No-Ice Skating Rinks And Other Matters

It used to be that no-ice skating meant roller skates. In the course of looking up information about a company named Mitsubishi Plastics for a patron today, I discovered that Mitsubishi Plastics is selling petrochemical resin panels for artificial ice rinks in Japan.

Another interesting question from the past couple of days: how many cardholders does the library have? Answer: over 12,000, including people who come from other towns and register their cards here. We were also asked how to kill wisteria, which led to the discovery that there are 2 opposing schools of thought on this question. From a leaf watcher headed to Massachusetts, came the question of whether we have any books that will help you identify trees by leaf color in the autumn. I gave the person a basic tree identification book and some New England guidebooks. We've also gotten our yearly request for books by the latest Nobel literature prize winner. English translations of some of Jean Marie Gustave le Clezio's books are heading to BHPL, as soon as the publisher can print some more.

Voting Has Begun . . .

Voting has begun for next year's One Book New Jersey selection. The idea is to get everyone from Tony Soprano to Bruce Springsteen (OK, maybe not everybody) to read the same book next year. You don't want to get stuck reading a book you don't like, do you? Vote for your selection here:

Also, if you'd like to vote in that other election, the deadline to register in New Jersey is Tuesday, October 14. You can pick up a registration form to mail in here at the library, or print out your own here. If you don't have time to go to the polls, any voter in New Jersey can vote by absentee ballot.

Mrs. Guggenheim and the Mona Lisa

This month's display features books on art. Actually, it's books on art that are not so large and unwieldy as to topple off the shelf and land on readers' toes.

Some that I lingered over as I put them on the shelf:

Leonardo and the Mona Lisa Story: The History of a Painting Told in Pictures by Donald Sassoon

Blue: The History of a Color by Michel Pastoureau


Art Lover: a Biography of Peggy Guggenheim by Anton Gill

Q: "Mrs. Guggenheim, how many husbands have you had?"
A: "D'you mean my own, or other people's?"


The view from the art section on a rainy night.

The Year of Fog by Michelle Richmond

The library book group will be meeting on Friday at 10:30 a.m. to discuss The Year of Fog by Michelle Richmond. The Year of Fog recounts a year in the life of Abby, a photographer who lets her fiance's daughter out of her sight for a moment on a foggy beach in San Francisco. Emma disappears, and the question of whether she drowned or whether she was kidnapped kept me glued to the book. Abby's convinced that if she can just remember the right detail, that single clue will lead her to Emma. So, the reader learns along with Abby the quirks and vagaries of memories, and how the memory works. (The information about memory theaters may sound familiar to you - we read about "memory mansions" in The Madonnas of Leningrad last September.)

Abby takes a photo of Emma with a Holga camera the day she loses her on the beach. They are cheap plastic cameras that let in a lot of light and therefore take distorted pictures, just like our memory distorts reality. The author points out that "the cover image of the novel shows the bright color-wash and blurry edges you can achieve with the Holga" in case you're wondering what the photos look like. Speaking of distorted memories, check out the Memory Painter exhibit that is mentioned in the book.

Abby wanders through all the neighborhoods of San Francisco looking for Emma. To see photos of the places mentioned in The Year of Fog, check out the Year of Fog Project on Flickr. Reviewers disagree as to whether Richmond “captures the spirit of life in The City" or whether she "was trying too hard to get all these spots [in San Francisco] into the book." Which reviewer do you agree with? What makes a setting important or real?

As you read the book, did you think Emma was alive or dead? What led you to guess one way or another?

Random Picks from the New Non-fiction Shelf

Read on...Crime Fiction, Reading Lists for Every Taste by Barry Trott. Looking for Chick Lit mysteries or hard-boiled or a certain locale or time period? Take a look at these lists.

What Should I Read Next? Jessica R. Feldman, editor. Readings in history, politics, literature, math, science and the arts.

Lost in the Museum, buried treasures and the stories they tell by Nancy Moses. Including a very unusual collection at Mutter Museum of the College of Physicians in Philadelphia. I can't say what in this family friendly blog...

Introvert Power, why your inner life is your hidden strength by Laurie Helgoe. Shy people strike back, now. Or, well, pretty soon...

Friend or Frenemy, a guide to the friends you need and the ones you don't by Andrea Lavinthal. Includes the Friend Commandments.

Working World, careers in international education, exchange and development by Sherry L. Mueller. All you international relations majors, listen up...

Killing Sacred Cows, overcoming the financial myths that are destroying your prosperity by Garrett B. Gunderson. Personal finance. Maybe congress/ Wall Street could use this title this week?

Let's Talk Turkey, the stories behind America's Favorite Expressions by Rosemarie Ostler. With a whole chapter on politics. Straw poll? Stump speech? Hat in the ring?

In Arabian Nights by Tahir Shah, author of the Caliph's House. English travel writer travels across Morocco. My book group loved the Caliph's House, this might be a good follow-up.