Cleopatra: A Life by Stacy Schiff

Cleopatra may be the most famous woman in history, according to Stacy Schiff, author of Cleopatra: A Life, but little is certain about the character of the Egyptian queen. Schiff notes that we should think of Cleopatra as a Greek, for she was the last of the rulers descended from Alexander the Great. Though she was probably the richest, most powerful, and best educated woman of her time and is reported to have written many letters, none of her writings has survived to give us a true account of her thoughts and motives. She was also the subject of many paintings and statues, but again none survive. We only have Egyptian and Roman coins to show us her profile, and the coins are not flattering. She is to us a mystery about whom we want to know more. Through the ages, many writers have tried to oblige our curiosity, and we are left with legends that Schiff says are easy to dispute.

So what is left for a biography? Cleopatra was truly a central character in the struggle for control of the Roman Empire (as the men involved all wanted access to Cleopatra's wealth) and was profiled by numerous Roman historians. Schiff warns readers that to these ancient writers Cleopatra was always a foreigner and an enemy, and they had no sympathy for her. Through their books many of Cleopatra's actions are known, and from these, much can be inferred, the author asserts. It would be easier, however, if the accounts agreed and had Cleopatra acted in a more consistent manner.

The life of Cleopatra seems to be the glue that holds the book together, but Schiff seems to tell us more about Julius Caesar, Cicero, Mark Antony, and Octavian (later to call himself Augustus) than about the queen. We also learn a lot about lesser characters, such as Brutus, Herod, and Cleopatra's children. Luckily for me, I knew many of Schiff's characters by name already, which helped me follow the story. Someone without a previous introduction to Roman history may have more trouble. Some readers may also be put off by the lack of anyone to like or admire.

While listening to the audiobook nicely read by Robin Miles, I remembered reading the plays of Shakespeare and watching I Claudius on PBS. It was having these connections that made the book interesting to me.

Schiff, Stacy. Cleopatra: A Life. Hachette Audio, 2010. 12 discs. 14 hours 30 minutes. ISBN 9781607887010.

Grand Slam Gazette: Fan Newspaper from the Kane County Cougars

When I attend a baseball game, either major or minor leagues, I do not expect much from any free team-related magazine or newspaper that I am given at the gate. These publications are often filled with advertising and not much else. I just hope for basic information about the facility and the players. With low expectations, I was genuinely surprised by the July 2011 issue of Grand Slam Gazette that we got at a Kane County Cougar game. Bonnie said I should look it over, and she was right.

I enjoyed "Behind the Plate Then ... In the Dugout Now," an interview with Cougar manager Vance Wilson that starts on page 8. Wilson is a former major league catcher who retired in 2009, but few fans will remember him, for he spent more time in the bullpen and dugout than on the field. He did not get into a game the first time he was called up to the Mets. First time he got to bat he had been in the bullpen and had to run through the tunnel in cleats to just get to the on deck circle in time. When with the Tigers, he got to meet and listen to Al Kaline talk about baseball in the 1950s and 1960s. Wilson seems to be a man with firm opinions and the ability to tell stories. I wonder if he might be capable of writing a book.

I also liked "Affiliation 101," a primer to the relationships between major league teams and the partnerships that run minor league teams. This Q&A spells out how a minor league team comes into being and who pays for what. While the article asserts that some great players have passed through Kane County, it is honest in mentioning that some players are released after their KCC season. I was surprised to learn that Adrian Gonzalez was a former Cougar. The Marlins traded him to the Rangers before he debuted in the majors. I checked the scorecard for the game that we attended in 2002; Gonzalez was out of the lineup that day.

Looking at the roster and at the "Top 10 Prospects" page, I see for the first time players that are younger than my daughter. Boy, do I feel old. Still, I think I ran the bases well after the game.

"Big League Dreams" states that 111 former Cougars have made it to the majors in the minor league teams in KCC's first twenty years. (Bonnie and I missed seeing at least one game only one year.) The article identifies players in the Oakland As organization who are close to promotion. The Cougars are now affiliated with the Kansas City Royals, so we should see a stream of players debuting in the next several years.

I am reminded that we saw Aaron Cames pitch a no-hitter at Elfstrom Stadium in 1997 by the story "Sugar Ray and Chas Throw Some Pizzazz." There have now been seven Cougar no-hitters.

