The Zookeeper's Wife: A War Story by Diane Ackerman

Stories of war time occupation are many and somewhat repetitive. Countries are invaded by forces with no regard for the life and welfare of the inhabitants. Lawless soldier commit atrocious acts, including theft, arson, rape, and murder. Innocent citizens are held prisoners in their own homes and are treated with disdain. Soldiers taunt and threaten them, and resisting the urge to respond in kind is almost irresistible. The better stories are often those of people who find positive ways to uphold their dignity and work to undermine the oppressors. Such is the case with The Zookeeper's Wife: A War Story by Diane Ackerman.

Antonina Zabinski was the wife of Jan Zabinski, the keeper of the Warsaw Zoo from 1929 until the end of World War II. The zoo was set in an old wooded park, but with Jan in charge, had a particularly modern attitude. Enclosures were designed to be as much like the animals habitats as possible, in contrast to many European zoos that still kept animals in small cages. Jan was as much a scientist as zookeeper, studying the animals to better understand how to care for them. Antonina was also involved in zoo work, as she had proved a good nurse to injured or orphaned animals. The couple often kept animals needing special attention in their home.

The Zabinskis were understandably upset when first the Polish Army killed some of predators as a precaution against their escape and then German soldiers killed more animals for the sport of it. The director of the Berlin Zoo, now a Nazi officer, came and stole many others for his own institution. As the grounds lost their purpose as a zoo, the couple had to find other reasons to justify staying. Staying was important because Jan was an important member of the Polish resistance and the zoo with its many buildings and tunnels became the secret home of many Jews, Catholics, gypsies, and anyone else that the Nazis wanted to exterminate. So the zoo became first a pig farm and then a fur farm. Much of the care and protection of these guests fell to Antonina, who was also raising her two small children.

The Zookeeper's Wife is a great story filled with many interesting characters, some of them the Nazi authorities and others drawn from the cosmopolitan life of pre-war Warsaw. It stands out among occupation stories and is a good book to offer to readers of history and biography.

Ackerman, Diane. The Zookeeper's Wife: A War Story. W.W. Norton, 2007. ISBN 9780393061727.

Obata's Yosemite: The Art and Letters of Chiura Obata from His Trip to the High Sierras in 1927

Bonnie and I missed Ken Burns' The National Parks: America's Best Idea television series when it first ran on PBS last fall because we were off on our Australian adventure. We finally saw it in March on DVD and now long to see more of the western U.S., especially Yosemite. The documentary series featured the history of the majestic California park throughout its six episodes. I was particularly drawn to the story of the devotion of Japanese painter Chiura Obata to Yosemite. So I ordered two books through interlibrary loan.

I first received Nature Art with Chiura Obata by Michael Elsohn Ross. More than just a quick look at the artist's life, this children's book also has recommendations for nature study and art projects. Kids and adults can get a quick introduction about sumi-e, a style of Japanese ink painting done with special brushes (Obata made his own), but they are advised to seek their own sensei or master teacher to truly learn the way of the art. Ross advises us to pronounce the artist's name as CHOOL-rah, a name meaning "a thousand bays" given to him by his sensei in 1899. Readers also learn that the artist was born Zoroku Sato in 1890, that his last name was changed to Obata in 1895 when he was adopted by his older brother (who had changed his name to honor his wife's ancestors), and that Chiura immigrated alone at age fifteen to San Francisco in 1903.

Burns' PBS program told about the highlight of Obata's artistic career, a summer spent in the woods, plains, and mountains of Yosemite, a time in which he painted over 100 scenes. Obata's Yosemite: The Art and Letters of Chiura Obata from His Trip to the High Sierras in 1927 documents this adventure with essays from art historians, the letters that Obata wrote to his wife and children, and articles that Obata wrote telling about his experiences. Best of all, the book is filled with drawings, watercolors, and woodcuts illustrating the beauty of Yosemite.

I discovered that I had learned about Obata before on an episode of The History Detectives. The artist and his family were among the thousands of Japanese living on the West Coast who were sent to live in internment camps in 1942, just after the December 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor. Making the best of an awful situation, Obata started an art school in the desolate camp in Utah to which he was assigned. The History Detectives story was about his paintings documenting that experience.

I have nothing but admiration for Chiura Obata and wish more people would study and follow such positive, peaceful figures. Thanks to libraries for having these books and DVDs.


