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What to Read Next? Library Offers Online Help for Curious Readers. TRL Online Book & Author Information
"I've read all of Tony Hillerman's books. Who else writes mysteries set in the Southwest and featuring Navajo Indians?"
"My book group is discussing Cry, the Beloved Country. Where can I find information about the author?"
"I read a wonderful book 20 years ago, but I can't remember the author or the title. Can you help me find it?"
Yes! At Timberland Regional Library we can help you find all this and more. Better still, you can help yourself to a wealth of information online anytime. Just go to www.trlib.org and click on "Reference Resources" to get started.
Timberland subscribes to three databases designed especially for readers. These are available on computers at all 27 libraries, but you can also use them at home, at work or wherever you have Internet access and a library card.
The most versatile of these databases is called NoveList. When you click on the Start button, you'll see a number of ways to search. For the Tony Hillerman question, you can choose the first link, "Find a Favorite Author."
A search for Tony Hillerman results in 18 titles. Clicking on the first one, The Blessing Way, you'll see a button at the top of the page that says "Find Similar Books." Clicking there, you'll get a list of subject headings.
If you select the subjects "Mystery stories, American"; "Navajo Indians"; and "New Mexico," the NoveList search engine returns a list of hundreds of titles. High on the list are books by Aimee and David Thurlo, featuring Ella Clah, a detective with the Navajo Police.
Another way to find similar authors on NoveList is to look at the "Author Read-alikes." This link from the main search page brings up dozens of articles, listed alphabetically by author. Each article describes the author's books and suggests similar writers.
NoveList is also a great resource for finding those elusive titles of books read long ago. Using the "Describe a Plot" search, you can enter a series of words describing what you remember about the book. Narrow your search, if desired, by limiting it to certain age levels, publication years or even the number of pages.
Recently a woman called the library looking for a book she remembered about a magician who was a serial killer. In NoveList I entered the plot words "magician serial killer."
The first book that came up was The Vanished Man by Jeff Deaver, and that was indeed the book she wanted to reread. I never would have found it in the library catalog, because the word "magician" doesn't appear anywhere in the record for that book.
Another database for finding books is called What Do I Read Next? Though similar to NoveList in the type of information offered, searching it is quite different and can even be somewhat tricky. The key is to search as broadly as possible, avoiding the temptation to search for an exact time period or type of character.
One advantage of What Do I Read Next? Over NoveList is the inclusion of nonfiction titles. This is a big help if you don't remember whether a book was a true story, or if you want to explore a topic in both fact and fiction.
Both databases include lists of recommended and award-wining books. What Do I Read Next? has a category called Librarian Favorites that includes hundreds of book lists. There's even a list called Sled Dog Bibliography that includes fiction and nonfiction for all ages on the subject of sled dogs.
For book clubs, NoveList has a large selection of discussion guides for both adult and teen books. Each guide includes discussion questions and a biography of the author.
For more in-depth author research, try Literature Resource Center. You can search by author and title for biographical information and literary criticism, or find authors based on such criteria as nationality, genre and time period.
Literature is just one of the many topics you can explore online in the library's Reference Resources. You'll also find authoritative, reliable databases for business and investment research, genealogy, car repair procedures and much more.