Now that I have finished reading the Grand Slam Gazette, I will put it away in my baseball card closet. It will be even more more fun to read ten years from now.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J. K. Rowling

How many horcruxes and how many hallows? Where were they all to be found? How did Harry, Ron, and Hermione beat the Dark Lord? I read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J. K. Rowling twice back in 2007, but there was so much I had forgotten. When I saw the final Harry Potter movie a week ago, I felt almost like an HP newbie. I knew what the outcome would be, but many plot details had been deleted from my memory. Wondering afterwards how closely the script writers had followed the book (and wondering how porous is my brain), I chose to reread the 759 page book.

Now I can report that the script writers (1) stayed relatively close to the book in intent and (2) strayed a little farther in detail, and (3) my brain has some pretty big holes.

(1) The action of every chapter after the death of Dobby is reflected in the movie. The beginning of the movie Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 can be found around page 480 in the book. The sequence of scenes after that point is pretty much the same. The same people live and die. Those who survive rebuild the wizarding world.

(2) Some details were changed. In the movie, Hermione decides the brave trio of young wizards should ride out of Gringotts' vaults on a dragon; in the book, it is Harry's idea. In the movie, Luna recommends that Harry ask the ghost Helena Ravenclaw about the location of her mother's lost diadem; in the book, Harry himself realizes that only a ghost would know but does not know which to seek until told by Peeves. The scene that takes place in a boat house in the movie is set in the Shrieking Shack in the book. In the movie, Ron has to coax Hermione to destroy one of the horcruxes, while in the book she does it readily.

(3) I did not remember the part about Ariana Dumbledore being in the picture in her brother's tavern at all. I forgot the sequence of events involving the diadem. I was surprised to see Mrs. Weasley in the battle. I had forgotten how Harry learned Snape's secrets. I did not remember all the stone statues defending the bridge. My memory loss since 2007 was major.

Now that I have that all straight (though I still have to think hard to count off the horcruxes), I can hardly wait for the movie to get to the Tivoli Theater in Downers Grove, our favorite place for a second viewing.

Rowling, J. K. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. 2007. ISBN 9780545010221.

Traveling Literary America: A Complete Guide to Literary Landmarks by B. J. Welborn

What is a normal response to a knee injury? Read a travel book, of course. After I hurt my knee, I spent several days on the couch with an ice pack, ibuprofen, and a stack of books, including Traveling Literary America: A Complete Guide to Literary Landmarks by B. J. Welborn. I have enjoyed reading one-to-two page descriptions of houses and other sites where our great American authors wrote their poems, novels, and other works. Some I remember, having been to Louisa May Alcott's Orchard House in Concord, the Longfellow House in Cambridge, the Harriet Beecher Stowe House in Cincinnati, Mark Twain's childhood home in Hannibal, the O. Henry House in Austin, and most of the Laura Ingalls Wilder sites. Still, there are so many more to see.

Here are my priority sites:

• The Mark Twain House in Hartford, Connecticut
• The John Adams Birthplace in Quincy, Massachusetts
• Walden Pond in Concord, Massachusetts
• The Mount (Edith Wharton's home) in Lenox, Massachusetts
• Stone House Museum (Robert Frost home) in South Shaftbury, Vermont
• Walt Whitman House in Camden, New Jersey
• Green Hills Farm (Pearl Buck home) in Perkasie, Pennsylvania
• Margaret Mitchell House in Atlanta, Georgia
• Eudora Welty House in Jackson, Mississippi
• Rowan Oak (William Faulkner home) in Oxford, Mississippi
• Monroeville Courthouse (Harper Lee site) in Monroeville, Alabama
• Will Rogers Birthplace in Oologah, Oklahoma
• Jack London Ranch in Glen Ellen, California
• John Muir House in Martinez, California
• Steinbeck House in Salinas, California

I notice that this list tilts heavily to the eastern regions, as does the book, but I guess it makes sense. The East has been more populated through much of the country's history and thus has had more famous authors. Not every place I'd like to go was in the book, however. I'd like also to see the Flannery O'Connor house in Milledgeville, Georgia. Still, there are hundreds of sites. My knee needs to keep getting better so I can hit the road.

