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True Crime : a memoir by Patricia Daniels Cornwell
Who knew that the first book I’d pick up by Patricia Cornwell wouldn’t be one of the installments in her famous Scarpetta series, but her deeply personal memoir, True Crime?
Cornwell begins her story one winter morning when she wakes up to find her mother burning all of her and her brother's clothing in the living room fireplace, mumbling about the end of times. What follows are a series of tragic stories about her childhood: from being abandoned on Christmas Day by her father; being molested at five years old; living in an abusive foster home while her mother was admitted not once, but twice to a psychiatric hospital; getting admitted to that very same psychiatric hospital for an eating disorder; to being sexually abused as a young adult. Despite her traumatic upbringing, her life story continues as she begins her career working the crime beat at a local newspaper, becoming a volunteer police officer, and finally a technical writer and computer analyst at the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, where she recounts how her experiences at the OCME inspired her Scarpetta character and novels.
Admittedly, the compelling nature of her memoir does take a slight turn after her rise to fame, as Cornwell proceeds to constantly name drop the celebrities and political figures she has come across, including George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, Tom Clancy, Jodie Foster, Demi Moore, Nicole Kidman, and more. Despite this, True Crime was still a fascinating read, and while it was my first book by Cornwell, it won’t be my last.
Adult Non-Fiction: pr8327633
This month's adult review was written by Julia Malott, Adult Print Selection Specialist at Library Bound.
Fenway Punk : How a Boston Indie Label Scored Big On Baseball’s Greatest Rivalry by Chris Wrenn
I was immediately drawn to Fenway Punk solely by the title, as both baseball and Hardcore are a large part of my personal history.
Interestingly, this is not another detailed account from the mosh pit but the personal history of an ambitious narrator, Chris Wrenn, wrapped around an in-depth account of the Boston Red Sox during the 2000s and entrepreneurial dedication. At 19 Wrenn, an avid Hardcore fan envisions starting a record label to document Boston’s Hardcore scene, of which he is a member. To front his vision Wrenn begins selling bumper stickers representing both his anti-establishment ethos and the rivalry between Boston and New York, Where the true story begins is after Wrenn distances himself from old friends because they are dangerous and irresponsible, not the expected path for a twenty-something punk, nor is his dedication to squirreling away the profits from the bumper sticker sales that will grow his record company and eventually lead to the creation of three companies: a record company, a tee-shirt company and a printing company.
Adult Non-Fiction: pr8236525
This month's adult review was written by Mike Clark, Acquisitions Associate at Library Bound.
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If We Cannot Go at the Speed of Light by Choyeop Kim
A brilliant collection showcasing the outskirts of futures - those who are left behind by technologies, or isolated by advancements and achievements.
This whole collection is very quietly sad, centering stories of women isolated in thought, in space, in their one-of-a-kind experiences. Woman at the forefront, as in stories ‘My Space Hero’ and ‘Spectrum’, face undue scorn; women in the margins (‘Archival Loss’ and namesake ‘If We Cannot Go at the Speed of Light’) face invisibility.
Her writing isn’t bleak – it taps into something tender and subtle. This is sci-fi at a human pace.
Adult Fiction: pr8190886
This month's adult review was written by Harrison Gilhuly, Adult Print Selection Specialist at Library Bound.
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A look at cold water swimming, from solo and community quick dippers to events organized by the nascent International Ice Swimming Association, held around the world.
As with “Born to Run,” this is very much a character study of fascinating outliers and eccentrics, along with those dealing with trauma, from the famous (Lynne Cox, Wim Hoff), prize winning (a US Olympic swim team member) and everyday (a CDN getting over the loss of his wife). It also, much like James Nestor’s “Breath” is filled with very readable popular science in greater depth with historical and current research. I haven’t had a book more fun to read than this, year to date.
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Shadow Ticket by Thomas Pynchon
A satirical noir in the form of a 1930s private eye thriller that looks at the emerging threats of fascism and new technologies, this is the Great American cheese novel you didn’t know you needed.
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Things in Nature Merely Grow by Yiyun Li
There are few writers I know who have mastery and full control over words as Yiyun Li.
This qualification, I believe is necessary when you write two books upon the loss of two sons to suicide. The first book Where Reasons End is written for Vincent. The second, Things in Nature Merely Grow is for James, and captures - with sparse prose the essence of losing James, the sense of losing oneself within loss - not a loss of control, nor a loss of conserving emotions, but as falling into an abyss. Li is in full control of her emotions and presents the story of James, of family past, present and future with a clear voice that is spared adjectives because as she writes, James was direct and preferred logic. Li describes this as the now and now and now where children die, and parents go on livin
g. As a reader the abyss is palpable, and haunting as the narrator realizes there is no freeing oneself from the abyss, but shall forever merely carry on in a Sisyphean motion. It is a book best allowed to breath, so the words can carry their full weight - though only 172 pages it is a clear eyed tome.
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Rough Description: Love Letters and Ghost Stories from a Life in Music by Don Pyle
There are many ways to approach writing one’s history. The most obvious is to start at point A and travel to point B.
Don Pyle has a lot to write about as a gay man growing up in Toronto during the 1980s, and has chosen a messier path where events interlock, shift and evolve into something much bigger. What we learn about the drummer from Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet and Pyle’s life in music carries more weight because we learn alongside Pyle as he remembers events and people.
Like a good drummer whose rhythm propels the band, music propels Rough Description, events and people come into focus and take their solos – many become ghosts: Louie Beeson, Reid Diamond, Wendy Coburn, Steve Albini and Dallas Good. While many events are tragic, Pyle never loses his sense of humor to remind readers of forgotten things without being overbearing: the 1980s AIDS epidemic, rampant homophobia, and an intolerant United States. Some readers may even find themselves back at a long forgotten Shadowy Men’s show.
In the end readers, feel the complete sense of Pyle’s world and the deep love that he has for the life he has created. As a long time fan of Pyle’s music, it was a joy to see him at Kitchener Public Library.
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This month's adult review was written by Mike Clark, an Aqusitions Associate at Library Bound.
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A wonderfully broad and digressive look at trees in biology, history and culture. This nature writing at its finest, comparable to Charles Bowden, and Barry Lopez, that combines philosophy, biology and reportage, in original ways.
Note that while American by birth, Moor lives in Halfmoon Bay, BC and hopes to stay forever. In Trees includes chapters on an environmental tree-sit protest in Burnaby, as well as at Fairy Creek BC.
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