Off with Their Heads! A Cover Art Mystery Stalks the Book World by Nara Schoenberg, Chicago Tribune

I was always told not to cut off feet when taking photos. It is a rule that probably goes back to nineteenth century studio portraits of ladies and gentlemen, politicians, generals, and outlaws. I was told that it was alarming or at least awkward to view people whose legs ended somewhere just above their ankles. According to this thinking, a photo without a head would be shocking. Well, look at the book covers of many recent novels for a shock.

According to Nara Schoenberg of the Chicago Tribune in her article "Off with Their Heads! A Cover Art Mystery Stalks the Book World" in the Wednesday, March 12, 2008 issue of the newspaper, the headless woman is a fad in cover art for fiction. Her article includes ten examples for readers to see. The cover of Fourth Comings by Megan McCafferty shows a young woman in high boots slouching on a couch. The paperback of The View from Castle Rock by Alice Munro has a headless woman on a towel on a beach. Prama by Jamie Ponti shows three headless teens in prom dresses. Even the historical novel Jane Boleyn by Julia Fox shows a woman in Tudor dress only up to the neck.

"Why?" Schoenberg asks. Of course, being a journalist she asks people in the book marketing industry, and many reasons are offered. One of the most interesting explanations is that without the face, readers (mostly women) can more easily imagine themselves as the heroine.

Where are the headless men? Schoenberg says that a few they can be found on some of steamy romance paperbacks.

Now I have something else to do at PLA in late March. Instead of asking vendors about database features and the best button makers, I'll be looking for headless book cover art.

The World Without Us by Alan Weisman

A drive into Chicago in March will collaborate the message of The World Without Us by Alan Weisman. The expressway is pitted with potholes. The train trestles are rusted. The windows are all broken in abandoned factories. Brush is growing behind the warehouses. Houses need painting. Shingles need replacing. Everything is trying to return to a natural state. Without people maintaining the architecture, the prairies and woodlands would soon return.

Weisman has done a lot of thinking about what would happen to the earth if people disappeared, and his conclusion is that the planet would adapt and survive. Many of the plants and animals that depend on humans for their existence (pets, farm animals, rats, hybrid crops, etc.) would also soon disappear, but wild species would recover. In some ways, the planet would benefit greatly, and the sooner the better. The role of humans on the planet is that of virus, and the earth is seeking a cure.

The author's descriptions of the earth without us almost make the reader wish it would happen. That is not his intention. The point is that the forces of nature have these tendencies and we should work with instead of against them.

Weisman includes some warnings:

• When a major earthquake hits Istanbul, the destruction will be worse than when the hurricane hit New Orleans.
• Plastic debris is breaking up into tiny bits that choke microorganisms and are threatening the food chain.
• All of the atomic power plants will become like volcanoes if they are abandoned.

Near the end of the book, the author offers some prescriptions for a sustainable future with humans. The largest point is that the human population needs to be managed and reduced dramatically.

Reading The World Without Us is like seeing the earth from space for the first time and it will change many readers. It would make a great discussion book. It should be in every public library collection.

Weisman, Alan. The World Without Us. Thomas Dunne Books, 2007. ISBN 9780312347291

Volver: a Film by Pedro Almodovar

Do you believe in ghosts? Raimunda (Penelope Cruz) does not. She is a modern women trying to raise a daughter in a culture that persists in its superstitions. Even a move to the city has not helped her escape in the Spanish film Volver by director Pedro Almodovar. Yet, there is a mystery that she can not explain, if only she will notice.

Volver is a film about women. The initial scene is a cemetery full of old and young women polishing tombs and headstones. There is not a man to be seen there nor in the next several scenes. I began to wonder if the whole movie would be devoid of men. They seemed very irrelevant to the plot. I eventually I realized that it was the sins of men that created all the problems that the women in this film suffered. The only sympathetically portrayed male is a young man from a film company who hires Raimunda to serve the film crew lunch.

