Solas (Alone), a film in Spanish directed by Benito Zambrano

In the film Solas, everyone is in some way alone.

Maria (played by Ana Fernandez) is a thin young woman who has come to a city to escape her family. Denied college by her father (women should remain at home), she has no marketable skills, so she cleans houses and lives in a rundown apartment in a bad neighborhood.

Maria's mother (Maria Galiana) is mostly alone. She has come into the city to attend to her husband in the hospital. Even when he is well, she is mostly alone, for he is an emotionally cold figure. She stays with Maria, who mostly abandons her to sit in the flat alone.

Maria's neighbor Vecino (Carlos Alvarez-Novoa) is a widower who walks his dog to the grocery daily. He identifies Maria's mother to be a kind, listening woman, and pursues a doomed friendship.

The plot sounds rather hopeless, but Solas is not a common film. It takes time to reveal the true character of its cast and never forces any conventions on the audience. I really liked how the resolution was so surprising yet right.

Fans of Ingmar Bergman will notice some similarities and enjoy this beautiful film. More libraries should add this 1999 Spanish film, which won 35 international awards, to their DVD collections.

Chas Addams: a Cartoonist's Life by Linda H. Davis

I continue to work on my readers' advisory guide to biography. This is one of the books that I have enjoyed most so far. Not many libraries in my area have it, but they should. It will definitely be in my guide.

New Yorker cartoonist Charles Addams was not a person to stop rumors. Let the public believe he slept in a coffin, owned his own guillotine, and dropped eyeballs into martinis. He cultivated his aura by wearing antique clothes, driving classic cars, and cracking morbid jokes. Did he really laugh at funerals? Did he really have love affairs with actresses? Yes and Yes.

In Chas Addams: A Cartoonist's Life, biographer Linda H. Davis looks behind the Addams legends. She tells how he always drew a variety of cartoons, but the morbid ones got all of the public attention. She also describes his high life in New York, where he hung out with celebrities and wooed actresses. Best of all, she includes several dozen classic Addams cartoons.

Readers who enjoy this book will also like Ogden Nash: The Life and Work of America’s Laureate of Light Verse by Douglas M. Parker. Though Nash was more of a family man. both could be wickedly funny. Book books are admiring accounts of funny men who entertained Americans for decades.

Davis, Linda H. Chas Addams: A Cartoonist's Life. Random House, 2006. 382p. ISBN 0679463259.

Photography Books by Art Shay

Last week Bonnie and I saw an extensive exhibit of the photographs of Chicago photojournalist Art Shay at the Chicago Historical Museum. The exhibit, which takes up a large section of the second floor, includes works from Shay's days with Life magazine in the late 1940s to a few recent photographs. Most of the work was from the 1950s and 1960s and almost all of it was black and white.

We looked at a small book that the museum had to go along with the exhibit, but it was very disappointing. It had only a sampling of the many photos. The museum shop also had a reduced size version of Nelson Algren's Chicago by Shay. I knew that there had to be better volumes than these.

I picked three to reserve from various libraries in my library's consortium, which together do show many, though still not all, of the photos.

The first is the original edition of Nelson Algren's Chicago. The first part of the exhibit featured the many photos of Algren and his haunts that Shay took while on an assignment for Life magazine in the early 1950s. While some of the photos are humorous, some are sad, especially the scenes of drug addicts and alcoholics. Life never ran the photo story because some of these images were considered beyond the mainstream acceptability. It was the 1950s.

Spread across pages 2 and 3 is a great photo shot on a Sunday morning on Madison Street, also called Skid Row. It is framed by a car window and shows a variety of street characters going about their business. The mood reminds me of A Sunday on La Grand Jatte by Georges Seurat.

I was struck by the burning of the street garbage on Maxwell Street, shown on page 43. It looks like 1900, not 1950. Can there have really been such places in 1950?


The idea behind the collection of photos in Couples by Art Shay is that there are visual pairs in every image. From the striking cover a reader might image that meant romantic couples, but that is not the case. It could be a pair of pigs or water towers, but most are people.

The cover image is also on page 6. It makes me think of a scene in the movie Bull Durham. Shay took the picture as part of a publicity campaign for a play.

This book includes a lot of non-Algren photos. Most were not in the exhibit, but I like them anyway. On page 35 are two rather frightened looking National Guardsmen in Chicago for the 1968 Democratic National Convention. On page 107 is a photo of boy who has drawn himself into his coat so he appears to he headless and armless. On page 85 telephone linemen are up on telephone poles playing catch with a ball.

The museum exhibit featured a display of Shay's photos taken with secret cameras hidden in books, briefcases, handbags, and newspapers. He was able to get photos in court rooms, jails, and other places that cameras were forbidden. I am sure he used a hidden camera to take the photo on page 89 of the autopsies of two nurses killed by Richard Speck.

Album for an Age is a book to read after seeing the larger sized photography books. The reproductions are smaller and not glossy, which is a bit disappointing. Shay, however, tells stories of what the pictures depict and how he took them. A real fan of photography will find the book essential, as will people who are interested in the history of Chicago and its people.

This book also includes some celebrity photos, like the ones in the later part of the exhibit at the museum. Judy Garland, Marlon Brando, and Ernest Hemingway are included, as is a group shot of Frank Sinatra and his Rat Pack.

If you are in the Chicago area, I recommend the exhibit to you. If not, check out some of Art Shay's books.

I, Toto: The Autobiography of Terry, The Dog Who Was Toto by Willard Carroll

One of the benefits of working at a library is discovering interesting books when you are supposed to be doing something else. I happened to be looking through the movie books to answer a question yesterday and found I, Toto: The Autobiography of Terry, The Dog Who Was Toto by Willard Carroll. Of course, I checked it out.

There are some surprising statements in this cute little book. The author says that Toto is the real star of The Wizard of Oz. He argues that it is Toto's actions that spark the story. He also goes on to say that Toto is in more scenes that Dorothy! There are nine solo shots of Toto, who barks 44 times.

The central part of the book is a memoir written by Terry, found by the author in a metal box at a road construction site outside Hollywood. Toto tells all about her discovery, training, and auditions for various movies. Her first film was costarring with Shirley Temple in Bright Eyes (1934). According to Terry, it was a pleasure working with Miss Temple. The Wizard of Oz was Terry's seventh movie. There were problems on the set, as several directors left the production, the script was often changed, costuming was elaborate, and the wind machines nearly blew Terry over. The hardest part was working with winged monkeys and winkies, which were very frightening. Margaret Hamilton, a dog lover, however, was lots of fun. Terry made fourteen movies, getting to know almost all the studios in Hollywood.

Not many libraries in my area seem to have this humorous book, but it is available through interlibrary loan. Wizard of Oz fans (there are lots of them) will enjoy it.

Carroll, Willard. I, Toto: The Autobiography of Terry, The Dog who Was Toto. Stewart, Tabori & Chang, 2001. ISBN 158479111x.

A Life of One's Own: A Guide to Original Living Through the Work and Wisdom of Virginia Woolf by Ilana Simons

I was a bit apprehensive when I started reading A Life of One's Own by Ilana Simons. The subtitle suggests the book is a self-help guide using Virginia Woolf and her work as a model. Would advice drawn from a writer who ended her life by walking into a river with stones in her pockets be useful? Simons acknowledges this perspective from the first, and for me, the question went away. Besides, advice from a writer who really suffered may be more useful than advice from a team of well-balanced mental health professionals who only witness suffering.

