Featured Selections

Code Talker

by Chester Nez
Native American History
Berkeley Trade
Paperback, 320 pages
$16.00

Chester Nez died last week at age 93. He was the last of the Navajo “code talkers” who stumped the Japanese code breakers in the Pacific Theater during WWII. They created the only unbroken code in modern warfare. Chester Nez was not his real name. Ironically, that was a name given to him at “Indian School” at Fort Defiance where he was punished for using his native language. “All those years, telling you not to speak Navajo, and then to turn around and ask us for help with that same language,” he told USA Today in 2002, “It still kind of bothers me.”  It’s a fascinating and compelling story. One of the best to come out of WWII.

The Orenda

by Joseph Boyden
Historical Fiction
Knopf
Hardcover, 448 pages
$26.95

This is Canadian author Joseph Boyden's third novel, and it is written with a sense of artful savage beauty. Boyden’s compassion for all his characters invites us to acknowledge the wholeness of the life force that Native Canadians call “the orenda”: a unity encompassing cruelty and kindness, ignorance and understanding, inevitable sorrow and joy the more precious for the knowledge of “where we all must journey” in the end.

This amazing journey is told through the eyes of three main characters: the Wendat warrior Bird; Snow Falls, the Iroquois girl he takes as his daughter after killing her family; and Christophe, one of the Jesuit priests derisively termed “crows” by the natives “for the way they hop around and peck at dead or dying things.” Epidemic, drought, crop blight, Western muskets and Catholic missions fatally interact to provoke the novel’s violent climax. This is not an easy or fast read, but you will hang on to every perfectly placed word as you travel on this emotional and tragic journey.

Natchez Burning

by Greg Iles
General Fiction
William Morrow
Hardcover, 800 pages
$27.99

It has been five years since we have seen a new Greg Iles book. At 800 pages, this novel, with Penn Cage and his family as the central characters, provides an intense and gripping racial history of the American South from the early 1960’s to 2005. This book is the first of a trilogy and Iles spins a complicated tale leaving the reader breathless and hungry, wondering what will happen in the next book. An Oscar Wilde quote from the book sums things up really well; “The truth is rarely pure and never simple.”

Everything I Need to Know I Learned From a Little Golden Book

by Diane Muldrow
Humor
Little Golden Books
Hardcover, 96 pages
$9.99

One of our all-time favorite childhood books was The Poky Little Puppy by Janette Lowrey. It is a story of enormous moral consequence involving misbehavior, prevarication and, finally, the loss of dessert. That is one of the real-life situations covered in the 70-plus-year-old (published, perhaps not coincidentally, in the year of our birth) Little Golden Books series. Muldrow, the series' long-time editor, takes the life lessons embedded in the stories and, in a nostalgic and uplifting way, brings them up-to-date as a self-help text. Hokey? Maybe. But the illustrations are worth the $9.99 and the walk down Memory Lane.

The Keillor Reader

by Garrison Keillor
Humor
Viking Adult
Hardcover, 400 pages
$27.95

“Aunt Flo would sit down by my mother and she’d give us the dirt that the local paper couldn’t report. We enjoyed hearing these things. We were good Christian people and we believed in forgiveness but meanwhile we liked to know exactly what it was we were forgiving them for.” That’s a dose of vintage Garrison Keillor! This paragon of “Minnesota Nice” captivates us again with his folksy descriptions of people (maybe us!) facing the hardships and boredoms of everyday life in these parts. Some of it is just odd-ball stuff like the boy’s failed attempt to scatter his grandmother’s remains by putting them inside a hollowed-out bowling ball and then dropping them from a great height via para sail. But, it’s all funny – or, at least, amusing!

The Once and Future World: Nature As It Was, As It Is, As It Could Be

by J.B. Mackinnon
Reflections on Nature
Random House
Hardcover, 272 pages
$19.99

This book was a finalist for the Sigurd Olson Nature Writing Award.
 
