Friends Bookstore Annual Report

2011 Annual Report Friends' Bookstore The past year was a full and busy one; here are the highlights of the successes and changes in the store.

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2. At the beginning of 2011, the Bookstore Committee decided to begin taking debit/credit cards. Because the Bookstore is a non-profit organization, it gets a special rate from the company, both in the monthly fees and in the per-transaction costs. We saw credit/debit card sales double each month for the first four months. Now the number of customers using debit/credit cards has stabilized, but we hear multiple compliments regarding the fact that we now accept plastic.
3. The Bookstore participated in several special sales this year, including the White-Out Wednesday sale held on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving and sponsored by the Rochester Downtown Alliance. The details of the sale were kept secret until the day of the sale, and that created a bit of buzz. In the end, we offered everything in the store at half price and made over $850.
4. The sorters have been kept busy this year and estimate that they receive an average of 500 books daily. The sorting system has been working very well, with the library taking all that they need for their collections before the Friends begin to select materials. The Bookstore does not lack for books, and we have special sales when one category is full. For example, right now children‟s books are buy-one-get-one-free.
5. The Bookstore donates many, many books and other materials to other organizations. For example, Channel One gets new children‟s, adult fiction and nonfiction books each week. We regularly send shipments to the soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, often fulfilling requests. We have donated to other libraries (in Minnesota, in the United States, and overseas), to local charities, and to area schools. We also provide books to new teachers so they can begin establishing classroom libraries.
6. When we have author visits (Catherine Friend in June, the Minnesota Crime Wave, Kamala Nair, and Paula McClain for examples), the Bookstore purchases copies of the author‟s books and sells them during the author visit so patrons have a chance to get the book signed. We also help with set-up and teardown of the auditorium and provide coffee and cookies.
7. The Bookstore sponsored a Mystery Tea and enjoyed an overwhelmingly positive response. Bookstore volunteers and Library staff members were the actors, and everyone baked goodies. We borrowed round tables from the History Center, and their success lead to the Friends Board and Foundation purchasing round tables for use at large auditorium events. Individual Friends purchases table cloths and carafes.
8. In February, the Bookstore sponsored a Food for Thought fundraiser for Channel One, giving customers a discount if they brought in a food donation for Channel One. The store will be participating again this year as Channel One attempts to collect a Mile of Mac „n Cheese.
9. Many new volunteers joined the Friends in both the Bookstore and in the sorting area. We continue to grow. Due to the hard work and dedication of all, the Bookstore is making a record-breaking donation to the Library. The Friends‟ Bookstore Committee voted on Monday, January 9, 2012 to donate $57,000 to the library, leaving a small reserve so we can pay our bills. This amount is a $5,000 increase over last year‟s donation.

nd Saturday Sales continued to be a big hit. In 2010, the sales were a new idea to attract people into the store. During 2011, many of the library patrons were familiar with the Friends' Bookstore, and we saw the benefit in large increases in sales.

WINTERFEST BOOKSALE

Don't forget next week we have a fantastic booksale in the Library Auditorium during Rochester's Winterfest celebrations.

We have a fantastic selection of fiction, hardcover and paperback, an amazing array of non-fiction items, including vhs, cassette tapes, cds, dvds and audio tapes (the latter will be in the Twinkle room).

We will also be collecting food donations for Channel One on the first day of the sale - so if you bring in a non-perishable item you will receive a discount on your purchases!

AND remember, the Friends get in 30 minutes earlier to peruse the great selection! Time to join now!

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Friends Winterfest Book Sale and Bookstore Promos

Another Great Selection of BOOKS at fantastic PRICES!! Don't miss  your next winter read!

February Specials

F.

Food For Thought – Last year we put a Channel One barrel in the store and offered a 20% discount to folks who made a donation (hopefully a protein) to the store. This year if folks spend $25 in the store, they’ll get a free tote bag. The Friends kick that off Food For Thought at the February 2nd/3rd Auditorium Sale.  Channel One’s goal is to collect a mile of mac ‘n cheese.  We will be selling boxes of KRAFT mac ‘n cheese at the auditorium sale so folks who didn’t bring boxes along can take advantage of the discount at the sale.  We will give folks a discount off their entire Winterfest purchase with a mac ‘n cheese donation.

