Great Tales from English History: Joan of Arc, the Princes in the Tower, Bloody Mary, Oliver Cromwell, Sir Isaac Newton, and More by Robert Lacey

In his series Great Tales from English History, Robert Lacey retells some of the most known stories about the monarchs and subjects of England. While this could be pretty dull reading in a less talented author's hands, Lacey entertains with humorous details, thoughtful observations, and swift portrayals of the key historical figures. In doing so, he often dispels myths and humanizes the exalted figures about whom he writes.

I read the second book Great Tales from English History: Joan of Arc, the Princes in the Tower, Bloody Mary, Oliver Cromwell, Sir Isaac Newton, and More. In this volume, Lacey covers events and people between 1387 and 1687 in chapters that range from three to seven pages. You could read several a day and enjoy the book for a couple of weeks and then get one of the other volumes.

I most enjoyed reading about people whose names I knew but about whom I knew little.

• Famous for his role in the folk tale Puss in Boots, Dick Whittington really did rise to become mayor of London and a counsellor for King Henry IV, but there is no evidence that he ever owned a cat.
• Lady Jane Grey was a pawn in a political struggle and never deserved to lose her head at the block.
• William Tyndale, who translated the Bible into English and who lost his head for criticizing King Henry VIII's divorce, is the source of many famous phrases, including "salt of the earth," "the powers that be," and "eat, drink and be merry."
• Samuel Pepys traveled to Holland to get an exclusive interview with Charles II before he was restored to the crown.
• William Caxton, the first Englishman to own a printing press, is responsible for many of the inconsistent spellings in the English language.

Of course, Lacey tells stories about all the kings and queens of the three centuries. Richard II died because he went on a hunger strike in prison; he was not assassinated. Charles II really did hide in a tree to escape Puritan soldiers. Mary was hailed as a fair and just queen when she succeeded her brother Edward, but she spent her political capital rather quickly and everyone was happy to see her die.

The Great Tales from History series is fun to read and makes a nice introduction to English history. All public libraries should get Lacey's series.

Lacey, Robert. Great Tales from English History: Joan of Arc, the Princes in the Tower, Bloody Mary, Oliver Cromwell, Sir Isaac Newton, and More. Little, Brown & Company, 2004. ISBN 031610924X.

Other volumes:

Great tales from English history : the truth about King Arthur, Lady Godiva, Richard the Lionheart and more. ISBN: 031610910X

Great tales from English history : Captain Cook, Samuel Johnson, Queen Victoria, Charles Darwin, Edward the Abdicator, and more. ISBN: 0316114596

Library Outreach Services, London, 1895

I always enjoy finding references to libraries in my pleasure reading. I found the following opening paragraph in the second chapter of The London Yankees: Portraits of American Writers and Artists in England, 1894-1914 by Stanley Weintraub.

Externally, Lancaster Gate had an ambience of comfortable gentility rather than showy fashion. At number 69, for example, lived retired Indian civil administrator Sir Richard Strachey, whose gaunt, precocious son Giles Lytton was often home from public school on sick leave. Every week the van from the circulating library would deliver half a dozen novels to Sir Richard's door, perhaps even the latest title by Bret Harte, or by Pearl Craigie under her well-known pseudonym, "John Oliver Hobbes." Deaf and doddering, Strachey very likely had no idea that Lancaster Gate was being overrun by authors or tainted by scandal by such Americans.

The next paragraph tells the reader that the time is 1895.

I wonder whether the books were for the father or the son or someone else in the house. Also, was delivery service just a benefit of membership in the circulating library or a special arrangement? Did someone have to have a doctor's signature to get delivery? It must not have been an uncommon service, for the library had a van.

One of the current ideas that is being batted around is that public libraries should send out their books by mail (like Netflix) or deliver more to homes. It seems to be an older idea than we thought.

Will There Be Books on the Colorado Rockies?

With their sweep of the Arizona Diamondbacks in the National League Playoffs last night (this morning), the Colorado Rockies have won 21 of their last 22 games. In doing so, they surprised much of the baseball world, as they had been written off for the season. Because that level of winning is the stuff of legends, expect to see books on the Colorado Rockies 2007 season by next spring. If they win the World Series, there may be some instant publishing. Sports writers from the Denver media will take this opportunity for some windfall profits.

