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

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

Earth Day Title: The Green Book by Elizabeth Rogers, Thomas Kostigen

Released June 2007

This book provides steps for a simple approach to living less wasteful lives. Reading this book doesn’t make you feel guilty and it doesn’t preach. Instead, it shows you how simple changes can help you use the resources we take for granted more efficiently.

This book provides steps for a simple approach to living less wasteful lives. Reading this book doesn’t make you feel guilty and it doesn’t preach. Instead, it shows you how simple changes can help you use the resources we take for granted more efficiently.

I also found this book to be a useful reference guide for making informed decisions. It contains an index and is arranged by topic, such as “home”, “school” and “shopping” so you get specific pointers for distinct areas of life rather than as broad generalizations.

Between each section, there are celebrity testimonials. I found all of these unimpressive, from Owen Wilson mumbling that he likes driving a Prius to Tyra Banks telling me to keep my life simple. The celebrity pages are easy to ignore, but the many tips to help you reduce waste in your life are not.

This is a great resource for anyone interested in cutting back for the greater good. — Sara Wedell, Adult Services Librarian

Earth Day Title: “Living Like Ed” by Ed Begley, Jr.

Released February 2008

I found Ed Begley Jr.’s guide to green living very accessible to people getting more into this lifestyle. The overall tone of the book was very positive – Ed’s enthusiasm for all things eco-friendly is pervasive. He shares his approach to energy saving or recycling, and gives good explanations for the why this each is a useful conservation habit.

I found Ed Begley Jr.’s guide to green living very accessible to people getting more into this lifestyle. The overall tone of the book was very positive – Ed’s enthusiasm for all things eco-friendly is pervasive. He shares his approach to energy saving or recycling, and gives good explanations for the why this each is a useful conservation habit.

I found that I liked the additional voices included in the book, Ed’s wife Rachelle chimes in occasionally and “Ed’s Green Friends” have sections where they explain the benefits of specific products and practices. I appreciated Rachelle’s point of view as someone who is adapting from a life of “regular” consumption to a more environmentally-aware lifestyle. I also liked that Ed left some of the more technical explanations to experts in his “Green Friends” sections. He clearly knows his stuff and has crunched the numbers and has a big-picture mentality when it comes to consumption, but he doesn’t sound like a know-it-all, he sounds more like someone passing along helpful hints from their experience.

I jotted down notes about the types of recyclable plastics and found his recylcing sorting guide very useful. I do think that this book is most helpful in Ed’s own southern California area, because I took his advice and Googled my area and “hazardous waste” only to find that getting rid of it responsibly is not as easy as Ed makes it sound. Also, ridding my life of e-waste is not going to be convenient or free. Still, he answers a lot of valuable questions and lays out solid reasoning for cutting consumption. Thanks, Ed! — Sara Wedell, Adult Services Librarian

The Lost City of Z by David Grann

Release date: February 24, 2009

Colonel Percy Harrison Fawcett was a classic Victorian gentleman explorer. He was built to explore the Amazon – proving immune to malaria and the various other tropical fevers the plague Westerners there. He takes small parties carrying limited equipment, he makes friends with the Indians and he can live off the land. He never says die. He’s awesome.

He’s also, well, a little nuts. Not so much in the beginning, but after WWI, he starts to feel his age a little more, it’s harder to get funding and a millionaire rival begins exploring roughly the same region of the jungle as Fawcett. He becomes more reliant on spiritualism and more obsessed with the idea of proving his theory of Z, an El Dorado-like city deep in the Amazon.

His expeditions, his disappearance and the multitude of failed investigations and missions to find him make for great storytelling. Author Grann does a fine job of combing through his history, connecting with his relatives and parceling out the interesting details throughout the book. I found Grann’s own trip into the Amazon a little unsatisfying – it also attempts to tie up the mystery of Z a little too neatly.

Neat and tidy as it may be, I do like the explanation of Z and the archeological evidence and expertise behind it. It means Fawcett wasn’t going entirely mad when he pored over old legends of El Dorado, but I think it does mean that he never, never would have been able to identify what was left as what he was looking for, either. — Sara Wedell, Adult Services Librarian

Taking Aim at the President: The Remarkable Story of the Woman Who Shot at Gerald Ford by Geri Spieler

Released: December 23, 2008

“On September 22, 1975, Sara Jane Moore attempted to kill President Gerald Ford. Investigative journalist Spieler traces the “unlikely assassin’s” convoluted path as the suburban housewife who abandoned her children meandered through relationships, marriages and careers ranging from bookkeeping to political activist turned FBI informant. Moore assumed varied personas, a skill she first displayed as an actress in high school. Despite three decades of contact with Moore, Spieler admits she still cannot explain what led Moore to attempt to kill Ford. But Spieler offers a portrait of an erratic, unstable woman with a protean capacity to shift identities, with the 1960s and ’70s as a dramatic backdrop. Fans of true crime accounts or contemporary history will savor this portrait of the first woman to make an assassination attempt on an American president.”"  — Publisher’s Weekly