Welborn, B. J. Traveling Literary America: A Complete Guide to Literary Landmarks. Jefferson Press, 2005. ISBN 0971897425.

From Love Field: Our Final Hours with President John F. Kennedy

I find many forgotten reading-worthy books as I inventory and weed the library's collections. A couple of weeks ago I came across From Love Field: Our Final Hours with President John F. Kennedy by Nellie Connally and Mickey Herskowitz. Connally was wife of Texas governor John Connally and in the car in the seat in front of Jacqueline Kennedy when President Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963. In her quick reading book she described the political mood of the times and events of the day that the U.S. was stunned by the gunshots left its president dead and the Texas governor severely injured.

Remembering the day myself and having been to the museum in the old Texas Schoolbook Depository overlooking Dealey Plaza, reading Connally's account reminds me of what a different time the early 1960s were. The Secret Service was not happy with the motorcade through Dallas, but the troubles that had been expected were loud-but-harmless demonstrations by right-wing Texas Democrats who objected to taxes and the national debt. On that sunny autumn day, however, the detractors seemed to have stayed away and the people of Dallas lined up along the street cheered as the two young couples past in the open car. The shots rang out just seconds before the cars would have sped away to a luncheon. Like many Americans of the time, Connally allowed herself to wonder "what if" the timing, weather, and arrangements had been just slightly different.

My favorite chapter is the one Connally drew from her three children, who were public school students in Austin at the time. They would have met the President that evening at a banquet in the state capital. Each tells how he or she learned of the events and their concerns for their father who spent weeks in a Dallas hospital recovering from bullet that passed through one lung and into an arm. Seventeen-year-old John Connally III disobeyed his mother and talked a Texas official to fly him to Dallas to be with his parents. His mother then sent him to Washington, D.C. to represent the family at the presidential funeral. He stayed with President and Lady Bird Johnson and walked with them in the funeral procession. Some pictures of the day misidentify him as an unknown Secret Service agent. Just days after attending classes at school, he stood among the nation's and world's leaders. His story should be rewritten as a book for teens.

For people interested in how memoirs are written, Connally reproduced the "notes" she wrote in 1963 at the back of the book. She also included the texts of the two speeches that President Kennedy did not get to make the day he died. While optimistic, they refer to Cold War concerns and tough economic decisions.

With the 50th anniversary of the assassination fast approaching, we are keeping From Love Field in the collection. In the meantime, I'm going to put it on the staff favorites display.

Connally, Nellie and Mickey Herskowitz. From Love Field: Our Final Hours with President John F. Kennedy. Rugged Land, 2003. ISBN 1590710142

Bird Watch: A Survey of Planet Earth's Changing Ecosystems by Martin Walters

According to Martin Walters in his new atlas Bird Watch: A Survey of Planet Earth's Changing Ecosystems, birds serve as "beacons or barometers" to the health of the environment. Though avian species thrive when conditions are favorable, they are quick to decline when habitats are damaged. People should watch birds not only because they are beautiful but also because their presence in good numbers reflects the state of the environment. By protecting birds, we protect other vulnerable species, ecosystems, and our own future.

What threatens birds? Early in the text Walters describes the causes of bird population loss according to specific types of habitats. Shorelines are polluted by chemical runoff and spills. Predatory snakes and rats are accidentally introduced to islands eat eggs and fledglings. The clear cutting of forests for lumber or to plant cash crops destroys breeding grounds. Raptors accumulate pesticides used in agricultural areas. It seems any number of human actions that transform habitats harm birds. The main danger can be summed up as habitat loss. Brilliantly colored tropical birds are also captured for the illegal trade in endangered species. Walters goes on to identify specifically what birds are most at risk in each ecosystem.

The largest part of the book is the Endangered Birds profiles and lists, arranged by families in the usual systematic sequence, beginning with flightless kiwis, tinamous, and cassowaries and then advancing past water birds and raptors, and finally ending with songbirds. The lists are international, color coding all 1,227 species on the International Conservation of Nature Red List as "critically endangered," "endangered," or "vulnerable." Students or researchers may use Walters' work to learn the names of birds they should study, but they will have to then use other resources to learn more about the species, such as appearance, location, and habits.

