Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel

To paraphrase another reviewer: just when you think that no novel or film could say anything new about England in the time of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, here is a page-turner that surrounds you with the humanity of the characters and the dangerous world in which they lived. The story is told from the viewpoint of Thomas Cromwell, a poor, abused boy who eventually becomes one of the wealthiest men in the country and the King’s closest advisor. Mantel’s intimate portrayal of many familiar characters—including a portrait of Thomas More that departs markedly from the usual saintly martyr—shows us a time that was both very different and yet very much the same as our own.

–Carla

The Reluctant Mr. Darwin

Given the buzz over the Big Birthdays earlier this year—both Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin turned 200 in February 2009—I had to read something in commemoration. David Quammen’s recent biography, The Reluctant Mr. Darwin: An Intimate Portrait of Charles Darwin and the Making of His Theory of Evolution (2007), was the perfect choice: like most of Quammen’s non-fiction, this book is lucid, compelling, and, at times, ridiculously funny. Unexpectedly, Quammen begins after the famed HMS Beagle voyage, focusing instead on Darwin’s intellectual journey leading up to the publication of On the Origin of Species in 1859. We follow Darwin through his earliest musings on evolution; his many, many years of studying barnacles; and his fright upon learning that another naturalist, Alfred Russell Wallace, had independently arrived at his own theory of natural selection and might steal Darwin’s thunder by publishing first. Quammen frequently speculates about Darwin’s state of mind but rarely exceeds the bounds of plausibility, and he makes genuinely interesting a book that is, ultimately, about one person’s thinking, studying, and writing.

~Stefanie Bluemle

Captain Alatriste

What would happen if you took The Three Muskateers, darkened it up, and moved it to 17th century Madrid? Arturo Perez-Reverte does something similar with Captain Alatriste, a a fantastic swashbuckler set in the Spain of Philip II. Various historical figures show up, as do swordfights, mayhem, dangerous women, and two mysterious men Alatriste is asked to assassinate on their way into the city….

If you like this novel, you can follow the further adventures of Captain Alatriste in Purity of Blood (about the Spanish Inquisition), The Sun Over Breda (Spain’s war in the Netherlands), The King’s Gold (someone is hijacking a royal ship, and Alatriste must save it), and The Caballero in the Yellow Doublet (just out in English), and at least one other novel which has yet to be translated from the Spanish.  En guarde!

~Sarah Horowitz

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Several of my coworkers had recommended that I read The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, so I picked it up before the Thanksgiving holiday.  Boy, am I glad I did!  This novel is an intriguing mix of suspense and thriller, focusing on a journalist and a private investigator with a murky past.  As they unravel the mystery of a family’s missing daughter, they discover that murder lurks close at hand.

I highly recommend The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and its sequel, The Girl Who Played with Fire.  I can’t wait to read the third and final book when it is released in English next summer.  ~Christine Aden

True Blue and Gold

True Blue and Gold: Memorabilia from Special Collections is now on display in Special Collections on the first floor of the library.  This display complements the main library display, “You Can Take It With You: Augustana Mementos and Souvenirs.”

“True Blue and Gold” features some older items that those found on the main floor of the library, including two watch fobs from 1929, a dance card from 1927, an Augie belt buckle from 1915, and a tool used to imprint the Augustana seal on documents.  Stop into Special Collections to see what past Augustana memorabilia, like the pennant hanging on the dorm room wall in the photo above,  looked like.

Librarian Sarah Horowitz to give talk

Please join us for the Tea Hour Series

Sarah Horowitz
Augustana Library Special Collections

“Early Illustrated Editions of Pride and Prejudice”

December 9^th at 4:00 p.m.
Old Main 128

While Jane Austen was a reasonably popular author during her lifetime, it was only during the late 1800s that she became “Jane Austen,” a grand dame of British novels, a cultural icon, a writer of tidy miniature dramas played out on bits of ivory.  The Austen revival was greatly influenced by the emergence of illustrated editions of Austen’s works in the 1890s.  This talk will discuss four early illustrated editions of Austen’s most popular novel, Pride and Prejudice, from the years 1894, 1895, 1898, and 1908. These illustrations not only led to a resurgence in Austen’s popularity, they also aligned Austen’s novels with a nostalgic sentiment for a pre-industrial, rural, conservative Britain, de-emphasized Elizabeth’s point of view, and in the process stripped much of the original subversive nature and commentary from Austen’s text.

Cookies and tea will be served!

Sponsored by Women’s & Gender Studies.