"How to Read Literature Like a Professor" by Thomas C. Foster

When should a book that resides in the “Teen” section of the library present itself in the Adult Book Blog? In this reader’s opinion, it has its place when the book is “How to Read Literature Like a Professor” by Thomas C. Foster (Call number: Teen 808 Foster).

In spite of the somewhat intimidating tone of the title, this 299 page soft cover volume is fun to read, especially for readers of all ages who love to read about reading. Author Thomas Foster, Professor of English at the University of Michigan at Flint, writes in a conversational style that makes some of us wish we could be a “fly on the wall” in his lecture hall. Those adult readers who often re-read literature will enjoy Professor Foster’s take on works that challenged us as teen readers, some of which selections continue to present less than an “easy read” for mature bibliophiles.

The author includes a suggested reading list ranging from familiar fairy tales to Joyce’s “Ulysses.” He also offers a few titles he terms as “Master Class,” as well as secondary sources to guide the reader through literary pilgrimages. It’s a short, funky, do-it-yourself travel guide through a few fields of the Western Canon, a place to begin- to either explore their mysteries or to revisit them in order to unravel the maze.

I give it a thumbs-up and will re-read it in portions as time goes by.

However, witty and lighthearted as Foster’s style may be, some young teens may not have yet been introduced to enough of the literary examples used throughout his book to induce them to read it through. Therefore, if for no other reason, I believe “How to Read Literature Like a Professor” should share the spotlight in a blog designated for those of us who once were “teens.”

Patricia Salerno

Vampires for Adults: Review of Dead Until Dark, by Charlaine Harris

Edward who? True vampire connoisseurs know that before Twilight, there were many other vampy reads out there that stole our hearts and made us wish to be children of the night. Having read vampire fiction for almost twenty years, I’ve tried to sop up everything I could, starting as a teen with Annette Curtis Klause’s The Silver Kiss (1990) and Vivian Vande Velde’s Companions of the Night (1995), and then into adulthood with Bram Stoker, Anne Rice, Chelsea Yarbo, Brian Lumley just to name a few. Vampire fiction sure is hot right now, and those of us who can’t get enough are eager to try to sift through the wreckage to find the wonderful. Charlene Harris’s Sookie Stackhouse novels are just that: wonderful. It’s time to set aside your copy of Twilight, soccer moms, and pick up an adult vampire story that will have you falling in love all over again.

Harris’s series has been out since 2001, but has only recently received great acclaim as HBO’s new series, True Blood, and is loosely based on the novels. Based in Louisiana, the homel of all things undead, Dead Until Dark introduces us to Sookie Stackhouse, a perky, blonde, cocktail waitress in her early twenties with the “disability” to read minds. Sookie dreams of meeting a man whose thoughts she can’t hear; as it seems to be a deal breaker in most of her relationships. Her wishes finally come true when Bill Compton, a 150 year old vampire, walks into the bar where she works. She can’t hear one bit of Bill’s thoughts, and falls instantly in love with him. Bill is striking, charming, stoic and best of all: a ruthless defender of Sookie. But these books are more than romance. Bill isn’t much liked by the local human community and, as a murder mystery unfolds, becomes the number one suspect. It’s up to Sookie to figure out “who-dun-it” and help clear Bill’s name. Filled with humor, thrills, delight, romance and terror, this series is not just great for vampire lovers, but mystery lovers as well. Don’t be scared off or enticed by HBO’s retelling of this story. These books stand on their own and offer readers of both genres something wonderful to wrap their hands around. I stand my ground…Edward who?

Adrienne Wilson

Dark Tower I: The Gunslinger, by Stephen King

Being a huge fan of all things dark and brooding, I’m surprised that I never had the interest to pick up this book before. The Gunslinger is first part in a seven book series entitled “The Dark Tower.” Since The Gunslinger’s debut in 1970 and the Dark Tower Series completion in 2004, thousands of people have enjoyed this trek through time and space that King claims was inspired by the poem “Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came” by Robert Browning. The story centers on Roland, a gunslinger (think Clint Eastwood) and the last of his kind. Roland’s journey begins with a single sentence: “The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed.” We know little of Roland, but as the story unfolds so does Roland’s history. Soon the reader understands more of what is going on than the main character himself. King does an excellent job of keeping the story moving swiftly and intertwining a variety of details and allusions. The reader is allowed to form their own conclusions of where Roland might be, what his quest might lead to. Mixing the genres of fantasy, horror and western, The Gunslinger is unlike any other piece of fiction I have read to date. I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a complex story filled with intrigue, desire, terror and consequence. I find myself eager to move through the series at lightning speed. I now hold in my hands the Drawing of Three which will continue the journey of Roland and his pursuit of the Dark Tower.

