Notes from Harney County Library
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Check out our books that represent characters that are underrepresented and their stories brought to life. We have put together a theme of characters (fiction and nonfiction) with lost stories brought to life by the author. All of our book picks are specifically curated with inspiration from The Bohemians by Jazmin Darznik. The real-life artists and misfits of the 1920’s including Ansel Adams, Maynard Dixon, Georgia O’Keeffe, Dorothea Lange, Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera and Edward Curtis. For a true deep dive, we recommend truly living the book that you just read. For example, the “Pisco Punch” from the Bohemians: a true historical drink. Try out the drink of a true free wander with the recipe below. Ansel Adams is not only a notable photographer but a pianist as well, try listening to one of his favorite Nocturnes composed by Frederic Chopin. Although these historical figures may not be with us today, their spirit still lives on, and we can still get to know them thanks to historians, authors, librarians, and archivists that dutifully preserve knowledge. Below is a list of our underrepresented stories of counter-culturalists, misfits, and free spirits: Fiction:  Circe by Madeline Miller In the house of Helios, god of the sun and mightiest of the Titans, a daughter is born. But Circe is a strange child -- not powerful, like her father, nor viciously alluring like her mother. Turning to the world of mortals for companionship, she discovers that she does possess power -- the power of witchcraft, which can transform rivals into monsters and menace the gods themselves. (From Amazon.) Find in Catalog // Read on Library2Go // Listen on Library2Go  The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane by Lisa See In their remote mountain village, Li-yan and her family align their lives around the seasons and the farming of tea. For the Akha people, ensconced in ritual and routine, life goes on as it has for generations—until a stranger appears at the village gate in a jeep, the first automobile any of the villagers has ever seen. The stranger’s arrival marks the first entrance of the modern world in the lives of the Akha people. Slowly, Li-yan, one of the few educated girls on her mountain, begins to reject the customs that shaped her early life. When she has a baby out of wedlock—conceived with a man her parents consider a poor choice—she rejects the tradition that would compel her to give the child over to be killed, and instead leaves her, wrapped in a blanket with a tea cake tucked in its folds, near an orphanage in a nearby city. (From Amazon.) Find in Catalog // Read on Library2Go // Listen on Library2Go  The Bohemians by Jasmin Darznik In this novel of the glittering and gritty Jazz Age, a young aspiring photographer named Dorothea Lange arrives in San Francisco in 1918. As a newcomer—and naïve one at that—Dorothea is grateful for the fast friendship of Caroline Lee, a vivacious, straight-talking Chinese American with a complicated past, who introduces Dorothea to Monkey Block, an artists’ colony and the bohemian heart of the city. Dazzled by Caroline and her friends, Dorothea is catapulted into a heady new world of freedom, art, and politics. She also finds herself falling in love with the brilliant but troubled painter Maynard Dixon. As Dorothea sheds her innocence, her purpose is awakened and she grows into the artist whose iconic Depression-era “Migrant Mother” photograph broke the hearts and opened the eyes of a nation. Find in Catalog  The Night Tiger by Yangsze Choo Quick-witted, ambitious Ji Lin is stuck as an apprentice dressmaker, moonlighting as a dancehall girl to help pay off her mother’s Mahjong debts. But when one of her dance partners accidentally leaves behind a gruesome souvenir, Ji Lin may finally get the adventure she has been longing for. Eleven-year-old houseboy Ren is also on a mission, racing to fulfill his former master’s dying wish: that Ren find the man’s finger, lost years ago in an accident, and bury it with his body. Ren has 49 days to do so, or his master’s soul will wander the earth forever. As the days tick relentlessly by, a series of unexplained deaths racks the district, along with whispers of men who turn into tigers. Ji Lin and Ren’s increasingly dangerous paths crisscross through lush plantations, hospital storage rooms, and ghostly dreamscapes. Find in Catalog // Read or Listen on Library2Go // Listen on Hoopla  The Last Ballad by Wiley Cash Twelve times a week, twenty-eight-year-old Ella May Wiggins makes the two-mile trek to and from her job on the night shift at American Mill No. 2 in Bessemer City, North Carolina. The insular community considers the mill's owners-the newly arrived Goldberg brothers-white but not American and expects them to pay Ella May and other workers less because they toil alongside African Americans like Violet, Ella May's best friend. While the dirty, hazardous job at the mill earns Ella May a paltry nine dollars for seventy-two hours of work each week, it's the only opportunity she has. Her no-good husband, John, has run off again, and she must keep her four young children alive with whatever work she can find. Find in Catalog // Read or Listen on Library2Go // Read or Listen on Hoopla  Frankenstein by Mary Shelley One of the best