I see only one book about the Rockies aimed at adults in the current SWAN catalog (our Chicago suburbs consortium), and there is only one copy of that 1994 title, Mile High Madness: A Year with the Colorado Rockies by Bob Kravitz. There are, of course, more copies in Coloado, according to Worldcat. I also see that some profit minded people are putting their copies for sale on EBay.

There are several books aimed at young readers available. Children's librarians should put them on display to catch the eyes of young fans.

The Rockies now have eight days off before the World Series begins. The concern of some fans is that they will lose momentum. These fans may take some comfort in the statistic that teams with that many days off have won the World Series seven out of ten times.

No Fines in Libraries

Aaron Schmidt has posted a piece about libraries not charging overdue fines but using other means to get items returned. There are been some interesting comments added by other librarians. He has now also set up a wiki for libraries to add their names to the no fines list. It will be interesting to see how long the list grows.

I have always wished we would get away from overdue fines. It costs us good will and our circulation staff have better things to do than argue over insignificant amounts of money.

I also think we should not insist that less in demand books come back so quickly. Too many of our books spend too much time on our shelves. I'd like to see the books off the shelves and in readers hands more of the time. We could keep more of our older books if more of them were out. Longer loan periods for these books might be a good move for libraries and readers.

Pontoon by Garrison Keillor

If you like Garrison Keillor's monologues on his radio program Prairie Home Companion, you will like his newest novel Pontoon. It is very funny, and like those monologues, the story takes place in Lake Wobegon, Minnesota. It includes a few characters that radio listeners will recognize. The most familiar is Pastor Ingqvist of the Lutheran Church, who has to worry about a visit from 24 agnostic Lutheran ministers from Denmark at the same time he is trying to help a dysfunctional family with an nontraditional celebration of death. Fans will also know Dorothy, who is waiting tables at the Chatterbox Cafe, and Clint Bunsen, who helps the pastor haul some donated champagne, French cheese, and shrimp back to the church. Fans will also recognize the statue of the Unknown Norwegian, the Whippets baseball team, and Ralph's Pretty Good Grocery.

If you are puzzled by the title, just let me say that there is a boat in the plot. It is mentioned about half way through the book and reappears near the end. Knowing this does not spoil the ending. You can not imagine what's going to happen. The plot also involves a wedding that is not really a wedding and a funeral that is not really a funeral.

Keillor must have had a lot of fun writing Pontoon. It's as much fun to read.

Keillor, Garrison. Pontoon. Viking, 2007. ISBN 9780670063567

The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court by Jeffrey Toobin

Ideology has always trumped precedence in the rulings of the Supreme Court of the United States, according to Jeffrey Toobin in The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court. The law does not change and necessitate new decisions. What changes are the judges. To get the decisions you want, you need to put your judges on the bench.

Toobin is a story teller with a great subject, nine people who are appointed to the highest court for life. If there is a hero to the story, it is Sandra Day O'Connor, who is appointed as first woman on the court by President Ronald Reagan. She is a lifelong moderate Republican, an Arizona friend of William Renquist, whom she eclipses in power. As the swing vote during much of her tenure, she is the most influential of justices. She always seeks to find the will of the American public's political center, not a strict interpretation of law. Her biggest mistake is her vote in Bush v. Gore. She discovers that Bush has no concern for the rule of law and the political center. His power comes from the extreme right, whom she abhors. Her traditional Republican Party has ceased to exist, and she blames Bush.

In telling the story, Toobin sprinkles the serious matter with some amusing details. I never knew that justices get to decorate their offices with paintings and sculpture from the Smithsonian's Museum of American Art. David Souter eats an apple and a cup of yogurt every day for lunch. Clarence Thomas got through an entire term without asking any questions.

A key point that Toobin makes is that the Bush administration has put more effort into focusing on the political viewpoints of its appointments that any previous administration. There is no pretense that recent appointments will weigh the merits of cases. There is to be no straying from the right wing position. Now neither reasoning nor public opinion really matter.

