American War

Finished June 5
American War by Omar El Akkad, read by Dion Graham

This book feels all too possible as a future reality in these troubling times. This book imagines our world in the late 2070s, after a civil war has broken out in the U.S. over the use of fossil fuels. The former United States are no longer united. A southwestern portion has split off and become a Mexican protectorate. A small group of southeastern states has left the union to become the Free Southern States and holds on to the use of fossil fuels. As climate change took it's toll, coastal areas became enveloped by the oceans, and lost to habitation. This includes most of Florida and portions of all the coasts. This led to the relocation of the U.S. capital to Columbus, Ohio.
The book has a story within a story. A man in Alaska near the end of his life tells the outer story. The inner story begins in the spring of 2075 near the beginning of the civil war. The Chestnut family lives in Louisiana, which is Union territory, but
Sarat and her twin sister Dana are six years old, but very different. Sarat is all about curiosity, trying things out. She is built large and will grow into a large woman. Dana is girly, already into dresses and makeup, while Sarat wears overalls. Their older sister Simon, nine, is smart and eager to help. Martina, 39, and Benjamin, 45 have a good marriage. Benjamin works at a local shirt factory and the family has enough to live, but the war has meant that the school closed due to fighting drawing near, and Martina wants more for her children. As she encourages Benjamin to apply for a work permit to work in the North of the country, this is the first decision that will change all their lives forever. The second decision follows closely, the one to leave their home and go to a refugee camp.
As the story follows the lives of the Chestnuts, you see the difficulty of living a life of uncertainty, a life where growing children don't always make the choices you would like them to make.
This is a story of war, of rebellion, of family. It is a story of the inequities that come with war, about its effect on the lives of civilians. It is about children forced to grow up too quickly, and with teachers that have their own bias.
It was an amazing read.

BiblioTech

Finished September 16
BiblioTech: Why Libraries Matter More Than Ever in the Age of Google by John Palfrey

Unlike most books looking at the role of libraries, this book is written by someone not trained as a librarian, but who has come into the library world through work. Palfrey is the Head of School at Phillips Academy in Andover, and led the effort to reorganize the Harvard Law School Library. He is also the founding chairman of the Digital Public Library of America.
While Palfrey acknowledges the world of information we now live in, he makes good arguments for the library being more important than ever before.
He looks at libraries in their role as equalizing access to information, education, jobs, and technology. The library is a safe place, one of the few where people from many walks of life come together. He also acknowledges the threats to libraries, the struggle to adapt to rapid change, lack of funding, and lower government support. The book is divided into themed chapters, each looking at a different aspect of libraries and using examples to make the point.
The first chapter, crisis, outlines the situation and the threats facing libraries. The second chapter looks at who uses libraries and how they use libraries. The next chapter looks at the spaces that libraries occupy and offer, both physical and virtual. The fourth addresses platforms and how the move to the cloud impacts libraries.
Then we move to those libraries trying something different, in a chapter titles Hacking Libraries. There are many forward-looking librarians moving their libraries into new and interesting territory. The following chapter looks at the human network of librarians, a sharing community like few others. Then the topic is preservation, with a focus on preserving culture. Following this is a chapter on the important role libraries play in education. Finishing up the topics is a chapter on law and libraries, looking at copyright and privacy in particular.
He concludes with a chapter emphasizing the importance of libraries and what we stand to lose if they don't adapt to meet the needs of their communities. As yet another well written book on the importance of moving to a community-led model, this outlines many important aspects to consider for those libraries serious about planning their futures.

Expect More

Finished July 18
Expect More: Demanding Better Libraries for Today's Complex World by R. David Lankes

This short volume is aimed at the general public, rather than librarians, but it looks at the future of libraries and the things that communities should look to their libraries to provide. Lankes includes all types of libraries here, public libraries, school libraries, academic libraries, corporate libraries, and special libraries. Each has a community they serve and the way that their interact with that community is key to the services they provide.
He states early in the book that what libraries and librarians do is facilitate, and what they facilitate is knowledge creation. There are four ways that they do this: provide access; provide training; provide a safe environment, and build on your motivation to learn. He breaks this down. Providing access isn't just referring to books, databases and other collections of information, but also knowledge, something dynamic and created by the individual and the community. He puts this well by quoting a very graphic metaphor.

