Celebrate Banned Books Week

Libraries and bookstores all across the country will be celebrating Banned Books Week from September 22-28.  The week celebrates our freedom to read what we choose and to challenge ourselves by reading books that past (and current) generations, individuals, organizations, and even countries have either banned or challenged for a variety of reasons.  For more information on Banned Books Week, visit this site.  The American Library Association also has a wonderful page.

I like to pick up at least one banned/challenged title during the week.  This year I chose Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway as my banned title to read.  I may be cheating as I'm currently working my way through all of Woolf's titles, but I like a good two birds with one stone situation.

I also enjoy going through the lists of banned/challenged books and finding those gems I have enjoyed over the years.  Titles like The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Beloved, The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, The Catcher in the Rye, and Fight Club wind up on every list.  But there are some others that fly under the radar.  One of the first banned books I enjoyed was Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers.  This title, depicting the realities of the Vietnam War, is often assigned in middle and high school literature classes.  I also have fond memories of reading A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle.  The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, the author of Half Broke Horses, is a powerful memoir of growing up with a mother suffering from mental illness and an alcoholic father.  Another commonly banned title is A Clockwork Orange, which was the first title I read when I became aware of Banned Books Week.  Finally, I loved Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God, about a young African American woman dealing with racism in 20th century United States.

Remember to exercise your right to read, not only this week, but throughout the year.

Historical Ninja Mystery

In 16th century Japan, a ninja named Hiro (more properly called a shinobi) is tasked with protecting Father Mateo, one of the first and only foreigners allowed to live and work in Kyoto. When one of Father Mateo's converts, a beautiful young entertainer named Sayuri, is accused of the murder of one of her patrons, the priest puts his own life on the line to buy time to prove her innocence. Hiro and Father Mateo must find the killer in two days, or else both the priest and Sayuri will be executed. The excellent debut novel The Claws of the Cat by Susan Spann is where mysteries and ancient Japan collide.

Spann's novel is an excellent mystery as well as a skillful introduction to 16th century Japanese culture. It refrains from passing judgement but details such traditions as the bushido code of the samurai and the rigid class system. Characters are rich and full of life, even secondary ones, and the bond between Hiro and Mateo is especially deep. The most singular aspect of this novel, however, is that it is a mystery set in the 16th century - no CSI fingerprinting and blood-spatter analysis here. Hiro uses clues such as the shape of footprints in blood, the potential motive of the killer, and his shinobi skills to solve the murder. It was intriguing to read a story where the detective was both a ninja and had to solve the mystery by using relatively simple (to modern readers) means. If you want to know more about Japanese culture and love an old-fashioned whodunit, you will enjoy this gripping mystery.

Shannon Wood, Adult Services Librarian

Paul Harding's Follow-Up to Tinkers

I encountered Paul Harding's work in 2010, after his novel Tinkers won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.  Tinkers was about George Washington Crosby, a clock repairman whose own time is about to run out.  As he lays on his deathbed, Crosby relives his troubled childhood and his relationship with his epileptic father.  I had mixed feelings about the book, but Harding's unique and mesmerizing use of language was apparent.  His follow-up, Enon, is due out this month and I was lucky enough to get my hands on an advance copy.

Harding's subject this time is Charlie Crosby, grandson of George Washington Crosby.  The mood, as in the first book, is certainly not light.  Charlie has just lost his daughter in an accident and his wife has left to spend time with her family, though it becomes clear she is not coming back.  The reader delves into Charlie's day to day life which becomes more and more unsettling.  He barely eats, wanders the town of Enon, visits his daughters grave nightly, and has bizarre interactions with the people of the town. 

If there is one thing to take from this book it's that Paul Harding is an absolute master with language.  The disconcerting details of Charlie's plunge into borderline madness, mixed with the vivid descriptions of Enon and its people, are truly amazing.  The subject matter, while unpleasant, shows what a parent with no support could go through after losing a child.

Chris May- Adult Services Manager

Need a Discussion Guide for Your Book Group?

We love helping out local book groups at the Tiffin-Seneca Public Library!  Let us know if you have a group and need help ordering enough copies for your members.  We would be more than happy to help!

But what about book discussion guides?  There's no worse feeling than not having enough interesting questions for the group.  Never fear!  Check out these sites below for excellent book discussion guides (click the images to enter the sites):

NoveList Plus is an excellent subscription service offered for free through the library.  You will be asked for either your zip code or library card number when entering the site.  Click on "Book Discussion Guides" on the right-hand side of the page.

BookBrowse is a tremendous free service for book reviews, author/title read-alikes and book discussion guides.  Hover over the Book Clubs tab on the top of the screen and you will see Reading Guides listed.

LitLovers is similar to BookBrowse.  It even includes useful tips on starting your own book club!  Go to LitResources on the left-hand side of the screen.  Reading Guides is listed under this heading.



Don't forget that the library also offers to book groups!  Let's Talk About It meets on the first Thursday of the month at 10:30 am.  Copies of the next book, Mountains Beyond Mountains, are available at the Information Desk.  Our other book group, Coffee By the Book, meets at Bailiwicks Coffee Company on the third Thursday of the month at 6:00 pm.  Copies of this month's title, The Unchangeable Spots of Leopards, are also available.

2013 Ohioana Award Winners Announced

The 2013 Ohioana Award winners were recently announced, with a reception to be held on October 11 at the Ohio Statehouse.  If you are unfamiliar with the Ohioana Library Association, visit the organization's website here.  According to the site "The Ohioana Book Awards are given annually to recognize and honor outstanding books published the previous year by authors who were born in Ohio or who have lived in Ohio for at least five years, the exception being a book about Ohio or an Ohioan and, this year’s the special category, fiction set in Ohio".

Here are this year's award winners:

Ohioana Book Award for Fiction
The Coldest Night by Robert Olmstead

Ohioana Book Award for Nonfiction
The Bluebird Effect: Uncommon Bonds with Common Birds by Julie Zickefoose

Ohioana Book Award for Juvenile Literature
His Name Was Raoul Wallenberg: Courage, Rescue and Mystery During World War II by Louise Borden



Ohioana Book Award for Fiction Set in Ohio
The Last Runaway by Tracy Chevalier

Ohioana Book Award for About Ohio or an Ohioan
America's Other Audubon by Joy Kiser

So Your Best Friend is a Kraken

Lilly is the daughter of a rich merchant, but the birthmark on her face marks her as a witch to the townsfolk.  Isolated from other people, she strikes up a friendship with a young kraken that she names Octavius. Yes, you read that right - a kraken. Sea Change, S. M. Wheeler's debut novel, is a dizzying journey through a fantasy world with a cast of strange, mythical characters. When Octavius is kidnapped and sold to the circus, Lilly sets out to rescue him and along the way meets trolls, mermaids, witches, and other mysterious monsters. In order to save her friend, she must make sacrifices that she never knew were possible.

Wheeler's novel is a wildly creative, dark fairy tale in the vein of the original Brothers Grimm stories before they were watered down for Disney. There is gore, blood, horror, and cruelty, but also family, love, and friendship. The novel explores the lengths gone to for friendship and how an unwavering belief, even one with good intentions, will change the person who believes it. One downside to Wheeler's writing style is that the dialogue is somewhat stilted, and I found myself having to read some exchanges multiple times to understand what was going on. However, Wheeler makes up for this with the dark, creative horrors that leap from her mind to the page. Fans of Neil Gaiman's work, especially Neverwhere, will enjoy Wheeler's twisted, visceral fairy tale world.

Shannon Wood, Adult Services Librarian