Staff Reviews: Books, Films, Music, and More

Operations Manager Nicole Lichtenberg recommends Camp Damascus by Chuck Tingle.

In Neverton, Montana, in her family’s conservative Christian household, in the liminal period between high school and college, Rose Darling is beginning to find that things aren’t quite lining up. Cautioned against being too enthusiastic about scientific inquiry, Rose tries to just go with it when she vomits insects all over the dining room table. She makes herself believe her father when he says she never had a door, why would she have a door? She sidesteps when her parents ask her how her “date” with a boy went. She does all these things and more, until she can’t.  

Camp Damascus is Chuck Tingle’s debut mainstream fiction novel. I listened to this as an audiobook, and I had to go and confirm it was written in standard prose because it seemed so well suited to being read aloud. Tingle explores many themes…

…what it means to have faith, the line between loyalty to family and blind obedience, and the fallout and the freedom of living life on one’s own terms.  

There are a lot of books that pathologize or misrepresent autism as an entertaining but deficit-ridden quirk. There are fewer books that depict autism in anyone other than a white boy or man. Camp Damascus, in the spirit of Tingle himself, takes autism in stride as a facet of Rose Darling’s existence. Rose is depicted as a whole person with a whole personality and the plot is clearly defined before the book even mentions autism.  

What does it mean for the rest of us to be able to meet and really get to know an autistic protagonist when they aren’t typecast as socially awkward and have their personality traits limited to one or two obsessions and their relationship with that one person who gets it because their cousin/sibling/childhood neighbor is autistic?

It means that we can read about what happens when that person’s parents pay mondo bucks to have them possessed by a homophobic demon.  

Content advisory: Body horror, themes of homophobia and parental abuse. Don’t worry, love wins out in the end. Chuck wouldn’t leave us hanging like that.   

Camp Damascus is available in print at The Community Library. Find it here.

Library Assistant Leona recommends The Book of Charlie: Wisdom from the Remarkable American Life of a 109-year-old Man by David Voh Dehle

You can choose friends but not family. But what about neighbors? Good neighbors, like the ones I’m fortunate to have, are like good friends.

When David and his family moved next door to Charlie White just outside of Kansas City, they had no idea that their next-door neighbor was no ordinary Kansan. Soon David is given insights into Charlie’s life that’s filled with personal resiliency and enriched with wisdom. Collectively, these stories become The Book of Charlie: Wisdom from the Remarkable American Life of a 109-Year-Old Man by David Voh Dehle.

Charlie was eight years old when his father died in a tragic accident. Rather than dwelling on their loss, Charlie’s mother ushered her family into survival mode. Charlie became a survivor and viewed his loss as an opportunity instead of a burden. Charlie kept up with the mantras of essential wisdom that his mother passed on to him his entire life:

Do your best. Do what’s right. Keep your daubers up.

In the early 1900s, Kansas City was filled with possibilities and innovation. And if you were smart, like Charlie was, you could skip grades, graduate early from high school, and attend and graduate from college before you were 21 years old.

Many young men also longed for adventure and to go West. After graduating from high school, Charlie and two friends drove a 1917 Model T and headed for Los Angeles with stops in between to work as field hands to fund their journey. The West was a disappointment and the boys returned to Kansas City by hopping trains, something none of the boys had experienced prior.

As a physician, Charlie saw the introduction of aspirin, penicillin, anesthesiology, and open-heart surgery. During the Depression, many of his patients paid for medical services with a chicken or a cooked meal. He was an advocate for change and embraced life-long learning.

Charlie endured and acquired knowledge through myriad trials his entire life and firmly believed in self-advocacy with a human touch. And according to David…

…Charlie also learned to treat the unknown as a friend until life convinced him otherwise.

Charlie was a cheerleader for life. Stories from Charlie’s 109-year life are filled with hope and resiliency and they aptly apply to us today.

Find it in print here.

Kelley Moulton, Regional History Librarian, recommends Nineteen Steps by Millie Bobby Brown.

Best known for her role as Eleven in the Netflix original Stranger Things, Millie Bobby Brown is stepping into a new role, this time as an author. Her debut novel, Nineteen Steps, brings pieces of history from both the world stage as well as from her family’s history into a story about a small group of individuals living in London during World War II.

Brown takes us through time, starting in 1993 and then back to 1943 as we follow the lead character Nellie Morris in her daily life living under the threat of the Germans and air raid sirens.

But what is a life of fear and threat without a little romance to break up the day?

A potential bus accident lands Nellie into the arms of an American airman, Ray. Yet World War II, even in a book, leads to more than its share of heartbreak and trauma.

Now for the warning: Tears were spilled reading this book. I will also confess that I am one of those people who must read the last chapter when I am a quarter to halfway through to determine if I will keep reading, thus I was slightly prepared for what happened but that made very little difference in the end.

Overall, I enjoyed this much more than I thought I would, and I recommend it (as long as you are properly warned to have the tissue if you cry over books like me). It focused much more on the life of an individual just trying to do her part and survive the harrowing time that was London between 1943 and 1945 than the actual fighting and the pure romance that other novels of this variety focus on.

I also learned more than I anticipated. Brown brings in an event that happened in the Bethnal Green tube station that I personally had never heard about, and I take that as the sign of a good historical fiction book.

Find it in New Books Fiction here.

Buffy McDonald, Reference Librarian, recommends When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing by Daniel H. Pink.

A book about the power of timing.

There are optimal times for doing different things—from learning a new skill, to making a major decision, to invoking creativity. 

One way to think about this power of timing is through the concept of circadian rhythms. Most living things have these daily rhythms that impact their behavior, moods, and performance. For example, when we wake up our body temperature is lower, and as time passes our body temperature rises; with that rise in temperature comes more alertness and energy.

Another example: When Danish schoolchildren’s test scores were studied, the researchers found that students who took the exam earlier in the day did significantly better than those who took the exam in the afternoon. The researchers also found, however, that if the students took the exam after a break in the afternoon, their scores were no longer impacted in the same way. 

Our biological clock can impact our energy levels, productivity, and creativity. 

We are more productive at certain times of day and less productive at others. Understanding what works well for us can be quite helpful. There is no one-size-fits-all approach to timing. We can experiment with different ways of scheduling our different types of activities to find what works best for us. 

Timing is not everything, but it is a big thing.

I highly recommend reading When. It is a well-researched book with insights that could help you improve your decision-making skills as well as help you understand how you work and under what conditions you are at your best. 

Hint: Frequent short breaks are more effective than occasional ones and regular short walking breaks are even better. Short, outdoor walking breaks have been shown to increase motivation, concentration, and enhance creativity in the workplace.

Find it in MAIN Nonfiction here.