Already Missing “Downton Abbey”? Ten Books to Read While You Wait for Season Five

Ring the footman for more tissues, Downton Abbey is over for another year. <sniff!>

Now that Season 4 has drawn to a close, what will you do to fill the void until the Crawleys return? Here are 10 books that may help ease the pain:

  1. American Heiress by Daisy Goodwin. The story of vivacious Cora Cash, whose early twentieth-century marriage to England’s most eligible duke is overshadowed by his secretive nature and the traps and betrayals of London’s social scene.
  2. Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh. The difficult loves of insular Englishman Charles Ryder, and his peculiarly intense relationship with the wealthy but dysfunctional family that inhabited Brideshead.
  3. The Stranger’s Child by Alan Hollinghurst. Embraced by the family of his Cambridge schoolmate, Cecil Valance writes an inspiring poem in an autograph album that becomes a staple of every English classroom after he is killed during World War I. (Man Booker Prize-winning author.)
  4. The Fox’s Walk by Annabel Davis-Goff. During World War I, a ten-year-old girl sent to live with her autocratic grandmother in the country gradually discovers that her family’s privilege is purchased at great cost to many other people.
  5. The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro. Stevens, an impeccable, quintessential English butler, embarks on a motoring trip through the West Country, on an odyssey that evokes disturbing memories of his thirty years of service to Lord Darlington and of the housekeeper, Miss Kenton.
  6. Summerset Abbey by T.J. Brown. Daughters to the second son of the Earl of Summerset, Rowena and Victoria, after their father dies, move in with their uncle’s family in a much more traditional household where they learn about class division and, as war approaches, hope for a more modern future.
  7. Snobs by Julien Fellowes. Preparing to marry heir Charles Broughton, attractive accountant’s daughter Edith Lavery makes humorous and astute observations about contemporary England’s class system. (By the creator of Downton Abbey.)
  8. The House at Riverton by Kate Morton. Living out her final days in a nursing home, ninety-eight-year-old Grace remembers the secrets surrounding the 1924 suicide of a young poet during a glittering society party hosted by Grace’s English aristocrat employers, a family that is shattered by war.
  9. A Room With a View by E.M. Forster. British social comedy examines a young heroine’s struggle against Victorian attitudes as she rejects the man her family has encouraged her to marry and chooses, instead, a socially unsuitable fellow she met on holiday in Italy.
  10. Cavendon Hall by Barbara Taylor Bradford. A tale spanning 16 years in Edwardian England finds the centuries-long relationship between the aristocratic Inghams and the Swann family who serves them tested by the outbreak of World War I.

Take heart, Anglophiles, we’ll get through this together!

IndieFlix Picks – Winter Sports Shorts

Are you still in the grips of Olympic Fever? If you couldn’t get your fill of cold-weather sports from the Winter Games, here are three independent short films available on IndieFlix that might fill the gap:

1) Wapos Bay: There’s no “I” in Hockey (24 min) All ages. Awesome animation is used to tell the story of a traditional community in Canada. A neighboring town’s hockey team comes to play Wapos Bay. Will teamwork help them win? Lots of lessons to be learned in the family-friendly Wapos Bay web series.

2)  Appointment in Vancouver  (34 min)  All ages. The amazing, true story of Casey Puckett, who battles injury and long odds to compete in numerous Olympic Games – including the 2010 winter games in Vancouver. After retiring from alpine racing, Puckett finds that the new extreme sport Skier Cross suits his talent perfectly.  A selection at the Heartland Film Festival.

3)  The Rink  (13 min)  All ages. A short film that tells the story of Charlie, a misfit disrespected by his brothers in a family coping with the loss of their wife and mother. Charlie’s journey is a coming-of-age quest to earn his older brothers’ respect and fit in by learning to play the game of hockey. He is aided in his quest by the sudden appearance of his deceased grandfather’s ghost, who has returned with some unfinished business.

If you’re in the mood for something a little longer, try:

ways2winter (105 min) Ages 13+. This documentary follows two Brits (Will and Heather) who live and work at a mountain resort in the French Alps, which feature some of the top skiing destinations in the world. Video diaries and interviews bare Will and Heather’s souls as they overcome personal and work issues, struggling to find a balance between life on and off the mountain. It gets pretty intense at times, and their honesty gives viewers an insight into their feelings and contradictions.

Valdez Goes Extreme (60 min) All Ages. The oil spill in Valdez leaves some guilt money for Exxon to hand out. Some people dream up an extreme skiing event to be held each year and soon the whole town of Valdez embraces the championships. Amazing scenics and true extreme skiing, starring the late Doug Coombs, also Jim Conway, Kristen Ulmer, and many old school greats shred away.

IndieFlix is one of many online services we offer at Cheshire Library. With your Cheshire Library Card, you get free access to thousands of streaming movies (full length, shorts and documentaries) from independent filmmakers and more than 2,000 film festivals worldwide, including SXSW, Sundance, Cannes, and Slamdance.   Have you tried IndieFlix yet?

Louise Reads: The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion

The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion

Don Tillman, 39 and a professor of genetics, has never been on a second date. His lifelong difficulty with social rituals has convinced him that he is simply not “wired” for romance. Logically, though, he concedes to the statistical probability that there is someone for everyone, and he embarks upon The Wife Project. In the orderly, evidence-based manner with which he approaches all things, Don sets out to find the perfect partner through an exhaustive 16-page survey he has designed to scientifically eliminate all incompatible candidates.