Joan Frey Williams, librarian and prominent library consultant, put it best when she said that libraries must move from grocery stores to kitchens. A grocery store is where you go to consume, to buy ingredients for your meals. A kitchen, however, is where you go to combine these ingredients with your own skills and talents to make a meal. Kitchens tend to be social spaces, the place where everyone ends up at a party because it is the place where there is action occurring. Libraries need to be kitchens -- active social places where you mix a rich set of ingredients (information, resources, talents) into an exciting new concoction that can then be shared.

Training gets librarians involved in active learning. They aren't just showing members how to use a resources, but showing them how to see the bigger picture, determining which tools are the right ones to use to solve a given problem, and doing training at the point of need.
Providing a safe environment isn't just about the physical, but also about the intellectual, creating an environment where it is safe to explore all kinds of ideas, offering appropriate privacy and lack of censorship.
Building on motivation to learn is about librarians asking questions of individuals and the community and figuring out what they want and how the library can help them get there. It's about letting them drive the programs and services libraries offer. As he says,

This is more than talking about the community ultimately owning the library by funding it through tax dollars or tuition. this is allowing co-ownership of library services.

What great libraries do is engage in conversation with their communities, "an exchange of ideas where both parties are shaped by the conversation and shape the other conversants". There has to be willingness to learn from all those involved in the conversation. Libraries need to be of the community rather than for the community.
Lankes shows that what kind of library your community has is really about the people that work there, the librarians. Do they engage and evolve with technology? Do they have the skills to impart technology knowledge across all age groups? Can they create and maintain a virtual presence that is engaged with the community? Do the use technology to engage collaboratively with their community? Are they skilled in asset management, not just inventory skills, but preservation and building collections that meet community needs? Are they able to actively reach out to all sectors of their community? Do they understand their community's social mores and cultures? Do they know how to build bridges between the diverse groups in their communities? Do they understand how to make projects and services sustainable? Do they know how to assess impacts of library services on their community? Can they guide their community through a continuous change process? Do they have the skills of transformative social engagement, that is able to help the community organize around its needs in light of larger community agendas? He describes librarians as "the intersection of three things: the mission, the means of facilitation, and the values librarians bring to the community." He talks about intellectual honesty, transparency about being key to trust.
Lankes talks about the differences between bad libraries, good libraries, and great libraries. Bad libraries are collection-driven, good libraries are service-driven, but great libraries are community-driven. He is careful to note that this doesn't mean great libraries don't have collections, only that the collections they do have and what types of resources are in those collections are driven by community need, not by librarian prescriptives. Libraries need to spend more time on connections to their community and less time on book collections. The emphasis needs to be on connections between people, not connections between items. "You build a new library when the old one is too small to accommodate the community, not when it is too small to accommodate the stuff." Librarians need to be learning too, from all members of their community, all ages, all education-levels, all cultures. The mission of the library is to improve society, not maximize use of library services.
My library's mission statement speaks to enriching the community and based on this book, I think we're heading in the right direction.

The Renaissance Society

Finished May 4
The Renaissance Society: How the Shift from Dream Society to the Age of Individual Control Will Change the Way You do Business by Rolf Jensen and Mika Aaltonen

This book provides a hopeful look at the future. It posits that society will shift into a post-materialistic outlook starting with the West and followed by the East, now coming into its materialistic phase. It looks at the route societies take as they develop, with motivations moving up Maslow's pyramid to the top level of self-actualization. One example is the gradual shift from sporting brand names, to brand names that have been given an individual twist, a personalization that is yours alone. The shift in economic heft will also move from material objects to services, those that require a real human touch.
The current trend in the west to think short-term, current or next quarter will move to the "extended now", a view with more long term outcomes in mind. This will include such things as retail theatre, emotional marketing with a focus on relationships between providers and users, and a move toward green products. I found the chapter on leadership dilemmas very interesting as it looks at the relationship within organizations and the motivations that drive the employees as recognized by the leaders.
Two things I found missing. One is that the emphasis on the move to a new Renaissance with its numerous comparisons to the historical renaissance makes no mention the large loss of human life that preceded the historical renaissance, a loss that led to many of the opportunities that brought a true renaissance in thought and culture. We don't have such a population loss now, nor are the authors anticipating one preceding their posited renaissance, and no mention of what takes the place of that cause in their theory.
The second is in all their talk of the rich nations of the West and the middle class, there is no acknowledgement of the growing gap in incomes within many of those nations, and the resultant disappearance of the middle class and growth of the poor. With the large number of people facing real hardship within these rich nations, how does that impact their theory?
Lots of interesting ideas, and a hopeful outlook for the world as a whole, but not an entirely convincing package for this reader.

