By Carol Van Why Minneapolis-based mystery author, Ellen Hart has joined other elite mystery writers represented in the 1666 Coffman Library’s collection. On April 27, 2017, in New York City she was awarded the Mystery Writers of America’s (MWA) Grand Master Award. Other notables to have received this award are: Agatha Christie, John Le Carre, P. D. James and Tony Hillerman. The MWA is the group known for presenting the annual Edgar Awards for best mysteries in various categories. Winning an Edgar Award recognizes an author for one book while the Grand Master Award recognizes lifetime achievement and consistent quality. If you haven’t read any of Hart’s mysteries, consider borrowing one of the Jane Lawless series, which features a restaurateur as sleuth. Five of the titles in this series have won Lambda Literary awards. Ellen is also a friend of another favorite author in the Library’s Mystery/Spy/Adventure section–William Kent Krueger. Perhaps we can expect the MWA to grant him their Grand Master Award in a few years. By Mary Lynn Kittelson
Originally published in the April 2017 issue of the 1666 Coffman Newsletter Sometimes you want to read a book, but you have no idea what to choose. It can feel daunting on some days. Well, the Library now provides a recommendations basket. It’s a little red wire basket sitting on the library table as you enter. In it are index card descriptions of books that we on the Library Committee have been impressed by, and why. There are three categories: biography & history, fiction & mystery, and everything else. The cards tell you in what bookcase and on which shelf the book can be found. We are steadily adding cards to the basket as we go, offering more good ideas for books. After all, there’s nothing like a friendly tip on a good book. You can also read these recommendations cards on the Coffman Library website, with eye-catching graphics provided by webmistress Victoria Tirrel. And if you would like to write up your own book recommendation, we welcome it. Please take a card and also a green sheet (folded up underneath the basket), and you will see the format we are using. You can drop your recommendations card off at Mary Lynn’s at 104. By the way, the basket is inspired by those scrappy little post-it comments from bookstore staff on their new and featured books. These intriguing notes can make you grab the book off the shelf and pay good money. With our cards, all you do is sign it out! By Barbara Woshinsky
Originally published in the March 2017 issue of the 1666 Coffman Newsletter …books she had read to him [are] landscapes they have already walked through. (93) —Michael Ondaatje, The English Patient At this time of year, even the hardiest of Minnesotans may long for balmier climes. If you can’t take a Caribbean cruise and don’t own a second home in Madeira, the next best thing is to wrap yourself in a warm book. Here are some compelling suggestions from the 1666 library collection. The English Patient, by Michael Ondaatje, is a spellbinding story of love and betrayal that won its author the Booker Prize in 1992. A film based on the novel starring Ralph Fiennes and Kristin Scott Thomas earned nine Academy Awards. Though the novel begins in postwar Italy, its heart lies in Cairo and the Libyan desert. A plane crashes in the sand; a badly burned man, later known only as the English patient, floats down to earth and is rescued by Bedouin tribesmen. From the outset, the book’s language appeals to all the senses: “He could smell the oasis before he saw it. The liquid in the air. The rustle of things.” (6) “He saw the moving veins of flamingos cross his sight in the halfdarkness of the covered sun.” (9) As the story moves back and forward in time, we slowly learn the truth about the mysterious “English” patient and the others surrounding him. If you are in the mood for lighter reading, you can travel several time zones to the east to make the acquaintance of Dr. Paboun Siri, the reluctant official coroner of Laos. The library has just acquired the first of Colin Cotterill’s engaging mystery series, The Coroner’s Lunch, which won the Crime Writers’ Association Dagger in 2009. Dr. Siri, a curmudgeonly old veteran of the Pathet Lao campaign, is afraid of no one—except the spirit of a Hmong shaman ancestor. Battling incompetent bureaucrats, Siri consults the dead to solve the murder of an important official’s wife. The novel combines evocative descriptions of Laotian culture, with its blend of French baguettes and larb na, beauty and decay, while taking satirical aim at the less-than-paradisiacal socialist world Siri fought so long to achieve. Those of you who know we spend the winter in Miami may wonder at the absence of Floridian authors from this article. Of course, South Florida offers a fertile climate for crime writers such as Carl Hiaasen and Edna Buchanan. Others, like Diana Abu-Jaber, depart from the CSI model of Miami to show what it’s really like to live in this vibrant and fascinating place. That may be the topic of a future article! Michael Ondaatje, The English Patient (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1992; reprint, Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1996). By Carol Van Why
Since late last year every serious media outlet has published their version of a Best Books of 2016 list. Just scanning these lists embarrasses me, because most of the time I haven’t read a fraction of the dozens of books mentioned. This year I’m putting less pressure on myself. I scanned those lists just to find titles in the 1666 Coffman Library’s collection. I have to say that I’m impressed. Find them in the Library’s shelving sections shown in bold print below. BIOGRAPHY Between the World and Me – Ta-Nehisi Coates Hillbilly Elegy – J. D. Vance Lab Girl – Hope Jahren BIOGRAPHY COLLECTIONS Hidden Figures – Margot Lee Shetterley DRAMA Hamilton: The Revolution – Lin-Manuel Miranda FICTION Commonwealth – Ann Patchett La Rose – Louise Erdrich They May Not Mean to But They Do – Cathleen Schine Underground Railroad – Colson Whitehead Wintering – Peter Geye GENDER ISSUES All the Single Ladies: Unmarried Women and the Rise of an Independent Nation – Rebecca Traister MEDICINE AND HEALTH When Breath Becomes Air – Paul Kalanithi MYSTERY A Great Reckoning – Louise Penny SCIENCE/TECH/MATH The Gene: An Intimate History – Siddhartha Mukherjee Glass Universe: How the Ladies of the Harvard Observatory Took the Measure of the Stars – Dava Sobel I Contain Multitudes: The Microbes Within Us and a Grander View of Life – Ed Yong WORLD POLITICS/GOVERNMENT Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right– Jane Mayer |
NewsletterCoffman residents, signup for monthly updates from the Library! Thank you!You have successfully joined our subscriber list. Posts by Year
All
Posts by Month
April 2024
|