Wednesday, May 20, 2015

The Lizard Cage

The Lizard Cage
by Karen Connelly
Reviewed by Amy Stewart              

 The Lizard Cage is one of the most delicately woven and luminous stories that I have ever read. Connelly is a writer of the capital W variety.  She is able to distill life's primal joys and heart crushing truths into simple lyrical images that make one nod in recognition even as one cringes at the pain. Connelly tells the story of  Teza, a political prisoner in Burma.  From within his cage of solitary confinement Teza's life becomes in extricably tangled and forever linked with a compassionate jailer and an orphan boy who finds shelter within the jail's walls. I did not want this book to end and I will never forget it.

Staff Choices

At a recent staff meeting I asked the members of our staff to tell Pageturners what they had read in the last few months and what they would recommend.  Needless to say there was a wide ranging and diverse selection. Here is what they said:

Lynn Ring liked Diversity of Life, by E.O. Wilson. You can't go wrong there! She said it was a readable, dip into any chapter celebration of nifty stories and facts of the way real things operate in our world.

Kiesy Strauchon picked a classic, Dog Years by Gunter Grass , a meditation on modern history set in Germany in the guise of a novel.

Keith Darrock chose Fly-fishing on the 41st: Around the World on the 41st Parallel.

Tuesday, May 12, 2015

Treasure Island

Treasure Island
By Robert Louis Stevenson
Reviewed by Robert May

In the 50 years since I first read this adventure quest story, only I have become old and dated.  Treasure Island remains an excellent read for adult, child, girl, woman, boy, and man.  Stevenson's story of the effects of treasure on both the poor and the needy, the adventurer, and the rich and not needy presents a psychological study of the human mind that has stayed as relevant now as when Stevenson wrote this tale of high adventure. Its a good cozy read with tea, time, and a comforter come the wind and the rains.

Falling to Earth








Falling to Earth
by Kate Southwood
Reviewed by
Julie Johnson

I tacked the Earthquake Preparedness checklist to my bulletin board. I think of all the horrific possibilities and resolve to get serious about that disaster checklist.  What I never considered, however, was what it would be like to be someone who escapes harm, whose home remains standing while others are ripped apart, to be someone whose livelihood is not only left intact but who would in fact benefit from the destruction. I never considered how a moment's good fortune could unleash a nightmare. The plot centers on one family: Paul and Mae Graves, their three children and Paul's mother, Lavinia. They alone emerge from a giant tri-state tornado that killed nearly 700 people in 1925 without injury, either to their bodies or to their home. Even Paul's business, the local lumberyard, is unscathed.  Within days the whispering begins and what follows is a haunting exposition on grief and suffering. The poise with which Southwood handles her themes of human nature, chance, suffering and loss left me breathless with admiration.