Fred Astaire by Joseph Epstein

If Fred Astaire had stood still, no one would have been impressed, according to Joseph Epstein in his quick-reading book Fred Astaire. Astaire was between 5' 6" and 5' 10" in height (no one seems to know for sure for the studios kept this information secret), and his head was large for his body. His hands were oversized, his torso undersized, and his arms lacked "visible" muscles. But Astaire didn't stand still. He was a dancer, some say the greatest ever.

The dust jacket identifies Epstein's book as a "portrait." As such, it is a quick look at Astaire's dance and movie career, from his early days out of Omaha, Nebraska, to his work in London, New York, and Hollywood. He began dancing with his less polished, more energetic sister Adele, with whom his name was always paired on Broadway and London. Only after she retired and married did he venture to Hollywood where his initial screen tests were panned. Astaire's Broadway reputation helped get him a secondary role in Joan Crawford's Dancing Lady, in which he impressed the movie producers enough to give him another chance.

Much of the book discusses Astraire's on screen and professional relationships with his dancing partners and contemporaries, with Ginger Rogers and Gene Kelly getting the most attention. According to Epstein, Astaire and Rogers were not really happy dancing together and never saw themselves as a team. Both tried (but not very hard) to end the act, but the producers foresaw large profits in keeping them together for a series of movies. To her credit, Rogers complained less than most of the other dance partners about the excessive rehearsals on which Astaire insisted. Epstein says Aistaire was at his best with Rogers, but ironically Rogers shone more after she escaped. Astaire and Kelly were never friends and rarely appeared together, but Epstein portrays them as respectfully different in style and philosophy.

While there is some personal, behind-the-scenes information about Astaire, this book avoids gossip. Epstein indicates that there really wasn't much about which to gossip, for Astaire was a conservative man who was faithful to his wife. The book is as much a work of criticism as a biography, and despite Epstein's knocks on the lameness of movie plots, I now want to see some old Astaire musicals. Fred Astaire should be popular with dance and movie fans.

Epstein, Joseph. Fred Astaire. Yale University Press, 2008. ISBN 9780300116953

Google Web Elements for Feeds on Library Websites

This week's American Libraries Direct includes a story about new Google Elements, saying that it is very easy to add news feeds to websites. Here is a test. It does seem very easy. Instead of taking a basic feed, I typed the keyword "books" into a custom feed box. Most of the news displayed seemed on topic. What do you think?

Watch for a moment and the stories will change.




Here is another using the keyword "library."




Those are pretty broad categories. Here is something more specific: memoirs.




It is very easy. Whether it serves a great purpose is another question.

Tales of Terror by Edgar Allan Poe

I started reading Edgar Allan Poe in junior high. The creepy stories about strange deaths really appealed to me then. They still do, so I borrowed Tales of Terror performed by Jack Foreman on audio CDs. Foreman's reading is mesmerizing, and I am now struck by Poe's eloquent descriptions and drawn-out listen-to-me-for-awhile storytelling. He really knew how to build suspense.

I remembered some of the stories very well despite the decades since I last read them. I knew just what was going to happen in "The Tell-Tale Heart" and "The Fall of the House of Usher," and they were not hurt one bit by familiarity. I had forgotten the surpring end of "The Pit and the Pendulum." I was most interested in hearing "The Murders in the Rue Morgue," having just recently read The Poe Shadow by Matthew Pearl. As a model for Sherlock Holmes, C. Auguste Dupin does not disappoint.

Many a fowl and retched weed met an inglorious end while I listened to Poe in the garden.

Poe, Edgar Allan. Tales of Terror. Recorded Books, 1981. 4 compact discs. ISBN 1402549113

The Protest Singer: An Intimate Portrait of Pete Seeger by Alec Wilkinson

When Alec Wilkinson asked for an interview and permission to write a book about Pete Seeger, the folk singer said that too many books and articles had already been written. All that Seeger thought was missing was a book that could be "read in one sitting." Taking the hint, Wilkinson wrote The Protest Singer: An Intimate Portrait of Pete Seeger, a book that can be read during an evening or on a cross country airplane flight. The main text is only 118 small pages including 30 photographs. Much of it appeared previously as an article in New Yorker. As a short and somewhat rambling account, The Protest Singer serves best as an introduction to Seeger for readers who are too young to know much about the subject or as a recollection for older fans. In this book, Wilkerson mostly tells about his visits with Seeger, recounting the stories that the singer told him. It will please the musician's admirers.

