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December 28, 2009

Column: At the Library
From: Cranbrook Public Library
By Mike Selby

Column: At the Library for Dec 28/09
From: Cranbrook Public Library
By Mike Selby


Preschool and Toddler Story Times are taking a Christmas break. Both will be back again the first week of January.

Please note our holiday hours:

December 29th 9 am to 9 pm.
December 30th 9 am to 9 pm.
December 31st 9 am to 3 pm.
January 1st closed.
January 2nd 10 am to 6 pm.
January 3rd closed.



ADULT NEWLY AQUIRED SHELF:

Heroes Among Us : John Quinones (920.023)
Northern Wilderness �" Ray Mears (917.1)
PDR Nurse’s Drug Handbook 2010 (615.1)
Almanac of the Infamous, the Incredible, & the Ignored �" Juanita Rose Violini (001.94)
Home Ice : Canada’s 2010 Men’s Olympic Hockey Guide �" Lorna Schultz Nicholson (796.962)
Winter Backpacking �" Ben Shillington (796.54)
Shattered Silence �" Melissa G. Moore (364.1523)
Backcountry Avalanche Safety �" Tony Daffern (796.9028)
Debt-Free Forever �" Gail Vaz-Oxlade (332.024)
Strength in What Remains �" Tracy Kidder (305.896)
Crude World : The Violent Twilight of Oil �" Peter Maass (338.27)
Merchant Kings �" Stephen R. Bown (382.09)
Half Moon : Henry Hudson �" Douglas Hunter (910.92)
Inside of a Dog �" Alexandra Horowitz (636.7)
Wearing Small Shoes �" Chip Haynes (640)
Soul of a Dog �" Jon Katz (636.0092)
The Michael Jackson Tapes �" Smuley Boteach (bio)
Some Sunny Day �" Vera Lynn (bio)
Trauma Farm �" Brian Brett (bio)
Permission Slips �" Sherri Shepherd (bio)
High on Arrival �" Mackenzie Phillips (bio)
Nanny Returns �" Emma McLaughlin (fic)
Knit the Season �" Kate Jacobs (fic)
Rainwater �" Sandra Brown (fic)
Lustrum �" Robert Harris (fic)
A Dream to Call My Own �" Tracie Peterson (fic)
The Hadrian Memorandum �" Allan Folson (fic)
Plum Pudding Murder �" Joanne Fluke (mys)
The Girl Who Played with Fire �" Stieg Larsson (mys)
The Scarpetta Factor �" Patricia Cornwell (mys)
Bones of Betrayal �" Jefferson Bass (mys)
U is for Undertow �" Sue Grafton (mys)
Hollywood Moon �" Joseph Wambaugh (mys)
Harold Robbins’ The Shroud �" Junius Podrug (mys)
I, Alex Cross �" James Patterson (mys)
The Illumination �" Jill Gregory (pb)
The Rattlesnake Season �" Larry D. Sweazy (pb)
Breakaway �" Joel Shepherd (pb)
Riders of the Storm �" Julie E. Czerneda (pb)
Radio City Christmas Spectacular (DVD)
August Rush (DVD)
The Beckoners �" Carrie Mac (MP3)


YOUNG ADULT & CHILDREN’S NEWLY ACQUIRED ITEMS:
Red Glass �" Laura Resau (ya fic)
Counting on Hope �" Sylvia Olsen (ya fic)
The Last Wild Place �" Rosa Jordan (ya fic)
Alcatraz Versus The Scrivener’s Bones �" Brandon Sanderson (ya fic)
Canada Counts �" Charles Pachter (j 513.211)
Hockey Superstars �"Paul Romanuck (j 796.96)
Math Wizardry For Kids �" Margaret Kendra (j 793.74)
Women Pioneers of the Queen Charlotte Islands : Books 1 to 4 �" Catherine Nelson (j 971.11)
Zoobreak �" Gordon Korman (j fic)
Encyclopedia Brown Super Sleuth �" Donald J. Sobol (j fic)
The Dragon in the Driveway �" Kate Klimo (j fic)
A Coyote Solstice Tale �" Thomas King (j fic)
How the Grinch Stole Christmas (j DVD)


MIKE’S BOOKNOTES:



When the New York Times declared Patrick O’Brian’s Royal Navy novels as “the greatest historical novels ever written”, many peopled agreed. He had already been awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Dublin, a CBE from the Queen, and a nondescript Costa Rican weevil named after him. His descriptions of 19th century seafaring life are so unique that his writing is compared with Proust and Tolstoy; not with C.S. Forester as one would expect. When he died at 86 in 2000, most obituaries hailed him as one of the most important fiction writers of the 20th century.

One of his most enthusiastic admirers was journalist Dean King. King wrote several maritime and nautical history books, and even a massive geographical companion to O’Brian’s novels. In 1997 King set out to write a biography of his favorite author. At the time, there wasn’t much known about O’Brian. That he was born and raised in Dublin, educated in various prep schools and Oxford, spent a significant portion of his life sailing, and was unmarried with no children was all King could glean from the various articles, interviews and book jackets he collected. So King flew to Balinasloe, Ireland�"O’Brian’s hometown�"and began his biographical search. Little did he know that this would take him over 3 years, and have him travel to England, Wales, France, Germany, Canada and Australia. For Patrick O’Brian was not who he said he was.

King’s diligent research revealed O’Brian wasn’t Irish, had never attended Oxford, and had never sailed in any kind of boat. In fact, he wasn’t even Patrick O’Brian, but was Richard Patrick Russ; a poor and uneducated Englishman, raised by a destitute and abusive father. Discovering he had a talent for writing, Russ began to make a living selling stories to various boy’s annuals. He had been briefly married to an Elizabeth Jones, but when their second child was born with spina bifida, he walked out on them, changing his surname to O’Brian so they wouldn’t be able to find him. He then�"somehow�"married Mary Wicksteed Tolstoy, a Russian Countess who still had a husband. Taking a page out of his own father’s habits, O’Brian beat their children mercilessly, having rattan canes made for this purpose.

King’s biography of O’Brian was published in 2000, but it must have been bittersweet for him. Patrick O’Brian was a brilliant writer; he just wasn’t Patrick O’Brian. He was Richard Patrick Russ, an appalling human being.