Alma Public Library

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Marie's pick of the month:  These are my special picks that I have found to hold up to their tremendous reviews.  The books reviewed here are available at the Alma Public Library.  If our copies are checked out, we now have the advantage of ordering them through our Winding Rivers Shared System Catalog.  Often, you will be able to find your books in audio format or even  PLAYAWAYS.  Remember:  Love Your Library....Love Your Books.

Marie's Pick

December 2009

Ghost Girl: The True Story of a Child in Peril and the Teacher Who Saved Her

  by Torey  L. Hayden

From School Library Journal

Hayden's classroom of emotionally disturbed children consists of Reuben, a boy suffering from autism; Philip, born to an addict mother and now in foster care; Jeremiah, a foul-mouthed fighter; and Jadie, a girl who never speaks and walks with such hunched posture that she appears to be doubled over. Through patience and determination, Hayden gains Jadie's confidence and gets her to speak, but with her conversation come tales of sexual abuse and ritual acts too horrifying to believe. When Hayden goes to the authorities, the community is reluctant to accept the possibility that Jadie is telling the truth. There are three explanations for her macabre and graphic disclosures: she is either a psychotic child beyond help, a victim of satanic rituals, or she has been used, along with her sisters, to make pornographic films. The conclusion is frustrating because readers never learn which of the three speculations is the truth. Hayden does tell us that today Jadie is a happy and functioning adult and that is some comfort. --Katherine Fitch, Thomas Jefferson Sci-Tech, Fairfax County, VA

It will crawl into your heart.  Look for more of Hayden's books at Alma Public Library:

The Tiger's Child, Twilight Children, and Beautiful Child

Marie's Pick

September 2009

Attention Parents and Teachers: 

The Silent Crisis Destroying America's Brightest Minds

  by Sharon Rose Sugar (Founder, CEO, President at The Great American Notebook Company)

"Most students do not learn how to succeed in the American education system; they spend most of their time learning how to survive the American education system."  Sharon Sugar outlines 15 stumbling blocks to academic failure and the 15 stepping stones for academic success:  Such as quantified curriculum-drive American educational system; poor learning tools to process a volume of facts; one size does not fit all; loss of heroes and integrity.

On the flip side, she explores:  How learning takes place; and shifting out of curriculum driven to learning-processing.

Actually the book reads much easier than most and includes up close examples of struggling students who learn to cut corners in order to survive (thus undermining their personal success).  Worth consideration.  You'll be impressed. ...Marie

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From The Library Thing
This revolutionary book on American education courageously tackles tough and treacherous terrain. It treads dangerously on minefields deeply buried in American pedagogy. Armed with a penetrating arrow of perspicacious hindsight, insight, and foresight, this book will pierce your heart and mind and leave indelible footprints; it will awaken within you your own deeply buried and forsaken memories of academic heartache and triumph. Ms. Sharon Rose Sugar is a smart woman and this is a groundbreaking and brilliant book that will never gather dust on a library shelf or be passed over in a bookstore.

There is something for everyone: Teachers, parents, students, psychiatrists, and politicians. This book will never grow old
and gather dust on a library shelf because this book empowers, emancipates, and entertains, but most importantly, it
educates, a rare and elusive commodity. This book has legs that walk the talk: Every Student Is a Success Story.
 

Marie's Pick

August 2009

The Next 100 Years:  a Forecast for the 21st Century

  by George Friedman (founder of STRATFOR)

If you have ever played the board game "RISK" in which you shake the dice and accumulate armies to challenge the take over of world countries, you will understand the premise of George Friedman's book.  Such an interesting look into global geopolitical aspects of Nations as they align themselves for the best political, economic and military advantage in our ever-shifting world.  I was particularly impressed on the importance Mr. Friedman places on US naval advantage.  He also forecasts that our energy problems may be resolved by beaming microwaves to earth via satellites.  Written so even I can understand it.

From Publishers Weekly
With a unique combination of cold-eyed realism and boldly confident fortune-telling, Friedman (Americas Secret War) offers a global tour of war and peace in the upcoming century. The author asserts that the United States power is so extraordinarily overwhelming that it will dominate the coming century, brushing aside Islamic terrorist threats now, overcoming a resurgent Russia in the 2010s and 20s and eventually gaining influence over space-based missile systems that Friedman names battle stars. Friedman is the founder of Stratfor, an independent geopolitical forecasting company, and his authoritative-sounding predictions are based on such factors as natural resources and population cycles. While these concrete measures lend his short-term forecasts credence, the later years of Friedmans 100-year cycle will provoke some serious eyebrow raising. The armed border clashes between Mexico and the United States in the 2080s seem relatively plausible, but the space war pitting Japan and Turkey against the United States and allies, prognosticated to begin precisely on Thanksgiving Day 2050, reads as fantastic (and terrifying) science fiction. Whether all of the visions in Friedmans crystal ball actually materialize, they certainly make for engrossing entertainment. (Feb.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
 

Marie's Pick

June 2009

Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance  by Barack Obama  (Audio Book)

I am so glad I chose the audio book because Mr. Obama reads his autobiography in a resonant, compelling voice.  He pulls no punches with the language, attitudes and priorities of his diverse family, friends and co-workers.  It is probably the most intimate window we will ever have to one of our nation's presidents.  Learning of all the puzzle pieces of Barack Obama's life, gives us insight into the value he will bring as leader of our country.