Throughout Volver are touches of Alfred Hitchcock. The way Raimundo mops up the blood from around a body and the way she throws the corpse into a freezer remind me of Psycho. The way the plot slowly reveals itself reminds me of Rear Window. How the director makes something real out of something that could not be suggests Vertigo.

When looking at the cover, disregard the claim that the film is a comedy. It is a very serious film with a few humorous movements. There are some story elements that will disturb sensitive viewers near the ending.

I am pleased to see many libraries in my area already own the DVD. I recommend it highly.

Major League Baseball vs Bloggers: A Librarian's Perspective

Nolan Ryan Pitching to Ryne Sandburg
Originally uploaded by ricklibrarian.

I posted this photo of Nolan Ryan pitching to Ryan Sandburg on this blog once before. The reaction to it was "Wow, two hall-of-famers! I wish I had been at the game." That is a natural fan reaction, and my posting the photo is free marketing for Major League Baseball. What could be wrong with that?

In his column in the Chicago Tribune on Wednesday, March 5, Internet critic Steve Johnson reported that Major League Baseball is ready to clamp down on bloggers, who they think are stealing from them when they blog about the games that they attend. According to Johnson, they are following the misguided lead of the National Football League. MLB seems most concerned about photos. Johnson reports from sports industry sources that the league will restrict bloggers to posting seven game related photos from a game AND they must be taken down within 72 hours.

Who would ever want to take a photo down? The fact that MLB is letting any posting at all must mean there is debate within the ranks of the executives. Someone there must see how fans naturally want to share their excitement. The bloggers are their friends, if they would only realize it, but greed has blinded their eyes.

This makes me think about library conferences. Association executives could take the viewpoint that bloggers should be repressed. "Why let someone who did not pay for the conference know what was said?" Fortunately, librarians love to share and are concerned with the education and development of the whole profession, including those who can not afford to attend conferences. Reports from conferences do make some want to attend subsequent events.

Librarians should count their blessings that they do not have to contend with the millionaires and billionaires of Major League Baseball. They're no fun anymore.

Members of my family will be in Arizona soon and are attending a Cubs spring training game. I am not getting to go this time, but I look forward to seeing fan photos on Flickr. There are lots of fan photos on Flickr. Don't tell MLB.

The Warmest Room in the House: How the Kitchen Became the Heart of the Twentieth-Century American Home by Steven Gdula

Butter was once a USDA food group, according to The Warmest Room in the House: How the Kitchen Became the Heart of the Twentieth-Century American Home by Steven Gdula, a microhistory of 20th century American food culture. Though I can not seem to find the statement now, I am sure he said that butter was the eighth of eight groups and that the USDA said that you needed to eat some every day (at least until margarine was invented).

There are many other startling statements in the book. On page 84, Gdula quotes FDA Commissioner George Larrick, who in 1956 said, "Our industry will not have done its job until housewives buy most of their meals as packaged, ready-to-serve items." That was government policy in support of corporate agriculture.

Though the author says that the kitchen is the topic of The Warmest Room in the House, the focus seems broader to me. How the kitchen transformed from a hellishly-hot sinkhole to a shiny, comfortable room where you entertain guests is one of the major plots, but there are many others. He chronicles trends in meat eating and vegetarianism, the appliance industry, government food regulation, the restaurant industry, and food habits displayed through motion pictures and television. He also concentrates on the history of cookbooks and the home economics movement, as well as diet crazes through the century.

That is a lot to cover in 209 pages. Gluda's text is economic in that he tells his stories relatively quickly and then tells more. I especially enjoyed reading about the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, mentally reliving my childhood through food memories.

Gluda's book is packed with provocative details and would be a good discussion book.

Gdula, Steven. The Warmest Room in the House: How the Kitchen Became the Heart of the Twentieth-Century American Home. Bloomsbury, 2008. ISBN 9781582343556

Finding Grace: The Face of America's Homeless: Photographs by Lynn Blodgett

I have mixed feeling about the new book Finding Grace: The Face of America's Homeless, a big photo collection by Lynn Blodgett. To its credit, it is large and impossible to miss as it sits on the new book display. Within its pages are between ninety and a hundred portraits of people from outside shelters across the United States, many from warmer states like Arizona or California. An introduction by Marian Wright Edelman gives a quick report on homelessness in our country, which should help spread the message that the homeless need help.

