Staff Reviews: Books, Films, Music, and More

Gold Mine Processing Associate Eric Brown recommends Lying Awake by Mark Salzman.

Lying Awake is ultimately a story about faith.

It’s a present day tale of a nun, Sister John of the Cross, in a Carmelite monastery near Los Angeles. She discovers that she has epilepsy but is troubled that the remedy for her illness will interfere with her spirituality.

Mark Salzman wrote the story with a simple narrative and with an emphasis on prayer. He describes Sister John’s dilemma with sensitivity and with flashbacks of religious life. This story is a poignant reminder of the connection between religion, faith, love, and healthcare.

This book transported me back in time to when my father was in the hospital shortly before his passing. It reminded that healthcare workers are caring and supporting their patient’s families as much as they are the patient.

Find it in print and eaudiobook here.

All Decked Out. Now Where Do I Go..?

Kyla Merwin, Communications Manager, recommends The Hiker’s Guide to Sun Valley & Ketchum by Scott Marchant.

Just another gorgeous day in the Wood River Valley…Yeah baby! Adventure is calling my name, so I’m gearing up:

• Boots = ✓
• Sunscreen = ✓
• Water = ✓
• Snacks (lots) = ✓
• New Camera = ✓­­­­­
• Three-day Holiday = Check check check!

Now all I need is a place to go. Hmmm. . .I’m new to this area, having arrived last autumn from the sea-level metropolis of Portland, Oregon. Now that I’ve figured out how to breathe at this altitude, I’m ready to get a move on and do some exploring.

Enter the Hiker’s Guide to Sun Valley & Ketchum by Scott Marchant.

Scott has taken the traditional guidebook to a whole new level, with stunning images, topo maps, directions, and massive detail, including his favorite picks, season and family-friendly trails, and local information on flora, fauna and recent wildfires.

You might think the subject of “etiquette” belongs in the Library’s catalog under Emily Post or Miss Manners, but Scott has included the important rules of wilderness etiquette, as well as advice on personal safety and wilderness conservation. Pinky-extended, elbows-off-the-table, and punctuality NOT included. But you may be interested in his section on – er – waste removal (as in “pack in in; pack it out”).

Scott’s brand new and updated edition of 50 Hikes within 30 Miles of Sun Valley – hot off the press in June – raises the bar even higher. Scott personally hikes each of these trails and delivers the most up-to-date trail information available.

 “Go out, go out I beg of you, and taste the beauty of the wild.”

Edna Jaques

Scott has also published Hiker’s Guides to Sawtooth Country, McCall & Cascade, Stanley, and Greater Boise (including an edition for Best Easy Hikes), all of which you can find at the Community Library or through our Interlibrary Loan system. Many of his titles are also available as e-books.

More than a guidebook, Scott’s Hiker’s Guides become your personal companion on outdoor adventures. The detail he provides not only informs. It inspires.

You’ll find this quote from poet Edna Jaques on Scott’s Hiking Idaho website: “Go out, go out I beg of you, and taste the beauty of the wild.”

Aaah! I’ve finally found the final element – and the hinge pin – to my checklist:

• Inspiration = ✓

See you on the trails!

Find The Hiker’s Guide to Sun Valley & Ketchum here.

by Don Miguel Ruiz

Josi Manturano, Gold Mine Processing Associate, recommends The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz.

In The Four Agreements Don Miguel Ruiz reveals the source of self-limiting beliefs that rob us of joy and create needless suffering. Based on ancient Toltec wisdom, The Four Agreements offer a powerful code of conduct that can rapidly transform our lives to a new experience of freedom, true happiness, and love.

 It is a wonderful book for stress management and personal growth. It can help you bring sweeping changes to your life. This always will be a great little book with some weighty ideas. Focusing on any one of these agreements can greatly improve your life and decrease stress in life that we have to confront every day.

The book The Four Agreements was a highly influential book. It was first published in 1997. It has been an popular book. The book has since been translated into 46 languages.

Find it in print, eBook and eAudiobook.

Cathy Butterfield, Collections Manager, recommends Guards! Guards! A Discworld novel by Terry Pratchett

The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it.

Sir Terry Pratchett (OBE)

Here there be dragons. Of course, this is Discworld, supported by four elephants, traveling on the back of a giant tortoise swimming through space, where million-to-one odds come true rather more often than they ought. Particularly in the gritty streets of Anhk-Morpork, patrolled by the thin muddy line of the Night Watch.  Dragons are above their pay scale, but they do what they can. Mainly, run. Or hide.  As Captain Vimes ponders:

“It’s a metaphor of human bloody existence, a dragon. And if that wasn’t bad enough, it’s also a bloody great hot flying thing.”

I revisited some of my favorite characters in Guards! this month, and it made me laugh, and think, which is sadly rare these days. The book (released in 1989 as Sir Terry was coming into the height of his powers) is also subversively relevant to current events. Politicians bewitched by the taste for power call up a force beyond their control and take the reins of government…reins which do not stand up to dragon fire. There are eerie portents in the text about inequity, supremacy, charismatic leaders, and the powerful magic of books.