To learn more about these resources or to get help with searching them, you can call the library's Central Reference department at 704-4636 (in the Olympian calling area, including Shelton) or 1-800-562-6022 (everywhere else). --Susan M. Colowick Cheever, Susan. My Name is Bill: Bill Wilson: His Life and the Creation of Alcoholics Anonymous (2004). Biography William James, who wrote Varieties of Religious Experience, “…had no patience for the reductionism that would diminish great teachers because of their humanity.” James wanted his heroes flawless. No clay feet. I take my heroes warts and all. I find them more loveable and accessible in their humanity. Bill Wilson was the cofounder of AA (Alcoholics Anonymous). Up until 1935 alcoholism was a hopeless situation. In that year, Bill met Dr. Robert Smith, another alcoholic. Together, the men managed to stay sober and realized that one of the most important components of their sobriety was to pass along a message of hope. Wilson was a great synthesizer. He pulled together six or seven different streams of philosophical thought, from books and teachers. He examined what had worked and what had not in several earlier sobriety movements. Bill was faultless in crediting other sources that contributed to the AA program. Wilson, recognizing his own drive to power and notoriety, chose to cultivate as much anonymity as he could and turned his back on the cover of Time magazine, an honorary degree from Yale and a nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize. Can you think of another founder of a successful movement who voluntarily stepped down and away from leadership? Many people tried to make him a saint. Bill was oh so human. He suffered from crushing depression, kicked alcohol but never conquered cigarettes and had an unconventional marriage that lasted fifty-three years. He was an intensely curious man. Bill explored spiritualism, vitamin therapies and LSD, much to the chagrin of some of his followers who would have preferred to sweep his eccentricities under the carpet. This book is a well-balanced look at a very complex man. I don’t feel comfortable saying “the saint,” “the sinner” or “the good, the bad.” It’s more a look at a fellow who did a lot of good in spite of being just as human as the rest of us. –Lew Hamburg Crane, George. Bones of the Master: a Buddhist monk’s search for the lost heart of China (2000). Biography Tsung Tsai and George Crane first met as country neighbors in upstate New York when an early snowstorm blocked the road with tree limbs. An aging monk, originally from Inner Mongolia, and a hedonistic, slightly sardonic American poet make an unlikely but delightful pair of friends and, ultimately, traveling companions. In 1996 Tsung Tsai returned to China with George to build a shrine honoring the monk’s teacher, Shiuh Deng. This story of their journey with its heartwarming, comical and sometimes very difficult moments is interwoven with the account of Tsung Tsai’s harrowing exodus in 1959 from Inner Mongolia, three thousand miles through the length of China to Hong Kong, barely one step ahead of the Red Army. In the forty years between the two journeys many things have changed in China, yet much is as it has been for eons: the people, the land, faith and belief in the face of suffering. --Kristin Blalack Davis, Sampson, Jenkins, George & Hunt, Ramek. The Pact: Three Young Men Make a Promise and Fulfill a Dream, (2002). 610.922, and Esquith, Rafe. There Are No Shortcuts (2003). Biography In The Pact and There Are No Shortcuts, men from both coasts and both sides of the teacher’s desk tell inspiring stories of how belief in oneself and others, willingness to take risks, and hard work can make dreams come true. Eleven-year-old George Jenkins sat in the dentist’s chair in Newark, watching the dentist’s gloved hands pick up an instrument. "What’s that for?" he asked. The dentist explained, went on to tell his young patient the names of his teeth—and then quizzed him. George’s curiosity was the beginning of his dream to be a dentist and to make a difference in his community. As a high school senior, he talked his two best friends into going to college. Young teacher Rafe Esquith put together a class trip for 25 elementary students to the Old Globe Theater in San Diego. The plays were great, and the students had a wonderful time at their hotel, complete with Olympic-size pool. When Rafe mentioned the hotel to one of his students, she said that it was okay, but not as nice as the places she’d stayed at in Hawaii and New York. Rafe came to realize that he had worked very hard to bring a special experience to children who didn’t need it from him. And that what he needed to do was to find those kids who did need him. The Pact is the story of how three young men—Sampson Davis, George Jenkins, and Rameck Hunt—made a pledge to help