Walters ends Bird Watch with conservation recommendations and a list of birding hotspots for international travelers. Other than students with assignments, this attractively illustrated book will interest very serious birders and conservation professionals.

Walters, Martin. Bird Watch: A Survey of Planet Earth's Changing Ecosystems. University of Chicago Press, 2011. ISBN 9780226872261.

No Biking in the House Without a Helmet by Melissa Fay Greene

Melissa Fay Greene is a journalist who does not shy away from getting closely involved with her subjects. She obviously chooses to write about topics that interest her, such as Third World poverty and international adoptions. She and her husband Donny began to consider adoption when the eldest of their four children headed for college in the 1990s. Greene then began to research the ways of adopting foreign-born children and the issues surrounding the movement now so popular among well-to-do Americans. She also began examining her own motives. The result was several major writing assignments and the addition of five children to her family. She tells about the adventure in No Biking in the House Without a Helmet.

Readers will guess from the title that Greene has a humorous side to her writing, and there are many very funny stories in the book, but she is still a serious journalist. She observed disturbing situations in some of the mega-families that she visited in various American states and wonders at what point a family with numerous international adoptions turns into "a group home," her term for an institution where children are better off than when they were orphans but not adequately nurtured. She also reveals the burdens that some families take on without full consideration when they adopt under-nourished and unresponsive children who may have never had personal attention in the overcrowded orphanages in which they spent their infancy. Neither does she leap or shrink when considering adopting first a boy from Bulgaria and then four children from Ethiopia (not all at the same time). She adopts, adapts, and discovers how much her new children have to offer her family and community.

I laughed a lot and didn't really want the book to end. I'm sure there are many future adventures for Greene's family about which I'd like to learn.

Greene, Melissa Fay. No Biking in the House Without a Helmet. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2011. ISBN 9780374223069.

The President is a Sick Man by Matthew Algeo

The health of a president is always of interest to the American public. Citizens expect to know if their leader is fit for the job, but a look at history shows that many serious medical conditions have been hidden by presidents and White House staff, often with the cooperation of a friendly press. Presidents Franklin Roosevelt, John Kennedy, and Ronald Reagan to varying degrees publicly projected good health and vigor while fighting serious diseases. Woodrow Wilson suffered a massive stroke 17 months before the end of his second term and was hidden from the public and Congress by his wife and top aides for most of his remaining time in office. Less known is that President Grover Cleveland, a politician applauded for honesty and openness, also hid what could have been a life threatening condition and the operation performed to save him.

According to Matthew Algeo in his book The President is a Sick Man, Cleveland discovered a lesion growing inside his mouth, on the side where he regularly chewed expensive cigars, just after starting his second term in 1893. Consumed by the Panic of 1893, he ignored the growth for a couple of months. At the time of his illness, he was leading a fight to repeal the Sherman Silver Purchase Act, which was forcing the U.S. Treasury to buy large amounts of silver monthly with funds it did not have to prop up silver-backed currency. Banks and big corporations were closing daily. The vote in Congress promised to be very close. Cleveland felt he would lose what support he had should the state of his health be known.

So, on July 1, he quietly left the White House with an advisor, secretly rode a train to New York, and boarded a friend's yacht, on which a team of surgeons and a dentist were assembled to remove the cancer, as well as four teeth and a large portion of the roof of his mouth. At sea, the doctors and the dentist were sworn to secrecy, and the press reported that Cleveland was on vacation. How Cleveland and his staff managed the ruse, what they did to deny a news story, and how the story became known many years later are parts of Algeo's story.

Readers seeing the title may expect a political diatribe, but The President is a Sick Man is a well-told history that reveals much about the country in the late 19th Century. With its comments about future administrations, it might also be a good choice for book groups who like the history of medicine and politics.

Algeo, Matthew. The President is a Sick Man. Chicago Review Press, 2011. ISBN 9781569763506

When a Crocodile Eats the Sun: A Memoir of Africa by Peter Godwin

Near the end of When a Crocodile Eats the Sun: A Memoir of Africa, the author Peter Godwin in New York ends a phone conversation with his sick father in Harare, Zimbabwe.