Taken

Finished February 18
Taken by Edward Bloor

This book is set in the future, in 2035. Charity Meyers lives on a gated estate in Florida with her father and her ex-stepmother. Yes, you read that right. Her father and stepmother are in the process of divorcing, but her stepmother,Mickie, still lives some of the time in the family home. Mickie is a journalist specializing in telling stories, and lately she has been telling stories in which Charity plays a leading role. Right now she is doing "An Edwardian Christmas" from the decorations and songs down to the food, expecting Charity to do what she is told and respond to the prompts she is given. Charity has one friend, Patience, in her small class, taught to children of that age in the estate. She also gets classes via teleconference from Manhattan. She is not happy, and hasn't been since her mother died a few years ago of melanoma. Her father, a doctor, threw himself into work, inventing a self-tanning concoction that sells like hotcakes, attracting said stepmother.
After moving to the estate, Charity's only real comforter was the main, Victoria, a Hispanic woman, working as a servant to save money to go to college.
Kidnapping is rampant, and the children are trained in what to do. Charity has even written a paper on the subject for school. But when she is kidnapped, things don't happen as she expected, and she isn't prepared for what they really want of her.
A tale of humanity, of the growing division between classes, of ignorance and of real life. It reminds you to take the time to enjoy living.

When She Woke

Finished February 12
When She Woke by Hillary Jordan
I'd already read Jordan's previous novel Mudbound, which was one of the early choices by Powell's bookstore for their Indiespensable subscription, and enjoyed it.
This novel is set in a future United States and Hannah Payne is a young woman in her twenties brought up in a strong evangelical household in Dallas. Hannah has always had a rebellious streak, wanting to know the why behind things in her world. She has a loving father, a somewhat stricter mother, and a sister, Becca, she is close to. When Hannah falls for a man who she should not, she tries to hold her feelings back, but when he reciprocates those feelings, she falls easily into a secret relationship.
As the book begins, Hannah awakes in jail, having been died red as part of a punishment for aborting her baby. Hannah didn't give up the name of the doctor who helped her, or the father of her baby, and that has added more years to her sentence. When she is freed into society, she finds herself an outcast, struggling to survive. As she adjusts to her new circumstances and learns who to trust, Hannah finds that she is stronger than she ever thought.
With elements from Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, and Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, this novel looks at society, its expectations, and its punishments in an interesting light.
Thoroughly enjoyable read, and a good choice for a book club.

Bloodtide

Finished June 12
Bloodtide by Melvin Burgess
This teen novel was recommended on a list recently and since our library had it, I decided to check it out. It is one set at some uncertain dystopian point of time in the city of London (England). Two young teens (14) Siggy and Signy are twin sister and brother, the youngest in the ruling family of Val Volson. King Val is marrying Signy off to Conor, the leader of another fiefdom, hoping the union will bring peace to their area and unite them against the halfmen.
Both of these two fiefdoms are in the old city of London and surrounding them is a land inhabited by halfmen, creatures of mixed human/animal blood. The halfmen are men in varying degrees, some of them able to pass as men in most circumstances. The mixed blood creatures are men mixed with a variety of animals, including dogs, cats, and pigs. The ring of land they inhabit serves as a buffer between the fiefdoms and the controlled city of Ragnor. We learn very little of Ragnor in the book.
The action is set in the two fiefdoms and shows the fight for control between the Volsons, Conor, and the halfmen. There is intrigue, betrayal, magic, and science here.
The plot seems to be guided by the old gods: Odin and Loki among others.
The character that I cared most about was not Siggy (who seemed weak to me) or Signy (who seemed self-centered and manipulative) but Cherry, the shapeshifter who played a pivotal role in the plot.
This is the interesting beginning to a series of books that continues with Bloodsong.

