Black Ships

Categories Fiction

Here’s one for readers who remember Mary Renault’s historical novels of the ancient world fondly.  It’s Jo Graham’s reworking of the tale of Aeneas, the fall of Troy, and the founding of Rome, Black Ships.

Gull is a slave, a child of rape, whose mother is one of the conquered people of Wilusa (Troy).  Lamed in an accident as a child, she faces a grim fate in her captors’ shore town of Pylos. 

But her mother takes her to the Pythian priestess who serves the goddess of death.  The visions Gull sees declare her the priestess’s successor as sibyl.

Growing up in her role as priestess, Gull continues to serve Pylos until a war party of Wilusans attacks to avenge further raids on their home and people.

Momnesia

Categories Parenting & Families , Nonfiction

I'm pretty sure I have "momnesia".  Example one:  I put our dog (a notorious fence jumper) outside, meaning to watch over him to make sure he didn't escape.  I then went back inside and forgot to go back out again.  Hours later my neighbor showed up at the door with the dog, who, of course, had jumped the fence and was roaming happily throughout our neighborhood.  Example two:  Not long after my twins were born, I went to vacuum our carpet only to discover that the vacuum cleaner wouldn't work.  When my husband came home from work, the vacuum cleaner worked fine for him.  It was only then that I realized--I had turned the vacuum cleaner on, but had completely forgotten to plug it in.  Example three:  well, you get the picture.

According to Dr. Louann Brizendine, my "condition" has a name--"momnesia".  Brizendine, author of the book The Female Brain,  says that "momnesia" is "a state of the female brain that is a bit forgetful after a woman has had a baby".  It's influenced by "the wildly fluctuating flood of hormones that accompanies pregnancy, childbirth and breastfeeding".

The Year My Sister Got Lucky

Categories Teen Books

In this fish out of water tale, two ballerina sisters are moved from their New York City apartment and dance lessons at the premiere ballet school in the country to a small town in rural upstate New York. The Year My Sister Got Lucky, by Aimee Friedman, follows the lives of Katya and her perfect older sister Michaela as they adjust - or avoid adjusting - to their new surroundings.

Now, I've never had a sister, so their relationship was unfamiliar to me. But the relationship between these two girls is well researched, as I discovered when I read the author's bio - she has a sister whom with she attended dance classes (check out Friedman's MySpace page). While Katya's trials and tribulations are at times humorous and other times emotional, her relationship with her big sister is the connecting theme throughout the novel.

April: Poetry and Earth Day

Categories In the News , Award Winners , Children's Books , Poetry

April is National Poetry Month; Earth Day 2008 is April 22. There are lots of poetry books that celebrate Spring and the Earth on the library bookshelves.

The 2006 Caldecott Honor book Song of the Water Boatman & Other Pond Poems (2005) by Joyce Sidman makes a lovely connection between Earth Day and Poetry Month. Beckie Prange's gorgeous hand colored woodcuts pull together the poetry and scientific information on pond life.

Pat Mora and Steve Jenkins' This Big Sky (1998) brings us to the desert Southwest in words and pictures. Katharine Boling's New Year Be Coming!: A Gullah Year (2002) is illustrated with Daniel Minter's fascinating linoleum block prints illustrating the Gullah life of the Southeast coast, so closely tied to the earth and seasons.

Marilyn Singer's Turtle in July (1989) is a collection of poems about animals, stunningly illustrated by the great Jerry Pinkney. Fireflies at Midnight (2003) by Marilyn Singer, illustrated by Ken Robbins, also celebrates animals and insects.

Pause and enjoy these charming tributes to our Earth. The simplicity and uncomplicated joy will refresh you, and make you realize how universally appealing "Children's" poetry can be.

Tender at the Bone: Growing up at the Table

Categories Cookbooks , Rediscoveries , Staff Picks , Nonfiction

I'm passing this along to all of you who enjoy a nice, quirky memoir.  Another librarian recommended Ruth Reichl's Tender at the Bone:  Growing up at the Table to me.   It's not a new book, but that just means there are two sequels, Comfort Me with Apples and Garlic and Sapphires to put on your list, too, if like me you didn't read them when they came out.

Reichl is a food writer, the editor of Gourmet magazine, a one-time chef, and most famously a former restaurant critic for the New York Times.  Tender at the Bone is the story of her childhood and youth. 

How she ever became a foodie is something of a mystery, given the stories she tells about her manic-depressive mother's odd ways of dealing with food, particularly her blithe habit of scraping the blue layer off of leftovers and declaring, "It's only mold." 

But a long line of mentors and fellow enthusiasts helped Reichl to some memorable meals, and she lovingly remembers every friend and every bite.  How a boarding school friend's French father introduced her to fois gras, how two courtly locals fed her couscous in Tunis on a college trip, the time she asked a lower Manhattan matron to teach her to make gefilte fish, to the days when she whipped up the daily specials at a Berkeley collective restaurant--Reichl fills her pages with warm and delicious stories. 

And she includes recipes.

Medieval Mysteries: The Fool's Guild

Categories Mystery & Suspense , Fiction

Back in medieval times, it was very important to keep the Royalty happy, lest all hell break loose.  Therefore the King's fools, or court jesters, were no fools at all, since they played such an integral role in the well-being of the court.  Members of the Fool's Guild in the mystery series by Alan Gordon are especially savvy.  They use their inside knowledge and the anonymity of their masks to undermine all varieties of political trickery and deceit. 

Author Alan Gordon is a marvelously clever writer, who has a 'day job' as a lawyer with the Legal Aid Society in Queens, New York.  He has received praise for his series featuring the Fool's Guild, displaying a cunning group of unlikely heroes mixed in with history, suspense, and even a little Shakespeare before his time.  All six of Gordon's Medieval Mysteries are available at the Library: