Since we can’t sit with everyone slowly over a cup of coffee and a croissant in Ramsey Library’s Smoothie Lab (or a decadent Strawberry and Sunflower Butter Fusion Smoothie, of course), Ramsey Library staff would like to share some of our favorite recent finds with you, our amazing local and campus community. Here are not just books, but a varied handful of pleasant discoveries we thought you may also enjoy, including short teasers of why we liked them. We plan to send these out regularly on the Library News blog, so check back again later, and let us know if you tried something and liked it. We’re always interested in hearing from you, so stop by at any of our desks or drop us a line at libref@unca.edu If you know of something great to add to our collection, we’d love your recommendations too here.
Lively Literary Find: I recently read and enjoyed Shirley Jackson’s We Have Always Lived in the Castle. The first paragraph has got to be one of the best in literature:
Extract: “My name is Mary Katherine Blackwood. I am eighteen years old, and I live with my sister Constance. I have often thought that with any luck at all I could have been born a werewolf, because the two middle fingers on both my hands are the same length, but I have had to be content with what I had. I dislike washing myself, and dogs, and noise. I like my sister Constance, and Richard Plantagenet, and Amanita phalloides, the death-cup mushroom. Everyone else in my family is dead.”
Why: It’s a gothic mystery that is the perfect counterpoint to a light beach read. The themes of alienation and isolation are particularly relevant right now, too.
By: Susan Terry, Ramsey Librarian, Collection Management
Book available in UNCA’s collection & network here (and as ebook and audiobook via our local public libraries here)
Bibliotherapeutic Find: I can’t say I enjoyed Paul Kalanithi’s When Breath Becomes Air, the memoir of a 30 something neurosurgeon (with a literature background) battling aggressive lung cancer. But it helped me understand my mom’s illness better last year and prepare for her passing. I know many of us have lost loved ones these past couple of years, so this book may be difficult to read. I needed words that met me where I was during the time.
Extracts: A few lines that I found most inspiring: “I needed words to go forward. Samuel Beckett’s seven words. ‘I can’t go on. I’ll go on.’ (149)”
The following is to his child who was still an infant when he died. “There is perhaps only one thing to say to this infant, who is all future, overlapping briefly with me, whose life, barring the improbable, is all but past. That message is simple: When you come to one of the many moments in life where you must give an account of yourself, provide a ledger of what you have been, and done, and meant to the world, do not, I pray, discount that you filled a dying man’s days with a sated joy, a joy unknown to me in all my prior years, a joy that does not hunger for more and more but rests, satisfied. In this time, right now, that is an enormous thing” (199).
By: Jamie Patterson, Library Technician, Public Services
Book available in UNCA’s collection & network here (and as ebook and audiobook via our local public libraries here)
Terrifically Tuneful Find: New recording: Get on Board: The Songs of Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee, by Ry Cooder and Taj Mahal (Nonesuch) (link)
Why: Two roots music icons clearly had a blast making this infectiously fun album. “Armed with some lyrics sheets, a couple of guitars, Mahal’s mouth harp, and (Cooder’s son) Joachim on drums, the pair set up shop in Joachim’s living room… Within three days, they played fast and loose and recorded… a wonderful tribute to Piedmont Blues musicians Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee.” (No Depression)
By: Gene Hyde, Ramsey Librarian, Special Collections
This album not available in UNCA’s collection or network, but find other works by Taj Mahal in our collections here and works by Ry Cooder here.
Convenient & Tasty Find: We are doing meal kit delivery again -Hello Fresh currently- and have been for a couple of months now. We are pleasantly surprised with how good it has been for us.
Why: Food quality has been good, convenience is good, and we occasionally pick back through the recipes to do one that we liked in a previous order.
By: Ashley Whittle, Ramsey Librarian, Special Collections
Johann Hari’s Stolen Focus
Awkwardly Apt Find: “‘You can’t live like this!’ I said. ‘You don’t know how to be present! You are missing your life! You’re afraid you’re missing out; that’s why you’re checking your screen all the time. By doing that you are guaranteeing you are missing out!’
Why: Loved this because Hari vulnerably presents his discoveries related to being present and productive in the face of constant fast-food-quality attentional diversions such as the internet, and his blundering, critically examined attempts to find healthier habits to live out.
Available at Ramsey Library Here (and as ebook and audiobook via our local public libraries here)
Delicious Find: Sweet Potato Infused Pecan Butter
Why: Label makes no sense but it tastes like Deep South, Pumpkin Spice Nutella (in a good way). It’s edible by the spoonful.
By: Jon Morris, Ramsey Librarian, Public Services
