GREAT LINES:
Anyone who has ever had the misfortune of seeing a horse bound for slaughter will attest that the animals seem to sense when they are hitting the end of the road. Sometimes, horses react with fear, feet scrambling for purchase on bare wooden floors… other times, they just look haunted, as if they know where they are headed.
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In 1956, Dutch immigrant and WWII survivor Harry de Leyer, now a riding instructor at a private girls school in New York, was looking for a “lesson horse” when he arrived late at a horse auction. The only horses left were the “kills”: horses not purchased now on their way to become dog food and glue. He took a chance on a big, friendly, homely grey gelding, whom his children christened Snowman. Harry’s superior horsemanship skills, kind heart and recognition of the flea-bitten grey’s jumping talents resulted in the biggest Cinderella story in horse show jumping. Snowman won the Triple Crown of jumping, beating European champions and expensive American thoroughbreds. It’s a great story, and one I remember reading in an anthology of horse stories when I was a horse-crazy tween. Letts has done extensive research and interviews, and it shows. Black and white photos throughout are a definite plus. It’s not the most elegant sports writing you’ll ever read, but Letts’ love for horses and the sport shines through. Even though you know how the story will end, the showdown at Madison Square Garden is a real cliffhanger and Snowman’s death? Three hankies. Letts’ analysis of the importance of the horse in American society and the radical changes of that role due to industrialization and urban sprawl provides fascinating and relevant background that helps to explain Snowman’s appeal. Not just for horse lovers!
Check the BPL catalog for this title: The Eighty-Dollar Champion
GREAT LINES:
“You got family in New York?”
“No…I’m gonna see about a girl. My parents think I’m going for a job interview, and it’s sorta true. If it works out with this girl, I’m gonna try and find a job as a web designer.”
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When I opened this graphic novel I saw the first panel showed two people standing outside of an Oakland Public Library branch and I knew I was going to love it. Shiga’s artwork is very easy on the eyes and the story is charming. A young man who works at the public library by day and hacks away at a website by night makes a cross-country journey to see his best friend Sara, a young woman with dreams of becoming a publishing intern. It’s a nerdy, sweet “will they or won’t they” story, filled with wry comments about what it means to be 20-something these days. The illustrations are clean and approachable. The two color palettes – pinks and light blues – are used effectively for jump cuts and moving the reader through the story. It was a fast read, and I was so delighted by it that as soon as I finished I read it clean through a second time. If you want to see pretty illustrations of some local spots, or if you like your comics to read like romantic comedies this is the book for you.
Check the BPL catalog for this title: Empire State
GREAT LINES:
You aint got nothin left here but enemies and a mama that’s gone drive you to drink. You done burned ever bridge there is and you ain’t never gone get another boyfriend in this town and everbody know it. So don’t walk your white butt to New York, run it.
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We should all be so fortunate to have characters like Minnie, Abileen and Ms. Skeeter in our lives: so selfless they make you feel hopeful, so loving they make you feel warm and so fierce in their convictions they actually make you feel fearful and all in the face of a deep ignorance that made you feel sick. Even if you haven’t already experienced ladies like them in your life, they were well-enough developed that you grew to know them. This was an easy read even though the material was often hard to stomach, and some of the lines had me laughing out loud. Chocolate pie will never be the same!
Check the BPL catalog for this title: The Help
OPENING LINE:
We had voyaged far into space and now we were returning.
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A boy is kidnapped from his aunt’s care during a trip to the planetarium at the start of this novel, which spans 15 years and several continents as the two slowly work to find each other again. The author is a poet, which shows in his luminously gorgeous prose and patent love of names and wordplay. This dreamy work is obsessed with notions of loss, fate, discovery and destiny; but it also grounds the reader with two fantastic characters both struggling to find what they are looking for while ending up exactly where they need to be.
Check the BPL catalog for this title: A Trip to the Stars