The Swerve: How The World Became Modern by Stephen Greenblatt
My score: 4 of 5 stars

One of the reasons we have libraries is to keep a record of human knowledge. We like to think that over time we've been gradually adding to our store of information and safeguarding it for the future. But in the 15th century, at the end of what are sometimes called the Dark Ages, a man could make a living searching for lost books because so many of them had been misplaced and forgotten. Poggio Bracciolini was such a man, and when he looked on the shelves of a monastery he found a book that contained a poem. It was a poem that would change the world.

It's amazing to think that some of the same ideas contained in the work, On the Nature of Things by Lucretius, are still hotly debated today. Then again, maybe it's to be expected when it came from an ancient society that has its hooks so firmly in our modern consciousness. After all, we still say "Rome wasn't built in a day" and most of us can name a few ancient Greek and Roman gods. As you read about the discovery of the text you'll learn not only about ancient Rome, but also about the world in which Poggio lived. How did he come to be a hunter of books, and how did he manage to bring this text to wider recognition? And just how did that Roman poem change the world?

Stephen Greenblatt won a Pulitzer Prize for his book this year. You can watch the video below from PBS News to learn more about the book and its author.

Watch 'The Swerve': When an Ancient Text Reaches Out & Touches Us on PBS. See more from PBS NewsHour.

Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Adrenaline on Every Page

Fun & Games by Duane Swierczynski
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Behind the Hollywood studio machine there's a hidden organization that controls the real lives of actors, not just their careers. They're called the Accident People. If they decide it's time for an actor to die from an overdose or drown on a movie set, then they make that happen--one way or another. When down-on-her-luck action star Lane Madden discovers a car trying to run her off a twisty canyon road, she knows that the Accident People are coming for her. But Madden is no quitter. She'll fight for her life, alongside ex-cop Charlie Hardie who stumbles into her path and is swallowed up in the trouble she carries with her.

Author Duane Swierczynski writes for Marvel comics, which explains the pulse-pounding pace he maintains throughout this book. You can't turn a page without someone getting shot at, punched in the face, injected with mysterious chemicals, thrown out of a window, or otherwise incapacitated. But no matter how bad it gets the characters keep plugging away. This is an intense, violent read, and if you like action it's definitely for you.

You'll be happy to know it's part of a trilogy, with the second title, Hell & Gone, published last year, and the third, Point & Shoot, scheduled for 2013.

If you like testosterone-driven, gut-punching action, you should also check out Josh Bazell's Beat The Reaper and its follow-up Wild Thing.

Review by Danny Hanbery

Thursday, May 24, 2012

Think You've Got Problems?

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

"That I will lead my life and practice my art with integrity and honor, using my power wisely"
~ from the Hippocratic oath

When I was a kid, I was obsessed with the story of Sybil. Sybil was diagnosed with multiple personalities (MPD - now called DID) after years of wondering what was wrong with her. With the help of her therapist, she was able to integrate all her personalities into one complete person. The multiple personalities were the result of years of trauma and abuse at the hands of her mother. The story (and popular mini-series starring Sally Field and Joanne Woodward) chronicled Sybil's life and her journey through therapy.

Sybil Exposed: The Extraordinary Story Behind the Famous Multiple Personality Case was full of surprises. The book follows three women: Sybil (aka Shirley Mason), Dr. Cornelia Wilbur (Sybil's therapist), and Flora Schreiber (the author of Sybil: The True & Extraordinary Story of a Woman Possessed by Sixteen Separate Personalities). Sybil Exposed chronicles Sybil's life, Dr. Wilbur's rise in the medical field, and Schreiber's journalist career. I was impressed by all the research Debbie Nathan did to present the true facts of this story.The book is highly detailed and full of footnotes. In fact, the last 50 pages include the note citations and index. It look me longer than usual to finish this book, but I was glad I stuck with it.

If you were ever interested in Sybil's story, or want overviews of the psychiatric and journalist fields from the 50's to the 70's, this is a good read.

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Monday, May 21, 2012

Enchantment Under the Big Top

The Night Circus
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The blurb from Goodreads says it all:

"The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Within the black-and-white striped canvas tents is an utterly unique experience full of breathtaking amazements. It is called Le Cirque des Rêves, and it is only open at night.

But behind the scenes, a fierce competition is underway—a duel between two young magicians, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood expressly for this purpose by their mercurial instructors. Unbeknownst to them, this is a game in which only one can be left standing, and the circus is but the stage for a remarkable battle of imagination and will. Despite themselves, however, Celia and Marco tumble headfirst into love—a deep, magical love that makes the lights flicker and the room grow warm whenever they so much as brush hands.

True love or not, the game must play out, and the fates of everyone involved, from the cast of extraordinary circus performers to the patrons, hang in the balance, suspended as precariously as the daring acrobats overhead.