Obata, Chiura. Obata's Yosemite: The Art and Letters of Chiura Obata from His Trip to the High Sierras in 1927. Yosemite Association, 1993. ISBN 0939666677.

Ross, Michael Elsohn. Nature Art with Chiura Obata. Carolrhoda Books, 2000. ISBN 1575053780.

Writing Reviews for Readers' Advisory by Brad Hooper

With the push on at many libraries for staff to write reviews and annotations of books and media, there is a need for instruction for new reviewers. Brad Hooper at Booklist noticed this several years ago, and, being an experienced reviewer and editor, he offered workshops for libraries wanting to train their staffs to be effective reviewers. To reach a wider audience, he has now written Writing Reviews for Readers' Advisory, recently published by the American Library Association. My library received a copy just before the Public Library Association Conference in March, and it was processed and waiting for me when I returned from Portland.

Back to Portland for a moment. Without forethought (full disclosure), I met Brad for the first time (I think it was the first time, but I have met a lot of people over the years) at the PLA table talk Building a Readers' Advisory Team. He invited me to stop by the Booklist booth in the exhibit hall, where he later asked me to consider reviewing popular science books for the journal. The result is that I may soon have reviews in Booklist - if I measure up.

You see why Writing Reviews for Readers' Advisory rose to the top of the stack of books on my desk. I have now read it and found it a fairly easy and reassuring read. Brad lightly takes potential and experienced reviewers through his systematic course of instruction. At each step he illustrates his lessons with reviews from Booklist and quotes from reviews from the New York Times Book Review, GQ, the New Yorker, and other periodicals. By the end, you will want to try writing for your library and for any rag that will accept your reviews.

Joyce Saricks contributed a chapter on writing audiobook reviews, which differ from book reviews in that they need to acknowledge and evaluate narration and narrator. Tone and pacing are particularly important for the satisfactory listening experience, according to Joyce. She names names, letting readers know some worthy readers and titles.

Reading Writing Reviews for Readers' Advisory is only a beginning. Brad recommends exercises in reading and writing and provides a list of websites with book reviewing advice. He ties his book up with an appendix identifying his favorite review writers, masters from whom we all can learn.

Hooper, Brad. Writing Reviews for Readers' Advisory. American Library Association, 2010. ISBN 9780838910177.

Stardust by Neil Gaiman

Neil Gaiman must have read a really big dictionary front to back as well as every fairy tale in print as a child. Reading Stardust, his fantasy novel for adult readers, I was greatly entertained by his wide ranging vocabulary and the profusion of fairies, witches, and fantastic creatures, all in support of his well-told tale about a young man pursuing for love what should be an impossible quest. Having a good heart and the help of magical friends when it is most needed, Tristan Thorn gets his heart's desire. It also almost kills him. I don't want to say any more and spoil the story.

I listened to the five disc audiobook read by Gaiman himself. At the end of disc five is a lengthy interview with the author in which he explains how he wrote this story. He started with the idea of a gap in a wall being the portal from the everyday world into Faerie, a fading world of magic. He also tells how he dreaded reading in public until he discovered what fun it was. If you are lucky enough to get the audiobook, make time to listen to the interview.

Gaiman, Neil. Stardust. Recorded Books, 2006. ISBN 9780061153921.

Mark Twain: The Man in White: The Grand Adventure of His Final Years by Michael Shelden

100 years ago today, Mark Twain died in his recently built home outside Redding, Conneticut. His final years had been somewhat difficult. His daughter Jean, who had been treated for epilepsy, had died four months before. He had fired both his housekeeper and financial manager, who were together trying to gain complete control of his assets. Many friends had died, and, near the end, Twain suffered from angina and a hacking cough, both related to his constant smoking of cigars and pipes. Some biographers in the past have left readers feeling that Twain in his final years was depressed and helpless. In Mark Twain: The Man in White: The Grand Adventure of His Final Years, Michael Shelden disagrees. Though Twain had dark moods, he enjoyed life nearly to the end. "You go to heaven if you want to - I'd druther stay here."

Shelden starts his book with December, 1906, when Twain first began to wear his white suits regularly without regard to seasons and occasions. His daughters Clara and Jean were aghast and pleaded with him to dress more decorously. The author never really said why he donned white when everyone around him wore black and gray. Sheldon suggests Twain was tired of being in mourning for his wife and wanted to live his final years with joy and dignity. He was also an extrovert who enjoyed attention. He stood out in white, and the suit quickly became a symbol for him. Modern readers often do not realize that it was only in the last four years of his long life that he wore white.

