All We Ever Wanted Was Everything: A Novel

Author Janelle Brown has written a novel about three women from an affluent Los Angeles family and how they are forced to figuratively leave “LaLa Land” behind and learn to cope with reality. Janice, the wife of pharmaceutical company executive Paul Miller, expects to be fabulously wealthy when the company goes public. Instead, she is shocked to find out that Paul is leaving her for her best friend/tennis partner. Moreover, she discovers that several months earlier, she had unknowingly signed papers giving up rights to half of the money earned during the marriage. Her older daughter Margaret, publisher of a failed feminist magazine that has left her penniless, returns to help Janice cope. It’s also a convenient way for Margaret to hide out from creditors. Teenage daughter Lizzie, always plump and an outsider among her peers, finds new-found popularity when she joins the swim team, slims down and also becomes the school slut. But after hitting bottom, the only way to go is up; the Miller women wise up and decide to fight back. Their trip back to semi-normalcy is loaded with humorous and sarcastic turns of events involving divorce lawyers, drug-dealing pool boys, country club society, evangelical church members, and more.

Babylon's Ark: the Incredible Wartime Rescue of the Baghdad Zoo

The true adventures of Lawrence Anthony, a South African conservationist, owner of an animal preserve and founder of the Earth Organization. At the beginning of the Iraqi War, with its human bloodshed and destruction of property, little was known about the fate of the Baghdad Zoo, located in the center of the city. Anthony cared about the well-being of the zoo’s inhabitants and traveled to Baghdad in order to rescue those who had survived the gunfire and bombings. The situation was very rough at first, many of the animals having been killed or stolen to sell on the black market. Anthony’s “can-do” attitude and political savvy got Iraqis, members of the U.S. military and international animal lovers working together to overhaul and revitalize the zoo; a project that still is ongoing today. This is an uplifting narrative.

V is for Vengeance

The 22nd entry in author Sue Grafton’s “alphabet series” of mysteries, this story departs from the usual first person narration by protagonist Kinsey Millhone. Instead, Kinsey shares the space with two other characters, businessman/Mafia boss Lorenzo Dante and society wife Nora Vogelsang. After witnessing a department store shoplifting and reporting it to security, Kinsey is dismayed to later find out that the woman supposedly committed suicide. Kinsey is hired by the woman’s fiancé to investigate whether she really was murdered. Alternating stories include that of Dante’s family problems with a thuggish brother and senile father combining with an FBI investigation of his affairs, all coming to a head; and of society wife Nora Vogelsang’s plotting of justice against a cheating husband. As usual, the occurrences of seemingly unrelated events evolve into the satisfactory resolution of main and minor mysteries. We meet a variety of criminals and law enforcement officials, both good and evil; and are observers of an illicit love affair. The tying up of loose ends is a delight.

Afternoon Book Discussions

Join us once a month, on a Wednesday afternoon from 1:00 to 2:00 pm, to discuss a fiction or non-fiction book selection. Coffee, tea and cookies are served. Books are available at the Circulation Desk four weeks before the discussion date. Our schedule is:

January 18th
All We Ever Wanted Was Everything, written by Janelle Brown
Over the course of one summer, the three Miller women – Janice, abandoned by her wealthy husband; daughter Margaret, facing bankruptcy; and teenage daughter Lizzie – do battle with divorce lawyers, debt collectors, their own demons, and one another.

February 15th
Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace – One School at a Time, written by Greg Mortenson
The inspiring account of one man’s campaign to build schools in the most dangerous, remote, and anti-American reaches of Asia.

March 21st
Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America, written by Erik Larson
An account of the Chicago World’s Fair of 1893 relates the stories of two men who shaped the history of the event – architect Daniel H. Burnham, who coordinated its construction, and serial killer Herman Mudgett.

April 18th
The Elegance of the Hedgehog, written by Muriel Barbery
The lives of fifty-four-year-old concierge Rene Michel and extremely bright, suicidal twelve-year-old Paloma Josse are transformed by the arrival of a new tenant, Kakuro Ozu.

May 16th
Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society, written by Mary Ann Schaffer
As Juliet and Dawsey exchange letters, she learns about the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, a unique book club formed on the spur-of-the moment, as an alibi to protect its members from arrest by the Germans.

June 20th
Jane Eyre, written by Charlotte Bronte
The classic 1847 novel traces the doomed love affair between an orphaned, independent-minded governess and her brooding employer, Mr. Rochester.

A Stolen Life: A Memoir

Here is Jaycee Dugard’s life story, in her own words, recounting the events surrounding her abduction, imprisonment and eventual return home eighteen years later. As an eleven-year-old girl snatched from her school bus stop by previously convicted sex offender Phillip Garrido and his wife Nancy, Jaycee’s horrifying experiences were just beginning. Aside from repeated sexual attacks by Phillip, resulting in Jaycee’s first pregnancy at the age of fourteen and the birth of two daughters, Jaycee also was forced to live in filthy backyard outbuildings and act compliantly towards her captors. She was instructed to tell her daughters that she was their older sister and Nancy their mother. Despite this psychological oppression, Jaycee managed to raise and educate her two daughters as normally as possible; although several times she does wonder aloud (to the reader) how her life might have been different if she hadn’t been abducted. But throughout the whole book we are in awe of Jaycee’s strength under impossible circumstances. This is a true survival story.

November is National Diabetes Month: Highlighting Cookbooks

One way to control diabetes is through appropriate diet. Here are a few current selections to help with that goal.

Just What the Doctor Ordered Diabetes Cookbook, is written by Joseph D’Amore, a medical doctor, and his sister Lisa D’Amore-Miller, a nutritionist. The book includes 125 recipes that are designed to be easy to prepare and taste delicious. The authors also include “Prescription for Success” tips that provide cooking, diet, lifestyle and diabetes self-management advice.

The Mediterranean Diabetes Cookbook, written by Amy Riolo, presents recipes for a diet of fruits, vegetables, lean meats and whole grains. They are based upon the typically healthy recipes found in Italy, Turkey, Egypt, Morocco, and other countries in the region.

The Essential Diabetes Cookbook: Good Healthy Eating from around the World, written by Antony Worrall Thompson, includes two hundred recipes from all international cuisines that are modified to suit the diabetic diet.

The Diabetes Comfort Food Cookbook: Foods to Fill You Up, Not Out, written by Robyn Webb, presents healthy versions of classic comfort foods for the diabetic. Selections include lasagna, meat loaf, macaroni and cheese, cake and more.

Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain

Contrary to popular belief, our conscious brain is not in charge of human behavior. Author David Eagleman, a neuroscientist at the Baylor College of Medicine, relies upon his in-depth research of medical journals and texts (listed in bibliographic format at the end of the book) to present a thorough analysis of the human brain. However, we still have a lot to learn about our subject. Below the conscious level, we rely on instincts, impulses, automatic systems and emotions to guide ourselves through life. Is brain development reliant on genetics or environment? Is free will a misnomer? There are no easy answers to any of the questions brought up in this book.