Now that I have read A Life of One's Own, I think it is not really so much a self-help guide for living as an aid for enjoying literature and using reading to find meaning and satisfaction in life. The side benefit is that the reader learns more about Virginia Woolf.

Virginia Woolf may have been bipolar. She tried to commit suicide as a young woman, right after several members of her family died in a short period. She often fought depression and had to maintain a fairly regular routine to function well. In view of her problems, she actually did quite well for a long time. She wrote a lot of very perceptive books and essays, some that are now considered classics. When she committed suicide in May 1940, her London home had been bombed and it seemed probable that the German military would soon invade Great Britain. Perhaps her despair can be forgiven.

Simons uses situations from Woolf's fiction and life as described in her diaries to discuss finding satisfaction in day to day living. Finding a balance between solitude and companionship is key, as is learning how to nurture relationships. When Woolf lived, the nature of some of those relationships was considered scandalous. Today they would hardly be noticed.

I particularly liked advice on why and how to read near the end of the book. A Life of One's Own is a good selection for public libraries.

Simons, Ilana. A Life of One's Own:A Guide to Original Living Through the Work and Wisdom of Virginia Woolf. Penguin Books, 2007. ISBN 9780143112259

Lincoln by Augustus Saint-Gaugens

Lincoln by Augustus Saint-Gaugens
Originally uploaded by ricklibrarian.

Sometimes a quest about which you read inspires your own quest. In Land of Lincoln, Andrew Ferguson tells of visiting Lincoln sites, including famous statues, around the country. Included was the Lincoln Memorial, which Bonnie and I saw this summer on our trip to the American Library Association Conference in Washington, D.C. Ferguson reminds us that there was another famous Lincoln just outside the Chicago History Museum, forty minutes from our house. So we used last Saturday to make a visit.

Neither Bonnie nor I remembered seeing the statue before. It is behind the building, not visible from any of the nearby streets. Its location would have been in front of the museum many years ago before remodeling moved the entrance to the other side of the building.

Ferguson says that this is the most famous of all Nineteenth Century Lincoln statues. (The Lincoln Memorial is Twentieth Century.) It is bigger than life and emphasizes the statesman rising up to act. Still it is a rather calm depiction of the president. It is worth seeing.

We also went into the museum, where a few Lincoln items, including the death bed, are prominently displayed. We were mostly pleased with the new permanent exhibit on Chicago history, which mixes artifacts with media. An entertaining audio-tour on iPod comes with the admission.

The bookstore has a good collection of Chicago history titles, some published by the museum. On display are numerous books that Baker and Taylor and other sources say are out of print. There are also little known books and DVDs that many Chicago libraries do not own. I need to go back with a tax letter to buy some books.

Killed Cartoons: Casualties from the War on Free Expression edited by David Wallis

Editorial page cartoons have a history of ridiculing politicians and other public figures. They also express opinions on current events and controversial issues. As a result, they often upset some readers, particularly the figures depicted. According to David Wallis in Killed Cartoons, newspaper editors review the cartoons before they are published and have always stopped some of them. He admits that there may be good reasons to stop one or two, but since September 11, 2001, some editors have been downright cowardly. Some editors have told their cartoonists "just be funny." Others have eliminated cartoons from their editorial page.

In Killed Cartoons, Wallis publishes works that were rejected by the cartoonists' employing newspapers or magazines. Though some were syndicated, many have not been seen before this book. There is something to offend almost everyone, especially in the early sections, which deal with sexual and religious issues. Most, however, were killed because the editors did not want to offend politicians, advertisers, or a group, like sports fans or gun owners.

With each cartoon, Wallis provides history and commentary.

Here are some of my favorites:

A lighthearted look at the funeral of Orville Redenbacher that the popcorn king himself might have found funny by Bob Englehart, killed by the Hartford Courant in 1995, on page 71.

Jesus Christ carrying an electric chair by Doug Marlette, killed by the Charlotte Observer, date unknown, page 81.

Hitler and Nixon with some generals, discussing aerial bombing, by Paul Szep, killed by the Boston Globe in 1972, on page 113. (Put Hitler in a cartoon with current political figures and they always object.)

"U.S-Supported Dictators Hall of Fame" by Patrick O'Connor, killed by the Los Angeles Daily News in 2003, on page 183.

A marriage between the Halliburton no-bid contracts controversy and the story of baseball players using steroids by J. D. Crowe, killed by the Mobile Register in 2003, on page 186.

There are many other great cartoons.

Public libraries are committed to the collection of library materials offering a variety of viewpoints. With commercial print media failing in its charge to protect free expression, it is especially important that public libraries keep their commitment. Buying Killed Cartoons is one step in meeting the library mission.

Killed Cartoons: Casualties from the War on Free Expression. Norton, 2007. ISBN 9780393329247.

Land of Lincoln: Adventures in Abe's America by Andrew Ferguson

When I see another book about the Kennedy family, the Bushes, the Clintons, Princess Diana, Elvis, Marilyn Monroe, or Ronald Reagan, I think "Oh, bother! Another book to buy. We have enough." I never feel this way about Abraham Lincoln. It is often said that there are more books about Lincoln than any other American figure, but that does not bother me. There always seems to be something new and worth reading about Lincoln .

So, I was eager to read Land of Lincoln by journalist Andrew Ferguson, who visited Lincoln sites across the country. In his book he begins by going to Richmond, Virginia, where Lincoln haters gather to protest the unveiling of a statue of the President and his son Tad. In subsequent chapters, he visits statues, museums, and historical sites, noting how the Lincoln story differs and evolves. He even takes his family on a Lincoln Trail summer vacation that leads to many odd discoveries.

Though I liked them all, Chapter 7 "Abe Lincoln and the Secret of Success" may be my favorite chapter. Ferguson describes how the self-help book business has abused the Lincoln legacy, twisting his words for profit. He really slams Dale Carnegie and his early editions of How to Win Friends and Influence People. He also describes a seminar he attends where Lincoln is described as a CEO who has taken over a company with half the employees on strike. Throughout, Ferguson's comments are sharp and funny.

Now that I am finished with the book, I have some trips to make, first to the Chicago History Museum, then to Springfield, Illinois. There is always more to learn about Lincoln.

Ferguson, Andrew. Land of Lincoln: Adventures in Abe's America. Atlantic Monthly Press, 2007. ISBN 9780871139672

A Visit to the Wheaton Public Library in Illinois

Library Director Sarah Meisels took the Zone 1 Reference Librarians on a two hour tour of the newly expanded and renovated Wheaton (IL) Public Library. The $20.8 million renovation resulted in a 128,000 facility with four floors in the downtown Wheaton area.

The most amazing thing was that the village actually closed the street west of the library to give it room to expand and connect it to a park. Mrs. Meisels said it took her ten years to talk the village council into doing this. It also enhanced the park, as a new public space for events was created. On the day of our tour, there was a farmer’s market in front of the library.

The main reason for other librarians in the area to be interested in the Wheaton Public Library is its collection of genealogy materials. Genealogical Librarian Donna Freymark showed us the collection, which takes up the southwest corner of the first floor. It was begun in the 1950s by a couple of staff, who were interested in the topic. In 1974, the DuPage County Genealogical Society donated its collection and began working with the library to give classes to the public. The DCGS also meets in the library. In both 1985 and 1999, the library received large grants to expand the genealogy collection. The collection includes reference sets, periodicals, microfilm, and CD-roms (which are all loaded on a CD server). The library also has online database subscriptions.

