Book Review: Revenge of the Librarians by Tom Gauld

Revenge of the Librarians
by Tom Gauld (741.5 Gau)

For the past several years, I’ve been seeing the wry, comic art panels of artist Tom Gauld regularly showing up in my Facebook feed, shared by many of my friends…especially those with a love of literary humor. Gauld’s comic strips (frequently seen on the online features of The Guardian) feature simple, uncomplicated art, with “characters” that are often little more than stylized stick figures. His works always appear as variations on the traditional “comic strip” format — long horizontal boxes that can sometimes be just a single box, but can also be subdivided into the traditional 3 or 4 boxes that are reminiscent of newspaper comic strips, but he also frequently uses the space to create a multitude of tiny art boxes.

 

Gauld’s humor is dry, wry, slightly sarcastic, and pokes fun at tropes and established traditions. This particular book collects dozens of his strips that all share a thematic connection — books, reading, libraries, writers, publishing and more along these lines. I absolutely adored this entire collection, and will be looking to purchase a copy for my own personal library. If you, too, appreciate the ability to have fun with literary traditions, you’ll appreciate this collection as well.

 

( official Tom Gauld web site )

 

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

 

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New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide Blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

Book Review: Murder by Page One by Olivia Matthews

Murder by Page One
by Olivia Matthews (Matthews) (pseudonym of Patricia Sargeant)

Disclaimer: I am a big fan of the murder-mystery movies on the Hallmark Movies & Mysteries network, which tend to be amateur detective stories featuring a sleuth with a particularly distinctive background — florist, antiques dealer, crossword puzzle editor, criminology professor, wedding planner and in the culinary field, baker/caterer/gourmet chef. They follow a certain formula, in which the central sleuth, usually a woman, has a give-and-take relationship with a law-enforcement official, who usually doesn’t want them interfering in an investigation, but ultimately our sleuth’s specialized knowledge in their specific profession gives them insight into the location of the murder, the psychology of the murderer, or the motivation behind the crime. If the series of TV-movies lasts more than just 2 or 3 films, then invariably a complicated romantic relationship will start heating up between our amateur sleuth and the detective (or FBI agent, etc.)

 

So, when I saw that Hallmark’s book-printing division, Hallmark Publishing, had published several new mystery novels, specifically written to capture the tone and style of their successful TV-movies, but featuring all-new, never-before-seen characters and settings, I had to give them a try. Following new series by Tracy Gardner (The Shepherd Sisters) in 2019 and Amanda Flower (Piper and Porter) in 2020, this third new series (The Peach Coast Library mysteries) was by Patricia Sargeant, writing as Olivia Matthews, and its central character is a librarian. Marvella “Marvey” Harris is a transplant to Peach Coast, Georgia from New York City. She’s been hired to boost the local library’s profile and increase customer traffic, through community engagement. As part of that, she’s attending a local writing group’s group book-signing event at the local independent book store, owned by her friend Jo. When one of the writing group, whose first novel just came out, is discovered dead in the back storage room of the bookstore, the police suspect Marvey’s friend Jo. Together with the rich and handsome young Spencer Holt, a member of the library’s board of directors, Marvey promises her friend Jo that she’ll help discover more likely suspects, since the police don’t seem to want to do so themselves.

 

The mystery is fairly typical, and in this first entry, the characters are all kind of cardboard — they haven’t really developed full yet. I love the library and bookstore backgrounds, and Marvey’s team of library co-workers shows some promise. But, just like many of the Hallmark Movies & Mystery channel’s movies, there are a lot of implausible elements and coincidental plot developments, not to mention some inconsistencies that a tighter editorial oversight might have fixed. Still…I’ll give the second one in this series a chance, to see if it improves — I did find enough about this appealing to see if there’s growth down the line. If you’re looking for a simple amateur sleuth mystery with characters who love both libraries and bookstores, you’ll likely appreciate this one.

