Lazygal

An Irish Country Doctor by Patrick Taylor
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Did you see the tv series Ballykissangel? This is the medical version, just not quite as modern. Set in the 50s, newly minted Dr. Barry Laverty heads to the incredibly small town of Ballybucklebo to learn about being a GP from Dr. Fingal O'Reilly. Of course there are the usual "I can't believe you're doing/not doing that" moments, but by the end of three weeks (!!) he's proven himself to be a good doctor, been offered a permanent position (and eventual partnership), met a girl and generally made inroads in the life of the town. Three weeks seems awfully quick for this, but this is a work of fiction so who am I to quarrel?

Perfect for those that want an old-fashioned quiet read. Oh, and there are two sequels.

(Free copy obtained from publisher at ALA Annual)

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American-Made: The Enduring Legacy of the WPA: When FDR Put the Nation to Work by Nick Taylor

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This extremely readable accounting of the WPA feels prescient. Yes, I know that jobs are a lagging indicator of recovery, but reading how Hoover kept insisting that we were in a recovery while the country clearly wasn't sounds similar to what we're hearing now. Not being an economist I'm not making any predictions, and we're clearly not in the same place now that we were in 1933, but still...

When FDR started to tackle the recovery, setting in place any number of government programs, it was simple necessity. What's not clear is whether he intended the scope to be as broad as it ended up being, or if Henry Hopkins' (leader of first the CWA and then the WPA) ambition was the reason that the program expanded the way it did. I knew that the WPA reached into almost every walk of life - from packhorse "bookmobiles" in Appalachia to road building to the arts - but I didn't know that New York's Laguardia Airport was a WPA project (ditto the Bay Bridge).

While we may not be in the same crisis we were in 70 years ago, reinstating some of these programs and allowing the recovery to "trickle up" is worth considering.

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Walking Chicago: 31 Tours of the Windy City's Classic Bars, Scandalous Sites, Historic Architecture, Dynamic Neighborhoods, and Famous Lakeshore by Ryan Ver Berkmoes
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I admit it: while traveling I like looking at architecture and I'm not above peering into windows (hey, if you don't want me to peek, get curtains!) When I was in Chicago this past July I got to do some of that, and then I took one of those bus tours of South Side, which I'd not really been to before. Unfortunately, the driver/guide spent most of his time telling us that the abandoned factory to our right/left was now condos going for some large dollar amount (something I could have guessed given the signage on the buildings) when he wasn't telling us minute details about the Obamas.

As we drove along, it was clear that there was information missing, so being a good librarian I went to the nearest bookstore to find a good guidebook. This was the book I chose and what a good choice it was. The author's serious discussion of the architecture and history is nicely mixed with a humorous tone (telling us to beware of little girls in front of the American Place store, for example) and belongs in the same family as such books as LondonWalks and ParisWalks.


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Keeping Corner by Kashmira Sheth
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I didn't realize that this was written by the same author as Blue Jasmine, but I should have because the metatheme is the same: old traditions are not always best, and change is modern and good.

Here, Leela is a young wife - so young, in fact, that she hasn't yet left her parent's home (nor has she really spent any time with her husband). She's in school, waiting for her anu (the ceremony where she'll leave home and join her in-law's household), and just starting to notice and have feelings for her husband when he is bitten by a poisonous snake and dies. In pre-independence India, among the Brahman, this means that Leela's hair will be shaved, that she must "keep corner" (basically, stay inside her house and in one corner of the inner courtyard) for a year, that she gives up all her fancy clothes and jewelry, and stays a widow forever. Her family is also expected to share her year by not entertaining, not attending the religious ceremonies and generally shunning society.

Leela does have a brother, Kanubhai, who is 22 and unmarried (quite unusual for that time and caste), and who lives in Ahmedabad. This is important because Ahmedabad is also a base for Gandhi's movement - there are many new ideas (like protesting taxes, women are equal, castes are equal) that Kanubhai is surrounded by and inspired by. He manages to have Leela taught by the town's teacher during her year, and (unknown to Leela) vows not to marry until she is allowed to study and have a life despite now being a widow.

The news of how India is changing, slowly breaking free from the rule of the Raj parallels how Leela and her family changes. At times this can be a little heavy-handed, but I think readers will root for Leela's future because it does seem so very unfair. Besides the obvious outcome (it really would have been surprising had the author allowed Leela to stay at home, a widow with no future) I got annoyed when she translated the foreign words into English for us - there's a glossary in the back so if felt redundant.

