This month, I had the privilege of reading Gary Mack’s Mind Gym with my roller derby team. My team is ranked 7th in the West and will be competing at the upcoming regional tournament for an even higher ranking. So in addition to physical training, we have also chosen to prepare our minds to be competitive at a higher level.

Mind Gym isn’t a book that has broad appeal, but it’s a book that is bringing my team and coaches together in ways that simply training for a sport wouldn’t. We discuss the things in the book that inspire each of us and make suggestions from the book to others. This dialogue, in turn, informs the way we play.

Everett Public Library has books like this available in sets for you to use, too. We continuously nurture our Book Group Set collection so that it stays fresh. You can choose from over 60 titles, with about equal selection of fiction and non-fiction. Even if you don’t belong to a formal book group, you may have a circle of friends that would enjoy reading one of these titles together. Reading is immensely enjoyable as an individual experience, but it can also be an experience that you share with your communities, large and small.

In 2011, the library would like to bring a more personalized, local community reading experience to Everett. What would you like to read? What would you like to read with your friends, neighbors, colleagues, and family? Please take a minute to fill out our poll and let us know.

Kate

The Girl Who Stopped Swimming (2008) by Joshilyn Jackson
Laurel’s happy suburban life is torn apart when a ghost appears and leads her to the dead body of a girl floating in the backyard swimming pool. This book will appeal to the reader who enjoys southern gothic storytelling, rich ghost stories, and family drama. 

The Girl Who Chased the Moon (2010) by Sarah Addison Allen
Teenager Emily wants to learn more about her elusive mother, Dulcie, and is disappointed that her grandfather won’t help her. But Dulcie’s high school rival, Julia—on her own unlikely quest to find a daughter given up for adoption—takes an interest in Emily. This book is recommended for readers who love family secrets, romantic intrigue, and magical realism.

The Girl Who Fell from the Sky (2010) by Heidi Durrow
Rachel is the daughter of a Danish mother and a black G.I. As the sole survivor of a family tragedy, she moves with her grandmother to a black community where her light skin and blue eyes attract unwanted attention. This autobiographical novel of racial identity, grief, and coming of age is recommended for those who enjoyed  The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison.

The Girl Who Played with Fire (2009) and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest (2010) by Stieg Larsson
These are the second and third books in the late Stieg Larsson’s wildly popular Swedish thriller series. (The first book is The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.) Fans of this series can’t get enough of Lisbeth Salander, the 24-year-old tattooed genius hacker at the heart of these mysteries. (Be sure to listen to The Lone Reader’s review of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo if you haven’t already!)

It’s not just the girls who are featured in new book titles. There are also a handful of interesting new books featuring “boys who” too: The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind (2009) by William Kamkwamba,  The Boy Who Couldn’t Sleep and Never Had To (2010) by D.C. Pierson, and  The Boy Who Loved Tornadoes (2010) by Randi Davenport. 

There are so many girls who and boys who, I bet you’ll want to read about one or two.

Mindy

Several passages from this book will stick with me for a very long time, such as,

“And in the end, of course, a true war story is never about war. It’s about sunlight. It’s about the special way that dawn spreads out on a river when you know you must cross the river and march into the mountains to do things you are afraid to do. It’s about love and memory. It’s about sorrow. It’s about sisters who never write back and people who never listen” (p. 85). 

This book is exquisitely crafted, expressing at once such depth, beauty, and terror. To write a war story in this way is a great artistic feat and a profound tribute to the service and courage of those who endure the most grueling of circumstances. 

Kara

* Ranganathan, S.R., The Five Laws of Library Science, Bombay: Asia Pub. House, 1963.

Outside of a dog, a book is a man’s best friend. Inside of a dog it’s too dark to read.  –Groucho Marx *

A popular stereotype about librarians is that we’re all cat people. Books like Dewey: the Small Town Library Cat that Touched the World do little to disabuse people of this notion.

I’ve got nothing against cats, but I’m a dog person. I even like reading about dogs. Luckily, there are many wonderful dog-centric books, both fiction and non-fiction at the library. Here are a few of my recent favorites:

The Dogs of Babel by Carolyn Parkhurst is an odd and oddly captivating story. When Paul’s wife falls from a tree and dies, the only witness is their Rhodesian Ridgeback Lorelei. In his grief, Paul tries to teach Lorelei to speak so he can learn whether her death was an accident or suicide.    

The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewsi follows the plot of Hamlet, but in Wisconsin and with a mute protagonist and his family’s special (fictional) breed of Sawtelle dogs. You don’t have to be a dog lover or a Shakespeare lover to be drawn into this thrilling family saga.

In Travels with Charley: in Search of America novelist John Steinbeck chronicles his 1960 cross country road trip with his beloved French poodle, Charley, and his truck, Rocinante. I fell in love with old Charley and with Steinbeck’s eloquent account of his journey across the changing American landscape.