Shelden's evidence against depression is convincing. He tells numerous stories about Twain's travels, friendships, and speaking engagements. He went before Congress to ask for stronger copyright laws. He accompanied his powerful friend Henry H. Rogers, a vice-president at Standard Oil, to the Jamestown Exposition, the World's Fair in Norfolk, Virginia. He hung out with Woodrow Wilson in Bermuda. Most gloriously, he went on a tour of England which ended with his grandly accepting an honorary degree from Oxford University. When he wanted to be particularly festive in his last years, he would throw on his Oxford cape and celebrate again. Twain did need companions, such as his authorized biographer Albert Bigelow Paine, to make arrangements and sometimes save him from his fans, but he was not by any means helpless.

I do not remember when I last enjoyed a book more. Shelden portrays Twain as a feisty, wayward grandfatherly type with a quick wit and terrible investment judgment. The man in white had bad habits and personal failings, but in many ways he saw beyond the prejudices of his society. Reading Mark Twain: The Man in White is a pleasure.

Shelden, Michael. Mark Twain: The Man in White: The Grand Adventure of His Final Years. Random House, 2010. ISBN 9780679448006.

Scientist, Soldier, Statesman, Spy: Count Rumford: The Extraordinary Life of a Scientific Genius by G.I. Brown

In the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, science was the pursuit of gentlemen and tradesmen, amateurs who also sought posts as government officials or dealt in commerce. Such a man was Benjamin Thompson, born a farmer's son in Massachusetts. He failed as a merchant's clerk, but eventually became a British statesman and diplomat and then was dubbed Count Rumford of Bavaria. How a poor colonial became a peer on the European continent is a pretty good story involving a good bit of deception and exploitation of political advantage. British chemist G.I. Brown tells the story in Scientist, Soldier, Statesman, Spy: Count Rumford: The Extraordinary Life of a Scientific Genius.

Count Rumford is pretty much forgotten today, but, as a scientist, he conducted some vital experiments on heat and light. One of his achievements was proving that heat was not an invisible weightless fluid that flowed between objects. While that may now seem obvious, it was a prevailing belief at the time. He wrote papers that now sound very dry to read, but he was a scientific mover and shaker, being a founder of the Royal Institution of Great Britain, an organization dedicated to scientific teaching and application of science to social reform.

Thompson fled the American colonies during the Revolution when he was unmasked as a British spy. Using his charm in London, he became an upper level bureaucrat, made some money through his political appointments, and bought a commission in the British Army. He worked on improving British weapons. Later in life he was sought as a military leader by several countries that did not realize that he had never actually been on a battlefield. He also maintained many romantic affairs in London, Paris, and Munich.

Scientist, Soldier, Statesman, Spy: Count Rumford: The Extraordinary Life of a Scientific Genius is a British publication but it seems to have been distributed fairly well in the U.S. It is a quick biographical read with a bit of science and engineering included. At times I would have liked a little more detail on some of the Count's exploits, but the book is enjoyable. It is a good pick for readers who like goodhearted rogues.

Brown, G.I. Scientist, Soldier, Statesman, Spy: Count Rumford: The Extraordinary Life of a Scientific Genius. Sutton Pubishing, 1999. ISBN 0750921846

The Chicago Music Scene: 1960s and 1970s by Dean Milano

I arrived in the Chicago area in the early 1980s, just after the period detailed in The Chicago Music Scene: 1960s and 1970s by Dean Milano. Still, I heard several of the musicians that Milano included in his Images of America book. We have even had a couple of them play for our library's concert series. Turning through the photo-filled pages, I wish there was an accompanying iPod loaded with music from all the identified singers, instrumentalists, and bands. I'd then get a good lesson in Chicago folk, blues, country, jazz, and rock.

Milano is a veteran musician himself and appears in a handful of the photos. His presence in them helps make a point about Chicago musical acts - the lineups were always changing. Bands would often change singers, lead guitarists, or drummers. A substitute bass player might be needed for a gig at a jazz club. Some talented musicians appear in several sections of the book with folk, jazz, and rock acts, as they often crossed the fuzzy lines separating the musical genres. The word "fusion" is used by Milano several times.

