Best of Biography 2009: Eight Lists

As I scanned this year's best books lists, I found many biographies and memoirs. Several shelves could be filled with biographical books from the year-end lists issued by major review journals, newspapers, and booksellers. For readers looking for good biographies or for libraries building collections, here are titles from eight lists to consider.

Making this list was not as straight forward as you might think. Deciding what is a memoir was the problem, as some of the books are partly memoir and partly something else. If the author appears to say a lot about her or his own experience, I err on the side of inclusion, for many readers like books with the personal touch of memoirs even when the overall book has a different focus. "Biography" is also sometimes hard to nail. Think about books like The Hawk and the Dove: Paul Nitze, George Kennan, and the History of the Cold War or A Fiery Peace in a Cold War: Bernard Schriever and the Ultimate Weapon. How much of a book needs to biographical for it to be biography? I have again erred on the side of inclusion.

The reviewing sources are in wonderful disagreement as to what 2009's best books are. Combined their lists provide a diverse view on books of merit for the year. There should be something here for everyone.


Amazon: Top 100 Editors Picks

Biographies

Cheever: A Life
Blake Bailey

Pops: A Life of Louis Armstrong
Terry Teachout

Robert Altman: The Oral Biography
Mitchell Zuckoff

The Wilderness Warrior: Theodore Roosevelt and the Crusade for America
Douglas Brinkley

Memoirs

American on Purpose
Craig Ferguson

Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Creating Currents of Electricity and Hope
William Kamkwamba

Crazy for the Storm: A Memoir of Survival
Norman Ollestad


Kids Are All Right: A Memoir
Diana Welch

Open: An Autobiography
Andre Agassi

Undress Me in the Temple of Heaven
Susan Jane Gilman


Atlantic Monthly: Books of the Year

Biographies

Abraham Lincoln: A Life
Michael Burlingame


The Ballad of Dorothy Wordsworth: A Life
Frances Wilson

Charles Dickens
Michael Slater

Flannery: A Life of Flannery O'Connor
Brad Gooch

Florence Nightingale: The Making of an Icon
Mark Bostidge

Samuel Johnson: A Biography
Peter Martin


Booklist: Editors Choices 2009
*Top of the List

Biographies

Cheever: A Life*
Blake Bailey

Flannery: A Life of Flannery O'Connor
Brad Gooch

Gabriel García Márquez
Gerald Martin


John Milton: A Hero of Our Time
David Hawkes

Joseph P. Kennedy Presents: His Hollywood Years
Cari Beauchamp

Louisa May Alcott: The Woman behind Little Women
Harriet Reisen

The Sound of Wings: The Life of Amelia Earhart
Mary S. Lovell

The Strangest Man: The Hidden Life of Paul Dirac, Mystic of the Atom
Graham Farmelo

The Thoreau You Don't Know: What the Prophet of Environmentalism Really Meant
Robert Sullivan

Tom and Jack: The Intertwined Lives of Thomas Hart Benton and Jackson Pollock
Henry Adams

When a Heart Turns Rock Solid: The Lives of Three Puerto Rican Brothers On and Off the Streets
Timothy Black


Why This World: A Biography of Clarice Lispector
Benjamin Moser


The Wilderness Warrior: Theodore Roosevelt and the Crusade for America
Douglas Brinkley


Memoirs

City Boy: My Life in New York during the 1960s and '70s
Edmund White

Clara's War: One Girl's Story of Survival
Clara Kramer and Stephen Glantz

Man of Constant Sorrow: My Life and Times
Ralph Stanley and Eddie Dean

Stitches
David Small

Things I've Been Silent About: Memories
Azar Nafisi


Library Journal: Best of 2009

Biographies

Ayn Rand and the World She Made
Anne C. Heller

The Hanging of Thomas Jeremiah: A Free Black Man's Encounter with Liberty
J. William Harris

The Hawk and the Dove : Paul Nitze, George Kennan, and the History of the Cold War
Nicholas Thompson

The Man Who Loved Books Too Much: The True Story of a Thief, a Detective, and a World of Literary Obsession
Allison Hoover Bartlett

Newton and the Counterfeiter: The Unknown Detective Career of the World's Greatest Scientist
Thomas Levenson

The Sisters of Sinai : How Two Lady Adventurers Discovered the Hidden Gospels
Janet Soskice

Soul of the Age: A Biography of the Mind of William Shakespeare
Jonathan Bate

A Strange Eventful History: The Dramatic Lives of Ellen Terry, Henry Irving, and Their Remarkable Families
Michael Holroyd


The Strangest Man: The Hidden Life of Paul Dirac
Graham Farmelo


Up from History: The Life of Booker T. Washington
Robert J. Norrell


Memoirs

Cooking Dirty: A Story of Life, Sex, Love and Death in the Kitchen
Jason Sheehan


Knowledge in the Blood: Confronting Race and the Apartheid Past
Jonathan D. Jansen

Waiting on a Train: The Embattled Future of Passenger Rail Service—A Year Spent Riding Across America
James McCommons