Rosie Jarman would never make it past page one of Don’s survey. A smoking, drinking, disorganized vegetarian, she is completely unsuitable. Yet Don feels somehow compelled to use his expertise in DNA analysis to assist her with a project of her own – identifying her biological father. An unlikely friendship develops between them as they work together on The Father Project.

In The Rosie Project, Don is our narrator, and seeing the story from his point of view is part of the charm of this book. Similar to The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night -Time and Silver Linings Playbook, the narrator of this story is wired differently than most people.  To say Don has social difficulties is an understatement.  In an early scene, Don is discussing a lecture he’d recently given at the university:

“Claudia asked whether I’d enjoyed the Asperger’s lecture… [I] told her I had found the subject fascinating. “Did the symptoms remind you of anyone?” she asked.  They certainly did. They were an almost perfect description of Lazlo Hevesi in the Physics department.”
 

Fans of the television series “The Big Bang Theory” may notice some similarities to the character Sheldon Cooper from that show.  For example, in a scene where Don is explaining his scheduled meal system to Rosie after a meeting at a restaurant goes comically awry:

“So you cook this same meal every Tuesday, right?”
“Correct.” I listed the eight major advantages of the Standardized Meal System:
  1. No need to accumulate recipe books.
  2. Standardized shopping list – hence very efficient shopping.
  3. Almost zero waste – nothing in the refrigerator or pantry unless required for one of the recipes.
  4. Diet planned and nutritionally balanced in advance.
  5. No time wasted wondering what to cook.
  6. No mistakes, no unpleasant surprises.
  7. Excellent food, superior to most restaurants at a much lower price (see point 3).
  8. Minimum cognitive load required.

Debut novelist Graeme Simsion has written a warm-hearted, laugh-out-loud funny, and surprisingly poignant story. No huge surprises, The Rosie Project follows many of the tropes that are the stock-in-trade of romantic comedies,  but I was still caught up in the story from the first words and it never lagged or disappointed. A feel-good book that delivered!  Audiobook listeners will enjoy first-time narrator Dan O’Grady’s performance, his Australian accent (the story is set in Melbourne) added an authentic touch.

If you like The Rosie Project, you may also enjoy:

The Big Bang Theory starring Johnny Galecki, Kaley Cuoco, Jim Parsons, Simon Helberg, and Kunal Nayyar

The Silver Linings Playbook by Matthew Quick

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon

2014 Children’s and Young Adult Book Awards Announced

The 2014 Children’s and Young Adult book awards were announced Monday January 27 by the American Library Association. And the winners are…

Locomotive by Brian Floca

The Caldecott Award is for the most distinguished American picture book. This year’s Caldecott Medal went to Locomotive written and illustrated by Brian Floca. It is the summer of 1869, and trains, crews, and family are traveling together, riding America’s brand-new transcontinental railroad. These pages come alive with the details of the trip and the sounds, speed, and strength of the mighty locomotives; the work that keeps them moving; and the thrill of travel from plains to mountain to ocean.

Flora & Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures by Kate DiCamillo

The Newbery Award is for the most outstanding contribution to children’s literature. This year’s Newbery Medal went to Flora & Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures written by Kate DiCamillo, (who also won in 2004 for The Tale of Despereaux). The squirrel never saw the vacuum cleaner coming, but self-described cynic Flora Belle Buckman, who has read every issue of the comic book Terrible Things Can Happen to You!, is the just the right person to step in and save him. What neither can predict is that Ulysses (the squirrel) has been born anew, with powers of strength, flight, and misspelled poetry — and that Flora will be changed too, as she discovers the possibility of hope and the promise of a capacious heart.

The Watermelon Seed by Greg Pizzoli

The Theodor Seuss Geisel Award is for the most distinguished book for beginning readers. This year’s award went to The Watermelon Seed, written and illustrated by Greg Pizzoli. An endearing little crocodile accidentally swallows a watermelon seed and envisions worst-case scenarios, from vines sprouting from his ears to his crocodile skin turning pink.

Midwinterblood by Marcus Sedgwick

The Michael L. Printz Award is for excellence in literature written for young adults. This year’s award went to Midwinterblood by Marcus Sedgwick. An archaeologist who unearths a mysterious artifact, an airman who finds himself far from home, a painter, a ghost, a vampire, and a Viking: the seven stories in this compelling novel all take place on the remote Scandinavian island of Blessed where a curiously powerful plant that resembles a dragon grows. What binds these stories together? What secrets lurk beneath the surface of this idyllic countryside? And what might be powerful enough to break the cycle of midwinterblood?

For more information and to see the full list of this year’s winners, visit the ALA website.

10 Books We’re Looking Forward to in January

Every month, librarians from around the country pick the top ten new books they’d most like to share with readers. The results are published on LibraryReads.org. One of the goals of LibraryReads is to highlight the important role public libraries play in building buzz for new books and new authors. Click through to read more about what new and upcoming books librarians consider buzzworthy this month. The top ten titles are:

  1. The Dead in Their Vaulted Arches: A Flavia de Luce Novel by Alan Bradley
  2. A Star for Mrs. Blake by April Smith
  3. Lost Lake by Sarah Addison Allen
  4. The Days of Anna Madrigal by Armistead Maupin
  5. A Highly Unlikely Scenario, or a Neetsa Pizza Employee’s Guide to Saving the World by Rachel Cantor
  6. The Wind Is Not a River by Brian Payton
  7. Orfeo by Richard Powers
  8. The Kept by James Scott
  9. Little Failure: A Memoir by Gary Shteyngart
  10. The First True Lie by Marina Mander