Kosher Chinese by Michael Levy

Maybe it’s because I’m a RPCV (Returned Peace Corps Volunteer), or maybe it’s because I’ve been to China, but I think the real reason I loved Michael Levy’s book Kosher Chinese: Living, Teaching, and Eating With China's Other Billion is because it’s FUNNY! There were times I laughed so hard I had to put the book down.

Michael Levy is a nice Jewish boy from Philadelphia who joins Peace Corps and is sent to China to teach English. As soon as he gets to his site he is honored with a banquet where the first course is fried millipedes. How does he explain to the Chinese hosts about keeping kosher? I laughed.

When he was finishing his language training, he tried to summarize what he’d learned in his best Chinese. The teacher was not impressed. She informed Michael that he had just said “I, this water, arrive a little Chinese, egg, ten of me, not this written knife.” I laughed.

Michael’s Chinese students are also funny – without meaning to be – by choosing American names that are ridiculous: Pussy, Ragamuffin, Moron. I laughed again.

But Michael also writes with great insight about the lives of ordinary Chinese. He befriends a couple of school girls from a nearby village of ethnic minority Bouyei people, and is shocked when the 12-year old has to stop going to school and start working in her uncle’s restaurant. The reality is that her parents can’t afford to keep her in school. That's the reality for many Chinese.

Living and working in a foreign country when you don’t speak the language is stressful (I know!), but Michael copes by writing about the absurdity of his situation. Kosher Chinese is a fascinating read and it’s also very, very funny.

--Kay

Edgar Winner: The Lock Artist by Steve Hamilton

Michael can't speak out loud. He's trapped in his head, always reliving a particular day that happened when he was only eight years old, a day when he needed to be very very quiet. But he has two survival skills that developed in compensation: he can draw, and he's taught himself to open locks of all kinds. In the back of his mind: the Day, over and over. In the foreground: psychiatrists, teachers, his uncle, all trying to help, all unable to understand what he’s been going through since that Day. And then—he falls in love, and someone who covets his lock-opening talent uses that love to own him. Long story short: Michael goes to jail.

The Lock Artist moves back and forth between Michael’s present, where he’s writing his story from his cell, to his past, where he’s doing safe-cracking jobs for an unnamed much-feared businessman, to his time in high school, where he changed overnight from being a struggling teenager with a chance at art college to being a criminal mixed up with the mob.

I’ve said this before: I’m not generally fond of gangster stories. They tend to be a little predictable— some greedy short-sighted people get rich, some greedy short-sighted people get whacked. This book is different. Michael is no gangster: he’s a kid in love so chained to his past that he can’t see any way to get free. Does he get free? Well, he’s the lock artist, but in real life and good books, things are never that simple.

Baby did a bad, bad thing

Gods in Alabama by Joshilyn Jackson is narrated by Arlene Fleet, a graduate student in Chicago whose roots are sunk deep in small-town Alabama. She is a smart, difficult, uneasy young woman; flashbacks take us back to when she was a damaged, furious, self-destructive teenager.

Back then, Arlene promised God that, if he would do one little favor for her, she would never tell a lie, have sex, or go back home ever again. God seemed to come through, and Arlene (who now calls herself Lena) has been a truth-telling celibate Chicagoan ever since.

Then a figure from Arlene's past shows up on her doorstep, asking questions and threatening her fragile peace. All bets are off.

There is a suspense plot here - what really happened to Arlene and her cousin Clarice back when they were teenagers? What terrible thing did Arlene do, to bring her to that desperate bargain with God? Clues to the mystery are doled out nicely in the well-written, gripping flashbacks.

But what I really like about this book is the way Jackson captures the complicated relationships between people, especially between women. Arlene's relationships with her aunt Florence, who raised her, and her cousin Clarice, who is like a sister to her, are complicated - deep and close, but fraught with tension, jealousy, and misunderstanding. Arlene has a hard time with those confusing relationships, even though they are the warm and glowing center of her life.

Gods in Alabama is a good, a fast-paced story, funny and shocking and sad and heartwarming, all at once. Jackson has written other good books, too - I liked The Girl Who Stopped Swimming, another novel that tells a suspenseful story while exploring the relationship between women in an insightful way. Her latest, Backseat Saints, is on my list of things to read.

Margaret Read MacDonald Tells Tales at Newport Public Library

One of my favorite storytellers and children's authors, Margaret Read MacDonald, visits our library this Wednesday, July 27, at 1:00 pm in Literacy Park. Part of the "One World, Many Stories" summer reading program, her show perfectly fits the theme. She travels all over the world to places like Mahasarakham, Kota Kinabalu, and Rio telling stories and collecting new ones which she then tells or turns into a picture book. All children and families are invited to come and listen to her tales.

