vignettes
about two Finnish women - a writer and an artist - who
live at opposite ends of an apartment building, their
studios connected by a long attic passageway. A brilliant
meditation on the nature of love, work and the essence
of creative partnership. ~ Amy Palmer Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn. A remarkably
effective first novel by the author of Gone Girl. When a
young reporter is assigned to investigate the possibility of a
serial child murderer in her hometown, she uncovers some
horrifying secrets that shed light upon her own tormented
childhood. ~ Alden Graves |
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 As Texas Goes...
How the Lone Star
State Hijacked
the American
Agenda by Gail
Collins. My
favorite columnist
writes a devastating
portrait of the Lone
Star State and the various traumas
its loopy politics inflict upon the rest
of the country. Told with Collins'
trademark wit and humor, no small
feat because the subject is decidedly
not funny. ~ Alden Graves |
 Savage Continent:
Europe in the Aftermath
of WWII by Keith Lowe. Lowe's mastery
of this huge,
complex subject
and the clarity of
his writing make
this a valuable, compelling book.
What elevates it further is his treatment
of difficult questions about
nationalism, prejudice, vengeance,
victimhood and the misuse of historical
memory. Highest recommendation.
~ Bill Lewis |
 Meetinghouses
of Early New
England by Peter
Benes.
Serious students
of early New
England will be
grateful for this
scholarly gem;
but armchair historians should
also be delighted. Both groups will
appreciate the author's smooth
writing style and be fascinated by
the illustrations, maps and many
appendices.
P.S. Is your church or town listed in
Appendix B? ~ Bill Lewis |
 A Daughter's
Tale: The Memoir
of Winston
Churchill's
Youngest Child by Mary Soames. Soames
writes of her
youth and
wartime experiences as the youngest
of this family of overachievers. She
does dangerous wartime work as
well as attend rounds of parties
and luncheons, with shopping in
between. Lots of love in this family.
~ Karen Frank |
 The Graves Are
Walking: The
Great Famine and
the Saga of the
Irish People by
John Kelly.
The Irish Famine
had powerful trans-
Atlantic impact in
the mid-19th century and still has
strong and important resonance
today. Kelly superbly deals with the
political, economic and cultural
factors - but never loses sight of the
elemental human suffering. Incisive,
complete, balanced and well written.
~ Bill Lewis |
 Fire in the Belly:
The Life and
Times of David
Wojnarowicz by
Cynthia Carr. The best
book of 2012 is
this luminescent
biography of
the controversial artist, whose
imagination went supernova as
AIDS laid waste to New York. An
unforgettable life and a remarkable
time, drawn with the immediacy of
subway graffiti. ~ Charles Bottomley |
 Cemetery John:
The Undiscovered
MasterMind
Behind the
Lindbergh
Kidnapping by
Robert Zorn. Although
only one person
was ever charged with the 1932
Lindbergh kidnapping, everyone
involved in the investigation agreed
it was not the work of a single
man. This precise, state-of-the-art
examination of the infamous crime
is fascinating, compelling and sad.
~ Alden Graves |
 Why Does the
World Exist?
An Existential
Detective Story By Jim Holt. An intense
discussion of this
question: "Why is
there something
rather than nothing?" Historical
perspective and current philosophers
argue and split hairs. Fascinating,
dense. ~ Karen Frank |
 The Man Who
Sold the World:
David Bowie and
the 1970s by Peter
Doggett.
This song-by-song
analysis of Bowie's
work shows how
the pop chameleon
reflected the tumultuous 1970s as
surely as The Beatles did the '60s.
Smart, revelatory, enthusiastic–the
definitive work on rock's greatest
performer. ~ Charles Bottomley |
OLD FAVORITE
 Human Anatomy:
From the
Renaissance to the
Digital Age by
Benjamin Rifkin.
Deliciously morbid
and darkly fascinating.
The artful
and often outlandish depictions of
human anatomy since the age of
modern medicine, along with a brief
history of the artists and techniques
that produced them. Appeals to the
voyeur in all of us. ~ Krysta Piccoli |
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