Library Blog

Director of Philanthropy, Carter Hedberg, recommends Paris: Secret Gardens, Hidden Places and Stories of the City of Light by Mary McAuliffe. 

Bonjour mes amis!  

I have been a Francophile since childhood. By the fifth grade, I had established a lasting relationship with my French pen pal; I studied a semester in Paris while in college; and have visited France as often as my budget and schedule allowed.

I love Paris and I adore this enchanting new travel book, Paris: Secret Gardens, Hidden Places and Stories of the City of Light by historian and author Mary McAuliffe.  

This is not your typical travel book. It doesn’t simply offer brief snippets describing the greatest hits of Paris, nor is it filled with lots of glossy color photographs. Instead, it is a thoughtful, well-written, and detailed book that invites the reader on a journey below the surface of the City of Lights …

…a journey of discovery that reveals little-known facts and stories about one of the most beloved cities in the world.  

Each chapter focuses on a different neighborhood or arrondissement of Paris and recommends a location to begin your exploration of that area. For example, the chapter, The Heart of Paris, McAuliffe has you descend the steep steps from the Pont Neuf bridge on the western tip of lle de la Cite´ to an oasis she treasures, the Square du Vert-Galant. She then continues to describe this tiny triangular park lushly and vividly, including the type of experience you are likely to encounter if you visit. She also provides the history of the area filled with fascinating anecdotes that bring it to life. Your journey progresses as you move to the next location on this historic island situated in the middle of the river Seine. And so, each lovely chapter goes on.  

McAuliffe also includes stunning black and white photos which evoke a since of nostalgia and romanticism and compliment her narrative and writing style. She concludes with this sentence, “And it is here that I will leave you, to enjoy the peace and beauty of this spot, and to continue your own explorations of the secret gardens, hidden places, and stories of Paris.” This is a book I wish I had had on my first visit to Paris and will definitely bring with me for my next.  

À la prochaine! 

Find Paris: Secret Gardens, Hidden Places and Stories of the City of Light in print here.

Children’s and Young Adult Library Director DeAnn Campbell recommends Anna at the Art Museum by Hazel Hutchins. 

The Wood River Museum of History and Culture is open across the street at 580 Fourth Street East, kitty-corner from the entrance to the Children’s Library. If you haven’t been, plan to make a visit. Children are welcome and will find fun and engaging thins to explore.  

Before you make a visit, you may want to check out Anna at the Art Museum by Hazel Hutchins & Gail Herbert, illustrated by Lil Crump. In this picture book, Anna goes to an art museum. She is disappointed by the hushing and shushing and the no touching. There is even no eating. After a while, she finds herself quite bored. Then she sees a half-open door. And…

“…when a door is half open, it is very hard not to wonder what lies on the other side.”

Anna gets invited inside for a behind-the-scenes sneak peak, and that changes everything.  

At the Wood River Museum of History and Culture there are also some rules. But there are also some sneak peaks. Open a door in the Cabinet of Wonders and see what you find. Draw a picture or tell us your story on a luggage tag in the How Did You Get to Sun Valley? exhibit. Try typing on a typewriter, like Hemingway did. Find that a museum has order, but also wonder. Come, step inside.  

Find Anna at the Art Museum in Picture Books here.

Librarian Andrea Nelson recommends The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese.

Let’s begin by addressing the elephant in the room. Abraham Verghese’s much-anticipated new book, The Covenant of Water, is well over 700 pages long. Libby and Axis 360 offer digital formats, but fair warning: Don’t try to listen while distracted. This book deserves your full attention. From the prologue to the last poignant scene, The Covenant of Water is a literary masterpiece.

The saga begins in 1900. Pledged to marry a 40-year-old widower, a 12-year-old bride-to-be must leave her impoverished mother and travel to a remote farming estate on the Southwest Coast of India. In spite of her fear and loneliness, she learns to cook, keep house, and serve as “Little Ammachi” (little mother) to her husband’s young son. Over time, she becomes “Big Ammachi,” the matriarch of an estate, family, and community she builds, nurtures, and learns to love.

Fast-forward to 1933. Digby, a second major protagonist, flees a tragic childhood in Scotland to study medicine in Madras. His path will cross with Rune, a Swedish physician who leaves his life of wealth and status to renovate an isolated “leper colony” and ease the suffering of India’s most forsaken. A constellation of complex, multi dimensional characters move through each other’s lives, impacting them in ways some will know and others never will.

Himself a practicing physician, author Abraham Verghese’s reverence for the ethical practice of medicine influences each storyline, ultimately stitching them together. But it is motherhood, not medicine, that proves the dominant theme. The book begins and ends with mother-child relationships, paying homage to the quiet brilliance of women navigating a culture of oppression. Verghese’s searing, near-poetic prose captures not only the heavy weight women carry when misguided cultural norms and traditions deprive them of personal choice and opportunity, it illustrates the cost to family and society.

As much as anything else, The Covenant of Water is a tribute to the resilience of women, past and present, who have worked slowly and methodically to take down walls for future generations.

It is also a story of men, both strong and weak, and of redemption.

Now, let’s address the literal elephant, Damodaron. He appears and retreats from view throughout Big Ammachi’s long life, sticking his huge, gray head into the kitchen window, welcoming new members of the clan with a fragrant branch or gentle nudge, even helping to facilitate an intervention. His role is minor, but significant.  Symbolizing continuity and endurance, the elephant bears witness to all three generations’ joy and pain.

Please be forewarned that this book contains some graphic, truly horrific scenes— some attributable to human weakness and stubborn pride, and some due to a terrible “family condition.” In each generation, someone in Big Ammachi’s husband’s family drowns. All families have secrets. 

Vivid imagery most differentiates The Covenant of Water from other epic novels. Each page offers something to the senses, whether the protagonist is watching a swirling monsoon sky grow dark from the porch of Big Ammachi’s Parambil estate or struggling to adapt to the crowded hustle and bustle of Madras, Verghase’s mastery of imagery immerses us in the experience. We don’t just understand the stark contrast between the leper colony’s beautiful gardens and the disfigured, infection-ravaged patients, we feel the injustice, the pain, and the communal gratitude.

The Covenant of Water is Oprah Winfrey’s current book club choice. It moved America’s favorite literary diva so deeply, she postponed her next book club choice to give people more time to read it. Calling it a “modern masterpiece,” she created a special podcast dedicated to it. For a deeper dive, visit The Covenant of Water Podcast on YouTube.

Find The Covenant of Water in the Library’s collections in print, ebook, eaudiobook, and CD.