location

Durham Public Library
7 Maple Avenue
Durham, CT 06422
860-349-9544

Hours:
10:00am - 9:00pm * Monday through Thursday
10:00am - 5:00pm * Friday and Saturday

blog description

"You see, I don't believe that libraries should be drab places where people sit in silence, and that's been the main reason for our policy of employing wild animals as librarians."--Monty Python


Monday, February 27, 2012

PATRON PICKS--Ahead of Time

Kassie's pick--Ahead of Time:  My Early Years as a Foreign Correspondent, by Ruth Gruber


Synopsis:
Long before feminism became a potent force in our time, Ruth Gruber was already blazing a trail for later generations of women. Now in paperback for the first time, this captivating memoir covers the first twenty-five years of an inspiring life, including these historic moments: Gruber's unprecedented academic career, which reached its zenith in 1932, when at twenty she became the world's youngest Ph.D. as a visiting American student at Cologne University, her return to Nazi Germany in 1935, and the rallies she attended where Hitler inveighed against "international Jews" like her; and her first stint as a foreign correspondent, when she became the only journalist to report from the Soviet Arctic, traveled in open cockpit seaplanes, met utopians who extolled Stalin's system, and gulag inmates who told her the bitter truth about his terrible schemes. Gruber writes with warmth, compassion, and humor, offering a life story that will be long remembered by all history lovers, adventurers, and women and men of all ages.

Kassie says:  Incandescent woman, still radiant in her 90's.  Pioneering journalist and photographer who stared the realities of Hitler's Europe in the face.  Still joyful after all these years.

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

PATRON PICKS--State of Wonder

Patricia's pick:  State of Wonder, by Ann Patchett

Synopsis:
Award-winning "New York Times"-bestselling author Patchett ("Bel Canto, The Magician's Assistant") returns with a provocative novel of morality and miracles, science and sacrifice set in the Amazon rainforest--a gripping adventure story and a profound look at the difficult choices we make in the name of discovery and love.

Patricia says:  The setting of this book was rich, descriptive, and crawling with details.  It played as a major character in the story.

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

PATRON PICKS--The Thirteenth Tale

Kassie's pick:  The Thirteenth Tale, by Diane Setterfield (the audiobook)

Synopsis:
Biographer Margaret Lea returns one night to her apartment above her father's antiquarian bookshop.  On her steps she finds a letter.  It is a hand-written request from one of Britain's most prolific and well-loved novelists.  Vida Winter, gravely ill, wants to recount her life story before it is too late, and she wants Margaret to be the one to capture her history.  The request takes Margaret by surprise--she doesn't know the author, nor has she read any of Miss Winter's dozens of novels.

Late one night while pondering whether to accept the task of recording Miss Winter's personal story, Margaret begins to read her father's rare copy of Miss Winter's Thirteen Tales of Change and Desperation.  She is spellbound by the stories and confused when she realizes the book only contains twelve stories.  Where is the thirteenth tale?  Intrigued, Margaret agrees to meet Miss Winter and act as her biographer.

As Vida Winter unfolds her story, she shares with Margaret the dark family secrets that she has long kept hidden as she remembers her days at Angelfield, the now burnt-out estate that was her childhood home.  Margaret carefully records Miss Winter's account and finds herself more and more deeply immersed in the strange and troubling story.  In the end, both women have to confront their pasts and the weight of family secrets.  As well as the ghosts that haunt them still.

Kassie says:  Mesmerising story upon story.  What is the truth?  Austerely written.  Impeccably performed.  I never wanted the story to stop unfolding.  Perfect for winter.  Mysterious narrative.  Please listen!

Friday, February 10, 2012

PATRON PICKS--Little Bee

Christine's pick:  Little Bee, by Chris Cleave

Synopsis:
This is the story of two women.  Their lives collide one fateful day, and one of them has to make a terrible choice, the kind of choice we hope you never have to face.  Two years later, they meet again--the story starts there...

Christine says:  Read as part of a book group.  A very interesting, eye-opening story as to the plight of people in Nigeria and the "dumb visitor" to the country.  An escape for freedom into perceived safety and the horror of ignorance on the part of the "savior."

Thursday, February 9, 2012

PATRON PICKS--World Without End

Christine's Pick:  World Without End, by Ken Follett

Synopsis:
In 1989, Ken Follett astonished the literary world with The Pillars of the Earth, a sweeping epic novel set in twelfth-century England centered on the building of a cathedral and many of the hundreds of lives it affected.  Critics were overwhelmed and readers everywhere hoped for a sequel.

World Without End takes place in the same town of Kingsbridge, two centuries after the townspeople finished building the exquisite Gothic cathedral that was at the heart of The Pillars of the Earth.  The cathedral and the priory are again at the center of a web of love and hate, greed and pride, ambition and revenge, but this sequel stands on its own.  This time, the men and women among an extraordinary cast of characters find themselves at a crossroad of new ideas -- about medicine, commerce, architecture, and justice.  In a world where proponents of the old ways fiercely battle those with progressive minds, the intrigue and tension quickly reach a boiling point against the devastating backdrop of the greatest natural disaster ever to strike the human race:  the Black Death.

Christine says:  I was happily immersed in the town of Kingsbridge following the life of a new builder/carpenter and watching the town go through the plague.  Once again his novels always make me happy I was not a woman living during those times.


Wednesday, February 8, 2012

PATRON PICKS--Little Princes: One Man's Promise to Bring Home the Lost Children of Nepal

Little Princes: One Man's Promise to Bring Home the Lost Children of Nepal, by Conor Grennan  (Book and audiobook)

Synopsis:
One Person Can Make a Difference

In search of adventure, twenty-nine-year-old Conor Grennan traded his day job for a year-long trip around the globe, a journey that began with a three-month stint volunteering at the Little Princes Children's Home, an orphanage in war-torn Nepal.

Conor was initially reluctant to volunteer, unsure whether he had the proper skill, or enough passion, to get involved in a developing country in the middle of a civil war. But he was soon overcome by the herd of rambunctious, resilient children who would challenge and reward him in a way that he had never imagined. When Conor learned the unthinkable truth about their situation, he was stunned: The children were not orphans at all. Child traffickers were promising families in remote villages to protect their children from the civil war--for a huge fee--by taking them to safety. They would then abandon the children far from home, in the chaos of Nepal's capital, Kathmandu.

For Conor, what began as a footloose adventure becomes a commitment to reunite the children he had grown to love with their families, but this would be no small task. He would risk his life on a journey through the legendary mountains of Nepal, facing the dangers of a bloody civil war and a debilitating injury. Waiting for Conor back in Kathmandu, and hopeful he would make it out before being trapped in by snow, was the woman who would eventually become his wife and share his life's work.

"Little Princes" is a true story of families and children, and what one person is capable of when faced with seemingly insurmountable odds. At turns tragic, joyful, and hilarious, "Little Princes" is a testament to the power of faith and the ability of love to carry us beyond our wildest expectations.

Our Patron saysWonderful story, insightful, funny!  About a 20-something American on a year-long vacation who discovers a career (and a wife) and helped "trafficked" Nepalese children in Nepal.  The CD is wonderful!