 

(If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try the next in this Peach Coast Mysteries series, Murder Out of Character also by Olivia Matthews.)

 

( Hallmark’s official Peach Coast Library mystery series web page ) | ( publisher’s official Olivia Matthews web page ) | ( official Patricia Sargeant web site )

 

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

 

Have you read or listened to this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide Blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

Book and Audiobook Reviews: The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray

The Personal Librarian
by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray (Compact Disc Benedict)

Working in a library, as I do, I tend to flag any new books with “library” in the title, for my personal reading enjoyment. Sometimes they end up as duds, but sometimes you find a gem. This falls into the latter category.

The Personal Librarian is historical fiction, based mostly on historical fact. Born Belle Marion Greener, to black parents, under her mother’s influence, Belle changed her name to Belle da Costa Greene, and as a light-skinned woman of color, managed to pass her self off as “white” in early 1900s society. While working at the Princeton University Library, Belle was encouraged by a nephew of the great financier, J. Pierpont Morgan, to apply for the position as Morgan’s “personal librarian” at the eponymous library he was establishing to house his collection of rare manuscripts and art work. She was hired for the position, despite her young age.

 

This novel, based on what historical records have survived, explores Belle’s life and experiences as she helps J.P. Morgan create one of the world’s foremost libraries, and her efforts to continue their work after his passing, all while she has to conceal her true heritage from the world at large. This is 50% “love letter” to the passion for the preservation of knowledge, and 50% about Belle’s personal life and the challenges she faces maintaining a public persona that differs from her true self.

 

All in all, I enjoyed The Personal Librarian quite a lot. There are lots of great “moments” or “scenes” throughout the book, though in the end I felt that the driving central plot was a bit lackluster. I found Belle’s on-again/off-again relationship with a distant suitor to be a bit tiresome and overwrought. Fans of historical fiction, and of literature exploring the sacrifices made by those of African-American descent in order to fit into a racist and demeaning society, will both find much to appreciate in this one. I listened to the book-on-CD audio adaptation of The Personal Librarian, narrated by actress Robin Miles, and she does a terrific job with this novel.

 

( US publisher’s official The Personal Librarian web page ) | ( official Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray web sites )

 

Recommended on audio by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

 

When twenty-six-year-old Belle da Costa Greene interviews with J. P. Morgan in 1905 for the position of personal librarian to help collect rare manuscripts and art for his private Pierpont Morgan Library, she has to speak carefully. In part, she is hiding her limited library experience working at Princeton University Library and her teacher’s education. However she also is hiding a much bigger and dangerous secret. Belle is not who she seems. Her middle name is not da Costa and she doesn’t get her dark complexion from a Portuguese grandmother. Belle da Costa Greene is actually Belle Marion Greener. Her heritage is African American and her father was the first Black graduate from Harvard and a vocal advocate of equal rights. Although the book is fiction, authors Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray create a story of what it must have been like for real-life Belle Marion Greener to work with the out-spoken Morgan, act as an intelligent and witty competitor in a world of men, and all the while keep her true identity protected. Some women celebrate her accomplishments and use her as a model as they fight for equal rights; others would prefer to see her fail. In addition, she has to keep her romantic relationship discreet because of his heritage and her employer’s dislike and competition with the man.

 

As a historical fiction novel, I enjoyed the opportunity to learn more about this strong, clever, and inspiring woman, as well as the rare manuscript and art collection she helped assemble and eventually make available to the general public. Although there was always the underlying threat that Belle might be discovered, I didn’t feel an overwhelming urgency to the story. I didn’t find myself racing to get to the next chapter. Perhaps the two authors felt that it was important to put together a book to educate its reader rather than entice. I will say that if you are a lover of historic fiction, this is one to put on your reading list just to learn about this inspiring woman.

 

(If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try The Paris Library by Janet Skeslian Charles or The Last Bookshop in London by Madeline Martin.)

