Books from the Past

I haven't touched this blog in a long time but I've had lots of thoughts about some of the books I've read.  I just never wrote them down here.   

After finishing "The Day the World Came to Town" by Jim Defede I wanted to write down several things that came to mind.  (Note: I wish I had written down my thoughts about the Space Oddyssey books by Arthur C. Clarke.  It all had to do with aliens and the failings of mankind and Advent and Christmas and sin and redemption.  But I can't remember!!)

So, I came back to this blog to record my thoughts about the book I finished today.  In doing so I found a bunch of entries for books that I read back in 2013 or before.  These were draft posts with no text. They were just place-holders until I could come back and write about each book.   I don't know why I never wrote the posts.  After deleting two or three of these draft place-holders I realized I should at least record the names of the books here. I can't remember reading some of them so I really want to find out what they were all about.

These are in no particular order.  I've listed the date that I made the draft post, but I have no idea when I actually did read these books.  I do know that I DID, in fact, read them.

Life Below Stairs: True Lives of Edwardian Servants by Alison Maloney  February 2013

Period 8 by Chris Crutcher,  April 29, 2013

Cat Daddy: How the World's Most Incorrigible Cat Taught Me About Life, Love, and Coming Clean by Jackson Galaxy  May 4, 2013

 Smile by Raina Telgemeier  April 30, 2013  

This is a graphic novel that was insanely popular when I was working at the Tates Creek Branch. It really is a good book and was followed by equally popular sequels.

 

Temple Grandin: How the Girl Who Loved Cows Embraced Autism and Changed the World 

by Sy Montgomery  April 29, 2013

 

Who Done It? Investigations of Murder Most Foul edited by Jon Scieszka March 2013

 

Father Gaetano's Puppet Catechism by Mike Mignola and Christopher Golden May 10, 2013

I only vaguely remember this book.  It sounds good!  It's an illustrated  novella.   Of course, the library no longer has this.

I Can't Complain: (All Too) Personal Essays by Elinor Lipman  May 13, 2013

 

The Bonze Bow by Elizabeth George Speare  May 25, 2013

After the Newbery Medal was announced that year I decided to start reading every single  Newbery winner.  I also have a memory of a friend of mine coming to the library with his grandson. They were looking for a historical novel to read for a school assignment. I recommended this book because it takes place in Jerusalem during the time of the Roman Empire.   My friend did not consider this a historical novel because it wasn't about a historical event.    I still haven't decided if a historical novel is determined by the events in the book or the setting. Hmm.

 

King of the Wind by Marguerite Henry June 7, 2013

 

Jacob Have I Loved by Katherine Patterson  June 23, 2013

 

Beyond by Graham McNamee June 25, 2013

 

The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey  June 25, 2013

 

The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare July 1, 2013

 

 Doll Bones by Holly Black  July 11, 2013

 

The Love Curse of the Rumbaughs by Jack Gantos  July 17, 2013

A very weird but good book.  One of the lesser-known Gantos books.

 

The Garden of My Imaan by Farhana Zia  July 26, 2013

About a Muslim middle school girl.  I loved this book.  I remember recommending it to one of my young Muslim patrons.  She also loved it and checked it out multiple times. I believe that she really was happy finding a book about someone like her.  💙

The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman  August 8, 2013

 

Butter by Erin Jade Lange   August 11, 2013

 

The View from Penthouse B by Elinor Lipman  August 27, 2013

 

 

Looking at the dates from these books I notice that they are in chronological order.  Did I actually read that many books that summer?!  I usually don't read that fast!  

But many of these are young adult or juvenile novels. I also was probably trying to read as much as I could because of the Summer Reading Program.   Too bad that the library has quit using reading logs.  Keeping track of reading is not a component anymore.  One less headache for the librarians, but too bad for people like me.  It was motivating for me.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Day the World Came to Town

 

by Jim Defede

July 25, 2024

 

 

This book was published in 2002 and is about the town of Gander,  Newfoundland.   Gander (population just under 12,000 in 2021) hosted more than 6,000 stranded passengers after their planes were diverted to the town when airspace in the United States closed after the September 11, 2001 attacks.

Some thoughts after reading this book:

* It's an easy-to-read piece of cultural history. Defede reports the events that happened that terrible day but most of the book concerns what happened in the days after in the small Canadian city.   

*I've read disaster novels and end-of-the-world fiction that paint a depressing and scary picture of how people would act after a catastrophic event.  I'm specifically thinking of books like Ashfall by Mike Mullin.  Society quickly divided itself into groups or gangs. Surviving the devastation of the volcano was nothing compared to surviving the danger posed by other people.   I was happy to have a true story of a town that happily and generously embraced the stranded passengers.  It's probably apples and oranges to compare a post-volcano apocalypse to a travel crisis.  But it still gives me such hope to know that people actually did open their hearts that week in 2001.

