Good Reads & Views

A History of Ghosts by Peter H. Aykroyd
133.109 AYK

When Dan Aykroyd’s father, Peter Aykroyd, found a trunk belonging to his grandfather, he discovered a treasure trove of journals documenting his family’s history in the spiritualist movement. (The journals inspired the movie “Ghostbusters.”) The family had once had its own medium, and Samuel Aykroyd, D.D.S., his wife and some close friends held séances at the family’s farmhouse. This is a somewhat dry read, but it gives a personal look inside the spiritualist movement and how it inspired the Aykroyds to continue researching supernatural phenomena.

If you want to learn more about the spiritualist movement, check out Lily Dale: The True Story of the Town That Talks to the Dead by Christine Wicker or Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife by Mary Roach. For a fiction story about the spiritualist movement, try The Spiritualist by Megan Chance.

I Am The Messenger by Marcus Zusak
YA FIC Zusak, Marcus

Ed Kennedy's life changes after he foils a bank robbery and gets a playing card in the mail with three addresses on it. He has to figure out what to do at each address, and each challenges him to go beyond his limits. If he doesn't deliver the messages, he discovers, he's a dead man. Then the second card shows up. Ed insists that he's ordinary, but he finds beauty in the everyday and appreciates those around him. He discovers a lot of joy and pain, and half the fun is figuring out what he needs to do to complete each mission.

The audio version narrator's Australian accents helped give the flavor of the story. The story is quirky but includes plenty of suspense, especially when Ed has to do some dangerous things. The book includes some crude language and sexual situations (nothing graphic), but it would be a good choice for fans of John Green or Melina Marchetta.

The Last Boy: Mickey Mantle and the End of America’s Childhood by Jane Leavy
B Mantle, Mickey

Jane Leavy hits it out of the park with this amazing biography of Mickey Mantle. Immediately, the reader learns that Leavy interviewed Mantle, her childhood hero, after his retirement… and that it was not at all the experience she had imagined. Because of the way Leavy artfully disperses the story of that meeting throughout the book, the reader gradually learns why she found it so unsettling. Mantle, a star player for the New York Yankees during some of their most successful years, was a great baseball player and a generous friend—but he was also plagued by alcoholism and was notoriously unfaithful to his wife. Here we see Mantle at several significant points in his life—both highs and lows—and begin to see him as the flawed hero that he was. This is the kind of book that even a non sports fan can find fascinating.

The Evolutionary World: How Adaptation Explains Everything from Seashells to Civilization By Geerat J. Vermeij
578.4 VER

This is an authoritative and readable account of how evolution works by a Distinguished Professor of Geology at the University of California at Davis, editor for the journals Evolution and Paleobiology, and a MacArthur Foundation Fellow.  Starting as a boy in the Netherlands fascinated with seashells, he became a world authority on mollusks and expanded his research on evolution through studies of the fossil record going back millions of years.  His account is wide-ranging and includes the conclusions of scientists studying other organisms as well as Vermeij’s findings in field work around the world and his examination of fossils in museums.  All of this is even more remarkable because he was blind; but in some ways this was an advantage, because his acute sense of touch enabled him to detect subtle changes in fossils related to adaptation that other researchers overlooked.  An interesting chapter on “The Secrets of Grass” discusses how these plants did not evolve until after the age of dinosaurs in the Jurassic period and how grasses were related to the development of large grazing mammals.  Vermeij frequently discusses how evolutionary developments related to human societies; and a final chapter discusses “History and the Human Future.”

After You’ve Gone by Jeffrey Lent
Fic Lent, Jeffrey

Lent’s acclaimed fourth novel about love, loss, and the aftermath focuses on Henry Dorn, an English professor at an Eastern women’s college after the deaths of his wife and son.  Torn by grief for his wife Olivia and a mixture of anger and regret because his drug-addicted son, traumatized by World-War I battles, had caused the accident, Dorn decides to retire and fly to Amsterdam to research family history.  Enroute on a steamer he meets free-spirited Lydia and enjoys jazz, absinthe, and their affair.  But during Lydia’s frequent absences from Amsterdam he also finds solace from hours and hours of learning to play the cello, remembered from a time early in their marriage when Olivia suggested they go to a concert by a string quartet.  The story alternates between chapters on the present in Amsterdam and chapters on his past in America.  Lent’s earlier novels concern somewhat similar situations: In the Fall (2000) focuses on a Union soldier and runaway slave after the Civil War; Lost Nation (2002) on a tavern owner and prostitute in 1830s Maine; and A Peculiar Grace (2007) on a blacksmith and runaway girl in modern Vermont.

Decision Points by George W. Bush
CD Audiobook 973.931092 BUS

Decisions Points is George Bush’s memoir.  It is a good read for those who liked or disliked him while he was President.  He attempts to set the record straight about WMDs, Hurricane Katrina, and other choices that he made as President.  He admits mistakes but at the same time stands by his bigger decisions.  Narrated by Ron McLarty, he does a wonderful job of voicing an almost George Bush like voice revealing the many facets of his life, from childhood to his presidency. 

Behind the Scenes at the Museum by Kate Atkinson
CD Book Atkinson, Kate

Ruby Lennox narrates the story beginning from her day of conception, which makes for an intriguing start to any book.  The book is divided into chapters and footnotes and spans the lives of four generations of women beginning in the early 1950s and going back and forth between World War I, World War II, and Ruby’s life growing up and into adulthood.  Although the story revolves around Ruby and her family, the lives of her mother, maternal grandmother and great-grandmother are woven into the story.  The book is Ruby and pre-Ruby.  It is narrated by Susan Jameson who conveys the humor, wit and charm of the book. 

A Hatred for Tulips by Richard Lourie
FIC Lourie

In Amsterdam, Joop is unexpectedly visited by his younger brother, who lived most of his life in North America with their mother. The siblings have not seen each other for about sixty years. Joop proceeds to share his remembrances of living under the Nazi occupation. We learn how his struggles to help his family survive (including eating tulip bulbs) ultimately lead him to be the informant who revealed the hiding place of Anne Frank and her family, although he did not realize it until years later. This engrossing and ambiguous tale explores the joys and troubles of family relationships, enduring the strife and moral quandaries of wartime, and how keeping secrets can affect one’s entire life. A journalist, translator, and author of both fiction and non-fiction, Richard Lourie’s other works include Sakharov: A Biography and The Autobiography of Joseph Stalin: A Novel.

Boys: Stories and a Novella by David T. Lloyd
FIC Lloyd, David T.

The dark secrets of adolescence, along with its complexities and conflicts, are sensitively rendered in this cycle of twelve stories, followed by the novella Boys Only. Although set in Upstate New York in 1966, these stories have a timeless and universal quality. The author is director of the Creative Writing Program at Le Moyne College in Syracuse, New York.

To the Power of Three by Laura Lippman
FIC Lippman

Three high school seniors, best friends since 3rd grade, are involved in a shooting in the school bathroom that leaves one dead, one in a coma and the third injured. Who pulled the trigger? The evidence seems compelling, but homicide detective Harold Lendardt finds inconsistencies between the crime scene and the account given by the survivor. A captivating and suspenseful story about friendship, loyalty and growing up.