Summer Schedule

Tom's Two Cents: All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

This year's Pulitzer Prize was awarded to a novel that takes place in France and Germany during World War II.  The principal characters are a young, blind French girl and a young German male orphan, whose expertise with radio transmitters plunges him into the midst of the War when he, too, is still a child.  The respective stories of these two are told in short, parallel snippets of clean, beautiful prose, until they finally converge in the Brittany village of Saint Malo during the Normandy invasion.  Interwoven with their stories is the mystery of "The Sea of Flames," a large, brilliant cut diamond with a historical curse on it, at first located in the Museum of Natural History in Paris, then disappearing into the miasma that follows the German invasion of France.

I must confess that I had trouble with this novel until I finally concluded that it is structured like a film script, albeit a very literary one. Doerr is an accomplished writer, but he defers to popular, modern taste with his "writing bytes" that satisfy what Scott Cantrell calls in opera the "attention deficit set", those readers who wish to focus on a given character and/or situation for a very short period of time.  Listening to the book may be more rewarding than reading it, at least for old fashioned grammarians like me, who still like to see complete, complex sentences and abhor one-word fragments.  The chronology of the book is also a bit confusing, moving back and forth from early to middle to late periods of the War, and not in any particular order.

All that being said, the book has much to admire in the integrity and courage of many who survived (and didn't) the unspeakable horrors of the War.   It may be time now to move past the political turmoil of Vietnam to tell more of its human stories.  It is sad but true that the "worst of times" brings out both the best and worst of humankind.  I recommend this work with reservations--it's not story driven and there is much descriptive detail, but with a great sense of authenticity--Doerr knows his material inside out.

As to its recognition by the Pulitzer, all I can say is we've come a long way since Edith Wharton won the Pulitzer in 1920 for "Age of Innocence", even a longer way from Larry McMurtry's "Lonesome Dove" in 1985.

Poet's Perch : Solitude by Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Solitude

 

 

 

Laugh, and the world laughs with you;

Weep, and you weep alone,

For the sad old earth must borrow its mirth,

But has trouble enough of its own.

Sing, and the hills will answer;

Sigh, it is lost on the air,

The echoes bound to a joyful sound,

But shrink from voicing care.

 

Rejoice, and men will seek you;

Grieve, and they turn and go.

They want full measure of all your pleasure,

But they do not need your woe.

Be glad, and your friends are many;

Be sad, and you lose them all,-

There are none to decline your nectared wine,

But alone you must drink life's gall.

 

Feast, and your halls are crowded;

Fast, and the world goes by.

Succeed and give, and it helps you live,

But no man can help you die.

There is room in the halls of pleasure

For a long and lordly train,

But one by one we must all file on

Through the narrow aisles of pain.

 

Ella Wheeler Wilcox

 

Picture from : http://inclaritas.com/solitude-and-leadership-if-you-want-others-to-follow-learn-to-be-alone-with-your-thoughts/

Busy days at the library!

Here on the blog, things have been pretty quiet lately, but they sure haven't in the library!

We have just finished up a series of computer classes.  We taught seven classes on Tuesday nights beginning March 24th.  I always enjoy the computer classes.  Every group that comes through is different and this one was no exception.  This group was lively and a lot of fun!  Look for a new series in the fall.

We are also finishing up Marvelous Monday! for the time being.  Yesterday's experiment was the Mentos and Diet Coke explosion.  I didn't get any pictures, because I was too busy trying to dodge the spewing coke.  We have one more week left, and then we will begin again in September. 

Last week, I was pleased to visit the 5th grade and give an overview of everything the library offers and tell them about our summer programs.  They had a lot of very good questions about our library and some suggestions for new books that we will be looking into.  These are just a few of the kids I talked to.

Today's project will be putting these new books in the system.  Look for them on the shelves in the next couple of days!

Next week on Tuesday at 2:00 we will be showing the movie Still Alice.  Based on the book by Lisa Genova, Still Alice is about a woman who is dealing with the devastating diagnosis of Early Onset Alzheimer's Disease.  The movie never came to the theaters anywhere around here, and many of us wanted to see it, so we chose it as the first movie we are showing in what we hope will become an ongoing event.  To see the movie, please contact us at the library to reserve your ticket.  Space is limited, so tickets are available on a first-come, first-serve basis. 

And finally, we are welcoming Christian this year as our summer help.  You may recognize her from her work at the Cultural Art Center, which she is continuing. 

We are looking forward to a busy summer and hope you'll join us for some of our activities!

Check us out!

 

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