Written in rich, seductive prose, this spell-casting novel is a feast for the senses and the heart."

I had heard a lot of buzz about this book, but was reluctant to pick it up. Now I'm kicking myself that I didn't read it sooner. The Night Circus is my favorite book of the year so far. Filled with twists and turns, longing and desire, real and magical worlds, it hooked me from page one. I cannot wait to reread it in a few months. Every chapter is deftly crafted to draw the reader in without revealing too much. The short chapters make it the ideal book to read on a lunch break or when you have snippets of time - just be aware that you will not want to put it down.

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Thursday, May 17, 2012

May is Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month

Asian-Pacific Heritage Month began in 1977, when Congress declared the first 10 days in May Asian-Pacific Heritage Week. (I know, "week" must have a different meaning in Washington, DC.) President Bush then extended the week to a month-long celebration in 1990. May was chosen because the first Japanese immigrants to the United States arrived on May 7, 1843 and the transcontinental railroad—which was built mainly by Chinese laborers—was completed on May 10, 1869. This emphasis on Chinese and Japanese immigration is rooted in history. Asian immigrants to the US came almost exclusively from Japan and China before the immigration reforms of the mid-1960s did away with stringent quotas and the Vietnam War unleashed a flood of refugees from all across Southeast Asia.

Asian-American literature mirrors this historical break. Most of the Asian-American writing published through the 1970s and '80s came from authors of Japanese and Chinese descent, and it looked a lot like the rest of American fiction but with a distinctive emphasis on family and social issues. Since the commercial and critical success of Amy Tan's Joy Luck Club in 1989, Asian-American fiction has exploded into the mainstream even as it has grown increasingly diverse. Today's Asian-American writers are as likely to be of Hmong, Indian, Korean, Pakistani, Thai or Vietnamese descent as Chinese or Japanese.

Jhumpa Lahiri and Chang-rae Lee are among America's most consistently excellent writers. If you haven't read anything by them, let Asian-Pacific Heritage Month be the excuse to treat yourself to a great new read. Lahiri is of Bengali descent, born in London but raised from age three in the US. She has published two award-winning short story collections, Interpreter of Maladies (1999) and Unaccustomed Earth (2008), and a novel, The Namesake (2003), which was made into a film in 2007. Unaccustomed Earth is a very novel-like collection of short stories filled with recurring themes and characters and a narrative arc that swings inexorably toward a heartbreaking climax in the literal wake of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. As great as her subsequent books have been, Interpreter of Maladies remains Lahiri's masterpiece.

Lee is Korean, born in Seoul but—like Lahiri—raised in the US from age three. He has published four novels, Native Speaker (1995), A Gesture Life (1999), Aloft (2004) and The Surrendered (2010). Native Speaker is my favorite of his books, a sustained meditation on family, identity and loyalty disguised as a page-turning political espionage thriller. If you liked Ethan Canin's America America, Native Speaker is for you. A Gesture Life may be easier to find and may hold broader appeal, telling as it does the story of a retired Japanese-American pharmacist.

Memories Lost - Would It Be a Curse or a Blessing?

4 of 5 stars

The Song Remains the Same

A plane falls from the sky in Iowa. Nell is one of two survivors of the crash, found two hundred yards from the debris field still strapped in her seat. She awakes to find her memory gone and everyone a stranger. Who can she trust to awaken her memories? Her husband? Her mother? Her sister? The journalist interested in telling her story?

Nell, a thirty two year old NYC art gallery owner, uses music from her own play lists to try and jog her memory. As she learns more about her life before the crash, more questions come into play. Was she happy? Is this the perfect opportunity for change? Do the family members helping her regain their memory have their own secret agendas? With the help of her therapist and the other crash survivor, Nell works toward uncovering her past and realizing what she wants for tomorrow.

Don't let the bright pink book cover scare you. It looks like fluff, but the story is well written, flows well, and makes you think.

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Monday, May 14, 2012

Thomas Mullen takes the 2012 Townsend Prize

Thomas Mullen has won the 2012 Townsend Prize for fiction for his second novel, The Many Deaths of the Firefly Brothers. The Townsend Prize is awarded every other year to the Georgia writer judged to have produced the best work of fiction or short stories in the previous two years. It was created in 1981 in honor of Jim Townsend, founding editor of Atlanta magazine.

The versatile Mullen is a Further Reading favorite. Danny recommended The Many Deaths of the Firefly Brothers just last week, and I gave Mullen's latest, The Revisionists, similar treatment back in March. All three of Mullen's novels are part of GCPL's collection, including his highly regarded debut, The Last Town on Earth, about the 1918 influenza epidemic and a quarantined town in Washington state torn between mercy and self-preservation.

If Mullen's marvelously imaginative novels aren't your cup of tea, you can find many other Townsend Prize winners at your local GCPL branch. Here's the complete list: