John Wood, Nancy Pearl, and a Day at PLA

The first day of programs at the Public Library Association National Conference in Minneapolis is over. I have written reports on Book Buzz with Nancy Pearl and the opening address by John Wood, author of Leaving Microsoft to Change the World. You may find these and other conference reports at PLABlog.

After today's session, I decided to see how John Wood's book about building schools and libraries in Asia and Africa is doing in the SWAN catalog of the Metropolitan Library System (outside Chicago). I see that readers are not checking out Wood's book the way they are Greg Mortenson's Three Cups of Tea. Both were tourists who made promises to help rural communities in the Himalayas, and in both cases, the one act led to many more. Wood's organization skills are much stronger than Mortenson's and his Room to Read organization appears to have actually accomplished more to date. Both men have been on Oprah. So, why is Mortenson's book more popular?

I believe the answer is Mortenson is more of a story teller. Rather, his coauthor David Oliver Relin is more of a story teller. Wood's book appears to have more in the way of statistics and rhetoric. Also, Mortenson started trying to help when he was an impoverished nurse and accident prone climber. Wood was already a wealthy man who risked less to quit his job to help the needy. Book groups have taken up Three Cups of Tea because they like stories.

Still, I think librarians as a profession should do all they can to help Wood by promoting his book. We should display, review it, and suggest it to book groups. His goal includes building 20,000 libraries and training 40,000 librarians in third world countries by 2020.

*****

I learned today that you really can get around downtown Minneapolis without ever going outside. I left my coat in the hotel and took the Skyway to the convention center. My best time so far is twelve minutes from room to center.

Nancy Pearl did not actually speak much at the Book Buzz program. She introduced the program and let the spokespeople from several publishers promote their forthcoming books. I was most interested in Milkweed, a small nonprofit press from Minnesota.

Tomorrow the regular presentations start. I have a very full schedule.

American Association of University Women

American Association of University Women
Originally uploaded by ricklibrarian.

I did not realize that the American Association of University Women owned buildings other than the headquarters in Washington, D.C. I found this lovely building across the park from the Minneapolis Institute of the Arts yesterday. According to the local AAUW website, the group has programs in this center, including an upcoming series on civility. I am impressed.

Nancy Pearl in Minneapolis

PLA 2008 - Tuesday 024
Originally uploaded by Fremont Librarian.

Here is a photo from Freemont Librarian which reminds us that Nancy Pearl is speaking at PLA today from 10:00 a.m. to noon. FL took a whole series of these photos around the city, which you can find at his Flickr site.

Go to Flickr and search the tags for PLA2008 and you will be able to see all the latest photos from attendees.

Minneapolis Institute of Arts

Today I arrived safely in Minneapolis to attend the Public Library Association's National Conference. With an afternoon to myself before obligations, I walked down to the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, which is seven blocks directly south of the Minneapolis Convention Center. I then spent several hours wandering through the classically beautiful museum.

I think the strength of the MIA is the Asian collection. I was most impressed with its four traditional Asian rooms, including the 17th century Chinese reception room with its twelve paneled painted screen and a Japanese tea garden. The serenity of the rooms is very appealing. Other highlights of the Asian rooms are many elegant Japanese prints and scrolls, large horse sculptures from the Near East, and sculptures of the Hindu gods and goddesses.

As a full-purpose art museum, the MIA has rooms with Egyptian, Greek, and Roman art and artifacts. There is an entire room of Roman busts in which only one still has a nose. The museum also cover the full history of European art, including one room devoted to the Italian Renaissance. I especially liked the two paintings by Fra Angelico. Bonnie would have liked some of these paintings, particularly the one with colorful angel wings.

I did not see any item in the museum that I already knew from looking at art books (if you do not count the Monet haystack), but there were nice pieces nonetheless. Pastoral Landscape by Claude Gellée (called Le Lorrain), Fanatics of Tangier by Ferdinand-Victor-Eugène Delacroix, and Portrait of Mlle. Hortense Valpinçon by Edgar Degas were my favorites. There were numerous works by Vuillard and Corot.

In the decorative arts area were beautifully done period rooms with antique furniture and wall coverings. I really liked the dark paneling in the Queen Anne's room.

If you are ever in Minneapolis and if you enjoy art, the MIA is a must to see. It is free everyday. There is a #11 bus to the museum, so you do not have to walk as I did. Schedule about three hours, allowing time for a snack in the coffee shop.

Bound for PLA in Minneapolis

Tomorrow I am flying to Minneapolis to attend the Public Library Association's 12th National Conference. While I am there, I will write for PLA Blog as well as posting news, reports, and photos here. So far, I know that I will attend Nancy Pearl's Wednesday morning Book Buzz program and the opening session keynote by John Wood. Then it gets tough deciding what to attend. I will focus on programs about reference, readers' advisory, and technology.

To find other PLA reports from bloggers, try searching for PLA2008 in Technorati.

I'd better finish packing. See you in Minnesota.

The Good Rat by Jimmy Breslin

Jimmy Breslin keeps bad company in the new crime biography The Good Rat.

At age 72, mobster Burton Kaplan became a rat. He had been a stand-up criminal all his life, accepting his punishments without naming names. Knowing that he might become the scapegoat of an ongoing FBI investigation of organized crime and wanting to reduce a sentence that he was already serving, he became an informant in the case against two Mafia cops. It was not anything personal that made him do, as he said from the witness stand.

"About a month later Steve Caracappa came to my house with a box of cookies, and he says, Is it okay if we talk? And I says sure. I like Steve. I liked him then. I like him now. I am not doing him any good by being a rat, but I always liked him."

Caracappa is one of two bad cops that Kaplan often hired to kill mobsters that crossed him. From their squad car, they would pull the victims off the street or road, tell them that they were going to police headquarters, and then go to an auto chop shop to complete their contracts. Caracappa and his partner Lou Eppolito were efficient murderers, but they never earned enough to quit their day jobs. Kaplan was a tough negotiator.

Using sworn testimony and his observations of the court case, Breslin explores the character and methods of Kaplan and his associates, men who killed without regret. The journalist says that their Mafia world is now impoverished, as government run lotteries have taken away most of their business. Most of today's mobsters are losers who don't like to do real work. Being a man who enjoyed work and pinching a penny, Kaplan manipulated the mob well without being a "made member" for years.

True crime readers will enjoy Breslin's entertaining and economic prose.

Breslin, Jimmy. The Good Rat: A True Story. Harper Collins, 2008. 270p. ISBN 9780060856663.

Pulitzer Prize for Biography Publishers, 1917-2007

I have been working on my biography book again. Actually, I never stop. Right now I am going through all the lists of awards given to biographies. When I cut and paste all the authors and titles from the Pulitzer Prize for Biography list, I am left with just years and publishers names in the original document. It looks pretty cool, all the bold dates among the publisher names. It also pretty interesting to see how frequently some publishers' names appear. The more recent dates are links that will take you to book titles and prize amounts. If you want to analyze this information, feel free.

1917 (Houghton) 1918 (Putnam) 1919 (Houghton) 1920 (Houghton) 1921 (Scribner) 1922 (Macmillan) 1923 (Houghton) 1924 (Scribner) 1925 (Little) 1926 (Oxford Univ. Press) 1927 (Knopf) 1928 (Doubleday) 1929 (Houghton) 1930 (Bobbs) 1931 (Houghton) 1932 (Harcourt) 1933 (Dodd) 1934 (Dodd) 1935 (Scribner) 1936 (Little) 1937 (Dodd) 1938 (Little) 1938 (Bobbs) 1939 (Viking) 1940 (Doubleday) 1941 (Macmillan) 1942 (Lippincott) 1943 (Little) 1944 (Knopf) 1945 (Knopf) 1946 (Knopf) 1947 (Macmillan) 1948 (Little) 1949 (Harper) 1950 (Knopf) 1951 (Houghton) 1952 (Macmillan) 1953 (Harvard Univ. Press) 1954 (Scribner) 1955 (Harper) 1956 (Oxford Univ. Press) 1957 (Harper) 1958 (Scribner) 1959 (Longmans) 1960 (Little) 1961 (Knopf) 1962 no award 1963 (Lippincott) 1964 (Harvard Univ. Press) 1965 (Harvard Univ. Press) 1966. (Houghton) 1967 (Simon & Schuster) 1968 (Little) 1969 (Oxford Univ. Press) 1970 (Knopf) 1971 (Holt) 1972 (Norton) 1973 (Scribner) 1974 (Little) 1975 (Knopf) 1976 (Harper) 1977 (Little, Brown) 1978 (Harcourt) 1979 (Macmillan) 1980 (Coward, McCann) 1981 (Knopf) 1982 (Norton) 1983 (Congdon & Weed) 1984 (Oxford U. Press) 1985 (Harper & Row) 1986 (Alfred A. Knopf) 1987 (William Morrow) 1988 (Little, Brown and Company) 1989 (Alfred A. Knopf) 1990 (Princeton University Press) 1991 (Clarkson N. Potter) 1992. (Grove Weidenfeld) 1993 (Simon & Schuster) 1994 (Henry Holt) 1995 (Oxford University Press) 1996 (Alfred A. Knopf) 1997 (Scribner) 1998 Alfred A. Knopf) 1999 (G.P. Putnam's Sons) 2000 (Random House) 2001 (Henry Holt and Company 2002 (Simon & Schuster) 2003 (Alfred A. Knopf) 2004 (W.W. Norton) 2005 (Alfred A. Knopf). 2006 (Alfred A. Knopf) 2007 (Doubleday)

Profiles in Courage by John F. Kennedy

Readers of Profiles in Courage by John F. Kennedy will realize that there is another rarely mentioned loss due to his assassination in 1963 - he did not write more books. Known as an engaging speaker, he also wrote well and had five books to his credit. As youngest president, he might have had many years of writing after his administration. Of course, that is only speculation, as he also had many serious physical problems. He might have died young anyway. He did not get the chance and we will never know.