In Heroic Measures by Jill Ciment, an elderly couple puts their Manhattan apartment on the market the same weekend that their beloved daschund Dorothy undergoes emergency surgery all while living in a city that is paralyzed by fear of a possible terrorist attack. There are many lovely, quiet moments amidst the drama.

I picked up Temple Grandin’s Animals Make Us Human for the dogs. But Grandin’s unique perspective as an autistic researcher and her insights into the emotional and psychological lives of animals were so fascinating, I stayed for the cats, horses, and other animals she explores in this book.

Have you read any doggone good books lately?

Mindy

* This quote, and many more, can be found here.

Nancy Pearl describes magical realism as “a style of writing that allows authors to look at our own world through the lens of another world, an imagined yet very familiar one in which past, present, and future are often intertwined.”

Some of the best-known writers of magical realism are Isabel Allende, Jorge Luis Borges, and Gabriel García Márquez. 

A few of my all-time favorites include Isabel Allende’s The House of the Spirits, Aphrodite, and My Invented Country, as well as Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel.

The Lady, the Chef, and the Courtesan by Marisol and Hot House Flower and the Nine Plants of Desire by Margot Berwin are a few you may have missed.

And, of course, Pedro Almodóvar movies are a wonderful accompaniment to these books, especially Volver.

Kara

Welcome to Everett! You drove here from Topeka. That’s a long drive. Did you listen to any cool music or audiobooks?
It is a long drive indeed, but I’m a fan of road trips. I listened to two great audiobooks: I am a Genius of Unspeakable Evil and I Want to Be Your Class President by Josh Lieb and T.C. Boyle’s The Tortilla Curtain. I also listened to some of my favorite music including Pavement, Wilco, Radiohead, R.E.M., Neil Young, Warren Zevon, and The xx.

Kansas makes me think of The Wizard of Oz. Can you recommend any favorite Kansas authors or books or movies about Kansas?
I’ve yet to travel from Kansas and not heard, “You’re not in Kansas anymore.” It’s an irresistible response to learning someone is from Kansas. Two great authors more or less from Kansas are Gordon Parks and Langston Hughes. A great book is James Carlos Blake’s Wildwood Boys, a historical novel about the pre-Civil War Kansas-Missouri Border Wars told from the perspective of Bloody Bill Anderson. I love John Williams’ Butcher’s Crossing, set in both Kansas and Colorado. John Williams’ wonderful book Stoner is one of my absolute favorites, but it’s set in Missouri.

Do you have any favorite books or shows with a Washington setting or author?
Two of my favorite television shows are closely associated with Washington: Twin Peaks and Northern Exposure. As for books, I’ve recently become a fan of Spokane author Jess Walter and Olympia author Jim Lynch. The Financial Lives of the Poets and Border Songs are two of the best books I’ve read in the past year.

What’s your favorite book?
My all time favorite is Richard Yates’ Revolutionary Road. Yates is an incredibly underrated writer. My previous favorite book was David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest. The aforementioned Stoner is a recent favorite.

What was your favorite book growing up?
The book that blew my mind as a youngster was Douglas Adams’ The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Its meditation on the great expanses of time and the universe changed the way I thought about the world. The other seminal book of my childhood was To Kill a Mockingbird. I read it the summer after sixth grade and it hooked me on a life of reading.

What’s your favorite movie?
The Coen Brothers’ The Big Lebowski is the greatest movie of the last 25 years. Other favorites are Mulholland Drive, Nurse Betty, Ghostbusters, and No Country For Old Men.

If you were stranded on Jetty Island and could only take three books, what would you take?
Infinite Jest—I’ve been meaning to reread it and it’s really long. Charles Willeford’s Sideswipe. And Thomas Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow — it might be quiet enough to actually concentrate to read it.

It used to be that librarians just didn’t tell our library users what we thought about books. Revealing our opinions might cause people to avoid us for our “bias.”

In the new millennium, librarians are getting bolder. Sometimes we come out from behind our service desks, mount our horses, and tell people what we think. Hence Everett Public Library’s “Lone Reader” vocal book essays.

Voice files are a fine way to introduce readers to books. The human voice has mesmerized people since alpha cavemen used it to snow their colleagues around Neolithic campfires. The voice is an intimate medium that creates pictures in people’s heads. Professional-quality, low-cost digital recorders make beautiful vocal files. But resonant sound is just a beginning. You also need something interesting to say, and you don’t want “uhhhs,” or throat clearings, or tongue trips.

I write a script and record the sound file, then use sound editing software to edit out all the vocal trash. The software allows me to bring in separate audio tracks for music, sound effects, and our opening and closing intro snippets. I bring it all into a session and tinker until I’m satisfied. I try to make the pieces entertaining. But you be the judge of that.

