Library Blog

Book Reviews: My Heart is a Chainsaw…

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As the shadows grow longer, before the days of suns return, a pair of recommendations…
how scary is TOO scary? 

Cathy Butterfield, Collections Manager, recommends My Heart is a Chainsaw and The Order of the Pure Moon Reflected in Water.

Halloween is coming, a holiday rife with perilous contradictions.  Gifts of candy are shared with stories of ghosts.  Pre-Christian traditions tangle with All Hallow’s Eve observances.  The walls of reality thin, and bend, and rumors of the dead rise as the last rays of summer set.  The living don masquerade and dance in the darkened streets.  Trick or treat. 

I searched for a good, crunchy, literary horror book to immerse myself in, to honor (or appease?) the spirits of the season.  Stephen Graham Jones’ Bram Stoker award-winning book My Heart is a Chainsaw seemed an ideal read.  Stephen King calls Jones the best new horror writer since Neil Gaiman launched.  The book is set in a (fictional?) resort on a lake in northern Idaho, where scary people sometimes really do in fact do very scary things.  Even the title is creepy.  Too creepy. 

Yet the setting and characters and trauma introduced in the first chapters are intensely real.  Utterly realistic.  Jones turns over the rocks in small town Idaho and exposes the abuse, racism, gentrification, and worse crawling underneath.  And therein lay the crux of the problem.  I am not easily triggered.  I am open to tackling every book on our shelves.  But each time I picked up the book, I could only finish a few pages before bouncing out again.  This was clearly not the book for me at this time in this fraught year as Samhain ushers in the darker half of the year. 

And that’s okay.  For everyone.  This is a good book.  A great book.  I recommend it to those looking for a spine chill that goes far beyond tingly, for a challenge with teeth.  I put it on my TBR pile for after the Day of Suns Return.  Life is too short to read good books at a bad time.   So…I searched the shelves (if you’re reading this, you’ve seen our shelves, there’s a lot of them.)  I realized I needed something bonding, and spirit-touched, and short (because I could hear the approaching whrrrr of the deadline) but not quite as viscerally…terrifying.  And I found the perfect literary palate refresher. 

The Order of the Pure Moon Reflected in Water by Zen Cho is a wuxia fantasy (a Chinese genre featuring chivalric warriors) with a masquerade at its heart.  From the first pages I felt flashes of Akiro Kurosawa and Ang Lee, even as the author turns The Seven Samurai upside down and shakes it.  The story is deceptively simple:  a handsome bandit leader adopts a homeless nun with a subversive bent, ignoring the warnings of his secretive second in command.  The characters are bound together by chance and necessity in the throes of a nameless war that no one wants to talk about.  The novelette moves quickly, like a water skipper on a calm pond, but has deceptive depths, weaving philosophy with pragmatism, redefining chivalry (and warriors.)   

It is also really funny.  If the universe had a la carte cinematic ordering, I want Jackie Chan to direct this pilot, and Michelle Yeoh to star with Pei Pei Cheng.  And Bruce Lee to co-star.  Because it’s Halloween, and the liminal walls of reality thin, and bend, and rumors of the dead are rising… 

Find My Heart is a Chainsaw here.

Find The Order of the Pure Moon Reflected in Water here.

Social Influence: Sun Valley in the 1930-40s

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By Kyla Merwin, Communications Manager

She sits in the Reading Room at The Community Library, all tattoos and curiosity. She pours through posters, magazine articles, and photographs in the Center for Regional History. She taps wildly at her laptop. She laughs at her own mad obsession with Idaho history.

This new creature in the archives is Skye Cranney, third generation Idahoan, gender historian, and doctoral candidate in American History at Southern Methodist University, Dallas, who hails from Meridian, Idaho.

Skye Cranney is a Ph.D. candidate researching the effects of the Sun Valley marketing machine on the everyday lives of American women

 I have to ask: What is a gender historian?

“I’m interested in the way gender has influenced and shaped aspects of American history,” states Skye. “I’m interested in questions of how masculine and feminine dynamics reach into everyone’s daily lives in ways they may not expect.”

Gender behaviors and expectations are so ingrained into our society, she explains, that we’re not even fully aware of them. “I want to pull those dynamics apart and understand why people of each gender do what they do.”

For example?  

“My project is looking at how famous women behaved at Sun Valley starting in the 1930s, and how fan magazines were writing about them.”

