friday march 30
Life with a young child can be pretty amusing. Case in point: my two-year-old likes to put her doll in timeouts for "biting" and loves to wrap our labrador retriever up in her blanket for "night-night" (she also likes to blow his nose for him--don't ask). My husband and I find her antics hilarious. If you're looking for more hilarity in your own life, check out the library's collection of comedy books and cd's. They're guaranteed to tickle your funny bone. Here's a small selection:
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thursday march 29
If you talk to a group of young adults in Cincinnati for any length of time, someone is sure to come out with some sort of grand plan for getting out of here. Usually they talk about moving to some very cosmopolitan place like New York, San Francisco, or even Seattle. This isn't just one conversation, ever since the most recent census there have been articles in Citybeat and the Enquirer bemoaning the situation. Even I, though I'm mostly quite happy to live here, sometimes wonder "How would my life be different if I lived in New York?"
A partial answer was just provided to me by Lucky by Gabrielle Bell. Lucky is a collection of the three minicomics plus a special bonus section. Lucky Number #3, one of the included titles, won an Ignatz award in 2004. This graphic novel details the everyday life of Bell including her struggles to find a job and acceptable housing. It's made me grateful to live in Cincinnati, if only for the large cheap building that I call home.
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tuesday march 27
No “Irish History Month” would be complete without a tribute to the Easter Rising, the 1916 rebellion against Great Britain that failed, but sparked the astonishing victory of the War of Independence (1919-1921). William Butler Yeats, a contemporary, was the first writer to make great literature of the story. His poem “Easter, 1916” commemorates the 16 rebel leaders whose executions roused the country to revolution:
MacDonagh and MacBride
And Connolly and Pearse
Now and in time to be,
Wherever green is worn,
Are changed, changed utterly:
A terrible beauty is born.
Among recent literary accounts are two superb novels by award-winning writers: Jamie O'Neill’s At Swim, Two Boys (2001) and Roddy Doyle’s A Star Called Henry (1999), which follows the story through the revolution and the subsequent civil war. The approaches of these native Dubliners couldn’t be less similar.
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saturday march 24
What would you do if your parents ran a background check on every person you dated? What would you do if your 14-year-old sister practiced "recreational surveillance"? What would you do if your Uncle Ray had lost weekends? By this point you'd probably be tired of your family and the family business. Isabel "Izzy" Spellman certainly is. She decides to quit the family business (a PI firm that she joined when she was 12 years old), but her parents won't let her until she solves a very cold case. The ways that Izzy gets back at her parents (who else would enlist their sister to film a fake drug deal to get back at their parents?) and how the entire Spellman clan relates to each other are hysterical and ultimately (in their own weird way) demonstrate the powerful bond of family. Trust me, the Spellmans are not your typical family!
The Spellman Files by Lisa Lutz is the funniest and craziest book that I've read in a long, long time. The book is author Lisa Lutz's debut, but you would never be able to tell that from the way she expertly weaves the story and keeps the momentum going. From the first chapter to the last page, you will be laughing. I highly reccomend this novel to anyone who likes to read. Stephanie Plum fans will especially enjoy this one. This is the first in a planned series of novels featuring the Spellman family.
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In Alice Walker's story "Everyday Use," a mother and her two daughters view the cultural importance of some beautiful inherited quilts in different ways. The plan is for the uneducated daughter to get the quilts when she marries, and when the quilts wear out, the uneducated daughter knows how to quilt and will make some more.
The educated but mean daughter, who doesn't know how to quilt, is appalled that a piece of history will be lost when the quilts wear out. She wants to preserve the quilts and hang them on her wall. Our sympathies are meant to be with the uneducated mother and daughter--but the mean daughter does have a point. The quilts will wear out, and a piece of the characters' family and ethnic heritage will be gone.
It's sort of the same with books.
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monday march 19
A few weeks ago, I spent an afternoon absorbed by the life story of a musician I knew nothing about. And now I find out that musician is coming to Cincinnati in May. Director Jeff Feuerzeig won a 2005 Sundance award for The Devil and Daniel Johnston, his documentary about the innovative and talented artist Daniel Johnston. Intertwined with Johnston's remarkable songwriting and visual art is his personal struggle with manic depression. Interviews with friends, colleagues, and his devoted parents as well as Daniel's recordings dating back to childhood, make for a gut-wrenching, complex portrayal of love, survival, and art.
Daniel Johnston performs live at The Southgate House in Newport on Friday, May 11.
The 16th annual Cincinnati International Wine Festival will be held this coming weekend, with the Grand Tastings scheduled for March 22 and 23. These recently published books in the Library’s collection will advance your knowledge and enhance your appreciation of the vino aging in your cellar.
The Oxford Companion to Wine
Updated in 2006, this authoritative compendium contains almost 4000 entries on every conceivable aspect of wine and wine making.
Wine: the 8,000-Year-Old Story of the Wine Trade by Thomas Pellechi
Pellechi presents a fascinating overview of the commercial impact of the wine industry throughout history.
The Way to Make Wine: How to Craft Superb Table Wines at Home by Sheridan F. Warrick
Red and white varietals; pressing equipment; techniques of the craft: this is a complete guide for novices and experienced winemakers
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