“Only the things I didn’t do/crackle…” -Naomi Shihab Nye. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.
In the poem “Burning the Old Year,” poet Naomi Shihab Nye muses as she gets rid of some old letters: “Only the things I didn’t do/crackle after the blazing dies.” It’s that time again: at the beginning of the new year, we assess. We take stock. We remember old goals and renew them. We break trail, inspired to take on new tasks and ways of being in the world. Our staff picks in January offer a look at a few library resources and books that celebrate new beginnings and growth.
Staff Picks: Online Resources
Sonya’s Pick
Create the life you have always wanted and start your own business! You’ll need to write a business plan as your roadmap and to show to potential funders. A great way to get started in writing a business plan is to look at samples of business plans from existing successful organizations…and PPL has you covered. The Small Business Resource Center provides thousands of in-depth business plans for a variety of industries. See our Business page for other helpful resources, and let our Business Librarian know if you need assistance.
Staff Picks: Nonfiction
Hazel’s Pick
B
ird by Bird, by Anne Lamott
“When people shine a little light on their monster, we find out how similar most of our monsters are. The secrecy, the obfuscation, the fact that these monsters can only be hinted at, gives us the sense that they must be very bad indeed. But when people let their monsters out for a little onstage interview, it turns out that we’ve all done or thought the same things, that this is our lot, our condition. We don’t end up with a brand on our forehead. Instead, we compare notes.” –Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird
I don’t usually make resolutions in January (I’m still stuck in an academic calendar mindset where the new year begins in September), but this year felt different. I closed the door on 2015 with both heart and mind focused on the pursuit of writing to which, despite identifying as a writer for the better part of my life, I have devoted little energy in recent years. I spent New Year’s Day reading Anne Lamott’s celebrated manual/pep-talk hybrid and gearing up for a long overdue return to the writing life.
Eileen’s Pick
The Maine Atlas and Gazetteer
In late 1989, before the days of cell phones and GPS, never mind smart phones that do everything, we two country folk moved to the great State o’ Maine with no jobs and these pooled resources: one graduate degree (his), two cats (ours), and a dogged determination to be shed of Boston (mine). NH had been home before our stint in Boston, but employment would more likely be found around Portland. Enter The Maine Atlas and Gazetteer, the Delorme bible that would ease me into our chosen Promised Land after having not driven EVER, ANYWHERE for three and a half years. From the big picture to city streets and gravel roads, it had it all and showed the way to job interviews and the laundromat. Even better, it brought me home again every time. I am happy to say that our New Beginning worked out just fine. I still consult my Maine Atlas, albeit a newer edition, in lieu of more modern contrivances. It always gets me home, where my heart is.
Elizabeth’s Pick
It’s What I Do: A Photographer’s Life of Love and War, by Lynsey Addario
Lynsey Addario’s memoir is a straightforward, perceptive, and harrowing account of her work as a war photographer in the 21st century. It’s also a vivid portrait of the world in conflict and of the lives of others. In It’s What I Do, Addario is a thoughtful recorder of the harsh realities and complex experiences of journalists, the many different people they write about, photograph, film, and record, and all those who help the media along the way and who are put at risk. Recounting her experiences in Afghanistan, Iraq, Darfur, the Congo, and Libya, Addario writes about lives changed, damaged, and lost. She writes about compassion, fear, hospitality, censorship, courage, love, and “the privilege of witnessing things that others do not; an idealistic belief that a photograph might affect people’s souls.” How does her account of her life and the lives of others help me grow? It does make me want to pick up my camera (though here in Maine and elsewhere, I’ll only ever be taking pictures of friends and family). More complexly, her work urges me to continue to grow towards care, towards thoughtfulness, and towards always learning, questioning, and paying attention.
Here are some other ideas for nonfiction titles at PPL that explore different themes of growth and new beginnings:
- The Cliff Walk: A Memoir of a Job Lost and a Life Found, by Don J. Snyder
- Becoming Nicole: The Transformation of an American Family, by Amy Ellis Nutt
- Ordinary Light: A Memoir, by Tracy K. Smith
- I Just Graduated…Now What? Honest Answers from Those Who Have Been There, by Katherine Schwarzenegger
- Eating Wildly: Foraging for Life, Love, and the Perfect Meal, by Ava Chin
- When I First Held You: 22 Critically Acclaimed Writers Talk About the Triumphs, Challenges, and Transformative Experience of Fatherhood
- Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear, by Elizabeth Gilbert
- Trespassing on Einstein’s Lawn: A Father, A Daughter, The Meaning of Nothing, and the Beginning of Everything, by Amanda Gefter
- Out of the Woods: A Memoir of Wayfinding, by Lynn Darling
- My Twice-Lived Life: A Memoir, by Donald M. Murray
And there’s always…Rainer Maria Rilke’s poem, “Archaic Torso of Apollo,” which is a marble-writ glow of a reminder: “You must change your life.”
