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From time to time
we invite a staff member or guest reader to recommend a few books they have
enjoyed and write a few lines about them.
Tom
Moody works in Interdepartmental
Services at the Library. As the department name suggests, he works for
various departments throughout the Library. He also is the
"voice" of the Library as the switchboard operator. Like his
job, Tom likes to read a variety books, mainly non-fiction with some
guilty-pleasure fiction thrown in at times.
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Garlic
and Sapphires
by
Ruth Reichl
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This particular book was one I was
enormously pleased with. As a self-proclaimed "decent cook,"
I have read all her earlier books. However, Reichl, the former New York
Times restaurant reviewer, really outdid herself here. Because
she has become so famous, when reviewing a restaurant, she must
assume disguises to
prevent being recognized by the restaurant staff. Not only does this create
whole personas,
but her personality changes too! When she opts to be her mother it
is a hilarious and touching moment. Ms. Reichl managed to keep me
reading with her beautiful comments on the tastes of food. You
yourself can savor every bite. Humor, satire, wonderful recipes --
what more could one want in a book?
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| 1776
by David
G. McCullough
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| History,
drama, excitement of the moment -- it is all here in this wonderful,
well researched book about the Revolutionary War. You are taken on a
journey from Boston to Princeton along with General Washington, who
often felt inadequate to carry on the important war of the United
Colonies. This book describes the view of both the new American
colonists and the British as well as of the many loyalists in
America. The horrors of war, the drudgery, many days of rain and
cold and of just waiting for the enemy to strike, McCullough brings
it all into full color with sharp writing and commentaries
of people who were there. |
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Bitter
Brewby Christine
Ellen Young
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| Here is a story that
reads like a good old soap opera. This true story about the arsenic
poisoning in New Sweden, Maine is a fast read. It is easy to get
caught-up in the back-biting and histrionics of the townsfolk
surrounding the poisoning in this tiny backwoods town. Ms. Young's
carefully researched book takes a look at the background of the
people who live there and the church that binds them all together.
Gustav Adolph Evangelical Lutheran Church where the poisoning took
place has members who for years have held grudges against each other
for various reasons. The mystery is never really solved as there are
a number of theories still surrounding the case, even two years
after the fact. You are left to come to your own conclusions about
this satisfying true crime mystery.
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