Readers will learn much about all the justices appointed in the past forty five years. Toobin seems to admire most of them. The Nine would be a great discussion book. There are bound to be readers who disagree.

Toobin, Jeffrey. The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court. Doubleday, 2007. ISBN 0385516401

Illinois Blue Book, 2005-2006: It's Time Has Passed

Today, my library received the Illinois Blue Book, 2005-2006. If you have noticed that it is already October 2007, you see the problem. This is an out of date directory when you get it. It always has been.

Perhaps this book is really intended as a historical reference item or collectors item and not as a directory at all. It is printed on nice glossy paper and the binding is stitched. The cover is dark blue with gold emblem, lettering, and stripes. Though it is no larger than many novels, it weighs twice as much (estimate). There must be half a pound of lead in the ink.

So, why is it full of possibly out of date addresses and phone numbers? It also tells what governmental departments have to spend in 2006. If you want to know Illinois legislative committee assignments of two years ago, this is your source.

There are some helpful sections in the back of the volume. All the legislators since 1819 are named, as are all the governors and other elected officials. There is also basic information on the counties, a copy of the Illinois constitution, and pictures of all the statues around the capitol.

It is interesting to learn from the chronology that Disco Demolition Night at Comisky Park in Chicago, July 12, 1979, is one of the highlights of the state's history.

Why do we still get this book? The information is all available on the Illinois Secretary of State's website. (It would be more useful and searchable if it were in HTML instead on PDF format.) State officials of Illinois are always pleading that revenue is short, denying funding to useful projects. The state library has been strapped for funds for years, as have all the regional library systems. I suggest that all the money spent to produce and distribute this heavy, rarely used book could be better spent.

Marlene Dietrich: Photographs and Memoirs

Before looking at Marlene Dietrich: Photographs and Memoirs, I knew little about the actress. After looking at it, I know more about her public persona, but she is still a mystery to me. The book has many photos, some being family snapshots, but she seems always to be acting a role. I am unable to solve the riddle of her personality.

According to the compiler of this book, Marlene Dietrich kept everything, including letters, telegrams, playbills, and photographs. The actress claimed that she had every dress, blouse, cape, shoe, hat, and accessory she used on stage or in a film. When she died, her estate opened six storage units in London, Paris, New York, and California, for which she spent thousands of dollars annually in rent, and donated her personal possessions to the FilmMuseum in Berlin. This book is a selective catalog of those items. Through family photos, movie stills, displays of artifacts, and comments of her friends, this big museum book gives fans an archaeological look at the life and career of the legendary actress.

There are some especially interesting sections of the book. After watching Ken Burn's documentary The War, I was struck by the twenty plus pages of photos showing her visiting and entertaining American troops in Italy. Seeing her in uniform contrasts sharply with the elegant and sophisticated attire in most of the book.

Dietrich fans will appreciate this attractive book, which may suggest a trip to the museum in Berlin.

Naudet, Jean-Jacques, compiler. Marlene Dietrich: Photographs and Memories, from the Marlene Dietrich Collection of the FilmMuseum Berlin. Knopf, 2001. 262p. ISBN 0375405348

The Making of Star Wars: The Definitive Story Behind the Original Film, Based on the Lost Interviews from the Official Lucasfilm Archives by J. W. Rin

How many books about Star Wars do we need? At least one more, that being The Making of Star Wars by J. W. Rinzler. Based on four boxes full of interviews 1975 and 1978, which are now called the "lost interviews" because they had been put in the Lucas archives and forgotten, The Making of Star Wars is a thick, very detailed account that movie fans will enjoy.

The book starts at the beginning with an account of how George Lucas first conceived of Star Wars and how his ideas changed through his many handwritten drafts. Among the illustrations are photos of pages from the drafts, written with pencil on lined notebook paper. It is a wonder the story ever gelled. The early drafts were far different than the scripts issued for shooting. Lucas had ideas about certain scenes instead firm ideas of a story. Lots of ideas that reappeared in later movies were dropped. All the names changed.

