The Road Taken

Finished May 30
The Road Taken: An Autobiography by Michael Buerk

Michael Buerk's father was Canadian, and he lived in Canada for a few years when he was very young, but left at a very young age when his mother took him back to her home in Britain after the breakdown of the marriage. Michael went on to have a successful career with the BBC, as a reporter, foreign correspondent, newscaster, and television and radio host.
This book is his story, from the back story of his family origins, and on through his childhood and the early death of the mother he was very close to. He talks about how he first got into journalism and the jump he made to radio, and how he met his wife, also a journalist.
He goes into great detail of his work as a journalist and foreign correspondent, the big stories he covered, the dangerous situations he encountered, the friends he made. When discussing his work as a newscaster and television and radio host, he hits the high points giving the details of two of his major hosting roles, one in television for the series 999, and the other in radio for the show the Moral Maze. He also talks about connecting with the family his father had after him, and his feelings about that.
Buerk had an extensive and fascinating career that hit many major news stories, particularly in Africa, and he is open and expansive about his life, both personal and professional. I thoroughly enjoyed reading his autobiography.

All Saints

Finished May 20
All Saints: Stories by K.D. Miller

This collection of linked stories has at its heart a small Anglican church, All Saints. The stories range over decades and we see characters at various stages of their lives. The priest at the church, Simon, appears in several of the stories. The stories range widely with the characters embodying people at various points in their lives. At the heart of all the stories though is relationship. The relationships range from romantic love, to abusive relationships, from friendship to guidance, We see the characters vulnerability, the side they don't show to others, but we also see their capacity to care, to love, and to be a part of their community.
Some of the stories are disturbing, and some touching. All capture the reader and bring them into the lives as they are experienced.

Rejection Proof

Finished May 18
Rejection Proof: How I Beat Fear and Became Invincible Through 100 Days of Rejection by Jia Jiang

Jiang describes his experiences learning how to take the risks necessary to get to the life he wants to live. Jiang was born in China and from a young age envisioned himself as an entrepreneur. He did well in school and was able to go to high school in the U.S. on an exchange program. He then went on to university and a master's degree in the U.S. He got a good job at a successful company and married happily. But he still yearned for the entrepreneurial dream he'd had as a child. His wife urged him to quit his job and work as hard as he could for six months to fulfill this dream. So he did.
He got together a group of people, and after four months of hard work found his concept rejected by investors. This is how his story of rejection-proofing himself begins. He found himself inspired by a website called Rejection Therapy created by Jason Comely to face rejection. He started a blog called 100 Days of Rejection. And he began seeking out situations where he expected to be rejected. Even with that expectation, he found it difficult. But something interesting happened. On his third try, he wasn't rejected, but instead the person he asked worked to accommodate his unusual request. And that happened again on his sixth request.
The blog post for his third request was picked up by Reddit, and went viral, catapulting him into unexpected fame, and offering him interesting opportunities. When faced with new options for his future, Jiang decided to continue his journey into overcoming rejection and focus on a way to overcome the fear of rejection. This led him to research rejection and our reactions to it, and he includes his findings here.
His experiences caused him to rethink rejection, recognizing it not as a whole rejection of the person asking, but as an interaction between two people, based on the opinion of the rejector, something that could be influenced by many factors having nothing to do with the requester at all. This rethinking caused him to look harder at how different strategies could be undertaken to turn that initial no into a yes. This included asking different people, asking why to see what the reasoning behind the rejection was and looking for a way to change the ask to avoid this reason, asking for alternatives to the initial request, looking to collaborate with the rejector to find a way to make it work, and changing the environment of the request.
One thing he learned quickly was not to argue, but to show interest in the reasons, and understanding of the situation. He found that just as it helped him to adjust his request to know why the request was rejected, knowing his reasons for asking helped the rejector collaborate with him for a way to accommodate his request. He found it was important not to make assumptions about the mindset, interest, or needs of others when making his request, and that considering who to select to make the request from was helpful in a successful interaction.
His success also forced him to focus on the other side of the interaction, how to say no to a request he got himself. He, like many of us, didn't like having to turn down people's requests, but he was inundated by so many that he had to. So he looked at how to do this in a good way by looking at how people had responded to him.
He discovered ways to look at rejection in a positive light by examining the reasons for it, and using rejection to motivate him to try harder or work differently towards his goal. This process also led to him finding new meaning in the process in several ways. One was finding empathy: he was better able to understand others. Another was finding value by learning what really mattered to him when it came down to it. A third was finding his mission, his focus and creating a new beginning for himself based on it. He found the freedom that asking gave him, to have new experiences, make new connections to other people, and become aware of what is lost by not asking in the first place. He also found a greater acceptance of himself, finding the importance of fulfilling that inner need for approval before looking to others.
His journey have him the ability to detach the experience from the expectation of results, finding that being results-oriented actually led to worse results because it leaves you unprepared for feedback that could be helpful. He was able to analyse a situation and focus on what he could control, and lay aside the worry about all the elements that he couldn't. This isn't something that he could learn and move on from. He found that he needs to keep exercising that "fear of rejection" muscle to keep it strong.
This is an insightful book that will encourage readers to go after their goals in a thoughtful and structured way.

