Silk Parachute by John McPhee is the most recent collection of matchless and masterful non-fiction essays from this most astute of observers. No matter what falls beneath his gaze, McPhee shows you the whole thing. Whatever it is he’s looking at, you see it all. You see the outside, and the inside, and you look through it and beyond it all at the same time. You see it isolated, rare, worthy of independent consideration, but you also see it connected, vital, thriving and contributing to something larger. I can’t tell you how McPhee does this. I can only tell you that there’s nothing else that even comes close.

In Silk Parachute we find representative examples of the author’s thematically varied work. The title essay, at only four pages, encapsulates the author’s childhood. Season on the Chalk looks at northwestern European history and culture through the lens of geology. Other essays review McPhee’s career. Warming the Jump Seat is a prequel of sorts to his book The Headmaster, and in Checkpoints he turns his analytical eye toward his own writing process and lauds the scrupulous fact-checking that was undertaken by Sara Lippincott before any of the author’s words saw print. Spin Right and Shoot Left sees McPhee put his skill as a sports-writer to work to explore lacrosse, and Rip Van Golfer finds the author turning his attention to golf once again after an extended period away from the game. This is a sensational collection that illuminates the well known and the unknown, the over-thought and the barely-considered, tiny moments and the grandest triumphs with equal clarity and skill. 

When you’ve finished Silk Parachute, read all of McPhee’s essays. Read Giving Good Weight — McPhee’s account of the community that develops in and around the farmers’ markets in New York City. Read A Sense of Where You Are — the finest sports book ever written — about Bill Bradley’s college basketball career at Princeton. Read Levels of the Game, in which McPhee describes — shot for shot — a tennis match between Arthur Ashe and Clarke Graebner, and builds a biography of both players into his account of the unfolding match. Read McPhee on sports, and read him on the environment and geology, in works such as The Control of Nature and Annals of the Former World. These titles are among the most exceptional in our collection, and are a worthy set of final recommendations as Highly Recommended ceases publication.

John Jewitt – Administration Office

Thou art the Black Rider. Go thee out unto the world. So says Death to teenage Lisabeth Lewis in the beginning of Jackie Morse Kessler‘s Hunger when she answers the door one day, right in the middle of attempting to kill herself. He glibly informs her that he has chosen her to be Famine, one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

The author strikes a careful balance between cleverness in having her main character (who has anorexia) represent Famine, and a sincere concern for sensitively handling the topic at hand. Engaging, funny, touching, real…well, as real as a book about the Four Horsemen of The Apocalypse can be.

"The entire purpose of the book — indeed, of all of the Riders of the Apocalypse books — is to raise awareness of issues such as self-injury and eating disorders and bullying." This is how the author responded to a Wall Street article claiming YA fiction’s darker side may make the wrong impressions on particularly vulnerable teens. Jackie Morse Kessler set aside a portion of proceeds to be donated to the National Eating Disorders Association.

Turning to consider Lucille by Ludovic Debeurme, I was a bit skeptical about a graphic novel tackling the issues of anorexia nervosa and depression, but now I feel bad about my initial doubts, especially since I’m pretty new to the world of graphic novels and didn’t really have much room to pre-judge. If anything, this type of medium lends a touching vulnerability and aching awareness of just how hard it is to be young and suffering from such debilitating diseases as anorexia and depression. Add to that the fact that these two teenagers wind up falling in love, and you get even more heartbreak…an amazing story told in a way completely new to me!

Warning: Lucille is most definitely not for everyone, as some of the sex scenes are pretty graphic and the book deals with mature issues. But age-appropriateness aside, this is well worth your read!!

Angie Engles – Central Branch

From this vantage point, Manhattan was simply so improbable, so wonderful, so obviously full of promise — that you wanted to approach it for the rest of your life without ever quite arriving. - Tinker Grey

It is New Year’s Eve 1937 and Katey Kontent and her housemate, Eve Ross, are anticipating all the flirting, the cocktails and "how they would start the evening with a plan of stretching three dollars as far as it would go." It is that fateful night, in a Greenwich Village jazz club that they meet Tinker Grey, an enigmatic man who changes their lives forever.

Theodore Grey, Tinker to friends, is from Massachusetts, attended Brown, and now works at the bank that his grandfather founded. Tinker exudes elegance; handsome in an understated way, with royal blue eyes. He lives his life by George Washington’s Rules of Civility, a book whose pages are heavily lined and constantly read. Wouldn’t such manners and niceties come naturally to someone like Tinker? "How the WASP’s loved to nickname their children after the workaday trades: Tinker, Cooper, Smithy….Maybe it was just a way of politely understating their predestination to having it all," Katey muses admiringly

Katey narrates her ascent from the secretarial pool to the cashmere and jewelled set of Manhattan and Long Island estates. Plucky, smart, with a keen sense of judgment, Katey navigates with skill and grace the treacherous sea of mores and manners of the pre-jet set of New York. As she meets friends with impeccable lineage and character, the memory of Tinker Grey continues to hover in the background and Katey finds herself hoarding every little bit of news about him. Amor Towles‘ elegant, witty, and graceful prose brings to life the black and white Manhattan of the 1930s, with men in fedora hats, women in satin and pearls, and limousines idling with smoke coming out of the tailpipes "like genies from a bottle."

