The Ghost Map

Categories History , Science , Staff Picks , Nonfiction

Steven Johnson’s The Ghost Map is a few years old now, but considering the recent swine flu outbreak, it’s timely.

In the mid-nineteenth century, London was a city of more than 2 million people with an infrastructure cobbled together in less urban centuries. The number of Victorian terms for occupations related to garbage picking gives a clue to how inadequate waste management was in the city, as should the incident known as the "Great Stink," brought on by a heat wave over the polluted Thames.

In the summer of 1854, in this densely populated, filthy city, a cholera epidemic began to sweep through the crowded neighborhood of Golden Square, Soho. Medical theory held that it was spread by smell, so measures were taken to deal with that. Of course, that had little effect on the propagation of the deadly disease.

Johnson sees that summer as a make-or-break moment in the history of cities, a time when the entire urban experiment in the history of humanity could have fallen through. But the persistence of a medical doctor, John Snow, and a neighborhood curate, Henry Whitehead, traced the epidemic to a single contaminated water pump, and they finally persuaded authorities to shut it down.

Spring Reading: Mysteries, Happiness, and Poetry

Categories Mystery & Suspense , Digital Audiobooks , Fiction

I realized that the nice weather brings out the Reading Bug in me. Sunny back porch days, rainy gloomy afternoons, or breezy evenings, I love to read and relax when Spring comes around. Here is what I've enjoyed so far this Spring:

Patricia Cornwell has written my favorite book of hers so far. Scarpetta (2009), all 512 pages of it, tells a braided up story of high technology and low-down betrayal. Available in large print and audio book as well.

Alexander McCall Smith has come through again (thank goodness!) with Tea Time for the Traditionally Built (2009), the latest installment in The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series. It's also available as an audio book (I highly recommend!) and a large print edition.

Tales from Outer Suburbia (2008) by Shaun Tan is a creative, fascinating novella by the author who gave us the outstanding The Arrival (2007).

Joyce Sidman's lovely children's poetry book, Red Sings from the Treetops (2009), is a beautiful tribute to the seasons. It's the perfect dessert to this feast of reading!

April 23rd is Talk Like Shakespeare Day!

Categories In the News , Poetry

Today is “Talk Like Shakespeare Day” in Chicago, in honor of William Shakespeare’s 445th birthday.  Methinks there’s no reason why we, too, can’t talk like the Bard!  After all, Shakespeare used 25,000 words in his writing, coining more than 1,700 of the words and phrases we use today.

To help us out, the Chicago Shakespeare Theater offers 10 quick pointers on their new website, talklikeshakespeare.org.  Here is a sampling:

1. Instead of you, say thou. Instead of y’all, say thee.
2. Don’t waste time saying "it," just use the letter "t" (’tis, 'twill, I’ll do’t).
3. When in doubt, add the letters "eth" to the end of verbs (he runneth, he trippeth, he falleth).
4. To add weight to your opinions, try starting them with methinks, mayhaps, in sooth or wherefore.
5. Instead of cursing, try calling your tormenters jackanapes or canker-blossoms or poisonous bunch-back’d toads.

Prayers for Sale

Categories Fiction

In the mood for something nice and old-fashioned? Sandra Dallas’s new book, Prayers for Sale, will fit the bill.

Hennie Comfort is an elderly woman living in the Colorado mining town of Middle Swan in the 1930s. A young woman stops by her house and asks Hennie to pray for her, having seen the sign, "Prayers for Sale," that Hennie’s husband jokingly put up on their fence years before to celebrate the fact that they had nothing to pray for themselves.

The girl, Nit Spindle, is new to town, lonesome and still grieving for her dead baby. Since Hennie herself arrived in town in that condition in her own youth, she decides to befriend the girl. Sharing her quilts, sharing her cooking, and above all sharing her decades of stories, she helps Nit settle in. And in the process she settles herself, too, finally letting go of an old secret sorrow.

If you like stories of women’s lives, you’ll find this comfortably appealing. Then try Nancy E. Turner’s These Is My Words and its sequels, more sweet and sturdy historical fiction with a real sense of what life was like for our grandmothers’ grandmothers.

Not Just For the Birds

Categories Children's Books

There is a family of birds nesting on our neighbor’s windowsill. My husband spotted them first- a mamma bird who seemed permenantly parked in her nest each day as we went in and out of the house. But now there is a family birds, a family of early risers I might add, but that is another story… 

Away

Categories Staff Picks , Fiction

I’m not sure what the gorgeous cover of this book signifies, except to signal the extravagant riches within. Amy Bloom writes like a magician, capable of pulling doves, scarves, and beautiful (if slightly bruise-mottled) fruit out of thin air.

I just read Away for my bookclub, and I kept telling myself to remember bits to discuss, thinking "This is my favorite part" each time. At one point I clapped my hand over my mouth and wailed, "Oh, no!" out loud, so absorbed was I in the story, which is both marvelously emotional and very deliberate in pacing and structure.

It’s the tale of a journey, and like the tale of every journey, it’s about coming home.

Arnold Lobel's Frog and Toad Books

Categories Award Winners , Rediscoveries , Staff Picks , Children's Books

My one-year-old daughter’s favorite toy is a frog that attached to her infant car seat when she was a baby.  She lost it, so her grandmother bought another one.  We found the first one again, so now she has two.  Sometimes she will hold one in each hand in her crib at night, so I decided to read her a chapter from each of the Frog and Toad books by author/illustrator Arnold Lobel before she goes to bed. 

Last night we began with the story “The Letter” in Frog and Toad Are Friends (1970), the first title in the Frog and Toad series and a Caldecott Medal Honor Book.  Toad is sad because he never receives any mail, so Frog sends him a letter to cheer him up.  Lobel’s simple text and charming illustrations in soft greens and browns capture all the emotions of true friendship. 

I’m looking forward to reading more of their adventures this evening, but these stories are perfect chapter books for beginning readers, too!  And don’t forget to also check out: 

• Frog and Toad Together (1972)
• Frog and Toad All Year (1976)
• Days With Frog and Toad (1979)