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Two-fer Tuesdays – Tuesdays are a quiet day in our store (making it a perfect time to browse!).  In order to entice you in on Tuesdays, we are going to try a “Two-fer Tuesday” sale during the month of  March.  Customers will be able to buy-one-get one (of equal/ lesser value) free.  That will apply to most items in the store, the exceptions being the Rochester Reads books and the new canvas bags.  

NB::The Rochester Reads books will be here by February 13, and the bags are already in the store.

Book Review - Diary of a Wimpy Kid

Book Review

Diary of a Wimpy Kid

Jeff Kinney

I can’t imagine too many things more challenging for a juvenile fiction author than trying to write so that your books appeal to both your young readers and their parents.  More often than not, a writer really hits a home run with the kids but leaves the parents either appalled at the content or completely bored to tears.  It’s a rare thing, in my experience, to find a juvenile fiction book that provokes serious belly laughs in my seven year-old son, while making me laugh so hard that I have tears streaming down my face.   Surprisingly, Jeff Kinney has done exactly that in his best selling book, Diary of a Wimpy Kid.

Narrated in diary format by the main character, Greg Heffley, Diary of a Wimpy Kid is a  humorous inside look at the life of a middle school student who struggles to understand the new rules for being a “tween.”  What really seems to make this book “work” is that it’s so real.  Kids get the humor because they see themselves in Greg; and parents get the humor because they either remember what it was like to be a kid, or they see their own little rugrats in the actions of the main characters.

Unlike some similar books of this genre, the author does a nice job of really showing the personality of the characters without resorting to misspelled words or truly bad behavior by the main characters to lure in the target audience.  Greg and his friends do misbehave because, after all, that’s what makes it funny!  However, the behavior isn’t extreme enough to cause serious objections from most parents.

The reading level for this book is approximately 5th grade, but younger readers will really enjoy it as well, if read to them by an adult.  And, frankly, I dare any adult to try to read this book without giggling at least once.  I bet you can’t do it!  

This book is the first in a series of six with similar titles, and all are available through the Rochester Public Library in traditional format.  For more information about this book or the additional titles in this series, visit the website dedicated to the series at http://www.wimpykid.com/.

~ Catherine H. Armstrong

Friends Bulletin Board

Annual Meeting and Luncheon

Rochester Public Library - news article

There was a great article in the recent (January/February) Rochester Women Magazine on the Rochester Public Library by Suzanne Jones. Thank you for your informative article, and for reaching more of our community! The Friends support the libray in many ways, but in particular we are involved in the Rochester Reads programme. We would be delighted to publish the 'several pages more abou tthe many incredible programs and services the RPL has to offer' if you have written them Suzanne!

The e-Reader Debate - Instant Gratification!

Instant Gratification!

by Catherine H. Armstrong

I love books.  I love the words on a page.  I love the smell of books, the feel and the weight of a book in my hands, and even the sound of the crisp pages between my fingers as they crinkle slightly as I turn each page.  I love immersing myself in a story and becoming one with the main character, and I love being transported to another time and place where all of the worries of my real life are left behind until such time as I choose to refocus my energies on them again.  I love books so much that I can even remember exactly what it felt like to learn to read; when the words were no longer just a big jumble on a page and suddenly they took on a life of their own.  I remember those first “Dick and Jane” books in the first few weeks of first grade, when it was still warm outside and I could sit in the swing in my back yard and immerse myself in the simple antics of Dick, Jane and their dog, Spot.  And I remember being so deeply focused on whatever I was reading that my teacher once had to call my name several times before I realized she was speaking to me.  I guess it’s fair to say that, aside from my family, books are my greatest love.

