With Head Librarian Christine Sauro leading the way, the “Staff Picks” recently have focused on a variety of books and materials. For the ongoing display, Sauro chose to travel back in time to 1959, when she was an elementary school student, for her list of recommended books. Among her choices were “Fun With Dick and Jane” and “The Little Engine That Could.”
Next, Interlibrary Loan specialist Frances Snowder made her recommendations. Her choices, and comments, were:
*Creating Wealth: Retire in Ten Years by Robert G. Allen–Do you agree that the following things lead to wealth– having a good job , saving money, avoiding debt, avoiding failure, and owning many material possessions? If so, false assumptions are blocking your path. Wealth can be increased exponentially by leveraging your own and other people’s knowledge, money, and collateral. Investing in real estate and the stock market are two good ways to grow your nest egg. Everything suggested is ethical. The author is just describing the way creating wealth works. Everybody wins when you do it right.
*Women and Money by Suze Orman–Women—even very smart women—encounter social and cultural obstacles when it comes to amassing wealth. After observing how societal programming and family issues separated women from wealth over and over, Suze decided to write a book for women only. Here it is. Avoid the volunteer syndrome and the bartering trap. No more discounting yourself. Raise your expectations and take charge of your money.
*The Motley Fool’s Money After Forty: Building Wealth for a Better Life by Tom and David Gardner–This book offers a common sense advice for planning for what you want in life and taking action. It is important to commit your aspirations to paper and to visualize dreams coming true. Otherwise, you may never believe enough in your power to exert the necessary effort. The author offers affirmation and reinforcement in the concepts that work for anyone of any age.
*The Power of Gold: The History of an Obsession by Peter L. Bernstein–Gold is a beautiful rare inert substance, first used to cover religious objects and for personal decoration. Every ounce of it ever dug from the earth still exists today in some form, either as a brick stored in Fort Knox or as jewelry and coins strewn on the sea bed. This book describes how early societies used gold and how it later was developed it as the base of our global monetary system.
*The Billionaire’s Vinegar: The Mystery of the World’s Most Expensive Bottle of Wine by Benjamin Wallace–Thomas Jefferson bought wine in France while he was on diplomatic duty there. Some of it was purported to have survived in old cellars. In recent years, wine bottles purported to be Jefferson’s were bought and sold for millions of dollars. The traded bottles were of questionable provenance. Were they really Jefferson’s? Some fascinating personalities, and maybe some crooks, have dealt in the rare wine trade over the past few decades. Because few people can afford to drink rare ancient wines and even fewer have tasted enough to know the real ones from counterfeits, some flimflam may have gone on. Apparently drinking an expensive 100 plus year old vintage can be an exhilarating once-in-a-lifetime event or a huge disappointment. One that tastes too good–like coffee with a hint of raspberry–is suspect.
*Evolve DVD–This History Channel series is fascinating and thought-provoking. Ever wonder why humans don’t have wings? Did you know that sharks were the inventors of sex? Each episode describes why different animals developed unique biological features and how differences in eyes, size, jaws, skin, etc. helped each species thrive. In the episode on communication, scientists remind us that uttering sounds and making facial expressions are not the only ways to signal others. Ants talk with chemicals, while prairie dogs rely on body language.
*Parallel Worlds, Parallel Lives DVD–In this Nova production, a successful rock star son goes on a quest to understand the father he knew distantly like a silent ghost in the house. The father, Hugh Everett III, was a genius physicist who developed the parallel universes theory now accepted in quantum mechanics. Unfortunately, Everett senior was ahead of his time. In the academic world, lesser lights usurped honors that should have been his. He led a life of despair–unrecognized, unappreciated, and misunderstood. As the son interviews old colleagues, listens to old tapes of his father speaking, and visits with young scientists who now honor his father, he begins to understand and feel close to his famous parent.
*I Claudius DVD–In this steamy series written by Robert Graves, the British actor Derek Jacobi plays the Roman Emperor who stammered, limped, and was considered—even by his family—to be an idiot. The misperception of his character and abilities may have saved his life among his poisoning two-timing relatives. His history of the Caesars, revealing their corruption and vices, was buried for future generations to find. Claudius, it turns out, was not only wise and fair as a ruler, but also canny with regard to his own reputation. In this story, he is credited with delivering Rome from imperial rule to the republic.
Next, Assistant Librarian Kathy McGilberry offered her choices and comments, including:
*The Ultimate Hitchhiker’s Guide by Douglas Adams–Here’s what you need to be as hip and trendy as it is humanly possible to be: a weekly viewing of “The Soup” and “Best Week Ever;” a subscription to “Entertainment Weekly;” the ability to quote liberally from the movie “Office Space;” and a working knowledge of this hilarious book. Douglas Adams had the answer. I’ve read these volumes many times, (‘Hitchiker’ is a trilogy that got out of hand), and I now know the answer. Read this book and you’ll know the answer too.
*Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl–Part Holocaust memoir, part psychotherapy treatise, part spiritual and philosophical meditation. Frankl argues that man is driven, not by a pleasure principle and not by self-interest (enlightened or otherwise), but by a need to find meaning in existence. His third school of Viennese therapy (after Freud and Adler) is called “logotherapy,” and heals via paradox and the assignation of meaning to even the worst of human experience. It is hard to dispute the man’s credentials when it comes to suffering, and very easy to admire his essential optimism about human nature.
