Staff Reviews: Books, Films, Music, and More

Library Assistant Andrea Nelson recommends The Paris Library: A Novel by Janet Skeslien Charles.

It was Miss Reeder who said about books that ‘no other thing possesses that mystical faculty to make people see with other people’s eyes. The Library is a bridge between cultures.’

The Paris Library

As Hitler’s troops advance across Europe, Odile Souchet avoids old men and their constant talk of war. Germany stands no chance against France’s superior army and its Maginot Line, bien sûr! Like many young Parisiennes in 1939, the first of two heroines we meet in Janet Skeslien Charles’ The Paris Library is more concerned with day-to-day matters. Fresh out of Library School, she longs for employment at the prestigious American Library of Paris, where she could spend her days immersed in a vast and varied collection of books, rare manuscripts, international magazines and newspapers—rubbing shoulders with its quirky patronage of diplomats, writers, expatriates, politicians, and eccentric French bibliophiles. As a librarian at ALP, Odile could become a modern, independent, woman in the workforce. . .much to the ire of her traditional French parents.

Meanwhile, across the pond and forty years in the future, we meet a second protagonist. Lily is a brainy misfit facing down the barrel of adolescence in a dusty Montana cow town. Bored, restless, and feeling betrayed by her best friend, she distracts herself by inventing stories about the other misfit that lives next door, an elegant old widow with a mysterious past.

France 1939: When the American Library receives word that the Maginot Line has failed, Odile’s world shatters. With the French Army in full retreat and Nazi troops closing in, the City of Light grows dark and Parisiennes prepare for bombing. The devoted staff, volunteers, and patrons prepare the American Library for German occupation.

Back in the states, Lily faces a different kind of battle—the kind history forgets, but never the survivors.  

By setting Odile’s story in Paris during World War II, the author gives the reader a clairvoyant lens. She uses that literary device to build tension. The reader knows the geopolitical future; Odile does not. The author deliberately does not provide the reader the same lens in Lily’s story.  Froid, Montana is a real place, but, unlike Paris, it’s historical significance is not widely known. The juxtaposition of such outwardly dissimilar protagonists emphasizes the universal nature of human response to emotions such as fear and betrayal, whatever the cause.

While Odile exists in the confines of history, Lily is allowed to write her own story. Can she learn? Will she make different choices? At times, the transition between the two storylines is jolting. The reader is torn from one and dropped into the other, often unwillingly. The jagged edges add an urgency to the book’s primary message: Universal patterns are forged by the best and worst of human nature. If our responses do not evolve, history will continue to repeat itself.

The Paris Library is a haunting story of love and loss, jealousy, remorse, sacrifice, and redemption. It probes the strength of true friendship and leaves the reader to ponder which wounds can heal, which cannot, and whether time, distance, and determination can build a bridge to forgiveness.

Reviewers Note:  At the heart of this story, there is a library. Served by a devoted staff and sustained by the patrons who cherish it, the American Library in Paris is currently the largest English-language lending library on mainland Europe. Like our Community Library, it operates as an independent, non-profit association. With history once again threatening to repeat itself, libraries like ours offer hope.

“Libraries are lungs. . .books the fresh air breathed in to keep the heart beating, to keep the brain imagining, to keep hope alive.”

Janet Skeslien Charles

Find The Paris Library in Print, eBook, and CD here.

Gold Mine Managing Director, Craig Barry, recommends Tripping to Dickeyland by Michael Hanson.

Tripping to Dickeyland is a wonderful mixture of a writer’s friendships, aspirations, admirations, and fears—the stuff that fuels much of our lives, and the brushes with which all artists use to leave their marks.

Hanson’s memoir explores the major influences in his life — such as James Dickey, his work and character; his deep friendship with his childhood friend, Chris Fuhrman, who would tragically pass away as a young man; and his teacher and mentor, Coleman Barks — as Hanson comes to terms with what it means to be a writer.

This book is powerfully written and unabashedly honest as it explores the creative process and the sometimes overwhelming joy and crushing self-doubt that accompanies any writer who opens their heart.

[Dickeyland] is a reflection on how one melds formative experiences with one’s passion to forge a rich and meaningful life.

It’s a reflection on how one melds formative experiences with one’s passions to forge a rich and meaningful life, where the heroes of yesterday are seen anew for their own unique humanness — and how ultimately that perception, turned inward, allows one to step more fully into their own life.

Find it in print here.

Community Library Assistant and English Language Instructor Karen Little recommends Owls of the Eastern Ice: A Quest to Find and Save the World’s Largest Owl, by Jonathan C. Slaght.

An owl that feeds mostly on fish? Particularly salmon? How odd. Not strange at all for the Blakiston’s fish owl, world’s largest and one of the rarest owls.

