Stitches: a Memoir

I don’t read graphic novels. I just don’t. However, I came across this book and the premise was so intriguing — and it got such good reviews — that I had to take a look. I am SO glad I did. This book is STUNNING.

It is the true story of a man’s lonely, confusing, bizarre childhood in Detroit. His father was a doctor and gave him hundreds of experimental x-ray treatments, presumably to help his son’s sinus infections. They ended up causing cancer. His mother was a bitter, harsh woman incapable of showing love and nurture to her sons. She struggled with mental illness and physical problems of her own.

In this book, a picture truly tells a thousand words. Small’s depictions of his family and childhood memories are absolutely haunting. His drawings capture so much raw emotion. Seeing the dreary, traumatic world of a stark, unloving home through the eyes of Small’s child was immensely powerful and moving.

Beautiful. Absolutely beautiful.

–Amanda

 

Banned Books Week

This week, September 28 through October 3, is the American Library Association’s Banned Books Week.  Banned Books Week is an annual event celebrating the freedom to read and the importance of the First Amendment. During this week, libraries around the United States feature books that have been the targets of attempted bans and encourage users to celebrate their freedom to read.

The 10 most challenged books of 2008 include And Tango Makes Three, Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy, the Gossip Girl series, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, and The Kite Runner.  If you want to see more about frequently challenged books, visit the ALA’s Office of Intellectual Freedom. Celebrate your freedom to read this week!

Lend your voice to the Leisure Collection

Have you been looking for something fun to read when you aren’t doing homework?  Maybe you’ve checked out the leisure collection across from the library elevators and didn’t find anything that really grabbed your attention.  If you have something that you are interested in, or even a specific genre that you would like us to see (like graphic novels), please submit a request.  Click on the “Leisure Reading Collection” button on the library’s home page and then fill out the form, or simply click the link below:

http://www.augustana.edu/library/Services/leisure.html

The Thirteenth Tale

Reading is both an occupational hazard and a beloved hobby, but there never seems to be enough time for all that catches my eye.  (Point of fact: I have an entire bookcase filled with books that I have bought or been given which I wish to read, but haven’t had a chance to peek at yet!)

At the end of spring term, one of my colleagues put out a call to find out what people planned to read over the summer.  I had chosen The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield.  Though I had purchased it nearly 2 years ago, it had sat, waiting for me, on my bookcase.  It’s a book we own at the library, as well, and each time it was checked out and returned, I would look at it, re-read the book description, and promise myself that this would be something I’d read soon.

I’m thrilled to say that “soon” arrived this summer.  And frankly, The Thirteenth Tale was over too soon!  Not because it is a short book, but simply because I enjoyed it too much.  This is a story for those who are willing, nay, apt to get sucked into the world of the books they read.  I was engrossed in the world which the author created, sucked in by the false paths and tangents that occur in everyday life, but go unnoticed.  I read much of it sitting on my front porch, hurtled out of my book world only when a dog passed by and sent my dog into a barking frenzy.

This isn’t a perfect book – the last 30 pages or so felt a little pat to me – but maybe my disappointment in those last few pages stems from the fact that the majority of the book was so extraordinary, I was let down when the end was “merely” good!

I’m purposely not saying much about the storyline.  It’s something that I want readers to explore on their own.  But if you love books, and enjoy a story that has a quiet setting but a lot of drama , this is a choice I encourage you to pick up. 

Next up for me – the two library books I checked out 2 weeks ago, intending to read during my vacation.  (Those titles: The Amulet of Samarkand and Girls in Trucks.)  If I’m really fortunate, I’ll fall into a world which encompasses me whole.  And then, perhaps, it will be time to pull another gem off my bookshelf – or maybe something will entice me as I pass a library bookshelf.

~Christine Aden

Olive Kitteridge

Elizabeth Strout’s new novel, which won the Pulitzer Prize a few weeks ago, consists of a series of linked short stories that revolve around a cast of characters in a small town on the coast of Maine. Olive Kitteridge appears in almost all of them, sometimes as the main character, a large woman who finds herself alternately repelled and deeply in love with life, and sometimes as a background character, the fearsome teacher, for example, someone had for high school math. Olive represents all of the people who drift in and out of the novel, though, as well as ourselves, as we try to make sense of life on earth, as we make a mess of things, try to repair our mistakes, experience pain and loss, and occasionally discover the essence of joy. –Margi Rogal

Summer Reading Plans

Across the Augustana campus, people are deciding what they’ll read over the summer break. Several students, faculty, and staff shared their summer reading plans with the library. Here are the books they are planning to read — and why they are choosing to read them:

Christine Aden Faculty/staff member The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield This novel focuses on a reclusive author who has given a variety of life histories when responding to interviews. Now, she wants to tell the truth to her biographer. But will she? I want to know.

