Book Review: Still Alice by Lisa Genova

Still Alice is a first novel by former neuroscientist Lisa Genova. Genova uses her background in brain development and functioning to insightfully and creatively craft a novel that explores the heartbreak of Early Onset Alzheimer’s Disease (EOAD).
Dr. Alice Howland is a fifty-year-old professor of linguistics at Harvard University. She’s married with three grown children and has a very successful and fulfilling career. When she starts forgetting how to get home, missing classes, and overlooking deadlines she realizes that something is wrong. For months Alice tries to ignore her increasingly abnormal memory problems, but when she forgets to catch a flight to a conference she decides to see a doctor.
Eventually diagnosed with Early Onset Alzheimer’s Disease, Alice negotiates with her family and colleagues to maintain as normal a schedule and a life as she can. Genova uses each chapter to represent a month in Alice’s ordeal and this linear structure works effectively to show the reader how EOAD is a progressive disease. The characters are engaging and sympathetic and we come to feel forlorn along with Alice as she struggles with losing her career and status as a Harvard professor and forgetting her husband and children.
Still Alice is a thoughtful and simple novel that successfully portrays the nightmare of living with dementia. Genova’s skill at creating realistic characters is vital in showing that Alzheimer’s victims are not to be feared, but to be treated with love and patience.
- Anbolyn (Downtown)

In case you missed it: Arizona Opera Orchestra Musicians program

The Arizona Opera Orchestra did an outstanding job engaging an audience of all-ages (from babies to seniors) Wednesday night at the Hamilton Library. They made classical music accessible & understandable by collecting questions on notecards and then answering between pieces. After the concert, they interacted with the audience who appreciated seeing the instruments up-close and speaking with the musicians. It was also inspiring to see them encourage the young musicians in the audience! The musicianship was superb and the quartet played with cohesion & clarity. After a long day of work, it was rejuvenating to hear the confluence of music and witness the performers' passion for music & connecting to their audience. In addition, the quartet was very affable, professional and added some nice touches of musician humor. I highly recommend this quartet as they are a perfect fit for venues ranging from public libraries to concert halls. We are thankful for the group in bringing some of the heights of classical music "out of the pit" to the flatlands of Chandler. -Ted L.

Audiobook Review: The Keys to the Street by Ruth Rendell

The English homeless wander about engagingly in The Keys to the Street by Ruth Rendell, read by Simon Russell Beale, and reviewed by Star Lawrence.

I guess Ruth Rendell is a pretty famous British mystery writer, but this is only my second “listen” by her. She has a way of sort of rambling, giving great descriptions you can lay out in your head, and tipping in neat little clues as she goes along. I am becoming a fan.
In this one, we follow a nice young woman and dog lover (big with me) named Mary Jago, who is homeless herself because she has left her overbearing boyfriend because, among other things, he was disparaging about her having donated bone marrow to a stranger. She doesn’t take to the streets, though, because for one thing she has a cool job (you’ll see) and for another, she has a long-term housesitting gig, complete with a wonderful little dog named (sounded like) Gooshi.

Gooshi leads to Bean, the dog walker and former amanuensis to an S-M freak (see how Rendell sneaks in interesting little things you’d hardly expect from a staid British writer?). Bean is quite the schemer and is always out and about in the lovingly described squares, parks, and private gardens around Mary’s new abode—and where a murderer lurks, impaling the homeless on the pointy fences that seem to surround every house. Nice/nasty….that’s how Rendell likes it.

Into this mix comes the recipient of the bone marrow Mary donated—a mysterious, pale, frail sort—and an oafish, crack-smoking thug named Hob.

Hey—wait—back up the CD…Hob knows the recipient? How can that be?

The reader, Simon Russell Beale, speaks in funny little bursts that suit the story.

Anyhow, you will have a fine time hanging out in these lush environs and trying to figure out how serial murder works in England. I know I did.

Star Lawrence owns the health humor blog, Health’s Ass, at http://healthsass.blogspot.com/, now available for the Kindle. She can be reached at jkellaw@aol.com.

Inauguration

Tomorrow the country will celebrate the inauguration of our new president, Barack Obama. There will be a swearing in, speeches, glitzy parties, concerts and a parade. Much work has gone into the planning of this day. This leads me to wonder; what were inaugurations like in the past? The following items will give you an idea:

Books
The Beginning Hour: The Inaugural Address of President John F. Kennedy by Thurston Clarke

Hail to the Chief!: The Inauguration Days of Our Presidents by Glenn D. Kittler

Lincoln’s Greatest Speech: The Second Inaugural by Ronald C. White

Presidential Inaugurations by Paul F. Boller, Jr.

