Good Reads & Views

Birdology by Sy Montgomery
598 MON

From hummingbirds to cassowaries, from chickens to crows to hawks, naturalist Sy Montgomery explores a world which is extraordinarily different than our own. But there are also striking similarities to the world we know. Her chickens come running to be petted, hummingbird chicks cry to be fed, a pet cassowary peers over his person’s shoulder to watch her weed, pigeons find their way home through darkness and storm, a lost parrot tells rescuers his name and address…An enchanting look at a world which may be as close as the crow on your lawn.

Devil-Devil by Graeme Kent
FIC Kent, Graeme

Sergent Kella of the Solomon Islands Police force has conflicting loyalties. He is also aofia, a hereditary peacemaker, of his people. And his British superiors have a much different idea of how to bring about peace than he and his people do. Now peace is in small supply on his island—a devil has killed a villager, an anthropologist is missing, a skeleton has appeared, and rebellious Sister Conchita of the Catholic mission is suddenly deeply involved in the whole mess. Can Kella resolve all the problems in a way that makes sense to both his own people and the British? Can he resolve them at all? Great for anyone who enjoys Alexander McCall Smith or Colin Cotterill.

Crazy for the Storm: A Memoir of Survival by Norman Ollestad
CD Audiobook 979.4053 OLL

At age 8, Norman Ollestad was the sole survivor of a plane crash that killed his father, his father’s girlfriend, and the pilot. As an adult, looking back at the crash, he describes the importance of the tough lessons he learned from this father, which he credits with helping him survive the snow-covered mountain he had to descend following the crash. Ollestad tells the story through flashbacks to happier (but challenging) days with his larger-than-life dad, when they skied, surfed, and traveled together. The author reads the audiobook, which is infused with the love and frustrations of a strong father-son relationship.

A Whisper to the Living by Stuart M. Kaminsky
FIC Kaminsky,  Stuart

This is the final title in Kaminsky’s mysteries about Porfiry Petrovich Rostnikov, Chief Inspector in the Office of Special Investigations in Moscow.  Sixteenth in a series that began with Death of a Dissident in 1981, A Whisper to the Living was published in 2010 soon after Kaminsky’s death.  This time Rostnikov has to locate the Bitsevksy Maniac, who has killed more than sixty with a hammer to the skull in a central park in a quest for fame for the number of his crimes; and Rostnikov also has to find out who really killed a giant prize-fighter’s wife and apparent lover in a hotel room.  A prolific author born in Chicago in 1934,  Kaminsky received a Ph.D. from Northwestern University in film studies and taught there for some years, authoring four books on film and television, biographies of Gary Cooper, Clint Eastwood, and John Huston, and screenplays for Nero Wolfe Mysteries.  But he soon turned to writing mysteries featuring private eye Toby Peters set in Hollywood, including 24 titles starting with Bullet for A Star in 1977 and ending with Now You See It in 2004.  Kaminsky then selected a Chicago locale for a series about detective Abe Lieberman, starting with Lieberman’s Folly in 1991 and ending with the tenth, The Dead Don’t Lie in 2007.  And after Kaminsky moved to Florida there were six Lew Fonesca mysteries set in Sarasota, from Vengeance in 1999 to Bright Futures in 2009.  In all of his series Kaminsky occasionally mentioned movie stars.  He was 75 when he died in St. Louis in 2009.

Jack London, Photographer by Jeanne Campbell Reesman, Sara Hodson, & Philip Adam
770.92 REE

Jack London (1876-1916) is well-known for tales of adventure based on his travels, such as those during the 1897 Klondike Gold Rush in northern Canada used in Son of the Wolf (1900) and Call of the Wild (1903).  Before his death at the age of forty, London also took thousands of photographs to accompany his reports and articles as a journalist for illustrated newspapers and periodicals during the Russo-Japanese War in 1904, the San Francisco Earthquake in 1906, and the Mexican Revolution in 1914.   His photographs were also published in books such as The People of the Abyss (1903) about the plight of the poor in London’s East End; and The Cruise of the Snark (1911), which chronicled the ill-fated two-year voyage across the Pacific that London and his wife Charmian took in a sailing ship that he designed.  Now located in London’s albums in the Huntington Library and negatives in a California State Parks collection, the photographs have been expertly restored and published with illuminating essays by a professor of English at the University of Texas and the curator of literary manuscripts at the Huntington.

The Fiddler in the Subway: The Story of the World-Class Violinist Who Played for Handouts and Other Virtuosic Performances by America’s Foremost Features Writer by Gene Weingarten
818.54 WEI

Gene Weingarten has a genius for discovering who people really are, and then making his readers feel like they, too, have gotten to know the person described in his articles. Weingarten is the features writer for the Washington Post, and this collection gathers together many of his favorite articles from years past. The title chapter describes the experiment conducted by Weingarten and internationally famous violinist  Joshua Bell, in which Bell played the violin in a Washington, D.C., subway station, for spare change—just to see how many people would recognize his extraordinary talent. It’s worth reading the book just to find out what happened… but it’s also well worth reading for the many other character portraits that emerge—portraits of small towns like the one named the “armpit of America,” the children’s performer The Great Zucchini (and the true facts of his life), and Weingarten’s own father and son.

A Householder’s Guide to the Universe by Harriet Fasenfest
640 FAS

A month-by-month calendar for basic tasks to do in the home, the garden, and the kitchen. April has entries on Spring Cleaning, Sowing Carrots, and The Story of Raw Milk, among others. May talks about Rain, Eating Dirt, and The story of Meat, and June covers Slugs Be Damned and The Alchemy of Jam-Making. An enjoyable and informative read.

Jar City by Arnaldur Indridason
FIC Arnaldur Indridason

An old man is found murdered in a flat in Reykjavik and Inspector Erlendur investigates in this dark, moody Icelandic mystery. Murders in Iceland are pretty rare, and Erlendur and his team end up muddling through the victim’s distant past to find answers to the murders. Seems the victim was a nasty piece of work who left a trail of death and genetic destruction behind. Erlendur himself has problems on the home front. Long divorced, his son is in rehab and his daughter is a drug addict who is now pregnant and owes money to some shady people.

Winner of the 2002 Nordic Crime Novel Award, this title should appeal to readers of Scandinavian crime novels and psychological police procedurals.

Extreme Brewing: An Enthusiast's Guide to Brewing Craft Beer at Home by Sam Calagione
641.873 CAL

The author’s Dogfish Head Brewery in Delaware is known for its brash and unique brews, such as Midas Touch (an ancient recipe from the 8th Century BC brewed with Muscat grapes, honey, and saffron) and Raison D’Être (Belgian-style brown ale brewed with beet sugar and raisins). Extreme Brewing includes home-brewing recipes for classic ales and lagers, but focuses on hybrid styles that also use fruits, vegetables, herbs and spices. Plenty of information is provided about equipment, ingredients, and techniques, as well as a section on food and beer pairings.

Parallel Play: Growing Up with Undiagnosed Asperger's by Tim Page
362.196858832 PAG

This straightforward and detailed memoir tracks the eccentric life of the author, who was in his 40s before being diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome. Sharing memories of his odd childhood and excruciating teenage years, Page shows that his keen intellect and creativity did not help when it came to awkward social situations – he had to read Emily Post’s Etiquette to understand why people behaved the way they did. He found contentment in music and silent films, and although these became obsessions Page went on to become the Pulitzer Prize-winning music critic for the Washington Post.