The Night Stages

Finished May 17
The Night Stages by Jane Urquhart

Tamara is a woman at a point of crisis in her life. It is the early sixties and she has been in a relationship with a man who can't commit to her in the way she wants. She runs from the situation, driving across Ireland to the Dublin airport and taking a flight to New York. When the plane lands for refueling at Gander, Newfoundland, the airport there fogs in, and she is grounded for hours. She notices a large mural in the airport, and moves back and forth between reflecting on her life and studying the mural.
Tamara is from a well-off family, Her father is involved in construction, providing concrete and other resources for building projects. Tamara has rebelled against her family, first as a tomboy running a bit wild, then becoming a pilot for the Air Transport Auxiliary during World War II, then leaving her husband for a man from a lower class and running off to Ireland with him. Her most recent relationship is with another Irishman, Niall, a meteorologist who has his own issues. Niall is haunted by guilt over his actions that contributed to his younger brother Kieran leaving. Kieran hasn't been heard from in years, and Niall has taken every opportunity he could to search for his brother. We hear Niall's story as he tells it to Tamara.
A second narrator in the novel is Kieran himself, telling the story of his own childhood, his breakdown after his mother's death, his subsequent life living in a small village, gaining a basic education, working as a labourer and getting involved in bicycling. Kieran lived with the family housekeeper Gerry-Annie beginning shortly after his mother's death, and became enamored of a bike left behind by someone leaving the area. The bike, christened the Purple Hornet by Kieran, leads to his future in ways he never envisioned.
The third narrator is Kenneth Lochhead, the painter of the mural at Gander. Lochhead is a real historical figure and Urquhart acknowledges this while creating his story. The story of the mural is an interesting one. Done in egg tempura, it took something like 5000 eggs to create and incorporated figures from Lochhead's past.
The Irish portions of the story are from County Kerry, and bring the country to life vividly.
This story makes beautiful use of language and reveals the unpredictable nature of love.

