Information, Answers & Reviews

Some of the best fiction books take a situation of which you have very little first-hand knowledge and through sympathetic characters and solid storytelling create some sort of understanding of what living that life would be like.  Swati Avasthi's first Young Adult novel about domestic violence and abuse, Split, is a great example. Avasthi is able to allow the reader to care about the main character and his struggles with both the violence of his father and the legacy he is hoping to avoid.

Teenage Jace leaves his parents’ house with almost nothing after a particularly brutal fight with his father.  He sets off from Chicago with his camera and the New Mexico address of his older brother who disappeared several years earlier.  Jace's brother Christian is less than thrilled to see him with a bruised face despite having come from and escaped the same back ground.  Their transition is rocky and a lesser book would have trivialized this time. Instead their difficulties felt genuine.

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My husband, who seldom brings books home from the library, surprised me recently with this one.  I laughed and said, “I’m not that desperate” but after dinner I found myself browsing through the pictures. But soon I was drawn into the writing.  If you’re a Downton Abbey fan, you’ll love this book and if not, you’ll probably at least sample the series after reading it.

The World of Downton Abbey is a social history of the times--Edwardian England to shortly after World War 1.  In eight essays, Fellowes describes life then.  She also gives an idea of how many people worked in service in those years—more than in farming or mining.  Families would rejoice when a child got hired by a wealthy landowner, especially one as highly regarded as an earl. Not only would the person have a secure job, but the family would no longer have to provide housing, clothing or food as they would have needed to if the person worked as a clerk.

This book is full of interesting facts about working in service at the beginning of the last century. There was a network of downstairs folk who spread news of job openings from place to place and also kept a black-list of rich people who mistreated their help.

Also, covered are corsets—just know you are very lucky to be spared the agony of wearing one. Even Daisy the kitchen maid had to don this straitjacket under her uniform. A woman in those days could not take hers off by Read more »

High Noon is one of the classic westerns of all time. The story of a town marshal waiting for the arrival of a band of outlaws arriving on the noon train with just one plan, to kill the marshal. Played by Gary Cooper, the marshal finds little support from the citizens of the town. He has the option to leave but a duty to stay. In Outland we travel in time to the future. We are on a remote mining facility on one of Jupiter's moons. Once there, a newly arrived marshal finds evidence of a major drug problem that endangers the lives of all the workers. As the evidence mounts we soon find the marshal waiting for the arrival of a band of assassins arriving on the next earth shuttle with just one plan, to kill the marshal. Played by Sean Connery, the marshal finds little support from the citizens, administration and works of the facility. He had an option to leave, but a duty to stay. Read more »

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A few days ago I came across two Lifetime movies adapted from Patricia Cornwell’s Win Garano series. The first movie is called “At Risk” and the second movie is called “The Front”. I have not read the books but as far as the movies go they are pretty good. They follow that classic mystery narrative: A murder, an investigation, an innocent person taken into custody, a short love story, the resolution and the end.

Since Patricia Cornwell’s books focus on crimes, there are some bloody and violently graphic scenes and this may not be suitable for all viewers but it may be perfect for those mystery lovers out there. The library has one copy of each dvd. Also, she has one of the best interactive websites that I’ve seen in a long time.