“What caused that change? How does the fact that celebrity women were in Sun Valley, wearing and doing unprecedented things…How did that influence how the average American woman might change what she wears, how she recreates?”

Through the eyes of this earnest researcher, we can see a distinct change in acceptable ways that women could “recreate and play and be creative about it,” as Skye puts it. We can see how sports for women developed with Sun Valley publicity as a hinge pin.

“Take sportswear,” says Skye. “Today we see pants as an everyday thing. But women weren’t allowed to wear trousers for sports until the 1920s.

“What caused that change? How does the fact that celebrity women were in Sun Valley, wearing and doing unprecedented things…How did that influence how the average American woman might change what she wears, how she recreates?”

Images, artifacts, and memorabilia that Skye is finding in the Center for Regional History are “more helpful than I ever dreamed they would be.”

Take Ann Sothern, she notes. “Mary [Director of Regional History] showed me images of Ann at a party with Claudette Colbert and Norma Shearer. These women would not normally socialize together. Sun Valley brought them together, serving as a leveler, and building commonality that may not happened in Hollywood.”

“From the day I got here I was finding amazing stuff on women influencers from the 1930s; I was so excited. The collection here is extraordinary.”

Regional History Librarian, Kelley Moulton, and Mary have been diving into the archives to present Skye with unique resources. “There isn’t anything I found here that hasn’t helped my research,” says Skye, “including oral histories and many other things I didn’t know existed. I wasn’t expecting the resources to be so helpful, so fascinating.”

From Kelley’s point of view, the best part about working with researchers is the helping them find the unexpected. “This could be a random factoid I know but in a different context,” says Kelley. “And they come at it from a different lens, or something we stumble across together when looking at related materials. My job can feel a bit like a jigsaw puzzle at times because of that!”

Skye explains her lens on the Sun Valley vibe:

“From the beginning, Sun Valley was designed to pull in as many celebrities and as many luxuries as possible. Steve Hannagan [head of the Sun Valley marketing machine] had connections with famous people. His motto was that if you can’t do it right, don’t do it at all.”

Skye and Regional History Librarian Kelley Moulton discuss a vintage poster depicting women in (sometimes startling) recreational pursuits and attire

Not even the weather can tarnish the glitz of Sun Valley.

“There was no snow on the resort’s opening day,” Skye explains, “so Steve brought in a bunch of Hollywood starlets to distract the crowds from the disappointing weather. Sun Valley soon became the height of luxury and glamor.

“But these women weren’t just sitting around being glamorous. They were really talented skiers. You can see that in the artifacts.

“From the day I got here I was finding amazing stuff on women influencers from the 1930s; I was so excited. The collection here is really understated.”

“It’s been such a cool experience being here.”

“Mary and Kelley have been extraordinarily helpful; they really listen to what I’m trying to find and they have such a knowledge of the collections, that, even when I’m vague, they’ve been able to present amazing things. They are so knowledgeable specific details about posters and memorabilia.”

Skye calls to mind Gretchen Fraser’s trading cards and her Wheaties cereal box. “Gretchen wasn’t famous when she came here. This woman athlete was getting a ton of attention from her Gold medal in the [1948] Olympics. She was the only woman in the Wheaties ad campaign that year.”

In contrast to the stars who made Sun Valley famous, Skye is intrigued how Gretchen–because she trained here–helped put Sun Valley on the Olympic map. She became a celebrity because of her Gold Medal and brought Sun Valley along for the ride.

“She’s opposite of the Hollywood people,” says Skye. Her trajectory is really interesting.”

As to Mary and Kelley, Skye gives all the kudos: “They’ve been so kind. Being able to work with them so closely has been a really neat experience and so helpful to the project. I’ve really enjoyed working with them.

“It’s been such a cool experience being here.”

Let’s Get Weird!

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Weird Fiction, Part 1 of 2

by Nicole Lichtenberg, Director of Operations

It’s spooky season! Halloween is my favorite time of year. It has it all—fun snacks, costumes, activities—for all ages. Please allow me to recommend some accompanying content.

I will be focusing on Weird Fiction, a flexible subgenre of fiction that can include elements of magical realism, fantasy, horror, science fiction, speculative fiction, even western! Generally, part of the plot includes the transgression of various norms—something is real that is not real in real life (allegedly), or in weird fiction some rule or value is turned topsy-turvy, or something else completely different. It’s a genre completely open to possibility. I’m including here books that are weird, but not necessarily super scary. Part I is for the haybale Halloween crowd, not the horror/terror/gore folks. 

