Beginning ~ with an elephant graveyard

This book seems to be narrated by two characters, Jenna and Alice, so I've decided to share each of their opening lines.

Jenna
Some people used to believe that there was an elephant graveyard — a place that sick and old elephants would travel to to die.
Alice
When I was nine — before I grew up and became a scientist — I thought I knew everything, or at least I wanted to know everything, and in my mind there was no difference between the two.

Leaving Time ~ by Jodi Picoult, 2014, fiction

For more than a decade, Jenna Metcalf has never stopped thinking about her mother, Alice, who mysteriously disappeared in the wake of a tragic accident.  Refusing to believe that she would be abandoned as a young child, Jenna searches for her mother regularly online and pores over the pages of Alice’s old journals.  A scientist who studied grief among elephants, Alice wrote mostly of her research among the animals she loved, yet Jenna hopes the entries will provide a clue to her mother’s whereabouts.  Desperate to find the truth, Jenna enlists two unlikely allies in her quest.  The first is Serenity Jones, a psychic who rose to fame finding missing persons — only to later doubt her gifts.  The second is Virgil Stanhope, a jaded private detective who originally investigated Alice’s case along with the strange, possibly linked death of one of her colleagues.  As the three work together to uncover what happened to Alice, they realize that in asking hard questions, they’ll have to face even harder answers.  As Jenna’s memories dovetail with the events in her mother’s journals, the story races to a mesmerizing finish.

When I put this book on reserve, weeks before it was published, I was something like 400th in line.  As I checked it out today, there are still 424 people waiting for one of the 273 copies in the St. Louis County Library system.  This novel debuted as the #1 New York Times bestseller on October 14th.

Gilion at Rose City Reader hosts Book Beginnings on Fridays.  Click here for today's Mister Linky.

Library Loot ~ November 5-11

Fragmented by Design: Why St. Louis Has So Many Governments ~ by E. Terrence Jones, 2000, history

St. Louis is a rarity in that it's metropolitan area is split not only into the usual political parties, but into a large number of political entities as well.   Citizens here distrust government, but seem to love governments.   The book begins with the split between the City and County of St. Louis in 1876 and goes on to how St. Louis went from one dominant government, the City of St. Louis, to more than 300 in the region today.   It also touches on the ramifications of having that many individual municipalities, some tiny and some huge.   This book explores the suburban explosion, the rise of regional districts, and the outlook for the future.  We have rejected being like someone else and, instead, decided to be distinctively St. Louis:  fragmented by design.

The title page has been signed by "Terry Jones," though I first thought there was no title page in the book.  The first couple of pages are "praise quotations" for the book, which isn't unusual.  But putting the copyright date on the back of the second page is rather strange.  Opposite it is the Table of Contents and then, after turning another page, you'll finally find the title page.  Turn another page, and there's the Dedication to his wife.  Turn another page, and there's a Preface.  Turn another page, and there a 3-page Foreword.  None of these pages is numbered, and only the copyright page and the Foreword include writing on the left-hand page.  Now we get to Chapter 1, where actual page numbers begin on the second page.  What an odd arrangement!  And I haven't even started reading the book yet.  In this video, Terry Jones talks about how St. Louis became so fragmented.


If the video quits working, view it on YouTube.

This 1875 map is from an article published February 22, 2014:  Summary of City-County Reorganization Attempts According to Fragmented by Design by E. Terrence Jones by Richard Bose.

In case you wonder why I'm reading such a book, it's because I moved to St. Louis in June.  Yesterday, I voted here for the second time, and I'm trying to understand this place.  By the way, I live in University City, where the population was 35,148 in 2013.  That's in St. Louis County due west of the City of St. Louis.  The combined metropolitan area has a population of 2,900,605.  Plus me.

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Claire @ The Captive Reader and Linda @ Silly Little Mischief that encourages us to share the names of books we checked out of the library.  See what others got this week.

Hey, sleepyhead!

If you arrive late to church tomorrow morning, it may be because you hear a different clock.  One you forgot to re-set.

Update at 11:21 pm (St. Louis time):  Oops!  I got it backwards!  Thanks, Joylynn (on Facebook), I'm correcting this.  Sleepyhead will actually get an extra hour to sleep.  Or maybe to arrive at church an hour early for a change.  Maybe I'm confused because I'm already an hour behind Eastern time, which is the time my blogs post.

Beginning ~ at 4:45 a.m.