Staff Picks: The First Folio
Ellen’s Pick
The Millionaire and the Bard: Henry Folger’s Obsessive Hunt for Shakespeare’s First Folio, by Andrea E. Mays
This book is a perfect prelude to the First Folio event at PPL that will dominate conversation in the Portland cultural community for the month of March. The first chapters focus on the fascinating history behind the creation and publication of the First Folio. Later chapters flesh out the story of Henry Folger’s mania for finding and collecting these prized documents. Mays presents a compelling and accessible tale, and one that provides an excellent context for the First Folio’s anticipated visit to Portland and its only visit to Maine.
Staff Picks: Fiction
Brandie’s Pick
The 40 Rules of Love, by Elif Şafak
I recently listened to and was inspired by a Ted Talk with Ann Morgan. She considered herself well-read until she discovered the “massive blind spot” on her bookshelf. Like Ann, I thought I read diversely, but I wasn’t stepping outside of my comfort zone (for me that’s mostly English and Spanish speaking countries). Ann created a goal for herself: to read one book from every country in the world over the course of a year. I don’t have time for that, but I have decided to read 12 books from 12 countries that I don’t normally visit. I have asked friends to join in on the challenge: we’ll meet once a month to discuss the books we read. This month we’re reading The 40 Rules of Love by Elif Şafak, a French born Turkish writer. The novel consists of two parallel narratives. The contemporary one is about an unhappily married Jewish housewife in Massachusetts. The second narrative is “Sweet Blasphemy,” about a wandering dervish and Rumi, the poet. It’s interesting to see how these worlds intersect, and it makes me look forward to reading my way around the world this year. Our next book is set in Iceland: Stone Tree by Gyrðir Elíasson.
Thaddeus’ Pick
The Gathering Storm, by Brandon Sanderson (for Robert Jordan)
The Gathering Storm turned me into a writer. Back in 2009 when the book was published, I was living in Massachusetts and had the privilege to meet Sanderson at a book signing, where I asked him about the writing process and how he managed to write such rich and engrossing fantasy universes while still managing to have a life. His advice was simple: “If you have a story to tell, then tell it. If you have a universe to share, then share it. If you write just three pages a day — just three a day, even skipping some weekends — you’ll have a book in 6 months.” Well, it took me almost 4 years, but my first fantasy novel was done, and I’ve continued to grow as a writer since! All thanks to Sanderson and The Gathering Storm.
New Fiction in 2016
Last but not least…here’s a list of some of the library’s most anticipated new fiction titles for the beginning of 2016 (some not yet published): place your holds now!
The Public Computing department is thrilled to introduce 32 brand new patron computers to the Main Library, plus all new computers in the Children’s and Teen libraries and at the Riverton branch. These new machines run faster and smoother with all updated software, including Windows 7. Each desktop also includes quick links to Accessibility and Language settings, allowing patrons to tailor user experiences to accommodate a variety of needs and preferences.
Many of you requested more computer time, and we heard you! All patrons are now entitled to 90 minutes on the computer each day, rather than 60. (The only exceptions are the Children’s computers, which are still limited to one hour per day.)
Another popular demand has been the ability to scan directly to email, and we’ve recently installed this feature on our printer/copier. This can be used as a quick and easy method for digitizing your documents for personal storage or as a free alternative to faxing, and we’re excited to be able to offer it to the public.
PPL’s new Makerbot Replicator has been settling in nicely since October. Patrons of all ages are stopping by Public Computing to check on the latest print jobs: jointed action figures, replicas of skull fossils, cookie cutters, architectural models… and so much more. Come check it out!
Happy New Year from the Public Computing staff!
A few serene images from the recent book “James Turrell: A Retrospective,” a December Staff Pick.
At the end of the year…in a time of reflection…staff members weigh in on library materials that personally inspire joy or peace.
Youth Services
Carrie’s Pick
Zen Socks, by Jon J. Muth
Zen Socks, the newest installment in the Stillwater series by Jon J. Muth, introduces us to two new friends, Leo and Molly. Along with Moss, their cat, Leo and Molly learn timeless lessons of friendship, patience, and perseverance, from our favorite panda, Stillwater.
Set inside Muth’s sweet story and award winning watercolors is the traditional Zen tale,”The Taste of Banzo’s Sword.”Muth’s storytelling expertise shines in this short story within a story, which adds to the larger tale, while simultaneously being set apart with dynamic pen and ink drawings.
The book ends with and adaptation of the much loved, and often adapted tale, “The Star Thrower”, originally told by Loren Eiseley. This tale highlights the universal question: How should one act in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds? Muth’s answer: “Kindness works. Generosity works. Compassion works. Not every time, but always.”