Los Angeles Times: Favorite Nonfiction of 2009

Biographies

Cheever: A Life
Blake Bailey

Strength in What Remains
Tracy Kidder

Why This World: A Biography of Clarice Lispector
Benjamin Moser


Memoirs

Conquest of the Useless: Reflections from the Making of Fitzcarraldo
Werner Herzog

Not Now, Voyager: A Memoir
Lynne Sharon Schwartz

Stitches: A Memoir
David Small


New York Times: Notable Books of 2009

Biographies

Ayn Rand and the World She Made
Anne C. Heller

Cheever: A Life
Blake Bailey

Dorothea Lange: A Life Beyond Limits
Linda Gordon


A Fiery Peace in a Cold War: Bernard Schriever and the Ultimate Weapon*
Neil Sheehan

The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt
T.J. Stiles

Flannery: A Life of Flannery O'Connor
Brad Gooch


Hiding Man: A Biography of Donald Barthelme
Tracy Daugherty

In Fed We Trust: Ben Bernanke's War on the Great Panic
David Wessel


Invention of Air: A Story of Science, Faith, Revolution, and the Birth of America
Steven Johnson

Last Empress : Madame Chiang Kai-shek and the Birth of Modern China
Hannah Pakula

The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon
David Grann

Louis D. Brandeis: A Life
Melvin I. Urofsky

Raymond Carver: A Writer's Life
Carol Sklenicka

Satchel: The Life and Times of an American Legend
Larry Tye

The Strangest Man: The Hidden Life of Paul Dirac, Mystic of the Atom
Graham Farmelo


Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original
Robin D.G. Kelley

Weight of a Mustard Seed : The Intimate Story of an Iraqi General and His Family During Thirty Years of Tyranny
Wendell Steavenson

Why This World: A Biography of Clarice Lispector
Benjamin Moser

The Wilderness Warrior: Theodore Roosevelt and the Crusade for America
Douglas Brinkley

Zeitoun by Dave Eggers


Memoirs

Born Round: The Secret History of a Full-Time Eater
Frank Bruni

City Boy: My Life in New York during the 1960s and '70s
Edmund White

Closing Time: A Memoir
Joe Queenan

Lit: A Memoir
Mary Karr

Losing Mum and Pup: A Memoir
Christopher Buckley

The Lost Child: A Mother's Story
Julie Myerson


Lost in the Meritocracy: The Undereducation of an Overachiever
Walter Kirn


The Mercy Papers: A Memoir of Three Weeks
Robin Romm

My Paper Chase: True Stories of Vanished Times
Harold Evans

Open: An Autobiography
Andre Agassi


Publishers Weekly: Best Books of 2009
*PW Top 10

Biographies

Cheever: A Life*
Blake Bailey

A Fiery Peace in a Cold War: Bernard Schriever and the Ultimate Weapon*
Neil Sheehan

Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Gerald Martin

Judas: A Biography
Susan Gubar

The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon
David Grann

Pops: A Life of Louis Armstrong
Terry Teachout

Strength in What Remains
Tracy Kidder

Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman
Jon Krakauer


Memoirs

Angry Conversations with God: A Snarky but Authentic Spiritual Memoir
Susan E. Isaacs

Born Round: The Secret History of a Full-Time Eater
Frank Bruni


Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Creating Currents of Electricity and Hope
William Kamkwamba

Have a Little Faith
Mitch Albom

In Due Season: A Catholic Life
Paul Wilkes

Land of the Lost Souls: My Life on the Streets
Cadillac Man

Larry's Kidney: Being the True Story of How I Found Myself in China with My Black Sheep Cousin and His Mail-Order Bride, Skirting the Law to Get Him a Transplant--and Save His Life
Daniel Asa Rose

Mennonite in a Little Black Dress: A Memoir of Going Home
Rhoda Janzen

Stitches: A Memoir*
David Small

True Compass: A Memoir
Edward M. Kennedy


Washington Post: Best Books of 2009
*Book World 10 Best

Biographies

A. Lincoln
Ronald C. White Jr.

The Art of Making Money: The Story of a Master Counterfeiter
Jason Kersten

The Ascent of George Washington
John Ferling

Charles Dickens
Michael Slater

A Fiery Peace in a Cold War: Bernard Schriever and the Ultimate Weapon*
Neil Sheehan

First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt
T.J. Stiles

The Hawk and the Dove : Paul Nitze, George Kennan, and the History of the Cold War
Nicholas Thompson

Logicomix: An Epic Search for Truth
Apostolos Doxiadis et al.

