All posts by Jessica FitzHanso
June Local Authors Market – Meet Laura Fedolfi
This post is part of a series introducing the authors that will be participating in our annual Local Authors Market. Read about the authors and then come to meet them and buy their books on Saturday June 24 from 2-4PM at the Main Library.
Laura Fedolfi grew up in Chichester, NH. She attended Phillips Exeter Academy in Exeter, NH and Wesleyan University in Middletown, CT. There she wrote a senior thesis in her dual degree of Philosophy and English. She went on to receive a Master’s Degree in Conflict Analysis and Resolution from George Mason University, Fairfax, VA. She has lived for the last 18 years in Chelmsford, MA where she has raised two children. She has held many different jobs, done a wide array of volunteer work, and is involved in the life of her Episcopal church, All Saints’.
Though she has always been telling stories, she began writing them down only recently. Revealing Hannah The Greek Myths is a series of novels. Follow the adventures of Hannah Summers as she navigates her first years after college. Imagine trying to sort out work, life and love with the added complication of having your fate entwined with the Greek gods. Each book focuses on a particular myth and takes you on an entertaining trip down the labyrinthine path of Hannah’s quest for a life of her own making…
All Ms Fedolfi’s books are available through her website, www.revealinghannah.com, or through Amazon. Revealing Hannah Book 1: The myth of Cassandra is available through the Chelmsford Public Library.
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June Local Authors Market – Meet Rick Conti
This post is part of a series introducing the authors that will be participating in our annual Local Authors Market. Read about the authors and then come to meet them and buy their books on Saturday June 24 from 2-4PM at the Main Library.
Rick Conti has written a dozen screenplays, a hundred or so sketches and short plays, and a handful of short stories. “A Slippery Land” is his first novel. After barely surviving a career in software, a series of misadventures and one tyrannical employer inadvertently gave him the chance to try his hand at writing full time.
Rick’s love for Haiti began on a 10-day mission trip there in 2000. Suffering from a classic case of “reverse homesickness”, he has returned several times. For eight years, he served as Director of Communications for a nonprofit that helps Haitian women create and maintain their own businesses.
Rick published a second novel, A Song in the Storm, in April of 2017. The story follows eighteen-year-old Calandra, who is on the verge of becoming a professional singer when she is sent against her will from her home in Italy to marry a stranger in America. She will need all her wits, her faith, and the help of her new friends in Boston to salvage her future and pursue her dream.
Come speak with Rick about his experiences and check out his works when he comes to the library on June 24!
June Local Authors Market – Meet Kameryn James
This post is part of a series introducing the authors that will be participating in our annual Local Authors Market. Read about the authors and then come to meet them and buy their books on Saturday June 24 from 2-4PM at the Main Library.
By day, Kameryn James works as a psychotherapist named Alison. About three years ago, she finally made a childhood dream come true and published a few short horror stories in some anthologies under her pen name (Voices from the Gloom, Vol. 1 and Dead Guns Press Book 2: Undead War.) She has also appeared twice in Sirens Call Publications online magazine.
Inspired by a commonly used toy in play therapy, Kameryn first participated in National Novel Writing Month in November 2015. Thus, the supernatural horror novel, Doll House, was self-published in 2016. The world of self-publishing taught Kameryn one important thing: patience.
For this summer, Kameryn presents A Book Full of Terrible Things, which is a collection of her short horror stories. Her plans as a writer are to continue challenging who gets the ‘happily ever after’.
In addition, she is the contact person for the Chelmsford Library Writers Group.
Come and find out more about Kameryn and her works when she comes to the Chelmsford Library on June 24!
June Local Authors Market – Meet Michael Beaulieu
This post is the first in a series introducing the authors that will be participating in our annual Local Authors Market. Read about the authors and then come to meet them and buy their books on Saturday June 24 from 2-4PM at the Main Library.