I chat on about tobogganing with the kids in Central Park and the Hudson being thick with ice floes. And when I run out of news, he says, "OK, well, good-bye, then." The phone clicks off, and all I can hear is the buzzing of distance. And instead of hanging up, I leave it at my ear, listening to the audio signature of the long lines to Africa, something I have listened to much of my life. I imagine the lines looping from pole to pole across Harare, with paradise flycatchers and blackeyed bulbuls and masked weavers perched on it as it strings through jacaranda and musasa trees until it swoops down past the Hindhead hawkers and over our garden, over the aloes and papyrus reeds, the monkey puzzle and Jain's kapok tree and onto the Dutch gables of the house, where my mother is up to her elbows in crappy sheets, and Dad is toppling off his bed, and Gomo is padding quietly about the kitchen.

In a moment, Godwin has seen and shown his world to us. He has physically escaped the dangers of living in Zimbabwe, but his heart is still there with his parents. His mother, a nurse, is devoting her time to caring for his dying father. Neither will even consider moving out of the country they consider home. Amid the daily threats of robbery and murder, there are still the beautiful birds and gardens. Their friends are all dead or exiled, but to flee would be admitting defeat. Where would they go and what would they do at their age?

When we discussed When a Crocodile Eats the Sun, several people in our book group were very upset with Godwin. They thought he should have taken charge and made his parents leave Zimbabwe. I can not imagine that he could ever have succeeded. Being able to write beautiful prose is not enough to sway the hearts of parents. Few of us can ever dictate to our parents. Few of us even want to. Instead, we go our way, living far away, feeling regret and loss and helplessness.

I think When a Crocodile Eats the Sun will strike a cord with many readers.

Godwin, Peter. When a Crocodile Eats the Sun: A Memoir of Africa. Little Brown and Company, 2006. ISBN 9780316158947

1864: Lincoln at the Gates of History by Charles Bracelen Flood

While I was reading 1776 by David McCullough, I was also listening to 1864: Lincoln at the Gates of History by Charles Bracelen Flood. Not simultaneously, of course, but during the same days. It is sometimes risky business mixing books, but I kept the plots and characters apart fairly well despite the similarities. Both books are set in times of war, describe battles, assess their outcomes, and focus on the actions of an American leader. In the case of 1776, it was George Washington, the commander of the colonial army, a man who would later become president. In 1864, it was the standing president, Abraham Lincoln. In both books, the readers learn about the leader's circle of subordinates. What sets 1864 apart from 1776 is the detail to which Flood describes these men and their relationships with Lincoln. There are also more battles and more politics, and it is a much longer book.

What I most enjoyed were Flood's descriptions of the everyday Lincoln, hanging around the telegraph office at the War Department or admitting any citizen who came to the White House into his office for a chat. He was at times irritated by the constant stream of personal requests for government appointments or for stays for military deserters sentenced to die, but personal, sincere appeals often softened him. He wrote many notes of admittance for job seekers and granted many mothers' requests to save their sons. He also put himself at great personal risk, being shot at late one night when he was riding his horse alone back to the Old Soldier's Home summer retreat. Bullets also whizzed past him when he stood on the walls of a Fort Stevens watching the Jubal Early's approach Washington, D.C.

Flood's Lincoln was not always an ethical man. He traded political favors in ways that would now be condemned, and he demanded campaign contributions from his cabinet and many federal workers. He believed the Union would not hold if any other candidate won the 1864 election and was willing to do almost anything to win himself.

At 521 pages or 19 1/2 hours of audiobook, the size of 1864 is daunting, but it flows easily and will satisfy readers who like in depth history. It is a great account of a terrible time and should be available at most public libraries.

Flood, Charles Bracelen. 1864: Lincoln at the Gates of History. Simon & Schuster, 2009. ISBN 9781416552284

1776 by David McCullough

I did not plan to do so, but I finished reading 1776 by David McCullough on July 4. That would be more appropriate if McCullough had described the scene of the Continental Congress in Philadelphia, which someone might expect in a book with this the title. The author, however, tells a different story in his book. Instead of focusing on the political developments, he focuses on the military campaign and the leadership of George Washington. 1776 is pretty much an account of Washington's year in Boston, New York, and New Jersey as head of an ill-defined and untrained army. It's a story we do not hear as often as the story of the delegates drafting the Declaration of Independence, but probably it is just as important. The entire revolution could have failed early in the struggle if the British had pursued the rebels after battles or if the colonists had not regrouped several times.

