Tales and Cyber-Talk

Room, by Emma Donoghue

2011-11-11T07:22:00.000-08:00

"Imagine living within the confines of a 12x12 room, the only natural light coming from a skylight, a television your only link to the outside world. That’s just what Irish-Canadian novelist Emma Donoghue does in Room, a book so original and daring it recently landed on the longlist for the Man Booker Prize. To five-year-old Jack, Room is his entire world, where he was born and where he lives with Ma, where he learns and plays. It is also where, at night, Jack crawls into Wardrobe to sleep, and to hide when Old Nick visits his mother (when the bed squeaks). For Jack, Room is the only home he’s ever known, but for Ma it’s a prison where she’s been held captive for seven years after being abducted at the age of 19. If this sounds like the stuff of tabloids, luridly sensational or gimmicky, in Donoghue’s talented hands it’s anything but.Told from Jack’s perspective, Room turns the usual victim/survivor story on its head, transforming it into something else entirely—a meditation on the nature of reality and a testament to the ferocity of a mother’s love." (Bookpage Review, 9/2010)

From author Emma Donoghue: "Room is a book about the smallest of worlds, and the biggest.... In my experience, the bond between mother and newborn is a tiny, cozy world that gradually relaxes its magic to let the rest of the world in...Our culture is constantly telling stories about psychos who capture women. I deliberately kept my kidnapper out of the spotlight. The more I read and thought about it, the more it seemed to me that there is no comfortably fixed moral distance between a kidnapper and the rest of us. (The existence of entire slave-owning societies reminded me that humans often find it both convenient and pleasurable to own others.) It was not Old Nick’s evil that fascinated me, but the resilience of Ma and Jack: the nitty-gritties of their survival, their trick of more or less thriving under apparently unbearable conditions."

Tales and Talk book discussion group members found Donoghue's novel excellent fare for discussion. The following is a list of the questions we bandied about. Feel free to post more, elaborate with answers, and generally chime in on this fascinating book!

1. Why do you think she chose to tell this story from Jack’s point of view? (I.e. from the point of view of a 5 year old?)
2. Why do you think she never tells us anything about Old Nick? (E.g. his real name, his background, etc.)
3. Were you bothered that Ma had not weaned Jack? Why do you think she was still breastfeeding him at such a late age?
4. How would you have taught Jack the difference between “real” and “Outside” and “Room?”
5. What did you think about her father’s reaction to Jack?
6. What purpose does her being adopted serve in the story?

Twilight by Sara Meyer

2010-05-29T06:55:00.000-07:00

The May discussion groups found much fodder in Meyer's runaway Young Adult hit featuring vampire heart-throb Edward Cullen and his awkward object of desire Bella Swan. From dissecting the author's claim of inspiration by Pride and Prejudice to examining dismissive backlash against "Twi-hards" and their defense by feminists, discussion was lively and much remained to be said. We touched on such subjects as the increase in popularity of gothic fiction such as Wuthering Heights among young readers, and the possible impact of social networking on their desire for escapist fiction. We'd like to invite group members and other interested readers to weigh in with their thoughts here on the library blog. Also, Twilight is now available as one of our "Traveling Tales" selections.

In our discussion group, we approached Twilight on two levels: as a book and as a cultural phenomenon. Readers, what say you?

Starring Books Festival

2009-03-30T07:10:00.000-07:00

On April 18th the Johnson City Public Library is hosting Starring Books. The festival culminates with a book discussion by best-selling local author Lisa Alther at 2:00 p.m. in the Jones Meeting Room. Ms. Alther will talk about her latest book, KINFOLKS falling off the family tree, available for purchase at the library. Booklist Magazine starred review says of KINFOLKS: “Drolly hilarious and incisive, Alther attempts to decode family secrets, gets to know self-declared Melungeons, and considers her unexpected ties to Pocahontas, ultimately presenting a provocative take on the South’s obsession with skin color.”

Following the events at the library, the Friends of the Library will host a special “Dinner with the Author” at the Carnegie Hotel at 6:00 p.m. Tickets for the event are $30 each and are available for purchase at the library.

I'm finding Kinfolks to be lots of fun to read!

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

2008-08-18T10:59:00.000-07:00

Jacob Jankowski is a student at Cornell University with a promising future in veterinary medicine. That all changes when his parents are killed in a car accident. Grieving and unable to pay his college tuition, Jacob leaves school and joins the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth, a traveling circus. Jacob's job is to care for the animals in the circus menagerie, a task made more difficult by the abuses heaped upon the creatures by the circus's boss, August. Jacob forms a close relationship with an elephant, Rosie, whom he strives to protect from August. He also falls in love with August's lovely, abused wife Marlena. This atmospheric tale is based on actual circus stories and is documented with historical circus photographs. Have you read this book? Post a comment. You can also come to a discussion of the book as a member of Johnson City Library's Tales & Talk book group. For more information about Tales & Talk call the library at 434-4454 or come by the Reference Desk on the 2nd floor.