From Publishers Weekly
Elected the first black president of the Harvard Law Review, Obama was offered a book contract, but the intellectual journey he planned to recount became instead this poignant, probing memoir of an unusual life. Born in 1961 to a white American woman and a black Kenyan student, Obama was reared in Hawaii by his mother and her parents, his father having left for further study and a return home to Africa. So Obama's not-unhappy youth is nevertheless a lonely voyage to racial identity, tensions in school, struggling with black literature with one month-long visit when he was 10 from his commanding father. After college, Obama became a community organizer in Chicago. He slowly found place and purpose among folks of similar hue but different memory, winning enough small victories to commit himself to the work. he's now a civil rights lawyer there. Before going to law school, he finally visited Kenya; with his father dead, he still confronted obligation and loss, and found wellsprings of love and attachment. Obama leaves some lingering questions? His mother is virtually absent,but still has written a resonant book.

Marie's Pick

March 2009

With Violets by Elizabeth Robards

An intimate window onto Paris in the 1860's, and the first woman Impressionist, Berte Morisot.  This novel is written in the first person which gives it such a fresh viewpoint. I can imagine the growing pains of this beautiful, aristocratic woman trying to remain true to her art as she aligns with the Impressionist and breaks with the dictatorial art Society.

Plucked from history, the author expands on the romantic relationship Berte has with the Master, Edouard Manet and the soul wrenching conflict within herself of loving a married man. 

Artist Note:  Here is Manet's famous picture Le Balcon with Berte Morisot as the seated model.  Ah for the era of beautiful long dresses, hats, fans and servants!

Marie's Pick

February 2009

I am reading the first in a series of French Revolutionary Spy Novels.

You may have heard of "The Scarlet Pimpernel".... well get ready for "The History of the Pink Carnation" by Lauren Willig.

A young history student journey's to England to research her favorite topic, "Spies", for her dissertation.  She encounters a family with the missing written history she is looking for.

As she is enthralled over the correspondence she is given to read, a handsome family member so vehemently objects to her search that she is sure there is something about the past sleuth named "The Pink Carnation" which he is determined to hide.

A dual romance reveals itself both in the present and from the past.  A pleasant read.

The continuing series includes:  The Masque of the Black Tulip, The Deception of the Emerald Ring, The Seduction of the Crimson Rose, The Temptation of the Night Jasmine.

Marie's Pick

January 2009

I am about to read "Toward 2012:  Perspectives on the New Age" by Daniel Pinchbeck and Ken Jordan

Here is a collection of essays exploring models of transformation for survival of a new and better world.  I looks to both ancient and new paths of thought for change in view of the new alignment of earth with the center of our galaxy in December 2012.  The question is:  Cataclysm or Transformation?  I can't wait to find out.

Post Script:  Wow, a very eclectic compilation of world views not commonly subscribed to.  Couldn't read each one....very concentrative reading.

Marie's Pick

November 2008

I have just read "A Long Fatal Love Chase by Louisa May Alcott.

This book has been sitting on the shelf from before my time as librarian.  Each year it escaped the weeding process.  Curiosity got the best of me and I decided to read it.  It is an excellent look at a historical romance written at its actual time in history.  Take note of the authentic descriptive language and expressions. Here's a review from Publisher's Weekly:

This romantic cliffhanger about a woman pursued by her ex-lover, a relentless stalker, seems sprung from today's headlines. Yet Alcott (1832-1888) wrote it more than a century and a quarter ago, in 1866 (two years before the appearance of Little Women), only to see it rejected it as "too sensational" by the magazine that had requested it.

The novel has remained unpublished until now. (Copyright 1995) Its heroine, the lonely, trusting 18-year-old Rosamond Vivian, who lives with her flinty, unloving grandfather on an English island, falls for the cynical, suave Phillip Tempest, who's nearly twice her age. He whisks her off to his Mediterranean villa near Nice, promising to marry her, but when she discovers that he is secretly married (and strongly suspects that he has murdered the son he never acknowledged), Rosamond flees to Paris, assuming a new identity.

Phillip obsessively stalks her for two years, from France, where she seeks refuge in a convent and falls in love with a protective priest, to Germany, where Phillip has her committed to a lunatic asylum; eventually she flees to England. Alcott's portrayals of the pathological Phillip and of the conflicted Rosamond, who initially clings to her ex-lover, hoping to reform him until she realizes he is a murderous brute, show strong psychological insights. This absorbing novel revises our image of a complex and, it is now clear, prescient writer.

Marie's Pick

October 2008

I am re-reading the compelling Outlander Series by Diana Gabaldon.

I have always been interested in Time Travel and how the traveler reconciles his or her existence in a past or future life.  There is so much to ponder---the conflicts in norms, relationships and priorities between the two time periods not to mention the ramifications of what happens when there is a change in events of history itself.  Interestingly, new scientific research proclaims that they can now manipulate time....and it is just a matter of decades before time travel will be common.  Wow!

In the meantime,  I think you will thoroughly enjoy The Outlander epic series by Diana Gabaldon.  No where have I found a more interesting heroine than Claire Randall since Ayla in the Clan of the Cave Bear; both women being depicted as healers.  This series has tremendous relationship development between Claire and her new/old life partner.  Marvelous dialog.  The story is so true and descriptive, you are propelled into their point of history in England and Scotland.  Be ready for raw, graphic, and uncompromising events.  Not for the faint of heart.