More Than Just Books
One of the most popular books of 2020, that’s still on this year’s bestseller lists, is “The Midnight Library” by Matt Haig. It’s the story about a woman who is given the ability to try other versions of her life with the help of a wise librarian and a magical library. Perhaps it’s a supernatural metaphor for how libraries can change lives.
The power of libraries and the human connections they provide are featured in three more 2021 books.
“Cloud Cuckoo Land” by Anthony Doerr
Anthony Doerr’s new book, “Cloud Cuckoo Land”, which he dedicates to “the librarian then, now, and in the years to come,” is a story about caring deeply for something and preserving it with passion.
Six-and-half-years after the phenomenally successful, Pulitzer prize-winning, “All The Light You Cannot See”, Anthony Doerr is back this month with another tome, 600 pages, and once again interconnecting the stories of young protagonists.
In 2015, my local library brought Doerr to speak to a standing-room-only audience at the high school. He expressed his fascination with radio technology and explained how that curiosity led him to explore the underlying premise of that book — the power of voices transmitted to strangers.
In the forward of “Cloud Cuckoo Land”, Doerr explains that he now focuses on his deeper passion for the book as the transmitter of information, as the preserver of the voices of the past, which outlive us and come to life. Like magic.
He invents a manuscript about seeking a utopia in the sky and creates characters who care for it throughout history. They are children, past, present, and future, who are united by a book, and who are trying to navigate their different worlds. From ancient Istanbul to an interstellar spaceship, these resilient outsiders find meaning and hope in the challenging threats and dangers of their societies.
It’s an ambitious imaginative journey through a somewhat challenging maze of parallel intertwining story threads. He creates a grand tapestry of ages and places exploring themes of society, pandemics, the environment, and libraries.
Judging from Doerr’s beloved previous work, it may be different from what you expect or want, but it’s a valuable message of endurance, the significance of books, and a cautionary tale about preserving the planet that connects us all.
“The Personal Librarian” by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray
This intriguing historical fiction is based on the little-known story of Bella De Costa Greene, the personal librarian to financier J.P. Morgan. She curated a rare and world-renown collection of books, manuscripts, and art, which has evolved to become The Morgan Library & Museum in New York.
De Costa was a trailblazing woman who defied the sexist constraints of the early 1900s. Her story is even more extraordinary as she was a black woman secretly “passing as white” in the time of Jim Crow segregation laws.
Adroitly navigating the exclusive circles of high society, she became one of New York’s most powerful women in the book and art world. Enduring personal sacrifice and the stress of hiding her true identity, she followed her passion and belief in the radiance of books.
There are glossy romanticized storylines and other creative liberties the authors took which tend to happen with historical fiction. Nonetheless, this is a brisk read, an enlightening backstory to a prominent public cultural institution, and an interesting tale of an exceptional woman’s courage and tenacity to fulfill her dream.
“The Paris Library” by Janet Skeslien Charles
Earlier in the year, Janet Skeslien Charles’s “The Paris Library” became an instant bestseller. It’s based on the true story and some of the actual people and events of The American Library in Paris 1939 during WW II when the Germans occupied the city.
This is a simple story of dedication and the bravery of those who kept the library open during the war. In resisting the Nazis, their goal was to help their subscribers and share their love of what libraries provide to communities — respite, and even hope, especially during trying times. They made a statement, that in the spirit of learning, everyone was welcomed.
The courageous staff stays on during the war to provide reading material for soldiers, with the “Soldiers Service” operation sending 20,000 books to French, British and Czech troops.
In the author’s note, Charles doesn’t ask the reader to consider what they would have done in that situation, but asks us today “what we can do now to ensure that libraries and learning are accessible to all.”
Working part-time for my town’s library, I can vouch for the impact that libraries have on communities, and personally attest that librarians are a special breed. September is National Library Card Sign-Up Month. And, as the library rebounds from a recent destructive storm, it’s a good time to support and celebrate libraries as valued institutions that are more than just about books.
