Book of the Week #16

Citizens of London: The Americans Who Stood with Britain in its Darkest, Finest Hour by Lynne Olson (NY: Random House, 2010)

From Lynne Olson's website:

Citizens of London is the engrossing behind-the-scenes story of how the United States and Britain forged their crucial wartime alliance, as seen from the viewpoint of three key American players in London. Drawing from a wide variety of primary sources, Olson depicts the personal journeys of these men, who, determined to save Britain from Hitler, helped convince a cautious Franklin Roosevelt and reluctant American public to back the British at a critical time.

The three – Edward R. Murrow, the handsome, chain-smoking head of CBS News
in Europe; Averell Harriman, the hard-driving millionaire who ran FDR’s Lend-Lease program in London; and John Gilbert Winant, the shy, idealistic U.S. Ambassador to Britain – formed close ties with Winston Churchill and were drawn
into Churchill’s official and family circles. So intense were their relationships with the Churchills that all of them were involved romantically with members of the prime minister’s family: Harriman and Murrow with Churchill’s daughter-in-law, Pamela, and Winant with his favorite daughter, Sarah.

Citizens of London, however, is more than the deeply human story of these three Americans and the world leaders they aided and influenced. It’s a compelling account of the transformative power of personal diplomacy. Above all, it’s a rich, panoramic tale of two cities: Washington, D.C., a lazy Southern town slowly growing into a hub of international power, and London, a staid, class-conscious capital transformed by war into a vibrant cosmopolitan metropolis, humming with energy, romance, excitement, and danger.

John Gilbert Winant was a graduate of St. Paul's School and later taught there. He served a brief term in the NH House of Representatives. In 1920 he was elected to the NH Senate. In 1924 he won election as Governor and served three terms before FDR nominated him as the 1st American representative to the International Labor Organization in Geneva.

And the winners are ...

The 2010 New Hampshire Letters About Literature competition received 684 entries in the from New Hampshire students. Of these, 47 letters were selected as New Hampshire LAL Semi-Finalists. From those 47 letters a panel of NH judges selected these three as the winners:

• A letter to Judy Blume from Kristin Chan , a fifth grader at Infant Jesus School (Nashua, NH), was selected as 2010 Level I NH winner.
• Lauren Kiessling , an student at Haverhill Cooperative Middle School, wrote the 2010 Level II NH winning letter to Jodi Picoult.
• Sarah Schott, a student at Belmont High School wrote the letter that was selected as the 2010 Level III NH winner. She did not give us permission to publish her letter.

The 2010 NH Letters About Literature judges were: Georgeanne Boyd, a teacher at Plymouth Regional HS; Walter Butts, NH Poet Laureate; Ann Hoey, Youth Services Coordinator, NH State Library; author Lita Judge; Albert McKeon, a reporter at The Telegraph; and Christopher Rose, a teacher at the Mary A. Fisk School.

Book of the Week #15

The Gift of an Ordinary Day: A Mother's Memoir by Katrina Kenison (NY: Springboard Press, 2009)

This book is a chronicle of Katrina Kenison's experience of her sons' increasing independence as they grow up and move away. It is also about perspective generally, and how we--as human beings, mothers or not--might find beauty amidst the ordinary in our lives.

"Finally, we reach the spot where the river bends and the view opens up to marshes and mountains. One golden day last fall, I came into this clearing in time to see two moose lumbering up out of the water after a swim. Today, the roiling water is dark and uninviting; the soaked landscape, empty, devoid of color and life. We are suspended between seasons, like becalmed sailors waiting for wind. It used to be that these cold patchy-snow weeks of in-between time would fill me with discontent, so easger was I for spring, for the warmth of the sun and and the turn of the season, for good footing and new, green life. For whatever might be next. But on this damp, wind-tossed afternoon, what I feel is not my old restless yearning for something else, but a new, unfamiliar patience. Why rush the passing of time? Why long for a future that can't be foretold, only to miss the muddy magnificence of now?
Perhaps it takes a lifetime to really learn to live fully in the moment, but there is no better classroom than the raw, damp month of April in New Hampshire. As soon as I stop wishing for things to be different, I am met by the beauty of what is--a country road slick with rain, the first tiny coils of sweet fern, tender and delicate as question marks, poking up through the hummusy leaf rot on the forest floor." (p.284-5)

Dublin Shortlist Announced

On April 12th, 2010 at 11.00am in Dublin, Ireland the shortlist of the 2010 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award was announced.
The shortlist of 8 titles was selected from a total of 156 novels nominated by 163 public library systems (including the NH State Library) in 123 cities worldwide.

The short listed titles are:

• The Twin by Gerbrand Bakker (Dutch) in translation. Harvill Secker
• The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery (French) in translation. Europa Editions, USA, Gallic Press, UK
• In Zodiac Light by Robert Edric (British) Doubleday, UK
• Settlement by Christoph Hein (German) in translation. Metropolitan Books
• The Believers by Zoë Heller (British). Fig Tree
• Netherland by Joseph O’Neill (Irish) Fourth Estate, HarperCollins, UK, Pantheon Books, USA
• God’s Own Country by Ross Raisin (British) Viking
• Home by Marilynne Robinson (American) Farrar, Straus & Giroux, USA, HarperCollins, Canada

The titles nominated by the NH Dublin Committee did not make the short list this time, though 2 of the shortlist titles (Netherland and Home) were considered by the NH committee.

The 2010 winner, which will be announced on Thursday June 17th 2010, will be selected by the same panel of judges that selected the shortlist.

How Paperbacks Changed Literature

An interesting article from Smithsonian about a change in format that revolutionized reading.

Book of the Week #14

Robert Frost: The Poet as Philosopher by Peter J. Stanlis (Wilmington, Delaware: ISI Books, 2007)

Robert Frost is arguably the most celebrated American poet of the 20th century. In this volume Frost's friend of over 20 years, Peter J. Stanlis, argues that Frost is not just a poet, but a philosopher.


In the introduction, Timothy Steele provides a context for Stanlis's argument:

"We cannot know, this side of the grave, whether monism or dualism (or pluralism or some other position) is the best explanation of reality and being, but Stanlis's discussion of Frost supplies a fascinating account of a road less traveled by American artists and thinkers. If [Wallace] Stevens's monism offers a moving picture of some of the dilemmas into which Romantic philosophy and aesthetics have led us, Frost's dualism suggests fruitful avenues of escape." (p. ix)

Support NH Summer Reading

To support the New Hampshire Summer Reading program, a partner in the Collaborative Summer Reading Program, you can now order the CHILIS summer reading poster note cards. Each shrink-wrapped packet includes 12 note cards (4 x 5 1/2) featuring artwork from four NH Summer Reading posters*. All proceeds benefit CHILIS and help to fund future Summer Reading programs. Each packet costs $10. Checks should be made payable to CHILIS. Please be sure to follow the directions on the order form and send your orders to Chris Tarrio at the Stephenson Memorial Library in Greenfield. Note cards will only be sent to a public library on the van route. Please make arrangements with a library prior to submitting your order. Note card orders cannot be sent via U.S. mail.
The note cards make wonderful gifts for you and your staff, friends and family!