Snappy and keen observations such as "slurring is the cursive of speech" and "most of us shell our days like peanuts" make this book a literary feast. Rules of Civility is also a book about the randomness of chance, the variability of love, and the options we choose, which will ultimately determine the course of our lives.

Cristina J. Lozare – Central Branch

On April 15, we will remember what happened 100 years ago, when the ship that couldn’t sink, did. After striking an iceberg, the Titanic began to sink and only 710 people were saved of the 2200 people on board. Nations mourned as they tried to make sense of the calamity. 

On December 19, 1997, James Cameron brought to life the tragic events that led to the sinking of the Titanic. His main characters were Rose DeWitt Bukater, a wealthy socialite, and Jack Dawson, a poor artist, who find themselves tied up in a forbidden love affair aboard the Titanic. He tells the story from Rose’s view as an old lady who travels to the salvage site of the Titanic and remembers the tragic events of that voyage. James Cameron pays close detail to the events from using actual blueprints of the ship to recreate the sets, to including actual people that were on the boat like Molly Brown, John Jacob Astor IV, and even Charles Joughin, the chief baker who was so drunk that he somehow survived the sinking,

In 2001, James Cameron took Bill Paxton and others deep into the ocean to explore the actual wreckage of the Titanic. Unlike other expeditions, this expedition was able to explore many areas of the boat that had been unreachable before. The filming took place in August and September, and there is a moment when James Cameron and his crew hear about the planes crashing into the Twin Towers on September 11. But most of the film is a visual journal of a man going to his sacred place and the discoveries he makes along the way. The film is also in book form.

So for the anniversary, explore the Titanic through the eyes of one of her passionate fans, James Cameron, in Titanic and Ghosts of the Abyss.

Robert Bates – Glenwood Branch

Garrison Keillor once remarked of the dour Norwegians who inhabited his mythic Lake Woebegone, that they were all Lutherans. “Even,” he quipped, “the Catholics.”

In Sweet Land though, Ali Selim’s gentle indie film about love coming to a taciturn young farmer, being Lutheran may not be enough for his new mail-order bride.

It’s 1920, and World War I is still fresh in the minds of Olaf Torvik’s Minnesotan neighbors. When the Norwegian-born wife he thinks has ordered arrives with the shocking admission that she is not only German, but a card-carrying socialist, Torvik’s rural community is scandalized.

But Olaf has a wheat crop to bring in. He needs the extra hands, German or not. And besides, there’s Inge’s sparkling eyes, that ravishingly curly hair and a feisty spirit which speaks to his own.

Charming and poignant, Sweet Land captures the quieter — more smoldering passion (so my Norwegian grandmother often told me) that Scandanavians, at times, can possess.

Aimee Zuccarini – East Columbia Branch

This book was first published in 1974 and I read it a few years later as a 7th grader. A few months ago I found the book and thought "Wow! That was one of my favorite books growing up." When I was told that we could write one last blog post, I decided to re-read this book and explore if I would feel the same way as an adult.

This story is about 9th grader Marcy Lewis, the 70s, and the dynamics between Marcy, her family, and peers. Marcy is overweight and VERY self-conscious about her appearance, as most young people are at this particular stage in life. Marcy will not participate in gym class because she will not change in front of the other girls. So each time she provides an excuse like, "The cat ate my gymsuit" or "my suit was stolen on the way to school."
  
A new English teacher, Ms. Finney, comes to school and introduces some different ways of thinking and approaching conflict. She helps the students become self-confident while teaching in innovative ways that encourage them to think outside the box. She even starts an after school club, which is great for both Marcy and the other students because it encourages them to express themselves, their thoughts, and feelings.

Marcy begins to believe in herself, make new friends, and see the world in a different way. When Ms. Finney is asked to leave, Marcy and her friends gather and try to create a strategy to help her. They are suspended — and dad hits the roof. Mom, on the other hand, begins to support Marcy.

I probably related with many of Marcy’s feelings growing up because I didn’t have the greatest relationship with my dad and was extremely self-conscious about my appearance and weight. So I can see why I liked this book so much then. I think the joy I found this time was because I was a teacher similar to Ms. Finney. I wanted students to experience different ways of learning and to embrace different forms of educational experiences. I thought outside the box and still do. I could never put my finger on what encouraged me to feel this way. I am sure there were many factors, but Ms. Finney was one of the first.

I hope you too like enjoy this wonderful book! Thank you for reading my blogs.

Christine Mancini – East Columbia Branch

We all deal with change differently — some of us avoid it like the plague, while others embrace it with gusto. The rest of us fall somewhere else on the spectrum. We are united, however, in the inevitability of change. Ready or not, it will come. On April 18th, Highly Recommended will reach it’s 1000th and final post. As a chapter comes to an end in the book review blogosphere, I would like to introduce you (and your children) to two books about surprise endings — arguably one of the more entertaining forms of change.

