The Leftovers: Left Behind, only funny

The last book I read in 2011 is a weird one and memorable. With The Leftovers, New Jersey author Tom Perrotta imagines how the world would react if suddenly millions of people just disappeared. Poof, like the Rapture, only maybe it isn't really the Rapture. Exactly what happened and why is never clear to the reader or to the millions of people left behind on earth: the 'Leftovers.' The author is funny and sad, nostalgic and hopeful, all in the same sentence. I think this may be Perrotta's trademark emotional style. The premise is depressing, but with humorous observations about suburban New Jersey life to balance out the overall tone of the book. Who was taken out (up?): the Pope, TV chefs and various pop stars. Who was left behind?: the good and the bad and most of all the ordinary, common man and woman. Cults arise to deal with the worldwide tragedy and the authors satire of cults is also funny but sad. The 'Guilty Remnant' cult followers wear white, take a vow of silence, smoke cigarettes and follow and watch people, all the while staring and blowing smoke at them. The Holy Waynes follow a charismatic leader who starts out with good intentions to heal the bereft,  but then becomes an amoral egomaniac. The Barefoot People are like hippies with an eye painted on their foreheads who go the opposite way from the Guilty Remnants, they are the hedonists to their stoics.
Definitely a book to think about long after turning the last page.

Jesuits in Outer Space

Mary Doria Russell now mostly writes historical fiction, but her first and wonderful novel, The Sparrow, is science fiction. The Sparrow is about a Jesuit mission (more scientific than religious) to a planet inhabited by alien species. However, most of the novel takes place on Earth, alternating between 2019 when the music radio broadcasts from the planet Rakhat are intercepted, and 2060, when the sole survivor, Father Emilio Sandoz, returns and is unwilling to talk about what happened. This may sound depressing, but the prospect of finding out what happened, and the wonderfully developed characters - a doctor, an artificial intelligence analyst, an engineer, and an astronomer, among others - kept me reading. The author is a Catholic who converted to Judaism, and the main characters are Jesuit priests and a Sephardic Jew, so The Sparrow will be more interesting to readers who are interested in Judaism and Christianity. The Sparrow won the 1998 Arthur Clarke Award (the best science fiction novel published in the UK that year).

Some Staff Favorites This Year

I asked my coworkers which book, out of all the ones they read this year, was their favorite. There was much wailing and gnashing of teeth since librarians don't like to choose just one book, but after some prodding I got these titles:

The Swerve: How the World Became Modern by Stephen Greenblatt

South of Broad by Pat Conroy

The Snowman by Jo Nesbo. "Put that it scared me simple."

Sing You Home by Jodi Picoult

I'll Walk Alone by Mary Higgins Clark

Lady Susan by Jane Austen. Finding a Jane Austen novel you haven't read before is great, isn't it?

Mao's Last Dancer by Li Cunxin. Yours truly's choice. The movie is good too.

ListenNJ is now eLibraryNJ

Once upon a time (OK - in 2006), a group of libraries joined together to lend free downloadable audiobooks to their patrons via ListenNJ.com. ListenNJ.com has been renamed eLibraryNJ.com to reflect the fact that it has been lending eBooks as well as audiobooks since 2010. As a bonus, the web site has been newly redesigned too.


Although most of the titles available at eLibraryNJ are shared with all libraries, some titles are reserved for Berkeley Heights library cardholders. Log in with your library card before you search in order to find these books.

Did You Know You Can Listen to Audiobooks on Your Kindle?

I'm not talking about the uninflected robotic voice that can read your Kindle eBooks out loud. I mean the real deal, the kind narrated by an actor or actors in a studio. Here's how it works:

Get an audiobook in MP3 format, either one of the MP3 CD audiobooks that BHPL lends, or one from ListenNJ.com (free if you have a BH library card). You will need to download the Overdrive Media Console. Select an audiobook that has an "MP3" icon and download the title. Plug your Kindle into your PC. In Overdrive Media Console, click the title you downloaded and then click Transfer.

Go to My Computer and browse to the Kindle drive. Drag the MP3 files from the Kindle folder to the "audible" folder of your Kindle. The audiobook's tracks will show up on the Home page beside your eBooks with a little label that says "Music" to the left. If you have a Kindle Fire, the audiobook tracks show up on your Music tab.