Dewey - The small town library cat who touched the world: Review

Vicki Myron and Dewey
Source: USA Today

Dewey: The small town library cat who touched the world
By Vicki Myron with Bret Witter
Published by Grand Central Publishing
Published in 2008 (Hardcover)
ISBN: 9780446407410

I read and reviewed this book as part of a Bookcrossing bookring and I received no catnip for this review.

The way some people treat animals sometimes absolutely appalls me. Abandoned dogs left the starve in the mountains, kittens dumped on the side of the road - I get mad just thinking about it. But once in a while, a story comes along that helps restore your faith and reminds you that for every heartless [insert suitably snappy expletive here] that there is out that would hurt an animal, there are plenty more fantastic people who are giving their animals the best lives they possibly can.

I'd heard of Dewey a long time before I read this book, which is really saying something for a kitty. News had reached the shores of New Zealand, goodness knows how, that somewhere in rural America, a cat was bringing together a community and lighting up lives left right and centre. Luckily the true story of the cat lived up to the expectations that had built in my head. 

Dewey
Source: Spencer Library

Normally, I'm a dog person. Not just a dog person but a Big Dog person. I've had a Golden Retriever, a Yellow Labrador, a cross breed terrier and two German Shepherds be a part of my life. The one smaller dog we had when I was a teenager was a Cocker Spaniel that thought he was a big dog, so the effect was kind of the same. But just because I'm a dog person doesn't mean I can't appreciate the feline species  and as far as cats go, Dewey is surely one of the shining examples. He was found deposited in a book drop box on one of the coldest nights of the year in Spencer, Iowa but after a good scrub and a bite to eat, he quickly set about winning the hearts and minds of the library staff who had found him. He came to be adopted as the official library cat and due to his big personality and charming ways, he became an international Cat Celebrity. 

As much as this is the story of Dewey, it's also the story of Dewey's Mom and Director of Spencer library, Vicki Myron, and his home, the town of Spencer, Iowa. The book reads like you're sitting across from Vicki in her kitchen, listening to her tell the story over a hot cup of coffee. You hear all about the hardships suffered by the town and wider area and also those suffered by Vicki and her family. It's like getting to know the family. And like every good family story, throughout this book, the message that you've just got to keep on trucking no matter what comes your way is loud and clear.

Basically, this book is a fun, heart-warming story filled with lovable characters of both the feline and human kind. It made a very good and welcome distraction from some of the heavier stuff I've been reading of late and despite the ending that had me reaching for the tissue box, it left me feeling good. If you're in the market for something that will leave you feeling warm and fuzzy and you're an animal lover then I'd recommend you pick this one up. Enjoy!

The Secret Life of Bees: Review

The Secret Life of Bees
By Sue Monk Kidd
Published by Penguin Books
Published in 2002
ISBN: 0-14-200174-0

I found this book at the CSC-Taipei's Official Bookcrossing Zone and I am not being paid for this review.

"Then, without warning, all the immunity wore off, and I felt the hollow, spooned out space between my navel and breastbone begin to ache. The motherless place." (151, TSLOB)

This was, for me, the most heart-rending and accurate lines in a novel that I've ever read. Lily, who accidentally shot her mother in the midst of a domestic between her parents has been living with overwhelming guilt and grief her entire life. Not only this but she has had to tolerate a mean-spirited father whose idea of a fair punishment is to make her kneel on grit for extended periods of time. Lily, as a result is left, un-parented and desperate for love and affection.

She finds this in the least likely of places - she runs away from home after rescuing her coloured maid, Rosaleen, from a certain doom at the hands of a bunch of racist men she insulted. Not knowing where else to go, she heads for a town scribbled on the back of a wooden placard with the photo of a Black Madonna her mother once owned. What she finds are the Boatwright sisters, three coloured women living together who make the brand of honey that bears the mark of the same Black Madonna that Lily clutches in her hand.

This story unfolds in South Carolina in 1964, a time of great racial unrest in America. In theory, segregation had been outlawed but the prejudices still remained deeply entrenched. In stark contrast are August Boatwright's bee hives, where hundreds of bees live in harmony with each other and nature. The symbolism of the hive is strongly drawn upon throughout this novel as Lily struggles to come to terms with her past, her feelings and find her place in the world.

I loved this novel. It is beautifully written, deeply involving and very thoughtfully presented. The symbolism of the hive and the bees was very interesting to me as I felt like I'd learned a lot about bees through reading this. The sisterhood of the Boatwright sisters and their Daughters of Mary friends draws a warm blanket around the shoulders of all those who read this. Nobody is an outsider, all are accepted. I would recommend this novel to all who are looking for a novel that will challenge them uplift them and leave them with something to think about once it is finished. It really is top-notch.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society: Review

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

By Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

Published by Bloomsbury

Published in 2009 (Paperback)

ISBN: 978-0-7475-9668-4

I read this book as part of a bookcrossing book ring and have not been paid for this review.