Divergent

Finished May 19
Divergent by Veronica Roth
This novel is set in a Chicago of the future. Society has been divided into 5 factions based on natural tendency. The Abnegators think of others before themselves; the Amity are always trying to find compromise and make people feel better; The Candor see things in black and white and always tell the truth; the Erudite seek knowledge and wisdom; and the Dauntless are brave and protect the community.
At the age of sixteen, young people take an aptitude test telling them what faction they have an aptitude for. The following day they choose their faction. They don't have to choose the faction that they have an aptitude for, but most do.
The main character here, Tris (Beatrice) has an unusual experience during her aptitude test and is told by the tester that she shows aptitude for more than one faction. She is told that this is dangerous and that she must tell no one. Tris now has to decide which faction she will join. Will she stay with the Abnegators where her parents are or transfer to another faction. Tris's brother Caleb is less than a year older than her, and is also choosing this year. Once you choose a faction, you must go through an initiation. If you fail, you become factionless, without a community, and are essentially homeless.
Tris decides to change factions to Dauntless and finds the initiation grueling, and very educational. This is a very interesting book that begs for a sequel.

Dystopian Novel

Finished August 28
The Unit by Ninni Holmqvist, translated by Marlaine Dalargy
This Swedish novel takes place in a society where productivity is paramount. Women over 50 and men over 60 who are childless and not in "progressive industries" are sent to the Unit. They have comfortable accommodation, plenty to eat, and state of the art amenities, and take part in drug and psychological testing. They also gradually donate their organs until the "final donation". They cannot contact anyone outside the Unit, although they have access to current television and media. The book follows Dorrit Weger as she enters the Unit following her 50th birthday. We watch as she makes new friends, continues to write books and adjust to her new reality. This is an exploration of psychological reactions under specific conditions, and explores the idea of who is valuable (needed) and who is dispensable in society. The subject matter is difficult, but it is handled well, and the character of Dorrit is deeply described. I highly recommend it.

Possibly Nonfiction

Finished September 7
Where to Invade Next (part of issue 26 of McSweeney's)
This book, apparently based on a comment made General Wesley Clark about future plans by the United States, contains detailed analyses of seven countries that the U.S. considers dangerous and possible plans to deal with them.
The seven countries are Iran, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Venezuela, Syria, Sudan, and North Korea. The book is well-researched, reads as plausible, and therefore is rather scary.
The book includes no forward or introduction other than the quote by Clark, and that makes it come across even more as a government document, rather than as a creation (albeit a well-researched one).
The given possibilities for U.S. action against these countries is very interesting reading and it will be interesting to see if any of it comes to pass.

Near Future Novel

Finished August 1
The Declaration by Gemma Malley
This teen novel is set in the mid-twenty-second century, in a world where they've managed to control disease and stop aging. Over-population has meant that people are not allowed to have children unless the Opt Out of the anti-aging drugs, but of course some people are involved in a movement against this and therefore institutions have been created to deal with the illegal children (Surplus) that are found.
In these institutions, children are indoctrinated to believe that the parents who created them are evil, and that there lives must be spent atoning for their parents sin.
Anna lives in a surplus institution and is almost finished her training to be useful. When a new child arrives, almost her age, he tries to change her outlook and save her from her fate.
This tale covers a lot of interesting ethical issues and would be an interesting choice for a book club. The teen characters are interesting, with Anna having some depth to her.

Futuristic Read

Finished June 12
Broken Angel by Sigmund Brouwer
This story takes place in the near future. Caitlin and her father live in Appalachia an area that is tightly controlled by Bar Elohim and that has a strong Christian community. Everyone carries a vidpod that records their conversations to a central data bank and tracks their movement through GPS. Communities are regulated to grow only to a certain size and cameras record movements in the towns.
Caitlin's father brought her here from Outside after she was born, and they keep pretty much to themselves as she has a deformity on her back and arms that her father Jordan is keeping a secret. Things have now come to the point where the authorities are aware of Caitlin and are hunting her and her father as they try to escape.
This is a world of technology, medical manipulation and authoritarian control. It raises a lot of questions and would be a good book club choice, possibly even for teens.

