November 2008 Staff Book Reviews

Last Updated on Friday, 30 July 2010 15:08

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November has arrived and so have our November Staff Book Reviews. This month nearly every review is a 5 star recommendation and each one offers a little something special for its audience.

So whether you are wanting a patriotic read to get you in the mood for the election season or a romance to curl up next to the fire with - you are sure to find something in this month's reviews.

Vote!, by Eileen Christelow
Genre: Children Non-Fiction
Staff Reviewer: Sandy Shropshire, Moore Public Library

As our nation focuses on voting in this presidential election year, parents might want to think about sharing the picture book Vote! with their elementary aged children. Vote! is an entertaining and delightfully illustrated work about our American electoral process. Christelow does an excellent job in this introduction to voting in our modern United States. The book is presented in an informative way, yet the art is fun and inviting. Two whimsical dogs provide the colorful commentary asides, and their questions and comments about the pictures and text are helpful as well as humorous.

Of interest to the older child will be the book's helpful glossary of words associated with voting, a time line of the history of voting rights in the United States, information about political parties and a list of Internet resources. Reading works together such as Vote! helps to begin an important discussion between parent and child. The insights shared in this exchange of ideas could be invaluable. The Pioneer Library System has many other books on the subject of elections and voting. For more information on any of these contact your Hometown Public Library.

Down on My Knees, by Victor McGlothin
Genre: Adult Fiction
Staff Reviewer: Alice Fielding, Pioneer Service Center

Down on My Knees is the story of Grace, an attractive, successful thirty something single mom who decides she's tired of casual affairs and wants to get married to a good man. One of the central themes of the story is the belief that abstinence will lead to a happy marriage, an idea that will probably appeal to the book's intended audience.

The writing is fair but the dialogue is very weak. In addition to the dialogue, there is too much "telling" where there could have been description. The characterizations tend to be flat, especially the good characters, such as Grace's son, who is routinely complimented on being a star pupil, a star athlete, and a nice person, all because of how his mother raised him. But there is little detail of how all of this came about and the tale could have benefited from highlighting his journey. The son's teacher is similarly flat, and I thought one of the plot twists rather insulting towards teachers. I also found that what similarities I share with the main character were over shadowed by our differences and it was difficult for me to fully identify with her.

All this being said, there are some strengths to the novel. Grace's relationship with her two best friends is touching. The intimate physical scenes are very well written, neither overly sentimental nor overly explicit. Despite the theme of premarital abstinence, I was refreshed to see there is little shame or judgment of anyone's human flaws. Also, the ending had me on the edge of my chair.

Although I find the overall theme to be unrealistic, it does make a good story. I read a book a week later with similar themes, Just Too Good To Be True by E. Lynn Harris. As I was reading Just Too Good To Be True I kept comparing it to Down on My Knees. With a stronger writing style Just Too Good comes out a clear winner with Down on My Knees receiving a solid C-plus.

Old School: A Novel, by Tobias Wolff
Genre: Adult Fiction
Staff Reviewer: Jana Moring, PLS Development Officer

In this roman à clef set in a New England prep school in the early 60's, our teen hero wrestles with issues of class and the great divide between childhood and adolescence. In this gap, our unnamed narrator (probably a young version of Mr. Wolff), learns the hard way to question and abandon his worship of Literature (with a capital L) and its great authors. Several authors are invoked in this struggle - a crusty Robert Frost, an obnoxious Ayn Rand, and an absent Ernest Hemingway. I enjoyed the depictions of these artists as much as I liked the portrayal of good writing: it's never done in a white heat over candlelight! It's always hard, arduous work. This reader really enjoyed the fruits of Mr. Wolff's hard labor.

The Pajama Girls of Lambert Square, by Rosina Lippi
Genre: Adult Fiction
Staff Reviewer: Julie Kreft, Moore Public Library

John Dodge is great at fixing things. He has spent the last several years buying ailing businesses, turning then into profit-makers, then moving on to a new city and a new project. However, when he arrives in Lamb's Corner, South Carolina, he finds a project that is not so easy to fix. When Julia Darrow's life unravels in Chicago, she ends up retreating to the homeyness of small town Southern life. She runs a successful store where she gets to wear pajamas to work every day and has found a comforting rhythm to life. The problem is her retreat is also her prison. Julia is agoraphobic, never leaving the town square that houses both her business and her home. She thinks her secret is safe until John Dodge arrives and begins picking at the seams of her shield. And so begins a passionate and yet wary romance. Almost as appealing as Julia and Dodge's story is the cast of lovely characters in this quirky Southern town, including a pack of very amusing orphan dogs.