The Protest Singer also seems to bother Seeger critics, who are ready to challenge his memory and interpretation of events with their own. This was to be expected as the past never seems to be really behind us in America (or anywhere else for that matter). Popular history writing is as much about the present day struggle for the minds and souls of readers as it is about fairly describing historical events, figures, and eras, and Seeger is one person about whom few who remember him are neutral. This is a book by and for his fans. Instead of just complaining, a critic should write a book for the disparagers. Public libraries will buy that book also.

Personally, I enjoyed The Protest Singer, which describes the start of the folk music movement and its relationship with political causes, such as labor unions, civil rights, and war protests. Wilkinson portrays Seeger as a singular character within that movement, who is forthright with his opinions and ready to challenge the political, corporate, and military establishment. He also tells how the singer survived blacklisting by playing wherever he could, subsistence farming and bartering. Throughout the book are details about his musical career, which has emphasized audience participation over performance. He is still a person to rally a crowd around a cause or song.

After reading the book, I listened to The World of Pete Seeger on vinyl, two discs full of songs many people my age will recognize. My favorite is the sad and reflective "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?" I also recently heard the recent CD Pete Seeger at 89, enjoying the instrumental pieces most of all. That he can really play the banjo well has been lost in all the controversy.

Wilkinson, Alec. The Protest Singer: An Intimate Portrait of Pete Seeger. Alfred A. Knopf, 2009. ISBN 9780307269959

Honey Bun Rose

Honey Bun Rose
Originally uploaded by ricklibrarian.

Memorial Day seems a good day to just stop and enjoy the gardening. I've spent most of the morning in the yard with the flowers and an audiobook. Click on the Honey Bun rose to see how my garden grows.

We hope that you are enjoying the holiday with flowers, books, and friends.

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

Not many people remember Marian Anderson. When she died in 1993 at age 96, her career as a singer of art songs and spirituals was far in the past. She was already a historical figure, for her name was often paired with Eleanor Roosevelt, who had died nearly thirty years earlier. She had been mostly forgotten.

According to Raymond Arsenault in his book The Sound of Freedom: Marian Anderson, the Lincoln Memorial, and the Concert That Awakened America, Anderson was as important a civil rights figure as boxer Joe Louis, baseball star Jackie Robinson, and seamstress Rosa Parks. With her beautiful voice and insistence on her right to be heard in the finest concert halls despite her race, she exposed the absurdity of Jim Crow laws. In the 1930s, she had spent nearly three years in Europe singing for enthusiastic audiences and had been accorded many privileges of fame. Back in the United States, she could not even get a hotel room in many cities because of her skin color. In 1939 she was at the center of a controversy in Washington, D.C., where both the Daughters of the American Revolution and the public schools denied her auditoriums for a concert. Eleanor Roosevelt resigned from the DAR because of its "whites only" rule for Constitution Hall. When Anderson sang at the only venue allowed, the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, 75,000 people came.

The Sound of Freedom is a laudatory account of Anderson's career and her role in the civil rights movement. Arsenault portrays the singer as a humble and somewhat shy person, who never set out to be a hero. Many people both black and white helped her grow into the role that she played. If I had had this biography when putting together my forthcoming book Real Lives Revealed, I could have put it in either the Inspirational chapter under "Exemplary Lives" or the Historical chapter under "Human Rights and Social Justice Stories." The Sound of Freedom should be in most public libraries.

Arsenault, Raymond. The Sound of Freedom: Marian Anderson, the Lincoln Memorial, and the Concert That Awakened America. Bloomsbury Press, 2009. ISBN 9781596915787

Christmas in May: Ordering Books

Novelist have long had an eye on writing tales for Christmas. Since Charles Dickens wrote a series of Christmas stories, including "A Christmas Carol," they have used the holiday season as a backdrop. Lately, they have almost flooded the market with Christmas-inspired books. In 2008 we saw Santa Clawed by Rita Mae Brown, The Spy Who Came for Christmas by David Morrell, Small Town Christmas by Debbie Macomber, A Christmas Grace by Anne Perry, The Christmas Sweater by Glenn beck, and Dashing Through the Snow by Mary Higgins Clark and Carol Higgins Clark.

Here it is May 21, only seven shopping months to Christmas, and the Thomas Ford Memorial Library already has these 2009 Christmas novels ordered:

• Christmas List by Richard Evans
• Christmas Promise by Anne Perry
• Home for Christmas by Andrew Greeley
• Lakeshore Christmas by Susan Wiggs
• Plum Pudding Murder by Joanne Fluke
• Wish for Christmas by Thomas Kinkade

I'm sure there will be more.

