Staff Picks

While technically this isn't a favorite read, I long had been looking forward to reading the sequel to the 2010 Fox Cities Reads book selection, Whistling in the Dark, by Lesley Kagen.

In Good Graces, the story of Sally and Troo O'Malley picks up the next summer with a lot of new developments: the Milwaukee Zoo -- and Sally's beloved gorilla, Sampson -- is moving out of her neighborhood to a new location on Bluemound Road. A cat burglar is prowling the neighborhood. An orphan is missing, and a grown daughter has disappeared, too. To top it all off there's a bully on the loose and out for revenge, unless Troo can get her own revenge first. Once again Sally O'Malley is trying desperately to keep her sister safe as she also tries to unravel all the mysteries on Milwaukee's Vliet Street.

Initially I was worried this title would follow the same track as Whistling (I must admit, I didn't have the heart for the same type of plot line); however, I was happily surprised as events unfolded and "aaalll was revealed!"

Introverts are often indirectly told that their very way of being is a ‘condition’ or a ‘shell’ out of which they need to emerge. Susan Cain explores the fallacy of this and other beliefs about the introverted temperament in her fascinating book Quiet: The Power Of Introverts In A World That Can’t Stop Talking. Introversion is a preference for environments that are not overstimulating; many introverts are even quite sensitive to sights, sounds, smells, pain, and coffee. Extroverts recharge their batteries by socializing, while introverts recharge by being alone.

The author explains the benefits of an introverted temperament, not to claim superiority over extroversion, but simply to assert the inherent value of the introvert in a culture that, for the past century, has highly valued, promoted, and rewarded extroversion. Cain discusses America’s shift (in the early 1900s) from a Culture of Character to a Culture of Personality. Later, Cain presents evidence that a large proportion of the most beloved and successful leaders of social movements or admired heads of corporations displayed strong introvert characteristics: from Gandhi and Rosa Parks, to Stephen Wozniak of Apple. “Because of their inclination to listen to others and lack of interest in dominating social situations, introverts are more likely to hear and implement suggestions” (57).

Cain also discusses the benefits of ‘introverted’ environments; for example, creation and innovation most often spring from solitude, not collaboration. Online collaboration was an interesting and singular exception to this rule, allowing people to work in solitude, to unleash their creativity, and to submit their work and ideas in a medium that also allows them to engage and disengage at will.

I highly recommend this book if you, as an introvert, would like to understand yourself more, or if you, as an extrovert, want to understand better a spouse, child, or other loved one. The book is about appreciating the qualities and gifts that introverts have to offer, and how to use that understanding to fully value and meaningfully connect with one another.

Victoria is a young woman whose only way of connecting with others is through a language no one knows. When Victoria was 10, Elizabeth, one of her foster mothers, shared with her the near-forgotten language of flowers: honeysuckle for devotion, asters for patience, red roses for love… thistles for hate and distrust of human beings.

Victoria has just aged out of the foster care system. Broken and bruised, among her memories of the many foster and group homes she’s lived in there is only one of a happy home; yet, the memory of her home with Elizabeth also brings with it the very deepest wounds, ones of betrayal and regret. Now Victoria is living in a city park, scrounging daily for food, when she sees a woman, Renata, struggling to carry loads of flowers into her floral shop. When Renata is presented with Victoria’s talent for flower arrangement she takes her on. Victoria listens to the stories of the customers who come into the shop and communicates back to them in the language of flowers – a language that speaks powerfully into their lives as she explains the arrangements she has created for them.  And then one day she encounters someone who seems to know her language without aid of translation; and he is trying to speak to her. Like Elizabeth, he brings to Victoria’s life great gifts and great pain. Now Victoria has to learn whether someone as broken as she has anything but pain and brokenness to offer and receive from the world.

I love fiction and the power of story, but I nearly always read only non-fiction because it’s difficult to find stories that engage me or even make me want to finish them at all. I read this book in three sittings; it’s a powerful story of mothers and daughters, brokenness and redemption. A debut novel for the author, I look forward to future titles!

Claire DeWitt is not your average private investigator. She has a brilliant mind and great detective skills but Claire also uses dreams, drugs and Détection—a detective manual written by mysterious French detective Jacques Silette—to find answers in her investigations. She has returned to New Orleans—a thing she has avoided since the murder of her mentor--to investigate the disappearance of prosecuter Vic Willing, known for his skill in winning convictions for homicides.

Gritty depictions of post-Katrina New Orleans mix with glimpses of Claire’s Brooklyn origins to provide a unique backdrop to this offbeat and hip female sleuth with a dark side. Readers will be happy to know that it is the beginning of a new series.