each other make it through college and dental or medical school. They grew up in poor neighborhoods haunted by hopelessness and crime, neighborhoods that had already swallowed up many of their friends. But by studying together, working summer jobs together, and talking about all the challenges of college and medical school, they looked out for each other. When one got discouraged, the other two were there for him. Their families helped, too, whenever they ran short on money to buy textbooks. All three men graduated and are now practicing physicians, and through their Three Doctors Foundation have created a scholarship program. There Are No Shortcuts is a story from the teacher’s side of the desk. Rafe Esquith left his first school and chose to teach fifth grade students in a poor, multilingual neighborhood in Central Los Angeles. He brought innovative teaching methods into the classroom, but also one very old-fashioned teaching method: hard work. There are no shortcuts to learning declares this teacher, who comes to school early, leaves late, teaches music at lunch, and tutors on Saturdays. Face it, he tells readers: although learning can be fun, it isn’t easy. Constantly looking for ways to bring the world into his classroom, he immerses his students in mathematics, music, writing, science, history, geography, literature, and more. They read Shakespeare and Maya Angelou and love them both. Peppering There Are No Shortcuts are vignettes of student successes and setbacks, and not a few stories of battles with school administrators and fellow teachers for whom teaching is nothing but shortcuts. Rafe shares plenty of strong opinions about teaching with the reader. For example, he questions the efficacy of prolonged bilingual education. Rafe teaches only in English, believing that while children can stay close to their family culture, fluency in English is crucial for school success, college entrance exams, employment, and financial well-being. For Sampson Davis, George Jenkins, and Rameck Hunt, there were no shortcuts. Rafe Esquith made a pact with his students. These men continue to make a difference in the lives of others, in Newark, Los Angeles—and wherever anyone picks up and reads their books. --Kristine Mahood Donegan, Lawrence. California Dreaming: A Smooth-Running, Low-Mileage, Best-Priced American Adventure (2002). Biography Lawrence Donegan leaves his native Scotland to take a job at a friend’s startup company in Silicon Valley. His mind numbed by computer-speak, Lawrence knows he’ll quit. Meantime, he and his girlfriend, Maggie, buy a used car. Looks like easy money, and a cool way to learn about America. After a two-minute interview, Lawrence gets a job at Orchard Pre-Owned Autos. And so begins an inside report about the used car business, from outrageous (and effective) sales pitches to hard economic facts. Droll, profane, insightful, and touching, it’s a wild, hilarious ride. --Kristine Mahood Griest, Stephanie Elizando. Around the Bloc: My Life in Moscow, Beijing, and Havana (2004). Biography/Travel Stephanie Griest was convinced that a job as a foreign correspondent would be her ticket out of South Texas. Following the advice of a CNN reporter, she studied both journalism and Russian in college before embarking on what would become a four-year tour of current and former communist states. Around the Bloc provides an intimate look at life in three complex societies. Gregarious and adventurous, Griest developed friendships that transcended cultural differences while challenging many of her notions about politics and people. She also developed a new appreciation for her own cultural heritage. Like Judy Garland’s Dorothy, she ultimately found her heart’s desire right in her own back yard. Readers who enjoy humorous travel writing with a personal slant and a political edge will be glad she took the long way home. --S.M. Colowick Kidder, Tracy. Mountains Beyond Mountains (2003). Biography/Medicine The life mission of Paul Edward Farmer, physician, medical anthropologist, and co-founder of the Boston-based international organization Partners in Health, is no less than to cure the world of infectious disease. Challenge enough, but Farmer’s practice starts with the world’s poorest people, stricken with the wiliest diseases: AIDS and multiple drug-resistant tuberculosis and malaria. Kidder, true to his trademark immersion in the world of his subject, follows the doctor on his grueling, sometimes dangerous rounds, through Haiti’s central mountain villages (the very definition of poverty); Peru’s TB-stricken shantytowns; and Russia’s prisons, often housing 50 inmates to a cell. This fascinating biography relates Farmer’s unconventional childhood and presents a good deal of basic public health information, interesting in itself, to inform an understanding of the tireless, charismatic Farmer and his