U.S. Presidential Inaugurations by Andrew Santella


DVD
The Speeches Collection: Vol. 1
(includes the inaugural speeches of John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan)

Gothic Fiction

Secrets, gloomy houses, manipulation of the innocent, madness and possible ghosts – what’s not to love about a gothic novel? If you’re in the mood for a dark and menacing adventure, try one of these ominous titles:

The Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Faber

Dracula by Bram Stoker

Fingersmith by Sarah Waters

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

The Glass of Time by Michael Cox

The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

The Meaning of Night by Michael Cox

The Observations by Jane Harris

Possession by A.S. Byatt

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield

The Turn of the Screw by Henry James

An American Hero

Eighty years ago this week, Martin Luther King, Jr. was born in Atlanta, Georgia. He would go on to inspire the world with his passionate appeals for peace and equality before he was tragically killed in 1968. If you’d like to learn more about this American hero check out some of these items that are available in the library.

Books
At Canaan’s Edge: America in the King Years, 1965-68 by Taylor Branch

The Dream: King at Washington by Drew D. Hansen

Going Down Jericho Road: The Memphis Strike, Martin Luther King’s Last Campaign by Michael K. Honey

I Have a Dream: Writings and Speeches That Changed the World by Martin Luther King, Jr.

Martin Luther King, Jr. by Marshall Frady

Parting the Waters: America in the King Years, 1954-63 by Taylor Branch

Partners to History: Martin Luther King, Jr., Ralph David Abernathy, and the Civil Rights Movement by Donzaleigh Abernathy

Pillar of Fire: America in the King Years, 1963-65 by Taylor Branch

To the Mountaintop: Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Sacred Mission to Save America, 1955-1968 by Stewart Burns

Why We Can’t Wait by Martin Luther King, Jr.

DVDs
Citizen King

Martin Luther King, Jr.: I Have a Dream

Audiobook Review: Scarecrow by Matthew Reilly

Who can afford the movies? If you like big “whammies” (what moviefolk call explosions and crazy stunt gags) go to the library and get the CD version of Scarecrow, by Matthew Reilly. This is a series, I take it, though this was my first outing with this crazy Marine with scars vertically across both eyes making him look like a…Scarecrow.

The books starts out over-the-top so you know what you’re in for—and then amps it up and up and up, until I was jumping around my bed, scaring my animals, and yelling, ‘Nuh-uh!!” and “Go, go.”

In this one, Scarecrow is on a hit-list of people evil financiers (we can relate to that as the new enemy, right?) want taken out by some bounty hunters, one of whom is called The Black Knight. Turns out the Black Knight…well, I won’t spoil it for you…let’s just say, he’s quite a character, too.

Scarecrow and his merry crew get into totally, completely, and utterly unbelievable jams and zip out the other side. Let me just mention a few tantalizing buzzwords—missiles, sharks, guillotine, sinking super tanker, pistol versus fighter plane, afterburner as torture device, and my favorite--Jeep catapulted off an aircraft carrier. If the latter ever comes up in your life—here’s a hint—jump out before it hits the water.

Scott Sowers is a good, solid reader, nothing fancy, but he doesn’t get in the way of the action, either.

You may stop reading my reviews, but sue me, my tastes are eclectic. Some days, English comedy of manners, the next, Scarecrow! How come these guys can get shot, burned, bitten, shattered and can make do with a Tylenol?

You mean it’s just fiction?

Nuts.

Star Lawrence owns the health humor blog Health’s Ass, now available for Kindle. Go to http://healthsass.blogspot.com. She can be reached at jkellaw@aol.com.

Baby, It's Cold Outside

January is the perfect month to contemplate the nature of cold. Here in Arizona our weather is thankfully bearable, but the Arctic is another story. Read about the men and women who have explored the coldest regions on earth and how global warming is now affecting these regions. Don’t forget to have a cup of hot tea or cocoa nearby while you read!