*People use the term "9/12" or "September 12" as a way to refer to the unity and love that was on display in New York and around the world after the devastating day of September 11.  Fred Rogers' "Look for the helpers" is another phrase that comes to mind.  I have a fascination of looking at photos of people helping people in the aftermath of the attacks.  "Where was God?" is another phrase or question I have heard people ask about evil and 9/11.  I answer if you want to know where God was on that day look at the strangers helping each other .  One of the passengers quoted by author Defede says, "Can we have some of that unity without the pain that caused the unity?  I don't think that's too much to ask."

 

 *Would we still be able to have a "September 12" today?  The above quote continues: "...But evidently it is. We've lost the ability to come together in America and I'm worried about the future. I don't know how we move forward in any kind of harmony."

Another passenger is quoted: "I'm back to feeling like it is a miracle what those people did, the way they trusted people and the way they took us in...I just can't imagine it would be as easy to do that today.  Newfoundlanders probably haven't changed a bit, but I've been beaten back a little bit in the last few years, you know, with politics and the meanness of things."

 

*I had a similar hopeful feeling in 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic and shut-down.  Small stories of people creating a mini-parade of cars past the house of a quarantined birthday boy; lunches served in communities for out-of-school children; free online concerts to help distract us.... just a few minor examples of ways that people reached out to each other.  There was a sense of community in 2020 that helped bring us closer. But, in 2020 there was also lots of division: people fighting mask-mandates; anti-vax and anti-science sentiments; election year chaos and racial hate.  Is it apples and oranges again to compare treatment over a few days of stranded passengers during a scary time to a whole year of uncertainty?   Maybe it's instant communication that makes the difference?  Social media allows everyone to share their opinions, no matter how stupid or hateful.  I was interested to learn that there were anti-maskers and pandemic deniers during the 1917 flu epidemic.  Was it worse in 2020?  Maybe it was more easily reported because of instant communication.

*"Try That In A Small Town" is the name of a 2023 song by Jason Aldean.   

"Well, try that in a small town / See how far ya make it down the road / Around here, we take care of our own....full of good ol' boys raised up right / If you're looking for a fight / Try that in a small town."

What Aldean promises of his small town is the opposite of what happened in the small town of Gander. I don't think any of the stranded passengers were looking for a fight. They weren't there to "sucker punch somebody on a sidewalk" or "carjack an old lady at a red light".  The "Plane People", as they were called, were needy and hurting.  The small town of Gander responded with love.  

Is that the difference?  A community response to those in need versus a community response to someone bringing violence?   Aldean believes that in a small town, "we take care of our own"   but in Gander, they took care of their neighbors no matter who they were or where they were from.

Apple and oranges because of the players involved or because of the atmosphere of the time? The events in Gander took place in 2001. Jason Aldean is writing in 2023.   Are people still capable of kindness to strangers?

*One more note...  among other animals on board the planes were a few bonobos that were being transported to Ohio.  Author Jim Defede refers to these apes as monkeys at least 12 times! He usually calls them "bonobo monkeys".  That alone made me deduct a star from my rating of the book! 😤

Additonally (although not the fault of Defede), the audiobook narrator kept pronouncing the word as BONE-uh-bo instead of bo-NO-bo.  😬

 

I highly recommend this book.  It's not a literary masterpiece, but the events of the book are worth reading about.

The Motion of Puppets

by Keith Donohue
August 23, 2017


This book was on a horror display in the library. Of course the title and cover art caught my eye.  A big slow moving at first, but the story was compelling and as I got further in I couldn't stop.

Kay and Theo are living temporarily in Quebec while she works for a street circus and he translates a biography of Edweard Muybridge.   The old city is charming, especially its old buildings and shops.  One in particular, The Quatre Mains, fascinates Kay.  It is full of puppets and old toys.  Kay visits every day to see the old aboriginal puppet in the window.   But the store is never open, so all she can do is peer through the window into the darkness of the shop.  One night, while walking home from the circus, Kay notices a light on in the shop.  She is delighted to find the door open and enters to explore.  She is never seen again.  The book alternates between Theo's quest to find his missing wife and Kay's new consciousness as one of the Quatre Mains puppets.

The book is categorized as horror; occult fiction; and supernatural fiction.  I find that it's hard to pin down so easily.  It's a love story, a fantasy, at times a macabre story, supernatural, gothic, occult, and only a bit horrifying.   It is a horror novel in the same way that Ray Bradbury's books are horror.  To me it had a little bit of a Bradbury vibe.