Many of these books feature characters with diverse identities and life experiences. This is not necessarily what qualifies them as Weird Fiction—a variety of good books and movies, in my opinion, reflect the presence of diversity that is so important about being human—or in one case, a flat rock. 

The Key to Extraordinary by Natalie Lloyd. I listened to this on audiobook, and it was just a really nice, flowery, bizarre time. This is also a splendid example of magical realism in a kid’s book. Audience: Elementary school and up. Find it here. 

Eventown by Corey Ann Haydu. Nothing is weird in Eventown. And that’s just what makes it so weird. Audience: Elementary school and up. Find it here. 

Welcome to Night Vale: A Novel by Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Crandor. This book is set in the same universe as the podcast by the same name. The premise is, “What if all conspiracy theories were true?” It takes place in a small southwestern town and… It’s a trip. Honestly, I found the podcast really confusing until I listened to the novel, so maybe try this route if you also felt the podcast was a bit untethered. Audience: I think this is fine for middle school and up, but some pop culture references might fly over kid’s heads, making it not as fun a read for them. Find it here. 

Upright Women Wanted by Sarah Gailey. I will take every available opportunity I can to recommend this book. It’s a sub-subgenre called Weird West. I’ve recommended this before, so short version—it’s great. It’s weird. Read it. Audience: Middle school and up. There are some more mature references, but not super graphic. Find it here. 

My Antonia by Willa Cather. Honestly, I only read the first half of this book. It totally creeped me out because I would make a terrible pioneer. I once saw this mis-categorized as science fiction and ever since then, I’ve wondered—what if it WAS? Audience: Middle school and up. Find it here. 

Click here to read Weird Fiction, Part 2

Scrutiny and Wonder

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Reflections on the Path through Dyslexia  

By DeAnn Campbell, Children’s and Young Adult Library Director

My father grew up on a dairy farm and loved animals. He had a gentle way with all of them, but especially large beasts like cows and horses. Apparently, he had wanted to become a veterinarian. After high school he attended a single semester of college where he decided that this path of study would be impossible. He dropped out. My mother once told me that it was likely my dad had a mild form of dyslexia.

My father could read. He always read the newspaper and I saw him (especially later in life) studying intently from scripture. His reading, though, demanded an intense amount of time. It demanded quiet and concentration and was not a casual undertaking; it was work. His favorite section of the paper was the comics. He never did much writing, but when he did there were errors: Bs confused for Ds, missing letters, no punctuation.

Dyslexia is much more complicated than just these signs, which can also be developmental. And, if he did indeed have dyslexia, it was never officially diagnosed. 

First off, I don’t have an educational background or any formal training in the diagnosis or treatment of dyslexia which is defined as “a general term for disorders that involve difficulty in learning to read or interpret words, letters, and other symbols, but that do not affect general intelligence.” What I do have is a grainy photograph of my father on a horse and a handful of notes from him written in block letters that are riddled with spelling errors and missing punctuation.  

My nephew, Ryden, has an official diagnosis. Luckily, Ryden’s diagnosis came early—in kindergarten. His mom is an elementary school teacher and is currently working on a master’s degree with dyslexia as her focus.

Dad (17) on horseback 1967

Up until this point, though, much of what she now knows about dyslexia was learned through her experience of having a child with dyslexia and not through her formal educational studies. Ryden’s family has found that most teachers have no specific training for aiding dyslexic students. Despite all this, Ryden does receive a lot of support and formal tutoring.

“We work with him all the time,” my brother tells me. “He has so many resources and tools available to him.” He attends specialized tutoring specifically geared towards kids with dyslexia in his home state of California. He must travel to a nearby city to access these resources. In one tactile strategy, Ryden traces letters and blends in trays of sand. But even with countless hours of practice and reading instruction and the time and the financial cost, my brother wonders, “How much it is helping? [Reading] simply does not stick in his brain.”  

Ryden’s diagnosis is Severe Dyslexia. My brother’s voice catches at the word “severe.” Over the phone I can hear the emotion and the pain, “It is sad.”  

This year, Ryden has tested at a first grade, third month reading level.  

He is in fifth grade.   

For Ryden, though, none of it comes easy. It isn’t for a lack of trying…Ryden works so, so hard.

