Americans’ Favorite Poems: the Favorite Poem Project Anthology edited by Robert Pinsky and Maggie Dietz.

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A great choice for National Poetry Month. ”Poet laureate Pinsky’s Favorite Poem Project was a stroke of genius. Americans were invited to share by letter a poem they treasured; then many were recorded reading their chosen poems for inclusion in a national video and audio archive. The response was tremendous, and as Pinsky notes, many of the matches between reader and poem defy stereotypes, and all attest to the vital role that poetry plays in more lives than seems possible in a country that appears to pay scant attention to this quiet art form. Here each poem is introduced in extraordinarily moving personal disclosures by the reader who chose it. Teenagers and octogenarians, a social worker, a farmer, a nurse, a truck driver, a commodities trader, a librarian, a judge, and an alcoholic who memorizes poetry to test her sobriety selected poems by Lucille Clifton, Emily Dickinson, John Keats, Haki R. Madhubuti, W. S. Merwin, Sylvia Plath, and Dylan Thomas. No one person, however well read, could have created this resounding collection, which may well become a favorite in its own right.” - Booklist

Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day by Winnifred Watson.

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Originally published in 1938, Miss Pettigrew has been rediscovered and reprinted in a beautiful paperback edition by Persephone, including gorgeous line drawings.  A fantasy screwball comedy a little like a Thin Man movie crossed with with an episode of Upstairs Downstairs gone mad, Miss Pettigrew has now been adapted as a major motion picture starring Frances McDormand and Amy Adams. ”Miss Pettigrew, an approaching-middle-age governess, was accustomed to a household of unruly English children. When her employment agency sends her to the wrong address, her life takes an unexpected turn. The alluring nightclub singer, Delysia LaFosse, becomes her new employer, and Miss Pettigrew encounters a kind of glamour that she had only met before at the movies. Over the course of a single day, both women are changed forever.  [The author] Winifred Watson (1907 - 2002) grew up in Newcastle, and was a secretary until, in 1935, she married Leslie Pickering, the manager of a timber firm. She wrote six novels in all, but after the birth of her son in 1941 she stopped writing and lived quietly in Newcastle for the rest of her life.  The Times interviewed her at age 94 when Persephone Books reissued the book in 2000. The headline was ‘Bodice-Ripping Fame at 94.’” - Publisher’s Description

Once - directed by John Carney.

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Simply put: I couldn’t love this movie more. It’s a musical slash story of friendship slash tribute to artistic creativity and struggle.

“Once is just a wisp of a tale, but it avoids the curse of cuteness - despite the fact that each and every one of the characters is nice-while Hansard’s songs meet the emotional needs of the story without ever becoming intrusive. Highly recommended” - Video Librarians

Service Included by Phoebe Damrosch.

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If you like books like Kitchen Confidential - juicy tell-all tales of the restaurant industry - this is a book for you! Damrosch dishes the dirt on Per Se, Thomas Keller’s New York restaurant. It offers a detailed glimpse of the intricacies of high-end dining service and offers tips on what not to do in a fine restaurant (don’t put your napkin on the plate!).

One Good Turn by Kate Atkinson.

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“Having won a wide following for her first crime novel…Case Histories, Atkinson sends Det. Jackson Brodie to Edinburgh while girlfriend Julia performs in a Fringe Festival play. When incognito thug “Paul Bradley” is rear-ended by a Honda driver who gets out and bashes Bradley unconscious with a baseball bat, the now-retired Jackson is a reluctant witness. Other bystanders include crime novelist Martin Canning, a valiant milquetoast who saves Bradley’s life, and tart-tongued Gloria Hatter, who’s plotting to end her 39-year marriage to a shady real estate developer. Jackson walks away from the incident, but keeps running into trouble, including a corpse, the Honda man and sexy, tight-lipped inspector Louise Monroe. Everyone’s burdened by a secret infidelity, unprofessional behavior, murder adding depth and many diversions…crackling one-liners, spot-on set pieces and full-blooded cameos help make this another absorbing character study.” - Publishers Weekly

Thrones, Dominations by Dorothy L. Sayers and Jill Patron Walsh.

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“…Sayers fans will rejoice at the release of this new Lord Peter Wimsey novel 61 years after the publication of Busman’s Honeymoon….While perhaps not vintage Sayers, this novel fragment, completed by English novelist Walsh from Sayers’s outline, takes up where the honeymoon left off:  Now murder intrudes on the newly domesticated Lord Peter and Harriet Vane as one of their acquaintance, also newly married, is murdered. This has all the requisite stock characters, witty dialog, social satire, and red herrings of a classic Sayers, though perhaps marriage has mellowed the characters a bit too much. Highly recommended…” - Library Journal

Daughters of the House by Indrani Aikathi-Gyaltsen

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“Set in rural India, this quietly moving tale of doomed passion, scandal and betrayal sensitively probes one family’s problems. Chchanda, the sarcastic, precocious teenage narrator, burns with resentment and insecurity when Aunt Madhulika, who raised her, brings home a fiance, selfish lawyer Pretap Singh…In sharp, shining prose Indian first novelist Aikath-Gyaltsen dissects domestic life with the gimlet precision of Jane Austen.”
- Publishers Weekly

Forgive for Love: the Missing Ingredient for a Healthy and Lasting Relationship by Fred Luskin.

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“Luskin…approaches the matter of couples’ harmony by pinpointing forgiveness as the secret to a relationship’s longevity. He defines forgiveness as letting go of anger and despair when your partner doesn’t do what you want…Luskin’s steps toward full forgiveness…make a lot of sense once the author reminds readers that they made the choice to be with the person they’re with, and that their partner is flawed and so are they.  Luskin’s advice and case histories draw heavily on his own studies at the Stanford Forgiveness Project, which he directs.” - Publishers Weekly   
Meet the Author at the Downtown Library on Wednesday, 2/13/08 at 7:00 in the Fireplace Room!

The Golden Compass by [sound recording] by Philip Pullman.

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This audio performance, by the author and a full cast, is far superior to the film.  It fully held the attention of this adult, without the company of children.  “Some books improve with age–the age of the reader, that is. Such is certainly the case with Philip Pullman’s heroic, at times heart-wrenching novel, The Golden Compass, a story ostensibly for children but one perhaps even better appreciated by adults. The protagonist of this complex fantasy is young Lyra Belacqua, a precocious orphan growing up within the precincts of Oxford University. But it quickly becomes clear that Lyra’s Oxford is not precisely like our own–nor is her world. For one thing, people there each have a personal daemon, the manifestation of their soul in animal form. For another, hers is a universe in which science, theology, and magic are closely allied.” - amazon.com

The Seven Sisters by Margaret Drabble.

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A great read about a woman newly alone in contemporary London, and “of friendship and the sudden transformations fate can bring.” - Publisher’s Description  Drabble’s Seven Sisters would be an excellent companion piece for reader’s of Virgil’s Aeneid.