Biblio File

Thankful for Books: A Reading List from Open Book Night by Elizabeth Waters, AskNYPLDecember 10, 2015

At our last Open Book Night we asked our Mid-Manhattan readers to share a book or an author they were thankful for, or to tell us about a story or book they associated with Thanksgiving. From sundown towns to French cooking, from cat people on Mars to an itinerant laborer in Depression-era Iowa, we heard a variety of interesting  book recommendations. What books are you thankful for? We'd love to see your favorite titles in the comments section at the end of the post! And please join us on Friday, December 11 to share your favorite food and cooking related books.

a Reading List from Open Book Night

Our Thanksgiving reading theme led our first speaker Joan on a quest to find a more complete history of the holiday, told from the Native American or First Nation perspective as well as the European. She turned to Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong by James W. Loewen to find a more balanced picture. One discussion that Joan shared from her reading was the significance of the disease brought by European settlers to the Americas. Loewen points out that many Native American villages had  already been  decimated by epidemics by the time the Pilgrims arrived in 1620, meaning they were able to offer little resisitance to the English settlers. "Indeed, the plague helped cause the legendary warm reception Plymouth enjoyed in its first formative years from the Wampanoags. Massasoit needed to ally with the Pilgrims because the plague had so weakened his villages that he feared the Narragansetts to the west."

Joan also highly recommends Loewen’s Sundown Towns: A Hidden Dimension of American Racism, which examines the history and sociology of "sundown towns," all white towns or suburbs that excluded residents of other races through legal or violent means.  

Anticipating this month's food and cooking discussion, Jean recommended Bon Appetit!: The Delicious Life of Julia Child, a “very insightful picture book biography” of the great chef by Jessie Hartland. She especially enjoyed the detailed, delightful narration and she thought that the book conveyed Child’s passion and hard work quite effectively for children. The defining events of Julia Child’s life are represented in Bon Appetit!, but adults who wish to learn more about her fascinating life may also enjoy her lovely 2004 memoir, My Life in France, written with her nephew Alex Prud’homme and published after her death. Bob Spitz’s detailed and lively 2012 biography Dearie: The Remarkable Life of Julia Child, offers an even more in-depth look at the cooking icon. And don’t forget that Child’s cookbooks and videos are also available to borrow from the library.

From history, sociology, and cooking we moved on to science fiction. Jay recommends Cat Country by Chinese author Lao She, published in 1932.  “Considered to be the first Chinese science fiction novel, it's also a satire of then-modern China and its troubles. A Chinese astronaut is stranded on Mars and captured by a race of cat people who are so awed by their own ancient, intricate civilization that they cannot see how corrupt and vulnerable it has become. Eventually Cat Country is attacked by foreign invaders and its proud but decadent army defeated.  Cat Country is a strange, but compelling, little book that repays the time spent with it in unforgettable images and ideas.” Jay also explained how he connected Cat Country with the theme of thankfulness. At one point the captive astronaut, who has been without water for a seemingly endless time, is finally free to drink his fill of water. He is astonished at the gratitude he feels for something he took completely for granted before his arrival on Mars.

The idea of feeling thankful for what we ordinarily take for granted made me think of my experience reading Lila by Marilynne Robinson earlier this year. Lila, a woman raised in poverty on the margins of society, takes the reader on a spiritual and existential journey as she finds love and a sense of belonging after a lifetime of hardship and wandering. Early in the novel, Lila tells her future husband, the preacher John Ames,  “I just been wondering lately why things happen the way they do.” Lila’s questions and struggles, recounted in Robinson’s spare and elegant prose, distill the human experience into essentials. Lila  (2014)is the third novel in Robinson’s Gilead trilogy set in a small Iowa in the middle of the 20th century, preceded by Gilead (2004) and Home (2008).  

Some readers who come to Open Book Night prefer to listen to other readers’ recommendations at first and don't plan to talk themselves, especially if English is not their first language. We were happy that two of these readers changed their minds and chose to tell us a little about what they like to read. Maggie reads in Spanish and English, and she enjoys both fiction and self-help books, so when she saw Brenda Janowitz’s novel Recipe for a Happy Life at the library, it called to her. She enjoyed this romantic story of three generations of women—successful lawyer Hannah, her glamorous oft-widowed grandmother, and her career driven mother—each of whom has her own idea of how best to find happiness.

Gui Ying told us that she loves reading history and historical fiction in Chinese. She described a little of the story told in The Romance of the Three Kingdoms, the historical epic by 14th century writer Luo Guanzhong set in the 2nd and 3rd centuries, a must-read for anyone interested in classical Chinese literature. Gui Ying is trying to read more in English now, and she told us about the first books she remembers from her English classes in China. Her teacher would read stories from Uncle John’s readers, collections of trivia and facts, to the class, and now she’d like to read some on her own. Some of these readers are available to download from our e-book collection.

What books or authors are you thankful for? Let us know in the comments section below. And if you're a fan of foodie fiction, kitchen memoirs, cookbooks or any other books related to food and cooking, please join us in the Corner Room on Friday, December 11 to share your recommendations!

Upcoming Open Book Nights

Past Open Book Nights

Click to see the list of books discussed.

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