A Girl Named Stanley

You would think that as much hullabaloo we've heard about our current president concerning his birth and religious preferences, we would have heard a little bit more about the woman who gave life to such a controversial president. During Obama's run for the presidency we heard about her struggles with her insurance company as she fought for her life. We also heard about her struggles as a single mother on food stamps raising a bi-racial son with the help of her parents. Yet we didn't hear about the passionate exotic independent life she led. And what a life she did lead!

Before I read "A Singular Woman" I thought that I was a lot like Ann in the sense that I was a struggling single mother who relied on the kindness of her family to help her raise her sons, and who also, like Ann, struggled with insurance coverage. However when I began to read about this extraordinary woman, I realized that we had very little in common save for the struggles of single parenthood.

A Singular Woman, written by Janny Scott, gives us a unique picture of Stanley Ann, a strong-willed, yet impulsive, financially stressed, yet philanthropic, woman of the late 20th century who admittedly made many mistakes in her personal life, yet never gave up her dream of doing what she felt was most important, giving her children a good education and integrity.

With success however there sometimes comes a price, Stanley Ann's life was rocky, often lonely, riddled with not only stormy marriages but heartache because she spent a great deal of time being absent in her son's life.(Which as a mother I find that to be reprehensible) Ann did adore Barack and Maya, however she was more passionate about her anthropological work in Indonesia than she was about parenting and wifery. Even though I feel one should have more passion for parenting your children than anything else I cannot deny that she wasn't a brilliant woman who contributed significantly to female equality.

A Singular Woman lacks the presence of Obama and how he felt about the choices his mother made and what effect that had on him. My hope is that President Obama will write a more detailed autobiography later and discuss the major role his mother played in his life.

In the end whether you agree with her choices or her politics, Stanley Ann Dunham led a life worth reading about even if she not been mother to an American president. She was not your typical girl from the American Midwest. The girl named Stanley, like the "Boy named Sue", learned to think for herself and ignore the constraints of the norm. She sprang from generations of mavericks and had the courage to carve out her own history.

Grace in the 5th Quarter

If you're attracted by high-tech special effects and big Hollywood names, then the Grace Card and 5th Quarter might not be the movies for you, but if you're interested in watching films that's are profound as well as spiritual then you definitely will not want to pass these two movies up. One movie is based on true events, the other sends a message that most of us need to acknowledge-FORGIVENESS. Both deal with tragedy and grief but in very different ways.

In the Grace Card Mac McDonald loses his young son in a tragic accident, and his life spirals down from that moment. As the years pass, he becomes bitter, estranged from his family, his career as a law enforcement officer suffers and he allows his grief to become bottled-up anger that leads him on a path to self destruction.

As a final straw Mac is forced to pair up with Sam, an African-American pastor who took the job as a police officer to pay the bills, though his true dream is to do full-time ministry. Their relationship is tense and neither understands quite why their paths intersected. When tragedy strikes, the design becomes apparent and both men realize that nothing happens by mistake. What is the lesson to be learned here? Forgiveness is free and should be given to everyone-Give them the Grace Card.


"For the entire history of mankind everyone is born and everyone dies. You think we'd have learned to handle it, but we don't." The 5th Quarter is the true story of how the Abbate family comes to terms with the most profound of losses, and how a team(Wake Forest Football) rallies around a teammate's love for his brother. This is more then a sports movie, it is a film about dealing with loss and grief in a positive way. It is a movie that everyone can relate to simply because at some point we all will lose someone we love dearly and even though we know this we are still never quite prepared for when it happens.

Keep the Kleenex close by for these two movies.

A Stolen Life

Jaycee Dugaard's nightmare began when she was abducted while walking up a hill to her school bus on June 10, 1991, when she was 11 years old. It ended when her abductors, Phillip and Nancy Garrido, were asked eighteen years later to attend a parole meeting August 26, 2009, after two UC Berkeley's campus officers became suspicious of Garrido when he appeared on campus with Jaycee's young daughters. Their unusual behavior sparked an investigation that led to the positive identification of Jaycee Lee Dugard, living in a tent behind Garrido's home.

