July 2005—Welcome to the second issue of Raynor Memorial Libraries' newsletter for readers.  Our goal is to identify a broad range of contemporary fiction and nonfiction for the general reader.  Staff from throughout the libraries contributed their recommendations for Summer Reading, Part 2.  Additionally, as the series develops we plan to cast a spotlight on special subjects, such as e-books, prestigious prizewinners, and new books by faculty.  All readers in the Marquette community are invited to suggest books, or better, to write a brief review for Ex Libris.  If you missed it, the May issue of Ex Libris is available online.

Clicking on the title will take you to the book's MARQCAT record; please note locations carefully as items may be in the Browsing Collection (Raynor 1st level) or in the Memorial stacks. Books that are checked out may be reserved by clicking on the blue button at the top or bottom of the MARQCAT record.

Running with Scissors, by Augusten Burroughs (St. Martin’s Press, 2002)

This book is a memoir of the author’s childhood and adolescence in the 1970s.  Raised in a troubled family with an alcoholic father and a mentally unstable mother who divorce when he is twelve, the author is sent to live with his mother’s bizarre psychiatrist and his family.  Burroughs uses irony and dark humor to describe the weird and crazy environment that he grew up in, complete with vivid descriptions of family members’ behaviors and some graphic details of his experiences in this eccentric and strange household.  What keeps the reader’s interest is the author’s ability to find humor in some very bizarre and disturbing situations, letting us sympathize and laugh with him, knowing that in the end he will survive living in this difficult household and turn out to be a successful writer.  This is a poignant memoir full of astonishing stories that are sometimes hard to believe, proving that truth can indeed be stranger than fiction.  Recommended by Kristina Starkus, Head, Acquisitions Department

Had a Good Time: Stories from American Postcards, by Robert Olen Butler (Grove Press, 2004)

Individuals who have picked up an antique picture postcard with an enigmatic inscription at some point in their life may have wondered about the real life and story behind the message.  Who can’t wonder at an inscription such as “Just a line to let you know I am still alive.  I am not going on that hayride.  The young man that wants me to go with his sister in law.  But she has a cork leg.  I am awful tired that is the main reason.”  Pulitzer Prize winner Robert Olen Butler (1993 prize for fiction, A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain: Stories) uses this inscription and others from early twentieth-century postcards as the springboard for Had A Good Time: Stories from American Postcards, a collection of fifteen short stories.  Each story is accompanied by an image of the postcard that inspired it, as well as human-interest stories from period newspapers that help to develop a sense of the era, but do not always directly relate to the content of the stories.  Told from a first-person perspective, the stories address a variety of themes, including the development of new technology, illness, and class differences.  While some stories are perhaps underdeveloped, and others somewhat stereotypical, as a collective, they describe American life at the turn of the century as Butler imagines it, and force one to consider the differences between the stark realities of life and how one might portray that life in the limited - and public - space available on a picture postcard.  Recommended by Michelle Sweetser, Archivist

The Eyre Affair, by Jasper Fforde (Viking, 2002)

Be prepared to suspend reality as you read this first in a series about Thursday Next, a Special Operatives Network Literary Detective.  Thursday resides in an alternate 1985 where the Crimean War is entering its one hundred thirty-first year and croquet is a contact sport.   Literature is taken very seriously and original manuscripts are heavily guarded.  It’s Thursday’s job to find kidnapped Jane Eyre and return her to Bronte’s novel without effecting any changes.  Fforde liberally laces his novels with dry humor (the head of the Goliath Corporation is named Jack Schitt) and literary references.  His characters are lively, even the ones, like Edward Rochester, who are truly fictional.  After you’ve devoured The Eyre Affair, you can look forward to Lost in a Good Book (2003), The Well of Lost Plots (2004) and Something Rotten (2004). Recommended by Sharon Olson, Acquisitions Department.