Every once in a while I come across a book that I REALLY want to read. Once this happens it is inevitable that I won't be able to read it for a variety of circumstances for a good long while, thus heightening my desire and anticipation. So many times this dangerous combination of expectations and desire has brought me crashing to my reading knees when a long waited for book turned out to be really rather average, or, worse, totally crud. I have waited for a very long time to read TGLAPPPS. Maybe close to 7-8 months. I was not disappointed.

Picture of Guernsey

Set in 1946, just after the end of World War II, Juliet Ashton is looking for a new subject to write about. Something serious, something meaningful - something that can get her away from her the comedic writer box she has firmly been placed in due to the success of her war-time commentary under the persona of Izzy Bickerstaff. Out of the blue, Dawsey Adams writes to her as he has somehow come to possess a book she once owned and has fallen in love with it. However, given his location on Guernsey he is a little hard put to find other books and so has written to Juliet for help. This initial contact begins a friendly correspondence that blossoms into something far far bigger.

The narrative structure of this novel is that of a series of letters to and from an ever-increasing series of characters which I found to be very engaging but those who prefer a more straightforward narrative style might find it challenging. I loved the personal element to it - each character had a distinctive voice that I felt connected to throughout the novel - and I felt that despite the limiting nature of the narrative structure, nothing was lost in terms of storytelling. 

The writing in this book is wonderful and satisfies you in a way that a bowl of chicken soup does on a cold day. It's not overly flowery but describes the island extremely well - so well in fact that I can still see the mental image of it in my head 3 weeks after I finished reading it. Add to that the subject matter - entirely about reading and books and well hey. You've really got a winner on your hands. 

One of the most interesting things about this book was that it taught me something I had no idea about. I had no idea that the Channel Islands were occupied during WWII and I had no idea to what degree the inhabitants of the islands suffered under German occupation. It was a huge hole in my historical knowledge - I mean I have many of these sorts of holes but this one was about a time period I knew a fair amount about and in a place that is owned by my home country. But far from being depressing and downbeat, this novel manages to deal with the awful things that happened in an upbeat manner that focusses on hope and everyone pulling together. The people of the GLAPPPS are exactly the kind of people you would want to be stuck on an island with under those circumstances, should you have to be.

I absolutely LOVED this book. My one complaint was that it was too quick - I read it in 2 days - but then again I would happily read this one again, just not this copy as I need to get it sent on it's way to the next book-ring reader! If you've thought about reading this book but have been a little put off by the hype - don't be. It's worth every bit of the hype and then some. It's a gem of a book that I'll be putting on my "You have GOT to read this" list.

When something a bit fun becomes AWESOME!

Not so long ago, I wrote a short post about the World's Smallest Library in Westbury-Sub-Mendip in Somerset, awarding these good folks my inaugural Most Awesome Village award. I didn't think much would come of this post but then I got a comment from a local of this very village who lived within yards of the library in question. How fun is that? Here I am in Taiwan, tapping away on my laptop about this place and I get a reply all the way from South England!

Anyway, given that I heard about this place on the forums on the Bookcrossing website, I asked Andrew (the cool local) if he knew about Bookcrossing and if so, could I send a couple of books over from Taiwan to put in the library. He kindly agreed and I posted off a couple of books from my bookshelf for someone else to read and enjoy.

I casually mentioned this on the bookcrossing forum where this had all started and was suddenly overrun with messages from people who also wanted to send books to this library - bookcrossers from the USA, Scotland, Cornwall, the Netherlands and Canada - it seems that this whole idea had captured the hearts and minds of bookcrossers internationally and they wanted to be a part of it. Now Andrew is a fully signed up member of bookcrossing and receiving books from all over the place - goodness knows if it gets to be too much more of a phenomenon they may need to locate and convert a second phonebox!

Photo credit: Bob Dolby

I love this kind of thing: blogging and Bookcrossing bringing people and books together no matter where you are. It makes life more interesting and the global community just a touch smaller and more connected. Three cheers for Westbury-Sub-Mendip and for Bookcrossing!

Links:
My postcard on the village website

Bookcrossing makes the whole world a library

Up until 2 months ago, I was a booklover with a serious case of hoarding. It was getting to the point of ridiculous - I had just moved to Taiwan and now, with more limited space, I was having to double shelve my books. I was running out of room and I knew that this wouldn't (more likecouldn't) stop me from buying more books. Then it happened. One of the biggest epiphanies of my life, a major conversion - you could compare it to a "born again" moment: my aunt introduced me to bookcrossing.