What bothers me is the selection of subjects and some of the photographs. Blodgett tells in his postscript how he asked some of the subjects to remove coats and shirts to get striking photos, showing the true person. The result is some very scary photos. I have not seen people who look this menacing at the shelters where I have volunteered. I can imagine some people would think twice before going into a room with these people. I do not think Blodgett meant to do this. Perhaps his sense of photographic art mislead his sense of mission.

Edelman in her introduction and Blodgett in his postscript highlight that there are many children and families seeking shelter and food, and the photographer does include some photos of families and children. There are also a few photos of people who do not look homeless at all. I wish there were more of these, as I think they represent a larger portion of the people in need than Blodgett has allotted.

The book might be good for discussions. I am sure people will disagree with me.

Blodgett, Lynn. Finding Grace: The Face of America's Homeless. Earth Aware, 2007. ISBN 9781601091055

The Long Road Home: A Story of War and Family by Martha Raddatz

The Long Road Home by ABC news correspondent Martha Raddatz is not a book for sensitive readers. It is a graphic, profane, and yet respectful account of what was expected to be another routine day of peacekeeping in Sadr City, Iraq.

On April 4, 2004, as the U.S. 1st Cavalry prepared to start its year of patrols, Mahdi militia attacked a lightly armored patrol that had been escorting a fleet of trucks carry human fecal matter. Totally surprised, the soldiers found themselves blocked from returning to base. After their transports were disabled, they dashed down an alley and broke into a home to await their rescue. Several squads that then tried quickly to rescue the soldiers found more streets filled with debris to impede their efforts. They were attacked by well-armed militia shooting from rooftops, windows, and alley ways. By the time the incident was over, eight American soldiers and countless Iraqi militia and citizens were dead.

I listened to Long Road Home on audiobook, dramatically read by Joyce Bean. I doubt that the print reading experience is quite as startling. The first disc sets the story up, including the accounts of families back at Fort Hood in Texas. The next five discs tell the battle story, and the final two discs tell of the mop up, of medical treatments, and about the procedures for the informing of family members of the casualties.

In the hardcover book, there are pictures that are missing, of course, from the audiobook. Some are rather sad to see after hearing the story.

In telling this story, Raddatz spares no feelings and offers no opinions. She lets the reader decide the merits of the U.S. occupation. The closest she comes to analysis is the final statement: "Moqtada Al-Sadr continues to be a significant problem for U.S. forces in Iraq, as he gains both political and military power through his armed militia."

Raddatz, Martha. The Long Road Home: A Story of War and Family. G. Putnam's Sons, 2007. ISBN 9780399153822

audiobook, 8 compact discs: Tantor, p2007. ISBN 9781400104468

Jeeves Intervenes: A Play from First Folio

When the eager-to-wed Gertrude Winklesworth-Bode thinks that you have potential (i.e. you are spineless, defenseless, and malleable to her designs), you need someone with a bit of gray matter to save your sweaty neck. When Sir Rupert Watlington-Pipps is threatening to cut off your allowance and send you to the jute farms of India, you need someone with a talent for strategy. If you are Bertie Wooster and his pathetic friend Eustice Bassington-Bassington (pronounced baa-sington bay-sington), you turn to the greatest of British superheroes - (pause for dramatic effect) - Jeeves.

Based loosely on the P. G. Wodehouse short story "Jeeves and the Hard-Boiled Egg," Jeeves Intervenes is classic comic theater. Bonnie and I attended a very intimate performance of the First Folio Shakespeare Festival performance on Friday night at the Mayslake Peabody Estate in Oak Brook, Illinois. The stage was set for the six-character play in the old estate's wood-paneled library. With the stage at one end of the room and risers wall-to-wall, about eighty were seated for the play. Always smart, Bonnie had gotten our tickets in advance online. There were no empty seats.