My brother reminds me that a first grade reading level is pretty rudimentary. Meanwhile, Ryden’s younger brother, who is in third grade, can read like a whiz. My brother explains that his third-grade son reads “10 times better” than Ryden. One look at a word and he’s got it. He retains the spelling, the pronunciation, and the meaning. For Ryden, though, none of it comes easy. It isn’t for a lack of trying, my brother says. Ryden works so, so hard. And though there are some moments of frustration and tears, overall, he keeps a remarkably good attitude. He tries and tries again. While his brothers and sister are shuttled to sports practices and extracurricular activities, Ryden’s extracurricular activity is learning to read. “He has worked harder on learning to read than my other kids have on any athletic skill,” my brother says. Not being able to read is not his fault.  

Although the reading connections don’t happen in his brain the way they do for others, Ryden is intelligent and bright. He is highly organized and very spatially aware. Misplace something? Ask Ryden. He also has an incredible memory. He excels at puzzles and intricate tasks. He has an uncanny ability to see the big picture and solve problems. He thrives on order.  

“I am not worried about him in life,” my brother says. “Ryden is so, so smart.” 

But worry creeps into our conversation. So much of school and society is based on reading and taking tests. My brother hopes for people willing to give Ryden a chance within a society that places importance on a college degree. “We have a lot of conversations with him about the school system and how it isn’t the best system for you, but it is in the system we are in.” Ryden has an Individualized Education Program (IEP) and accommodations. When texts and math story problems are read aloud to Ryden, he performs well. Still, my brother says that teachers typically don’t have adequate training to deal with such a severe case of dyslexia as Ryden has.

Sometimes, the accommodations, like reading materials aloud to him, aren’t followed. My brother and I talk about text to speech technology and advancements that will surely be made to help those who struggle with dyslexia. We talk about audiobooks and how listening to stories brings him joy. We talk about finding people and resources to be your reader and your voice, if reading and writing aren’t your strengths. We talk about how to find your way in a world that is built for those who excel at reading and writing. These are things I’ve always been good at. I do not live in Ryden’s world.

There is a famous quote about dyslexia, attributed to Albert Einstein*, “Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.” 

I see this in Ryden: A brain that that thinks carefully and expansively. A mind that watches the world with scrutiny and wonder.

I think back to my dad. He still lived and worked around big animals his entire life. Growing up, I watched him pat and stroke the backsides of cows as he milked them. I watched him give cows shots through their thick hide and put pills down their throats when they were sick. He concocted his own recipes to help calves with diarrhea and dehydration. He would wake us up in the middle of the night to watch the birth of a calf. While he never became a veterinarian, he loved those parts of being a farmer. He still carved out a life he loved.  

I’ve watched Ryden stay fixed on a task when everyone else has given up. I’ve seen the way he observes and notices the world. I see that he carries a level of concentration that is missing from most of us. He seems attuned to things the rest of us overlook. Sally Shaywitz, a neuroscientist whose emphasis is on children with reading difficulties, has said, “Dyslexics think differently. They are intuitive and excel at problem-solving, seeing the big picture, and simplifying. They are poor rote reciters but inspired visionaries.”  

I see this in Ryden: A brain that that thinks carefully and expansively. A mind that watches the world with scrutiny and wonder. A child who slows down enough to see and to make connections. I hope for innovative approaches to help him navigate the part of the world that is built on words and stand back in amazement at the part that is not; that is where he soars.   

*This librarian could not confirm that Albert Einstein said this, though Einstein was dyslexic.  

Book Review: “Ordinary Grace”

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Carter Hedberg, Director of Philanthropy, recommends Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger.

Summers were pretty quiet for me growing up in the village of Waldorf in rural south-central Minnesota, population 283. Every Sunday my family went to church, and a trip to the town’s tiny grocery store meant riding my bike two blocks. I have fond memories of navigating the railroad tracks on the edge of town with my cousin Debbie as we looked for the perfect agate, or going down to Little Cobb Creek where I would collect water bugs and an occasional crayfish. The summer heat was broken by an occasional thunderstorm and the warm evening breezes sometimes brought the sweet scent of freshly cut alfalfa into town from a nearby farm. Life in a small town may sound quaint and idyllic, but of course it was never perfect, and as with all of life, there often can be a dark side to the good.   