Lone Reader essays are about two minutes long.  Why two minutes? Because some people think that’s about as long as anyone will listen to speech about a book.

Music helps set the mood. But music can’t just be grabbed and used. Grab Madonna’s “Die Another Day” and you’ll be lassoed and hogtied by Interpol or Warner Brothers, or maybe even by Madonna herself! With copyright concerns, you need to find music you can use.

The books I talk about are just ones I read. I don’t read books just to talk about them.

Why’s it called the Lone Reader? Truth is, there was no escaping that name.

Happy trails.

Cameron

I’m a cataloger for children’s books and music. Most of these books come across my desk without raising my interest. However, I recently happened upon one quite by accident that broke three of my supposed hardcore reading rules. (We catalogers have rules for everything.)

1. It’s written for Young Adults. I’m pushing 30, and generally dismiss YA fiction as being too young for me.

2. It’s written in the present tense. For some reason, my brain has a hard time reading a story when it’s not in the past tense.

3. It’s about werewolves. Well, technically they’re called “were folk,” but you get the idea.

Okay, I know what you’re thinking. You think this is just another attempt to latch onto Twilight’s coattails, to use the paranormal trend sweeping the nation to get readers hooked on more mindless entertainment. Well, yes, I do want to get everyone to read this book. And if that means exploiting a nationwide craze then I will do it!

This amazing book that I can’t stop talking about is Need by Carrie Jones. When Zara’s dad has a heart attack and dies, Zara goes into a deep depression and is sent to live in rural Maine with her grandmother. Zara faces many challenges you’d expect a 17-year-old to deal with in a new school like making friends and trying to be “normal” when her world is so chaotic. Then she sees a man who looks familiar. Did he follow her to Maine? And, wait, is he leaving gold dust behind him when he walks? Boys are disappearing, tempers are flaring at school, and all Zara can think about is the man who haunts her every move. When she discovers he’s a fairy king after a bride, she knows she has to find a way to stop him before it’s too late.

I still can’t exactly say why I liked this book when the odds were stacked against it. Perhaps it was because of the characters, who were mysterious but obviously different from “normal” people. Maybe it was the way the story twisted at the end and kept me guessing. Or it could have been the lightning-fast pace of the story, which grabbed onto me and took me for a really wild ride.

So, are you hooked yet? Take it from me, the shy reader. Sometimes it pays to break your reading rules and give a book a chance.

 Carol

Now that I have the audio book bug, I get to enjoy a new part of the library. I browse our Books-on-CD collections at least once a week and always find something interesting. I’ve become so hooked that I want to listen even when I’m not in the car. Luckily, Overdrive lets me download audio books to my iPod. Boring chores are now a lot more fun. I suspect I’ll be visiting the Playaway collection more once I get back on the bus and want to continue listening in an easy, portable way.

In addition to the format choices, audio books have encouraged me to push beyond my normal reading fare of literary domestic fiction and memoirs. I’m listening to more narrative non-fiction and essay collections, young adult novels, and even the occasional science fiction selection. My listening tastes and my reading tastes are not necessarily the same, and I think that’s a great thing. 

My favorite listens lately are Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book, Amy Sedaris’s I Like You, David Grann’s The Lost City of Z, and Kurt Vonnegut’s Man without a Country. These are not books I’d necessarily pick up and read cover to cover, but I was completely captivated by the content and vocal performances of each.

What about you? Do you prefer your book in print or audio? Do your listening and reading habits align? Talk to me. I’m listening.

Mindy

Eventually we hope our blog will become a dialog between and among readers. You’ll be able to comment on our posts, and maybe even recommend books you’ve enjoyed. Right now we’re waiting for approval of our new social software policy before we turn on comments, so you’ll have some time to think about what you’re reading here before you can comment.

It wouldn’t seem right not to mention a few books to help launch this enterprise, so I’ll tell you what I’m reading. I just finished Sara Paretsky’s latest V. I. Warshawski mystery, Hardball. I’m a longtime fan of V. I., and she’s in good form here. Paretsky has written a fast-moving story that was difficult to put down.

It took me a little longer to finish Olen Steinhauer’s The Tourist, a convoluted tale of espionage in the early 21st century, because it’s as much driven by character as plot—although there’s plenty of action, too. Steinhauer’s been compared to LeCarre and Deighton, and George Clooney has bought the movie rights.

Now I’m reading something completely different, The Selected Works of T. S. Spivet by Reif Larsen. I’m only a few pages into the story of T. S., a 12-year-old cartographic genius, so it’s too soon to know if I’ll like it, but I do love the drawings and maps that are an integral part of the text.

Stay tuned for more of “A Reading Life.”

Eileen