The Grumpy Librarian: Do as Oprah does?
Please note: This article is published as an archive copy from Philadelphia City Paper. My City Paper is not affiliated with Philadelphia City Paper. Philadelphia City Paper was an alternative weekly newspaper in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The last edition was published on October 8, 2015.
Send the Grumpy Librarian two books you like and one you hate and she'll tell you what to read.
Send the Grumpy Librarian two books you like and one you hate and she'll tell you what to read.
LOVED: Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall
LOVED: Gary Shteyngart, Absurdistan
DIDN'T: Jonathan Franzen, Freedom
The Grumpy Librarian has been grumpily providing advice to readers for just about two years now, and poor Franzen is heads and tails the most hated — just goes to show, don’t use GL columns to predict sales figures. These three books have … well, not much of anything in common except being well-reviewed big sellers, and if the GL were doing things library proper she’d ask a couple of follow-up questions. Instead, she’s going to suggest Jane Smiley’s 1991 family saga A Thousand Acres, a solidly approachable story with historical sweep and bonus points for being a loose adaptation of King Lear. It isn’t “funny” exactly, so if you’re looking for more Shteyngart than Mantel, try Joshua Ferris’ Then We Came to the End, which is a funny/sad/funny window into cubicle life, successfully written in the unusual first-person collective (“we” the narrator) to which you will eventually adjust. Or buy whatever Oprah just picked, although you’re probably reading that already.
