Quick note

Due to a bereavement in the family, I will not be posting for the rest of the week. Thank you.

City of Light

For anyone who wants to know what the big deal is about Paris, I recommend Sandrine's Paris: a cultural history of the world's most romantic city. Author Sandrine Voillet - a native Parisian - explains why so many people over the centuries have been driven to visit Paris. This is a lovely coffee-table book, with beautiful pictures and an entertaining text. She doesn't tell you where to stay or eat, or what the best shopping district is, or what the 'must see' sights are in this tourist hotspot. Instead, she describes the ups and downs of French history and culture, and how those cycles always emanate from Paris. She also points out some of the ways in which these cultural changes have rippled beyond the borders of France to affect Western civilization as a whole. One of the nicest things about this book is that it includes a fair amount of information about modern Paris, including architecture, fashion, cinema and historical events. The Folies Bergère was not the last exciting thing to have happened in Paris, but many books focus on the city's elegant past rather than its vibrant present. Sandrine will show you what it is about this city that so fascinates the armchair traveler and captivates the visitor, and make you long to walk its lively boulevards.

China's Sacred Sites

My aunt went to China about 20 years ago, and the photos and stories that she brought back fascinated me and instilled in me a strong desire to see that beautiful country. Books like China's Sacred Sites, by Nan Shunxun and Beverly Foit-Albert augment that desire. Just from the law of averages any area as large as China is bound to have a fair amount of lovely spots, but the Chinese seem to have an aptitude for combining amazing architecture with breathtaking natural settings. This book presents page after page of valleys, cliffs, caves, mountains and rivers, with each location graced with a beautifully ornamented temple, some of which are over 1,000 years old. The descriptions of the more elaborate complexes include floor plans and section maps so that the reader can truly appreciate the way the building has been adapted to the setting (often a vertical one). The authors also include a nice summary of the history and architectural high-points of each temple and a map showing its location in China (for those of us whose Chinese geography is a little shaky). The back of the book has a helpful glossary and timeline, a bibliography for further reading, and a map of China showing the location of all the sites in the book. Apparently, Shaanxi and Guizhou provinces are the places to go to see amazing temples. Now, where did I put that passport?

Brutally funny

You have to have a certain sense of humor to enjoy our newest book from the red-hot publisher Hard Case Crime. Think of a book loaded with strong language, gratuitous sex and graphic violence. Now ratchet it up a notch, and you will have Slide, by Ken Bruen and Jason Starr. The fact that everything is just slightly over the top, and the cast of characters are all such complete losers, is what makes this book so darkly funny. The basic plot thread is a standard double- and triple-crossing drug deal, and each chapter is told from the point of view of one of the characters. Some of the plot elements in each chapter overlap, and it's interesting to see the different perspectives of each person involved. The characters themselves are wonderful: narcissistic and delusional, they have a completely whacked idea of their own importance and their own level of success. These people are perennial optimists, even if that sense of optimism is usually chemically-induced. The book is set in New York and Dublin, and Bruen brings the Irish brooding while Starr supplies the American gang violence. The body count is reminiscent of Hamlet, but the plot twists are more like a Coen brothers movie. Not for the squeamish, the sensitive or the literal, this book would be great for fans of Elmore Leonard and Quentin Tarantino.

Books for book lovers

If you are a true bibliophile, there are three new books on the shelves that you might enjoy:
Books on Fire: the destruction of libraries throughout history by Lucien X. Polastron chronicles the sad fate of libraries destroyed by man and nature. He begins with the Sumerian library at Nineveh, which was razed in 612 B.C. and then goes on to circle the globe and travel through time. Sadly, many of the libraries and collections he eulogizes were lost in the 20th century to wars, dictators and cultural upheaval. He concludes with an examination of the movement to digitize books and the supposed goal of a 'paperless society'.
After you have gotten depressed by reading about the destruction of books, then try Classics for Pleasure by Michael Dirda. This is not the scary reading list you received in Honors English class, but instead is a collection of essays extolling the virtues of almost 90 novelists and poets whose work has had a profound impact on society, culture and avaricious readers. If you are familiar with the writers on Dirda's list, you will be able to carry on witty dinner conversation at any table. (Everyone's goal in life, I'm sure)
For fans of nonfiction, we have The New Kings of Nonfiction edited by Ira Glass, host of This American Life on NPR. Nonfiction has moved beyond how-to manuals and dreary textbooks into a type of reality-based storytelling, and Glass includes some masters of the genre: Malcolm Gladwell, Chuck Klosterman, Dan Savage and Susan Orlean. The subjects of these essays and articles are wide-ranging, but they all share a compelling narrative and a gift for engaging the reader and getting to the bigger picture. There's a reason our nonfiction shelves are heavily used, and it's because of writers like those featured in this book.

Dreaming of gardening

We're in the depths of winter and we all woke this morning to a dusting of snow on the ground, but it is actually the perfect time to begin thinking about your garden. If you don't have your garden plans in place by that first sunny week in May, then you will lose precious growing time trying to figure things out. We have two new books that will help kick-start some ideas.
Container Gardening: through the seasons, by Jim Keeling, is a great resource for anyone trying to have a garden on their porch, deck, parking platform, dock, or boggy yard. This is not your typical container garden book. Author Keeling founded Whichford Pottery in England about 30 years ago, so half of this book is about the design, creation and care of pots for your garden. No Wal-Mart plastic pots or boring terra-cotta pots here! The photos are beautiful, and follow the cluttered English cottage garden aesthetic. He has lots of good suggestions for how to pick containers, what to put in them, how to arrange them, how to winter them, and how to use them to create a lovely space year-round.
Fallscaping: extending your garden season into autumn, by Nancy Ondra and Stephanie Cohen is another book that has an unusual perspective on gardening. Fall in Ketchikan usually means sodden, rotting plants. But why not scatter some plants throughout your garden that will actually look good in fall and distract the eye from the pathetic petunias and straggly nasturtiums? Move past the ubiquitous decorative cabbage and install some unique characters into your design scheme. This book is also packed with maintenance, winterizing and design tips.

Fascination

There are three new books on the shelf that are inherently interesting for different reasons.

Berlin: the Twenties by Rainer Metzger and Christian Brandstatter. The city of Berlin developed a wicked, wicked reputation between the wars, and the hundreds of photos in this book give you a glimpse into that daring, desperate time. America likes to think we coined the idea of the 'Roaring Twenties', but we were pretty buttoned-down in comparison to Berlin.

Supercapitalism: the transformation of business, democracy and everyday life is a new book by Robert B. Reich, who was the Secretary of Labor during the Clinton administration and is now a professor of public policy at UC Berkeley. Books about economics usually make my eyes glaze over, but every time I've heard Reich talk (TV and radio, never in person, alas) he always has the most interesting ideas. This book is sure to be full of more such unique ideas and perspectives.

Bill Bryson has written a new book about Shakespeare, and although the Bard has been analyzed to death, I am willing to sit down and read a shopping list if it's been written by Bill Bryson. Shakespeare: the world as stage is a clever, flowing biography of one of the greatest writers of all time (please, no letters from Francis Bacon fans).

The library will be closed on Monday and Tuesday, so I'll take this opportunity to wish you and yours a wonderful holiday.....I'll talk to you again on the 26th.