Julia Glass gives us a second psychologically intricate novel, following her National Book Award-winning Three Junes. She even brings along the engaging expatriate Scotsman from her first novel, Fenno MacLeod, for a supporting role. In The Whole World Over, Fenno runs a book store in Manhattan’s West Village, where his life intersects with several fully developed secondary characters, as well as the main character, Charlotte "Greenie" Duquette Glazier.

Greenie is an accomplished pastry chef with a precocious four-year-old, George, a psychiatrist husband, Alan, and a dear friend, gay restaurateur, Walter. Walter’s recommendation of Greenie to be chef to the "larger-than-life" governor of New Mexico sets in motion a series of events and relationships that tests her marriage.

While they are making the many dubious decisions that determine their future, we get to know Walter, his erstwhile lovers and his nephew Scott, who comes to New York to spend a pre-college year learning restaurant work. We learn more about Fenno of the bookstore, and Emily/Saga. Saga is a thirty-something woman who is trying to be independent following a memory-damaging accident several years ago. We meet her animal shelter friends and her loving and supportive uncle, Marsden.

Glass kept me fully involved in the lives of these characters all the way through the moments when New York City is thrown into the maelstrom of the 9/11 attacks. Everyone seems to gravitate towards the people most important to them, behaving like migrating birds. Saga muses that "birds fly the whole world over but always, no matter what, find their way back home."

Glenwood Branch’s Contemporary Fiction Book Club will discuss The Whole World Over on June 2, 2008 at 7:00 pm.

Barbara Cornell – Glenwood Branch

Big Love is an HBO series about a man from Salt Lake City and his unconventional family. Bill Henrickson belongs to a polygamous Mormon sect, and lives a secret family life with his three wives and seven children. To the outside world, he is a local businessman who lives with his family in a small house and is friendly with the neighbors.

Bill’s extended family lives in the commune he left as a boy. He vowed never to return. Due to business necessities, he must learn to work with or against his father-in-law, the leader of the commune. The story evolves in interesting ways as Bill tries to live a "normal" life while dealing with his family.

This television series provides some insight into the communal and polygamous lifestyle, as well as the different groups within the Mormon church. In Big Love, one group doesn’t support polygamy, and looks down on those who do. The polygamists are divided between those who live on the commune and those who left it behind to try to live a more typical life. The show hints at current events and the backlash against polygamy in Utah.

But what I like best about this series are the different views of the family, which sticks together through the good and the bad. They all work with one another as they try to keep their secret.

Robert Bates – Glenwood Branch

Abundance is an appropriate title for Sena Jeter Naslund’s story of Marie Antoinette. France’s most infamous queen had an abundance of wealth, an abundance of scandal, and an abundance of tragedy and heartbreak ending with her violent death on the guillotine. This carefully researched and artistically written novel begins with the fourteen-year-old Austrian archduchess’ transformation from the youngest daughter of the formidable Empress Maria Theresa to the wife of the Dauphin of France (the future Louis XVI). There she is thrown into a court full of pomp, ritual, high expectations, few friends, and many enemies.

Told from the point of view of Marie Antoinette herself, Naslund paints the picture of a woman whose disappointing marriage dominates the first seven years of her life in France. Letters to and from her mother, family, and friends are scattered throughout the book, giving glimpses into the queen’s relationships. Descriptions of life in the French court at Versailles and the opulent setting in which the queen lived add depth to Marie Antoinette’s world. As the novel continues, Marie Antoinette’s life changes as she experiences motherhood, the deaths of children, infamous scandal, and the final years of her life in which she is removed from her place as queen and taken prisoner, forced to witness the horrors of the French Revolution.

Naslund is also the author of the critically acclaimed Ahab’s Wife, which was selected by Time Magazine in 1999 as one of the five best fiction books for that year.

Elizabeth Furr – Central Library

How delighted were my colleague Jean Salkeld and I to discover at an in-house book discussion that we had both read Eric Weiner’s Geography of Bliss. OK, as you can see in Jean’s entry, she read, I listened (I honestly do read; next entry, real book, I promise). I’m in full agreement with Jean about this book: it is not life-changing but very entertaining. I’ve been to a few places Weiner describes, and some of his observations are quite astute and humorous (those Swiss are orderly and efficient and smack of good do-beeism). The CD was fun to listen to. Weiner reads his own book, and he has that typical NPR-guy quality of reporting.