Donna said that many people beginning their first family searches come to the library, and the staff can usually find some facts about their ancestors in this strong general collection. People also come on Friday nights, when volunteers from the DCGS are on hand to help people start their research or advise them on advanced questions.

The staff and volunteers are creating a vital records index from the Wheaton newspapers microfilm and connecting it to the Innovative Interfaces library catalog.

There were a number of things I noticed that I liked:

· The library has a public snack area with vending machines that can be open to the park when the library is closed.
· Signs were on pillars instead of hanging, which left the view clearer.
· The mouse pads at computer stations had windows in which messages could be displayed.
· Some of the easy chairs had been crossed with school desks. See photo.
· The library has a foreign language collection, including French, German, Polish, Russian, Serbo-Croatian, Spanish, and Vietnamese.
· Every computer had been names for an author or president.

I noticed that all the program rooms had drop-from-the-ceiling projectors, including the children’s story hour rooms and larger conference rooms.

One thing I question is how the library uses it public computers. Many of them are dedicated to only databases, only genealogy, or only library catalogs. This goes against the current multi-use philosophy in many libraries. It would be interesting to see how it works for the Wheaton public.

I also liked the dioramas in the public services counter in the children's library.

In some ways, the Wheaton Public Library seems old fashioned, but it provides many spaces for individuals and groups to study and collaborate. It passes the library as place test well.

ricklibrarian on Google Book Search

When I was at the annual conference of the American Library Association in June, I saw that Google Book Search was building pages about books with content drawn from across the web. The treatment seems to vary book to book. Some have sample chapters, illustrations, reviews, other book recommendations, and, of course, links to buy the books.

Yesterday, someone found one of my reviews there and then visited my blog. Above is the proof. Click it to get a larger view.

I got the impression at the Google Book presentation that some Google editors are selecting items to load onto these pages. If so, it would be great if libraries with book reviews could claim some of this space regularly. It would also be great if Google would link to library holdings (Worldcat) on all of these without readers having to know to load a gadget.

ricklibrarian's helpful hints for the selection librarian

To make our library collection relevant to our public, we need to have many of the book titles that people see when they are out and about our area. In the western suburbs of Chicago, one of the places people go is the Morton Arboretum, which has an attractive collection of books on nature, wildlife, gardening, and landscaping in its gift shop. While I am there, I snap photos of the book displays with my camera (which I always take to the arboretum). With digital photography, I am able to record quickly what is being promoted and then check our collection when I return to the library. It costs nearly nothing other than my time, which is minimal. You could do this with your cellphone, too.


Back at the library I found that we had all of these books in our collection, except The Mountain Bike Trail Guide. Because this third edition is already nearly five years old, I will wait to buy a probable fourth edition in the future. (Click this photo for a closer look.)



Hardly anyone in our area owns this book. Because it looks good, I ordered it.



How did I miss this one? Only a few libraries have it so far. I ordered it this morning.

I also took photos in the gift shop at the Chicago Botanic Garden this weekend. I ordered three books from those photos.

Look for more ricklibrarian's helpful hints in the future.

Down the Nile: Alone in a Fisherman's Skiff by Rosemary Mahoney

If you are planning to read Down the Nile: Alone in a Fisherman's Skiff by Rosemary Mahoney and if you wish to be surprised by the events of the story, do not read past this paragraph. I will tell you that I enjoyed reading it and think it brings up interesting questions about Americans who travel to less developed nations. With the right group of people, it would be a great discussion book.

Mahoney never tells us precisely when she took her journey. It may have been 1998 because she refers to the 1997 attack on tourists in Luxor as being the previous year. I suspect she spent several years considering how she wanted to write the story.

The idea of her adventure started on a previous trip to Egypt. As she sat on a cruise down the Nile, she had an inspiration:

"Unable to leave the ship, with its planned itinerary and guided tours, I realized I might as well be watching this wonder from behind a glass wall. What I wanted really, was not just to see the Nile River but to sit in the middle of it in my own boat, alone."

Mahoney comes back to Egypt later to wander around the waterfront of Aswan, looking for a boat to purchase. No one wants to sell. The fallucah captains would rather take her on a private cruise and earn many American dollars. Most of the Egyptian men with whom see speaks ask her more questions than she is willing to answer, as she knows the local police would not allow her to row alone. She eventually settles for a rowing trip accompanied by a fallucah with its captain, a deckhand, and a friend, but she keeps scheming to get what she really wants - to be really alone on the river.

Eventually she gets what she wants and has a rotten time. When her situation becomes dangerous, she reacts badly and starts asking herself questions. Why do Western tourists think that they have the right to flaunt local authorities in third world countries? Why do they belittle local beliefs and customs? Why do they make unreasonable demands of the poor locals to satisfy their irrational dreams? What is the source of Western arrogance?

Down the Nile is not the happy story readers might expect from having read other travel adventure. Instead, it is a confession and appeal for more responsible tourism. As I stated above, it could spark interesting discussion.

Mahoney, Rosemary. Down the Nile: Alone in a Fisherman's Skiff. Little Brown, 2007. ISBN 9780316107457

Defend Fair Use from Big Content's Unfair Copyright Claims

Today's Library Link of the Day is to an article in Ars Technica, which tells about the new Defend Fair Use website. Defend Fair Use tells how major media companies and publishers are abusing their rights and making restrictive claims that they may not legally make. The website also has a petition to the FCC demanding that citizen's rights be maintained for you to sign. It takes only a few minutes to visit this site and act in a way that may help libraries in the future.

The Wreckers by Iain Lawrence

Having to eat starry gazey pie with all of the fish heads looking up is just one of many trials for fourteen year old John Spencer when his ship wreaks on the rocks of Cornwall in the novel The Wreckers by Iain Lawrence. He also has to avoid being killed by the villagers who put out the false beacons in the storm. Deciding whom to befriend is critical.

The Wreckers is a mixture of mystery and suspense, set in wooden ship days when a lad could go out to see with his father. It reminded me a bit of Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson. The hero meets a colorful group of villagers, one without legs and another without a tongue, some of whom are rightfully frightening. None of them, including the pretty girl, seems trustworthy. John scurries about down dark alleys and over the moors in the moonlight, trying to find his father and save ships from being drawn to the rocks.

Though The Wreckers is aimed at teen readers and I am a bit older than the target group, I enjoyed it. It reminded me of all the sea adventures that I read long ago.

Lawrence, Iain. The Wreckers. New York : Delacorte Press, 1998. ISBN 0385325355

Jim Henson: The Works

Fun. Jim Henson must have had lots of fun. Looking through Jim Henson: The Works, I admire how he entertained so many people, young and old, and had so much fun doing it.

Look on pages 148-149. In the two-page spread are fourteen Muppet-modified works of art from the Kermitage, including Da Vinci's Mona Moi (Miss Piggy), Gainsborough's Green Boy (Kermit), and Whistler's Arrangement in Gray and Black with Creep (Whistler's Weirdo). These Muppets are so funny. Wouldn't you like to get paid tons of money for doing this kind of work?