Those who know me know this about me.  Reading is such an integral part of who I am that it would be nearly impossible to know me well at all and not know that I love reading and I love books.  And so it’s been a normal part of my life for many years that my friends and acquaintances have directed questions about books in my direction.  What am I reading?  Do I have a book recommendation for a 13 year old girl?  What’s my favorite book?  What do I think about the latest book by...(insert name of pretty much any author here).  But, with the introduction of e-readers in the last several years, the biggest question I get these days is “What do you think about e-readers?”  Wow...that’s a loaded question!

When e-readers first came out, I was adamantly opposed to them.  As I’ve already stated, there’s just nothing quite like the actual feel of a book in your hands.  I swore I’d never buy one.  They just seemed like such a silly investment.  And then the iPad came out.  Now, in fairness, I bought an iPad because I wanted something small I could carry around with me that would do most of the same functions as a regular computer without the size and weight.  The last thing on my mind was the fact that it would double as an e-reader.  However, as with any new “toy,” I had to at least give the e-reader function a try, and so I downloaded the apps for the Nook and Kindle.  I have only one word for how I feel about e-readers now:  WOW!

Nothing can ever entirely replace a “real” book in my heart, but I have to admit that the ease and flexibility of an e-reader has earned a place in my heart and is giving the traditional book some rather stiff competition with me.  I never imagined the flexibility it would provide.  I still buy, read and borrow traditional books from the library, but I have to admit that the e-reader has also earned the hype it’s received.

What could be better than hearing about a book on TV or in a newspaper article and having the ability to read it immediately?  That’s truly the genius behind e-readers; the simple ability to download pretty much any title within seconds.  Instant gratification!

Some people might argue that they cost money and that e-readers get expensive with so many downloaded purchases from the big book stores. This can be true, but it doesn’t need to be.  Rochester Public Library, for instance, has thousands of titles available for immediate download for e-book readers.  Just go to the webpage, type in the title of the book you’re searching, and you’ll often not only find the book, but you’ll find a variety of formats to choose from.  And the best part is not having to worry about returning them and those nasty fines when you forget!  When your loan expires at the end of 14 or 21 days, it just "disappears."  But don't despair!  If you haven't finished reading, you can always check it out again!

The ability to change the font of the text is a big plus with me.  For years, I chose not to read when exercising at the gym because the print on the page is too small to focus on while I’m trying to accomplish my workout.  But, with the e-reader, I can enlarge the text on a whim so that I can see the words more easily as the sweat drips into my eyes!  And I can only begin to imagine what a gift the ability to change the font size has been for my 81 year old mother!  Her reading had been mostly on hold these last few years due to macular degeneration, which is an age-related disease that causes the eye to be unable to see fine detail, and frequently makes tasks like reading impossible.  But with the new e-reader she bought, she can set the font as large as she needs and she’s now back to enjoying books by the dozens.

Another benefit is the ability to immediately look up the definition of an unknown word.  This is especially beneficial for kids whose vocabulary is always increasing.  With an e-reader, you can just touch on a word and it will bring up the definition in seconds.  No more erroneous  guessing because there’s not a dictionary within immediate reaching distance.  Just tap on the word and the meaning will pop up.  Awesome!

Probably my favorite feature of an e-reader is the ability to read in bed in the middle of the night without having to turn on the lights!  What an incredible idea!  Absolutely brilliant!  No longer do I need to leave the warmth and coziness of my bed in the middle of the night when insomnia overtakes me.  I can just reach over and pick up my e-book and begin reading without ever disturbing my husband by flipping on the lights.  I’m sure he appreciates that, and I certainly appreciate not having to go to a different room to read!

Nothing will (for me) ever completely replace a traditional book; but there are so many advantages to an e-reader that it’s difficult to ignore their potential.  I feel strongly about traditional books, but I have to admit that my reading time has been equally split this last year as I’ve discovered the wonderful options available through an e-reader. My only regret is that I didn’t open my mind to the idea much sooner.  All of those books out there that I’ve missed!

