Across the Reference Desk
"One of the wildest and most entertaining novelists in the world" has a new book on the shelves of current fiction at the Goshen Public Library and Historical Society. FIERCE INVALIDS HOME FROM HOT CLIMATES is the seventh and biggest novel from the author of ANOTHER ROADSIDE ATTRACTION and EVEN COWGIRLS GET THE BLUES. As he did in those fictions, Tom Robbins, leaps across the pages of FIERCE INVALIDS. From Seattle, to Peru, to Syria, to the Vatican, and back to Seattle, Robbins explores the complex and compelling character of Switters, a rogue CIA agent with a penchant for the bizarre. Following Switters into his strange escapades, in and out of love and danger, across four continents, Robbins mocks the sacred cows of our era with his mercurial wit and world-class storytelling.In PASSPORT TO THE COSMOS, a new title on the shelves of current non-fiction at the library, John E. Mack readdresses the issue of human encounters with aliens. In his best-selling book, ABDUCTION, Harvard professor Mack introduced the results of his extensive research with psychology patients who reported encounters with alien lifeforms. Now, in PASSPORT TO THE COSMOS, mack makes the bold claim that the concept of alien adbuctions is part of a new era in human consciousness. Aided by additional research with abductees in the United States and around the world, and drawing on the traditions of non-Western and indigenous cultures, which more readily accept the idea of a multi-dimensional universe, Mach shows that by broadening our notions of "what is real," we can begin to explore the implications for humanity presented by this revolutionary phenomenon.
AN IDEAL HUSBAND is a wonderfully entertaining film on the library's shelves of new videos. Based on the Oscar Wilde comedy of manners, AN IDEAL HUSBAND ha none of the staginess of some filmed plays. Viewers will enjoy watching the ideal cast, headed by Rupert Everett, Cate Blanchett, and Julianne Moore, breathing new life into this classic of Edwardian wit.