Having just returned from a visit to Rapa Nui (Easter Island), our earlier reading of J.B. MacKinnon’s meditation on the state of the natural world has resolved to crystal clarity. Rapa Nui is a microcosm of MacKinnon’s worldview. Humans first arrived there in the first millennium AD. By 1722, when the first Europeans arrived, its lush, pristine ecosystem had already been devastated and its Polynesian civilization left in ruins. The Europeans, needless to say, continued and extended that process. 
 
MacKinnon begins by asking us to, “Picture the first place you thought of as nature.”  He then goes on to show how, by the “shifting baseline syndrome” or “change blindness,” that picture is illusory and the result of a long history of human transformation. By 1492, which we often take as the baseline, every corner of the Americas had been radically changed by its native populations. Each generation comes to assume that the “nature” it grows up with is the normal state. And so it goes like the proverbial frog in a pot of warming water.
 
MacKinnon claims that what is left is a “10% world” – that the variety of species, their number, and the range that they occupy are 10% of what they used to be. What’s more, the loss of each species results in a “double disappearance” – that is the loss that occurs to us by the extinction or extirpation of a critter with which we have interacted. His prescription is to “…remember, reconnect and rewild." This is a sobering book, but the elegance of its prose is a pleasure to read.
 

End of Night

by Paul Bogard
Reflections on Nature
Little Brown & Company
Hardcover, 336 pages
$27.00

This book was a finalist for the Sigurd Olson Nature Writing Award.
 
Paul Bogard takes us on a progressively darkening tour of the night sky going from the brightest point on the planet – Las Vegas’ Luxor Beam – to one of the darkest – the Great Basin National Park also, interestingly, in Nevada. Bogard’s premise is that light pollution is more and more alienating us from the beauty and importance of the night sky. His metrics are horrifying! He projects that 80% of children born in the US today will never know a night dark enough to see the Milky Way and that for 75% of us our eyes never switch to night vision.
 
Bogard has roots in the north having been born in Minneapolis and spending time in northern Wisconsin where his love for the night sky grew and set. He even had a stint at Northland College. There, in the Apostle Islands and some places along the south shore of Lake Superior, the Milky Way blazes across the sky, the northern lights shimmer, and the moon casts its own light and shadows. The range of Bogard’s exploration is worldwide and his prose is a deep pleasure. Witness:
 

Ellie's Log: Exploring the Forest Where the Great Tree Fell

by Judith L. Li
Children's Activities
Oregon State University Press
Paperback, 112 pages
$16.95

This book was a finalist for the Sigurd Olson Nature Writing Children's Award.

We really liked Ellie’s Log for how it artfully combines adventure, storytelling and scientific inquiry. The story is related as fiction but is clearly designed to convey factual information about the forest ecosystem. After a huge tree falls in the forest behind her home during a winter storm, eleven-year-old Ellie and her new friend, Ricky, explore the forest where Ellie lives. Together, they learn how trees provide habitat for plants and animals high in the forest canopy, down among mossy old logs, and deep in the pools of a stream. The plants, insects, birds, and mammals they discover come to life in colored pen-and-ink drawings. Ellie’s father is the U.S. Forest Service forest manager, and her mother is a naturalist so they help Ellie and Ricky identify and explain what they see. However, the two children also demonstrate how to consult appropriate references and explore on their own. 
 
The narrative alone could be a bit a bit dry for young readers, but it is artfully supplemented with excerpts from Ellie’s own field notebook. Ellie’s drawings and notes are distinctly colorful and childlike, and they create an inspiring model for any young person wanting to explore and record their observations in nature. 
 
Ellie’s Log also features book recommendations and online resources for readers and teachers—including a Teacher’s Guide—which are available at the companion website.
 
One caution is that Ellie’s Log is set in the Pacific Northwest, so, while the book generally models good nature journaling, children living in environments very different than the one detailed in the book, might not find it as helpful.

This Is A Moose

by Richard T. Morris
Childrens
Little Brown Books for Kids
Hardcover, 48 pages
$18.00

When a movie director tries to capture the life of a moose on film, he’s in for a big surprise. It turns out the moose has a dream bigger than just being a moose–he wants to be an astronaut and go to the moon. His forest friends step in to help him, and action ensues. Lots of action. Like a lacrosse-playing grandma, a gigantic slingshot into space, and a flying, superhero chipmunk.