Michael Beaulieu: Michael Beaulieu is the pen name of Michael McCarthy, an author and entertainment journalist of Dracut, Massachusetts. Beaulieu began his writing career in the early to mid-nineties writing for various entertainment and music magazines. His work has been praised by others in the industry, including the director Kevin Smith. He now issues most of his journalism through his website Love is Pop, where he publishes his criticism and his interviews with his favorite new authors and musicians.
Beaulieu’s first book, Reckoning Daze, was written between 2004 and 2006 while he was living in Los Angeles. The book features the whirlwind life of a 19-year old Lindsay Harmon-Foster, an actress struggling to make it in Hollywood. The narrative is told from her critical and humorous perspective as she navigates the pitfalls encountered by those trying to find their place in a notoriously competitive scene.
Beaulieu has also published the first book in a three volume young adult urban fantasy series called Book of Shadows, featuring 16-year old Emma. Emma and her friends are being forced into a strict Catholic High School, when one day, she finds an old book of spells that belonged to her grandmother, unlocking a world she never could have dreamed, and potentially freeing her and her friends from a stifling existence.
Find out more about Michael and his projects when he comes to the Chelmsford Library Authors’ Market on June 24!
Reading List: The Handmaid’s Tale and other dystopias
The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood’s classic dystopian novel from the 1980’s, has been adapted for television, and the first three episodes aired last weekend via Hulu. If you are not familiar with the novel’s premise, it follows a member of the near future society of Gilead, where men have taken control and forced most women into submission in return for their safety. Read what Margaret Atwood has to say about her experience creating the novel and what it means, here.
Novels of speculative fiction such as this often features dystopias ruled by oppressive, autocratic/ technocratic/ theorcratic regimes in which most of society has effectively given up or given over save for our protagonists, a few brave souls who have found reason to strive against the “norm,” albeit unsuccessfully in some cases. The appeal of these novels is the worlds they create, in the aftermath of calamity, a few take possession of the whole by exploiting a particular societal vulnerability. For instance, in The Handmaid’s Tale, men have taken away women’s access to money and credit, and created a world in which women, in order to survive, must be completely dependent on men. In Brave New World, society accepts the sacrifice of art, love, intellectual freedoms and scientific freedom if it guarantees a social stability and perpetual happiness without discord. These novels, though set in parallel-nows or possible-futures, can often tell us quite a bit about our own tendencies, or complacency, whether it be societal, political or personal, and remind us that there is still a chance to escape such a reality. They are also imaginative, immersive, and fun to read.
Here is a list of dystopias, to fear or escape to, before the next one comes to TV. Click on the covers to go to the catalog and place a request. (Descriptions taken from NoveList)
The Classics:
| Brave New World is a searching vision of an unequal, technologically-advanced future where humans are genetically bred, socially indoctrinated, and pharmaceutically anesthetized to passively uphold an authoritarian ruling order–all at the cost of our freedom, full humanity, and perhaps also our souls. | |
| Winston Smith toes the Party line, rewriting history to satisfy the demands of the Ministry of Truth. With each lie he writes, Winston grows to hate the Party that seeks power for its own sake and persecutes those who dare to commit thoughtcrimes. But as he starts to think for himself, Winston can’t escape the fact that Big Brother is always watching… | |
| A totalitarian regime has ordered all books to be destroyed, but one of the book burners suddenly realizes their merit. | |
| In a nightmare vision of the future, where the criminals take over after dark, the story is told by the central character, Alex, who talks in a brutal invented slang that brilliantly renders his and his friends’ social pathology. | |
| Captures the strange world of twenty-first-century Earth, a devastated planet in which sophisticated androids, banned from the planet, fight back against their potential destroyers. | |
| In a future world where the birth rate has declined, fertile women are rounded up, indoctrinated as “handmaids,” and forced to bear children to prominent men. | |
| The year is 2021. The country is under the absolute rule of the Warden. Then by chance, Theo Faron meets a young woman who seeks to challenge the power of the Warden’s regime. |
Future Classics?
