Alan Alda's Latest Book

If I Understood You, Would I Have This Look on My Face? My Adventures in the Art and Science of Relating and Communicating by Alan Alda was just reviewed in The Star Ledger, and so the holds list at the library is now growing for this title. Famous as 'Dr. Hawkeye Pierce' in the television series M.A.S.H, Mr. Alda is also known for hosting the PBS series Scientific American Frontiers and has had a lifelong interest not only  in the sciences, but also in how scientists can better communicate their knowledge to the layman. This interest led him to found the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science at Stony Brook University. Drawing on his theater background and natural curiosity, the author discusses how theater techniques such as improvisation exercises can improve empathy and create a better rapport between scientists and layman or between doctors and patients. Would scientists who could communicate more effectively be able to get more research grants and public understanding of their work? Would a doctor who could communicate more clearly with his patients contribute to his patients' well-being? How can we all listen more and increase empathy which would lead to better communication? What is 'theory of mind' and what happens if we don't have that understanding of 'being in another person's shoes?' How does telling a story rather than giving a dry recitation of facts affect a person's memory? All of these points for improving human communication are considered in this book.

I just finished the book and would like to go back and read it again in order to understand all the research and studies the author covered about improving human communication of all kinds, but the book is due today and library readers are waiting for it. How could I have written a better review that would really grab you? Well, for that you will have to read the book and let me know.Did I mention that a huge, scary, hairy bear is first on the holds list? No? Well, just see if that image in your mind makes you remember this book and review.

Notorious RBG: the Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg

My Yearly Biography Reading, or maybe not...

I am not a biography person so I was busy congratulating myself on reading my annual biography, autobiography or memoir.  I had finished Notorious RBG: the Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, before I realized that it is cataloged in 347.7326 (Law, Supreme Court), not BIO GIN.  That is the charm of selecting downloadable books from OverDrive or Hoopla – I look at what is new and available and don’t consider any classification system.  Now, in keeping with my self-inflicted reading requirements, I still owe myself a biography.

Reading Notorious RBG is an adventure.  The authors, Irin Carmon and Shana Knizhnik, mix and match narrative, photographs, documents, cartoons and fan art.   The book has something for everyone, including a shout out to opera buffs.  The court decisions and legal briefs are described with enough detail to inform without overwhelming.  One particular decision involving voting rights, Shelby County v. Holder, has been mentioned almost daily on news programs during this election cycle so I was pleased to learn more about the background.  Perhaps the biggest surprise is the love story between RBG and her husband.   His final letter to her is heartbreaking.  Notorious RGB is a wonderful combination, mixing details about her ground-breaking legal career with enough personal information to make the woman in the formidable black robes more human.

Before the end of 2016 I must choose a biography or autobiography to read.  Books about the Kennedy family are still being published at a rapid rate, with the Roosevelts running a close second.  Alexander Hamilton is trendy and interest in Lincoln never fades.  I tend to avoid movie stars and anything too sensational – serial killers are definitely not an option.  Please send any recommendations through comments.

- S. Bakos

Related sources:

New York Times review of Notorious RBG, the life and times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg by Irin Carmen and Shana Knizhnik (2015)

Vogue review of Notorious RBG, '15 Things I Learned About Ruth Bader Ginsburg From Notorious RBG'

Dinner with Edward by Isabel Vincent

So Many Books, So Little Time

Working at the library we are obviously surrounded by books. With many returned books come book suggestions. With book suggestions come more book suggestions and sometimes even movie suggestions. Many times patrons tell us,

 “You have to read this book. It’s the best I’ve ever read!”

If I have read the book and enjoyed it, a lively discussion ensues. If I read the book and did not care for it, I invoke my two favorite comments:

1.) It’s well written :) Hopefully his/her next novel’s material will be more to my liking.
2.) I wanted to like the book but…

Just ask my book club friends they will tell you I use the first comment frequently during our monthly discussions.

If I have not read the book and it sounds appealing, I place it on my Goodreads app. Currently I have 172 books on my ToRead list within the app. I just need 172 weeks to read them all! So really I shouldn’t be looking for additional books to read, but I just can’t help myself.
Sometimes a book is quietly returned without any fanfare. I wonder if the book was finished, liked, disliked…

Last Thursday, Dinner with Edward: the Story of an Unexpected Friendship by Isabel Vincent (2016) was returned. As I went to reshelve this new nonfiction book, I read the back cover: a memoir of food, NYC, and friendship - what could be better? I had to give it a try. Ignoring my reading lists, I took the book home. During the course of my busy weekend, I read the book with the not-too-long and not-too-short chapters and fell in love with the book and with Edward. Each chapter begins with a menu for their weekly dinner that will be consumed when Isabel visits her friend Edward on Roosevelt Island. Each menu sounds wonderful. My only wish would be that the author had included recipes as so many of my favorite cozy mystery writers do. A cocktail and “catching up” discussion are always part of each chapter as well as some background allowing us to understand Edward and Isabel's current discussion.