Mr. America: How Muscular Millionaire Bernarr Macfadden Transformed the Nation Through Sex, Salad, and the Ultimate Starvation Diet
Mark Adams

Passing Strange : A Gilded Age Tale of Love and Deception Across the Color Line
Martha A. Sandweiss

The Poison King: The Life and Legend of Mithradates, Rome's Deadliest Enemy
Adrienne Mayor

Pops: A Life of Louis Armstrong*
Terry Teachout

Raymond Carver: A Writer's Life
Carol Sklenicka

Rebellion of Ronald Reagan : A History of the End of the Cold War
Jim Mann

Soul of the Age: A Biography of the Mind of William Shakespeare
Jonathan Bate

A Strange Eventful History: The Dramatic Lives of Ellen Terry, Henry Irving, and Their Remarkable Families*
Michael Holroyd

Strength in What Remains
Tracy Kidder

Sweet Thunder : The Life and Times of Sugar Ray Robinson
Wil Haygood

Tchaikovsky
Roland John Wiley

The Uncrowned King: The Sensational Rise of William Randolph Hearst
Kenneth Whyte

Under the Big Sky: a Biography of A.B. Guthrie Jr.
Jackson J. Benson

Victor Fleming: An American Movie Master
Michael Sragow


Memoirs

Annie's Ghosts: A Journey into a Family Secret
Steve Luxenberg

Armenian Golgotha
Grigoris Balakian

The Art and Politics of Science
Harold Varmus

Born Round: The Secret History of a Full-Time Eater
Frank Bruni

Boy Alone: A Brother's Memoir
Karl Taro Greenfeld

A Brain Wider Than the Sky: A Migraine Diary
Andrew Levy

Cheerful Money: Me, My Family, and the Last Days of Wasp Splendor
Tad Friend

The Last of His Mind: A Year in the Shadow of Alzheimer's
John Thorndike

Lit: A Memoir
Mary Karr

The Media Relations Department of Hizbollah Wishes You a Happy Birthday : Unexpected Encounters in the Changing Middle East
Neil MacFarquhar

My Two Polish Grandfathers: And Other Essays on the Imaginative Life
Witold Rybczynski

Nothing Was the Same: A Memoir
Kay Redfield Jamison

Open: An Autobiography
Andre Agassi

The Photographer
Didier Lefèvre

Somewhere Towards the End
Diana Athill

Stitches*
David Small

The Unforgiving Minute: A Soldier's Education
Craig M. Mullaney

War Child: A Child Soldier's Story
Emmanuel Jal

When the Game Was Ours
Larry Bird and Earvin "Magic" Johnson

Building on Nature: The Life of Antoni Gaudi by Rachel Rodriguez and illustrated by Julie Paschkis

Who is the most unlikely subject for a biographical children's book? Hard to say, but I might nominate Catalonian architect Antoni Gaudi just because of his obscurity to American culture and his lack of warmth as a character. He stood alone against severe ridicule as he built strange nature-inspired houses, palaces, and churches around Barcelona in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. One article I read said that people avoided walking near him on the streets. Yet, here is Building on Nature: The Life of Antoni Gaudi by Rachel Rodriguez and illustrated by Julie Paschkis.

Rodriguez and Paschkis saw something that I did not consider - the opportunity to tell a story about genius and tolerance. They also saw the respectful relationship that Gaudi had with the artisans who made his strange designs come to life. Rodriguez and Paschkis do not hide that Gaudi was unpopular with the public but they show him in touch with nature and quietly content with his work. He is like a quiet child who lives in his own world. The book might really appeal to similar children.

Building on Nature is an artful celebration of Guadi's achievements. In the author's notes is a profile of the architect with a list of his buildings and a bibliography for more in depth study.

Rodriguez, Rachel. Building on Nature: The Life of Antoni Gaudi. Henry Holt, 2009. ISBN 9780805087451

The World According to Miss Sook: Quotations from Truman Capote Stories

In Truman Capote's mostly autobiographical short story "A Christmas Memory," featuring Buddy, the young boy being raised by distant relatives in rural Alabama in the early 1930s, Buddy's constant companion is an old woman whom he simply calls "my friend." Capote names her "Miss Sook" in "The Thanksgiving Visitor," a second Buddy story. Based on his relative Nanny Rumbley Faulk, the elderly woman is described as childlike and unschooled, but to Buddy she is the source of much wisdom.

For Christmas, here is a collection of her quotes from two stories.


from "The Thanksgiving Visitor":

We really all of us ought to have everything we want. I'll bet you a dime that's what the Lord intends. And when all around us we see people who can't satisfy the plainest needs, I feel ashamed. Oh, not for myself, because who am I, an old nobody who never owned a mite; if I hadn't had a family to pay my way, I'd have starved or been sent to the County Home. The shame I feel is for all of us who have anything extra when other people have nothing.

My mother said, 'The day may come when all we can offer is well water and cold cornbread, but at least we'll be able to serve it on a table set with proper linen.'

Chrysanthemums ... are like lions. Kingly characters. I always expect them to spring. To turn on me with a growl and a roar.

Now listen to me, Buddy: there is only one unpardonable sin - deliberate cruelty. All else can be forgiven. That, never. Do you understand me, Buddy?

She does, however, forgive him.


from "A Christmas Memory":

Oh, my ... it's fruitcake weather!

Oh, Buddy, stop stuffing biscuits and fetch our buggy. Help me find my hat. We've thirty cakes to bake.