I enjoyed this immensely.  It's kind of funny - the chapters dealing with the life of the puppets reminded me of books I used to read as a child - Five Dolls in a House or Five Dolls and the Duke  - in a macabre way.

The Big Dark

by Rodman Philbrack
January 2016

The Big Dark by Rodman Philbrick
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is a disaster book - one of the type I usually call "end-of-the-world" books. That description doesn't completely fit this book, but the characters experience the end of the world as they know it.
Because of a massive solar flare all electricity on the planet failed. Even flashlights and oil powered generators are dead. The magnetic field of the earth has been thrown off by the flare. So this is the story of how a small town in New Hampshire deals with the crisis. I enjoyed this. It was a quick read and one that kids in middle school and up will like. Rodman Philbrick has written two Newbery Honor books (Freak the Mighty and The Mostly True Adventures of Homer P. Figg ). I didn't feel that The Big Dark was award worthy. But, still an enjoyable kid's science fiction book.


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The Red Sun

by Alane Adams
November, 2015

Alane Adams is a first time author and philanthropist and her The Red Sun is first in a series called Legends of Orkney, published by Spark Press.

"SparkPress is an independent boutique publisher delivering high-quality, entertaining, and engaging content that enhances readers’ lives, with a special focus on female-driven work."

My library came to purchase this book because of personal contact with the author. She is an advocate of literacy and has agreed to present programs for us in Lexington. One of the exciting features of partnering with the author on this book is the related game BattleKasters. It is a virtual card game. Players download an app to their devices. Each time a player finds one of the game beacons (strategically located in various places around town) he can access a new card. Cards can be used to cast spells, defend, provide wisdom and other things needed for completing the adventure. I don't know what the goal actually is - we cannot play until we get the beacons and set them up this summer. Such a great idea.


The book itself is ok. It's a familiar storyline - a boy has lived to his adolescence without knowing that he is descended from a line of magical beings. In this case it's twelve year old Sam who is a descendant of Odin and a witch. Good and Evil wars within his mind and heart. Once the witches discover that he has been living in Midgard, they work to bring him back to Orkney and to his destiny as a witch. But Sam is also a Son of Odin and he knows that this is his true destiny. But the power of the evil witches is attractive and causes a war in Sam's mind.


Although some have called The Red Sun a Harry Potter type story, the front cover blurb calls this book a Percy-Jackson-meets-Norse-Mythology. That's a good description, for it's more similar to Percy than to Harry. The writing is fine, but nothing special. The characters are fairly wooden and typical. Still, this ends up being an exciting story and will interest kids.

My main objection is the two young female characters. They are pretty worthless and are often described as being saved or carried by one of the guys. The Legends of Orkney needs a little Hermione.

A Christmas Homecoming

by Anne Perry
December 4, 2015

Each year I choose a couple of Anne Perry's Christmas mysteries to read.  They are novellas and feature peripheral characters from the Monk and the Pitt series.  They're usually simple little mysteries and often take place in a "locked room" situation.  In this case the characters are snowed in at a country estate. No one can leave and the police can't come in to solve the crime.

This year's choice was actually a blind pick. I closed my eyes and just pointed to one on the shelf.  Turns out, it's centered around the novel Dracula!

Joshua and Caroline Fielding, from the Pitt series and the rest of a company of actors have arrived at an estate in Whitby to produce and present a play based on the "new book" by Bram Stoker.
The playwright is an amateur - Alice Netherington, the daughter of a wealthy benefactor of the theatre.  None of the actors relish the task and all consider the play to be poorly written.  But in order to receive funding for the next season in London, it must be done.  A small production simply for an audience of friends and neighbors. Even so, it's a little unrealistic that Joshua and Co. plan to learn the script, rehearse the play and design lighting and sets in a week's time.

Still, I really enjoyed the Dracula theme.  The mystery itself is almost inconsequential. It's the setting and season that drive these Christmas mysteries.  A Christmas trifle.

The Name of the Star

by Maureen Johnson
Februrary 5, 2015

The Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Although this book was published in 2011 I had not really noticed it. Finally, several days ago,I noticed the subject tracing in the library's catalog:  Boarding Schools; London; Murder; Ghosts. What? How could this have escaped me all these years.

Rory Deveaux moves with her parents to England from Louisiana and enrolls in London's Wexford boarding school. Around this same time strange murders begin to happen in the area around the school.  The victims have all been murdered in the same manner as the victims of Jack the Ripper.

The book reminded me a little bit of Jonathan Stroud's Lockwood & Co. series. What a fun read. I look forward to the next two: "The Madness Underneath" and "Shadow Cabinet."


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