Like other books of the Images of America series, The Chicago Music Scene is 128 pages of photographs with captions, telling a broad story of a place through pictures. In such a book, the writing of the captions is critical, and I wish Milano had had a little more editing. I am confused as to who the individuals are in some of the group pictures. I am not certain Milano himself knows in every case. Still, he takes us back to a time and place that some of us would like to visit. The Chicago Music Scene is a good addition to Chicago area public libraries.

Milano, Dean. The Chicago Music Scene: 1960s and 1970s. Arcadia Publishing, 2009. ISBN 9780738577296

Lincoln Life-Size by Philip B. Kunhardt III, Peter W. Kunhardt, and Peter W. Kunhardt, Jr

Abraham Lincoln was the most photographed man of his age, according to Philip B. Kunhardt III, topping previous record-holders Henry Clay and Daniel Webster. Of the 114 photographs that Kunhardt counts, all but four were taken during a seven year period when Lincoln campaigned for and then served as U.S. president. Many of these are reproduced in original and enlarged sizes in Lincoln Life-Size, a book that I hesitate to call attractive, showing as it does many images of a man who joked about his homeliness. If not attractive, I at least find the book eye-catching.

Many of Lincoln's friends said that he was the ugliest man that they knew, and he used this notariety to get attention. With ill-fitting clothes and uncombed hair, he sometimes resembled future punk rock musicians, which must have made him stand out from pompous political dandies. Lincoln wanted the support of the working man (no women voting in 1860), so this image may have worked well for him poliitically. He did not, however, always court this rough image. With his hair combed, he looked quite respectful. He looked a little like comedian Bill Murray in a May 1860 image taken in Springfield, Illinois by an unknown photographer (page 42). In the February 27, 1860 image by Mathew Brady (page 34), he resembled actor David Jansen of The Fugitive. In the first full beard photo taken by Christopher S. German on January 13, 1861 (page 70), though his ears stick out a bit, he looked no worse than many other mid-nineteenth century politicians, industrialists, or generals.

Four years of war did take their toll on Lincoln, and he looked ancient in photographs from winter and spring 1865. He was only 56 when these last photographs were taken, but the lines in his face were deep. Readers of this book can see that he was as scarred as the still smoking battlefields across the South.

Authors Philip B. Kunhardt III, Peter W. Kunhardt, and Peter W. Kunhardt, Jr. pair each photograph with an excerpt from a Lincoln letter or other timely document. They hardly needed to bother. The photos themselves replay the story that so many of us already know. Lincoln Life-Size is a book history readers will enjoy.

Kunhardt, Philip B., III, Peter W. Kunhardt, and Peter W. Kunhardt, Jr. Lincoln Life-Size. Alfred A. Knopf, 2009. ISBN 9780307270818

The Complete History of American Film Criticism by Jerry Roberts

For almost as long as people have been making movies, other people have been commenting on them publicly. The talk began with Thomas Edison's kinetescope and other moving picture devices. Though finding the very first movie review is now impossible, critic and columnist Jerry Roberts carries us back to the early days of film journalism in the opening chapter of The Complete History of American Film Criticism, a fact-filled volume that identifies film critics and the movies they reviewed by era.

What quickly becomes apparent to the reader of Robert's book is that modern issues of film criticism have not changed all that much since the beginning. People wanted to know whether movies were well made and told good stories. They sought honest reviewers who spoke independently, free of obligations to film makers, but some early critics broke that trust, becoming cozy with the new industry from which they sought jobs as writers, directors, and producers. The influence issue survives into the twenty-first century when film companies offer critics all-expense-paid travel to attend special viewings of their upcoming blockbusters. The fear that films could corrupt morals also rose in the early days of film. A few critics stood up early for free speech rights.

I found several things that Roberts says quite enlightening. He warns students against trying to judge the state of film criticism in the early years by looking at the New York Times; he says that its editors paid scant attention to the new media and more on the established New York theater scene; other newspapers, magazines, and industry journals pioneered film criticism. Also, because early films were sometimes shown during vaudeville performances, film comments are buried in newspapers' music hall stories. The study of early film is made more difficult because many of the reviews and the films themselves have disappeared.

As the eras progress chapter by chapter, The Complete History of American Film Criticism identifies and profiles major critics, including Otis Ferguson, James Agee, Pauline Kael, and Gene Siskel. Some get ten to twenty pages in this mostly chronological history. Its author follows the critics from newspapers to radio and television and then onto the Internet. Readers will also discover the films that generated the most comments of their time. Larger public libraries and colleges with film studies will want to add this lively and well researched history.