The Children's Blizzard

Finished May 12
The Children's Blizzard by David Laskin

This fascinating slice of history looks at one of the worst storms ever recorded. The most devastation from the storm occurred on January 12, 1888 over the Dakota Territory, Minnesota, Nebraska, and Iowa. and because the early part of the day had been warmer and nicer than many days previously. Deaths are estimated at between 250 and 500, and several survivors died later as a result of what happened to them in the storm. The name of the book is a reference to the large numbers of children who lost their lives, catching so many of them at school. Because of the warmer weather at the beginning of the day, many didn't have adequate clothing.
There is a small map included that shows the line of the storm across the area at three points in time: 6:00 a.m., 2:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m.
The first chapter covers the immigrants to this area of the country, showing their origins, their reasons for leaving their home countries, and the journeys they took to get there. Laskin focuses on some of the families here, Some were Germans, Mennonites from the Ukraine, often referred to as Schweizers due to their original origins in Switzerland. One group consisted of 53 families from several villages near each other, that began their journey in 1874. Another large group of immigrants were from Norway. These came in smaller groups, sometimes just a couple of people, with more members of the family following later. I found this interesting as my own ethnic background includes both these cultures.
The second chapter looks at the earlier trials the settlers were afflicted with, from plagues of grasshoppers and disease to earlier blizzards. Particular mention is made of a series of blizzards from January through April 1873, the Snow Winter of 1880-1881, and the Winter of Blue Snow (1886-87). It makes mention of some of the effects like towering snow features and the ice crystals that plugged the nostrils of cattle, killing them. This chapter also sets the scene for this blizzard: the sun dogs during the day and snow overnight on January 11th, and the sunny, warm, calm, foggy morning of January 12th.
Chapter 3 looks at the weather, tracing the storms roots back to Canada, and looking at the weather processes that led to the blizzard. We understand the high pressure that caused a high-amplitude ridge that preceded the storm.
The fourth chapter looks at the weather office newly setup up in Saint Paul the fall of 1887, and we understand that the signal office was part of the military and thus subject to the bureaucracy of military orders and hierarchy. First lieutenant Thomas Mayhew Woodruff was the signal officer for the office, but the office was created due to pressure from local civilians led by Professor Payne of the local university and director of the Minnesota State Weather Service since its inception in 1883. The politics involved in receiving and dispersing weather data through specific communication channels through this local disagreement was one factor in the large loss of life.
Chapter 5 discusses the cold front itself, how it moved, and what weather systems led to it. We learn that the idea of cold and warm fronts wasn't really understood until after World War I.
Chapter 6 tells of the arrival of the storm. This tells the story of individuals and groups of people as the storm hit. It moved in very quickly, and with so many people either outside or away from home, particularly children and teachers at school, difficult decisions had to be made around whether to shelter in place or try for somewhere safer.
Chapter 7 tells us of the nature of the storm, the huge amounts of electricity in the air as the storm began, and the denseness and small size of the mix of shattered snow crystals, ice pellets and water droplets that made it almost impossible to see, breathe, or move forward against the storm.
Chapter 8 goes into detail on the physiological reactions of those caught out in the storm, the body's natural reaction to the cold, wind, and damp that it faced. Again, we are given the stories of individuals and shown how they were slowly overcome by the intense weather.
The ninth chapter leads us into the following day, January 13th where people ventured from their refuges, either to continue their journey home, or to venture out to find those who hadn't returned. Again this tells individual tales of amazing survival, sudden death after surviving the storm itself, and the terrible frostbite that affected many.
Following this we see the further progression of the storm as it continued south, moving down through Texas and Louisiana and on to Mexico, reaching farther than nearly any recorded storms have before or since.
An interesting feature of the aftermath is the media reaction, particularly its focus on women survivors, teachers that saved their students, or tried desperately to, young women who lost limbs to frostbite after getting stuck outside. Laskin shows us the funerals, the lost livestock, the changes to the weather service that resulted, and what was found in the spring thaw that year.
My copy of the book also had an interview with the author about how he came to write this history and reactions from readers who had family that lived through it.
A wonderful, emotional, and eye-opening read.

Shadow Tag

Finished May 7
Shadow Tag by Louise Erdrich

A novel about a dysfunctional marriage. Irene and Gil live in Minneapolis with their three children, Florian, Riel, and Stoney. Gil is an artist, and while he did landscapes before he met Irene, she has been him subject ever since. He is older than her and while they both are native, her bloodline is stronger than his, something that he always feels. Gil wants to control, and Irene has begun to feel stifled by this control. His paintings of her have grown darker over the years, and Irene has begun to take her refuge in wine, something Gil encourages.
But Irene's resentment has grown, and as the violence in their marriage has started to affect the children, she has started to hide her feelings. She knows that he has been reading her diary, and so she has written things in it to control him. Her real diary is hidden somewhere he cannot reach.
The two older children, Florian and Riel have been watching their parents, talking with each other, and discussing possibilities. Unexpectedly, Irene is still mourning the loss of her mother a couple of years earlier and when she finds someone else she can call family, it gives her the strength to continue her struggle to free herself from Gil.
The bond, however dysfunctional, between these two is a complex one. They need each other, but are very bad for each other. The playing out of their relationship seems almost inevitable, even as you are wishing it could be different.
This is a book that has complex characters, and a relationship between them just as complex. I found it a book that I had to read in short sections, wanting to think about it before picking it up again.