Of course, Jim Henson worked really hard to be so successful, and it can be argued that if he had let up a little, he would not have died at age 53. I am surprised that there is not a management book based on the quotes of Jim Henson. Maybe there is. I could have missed it in the millions of Muppet-based items sold in the past several decades.

Like most biographies, Jim Henson: The Works is arranged in a mostly chronological order. Readers learn first about the Sam and Friends television program, a collaboration between Henson and Jane Nebel, whom he would later marry, and then about his spot appearances with puppets on variety shows, including The Ed Sullivan Show. He also produced entertaining commercials for many television sponsors.

Unlike many biographies, Henson as an individual almost disappears at times in this book, which is also about his collaborating Muppeteers and the characters and shows that they create. Readers learn much about Sesame Street, The Muppet Show, and other Henson projects.

Throughout the book are hundreds of colorful illustrations. Anyone who loves Kermit, Big Bird, Oscar the Grouch, Bert and Ernie, Fraggle Rock, the La Choy Dragon, Emmet-Otter's Jug Band, or, of course, Miss Piggy, must see this book.

Finch, Christopher. Jim Henson: The Works. Random House, 1993. ISBN 0679412034

The Cherokee Nation and the Trail of Tears by Theda Perdue and Michael D. Green

For several years, I have had updating my library's American Indian history section in my selection goals, but I have not found enough recent material to fill the shelves. I was glad to find The Cherokee Nation and the Trail of Tears by Theda Perdue and Michael D. Green, which is the first of eight books in The Penguin Library of American Indian History. A second book, The Shawnees and the War for America by Colin G. Calloway, is also now available.

Like in other series from Penguin, these books are compact accounts of their topics, aimed at students and general readers. The Cherokee Nation and the Trail of Tears is 164 pages of text, which is followed by notes that would help in further study and an index to the book. I am particularly glad to see the index, as indices have been absent in the books in the Penguin Lives series, reducing their reference value.

Perdue and Green present a chronological account of Cherokee history in their book, telling first about the origins of the tribe and then its relations with the Spanish explorers and the English settlers who moved into the southern Appalachian mountains. Much of the book is about the struggle of the Cherokee to keep their homeland in Georgia and surrounding states and the political and military maneuvers of the U.S. government and the state of Georgia to oust them. The story of the Trail of Tears takes about 25 pages near the end of the book. The final chapter is about the problems of establishing the Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma.

The authors make some interesting points that may not be widely known.

• Many other tribes experienced similar forced removals from their homelands. The Cherokee story is the best known because of the sophistication of Cherokee public relations efforts.
• U.S. citizens did not uniformly support the actions of the Jackson Administration, which acted in defiance of Supreme Court rulings in favor of the Cherokee people. Some northeastern newspapers decried the forced removal of the Cherokees.
• Treaties were sometimes signed by individuals who had no authority in the Cherokee government.
• The U.S. government failed to fulfill ration and financial support promises during and after the removal. Agents allowed fraudulent contracts.
  

Readers may find food for thought about more recent U.S. actions in this text. History writing is often a reflection of the time in which it is written.

School and public libraries will want the books in the new Penguin series.

Perdue, Theda and Green, Michael D. The Cherokee Nation and the Trail of Tears. Viking, 2007. ISBN 9780670031504

Quite a Year for Plums by Bailey White

"There is no beginning to love," Roger said. "It just creeps over you."

"Oh," said Hilma, "like brown rot on a plum tree in the dark winter months, and by the time you become aware of it, the leaves are out and it's too late to spray."

Quite a Year for Plums is a novel by Bailey White, who is most known for her nonfiction titles Mama Makes Up Her Mind and Sleeping at the Starlight Motel. Like her other books, it is full of offbeat characters and funny situations.

I particularly like the details in Chapter 17, "The Dying House." It is a winter in south Georgia, and Hilma has left her faucets running during a cold snap to keep the pipes from freezing again. She lies in bed dreaming about tropical plants, reluctant to throw off the covers, but she does. Her seedlings on the windowsill have succumbed to the cold, so she bakes her potting soil in the oven to kill the pathogens, so she can reuse it. Meade drops by to chat, and they discuss Roger's thirty-five year old horse. He has constructed a shelter from sheets of Styrofoam to protect the dying animal. It is a dying house for a dying horse. Hilma has to go see.

Every chapter is like this. People do things do some things to which we can all relate, but then they do something unusual. It is all entertaining, but it does not seem to tell much of a story. I am left wondering what it was all about.

There are a lot of characters in Quite a Year for Plums. White includes a list of characters after the table of contents. It reminds me of a Robert Altman film. Christopher Guest could adapt it for his troupe of comic actors; I know they'd ignore the script, which might help.

I enjoyed the book. I would have liked to have learned more about Della, the young wildlife artist who starts to systematically dispose of her possessions at the local dump. Her relationship with Roger has more possibilities.

White does not seem to have written anything lately. I hope she tries again.

White, Bailey. Quite a Year for Plums. Knopf, 1998. ISBN 0679445315

Hippie by Barry Miles

What was a hippie? Would you have known one if you had seen one? Would the long hair and beads (stereotypical description) have tipped you off?

My first University of Texas roommate Brian had hair to his waist and wore little wire-rimmed glasses. Was he a hippie? He liked Jefferson Airplane and Bob Dylan. We ate ice cream at the psychedelic Nothing Strikes Back. I listened to his Hot Tuna album. Was I a hippie, too?

According to Barry Miles in his book Hippie, the definition of hippie was never really settled, so he includes almost anyone involved in the youth culture, drugs, and rock music during the years 1965-1971. They also needed to reside on the West Coast, East Coast, or London. The heart of our country is almost completely left out of the discussion. Chicago is only mentioned in the story about the riots at the Democratic National Convention in 1968.

Miles features many big names of the time in brief profiles. Timothy Leary, the beat poets, the Beatles, Wavy Gravy, civil rights demonstrators, Andy Warhol, the Grateful Dead, Charles Manson, and Ken Kesey are among the names. Students with assignments on 1960s fashions, pop culture, or record album art will appreciate the many full-page illustrations. Baby boomers will enjoy recalling their past.

In the SWAN catalog of the Metropolitan Library System, I see some of the copies of Hippie are "Lost and Paid" or "Missing," an indication that this is a good book. Others are on shelf waiting for readers. Place you request now.

Miles, Barry. Hippie. Sterling, 2004. ISBN 1402714424

Critical Compendium: A Daily Dose of Book Reviews from Around the World

A couple of weeks ago, the weekly ALA Direct newsletter highlighted Critical Compendium, a blog with links to book reviews, mostly in newspapers. As its subtitle says, it supplies a daily dose of reviews, and the biggest dose for a day that I have found is seven reviews. I gather from this that there is no attempt at being comprehensive. A thorough attempt would have dozens of reviews every day, especially weekends. As a reference librarian helping students and book discussion leaders, I would have liked a more comprehensive effort, but as a book selector, I am pleased with the number and variety of titles reviewed.

In the left hand column of the website are links to over 100 sites from which the editors of the blog are choosing reviews. Click on any link to see more reviews. I find it interesting to see how varied the book reviewing selections are for different newspapers. My first impression is that some big city papers strive for serious and emphasize academic press titles. I can imagine that for some of these the reviews will be read by many more people than the actual books.

Critical Compendium has a customized Google search, but it has not worked well for me. Some words that I clearly see on the blog do not work as searchwords

Someone with a little time could take the sources links in the left hand column and make a customized search engine for book reviews that identify many more titles than the blog itself.

