A Friend of the Family by Lauren Grodstein

I am so glad I read the Boston Globe review of this book a few weeks ago and was able to get a hold of a copy before leaving for my holiday trip. I spent every spare moment reading it. No...it is not riverting in a way a good mystery can be... but it resonates with any one who has been a parent and has tried to shield his child from harm. In fact, the characters are so life-like I feel that I have met them before and wish I could find out what comes next in the story.

Pete Dizinoff is a successful internist practicing medicine and living in suburban northern New Jersey (where I come from) and is the father of Alex, a long-awaited and much loved and cossetted son. Pete's best friend and fellow doctor (ob-gyn) Joe lives in the same town, went to the same medical school and has four children of his own. When Joe's oldest daughter Laura was seventeen she was charged with killing her newborn baby and leaving it in a trash can. The story is told in flashbacks; we never know the particulars of what really happened until much later, but the problem for Pete arises when long-lost 30 year old Laura returns to her hometown and meets 20 year old Alex and starts an affair with him.

What lengths will a father go to protect his son's future? Do today's helicopter parents have any clue about when to let their children go and help them to learn from their mistakes. What happens when we impose our own dreams and plans upon kids who choose not to play out their assigned parts?

A not-so-uncommon tragedy, and a great choice for book club discussions.

Posted by:
Susan Amann, Reference Librarian

November is National American Indian Heritage Month

It would be interesting to view our early history and the idea of the first Thanksgiving from the perspective of the Native American. PBS and American Experience presents that viewpoint in the documentary We Shall Remain first aired last April and now available on DVD.

"A groundbreaking mini-series and provocative multi-media project that establishes Native history as an essential part of American history. Five 90-minute documentaries spanning three hundred years tell the story of pivotal moments in U.S. history from the Native American perspective"--Series web site.

National American Indian Heritage Month
"To promote awareness of and appreciation for the history and culture of American Indians and Alaska Natives during National American Indian Heritage Month," this National Park Service site presents monuments, buildings, and other places associated with the prehistory and history of Native Americans. Includes lesson plans and travel itineraries.


National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI)
This portion of the Smithsonian Institution located in New York and Washington, D.C., "is the first national museum dedicated to the preservation, study, and exhibition of the life, languages, literature, history, and arts of Native Americans." The site features numerous online exhibitions on subjects such as ancient Mexican art, basketry, and works of contemporary artists. Also includes classroom materials and information about the collection and the NMAI outreach and education programs.

Thanksgiving Recipes From America's Past
Find recipes for mince pie (1832), chestnut stuffing (1891), roast turkey with truffle gravy (1905), and a variety of pies and other holiday dishes. Recipes are accompanied by vintage illustrations. From the Pilgrim Hall Museum (Plymouth, Massachusetts).

Copyright 2009 Librarians' Internet Index, LII.

Posted by:
Susan Amann, Reference Librarian

Autism Spectrum Disorders and Asperger Syndrome

If you are looking for the latest information on the increase in the occurrence of autism and Asperger disorder among the national population the National Institutes of Health has a new page of links with up-to-the-minute information of these topics.

I have just finished reading a memoir, Look Me In The Eye by John Elder Robison who writes about his struggles with Asperger disorder throughout his life and how he did not learn about why he was so different from other people until he was finally diagnosed with the condition in his forties. He happens to be the brother of Augusten Burroughs, whose memoir Running With Scissors, about growing up in a dysfunctional family with an alcoholic father and a mentally-ill mother, was a best-seller a few years ago. Robison's fascinating account, along with the novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon, gives insight into the spectrum of disorders called autism, and really opens one's eyes to another's world view.

Posted by:
Susan Amann, Reference Librarian

Harriet Wilson 150th Anniversary Celebration

PRESS RELEASE

WordWeaver
31 Abbot Hill Acres, Wilton, New Hampshire 03086
Phone: (603) 654-2186 – Cell: (603) 721-9710
Fax: (603) 654-7345 – E-mail: sbmillett@tds.net

Milford, NH-- Saturday, November 14, will be a day of town-wide celebration as the Harriet Wilson Project kicks off the 150th anniversary of the publication of Harriet Wilson’s novel, Our Nig; or Sketches in the Life of a Free Black.
Starting at 11:30 a.m. and leaving from the Milford Oval, there will be an educational guided bus tour of Wilson’s hometown including the church, the Blanchard residence and an examination of the 1800s community involvement and abolitionist influence that shaped Wilson’s outlook.
At 2 p.m., The Project will throw open the doors of the Milford Town Hall for the public to hear an important Keynote Address by noted international human rights activist, and actress, Victoria Rowell, whose qualifications to address childhood abuse issues are impressive. She has received many major awards for her ongoing efforts with foster care and adoption issues, as well as her work on human rights and world peace. Recently, Rowell received Honorary Doctorate Degrees from the University of Southern Maine and Wheelock College in Boston.
Having spent eighteen years in foster care, Rowell became a passionate voice for children like herself – and not unlike Harriet Wilson. In 1990, she founded the Rowell Foster Children's Positive Plan (RFCPP), which enriches foster children through artistic and athletic expression. In addition to facilitating job opportunities with Viacom television productions, she assisted youths in getting jobs with other companies, including BMG and Oxygen. For more information about her charity, visit www.rowellfosterchildren.org.
Rowell is an actress (appearing on the Cosby Show, The Young and the Restless, Eve’s Bayou, Distinguished Gentlemen, One Red Rose, Home of the Brave) but more importantly, an advocate, mother and now a New York Times Bestselling author recognized for her contributions in educating and supporting foster children. Victoria Rowell is currently on a national book tour for the release of her new memoir, “The Women Who Raised Me,” published by William Morrow/An Imprint of HarperCollins Publishers. The memoir received The African American Literary Award and two NAACP Image Award nominations in the literary category, and she walked away with a statuette for Outstanding Literary Work/Debut Author.
Music will be provided by Julia Leonard and Maine’s Rock My Soul Gospel Choir. “Unless you're from the South or attend a church with a bangin' choir, you're not likely to hear bona fide gospel tunes sung the way Rock My Soul performs them." Jon Nolan, The Wire.
Harriet Wilson was the first African American woman to publish a largely auto-biographical novel forever changing the literary landscape and American and world history. Born in Milford, New Hampshire, Wilson’s journey would take her to Boston where she published her work, managed a boarding house in the South End, marketed and sold her hair products, “Mrs. Wilson’s Hair Regenerator”, lectured on the rights of children, and achieved some fame as a spiritualist healer.
For more information about this event, or events that follow, call 617-287-5880 or 603-494-4475.

