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Volume III, Issue 4 |
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| Auditor’s Pick |
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Assassination Vacation
By Sarah Vowell
Simon and Schuster Audio
Reviewed by Linda Arrington
With her brainy-pixie voice (you'll recall her unique delivery from commentaries on NPR's This American Life -- and your kids will feel at home as well; she was the voice of Violet in The Incredibles), Sarah Vowell invites the listener along on her exploration of presidential assassination sites, monuments, and other historical haunts (all inspired by her viewing Stephen Sondheim's musical Assassins). Using the same acerbic wit and eye for social commentary that she displays in her columns for Salon.com and McSweeney's, and building on her fan base from The Partly Cloudy Patriot, Vowell draws some timely connections between past commanders in chief and the current presidential administration.
Her laundry list of phobias (from driving to pet dander), the comic relief delivered by her nephew and occasional traveling companion Owen (he's three and he knows the word "crypt"), and the behind-the-scenes stories of our nation's adolescence, bring life to what could have been another dry historical reading. Cameos from such varied personalities as Stephen King (President Lincoln), Jon Stewart (President Garfield), and Daniel Handler, aka Lemony Snicket, (as President McKinley) make this audiobook come alive with the same smooth production you've come to expect from a Simon and Schuster Audio product. Who knew that that learning about our nation's history could be so much fun?
Both of these audiobooks feature an eccentric cast of characters whose stories intertwine. The characters' lives are all unsatisfactory in some way, and the listener gets to witness their change, growth, redemption, and achievement of some incarnation of a happy ending. Both books' readers offer enjoyable performances, ably juggling the different characters' voices with diverse accents and personalities. Both are highly recommended for libraries.
The Tea House on Mulberry Street
By Sharon Owens
Reviewed by Shannan Starnes
The Tea House on Mulberry Street features the owners and patrons of an old, tired Belfast tearoom. Penny and Daniel have run the tearoom for 17 years but their marriage has grown as stale as yesterday's pastries. Artist Brenda Brown dreams of career success but is fixated on Nicholas Cage. Claire never forgets her first love, while failed dieter Sadie Sponge discovers her husband's infidelilty (and exacts surprising revenge). With its Irish setting and light tone--as well as its warmth, humor and sentiment--this novel will appeal to fans of Maeve Binchy.
Broken for You
By Stephanie Kallos
Margaret, the elderly main protagonist in Broken for You, is diagnosed with a brain tumor and we learn that she lives in a Seattle mansion full of talking antiques. Her life starts to change dramatically when she takes in a boarder: Wanda, a restless young woman with a broken heart. More characters congregate around these two, and they all display some degree of brokenness. The author points out that, just as broken bits of porcelain can be remade into a beautiful mosaic, broken people can remake their lives into something even more wonderful and unique. Many of the novel's themes revolve around antiques: what determines their value? Replacement cost? Sentimental value? Age and beauty? The object's connection to its previous owners? Do we own our possessions, or do they own us? What is our responsibility to the things to which we have been entrusted? As these questions are addressed, the listener falls in love with the characters. This is an engrossing, heartbreaking, joyful, life-affirming work by a talented debut novelist and it is not to be missed.
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