We can't mess around with thirteen. The cakes will fall. Or put somebody in the cemetery. Why, I wouldn't think of getting out of bed on the thirteenth.

It's bad enough in life to do without something you want; but confound it, what gets my goat is not being able to give somebody something you want them to have.

Well, I can't sleep a hoot, ... My mind's jumping like a jack rabbit. Buddy, do you think Mrs. Roosevelt will seve our cake at dinner?

I always thought a body would have to be sick and dying before they saw the Lord. And I imagined that when He came it would be like looking at the Baptist window: pretty as coloured glass with the sun pouring through, such a shine you don't know it's getting dark. And it's been a coloured glass with the sun shining through, such a spooky feeling. But I'll wager it never happens. I'll wager at the end a body realizes the Lord has already shown himself. That things as they are ... just what they've always seen, was seeing Him. As for me, I could leave the world with today in my eyes.

Have a Merry Christmas!

Berries at the Brookfield Zoo

Berries at the Brookfield Zoo
Originally uploaded by ricklibrarian.

Merry Christmas! We just saw White Christmas again on television. We have plenty of snow, at least for now. Rain may wash it away tomorrow, but we're a good mood now, hoping you have a wonderful holiday wherever you are. May your stockings be filled with dark, rich chocolates!

The photo to the right is from the Brookfield Zoo which is always beautifully decorated for Christmas. It is even open on Christmas Day. If you are in the area and need to get out of the house, we recommend the zoo. Say "Happy Holidays" to the our favorites: penguins, okapi, snow leopards, polar bears, and all the birds in the perching bird house.

Memoirs for Christmas Reading

It is hard to imagine a biography that concerned itself with a person's life just at Christmas, but memoirs are a different matter. Some authors have used the holiday as a setting for autobiographical writings. Here is a list of titles for you to consider reading this season.

Christmas at Long Lake: A Childhood Memory by Rick Skwiot (2005) - A novelist recalls living in a rural cabin in 1953 when his father was out of work.

Christmas in Plains: Memories by Jimmy Carter (2001) - Former president remembers how Christmases past have anchored his family in times of crisis.

Christmas on Jane Street: a True Story by Billy Romp (1998) - A Christmas tree farmer tells about his experiences selling his trees in Manhattan.

The Hired Man's Christmas by George W. Givens (1998) - A true mystery set on a hardscrabble farm in New England during the Great Depression.

An Idiot Girl's Christmas: True Tales from the Top of the Naughty List by Laurie Notaro (2005) - Christmas seems to be a time for misbehaving for this humorist.

An Irish Country Christmas by Alice Taylor (1995) - A sentimental look at hard times in County Kerry.

Keeping Christmas: An Edwardian-Age Memoir by William F. Strickler (1981) - The author remembers Christmas in Baltimore between 1908 and 1920.

Memory of a Large Christmas by Lillian Smith (1962) - Author remembers welcoming a chain gang to an already large rural family gathering. Recipes included.

Tinsel: A Search for America's Christmas Present by Hank Stuever (2009) - Really more of an investigative report about the holidays in a Texas suburb than a memoir.

You Better Not Cry : Stories for Christmas by Augusten Burroughs (2009) - Darkly humorous stories of Christmas from the author of Running with Scissors.

ricklibrarian Books That Matter 2009 and Other Awards

2009 was an exciting year for my family. We visited our mothers in Arizona and Texas, attended the ALA Annual Conference in Chicago, enjoyed a great summer filled with cultural activities, and took a trip to Australia and New Zealand. I also published a book. It will be difficult for 2010 to match the past year.

Looking back, I see many books and movies worth remembering. So it is time again to issue the ricklibrarian Books That Matter and Other Awards. Happy Holiday Reading!


Recent Nonfiction

Strength in What Remains by Tracy Kidder

Inheriting the Trade: A Northern Family Confronts Its Legacy as the Largest Slave Trading Family in U. S. History by Thomas Norman DeWolf

The Oxford Project with photographs by Peter Feldstein and text by Stephen G. Bloom

White Heat: The Friendship of Emily Dickinson and Thomas Wentworth Higginson by Brenda Wineapple

The Sound of Freedom: Marian Anderson, the Lincoln Memorial, and the Concert That Awakened America by Raymond Arsenault

Eco Barons: The Dreamers, Schemers, and Millionaires Who Are Saving Our Planet by Edward Humes

Now the Drum of War: Walt Whitman and His Brothers in the Civil War by Robert Roper

The Painter's Chair: George Washington and the Making of American Art by Hugh Howard


Recent Fiction

Dream City by Brendan Short

The Poe Shadow by Matthew Pearl

The Thing Around Your Neck by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie


Great Old Books

Do I Dare Disturb the Universe?: From the Projects to Prep School by Charlise Lyles


Children's Books

Little Audrey by Ruth White

Babar's Museum of Art (Closed Mondays) by Laurent de Brunhoff

Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice by Phillip Hoose

We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball by Kadir Nelson

Diego: Bigger Than Life by Carmen T. Bernier-Grand


Audiobooks

The Wordy Shipmates by Sarah Vowell

The Prince of Frogtown by Rick Bragg

The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon by David Grann

The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey by Candice Millard


Readers' Advisory - It has been a great year in this category.