A Stolen life is Jaycee's story of how she, beginning at the age of 11, confronted 18 years of evil by doing what she had to do to survive mentally and emotionally. Her story is told with unflinching detail. It is a harsh book to read. Jaycee leaves nothing to the imagination with her ordeal at the hands of the evil Garridos. There were some parts in the book where I thought I just couldn't go on, but I'd put the book down and reflect and then pick it back up and carry on. Jaycee's story is a testament to the natural instinct that lies inside all of us to survive no matter what the cost.

I have read so many bad reviews on this book, that I have to write a good one. Some have complained about the writing being too repetitive and grammatically flawed, some of it sounding too much like a fairy tale ending(really?) . Some have said that no one who endured such atrocities could survive without having major issues and that the real story hasn't been told.(How much worse could it get?) And last but not least some have bashed her for not trying to escape.(Why this was even mentioned in a book review is beyond me)


My Rebuttal
Jaycee and Simon and Schuster for whatever reason decided she should write her story in her own words.(And we should remember that she had only a 5th grade education). For those reviewers who say it seems too fake with a feel good ending, well there was a feel good ending for Jaycee and her family, she was found alive. And lastly for those of you who question why she did not try to escape, let's take ourselves back to when we were 11 and how most of us were afraid of the dark. One never knows what one will do until they are faced with the same situation.(Would you have survived?) I do believe most critics have forgotten to ask the big question,”Was there anything to be learned from this work?” With "a Stolen Life," the answer is a resounding yes. For anybody who has ever felt insignificant, overlooked, or powerless to break out of a trap or find his or her own brand of happiness, (which is most of us) courage is a lesson in perseverance. Jaycee has survived her ordeal, she has told her story and we should rejoice in that fact. Her story gives us hope that miracles do exist.

Red Glove

The Curse Worker's series is perfect! I just finished Red Glove, and NEED the third book! NOW!
Holly Black created a world where curse workers can manipulate, kill, transform, or hurt you with a single touch. Cassel Sharpe happens to be the only non-worker in a family of mobster workers. He's an outcast with a murderous and confusing past, yet tries to make up for it with his con-man finesse. When he starts being lead in his dreams to see that his past was a con in itself, he can no longer lead the normal life he was trying for and may have to go against the only people he thought he could trust.
It's a thrill-ride that will keep you guessing, a love story that will make you want to throw the book against the wall, and a fabulously original idea that will leave you aching for more!

Reviewed by Erin Reifsnider
Young Adult Coordinator

The Swiss Courier by Tricia Goyer and Mike Yorkey

I have a confession to make. I normally avoid historical fiction like a passion. Usually, the authors put so many historical details in the books that it detracts from the story line and plot. I am so glad I checked out this book!

It is a gripping story about WWII with fascinating disclosures and background information that most people don’t know about. The book is a fast-paced thriller reminiscent of the highly popular 24 television series with plot twists and pulsating action and the plot KEPT ME RIVETED.

The authors have the right combination of history and intrique. It was fascinating to learn more about Switzerland’s role in WWII, the newly formed American Office of Strategic Services in that country which was the forerunner to the CIA. If only history teachers would weave tales like this, more students would become history lovers.

Kathy Stutzman
Public Relations Manager

Ship Breaker

I am always looking for the next book to put into someone's hands who can't get over the fast-paced, adventure of The Hunger Games. Similar plot lines have been written, female archer fighting to survive in a post-apocalyptic world. Yet, it is not one of these books which I put into the hands of these book lovers, but rather the 2010 Printz winning novel, Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi. With a dose of Treasure Island like adventure/survival, a dash of Hunger Games apocalyptic intrigue, a pinch of Dickens coming-of-age, and a whole lot of originality, Ship Breaker is a timeless story.

On the American Gulf coast, Nailer lives in a ship-breaking beach community. From a young age, children are trained in how to strip an old ship of all of its useful materials. It's dirty, risky and dangerously competitive. Nailers luck seems to have changed when he finds a “swank” boat washed up after a huge storm. Inside the boat, however, is a girl- A girl who could get in the way of his fortune if kept alive. This book sparks questions of ethical “what would you do's?” in a future world not un-like our own. Teens will be interested to find that ship-breaking is occurring in some impoverished coastal communities!

