Morality Play by Barry Unsworth

The BHPL First Friday Book Group will discuss Barry Unsworth's Morality Play this week. Booker Prize winner Unsworth turns to historical fiction in this murder mystery set in war and plague-ravaged 14th century England. A troupe of traveling players put on a play to make money to pay for the burial of a fellow player. Diverging from the dramatic tradition of the times which was the formulaic, didactic morality play, they present a play about a current murder in the town where they are staying.
In an interview, Unsworth discusses the theme of finding meaning, expressed in the book in this way:
"Players are like other men, they must use God’s meanings, they cannot make meanings of their own .... if we make our own meanings, God will oblige us to answer our own questions, He will leave us in the void without the comfort of His Word’ "
The players discuss and mistrust their decision to deviate from the norm to act out a play about a current, secular event, but they go ahead with the play anyway.
Unsworth says,
"It was especially relevant to that particular phase of theatrical history where there was a transition into a secular mode away from what is Bible-based and religious. ...traditional forms, forms that are sanctioned and accepted, forms that are done over and over again. From them you move away into areas where you make your own forms or your own meanings and you take the responsibility, in other words, you become modern man. You become recognisably a creature that inhabits our world. "
For the whole interview, A Warning Voice, with Gary Podmore, click here.
Morality plays are described in the Encyclopedia Britannica Online article, available from the BHPL website, Morality Play.
"Together with the mystery play and the miracle play, the morality play is one of the three main types of vernacular drama produced during the Middle Ages. The action of the morality play centres on a hero, such as Mankind, whose inherent weaknesses are assaulted by such personified diabolic forces as the Seven Deadly Sins but who may choose redemption and enlist the aid of such figures as the Four Daughters of God (Mercy, Justice, Temperance, and Truth)."
For reading discussion guides try the following links:
Reading Group Guides
Bloomsbury

Genealogy Program Tuesday Night

Genealogy Program
Tuesday, July 31 at 7:00 pm.
Learn how to use BHPL’s HeritageQuest database in your genealogy research. Last Tuesday’s Ancestry genealogy program was so successful, that the library is offering another program which will cover the features in HeritageQuest Online. This database features the U.S. Census, 20,000 family history books, PERSI index to local history articles, Revolutionary War records, and the records of the Freedman’s Bank. The class will last about 90 minutes.

If you like Agatha Christie mysteries, try these authors

The other day, a patron wanted to know what mystery authors she might like to read. The BHPL reference librarian "interviewed" her to find out what her reading interests were. The patron said she is an Agatha Christie fan and doesn't like violence in books. This generally means that she would like the genre of mysteries called "cozies" or "English village mysteries" often featuring an amateur detective who uses intellect, common sense, keen powers of observation and a lot of nosiness, rather than brute force, to solve mysteries.

Here is the list the librarian made for her. For all you "cozy" mystery fans, you might like to try the following authors:

Antonia Fraser - Jemima Shore mysteries (British TV reporter)

Ann Granger - Mitchell and Markby mysteries - Meredith Mitchell works in Foreign Office and with her detective boyfriend Markby solves a lot of crimes set in English villages

Katherine Hall Page - Faith Fairchild mysteries - a caterer married to a minister in Massachusetts

Alexander McCall Smith - No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series(shelved in Mystery under McCall) - set in Botswana

Joan Hess - Claire Malloy mysteries - set in a bookstore

Donna Andrews - American; humorous; main character is an artist

Dorothy Cannell - interior decorator in an English village, humorous

John Sherwood - widowed horticulturist in an English village

Since you like Agatha Christie, we also recommend Margery Allingham and Ngaio Marsh who were Christie's contemporaries.

You Finished Harry Potter, Now What to Read?

OK, you gobbled down all the Harry Potter books like Hagrid at an all-you-can-eat buffet for giants and now what can you read? The Waterboro Public Library blog answers that question in this blog post containing a list of Harry Potter "read-a-likes."
Librarians spend a fair amount of time helping patrons find books similar to books they have read and/or authors similar to authors they love and it's an art not a science. At BHPL we use the Novelist database to find fiction that might match a patron's tastes.
Here are some more links to fantasy reading lists for readers suffering from Harry Potter withdrawal. Of course these titles aren't the same, but you might find something...
BookSpot's list
Rockland Public Library
and from the American Library Association website there are several lists available.

P4A Antiques Database at the Library: the "Red Baron's" Goggles found!

P4A (prices for antiques) which is contiuously updated, contains auction records for thousands of items. The database is free and available both in the library and from the library website by BHPL patrons.
An excerpt from the P4A Basement Newsletter discloses some exciting discoveries:
"Okay, not really, but sometimes searching the database does give me the feeling of rummaging around in a basement or attic, minus the dust and the bugs! Just last week, I discovered the aviator goggles pictured here. While they seem unassuming and frankly, a little dilapidated, they actually belonged to Manfred von Richthofen, the legendary Red Baron! With a solid provenance, they brought $48,875 when they sold at auction in 2005. The sale included a number of Red Baron artifacts, including his scarf, his handkerchief, and even a small section of his plane. Have to wonder what Snoopy, the World War I flying ace would make of that?