The Inside Scoop: A Guide to Nonfiction Investigative Writing and Exposés by Sarah Statz Cords

Read On ... Women's Fiction by Rebecca Vnuk

The Readers' Advisory Guide to Genre Fiction, Second Edition by Joyce Saricks

Read On ... Life Stories by Rosalind Reisner


Movies

The Singing Revolution

Curse of the Golden Flower

Nobody Knows

As We Forgive

Munyurangabo


Blog in Library Science

Points of Reference


Presentations at Conferences

Rethinking Reference Collections

Helping Job Hunters: Recommendations and Resources for Librarians

Unconference at ALA in Chicago

Anne Frank: The Book, The Life, The Afterlife by Francine Prose

Francine Prose has been reading and rereading Anne Frank's Diary since she was a young girl. The devoted fan and prolific writer matured as a reader while rethinking what Anne Frank wrote and how she wrote. She recognized long ago that Anne Frank was consciously writing for the public, not just for herself as is sometimes stated in curriculum guides. She was, of course, very interested when The Critical Edition, The Definitive Edition, and The Revised Critical Edition were published, each showing that Anne Frank did indeed rewrite much of the early writing, determined to polish her diary into a literary work. Prose tells all of this and reveals much of what she has learned about the young author in Anne Frank: The Book, The Life, The Afterlife.

I was drawn to this new title after hearing Prose discuss Anne Frank on an NPR podcast. I was intrigued by the relationship of the book to the subsequent play and movie, both of which were popular and highly acclaimed. Being young, Prose initially liked the adaptations, but she now has a rather different view. She recognizes that both on stage and on screen Anne Frank has been reduced to a sweet, naive girl, missing much of her wit and savvy. Prose reluctantly admits that these dramatizations, as mistaken as they are, have drawn millions of people to the book, which she considers a good thing.

Prose also defends Otto Frank, who has been sharply criticized for editing his daughter's notebooks and loose papers into the original Diary published first in 1947. She notes that he actually left much more of the controversial content in than most fathers might have been inclined to do. His edit, she says, is still the most readable and most popular in schools that actually read the book. Unfortunately, many schools teach the sweetened play instead. "Chapter Ten: Teaching the Diary" is the most disturbing chapter, as Prose tells how badly some teachers teach the book and how some modern ultra-religious parents object to its teaching of tolerance.

Anne Frank: The Book, The Life, The Afterlife is an interesting mix of biography, memoir, literary criticism, and history, which should attract many readers.

Prose, Francine. Anne Frank: The Book, The Life, The Afterlife. Harper, 2009. ISBN 9780061430794

Wallace & Gromit: A Matter of Loaf and Death

Bonnie and I have been Wallace and Gromit fans for fourteen years. If I remember correctly, A Grand Day Out, The Wrong Trousers, and A Close Shave were all available when we discovered the comic clay animation man-and-dog duo. We quickly found that we could hardly look at cheese without laughing about Wallace and Gromit's trip to the moon. The only trouble with Wallace and Gromit is that there are not enough films.

I was understandably thrilled when Bonnie brought home A Matter of Loaf and Death. As in all the short films, the inventor Wallace has concocted some wild devices to make his life efficient and profitable. His dog Gromit is, however, the brains of the operation, making the assembly lines work and saving Wallace from his own foolishness. He is particularly challenged in A Matter of Loaf and Death because a serial killer is loose in the village.

In this new film, Wallace has a new baking business that requires his being woken at 5 a.m. every morning. Of course, Gromit is already up, packing loaves of bread into the van and preparing Wallace's coffee and breakfast. As they leave their home/bakery, we see that Wallace has attached a Dutch windmill to power the factory. As they speed along the streets, Wallace sees the girl of his dreams. Romance, suspense, science fiction, and slapstick comedy are all packed into A Matter of Loaf and Death.

The DVD also features How They Donut, a short documentary on the making of the film and an episode of the BBC's animated series Shaun the Sheep. We want to find more episodes with Shaun.

A Matter of Loaf and Death. Hit Entertainment, 2009. ISBN 0884487104211

AL Direct Includes Review of Real Lives Revealed

I found that yesterday's AL Direct had several very interesting links. One is a link to a positive Booklist review of my book Real Lives Revealed. I also enjoyed reading the article "The Top Ten Books of 1709" by Jill Lepore from The New Yorker; not a lot of books were actually published that year in the American colonies, but you will still recognize the names of some of the bestselling authors. I also liked the links to a Mental Floss lineup of photos from Presidential Libraries, which includes Gerald Ford meeting with George Harrison and Billy Preston (a contrast in hair).

If you do not already receive AL Direct in your weekly email, here is the link to subscribe.