 

Maria Ford

Junior

My Sister, My Love by Joyce Carol Oates

I picked it up this week but I’ll have to finish it after finals. It’s a really unusual book which will (probably) make you feel like your family is downright normal compared to the dysfunctional one in the book.

 

 

Shawn Beattie

Faculty/staff member

Don’t Waste Your Life, by John Piper

To take some time to reflect on my vocation and calling in life. (eBook: http://tinyurl.com/33trag)

 

Stephanie Fuhr

Faculty/staff member

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Shaffer & Barrows

It’s said to be a new classic in women’s fiction! Who doesn’t love a book about books?

 

Katie Lundell

First-Year

The Irresistible Revolution by Shane Claiborne

I’ve heard a lot of good things and saw Shane speak once. Also, I’m reading it with a friend so we can discuss while we work at a camp.

 

Dan Hearne

First-Year

Dreams of My Father and The Audacity of Hope both by Barack Obama

I feel that it is important to understand our politicians, particularly our President, and one great way to do this is the read the books that he has written.

 

Robert Elfline

Faculty/staff member

“Pride and Prejudice and Zombies” – Seth Grahame-Smith

Yes this is a real book. Who can resist Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy fighting with the undead?

 

River

Junior

I Am Charlotte Simmons by Tom Wolfe and The Aeneid by Vergil

The first title was recommended to me by all of my roommates so I thought I should discovered what all this hype was about. The second is one I think I should read since I have studied Latin for 7 years and never once read it.

 

Vanessa Nienhouse

Junior

A Thousand Splendid Suns

I just read “The Kite Runner” and it was really good! I’d love to read more from the same author.

 

Beth Whitty

Faculty/staff member

The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett

I got this as a gift and it is amazing! If you like historical fiction pick this one up!

 

Stephanie Hortsman

Senior

Angels & Demons by Dan Brown

I have a long list of books to read this summer, but this one is at the top because the movie is coming out soon, and I have to read it before I allow myself to see the movie! Plus I loved The DaVinci Code, so this seems like a good idea!

 

Margi Rogal

Faculty/staff member

The Shadow of Sirius by W. S. Merwin

This book of poetry just won the Pulitzer Prize, and I love Merwin. Each poem I read by him takes my breath away.

 

Karen Stein

First-Year

Wheel of Time Series by Robert Jordan

I plan on re-reading this series because it is the most intricate fantasy series I have ever read, and the next (and almost final) part of the series is being released soon!

 

Scott McAlonan

Junior

House of Leaves, by Mark Z. Danielewski

I read this book last summer and really enjoyed it. It’s a very complex book and I missed a lot the first time through, so I’m reading it again!

 

Audrey Lake

Faculty/staff member

Love Your Life

For encouragement, and it is working!

 

Becca Poock

Faculty/staff member

JK Rowling Harry Potter 7 Book Series

I have not read them, and EVERYONE says I must! I am finishing Tolkien’s The Hobbit, and I am in the middle of Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle.

 

Marge Cook

First-Year

Skin Trade by Laurell K. Hamilton

“Skin Trade” is the 17th book in the Anita Black series by Laurell K. Hamilton, who has been on the New York Times bets seller list quite a few times. This series is about a female necromancer who struggles through her love triangle with the vampire of the city and the head werewolf of the local St. Louis pack while solving supernatural murder cases as a U.S. marshal. It is for sure not rater G, but Hamilton remains an awesome author.

Brianna Dyer

Junior

My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult

Jodi Picoult is my favorite author, and I want to read this particular book of hers next because the movie version will hit theaters on June 26th! — The cast will include Cameron Diaz, Abigail Breslin, Alec Baldwin, and Joan Cusack. I also want to read this book because it tackles an issue that is not commonly addressed… The product of preimplantation genetic diagnosis, Anna was conceived as a bone marrow match for her sister Kate, and she challenges the life and role that has been established for her as she, like most teenagers, begins to question who she truly is. Ruth Ann Hyser Faculty/staff member People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks This book was a gift I received from Australian friends last fall, and they are coming to visit this summer!   Umme Al-Wazedi Faculty/staff  member Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird: Some instructions on Writing and Life Kamran Pasha: Mother of the Believers   Jason Peters Faculty/Staff member My summer reading is going to be all over the place.  I just finished a pretty dull book on C.S. Lewis and am recovering with Matthew Crawford’s Shopclass as Soulcraft:  An Inquiry Into the Value of Work, which is pretty interesting.  Crawford’s a PhD in political philosophy.  He quit his “job” in a think tank to run a motorcycle repair shop.  He’s convinced we don’t understand work very well, and I think he’s right.  I’ll also be reading some previously unpublished stuff by Owen Barfield and some environmental histories of the west.  I aim to re-read some Walker Percy as well.  I’m writing on Berry again, so I think I’ll re-read his novels and stories and especially his essays that touch on conservation in America.  And there’s more.  There’s always more.