Stories from the Stacks
The Monthly Liaison: May 2022
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Circa 1955, a little crew picks wildflowers alongside Sun Valley Lodge.
This photo is part of the Union Pacific publicity collection housed in
the Library's Jeanne Rodger Lane Center for Regional History.
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Inside Each Flower, a Mystery
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The pink hearts trembled in my hands as I examined them in the sunshine on the porch. I had found them, a fountain of tiny flowers, in a shaded corner of the yard, and my six-year-old self could not resist plucking those hearts from their arching green stems. They felt like miniature balloons filled with nothing but the smallest puff of air.
When my great-uncle Ben strode onto the porch, I froze – not sure whether to stuff the hearts in my pockets or throw them across the lawn. Great-Aunt Gloria tended her garden with care, and here I was caught with some of the delicate blooms in my hands. Ben scared me a little, with his deep voice that felt sharp with no-nonsense. He also was my pediatrician, and I associated him with a cold stethoscope on my back as he listened to my heart flutter between my ribs.
“Bleeding hearts,” he said.
I held my breath, like when he listened to my heart, not sure of this diagnosis.
“Those are bleeding hearts. Do you know the story?”
He sat down beside me, took one of the blossoms from my hand, and, peering over the edge of his glasses, he gently pulled away the pink petals and told a story of a prince and a princess. I leaned over his big hands to watch the delicate operation as he spoke: Each part of the flower held a turn of the plot as the prince courted the princess with gifts of rabbits and gleaming white slippers, defended his love with a dagger, and finally won her heart.
The story finished. I looked down at Ben’s creased hand filled with broken heart petals and fairy shoes, and I looked up at his crooked grin as he patted me on the back and walked away. My own hand still held a clutch of whole-hearts. So much mystery inside each one. So many stories beating beneath the surface. The whole world hummed.
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Jenny Emery Davidson, Ph.D.
Executive Director
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The Sweet Mysteries of Life
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". . .true Mystery also thrives in shadow, where dark deeds are done, and only determined detectives dare to follow."
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By Cathy Butterfield
Collections Manager
Conundrums, Characters, and Comeuppance
Mysteries have long dwelt in the critical shadows of the literary landscape. Luckily, true Mystery also thrives in shadow, where dark deeds are done, and only determined detectives dare to follow.
Springing from the penny dreadfuls of the Victorian era, modern noir mysteries channel the sulfuric fogs of Dickensian London, peopled with doubtful dukes, fiendish footpads, and lurid ladies.
The conditions that bred the classic mystery in the 19th century (opiates, injustice, inequity, cults, greed, violence) are still issues today, driving motive, means, and readers. Those cloistered mysteries diversified and traveled far in the 20th century. Whether set in Laos, London, or Laramie, the popular mystery still starts with a criminal conundrum and ends with a solution:
The fun is in the ride.
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"The game is afoot" with Cathy Butterfield
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Conan Doyle tapped deeply into the gaslit Dickensian vein when he published the first Sherlock compendium. While drawing readers into the magic of finding a culprit via strict scientific observation and enlightened ratiocination, Doyle totally rocked the melodrama Holmes claimed to disdain.
I burned through the Sherlock stories in grade school, forever warping my grammar toward compound sentences and florid descriptors, even while skyrocketing my SAT verbal scores. Luckily, my history scores did not depend on bogus facts Doyle made up in A Study in Scarlet about the socioanthropology of early Utah.
Iconic writers can tell whoppers, it turns out.
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"Comeuppance and characters are still the
spices that makes a mystery tasty."
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Fibbing, of course, is part of the writers’ job description, though background accuracy is more the rule than the exception in modern mysteries.
Comeuppance and characters are still the spices that makes a mystery tasty. A truly engaging gumshoe will leave the readership wanting more—readers hounded Sir Arthur for the return of Sherlock Holmes after he cruelly cast his hero into the raging Reichenbach Falls.
The original writer of the Hopalong Cassidy adventures, Charles A Mulford, chose the young writer Louis L’Amour to allow his character to continue to mete out justice after he retired in the fifties, rather than sunset the series.
From the Saint to Sam Spade to Travis McGee to Walt Longmire, there is true satisfaction found in a daring detective going the extra dangerous mile to deliver that just reward.
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Recommended Titles in Mystery
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Ah! To unravel a mystery—to sort through clues, reveal secrets, see justice done—calls to a deep, visceral aspect of the human psyche. In this spirit, The Community Library celebrates National Mystery Month. Here are a few titles we like in print, ebooks, and film, in English and Spanish
(all free with your Library card).
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Herald from the Hemingway House
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“Returning to Idaho has been a dreamy, full-circle experience after graduating Boise State's MFA in 2019.
“Now that I'm working on my second novel—which happens to be set in the West—having the dedicated space and time to get my appetite going on a new project is no small thing.
"I'm very grateful to be surrounded by such inspiring vistas, warm and accommodating folks who support
the arts, and a historic setting to
crack open this next book.”
~Ariel Delgado Dixon
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Ariel joined us in May to discuss her debut novel, Don't Say We Didn't Warn You, "one of the most
anticipated books of 2022."
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THANK YOU to Our April Donors
for Supporting the Stories of the Library
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Barbara and Lewis Brown
Jane Reister Conard and Richard A. Maneval
Rae Devito
Debra and Lyman Drake
Michael Ford van Fossan
Lawrence Goldberg
David Herrig
Sandy and Tom Kling
John Lundin
Mary Lee Copp
Joan and Michael O'Neil
Robert Ordal
Maxwell Reiniers
Judith Teller Kaye
Sandra Webel
Willard and Pat Walker Charitable Foundation
Wood River Women's Foundation
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Estate of Nicholas R. Cox
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Baxter Craven Young in honor of Karen Oswalt
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Robyn and Todd Achilles
Big Wood Landscape
Daphne Coble and Patrick Murphy
Kathleen Diepenbrock and Kelley Weston
Claudia and John D. Gaeddert
Kyla Merwin
Elaine H. and Michael T. Phillips
Narda Pitkethly
Gay Weake
Anita Weissberg
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The Community Library is supported by people who believe in the free flow of news, entertainment, and information.
It’s never too early to start planning to make a gift from your IRA (also known as IRA Charitable Rollover Gifts). Money can be transferred directly from your IRA to a 501(c)(3) charity, such as The Library, TAX-FREE! Donors must be 70½ years of age, and a gift from an IRA helps you meet your Required Minimum Distributions.
Strategize now to save on next year’s taxes. Director of Philanthropy, Carter Hedberg, is here to assist you.
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