P.S. Wadleigh Library has copies of Harriet Wilson's book in the New Hampshire History Room.

Diana, Reference Desk

Sherlock Holmes Was Wrong

To prepare for our visit from Associate Professor James Krasner at the library on Tuesday October 20, 2009 at 7 pm our Evening Book Group decided to read The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to get some background information on the topic. Professor Krasner's talk, entitled Doctor Sherlock Holmes will focus on the relationship between medicine and mystery. The popular television show "House" is based on Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories. Since I am a great fan of the show and had seen plenty of Sherlock Holmes movies with Basil Rathbone and tv productions of the stories, I thought it was time to finally read one.

Doyle was himself a doctor and he modeled Holmes on his medical professor Dr. Joseph Bell. Holmes' detection is based on medical diagnostics, and mystery-writing became popular just as modern medicine was becoming established.

After reading the famous Hound of the Baskervilles story I came across a book intriguingly entitled Sherlock Holmes Was Wrong by Pierre Bayard and I knew I had to investigate it. It is a re-examination of the tale by looking at the facts and events from a different perspective by studying information in the text. Bayard develops a good case for declaring that the killer is not at all who Holmes says he is. The Hound story was written after Doyle had tried to kill off his most famous character because he wanted to spend more time writing on other subjects. Readers' reactions to the death of Sherlock Holmes were violent. Furious readers wrote letters of protest to the newspapers and the Strand magazine, to members of Parliament and even the Prince of Wales. His own mother begged him not to put Holmes to death.

So if he was forced to bring him back, was Doyle actually subconsciously undermining his hero in the new story in which Bayard points out so many errors of judgment and mistakes? Interesting idea.

Another interesting book that I have recently read about Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is Julian Barnes' fictional account based on the true story of Arthur & George. Here is the publisher's description:

They start out differently. Arthur pursues a career in medicine before he discovers that he is really a writer;George, on his way to becoming a lawyer--near-sighted, timid and friendless--is victimized by locals because he is easy to scapegoat--a half-Indian in lily-white Great Wyrley.
The victimization of George takes the form of nasty letters, the theft of a school key, and finally, the accusation that he has mutilated animals. Meanwhile, Arthur is becoming more and more famous for creating Sherlock Holmes....When George sends Arthur the sad chronicle of his history, Arthur sees immediately that he could not be guilty and sets out to clear his name....In Holmesian fashion, he sets out to solve the case.

So Doyle also does his share of detective work in addition to producing many other genres of writing, including even science fiction.

To register for this free program about a fascinating subject, call the library at 673-2408, email refdesk@wadleighlibrary.org or sign up online on the library calendar.

Posted by:
Susan Amann, Reference Librarian

Magazines, Otherwise Known As Periodicals

I've been asked a few times for a list of magazines at our library so I thought I'd share what I would do to show that list to someone. First I would go to the Catalog tab at the library website or to a computer in the library designated as an Online Library Catalog. On the first search page, I would click on the More Search Options link and choose Wadleigh under the Libraries drop-down menu, Periodical under the Detailed Material Types and Magazines under Collections and then click on Set Search button. At Keyword Search I would enter an asterisk * so the Catalog will give me all the titles, and finally I would set Search By and Sort By to "Title" and click on Search. Yeah, now I have a neat list of the approximately 150 magazines the library owns.

Diana, Rference

History and Afghanistan

I have been reading Horse Soldiers by Doug Stanton, a non-fiction book about the rescue of a group of servicemen trapped in Afghanistan at the end of 2001 and the events that led up to the raid. I've noticed that I am much more in tune with what I hear about that region in the daily news and I believe it's because part of my mind is living in this very well-written true account and I'm making connections that I would not otherwise make if I were not thinking about this place. We have several books about the history in that region, both fiction and non-fiction, that can be found by searching the library catalog by the name of the country or a particular incident such as Afghan War, or someone could go to books starting with the number 958 on the spine labels and browse the section for history of that country and region. In a world where so much information is trying to grab my attention every moment of every day, I think I might use this method of focusing in on information I think might be important. Why not try it yourself?

Diana LeBlanc, Reference