It contributes greatly towards a man’s moral and intellectual health, to be brought into habits of companionship with individuals unlike himself, who care little for his pursuits, and whose sphere and abilities he must go out of himself to appreciate.

Sage words indeed. And how appropriate that they are taken from the The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne which is the final book in our series Books You Have Always Meant to Read. This classic work will be the topic of a lively discussion lead by Bethany Reid from Everett Community College on Wednesday, May 23^rd starting at 7 p.m. in the Main Library auditorium.

Set in a time and place seemingly quite different from our own, seventeenth century Puritan New England, the characters of The Scarlet Letter might at first seem like strangers. But read a little further and you just might find a connection with one of these characters “unlike yourself”.

There is the long suffering, but iron willed, Hester Prynne who is forced to wear the scarlet letter.  Or maybe the conflicted, to put it mildly, Arthur Dimmesdale with all his self-inflicted wounds will strike a chord. And for those of you more inclined to darkness, there is “the leech”, a.k.a. Roger Chillingworth, who might just have a point or two.

Whatever your preference, come to the library on Wednesday evening to see what all the fuss is about.

The Stooges also have a very healthy fan base. The Three Stooges Fan Club, based in Pennsylvania, has over 2000 members and runs ‘The Stoogeum’, a museum packed with Three Stooges memorabilia. Three Stooges film festivals and conventions are held worldwide.

If you want to find out what all the fuss is about, you are in luck since The Three Stooges are well represented in the holdings at the Everett Public Library. Here are some examples:

The Three Stooges: Amalgamated Morons to American Icons: An Illustrated History by Michael Fleming is a good, short history of the Three Stooges. The book traces the childhoods of the Howard brothers (Moe, Curly, and Shemp), their early days on stage, their short comedies with Columbia Pictures, the decline of Curly’s health and Shemp’s return to the act, and their features with ‘Curly Joe’ DeRita.

One Fine Stooge by Steve Cox and Jim Terry is the authorized biography of the frizzy haired stooge, Larry Fine. Fine gave Terry a collection of clippings and photos and his blessing to write a biography worthy of the Stooges. With the help of Stooges fan Steve Cox, Terry’s work was finally published in 2006. The book includes a number of unpublished photos, including some of Curly Howard, taken after his forced retirement from the Stooges due to a stroke. Of the dozens of books written about The Stooges, One Fine Stooge is one of the finest. (Pun intended)

In 2010, Sony Pictures Entertainment completed an eight volume release of the 190 Columbia shorts. Everett Public has volume three of The Three Stooges Collection which has 23 shorts, produced between 1940 and 1942.

The Stooges’ films were often a reflection of the world at the time they were made. In You Nazty Spy, Moe is Moe Hailstone, who has a striking resemblance to Adolf Hitler. The Stooges were the first to satirize Hitler on film, 9 months before Charlie Chaplin’s The Great Dictator. As You Nazty Spy begins, the Stooges are wallpaper hangers, an occupation reportedly once held by Adolf Hitler. They are recruited by businessmen Iznay, Onay, and Amscray to overthrow King Herman the sixth and seven eighths of Moronica because ‘There’s no money in peace’. The ‘Nazty Spy’ is the boys’ secretary ‘Mata Herring’ who, with the help of her ‘magic 8 ball’, predicts a grim future for them. The masses rise up and revolt, the trio end up on the run, and eventually become lunch for a den of lions.

The Stooges are employed as census takers in the 1940 short No Census, No Feeling, making four cents for each person interviewed. As the short opens, the boys, like over eight million others in 1940, are unemployed. Some were fortunate enough to draw a paycheck, temporarily, working for the 1940 census. The census takers had to work hard for their money, asking individuals questions about age, employment, income, marital status and so on. In one memorable scene, Moe stands at a man’s front door and asks “Are you married or happy”. Immediately following the question, the man ducks and Moe is hit in the face by a piece of flying dinnerware.

The Three Stooges are being reinvented for a 21st century audience. The Farrelly Brothers, who made the film There’s Something About Mary have filmed a Three Stooges feature for release in April, 2012. The movie promises to retain the traditional slapstick style of the classic shorts, with a modern-day storyline. Stooges purists may not approve of this ‘update’ which includes scantily clad ladies, Lobsters stuffed down trousers, and members of the cast of ‘Jersey Shore’. However, the impersonations of the Stooges are spot-on.

Over forty years since their last filmed performance, The Three Stooges remain popular. Books continue to be written about the boys and the majority of their film and TV work is available on DVD. The Three Stooges should eye poke and bonk heads for another 75 years, to the dismay of mothers everywhere.