| A near-future world struggles with the challenges of a dramatically aging population revitalized by the cure for cancer, a scenario that is challenged by an unprecedented natural disaster that drives the government into bankruptcy. | |
| In the not too distant future, the United States is again at war with itself. Fossil fuels, which have decimated the environment, are banned, but the states rich in them refuse to comply and thus break away from the union. Biological warfare, drones as killing machines, and state fighting against state contribute to make this a prescient novel. | |
| In the wake of a devastating Southern California drought, two idealistic holdouts fall in love and scavenge for their needs before taking charge of a mysterious child and embarking on a perilous journey in search of water | |
| Global warming has changed the world’s geography and its politics. Wars are waged over water, and China rules Europe, including the Scandinavian Union, which is occupied by the power state of New Qian. In this far north place, seventeen-year-old Noria Kaitio is learning to become a tea master like her father, a position that holds great responsibility and great secrets. | |
| A reunion with two childhood friends–Ruth and Tommy–draws Kath and her companions on a nostalgic odyssey into the supposedly idyllic years of their lives at Hailsham, an isolated private school in the serene English countryside, and a dramatic confrontation with the truth about their childhoods and about their lives in the present. | |
| Severe water shortages across the American Southwest fuel cutthroat competition between independent city-states for scarce resources. On one end of the spectrum is Las Vegas, a lush, high-tech “arcology” of fountains and gardens; on the other is Phoenix, devastated by drought yet inundated with refugees from bone-dry Texas. Against this vividly rendered backdrop, a diverse cast of characters do what they must to survive. | |
| In the middle of the 21st century, a young woman in Texas awakens to a nightmarish new life: her skin has been genetically altered, turned bright red as punishment for the crime of having an abortion. Stigmatized and in a hostile and frightening world, Hannah Payne must make a perilous journey northward to safety. |
Read, Renew, Return: a reading list for Earth Day and every day
Today, April 22, is Earth Day, and people all over the country are using this day to march for science and draw attention to the importance of scientific research to our communities, economy, democracy and future. If you are wondering what you can do to protect our climate today, use this Earth Day to start investigating. Here are some resources to begin:
Understand:
Read: Bill Bryson’s brilliant book A Short History of Nearly Everything, a meditation and series of conversations on the importance of science to the non-scientist.
Dawn Light: Observe the beauty of our planet with poet Diane Ackerman in her moving and enlightening book, a series of meditations on the life of the earth at dawn
Watch: Planet Earth, a five part documentary series that examines the beauty of the planet through its habitats, plants and animals.
Listen to the arguments:
Read: The Whale Warriors, in which author and journalist Peter Heller travels with a group of activists aboard the Farley Mowat fighting to save whales and other species from poachers in the Antarctic Ocean and around the world.
Moby Duck, which chronicles one man’s investigation into the journey of thousands of little plastic ducks that were lost in the ocean.
Oil and Honey – Engage with Bill McKibben’s memoir, in which the founder of 350.org alternately describes his time protesting the Key Stone Oil pipeline and keeping bees.
Watch: Gasland, about the hazardous conditions created by fracking, Food, Inc, about some of the harmful effects of the way we manufacture food, and Climate of Doubt, a Frontline episode on DVD on the reasons for political inaction around climate change.
Do something in your own life:
Read: No Impact Man: The adventures of a guilty liberal who attempts to Save the Planet and the discoveries he makes about himself and our way of life in the process, by Colin Beavan, or the documentary film made from the book. Find out about some of the challenges the author faced in trying to reduce his impact on the environment to zero.
Green your life with the Green Guide: The complete reference for consuming wisely, which provides tips for everything from changing the light bulbs to ecological flea repellents.
Get outside and enjoy nature with Vitamin N: 500 Ways to Enrich the Health and Happiness of Your Family and Community by Richard Louv or Edible Wild Plants for Beginners from Althea Press
Watch: Take a look at the Clean and Green series of lectures filmed at the Chelmsford Library, featuring speakers on such topics as Recycling, Composting, Soil Nutrition, Home energy, Greening your family, crafting with PLARN and Green for the Holidays, featuring recommendations from local experts!