I am glad someone is looking at newspaper reviews. I hope the effort at Critical Compendium expands.

Going Solo by Roald Dahl

I'm a winner! Really! I did not have to click on any flashing boxes. Mr. Nonanon, the secretive spouse of the even more mysterious Nonanon, pulled my name from a hat, and I received free copies of Boy by Roald Dahl and The Life and Times of the Last Kid Picked by David Benjamin for the next Book Menage II at Nonfiction Readers Anonymous, which will be started September 4. I have just finished reading both, and I am saving my comments for the upcoming online book discussion.

(OK, I will let one comment slip. I found that book by Benjamin took a little longer to read than I expected because I kept stopping to think about my own teenage baseball and football experiences. This is not a complaint.)

I will instead tell you a little about Going Solo by Roald Dahl, which is the sequel to Boy. In this short memoir, the always entertaining Dahl travels to East Africa in the late 1930s to take a job with the Shell Oil Company. His misadventures begin on the outbound ship where he meets many eccentric Europeans, who challenge his innocence with their abundant misbehavior. While driving around Kenya, Tanganyika, and Mozambique, Dahl meets snakes, lions, and a servant who will gladly kill his enemies for him should he just ask, which he does not. Once World War II begins, he joins the colonial military and is asked to arrest (with little help) all his German neighbors; seeing the impossibility of the task, he balks. (Read the book to see how he solves his problem.) He is eventually inducted into the Royal Air Force and crashes in the Libyan Desert. I won't tell you what happens then, but he does survive, which is obvious because he went on the write Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and James and the Giant Peach.

Many readers will find Going Solo is hilarious.

Dahl, Roald. Going Solo. New York : Farrar Straus Giroux, 1986. ISBN0374165033.

Fallen Founder: The Life of Aaron Burr by Nancy Isenberg

Julia Keller of the Chicago Tribune posts a favorite paragraph from her reading each week on her Sunday book page. I am stealing her idea and posting this paragraph from page 5 of the revisionist biography Fallen Founder: The Life of Aaron Burr by Nancy Isenberg.

The Burr household would not continue to be so blessed. On September 4, 1757, Aaron Burr, Sr,, rode to Elizabethtown, New Jersey, to preach the governor's funeral sermon. When he returned the following day, he became seriously ill, and never summoned enough energy to leave his bed. He died on September 23. A few weeks later, Esther recorded that "my little son has been sick ...and has been brought to the brink of the grave." But little Aaron survived once more. After her husband's death, Esther's own father, the Reverend Jonathan Edwards, moved to Princeton to replace him as president of the college; yet he was next, struck down by smallpox in March 1758. Though Esther Burr and her children had all been inoculated, she barely outlasted her father, dying on April 7. If that was not enough tragedy for one family, Sarah Edwards, Esther's mother, came to Princeton to collect the family's belongings and to take charge of her grandchildren, when she, too, became ill with dysentery, and died on October 2. In a little over a year, Burr had lost his parents and grandparents. Aaron and his sister Sally were now orphans.

A lot about Burr's family, their position, and his childhood is packed into that one paragraph.

Isenberg contends in her book that Burr's reputation was no worse than any other early statesman during his life. He survived controversies and died a respected man. It is historians who have made him an evil figure. Most public libraries should have this new book.

Isenberg, Nancy. Fallen Founder: The Life of Aaron Burr. Viking, 2007. ISBN 9780670063529

Nuovomondo, directed by Emanuele Crialese

One sweaty man inside third class steerage said that a river in California ran with milk. Salvatore said that he could not swim but he would get in that river.

Nuovomondo (marketed in the U.S. as Golden Door) is an incredibly moving film about Italian immigrants leaving the rocks of southern Italy for America, a land of wealth and giant vegetables. I saw the movie with the After Hours Film Society at the beautiful Tivoli Theatre in Downers Grove on its large screen. The audience was large and appreciative.

I do not want to spoil the film for you. You should see it. I will just give you the questions Salvatore needs to answer.

• Should we go to America?
• How will we get there?
• Who should we befriend on the way?
• Will we be able to negotiate Ellis Island?

The questions are tough.

I foresee Nuovomondo being shown to high school history classes for years to come. I hope history teachers learn about the film and accept that it is in Italian with subtitles. Its cinematography is so powerful that it hardly needs any dialogue. Strip off the soundtrack and it will still tell its story.

With so few good films in theaters this summer, it is sad that so few people have the opportunity to see this great Italian film.

The DVD is not yet available. Libraries should buy it when it is.

Chopin's Funeral by Benita Eisler

Chopin's Funeral by Benita Eisler starts, as you would expect, with the composer's funeral. It was a big affair with four thousands invitation-only guests, held in a cathedral, with music chosen by Frederic Chopin himself. Rich friends paid for the affair, which masked the near poverty in which he died.

Despite the title, the focus of the book is Chopin's life, especially his unlikely nine-year relationship with the French novelist George Sand. He and the novelist were in many ways opposites. She was more gregarious, and some of the friends that she chose shocked him. She was a socialist, and he longed for a good monarchy. They also disagreed about how Sand should raise her daughter.

Chopin's Funeral is a great book for a discussion. It is only 206 pages of text (not counting the notes and index), and the story is deftly told. Readers will know the some of the characters already, including Franz Liszt, Eugene Delacroix, and Victor Hugo. Gustave Flaubert, Jenny Lind, and James Whistler also make cameo appearances. Readers will want to learn more about the French singer Pauline Viardot.

Reading about early to middle nineteenth century Paris life is also interesting. Chopin sees the procession to encrypt Napoleon's ashes and is trapped in his apartment when the streets of Paris are barricaded in 1848.

What really makes the book a candidate for discussion is questions everyone will ask:

• Why did Frederic Chopin never go back to see his family and the homeland that he claimed that he loved?
• Why did Chopin detest Liszt?
  
• What did Sand and Chopin see in each other?
• Why did Sand treat her daughter Solange so badly?

Play Chopin's Preludes as people arrive and serve French wines. A discussion of Chopin's Funeral will be a party to remember.

Eisler, Benita. Chopin's Funeral. Knopf, 2003. ISBN 0375409459

Use Blog Comments for Questions and Answers

I occasionally get reference questions in comments to this blog. I try to answer them. Sometimes another reader comes up with the answer, as in these comments to my review of Simon Schama's Power of Art.

David Wagner said...

Does anyone know the background music played in the "David" episode of The Power of Art. It was sublime.
Thanks

1:29 PM

ricklibrarian said...

The PBS website for the series does not have any information on the music, though the box for the DVD might. Another idea is contact the series producers using the query form at http://www.pbs.org/wnet/powerofart/view.php?page=feedback

8:51 PM

Anonymous said...

Hi,
It is great, isn't it! The name of the background peice in the David is Nisi Dominus in G Minor, RV 608: IV. Cum Dederit. I got my copy from iTunes. Enjoy!

2:43 AM

Thanks to you, Anonymous.

A Look at 63 years of ALA Notable Books

I have been mining lists of American Library Association Notable Books awards to find worthy titles for my biography project. In the process, I have read 50 Years of Notable Books thoroughly and noticed a few things that I wish to report. I also used the The Lists on the Reference and User Services website to bring the research up to date.