Wonderful Read

Finished May 4
The Stone Gods by Jeanette Winterson
Generally categorized as science fiction, this book is so much more. It is a commentary of the earth and the way humanity has behaved over time. It is about the past and the future, about the inevitability of man's destruction of his world, and about the hope that humanity can get past that and work together for a better outcome.
Winterson touches on today's hot topics of technology, global warming, war, globalization, corporate control and individual rights. She includes social and class issues as well as political ones, but you never feel that you are being preached at or forced to a particular point of view. Here, the possibilities are many. The story takes place in three main parts.
The first is a world where people can have themselves "fixed" at any age they want. It is a society based on consumerism. Billie is a bit of a rebel. She runs an old-fashioned farm and while she works for the large corporation, she does speak her own mind. She agrees to travel to a potentially habitable planet with a group looking at planning a colony.
The second part takes place on Easter Island and is told from the point of view of a sailor left there who analyzes the behaviour of the natives.
The last part is from the view of another character names Billie in our world "post 3 war" where again she works for the big corporate entity that runs things, but steps outside the standard behaviour.
This will be on my list of favourites for the year.

More teen fiction

Finished March 8
Exodus by Julie Bertagna
This teen novel was shortlisted for the Whitbread Children's Book of the Year Award back in 2002 when it was first published in the U.K. and now is finally making a stir here in North America.
Mara lives on Wing, an island in the North Atlantic at the end of the 21st century. But as has been happening for many years, her island is disappearing. Her people have moved to higher and higher ground as the world warms and the waters rise, but they are running out of places to go. Mara uses the old technology of the Weave (similar to the web of today) to show them that New Worlds, manmade cities that are built high above the water, do exist and that they offer hope for the future. As Mara leads her people to a new land, she must suffer personal loss and physical challenges, but she also finds help in others that know compassion.
The story is engaging and definitely "of our time" and the characters interesting.
I hope for more about Mara and her friends.

What I Read on Vacation

I was off on vacation last week (a big family get-together at a resort in Mexico) and got some reading done, both in transit and there.

Finished January 12
Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson, translated by Anne Born
This gem of a book was recommended by another librarian that I am on a committee with, and he was right about it being a good one. I had actually bought it before he recommended it, being drawn to it by both good reviews and an interest in Norwegian writing (I'm one-quarter Norwegian heritage).
The main character, Trond, has retired to the country a couple of years after the death of his wife in an automobile accident. He bought a run-down cottage on a nice piece of land near a lake and is gradually making the house habitable. One night he hears his neighbour calling his dog and goes out to talk to him. Afterwards he realizes that he knows the man from a summer when he was a youth. That summer a tragedy occured in the other man's family that impacted on both families and eventually caused both families to break up. As Trond recalls this summer from his past and the feelings that it engenders, he also looks at the more recent tragedy in his life and how he has reacted to that.

Finished January 12
Twilight by Stephanie Meyers
I bought this book on my stopover in the Houston airport as my niece had been raving about it and hinting that she'd like her own copy. I decided to read it and then give it to her. It is the first in a vampire romance series for teens, and therefore when I got a nosebleed on the plane and bled all over it, it somehow seemed appropriate! She thinks the bloodstains add interest and she can tell exactly what part I was it when it happened.
The main character, Bella, is seventeen and has chosen to go live with her police-chief father in a small town on Washington's Olympic peninsula (a very rainy part of country). Her parents have been separated for years and her mother and her have lived in Phoenix ever since, but she wants to give her recently-remarried mother some space. Her father has tried hard to make her as comfortable as possible including buying her a used vehicle. She makes friends fairly easily as school, but finds herself drawn to Edward, part of a family that seems to have ostracized themselves from the rest of the school. Edward is equally drawn to her, and as the two become closer she learns that he is a vampire. Edward's clan hunts wildlife rather than people, but still doesn't want others to know of their special nature. When other vampires come to the area to visit, Bella becomes involved in a lethal game where her life is at stake.
I found this a good read, and can see the appeal for my niece. I'll be reading the others in the series too (and maybe buying them for her).