Check out our Earth Day displays on the Main floor and downstairs for even more books on the topic, and have a Happy Earth Day all year round.
STRONGER Characters
Stronger characters is the reading theme this month, so at our last Friday Fiction meeting, Vickie and I highlighted some intriguing biography and memoir titles, and absorbing character-driven fiction. In A Separation, a recently separated woman suddenly finds herself in pursuit of her husband on the southern coast of Greece in an introspective and thoroughly compelling narrative. Anything is Possible takes the indomitable title character from My Name is Lucy Barton and weaves her through the town of her tragic childhood. Fredrik Backman populates his novel Beartown with rich cast of characters that show strength amid tragic circumstances in a small wilderness town. Kathleen Rooney’s debut introduces us to Lillian Boxfish, an indefatigable spirit, and one of New York’s original ad-women, who, at 85, on the Eve of 1985, is walking through the equal-parts triumphant and melancholy life that has led her to her present.
And the Oscar Goes to…
The 89th annual Academy Awards are this Sunday and it should be an interesting night considering the current political climate and the range of nominees in each category. However, as Richard Brody wrote in an Oscar predictions piece in the New Yorker this week, most of the relevant statements have already been made, but maybe it will be still be a good show.
With that, here’s an Oscar-inspired book list for your entertainment, before, after, or even during the Oscars. Fortunately, this year’s slate of Best Picture nominees provides an excellent range of genres to choose from.
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Hello, Goodbye, Hello: a circle of 101 remarkable meetings, by Craig Brown: In the spirit of La La Land, here’s a book that celebrates chance encounters. Each chapter describes a brief entanglement, conversation, or meeting between two famous figures. Each encounter is linked to the next by one of the two famous people. Marilyn Monroe meets Kruschev, Elvis Presley meets Paul McCartney, Oscar Wilde meets Marcel Proust, Michael Jackson meets Nancy Regan who meets Andy Warhol and so on. But the names are only the beginning – the circumstances of each encounter are the real story. |
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The Story of Your Life/ Arrival by Ted Chiang: Arrival, starring Amy Adams, is based on a short story called The Story of Your Life by Chinese author Ted Chiang. Re-released under the movie’s title, it’s been considered a brilliant work to science fiction fans since its debut in the late 90s, celebrated for its minimalist, precise writing, as it explores the way language alters perception. |
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August Wilson/ Lorraine Hansberry/ Arthur Miller. Read August Wilson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play Fences, written in 1983, but also read A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry, a remarkable play, written in 1959, about the black experience in the forties and fifties. Also try Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller, similarly about a working class man trying to square his experience and existence with the world he thought he knew. |
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Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, by Junot Diaz: Like Barry Jenkins’ Moonlight, Diaz’s brilliant mesmerizing novel tells a deeply affecting tale of a marginalized young boy, whose family life is less than perfect, and whose surrogate family relationships ultimately lead him to love and some sense of acceptance. The novel’s most brilliant features are the way the rhythm of the language, at first almost indecipherable, soon begins to overtake the reader, and the allusions to myth and culture. |
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The Light Between Oceans, by M. L. Stedman: Like the emotionally wrenching Manchester by the Sea, The Light Between Oceans features characters caught in dilemmas larger than they are equipped to handle, struggles that smash their quiet existences. Stedman’s novel is set in the years after WWII, where a young man and his wife tend to a light house on an island off the shore of Perth, Australia. One day, a baby washes ashore, and the couple begin to raise it as their own, fatefully forgetting to question the baby’s origins for the sake of finally having a child. |