Reviewed by Erin Reifsnider
Young Adult Coordinator

Pegasus National Bestselling Author: Robin McKinley

YA SF MCK

I enjoy reading fantasy fiction written for all ages. Robin Mckinley is one of my favorite writers. In the past I have read the 1998 Phoenix Award honor book, Beauty: a Retelling of the Story of Beauty and the Beast, the 1985 Newbery Medal winner The Hero and the Crown and a 1983 Newbery Honor book, The Blue Sword, both about the magical country of Damar. Just recently I bought and quickly devoured Robin McKinley’s novel, Sunshine, that had won the 2004 Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Adult Literature. I then placed on hold Pegasus at my library when I realized we had a copy here.

I have discovered that Robin McKinley always excels at creating a well-developed fantasy realm. In her Wikipedia biography Robin grew up as an only child with a father in the United State Navy. She moved around frequently and read copiously. She remembers events, places, and time periods by what books she read where. She read the Chronicles of Narnia for the first time in New York and the Lord of the Rings for the first time in Japan.

Many of her strong heroines reflect qualities that the she saw in herself as a young woman: clumsiness, plainness, bookishness, and disinterest in the usual social games that involve flirting and dating. She believes that most girls go through a time growing up when they believe they are in fact lost princesses, switched at birth. Biographer Marilyn H. Karrenbrock stated, “McKinley’s females do not simper, they do not betray their own nature to win a man’s approval. But neither do they take love lightly or put their own desires before anything else. In McKinley’s books, the romance, like the adventure, is based upon ideals of faithfulness, duty, and honor.” I found her animal characters to be memorable well-detailed, intelligent individuals.

In this novel, Pegasus, Princess Sylvi is ceremonially bound to Ebon, her own Pegasus, on her twelfth birthday as part of a thousand-year-old alliance between humans and pegasi. Amazingly, Sylvi and Ebon are able to communicate and truly understand each other, without relying on specially trained “speaker” magicians to translate. Secretly, Ebon introduced petite Sylvi to the joys of flying at night on his back. He also arranged for Sylvi to visit his homeland and to see the pegasi caves as a special 16th birthday gift. Alliance rules normally only allow the pegasi to visit the humans country. As a result of the rare three-week life-changing visit, Sylvi becomes her nation’s pegasi expert. But she is unsure of how to share what she has experienced and learned as the unique closeness of the bond between Sylvi and Ebon seems to threaten the peaceful status quo--and possibly the future safety of their two nations.

At the end of Pegasus I was left with many questions. A disgraced, power hungry “speaker” magician, Fthoom, uncovers an historical parchment document about the reign of King Ascur II, during which there was an invasion of enemy forces made up of taralians, norindours, ladons and wyverns, led by rocs. Supposedly, rocs speak truth when dying. The parchment recorded that a dying roc was overheard crying out, “the blood and breath of each [race] is poisonous to the other” over time, and the bodies of your two races “are dying of it” as the ties grow closer together. Was Fthoom lying? Many in the king’s Court fear that the two nations may not survive the escalating violent, border attacks by these old enemies again --especially if the growing bond between Sylvi and Ebon and other human-pegasi partnerships are allowed to flourish. Are the magicians holding back key information or doing things that hold back and/or jeopardize a closer, more equitable relationship between the two nations?

Regrettably I must wait almost a year for the publication of Pegasus II in 2012 to discover if the friendship of Sylvi and Ebon will end or survive in the face of the impending crisis facing their nations.

Meanwhile, I plan to read some of Robin McKinley’s other titles. I’ve got her books, Chalice and Dragonhaven, on my “to read” list. She is married to author Peter Dickinson. I may also explore the two short story collections they wrote together, Fire and Water. I look forward to many more hours of great fantasy reading.

What authors have you enjoyed reading over the years? Who has always produced a good read time and again? I plan to explore a few of my favorites with you soon. Until then, enjoy reading.

Ann Zydek
Library Director