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By Crystal, August 28, 2012

The Complete Southern Cookbook: More Than 800 of the Most Delicious Down-Home Recipes

by Tammy Algood

Love Southern-style cooking, but don’t know how to cook your beloved dishes?  Local Southern food guru Tammy Algood will tell you everything you need to know in her Complete Southern Cookbook.  With easy to follow recipes, Algood will teach you to prepare Southern staples such as basic Southern cornbread, and chow-chow, as well as more exotic Southern fare like chitlins and vinegar pie.  The chapters are organized alphabetically by the main ingredient.  From almonds to zucchini and everything in between, Algood includes recipes for all your Southern favorites. The recipes I tested and tasted for you: Basalmic grilled peaches (amazing!), orchard-fresh peach ice cream (just as good as the local ice-cream shops we love), cherry-rhubarb crumble (i’m no longer afraid of rhubarb) and savory zucchini pie (so easy-it makes the crust for you!).    But now I return this book so another library patron can host a fabulous Southern feast.  Ms. Algood will be at this year’s Southern Festival of Books to promote her latest book Farm Fresh Southern Cooking .  I wonder if she’d sign my apron…

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By Lindsey, August 23, 2012

 Wonder
By R.J. Palacio

I fall in love with books pretty easily.  It’s kind of my job, after all.  So, it isn’t uncommon to hear me saying, “I love this book.”  But, I. Love. This. Book. It tells the story of Auggie who was born with an unimaginable facial deformity that has prevented him from entering school for medical reasons until now….5^th grade.  The reader follows Auggie and a number of people in his life through his first year of middle school.  Alternately told from different perspectives, including Auggie and his sister and two of his friends, the book’s strong anti-bullying message of acceptance is overt without being forced. This is the author’s first novel and is appropriate for ages 8 and up. 

The audiobook version is wonderful, with different narrators for the different points of view. I’m going to put it out there that this is my pick for the Newbery this year (it should also be noted that I have never once chosen a Newbery correctly and rarely agree with the choice.)

Here’s the book trailer, if you’re in to that sort of thing…

- Lindsey

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By Karen, August 23, 2012

Women From the Ankle Down: The History of Shoes and How They Define Us
By Rachelle Bergstein

If you enjoy fashion, Sex and the City or simply love shoes, then you will get a kick out of Rachelle Bergstein’s fun, breezy new book Women From the Ankle Down: The History of Shoes and How They Define Us. Bergstein offers up a fun to read, light history of shoes mixed with pop culture tidbits.

Should you find yourself aching for more shoe eye candy we have you covered.

We have books about the master shoe designers….. Salvatore Ferragamo: The Art of the Shoe 1898-1960 and Manolo’s New Shoes: Drawings by Manolo Blahník. For a delightful mix of history and illustration, Shoes Fashion and Fantasy by Colin McDowell. For something more scholarly, Women’s Shoes in America, 1795-1930 by Nancy Rexford and from London’s Victoria and Albert Museum, Shoes by Lucy Pratt and Linda Woolley.

If you like shoes, we are sure to have your perfect fit.

- Karen

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By Bryan, August 20, 2012

In case you missed Michael Cunningham’s illuminating essay about serving on the Pulitzer jury only to have the Pulitzer Prize Board not award a prize, stop what you’re doing and go read it now. (Ann Patchett also wrote a great piece about the same issue, by the way.) Without overtly saying he was trying to do so, Cunningham convinced me that David Wallace’s The Pale King should have won the prize. I’m convinced he was covertly trying to do exactly that. Bravo, Mr. Cunningham.

Seduced by Cunningham’s praise of Wallace’s meticulous language, I revisited Wallace’s 1996 nonfiction collection, A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again on Playaway. These longish pieces focus on Wallace’s own obsessions (tennis, David Lynch, TV) sprinkled with a few solicitations from banner publications willing to throw money at him to make witty observations (the Illinois state fair, a luxury cruise).  If you are interested in what he is writing about, it is the greatest show on Earth. I am interested in David Lynch. If not, it’s like listening to a malfunctioning android prattle endlessly until you are driven to find the plug. I didn’t learn anything about a luxury cruise I had previously assumed; and, I think contrary to his intention, I still love watching over-hyped top-ten professional tennis on TV. Though sometimes he whips out an Ecstasy of St. Teresa of a sentence that will make me want to stop, go back and listen again; never is the boredom of the mundane transmorphed into the empathetic humanity found in the pages of The Pale King.

Chance had it my next Playaway was Hunter S. Thompson’s Fear and Loathing at Rolling Stone, a collection of Thompson’s best pieces for Rolling Stone, with the added bonus of correspondence between Thompson and his editors. Thompson writes about himself running for office (sheriff – Aspen, CO), the Presidential elections of 1972 & 2004, and about taking drugs while writing all these things (a fact about himself Wallace always wants to hide via the displacement of fiction). Seemingly antithetical writers, Thompson and Wallace were actually very much alike. Both were prescriptive in grammar and usage, and were manic in their editing habits. They shared a love of marijuana. Neither won any major literary awards during their lifetime. Both were suicides. But where Wallace is bland, Thompson is blazing. Thompson’s social consciousness is constantly grinding its axe, verbal sparks shooting in all directions. By contrast, Wallace’s observational comedy routine can be so mind-numbingly neutral it wouldn’t be out of place on the sort of cruise ship he claims to despise. But Thompson’s rants can also devolve to readers’ boredom, repeating the same points over and over, echoing solipsistic obsessions.