Terry Pratchett wrote 41 books in Discworld from 1983-2015, spawning several major tracks for young people and adults. Guards! Guards! is the entry point for Watch cycle; the discerning young reader with a taste for skewed sword and sorcery will revisit the novels often for the pointed philosophy and comforting satire. Pratchett’s humor taps the same well waters as Monty Python, Douglas Adams and Robert Sheckley, but with deeper characters, finer storytelling, and more kindness. 

Homer would welcome Sir Terry to his campfire to trade yarns. Like The Iliad and The Odyssey, Discworld stories are littered with borrowed metaphors, knowing winks to popular culture and history, and stolen scenes and phrases. Luckily, Sir Terry also wrote in an explanation for all the pseudo anachronisms that litter his books: L-space. The events in our universe and the Discworld are separated by just the width of a turning page.

“The relevant equation is Knowledge = Power = Energy = Matter = Mass; a good bookshop is just a genteel Black Hole that knows how to read. Mass distorts space into polyfractal L-space, in which Everywhere is also Everywhere Else. All libraries are connected in L-space by the bookwormholes created by the strong space-time distortion in any large collection of book.” ~Terry Pratchett, The Discworld Companion

Pratchett is the kind of writer that makes a person want to be a better person and help the people around them be better. He doesn’t say it outright. He’s sneaky that way. (“Person” in this instance being all-inclusive–whether dwarf, or vampire, or dragon, or werewolf, or magical ant. Or tourist.)

There is a Terry Pratchett book for everyone, though the arcs do tend to bend back on themselves, making the reading guide below an invaluable resource for librarians as well as readers. Fans of the books keep his spirit alive on archived websites dating back to the dawn of the internet, usenet and alt net listserves. 

The best way to enjoy L-space is to dive in.

Find it in our Axis360 and Overdrive eAudiobook downloadable collections.

The Discworld Reading Order Guide

by Tomasz Jedrowski 

Review by Kelly Noble 

I love this story but (spoiler alert) the ending is sad. This is a captivating love story between two young college students set in Communist Poland in the 1980s. . .a love story that mirrors life in many ways with all its pain and suffering. This novel is beautifully written and captivates the reader in such a way that I found it difficult to put down. I wanted to know the ending. I wanted to see some positive outcomes from this relationship.

To my disappointment, it ends the way many relationships end. Both characters denied what they wanted and ended up unhappy in separate places. Heartbreaking as it may be, the characters understand this suffering well. After reading the last note from Janusz, Ludwik remembers, “Because you were right when you said that people can’t always give us what we want from them; that you can’t ask them to love you the way you want.” 

Being gay may be difficult enough in western countries, but it seems more dangerous in communist ones. This love story is set in Communist Poland. Two young college students meet and spiral into a relationship that they both know to be dangerous. Not only for them, but for their families as well. As the novel progresses, both see diverse ways forward in life. Janusz seeks to work within the government for changes and Ludwik seeks to join the protests and demonstrations against the government.

As the story unfolds, both men are questioning their trajectories in life, but they never question their love for each other. The discouraging part of the story is that both know they cannot live the life they want. They cannot be together as lovers in a society that condemns homosexuality. 

As the communist government starts to close in on Ludwik, he plans his escape to the West. He tries hard to convince Janusz to leave Poland with him. Janusz does not want to leave but ends up living in a marriage to a friend that he knows is just a front. He uses it to get ahead in the communist government.

There is no question of who Janusz truly loves, he makes this clear in a final note to Ludwik, “I adore this book (Giovanni’s Room) more than you knew. I want to keep it…but it’s yours. Bring it back one day if you can. I’ll be here. J.” The novel ends with Ludwik living alone in New York, and Janusz living with his wife and child in Poland.  

I found the story fascinating yet depressing. How many relationships end because of discrimination? I once thought that love would conquer all, but that is not the reality of the world we live in. I do highly recommend this novel. It is an excellent read. The story has a sad ending, but I believe the more we learn about the impact of discrimination, especially on the LGBT community, the more we can change the future.  

How Fabric Changed History by Kassia St. Clair

Review by Olivia Terry, Regional History Librarian

Upholding to my love of fashion and dress history, I selected The Golden Thread by Kassia St. Clair for my book review. I grew up loving clothing, and even more, the history stitched into its seams.

This book examines the textiles that have made up centuries of clothing, starting with a couple of linen fibers discovered in a cave in the Republic of Georgia, dating back to 34,000 years ago.

St. Clair breaks down the saga of cloth in thirteen fascinating chapters, spanning centuries, continents, and different cultural implications. My favorite chapters explored the battle over lace production in sixteenth and seventeenth century Europe, and enslaved people’s personal relationship with clothing and cotton in the American South.

St. Clair does a wonderful job balancing micro- with macro-examination of cloth, starting from the harvesting of raw materials, to weaving the resources into textiles, and finally to major cultural events shaped by the fabric produced. From the woolen sails used on Viking ships to the space suits used to put a man on the moon, St. Clair argues that fabric has a tremendous effect on historical events that appear seemingly unrelated to the craft.

The book is especially relevant to today, as it explores the invention of synthetic fabrics and the humanitarian and environmental repercussions of fast fashion. On her chapter on cotton, St. Clair declares an outstanding statement, writing “transmuting cotton into useable fabric is …wasteful: a single pair of jeans requires 11,000 liters of water.”  

St. Clair weaves a fabulous tale for anyone interested in learning more about the clothes on their back, and for history lovers in general!