Some Lists Hard to Use

Identifying the biographies was not exactly easy, as the various committees at RUSA (and at both the Lending Round Table and the Division of Public Libraries before RUSA) have not agreed through time on how to report the Notable Books. A single alphabetical list that did not distinguish between fiction and nonfiction was issued until 1974, when the committee divided the titles into the two categories. Someone must not have liked the idea, for the dividing into fiction and nonfiction did not reappear again until the 1987 list. Most years since then are divided, but some are not. I am happy to see that the most of the recent lists do separate.

Before 1970, the committee did not write annotations. I had to look at a variety of online library catalogs to identify the subjects of many of the books without subtitles. The titles alone were often insufficient. Some possible biographies turned out to be fiction. Some that I suspected were novels turned out to be biographies, histories, or other nonfiction topics. I'm glad recent lists are more informative and of more help to readers' advisers.

For my purposes, I am excluding autobiographies and memoirs.


Biographies by the Years

The number of biographies in Notable Books have decreased since a high in the 1970s, but may go up slightly again in the 2000s.

• 59 in the 1950s
• 53 in the 1960s
• 67 in the 1970s
• 33 in the 1980s
• 21 in the 1990s
• 21 in the 2000s (through 2007)

Individual years can go way up and down. There was only one notable biography in 1991, 1992, 1997 and 2001. There were twelve in both 1950 and 1973.


The Lists Reflect Their Times

According to the introduction of 50 Years of Notable Books, the first list, called "Outstanding Books," was compiled by the Lending Round Table in 1944, a time of war. Among the titles on that first list were the following:

• How to Think about War and Peace by Mortimer J. Adler
• How New Will the Better World Be? by Carl L. Becker
• They Call It "Purple Heart Valley" by Margaret Bourke-White
• Ten Years in Japan by Joseph C. Grew
• America Unlimited by Eric A. Johnston
• U.S. War Aims by Walter Lippmann
• Prejudice: Japanese Americans by Carey McWilliams
• Brave Men by Ernest Pyle
• Tarawa: The Story of a Battle by Robert Sherrod
• People on Our Side by Edgar Snow
• Lend-Lease: Weapon of Victory by Edward R. Stettinius
• They Shall Not Sleep by Leland Stowe
• The Veteran Comes Back by Walter Willard
• Time for Decision by Sumner Welles

In the late 1950s and 1960s, there were many books reflecting the civil rights movement and environmental concerns. At that time, there were also many anthropology books suggesting nontraditional social arrangements.

What will people notice looking back at the 2000s?


Some Authors Repeat

As you might expect, some great authors appeared in several lists. Wallace Stegner, John Updike, and Eudora Welty were honored six times each through 1996. The committees always seems to like historians. Arthur M. Schlesinger and Catherine Drinker Bowen each appeared in the lists seven times. The champion of Notable Books was the very famous Sir Winston Churchill, whose books were listed eight times.


Some Subjects Repeat

Just publish a book on Samuel Johnson and you get a Notable Books honor. The same can be said for books about Franklin D. Roosevelt and Theodore Roosevelt. Margaret Bourke-White not only won for a book that she wrote, two books about her were also named Notable Books. Can you say John Maynard Keynes and Douglas MacArthur twice quickly. Did I mention John F. Kennedy?


Many of the Books Have Lasted

In my checking library catalogs, I found all the books that I checked were still available in Illinois somewhere. Most of the Notable Books of the last fifty years are still in my library's seventy library consortium. From the mid-1950s to the beginning lists, many of the titles that I searched are only available at colleges and universities. Of course, I was searching for the titles that I did not recognize. The more famous titles are available everywhere.


Reflection of Me

I was please to see books that I read on many of the lists from the late 1970s forward. I have often thought I had rather specialized tastes. Maybe I just fit a public librarian profile.

I also saw many books to try if I ever find the time. How about Popular Book: A History of America's Popular Taste by James D. Hart from 1950? I wonder what it would say to us now?

Take a look at the old ALA Notable Books lists. Allow a couple of hours.

Dear Miss Breed: True Stories of Japanese American Incarceration During World War II and a Librarian Who Made a Difference by Joanne Oppenheim

"Dear Tetsuzo,

I am going to miss you a great deal, as you must know. You have been one of my restorers-of-faith in the human spirit. I know that you will keep your courage and humor in the weeks and days that lie ahead, no matter what they may bring. ....

Clara E. Breed"


About four months after the Japanese air attack on Pearl Harbor in December of 1941, the War Relocation Authority (WRA) began moving all people of Japanese descent out of the Pacific states. For months newspaper columnists and racist organization leaders had been arguing that "Japs," naturally loyal to the Emperor they insisted, were a danger to our country as spies and saboteurs. From the outcry, most Americans would never learn until long after the war that most of the people imprisoned without any legal hearings were American citizens, second and third generation Japanese Americans, born in the United States. According to Joanne Oppenheim in Dear Miss Breed, no case of espionage was ever filed against any of the prisoners.

Few people stood up for the civil rights of the Japanese Americans. One who did was Clara E. Breed, the children's librarian at the San Diego Public Library. When their families began being removed from their homes and businesses, Breed distributed stamped postcards with her address to the children, asking that they send them back to her with their new addresses. She promised to send them books, magazines, and assorted items to help them in their new lives. As a result, Breed maintained dozens of correspondences throughout the war.

Breed also went public. She wrote articles on the children that were published in Library Journal and Horn Book, which garnered donations from other librarians nationwide. As a member of the the Newbery-Caldecott Committee of the American Library Association, she also received hundreds of review copies of books, most of which were sent to children in the concentration camps.

As Breed would have liked, Oppenheim concentrates on the children in this book. Most spent a couple of years at first the Santa Anita racetrack in California (living in smelly stables) and then in the extreme desert heat of Poston, Arizona. She used the letters that they sent to Breed, testimony at Congressional hearings, and interviews for much of her content. Sadly, she has only located one surviving letter written by Breed to the children. Several of her children do, however, still have the books that she sent to them.

Dear Miss Breed is an attractive book, which includes photos of and art from the children. It should attract many readers in school and public libraries. Currently most public libraries have it in their children's or teen collections, which I support, but they also need to put copies where adults will find them. Older folks should not miss out on this fine book.

Oppenheim, Joanne. Dear Miss Breed: True Stories of the Japanese American Incarceration During World War II and a Librarian Who Made a Difference. Scholastic Nonfiction, 2006. ISBN 0439569923

Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell: 2007 Audiobook

For years I have heard about the Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell, which was first published in 2000, but I had not gotten around to checking it out. What "tipped" me to finally read it was that an audiobook version was available at my library. As Gladwell says, little things like that matter. With the book loaded on my iPod, I listened while I worked in the yard and garden.

What I did not realize until the end was that I was listened to a new version with an afterward updating the story. In the extra twenty plus minutes Gladwell, who does an excellent job of reading his own book, tells about some reactions to his suggestions about starting word-of-mouth social epidemics. One of these was that the Karma Foundation offered Tipping Point Grants to New Jersey public libraries.

I've heard the book described as a marketing text. I usually dislike marketing publications because they seem to be about manipulating people, not serving them. The Tipping Point, however, seemed to me an entertaining philosophical text about close observation to discover what people want in their daily lives. I enjoyed it.

