Missoula Public Library

Welcome to another astonishing episode of Word Woman’s Weekly Work-Out!  Did you know that the average human brain accounts for about 2% of a person’s total body weight?  Here’s a hefty Word of the Week for you to weigh in with during conversation:

Querulous:    (adjective)

1.     habitually complaining

2.     fretful, whining

—  “Querulous”,  http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/querulous  , 5/4/2012.

Example:  Bob and Pete, inseparable companions since kindergarten, found that the addition of Pete’s querulous girlfriend to their social group placed a strain on their friendship.

If a book doesn’t intrigue me within a couple paragraphs I’ll put it back on the shelf. Doesn’t matter how fancy the cover is or how many celebrity author endorsements are printed on the jacket; if the first lines can’t capture my attention it’s sayonara. Maybe that isn’t fair. There are great stories with slow starts, but too many titles are vying for my precious reading time to not rely upon first impressions. How about you? How long do you give a book to hook you? A page? A chapter? Are you one of those loyal readers who feels obligated to finish what you start?

Recently, I grabbed Novel Openers: First sentences of 11,000 fictional Works… by Bruce L. Weaver [Call #: R 016.8088 WEAVER]. I found it lounging on the Readers’ Corner bookshelf located across from the Reference Desk. I enjoyed flipping through the collection of opening lines. Here is a sample of what I read:

“Picking up the pen he began to write, the ink characters stalking away from him irrevocably across the paper wastes, burdens of intention laid across their slanting backs, and suddenly he wanted to call them back, to cry stop, that wasn’t what I meant, how it was at all; remembering.” -The Paradox Players by Maureen Duffy, 1967.

“Damnation,” said Stanley Dinkle. It had taken him half an hour to compose the sentence, and he had just read it aloud.” –The Tin Lizzie Troop by Glendon Swarthout, 1972.

“The dentist’s drill of the alarm probed viciously into the diseased pulp of his dream, and Georgie Cornell awakened.” -Regiment of Women by Thomas Berger, 1973.

What is the opening line from a book you are currently reading?

Image via UNE Photos

Discovering a great book can be like meeting a friend. We hope you make many friends as you use the library! In the name of friendship we offer this listing of books featuring cross-species soul mates.

Unlikely friendships: 47 remarkable stories from the animal kingdom by Jennifer S. Holland. Call #: 590 HOLLAND & available as an eBook

A collection of stories about animals who have forged unlikely, abiding bonds with other animals of different species.

Owen & Mzee : The true story of a remarkable friendship told by Isabella Hatkoff, Craig Hatkoff, and Paula Kahumbu ; photographs by Peter Greste. Call #: J 599.6351 HATKOFF

The inspiring true story of a baby hippo named Owen & a 130-yr-old giant tortoise named Mzee (Mm-ZAY). When Owen was stranded after the Dec 2004 tsunami, villagers in Kenya worked tirelessly to rescue him. Then, to everyone’s amazement, the orphan hippo and the elderly tortoise adopted each other.

A friend for Einstein: The smallest stallion by Charlie Cantrell and Rachel Wagner Call #: E CANTREL

After searching for a new friend, Einstein, a very small horse, finds the perfect companion in a white boxer named Lilly.

Tarra & Bella: The elephant and dog who became best friends text & photography by Carol Buckley Call #: J 599.676 BUCKLEY

A stray Labrador named Bella befriends Tarra, a former circus elephant and resident of the Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee.

Suryia and Roscoe:  The true story of an unlikely friendship by Bhagavan “Doc” Antle with Thea Feldman ; photographs by Barry Bland (owned by partner library)

Based on a true story, an orangutan living at a wildlife preserve in South Carolina forms an unlikely friendship with a lost dog who comes to live there.

Kate & Pippin: An unlikely love story by Martin Springett; photographs by Isobel Springett Call #: E SPRINGE

The true story of a fawn which, abandoned by her mother and brought to live on a farm, is raised by Kate, a Great Dane which has never had puppies of her own.

Little pink pup by Johanna Kerby (owned by partner library)

Pink, a piglet who is the runt of the litter, is adopted by Tink, a dachshund who is nursing a litter of her own, and Pink is raised in the house along with the puppies.

Welcome to another incredible installment of Word Woman’s Weekly Work-Out!  Memorial Day weekend, that long-awaited harbinger of summer, is nearly upon us.  Here’s the Word of the Week to help you get your memory warmed up for the occasion:

 Picaresque:    (adjective)

Of or relating to rogues or rascals; also: of, relating to, suggesting, or being a type of fiction dealing with the episodic adventures of a usually roguish protagonist

 —  “Picaresque”,  http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/picaresque , 5/3/2012.

 Example:  Han Solo, the picaresque captain of the Millennium Falcon, is a popular character in the Star Wars universe.

Title:   The Paris Wife

                                A New York Times Bestseller

Author:                                Paula McLain
Publisher:                           Ballantine Books/Random House http://www.randomhouse.com/rhpg/features/paula_mclain/index.php
Publication Date:             February 22nd, 2011 
Genre:                                  Historical Fiction

Located:                               Fiction - MCLAIN
                                                Downloadable Audio Book montanalibrary2go.org

                                                Large Type Fiction – LT MCLAIN

                                                Listen to an excerpt:  http://excerpts.contentreserve.com/FormatType-25/1191-1/349159-TheParisWife.wma

 Hadley and Ernest Hemingway in Chamby, Switzerland, 1922. Photograph: Ernest Hemingway Photograph Collection, John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston.

Having read and enjoyed all of Ernest Hemingway’s novels and quite a bit about him, I was hesitant to read another book that once again, might portray his faults.  Having just finished this poignant novel based on the story of Hemingway’s first wife, I was delighted to see through Hadley’s eyes that Ernest was a tender, vulnerable, and very human man.  I would read it again and highly recommend it to any fan of Hemingway, Paris in the ‘20s, or literary history.

1920 was the start of a new and exciting decade. The First World War had just ended, and life was changing for both men and women. 28-year-old Hadley Richardson met a dynamic and intense 21-year-old Ernest Hemingway and they fell in love. The story of their romance and subsequent marriage is captured in The Paris Wife.

You don’t have to be familiar with Hemingway or his novels to enjoy this book, as it introduces us to the influential and charming Hadley Richardson, his “Paris Wife”.  Ms. McLain’s smooth prose enraptures the reader to the point that it is similar to reading a memoir.   The details of the events – the cafes, the bullfights, and the Hemingway’s tiny apartment -   are so picturesque, this book may be a movie producer’s dream.  

Reading about the “lost generation” introduces the reader to Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, Ezra Pound and Gertrude Stein and oh! How they celebrated life and living in the Paris Jazz Age!  During this time, “Hem” wrote The Sun Also Rises. McLain explains the context of its inception so purposefully that I am re-reading that novel, with a much greater appreciation for this talented work of art.

Professional Review:

“This absorbing, illuminating book gives us an intimate view of a sympathetic and perceptive woman, the striving writer she married, the glittering and wounding Paris circle they were part of, and the challenges of trying to preserve love and domesticity in the face of rising celebrity and ruthless ambition.”
                    ~ Seattle Times

Similar Titles from NoveList: 

Loving Frank by Horan, Nancy 

Mount Vernon Love Story by Clark, Mary Higgins   

The Women by Boyle, T. Coraghessan

Similar Authors from NoveList :  Vanessa Diffenbaugh, Philippa Gregory, Susan Sontag, Robert Morgan