Early in the development, the central character is Captain Annikin Starkiller. When Han Solo first appears, he is described as 150 years old. The droids were originally construction workers. There is a minor character named Skywalker.

The book includes many drawings showing how costumes, creatures, and sets evolved, and there are photos from the sets showing the cast as they work. What's funny to see is that when all the stormtroopers remove their helmets, they have huge amounts of hair. It was the 1970s.

At 314 oversize pages with small font text, this wonderful book takes time to read. Libraries should give readers extended loans.


Rinzler, J. W. The Making of Star Wars: The Definitive Story Behind the Original Film, Based on the Lost Interviews from the Official Lucasfilm Archives. Ballantine Books, 2007. ISBN 9780345477613.

God Grew Tired of Us: A Memoir by John Bul Dau

John Bul Dau was naked when he ran out of his village after 2 a.m. on a night in 1987. According to the author in his memoir God Grew Tired of Us, all Dinka children of southern Sudan sleep naked and there was no time to find clothes and dress in the dark when the Djellabas attacked. He ran eastward into the bush with a man he thought was his father, but he learned when they stopped that the man was a neighbor. They nearly died several times on their march to a refugee camp in Ethiopia. Thirteen year old Dau was naked most of the way.

There was much nakedness among the Lost Boys of Sudan in the initial months before they received international aid. Many boys had run away in the night like Dau. Others bartered their clothes away for food. Some who had kept their clothes wore them until there was nothing left. As bad as nakedness was, it was only one of the problems for the Dinkas, who were being hunted down by the northern Sudanese. Even in the relative safety of the refugee camps, there was terrible heat, disease, and hunger.

If God Grew Tired of Us stopped at the point Dau reached Ethiopia, it would be a shocking, but not insightful book. Things get worse before they get better, but Dau claims that he always had hope, even when he jumped in a crocodile rich river to escape Ethiopian rebels. He and his friends continually find ways to stay alive. The book is mostly upbeat. I can not explain the title, as Dau always seems to think tomorrow will be a better day. He may have adopted the title to align it with the documentary by the same name in which he appears.

After years in various refugee camps, where he learns to write and read, Dau is resettled in Syracuse, New York, where he is sponsored by a local Presbyterian church. They furnish an apartment with three other Lost Boys, teach him American customs, and give him rides to his work or school day or night.

Not all of his American experiences are positive. Some people think he is a potential terrorist or resent him taking jobs and federal aid. He has his bicycle stolen five times. He takes this all in stride. After you have seen people killed by the Djellabas or nearly starved to death, the ugliness of some American behaviors seem hardly noteworthy to Dau.

In the last part of the book, Dau tells about returning to Sudan to see his family after nineteen years and about his plans for the future, which include the clinic he is building for the Dinkas. In this part he both defends and criticizes American culture and foreign policy.

God Grew Tired of Us is an engaging book that may tell many reader an important story that they missed in the news. Many public libraries should add the book.

Dau, John Bul. God Grew Tired of Us. National Geographic, 2007. ISBN 9781426201141

In a Sunburned Country by Bill Bryson

By now I should have read or listened to In a Sunburned Country, Bill Bryson's entertaining journey across the island/country/continent of Australia. The book has been around for seven years, during which several people have said, "Hey, mate, give it a go!" I had already enjoyed A Walk in the Woods, his difficult hike along the Appalachian Trail, which in a bizarre way made me want to try the trail, too.

However, I had also tried to read I'm a Stranger Here Myself, his trip around the U.S., which I found irksome. In that book, I felt that he belittled the clerks, waitresses, and other small town folk he met. I only read a couple of chapters in before I gave it up. Now I wonder whether it was really so bad or whether I was in a bad mood. Maybe I stopped too soon. Maybe he was having a bad time.

I had no problems with In a Sunburned Country. Within minutes of starting to listen to it on audio book, read by the author himself, I was laughing out loud about some witty observations about the enormity of the land down under. Perhaps it is a crazy place because of the ill-conceived way in which it was colonized, Bryson poses, as he muses on its history. As a listener I was impressed not only by his wit but also by the fact that he had done his homework.