The Weeding of Compassionate Conservatism

Nancy at my library recently left a couple of dozen books about politics and government on the weeding cart for us to consider. Among the many that it was easy to withdraw from our collection because they were obviously dated and no longer being read was Compassionate Conservatism by Marvin Olasky with a foreward by George W. Bush. I remembered this as a book that was hot during the 2000 presidential campaign. It was reported that it contained the principles that guided Mr. Bush as governor of Texas and that he would use as president if elected. According to Nancy's notes, the book, which we acquired in 2000, was not borrowed from our library until 2003 and had not been borrowed ever again. So, it had just one circ in seven years. It should be easy to withdraw based on local non-performance.

However, I hesitated to dump it. Wasn't it supposed to be an important book in our continuing political debate? Was it a fluke that it did so poorly at my library?

I checked the records on the SWAN database, which is shared by almost eighty libraries. Eleven libraries currently own the book. I have no way of knowing if others have already withdrawn it. Of the eleven copies, two have been borrowed in 2007 and one went out in 2006. Our is next in line as most recently borrowed. The other seven have not been out since 2000, 2001, or 2002. Only one copy, the one held by the largest library of the eleven, has as many as eleven circs. Most have four or fewer circs. Most of the larger libraries in our system do not currently own the book. I suspect these libraries have already tossed it. It seems it would be easy to do likewise.

I love to weed books, but still, I hesitated. I wondered whether I would be throwing out an important bit of history if I weeded the book. On the other hand, I feared I would just be cluttering the shelves with another dead book if I kept it.

I started to actually read the book and my answer became obvious. Compassionate Conservatism is really just a follow up to The Tragedy of American Compassion by Olasky, which was published in 1992. The Tragedy of American Compassion is the book that had the endorsement of conservative politicians. Compassionate Conservatism reports on Olasky's visits to states and cities where the principles were being applied in the late 1990s. It seems incidental and includes what are now old statistics in need of being revised.

There are still ten more copies of this book in the system should we need it.

We are freeing seven eighths of an inch on our shelves.

Darwin's Origin of the Species by Janet Browne

Charles Darwin was a quiet, humble man, unlikely to stir up trouble. Still his key work, a book that he issued in seven editions, shook the foundations of society, making some doubt their religious convictions, letting others espouse new theories of science, anthropology, and sociology. In Darwin's Origin of the Species: A Biography, Janet Browne tells the story of the author, the writing of his book, its initial reception, and its legacy.

Is this a biography of the author or of the book? I'd say it is mostly a story of the book. While the initial chapters tell about Darwin's childhood when he read his grandfather's books on natural selection and about his five years as science officer on the Beagle, it is mostly about getting the book written and the reaction to it.

I particularly liked reading about how Darwin maintained friends and colleagues worldwide from his refuge in rural England. He wrote over 500 letters per year at a point when the postal service was more efficient and quicker than ever before. His book was published at a time when the book trade was expanding and review journals were proliferating. The result was a well marketed science book read by the public at large. Some scientists and religious leaders objected immediately, but they were not as well organized as Darwin's supporters. The quiet biologist became a best selling author.

Browne suggests that there is more opposition to the ideas in Darwin's book now than ever before, so this is a good time to revisit the work. This title from the Books That Changed the World series is a good addition to school and public libraries.

Browne, Janet. Darwin's Origin of the Species: A Biography. Atlantic Monthly, 2006. ISBN 9780871139535

Harry Potter Goes to Camp

Three Reading Harry Potter
Originally uploaded by ricklibrarian.

Ever heard of synchronized reading?

Laura and her friends spent the first two days at camp reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Each had a copy of the book. As each finished a chapter, she waited for the other two to finish so they could discuss what had happened in the story. Of course, there was a lot of whispering from the back of the van where they started the book as we drove from Illinois through Indiana to Saugatuck, Michigan. Then the whispering was from the porch of our cabin or from the girls' bedroom. They did not want to spoil the story for those of us waiting our turns for the book.

It was a Harry Potter camp. There were three copies of the new book in our cabin, and the Karstens also had three copies. Various counts had between 14 and 18 copies among the 80 people at camp. Everywhere you looked, someone had a copy.

We are back from camp now and everyone in the family has had a turn. I finished Monday night after we got back. I do not want to spoil the story for anyone, so I'll just say that people who enjoyed the first six will enjoy the new book, too.

A Glorious Defeat: Mexico and Its War with the United States by Timothy J. Henderson

Growing up in Texas, I studied the state's history in 5th, 7th, and 12th grades of public school. I know the stories of Stephen Austin's colony, the Alamo, the Battle of San Jacinto, and the years of the Republic of Texas quite well. The presentation was always, of course, from the viewpoint of the victors. In A Glorious Defeat, Timothy J. Henderson examines the Mexican part in the war or wars. (Do you count the Texas Revolution as part of the U.S. War with Mexico?) Rather than assign blame, he examines the social, economic, and political forces in Mexico leading up to and existing through the war. Then he describes the legacy for both countries.

The central point is that many Mexican leaders knew that their country would lose the war before the fighting ever started. The young country, independent from Spain for only fifteen years when the Texas colonists rebelled, was poor, sparsely populated, and politically divided. The liberals wanted to form a democracy, while the conservatives wanted to establish a European style monarchy. The political sides only agreed that the United States was taking advantage of their country's weakness. Most of the leaders foresaw the inevitable loss of Texas, New Mexico, and California. So, why did they reject U.S. purchase offers and fight a losing battle?

According to Henderson, fighting the U.S. was seen by the Mexicans as patriotic and opposing the war became politically suicidal. Few dared to speak up, and they were exiled or executed. As a result, the military drafted poor and native peoples (few of the landed or merchant classes served) and sent them on military campaigns without weapons, food, or clothing. Many died of starvation or disease before battle. Desertion was rampant.

While Henderson concentrates on telling the story of the country as a whole, he does include tales of key figures, such as Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, Vicente Guerrero, and Anastacio Bustamente. The saddest of the stories is about General Manuel de Mier y Teran, who commits suicide rather than see all his grim predictions come true.

Many public libraries are short on materials about this war that preceded and in ways led to the American Civil War. It is a good purchase and a good read.

Henderson, Timothy J. A Glorious Defeat: Mexico and Its War with the United States. New York: Hill & Wang, 2007. ISBN 9780809061204

Shoot the Widow: Adventures of a Biographer in Search of Her Subject by Meryle Secrest

"... I must see the purpose of biography as not just to record but to reveal." Meryle Secrest

Meryle Secrest has been writing biographies for about thirty years. Readers find art historians, artists, architects, and musicians, living or deceased, among the subjects of her first nine books. In Shoot the Widow, she tells about meeting her subjects and interviewing their families, friends, enemies, and other associates. As you might imagine, many of these people have been more interested in their reputations than in honesty.

One of her most interesting projects was writing Kenneth Clark: A Biography. She first interviewed Clark when writing her first two books, biographies of the artist Romaine Brooks and of the art critic/dealer Bernard Berenson. When she asked to write about him, Clark seemed receptive and granted many interviews over several years. His sons and wife, however, tried to limit her access. As his health slid toward his eventual death, he became less reliable. She found herself often in the uncomfortable position of accepting hospitality from the Clarks while knowing they would not approve of what she was writing.

