monday september 15
It's almost time for The Biggest Loser again; the competition is set to air on NBC starting September 16, this time Biggest Loser Families.
At first this concept put me off. I thought is seemed sensationalistic and gratuitous to showcase people who were willing to debase themselves on national television to win a prize. Then I actually watched the show.
There is more than a little bit of "if he can do it, I can do it" inspiration; but, dramatic interpersonal issues aside, this is a terrific learning laboratory. There isn't time on the show to get into details about how the fitness plans are supervised or how the diets and food are decided. All I can say is, these people literally work their butts off.
The Library has Biggest Loser books adapted from the NBC TV show in the collection, all quality guides to health and fitness:
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wednesday september 10
I was talking about Richard B. Wright's 2002 Clara Callan with someone yesterday and realized I have never blogged it. It's a gorgeous book, an absolutely transporting work of fiction, so here you go:
The title character is the older of two sisters, small-town Canadian girls in the 1930s. Clara is a schoolteacher, living alone now that her father has died and now that her sister, Nora, has gone off to New York to work in radio. Her story and Nora's are told through the letters they exchange and through Clara's diary entries.
Compared to Nora's bit of glamor, Clara's life is very uneventful. She reads, plays the piano, and writes a little poetry, but she burns that because it doesn't come up to her standards. She struggles quietly with a sudden disillusionment about her faith and (slightly less quietly) with the cranky coal-burning furnace her father used to tend.
But this isn't a tidy little book. Something shattering happens to Clara that irrevocably changes her life.
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friday september 05
Stories of magic and romantic adventures have grabbed me ever since I read about Dorothy in the Oz books. J.K. Rowling has done a lot to bring magic to the forefront with her Harry Potter books. I have some new recommendations:
The Spiderwick Chronicles by Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black is a modern-day series, and it's spot-on as far as how kids would deal with the magical realm. Happily, the movie adaptation is very good.
The Magic Thief (2008) by Sarah Prineas is a new book, heralding itself as first in a series, and so is Marie Rutkoski's brand new The Cabinet of Wonders: The Kronos Chronicles: Book I.
I would also highly recommend the Septimus Heap series by Angie Sage. The first book, Magyk, sets the scene and draws us into a very believable magical world with a slightly late-renaissance flavor.
What a wonderful escape on a rainy weekend! Again I tell you: Children's books...not just for kids!
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wednesday september 03
Englishmen in July 1860 opened their newspapers to accounts of a shocking crime: in a respectable Wiltshire country house, a child had been abducted from his bed, murdered, and flung into the privy just outside the stable yard.
Who could have committed the murder? To the horror of the nation, it soon became apparent that it must have been one of the household. The Victorian home was supposed to be a private sanctum, the “castle” of proverb.
The local police and public opinion quickly fastened suspicion on one of the live-in servants, the nursemaid who slept unusually near her employer’s bedroom. But the case went nowhere.
Enter Jack Whicher, one of the first professional detectives of Scotland Yard, summoned from London. His investigation focuses on an even more shocking villainess: the sixteen-year-old daughter of the house, the child’s half sister.
Uproar. The rushed case is dismissed, the detective is disgraced, and wild speculation ruins the lives and reputations of almost everyone involved.
So who really did it?
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