Adrienne Wilson

Staff Recommendation: The Help, by Kathryn Stockett

"Set in Stockett's native Jackson, MS, in the early 1960s, this first novel adopts the complicated theme of blacks and whites living in a segregated South. A century after the Emancipation Proclamation, black maids raised white children and ran households but were paid poorly, often had to use separate toilets from the family, and watched the children they cared for commit bigotry. In Stockett's narrative, Miss Skeeter, a young white woman, is a naive, aspiring writer who wants to create a series of interviews with local black maids. Even if they're published anonymously, the risk is great; still, Aibileen and Minny agree to participate. Tension pervades the novel as its events are told by these three memorable women. Is this an easy book to read? No, but it is surely worth reading. It may even stir things up as readers in Jackson and beyond question their own discrimination and intolerance in the past and present. " Library Journal, January 1, 2009

Review: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

Looking for something out of the ordinary?
“It is a truth universally acknowledged that a zombie in possession of brains must be in want of more brains. Never was this truth more plain than during the recent attacks at Netherfield Park in which a household of eighteen was slaughtered and consumed by the living dead.” And so begins the classic tale by Jane Austen, retold and edited by Seth Grahame-Smith. This new retelling of the timeless romance novel is wacky as ever, but fans of the book will find it a welcome tongue-in-cheek revision that adds a little spice, a little gore, and a whole new outlook on the Sisters Bennett! Smith delightfully interweaves a zombie thriller into the plot of this well known story so well that the reader has a hard time figuring out where the lines are drawn. Perfect for anyone who’s never read the original novel because they feared it a tad boring, or for high school students who might need a little push, or for the average reader who is looking for something new and different! High society finally gets what’s coming to them-and it’s not just a snide remark.

Adrienne Wilson

Review: Half Broke Horses, by Jeannette Walls

Jeannette Walls is back in top storytelling form after her bestselling memoir Glass Castles. Half Broke Horses is billed as a true-life novel in which Walls tells the tale of her tough-as-nails grandmother, Lily Casey, from a first person perspective, piecing together stories she has gathered from family and friends. Original photos bring the narrative to life.

Lily grows up helping her crippled father raise carriage horses on a barely surviving ranch, taking on the hard work her gently raised mother is above doing. At the age of 15, after a brief stint of boarding school education, Lily obtains a teaching position in Arizona, 500 miles away from her home in New Mexico. To get to the job, she travels fearlessly for a full month alone on her horse over rough back country. This is just one of many adventures in Lily's full-tilt, no-nonsense life that moves back and forth between rough ranching and small town teaching during the Great Depression. Through it all, her positive attitude and ingenuity in the face of adversity make her a strong and likeable character.

Later in the book, we hear of the upbringing of Walls' mother Rose Mary. There's no need to have read Glass Castles to appreciate this story, but the insight into the hard living, fun loving personality of Rose Mary adds depth to the author's memoir. This is a gritty, fast-paced read that should not be missed.

Lorna Rhyins

Highly recommended by Two Patrons: Homer and Langley, by E.L. Doctorow

" Doctorow, whose literary trophy shelf has got to be overflowing by now, delivers a small but sweeping masterpiece about the infamous New York hermits, the Collyer brothers. When WWI hits and the Spanish flu pandemic kills Homer and Langley's parents, Langley, the elder, goes to war, with his Columbia education and his "godlike immunity to such an ordinary fate as death in a war." Homer, alone and going blind, faces a world "considerably dimmed" though "more deliciously felt" by his other senses. When Langley returns, real darkness descends on the eccentric orphans: inside their shuttered Fifth Avenue mansion, Langley hoards newspaper clippings and starts innumerable science projects, each eventually abandoned, though he continues to imagine them in increasingly bizarre ways, which he then recites to Homer. Occasionally, outsiders wander through the house, exposing it as a living museum of artifacts, Americana, obscurity and simmering madness. Doctorow's achievement is in not undermining the dignity of two brothers who share a lush landscape built on imagination and incapacities. It's a feat of distillation, vision and sympathy." (Publisher's Weekly July 6, 2009)