Bryson does find it a problem getting everywhere he wants to go, for the distances are so great. He and his various companions rent a series of sometimes less than ideal vehicles. He also at odd times decides "It's a pretty day, I think I'll walk," which of course leads to sunburn and the great need for several rounds of beer. Some wild dogs scare him pretty badly, and the flies can be maddening.

I like that he goes into every museum that he finds and reports on the wonders therein. It is just what I would do. There are some pretty strange things presented with great skill by the museum professionals in the country. Oh, I wish I could go to Australia.

I should mention poisonous creatures. Bryson finds that there are more in Australia than anywhere else in the world. Snakes, spiders, fish, worms, and so on. He is always watching for them.

There are lots of copies of this book in libraries, so you can probably find one pretty quickly. Enjoy yourself. Prepare to laugh.

Bryson, Bill. In a Sunburned Country. Broadway Books, 2000. ISBN 0767903862; Bantam Doubleday Dell Audio, p2000. 10 compact discs, 055350259X.

Forty Ways to Look at Winston Churchill by Gretchen Rubin

Author Gretchen Rubin wrote this entertaining book for readers who want to know something but not everything about Winston Churchill. Its forty chapters, some quite short, are essays, quizzes, and lists that present various views of the famous British prime minister about whom many huge books are written. Some essays are like Opposing Viewpoint books, giving evidence for contrary assertions, such "Churchill was an alcoholic" and "Churchill was not an alcoholic." The result is an engaging portrait of the man Rubin says was the real James Bond. I will include Forty Ways to Look at Winston Churchill in the biography readers' advisory guide that I am writing because Rubin has broken out of the big book biography mold with this creatively organized book. It might be described as "biography lite" but she really did capture the essential life in her small book, which should appeal to many busy readers. More libraries should have it. The author has also written a similar book about President Kennedy, which is also under-represented in libraries.

Rubin, Gretchen. Forty Ways to Look at Winston Churchill: A Brief Account of a Long Life. Ballantine Books, 2003. 307p. ISBN 0345450477.

Two University of Texas Grads in Reference

It is not often in a far northerly library to find two graduates of the University of Texas library school in one library. For the next month or so, Brent Lipinski is joining us in the public services department at Thomas Ford to answer questions at our reference desk, while we search for a new reference librarian.

Brent started at Thomas Ford in 1998 when he was still in high school. Most of his time with us has been spent at the circulation desk, checking thousands upon thousands of items for the our clients. He has also set up meeting rooms, shelved books, and kept us in good humor with his infectious personality.

Brent is the one on the left with hair. He graduated in 2007. My degree was issued in 1978. According to his degree he is really an information scientist with some library classes, but he seems to have a good grasp on everything reference. It is good to have him around again.

Hook 'em Horns!

Technology Competencies and Training for Libraries by Sarah Houghton-Jan

It has been my intention to review Technology Competencies and Training for Libraries by Sarah Houghton-Jan when I finish reading the report for a couple of weeks. The problem is I have no idea if I will ever actually finish reading. Sarah's paragraphs are full of statements and questions that act like electrical charges on my brain, and I start thinking about my library and many possibilities to help the staff better serve our clients. I usually only get a couple of pages read at a sitting. Sometimes I only get through a couple of paragraphs. I am enjoying the process. Maybe I do not want to finish.

In logical fashion Sarah starts with the question of what technical competencies are. Instead of just offering a simple definition, she prompts and assists librarians to come up with definitions that suit their own needs. She follows with reasons why the librarians should even care. The crime, she asserts, is that libraries often do not expect enough from their employees, when if only they would ask for more and then help educate them, they would be happier. The goal is to equalize service for the public and foster a culture of learning in the staff.

This is one of the questions (paraphrased) that particularly sparked my thoughts: what should library clients know and does this influence what staff should know?

I remember that when my libraries first started offering public computers we expected much more from the public than from the staff. We had statements in user agreements saying that the clients were responsible for knowing computer programs and that little instruction was offered. Staff might help turn the computers on or put paper into the copiers. The attitude seemed to be that staff did not have time to help with computers. The underlying facts was that most staff members at the time had no idea how to help.

