Wolves Eat Dogs [sound recording] by Martin Cruz Smith

Media/Audio Computer Disk PS3569.M5377 W65 2005
Recommended by: Susan Kraat, Librarian

Martin Cruz Smith’s Wolves Eat Dogs is a very good listen,
even as it is a sobering account of life in post-Chernobyl
Chernobyl, the Zone of Exclusion in the Ukraine commonly
referred to simply as the “Zone.” Detective Arkady Renko
(remember Gorky Park?) travels from Moscow to the Ukraine,
to solve a crime involving Russian gangsters and
radioactive chemicals. Smith describes the criminal world
of Moscow, the new Russian capitalism, and the regional
apocalypse in the Ukraine that remains since the 1986
nuclear meltdown. The despair is tangible and
unrelenting, bearable because of the author’s compelling
prose and bleak sense of humor. Ron McLarty reads with
exactly the right tone and has a clever ear for dialect.

Magic Land of Toys by Alberto Manguel

Recommended by: Stephan J. Macaluso, Librarian
Oversize NK9509.5.F8 P376 2006

Manguel is a prolific author, translator and anthologist whose interests range from art appreciation to classics to mystery. Magic Land of Toys, however, is really a picture book. Manguel collaborates with photographer Michel Pintado, set designer Jean Haas and (the real star of the show) the toy collection of the Paris Musee des Arts Decoratifs to present a series of vignettes that conjure our childhood playrooms.

The cinematically-rendered images of the toys, posed --sometimes suggestively-- in mid-action, provoke us to reflect on play, collectables, childhood and age-old questions like Are toys really alive? and What do our toys do when we’re not around? While the scenes speak vivdly by themselves, Manguel’s insightful texts comment on memory, identity, lost toys, and the importance of imagination. This is a splendid source of introspection and nostalgia. It also makes a great game of I Spy.