work. For those who want to learn more about global public health issues, Kidder provides an annotated bibliography, including a complete list of Farmer’s published writings. --Leanne Ingle Nolen, Stephanie, et al. Shakespeare’s Face: Unraveling the Legend and History of Shakespeare’s Mysterious Portrait (2004). Biography Is this the face of Shakespeare? Probably, maybe, depends on whom you ask. In 2001, Ms. Nolen, a reporter for the Toronto Globe and Mail caught wind of a remarkable rumor. A family in Ottawa possessed a portrait that had come down through the family that was purportedly of Shakespeare. Most recently, it had been tucked for safe keeping under Granny’s bed. We have no sure life portraits of Shakespeare. The Droeshout engraving in the front of the First Folio and the sculpture in the church at Stratford-upon-Avon were done after death. They were apparently good enough likenesses to be accepted and paid for. There are the Chandos and Flower portraits that may have been painted from life, but they have problems with authentication. As does this, the Sanders portrait. Nolen stitches together essays by experts in many fields with skillful narration. Every aspect of the painting from the board it is painted on to the linen label on the back is examined. There is intriguing discussion on how this particular painting may have fit into the life and world of Shakespeare. So is this the face of Shakespeare? Like those awful historical mystery programs on television that never quite get around to solving a puzzle, we can’t be entirely sure. The forensic evidence is good. But, without historic documentation, which may come to light at a later time, we’ll never be entirely sure. We can only read the book, take the evidence into consideration and make a decision based on personal belief or faith. Great picture section. --Lew Hamburg
According to Leo Tolstoy, “All happy families resemble one another, but each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” Read David Sedaris and you find that unhappy families are not only unhappy, but also twitchy and neurotic. The majority of the stories in his new book are about his family. Call it David Sedaris’ “Family Values Volume.” Everybody (sweeping generalization here) seems to describe Sedaris as “funny” or a humorist. I didn’t find most of the stories very funny. Some are very poignant in a makes-your-skin-crawl kind of way. If someone plopped down on a bus bench next to me and told me some of these stories, I’d say “Thank you for sharing,” and move off to a safe distance. Did I read the book cover to cover? Yes, I did. Because the man writes well and tells interesting stories. He is also generous. Sedaris has given up the opportunity to ever again attend a family reunion in order to bring us these morbidly fascinating narratives. --Lew Hamburg Tan, Amy. The Opposite of Fate: A Book of Musings (2003). Biography Some of you may wonder why an old, (almost) dead white European (though I’ve never been east of Minnesota) male like me dares to review a book by Amy Tan. Because, if I interpret her book correctly, Amy said I could. Besides, she has a “policy not to read reviews … good, bad or in-between.” Ms. Tan also makes it clear that she’d rather be considered an American writer, not an Asian-American writer. This is an autobiography. Tan’s a successful writer, but talks about aspects of the writing life that I’ve never heard other writers explore. What it’s like to discover you’re a Cliff Note or the pitfalls of being on required reading lists. Misinformation that proliferates about her on the Internet. Academic investigations via term papers and master’s theses that have no basis in fact or intent. Her participation in the writers rock group Rock Bottom Remainders, along with Stephen King, Barbara Kingsolver and Dave Barry. Amy Tan in black leather with a whip. Then there’s the grief and disaster of her personal life. Her emotional life growing up was Dickinsonian with a mother who used guilt like a scalpel. While a teenager, her father and brother both died of brain tumors less then a year apart. In her early 20’s a close personal friend is murdered by burglars. Other friends drown in avalanches of snow. Her home in the Sierras is almost swept away by flood and mudslides. Ms. Tan flies through car windshields, breaks both of her legs skiing and discovers late in life that she has had undiagnosed Lyme disease. Several times in the book, Amy Tan comments that she feels very lucky and blessed. How can this be, given the litany of disasters that befall her? Because she has “…hope and, with that, a determination to change what is not right. As a story teller, I know that if I don’t like the ending, I can write a better one.” -- Lew Hamburg Revised 02/24/08 For Information or to Ask a Reference Question:
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