Staff Reviews: Books, Films, Music, and More

Director of Philanthropy Carter Hedberg recommends Cocktails with George and Martha: Movies, Marriage, and the Making of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? by Philip Gefter.

“What a dump!” Martha exclaims in her best Bette Davis imitation, kicking off the boozy journey of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?.

Thus begins Edward Albee’s masterpiece. I’ve always loved the play, which I saw at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, starring Sir Patrick Stewart and Mercedes Rhuel. At least once a year, I watch the film adaptation, starring Elizabeth Taylor as Martha and Richard Burton as George.

So, imagine my excitement when the book, Cocktails with George and Martha: Movies, Marriage, and the Making of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? was released.

By 1966, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton were not only towering Hollywood stars but also one of the most famous celebrity couples in the world. Their real-life romance captured the public’s imagination, and their fiery relationship added to the depth of their portrayals in the film. The film became a critical and commercial success and garnered thirteen Academy Award nominations and five wins, including Taylor’s gutsy performance which won her a second Oscar.

Gefter’s book delves into the off-screen and on-screen interplay between Taylor and Burton, exploring the ways they helped shape the film. But the book goes beyond the film and Taylor and Burton. It also gives insight into Edward Albee, the brilliant playwright behind Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?.

Albee’s revolutionary hit play, first staged in 1962, was a shocking portrayal of a tumultuous marriage filled with cocktails, contradictions, mind games, and love.

Cocktails with George and Martha offers a fascinating look into the dynamics of George and Martha, one of the most iconic fictional couples in American theater. It not only pays homage to Albee’s masterpiece but also provides an in-depth perspective on how the play became a film, the explosive, real-life marriage of its stars, and how first-time director Mike Nichols pulled it all together into a groundbreaking film.

According to author Gefter, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? “is not just about one marriage. It’s about marriage.” For fans of the play, the film … or marriage, this is a delicious must-read. To steal another quote from Bette Davis, this time from All About Eve, “Fasten your seatbelts, it’s going to be a bumpy night.” Nothing could be truer than a night with George and Martha.

Find it print in our collection here.

Children’s Librarian Judy Zimmer recommends When we Cease to Understand the World by Labatut Benjamin.

I found this audio book – historical fiction translated from Spanish – while browsing Libby, not at all sure what to expect. I was pleasantly surprised. It’s fast paced, fascinating and I didn’t want to stop listening!

Labatut Bejamin blends fact and fiction seamlessly.

It tells the story of four Nobel Prize winning scientists and mathematicians whose discoveries have had profound effects on humanity. Some for the good and some that have caused pure misery. These four scientists are people whose names I’d never heard of before:

 Fritz Haber, Alexander Grothendieck, Werner Heisenberg, Erwin Schrodinger. These geniuses paid a personal price, even losing their sanity in their pursuit to understand the world.

Find it in our Collection here.

Collections Manager Aly Wepplo recommends Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything by Joshua Foer. 

In August, I performed in Laughingstock Theater’s production Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare. For that job, I memorized a script of about 100 pages – no small feat! And I remembered that memorization is an amazing thing. It is both a game and a challenge. And it is the topic of the book Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything. 

In one year, author Joshua Foer went from covering the U.S. Memory Championship as a journalist to winning the event. His book details how he studied with the world’s most accomplished memorizers and learned their strategies to remember lists of phone numbers, digits of pi, and lines of verse.

In the process, Foer learned that memory is a muscle. It can be trained and improved. And it works best with information that can be visualized.

So, for example, it might seem impossible to remember the order of a deck of cards, but it gets a little easier when each card is attached to an outlandish image – like a moonwalking Einstein wearing four spades as shoes, the king of hearts on his face, and three diamonds on his driving gloves. 

“Wait!” you object, “That still sounds incredibly complicated!” And maybe it is. But it’s an effective tool for connecting long lists of things we want to remember. And it’s a fun peek into how memory champions use their brains. 

Know of any other great books about memorization? Share them with us! Recommend a title for our collection here. 

Find Moonwalking with Einstein in our Collection here.

Programs and Communications Intern Juan Reyes recommends First Gen: A Memoir by Alejandra Campoverdi.

First Gen: A Memoir is truly a gift. As a child of Mexican immigrants, to find a book that somehow encapsulates the aspects of what it means to be first-generation has been both eye-opening and reassuring.

Her book illustrates her truthful and raw story of what it takes to achieve the “American Dream”, depicting moments of struggles, sacrifices, and even victories in the quest that she and her family experienced.

Campoverdi shares her experiences, both as a young child and an adult, and how they helped her navigate the world as a First-Generation American, breaking down the intertwined, multifaceted, and intricate aspects of what she perceives as composing the term “First-Generation”.

While highly respected and celebrated for her undeniably amazing achievements, First Gen does not attempt to flaunt her achievements; instead she presents a transparent, honest, and emotional narrative of how difficult it was to achieve the American Dream, and the price that was to be paid when you are the “First and Only”.

Her story shares the challenges of finding one’s identity, revealing the nuance of living between cultures, the resiliency to overcome various setbacks, and the courage to share an honest story with those who are like her.

To say that this book has made me feel seen is an underestimation, and disrespectful to this
amazing work. I laughed and cried, feeling understood. Her ability to articulate the immigrant
experience in America is compelling, helping to provide an impactful and resonant account on
what it truly means to be a first-generation American. To those who have been a “First and Only”
in any room, Alejandra Campoverdi’s book is a beacon of encouragement, urging you to
persevere, excel, and transform the challenges that come your way into opportunities of
profound change.

Find First Gen in our Collection here.

Regional History Librarian Liam Guthrie recommends The Ice Balloon: S. A. Andrée and the Heroic Age of Arctic Exploration by Alec Wilkinson.

As the twentieth century drew to a close, and most of the world had been mapped, nothing captivated the desires of European explorers like Earth’s final frontiers, the Arctic and Antarctic regions. Drawn by scientific inquiry, fame, and the great white expanse, many tried and failed, most often with deadly consequences, to reach the two poles.

In 1894, a Swedish engineer by the name of Salomon August Andrée had a profound idea which consumed his every thought; he believed that the North Pole could be reached in a hydrogen balloon.

In The Ice Balloon, author Alec Wilkinson tells us not only of Andrée’s 1897 attempt to reach the North Pole, but guides the reader through much of the historical context that surrounded his journey. This includes the history of European Arctic exploration, detailed retellings of multiple Arctic expeditions that preceded Andrée’s undertaking, explanation of the then nascent technology of lighter-than-air balloon travel, as well as biographies of Andrée and his companions.

The story of Andrée’s journey in the balloon and the many other expeditions contained in The Ice Balloon are suspenseful stories of daring, extreme hardship, survival, and disaster.

Wilkinson expertly disguises where each journey leads, leaving the reader frequently on the edge of their seat. Though intense and dramatic, The Ice Balloon is also a very well researched insight into a fascinating point in history.

As a huge fan of the history Arctic and Antarctic exploration myself, The Ice Balloon proved both a fascinating read about an entirely novel approach to polar exploration while remaining a great starting point for anyone interested in learning more about this fascinating topic.

Find it in our Collection (910.911 WIL) here.