Roberts, Jerry. The Complete History of American Film Criticism. Santa Monica Press, 2010. ISBN 9781595800497.

Life List: A Woman's Quest for the World's Most Amazing Birds by Olivia Gentile

Phoebe Snetsinger (1931-1999) once rode a horse for ten hours over rocky terrain of mountainous Colombia in the rain to see a rare bird. She even skirted around war torn Zaire to sneak into Rwanda to add several birds to her life list. She also missed her mother's funeral, her daughter's wedding, and her husband's magic shows while birding overseas. That's how she became the first person to ever see 8000 of the world's approximately 9700 recognized bird species. In Life List: A Woman's Quest for the World's Most Amazing Birds, journalist Olivia Gentile tells how an admirable idea turned into a wedge between a woman and her family.

Snetsinger was not always so obsessed with birds. As a high school and college student she was very ambitious and wanted to become a research chemist. She did well in college but graduated just when hundreds of thousands of American men were returning from World War II. The message that women should step aside to let men have the jobs was spread high and low, even proclaimed in many popular magazines as the American thing to do. Many talented women found they lost the opportunities that they had gained during the Great Depression and the war. Snetsinger married and had four children in quick succession, but she never did embrace being homemaker. Her family ate many canned foods, and she assigned her children one night's cooking each per week as soon as they capable. With a little free time, she joined a group of birdwatching women and quickly found an outlet for her scientific passion. When she was diagnosed with cancer and only months to live, she took a fabulous birding vacation. She survived the cancer and never stopped traveling.

Snetsinger never wanted for money, being the daughter of Leo Burnett, a fabulously successful advertising executive in Chicago. When he and her mother died she inherited vast wealth that allowed her to travel to remote locations on every continent, spending eight or nine months abroad each year.

Much of Life List tells how Snetsinger risked life and limb birding while turning her ear to her family's pleas for her to come home. Using Snetsinger's letters to close friends and an autobiography that she was writing at the time of her death, Gentile deftly shows how Snetsinger justified her behavior, always hoping to reform and make amends. Readers who enjoys complicated characters should try this story.

Gentile, Olivia. Life List: A Woman's Quest for the World's Most Amazing Birds. Bloomsbury, 2009. ISBN 9781596911697

Making Rounds with Oscar: The Extraordinary Gift of an Ordinary Cat by David Dosa

Being a cat lover, I was ready for a good cat book when I picked up an advanced reading copy of Making Rounds with Oscar: The Extraordinary Gift of an Ordinary Cat by David Dosa. I am not sure why HarperCollins had advanced reading copies at its Public Library Association Conference booth when the book is already out and on many bestseller lists, but I am happy that I got a copy. I started reading it before I left Portland.

In the early chapters I worried a little that this story about a cat that seems to know when a dementia patient is ready to die might get a little sappy or sweet, but I don't think that ever happened. I think Dosa took his cue from Oscar, who chooses to give comfort only where comfort is needed. Oscar lightens the mood when he settles on the bed of the dying but he does not distract the living. They all know what his presence means - death is coming and it is time to accept it. Likewise, Dosa somewhat gently discusses death and dying but that is probably the best way for people to contemplate the passing of their parents and their own eventual deaths.

In Making Rounds with Oscar, Dosa recounts how his doubts that Oscar has a sense of when death is near were satisfied. In doing so, he tells a lot about work and life in a nursing home, the concerns of family members of patients, and the process of dying. The cat story is a softening element that lets him write about these less than happy subjects. As already seen by book sales, many readers will want to read this book. It would be an excellent choice for book club discussions and use with support groups.

Dosa, David. Making Rounds with Oscar: The Extraordinary Gift of an Ordinary Cat. Hyperion, 2010. ISBN 9781401323233

"Ready Reference Collections: A History" by Carol A. Singer

A trend in popular nonfiction books is the microhistory in which authors tell in detail stories about specific products, such as salt or toothpicks. Invariably topics are hooks that intrigues readers who then learn about much more than they are promised by the modest sounding topics. I feel the article "Ready Reference Collections: A History" by Carol A. Singer in the Spring 2010 issue of Reference & User Services Quarterly is in this same spirit. It sounds like a small topic - what reference tools have librarians kept close at hand to answer client questions quickly. But the article does more, bringing in the history of the librarian-client relationships, of database access, of reference books on CD-ROMs, of Internet resources, of search engines in service of reference librarians, and of the demise of the printed reference book.