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The Sisters Brothers, by Patrick DeWitt: While the Sisters Brothers may be a more historical approach as opposed to Hell or High Water’s modern heist, in both we get brothers in a western setting doing bad things. The Sisters Brothers, Charlie and Eli, are hired as assassins to murder an ingenious prospector who has developed a formula for detecting gold under the ground’s surface. However, the brothers’s focus shifts once they are in the midst of the California Gold Rush. The Sisters Brothers will be its own movie in 2018. |
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Hidden Figures: The Story of the African-American Women Who Helped Win the Space Race, by Margot Lee Shetterly: Though there were some mildly controversial changes made in the nominated movie of the same name, the story is totally inspiring in print and on film. The author grew up in Langley, VA, where her Dad was employed in the defense industry. She said she never really thought about the number of women she saw from all different backgrounds until she started working on the book, but soon realized their amazing accomplishments. Also try The Girls of Atomic City for the story of another historically significant group of women. |
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A Long Way Home, by Saroo Brierley / Reluctant Fundamentalist, by Mohsin Hamid: The film Lion is based on a true story, related in the memoir A Long Way Home. Another title to try is the Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid, a riveting tale of a Pakistani immigrant reconnecting with his home country. Though a more difficult tale than Lion, they both describe the challenges in reconnecting with one’s identity, and the social and cultural differences and difficulties experienced in other parts of the world. |
Friday Fiction Midwinter list
The Midwinter Fr
iday Fiction list is, admittedly, a little darker in tone than usual: There are suspense titles featuring anxiety ridden Londoners (Her Every Fear) and violence obsessed teens (The Female of the Species). A few politically charged titles featuring hopeful migrants (Exit West, Salt to the Sea) and jaded expats (The Refugees). And some hard-fought quests for identity amidst class (These Shallow Graves), race (Swing Time, Out of Darkness), social (All the Bright Places) and gender (Difficult Women) issues.
But there were a few bright spots in collection, sure to warm up your cold January days (though, frankly there haven’t been many…). All Our Wrong Todays is an hysterical sci-fi romp featuring an alternate 2016 with jetpacks and flying cars. To Capture What We Cannot See is a lush historical fiction featuring romance in Belle Epoque France. Despite its name, In Sunlight and in Shadow contains some amusing short works by your favorite suspense stars. And if recent events have you looking fondly to past presidential heroes, there is the meditative and reflective Lincoln in the Bardo.
So it’s not all bad. And at least we have Spring to look forward to.
Join us next time, on March 17, at 10:30AM, when we welcome Spring with some fresh new hardbound entertainment.
Staff Best of the Year 2016
What a long strange year it’s been. Often during a period like this, people find themselves drawn to reading. They say reading increases empathy, something we could all use a little more of, and no one can deny that a great story provides a perfect escape.
Of our staff’s list, almost half of the recommendations are nonfiction, more than usual, and all were biographical. Two recommendations are short, dense personal essays: When Breath becomes Air, and You Will Not Have My Hate; tiny little books that pack a powerful blow despite their size. The remaining five are about people and all their difficulties, obsessions, preoccupations and personal revolutions: True Crime Addict, Every Last Tie, Killing Reagan, The Nine of Us, Martha’s Vineyard: Isle of Dreams.
Of the fiction a good number of the books read employ humor, the sugar to help the medicine go down, which, unexpectedly, provides a reprieve from an overwhelming amount of insincerity. El Deafo, Modern Lovers, The Nest, The Rosie Project, The Rosie Effect, A Man Called Ove, and The Bed Moved expose laughable but relateable quirks of personality, imagination and situation. Others are more irreverent in tone, and thus more piercing, like Making Nice, Stiletto, or The Underground Railroad.
The quest for identity was a theme in a few too. Swing Time by Zadie Smith, The Girls by Emma Cline and Here I Am by Jonathan Safran Foer, contained stories of marginal identities wading through existential gray areas via some sort of major external crisis. Georgia, a highly praised novel of Georgia O’Keefe’s life made the list, as did two recent WWII historicals: Mischling and Everyone Brave is Forgiven.