If you’re interested in purchasing an e-reader, your first step - presuming you desire to download books from the library -  should be to determine which e-readers are compatible with the library’s e-book selection.  For a comprehensive cheat sheet of those devices, follow this link:  http://overdrive.com/files/ebook-cheat-sheet.pdf.

If you already have an e-reader, then you’ve taken the most important step.  The next question would be:  Do you know how to use it?  If your answer to that question isn’t a firm and confident “Yes!”, then the library is here to help you.  Beginning in February, drop-in classes are being offered by the library to help you!  Just select a date from the dates listed below, bring your e-reader and the cord it came with, as well as your laptop computer if you have one.  These classes will meet in Meeting Room B at the Rochester Public Library and are on a walk-in basis.  No advanced registration is required.

Happy Reading and Welcome to the 21st Century!

Bring Your Own e-Reader (BYOE) Days
at the Rochester Public Library

Wednesday, February 1st

9:30 am - 12:30 pm

Monday, February 6th

11 am - 2 pm

Thursday, February 16th

11 am - 2 pm

Wednesday, February 22nd

3 pm - 6 pm

Friends Bookstore = new arrivals

Our Friends Bookstore has a lot of new arrivals - coming in daily. We still have a special on Children's books for the month of January (buy one get one free at equal or lesser value). New displays often highlight interesting books to read if you need suggestions!
Remember our Winterfest Booksale is coming right up too (in the auditorium on February 2, 3rd).

Winnie the Pooh Day

January 18th - Winnie the Pooh Day is an opportunity to enjoy your favorite bear and all of his friends. This day was created to celebrate the birth of A.A (Allan Alexander) Milne in 1882. He was an author of children's story books, and created Winnie the Pooh and his friends. Winnie's pals include Christopher Robin, Tigger, Eeyore, Piglet, and Roo.

Have some fun today. Celebrate Winnie the Pooh Day by reading some storybooks about the adventures of Winnie and his friends. Don't read them alone. Read them with young children. Read them with your spouse for some wonderful memories. Read them with your book group - to create some great memories!

The MN version!

Book Review - The Hour I First Believed

Book Review

The Hour I First Believed

Wally Lamb

April 19, 1995.  A Ryder truck carrying 5,000 tons of explosive materials is parked in front of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.  At 9:02 am, the truck explodes and 168 people, including 19 children, are killed and another 800 are injured.  I was 24 years old, a transplant to Minnesota from Oklahoma, and my hometown had been devastated.

April 20, 1999.  Two high school seniors at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, open fire upon their classmates and teachers in what would appear later to be retribution for the injustices they’d endured through acts of bullying.  Nearly 100 bombs had been set to detonate at intervals within the school and the surrounding area by the gunmen, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, and - by day’s end - thirteen victims and the two gunmen would be pronounced dead, with dozens more injured.  It was the day that changed the way our nation’s schools would look at the safety and security of our children..

September 11, 2001.  Two planes, commandeered by hijackers, fly into the two towers of New York City’s World Trade Center.  Shortly thereafter, another plane would fly into the Pentagon and yet another would crash into a field in Pennsylvania.  The total number of deaths was staggering; nearly 3,000 people, including the nineteen hijackers, were officially pronounced dead.  The world as we knew it had changed forever.

When tragedies like these occur, the number of dead and physically wounded are easy to count.  What isn’t so easy to count, however, are the number of victims who walk away with no physical injuries, but who have been deeply and irrevocably injured nonetheless.  These people have no scars to show, but their scars run deep below the surface and occasionally can be hidden for short periods of time. As a result, many of these “walking wounded” are forgotten or, at the very least, overlooked.  They are the victims, the victims’ families, or even empathetic strangers who suffer the long-term emotional injuries caused by the event, and frequently manifest in symptoms of flashbacks and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

In his novel, The Hour I First Believed, Wally Lamb uses extensive research to tell the fictional story of Caelum and Maureen Quirk.  On the day of the deadly massacre at Columbine High, Caelum - a teacher at Columbine - was in Connecticut dealing with the sudden death of his favorite aunt.  His wife, Maureen - a school nurse, also at Columbine - had stayed behind and planned to meet up with him on the evening of April 20th, but those plans went awry when the two gunmen opened fire.  In the school’s library, Maureen was forced to seek refuge in a cabinet where she hid for nearly three hours as she waited for the terrifying ordeal to be over.  But for Maureen, leaving the cramped confines of the cabinet for the safe arms of her family and friends was only the beginning of her traumatic ordeal.  For the next decade, she would suffer from flashbacks and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, and the life as she once enjoyed it was no longer.