In this hilarious romp, Richard T. Morris and bestselling illustrator Tom Lichtenheld remind us to dream big and, when we do, to aim for the moon.

Serpent of Venice

by Christopher Moore
General Fiction
William Morrow
Hardcover, 336 pages
$26.99

What do you get when you stitch Othello, The Merchant of Venice, and “The Cask of Amontillado” together? Well, you get this absurd adventure in which Pocket, the royal fool introduced in Moore’s Fool (2009), is lured to Venice, where he thinks he’ll be having a fun time with the beautiful Portia, but where three men (including a man named Iago) are actually planning to murder him. To some, the idea of combining two Shakespeare plays and an Edgar Allan Poe short story might be vaguely chilling, but in Moore's usual ways, he creates genius!

If you’re the kind of reader who insists Shakespeare is untouchable, then this novel will probably annoy you on principle. On the other hand, if you’re a fan of Moore’s brand of history-mangling humor, you’ll dive right in with a big grin on your face. We think the grins win in the end.

One Summer: America 1927

by Bill Bryson
History
Anchor Press
Paperback, 544 pages
$16.95

It was the summer that Babe Ruth hit 60 home runs, much of the country was engulfed by a catastrophic flood, Jack Dempsey lost the famous “long count” fight to Gene Tunney, the world’s leading bankers made the policy adjustment that would do so much to bring down Wall Street in 1929, “The Jazz Singer” was released, an American audience got its first public demonstration of television, work started on Mount Rushmore, Sacco and Vanzetti were executed, and Henry Ford stopped making Model T’s. And oh, yes, most of the world went mad over a 25-year-old prodigy named Charles Lindbergh, who flew a flimsy plane to Paris from New York.

All this and much, much more transpired in that epic summer of 1927, and Bill Bryson captures its personalities, exciting events, and occasional just plain weirdness with his trademark vividness, eye for detail, and delicious humor. In that year America stepped out onto the world stage as the main event, and One Summer transforms it all into narrative nonfiction of the highest order.

70% Water

by Rob Ganson
Poetry/Local Interest
Little Big Bay, LLC
Paperback, 242 pages
$15.95

70% Water is a book in the tradition of the activist-poet - the spoken word advocate. While encompassing the human condition; the inner workings of the poet-citizen; nature; even love; it also paints a picture of an area under attack by mining interests and corrupt politicians. The Penokee Hills sit atop the great divide in far Northern Wisconsin. Its watershed feeds streams and rivers that feed Lake Superior, and an aquifer that supplies pure drinking water. More than anything, this book is about the efforts of a wordslinger to save that water; to protect Native Americans living downstream; and to safeguard 10% of the planet's fresh water.

Ways of Going Home

by Alejandro Zambra
General Fiction
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Hardcover, 160 pages
$23.00

At first blush this is a slight book – just 5” x 9” and 160 pages of fairly loose type. But deeper within it is the haunting story of the Pinochet legacy upon the generation of Chileans who were children or yet unborn (as in the case of Zambra) on September 11, 1973. Its four chapters swing back and forth between the “story” and the life of the author writing it. The boy is a 9-year-old living under the dictatorship with his family in a 1980’s suburb of Santiago. He is drawn into a mysterious intrigue by a 12-year-old girl with whom he has become infatuated. The novelist appears in the second chapter and, curiously, his life bears uncanny resemblance to that of the fictional boy. The stories wind themselves around each other and fuse until it is difficult to see where one begins and the other ends. Fundamental is the novelist’s point that, at the deepest level, revision is inherent in every description of one’s past. “That’s why we lie so much in the end," he says.

The Wildwood Chronicles

by Colin Meloy
Middle Readers
Balzer + Bray
Hardcover, 592 pages
$17.99

Are your middle readers looking for another series to hold their attention? Author Colin Meloy, in collaboration with illustrator Carson Ellis, have created a trilogy to be enjoyed by all ages!

