MC library browsers can experience incredible finds

by Kip Campbell – 

Visitors to the Middlesex County Public Library’s Deltaville or Urbanna branches often arrive with no particular title in mind, instead choosing to browse up and down the rows of shelves, leisurely and enjoyably perusing a wide variety of books. Recent visits have — for this strolling visitor — yielded several remarkable reads.

Erik Larson’s new book, “The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family and Defiance during the Blitz,” makes for a riveting read. Covering Churchill’s first year as prime minister, from May 1940 to the following spring, the account centers on the inner workings, crises, and emotions brought on by a seemingly unrelenting German bombing campaign and a deeply disheartening series of British defeats.

Well worth a read also is the short novel, “News of the World,” upon which a recently released film starring Tom Hanks is based. The book in tone and spirit is reminiscent of “True Grit” by the late Charles Portis, also available at the Library.

And finally, “Melville in Love: The Secret Life of Herman Melville and the Muse of Moby Dick,” by Michael Sheldon. Centered on Melville’s life during the years 1850 to 1851, the account provides new and sometimes startling discussions of Melville’s classic novel “Moby Dick,” which, at its publication, was an unmitigated disaster.