Narrating the story, Caelum Quirk struggles to help his wife deal with the flashbacks and emotional turmoil - the “what-ifs” - of that terrible day.  But what he hadn’t expected was his own emotional struggle and the vicarious flashbacks he would experience in empathy for his wife and their friends.  The Hour I First Believed is, effectively then,  an in-depth look at the forgotten victims of tragedy; those whose wounds go unnoticed.

As a reader, there are some books you love, and others you respect.  The Hour I First Believed would fall, for me, in that second category.  It’s difficult to love a book where so many tragedies befall the main characters; however, I respected the book for the valuable spotlight it placed on the silent victims - those without scars to show for their pain.

For more information about this book or the author, visit the Harper Collins website dedicated to Wally Lamb by following this link.

~ Catherine H. Armstrong

Book Reviews: Short Takes

Short takes -
I have 6 other book reviews coming out in the next few weeks, and there are simply so many interesting books to recommend. SO, here are a few that caught my fancy that you might want to try. All Library books!

I so thoroughly enjoy Alan Bennet's writing style, whether memoir or fiction. Smut is his recent short story collection (two), while A Life like Other People's is from his previous book Untold Stories.

Kathy Reichs has started a young adult series, Seizure is the second  (NB I think they need to be read in order, as too much wouldn't make sense in this second book). I thought the first was quite entertaining and look forward to reading the next installment!

I just don't know where to place this book - it is by the author of a Series of Unfortunate Events, Lemony Snickett, so I thought this must be fun. It was quite bizarre, being  a series of short stories or essays that are somehow connected. The individual characterisations are priceless, but I am still feeling clueless!

Book Review - Scary School

Book Review

Scary School
Derek the Ghost

In the last several months, I’ve been on an exhaustive search for age-appropriate books to read to my seven-year-old son.  I love to read aloud to him, but so many of the books that are age-appropriate bore me to tears and don’t really keep his attention as well as they should.  As a result, I’ve done an exhaustive search of Google, the library and the big book stores to find something that would capture his imagination...and maybe a little of my own imagination, too.

Scary School by Derek the Ghost looked promising.  It received a full 5-star review from Amazon readers, 4.5 stars from Barnes and Noble readers, and the overwhelming consensus of adult readers was that it was laugh-out-loud funny to both kids and adults.  If the reviews weren’t exaggerated, this was exactly the book I needed!

Written as a series of short stories and anecdotes surrounding the daily happenings at a school run by monsters, Scary School is better than laugh-out-loud funny.  It’s creative and witty, and downright bizarre at times.  

What could be more fun than a book narrated by the ghost of a kid who met his demise during a school science experiment gone wrong?  Well, you might start with the new kid at school named Charles Nukid.  When his classmates greet him as “Hey New Kid!” on his first day of school, he’s thrilled that they already know his name.  

Not funny enough for you?  How about a T-Rex in a blue dress who is responsible for detention?  Every day at lunch time she lets out a loud “roar” and if you don’t run to your own lunch quickly enough, she might just choose you for her next meal!

Still not enough? How about a one-fanged vampire-teacher named Ms. Fang?  Or a school principal with the last name of Headcrusher?  Perhaps the hallway monitor, Mr. Spider-Eyes, will spark your attention?  Maybe being sent to the school health office to see Nurse Hairymoles will capture your imagination?  If none of that grabs you, then wait until you meet the student body!