 

Recommended in print by Cindy K.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

 

Have you read or listened to this one? What did you think? Did you find these reviews helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide Blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

Book Review: The Paris Library by Janet Skeslien Charles

The Paris Library
by Janet Skeslien Charles (Skeslien Charles)

 

You may find yourself asking, “what would I have done” when you read The Paris Library by Janet Skeslien Charles. Would you go to the same lengths as these librarians did to help Jewish patrons and to protect the library’s collection, risking an uncertain end? The story depicts the survival of the American Library in Paris during World War II and the Nazi’s occupation of Paris.

 

It follows young Odile Souchet in 1939, newly employed in the periodical room. As Odile adjusts to working in the library, she also worries about her brother who enlists in the war. All too soon the Germans overrun Paris and the atrocities of war hit close to home. So when Jewish patrons are blocked from coming to the library and much of the collection is in danger of being destroyed, we discover the lengths that Odile and other librarians at the American Library in Paris will go to in order to help and provide materials to their Jewish subscribers and other international patrons.

 

The book alternates chapters, exchanging stories with teenage Lily. In 1983 in Froid, Montana, Lily mourns her mother. Lily has to learn how to live with a new family when her father remarries and she becomes a big sister, as well as how to survive her high school years. Here Odile is now a widow, Mrs. Gustafson “the War Bride,” and lives a very solitary life. She befriends teenage Lily. It starts with French lessons, but eventually Odile teaches Lily how to survive when your life is torn apart.

 

The Paris Library is fiction; however, it is based on the actual people who worked in the American Library in Paris and historical events that took place there. The author states she wrote the book to shed light on the brave librarians, and to show how the relationships we have during our lifetime make us who we are, helping or hindering those around us. I would recommend the book to anyone looking for a different perspective and who is interested in historical fiction from World War II.

[If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try The Last Bookshop in London by Madeline Martin or The Lilac Girls by Martha Hall Kelly.]

[ official Janet Skeslien Charles web site (also official The Paris Library site) ]

 

Recommended by Cindy K.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Services

 

Have you read or listened to this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide Blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

Book Review: The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman

The Invisible Library
by Genevieve Cogman (Cogman)

The Invisible Library is the beginning of a (so far) seven book series about alternate-dimension-hopping librarians. It’s very reminiscent of Doctor Who since the “alternates” are at different time periods and there’s a great deal of running away from and outwitting danger without just shooting things.

 

This first book opens James Bond style with the action climax of Irene’s just-wrapping-up mission to secure a unique manuscript from a boarding school, followed immediately by a new assignment in a “high chaos” alternate. Here, “chaos” basically means that a world is falling into storybook tropes and increased magical interference. This can be lethal for visiting librarians. She’s also been assigned a newbie, Kai, who claims to have been pressed into service to the dimensional hub library because of street criminal activities, but he’s acting *awfully* aristocratic. And, right on cue, the murders begin in an alternate that’s much like our Victorian England but with more zeppelins and fae folk out in public. Wouldn’t it be interesting if Irene ran into a consulting detective?

 

I recommend The Invisible Library to fans of Victorian mysteries and generally perilous adventures.

[If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan, The Library of the Unwritten by A.J. Hackwith, or The Midnight Library by Matt Haig.]

[ official Invisible Library page on the official Genevieve Cogman web site ]

 

Recommended by Garren H.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

 

Have you read or listened to this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide Blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

Book Review: Forgotten Bookmarks by Michael Popek

Forgotten Bookmarks: A Bookseller’s Collection of Odd Things Lost Between the Pages
by Michael Popek (002 Pop)

Working in a library, we tend to see a lot of…unusual…things left behind in books that are returned to the libraries. Over the years, we’ve even occasionally had displays put up highlighting the odd bookmarks that customers have neglected to reclaims — from the commonplace (receipts, scrap paper, photos, etc.) to the hard-to-explain (a piece of bacon).