Oh, sure, at first there was resistance: "You want me to what?! Give away my books? To random people?!" and denial: "I couldn't possibly do that, it's just not me!" but the sight of my groaning bookshelves and the thought of not being able to buy books because I wouldn't have anywhere to put them spurred me to action. "Fine!" I thought "Possibly there are a few books on there that I've read and won't ever want to read again.... Maybe."

After about 2 minutes I realised I had pulled about 10 books off my shelf that I had categorised "Never going to read that again" or "Hmm, what is that book doing on my shelf?!" Maybe there really was something here. Maybe I could clear some space on my beleaguered shelves for future purchases. I plonked down in front of my laptop with this pile of books and before I knew it I had registered myself and the books.

So what is bookcrossing anyway, you might be wondering? The Concise Oxford Dictionary defines bookcrossing as "the practice of leaving a book in a public place to be picked up and read by others, who then do likewise.” But as a short search of the site soon showed me, actually there is a lot more to bookcrossing than just this. The site also provides the forum for those a little shy of leaving their beloved books in public places to share books with others through either direct swaps, known as RABCKs (Random Acts of Book Crossing Kindness) or through bookrings or bookrays – a kind of extended, travelling bookclub where one book travels from one person to the next, all over the world.

The best thing about bookcrossing for me is the tracking aspect of it - every book is tracked through the website. A book that has been registered on the website is given a bookcrossing ID number (BCID) which is written in the front cover of the book. The person releasing the book then makes a journal entry about the book, saying what they thought of it, what their plans are for it and give it a rating out of 10. The book is then released, either in the “wild” - a public place such as a cafe, second-hand bookstore or park bench, or through a “controlled release” as a RABCK or as a bookring or ray. When the book is found or the intended recipient receives it, the releaser is notified by email when they make a journal entry – and so the record continues!

Within minutes I was seriously hooked. Now, after four weeks of it I have released 2 books into the "wild" at the Community Services Center in TianMu, Taipei and sent out 4 other books on controlled releases. This week I'm setting up my first attempt at a bookray. As if this weren't enough, I'm also trying to make the library of donated books in the Community Services Center an Official Book Crossing Zone so I can get more people in Taipei's international community involved in bookcrossing. With the amount of expats that come through there, just imagine where some of the books could end up!

Once my library dreams were constricted to just my own set of shelves but now I'm coming to embrace a bookcrossing motto - that the whole world is a library and if you truly love a book you set it free. If you find a bookcrossing book out there - check it out and sign up. It's a serious fun!

Image credit: www.bookcrossing.com

The day my library dreams came crashing down...

Something occurred to me the other day. I was half way through unpacking my boxes of things I had shipped from NZ to Taiwan and the unthinkable was happening. I was running out of shelf space. And fast. I had brought nearly all of my beloved books nearly 9000 kilometres and I wasn't sure if I'd be able to fit them all in! The shelves had looked so roomy when we first bought the apartment, with the previous owner's stuff all gone and only space, space and more space stretching out invitingly in front of us.

Then I properly moved here and realised a few things.

First of all, I'm married now so that means 50/50 share of everything. There are two sets of shelves, one filled with my precious books, the other is filled with miscellaneous junk belonging to his nibs. But fair is fair. It's an equal partnership after all, and it would be completely immoral and awful of me to covet his shelf space.... wouldn't it...?

Second of all, Taiwan apartments are a whole lot smaller than New Zealand houses. You don't have the ability to spread out - at all. If you leave something in the lounge I swear it takes up 300% more space than it would have done in the average NZ home. So a place for everything and everything in it's place and all that malarky. Which means all of my books need to be housed on their shelves at all times except perhaps the one I am currently reading which might find a cubby hole next to the bed.

For the first time in my entire book hoarding career, I am being forced to 'double shelve'.

And it was the necessitation of this double shelving that lead me to my next crashing conclusion: I was going to have to be way more responsible about my future book buying. No longer were the days of browsing around and picking up a book willy nilly just because I fancied adding it to my collection. Oh no. We have fallen on hard times here, people. Hard times with no spare shelves. If I want to buy a book now I'm going to have to think carefully. It may eventually even come to the "one book in and another one out" policy.

On those lines I've already weeded out about 10 books that I know I will never read again (or haven't read and never intend to - like the Barbara Taylor Bradford that was given to me as a gift in Whitcoulls one day, its just not my kind of read) that I'm planning to gift to the Taipei expat community centre in a Bookcrossing kind of way (more info on Bookcrossing here). Which will be kind of fun but to be honest, I'm far to attached to ever give most of my books away. I've bought them with the intention of keeping them as much loved members of my paperback family and the thought of releasing most of them isn't one I'm prepared to entertain right now.

But then again - who knows. As more and more excellent books are published and I get itchy fingers in the bookstore.... well, they're going to have to go somewhere, and unless I acquire some carpentry skills out of nowhere then somethings going to have to give.

That, or I stage a hostile take-over of those other shelves!