Road to Reckoning

Finished May 7
Road to Reckoning by Robert Lautner, read by Holter Graham

This novel is told by a man looking back at the experiences of just a few days, experiences that changed his life forever.
The year is 1837. Thomas Walker is twelve and has lived in New York all his life. He has been homeschooled by his aunt who lives with him and his father. His father has often taken him with him as he went door-to-door selling spectacles. But his father has now decided to try selling Samuel Colt's new invention, the Improved Revolving Gun, and again he wants Thomas with him.
After visiting Colt's business in New Jersey, the two set off across Pennsylvania with their horse and wagon, sample merchandise, an order book, and supplies.
By chance, they come across a group of men looking for trouble, looking hard enough to follow the two travellers when they try to avoid such trouble, and Thomas' father is murdered, and most of his their belongings stolen.
Thomas goes back to the last two that they visited, to the shopkeeper they sold their last order to, and where they first met the men that attacked them. There, Thomas finds an older man, one with a long history of defying trouble, one who was once an Indiana Ranger. His name is Henry Stands, and he refuses the request to escort Thomas back east, to a town that has law that can take on Thomas' problem. But Thomas sees his chance, and takes matters into his own hands.
As the two go along, they find that it isn't just a matter of travelling back to the town with county lawmen, but they must also evade the thieves that have had second thoughts about letting Thomas go, and about other unsavory characters, some obvious, some not, that lie along their route.
This is a beautifully told tale, one of a boy forced into dealing with adult issues too soon, and dealing with a devastating loss. It is a tale of the history of the revolver, and the changes it brought to America. It is the tale of a man looking back, with the knowledge of the life lived since.

Bonsai

Finished May 4 
Bonsai by Alejandro Zambra, translated by Carolina de Robertis

This short novel has 5 parts, all centered around a relationship between Emilia and Julio, two young Chileans. The first part, Mass, tells of the meeting between the two and gives a little of their back history. The second part, Tantalia, tells of their relationship. The title takes its name from a short story that is related to the end of their relationship.
The third part, Loans, takes us to the long friendship, begun as children, between Emilia and Anita. We see how they have a habit of borrowing each other's belongings, sometimes for a short period of time, sometimes longer, and how comfortable they are with this.
Spares focuses on Julio and his life, what he does for a living, and how he portrays himself to others.
The last part, Two Drawings, gives us both Emilia and Julio's stories again, and we see how they still touch years later.
This is a story that rambles a bit, that moves outside of itself to give the reader commentary. Unusual, but interesting.

Developing Community-Led Public Libraries

Finished April 20
Developing Community-Led Public Libraries: Evidence from the UK and Canada by John Pateman and Ken Williams

