Biographies for fun and profit!

At this time of year I’m always eager to get outside and put to right all the gardening projects that I didn’t finish last fall. Despite having lived in Iowa since 1992, winter surprises me every year by arriving when I’m only halfway down my to-do list. Now, when my enthusiasm is at its zenith, it’s too muddy to work outside.
Thus, every year I ended up weeding inside the library since I can’t do it outside. I tackled the fiction shelves after Christmas. The greatest numbers of the books we buy are fiction, plain old made-up stories. Since we are constantly adding new ones, it’s necessary to constantly get rid of the older, less well-loved ones to make space.
The non-fiction books grow in number more slowly. Sometimes I don’t think of weeding those shelves until Kathy (gently) tells me that she can’t squeeze another volume on the shelves. Most recently it was the shelves of biographies that were causing consternation. I love biographies. I don’t read them all by any means. I just like knowing that they are there. All libraries have biographies of famous people. If you are just itching to know more information about Martin Van Buren than Wickopedia offers, you expect to find it at the library.
But, the biographies that I really treasure are the ones about ordinary people who have accomplished or endured something extraordinary. Any time I feel sorry for myself, missing my far-flung children for instance, I can pick up a book about someone who walked 100 miles across a desert to find medical care for her babies. Sick of a lo-o-o-ng Iowa winter? There’s a book about a doctor who treated herself for breast cancer while stranded at the North Pole. See how it works? Pretty quickly I begin to feel I’m blessed with good fortune and need to get up out of my comfy recliner and help someone else. Listed below are some of the biographies that are ready to leave the library for a new home. Temporarily they are housed on the “free” shelves; come in and help yourself to these or many others that are just waiting to change your life.
The Book of Kehls by Christine Kehl O’Hagan. The story of a family in which five generations have been struck by Duchene Muscular Dystrophy.
My Detachment by Tracy Kidder. Pulitzer Prize winner Kidder studied at the University of Iowa. This book is his memoir of his tour of duty in Vietnam.
A Good Dog: The Story of Orson Who Changed My Life by Jon Katz. I’m a sucker for a good dog story. I think I keep hoping that my dogs will turn me into Mother Theresa or Eleanor Roosevelt if I’m just patient enough with them.
Fifty Acres and a Poodle: A Story of Love, Livestock and Finding Myself by Jeanne Marie Laskas. Another one!
Ten Minutes from Normal by Karen Hughes. Another sort of biography that can’t take up shelf space too long: a story about someone who was once very newsworthy, but who has now faded into oblivion. Hughes was an advisor to George W. Bush.
The Day Donny Herbert Woke Up by Rich Blake. This one will really make you forgot your troubles. Herbert was a Buffalo city firefighter who was injured in 1995. After 10 years in a coma, he woke up. After one day, he returned to his deep sleep and never experienced another clear moment. He died one year later of pneumonia.
See how this works? There is always someone worse off than me. Stop by the library this week. Therapy at no extra charge!

Dreams of Spring

If you have been paying attention, you know that we almost always have a quilt hanging in the library. Recently we took down the winter-ish quilts while we looked for a more spring like one to borrow. When the crowd of after-schoolers gathered in the library, they began to notice something wasn’t right. Quickly a young man exclaimed “Why don’t you have a quilt hanging up?”
His remark made us hustle up something appropriate. Kathy asked Judy Cochran if she had one we could borrow. Judy and many other local quilters have never turned us down. Marilyn Hinners and Jan Jaqua are among those we can count on to have on hand just the very quilt we had in mind.
When Judy brought in her quilt, it was all the best colors of a Sunday School class full of Easter dresses, pinks, blues, greens, yellows and lavenders. She said that she developed the pattern and began working on it one miserably snowy January. That year she really needed something to remind her that spring would eventually arrive. She pieced and handquilted it beautifully. Judy didn’t give the quilt a name. She told us to name it whatever we wanted. We joked about calling it Judy’s Winter Therapy, but finally named it Judith’s Dreams of Spring. Stop by the library to see it. You’ll go home with a strong case of spring fever and admiration for her handiwork.
On to books…..Oftentimes when an author is seen on tv talking about his/her new book, the library phone begins to ring. This week Heaven is for Real: A Little Boy’s Astounding Story of His Trip to Heaven and Back has elicited several calls. I hadn’t ordered, but I have now. If you heard about and want to read it, give us a call. We can put your name on the list.
One I’ve seen on tv a couple of times this week is Bringing Adam Home: The Abduction That Changed America by Les Standiford. It is the story of the abduction of Adam Walsh in Florida in 1981. Adam’s dad, John Walsh went on to create the show America’s Most Wanted. Bringing Adam Home is the account of the horrible crime and all that came after. The book is written by a respectable author with help from police Detective Joe Matthews. 1981 was one of many diaper-changing years for me. They sort of all run together in a big blur. But, I remember the moment I was watching John and Reve Walsh on Good Morning America when they received the news that the little boy’s partial remains were discovered. The book has many great reviews. I’m anxious to read it.
Another book that is much touted on tv this week is The Company We Keep: A Husband-and-Wife True-Life Spy Story by Robert and Dayna Baer. This one almost seems to be right out of a Hollywood movie. Robert and Dayna were both CIA employees when they met in Sarajevo. Bob didn’t even know Dayna’s true name at the time. One of the reviews called this book “funny, frightening, ironic and deeply moving.” Sounds like this book has something for everyone.
If you have seen an author on tv, check out the library. There’s a book here waiting for you.