PLL Board Members: Favorite 2014 Books
Cheryl Niemeier, Chair
Paper Love: Searching for the Girl My Grandfather Left Behind by Sarah Wildman - I've long been a fan of books about the Holocaust and now with so many memoirs and novels available my choices are nearly limitless. While listening to an NPR author interview segment on my way home from work one evening, I chanced upon an interview of the author of this book and kept repeating the title the rest of the drive home, lest I forget it. It is a riveting and true story of one woman's journey to find the lost love her grandfather left behind when he fled pre-World War II Europe. The Amazon.com review says it best - "years after her grandfather's death, journalist Sarah Wildman stumbled upon a cache of his letters in a file labeled "Correspondence: Patients A-G." What she found inside weren't dry medical histories; instead what was written opened a path into the destroyed world that was her family's prewar Vienna. One woman's letters stood out: those from Valy-Valerie Scheftel. Her grandfather's lover who had remained behind when he fled Europe six months after the Nazis annexed Austria." All-in-all the best kind of story - hard to put down and always ready and anxious to pick up again to see what would happen next!
Scott Bailey, Chair-elect
The Together Book - "What do I have that needs a helper?
I have a wagon that just won't go..." are the opening lines of The Together Book, a Little Golden Book featuring classic Sesame Street characters from 1971. For those of you unfamiliar, the book presents a series of challenges involving stalwarts such as Big Bird facing situations where the solution to their problem is a critical missing piece provided by another character. Big Bird's wagon that "just won't go," for example, needs a wheel which is provided by a gleeful Grover who exclaims "Wheels are the Niftiest Things I Know!" It's not a far leap to see in these characters, law library professionals in general practicing our craft. Physical similarities to Sesame Street characters and all joking aside, we are innate collaborators and we share. Each of us brings resources to the other and build community through collaborative solutions. "Every day I need a helper. Every day you need one, too. There's so much we can do together...YOU HELP ME, AND I'LL HELP YOU!"
Emily Florio, Treasurer
Like many other people this year, I read The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt. While the length of the book is a bit daunting, I can assure you that it goes quickly and never drags on. The book follows Theo Decker through the serious trials and tribulations of his sad and unsettled upbringing and crazy unbalanced adulthood. The book is filled with art, friendship, family, mystery and intrigue and should be on everyone's to read lists.
Saskia Mehlhorn, Board Member
What if?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions by Randall Munroe. Not a book that can/should be read in one sitting, this is one of those books that gives fact based answers on VERY hypothetical questions. It is a hysterical read yet very informative.
Nancy Rine, Secretary
Still Life With Breadcrumbs by Anna Quindlen. I've been a fan of Anna Quindlen since she was a columnist for the New York Times and have read, and enjoyed, most of her novels. She writes with beautiful simplicity, empathy and insight about ordinary things. And she tells a good story. Her latest novel is about a woman, a once famous photographer, who starts a new life, driven by circumstances rather than choice. It's a book about getting older and the possibility of achieving new, unexpected success any age. It's about living the life that you create for yourself. I confess that coming-of-age books no longer interest me, but coming-of-middle-age, that's something else.....
Jean O'Grady, Past Chair
Island of Vice: Theodore Roosevelt's Doomed Quest to Clean Up Sin-Loving New York by Richard Zacks - This book tells a true ripping tale of a little known footnote in the history of New York City and an embarrassing chapter in Teddy Roosevelt's life. NYC has historically had a higher level of tolerance for vice than many cities in the US. After all it was founded by the Dutch not the Puritans. Ironically one of its late 19th century Dutch Brahmins, Theodore Roosevelt during his term as NYC Police Commissioner led an ill-fated crusade against alcohol. I am a fan of Teddy Roosevelt and I have read most of the major biographies of his life. All of these books focused on describing Roosevelt's corruption fighting term as NYC Police Commissioner. He caught the public imagination by cruising the streets of New York after midnight --- checking to see if policemen were at their posts, awake and sober. None of these biographies provided any serious treatment of the Roosevelt's decision to enforce the Sunday no-drinking law which was enacted in the rural New York State capital of Albany. The book contains a colorful cast of characters Reverend Parkhurst, Lincoln Steffens, Jacob Riis, Williams Jennings Bryant, Little Egypt, George Washington "honest graft" Plunkett and other Tammany Hall figures and vice fighting clergy. No surprise, the law didn't affect rich New Yorkers who were allowed to drink on Sunday in their private clubs. Inventive Irish and German bar owners studied the loopholes and attempted to evade the law by turning their saloons into private clubs, restaurants ( where the same sandwich would be set in front of every patron) or hotels ( by putting a bed in a closet). The book recounts a tale of unintended consequences. Enforcement of the "Sunday blue law" made criminals of ordinary citizens, increased vice and corruption and almost cost Roosevelt his political career.
Marcia Burris, Board Member
The Confidence Code by Katty Kay & Claire Shipman
HarperCollins 2014 - The Atlantic published an intriguing article in May 2014, "The Confidence Gap" which discussed evidence that women are held back professionally by a lack of confidence more than by lack of ability. While the article is very interesting on its own, it is actually excerpted from Kay & Shipman's book The Confidence Code, which explores what confidence is, how it affects our success, and how we get it. To answer these questions the authors present evidence from the varying perspectives of social studies, brain chemistry and genetics, childhood development, and wonderful anecdotes from the lives of successful women in sports, business and politics. It turns out male and female brains really are wired differently, but the impact is not what you may think! Along with the science, which is made very accessible even for less scientifically inclined readers, the book offer insights into why individuals vary so much in their confidence levels and how parents can help instill confidence in their children (hint: don't help so much!) and tips for gradually improving your own confidence. While the tips aren't really new, the fascinating scientific information presented makes the book well worth the read.
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