The School of Essential Ingredients by Erica Bauermeister

Released January 2009

I read the blurb on the back of this book as saying “Fans of Laura Esquivel are going to fall in love with Erica Bauermeister’s beautiful story.” After finishing the book, I flipped it back over and re-read the sentence, which actually reads: “Fans of Maeve Binchy and Laura Esquivel are going to fall in love with Erica Bauermeister’s beautiful story.” Ahh. That explains a lot.

I read the blurb on the back of this book as saying “Fans of Laura Esquivel are going to fall in love with Erica Bauermeister’s beautiful story.” After finishing the book, I flipped it back over and re-read the sentence, which actually reads: “Fans of Maeve Binchy and Laura Esquivel are going to fall in love with Erica Bauermeister’s beautiful story.” Ahh. That explains a lot.

This book centers on the power of food and the existence of an incredible, mystical relationship with cooking. There are gorgeous descriptions of ingredients, of sauce-making, of perfect desserts. It’s a big love letter to gastronomy and an appreciation of taste and smell.

It’s also, well, a tad sappy. The characters are extremely sensitive – and each can communicate with others through only the most understanding of glances, or the kindest half-smile. In the same chapters where I scoffed at the sentimentality, I found myself next to tears in just a few pages. Even if I wasn’t crazy about what Bauermeister was doing with her characters, the language she used to make it happen was wonderfully moving.

“The School of Essential Ingredients” is really a place where everything works out, where the people are wholeheartedly good and the eating is divine. My final reaction was, so what if it’s romanticized to within an inch of it’s life? It’s delicious.  – Sara Wedell, Adult Services Librarian

How to Sell by Clancy Martin

Released May 2009

“How to Sell” is a story of ambition, corruption and slick and skewering salesmanship.  Clancy Martin is writing from his own experience starting out with nothing and getting into the jewelry business.  The story follows Bobby Clark through his exploits in the world of fine jewelry sales, doing whatever it takes to push glitz on customers, genuine or not.  The business is rife with crooked deals, shady characters and Bobby is at the heart of it all, sinking fast.

Readers will get sucked in by Bobby’s hapless voice – his frank candor is a total contrast to the slimeball dealings we witness him orchestrating.    It’s a sort of attempt at the American Dream tale from someone more invested in scams and hustling than in hard work and honesty.  It’s greedy and messy and through it all,  it can be pretty funny as well. — Sara Wedell, Adult Services Librarian

The Sound of Freedom by Raymond Arsenault

Released March 2009

This book gives an in-depth look at the life and career of Marian Anderson, an American icon whose activism was born out of the challenges she faced as an African-American singer during the time of Jim Crow and segregation.  Anderson’s talent was too great to be kept down and her beautiful contralto voice brought her well-deserved fame and adoration in Europe.

“The Sound of Freedom” traces her family origins, early life and career against the background of America’s mindset in this part of the 20th century.  The contrast of Anderson’s challenges to events of today are clear and her legacy and triumph on the Washington Mall are shown to all be a part of what made that possible.

Anderson is perhaps best known for her concert on the Washington Mall, when she sang before a massive crowd on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.  That image of her in mid-song is the cover photo of this book, and is also a part of the Lissa K. McLean mural in the Delta Township District Library.  She is included on our mural celebrating women of achievement for her strength and talent and this book does a wonderful job of sharing her amazing story and it’s impact on America today. — Sara Wedell, Adult Services Librarian

If I Stay by Gayle Forman

Released April 2009

If I Stay has been getting a lot of buzz and positive reviews, so I was excited to dive in. This is the story of 17-year-old Mia. She’s an accomplished cellist, loves spending time with her family, and has a punk-rock boyfriend that she’s crazy about. She’s also in a coma, barely hanging on after a terrible car accident. To stay or not to stay is her decision, and much of the book is Mia looking back on her life, hoping the moments that she remembers will help her decide. I was a little disappointed in the first half of the book; I felt I didn’t get a chance to know the characters well enough before the accident and wondered how the decision between life and death could possibly be a difficult one for Mia. However somewhere along the way of reading, I became totally immersed in Mia’s life, begging, like her friends and family, for her to stay. I appreciated that this novel was short compared to all of the epic 700-pagers lately; Forman added no unnecessary details to bog down the story. Fans of Alice Sebold’s The Lovely Bones and Jenny Downham’s Before I Die will like this one.  –Becky Fermanich, Youth Services Librarian

The Gardner Heist: The True Story of the World’s Largest Unsolved Art Theft by Ulrich Boser

Boser’s approach to telling the story of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum heist is just right. He sets the scene of the night of the crime with all the known details in place and adding in all the clues the experts have. This gives the reader the feeling of an insider, getting our interest piqued and developing our attachment to the artwork.

Released February 24, 2009

Boser’s approach to telling the story of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum heist is just right. He sets the scene of the night of the crime with all the known details in place and adding in all the clues the experts have. This gives the reader the feeling of an insider, getting our interest piqued and developing our attachment to the artwork.

He weaves in the museum background, a brief history of the world of art theft and museum security standards and glimpses of the adventures of artwork once it’s on the lam. Boser manages to make it both educational and exciting – all the background provided makes the details of the Gardner heist more interesting.

Toward the end of the book, Boser makes the ludicrous decision to solve the crime on his own.  His attempt, which mostly consisted of talking to untrustworthy “connections” and scoping out Irish bars for Whitey Bulger, came off as a childish foray into art crime superhero-ism. Still, it demonstrated how wrapped up an author can get in the story being researched.

If you are an art lover, if you enjoy a real-life unsolved mysteries, you are definitely going to enjoy this book.   — Sara Wedell, Adult Services Librarian

Flanagan’s Smart Home by Barbara Flanagan

Released November 2008

This book is well-organized and no-nonsense. Following Flanagan’s advice could probably build you a very clean and efficient home. It could probably also empty your wallet and strip you of items whose value is basically sentimental.

I liked how the book is laid out, the sections are divided up by room. While it was fun to day dream about dumping out every drawer in the kitchen and starting over… that’s not terribly practical. This book would be useful to come back to again and again as a reference to help you re-populate various rooms when appliances die or it’s redecorating time.

Flanagan certainly knows her stuff and picks interesting and useful looking items to populate her super-house. — Sara Wedell, Adult Services Librarian

Be Amazing by Mental_Floss

Released March 17, 2009

This book can give you conversation icebreakers for the rest of your life. It’s full of odd facts, bizarre stories and unforgettably wacky characters. This is a perfect book for someone with a busy schedule, because the stories are bite-sized and convenient to pick up and put down and get absorbed into the next story.

I read it over breakfast for a couple of weeks – it’s just like reading the back of cereal box!  — Sara Wedell, Adult Services Librarian