Inner peace comes from knowing that you did the best you could, with the resources at hand, and in the time allowed. Stillwater reminds us once again that being kind and doing our best is always the right answer.
Hazel’s Pick
The Red Tree, by Shaun Tan
Shaun Tan is a master of minimally worded, maximally illustrated picture books. With The Red Tree, he gives us immersive dreamscapes in which isolation, melancholy, and dark, persistent sadness dominate: a girl etching hundreds of tally marks into the shell of a slowly spiraling giant snail; an enormous gray fish floating ominously, casting a city in shadow. Maybe all this doesn’t sound so peaceful—but it’s the book’s hopeful, reassuring ending that makes it the obvious pick for me.
Laura’s Pick
Lovabye Dragon, by Barbara Joose
A book that has recently made me feel both peaceful and joyful is Lovabye Dragon by Barbara Joose. The words have a lovely cadence which is wonderful to read aloud and the illustrations have a beautiful, soft, distinctive style that enriches the text. Lovabye is the story of Girl, who longs for a dragon for a friend, and Dragon, who longs for a girl for a friend. Thankfully, they find one another and discover that: “On the outside, Girl is little. On the outside, Dragon is biggle. But they’re just the same size, exactly the same size, in the middle.” The author says, “I think maybe I wrote this for little me.” I think everyone, big and little alike, will find joy in the idea of discovering just the friend you’ve been longing for.
Lisa’s Pick
Miss Rumphius, by Barbara Cooney
Of all the stories set in our beautiful Maine, I’ve always found joy and inspiration in Miss Rumphius. The classic story of the Lupine Lady offers us three simple but bedrock rules for a good life:
1. Go to faraway places.
2. Come home to live by the sea.
3. Do something to make the world more beautiful.
Emily R’s Pick
Instructions, by Neil Gaiman
Lots of people get excited about Gaiman’s longer works; for me, his poetry and short stories are where the poignancy lie. “Instructions,” a poem written out and illustrated in book form, talks you through what to do if you find yourself suddenly walking through a gate you’ve never seen in a wall you walk by every day. Drawing from tens of different fairy tales, advice is given: it may be about trusting youngest sisters, or about ferrymens’ riddles. Be kind; remember that jewels are just as uncomfortable as frogs when falling from lips; trust the wolves. In the end, Gaiman returns us to where we started, changed though we are by the experience of the journey, the poem, and more peaceful for this time.
“All fairy tales take place in the woods, King Cole, even the ones that don’t.” – Bill Willingham
Nonfiction
Ann’s Pick
Blue Horses, by Mary Oliver
The poet Mary Oliver has been a particular favorite this year (other inspiring recent reads include Markus Zusak’s novel The Book Thief, and the book I’m reading now, Ivan Doig’s last novel, Last Bus to Wisdom).
One example from Blue Horses is the poem “Do Stones Feel?” (p 71) from which I quote just a few lines at the end:
“Are the clouds glad to unburden their bundles of rain?
Most of the world says no, no, it’s not possible.
I refuse to think to such a conclusion.
Too terrible it would be, to be wrong.”
Oliver’s themes are the beauty, ferociousness, sanctity, and interdependence of all life. All her poems are life-affirming to me. When she says “too terrible it would be, to be wrong” about the question of stones feeling or clouds gladly giving up rain, she argues for the unknowable wonder, exploration and tolerance of the world, including human beings. Reading Mary Oliver helps me to come back into balance when I’m overwhelmed with the events of the day.
Elizabeth’s Pick
A Season For Building Houses
“To me, a home is where I find love, peace, friends, joy, strength, faith, and trust in those around me.” -Richard Akera, from “I Started to Explain,” A Season For Building Houses
Local writing center The Telling Room and their Young Writers and Leaders program just won a 2015 National Arts and Humanities Youth Program award. It’s news that inspires joy.
I just finished the TR’s new anthology,”A Season for Building Houses,” feeling gratitude that the compelling writers (and many familiar faces) represented in it are getting their stories and poems- and their important questions and reflections on home, the world, and life- heard, published, and spread far and wide. The anthology is currently being cataloged for the library’s collection.
You can also listen to readings from the anthology in the author’s voices here on SoundCloud. Pair with The Telling Room’s The Story I Want to Tell: Explorations in the Art of Writing.
Eileen M’s pick
Splitting an Order, by Ted Kooser
Peace can be elusive, perhaps because we think it is something to pursue, rather than a place to inhabit. Ted Kooser’s deceptively simple, utterly accessible poetry often gives me that sense of being in peace. Knotty problems and hard issues are there along with spot-on renderings of the natural world , canning lids and a passel of other things. Kooser’s Splitting an Order, published in 2014, offers up a bit of perfection in the eponymous poem (don’t wait! turn to page 9!) …leaving me damp-eyed and smiling and feeling at peace with what is and what may be. But don’t stop there. Read them all.