Carl's Snowy Afternoon by Alexandra Day

Our family loves Carl, the rottweiler in a series of children's picture books by Alexandra Day. We began reading them when Laura was a baby, starting with Carl Goes Shopping. The plot usually revolves around Carl's owners leaving him in charge of their toddler Madeleine while they go off for a few hours. Instead of staying put, Carl and the toddler take off to have little adventures, meeting friendly people who give them tasty things to eat and getting home just before the parents return. My favorite may be Carl's Christmas in which the parents go to a late night church service while Carl and the toddler wander the town's snowy streets meeting late night shoppers and carolers. The dog and child get home just in time for Santa's arrival. Santa gives Carl a nice holiday collar for being such a good dog.

Just in time for this Christmas is a new Carl book, Carl's Snowy Afternoon. Twenty years later, Madeleine is now about four years old, and the parents have actually hired a sitter to watch their child while they go to an ice skating party around a frozen pond. Of course, the sitter just watches television and does not notice Carl and the curly-headed child slip out the dog door. Adventures include attending the same ice skating party, staying just out of the parents sight. I particularly like all the snowmen and snowwomen that children make that afternoon. Carl helps Madeleine remove a carrot from one snowwoman to feed a hungry bunny.

Pictures tell the stories in these artfully illustrated books. With few words, young children, who enjoy seeing the independence that Carl and Madeleine exhibit, can read these books to their adults. There are now eleven books in the series. I recommend them all.

Day, Alexandra. Carl's Snowy Afternoon. Farrar Straus Giroux, 2009. ISBN 9780374310868

A Visit to the Brookfield Zoo Library

Hidden behind one of the gift shops at the Brookfield Zoo, in what was once exhibit space, is a library devoted to zoology. As in many older institutions, the zoo library was never formally founded but evolved from small scattered collections in staff offices around the park. The collection has been centralized for about thirty years, though there is still a satellite site for the veterinarians and another containing the zoo's archives of maps, brochures, and other documents. The main collection was only recently cataloged by the current librarian Carla Owens.

Last Friday the staff of the Thomas Ford Memorial Library toured the Brookfield Zoo Library as a part of our in-service training day. Each year during the month of December, we visit another library either to get new ideas to help us run our own library or to learn about the work of different types of libraries. In the past we have visited the Morton Arboretum Library, the conservation lab at the Newberry Library, the John Crerar Library at the University of Chicago, and the Marion E. Wade Center, which is devoted to studies of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and their contemporaries, as well as visiting other public libraries.

The Brookfield Zoo is a special library run to support animal keepers, researchers, and volunteers at the zoo. On any given day, zookeepers and researchers enter the out-of-the-way library to find information about their species, often asking the librarian for help. These clients have numerous grant-funded conservation projects that require finding detailed studies from serials and monographs. Many also work from their offices using a collection of electronic resources acquired and maintained by the Library. This is what you'd expect in a zoo library. What surprised me was service to volunteers. The zoo has hundreds of docents and other volunteers, many of whom get rigorous training and have continuing education requirements. Because the docents have to write papers, they too need library services, which Owens and her half time assistant provide. To facilitate the volunteer training, Owens has created a wiki from which the volunteers can obtain and contribute information.

Being a special library, service to the public is limited. People wanting to use the collection have to make appointments. Owens and her assistant also answer telephone questions from the public, some of which ask how to donate exotic animals to zoos. Because Zoo policy does not allow for the accepting of unregistered animals, the librarians have information on contacts with animal sanctuaries that can accept or place the animals.

When asked questions about the library, Owens often broadened the query and gave an answer about the zoo. Library policies and operations are integrated into daily zoo work, and she seems to identify closely with the zoo mission. Based on what I heard her say, she is a zoo employee first, running the library for the good of the zoo and international wildlife conservation. She is also co-author of the new zoo history.

Women's Nonfiction: A Guide to Reading Interests by Jessica Zellers

I am not sure that women's nonfiction really is a genre, but I do not think it matters. Genre is a concept that may interest librarians more than writers and readers. What matters is that there are books of particular interest to women and a large community of women who read. Jessica Zellers serves both well with her new book Women's Nonfiction: A Guide to Reading Interests.

Women's Nonfiction is the third volume in the new readers' advisory series Real Stories which suggests nonfiction books to librarians and readers. It follows volumes on investigative reporting and biography. The second volume, of course, is my book, so I am particularly interested in Jessica's book. On examination, I find our books complementary. Early in her book Jessica explains that "it is a rare Women's Nonfiction narrative that does not refer, at least in part, to people's life experiences." Appropriately her first chapter is "Chapter 1 - Life Stories: Biography, Autobiography, and Memoirs." I notice that we have even identified a few of the same titles, including Jackie Cochran: Pilot in the Fast Lane by Doris L. Rich and Boudica: The Life of Britain's Legendary Warrior Queen by Vanessa Collingridge, but our "Now try" recommendations are all quite different, as you might expect.