I think the staffs in my libraries quickly realized that the above unhelpful attitude was contrary to our mission, and we quickly found time for individual assistance/instruction. We started taking classes and attending workshops from which we learned to give our own classes to the public.

At Thomas Ford Memorial Library, we have now been teaching our Beginning Internet class for over ten years. There was a slight dip in attendance a few years ago, but registrations have increased again recently. I think the need to use computers has nearly reached everyone now. Not everyone is happy with that, but they have to turn somewhere, and the public library is where they turn. In the past two weeks in our "Book a Librarian" program, I have helped several people who had been resisting computers for years. A couple of them said to me that they did not really want to learn but felt they had to do it.

So getting back to Sarah's Technology Competencies and Training for Libraries. It is good for library professional and support staff to meet competencies. It may be especially helpful to get reluctant staff up to speed because they can empathize and be more patient with reluctant clients better some technical whizzes.

The latter part of Sarah's report details how through staff participation to create a technology competencies document and start meeting its objectives. It looks very helpful.

Technology Competencies and Training for Libraries looks like an item that ought to be in lots of libraries, but there are only 53 identified through Worldcat. Maybe many copies are still in the hands of the original purchasers, who are studying them - like me. I suspect a lot of cash strapped libraries are reluctant to part with $63 and postage. I would like to see ALA sell this report for half the price (while still paying Sarah for all her effort). They might sell many more copies.

I see a few additional copies hidden under the records of Library Technology Reports [1976 to] in our consortium catalog. You have to already know its there to look there. I think it would be found by more librarians if treated like a book.

73 pages printed as a serial, this work might be 120 to 150 pages if published as a book.

I do promise to finish soon and get our copy into the collection so others can borrow it. Soon. Really.

Houghton-Jan, Sarah. Technology Competencies and Training for Libraries. ALA Techsource, March/April 2007. ISSN 0024-2586. Phone orders, 1-800-545-2433, press 5.

Chanel: Her Life, Her World, and the Woman Behind the Legend She Herself Created by Edmonde Charles-Roux

This is an alert. As I continue to work on my book about biographies, I find great older titles that might be in danger of being withdrawn from libraries. Chanel by Edmonde Charles-Roux is a prime example. It is as good a read today as 32 years ago. According to Worldcat, there are still 643 copies in libraries. If you have it, don't withdraw it. It will be in my book. Here is a first draft of it's entry.

Charles-Roux, Edmonde. Chanel: Her Life, Her World, and the Woman Behind the Legend She Herself Created. Translated from the French by Nancy Amphoux. Knopf, 1975. 380p. ISBN 0394476131.

Why has there been no television miniseries about Coco Chanel? Her life reads like a racy French novel. She not only created perfumes, the first modern women's bathing suit, and the first little black dress, she also convinced women to throw away corsets, shorten their skirts, and wear costume jewelry without apology. She met royalty and knew all of Europe's most famous fashion designers. Former editor of French Vogue Edmonde Charles-Roux also reveals she kept shocking secrets until her death in 1971. Truly biography that reads like fiction.

Subjects: Chanel, Coco; Fashion Designers; Twentieth Century; Women.

Story Line: Celebrity Biography; Great Achievement; Rags to Riches; Romance.

Now try:?

I have not yet decided what books to recommend to readers who enjoyed Chanel. Have any suggestions?

Tiger Cubs at the Brookfield Zoo

I only noticed yesterday that Blogger now has an easy way to load videos, so I am testing it with this short showing the two tiger cubs at the Brookfield Zoo.

The cubs were in the den until just about ten days ago. They already weigh 75 pounds each, but they still are very much kittens.

I am typing as the video loads. It is taking a while on DSL. I am glad I only chose the 33 second clip and not the longer one to load.