Therefore, the title of this slim volume immediately resonated with me. Forgotten Bookmarks is, as the title suggests, a celebration of the odd things left behind in books that were handled by author Michael Popek in his full-time job as an antiquarian book dealer. He breaks the types of “left behind” objects into broad categories, then shows photographs of the object in question (sometimes with either a blown-up image to illustrate it more clearly, and sometimes with a transcription of the text if it’s hard to read — handwritten notes, etc.), although with a photo of the book the “bookmark” was found within. There is very little explanatory text — Popek usually lets the “lost bookmark” speak for itself.

This is a fun, quirky little read, which should especially appeal to book lovers — those who prefer to hold a physical book in their hands over the more clinical experience of reading e-books. A little goes a long way however — I think I would have enjoyed this a bit more if I’d spread it out over more time, reading just a few entries at a time. Instead, I read it pretty much in a single sitting, and the “lost bookmarks” tended to all sort of blur together.

And, honestly, though many of the remnants in this volume, particularly those which included handwritten notes, were heart-warming, on the “weird” end of the spectrum, I’ve seen far weirder things left in library books that Popek chronicles in his bookseller experience.

[ official Forgotten Bookmarks and author website ]

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library

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New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

DVD Review: The Public

The Public
[DVD Public]

The Public was a passion project for Emilio Estevez, who not only wrote and directed this film but who also starred in it. Estevez plays Stuart Goodson, a librarian with the main downtown Cincinnati Public Library. During a brutal cold streak one winter, the homeless and transient users of the library end up staging a “sit-in” or takeover of the library — non-violently refusing to leave at closing time, for fear of dying from the outdoor conditions. Goodson and other library employees wind up locked inside the library with a large group of the homeless — barricaded to prevent the police from coming in to remove them from the library.

This film explores a lot of important issues, including what the library’s role is in serving the public, where do the lines get drawn in how much support the library staff can provide to people with physical and mental issues, and what does it mean to be a functioning and contributing member of society. But it’s also a character study — mainly of Goodson (who has some secrets that are revealed as the plot progresses), but also of his library co-workers. There are some excellent performances, including Alec Baldwin as a crisis negotiator, and several of the actors portraying the homeless men and women who take over the library.

As a librarian, I appreciated the in-depth look at some of the kinds of issues I and my co-workers encounter on a daily basis. As a movie fan, I can strongly recommend this a well-made, thought-provoking drama.

[ Internet Movie Database entry for this film ] | [ official The Public web site ]

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library

Have you watched this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewer’s recommendations!

New BooksTalk Booklist: Bibliomysteries!

Former Lincoln City Libraries staff member Mary S. (now with the Nebraska Library Commission), was the guest BooksTalk presenter at Bethany Branch Library on April 12, 2019. Her theme was mystery fiction dealing with books, literature, libraries and bookstores.

Check out her list of recommended reading at the following link:

Bibliomysteries

Book Review: Library on Wheels by Sharlee Mullins Glenn

Library on Wheels: Mary Lemist Titcomb and America’s First Bookmobile
by Sharlee Mullins Glenn [j Biography Titcomb]

I’ve heard various stories over the years of what the very first Bookmobile in the United States was, but had never seen any of those stories codified into book form until seeing this lovely little gem of a juvenile biography recently.

This marvelous book is both a biography of Mary Lemist Titcomb, and a chronicle of the history of her development of a mobile library. This volume is not told in purely traditional book form, but instead is a collection of artifacts — ticket stubs, program itineraries, newspaper articles, personal diaries, and much more. Some are reproductions of actual documents and some are stylistic recreations. They all combine to make an absolutely fascinating read.

Though this book is classified as a juvenile biography, I found it a compelling read as an adult, and recommend this for anyone interested in library history, bookmobile history, and the lives of significant women in American history.

[ publisher’s official Library on Wheels web site ] | [ official Sharlee Glenn web site ] 

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library

Have you read this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide website. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide blog individually over the course of the entire month. Click the tag for the reviewer's name to see more of this reviewers recommendations!