Ada Blackjack: A True Story of Survival in the Arctic by Jennifer Niven

Arctic Crossing: A Journey Through the Northwest Passage and Inuit Culture by Jonathan Waterman

Arctic Dreams: Imagination and Desire in a Northern Landscape by Barry Lopez

Conquering the Impossible: My 12,000-Mile Journey Around the Arctic Circle by Mike Horn

A Fabulous Kingdom: The Exploration of the Arctic by Charles Officer

Fatal North: Adventure and Survival Aboard USS Polaris by Bruce Henderson

The Future of Ice: A Journey Into Cold by Gretel Ehrlich

High Latitudes: An Arctic Journey by Farley Mowat

Ice Bound: A Doctor’s Incredible Battle for Survival at the South Pole by Jerri Nielsen

Ninety Degrees North: The Quest for the North Pole by Fergus Fleming

North to the Night: A Year in the Arctic Ice by Alvah Simon

Race to the Pole: Tragedy, Heroism and Scott’s Antarctic Quest by Sir Ranulph Fiennes

Silent Snow: the Slow Poisoning of the Arctic by Marla Cone

South: the Endurance Expedition by Sir Ernest Shackleton

This Cold Heaven: Seven Seasons in Greenland by Gretel Ehrlich

Read "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" online

Did you know that you can read the F. Scott Fitzgerald short story, "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" for free online? It's available a variety of places, one of which is our Litfinder database (library card and PIN needed for at-home access). Search for the title "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" and click on Full-text to read the story.

The library currently owns one copy of the print version, available in Before Gatsby: the First Twenty-Six Stories.

Reading Ideas

Have our recently cold evenings motivated you to stay home cuddled up with a blanket and a good book? Do you need reading ideas for these chilly nights? I always turn to the “Best” lists compiled by several newspapers, websites and magazines at the end of every year, for inspiration. These are lists of some of the best literature and non-fiction published in the previous year. Here are a few to try:

Amazon Best of Books 2008

Barnes & Noble Best of Books 2008

Entertainment Weekly Best Books of 2008

Library Journal Best Books 2008

New York Times Notable Books of 2008

NPR Best Books of 2008

Publishers Weekly Best Books of the Year

Washington Post Best Books of 2008


If you are more a listener than a reader try:

Publishers Weekly Listen Up Awards: The Best Audios of 2008



Do you have a favorite book of 2008? We'd like to hear about it!

Masterpiece Classic

This month PBS begins a new season of Masterpiece Classic. The episodes will air in the Valley on Sundays at 9 p.m. on Channel 8. If you’d like to read the book before (or after) you see the movie the library has copies of all of the books whose adaptations will be shown this season.

Tess of the D’Urbervilles January 4-11

Wuthering Heights January 18-25

Sense and Sensibility February 1-8

Oliver Twist February 15-22

David Copperfield March 15-22

Little Dorrit March 29-April 26

The Old Curiosity Shop May 3

Audiobook Review: Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides

Boy, girl, immigrant, American, who knew, is theme in Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides, read by Kristoffer Tabori, and reviewed by Star Lawrence.

Even though Oprah recommended this book and it won a Pulitzer Prize, I liked it.

Turns out, the narrator of this genderbender family epic, Calliope Stephanides, later to become Cal, knew a lot about his family. This even led me to ask my sister if she remembers much anyone told us about our grandparents—we only had snatches, not an epic journey that carried them from Greece, to Turkey, to Detroit, to destiny itself, like Desdemona and Lefty Stephanides.

But they carry a secret under the surface and one that was to wrench Calliope/Cal’s life in a new direction at age 16.

This book is sometimes in the third person, sometimes the first person, but Eugenides does it seamlessly. It rollicks along, by turns fascinating, funny, and horrifying, as read by Kristoffer Tabori, a grumbly, dignified sort who does not overact the accents.

I confess I liked the first half better than the second. The story of Desdemona and Lefty’s escape from Greece prior to World War I was glorious and weirdly romantic and touching (there’s that “secret” again).

The one thing hanging fire was why Cal’s brother is named Chapter Eleven, apparently not a nickname and never explained. People were plunging up and down in the Depression melting pot, but no businesses went under around the time of the tot’s birth. Just quirky to be quirky, I concluded. The title, too, Middlesex, is an arch pun—their house is named that, but it could also refer to…the not-so-secret secret.

Do you ever stop to think what chromosomes lurk in your innards and link you down the ages to those who came before? And which—don’t forget—you are blithely squirting into your own kids? I never gave it much thought, either, not that we can do much about it. But this book made me think. . . opa. . . and feel like dancing.

Star Lawrence owns the health humor site, Health’s Ass at http://healthsass.blogspot.com/. She can be reached at jkellaw@aol.com.