William Kent Krueger’s gripping book, Ordinary Grace, places on full display the dark side of the fictional town of New Bremen, Minnesota. New Bremen is located in the Minnesota River Valley, not too far from where I grew up.  It is the summer of 1961—a time of excitement with a new young president and the Twins baseball franchise making its debut in Minnesota. Thirteen-year-old Frank Drum is expecting to have a fine summer doing the things he loves to do—visiting the soda counter, reading comic books, walking along the river with his little brother, and mowing lawns to earn some extra money. When calamity hits, Frank’s summer turns ugly.  Yet he is able to bravely and with budding maturity, confront tragic deaths, scandal, human frailty, and his own limitations.  

“Early in the novel, all emotional hell breaks loose when a series of deaths transpire and the townsfolk grapple with the horror and confusion of confronting these nightmarish tragedies.” 

Frank’s wise father, Nathan, is the town’s Methodist minister who lives with an undisclosed emotional burden from in World War II, and seeks solace in his deep faith, especially as one tragedy after another happens. Ruth, Frank’s mother, does her duty as a pastor’s wife, yet she is restless and dreams about her unmet desire to be a professional performer and often resents Nathan’s devotedness. Frank has two siblings: sister Ariel is a talented vocalist and composer with plans for Juilliard. His little brother Jake, who is his constant companion, is shy with most people because of his stutter, but is intuitively insightful in ways that are far beyond his years. 

Early in the novel, all emotional hell breaks loose when a series of deaths transpire and the townsfolk grapple with the horror and confusion of confronting these nightmarish tragedies. The reader follows the narrative as told by Frank and his storytelling is so gripping, so authentic, and written so beautifully it is hard to put the novel down.   

“Thirteen-year-old Frank Drum … is able to bravely and with budding maturity, confront tragic deaths, scandal, human frailty, and his own limitations.” 

Honestly, I do not want to reveal too much of the plot because I want you, the reader, to discover the power of Kreuger’s prose.  That said, wisdom, grace, faith, and forgiveness are dominant themes that run throughout the book. Krueger has stated that by setting the book during this era he was able to “explore themes that have been important to me all of my life.”  The voices he gave brothers Frank and Jake are transcendent, with the clarity needed to navigate these difficult themes with artistry and aplomb.  Krueger said that Ordinary Grace is the “best thing” he has ever written; “everything I know about storytelling” went into this book. You experience the power and grace of exquisite storytelling, and there is nothing ordinary about it.   

Find Ordinary Grace in print and eaudiobook here.

Book Review: Woman Without Shame

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Martha Williams, Director of Programs and Education, recommends Woman Without Shame by Sandra Cisneros.

In her new collection of poems—her first published in 28 years—Sandra Cisneros breathes fearless words into everyday life. The poems in this book are ripe with self-discovery and self-appreciation, but also desire and aging and death. Acknowledging where she may find shame as she ages, Cisneros instead finds joy and humor and a deep understanding of how she wants to move in the world.

That season,

I was experimenting to be

the woman I wanted to be…

I was in training to be

a woman without shame.

~from “Tea Dance, Provincetown, 1982”

Cisneros moves between English and Spanish throughout the book, reflective of her world and the spaces we share. Some poems read like prayers, others like songs or recipes for life, and others still like news reports of acts gone unmentioned.

Cisneros . . . finds joy and humor and a deep understanding of how she wants to move in the world.

Some poems are stamped with a year, allowing us to place them in her life’s timeline. Many feature the dreadfully ordinary—suddenly and simply extraordinary through her mouth—like in the poem called “Smith’s Supermarket, Taos, New Mexico, at the Fifteen-Items-or-Less Checkout Line.” Examining her purchases in comparison to the young man in front of her, she meditates on the pains of young love as compared with the comforts of old love.

We often get to picture her writing or curled up in bed with a book. The pleasure these acts bring is described like new and old love all at once.

I am a woman of a delightful season…

filled to the brim I am.

I said the brim.

“I believe in the power / Of a thought, a word / To change the world” she writes in the poem “Creed,” where she also names mothers and grandmothers as the solution to all violence and points out that no one doubts the existence of love (“Even and especially those who have / Never met love.”)

Through these poems, Cisneros invites us to know her. We are welcomed into her private world, and to see our shared world—for all its pains and beauties—through her magical eyes.

I am a woman of a delightful season…

filled to the brim I am.

I said the brim.

~“At Fifty I Am Startled to Find I Am in My Splendor”

Find Woman Without Shame in English and Spanish editions here.

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