A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again and Fear and Loathing at Rolling Stone find these two unique but flawed writers at the peak of their game. Both showcase the literary potential of journalism. Narrators Paul Garcia and Phil Gigante perfectly invoke the voices of Wallace and Thompson. Gigante’s Thompson impression rivals that of Johnny Depp. These performances make the self-indulgent parts tolerable. But when these guys are on, it’s lights out.

D.T. Max’s highly anticipated biography of Wallace Every Love Story Is a Ghost Story will be released next week. Place your hold now.

An oral history of Thompson’s life can be found in Gonzo: The Life of Hunter S. Thompson which is probably best weighted with Thompson’s own two-cents in The Kingdom of Fear.

If you still can’t get enough, here’s both getting the Charlie Rose treatment: Wallace; Thompson.

- Bryan

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By Sharra, August 17, 2012

Alias Grace

By Margaret Atwood

Margaret Atwood is an award winning author of over fifty books of poetry, short stories, fiction, and nonfiction. Her list of achievements and honors over her career is quite long, as is the number of honorary degrees she has received from various universities. Her fiction is as diverse as her style, ranging from speculative fiction to historical fiction.

Alias Grace is the story of Grace Marks, a sixteen year old girl accused of murder in 19^th century Canada. The story is, for the most part, based on historical fact. In the year 1834, Thomas Kinnear and his housekeeper Nancy Montgomery were viciously murdered. The two other members of the household, James McDermott and Grace Marks, were found guilty of the murder of Thomas Kinnear. Interestingly, they were never tried for the murder of Nancy Montgomery, because both were sentenced to death. James McDermott was hanged for his crimes, while Grace Marks got a last minute appeal to keep her from the gallows. She spent time in both an asylum and a penitentiary, before being released thirty years later.

The story begins when Grace has been in prison for quite some time. She is introduced to Simon Jordan, a doctor who is interested in studying mental illnesses. Grace claims to have no memory of the murders themselves, despite the fact that she had given several conflicting confessions to various people. Dr. Jordan spends his time with Grace attempting to help her recall those memories, by having her tell her story from the very beginning. She talks about her immigration from Ireland, her abusive father and many siblings, and her entry into the workforce as a maid. Grace is very detailed in her recounting, but it is never completely clear if she is speaking out loud or thinking her words.

Dr. Jordan’s perspective is used throughout the work as a counterpoint to Grace’s first person narrative. He faces his own trials as an unmarried man seeking to make a mark on the world of medicine by discovering the truth behind Grace’s memory loss. He finds himself at odds with the very people who want to help prove Grace’s innocence, and not because he disagrees with them.

This novel is written in such a way to leave the reader guessing about whether or not Grace is a cold-blooded murderess or a young girl caught up in circumstances beyond her control. Through use of Grace’s first person ramblings, Dr. Jordan’s third person adventures, and various “letters”, the story explores the Victorian era view of women as creatures of dual natures and justice.

Margaret Atwood is the 2012 Nashville Public Library Award winner. She will be giving a public lecture in October, sponsored by the Nashville Public Library Foundation. Please check the Library website for more details as they come available.

Pleasant Reading -

Sharra

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By Karen, August 16, 2012

Londoners: The Days and Nights of London Now – As Told By Those Who Love It, Hate It, Live It, Left It, and Long For It
By Craig Taylor

As someone who has always longed for London I was excited to read this book.  Journalist Craig Taylor, spent over five years interviewing more than two hundred people from all over the city assembling a “collage of voices that could yield a richness about a time and place.” 

What this book does is open your eyes to what it is actually like to live in one of the world’s major cities, a city with a population of over seven million people and over ten million visiting tourists each year. 

Craig Taylor’s book provides a “snapshot of the city here and now “and it makes you pause and think.

- Karen

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By Crystal, August 14, 2012

Walk the Moon
by Walk the Moon

If you’re a fan of Passion Pit, The Killers, or Foster the People, I strongly encourage you to use your five freegal downloads for the next two weeks and grab the ten tracks that complete Walk the Moon’s  self-titled major label debut album.    Walk the Moon is based out of Cincinatti, Ohio, but they are gathering obsessive fans all over after extensive touring across the US and in Europe, as well as a recent appearance on MTV Unplugged.   Perfect for summer listening, Walk the Moon’s songs create high-energy dance pop with catchy melodies and unforgettable hooks.  The clip below is from  one of my favorites off the album – it’s called Anna Sun.

Other essential album tracks include a galloping tune about traveling with your sweetie called Next in Line.  Then there’s  a musical declaration of the seductive power of a particular girl called Shiver, Shiver.  An album should always end gracefully and Walk the Moon doesn’t disappoint here with the beautiful “this heartbreak too shall pass” anthem I Can Lift A Car.    Start downloading now.