In the Sanctuary of Outcasts: A Memoir by Neil White

On May 3, 1993, Neil W. White, III entered a minimum security prison on a narrow peninsula on the Mississippi River in Carville, Louisiana. Soon after being praised by several national business journals as a model for entrepreneurs, White had been caught kiting checks to support his growing magazine empire, which included New Orleans Magazine, Louisiana Life, and Coast Magazine. The story of his quick fall from a life of luxury, professional acclaim, and a happy family to bankruptcy, societal disdain, and divorce is one element in his unusual account of a year in prison, In the Sanctuary of Outcasts: A Memoir.

On that fateful day, White had no idea where he was. Due to a shortage of federal prison space, some inmates not considered dangerous were being sent to the Federal Medical Center at Carville, formerly called the National Leprosarium, a residential, long-term hospital for leprosy patients. Though the population of patients had shrunk dramatically over decades, there were still more than 100 in residence. Some had been there over half a century. On his way to his assigned room (which could not be called a cell because it had no door), he noticed people missing legs, fingers, and parts of their faces. Not knowing where he was and with whom he was sharing space, he was troubled. What was about to happen to him?

What happened was that White was immersed in a community of inmates and patients, both unhappy about the "marriage of convenience" forced by the federal prison system. Distrust was high for good reason, and White thought that he could write a sensational book about the situation to sell as soon as his eighteen-month sentence ended, helping him regain his status and wealth. What he learned instead, after breaking rules to interview patients, led him to question his whole way of life. His gentler, more reflective book took fifteen years to write.

In the Sanctuary of Outcasts: A Memoir is a highly entertaining book. White includes a fascinating cast of characters - most with names changed. His short chapters recount daily encounters with patients and inmates, visits from his family, and a battle with the prison system that the patients eventually win. Most public libraries should get this forthcoming book, which according to the publicity, will be heavily promoted across the South.

Readers may be interested in learning more about leprosy. A good starting spot is the World Health Organization wesite, which discusses the disease, its treatments, and its incidence around the world.

White, Neil W., III. In the Sanctuary of Outcasts: A Memoir. William Morrow, June 2009. ISBN 9780061351600

The Prince of Frogtown by Rick Bragg

Until now, I have not read Rick Bragg's books about his kin in Alabama. There are so many other books to read, and I was not sure I wanted to get involved in another dysfunctional family story. With elements of alcohol, poverty, hunting, fishing, fighting, fast cars, heartache, and living a macho life in a rural setting from which some people can not escape, his books sounded too much like life where I grew up. Hitting too close to home. But I wanted an audiobook as I left the library Monday and The Prince of Frogtown was sitting in the library's new items display, so I took it. By the next afternoon when I went back to work, I had already listened to four of seven discs.

In The Prince of Frogtown, Bragg tells a classic tale well - that of a man who will not control his vices - Bragg's father. The author can not excuse Charles Bragg of his many sins, for he is still too hurt himself, but he looks deeply into all the elements that formed his father. There was the father's father and brothers who all spent their weekends in drunkenness. There was the mill town where everyone breathed the cotton dust. There were friends who were just as trapped by their early marriages and big families. What lifts the story is Bragg's graceful, eloquent storytelling and his determination to find something good to say about a lousy father. In this, he succeeds.

Between his chapters about his father, Bragg inserts little stories about his relationship with his stepson. In these, he struggles to find the proper way to be a father, a difficult task for someone who had such a bad example. The extent to which he succeeds is debatable, but he seems to be loved even in ineptitude.

The Prince of Frogtown should interest many readers and would be a great choice for discussion groups. I now want to go back to Bragg's previous writings.

Bragg, Rick. The Prince of Frogtown. Books on Tape, 2008. ISBN 9781415953990

What You Might See at the Brookfield Zoo

A superhero getting a foot massage

Smiling faces in unlikely places

Cookie is out only on weekends now.

A cardinal flying by

Awful Library Books

Ulotrichous twitted. Librarian.net noticed. I am re-blogging.

Mary Kelly and Holly Hibner, two librarians from Michigan, have a crusade to get public libraries in their state to weed. They have a blog Awful Library Books, which shows books that should have been removed from collections long ago. They are kind and do not reveal the libraries at which they find these "gems." Take a look. You may both laugh and cringe.

Knucklehead: Tall Tales & Mostly True Stories about Growing Up Scieszka by Jon Scieszka

One good thing leads to another. Dana, a children's librarian at the Thomas Ford, noticed that I had read some juvenile biographies and offered me another, Knucklehead: Tall Tales & Mostly True Stories about Growing Up Scieszka by Jon Scieszka. Thanks, Dana. It was a very funny book.