Jonathan Slaght, author, scientist, and conservationist, describes this fish-eating owl, “Bigger than any owl he knew, it looked like a small bear with decorative feathers.” The enormous owl sports a wingspan up to six and a half feet, stands over two feet tall (about the size of a fire hydrant), and can weigh up to eleven pounds. In addition, the owl is notable for its intense yellow eyes. Despite its large size, the Blakiston’s owl is elusive. And endangered. And Slaght is on a mission to help save it.

Slaght’s first-hand account to protect the world’s largest owl takes the reader to far reaches of eastern Russia where he and his small team of research assistants set out to find the owls, track them, document their patterns and habitat, and develop a conservation plan to help safeguard their survival.

They encountered  salmon poachers, illegal loggers, and an eccentric hermit living in a deserted World War II power station. There was also the threat of meeting an Amur tiger…

Studying the owls is easiest in winter because their footprints can be tracked in the snow, but the harsh conditions create challenges and dangers. Slaght’s group faced setbacks with blizzards, equipment breakdowns, and vehicles getting stuck in the snow or sinking through ice. They encountered salmon poachers, illegal loggers, and an eccentric hermit living in a deserted World War II power station. There was also the threat of meeting an Amur tiger roaming in the owls’ habitat.

The adventure was a wild ride for me with emotional highs and lows. I was filled with joy when the team found a displaced pair of owls after a typhoon had destroyed parts of their habitat, and I grieve that it might be too late to save the Blakiston’s fish owl.

Less than 2,000 fish owls survive in the wild. Will these enigmatic owls slip toward extinction? Can humans and the Blakiston’s fish owl live together sharing the same resources in this remote part of the world?

Read the book to find out!

Available in print and eAudiobook here. (I recommend the hardback format, which contains remarkable photographs.)

Director of Philanthropy Carter Hedberg recommends the film Strangers on a Train, directed by Alfred Hitchcock, based on the book by Patricia Highsmith.

Can you imagine being a writer and having your first published novel made into a major motion picture, much less a film directed by Alfred Hitchcock! That’s the case with one of my favorite authors, Patricia Highsmith. Her first novel, Strangers on a Train, was adapted for the big screen and released in 1951. I recently watched it again and rediscovered what a captivating and ingenious film it was. Even movie critic legend Roger Ebert ranks it in his top five best Hitchcock movies.

The stage is now set for a tense and riveting cinematic journey that leads to a dramatic and very Hitchcockian conclusion at an amusement park.

This thriller noir begins when amateur tennis star Guy Haines, played by Farley Granger, meets engaging well-to-do psychopath Bruno Anthony, cunningly portrayed by Robert Walker, on a train between New York and Washington. The strangers strike up a friendly conversation as they have drinks together during the short journey. Bruno is familiar with Guy’s stardom and the stories of his cheating wife, and proposes a plan that he views as mutually beneficial. He suggests that he kills Guy’s wife, and the tennis star takes care of Bruno’s hated father—eliminating two troublesome people from their lives.

Guy smiles and humors Bruno, but when the train arrives at the final destination, he quickly exits and clumsily leaves behind his engraved cigarette lighter. Bruno keeps the lighter as insurance, and then goes on to fulfill his end of the bargain, which he assumed he had struck with Guy.

The stage is now set for a tense and riveting cinematic journey that leads to a dramatic and very Hitchcockian conclusion at an amusement park. The first-rate cast is rounded out by Ruth Roman playing Granger’s sympathetic love interest and Alfred Hitchcock’s daughter, Patricia, as Roman’s younger sister.

Hitchcock was interested in meeting Highsmith and invited her to join him during the filming of the tennis scenes in Forest Hills, New York. Even though she declined the invitation, she wrote in her diary, “He seems to be going . . . mad over my book.”  When she finally saw Hitchcock’s version of her book, Highsmith said, “I am pleased in general. Especially with Bruno, who held the movie together as he did in the book.”  Indeed, Bruno’s psychopathic and seductive behavior seeps throughout the film like Elmer’s Glue.

Patricia Highsmith never achieved the lofty fame as Alfred Hitchcock, but I find her writing to be clever, engrossing, and often deliciously dark. Strangers on a Train was only the first of several of her books to be made into films. Probably the most famous included her 1955 novel, The Talented Mr. Ripley, which was made into the successful 1999 film starring Gwyneth Paltrow, Matt Damon, and Jude Law.  And writing under the pseudonym of Claire Morgan, Highsmith published the lesbian themed novel, The Price of Salt, in 1952, which was republished 38 years later as Carol under her own name and later adapted into the acclaimed 2015 film starring Cate Blanchette and Rooney Mara.

I invite you to learn more about this accomplished, elusive, and enigmatic author. You can check out the well-respected and exhaustive biography by Joan Schenkar, The Talented Miss Highsmith, as well as the film and book versions of Strangers on a Train from The Community Library . . . and perhaps Patricia Highsmith will no longer be a stranger to you!  

Find it in print and DVD here.

