Staff Reviews: Books, Films, Music, and More

Book Review: Sharp Suits

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Gold Mine Processing Manager Kelly Noble recommends Sharp Suits: A Celebration of Men’s Tailoring by Eric Musgrave.

Kelly Sharp Suits

I am a suit guy. And when a colleague gave me this book, I was excited to look through the pictures and get a grand overview of the history of suit making. Musgrave’s book is an excellent overview of suits and their place in western culture. From its basic conception in 1860 to modern versions, the suit says a lot about the person wearing it.

Suits are known to be the standard wear and calling card for gentlemen around the world.

The suit has evolved over the last century but has maintained its current two-piece form since about 1920. It takes three meters of cloth and 52-man hours to make a basic suit. The more expensive the suit the more man hours involved. In today’s marketplace, suit prices range from $200 dollars to $13,000 dollars. And yes, that is one suit.

At the beginning of the 20th century fashion was driven by royalty throughout Europe. The Prince of Wales, later Edward the VII, was well known for his love of clothing, and is reported to have changed up to six times per day. As history moved forward, in the 1920s, men were insisting on suits to be as comfortable as their military uniforms. World War II and the rationing of cloth had a major influence on suit making. All extraneous details were removed, and even turn ups, also known as cuffs in America, were banned. And how can anyone forget the early days of rock and roll? The Beetles and The Rolling Stones all in suits.

Oh, how I long for the time before yoga pants!

By the 1970s, wide collars and large cuffs were back in style. In the 1980s and 1990s, suits were influenced more by rock stars and television actors. It was nothing to see rappers in stylish suits. In the world of politics, we still need men and women in power suits to project calm and stability. Think Reagan, not Trump.

And I do believe suits still project an atmosphere of formality and politeness that can be useful in today’s chaotic world.

In modern culture where more people are opting for yoga tights and tee shirts; check out any American airport, it is calming to know that some men and women still finding wearing suits enjoyable. The two-piece fashion statement says a lot about those wearing it. For any reader in the Wood River Valley in need of a suit, check out the Goldmine Thrift store or our sister store, Goldmine Consign. We have an excellent selection.

I recommend Eric Musgrave’s book. It is a conversation piece. Books have profound influence in the world and Musgrave’s book illustrates clearly that some things in history are worth preserving.

Request this title through interlibrary loan here.

Book Review: The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating

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Director of programs and education Martha Williams recommends The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating by Elisabeth Tova Bailey.

Martha Sound of a Wild Snail Eating

I have found this little memoir to be the perfect companion on days that keep me indoors. It’s a quiet book that invites us to observe what’s right around us, even as we dream about the wide world beyond our window.

In her mid-thirties, Elisabeth Tova Bailey finds herself struck with a mysterious illness that damages her nervous system, sending her into years of horizontal inactivity. Harsh sounds and lights are too much for her body, and her once-active life becomes one of solitude and quiet. She spends countless days lying in a studio with short visits from caretakers and friends to sustain her still-active mind.

One day, a friend brings her a pot of wild violets, and with them, a small snail. With little else to do, Bailey begins observing the snail as it surveys its own new, strange, and unasked-for surroundings. As she watches the snail’s movements around the pot, and later within a terrarium another friend creates for her, Bailey brings us into the calm and miniscule world of this tiny creature.

She finds comfort and companionship in its serene world full of wonder and possibility.

Bailey pours what energy she has into reading about snails – from 19th century naturalists, to poets Elizabeth Bishop and Rainer Maria Rilke, and writers like E.O. Wilson and Patricia Highsmith. (Some of my favorite poems that she includes in the book are haikus by the 18th century Japanese poet Kobayashi Issa: sleeping and rising / always with your shell! / oh snail).

Remarkably, Bailey resists anthropomorphizing her new friend. Rather, she often imagines what humans might learn from snails, or what we would be capable of with their skills and adaptations. Sometimes, she is envious of the snail, especially as her own body threatens to fail her.

What if she, too, could go dormant for months at a time, closed up from the world’s challenges for a little rest?