I've been immersed in this book for months as I determine how our library will be moving forward with this new model of service. The authors take a lot of their information from two large multiple library projects that focused on the community and its needs. In the UK, the Open to All? project focused on the issue of social exclusion and on creating library services that addressed the needs of specific communities. In Canada, the Working Together project involved Halifax, Regina, Vancouver, and Toronto Public Libraries and focused on understanding and developing library specific community development, learning about different approaches.
John Pateman's library experience is mostly in Britain, but he joined the Thunder Bay Public Library as its CEO a few years ago. He was heavily involved in the Open to All? project in the UK.
Ken Williment is a branch manager for Halifax Public Libraries, but he was the Community Development Manager during the Working Together project.
The book begins with an overview of the two projects, and a summary of the learnings from each. Each following chapters focuses on a different aspect of the learnings, and offers helpful hints on how to move forward for that particular learning, challenge, or aspect.
The first chapter talks about the variety of approaches that can be used to connect with the local community. Libraries have to figure out what approach will work for them and the community they are targeting.
The next topic is Needs Assessment and Research, which looks at how to get at the real needs of the community. The most important thing to remember here is that we aren't the experts on the needs of the community, the community is the expert. Often libraries go in with preconceived notions of what the community needs. This is not the way to develop a true partnership, nor is it a way to get at the real needs that libraries can help address. This may be one of the more difficult things to get our heads around, as it goes against decades of "how we do things." Needs will be specific to each community, and we have to recognize and respond to that, not focus on statistics and generalizations.
Which brings us to Library Image and Identity. How do we identify ourselves and how do others see us. Libraries are made up of parts that include the buildings we occupy, the staff that work for us, and the services we offer. We have to look closely at all these things and specifically at barriers these bring to our relationships with the community. Barriers may be institutional (hours, policies, signage, staff attitude, prescriptive collections), personal and social (literacy, low income, discrimination, self-esteem, housing), environmental (physical access, safety issues, isolation, transportation), or perceptional (ideas about library services, isolation, relevancy, technology fears). We have to look closely at these and try to eliminate them where we can.
The next chapter is a sort of bridge or continuum from traditional library services to the community-led model, explaining the differences between outreach, partnerships, community development, and true co-production. Many of us have the first two in some way, and it is understanding how these can help up move towards a greater integration with our communities, and where each type of activity has its place.
We then move to the role of technology in addressing social exclusion issues. This is another chapter that looks at common library assumptions and moves beyond them.
Following that the book addresses the provision of materials, a core service of libraries, and emphasizes the need to have the libraries step back and let the community determine the focus and makeup of the collections offered.
The next topic is library staff, what skills are needed, how we find staff, and how we training and develop the staff we have now to change to this new model of service. Included here is a useful appendix for library schools to help them develop appropriate courses to meet this new model so that new graduates are ready to hit the ground running.
The following chapter focuses on addressing social exclusion, and changing the focus of libraries to bring this issue back to the core of library services. This looks a strategy, and how libraries can focus their staffing, service structure, systems, policies and procedures, and values and culture to make the community needs the centre of what we do.
Of course, a big part of library service is measuring our success towards our mandate, and the next chapter focuses on how we create measurements, performance indicators, and evaluation systems that are meaningful. Once again this comes back to working with the community so that these are not set by the library, but by the community in partnership with us. There is also the need to continually adjust these as we learn from what we do, from the feedback we get. This is a movement away from quantitative indicators and statistics to the more difficult qualitative, impact, and outcome measures. How are we relevant to our community? And how do we continue to be relevant as the needs of the community change?
The last two chapters provide additional help in moving towards this new, necessary model for library service, offering a blueprint for change and a road map to how to proceed.
Now comes the difficult work of implementation, but many of us are looking hopefully forward with this model, and we can learn from each others' experiences as we continue to listen carefully to our communities and become more integral to them.

C.O.W.L Volume 1 Principles of Power

Finished May 4
C.O.W.L. Volume 1 Principles of Power by Kyle Higgins and Alec Siegel, art by Rod Reis

This is the first volume in a series of graphic novels based around C.O.W.L., the Chicago Organized Workers League, the world's first superhero labor union.
The year is 1962, and as the novel begins the last of the "Six", the biggest group of villains with superpowers is defeated. The city believes this is an opportunity to decrease funding, and the public is disillusioned by the behaviour of some of the group.
As we see inside, we realize that the leadership isn't as dedicated to good as its public persona says, and there is unrest within the ranks. These are humans, despite their superpowers and they have feelings, they make bad decisions, and they don't like being dumped on.
Not all the group is likeable, and there is definitely some questionable behaviour. It will be interesting to see what the subsequent volumes bring in terms of plot.

Uncommon Grounds

Finished May 4
Uncommon Grounds by Sandra Balzo

This mystery novel starts with a body. Maggy Thorsen arrives later than planned to her new coffee shop on the day of the planned grand opening. On the floor is the body of one of her partners, Patricia Harper. The third partner in the shop, Caron Egan, Maggy's longtime friend, seems to stunned to respond. Maggy is recently separated, after her dentist husband decided his young hygienist was what he wanted instead. Her son is in college, and Maggy has put her financial stake into the shop and really needs it to succeed.
Pavlik, the new sheriff is on the case, although Gary Donovan, the local police chief, doesn't seem happy about that. Maggy grows increasingly worried that the real killer of Patricia isn't going to be found and she decides to mount her own investigation. Joining forces with Sarah, Patricia's close friend, Maggy starts looking at the evidence more closely, and finding a lot more going on in her community that she ever thought was happening.
Small town Wisconsin means that everyone knows everyone else's business, but it also means that people make certain assumptions, and that can be dangerous.
I liked the character of Maggy, and her small house and big dog. She is a bit technologically challenged, but she has a good heart, and the right instincts.

