Chapter Sixty: My Family and Other Animals

My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell is basically a memoir of the five years in the early 20th century that he and his family lived on Corfu.  Narrated by his 10-15-year old self, he recounts his own exploits on the island--mostly involving local flora and fauna--and his mother's and older siblings' adventures and misadventures.  Plot is a little thin--descriptions of the natural life of the island are more frequent than action--but it is a charming, calm, sun-drenched story.  I could almost believe I was reading it in the shade of an olive tree on a quiet summer's day.  In sum, it's not the most exciting book, but it is rather beautiful in its descriptions.

Chapter Fifty-Nine: The Blue Castle

The Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery is a very light, very romantic, very fun little story about an old maid who is totally dominated by her large family until she decides to take matters into her own hands and start doing as she pleases.  And then things get fun.  I don't want to spoil it for you--you should read it yourself--it's just such a happy, affirming little story that reminds you that you are in control of your own life, and with a little spunk, you can make your life fun.

Chapter Fifty-Eight: The Borrower

This is a strange, original story by Rebecca Makkai about a young children's librarian who inadvertently finds herself kidnapping a child patron and embarking on a road trip from Missouri to Vermont.  The extreme realism of this story makes it almost believable and also a little depressing, although the narrator's Russian mobster father adds some (dark) humor to the tale that helps lighten it up a bit.  It's less a story about a kidnapping than a story about the narrator's search for home, although you can see how the two ideas are related.  It's not really a happy story, but it is well-told and well-written and a little quirky, and it's an interesting read, for sure.

Chapter Fifty-Seven: Blackout and All Clear

These two books tell an amazing, ultimately heart-warming story about three historians from 2060 Oxford who travel back in time to WWII to study it and end up getting stuck there.  (It's nowhere near as corny as it sounds.  I promise.)  As they await rescue from the future--rescue that seems increasingly unlikely to come--they band together to try to survive the war, making enormous sacrifices to help each other and to help the people they meet.  The wartime setting adds extra tension and excitement to the novel, and I couldn't help but love the characters--time travelers and contemporaries alike.  The protagonists try so hard to do what's right, even when they're not sure if their actions are having good or bad effects.  There's also a good element of mystery to this story, and it's not until the second book that the pieces of the puzzle all start to come together, adding to the suspense this novel maintains right until its end.  But perhaps the best part of these novels is how Willis manages to mix in a good dose of humor amid the fears and horrors of the war.  These are great novels and I highly recommend them.

Chapter Fifty-Six: This Book Is Overdue! How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All

Have you been looking for a non-fiction book about librarians and their role in our lives as the Internet and other new technology allow easy and instant access to information?  You probably haven't been looking for such a book, but if you're at all interested in librarians, books, the Internet, or free access to information, you should check out this book by Marilyn Johnson.  It weaves an interesting account of dozens of past and current librarians and trends in the worlds of librarianship, especially as the field changes and grows under the influence of the Internet and other new technologies.  I still feel like I'm making this sound far more dry than it is--although maybe it would seem dry to someone less interested in librarianship than I am.  Still, if you give it a chance, you just might enjoy it and learn a few new things.

Chapter Fifty-Five: One for the Books

I started out really loving this book about books by writer and book-reviewer Joe Queenan, although it started to wear a bit thin by its end.  It is a non-fiction book for avid crazy readers (like myself) about Queenan's own insane reading habits.  I cannot recommend that anyone read this book who is not obsessed with reading.  Let's just say that Queenan makes me look almost illiterate.  Anyway, it was really fun for me to read about another reader's experiences, although some of his prejudices about what he will and won't read--and especially his views on children's literature irritated me.  (Children's literature is for children, he says at one point, anathema for me, considering that I spent my last year of college writing a hundred-page thesis trying to explore what the heck children's literature even is.)  (I was almost equally irritated when he said he hated people from Massachusetts and therefore wouldn't read Hawthorne--this was only slightly redeemed when he said he refused to read books about Yankees fans; while I don't share that prejudice, I do have untoward feelings towards Yankees fans in general.)  Anyway, Queenan at times is a bit snooty about certain things: what he will and won't read, how much he reads as compared to the average American, etc.  Still, despite some irritations, as an insatiable reader myself, I largely enjoyed this book, but I'd only recommend it if you are also an avid reader.

Chapter Fifty-Four: Eva Moves the Furniture

Margot Livesey's Eva Moves the Furniture is a beautiful book about love and loss.  It tells the story of Eva, who throughout her life is visited by companions--a woman and a girl--whom only she can see.  Their nature and intentions are mysterious to Eva, and she alternately hates them and longs for them.  But the back of the book could tell you as much.  What I really want to say is that this is one of my favorite contemporary works for adults.  Eva is an excellent narrator: she has a unique voice and an interesting life.  The whole book is infused with a sort of calm, matter-of-fact-ness, even in times of war (the book is set in Scotland from the 1920s through the 1940s), which is very absorbing.  Indeed, I was always surprised to look up from my book and find myself in America in 2014.  Even though I've read this book many times before, I was still in tears at its fitting ending, and while it's a pretty quick read, the characters are the sort who linger with you after you've closed the book.  I highly recommend it.