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Home: A Novel by Marilynne Robinson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Another book that was just so apt for the day in which I read it! While not about Jewish themes, the overall message of forgiving and making peace with each other and the past resonated.

Robinson's return to the Iowa town of Gilead is just as quiet, just as infused with Presbyterianism and morality as Gilead was. This time, we're with the Boughton's, Rev. Ames' neighbors. Jack, the troubled namesake that has worried Ames so much comes home after twenty years away. Glory (or Pigtails), the youngest daughter, has moved back to live with and take care of their failing father. The interactions between the four never reach the realm of real drama, it's all about the interior life.

Glory's return seems to be predicated on her losing her teaching job after marrying her longtime fiance - only there's no sign of a husband, ex or otherwise. She's settled in "temporarily", taking care of her father and the house (which she hates, feeling it's too old, too large, too something for the town). Her older siblings seem content to let her take on this burden, although there are plenty of letters and a few phone calls from them to ease her way. Of course, she has a secret that she shares, after a time, with Jack.

Jack, on the other hand, is clearly broken and just as clearly suffering from alcohol withdrawal. The shaky hands made me wonder how bad his condition was, although he swears he was sober for the past 7 1/2 years. Turns out he met a woman, fell in love and tried to turn his life around... except her father decided that he was nothing but trouble (having heard about Jack's past) and kicked him out. How much of that is true is open for debate, but clearly Jack has come home not to reconcile with his father but to reconcile with Ames (who's having none of it).

In the end, Glory is trapped in the house that her father has left her, Rev. Boughton's dying, and Jack has once again left, not appreciably more at peace than when he arrived. Della, his wife, comes by shortly after, bringing with her their son (unmentioned by Jack in any of his conversations). There's a slight twist here, one that should be obvious to the reader, but I won't give it away.

As I said, the themes of forgiveness, forgetting, redemption and morality are so well drawn here that the book is not an easy read: you will think about this long after you're done. Two friends/readers that read Gilead didn't like it, and I suspect it's because they're Jews and the Christianity made them uncomfortable. Here, that part is less front and center; I hope they give it a chance.

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Songs for the Butcher's Daughter by Peter Manseau

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I hadn't intended to start this book (or finish it) during the High Holy Days, but much of this book is about bashert (fate) so let's just chalk it up to that, shall we?

Manseau's book Vows caught my attention at ALA years ago, and when I heard him at RUSA's Notable Tastes Breakfast this year I knew I needed to read it. The experience of Itsik/Isaac may very well have been the experience of my family: the escape from the tsar's army, the coming to America and living in an American shtetl, the changing from Jewish to American to who knows what.

To my knowledge, however, none of my family are the poet, failed or otherwise, that Itsik was. It is his journey, his willful choices to do/not do, see/not see that make this such an incredible read. At times I felt that he needed a Simon Cowell to say 'look, you'll never be a real poet', because clearly no one had ever said that. The lives he casually ruins and the obliviousness he has to those results is stunning and yet very familiar.

For those that are not Jewish, this is a great way to experience what it was like (albeit with a little fantasy - the self-delusional kind, not the dragons/castles kind - thrown in).

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Elf Realm: The High Road by Daniel Kirk
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This took longer to read than it should have - I let life distract me. Overall, this is a good Quest story. In part one (which I didn't read), the Humans have managed to destroy part of the Elves home. In part two, there are two Quests undertaken: a Human (Matt), an Elf (Tuava-Li) and a Troll (Tomtar) head first to Argant (that's Pittsburgh, to us humans) and then to the North Pole to relive an ancient Epic; there's also a Human (Becky, Matt's sister), an Elf Princess (Asra) and her mad former fiance (Macta) heading to where Becky's parents are being held and where 1,000 human children will be sacrificed to either a demon or the Goddess (it's not quite clear who wins when this happens).

Of course, nothing goes smoothly or as planned. The first trio get sidetracked into finding shelter and then rescuing Tomtar's uncle while the second have this pesky demon (and two horrible Elf Mages) to deal with. There are Green Men, humans that can see the faery world (including Pixies), discussions about gambling, the promise of body parts in return for favors (like assuming the shape of an Elf Prince) and other flights of fancy. I'm not trying to sound flip - this really was a good story in this genre. Younger readers will enjoy it, but there is a menace to the story that might not make this a good read for anyone under, say, sixth grade.

I liked the book enough to keep my eyes open for the first, and the upcoming third.

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