The Mermaid Chair, by Sue Monk Kidd (Viking, 2005)

The book begins with the main character, Jessie, being jerked out of sleep, and her slowly suffocating life, by a phone call in the middle of the night.  Her mother has been rushed to the hospital after chopping her finger off with a meat cleaver.  Jessie, suffering the empty nest/empty life syndrome of middle age, returns to her childhood home on an island off the coast of South Carolina to care for her mother.  So begins her odyssey away from her present toward both the past and the future.  The story weaves around Jessie’s search to understand her mother’s actions, her father’s death years before, and both her marriage and life which have gone stale.  Characters playing a role in Jessie’s search include her mother’s eccentric friends, the local monastery with its chair of the title (and one monk in particular), her husband, Hugh, and the island itself.  As with The Secret Life of Bees, Ms. Kidd infuses her tale with colorful settings and people.  Although it’s often hard to match the success of a first hit like The Secret Life of Bees, fans should enjoy this second work.  Recommended by Pat Berge, Research and Outreach Services Librarian

Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith, by Anne Lamott (Riverhead Books, 2005)

Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith is a collection of essays by Anne Lamott and follow-up to her bestselling book, Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith (Pantheon Books, 1999).  (Lamott is also the author of Marquette’s 2004 First-Year Reading Program selection, Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life (Pantheon Books, 1994)) Lamott tries to make sense of life as she turns 50 and her son becomes a teenager amidst a world filled with terrorism and war by relying on her faith in God and humanity.  The book includes a poignant essay on the death of her dog and excerpts from a commencement speech in which Lamott’s advice includes the importance of discovering one’s spiritual identity and refusing to wear uncomfortable pants.  Lamott’s words ring true as she provides healthy dose of humor and hope.  Recommended by Jean Zanoni, Head of Bibliographic Control

They Marched Into Sunlight : War and Peace, Vietnam and America, October 1967, by David Maraniss (Simon & Schuster, 2003)

Maraniss plaits together accounts of two groups of young Americans with an account of policy makers in Washington.  The first group is the “Black Lions” division of the U.S. Army Infantry; the second group is antiwar students at the University of Wisconsin in Madison.  Events only a day apart, October 17th and 18th, 1967, but transpiring thousands of miles apart, are paired by Maraniss to serve as lenses with which to examine the Vietnam War and its effect on American society.   Readers wishing to see a pictorial history of the antiwar movement in Madison may also want to view the video, The War at Home, which is housed in the Raynor Memorial Reserves.  Recommended by Alberto Herrera Jr., Coordinator of Research Services, Research and Outreach Services.

The Breakdown Lane, by Jacquelyn Mitchard (HarperCollins, 2005)

Wisconsin author Jacquelyn Mitchard, known for her bestselling novel (and Oprah’s initial pick for her book club) The Deep End of the Ocean, has written a new novel, The Breakdown Lane.  Unusual in that it tells the story from not only the point of view of the main character, Julieanne, but also from her teenage son.  Two sudden challenges, one which tears her family apart and another which threatens to break her apart, test the bonds among family and friends.  The story shows how adversity can change people and relationships, sometimes in unexpected ways.  Mitchard makes us care about her complex and interesting characters, writing in a style both entertaining and touching.  Recommended by Nia Schudson, Research Services Librarian

Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance, by Barack Obama (Three Rivers Press, 2004)

The recently elected junior senator from Illinois, Barack Obama, wrote this autobiographical essay on growing up and race in America in 1995, well before he came to national prominence.  It can best be summarized in Obama’s own words (from the introduction) as: “a boy’s search for his father, and through that search [for] a workable meaning for his life as a black American.”  The true stories are about him, but also about his parents, his half-sisters and brothers, his grandparents, even his great grandparents, both in the U.S. and in Kenya.  It is about how all of their stories and experiences intersected somehow to produce one African American man with ties in Kansas, Hawaii, Jakarta, Kenya, and Chicago.  Rather than reporting faithfully the events of his life until he began law school, the book portrays his emotional journey from childhood to adulthood and from bewilderment and confusion about race in America to some understanding of it.   Obama’s writing is simply very good, often reflective and wonderfully descriptive—you’ll enjoy it.  Recommended by Valerie Beech, Business Reference Librarian

Garlic and Sapphires: The Secret Life of a Critic in Disguise, by Ruth Reichl (Penguin Press, 2005)

Attention foodies!  The third installment of Reichl's memoirs follows Tender at the Bone: Growing up at the Table (1999) and Comfort Me With Apples: More Adventures at the Table (2001).  Garlic...picks up as she interviews, and then begins her new job as restaurant critic for the New York Times.  In a serendipitous plane conversation on the way to N.Y., she has learned that her photo is already posted in every kitchen in New York, so with the help of a costume designer friend, she invents characters (with wigs, makeup, and clothing to match) and embroiders personas for them so she can eat inconspicuously.  The result is a touching, insightful, and very funny book, complete with recipes, in part about how restaurants treat their clientele based on superficial appearances.  Recommended by Susan Hopwood, Outreach Librarian

