Meet the Ohio Center for the Book Staff
Meet the Ohio Center for the Book Staff and learn about Ohio authors that have influenced them.
Steve Capuozzo, Subject Department Librarian, recommends Crooked River Burning by Mark Winegardner. A beauty of a novel, Mark Winegardner’s
Crooked River Burning chronicles Cleveland through the tumultuous times of the mid-1900’s. The love story is nicely interwoven with the real-life events and characters. I read this book while living away from Cleveland and it really portrays the city with a loving, honest touch.
Amy Dawson, Manager, Literature Department and the Ohio Center for the Book recommends The Collected Poems of Kenneth Koch. I would like to suggest the poems of Kenneth Koch because they are filled with beautiful, colorful imagery. I love photography and Koch poems remind me of a flickering tableau of striking arrangements. One of my favorite poems is, To You.
I love you as a sheriff searches for a walnut
That will solve a murder case unsolved for years
Because the murderer left it in the snow beside a window
Through which he saw her head, connecting with
Her shoulders by a neck, and laid a red
Roof in her heart. For this we live a thousand years;
For this we love, and we live because we love, we are not
Inside a bottle, thank goodness! I love you as a
Kid searches for a goat; I am crazier than shirttails
In the wind, when you’re near, a wind that blows from
The big blue sea, so shiny so deep and so unlike us;
I think I am bicycling across an Africa of green and white fields
Always, to be near you, even in my heart
When I’m awake, which swims, and also I believe that you
Are trustworthy as the sidewalk which leads me to
The place where I again think of you, a new
Harmony of thoughts! I love you as the sunlight leads the prow
Of a ship which sails
From Hartford to Miami, and I love you
Best at dawn, when even before I am awake the sun
Receives me in the questions which you always pose.
Jean Collins, Senior Subject Department Librarian for the Literature Department and Ohio Center for the Book, recommends Blood of the Prodigal: An Ohio Amish Mystery, by P.L. Gaus. A good mystery should leave you wanting more, and indeed, when I finished this first in the series, I went right back to the shelf and pulled all the others. Gaus creates characters you come to care about – there are no cardboard-romantic-mushy-do-gooder Amish people here! All of his characters, those of the “English” (outsiders to the Amish community), and those of the Old Order Amish community he writes about, are well-rounded people of conviction and dignity. But, as in the rest of the world, there are trouble-makers and even murderers among the Amish. Sheriff Bruce Robertson calls in his friends, Professor Michael Branden and Pastor Caleb Troyer, to help him solve the mysteries. With intriguing stories and an Amish setting true to the culture, Gaus is now up to his 7th Ohio Amish mystery, Harmless as Doves.
Deborah Nunez, Subject Department Senior Clerk for the Literature Department and the Ohio Center for the Book loves the Nancy Drew Mysteries. There isn’t one in particular that I like. My sister had a collection of all the mysteries and I started reading them when I was thirteen-years-old. I liked the story of an eighteen-year-old who could be a detective and solve a series of complicated mysteries with the help of her chums. The author of the Nancy Drew Mysteries, Carolyn Keene or Mildred Wirt Benson, did not limit herself to Nancy Drew or even the other series books she wrote, including the Penny Parker or Dana Girls mystery stories. By day Benson, who had moved to Cleveland and then Toledo with her first husband Asa Wirt, was a reporter and columnist for the Toledo Times, working there from 1944 until the paper closed in 1975.
Tim Phillips, Subject Department Librarian for the Literature Department and the Ohio Center for the Book, enjoys author Andre Norton. I greatly admire the wild improbabilities and deeds of fantastic valor that are Andre Norton’s stock and trade. Here stories imaginatively extend scientific thought in a manner that is colorful, gripping, provocative and even humorous. Three of my favorite motifs that run throughout her books are the following: the dualistic battle of light against darkness with both sides aided by both natural and magical forces; the sense of friendship, camaraderie and loyalty that exists between animal and humanoid characters; and time travel. Often, when she utilizes time travel, Norton incorporates familiar people, places and events, and presents an alternative history. Unlike many other writers of science fiction, Andre Norton employs theoretical concepts in a clear and accessible manner.
Aja Russo, Library Assistant, Literature Department and Ohio Center for the Book, respects Beloved by Toni Morrison. One of my favorite titles is Beloved by Toni Morrison because it remains to be a book that I can read several times and can always come away with a new respect for the characters and story. When I first read the book in 8th grade, I did not fully understand some of the imagery. It was not until I read it for the 3rd time in college that I really began to sink into the power and mesmerizing scenes that the novel held. The distinct and beautiful, yet devastating nature of the characters brings forward what life has left over for blacks after slavery. There is an eerie attraction to the horror of the story and it is the character of Beloved which haunts me in a way that is truly unforgettable and is why I hold Beloved in the highest regard.