The Magicians
by Lev Grossman 

I’ve had my eye on this for a while and am finally getting to it. I’d heard that this adult series is like Harry Potter for adults, and that’s not a bad description! Quentin, an incredibly bright high school senior, is expecting to do a college interview and instead finds himself in a very different place (sort of like wandering into Narnia) doing a very different entrance exam to a school he’s never heard of before. Throughout the book is woven mention of another fantasy series, Fillory by Christopher Plover, a series I’m not familiar with, but am now quite curious to read (if it in fact exists, I haven’t quite figured that out yet!)

Egg & Spoon
by Gregory Maguire    

I received this book in my Christmas stocking!  I’m a sucker for retellings of fairy tales and this one from a Russian fairy tale is of special interest to me since I’m of Russian/Polish descent. Here’s what the publisher says about the book:  Elena Rudina lives in the impoverished Russian countryside, and there is no food. But then a train arrives in the village, a train carrying a cornucopia of food, untold wealth, and a noble family destined to visit the Tsar in Saint Petersburg. This family that includes Ekaterina, a girl of Elena s age. When the two girls’ lives collide, an adventure is set in motion, an escapade that includes mistaken identity, a monk locked in a tower, a prince traveling incognito, and in a starring role only Gregory Maguire could have conjured Baba Yaga, witch of Russian folklore, in her ambulatory house perched on chicken legs.

River of Earth and Sky: Poems for the Twenty-First Century

I got a copy of this anthology because LouAnn Shepard Muhm has a poem in the collection. I love LouAnn’s poem, and I’m enjoying working my way through the rest of the collection. Some contributors I knew, but many are new to me.

Yoga for a New You
by Kathryn Meeker

I don’t make new year’s resolutions, but at this time of year I usually make a stab at self-improvement. I’m adding programs from this book to my yoga practice, as always trying to achieve greater flexibility. Directions for the poses are clear, aided by photographs. And I’m comfortable trying them, unaided by a teacher.

Friendshape
by Amy Krouse Rosenthal and Tom Lichtenheld

This book, appropriate for readers of all ages, is a celebration of friendship. It relates both the great parts of friendship—“friends know how to make their own fun”—with the not-so-great—“friends may quarrel. . .but they don’t stay bent out of shape for long.” A great book to share with a special friend in your life.

Nerdy Birdy
by Aaron Reynolds and Matt Davies

Nerdy Birdy wants to hang out with the cool birds, but they don’t want to hang out with him. When the other nerdy birds welcome him, he discovers they like to do the same kind of nerdy things he likes to do, such as read and play video games, and he soon has a wide circle of friends. Then a new bird came to the neighborhood. She wasn’t cool. She wasn’t nerdy. But she was lonely. What should Nerdy Bird do? This lovely book about friendship has a gentle message about the nature of friendship.

My two picks for this month are both related to education.

The Whistling Season
by Ivan Doig

I was working in Beagle and Wolf one day last fall when a customer pointed out The Whistling Season and said, "I love this book!” With that recommendation, I decided to give it a read.

The Whistling Season is narrated by Paul Milliron. It is the Sputnik era and Paul is responsible for deciding the fate of Montana's one room schoolhouses.The story is a look back at the winter of 1909-1910 in Marais Coulee Montana. Paul's mother has passed away leaving his father, Oliver, with three young sons to raise. The Millirons’ lives are changed forever when Oliver decides to hire a housekeeper. Rose enters their lives, bringing her brother Morris along with her. Paul tells the story of
that eventful year, including the importance of the one room schoolhouse in his life and the lives of the community members. I had the feeling that I knew the characters personally and hated to say good-bye to them when the story came to an end. The Whistling Season is a quiet story, but is not entirely predictable. It left me with a smile.

The Smartest Kids in the World
by Amanda Ripley

The Smartest Kids in the World by journalist Amanda Ripley sets out to explain how schools in the highest achieving countries compare to each other and to the United States.

The book combines information from a variety of sources, including research, interviews, and observations made by Ripley when she visited three high achieving countries: Poland, Finland, and South Korea. One way that the author learns about the differences in schools and cultures is by following three American exchange students attending high school in these high achieving countries. The cultures and schools in the countries studied were similar in some ways, but wildly different in others. I was surprised by the author's findings concerning what matters most and what doesn't matter when the goal is to provide a world class education. I found this book to be very readable and would highly recommend it to anyone interested in education.

Station Eleven
by Emily St. John Mandel

There’s a branch of fiction, often included in science fiction, that I put into the “what-if” category. It’s stuff like “what if a meteor strikes the earth” or “what if a major earthquake strikes California and there are no new movies for 5 years.” Disasters that you now have to cope with.  Station Eleven is like that. The story starts out with a small disaster at a theater in Toronto and turns into a major pandemic, in the form of flu, taking over….well the whole world. There are many folks to follow, all linked back to the theater, moving not only around the globe but back and forth in time. So be ready to keep your characters straight. An interesting read that makes you think, “What would I do?”