If I'd Killed Him When I Met Him... ~ by Sharyn McCrumb, 1995, mystery

The fact that Eleanor Royden was putting on lipstick at 4:45 was not unusual; the fact that it was 4:45 in the morning, however, made it an unprecedented departure from her usual routine.

Because I enjoyed reading several of her books, I checked out three by Sharyn McCrumb from my library.  That was three years ago, and I didn't get any of those books read.  Now I live in St. Louis, and I found this mystery book at one of my new libraries.  It was on the sale shelf, which means I own the book and haven't gotten around to reading it yet.  I did, however, finish the other book I bought that day.  Now I need to find out why Eleanor Royden was putting on lipstick at 4:45 a.m.  At this point, I don't even know who she is.

Gilion at Rose City Reader hosts Book Beginnings on Fridays.  Click here for today's Mister Linky.

Library Loot ~ October 29 to November 4

When I Was a Child I Read Books ~ by Marilynne Robinson, 2012, essays

In the ten essays of this book, Robinson tackles the charged political and social climate in the United States, the deeply embedded role of generosity in Christian faith, and the nature of individualism and the myth of the American West.

Through the Evil Days ~ by Julia Spencer-Fleming, 2013, mystery

Julia Spencer-Fleming raises the stakes for Russ and Clare, putting their new marriage, their unborn child, a missing teen, and their very own lives on the line.  On a frigid January night, Chief of Police Russ Van Alstyne and Reverend Clare Fergusson are called to the scene of a raging fire.  The extent of the tragedy isn't known until the next day, when the charred remains of a man and woman are recovered — along with evidence showing they were shot execution style.  The last thing Russ needs are two potential homicides.  He's struggling with the prospect of impending fatherhood, and his new wife is not at all happy with his proposal for their long-delayed honeymoon:  a week ice-fishing at a remote Adirondack lake.  St. Alban's Church is still in turmoil over the Reverend Clare Fergusson's news that she's five and a half months pregnant — but only two and a half months married.  Worried her post-deployment drinking and drug use may have damaged the baby, she awaits the outcome of the bishop's investigation into her "unpriestly" behavior:  a scolding, censure, or permanent suspension.

Officer Hadley Knox is having a miserable January as well.  Her on-again, off-again lover, Kevin Flynn, has seven days to weigh an offer from the Syracuse Police Department that might take him half a state away.  And her ex-husband's in town — threatening to take custody of their kids unless Hadley pays him off with money she doesn't have.  When Hadley discovers that the dead couple fostered an eight-year-old girl who was a recent liver donee, the search for the killer takes on a new and terrible urgency.  With no access to immunosuppressant drugs, transplant rejection will kill the girl in a matter of days.

As a deadly ice storm downs power lines and immobilizes roads, Russ and Clare search desperately for the truth about the missing child, but the hunters will become the hunted when they are trapped in the cabin beside the frozen lake and stalked through the snowbound woods by a killer.

Americanah ~ by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, 2013, fiction

Ifemelu and Obinze are young and in love when they depart military-ruled Nigeria for the West.  Beautiful, self-assured Ifemelu heads for America, where despite her academic success, she is forced to grapple with what it means to be black for the first time.  Quiet, thoughtful Obinze had hoped to join her, but with post-9/11 America closed to him, he instead plunges into a dangerous, undocumented life in London.  Fifteen years later, they reunite in a newly democratic Nigeria, and reignite their passion — for each other and for their homeland.

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Claire @ The Captive Reader and Linda @ Silly Little Mischief that encourages us to share the names of books we checked out of the library.  See what others got this week.

Readers' Workouts ~ third week

Readers' Workouts for October 28, 2014

On Friday, I put in a couple of extra hours walking after my one-hour exercise class when Joy of Joy's Book Blog showed me around the Missouri Botanical Gardens.  Joy, how long was our "long walk at the Missouri Botanical Garden" on Friday?  How many minutes did you generate during our walk?  I'm sure I went a lot slower than you usually would, but I do so appreciate the tour and getting to meet you.  I didn't take a picture during my class, but here's the architect's drawing of the exercise center.  We had only ten of us on Friday, but nearly twenty the week before.  By the way, I live in a senior center, and my exercise class includes people with walkers and at least one in a wheelchair.  We do gentle exercises twice a week, for one hour each time.

Joy also mentioned our visit to the Missouri Botanical Garden.  Thanks, Joy.

Monday Mindfulness ~ what's on your mind?

"All that we are is a result of all that we thought." — Buddha