Community Library Assistant and English Language Instructor Janet Ross-Heiner recommends Powder Days, by Heather Hansman, and other related reads.

Covid and the good life have attributed to the floodgates of rapid growth in our mountain villages. We are all facing new realities. I remember Ketchum during the 1960s before the condo-centric wave came and the population was 750. Today we stand at 4,000 plus, depending on the season.

During the growth of the 60s my father often said; “Water and the geology of this place sets us apart.” Joe Koenig, a good friend of my father at the time, was an active city councilman and a developer. Joe believed in growth with good management. “It is the only way” he said. Our community is at a crossroad hanging on to our unvarnished charm, protecting the valued natural and social resources, while managing the inevitable growth. Let’s be smart!

There is a common thread in the following books that I have read recently:

Billionaire Wilderness: The Ultra-Wealthy and the Remaking of the American West, Aspen and the American Dream, and Powder Days.

The latter is a beautifully written story of sensation seeking, wildness & obsession by Heather Hansman. She will be a guest at The Community Library on March 3. Her book Downriver: Into the Future of Water in the West is part of the Winter Read and she will share this story then.

“Water does not resist. Water flows. When you plunge your hand into it, all you feel is a caress. Water is not a solid wall, it will not stop you. But water always goes where it wants to go, and nothing in the end can stand against it. Water is patient. Dripping water wears away a stone. Remember that, my child. Remember you are half water. If you can’t go through an obstacle, go around it. Water does.”

~Margaret Atwood

The three books I invite and urge you to read:

Billionaire Wilderness: The Ultra-Wealthy and the Remaking of the American West, written by a Yale sociologist Justin Farrell. He grew up in Teton County where his mother was a house keeper. Maid in the USA. When reading you may discover you might be a NIMBY or a YIMBY. The book reveals the world of the Teton County uber-elites, tax reasons why they migrate to the west, and how they protect their wilderness in amongst the symbiotic relationships of the community. It is a very interesting study and you can check it out here.

Aspen and the American Dream by Jenny Stuber explores how a middle-class community survives in a super-gentrified mountain town. A town where the median income is $74K and the median home price is $4 million. Sound familiar? All players are brought to the round table where important planning and zoning take shape. Managing smart growth is not painless. If a community is to persevere we must move forward and plan. Check it out here.

Powder Days by Heather Hansman is a deep and electrifying journey into the western ski culture of skill and nerve, where many explored the nuance of being a Warren Miller type or a Bohemian ski bum, a truehearted soul skier termed at times in Heather’s book a “dirtbag,” opposite of the bourgeois vacationer hack. The 70s were golden ski years. In the 80s ski resorts became expensive and elite and now have solidified into resorts with Epic passes & Vail Resorts. “Financial privilege can be sneaky and obtuse, while racial privilege is often more blatant,” writes Heather. Powder Days takes the reader on a passionate journey chasing powder into high ridges, with intent, desire, and risk. One can sense the fly-and-glide through that first glitter of white powder, where everything melts off and makes sense, and everything is smooth… Take the journey, feel the powder slopes before a spring thaw. Find it in print and eaudiobook here.

In observance of President’s Day, Information Systems Manager William Duke recommends The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt by Edmund Morris.

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

George Santayana, 1905

If George is right, we should be working hard to make history interesting so our children will learn it. Instead, history books are about the best sleep aids on the shelf.

The present moment is compelling, exciting even, until it becomes history. Then it’s as dull as dirt. Does anyone really want to hear another of Grandpa’s WWII stories? 

But, what if there was a history book that told a massively compelling story? 

What if Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt rose from the pages to fight corruption in the New York legislature? Then he made friends with a Democratic Governor, Grover Cleveland, to get rid of machine politicians that were grossly corrupt? Then, just as he began to make real headway, he lost his wife in childbirth the same night his mother died, and sunk into a depression so deep that he abandoned politics and disappeared into the Dakotas to kill every animal within range of his guns, and never spoke his wife’s name again?

Wait, did I say Governor Cleveland? Oh, yes, Grover was the governor when they met, and worked together against political corruption. Only later did Teddy’s Republican party lose the Presidential race to Cleveland after the Republicans, despite Roosevelt’s best efforts, tried to elect the most corrupt of politicians. Not because the candidate was corrupt—cheers to that—but because he didn’t pay attention when some pastor pointed out Cleveland’s attachment to rum, and prohibition got ascribed to the more corrupt politician because he was standing next to the pastor at the time.

And all of that happens before Roosevelt becomes the Secretary of the Navy, plans the naval war against Spain, resigns to form the “Rough Riders” and fights the Spanish in Cuba, comes back and gets elected governor, gets maneuvered into becoming the Vice President of the United States, then becomes the President when McKinley is assassinated. All of that happens before the history books take up Roosevelt as he became President.

And the story just keeps getting better. Roosevelt’s life is a fascinating adventure worthy of your next deep read. There’s a reason it takes almost 900 pages to tell it.