All Things JCPL

What I generally look for in a book is a compelling story whose characters are sufficiently believable and sympathetic that I grow to care what happens to them. If the book also widens my view of the world, so much the better.

If that’s the kind of book you look for, you may want to check out Katherine Boo’s new book, Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity. It is available at JCPL as a hardcover book, a book on CD, and on an e-reader (JCPL NOOK Simple Touch #7).

Behind the Beautiful Forevers tells a true story: four years in the lives of residents of Annawadi, a Mumbai slum, as they strive for their share of India’s growing prosperity. The review journal Booklist called it “Sympathetic yet objective and eloquently rendered.” Publishers’ Weekly said, “Boo’s rigorous inquiry and transcendent prose leave an indelible impression of human beings behind the shibboleths of the New India,..” and Library Journal called it a “ tour de force.”

I found the book fascinating, moving, and compelling. But be warned: it is also fairly depressing. There are no easy answers here, and the hardworking slum-dwellers’ endeavors all too often come to nothing. Most disheartening was the realization that humanitarian organizations’ efforts are repeatedly thwarted by the immensity of the problems and by the corruption that appears to be endemic in Indian life.

After reading Behind the Beautiful Forevers, you may find yourself asking, “What can we in the west possibly do to help people like the Annawadians?” As the book shows, the answers are not easy. But a recent Christianity Today article by Bruce Wydick on the 10 best strategies for helping the poor, republished in slightly different form on the World Bank website, offers some insight. Here is a link the article on the World Bank site: http://blogs.worldbank.org/impactevaluations/evaluating-the-best-ways-to-give-to-the-poor-guest-post-by-bruce-wydick

Books about effective humanitarian aid available at JCPL include:

The Business of Changing the World : Twenty Great Leaders on Strategic Corporate Philanthropy
by Benioff, Marc 361.765 BENI
“20 exceptional leaders share the untold stories of how their companies are making a real difference through corporate philanthropy…”

The Life You Can Save : Acting Now to End World Poverty
by Singer, Peter 362.5 SING
“Argues that for the first time in history the possibility of eradicating world poverty is within reach and offers a plan that combines personal philanthropy with activism and political awareness to increase the commitment to helping the world’s poorest people.”

Yesterday marked the 222nd anniversary of the beginning of the French Revolution, known commonly as Bastille Day. In celebration of France’s national holiday, check out these très chic items from our collection.

Les Misérables
By Victor Hugo

One of the pillars of French literature, Les Misérables is a daunting book. In written form, it is usually over 1200 pages. And although it focuses mainly on the plight of the protagonist, Jean Valjean, it also spends significant time covering such topics as religious orders, the sewers of Paris, homeless children, and the Battle of Waterloo. As this was not something I wanted to lug around all summer, I chose instead to listen to Hugo’s masterpiece as an audiobook. Available as a free download through Kentucky Libraries Unbound, and always available for check out, this audio version is read by award-winning reader Frederick Davidson. Davidson does a stellar job of bringing each character to life, and his French is excellent. A book of this magnitude is far less daunting when one merely has to sit back and listen. And while folks may rave about the well-known Broadway musical of the same name, there is no way that so much human experience could be contained in one evening. And after almost 58 hours of listening, I should know.

My reading over the last couple of weeks has indeed taken me to some destinations that, while not exactly exotic, are novel to me.

A small village not far from Montreal is the scene of Still Life, the first Three Pines mystery by Louise Penny. In addition to thoughtful, kind Armand Gamache of the Sûreté du Québec, the book introduces a variety of multi-dimensional characters, and offers insight into life in bicultural, bilingual Quebec. Deeper and more nuanced than the average cozy mystery, Still Life explores deep friendship, tragedy, the complexities of the mentor/mentee relationship, and an intriguing mystery.