1776 could almost be classified biography, as Washington is thoroughly described and remains the focus throughout the book. He was relatively inexperienced as a commander and made mistakes by not taking advice on several occasions. Readers also learn about his staff, especially Nathanael Greene and Henry Knox, and McCullough recounts the battles at Bunker Hill (1775), for New York and Long Island, and around Trenton, New Jersey. I was particularly struck by how the colonials got by without clothes, boots, food, ammunition, and pay. Hanging on was either a miracle or the sign of a big failure by distracted British commanders. General Howe rarely saw anything as urgent.

Readers who have enjoyed McCullough's biographies of Harry Truman and John Adams should try 1776, too. It is a closely-drawn character-center story which should please them.

McCullough, David. 1776. Simon and Schuster, 2005. ISBN 0743226712.

China's First Emperor and His Terracotta Warriors by Frances Wood

While I am weeding our history collection (removing books that are out of date, duplicates no longer needed, or damaged), I sometimes find books that are surprisingly pristine because no one has ever borrowed them. It does not happen often, but when it does I feel a bit sad. I know as a book selector that I can not unfailingly know what will interest future readers, but I regret finding books that have not been read even once. Such is the case with China's First Emperor and His Terracotta Warriors by Frances Wood. I found it unspoiled by readers' fingers. It looked pretty interesting to me, and I probably was the librarian who purchased it, so I checked it out.

Wood is the head of the Chinese Department at the British Library and author of several books about China. As such, she is in a position to know much more about the history of China than most of us, and she recognizes that we do not make the mental connections that the Chinese do when they see the Great Wall or the Terracotta Warriors found buried in Shaanxi province. They are sights of wonder to us. To the Chinese, they are potent historical symbols that remind them of the legendary First Emperor, Qin Shi Huangdi (258-210 BCE). He is a key figure in Chinese history, credited with expanding the empire, starting great public works, urbanizing the nation, and creation of a bureaucracy that made China strong for over two thousand years. Despite all of these accomplishments, he is not exactly revered by the modern Chinese, for ancient stories tell of his great brutality. Many peasants and soldiers died following his orders.

In China's First Emperor and His Terracotta Warriors, Wood claims that Qin Shi Huangdi's reptation may not be a fair assessment of his true character. She points out that no first hand accounts of his life exist and all that is known about him was written by enemies. Contrary to many claims, he did not build the Great Wall; sections were in place for as much as two hundred years before his reign; he constructed some of the links and improved inadequate sections.

The title is misleading. Wood does not really tell much about the Terracotta Warriors. Still, it is a book worth reading. Readers learn about the struggle between Confucianism and Legalism, ancient Chinese society, and the emperor's disregard for the environment. They also read about how Mao Zedong admired the First Emperor, especially the latter's trying to wipe out the past through the burning of books and other records. China's First Emperor and His Terracotta Warriors is a short book (only 159 pages of text) and a good start for anyone wanting to learn more about the legacy of the ancient country.

Wood, Frances. China's First Emperor and His Terracotta Warriors. St. Martin's Press, 2007. ISBN 9780312381127.

Selected Shorts: Even More Laughs

Some audiobooks are more than just readings of writings. They are performances in every way. Take the Selected Shorts audio collections on CD. I just listened to the Even More Laughs set, which featured eight short stories read by theater, film, and television actors before live audiences at Peter Norton Symphony Space in New York. Among them are Stephen Colbert, Parker Posey, and Alec Baldwin. How could you go wrong?

I joyfully listened to all three discs on a Saturday morning while I gardened. If anyone walked by, I did not notice them, but I am sure they heard me laughing at Parker Posey telling how she taught swimming in a landlocked community with a population of three and no pool. Her reading of "The Swim Team" by Miranda July seems just like stand-up comedy. So did Stephen Colbert's reading of T. Coraghessan Boyle's story "The Lie" in which the narrator tells how a fib to excuse himself from work got totally out of control.

I probably laughed the most at Thomas Meehan's "Yma Dream" read by Christine Baranski, but I can't tell you why and give it away.

I see the collection is called Even More Laughs becasue there already was Lots of Laughs. I think I will request that CD set, too.

Selected Shorts: Even More Laughs. 3 CD. ISBN 9781934033142.