Hear the author discuss Station Eleven.

Several months ago, Emily was asked by a publisher to review a book well in advance of its release. The book will be available January 19, and we’re pleased to share Emily’s review.

The Things we Keep
by Sally Hepworth

Anna and Luke, both in their mid-thirties, find themselves trapped in the earliest stages of Alzheimer’s disease. They voluntarily check into an assisted living home where they find that even though they are forgetting the most mundane daily tasks, they find a sense of hope in each other.

Hepworth does not shy away from the despair, heartache and frustration that Alzheimer’s disease can bring to both the individual and their loved ones. Throughout the course of the story, Anna progressively gets worse and has a hard time remembering her own family and memories of the past.

One thing that does make her feel alive is the “Young Guy,” Luke. Luke and Anna live in close proximity in the Rosalind House. They find solitude on the rooftop where an unlikely friendship turns into a romantic love affair between two people searching for their own identities. As their relationship unfolds, they sneak into each other’s rooms until a tragedy occurs, leaving them behind locked doors. When Anna and Luke are torn apart from each other, they quickly take a turn for the worse. But Eve, the new cook and housekeeper with a story of her own, eventually helps the pair remember, if only for a moment, the love they have for one another. Is it enough to unlock the doors of their hearts again?

This novel is definitely a page turner. Readers will find themselves in tears over the sheer frustration Alzheimer’s disease can bring to its victims. They will be on edge, if not upset, with the decisions families make in “helping” their loved ones. Readers will find hope with Anna and Luke’s relationship and yet a sense of grief knowing that it might only be short term. Anna said it best, “I’m still here. It’s just – you have to look a little longer and harder to find me.” Hopefully The Things we Keep will encourage readers to slow down, be more present in life, and value the things we hold dear.

Abercrombie Trail
by Candace Simar

This book is historical fiction about the 1862 Sioux uprising in Minnesota.  It’s also the story of Evan Jacobson, who comes to Fort Snelling as an immigrant from Norway.  He speaks only Norwegian and faces loneliness, intolerance, and also discovery in the new land.  His search for a home and family in the midst of the uprising makes a great story which will be long remembered.

Scoop: Notes from a Small Ice Cream Shop
by Jeff Miller

This is a delightful true story of a lawyer and his partner who give up their corporate lives to run an ice cream shop in Hayward, Wisconsin. They also purchase and completely renovate an old lumberman's mansion for a bed and breakfast. It's a tale of starting over, slowing down, and ice cream. The descriptions of small-town life and the people who live there remind one of our own tourist town of Park Rapids.

All the Light We Cannot See
by Anthony Doerr  

This magnificent novel is set in France during World War II. Marie-Laure lives in France and is blind. Werner is a German soldier who is an expert with radios. The story follows the lives of these two young people in separate chapters until their lives converge. The writing is rich in detail and soul. I'm sure it will be a movie.

Two Years Before the Mast
Richard Henry Dana, Jr.

In 1834 Dana, a Harvard student, decided to go to sea due to a health issue. He published this description of his experiences, the first time the world was exposed to the glories and horrors (storms, floggings, scurvy, living conditions, et al) of a common sailor. I found reading this much like reading Into Thin Air: I couldn't and don't want to do this, but love experiencing it from my warm armchair. It also includes an astounding account of the transformation of San Francisco in just 24 years. This book helped influence Melville to go to sea.

Typee: A Peep at Polynesian Life
Herman Melville

When Melville was a young man he shipped out on a whaler. He was appalled that the tyrannical captain went 18 months without touching on land. He jumped ship and spent a month hiding out with a community of "savages." Typee is a novel, but based largely on this experience. It's also a fascinating portrait of a Pacific island culture, and an exploration of religion and spirituality. It was published in 1846, and is the first step toward Moby Dick.

Heart of Darkness
Joseph Conrad

Typee meets Edgar Alan Poe. This is another book based on a seaman's experience in a jungle with "savages." The book is based on Conrad's 1890 adventure in the Belgian Congo. The only thing more brutal than the mysterious indigenous people attacking from the sides of the river is the treatment of these people by the Europeans. Brando's most famous line in Apocalypse Now is taken verbatim from this book.

Euphoria
by Lily King

Euphoria is a novel inspired by events in Margaret Meade's life. It brings us to New Guinea in the 1930s, describing cultures of the local people through the eyes of three anthropologists in a dangerous love triangle. They travel by motorized boats, but their hardships and adventures are as exotic as those in Typee, and this book takes a modern look at Pacific cultures and the impact of Western influences.

All The Light We Cannot See
by Anthony Doerr

I'm finally reading this book after hearing many good things about it. Set during World War II, it follows the stories of two teenagers, a blind French girl and an orphaned German boy who is recruited for the Hitler Youth. Two very different lives, both completely changed by the world around them. As the story progresses, their lives seem to grow closer and closer through turns of events. It is a fascinating and beautiful story, and was the winner of the Pulitzer Prize in fiction this year.

Here’s a link to the book trailer.