*A Year In Provence by Peter Mayle–This “Night Readers” selection is a stroll through delicious language and tasty humor. Peter Mayle, a former advertising executive, takes us through a year of life in this French province. We meet the standard colorful rural characters and get a few surprises. There are a couple of belly laughs as well. The writing itself is the draw in this memoir that evokes the aura of Algonquin Round Table members Robert Benchley and George S. Kaufman.
*”Harvey” DVD—James Stewart was never more charming than in this 1950 film that celebrates the quirky, the pleasant, the delightful, and the downright strange aspects inside all of us. This classic comedy tells the tale of Elwood P. Dowd and his friend Harvey, an invisible 6’3 1/2” rabbit, and how they escape the clutches of Dr. Chumley’s mental hospital (and mundane reality, to boot).
*Good Book: The Bizarre, Hilarious, Disturbing, Marvelous, and Inspiring Things I Learned When I Read Every Single Word of the Bible by David Plotz–An engaging read. The author also wrote “the Genius Factory: The Curious History of the Nobel Prize Sperm Bank,” which I also enjoyed in a “thank God eugenics never really caught on” sort of way. One look at the author’s last name and (after you’ve mentally pictured some Catskills comic burbling out the word “Plotz” as a punch line, and had your little laugh) you get a hint that by “Every Single Word of the Bible,” he means “Old Testament.” The Jewish Bible. His is a book written for fellow Jews, but it also would appeal to Catholics and other mainstream Christians who don’t stress Bible reading. It’s a book for people who have likely never been in a brush arbor, or seen a dunkin’ in a creek. Now, I am not that sort of person. I made my first endeavor to read the whole Bible at about age 8, and of course I failed miserably. But with Plotz’s book I found that many of my commonsense childhood reactions to the confusing, contradictory, and oftentimes horrifying stories of the Old Testament were shared by at least one other. The author takes both a faithful and a detached, postmodern walk through the 20-plus chapters and 336 pages. He finds inspiration. He finds his own way through the moral maze of sometimes capricious decisions from Upstairs. He sorts out the tangled history and sometimes confusing timelines. He pauses to note the specific literary phrases that first appeared in the Bible. He retells foundation stories and acknowledges their later reflections in the New Testament. It’s an educated, agnostic, and yet ecumenical look at the book that remains one of the central influences on our world. And it’s funny. I plotzed.
*”Waiting for Guffman” DVD—This, the best of all the Christopher Guest-produced mockumentaries, follows the creative processes of Corky St. Clair, a small-town amateur theater jack-of-all-trades. St. Clair produces a musical tracing the history of Blaine, Missouri, using enough unlikely lyrics and oddball actors to amuse even the stodgiest critic. (Even, perhaps, someone like talent scout Mort Guffman.) The scene showing Corky rehearsing dance moves in his upstairs apartment is worthy of repeated slow-motion viewings. Every character is a gem, and the improvised dialogue is brilliant.
*”Peggy Sue Got Married” DVD—What could have been just another 1980s romantic comedy has a few surprising layers. Watch this film for a fine performance by Kathleen Turner. Watch it to hear the flat-out weird Nicholas Cage characterization of boyfriend/husband Charlie. Watch it to spot big-time stars in early roles. Aspects of time travel in the film are fun, and the questions the script asks are good ones. Since the movie is a typical Hollywood offering, however, the ending is trite and predictable, but still enjoyable enough.
*Snark: It’s Mean, It’s Personal, and It’s Ruining Our Conversation by David Denby—The author bemoans the newfangled Culture of Snark unleashed by the democratization of information (otherwise known as the internet). In a little over 100 pages, the New Yorker film critic describes the etymology of the word “snark,” traces the history of short-lived but snarky publications like “Private Eye” and “Spy,” and, most entertainingly, eviscerates the work of Maureen Dowd, New York Times columnist and Queen of Snark. Denby’s expanded essay was met by mixed critical reaction, but the final pages, wherein Dowd’s contemptuous veneer is peeled back to reveal nothing but air, are worth the somewhat tedious march to the finish line.
*:Jeremiah Johnson” DVD—Actor Robert Redford and producer/director Sydney Pollack worked together many times, but this stark and beautifully-photographed western is their best collaboration, an underappreciated masterpiece. Redford plays a mountain man who wants only to exist in isolation from society. He finds, however, that even in the far reaches of the frontier he must learn to coexist with others. His motives are good, his quest is honorable, and he learns to survive in a hostile environment. But he finds that even the purest heart can attract an enemy, and he struggles against an enemy he inadvertently created. Jeremiah Johnson undertakes the fool’s journey and completes his path as a wiser man.
*Born to Be Good: The Science of a Meaningful Life by Dacher Keltner—Some of the most exciting recent work in sociology comes from the study of human micro-expressions by Paul Ekman. This book builds on Ekman’s work to posit a new way of looking at human potential—the Jen Ratio. Whether his Jen Ratio catches on or not, Keltner lays out a convincing case that we humans are not as innately evil as it sometimes appears. Keltner believes that humans have the inborn capacity for goodness, and that our very DNA—not socialization, not spiritual longing—propels us toward greater and greater cooperation and altruism. If you need a good dose of hope with evidentiary underpinnings, read this book.
McBook 