Thaddeus’ pick
If This Isn’t Nice, What Is? by Kurt Vonnegut
This prompt actually took quite a bit of thought. A lot of things make me happy, you see. I settled on a favorite though: If This Isn’t Nice, What Is? by the late Kurt Vonnegut. While Vonnegut’s novels are known for his postmodern and almost dismal black comedy, his graduation speeches in If This Isn’t Nice, What Is? are testaments to hope and snark, to futures and failures, and to the momentousness of living. Whether waxing poetic on the need for extended community (“A husband and wife and some kids aren’t a family any more than a Diet Pepsi and three Oreos is a breakfast,”) or on the proof of God being the existence of music (“Bill Gates doesn’t seem to realize that we are dancing animals,”) Vonnegut extols the virtues of human beings simply recognizing that they are happy. After all, when was the last time you paused what you were doing on a sunny day and interrupted your companion to ask “if this isn’t nice, what is?”
Brandie’s Pick
The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing, by Marie Kondō
“Imagine what it would be like to have a bookshelf filled only with books that you really love. Isn’t that image spellbinding? For someone who loves books, what greater happiness could there be?”
I recently read The Life Changing Habit of Tidying Up. (Everyone was reading it and remarking about how life-changing it truly is). A copy finally arrived as I was moving into my new home…which made unpacking take a great deal longer. Did it change my life? I don’t think so. I just can’t get that excited about organizing my sock drawer or rolling my shirts to maximize storage. But this guide to eliminating clutter is presented in an easy-to-manage way, and I do think that living with less clutter and less stuff creates a sense of peace. I also find myself using KonMari as a verb. I KonMaried my closet. I KonMaried my kitchen.
Perhaps this book sparked joy after all.
Jim’s Pick
James Turrell: A Retrospective, by Michael Govan and Christine Y. Kim, with photography by Florian Holzherr
My choice is our newest book on James Turrell’s work. I became acquainted with Turrell’s art some 25 years ago in New York. It’s hard to define other than to say he manipulates light. True story: I walked up to a grey rectangle in a gallery at the MOMA that was approximately 30 feet by 50 feet; only when I got to within 6 inches (!) did I see that it was not a rectangle, but that I was looking into another room.
Second time I saw his work: Arizona, Christmas vacation, 15 years ago. I allowed myself to be placed in a hollow ball that was sealed by a door, and then have laser lights alter the interior walls, so that I thought I was looking out into an endless blue vista…
As the book jacket notes, in his art “Turrell invites us to ‘go inside and greet the light,’ evoking the meditative practices of his Quaker upbringing.” Turrell also owns a crater out west (the Roden Crater Project) that I’ve yet to visit, which is supposed to be his magnum opus: the book includes beautiful images of it.
Meg’s Picks
“Sampler of Hand Stitches,” from Rebecca Ringquist’s Embroidery Workshops
Rebecca Ringquist’s Embroidery Workshops, by Rebecca Ringquist
I love winter. When I’m not out playing in the snow, I love to hunker down with a cup of tea and an embroidery project. Rebecca Ringquist’s Embroidery Workshops: A Bend-the-rules Primer is my pick for this month because it has inspired me to embrace the darkest months as an opportunity to lose myself in the quiet, meditative nature of embroidery.
Works of Anne Bradstreet, by Anne Bradstreet
Cozy indoor projects are also a great time for reflection and a reminder of the great Anne Bradstreet who wrote, “If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant: if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome” (Meditations Divine and Moral). So if needlework is not your thing, perhaps a good poem is.
Music
Penelope’s pick:
Mbaqanga by Mahlathini and the Mahotella Queens
It’s mid December. I’m driving around at 4 pm, and it’s already pitch dark, for Pete’s sake. Time to crank up some joyful music to lift my spirits. I need something that is the total opposite of “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year.” Nothing could be better than this great album of South African pop recorded in 1992.
The style of music called mbaqanga emerged from the segregated townships near Johannesburg in the 1960s. The groovy sound is created by plinky electric guitars and exuberant call-and-response singing between Mahlathini, a gravel-voiced “groaner,” and the Queens, a female trio. Most of the lyrics are in Zulu, with a bit of English scattered around. One of the tracks is titled “Stop Crying,” and that is a good advertisement for what this music can do for you.
A word of warning: this album is liable to cause vigorous car dancing. Please exercise caution if you listen while driving.
Thanks for reading, everyone, and all best wishes for a Happy New Year.