In any other publication than Reference & User Services Quarterly, I suspect many reader would bypass the article, but luckily it is placed where many reference fanatics will spot it. I read with recognition. The article really sums up my professional career. While I was never at a library that could afford the higher priced resources that Singer mentions, I used many of the mainstream reference titles and services, including the World Almanac, Dialog database searching, and CD-ROM towers. I nodded my head as she told about the super-sizing of ready reference collections in busy libraries. I remember a library around 1994 with a huge desk that had three columns of reference books blocked off from client-access. Reference statistics were kept high just by making the clients ask for the books.

What jumps out at me is that with many online resources and clients helping themselves, the print ready reference collection has now returned to its origins, a few items useful for answering questions quickly. The criteria for selecting these items may have shifted slightly (what is better in print than online), but the small shelf close at hand looks familiar to an old reference librarian.

Singer's article has not yet appeared on the RUSQ website, but watch for it there in the future.

Baseball Americana: Treasures from the Library of Congress by Harry Katz and others

In April each year, no longer able to throw a baseball without pain, I turn to baseball books to celebrate the passing of winter. There is never a shortage of good books on the topic. This year I found an over-sized volume called Baseball Americana: Treasures from the Library of Congress by Harry Katz and others. This colorful book filled with illustrations and short texts serves as a cultural history of baseball in America.

There are many histories of baseball already, and like most, Baseball Americana features some stories from the major leagues. Its best parts, however, focus on the amateur game and fans. It begins with an excellent chapter on the early history of the game, showing drawings from school primers and letters from early players, proving that baseball existed long before the fabled invention by Abner Doubleday in Cooperstown, New York in the 1839. My favorite parts may, however be the sections about illustrated sheet music covers for baseball songs and about early baseball cards.

Throughout Baseball Americana are book jackets, posters, magazine illustrations, and splendid photographs. The Library of Congress must have a great collection of team portraits in which the players gathered together to all fit in the frame. They look athletic, stylish, casual, and proud; they also come from all classes and races. Among the other great photos, I especially like the 1920 photo (page 133) of players from The House of David team, all with their long hair and beards, coming out of the White House after a meeting with President Wilson and the 1943 Ansel Adams photo (pages 186-187) of Japanese American internees playing before a crowd and the mountains at Manzanar Relocation Center.

There are plenty of big baseball books out there, but Baseball Americana stands out for showing how baseball connects with people. It is a wonderful addition to a library or personal collection.

Katz, Harry. Baseball Americana: Treasures from the Library of Congress. Smithsonian Books, 2009. 9780061625459.

Let Me Finish by Roger Angell

I have always thought of Roger Angell as a literary sports writer focused mostly on baseball. With spring training in progress in both Florida and Arizona, I thought that it might be good to read Let Me Finish, Angell's collection of essays that serve as a memoir. To my surprise, there was only a little baseball in the book, but this was no problem. Angell thoughtfully remembers his parents, his friends, life on the road, drinking martinis, and working at The New Yorker, all interesting subjects.

Almost every essay seems to mention The New Yorker. While he was a child and long into his adulthood, his mother was a fiction editor for the esteemed magazine. Her second husband was E.B. White, who wrote and edited for the magazine as well. Angell met almost everyone there from the late 1920s to 2000, either at his parents' parties or working there himself. He recommends other books for deeper insights into the workings of what the staff called "The Comic Weekly," but readers get a pretty good peak in Angell's book.

The New Yorker is not, however, the focus of the book. Instead, Angell recreates a life on the edges and sometimes in the center of the now faded literary world of the early and middle twentieth century. Some of the moments are surprising, including E.B. White's reaction to Angell's daughter putting her own "Some Pig" drawing in the pen of a pig that White planned to slaughter. Angell's father wanted Roger see more of the world, so he sent the boy off on driving trips across the country with a young college student hired to be a sort of older brother. The trust shown acquaintances competes with the betrayal of intimates in the some of the stories.

The result is a charming memoir with many diversionary topics. It is like you sat down with Angell on the back porch and he just started talking.

Angell, Roger. Let Me Finish. Harcourt, 2006. ISBN 0151013500.