Although fiction, A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman and Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand by Helen Simonson remind me of this sweet story. When asked for my current favorite, I will suggest Dinner with Edward.

~ Ann-Marie Sieczka
August 10, 2016

My Mrs. Brown by William Norwich

Mrs. Brown is a 66 year old widow who lives quietly in a small Connecticut town.
"Mrs. Brown was genteel. That's not a word used much anymore...it signifies a graceful way, someone free from vulgarity and rudeness. Aristocratic in a manner having nothing to do with money, fame, and celebrity." (2)
While helping to clean out the mansion of the local grand-dame, Mrs. Brown comes across a dress.
"Lest there be any confusion, this was no "little black dress." ... It was the queen of little black dresses, the jewel in the crown. Mrs. Brown fell under its spell." (46)
Emilia Brown decides she must have her own Oscar de la Renta black dress with matching jacket. She does not have the money and she has never been to New York city, but she is determined to save money and travel to the Oscar de la Renta boutique in New York to buy the dress. This is the story of 'My Mrs. Brown' written by fashion writer William Norwich. My Mrs. Brown is  a charming little novel in the style of Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day by Winifred Watson. In the book, Mrs. Brown is given Paul Gallico's book Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris which mirrors her own story. She reads just enough to learn that Mrs. Harris, a cleaning lady, also fell in love with a beautiful dress and was determined to buy one for herself. Mrs. Brown does not read the whole book because she does not want to know how it ends.
Readers of My Mrs. Brown will be drawn into this story of a quiet woman's dream and how it all turns out.

Non-Beach Reads

Summer is upon us and what better way to enjoy summer than to lie in a hammock with a cool

breeze, a nice cold lemonade and a great book. But which book?

There are definitely books that you are more apt to read in the summer. They are usually

lighter, happier and carefree. Last year I decided to veer in a different path and I read those

books that people said were “must reads”.

What to Read? Click on  our Label Cloud tags in the sidebar
for more Summer Reading or Beach Reads

 While on vacation I packed my kindle and a few of our 50 cent sale books that just so happened

to be on my “must read” list. The flight was a long one so I was able to read How The Garcia

Girls Lost their Accent by Julia Alvarez in it’s entirety. The girls and their parents flee the

Dominican Republic in 1960 and arrive in NYC where the girls embrace the culture including
the English language and bell bottom pants earning their parents disapproval. I left the book on
the plane for the next passenger to enjoy. First day on the beach, I began the Guernsey Literary

Potato Peel Society by Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows. This was an absolutely charming

book but not exactly the carefree reading you associate with summer. A writer uncovers a letter

and begins a correspondence with the people of Guernsey. Her life and her writing become

entwined with people she has never met. When I finished that I embarked on Cutting For

Stone by Abraham Verghese. This is the story of two twin brothers orphaned when their mom

dies and their father disappears. The author leads you on the brothers journeys from birth to

adulthood from the poor villages of India to NYC. Yes, It is a fabulous book but it is not a

beach read not to mention how much space it took up in my bag!! Oh I forgot to mention, my

kindle is full of those cozy mysteries about quintessential towns, cheese and flower shops and

culinary delights. Easy reads but is murder really a fun summer read?

I realized I was doing my summer reading homework while on vacation. My children hadn’t

packed their required summer reading for school but it appeared I had. During one of our

sightseeing excursions, we came across a quaint town with a great little coffee shop, and an

even better new and used bookstore. Blissfully I selected books native to the area as well as

true beach reads. Soon I was immersed in a world of beach barbeques, drinks with quaint

umbrellas sticking out of them and true summer fun.

I’ve learned my lesson. This year when we head out for vacation I will pack the newest book by

Taylor Jenkins Reid ~ One True Loves, and perhaps a Dorothea Benton Frank. I will save

those “must reads” for the fall when the children go back to school and we can all do our

homework together. Of course, I sure hope our vacation includes at least one new bookstore to

peruse.