The Candy Bombers - The Untold Story of the Berlin Airlift and America's Finest Hour, by Andrei Cherny
Genre: Adult Non-Fiction
Staff Reviewer: Beth Lyle, Tecumseh Public Library

A starving city, an "accidental" president, an aggravated general, an expert paper-pusher, a Secretary of Defense on the edge of metal breakdown, and a good-hearted transport pilot are all part of the colorful cast in Andrei Cherny's history of the Berlin Airlift. In the wake of World War II, the Allied forces are sharing control of the bombed-out city of Berlin. Once a proud and beautiful city, now reduced to a rubble pile full of a resentful and hungry population, the powerful Soviet Union decides to cut off all access to West Berlin unless they capitulate to Soviet control. There is little love lost between the conquered German people and the suspicious American occupying forces at the beginning of the occupation, and with the Soviets controlling the food and coal supply, every reason for the people of West Berlin to fall into the hands of communism's juggernaut. Until a simple act of human kindness changes all the rules of the game. So begins a German "love affair" with American ideals. An excellent and detailed look at a precarious hour in the history of freedom, The Candy Bombers is a book no lover of history should miss.

The Three Signs of a Miserable Job: a fable for managers (and their employees), by Patrick Lencioni
Genre: Adult Non-Fiction
Staff Reviewer: Theresa Tittle, Norman Public Library

In this book Patrick Lencioni continues to put valuable leadership, management and team building advice in a slim, easy to read volume. In a style similar to Ken Blanchard's, he explores universal workplace issues in a quick paced story or fable. In Three Signs Lencioni examines how to identify and transform a miserable job. The main character is a recently retired CIO of a small exercise equipment manufacturer who decides to re-enter the work force as a pizza delivery man. From this entry level position, the executive develops theories on what makes a job interesting and then challenges himself to implement these rules from a management perspective. To test his ideas he first talks to the owner and then buys into the ownership of the pizza shop. Through a series of ups and downs the former executive fine tunes his theories on how to make a job rewarding. By the end of the book Lencioni has, through the fable and several short case studies, explored three universal job frustrations and prescribed keys to overcome them. This, like Lencioni's other books, is a rewarding read.

The Three Documents that Made America: the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution of the United States, the Bill of Rights and additional amendments with introductions, by Sam Fink
Genre: Adult Non-Fiction
Staff Reviewer: Theresa Dickson, PLS Associate Director for Planning & Operations

I recently went on a longer than usual driving expedition (about 35 hours on the road, total) and decided to honor the season by listening to The Three Documents that Made America. With introductions by Sam Fink, this book on CD is a simple introduction then a straight reading of the Declaration of Independence (1776), the Constitution of the USA (1787), and the Bill of Rights (1791), with a full reading of all the amendments to the Constitution that have followed. It may sound dull, but it was wonderful to drive from Oklahoma through Pennsylvania and think about the language that governs the United States. Four weeks out from a presidential election, it felt magical hearing ideas that were being developed 250 years ago, in a quest for freedom and order.

I followed this book up with Mayflower, by Nathaniel Philbrick. This is a fascinating history of the Plymouth colony from 1620 until the conclusion of King Phillip's War in the 1680's. Though it is true that history is always written by the winners, Philbrick has done a credible job of going back into archives to flesh out the not-so-pious Puritans and to show that the past is prologue. He seems to understand the things that drove these religious extremists, who could not live in their own world anymore, so sought a blank canvas to write story. But of course their fresh start was already populated with complex and vibrant native tribes who tried to live with them. Philbrick also has a nice way of looking at history as a tally sheet, following the money as well as the story. I don't recommend driving 35 hours as recreation, I do recommend these companion books to make the miles more interesting.