So, as a guy, what do I like about this book? The chapter that most interests me is "Chapter 5 - Adventure and Travel." Jessica's descriptive reviews suggest a number of books that I'd like to read, including Across the Savage Sea: The First Woman to Row Across the North Atlantic by Maud Fontenoy, The Girl from Botany Bay by Carolly Erickson, and Travels with a Medieval Queen by Mary Taylor Simeti. I also see promising titles in "Chapter 4 - Women's History," including Warrior Queens by Antonia Fraser and Uppity Women of Ancient Times by Vicki Leon.

I would not want you to think all of Jessica's books are biography, adventure, or history. In her introduction, she states that she includes nonfiction books that women read for pleasure. Most are narrative nonfiction but not all. Many of the titles included deal with personal growth, women's health, beauty, feminism, activism, women at work, and women in society.

When I was visiting the Elmhurst Public Library a few weeks ago, I noticed a "help yourself" readers' advisory display, including fiction and nonfiction readers' advisory guides. Women's Nonfiction: A Guide to Reading Interests would serve well on such displays everywhere, especially as a circulating book that readers could take home.

Zellers, Jessica. Women's Nonfiction: A Guide to Reading Interests. Libraries Unlimited, 2009. 442p. ISBN 9781591586586

The Pluto Files: The Rise and Fall of America's Favorite Planet by Neil Degrasse Tyson

Remember how you felt when you heard that Pluto is no longer considered a planet? Shocked? Dismayed? I felt a little of that initially, for Pluto had been viewed as a planet for as long as I had been alive. Once I read a couple of articles about the reclassification by the International Astronomical Union, however, it made sense to me. Astrophysicists had learned much about Pluto since it had been identified in 1930. It is far smaller than originally thought, is not a gas giant as once believed, and does not even dominate its orbital field. I am okay with recognizing that it is not the same as the eight remaining planets. Many people have not been so understanding. Neil Degrasse Tyson, astrophysicist and director of the Hayden Planetarium in New York, explains the situation in his lighthearted but still serious book The Pluto Files: The Rise and Fall of America's Favorite Planet.

The Pluto Files is partly a memoir, as Tyson recounts his own involvement in the reclassification, and partly a microhistory of Pluto, which is now called a "dwarf planet," a term that many (even those who agree with the concept) think is an unsatisfactory label. The author includes some of his own photos, lots of cartoons, and copies of emails and letters that he received from people objecting to Pluto's "demotion." It is through these communications that Tyson shows how resistant people are to change. Some people claim that it is unfair to make them learn something new. They seem to be more concerned about how expensive it will be to correct textbooks than concerned for getting the science right. Aren't textbooks always being replaced anyway? Isn't science about finding truth and not about maintaining old beliefs?

Just looking at that last paragraph, I see I am getting worked up. Tyson makes readers care about his subject. Moreover, he still seems to care for the little rock at the edge of the solar system. The Pluto Files is a clever celebration of astrophysics written for non-scientists.

Tyson, Neil Degrasse. The Pluto Files: The Rise and Fall of America's Favorite Planet. W.W. Norton, 2009. ISBN 9780393065206

Poe: A Life Cut Short by Peter Ackroyd

"... it is evident that we are hurrying onward to some exciting knowledge - some never to be imparted secret, whose attainment is destruction." Edgar Allan Poe

2009 was the year that I became reacquainted with Edgar Allan Poe, an author that I enjoyed as a teen. It has been fun staying up late reading all the dark and gloomy tales, such "The Pit and Pendulum" and "Fall of the House of Usher." In April I read The Poe Shadow, a novel about Poe's mysterious death by Matthew Pearl, and in May I listened to a collection of Poe short stories called Tales of Terror. Now I have read Poe: A Life Cut Short by Peter Ackroyd as a part of his Ackroyd's Brief Lives biography series. I think I may have learned every strange detail about Poe's life and death at this point, yet I am not done. I'd like to learn more.

As a starter biography, Ackroyd's account is excellent. He introduces all the main characters in the forty year story of Poe's life. There were the Allans who adopted him after his impoverished actor parents died, the drunken older brother, Aunt Maria Clemm who took him in after the Allans reject him, Virginia Poe who was both cousin and wife, and half a dozen women that he courted before, during, and after Virginia's life. There were also many publishers and investors who at some point supported and then withdrew from the mercurial author. Ackroyd masterfully recounts how Poe dealt with all these figures as he constantly circulated around Richmond, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York as a literary nomad.

Ackroyd introduces many ideas about what was really wrong with Poe beyond just the alcoholism and the drugs. Deep insecurity, basic maternal love deprivation, and multiple personalities pop up in the account. Wisely Ackroyd does not weigh in very far on any of these as all is speculation at this point. Poe will always be a mystery, which means we can return to reading about him almost forever without ever losing interest. Maybe I should read the poems next.