~ Ann-Marie Sieczka

      June 17, 2016

Left Neglected and A Lucky Life Interrupted

The library book group recently read Left Neglected by Lisa Genova (author of Still Alice),  a fictional account of a woman with traumatic brain injury who suffers from left neglect. After a car accident, Sarah Nickerson is completely unaware of the left side of her own body because of damage to the right side of her brain. After her hospitalization, she is sent to a rehabilitation clinic so she can eventually return to her life as a wife and mother of young children. The book tells of her struggles to regain her strength and to accommodate her left neglect. She learns to be patient, to appreciate her family and friends who help her in her recovery. Ultimately, her journey from whole and healthy to injured to recovery leads her to re-evaluate what is truly important in life. This hard-driving Harvard MBA must decide whether to pursue her time-consuming career at the expense of her health and family or to try to achieve some kind of balance in her life that will allow her to heal and to nurture her family. The book group did enjoy the book and had a lively discussion of the mysteries of  this brain disorder.

TV journalist Tom Brokaw wrote A Lucky Life Interrupted,  a Memoir of Hope after a diagnosis of cancer. Mr. Brokaw describes his personal and professional life as very lucky until he began to have back pain that was eventually diagnosed as multiple myeloma, a serious blood cancer. This memoir is based on the journal he kept of the first year of his illness. Like the fictional Sarah Nickerson in Left Neglected, Mr. Brokaw went from being a successful, high-achieving professional in perfect health to a very sick patient literally overnight from diagnosis to treatment.

What both these books share is a glimpse into the lives of the very sick and how they cope with their new normal. Mr. Brokaw recommends that all patients should have an advocate, preferably a doctor in the family, to help navigate this new world. One of his daughters is a doctor, and realizing that is not an option for everyone, he does suggest that patients find someone who can be their spokesperson. Lisa Genova, a neuroscientist, seems to be saying that family and friends are ultimately what get us through the tough times in life. She also list resources for traumatic brain injury in her book.

These books might interest anyone who has ever been diagnosed with a serious illness or anyone  who knows someone who has. Which is really almost everyone, isn't it? It turned out that my lucky life was interrupted this winter by a rare illness. I fell down the rabbit hole, like Alice, into the world of hospitals and the health care universe where even the language is different. I did not come across anyone playing croquet with flamingos, but I did find the world of hospitals is just as weird as Wonderland and just as frustrating to the layman/patient.  But that is a post for another day. The struggles of Mr. Brokaw and the fictional Sarah helped me feel that the journey of illness is not easy, but if you are lucky, you can come out stronger and smarter than you started out.

Related websites:

From MedlinePlus.gov results for a search for Multiple Myeloma

LA Times review of A Lucky Life Interrupted 


Hemispatial Neglect from Wikipedia

Reading Discussion Guide for Left Neglected 

Chick Lit - Not to be confused with Literature

Chiclets

Wikipedia defines chic lit as genre fiction which addresses issues of modern womanhood, often humorously and lightheartedly. Really, a marketing wizard somewhere decided to label a profitable segment of sales with a phrase reminiscent of chiclet candy.  If you don’t remember, chiclets are cute, sweet, minty and come in a variety of pretty colors.  What more could you want in chewing gum or books?  Although chick lit will never be confused with literary fiction (defined by Wikipedia as a term principally used for fictional works that hold literary merit) many authors of books geared to a female audience fall into a larger commercial or mainstream category, defined as somewhere between chick lit and literary masterpieces.  Reviewers and critics should be very cautious in applying the chick lit label to writers presenting a more realistic, balanced and less-escapist approach to issues confronting women.

Putting aside my small chiclet tirade, I read chick lit.  Some of my colleagues would consider that statement to be embarrassing, but I have already confessed in earlier posts to having crazy cats named after the Blues Brothers. Have I ever mentioned my fondness for the two Hellboy movies?  I especially like chick lit during the summer and I prefer series to stand-alones.  The authors listed below, a mix of chick lit and mainsteam/commercial, manage to include laughter, a few serious issues, knowledge of some field I know nothing about (restoration, wine and beer making, dolphins, etc), and love.  Their books hold more than a box of chiclets ever could.

My favorite series:

       Darcy Burke                     Ribbon Ridge

       Mary Alice Monroe         Lowcountry Trilogy (currently 4 books – Lowcountry Wedding just out)

       Wendy Wax                      Ten Beach Road (my new favorite)

       Beth Kendrick                  Black Dog Bay (Once Upon a Wine due in July)

       Kristan Higgins                Blue Heron

Lit Chicks, perhaps less judgmental sounding than Chick Lit,  would also include Jennifer Weiner, Susan Elizabeth Phillips, Beth Harbison, Susan Mallery, and Sophie Kinsella.

Happy beach reading.  

-S. Bakos