David

But what is one to say to an act of destructive ferocity so absurd as to be incomprehensible, inexplicable, almost unthinkable; in fact, mad? Madness alone is truly terrifying, inasmuch as you cannot placate it either by threats, persuasion, or bribes.

You could be forgiven for thinking that the quote above was from a recent op-ed piece concerning terrorism and the perils of the world we live in. But in fact it is from the disturbing Mr. Vladimir who is a character in The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad.

Does the book title sound vaguely familiar? Perhaps you remember it from an old course syllabus or being mentioned by a friend. In fact, it fits perfectly into our latest series titled Books You Have Always Meant to Read and is the next title to be discussed on Tuesday, April 24^th at the Main Library auditorium starting at 7 pm.

Everett Community College professor Roger Berger will lead the discussion of Conrad’s absurd and dark tale of anarchists, revolutionaries and the hapless Mr. Verloc  as he attempts to create a “series of outrages” against the status quo.

If you feel inspired by the discussion and want to learn more, definitely take a look at our resources on the author and his works. Perhaps even some information on Greenwich Observatory which, thankfully, still stands…

Why, you may ask yourself, can’t I just forget about it? Because it is an important book, a book that is recognized as significant, a book that has stood the test of time. In other words, it is a book you have always meant to read but just haven’t gotten to yet.

If you face such a dilemma, you are in luck. The library is hosting a series of book discussions, appropriately titled ‘Books You Have Always Meant to Read‘, to help you finally read that title and find out why it is so important.

First up is David Copperfield by Charles Dickens with a discussion led by Ed Skoog on Wednesday March 28^th starting at 7 pm at the Main Library.

Star of many a high school and freshman English college course syllabi, David Copperfield is also a highly entertaining and significant read. In addition, the leader of the discussion, Ed Skoog, is an Everett Community College instructor and poet who will bring a unique and compelling take on this classic work. It is the perfect opportunity to discover a timeless work from a new perspective.

After the discussion, if you want to do some research on the author or the book we have many titles from which to choose. So come to the library on Wednesday and discover something new, or at least new to many of us.

There is Robert, the honorable and proper Earl of Grantham, Cora, his American heiress wife and their gorgeous headstrong daughters. Outside of the immediate family there is Violet, the incorrigible Dowager Countess, Carson, the grand butler, Branson, the radical chauffeur and Thomas, the wayward footman. Adhering to strict social codes for both “upstairs” and “downstairs”  had always brought a kind of comfort to the household but gradually their world is disturbed by outside economic and political forces as World War I looms.

The characters, the history, the period dress, the lovely English accents – I just can’t get enough! Fortunately, several nonfiction books have been providing me with related reading entertainment between Sundays.

Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey: the Lost Legacy of Highclere Castle is written by Fiona, Countess of Carnarvon, the  real-life, present-day countess of Highclere Castle where the series is filmed. Using the family archives, she tells a story of family life at the Castle that is in some ways more fascinating than that of the fictional family in Downton Abbey.

If you are interested in the servant’s point of view, Rosina Harrison recounts in detail her years as a lady’s maid and her intimate knowledge of extravagant lifestyles in Rose: My Life in Service to Lady Astor.

The Perfect Summer: England 1911 Just Before the Storm by Juliet Nicolson brings to life England during the summer of the coronation of George V, the event which brought the Edwardian era to a close. Focusing on individuals, she describes the high life of the rich and aristocratic made possible by a variety of servants. She also documents the indifference of industrialists toward their workers as well as the growing women’s suffrage movement.

The second season of Downton Abbey ends soon but I plan to read more about this period while I wait for season three. On my list are:  The World of Downton Abbey by Jessica Fellowes, the companion edition to the series, and The Beauty and the Sorrow: An Intimate History of the First World War by Peter Englund which promises to tell the experiences of twenty ordinary people and how the war affected them in their daily lives.

Marge

In Working in the Shadows, author Gabriel Thompson decided to try his hand at several  jobs that he’d been told normally go to immigrants because “Americans won’t do them”. His reasons for writing the book have more to do with the question of immigration, but for me his book is about the work that no one wants and how food gets on our table.

When Thompson works in the fields cutting lettuce, his co-workers are very welcoming and friendly, but they suspect him of working for the Immigration Department. The work is more physically demanding than any he has ever done. The author is amazed and proud when he’s able to make it to his self-imposed limit of 2 months on the job.

Working at a chicken processing plant, he finds that the work is also physically demanding, but so repetitious that just about all the employees are eventually injured. Reading about the processing plant will put you off chicken nuggets (and possibly all forms of chicken). You will also discover that chicken feet used to be a waste product, but are now shipped to China.