Scary School is quite simply a great read.  The bizarre antics of the characters will elicit belly laughs from young readers and bring more than a few giggles to adult readers as well.  Most surprisingly to me, it captured the interest of my almost-16-year old daughter who once asked if she could sit in on a reading.  Yes, it’s that entertaining!

This book is available through SELCO on inter-library loan.  For more information about this book, visit the book’s interactive website at http://www.scaryschool.com/.

Note:  The read-alone target audience for this book is grades 4-8; however, younger readers will enjoy this book if read to them by an adult.

~ Catherine H. Armstrong

            Watch this book's trailer on YouTube

Winterfest Book Sale

1st Day Set Price & sales tax will be collected (per state law).

Prices will be: 

      50 cents on Mass Market Paperbacks, Magazines, Cassettes, VHS, Records, Children's Books

 $1.00 on Hardcovers, Trade Paperbacks, CDs, DVDs
   A few special interest & old books will be priced $2-$3
                  
2nd Day will be by donation.

Add caption

IN ADDITION IN FEBRUARY:

Food For Thought

The Friends’ Bookstore  at the Rochester Public Library will be collecting food for Channel One during the month of February. During “Food For Thought” month, anyone donating a nonperishable food item will receive a 20% discount off their entire Bookstore purchase.  Channel One is especially in need of protein items, such as peanut butter, tuna fish, and Mac ‘n Cheese.

History Hullabaloo

Mentors, Librarians and MN History Center Staff will be available to help History Day students with their thesis, research and projects. This was a highly successful History Hullabaloo programme last year - and a great opportunity to help out!  The first programme this year (2012) occurred on Wednesday January 4th, the next one will be :

Saturday January 14
from 10am to 3pm
in the Library Auditorium

Book Review: Anne Holt

Anne Holt: What is Mine; What never happens/The Final Murder; Death in Oslo; Fear NotThese will haunt me for some time to come.  She is a Norewegian crime writer (and lawyer), specialising in murder and mayhem in Norway. She is well known in Scandanavia and Europe (over 15 novels), you might have heard of her on NPR and PBS after the bombings in July 2011. If you like Henning Mankell or Maj Sjowall/Per Wahloo these are you next thrillers! Don’t forget Karin Fossum and Jo Nesbo (or Helene Tursten, Kerstin Ekman).
Johanne Vik (researcher, profiler) and Adam Stubo (homicide detective) are the two protagonists in one of her series, each with personal baggage, each with intricate stories. These need to be read in order because of the progression and character development. These are often nasty psychological stories, but compelling, not as dark or drastic as Dragon Tattoo, but also more plausible. I also found the ending of What Never Happens perhaps more horrific than most! Pyschological cat and mouse. Or perhaps these thrillers are more familiar to me, for this is like a reading British mystery that is set in a different culture. Val McDermid (a Scottish crime writer) once commented that ‘…Holt…reveals how truly dark it gets in Scandanavia…". Many of her books seem to have the perfect murder –there are no clues, but it is the attention to detail and persistence of these characters that makes all the difference. I found the mysteries to be complex, detailed (some might say slow moving) but intellectually challenging and interesting. She has done her homework, and has varied experiences which all contribute to the realism of the story and the accurate portrayal of everyday life in Norway. There is a lot of social commentary about the very real problems of socialism, racism, discrimination and violent crime, in Scandinavia and Europe.
Our Library has three; I came across the author on the Kindle special deal of the day. Excellent ratings, and definitely worth reading.

Visiting Author Series - Paula McLain

Paula McLain

Visiting Author Presentation

Paula McLain

The first presentation of the library’s 2012 Visiting Author Series was an undisputed success this afternoon as visiting author, Paula McLain, spoke to a packed auditorium of library patrons about her recent best seller, The Paris Wife.

Recounting the extensive process by which she researched the life of Hadley Richardson, the first wife of author Ernest Hemingway, McLain spoke of the love she developed for Hemingway and his first wife as she studied the letters Hadley had written to her future husband in the weeks before their marriage.