The entire cast was top drawer. I think we had seen all of them in other First Folio productions. We were laughing nearly the moment the lights went up. Jim McCance as Jeeves calmly stepped forward with solutions to impossible problems just in the nick of time. Christian Gray was just the wastrel that Bertie should be, and Kevin McKillip was hilarious as his dim-witted friend Eustace.

I would recommend that you go, but the last performance was yesterday. What I can recommend is that you try other First Folio productions, especially the summer Shakespeare performances. We've been going for years.

You can find the original "Jeeves and the Hard-Boiled Egg" online at Classic Reader.

Author Fakes Holocaust Story

Libraries will again have to decide how to handle a nonfiction title that has turned out to be fiction. Misha Defonseca has admitted that her story of escaping the Nazis during World War II and living with wolves was a fabrication. Misha: A Memoire of the Holocaust Years has been translated into eighteen languages and made into a film in France. The New York Times has the story.

It is hard to believe that it has already been two years since the A Million Little Pieces controversy. At that time I argued for keeping the item in nonfiction because moving it would require us to start weighing the veracity of many other nonfiction books, some of which I named. I think I would still stick with that position. What do you think?

Wrigley Field's Last World Series: The Wartime Chicago Cubs and the Pennant of 1945 by Charles N. Billington

The Chicago Cubs played their first Cactus League game yesterday against the San Francisco Giants and won. Could it be a pennant season? A world championship season? It has been 100 years since the Cubbies won the World Series and 63 years since the team was even in the Series. It seems a good time, while hopes are high, to suggest Wrigley Field's Last World Series: The Wartime Chicago Cubs and the Pennant of 1945 by Charles N. Billington, a close look at the last season that resulted in a National League Championship for Chicago.

The author first sets the scene with an account of all the National League teams during the World War II years. President Franklin D. Roosevelt wanted baseball to continue through the national struggle, so people on the home front, including families of soldiers and defense industry workers, would have something other than just war on the radio and in the daily papers. What the president did not offer to teams were deferments, and many of the sport's top players ended up in military service. This left major league rosters loaded with older and younger players, a few with strange injuries, and some who had war effort jobs in the off season, including farmers.

Because federal transportation regulators imposed travel limits, the Cubs held 1945 spring training in French Lick, Indiana. Few player appeared at the camp in the initial week, which was just as well, as the fields were flooded from heavy rains. Team management was uncertain who from the previous year was available, as draft boards were reassessing their previous 4-F decisions and several players were holding out for better salaries. The situation was so bad that the Cubs actually allowed walk-ons to take part in intra-squad games.

The bulk of the book is a daily account of the season with profiles of many of the players, like Andy Pafko, Phil Cavvaretta, Stan Hack, Claude Passeau, and Hank Borowy. Billington describes key games and tells how the results of each series with the other National League teams. The team won a lot of games in the summer and won just enough in September to edge out the St. Louis Cardinals for the pennant.

The story of the 1945 World Series against the Detroit Tigers will remind Cub fans of every other time their hopes have been dashed against the brick wall behind outfield ivy.

Wrigley Field's Last World Series is a bit too detailed for someone with only a passing interest in the game, but true fans will find it a very interesting read. All Chicago area public libraries should have this book. Other libraries with large baseball collections should consider it.

Billington, Charles N. Wrigley Field's Last World Series: The Wartime Cubs and the Pennant of 1945. Lake Claremont Press, 2005. ISBN 1893121453

54

Born in 1954, I am 54 today. It was not a Leap Year. I was told many times as a child that I was almost a Leap Baby, but I grew up to be a reference librarian. I look these things up.

When I was 42, I remember thinking about how my dad died at 63 and my grandfather at 84. I wondered whether I had reached the midpoint of my life or whether I was two-thirds done. Now, that I'm 54, I again hope I'm only at the half-way mark.

I was born at 6:00 a.m. and have been an early riser ever since. I was up before my birthday moment this morning as usual. Four years ago, I attended the Public Library Association Conference in Seattle. Even then I was up before 4:00 a.m. to greet the moment. I did not go back to sleep. It was exciting becoming 50.