He has a short job in a wholesale flower shop, and finds that many illegal workers get bullied or taken advantage of because they’re afraid to complain about their working conditions. His last job is delivering food at a restaurant, again a very physically demanding job for low wages.

All the work he tries is low-wage, some of it below minimum wage. Most of the people he works with are immigrants, either legal or illegal. Someone in a far-away office has decided these jobs are unskilled, and therefore deserving of low pay, but in reality they do require skills and a lot of hard work.

Whether you’re working at a fast-food place or in an apple orchard you’ll find there’s struggle and strife, and at times brain melting boredom, in every job. This book brings to light many of the injustices and fears that many workers run up against.

Makes your job not look so bad, huh?

Kathy

“Literature used in schools ought to teach high values and character,” Richland board member Phyllis Strickler said upon the decision to ban the book from classroom instruction. “I don’t see the appropriateness of gratuitous language and descriptions of sex,” she said.

Absolutely True Diary is a semi-autobiographical book of Alexie’s own past. It won the National Book Award in 2007. It is about an Indian kid that decides to leave his reservation because other kids tease and beat him, his father’s an alcoholic, and he’s seen forty-two funerals by the time he’s 14. He decides he’s got to leave the rez, so he starts by enrolling in a high school in a nearby town full of “rich farmers, rednecks, and racist cops.”

So given this setting, is Junior’s vulgar language gratuitous, or is it integral to the story? Without showing how bad rez life is, how can readers appreciate Junior’s first steps to redemption? Evidently most critics can’t fathom that this book’s theme is “high values and character.” But redemption must have a toehold in something genuine.

Critics seem especially offended by Junior’s joking about the violence and racism he sees and about his typically teen sexual obsessions. But Alexie’s use of humor, exaggeration and irony are just what connect readers to Junior so strongly. Most readers understand obsessions, and know that sometimes people laugh when they feel like crying. And most probably get that Junior wasn’t really just “an exciting addition to the Reardan gene pool.” Alexie is the master of these literary tools. But critics either don’t get this or don’t want to. They find it easier to dismiss Alexie’s message than to grapple with it.

Alexie said in a recent article that he thinks some people would rather count cuss words than feel the story. “People don’t listen well, people don’t engage with an entire argument…they’ve been taught how to pull out quotes to argue with. Not the totality of an argument.”

With humor as a shield, Alexie has clearly slain a lot of dragons in his own life. “I read books about monsters and monstrous things, often written with monstrous language, because they taught me how to battle the real monsters in my life.” He says he wants his books to give people words and ideas that will help them fight their own monsters.

Unbanned! Eventually the Richland School Board reversed itself and allowed the book. Why? They got around to actually reading it. See:

“Richland Board Flips on Book Ban,” Tri-City Herald, 12 July 2011: A1.

Cameron

Adult Books

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New books tend to dominate the searches above.  For an idea of perennial favorites, click the links below to see what is most popular from our backlist, so to speak – the currently most popular books with publishing dates of 2006 or earlier.

Adult Books Published before 2007

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Fiction
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SF  / Fantasy   or   SF & Fantasy combined
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Biography & Memoir
Christianity  /  Other Religions & Spirituality
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Of course many high-demand titles are those that are just coming out.  Click here to see what titles are on order (to see them in order of popularity, change the “Sort by” box to Most Popular).

Sure lots of places, including A Reading Life, have put out a Best of 2011 list that allows the selector several choices and is limited to works produced in 2011. But we wanted to try something a little bit different. Our writers were given the unenviable task of condensing their favorite works to one title. The titles listed here weren’t necessarily published in 2011, just enjoyed this year.

Read on to discover their choices. You just might add another title to your ever-growing “must read/view/see in 2012” list!

Carol:

By far the most outstanding story I experienced this year is Ready Player One by Ernest Cline. I say “experienced” because I listened to Wil Wheaton read it…and words can’t do his performance justice. He is by far the best person to read this story of a dystopian future where the whole world lives its life in an online virtual reality program called the OASIS. The creator of the OASIS, James Halliday, has died and left his entire fortune, including the multi-billion dollar company that owns most of the Internet, to the first person who can find the prize, known as an “Easter egg,” hidden in the OASIS.  Halliday’s hayday was in the 1980s, where he enjoyed all of the music, movies, and video games of the era. In order to get inside Halliday’s head, the egg-hunters, known as Gunters for short, spend all of their free time watching the movies he watched, listening to the music he listened to, and above all else, playing the games he played. There are so many Sci-Fi, gaming, and music references that took me back down memory lane. Whether you can identify with the protagonist Wade, who is a loner looking for a better life, or just enjoy all the cultural references, you’ll want to give this one a try. I highly recommend picking up the audio book, as Mr. Wheaton does a phenomenal job.