Scieszka, who has written The Stinky Cheese Man and other books with Lane Smith and who is a champion of reading for boys, grew up the second of six sons in Flint, Michigan. Knucklehead is a memoir of that rough, crazy time, when he and his brothers would try about anything that sounded dangerous. It is a wonder they did not die or, at least, burn the house down. The book includes a couple of Knucklehead "Do not try" Warnings after stories. It hardly seems necessary, except if there were Knuckleheads in the 1950s and 1960s, there may still be Knuckleheads now. It also helped that his mother was a nurse.

As a contemporary of Scieszka agewise, I enjoyed recalling cub scouts, baseball cards, model planes, Halloween costumes, Dick and Jane, tiny toy soldiers, etc. The black and white family photos with the period furniture, wallpaper, and clothes evoke my own memories. I suspect many of my old friends might enjoy this book just as much or more than young readers. Dana had the right idea. Offer it to older readers.

Scieszka, Jon. Knucklehead: Tall Tales & Mostly True Stories About Growing Up Scieszka. Viking, 2008. ISBN 9780670011063

Mrs. Dred Scott: A Life on Slavery's Frontier by Lea VanderVelde

Who was Mrs. Dred Scott, wife of the slave whose claim for freedom was denied by the U. S. Supreme Court in 1857? According to Lea Vandervelde in her new book Mrs. Dred Scott: A Life on Slavery's Frontier, Harriet Robinson was a black woman born in Virginia around 1818 and taken to the Northwest Territory in 1835, where she met and married Etheldred Scott, a slave at Fort Snelling. Not much verifiable personal information about Harriet is really known. As a woman, a servant, and the member of an enslaved race, she was unnoticed by diarists and journalists of her time and historians subsequently. VanderVelde, however, has found enough documentary evidence (tax, census, and court records) to place Harriet at the scene of many momentous events both in territorial Minnesota and later in St. Louis. Most importantly, she was a party to the famous case that further divided an already fractured nation.

What many readers may not know before reading this history is that many slaves had successfully sued for freedom before the Dred and Harriet Scott case. These slaves had been taken into and resided in free states and territries north of the Mason-Dixon Line. Juries had consistently ruled in favor to release them for having been in states where slavery was illegal. Why the Scotts did not gain their freedom is a "one-thing-after-another" story worthy of satirical novels. In their eleven year legal quest, they went through six lawyers of varying talent, two of which died on them. They were at one point denied freedom because they could not prove who owned them. In the end, the dirt poor couple were opposed by some of the richest people in the country.

As a detailed history, Mrs. Dred Scott will please committed history readers. Most pleasure readers will not make the effort. There is, however, a lot of potential for a novelist to come along and rework the content into historical fiction. With so little really known about Harriet herself, the novelist would have a fairly clean slate. The supporting cast is great. The characters include her husband and two daughters, Indian agent Lawrence Taliaferro, the explorer Joseph Nicollet, the painter George Catlin, many Indian chiefs, John C. Fremont and many other military figures from the War with Mexico, the powerful Chouteau family of St. Louis, U. S. Grant, millionaire John F. A. Sanford, and, of course, Roger Taney and the rest of the U. S. Supreme Court. VanderVelde includes a handy gallery of photos in the book to help the reader keep them straight. The book could also be the basis of a great television mini-series.

I spent weeks reading this big book and feel rewarded for the effort. I certainly know a lot more about the plight of Sioux and Chippewa Indians, the widespread use of slaves in the "free" territories, the corruption of the U. S. government by the American Fur Company, the renting of slaves in St. Louis, and the racism of the 1857 U. S. Supreme Court. Mrs. Dred Scott should be in most public libraries.

VanderVelde, Lea. Mrs. Dred Scott: A Life on Slavery's Frontier. Oxford University Press, 2009. ISBN 9780195366563

George Catlin: Painter of Indian Life by Richard Worth

I am currently reading Mrs. Dred Scott: A Life on Slavery's Frontier by Lea VanderVelde. In this book, the author tells about a young slave named Harriet in the employ of the Indian agent at Fort Snelling in the territory that later became Minnesota. The time is the 1830s. It is remarkable that many people whose names are remembered in history passed through the remote outpost in the few years that Harriet was there. In addition to many Indian chiefs and warriors, military officers, and agents of the American Fur Company, there were the explorer Joseph Nicollet and the painter George Catlin. Because the settlement was small and her master entertained most of the important visitors, Harriet saw and probably cooked for most of them. It was there that she met and married Dred Scott, whose name is also remembered.

