| Book Review SeriesThe Friends of the Library present the 2010-2011 Book Review Series. All meetings will be held in the Main Library Meeting Room, unless otherwise noted. For more information, please contact Kay Kirsh at 248-661-9164.
 Dr. Steve Berman reviews To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
One of the best-loved stories of all time, To Kill a Mockingbird has been translated into more than forty languages, sold more than thirty million copies worldwide, served as the basis of an enormously popular motion picture, and was voted one of the best novels of the twentieth century by librarians across the country. A gripping, heart-wrenching, and wholly remarkable tale of coming-of-age in a South poisoned by virulent prejudice, it views a world of great beauty and savage inequities through the eyes of a young girl, as her father -- a crusading local lawyer -- risks everything to defend a black man unjustly accused of a terrible crime. Co-sponsored by the Race Relations & Diversity Task Force.Wednesday, September 29, 2010 at 7:00 pm OR Friday, October 1, 2010 at 10:00 am
 Sandra Sutherland reviews Old Filth by Jane Gardam
This mordantly funny novel examines the life of Sir Edward Feathers, a desiccated barrister known to colleagues and friends as Old Filth (the nickname stands for "Failed in London Try Hong Kong"). After a lucrative career in Asia, Filth settles into retirement in Dorset. With anatomical precision, Gardam reveals that, contrary to appearances, Sir Edward's life is seething with incident: a "raj orphan," whose mother died when he was born and whose father took no notice of him, he was shipped from Malaysia to Wales (cheaper than England) and entrusted to a foster mother who was cruel to him. What happened in the years before he settled into school, and was casually adopted by his best friend's kindly English country family, haunts, corrodes, and quickens Filth's heart; Gardam's prose is so economical that no moment she describes is either gratuitous or wasted.
Copyright © 2006 The New YorkerWednesday, October 20, 2010 at 7:00 pm OR Friday, October 22, 2010 at 10:00 am
 Diane Henderson reviews The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O'Farrell
Iris Lockhart, a young Scottish woman, is suddenly informed that she has the power of attorney for her great aunt, Esme Lennox-who Iris never knew existed. Esme has been locked away in a mental institution for over 60 years-a fact never mentioned by her sister Kitty, Iris' grandmother, who now has Alzheimer's. In compelling prose, O'Farrell gradually pieces together the puzzle of Esme's life up to the age of 16, when her cold and repressive parents sent her away to the hospital that is now closing down. Esme had a bold and independent spirit, unseemly for a girl at that time. That as well as a younger brother who died in her arms and a never-mentioned rape contributed to her lost life-a life "half strangled by what-ifs." (Booklist)Wednesday, November 17, 2010 at 7:00 pm OR Friday, November 19, 2010 at 10:00 am
 Sandra Sutherland reviews A Year in Provence by Peter Mayle
Who hasn't dreamed, on a mundane Monday or frowzy Friday, of chucking it all in and packing off to the south of France? Provençal cookbooks and guidebooks entice with provocatively fresh salads and azure skies, but is it really all Côtes-du-Rhône and fleur-de-lis? Author Peter Mayle answers that question with wit, warmth, and wicked candor in A Year in Provence, the chronicle of his own foray into Provençal domesticity. (Amazon.com)Wednesday, December 15, 2010 at 7:00 pm OR Friday, December 17, 2010 at 10:00 am
 Dr. Steve Berman reviews That Old Cape Magic by Richard Russo
A professor in his 50s who aches to go back to screenwriting, Jack Griffin struggles to divest himself of his parents. Lugging around, first, his father's, then both his parents' urns in the trunk of his convertible, he hopes to find an appropriate spot to scatter their ashes while juggling family commitments-his daughter's wedding, a separation from his wife. Indeed, his parents-especially his mother, who calls her son incessantly before he starts hearing her from beyond the grave-occupy the narrative like capricious ghosts, and Griffin inherits the worst attributes of both. (Publisher's Weekly)Wednesday, January 19, 2011 at 7:00 pm OR Friday, January 21, 2011 at 10:00 am
 Diane Henderson reviews Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson
In this quiet but compelling novel, Trond Sander, a widower nearing seventy, moves to a bare house in remote eastern Norway, seeking the life of quiet contemplation that he has always longed for. A chance encounter with a neighbor-the brother, as it happens, of his childhood friend Jon-causes him to ruminate on the summer of 1948, the last he spent with his adored father, who abandoned the family soon afterward. Trond's recollections center on a single afternoon, when he and Jon set out to take some horses from a nearby farm; what began as an exhilarating adventure ended abruptly and traumatically in an act of unexpected cruelty. Petterson's spare and deliberate prose has astonishing force, and the narrative gains further power from the artful interplay of Trond's childhood and adult perspectives. Loss is conveyed with all the intensity of a boy's perception, but acquires new resonance in the brooding consciousness of the older man. (The New Yorker, 2007)Wednesday, February 16, 2011 at 7:00 pm OR Friday, February 18, 2011 at 10:00 am
Dr. Steve Berman reviews Everyone's Reading Selection by unknownDescription coming soon.Wednesday, March 16, 2011 at 7:00 pm OR Friday, March 18, 2011 at 10:00 am
 Sandra Sutherland reviews Little Bee by Chris Cleave
All you should know going in to Little Bee is that what happens on the beach is brutal, and that it braids the fates of a 16-year-old Nigerian orphan (who calls herself Little Bee) and a well-off British couple--journalists trying to repair their strained marriage with a free holiday--who should have stayed behind their resort's walls. The tide of that event carries Little Bee back to their world, which she claims she couldn't explain to the girls from her village because they'd have no context for its abundance and calm. But she shows us the infinite rifts in a globalized world, where any distance can be crossed in a day--with the right papers--and "no one likes each other, but everyone likes U2." (Amazon.com)Wednesday, April 20, 2011 at 7:00 pm OR Friday, April 22, 2011 at 10:00 am
 Diane Henderson reviews Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
Anyone who gets in Olive's way had better watch out, for she crashes unapologetically through life like an emotional storm trooper. She forces her husband, Henry, the town pharmacist, into tactical retreat; and she drives her beloved son, Christopher, across the country and into therapy. But appalling though Olive can be, Strout manages to make her deeply human and even sympathetic, as are all of the characters in this "novel in stories." Covering a period of 30-odd years, most of the stories (several of which were previously published in the New Yorker and other magazines) feature Olive as their focus, but in some she is bit player or even a footnote while other characters take center stage to sort through their own fears and insecurities. Though loneliness and loss haunt these pages, Strout also supplies gentle humor and a nourishing dose of hope. People are sustained by the rhythms of ordinary life and the natural wonders of coastal Maine, and even Olive is sometimes caught off guard by life's baffling beauty. (Booklist)Wednesday, May 11, 2011 at 7:00 pm OR Friday, May 13, 2011 at 10:00 am
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