Esta:

State of Wonder by Ann Patchett.

Dr. Marina Singh dreads being sent to Brazil’s Amazon jungle with its giant snakes, seething insects, and mysterious diseases. But the pharmaceutical company that employs her gives her no choice.  Years have passed with almost no word from their researcher, the aging Dr. Annick Swenson, who is the company’s best chance to develop a miracle drug.  Soon Marina must confront her terror and awe of the rainforest, the Lakashi tribal people, and the domineering personality of the woman doctor who knows Marina’s own fears and failings.

Kim:

A book I enjoyed this year was the downloadable audio ebook The Help by Kathryn Stockett. It was published in 2009, but what brought it to my attention this year was the books long time on bestseller lists and the release of the new movie version. Actress Octavia Spencer reads the part of Minny Jackson the character she plays in the movie. It’s the story of several African-American maids in Jackson, Mississippi who decide to tell their experiences to an aspiring author. Their experiences are primarily about working for white families during the civil rights movement of the 1960s. Listening to the four actresses narrating in Southern accents added a lot of enjoyment to the book.

Kristen:

The Talk-funny Girl by Roland Merullo

This story is about seventeen year old Marjorie Richards. She is raised in the backwoods of New Hampshire by her abusive parents who are under the control of a sadistic cult leader. Beautifully written, Roland Merullo tells a coming of age story that will keep you rooting for her until the end.

Richard:

Dexter: The fifth season

The Showtime series Dexter is definitely an acquired taste. Having a serial killer for a main character can be a bit of a hard sell. But Dexter has a code, instilled by his police officer father, that he struggles to maintain. The fifth season is a particular joy, since the fourth threatened to tie Dexter down to a domestic routine. Instead he is free to struggle with his dark passenger, attempt to help a victim of violence for a change, and still try to maintain an inconspicuous facade.  The show is known for its season long guest appearances and season 5 of Dexter does not disappoint, with excellent performances by Julia Stiles, Peter Weller and Jonny Lee Miller.

Ron:

Phoenix Rising: A Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences novel by Pip Ballantine

Archivist Wellington Books, librarian and tinkerer, is thrust into the role of unwilling field operative alongside his new partner, dynamite-toting and shockingly unladylike Eliza D. Braun in this Victorian steampunk thriller.

Scott:

I just can’t say one was best! So here are my three favorite thought-provoking reads published in 2011, all featuring hi-def characters and accomplished writing: Stone Arabia by Dana Spiotta, There but for the by Ali Smith, and The Pale King by David Foster Wallace.

Theresa:

The Secret Life of the Grown-up Brain: The Surprising Talents of the Middle-Aged Mind by Barbara Strauch.

This overview of recent research into the workings of the adult brain is fascinating, and ultimately encouraging. Science writer Barbara Strauch explores the latest findings that demonstrate that the middle-aged brain is much more flexible and capable than was previously thought. Rather than a peak in young adulthood followed by an inevitable and steady decline, new research from neuroscientists and psychologists suggests that the brain actually reorganizes and improves in important areas in middle-age. Growth of white matter and brain connectors allow us to recognize patterns faster, make better judgments, and find unique solutions to problems; this cognitive expertise reaches the highest levels in middle age.  Researchers are also looking at what works to keep our brains functioning at peak capacity. There is no magic bullet yet, but there are some promising leads on how to keep your aging mind in top condition.

If you are feeling like a little time away from the keyboard, AFK if you like abbreviations, but still want to get great book recommendations, why not head to the Main Library in the coming days. Our ongoing series of book displays highlighting staff picks is ready for viewing. The display includes flyers of each person’s selections so you can take their recommendations with you to ponder further if you are so inclined.

Two contributors to A Reading Life are highlighted this time around which makes the display doubly interesting: Ron & Richard

If you aren’t familiar with Ron’s exuberant and hilarious posts from our blog, you should be. From punk, both steam and otherwise, to mystery, historical fiction, graphic novels and, of course, zombies, Ron can recommend many fascinating and engrossing titles. Just try to resist picking up a title like To Say Nothing of the Dog, or How We Found the Bishop’s Stump at Last. We dare you.

Let’s face it, Richard has “issues”. But these issues can result in intriguing item recommendations. Be it disquieting short story collections, the perils of space travel, Italian detectives, Japanese pop nihilism, or killing time at the airport there is something here for all of us who are ever so slightly disturbed. In a good way, one hopes.

So much to choose from, so little time. Come and ponder the display while it lasts.