All The Old Knives

Finished May 1
All the Old Knives by Olen Steinhauer, read by Ari Fliakos and Juliana Francis Kelly

This spy novel all takes place within a few hours, but with flashbacks to the events surrounding a horrific terrorist incident in Vienna six years earlier that resulted in a lot of deaths. The main characters are all CIA operatives. The two speakers here are Henry Pelham, a field agent at the time of the incident and now in the office, still in Vienna, and Celia Harrison, in the office at the time and now married with children, out of the service.
Henry is following up on internal information that says there was an internal leak in the CIA that contributed to the failure of the authorities to prevent the deaths six years ago. He has already interviewed a couple of others that were in the office at the time, but have since moved on. He insisted on interviewing Celia himself. Henry and Celia were lovers at the time of the incident, and Henry is still in love with Celia, never reconciling himself to her sudden ending of the relationship and quick marriage to a man years older than her.
Celia left the service on her marriage, moved with her new husband to Carmel-by-the-Sea in California and has two young children. Henry is sure that Celia is hiding something, and is determined to find out whether she is protecting someone else or herself. Celia is struggling with her own feelings around the incident, what she did, and what she didn't do.
This is a story of love, of betrayal, of that old story of those who believe that the end justifies the means. The ending is shocking, and sad. A spy novel with a very different ambience.

Dream Days

Finished April 30
Dream Days by Kenneth Grahame

This novel was originally published in 1898. It seems to have been written for adult readers, although it appealed to younger readers as well.
Reading it now, I found the language a higher level than children's books of today, and don't think the kids I know would find it an easy read. They would definitely enjoy the stories, but might not be familiar with all the vocabulary, and might find the language less natural to the way we talk today.
The book is a collection of eight related stories, all told by an unnamed boy narrator, He has an older brother Edward, and a younger brother Harold, and two sisters, Selina and Charlotte. Charlotte is the youngest of all of them. They live with aunts and uncles, seldom seen in the stories.
To give an example of the language, here are a few phrases:

Not only a long-lost heir--an heir of the melodrama, strutting into your hitherto unsuspected kingdom at just the right moment, loaded up with the consciousness of unguessed merit and of rights so long feloniously withheld--but even to be a common hum-drum domestic heir is a profession to which few would refuse to be apprenticed.

Where the res is angusta, and the weekly books are simply a series of stiff hurdles at each of which in succession the paternal legs falter with growing suspicion of their powers to clear the flight, it is the affair of clothes that the right of succession tells, and 'the hard heir strides about the land' in trousers long ago framed for fraternal limbs--frondes novas et non sua poma.

Here and there in their ranks, however, moves a forlorn one who is blind--blind in the sense of the dulled window-pane on which the pelting raindrops have mingled and run down, obscuring sunshine and the circling birds, happy fields, and storied garden; blind with the spatter of a misery uncomprehended, unanalysed, only felt as something corporeal in its buffeting effects.

Of course not all the writing is like this, some of it is very appealing to younger readers. Perhaps it is that the nature of children's books has changed a lot over the more than one hundred years since this was written, and we now tend to write in simpler words, in simpler ideas. Perhaps we are doing children a disservice in this move away from more complex ideas and language. But there it is, I don't feel that many of the young people I am most familiar with would find this as appealing as their usual reading.
There is also a bit of a cultural change in terms of the nature of violent activity, such as when the young man envisions himself off hunting polar bears, something we really wouldn't see in today's stories. Surprisingly, however, the gender of the children doesn't dictate behaviour as much as one might expect, which is nice.
All that being what it is, the writing is lyrical, flows well, and the stories are imaginative and bring the scenes to life admirably.