McLain spoke for about 45 minutes and read aloud several pages of her novel, and then opened the floor for questions from the audience.  During the question and answer period, McLain was asked whether she’d like to see The Paris Wife be made into a movie, to which she revealed that the book had been optioned for a movie but that it  may be a long time before the idea becomes a reality.

McLain’s presentation was thoroughly enjoyable and showed the author to be not only smart and funny, but a writer with a true love for her craft and a strong desire to recreate for the reader as much historical accuracy as possible.  Overall, a completely delightful presentation by an equally delightful author.

For more information about Paula McLain and The Paris Wife, visit the Random House Website dedicated to this book and the author.

~ Catherine H. Armstrong

The Paris Wife

Paula McLain The Paris Wife
One good book leads to another – if you have read Hemingway’s memoir, A Moveable Feast, you have your next book: The Paris Wife. I liked that he finally recognised what he had lost with his divorce, from this comment: "I wish I had died before I loved anyone but her (his first wife, Hadley)." Paula McLain writes primarily in Hadley’s voice providing her version of events. A previous biography (Sokoloff, 1973) is quite good, but this novel portrays the woman who loved him, for himself, and is fascinating! McLain painstakingly researched the biographies, letters, and Hemingway's novels, to accurately detail their lives, including their marriage (1921-1926). She is also a poet, which is evident in her language craft and evocative prose which captures the glamour, emotions and trials of the 1920s, Europe and especially Paris.
Hadley (Elizabeth Hadley Richardson 1893-1979) was a 28 year old midwestern girl when she met the 21 year old Hemingway who was already brash and ambitious. You are caught up in their whirlwind courtship and the infinite possibilities that await them in life (even knowing the baggage that came later, you love the current story). Her inheritance enabled them to move to Paris and initially provided Hemingway with the stable environment which promoted his writing and provided him with material/ experiences.
The reader is charmed by the warm generosity, beliefs and support of Hadley, delighted by the glittering expatriate world which is littered with well know literary and artistic figures as Gertrude Stein, Zelda and F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ezra Pound, James Joyce, Ford Maddox Ford, Jean Rhys, and many others, and heartbroken when their marriage dissolves, unable to survive the fame, the drinking and womanizing, especially in wake of the birth of their child (John Hadley Nicanor Hemingway "Bumby") and her family values.
Hemingway wrote The Sun Also Rises during this time frame, dedicating it to her (and their son) partly in recognition of her sacrifice to his art. The royalties were hers as well. I will always wonder if she had stood up to him more, what greatness they could have achieved together. He desired her because she was not the independent, modern woman, but forgot she was her own person. She struggled to find her place in his ever changing world. While she embraced his adventures, the outdoors, the bullfights, etc their romance withered with jealousy, celebrity, ambition, and depression.
McLain is also sympathetic to Hemingway, recognising his early troubles, from his controling mother, the trauma of the great war and his depression. We know the man he became. Hadley married journalist and political writer Paul Mowrer in 1933 (Pulitzer 1929), eventually moving back to Chicago. He was also the Poet Laureate of New Hampshire (1968). Bumby (1923-2000) went on to become an American writer and conservationist (he finished the memoir, A Moveable Feast).
HWM 2012

The Paris Wife - Paula McLain

Paula McLain will be here in the Library this weekend! Sunday 8th January - DON'T MISS IT!
This is a beautifully written and captivating story and promises to be a fascinating discussion.The book is also for sale in our Friends Bookstore! I am so glad she is a friend of one of our Librarians,- what an opportunity to have her visit Rochester! This was my first exposure to her work. I would have been hugely disappointed if I had missed this book!