Let’s see. How to do this without spoiling it. Hmm. Ok. I’ll start with Wolves, by Emily Gravett. The story begins innocently enough, with Rabbit visiting the library to expand his horizons of the natural world. He selects a book about wolves. But, as Rabbit reads on about the habitats and dietary preferences of wolves, he begins to get a sinking feeling that his own world is about to change in a big way. I wouldn’t go so far as to say this is a parable of the pitfalls of paranoia, but the drama that unfolds breaks all kinds of walls and, I’ll admit, caused me to re-evaluate the relative safety of my own seemingly benign surroundings.

I Want My Hat Back, by Jon Klassen, also features a rabbit as one of the main characters. This rabbit, however, suffers not from paranoia, but from pretentiousness. He has done a very bad thing, and is about to learn a lesson about the relationship between cause and effect. In particular, he is about to find out what concerned, able-bodied bears do when their hats "go missing" and are subsequently found in the possession of what has traditionally been called a "thief."

The rabbits in these picture books come to similar ends, but anyone (young or old) who reads their stories will share an end of a different sort: smiles, giggles, and a hunger for more.

Dan Curry - Savage Branch

Thunder Soul is a documentary telling two stories about the Kashmere Stage Band from Kashmere High School, Houston, TX. The first story is about the band in the 1970s – playing top-quality funk, dancing on stage, and walking away with prizes while other bands were playing diluted swing music recycled from the 1950s. The band won national contests, brought prestige and pride to their school, and traveled the world to perform, visiting both Europe and Japan. The 70s come alive in these segments discussing the experiences of the band on tour and at school, and highlighting the students’ achievements.

The second story is about the Kashmere Alumni Stage Band, 30 members of the original group, reuniting and dusting off their instruments to play a concert for their teacher and mentor, the 92-year old "Prof" Conrad Johnson. As they gather in the band room still crowded with their trophies, we’re told that some of the returning band members haven’t played for 30 years. It is here that the movie is weakest. We need to see the neighborhood, and know where the people have been. There are moments when we long to understand something about the school. Despite this selective narrative, the movie tells the story that it chooses to tell so well that we’re carried along – mostly by the personality of Prof.

What shines here is the influence of Prof on his students – the power that a committed and engaged educator has to effect change on the students in his classroom. Prof told his students that they could be as good as any musicians in the nation. He let them play music that they liked and were interested in. He gave them the tools, training, and opportunity to excel, and clearly many of his students took him up on the offer. 30 years later they’re able to get back in performing shape and play four of his original compositions as their mentor looks on from the front row of the auditorium. Enjoy the trip back in time, and the heartfelt tribute of the band members to their teacher, in Thunder Soul.

John Jewitt – Administration Office

Detective John Luther leads a complicated life. For years his personal life has taken a back seat to his job, complete with the failed marriage and checkered job history of almost every police drama. But that is where the stereotype ends. What sets Luther apart is actor Idris Elba‘s (The Wire, The Office) piercing ability to add a tortured depth to his character. Add Luther’s uncanny power to instinctively "know" what is right and wrong about a crime scene and the suspects and you understand why the department is often willing to overlook his character flaws.

As the series unfolds, we begin to get the details of Luther’s marriage to the beautifully complicated Zoe (Indira Varma), who is trying to move on with her own life. While Luther is unable to do so…

Meanwhile we meet Alice, (Ruth Wilson) who Luther investigates for the murder of her parents. He knows that she committed the crime, yet is unable to prove it. At first the two battle wits and then Luther makes the questionable decision to work with her behind the scenes. Who better to know the mind of the depraved than one who has been there herself?

Is John Luther good, bad, or just tragically flawed? Watch the BBC’s Luther and decide for yourself.

Andrea Misner – Administration Office

To Timbuktu by Casey Scieszka and Steven Weinberg is a fantastic and light-hearted travelogue about two people, very much in love, who decide to travel the world together to pursue their artistic and scholarly interests. After meeting in Morocco during a study abroad in college, they decide to move to China to teach English after graduation. The two work their way through eight different countries before finally returning home to the United States. The couple experiences the ups of cultural immersion and authentic food, and the downs of homesickness and well, real sickness (namely food poisoning).

The book is unique in its format — while Scieszka writes a hilarious narrative, the experiences they share really come to life with Weinberg’s illustrations. Every page artistically weaves words and images together to create something somewhere between a graphic novel and a standard novel.

Perhaps it’s the old ESL teacher in me, but I love it when you ask kids to give themselves English names and they choose “Mr. Boss” and “T-Pain.” Hearing about Casey and Steven’s travels together will make you want to see the world like never before — the good and the bad. Mostly hilarious, sometimes sad, and always entertaining, To Timbuktu: Nine Countries, Two People, One True Story brings out the spirit of adventure in us all.

For more on their travels and to keep up on what the pair are doing these days, check out www.allthewaytotimbuktu.com

Aryn Dagirmanjian – Miller Branch