What Bailey shows us most is how observing, learning about, and imagining the life of another creature (big or small) opens our own world and helps us to better understand ourselves and our place on this planet that we all share.

In a post-COVID world, I think we all may have greater appreciation for Bailey’s story about diseases beyond our knowledge and control. In a world rife with division and fear, stories such as this remind us where curiosity and wonder can lead us, when we let it. And in a world moving ever faster, Bailey’s words are a reminder to slow down, to observe the beauty and mystery right around us.

Find it in our collection here.

Note: Martha Williams will host The Community Library Book Club at 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday, February 5, with a discussion of The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating. More/register here.

Book Review: Dear Fahrenheit 451

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Librarian Andrea Nelson recommends Dear Fahrenheit 451: Love and Heartbreak in the Stacks: A Librarian’s Love Letters and Breakup Notes to the Books in Her Life by Annie Spence.

Andrea Dear Fahrenheit 451

Sometimes, life is hard. Really hard. Don’t get me wrong… life is wonderful, too. Love is the most wonderful thing of all, but it sure can sucker-punch you. It happened to me recently. Both of my beloved parents passed away six weeks apart this fall. It is hard to imagine a world without them. The holidays? Terrible. Not having your mom tell you, “Drive safely…there are deer on the road,” every single time you leave her house? Miserable.

The fact that the Golden State Warriors could somehow keep playing basketball without my dad there to watch them with me? Impossible. Yet autumn has somehow turned to winter, and winter will turn to spring. The world keeps turning and taking me along with it. Friends and other family members help, of course. So (they tell me) will time and rest. It’s just hard to imagine when things are still so raw.

Sometimes what helps most is to curl up in front of my fireplace with a book that makes me laugh, and Dear Fahrenheit 451 does just that.  

I love this little gem of a book even more because a librarian wrote it. Dear Fahrenheit 451 is a collection of letters the author, Annie Spence, writes to library books. Some are love letters to books she adores, like Ray Bradbury’s seminal classic about a world after books, Fahrenheit 451 (1953). Others are “Dear John” letters to books that—to put it gently—have not aged well.

Spence’s funny, irreverent take on literary classics captivated me when I needed it most.

Spence is clearly a colorful, salty soul. An author who could moonlight as a stand-up comic, her chosen books are personified. In some of her missives, she confesses her own guilty pleasures (cough…romance novels). In others, she regrets her ill-chosen one-night stands. She also bemoans a few books; mainly, those that broke her heart. She lays bare her bitterness over the lofty, unfulfilled promises books like Anna Karenina (1878) leave unfulfilled. (Admit it. You hated Anna Karenina just as much as I did.) 

Ever honest, Spence even takes a moment to dash off a few notes to books her library is weeding. [Note: Weeding is a library euphemism for books we pull from the shelves to make room for new books, generally because they have not been checked out for many years…or, well, ever.] Some weeded books get dispatched with a sweet au revoir and a promise of rebirth—others with an overdue good riddance! 

Reading Dear Fahrenheit 451 is like stumbling upon a long-lost diary. Even when you know you should stop reading, you can’t. I kid you not…it is as addicting as it is hilarious. The perfect gift for bibliophiles, library-lovers and librarians, it (unlike Anna Karenina) delivers what it promises: bite-sized bursts of much needed joy.

Find it in our collection here.

Film Review: Thelma

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Collections Manager Aly Wepplo recommends the action-comedy film Thelma, starring June Squibb. 

Aly film Thelma

Thelma is a different kind of action hero. She’s 93, a widow, mother, and grandmother, and her family doesn’t trust her to live independently anymore. Her adoring late-bloomer grandson visits often to take her on errands and help her navigate the internet.

And then she gets scammed. A con artist calls, pretending to be her grandson, and explains he’s in jail. He desperately asks her to send $10,000 in bail. She does. And that money is gone. Thelma’s family explains that she’s been tricked, and she decides she’s not going to take it. She’s going to kick butt. 

