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march
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31 Libraries Closed
Off the Beaten Path
. . . Discovering New Literary Treasures
We’re getting closer by the minute to the day when Uncle Sam holds out his hand, clears his throat meaningfully, and refuses to break eye contact until we pay up. Well, we’re not going to rub it in so info is officially altering one of the oldest of clichés to say that nothing is inevitable but death and taxidermy. Here is a pair of books that prove it. Kerr, Gordon. Goners: The Final Hours of the Notable and Notorious. 920.02/K412g
Milgrom, Melissa. Still Life: Adventures in Taxidermy. 590.752/M6442s
This one will score highly on your personal Morbid-Curiosity-O-Meter. It may be counterintuitive to say that death can be a lot of fun—except for the guest of honor, of course—but author Kerr makes you think so. Personally, I’ve always smiled at the death of Union General John Sedgwick at the Civil War Battle of Spotsylvania who rallied his men with a rousing “They couldn’t hit an elephant at this distance!” just seconds before being shot by a sniper.
Adventures in taxidermy? Sounds odd, right? Where would the adventure lie, unless a bear awoke from a deep hibernation just when you were about to slip in the scalpel. But Milgrom includes in her book the adventures of naturalists and explorers in the wild, as well as the artisans and museum historians, who adapt and bring the outdoor experience inside. March 2013 n info METROPOLITAN LIBRARY SYSTEM magazine n 31