Finished January 16
The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill
This historical novel is engrossing. The main character, Aminata Diallo tells her story as she looks back on her life from her final years in London, England.
Aminata was kidnapped from her village in West Africa when she was eleven after watching her captors kill her mother and possibly her father. She is forced to walk to the coast with other captives, a journey that takes months and that not all survive. Once arrived at the coast, she is put on a ship to South Carolina with other captives and endures many horrors during the trip to America. Once there she is sold to a slaveowner to work on an indigo plantation and is taken under the wing of the slavewoman healer there. Eventually, after being sold again, she ends up in New York during the American Revolutionary war and becomes one of the Black Loyalists who emigrate to Nova Scotia. Time and again, Deena, as she becomes known, is separated from the family she has created, and alone agrees to join the new colony of Freetown in Sierra Leone.
The book uses a combination of real historical events and good characterization to grab the reader and make the story come alive. This is definitely one of my favourite books of recent reads.
Hill has included an excellent epilogue where he talks about the history that he drew this story from and he also includes a list for further reading.

Finished January 16
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
This is another book I had been meaning to read for awhile and once I started I had to agree with one of the blurbs that said once started it was nearly impossible to put down. I found myself a spot in the shade and read all afternoon, taking a break for a swim and dinner, and then continuing reading in the evening until I finished the novel.
The postapocalyptic novel follows a father and his young son as they struggle to survive in a world that has been ravaged. They are making for the coast, although they don't know that things will be any better there. As they travel they must find provisions and avoid other travellers, particularly those that might do them harm. The relationship between the father and the son is a big part of this book, and really makes it what it is. The son is really the only thing that keeps the father going, with the hope that he can find a better life for him.
I have been recommending this book to others ever since I finished it, and it is one I will definitely be rereading.

Finished January 19
Alentejo Blue by Monica Ali
I read this one on the plane coming home.
This story is set in Portugal and looks at life from the point of view of a number of residents and visitors to a small village there. Some are native Portuguese, others are long-term residents from England, and still others are tourists. There is a range of ages as well from ten up through eighty-four. Some are reminiscing about the past, some living in the present, and others looking to the future. As they deal with the world as its changes come to them, they also look at it in the context of their own familiar lives.
Ali writes beautifully and with great humour and her characters are what make this book. They come to life and illuminate the landscape they reside in.

Read over the weekend

Finished June 17
Apocalypse 2012: a Scientific Investigation into Civilization's End by Lawrence E. Joseph
This book explores the significance of the year 2012 in different cultures, finding a common denominator in a massive change, rebirth, and end of "the world as we know it" among them. He goes on to look at different scientific scenarios leading to a similar outcome. These include the building of global warming; impending eruption of a supervolcano; a peak in the sunspot cycle where the low spot has already had huge numbers of sunspots; and larger cycles like mass extinction (which the earth is overdue for). It's enough to scare you underground! I found both the cultural myth side and the scientific side interesting, and the lack of concerted attention by government to the scientific issues sad. It is definitely an interesting book and may cause you to change some of your behaviours.

Finished June 16
Obsession by Karen Robards
To me the title didn't really fit the plot on this one. There is a lot going on: sexual chemistry, murder, threats, kidnapping, the CIA, jewels; but at times it seemed almost too much. The staging of events, the re-enactment of murders, the drugging of participants to keep them in character was all a bit over-the-top. Needless to say the good guys won in the end, with a small sideshow at the beginning and end to bring in the "obsession" part. And the all lived happily ever after, with all the nasty characters dealt with. Definitely a book that keeps things moving and you have to pay attention to keep on top of the plot. A good summer read.

Finished June 15
Hide by Lisa Gardner
This is a page-turning thriller. An underground room is discovered on the grounds of a disused Boston mental hospital. In the room, arranged on shelves in bags, the mummified remains of six young girls. The only obvious clue is a locket with a name around one of the girl's necks.
A young woman who used to go by that name, Annabelle Granger, goes to the police to tell her story, hoping that they might be able to tell her why she spent her life on the run with her parents, changing names and cities every couple years.
As they reach into the past to try to find the answers, a victim of an older case is drawn in as well as several possible suspects. The plot keeps moving and never feels forced, yet also isn't too predictable. I really enjoyed this.