Book Discussion

2008-06-12T08:11:00.000-07:00

ON THE ROAD TO FREEDOM: A Guided Tour of the Civil Rights Trail by Charles E. Cobb Jr. Howard Zinn's recommendation: "Cobb was in the heart of the Southern movement and one of its keenest observers...His book is rich with history, drama, and emotion." Read about the marches, struggles and triumphs. The library will host a book discussion on Chapter 9. This discussion will be on Tuesday July 8 at 6:30 and will feature small group discussions and two speakers who will bring the Civil Rights movement full circle to Johnson City. Charles Cobb Jr. will visit Johnson City this winter. Come to the discussion and post a comment or even if you miss the discussion feel free to participate.

Book Discussion

2008-05-12T10:31:00.000-07:00

Revenge by Laura Blumenfeld
As a college student, Blumenfeld vowed to avenge the shooting of her father, a rabbi. Years later, as a Washington Post reporter covering many of the world's hot spots, she develops an obsessive curiosity about revenge. She uses the occasion of a one-year stay in Israel to find the Palestinian who tried to kill her father and to exact some kind of revenge. She saw Israel as an ideal place to study this most primitive of emotions, a land that "possessed an archaeology of revenge that layered all the way down to the beginning of time."

What does "revenge" mean to you?

Book Discussion

2008-04-15T13:50:00.000-07:00

The Echo Maker by Richard Powers is a powerful story. It won the 2006 National Book Award and was a 2007 Pulitzer Prize Finalist. William Kowinsky of Bookmarks wrote "The mysteries of perception and cognition, of normality and dysfunction of reality and dream -- all of them are louder echoes of the most pressing mystery that Powers begins to deal with: the neglected relationship of human beings with the rest of nature, as well as their own... there's an apocalyptic feel to The Echo Maker, with intimations of an imminent and unstoppable finality and of people dealing in their way with this fragility."

What does the title "The Echo Maker" mean to you?

Book Discussion

2008-03-03T12:07:00.000-08:00

What's Eating Gilbert Grape?
Have you read the book by Peter Hedges or seen the movie starring Johnny Depp and Leonardo Di Caprio?
Here's a reminder of the story:
"Grape is 24 and stuck in a rut. Trapped by feelings of responsibility to his eccentric family, he works bagging groceries in their small Iowa town. And what a family! At its core lies his beached whale of a mother; she never leaves her TV chair and clamors constantly for more food and cigarettes. There is Ellen, his maddeningly pubescent sister; 17-year-old retarded brother Arnie, whom Gilbert loves dearly; and his older sister Amy who devotes herself to keeping everyone happy. Gilbert is saved by a beautiful and strange girl who startles him into life. That such a creature would take an interest in an apparent loser like Gilbert requires the reader's willing suspension of disbelief; but with such appealingly funny writing, one is only too happy to oblige." Sheila Riley/Library Journal

Check out the Literature Resource Center to read what Richard Aleva says about the movie:
"...Yes, in Gilbert Grape, we do have that flat landscape and that dreary town and those dead-end jobs and a seemingly nonexistent future for our hero. But you also become aware that desolation and ugliness are just part of the fabric of Gilbert's life, and the movie is really about that entire fabric, with its elements of pity, comedy, lyricism, and nascent sexuality, as well as its boredom and squalor. Gilbert certainly does feel trapped by his "beached whale" of a mother (his description), his boring job in a grocery store, and his obligation to bathe his backward but all-too-energetic brother Arnie every night and to fetch him down from the water tower that he periodically climbs. But, sometimes through Gilbert's eyes and sometimes over his shoulder, we're looking at the flow of life in a particular place at a particular time. And, as life flows, it refuses to be labeled as "boring" or "wasteful" or even "charming." Life flows and sweeps away these categories..."

Have you felt stuck in your life? What do you think of Gilbert's relationship with his mother and his siblings?

Women's History Month @ JCPL

2008-02-11T14:35:00.000-08:00

Greetings, and thanks for coming to see what JCPL is working on now– the Library is using this internet resource to inform people about the planning and events we’re doing for Women’s History Month in March this year and in the future. You can use it to share your ideas and comments with us and each other. It’s also an easy way to inform other people you think might be interested in the Library’s activities and women’s issues in our region. I’m Lisa Williams, and I am doing planning for these events. I also work at the Reference Desk at the Library. Please feel free to contact me with questions or ideas that you have about the efforts discussed below, either by leaving a comment on the blog, via email (by clicking on my name under "Contributors"), or by calling the Reference Department at 434-4454.

JCPL has identified an opportunity for Northeast Tennessee to lead in the development of rich cultural resources in the topic of women’s history. Together with community partners – academic, business, and professional – JCPL wishes to explore avenues for the growth of our region’s strategic strengths: a combination of a unique history and talents and “our own story to tell.”