known horror stories ever. Victor Frankenstein, a Swiss scientist, has a great ambition: to create intelligent life. But when his creature first stirs, he realizes he has made a monster. A monster which, abandoned by his master and shunned by everyone who sees it, follows Dr Frankenstein with murder and horrors to the very ends of the earth. Find in Catalog // Read or Listen on Library2Go  Strange Case of Dr. Jekell and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde has been a part of modern consciousness since it's publication and smashing success. The split personality of Jekyll and Hyde has disturbed audience and been retold in countless forms. Stevenson's short novel became an instant classic. It was a Gothic horror that originated in a feverish nightmare, whose hallucinatory setting in the murky back streets of London gripped a nation mesmerized by crime and violence. The respectable doctor's mysterious relationship with his disreputable associate is finally, revealed in one of the most original and thrilling endings in English literature. Find in Catalog // Read or Listen on Hoopla Nonfiction  The Good Daughter by Jasmin Darznik We were a world of two, my mother and I, until I started turning into an American girl. That's when she began telling me about The Good Daughter. It became a taunt, a warning, an omen. Jasmin Darznik came to America from Iran when she was only three years old, and she grew up knowing very little about her family's history. When she was in her early twenties, on a day shortly following her father's death, Jasmin was helping her mother move; a photograph fell from a stack of old letters. The girl pictured was her mother. She was wearing a wedding veil, and at her side stood a man whom Jasmin had never seen before. At first, Jasmin's mother, Lili, refused to speak about the photograph, and Jasmin returned to her own home frustrated and confused. But a few months later, she received from her mother the first of ten cassette tapes that would bring to light the wrenching hidden story of her family's true origins in Iran: Lili's marriage at thirteen, her troubled history of abuse and neglect, and a daughter she was forced to abandon in order to escape that life. The final tape revealed that Jasmin's sister, Sara - The Good Daughter - was still living in Iran. Find in Catalog Ansel Adams: An Autobiography In this bestselling autobiography, completed shortly before his death in 1984, Ansel Adams looks back at his legendary six-decade career as a conservationist, teacher, musician, and, above all, photographer. Illustrated with eight pages of Adams' gorgeous black-and-white photographs, this book brings readers behind the images into the stories and circumstances of their creation. Written with characteristic warmth, vigor, and wit, this fascinating account brings to life the infectious enthusiasms, fervent battles, and bountiful friendships of a truly American original. Find in Catalog  Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher by Timothy Egan In this bestselling autobiography, completed shortly before his death in 1984, Ansel Adams looks back at his legendary six-decade career as a conservationist, teacher, musician, and, above all, photographer. Illustrated with eight pages of Adams' gorgeous black-and-white photographs, this book brings readers behind the images into the stories and circumstances of their creation. Written with characteristic warmth, vigor, and wit, this fascinating account brings to life the infectious enthusiasms, fervent battles, and bountiful friendships of a truly American original. Find in Catalog / Read or Listen on Hoopla / Read on Library2Go  The Art and Life of Maynard Dixon by Donald Hagerty "I know my West some, but to realize how big and splendid and free and magnificent and God-made it really is, once in a while, I have to look on Maynard Dixon's pictures," said Wilbur Hall in 1937. Added to this new edition are 20 newly discovered Dixon paintings, along with 12 previously unpublished black-and-white photographs, many of them portraits of Dixon taken by Dorothea Lange. This beautiful book captures the magnificence of Dixon's work and his unique personality. Find in Catalog Deep Dives  In Search of Chopin In a new film from the director of award-winning and critically acclaimed trilogy In Search of Mozart, In Search of Beethoven & In Search of Haydn Phil Grabsky brings us the music and life story of one of the world’s favourite composers, Fryderyk Chopin. Find in Catalog  What Would Frida Do?: A Guide to Living Boldly by Arianna Davis Revered as much for her fierce spirit as she is for her art, Frida Kahlo stands today as a brazen symbol of daring creativity. She was a woman ahead of her time whose paintings have earned her generations of admirers around the globe. But perhaps her greatest work of art was her own life. What Would Frida Do? explores the feminist icon's signature style, outspoken politics, and boldness in love and art, even in the face of pain and heartbreak. The book celebrates her larger than life persona as a woman who loved passionately and lived ambitiously, refusing to remain in her husband's shadow. Each chapter shares intimate stories from her life, revealing how she overcame obstacles by embracing her own ideals. Find in Catalog / Listen on Hoopla Local History |
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