Prue McKeel is keeping out of trouble. Or trying to. Then her baby brother is abducted by crows and hauled off to the woods beyond the city. It is up to Prue to bring him back. On her mission she is plunged into the world of Wildwood and there she meets more trouble - and magic - than she ever thought possible.

This adventurous trilogy, set in modern day Portland, begins with Wildwood, and Under Wildwood. Wildwood Imperium is the third and final installment.

We Need New Names

by NoViolet Bulwayo
General Fiction
Reagan Arthur Books
Hardcover, 304 pages
$25.00

NoViolet Bulawayo grew up in Zimbabwe and emigrated to the US at 18 to study law. The photo image of a child sitting atop the rubble of his bull-dozed home in her home country changed her mind and this debut novel is the result. The story is told from the perspective of a ten-year-old girl “Darling” who roams her corner of Zimbabwe with her posse of Bastard, Chipo, Godknows, Sbho and Stina stirring-up adventures each of which is a metaphor for the condition of her failing country under the rule of the aging Robert Mugabe. The writing is lyrical and captivating as Darling then finds herself an immigrant in “Destroyedmichygen” with a new posse of Nigerian and African-American girlfriends. Widely praised and prized, the book was shortlisted for the 2013 Man Booker Prize.

Brown Dog

by Jim Harrison
Short Stories/Anthologies
Grove Press
Hardcover, 448 pages
$27.00

Summer in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula (the “UP”) has been described as “three months of bad sledding." Brown Dog, “BD”, a bawdy, free-spirited, down-on-his-luck, maybe Native American lives there and is the protagonist of six novellas (one newly published here) that Harrison has written over the years. Harrison came from just south of that country and grew up there in Hemingwayesque style. In Harrison’s hands, BD becomes an everyman stuck in the grind, but defiantly alive and profane. His first caper is the discovery, deep in Lake Superior, of the perfectly preserved body of an Indian that he fantasizes might be that the father he never knew. He measures every expense by its equivalent in six-packs, but he spends his life trying in his way to keep himself and his family safe, sheltered, warm and fed. There’s a rough charm to it and it’s not for everybody, but Harrison fans are a special breed.

The Monuments Men

by Robert M. Edsel
History
Center Street
Paperback, 512 pages
$16.99

The movie is pedestrian at best, but the book is quite good. While the story needed to be told neither the book nor the movie knock it out of the park.  But, what a great untold story it is!  The bottom line is that the Nazis (and Hitler himself and his pal Goering), in addition to their well-known atrocities, were common, vulgar thieves on a vast scale.
 
Grand Theft Art! Trainload after trainload left France filled with the art objects stolen from the Jewish aristocracy of Paris, the patrimony of the French state, and churches throughout Western Europe. The movie concentrated on this sexier element of the story and the eclectic unit of the Allied forces that was tasked to find and return the treasure.
 
 An equally or, perhaps, more interesting, task for the Monuments Men was the safeguarding of historic artifacts – churches, monuments, buildings and so on – in the heat of battle as the allies moved across Europe and into Germany. The trade-offs between the military exigencies and the cultural objectives create interesting tensions and tricky decision-making stories. Lives or art?  Definitely worth reading.

Stillwater

by Nicole Helget
General Fiction
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Hardcover, 336 pages
$24.00

Clement and Angel are fraternal twins separated at birth; they grow up in the same small, frontier logging town of Stillwater, Minnesota. Clement was left at the orphanage. Angel was adopted by the town’s richest couple, but is marked and threatened by her mother’s mental illness. They rarely meet, but Clement knows if he is truly in need, Angel will come to save him.

Stillwater reveals the hardscrabble lives of pioneers, nuns, native women, fur trappers, loggers, runaway slaves and freedmen, outlaws and people of conscience, all seeking a better, freer, more prosperous future. It is a novel about mothers, about siblings, about the ways in which we must take care of one another and let go of one another. And it’s brought to us in Nicole Helget’s winning, gorgeous prose.