I can say with authority that I am not obsolete. I can not even imagine retiring, as I am still trying new things:

• I am writing a readers' advisory book, my first book.
• I have recently learned a lot about coding webpages.
• I will be blogging at PLA.
• I want to learn to make various types of visual presentations to attach to websites.

In my family, you die with your boots on. Retiring is a silly idea.

Bonnie gave me my gifts this morning, including a box of Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans. The first bean out of the box was soap, which was not bad. I then visually identified vomit, dirt, and earthworm, but did not actually eat them. Then I found buttered popcorn, a good flavor to start my day.

Bonnie also made a carrot cake, my favorite, which I am taking to work. If you drop by early enough, you might get a piece. It'll be going fast.

Teen Services in the Latest Issue of Public Libraries

On Monday afternoon, I received the January/February 2008 issue of Public Libraries from the Public Library Association. The entire issue deals with services, programs, and materials for young adults in public libraries. Here are a few quick thoughts:

Page 17: In the article "Get Ready for Teen Tech Week 2008," an online music-making program called Splice Music is described. No downloads are required. It sounds incredible and fun. You can load your sounds and mix them and create mp3s to share. You can listen to the work of others and even make new friends.

Page 39: Laura Crossett of the Meeteetse Branch of the Park County (Wyoming) Library tells about teens in her library. As always, she gets right to the heart of the matter.

Page 61: There appear to be only two boys among around twenty girls in the tutor.com Teen Tech Week Webinar add. There also seems to be an adult male in the back. You'd get the idea that only girls use the library. That is not true here at Thomas Ford.

Page 56: "Bringing Books to Life for Teens by Having Teens Give Life to Books" tells how the Lexington Public Library in Kentucky connected teens with the local actors guild to make a play out of The Sledding Hill by Chris Crutcher.

Make sure your teen librarians know about this special issue. Give then some time to read it.

American Bloomsbury: Louisa May Alcott, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Margaret Fuller, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Henry David Thoreau by Susan Cheever

Ralph Waldo Emerson was the essential person in the creation of a remarkable community of authors in Concord, Massachusetts in the mid-nineteenth century, according Susan Cheever in American Bloomsbury. Many of the other authors who settled in the village (or in the cases of the Alcotts and Hawthorne who came and left repeatedly) came at Emerson's invitation, which was often supplemented with an offer to pay their rent. This might not have happened if Emerson's first wife had not died and left him a fortune. But it did and this collective issued The Scarlet Letter, Walden, Little Women, and Moby Dick, the core titles of American literature.

You may notice that Melville is not listed in the subtitle. He was more of a visitor than a resident, but his stay with Hawthorne transformed his writing from good old fashioned sea stories to something much deeper and more disturbing. In his case, the price of success was personal dissatisfaction.

Margaret Fuller was also a visitor, never having her own place in Concord. Her appearance always stirred the affections of Emerson and Hawthorne, both married men. She is now the least recognized of the group, but she may in a sense be the most known, as she was Hawthorne's inspiration for The Scarlet Letter and for Henry James for Portrait of a Lady. As a journalist, editor, and irrepressible character, she was an inspiration for the early feminist movement, and her tragic death unsettled the community.

Emerson, Alcott, and Hawthorne lived for years within rock-throwing distance of each other. They were in and out of each other's houses. Thoreau lived with Emerson for several years, even though his family lived nearby. He also built a little shed and lived by the pond until the new railroad made it less comfortable.

The title of the book is meant as a compliment, but it seems a little odd to me. The Concord community predates the London set. Perhaps there should be a book Concord in London. Still, American Bloomsbury is a quick read introduction to a fascinating group of people who transformed American literature. Any library that missed getting it in 2006 should make amends.

Cheever, Susan. American Bloomsbury: Louisa May Alcott, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Margaret Fuller, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Henry David Thoreau: Their Lives, Their Loves, Their Work. Simon & Schuster, 2006. ISBN 9780743264617

PLA Virtual Conference

It is just about a month until the Public Library Association Conference in Minneapolis. If you are unable to attend, there will be a first ever PLA Virtual Conference, with panel discussions, interactive workshops, and virtual poster sessions. Andrea Mercado reports on the upcoming virtual aspect of the conference on PLA Blog. She also provides a link to register.