Lose Your Mother: A Journey Along the Atlantic Slave Route by Saidiya Hartman

In Lose Your Mother: A Journey Along the Atlantic Slave Route, Saidiya Hartman spends a year in Ghana seeking understanding of herself as the descendant of slaves. Not knowing from where in Africa her ancestors came, she chooses Ghana because it was a center for the slave trade with several key ports. She expects to bond with the people among whom she is going to live, as she thinks their lives have a common heritage. She instead finds she is always considered a stranger, just the kind of person who might be sold into slavery.

When the Portuguese first came to Ghana, just before Columbus sailed to America, they brought slaves "harvested" along the western coast of Africa to Ghana to trade for gold and other items. Slavery had long been a component of African life, as tribes captured and traded members of other tribes. Only later would the ports to ship slaves be built in the country. Hartman's descriptions of the history of the trade, the reducing of lives to commodities, is shocking, even though we have heard much of it time and time again. Every man, woman, and child is measured against quantities of tobacco, sugar, coffee, copper pots, or brass bracelets.

In Lose Your Mother, Hartman longs to be embraced by the Ghanaians as a sister, but she finds that they are suspicious of her. A few welcome rich Americans for the money they bring, but many cannot understand why they come, for to be the child of a slave is to their thinking shameful. There is also an underlying sense of guilt for having ancestors who traded slaves.

Hartman is a great writer. Her thought-provoking chapters are essays on various aspects of the slave trading past and the depressed present in Africa. Lose Your Mother is on the surface a travel memoir, but deeper down, it is a sometimes angry meditation on slavery and its legacy. It should be in more libraries than it is.

Hartman, Saidiya. Lose Your Mother: A Journey Along the Atlantic Slave Route. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007. ISBN 0374270821.

Doctors without Borders in Chicago

Doctors without Borders 025
Originally uploaded by ricklibrarian.

Lisa, who served as a nurse on a six month mission for Medecins Sans Frontieres in the southern area of the Sudan, demonstrated how medicines were kept cold until time to use them in a refugee camp. MSF, known in the U.S. as Doctors Without Borders, buys drugs locally if possible, but often the organization has to ship the drugs in and deliver them packed to stay cold. Yellow fever, cholera, measles, and meningitis are among the inoculations MSF staff give regularly.

Bonnie and I took an informative 45-minute tour of the demonstration camp, which told what and why MSF works in refugee camps throughout the world. Of course, we could only imagine the true state of things, as it was a beautiful warm day in Chicago in Grant Park. We had no tropical rain, mud, blistering heat, horrible stench from latrines or dirty people, swarms of insects, or fear that we would be attacked in the night. Currently there are 33 million people in refugee camps around the world.

You can find more information on the MSF-USA website. Books about the organization include Hope in Hell by Dan Bortolotti and Forgotten War: Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

Like the legendary circus that it depicts, the novel Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen is an entertainment. It is a quick paced story set in the Depression Era with a memorable climax and a lot of historical detail. What it lacks, however, is believability.

A couple of things bother me. The first is that when Jacob returns home for his parents funeral, the will is read very quickly and the bank takes everything almost immediately. The support network of church people and his father's veterinary clients is apparent one day and disappears the next. The bank and the community would have been better with Jacob taking over his father's veterinary practice. I think the whole set up is improbable.

The second thing that bothers me is Jacob's actions are almost completely predictable. He disregards all danger, falls for the beautiful woman (a character without any depth), fights the bad guys, etc. There is a template for this character in many other "young man faced with hardship" stories. The bad guys are also cookie cutter characters. Jacob's friend Walter is the only character in the primary story that I really liked.

I do, however, like the alternate story of Jacob at 90 or 93 (he can't remember his age). Again, he is a bit predictable but he seems more believable. I can imagine people actually facing his problems. His eventual fate is a clever twist to the story.

The best part of the book is all the circus life description. It made me wonder about the history of circuses. Did owners often withhold pay? Was there a hierarchy among the circus family? Did circuses have orchestras? What were the living conditions for humans and animals? Were the men always so drunk? How many circuses were run out of town? Some readers may ask for some nonfiction books to see how accurate Water for Elephants is.

Gruen, Sara. Water for Elephants. Algonquin Books, 2006. ISBN 1565124995.

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