That story gives the Johnson City Public Library a unique bond with women’s history – the Library itself was founded by a small group of women who called themselves “the Monday Reading Club.” They were inspired by a trip to the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893, and determined upon their return a need for “reference books” to further their studies and a desire to help their community. In this Johnson City’s Library is not unique; most public libraries in the U.S. were founded by women with similar commitments. Learn more about the odyssey of these local cultural pioneers here (link forthcoming), in a presentation created by JCPL Librarian Gail Campbell.

Events at JCPL in 2008 will feature an exhibition of items from the collection of the Archives of Appalachia at East Tennessee State University, through the assistance of Dr. Roberta Herrin, and archivists Norma Myers and Ned Irwin. The pieces included will feature an emphasis on visually striking images that reflect a diversity in women’s lives in Tennessee from roughly the post-Civil War era to mid Twentieth century. This exhibit will be free and open to the public. This presentation of items from the Archives will help increase public awareness of the many historical treasures preserved there, which are accessible to the general public for research purposes.

Additionally, JCPL will host an invitational luncheon, “Women’s History Celebration,” on March 25th, with keynote speaker Sandy Treadway, state Librarian of Virginia. Sandy will discuss the Library of Virginia’s commitments and activities with women’s history in Virginia; afterwards JCPL Director Nelson Worley and event facilitator Lisa Williams will present ideas for program implementation by the Johnson City Public Library and discuss these with the luncheon participants. Among the programs under consideration:

Ø A Memorial Awards program/foundation – to create awards in recognition of women who have been instrumental in recent local history, to be awarded to select women of promise each year
Ø A “memory project” or museum – either bricks and mortar, virtual or some combination of both
Ø Expanding the current exhibit into a touring show, with collateral catalogue raisonné and print materials, memorabilia for sale
Ø Open access E-journal of women’s history/women’s studies under the auspices of SPARC (Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition) incubator program
Ø Author talks/lecture series at Millennium Center
Ø Cooperative education opportunities with local institutions

Book Discussion

2007-12-27T08:45:00.000-08:00

To start off our book discussion let’s read Martin Luther King, Jr’s Strength to Love. Book reviewer Michael J. Mazza writes: “If you want to experience King’s insight and power as a writer, read Strength to Love. This collection of sermons is an excellent summation of the philosophy he developed as a Christian clergyman, social critic, and advocate for the African-American community.”
What do you think?

Blog Guidelines

2007-11-19T09:18:00.000-08:00

Guidelines for Johnson City Public Library's Tales & Cyber-Talk blog.

1. Tales & Cyber-Talk is an online forum for Johnson City Public Library patrons and staff members to discuss their favorite fiction and non-fiction books. Library staff members contribute reviews, essays, and news items about titles in the Library's collection and raise ideas, questions, and concerns for discussion.

2. To participate in the discussion, leave a comment at the end of a "post" or blog entry. Most posts are books reviews. They provide the content of the blog and are published in reverse chronological order. In a comment, you respond to a review by

sharing your thoughts about a book,
offering points for discussion,
providing links to other resources, or
suggesting similar titles or authors.

Click here for more information about how to leave comment.

3. All comments will be reviewed by the weblog administrators prior to publication. Inappropriate comments will be deleted.

4. In order to protect your privacy, please refrain from including such personally identifiable information as telephone numbers, addresses, e-mail addresses or photographs in your comments.

5. Please limit your comments to text only. Any text, artwork or photographs that may be under copyright should not be submitted. Include a source for quotations (author and/or title). A full "academic" citation is not necessary.

6. Do not use profane, obscene, or otherwise offensive language.

7. Please be respectful of other contributors. The posting of deliberately hostile or insulting messages ("flaming") will not be tolerated.

8. The purpose of this blog is to discuss books, therefore, please do not promote any product or service or any non-library event (examples include self-published and commercial books; poetry readings and other public programs; and editing, tutoring and other professional services).

9. All comments must conform to the Johnson City Public Library's Internet Access Policy.

10. If you consistently fail to follow these guidelines, your comments will be blocked by the blog administrator.

About this blog

2007-10-17T12:13:00.000-07:00

Tales and Cyber-Talk is an online forum for Johnson City Public Library patrons and staff members to discuss their favorite fiction and non-fiction books. Library staff members contribute reviews, essays, and news items about titles in the Library's collection and raise ideas, questions, and concerns for discussion.

To join the discussion, leave a comment at the end of a "post" or book review. Share your thoughts about the book, offer points for discussion, provide links to other resources, or make recommendations of similar authors and titles. All comments will be monitored by the weblog administrators. Inappropriate comments will be deleted. Have fun discussing but please respect the views of others and treat people with courtesy.

This blog is hosted by Blogger, a third-party, non-Library service, and utilizes del.icio.us, also a third-party, non-Library service, for indexing purposes. Johnson City Public Library is only responsible for the unique content of the Tales and Cyber-Talk blog. The Library does not control and is not responsible for other information and hyperlinks provided by Blogger or del.icio.us.