Even though you are at home, you can be more than just a virtual attendee. You may also submit a specially created website, powerpoint, or other electronic formats to the virtual poster session. Kathleen Hughes gives more details with instructions for application. This is a good opportunity for you to share anything special that you have done at your public library.

There should also be a lot of blogging from the conference, which begins with preconferences on March 25. PLA Blog will be one obvious source. You can also watch ricklibrarian, as I plan to be there.

At Large and At Small by Anne Fadiman

I was excited when I saw that Anne Fadiman had a new book, At Large and At Small. Several years ago I enjoyed Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader immensely. I thought that I had reviewed that book here on my blog, but I can not find it. Perhaps I reviewed it at the library instead. Whatever, it was a great read.

I was pleased when I finally got the new book to see how it physically resembled the older title. Both are undersized and have attractive woodcut illustrations on the cover. They look nice shelved together, which I am sure pleases the book-loving author. They are easy to carry around and read at lunch or in bed at night.

As I said in my little piece yesterday, Fadiman's new book is a collection of familiar essays, a literary form that she says is endangered. This type of essay blends qualities of the critical essay with the personal essay. Most readers will not bother thinking about such distinctions, but will instead just enjoy her reflective writing. I most enjoyed her essay "Ice Cream" in which she mixes the history of the dessert with her personal experiences and thoughts. I laughed when she suggested that eighteenth century physician Filippo Baldini, who wrote about the benefits of eating Italian ices, might write her a prescription for Ben & Jerry's New York Super Fudge Chunk. (I might need a prescription for B&J Cherry Garcia.)

As in Ex Libris, loving books comes up again, as does living in New York. Fadiman also reveals her outdoor experiences, first as a child who collected insects and later as a guide for the rugged National Outdoor Leadership School, which she says was much tougher than Outward Bound. Every essay pleased me, except "Coffee," but my dislike of the drink is more at fault than her writing.

Not many libraries in my area have added the title yet. Perhaps my writing about it two days in a row will help. It is a charming, lively, entertaining book.

Fadiman, Anne. At Large and At Small: Familiar Essays. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007. ISBN 9780374106622.

On the Joy of Reading Mail and Email, with Notes on Elephants

This morning, as I rode our stationary bike, I read an essay "Mail" by Anne Fadiman from her collection of familiar essays called At Large and At Small. According to Fadiman, familiar essays stake a position midway between critical essays and personal essays, taking elements of both and mixing them. Through history such essays have often had titles starting with the word "On." They might be serious, as "On Going to War with Thoughts of Peace" or "On the Passing of an Old Friend." They might be light, as "On Shopping for Silk Ties" or "On the Sinking of a Toy Boat." (Those were not real titles, so do not expect them in Fadiman's book.)

In the essay "Mail" Fadiman tells us about her father who eagerly anticipated receiving an extra large delivery of mail everyday by watching for the mail carrier to lift the flag on his jumbo mailbox. He had a large desk heavier than a refrigerator on which he would sort and answer the letters that brought surprises to his routine of reading and writing. From there Fadiman tells about the history of the British postal service. Before the reform of 1939, the recipient (not the sender) paid for the mail. Her hero Charles Lamb (who wrote familiar essays) was fortunate to work at a firm that would pay his postal fees, for it could drive you toward bankruptcy to receive lots of mail. The reform with its simplifying of fees was an important move for the development of the economy and culture of Great Britain. Fadimon turns then to her own joyous story of mail and email to complete the essay. Being sentimental, she has the stamp dispenser and the copper waste basket that her father used at his desk.