TANGENT ALERT Actually, to me there are three NPR-guy styles: 1. the educated weeny-voiced guy, who wouldn’t get a job on radio except for NPR; 2. the mumbling poet, you don’t quite know what he said, but can be sure it was profound; 3. and the ordinary guy with an ordinary voice who seems to be laughing a little too much at his own jokes but who you feel like you could meet in a coffee shop for a nice conversation. Weiner falls into that last category. END TANGENT

It seems like nice audiobook to listen to if you are taking a summer drive and want to take a little mental vacation to some exotic locales and mindsets (I can’t decide if the policy of Gross National Happiness of Bhutan or the Icelandic ideology that we can all reinvent ourselves because we are destined to fail would be more to my liking). Yes, there is the exploration of “what makes us happy,” but it comes off more as philosophy/psychology-lite; you really don’t have to think too hard about it, and more often than not you’ll be smiling at the conclusions we all already know.

Joanne Sobieck-Lingg – Central Library

What do the countries of Bhutan, Iceland, and Moldavia have in common? Perhaps not much, except that Eric Weiner, NPR foreign correspondent, visited them in researching his new book, The Geography of Bliss. Having heard of the World Happiness Database in Rotterdam, he begins his year-long journey in the Netherlands. Weiner’s travel experiences are humorous. Witness India for example, where he visits an ashram to find that his fellow attendees at a retreat are IT professionals who mistook the abbreviation "AOL" for "America Online" rather than the actual title "Alternative Other LIves". They attended the retreat anyway!

Nowhere does the author find a common happiness factor worldwide–not in climate, or even in a common language, since Switzerland has four official languages, and ranks higher than many other locales in the happiness database. Weiner does suggest that optimism breeds optimism and that the reverse holds true for citizens who have a pessimistic outlook. Perhaps not surprisingly, citizens of other lands do not view the United States as possessing an atmosphere of calm and tranquility. In several countries, citizens told the author that in their opinion, Americans were too busy doing several things at once to enjoy happiness.

Why not give yourself some "blissful" hours of reading and check out this look at world travel from a unique perspective?

My colleague in the Central Library’s Fiction Department, Joanne Sobieck-Lingg, will share some comments tomorrow about the audio version of Weiner’s book.

Jean Salkeld – Central Library

The British humorist George Mikes once said that “continental people have sex lives (while) the British have hot water bottles.”

Author and American expatriate, Meg Parker, couldn’t agree more. For the last ten years she has been married to Nigel Thorpe: a silly, self-centered and boorish Brit with a taste for sports bars, booze and quoting Shakespeare in the throes of passion! She may adore her two small children and her farmhouse in Lorraine, France, but slowly Meg is coming to the realization that the marriage may have run its course — especially after her editor calls to inform her that he has finally found a photographer to illustrate her book, L’Histoire Francaise.

But arrogant Jean Jacques Chabrol, a renowned French photographer all the way to his aquiline nose, haughty temperament and taste for good food and wine, has a different vision of Meg’s stuffy tome on the cultural history of the France she loves.

How will they ever survive not killing each other in that little Citroen as it makes its way from Van Gogh’s Arles to the Normandy beaches?

Nancy Coons, (best known for her NPR commentaries on French life and her articles in the famous foodie magazine Saveur), serves up a delectable tale replete with neat plot twists, historical details (did you know for instance that many of today’s finest French horses still descend from the Arabian blood of Nazir — Napoleon’s mythic mount at Marengo?), and of course only the best in gourmet sex.

Readers who wish to indulge in The Feasting Season and don’t mind the extra calories are guaranteed to have un grand moment!

Aimee Zuccarini – East Columbia Branch

Formerly affiliated with the Baltimore Police Department, Dana Kollmann dedicates her book, Never Suck a Dead Man’s Hand: Curious Adventures of a CSI, “to all the bugs I’ve loved before." She emphasizes separating fact from fiction, reminding the reader that what you watch on TV does not reflect what really happens at a crime scene. Kollmann’s voice is often saucy and witty as she narrates her experiences in the field. My favorite story hands down describes how her book got its title. The tale was somewhat gross and macabre, but also very funny.

Once a violent death has occurred and the police and forensics teams have performed their jobs and left the "scene," who gets rid of what’s left? Crime writer Gil Reavill had never been to real crime scene, so he signed on with Aftermath, Inc, a company which specializes in bio-remediation: the removal of bio-matter from scenes of murders, suicides, and unattended deaths. The stories in Aftermath, Inc.: Cleaning Up After CSI Goes Home, are told with dark humor, but also with compassion and respect for the victims and survivors. Reavill does not repress the morbid and grisly details. The founders of Aftermath, Inc. took on a job that few would ever want, but they are also seldom without work!! If you are at all squeamish, this is not the book for you.

Eve Olsen – Central Library

A book with a title like The Trillion Dollar Meltdown sounds like some sort of fictional potboiler, but it’s no such thing. This non-fiction book discusses the current near collapse of the credit markets.