Gift membership and Donations

Your Membership support is VITAL to the Friends of the Rochester Public Library. We are very grateful to all of you who continue your partnership with us by renewing your annual membership. Please consider joining, or making an additional donation during these holiday seasons, especially in this challenging economy. The Friends’ operating budget comes from your tax-deductible contributions and other fund-raising activities.  With your help, the Friends enhance library offerings by:

• Promoting early childhood literacy with Read with Me book bags for babies
• Sponsoring programming for children, teens, and adults, such as the visiting author series and providing prizes for the summer reading program
• Operate the Friends’ Used Bookstore which contributes proceeds in
                excess of $50,000 annually to the library’s collection
• Directly support library services and enrich our community

Volunteers help patrons at the Rochester Public Library and the surrounding communities in the following areas: the Bookstore, homebound services, social networking, and more. In 2010, the Friends’ Bookstore contributed $52,000 directly to the library allowing them to purchase additional books, DVDs, and other items. We continued this in 2011!

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Book Review - Roses

Book Review

Roses

Leila Meacham

With 2012 beginning, I made a resolution to not make resolutions.  Instead, I have chosen to endeavor to complete projects.  Somehow that seems a little more doable than a resolution.  Yeah-yeah...it’s all semantics and it’s just a word game I’m playing with myself, but there ya have it.

This year, my primary endeavor is to finally make a dent in the stacks upon stacks of books I’ve collected over the years; books I just had to have right at the exact moment that I purchased them, and have since then waited patiently on book shelves or in boxes for me to finally pick them up and do more than examine their covers.

With this endeavor in mind, I selected a book from my shelf that was purchased nearly two years ago.  I remember exactly where I was and the specific circumstances that led to its purchase, and I remember how excited I was to bring it home and get started on it.  I was in the midst of another book or series at the time, and so I lovingly placed it on my book shelf where it has waited patiently these last two years to be remembered.  That book was Roses by Lelia Meacham.

When I think of the many disappointing books I’ve selected to read since then, while this one gathered dust on my bookshelf, I could kick myself.  How many times have I gone in search of a really excellent read only to bypass this masterpiece of fiction on my bookshelf?  

Spanning nearly a full century, Roses is the story of three families in a small East Texas town.  Descended from French Nobility and the English Houses of York and Lancaster - famous for the 16th Century “War of Roses” - the three families are bonded by their trek across America in search of land in the new country, and become the new aristocracy in the small Texas town.   As they arrive in what would become Howbutker, Texas, they set aside the segregation of the their family roses and blend the roses to have new meaning that would become tradition for their future families, and would be passed down for generations.   A red rose would signify the asking of forgiveness, a white rose would signify that complete forgiveness has been granted, and a pink rose signifies that no forgiveness would be forthcoming.  No words would need to be spoken; simply the exchanging of the appropriate rose would convey the entire message.  And so began the story of the Tolliver, DuMont and Warwick families.

Reviews of this book have boasted its similarity to Gone with the Wind, but I find those reviews to be not only overly generous, but completely unfair.  How can you compare a book to Gone with the Wind without setting an unfair expectation for the reader?  Those who love the original will be satisfied with nothing less, and still others will be expecting a certain style of writing and overall plot.  While there are certainly similarities between the two books, Roses doesn’t need to be compared to Mitchell’s classic in order to be loved and endure the test of time.  It will stand on its own as a masterpiece of a family saga.

While Roses spans several generations, the primary focus of the book is on Mary Tolliver and the inheritance of her family's cotton plantation she receives from her father upon his death.   This inheritance - which excluded her mother and older brother - would change the life of not only Mary, but her relationships with her mother and brother, and eventually will define her relationships with her dearest friends in the world, Ollie DuMont and Percy Warwick. 

Roses is beautifully written and was impossible for me to put down.  Though it exceeded 600 pages in length, I was never once bogged down by details or felt the need to skim a few pages to “get to the point.”  In fact, as the book drew to a close, I was sad to see it end.

The unwavering love, friendship, and forgiveness between the Tollivers, DuMonts and Warwicks were beautifully imagined and written, and they will not soon be forgotten.  Without a doubt, this will be one of the top five books I’ll read in 2012.  What a great way to start the new year!  

This book is available in standard format through the library, or through downloadable audio format for electronic devices.  

~ Catherine H. Armstrong