After reading the essay, still riding the bike, I picked up the newsletter from the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, which Bonnie receives via email as a foster parent of an orphan elephant in Kenya. I immediately realized that I was experiencing a joy of correspondence much like Fadiman. Bonnie and I look forward to the elephant news every month. The January newsletter is particularly interesting. Dr. Dame Daphne Sheldrick assures us that the political troubles in Kenya have not reached the elephant sanctuaries. Fewer visitors have come, but those who do have ready access to the orphans. Sheldrick tells us that an eye specialist came to examine the blind orphan rhino Maxwell and diagnosed that an operation would not restore his sight. The keepers are making a special enclosure for Maxwell for his health and safety. To help him still feel part of the community, they are bringing in dung from other rhinos. Isn’t that sweet! The newsletter also tells about a walk in the bush with young elephants and their guardians. When a leg from a warthog fell from a tree, they realized that they were right under a leopard and his dinner. They beat a hasty retreat. We never have stories like that in our library newsletter!

With her newsletter, Bonnie also gets excerpts from a keeper's diary to let her know how her orphan Zurura is doing. Lately he seems to be a regular cut-up, a bit of a show-off. He has also been taking lots of mud and dust baths. There were lots of great photos with the report but none of Zurura this time. She is hoping to see him in action if Animal Planet will ever show the second season of Elephant Diaries.

You may also get this entertaining email by adopting an elephant at the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust website. It will add nicely to your letters from family, friends, and lovers.

The Geography of Bliss: One Grump's Search for the Happiest Places in the World by Eric Weiner

I kept wanting to write about The Geography of Bliss by NPR correspondent Eric Weiner as I read, but I resisted. I thought it was better to think about it as a whole at the end. I may have taken the wrong tactic, as I now find it hard to decide what to write. Weiner's text is so full of interesting data and ideas, it is difficult to know what to bring up, especially since the book comes to no grand conclusion. He never really finds happiness in a place.

The quest was grand. He was both courageous and a bit silly to go all the places that he went, asking people whether they and their neighbors were happy and why. Of course, many people thought he was a bit strange. His accounts are delightfully comic and insightful. I marked lots of pages with little orange tabs.

On page 45, Weiner tells us that Americans are alone in preferring that our ice cream shops have over fifty flavors. Most of the world is happy with about ten varieties.

On page 54, he tells us how his daughter really wants his undivided attention, which really makes her happy. Perhaps a key to being truly happy is being able to pay attention or receive attention. We are often multitasking and not feeling one bit happier for all our accomplishment.

On page 87, he comments on Americans having to have dual climate controls in cars and different comfort setting for the sides of mattresses. Through a lack of practice, we have lost our ability to compromise. This has frightening ramifications.

On page 128, the author reveals that he hoards camera bags, tote bags, and briefcases. He has a closet full of them, some unused. In view of what he says in the rest of the book, he might find happiness by donating them to a good cause. Possessions rarely make us happy unless they connect us mentally to people or places.

On page 130, he tells how studies show that out of work people are not satisfied with welfare, even when it is generous. They would rather work. The good life is not languid.

On page 211, he reports that people in helping professions, like clergy, nurses, and firefighters are happier than lawyers, bankers, and doctors. Of course, some people could argue that lawyers, bankers, and doctors are helping professions with more pay.

Funny, I seem to have marked thoughts that reflect back on Americans and not the stories about other cultures. It is the diving-into-another-culture stories that make the book worth reading.

Weiner gives us much to think about and deserves its popularity. It is in libraries everywhere.

Weiner, Eric. The Geography of Bliss: One Grump's Search for the Happiest Places in the World. Twelve, 2008. ISBN 9780446580267

Raising Sand by Robert Plant and Alison Krauss

It sounded like a strange idea when I first heard about it: Raising Sand, an album combining bluegrass artist Alison Krauss with Led Zepplin's Robert Plant. Krauss is a very versatile singer and fiddle player unbound by categories and Plant has always stretched the limits of rock, still it sounded unlikely. Of course, I remember that Zepplin used to do some electrified folk songs, like "Gallows Pole." The project was brought together by T Bone Burnett. Mike Seeger is brought in on auto harp for the final song "Your Long Journey." It sounded more interesting the more that I thought. So, I placed a hold at the library.

