The Known World by Edward Jones

Do I laugh or do I weep?
Review by Deya
Special Program Coordinator
Assistant Librarian

Have you ever finished a book and not known whether to laugh or weep? There is a satisfaction that swells your torso for having finished the book but an underlying sadness at the same time. This can be true of happy books and sad books, funny books and scary books. When it comes to this book, I'm not quite sure which of those categories it falls under. It is simply life, so it is all those things and none of them.

I cannot say this story takes place in such and such a year. It bounces around and I find myself in the 1840s, 50s, 60s, and perhaps a bit beyond. And there are so many characters that I cannot pick one and say,  "This is who the book is about." According to the back of the book, it is about Henry, a free black man who owns slaves. But Henry is dead before page 20. As he is dying, we meet his wife, his former owner, his wife's future husband, his wife's future lover, his teacher, his overseer, his overseer's wife, his father Augustus, his mother, and a slave woman who is crazy as the result of a mule's kick to the head. And that is just to name a few. 

The amazing thing about this book is that all these people have stories and we get to hear them and yet it is not the length of a Michener novel. We get to know the daughter of the slave who carves her a wooden doll because we get to hear that in her 90s she has the doll in her deathbed, we hear her say the same words she uttered at four years old, clutching the doll as a child and an old woman. Jones creates a sense of reality by connecting the characters to their pasts and their futures, letting us peep into who they are 60 years down the road, what they were like 10 years ago. These people lived.

The Known World is about things we can't quite wrap our minds around, things we don't want to admit to but that are real and happened. It is about fallibility and love despite it. There are chases and murders, fantastic journeys, tragedy and despair, laughter and souldeep love. Perhaps you will laugh, perhaps you will cry. But you'll have to read the book first to find out.

 Good for:
A full meal book experience
Reading in front of people so they'll think you're smart (It won a Pulitzer, after all)
Adult book discussions
Or just because

Masterpiece by Elise Broach

Boy Meets Beetle
Review by Deya
Special Program Coordinator
Assistant Librarian

        
I picked up this book at a Barnes and Noble in Georgetown, DC. Before I get into the book, I need to explain the experience.

It was the first book store I'd been in since starting back to work in the library. It's a bit frustrating when you realize that the book store shopping experience has been turned into the "What does the library need that I'd like to buy, read, and donate" experience.

It used to be that I could just pick out whatever I wanted but now I work in a place with over 20,000 books and my conscience won't let me get just any ol' book. The 20,000 books part is where the iPhone browsing capabilities come in handy- I can be in a book store in DC, browsing the shelves and also browsing the library catalog to see what we do and do not already have in our collection.

I am in charge of the Summer Reading Program so when I go to a book store my first stop is Juvenile Fiction. I also love reading these books period. They help me reconnect with my childhood, pull me away from the fact that I have to pay for my own visits to the dentist and are a welcome break from the real world of life as a "grown up". They can be angsty, like I was in high school, or calming, which I get from Laura Wilder. They can be about many things- farm life, family, training horses and, in the case of Elise Broach's "Masterpiece", friendship and art. 

Reminiscent of the "Redwall" series and countless other books with sentient animals, the main character is a beetle named Marvin who lives with his family under the sink of a New York City apartment. The family that lives there is...nuts for the most part. However, the son from another marriage is a quiet, kind boy named James who anyone would want to be friends with, including a beetle.

Marvin uses James' pen and ink set to draw the boy a birthday present, a tiny Albrecht Durer-esque rendering of the view from James' bedroom window. This tiny gesture of friendship and love is the match that ignites a chain reaction, leading the two "boys" to The Met and the apprehension of the Durer art thief. 

Anything ART has always fascinated me and the idea of a beetle meticulously copying a Durer, both for himself and for friendship, pulled me into the story. There's enough mystery to keep you reading to the last page and if that's not enough there are fabulous illustrations by Kelly Murphy. And if THAT's not enough there are questions and answers with the author and illustrator in the back of the book, right after discussion questions to use if reading the book with folks it is ostensibly for, that is, 9-12 year olds.

This book can fulfill a ton of reading needs:
Just for Fun
Reading with your son, daughter, niece, nephew, grandchildren
Escape back into preadolescence
Book discussion group (pre-teen or teen)
Or if you really love art and therefore like anything remotely related