The figure that most interests me is George Catlin. Bonnie and I saw a collection of his paintings at the Smithsonian's American Art Museum when we were in Washington for the American Library Association Conference in 2007. When I saw George Catlin: Painter of Indian Life by Richard Worth on our children's new book display, I had to borrow it.

I am impressed by how much more honest children's biographies are now than when I was a child in the 1960s. Then the purpose of most juvenile biographies was to present glowing examples of good people for young minds to absorb. Rarely was anything disagreeable ever mentioned. In George Catlin: Painter of Indian Life, Richard Worth does still make a case for the painter having lived a significant life, but he includes evidence of Catlin's darker side - selfishness, unreasonable behavior, and neglect of his family. Readers realize that Catlin never really enjoyed his success, wanting something more in life that never materialized. We usually did not learn such things when I was a kid.

Though only eighty pages, George Catlin: Painter of Indian Life includes a good representation of Catlin's paintings, a map of his expeditions, a timeline of his life, and an account of the painter's life that has enough detail to satisfy an adult reader. This book aimed at grades 6-9 is part of the Show Me America series, which also includes books about John Turnball, Mathew Brady, Lewis Hine, and Corothea Lange, all painters or photographers.

Worth, Richard. George Catlin: Painter of Indian Life. Sharpe Focus, 2008. ISBN 9780765681522

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

Here are some travel tips. When exploring deep in the Amazon rain forest, expect misadventure. Learn to tolerate vicious insect. Don't be surprised when you find maggots in your wounds. Don't break any of your limbs, for your companions will abandon you. When canoeing, don't drag your hands in the water! Plan for the moment when staying alive becomes more important than finding Eldorado. Also, read The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon by David Grann before you go. You may change your mind.

In his book Grann mixes an account of the famous 1925 Amazon expedition of British explorer Percy Harrison Fawcett with the story of his own investigation into Fawcett's fate. Fawcett was a celebrated member of the Royal Geographical Society at the time that he led a son, his son's friend, and a small party of guides and pack animals into the forest. The Englishman was convinced that a great ancient city was to be found within the white spaces on his maps. Shunning all the latest technology, such as two-way radio and light aircraft, he set off to move fast through the forest. After sending back the last guides from deep in the Mato Grosso region of Brazil, he was never heard from again.

Grann reports that around 100 people died trying to rescue Fawcett in the ensuing years. Not all of the expeditions were well documented. Many people simply disappeared in the rain forest. Some were known to have been killed by the secretive tribes who lived in the forest and were sometimes discribed as cannibals. What could Grann possibly find 80 years later?

I do not want to spoil the story, so I will let you read about Grann's discoveries yourself.

Grann, David. The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon. Doubleday, 2009. ISBN 9780385513531

Dakota: A Spiritual Geography by Kathleen Norris

Eleven people from our church came to our house last week for a discussion of Dakota: A Spiritual Geography by Kathleen Norris. The book is a collection of very personal essays by Norris about her returning to live in her grandparents house in South Dakota after living in New York City. She had planned to reside in the rural community for only a couple of years as her family decided what to do about the house and furnishings, but she and her husband stayed. In addition to rediscovering rural life, Norris also visited Benedictine monasteries to practice a more contemplative life. Dakota is the first of a series of books Norris has written about her spiritual journey.

While the group seemed generally supportive of the book, there were a few dissenters. A question that came up is why Norris felt the need to take retreats when she seemed so alone most of the time any way? Also, why Norris said so little about her husband in this book was asked. Of course, several of the group had read subsequent books and were able to fill in gaps in our knowledge.

This bring up the subject of just how self-revealing are memoirs and do authors get better at it? I am reminded of Rocket Boys by Homer Hickam. Hickam held back some of details and stories from the book, which he later revealed in Sky of Stone and Coalwood Way. Like Hickam, Norris had a certain objective with her first book and only so much would fit into the text. Also, she may have just not been ready to tackle her husband's depression when she wrote Dakota.

As a person who grew up in a small town in a remote area, I felt Norris was fair and enlightened in her assessments of rural life. I especially enjoyed her descriptions of the western part of the Dakotas, which I thought starkly beautiful the one time that I saw it. I liked that at night she could see lights from over twenty miles away. I sometimes think that that is my kind of place. I would enjoy reading more.

Norris, Kathleen. Dakota: A Spiritual Geography. Ticknor & Fields, 1993. ISBN 0395633206