Well, I have been listening and want to report that it works very well. I do not know how to classify what Krauss and Plant do, but it is good. I hear rockabilly, folk, blues, country, metal, and even French art songs mixed together. Many of the songs are from the 1950s or 1960s, penned by the Everly Brothers, Gene Clark, Tom Waits, Naomi Neville, and Mel Tillis. The Hinsdale Public Library has its copy in the folk display. iTunes has it as country. It does not matter so long as you can find it.

I was not really sure it was Robert Plant singing when I started listening, as he is fairly mellow in the first couple of songs, but as I kept listening, I started to hear familiar patterns to remind me of his Led Zepplin days. When other older rock stars are singing American standards, trying to sound like Sinatra, I like it it that Plant is taking on roots music instead. I particularly like "Polly Come Home," "Gone Gone Gone," and "Please Read the Letter." "Fortune Teller" reminds me a little of "Love Potion No. 9." Krauss and Plant do everything but opera on this album.

I know what I'm going to put on my birthday list - Raising Sand.

My Face is Black is True: Callie House and the Struggle for Ex-Slave Reparations by Mary Frances Berry

Here is another book to recommend during Black History Month.

Callie House was washer woman in Nashville, Tennessee with five children when she was elected as assistant secretary of the National Ex-Slave Mutual Relief, Bounty and Pension Association in 1898. She and many ex-slaves were financially stricken and disenfranchised by recently enacted Jim Crow laws and violence led by the Ku Klux Klan. In the face of overwhelming odds, she led a call for the federal government to repay slaves for their unpaid labor.

According to Mary Frances Berry in her book My Face is Black is True, the campaign was at first ignored by federal authorities and discouraged actively by Booker T. Washington. Eventually fearing that her call could gain widespread support, the Justice Department declared that her organizing activities were fraud and persuaded the postmaster to ban her literature, with the result that she was arrested and imprisoned for one year for using the postal service.

After her release from prison in 1918, House again spent ten years as a poor washer woman in Nashville, which was then a magnet for black migration. Her movement was broken, but she was later an inspiration for Malcolm X and Martin Luther King.

Berry, Mary Frances. My Face is Black is True: Callie House and the Struggle for Ex-Slave Reparations. Alfred A. Knopf, 2005. ISBN 1400040035.

Special Orders Don't Upset Us at Thomas Ford

Lately, I have been making numerous special orders to get books not available through Baker & Taylor, Barnes & Noble, or Amazon. I'm finding most of these items through news stories or features in the Chicago Tribune. Today the item is My Fall From Grace by James J. Laski, which is touted in a column by John Kass. The columnist says that in the book "Laski discusses crooked Chicago politics, Mayor Richard M. Daley's selective memory, and the mayor's private advice to Laski on the use of 'buffers' just like in 'The Godfather' movies." The place to order this self-published book is a website called Author House.

Stop the presses: Now the book is on Amazon. I'm sure it was not there earlier. Well, pretty sure.

Earlier in the week, the book was A Mile Square of Chicago by Marjorie Warville Bear. According to columnist Eric Zorn, it is "a sprawling and meticulously detailed remembrance of the neighborhood of Bear's youth -- the area on the West Side between Ashland and Western Avenues, from Lake Street on the north to Harrison Street on the south, just after the turn of the 20th Century." In his Sunday column, Zorn reported that Bear finished the book 38 years ago and died 26 years ago. The only way to get this posthumous publication is through Google Base. I ordered the book Monday, and it was here on Wednesday.

A month ago, the book was Life is Delicious: A Collection of Recipes from the Hinsdale Junior Women's Club, which was reviewed in the "Good Eating Section" of the Tribune on January 9. Hinsdale is a neighboring suburb of Western Springs, so we wanted the book. The book is available via the organization's website. I called the toll free number and a member hand delivered the book a couple of days later.

All of these books are of local interest. We want to have as much as we can about the Chicago are for students and general readers who grew up in the area. With the library credit card and our Internet access, we continue to watch for items like these.

"Hold the pickles, hold the lettuce, special orders don't upset us."