A stolen scooter and a nursing home breakout kick off a series of action scenes you won’t see in other movies.

Getting up from a fall or reaching something from a high shelf become delightfully high-stakes moments. In the end, Thelma learns to lean on other people, and her grandson learns to rely on himself. It seems everyone has grown up a bit. 

I cheered for this woman and this movie. It showed me that, no matter our age, our best days may still be ahead of us. And small victories like reaching that high shelf are worth celebrating. And it’s a good idea to learn how to get up from a fall, which you’ll learn when you watch the movie! 

Find it in our collection on DVD here.

Book Review: This Immeasurable Place

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Museum Community Engagement Manager Kristine Bretall recommends This Immeasurable Place: Food and Farming from the Edge of Wilderness

Recipes from Hell’s Backbone Grill. Authors: Blake Spalding, Jennifer Castle, and Lavinia Spalding, with photography by Ace Kvale.

Kristine This Immeasurable Place LR

This is a book about food, place and community. Hell’s Backbone Grill is a restaurant, but it has become not just a restaurant, it’s a farm, a way of living and eating, and a source of education and an example of how to live a good life, and a community. I’ve not been there, yet.

In an alternate life, I live just like Blake and Jennifer in a place like Boulder, Utah. Small town, slow traffic, really quiet. Life and work are inextricable because they’re both so great. Maybe I even live and work there at Hell’s Backbone itself. Lots of dogs and other animals, incredible food grown locally, stunning scenery, and a close-knit group of humans making it happen in the best way possible.

It’s not an easy life. It looks idyllic from the outside, and when I’ve lived in a similar-ish way (working at a boarding school in Colorado), there was a wonderful rhythm in living with a community that all pulls in the same direction.

The book contains words of wisdom to live by, gorgeous photos, inspirational stories, poetry, book lists, and some rules for living in the middle of nowhere: close gates behind you, always keep a headlamp close, be nice to everyone, be respectful of local customs, always tell someone where you plan to hike.

One of my favorite chapters was food related, but I like to think of it in terms of “real life” … What to adopt and What to avoid. (their list includes “adopt noticing, adopt a habit of making what you eat and drink support your health and well-being” and “avoid unpronounceable ingredients, avoid poisons!, avoid hassling yourself about every food choice.”)

Another favorite section (because it’s really all my favorite) was the list of book suggestions: some I’ve read that I’ve loved: The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan, Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel, My Life in France by Julia Child, Comfort Me with Apples by Ruth Reichl … and not read yet: His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman, What Are People For? by Wendell Berry, Men Explain Things to Me by Rebecca Solnit.

What else can I say? I loved it. And see what happened, it was a book that contained other books throughout it. And the recipes. Just made pork chops with apple-poblano chutney – really, really good. But those thick cut pork chops take a while to cook, just saying.

Find it through interlibrary loan here.

Book Review: The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise

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Children’s Librarian Judy Zimmer recommends The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise by Dan Gemeinhart. Audio book read by Khristine Hvam.

Judy Coyote Sunrise LR

Coyote Sunrise hasn’t been home for five years. She’s been living in an old school bus with her dad, crisscrossing the country trying to outrun the grief of losing her mother and two sisters.

Coyote is a thirteen-year-old with a big personality and a unique way of looking at the world.

When she reads that the park in her hometown in the state of Washington is being torn down, she knows she must return to rescue the memory box that she buried there with her mother and sisters—all without revealing the truth of the destination to her dad.

Let the adventure begin!  Starting in Florida, she races to get to her destination in Washington before the memory box is gone.

Along the way, Coyote picks up a fascinating cast of characters:

A kitten named Ivan, whose name was inspired by Coyote’s favorite book The One and Only Ivan, a pet goat named Gladys, Salvador, a young boy traveling with his mom, Lester, who is looking to reunite with his girlfriend in Idaho, and Val, who has run away from home.

If you’re looking for an adventurous road trip, coming of age novel, I recommend this book to upper grade Middle schoolers. Find it in our collection in print and eAudiobook and on YOTO here.

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