MacDonald is a folklorist, storyteller, retired children's librarian, and the author of more than 55 books on folklore and storytelling. Most of her books are available from any Lincoln County library. Watch her tell a tandem tale with Thai storyteller Dr. Wajuppa Tossa on YouTube.

MRM, as she’s known in the storytelling world, has been a mentor to storytellers around the world. I’m included in that group. In fact, some of the most popular children's tales I tell have come from her. People attending her programs this week may well hear some of their favorite stories. They can also listen to her tale of A Fat Cat online.

MacDonald’s Lincoln County programs are funded by Ready to Read grants from the Oregon State Library and the Lincoln County Library District.

Thanks, Paul!

In 2008, The Newport Public Library acquired a book called 30,000 Years of Art, which I called "a treasure trove for serendipitous flipping." It was true: magnificent full-color images of art from all over the world, printed on thick, creamy paper, arranged in chronological order so that you can compare what was happening in different parts of the world during the same historical period.

30,000 Years of Art was over three inches thick and heavy. It almost immediately began falling apart under its own weight.

The binding was not strong enough to hold all those high-quality glossy pages. The spine broke, was mended, broke again. The book was beautiful, but at only three years old it was falling to pieces. Would we have to get rid of it?

Paul Reed devised a solution. Paul is one of the library's many volunteers. His job is to mend damaged books, which he does with such skill that all our old irreplaceable books go to him for new bindings. He thought that even if he rebound the book, it would still be structurally unsound. He suggested that we break the book into two volumes and bind them separately.

So that's what he did. 30,000 Years of Art is now two handsome volumes, newly rebound and available to the public once again, thanks to Paul Reed.

The Newport Library relies on volunteers for numerous tasks. They work behind the scenes, and their reliability, talent, and hard work keeps the library functioning smoothly.

Grey Ghost

I like mysteries starring animals, especially cats. Animals are insightful in ways not available to less-sensitive humans. Some of my favorite cat detectives are Mrs. Murphy and Pewter (Rita Mae Brown), Midnight Louie (Carole Douglas), and of course Koko and Yum Yum (Lilian Jackson Braun). In these mysteries, we readers are privy to the workings of the cats' minds, but their humans are woefully unable to understand the often very important messages coming from their eager helpmates.

Along comes Grey Zone by Clea Simon. Mr. Grey happens to talk (when he feels like it), not to just to us, but also his owner. Some of us who are cat owners might not find that too big a reach, but here’s the kicker - Mr. Grey is a ghost.

Mr. Grey's human is an often-misunderstood Harvard doctorate student named Dulcinea Schwartz - Dulcie for short. Dulcie is trying to work on her stalled doctorate paper, coping with insecurities about her boyfriend Chris, and puzzling about the suicide on campus that might have actually been murder. And she's wondering if hearing a ghost cat talk is really a sign that she’s headed around the bend.

Oh, and little troublemaker kitten Esme, Mr. Grey’s earthbound replacement … does she talk to Dulcie too?

Grey Zone is the third in this series of humorous cozy mysteries, following Shades of Grey and Grey Matters.

--Jan

Chayag Plays Literacy Park

If you enjoy the beautiful sounds of the Andes Mountains, join us in Literacy Park this Wednesday for Chayag's show. Part of our "One World, Many Stories" summer reading program, the 1 p.m. show is open to everyone.

Alex Lluminquinga, a Chayag member for many years, promises an exciting program of Latin American folkloric music from the Andes Mountains, using a wide variety of authentic instruments, including the Charango (ten string lute), el Bombo (Andean drum), Quena (native South American flute), and panpipes. Chayag’s musicians bring the sounds of Latin America to life. Through folkloric music, they hope to inspire interest in those beyond our borders and provide audiences with new insights on Latin American culture. Appropriate for audiences of all ages, this performance is energetic, entertaining, enlightening, and very hands-on!

Wednesday, July 20, Chayaq will be at Waldport Public Library (10 a.m.), Newport Public Library (1 p.m.), and Driftwood Public Library in Lincoln City (6:30 p.m.). On Thursday, July 21, they will be at Toledo Public Library (11 a.m.) and Siletz Public Library (1 p.m.).

Chayag’s shows are funded by Ready to Read grants from the Oregon State Library and the Lincoln County Library District as well as funds from the Lincoln County Library District Board of Directors.