New Books by Faculty
One of the suggestions we received after issuing the first issue of Ex Libris was to feature more books by faculty.  Here, then, is a splendid new novel by Professor C. J. Hribal, plus a listing of other monographs gleaned from MU Writes.  The Libraries’ Department of Special Collections maintains an archive of publications by faculty, staff, and alumni and encourages their donation to the Libraries for future generations.  See more about the collection or call Archivist Matt Blessing at (414) 288-5901. More recent books by faculty….

Company Car, by C.J. Hribal, Professor, Department of English (Random House, 2005)

This is Lake Wobegon country.  C.J. Hribal’s novel careens between the 1952 wedding of his parents and present-day, as third child Emil (Emcee) Czabek recollects a nostalgic and often hilarious family life of seven kids in rural Wisconsin.  The title of Part I, “Observations from the Wayback,” encapsulates Emil’s point of view from the back of his salesman dad’s company-provided station wagon.  With parents whose relationship is often like that of Alice and Ralph Kramden, Emcee struggles with his own failing marriage as all the siblings struggle with the decline of their aging parents.  Hribal is also the author of short story collections Clouds in Memphis (U. Mass Press, 2000) and Matty’s Heart (New Rivers Press, 1984); and the novel, American Beauty (1987).  Recommended by Susan Hopwood, Outreach Librarian

What Others Are Reading

Deception Point, by Dan Brown (Pocket Books, 2001)

If you enjoyed Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code (2003), you will love his earlier thrillers, including Angels and Demons (2000), Digital Fortress (1998), and this story, in which a NASA satellite discovers an ancient meteorite encased in arctic ice.  The discovery may reveal the secret to extraterrestrial life and the development of life as we know it.  Rachel Sexton, intelligence specialist and daughter of the president’s political opponent, and Michael Tolland, charismatic oceanographer, are brought in to verify the authenticity of the find.  Combined with this amazing discovery are political schemes that could get Rachel and Michael killed before they can report to the president.  Just when you think you know who is behind the intrigue, Dan Brown throws a curve into the story that leaves you guessing again.  Recommended by Debra Leutermann, Assistant Director of Admissions, Graduate School

Focus on Prizewinners
American first-time novelist, Edward P. Jones, has just been awarded the world’s largest prize for literature ($120,000) for The Known World, published in 2003 by Amistad/HarperCollins.  The 2005 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award was presented in Dublin on June 15 after a screening process that sifted 147 titles, 29 of them translated from languages other than English, and nominations made by 185 library systems in 51 countries.  The novel, which also won the Pulitzer Prize in 2004, apparently consumed the author for some 11 years.  The lyrical and heartbreaking story, set in antebellum Virginia, centers on Henry Townsend, a former slave, now slaveowner, and the unraveling of his estate after his death.

Focus on E-Books
Did you know that through participation in a consortium of Wisconsin libraries, Marquette’s Libraries offer access to almost 7,000 digital books?  NetLibrary books are cataloged and hotlinked in MARQCAT; they may be browsed online or checked out.  Readers can view a list of all e-books by clicking on MARQCAT’s “Browse New Titles” option, then scrolling to NetLibrary.  Narrower listings by academic subject may be retrieved by subject searches such as chemistry e-books, or health e-books.  The netLibrary site presents more information about creating an account, searching, and viewing full text.  A sampling of recent (2005) additions by the consortium includes:

Get a Grip! Overcoming Stress and Thriving in the Workplace, by Bob Losyk (Wiley, 2005)
Ipod and iTunes for Dummies, by Tony Bove and Cheryl Rhodes (Wiley, 2005)
Music, Power, and Politics, edited by Annie J. Randall (Routledge, 2005)
The Obesity Epidemic, by Michael Gard and Jan Wright (Routledge 2005)
Tuned Out: Why Americans Under 40 Don’t Follow the News, by David T. Z. Mindich (Oxford University Press, 2005)

Ex Libris is published online occasionally

Managing Editor:   Susan Hopwood
Co-Editors:    William D. Gagliani & Leslie A. Quade
Graphics & Layout: Jim Lowrey

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© 2005 Marquette University -- Last Update: July 6, 2005
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