To avoid repeating her difficulties with the Clarks, Secrest did not plan to meet Salvadore Dali, but the invitation came and she felt she could not refuse. On the day of her visit (it can hardly be called an interview), she was told not to tell the bed-ridden and mostly listless Dali that she was writing about him. She practiced an elaborate French greeting, which fell flat. She tried to limit the conversation to safe topics, but the meeting ended quickly when she mentioned Dali's recently deceased wife.

Frank Lloyd Wright had been dead for several decades before she started a book about him, but his family and students were just as difficult as those protecting living subjects. She began her book about Leonard Bernstein the day he died. Writing this book led to writing about Stephen Sondheim, who was mostly cooperative but sometimes challenged her actions.

Throughout the book, Secrest questions her own methods, trying to find the fine line between ethical and unacceptable behavior for a biographer. Readers interested in the issues involved in the writing of books will enjoy Shoot the Widow. Readers in search of good stories will be entertained, too.

Secrest, Meryle. Shoot the Widow: Adventures of a Biographer in Search of Her Subject. New York: Knopf, 2007. ISBN 9780307264831

Book Review Blogs for You to Try

I will be away from this blog for about a week. In the meantime, I have some new book reviewing blogs to recommended to you.

Tiny Little Reading Room - The author is a children's/teens' librarian who is trying to keep up with her reading challenges and is telling us about the books she is reading. I especially like how she lays out and labels her reviews. She includes sections a summary of the book, a reason why she chose the book, and her overall impression. She may also include a favorite quote from the text, as in her review of Miss Julia Speaks Her Mind.

Running with Books - Melissa Stoeger of the Deerfield Public Library has begun a blog of book reviews and news. So far most of the titles have been high interest titles like A Thousand Splendid Suns and Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. I like how she sometimes adds news into the reviews, such as telling us about the three books that Michael Chabon has scheduled for publication.

Brooklyn Book Talk - The Brooklyn Public Library, fifth largest library system in the U.S., with sixty neighborhood libraries, is using a blog as a platform for book discussions. You can see how the discussion on The Night Watch by Sarah Waters is going.

All of these have been added to the Librarian's Book Revoogle.

Harry Potter Party in Downers Grove

Book as Costume
Originally uploaded by ricklibrarian.

A crowd of readers moved on downtown Downers Grove last night, awaiting the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Among the many activities was a costume contest. I did not hear who won, but my favorite was the girl who came as the book. In her interview with Anderson's Book Shop staff, she said that it took her three days to make her costume.

There were lots of Hogwart's student robes, many also sporting the Gryffindor scarf. The scarves looked pretty sharp with the black robes or black t-shirts. I think I know what I want for Christmas.

Of course, our reason for being there was to pick up the book, but there were several hours of party before midnight, so we visited Honey Dukes for chocolates. We also watched a bit of human-sized chess and saw wandmaking.

Bonnie had ticket #45. We had the book by 12:03. She started reading in the car on the way home. Laura gets the book next. I am last in line, which is good because I then get to take my time enjoying it.

More photos are on Flickr. Click the photo.

***************

I notice that iTunes does not have Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I wonder why.

How Doctors Think by Jerome E. Groopman

In How Doctors Think, Jerome E. Groopman is concerned with misdiagnosis of patients' diseases. Early in the text he says that more harm is done through misdiagnosis than through outright mistakes, such as removing the wrong kidney or giving incorrect dosages of drugs. These headline catching mistakes are rare, but treating wrong diseases are not.

Groopman believes the problem stems from physicians not taking time to listen to their patients. He mentions that studies show doctors often interrupt their patients within seconds of the patients starting to explain their condition. The doctors start almost immediately asking narrowing questions. The author says that these physicians have often already started reaching conclusions when they have only slight evidence. Important clues that the patients know are never uncovered by the medical professionals. The book includes many harrowing stories in which patients were treated for the wrong condition because the doctors rushed diagnosis.

Groopman's prescription for doctors is learning to do better interviews, asking open ended-questions and listening. As a reference librarian, I can not help but take notice of this. This is exactly the mandate for the reference interview. First determine what the client really is asking. Let them speak. Time spent at the beginning of the process saves time changing directions later. Perhaps there should be library classes in medical school, and medical students should spend some time at a reference desk.

Groopman's book is already very popular. Every library should have it.

Groopman, Jerome E. How Doctor's Think. Houghton Mifflin, 2007. ISBN 9780618610037

MacLean Hall at the University of Iowa

MacLean Hall
Originally uploaded by ricklibrarian.

Laura and I just spent the past two days at her orientation at the University of Iowa in Iowa City. She now has a schedule for the fall, which may change after she takes another placement exam. Parents had their own orientation schedule. Some of the meetings were informative, especially the one devoted to computing and the one on student health and counseling services. The one on finances was almost a complete waste of time, as there was about three minutes worth of new content; I could hardly believe the questions some parents asked at this late stage in preparing to send their kids to college. I know we say that there are no dumb questions, but some sure come close.

I took some time to wander around campus. I also took Laura and her boyfriend Matt to see Harry Potter instead of hearing a third "what's it like to live on campus" lecture of the day. We had a good time.

On Wednesday Laura filled out forms at the employment office of the university libraries. With public library work experience and two librarian parents, she is a natural.

Machiavelli: Philosopher of Power by Ross King

I read everything that Ross King writes, so when I saw Machiavelli on the shelf at the Downers Grove Public Library, I had to check it out.

Has Machiavelli been maligned by historians?

Machiavelli was very untrustworthy as a diplomat and as a husband. He was very cynical as a writer of political philosophy and ribald plays. He was implicated but never convicted of assassination plots. Many people counted him as an enemy. Can anyone view him sympathetically? King provides evidence for the debates about the infamous Renaissance statesman who rubbed shoulders with tyrants, popes, and artists. (He even knew tyrannical popes who were art patrons.)

This book is not for gentle readers. King includes some grisly details about executions and some profane Machiavelli quotes. Of course, gentle readers are probably coming nowhere near this book anyway.

Why is Machiavelli still relevant? His book The Prince is part of a tradition of writing about government and public policy, which goes back to Thomas Aquinas. The tradition continues as nearly every key figure who leaves the U.S. government writes a book. As a diplomat, Machiavelli can easily be compared with Henry Kissinger. He's written books. His care for public opinion was much like that of Dick Cheney. He wrote a book. His insistence on military buildup resembles that of Donald Rumsfeld. Will he write a book?

Machiavelli is part of the Eminent Lives Series from Atlas Books. (Hey, editors, these books should have indexes!) It is a great addition for library collections.

King, Ross. Machiavelli: Philosopher of Power. Atlas Books, 2007. ISBN 9780060817176

Thank You Blogger, Thank You Readers

I have had thousands of extra readers over the weekend, as Blogger made me Blog of Note on Friday. Since it was a weekend, I got to stay first in the queue two extra days. Thank you, Blogger.

Thank you, readers. I hope my blog was worth your visit. I hope lots of you now want to read about the black baseball players of the 1950s and 1960s, about Lady Bird Johnson, and the works of Wendell Berry. I hope you can find libraries that own The Power of Art DVDs. (See my posts of the last week.)

Thank you, everyone who commented on the postings. I appreciate the the kind words. Several of you asked questions that I am still contemplating.

Thank you to those of you who identified some book review blogs. I will post about these soon.

I did delete a few of comments because they offered book reviews and when I linked to the blogs I found no reviews. If you did this, post some reviews and try again. I also deleted some spam.

Thank you, librarians, who inspire me to blog.