Ackroyd, Peter. Poe: A Life Cut Short. Doubleday, 2008. ISBN 980385508001

Chaplin: A Life by Stephen M. Weissman

Charlie Chaplin (1889-1977) entered the Hanwell School for Orphans and Destitute Children in London at age seven, when his mother could no longer support her children with singing in music halls or with sweatshop piecework. His alcoholic father, also a music hall singer, had already abandoned them. Chaplin's life quickly fell from being a child dressed in velvet to being a ward of the state. In Chaplin: A Life, psychiatrist Stephen M. Weissman weaves an account of Chaplin's Dickensesque early years with an examination of his surprisingly autobiographical films.

Two periods of Chaplin's long life get detailed examination in ths psychological biography. Readers learn much about Chaplin's poverty stricken childhood, some of which was actually spent on the street, and his two years making films with Mack Sennett for the Keystone Film Studio, the period that he quickly became famous for his Little Tramp character. By focusing on these times, Weissman shows how Chaplin matured but never totally overcame his childhood needs for recognition and security. Readers also learn what a great debt he owed to his older brother Sydney, who kept Charlie from starving and later arranged most of his early auditions.

I am left wanting to see all the early short films. Weissman warns that surviving footage is often incomplete, somewhat faded, and difficult for a modern filmviewers to understand. Still, I want to see them. After being totally absorbed by this short book, I want to know more about Chaplin.

Weissman, Stephen M. Chaplin: A Life. Arcade, 2008. 315p. ISBN: 9781559708920

BBC Report: Saving Africa's Precious Written Heritage

The idea that Africa was totally uncivilized before Europeans arrived for trade and taking slaves around 1500 is a racist fabrication. This BBC report tells about the wealth of written documents in Timbuktu that pre-date European influence being collected in a new library/archive:

BBC Report: Saving Africa's Precious Written Heritage

With the gathering and preservation of these important manuscripts, let us hope there is a flowering of scholarship and reporting to correct history, which will support a rebirth of Africa. If new books and documentaries are produced about the civilizations of Africa, let's also hope that Americans and Europeans bother to notice.

Partly Cloudy Patriot by Sarah Vowell

Sarah Vowell claims that she is a boring person who would rather be alone with a book than be anywhere else, except maybe visiting a historical site where something that is still being discussed occurred, such as the room in which Abraham Lincoln polished up the Gettysburg Address. Though a self-proclaimed bookworm, she is very connected to popular culture through broadcast media and the Internet, as well as through her beloved books. She seems to notice and remember everything. She also seems to have plenty of friends who accompany her to witness inaugurations and other historical events. I can imagine that talking with her being would be frenetic and at times awkward, as she would probably take the conversation in an unexpected direction, but "boring person" is not a label that I can imagine being applied.

I have just enjoyed listening to Partly Cloudy Patriot, written and read by Vowell, with the assistance of a number of actors reading quotations from a variety of American characters. These men (I do not remember there being any women) all play straight men to Vowell's comic genius, even Stephen Colbert as Al Gore. The audiobook is also enhanced with quirky made-to-order music from They Might Be Giants. Topics range from history, current events, and pop culture. Readers learn about Vowell's growing up in Oklahoma and Montana and discover that she is a Dallas Cowboys fan, as well as a "Big D" Democrat who worked for the Michael Dukakis campaign. One of her chief complaints is the tendency of the public to label any politician who is academically gifted as a nerd who should be laughed out of public service. She is a nerd and wants nerds to rule.

All of this was written before Barack Obama became a nationally well-known figure. Vowell never mentions him in this older collection of her essays. I enjoyed traveling back in time with Vowell on my iPod. She made cooking and commuting more fun.

Vowell, Sarah. The Partly Cloudy Patriot. Simon & Schuster, 2003. 5 CDs. ISBN 0743533488

The Lieutenant by Kate Grenville

Bonnie knows my reading tastes well. I do not read much fiction, but I enjoy a good story in a historical or foreign setting from which I can learn about another time or place. She suggested The Lieutenant by Kate Grenville, a recent novel written by an award-winning Australian author, a book that succeeded in getting me away from the here and now.

In a note at the back of The Lieutenant, Grenville explains that the book really is fiction, though most of its events did occur. The British Royal Navy transported convicts from England to Australia in 1788, establishing a settlement at Botany Bay south of the current city of Sydney. Among the force sent to watch the prisoners was William Dawes, a marine charged with astronomical observations who attempted to learn to speak to the local Aborigines. Grenville renames her character Daniel Rooke, gives him a childhood story set in Portsmouth, England, and has him re-enact the role that Dawes played in the colony. I do not want to give away the ending, so I will only say that the issues examined include 1) the ethics of colonizing the lands of indigenous people and 2) the expectation that soldiers will follow abhorrent commands.

The Lieutenant is a fast reading novel with only a handful of characters that are fleshed out. Every one seems to have good intentions, but serving the British Crown overrides the welfare of all the inhabitants of Botany Bay. This calm and thoughtful novel might make better choice to start a discussion about the impact of the British colonization on indiginous people than more polarized literature.

Grenville, Kate. The Lieutenant. Atlantic Monthly Press, 2008. ISBN 9780802119162