The Bookshelf

Every year, the Macarthur Foundation presents a series an award to a number of people who are making a huge difference in their field. Whether in science, art, community work, literature, or another field, this $500,000 “genius grant” is meant to represent a firm belief in the recipient’s contributions to our culture, and a strong encouragement to continue their great work.

The 2009 Macarthur Fellows were just announced this morning. Among them are creators whose work can be found in the library:

Edwidge Danticat; memoirist and chronicler of the Hatian immigrant experience. Her most recent work is Brother, I’m Dying.

Rackstraw Downes; landscape painter whose work often illustrates the intersection of man-made structures in a natural landscape. He has written and edited a number of works on contemporary art, one of which is in our collection.

Deborah Eisenberg; short story writer who creates intimate portraits of contemporary American life.

James Longley; filmmaker and director  of the Oscar-nominated documentary Iraq in Fragments.

Heather McHugh; poet known for her deftly constructed works focusing on intricate wordplay and the joys of language.

Elyn Saks; attorney and mental health rights advocate. Author of The Center Cannot Hold, a personal chronicle of her own struggle with schizophrenia.

The other Fellows include environmentalists, papermakers, and ornithologists, among other fields.

If you had the opportunity, who would you give a “genius grant” to? Let us know in the comments!

Jessica’s Guide to Dating on the Dark Side by Beth Fantaskey

(and on audio)

Teen romance with a twist: 17- year-old Jessica is learning that she has a different life than she thought. Jessica is really a vampire princess and she is the head of her clan, expected to marry the hunky leader of a rival vampire family – thus ensure peace… Yeah, this was a lot of fun to read. It’s not serious stuff, which is why I liked it so much. Jessica is experiencing a lot of “typical” coming of age transitional/identity realizations, etc. There is much humor in the novel mixed with truthful themes and on-target observations about teens. I can see why copies of this book are always checked out from the Library. It is not a Twilight wannabe. However, it is a good one to recommend to those that have read all the Stephenie Meyer books and need something else. I look forward to more from author Beth Fantaskey.

Think your job is tough? You can get an idea of what other people go through from these unvarnished accounts of life on the job. Once you read these books, you might look at your own career in a whole new light.

Answering 911: Life in the Hot Seat by Caroline Burau

Bad Cop: New York’s Least Likely Police Officer Tells All by Paul Bacon

Confessions of a Tax Collector: One Man’s Tour of Duty inside the I.R.S. by Richard Yancey

Happy Hour Is for Amateurs: A Lost Decade in the World’s Worst Profession by the Philadelphia Lawyer

Other People’s Dirt: A Housecleaner’s Curious Adventures by Louise Rafkin

Plane Insanity: A Flight Attendant’s Tales of Sex, Rage, and Queasiness at 30,000 Feet by Elliott Hester

Quiet, Please: Dispatches from a Public Librarian by Scott Douglas

Waiter Rant: Thanks for the Tip–Confessions of a Cynical Waiter by The Waiter [i.e., Steve Dublanica]

To publish anything – a book, an album, even a blog post – requires you to develop a pretty thick skin. Even a book as widely acclaimed as Cormac McCarthy’s The Road (probably the closest thing we’ve had to a Great American Novel in quite some time, and loved by Oprah and the Pulitzer committee alike) has its detractors. Over 1600 people on Goodreads have given the book 1 measly star.

So if a work as widely acclaimed as The Road isn’t safe from this kind of vitriol, where does that leave everyone else?

Mystery author Brad Meltzer has one approach. His most recent title, The Book of Lies, was just released in paperback. To celebrate, he’s compiled some of the choicest nuggets from his harshest reviews – but presents them in a way that makes you laugh rather than cringe:

Great stuff, and proof positive that when life gives you critics, you make … critic-ade. What about you? Are there any universally-loved books that you can’t stand? How about “awful” books that you love?