According to the author, there are three causes of the problem. One is cheap money – the low interest rates borrowers have so greatly enjoyed for the past decade or so. Innovation, and (not surprisingly) greed are also involved.

The innovation was genuine and, at the beginning, it was actually a good thing. Basically, Wall Street figured out a way to “securitize” the mortgage market – an innovation that, over the years, has saved home buyers a bundle. It also made a bundle for Wall Street, which is where the greed comes in. Greed, of course, is always with us. The ability to act upon it without constraint is another matter.

The author explains how, over the past few decades, the mortgage industry evolved in a manner that allowed mortgage originators to write huge numbers of loans which would then be “securitized” and sold as bonds. Most were good loans, but too many were bad. The same goes for the bonds they were bundled into. Surprisingly, even the most dubious of these bonds (financial instruments dubbed “toxic waste”) could be sold to otherwise sophisticated buyers. After all, high risk translates into high yields. So the good times rolled along. Then, less than a year ago, reality made an inconvenient appearance and the bottom fell out of the credit markets.

Most people know that the credit markets are of critical importance. Who on earth, though, would want to read a whole book devoted to the subject? Almost anyone, I suspect, if The Trillion Dollar Meltdown happened to be the book in question. The Trillion Dollar Meltdown is short and extremely well written. It does contain a fair amount of jargon, but the author is writing for the general reader and understands his audience. His writing is clear and witty and he takes great pains not to go over the reader’s head.

This title will almost certainly be hopelessly out of date within a year or two. For the time being though, it is an important book. There are few places where the layman can find a comprehensive but comprehensible survey of the nation’s current financial troubles and The Trillion Dollar Meltdown is certainly one of the few.

Joe McHugh – Administration Office

Every so often you’re lucky enough to read a book that you feel compelled to recommend to everyone from your best friend to complete strangers. Three years later, I’m still touting Garlic and Sapphires: The Secret Life of a Critic in Disguise by Ruth Reichl. This title won’t change your life, but I guarantee you will be thoroughly entertained.

How difficult can it be to write an accurate review of restaurants in the Big Apple? Apparently pretty tough if you happen to be Ruth Reichl, the New York Times food critic. After accepting this prestigious position, Ruth is dismayed to learn that her photograph is prominently posted in the kitchens of restaurants citywide. An excellent review from a noted food critic – which can translate into millions of dollars – is the holy grail of every chef and his staff. It doesn’t take a Mensa member to realize that critics are shown to the best tables, showered with superlative delicacies, and treated to "service on either side of perfect."

Ruth’s challenge then becomes capturing a restaurant’s experience for the average person like you and me. But with untamed raven locks cascading down her back, her anonymity is severely compromised. To remedy the situation, an old family friend suggests assuming a variety of disguises. Enter Molly Hollis, a very proper middle-aged woman bordering on frumpy. As each new persona has a limited life, Molly is followed by Miriam, a waiter’s nightmare and based on Reichl’s own mother; Chloe, a recently divorced blonde bombshell who stops traffic; Brenda, a loveable, free-spirited bohemian; and finally, Betty, a senior citizen, so nondescript as to be invisible to all those around her.

Ruth Reichl approaches each review knowing most people don’t have an unlimited budget for dining at prohibitively expensive establishments, or even those more reasonably priced. She feels compelled to guarantee a pleasurable repast for her readers. Reichl is that most noble of critics – a writer with a conscience. Revel in her culinary adventures from one end of NYC to the other, both incognito and otherwise.

After you’ve finished reading Garlic and Sapphires, you can thank me for handing you the perfect gift idea. Isn’t there someone you know who needs a delicious book to savor?

Fritzi Newton – Miller Branch

Anticipating the slight touch of supernatural suspense that adds an additional thrill to the upcoming Indiana Jones release, I recalled the shivery delight of reading Relic by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. Although I usually shy away from the horror genre, I am a great fan of thrillers and action-adventure films, so upon the recommendation of a friend, I read Relic.

As you might have guessed from the title, the plot revolves around a relic whose mere presence in New York’s American Museum of Natural History seems to be causing a series of grisly murders. The story opens with graduate student Margo Green pondering her career choice and her uncertainty about her job at the museum, which is further complicated by her dislike of the museum’s internal politics. Just days before the opening of the controversial Superstition Exhibition, people are being savagely murdered. The autopsies of the victims create more questions than they answer, especially after FBI Special Agent Pendergast arrives to oversee the investigation. However, Margo’s curiosity and expertise are just what it takes to solve the puzzle of the museum murders – but can she do it before anyone else dies?

Margo also appears in another book by Preston and Child, Reliquary.

Cindy Jones – Administration Office