Profiles in Courage was Kennedy's best known book. In it, he praises the courage of eight U.S. senators, many of whom he would have disagreed with politically. Each of these men risked their political careers to support unpopular positions in which they believed. The first was John Quincy Adams who broke rank with his Federalist colleagues to support President Jefferson's embargo of British goods in retaliation to impressment of American sailors. He also tells stories about Daniel Webster, Thomas Hart Benton, Sam Houston, Edmund G. Ross, Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar, George Norris, and Robert A. Taft. For all, the struggle was voting according to their conscience or according to the directives of their parties and constituents.

Sometimes, the personal details struck me as very interesting. I know that it is very obvious, but I had never realized before that John Quincy Adams, who was the son of a president and lived to be very old, knew Benjamin Franklin and George Washington and Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas.

In his introduction, Kennedy said something very interesting about party politics of his time:

"The two-party system remains not because both are rigid but because both are flexible. The Republican Party when I entered Congress was big enough to hold, for example, both Robert Taft and Wayne Morse - and the Democratic side of the Senate in which I now serve can happily embrace, for example, Harry Byrd and Wayne Morse."

What Kennedy implied was that there was not much real difference in the parties. There was more difference in the people who served within the parties. While that seems to have changed much in the fifty years since the publication of Profiles in Courage, it is still difficult to go against the dictates of one's party.

I had to look up Morse, who turns out to have been a progressive who left the Republican Party in protest over Eisenhower choosing Nixon as his vice president candidate in 1952. He served in the Senate as an independent for several years and then ran against Kennedy for the Democratic nomination for president in 1960.

I first read Profiles in Courage on the couch in my grandmother's house in the late 1960s. It is just as good now.

Kennedy, John F. Profiles in Courage. Harper & Brothers, 1956.

Andrew Keen: Provocateur and Nothing More: A LibrarianInBlack Report

The LibrarianInBlack attended a symposium at the University of California-Berkeley called "Is the Web a Threat to Our Culture?" The two speakers were Andrew Keen, author of Cult of the Amateur, and Paul Duguid, an adjunct professor at the UCB School of Information. Sarah quickly produced a lengthy and thought-provoking account of the evening, including questions from the audience and her own thoughts. Librarians interested in the impact of technology on their work will find the account helpful. I recommend her report.

Chasing Kangaroos: A Continent, A Scientist, and a Search for the World's Most Extraordinary Creature by Tim Flannery

We live in the Age of Kangaroos, a time when roos dominate the plains, deserts, and forests, if you recognize an Australian perspective. (If you do, you probably also like the world maps with the South Pole at the top.) We missed the Age of the Koalas and the Age of Wombats, when large creates browsed and grazed across the island continent. The evidence is in the fossils discovered by Tim Flannery, author of Chasing Kangaroos: A Continent, A Scientist, and a Search for the World's Most Extraordinary Creature.

In this part-memoir/part-kangaroo history, Flannery tells us how a natural scientist seeks evidence of species both living and long dead to complete an evolutionary understanding of a continental ecosystem. Though much of the work is out in the field, some of the methods will surprise you. Early in his career, Flannery was taught by British paleontologists that the easiest way to find fossils in Australia is head to the local pub for a pint of strong brew. Look behind the bar and you'll usually find a row of interesting rocks and bones. The bartender will tell you who found them and where to head. Take some bottles to go, for it will be hot where he sends you.

Flannery also has some unique fossil cleaning skills. When fearful that his tools might break a small specimen, he pops it in his mouth and lets his tongue work at removing ancient grit.

Flannery has been successful in his work, having identified and named four Australian species of tree kangaroos. His book is also entertaining and insightful. Look for it in your library.

Flannery, Tim. Chasing Kangaroos: A Continent, A Scientist, and a Search for the World's Most Extraordinary Creature. Grove Press, 2007. ISBN 9780802118523.

The Times Club in Iowa City

The Times Club
Originally uploaded by ricklibrarian.

Iowa City is literarily a pretty interesting place. I knew about the Iowa Writer's Workshop, which began in 1936. Scores of famous novelists, poets, playwrights, essayists, and nonfiction authors have attended the workshop. I did not know about the Times Club until I read about it in an exhibit about the Writer's Workshop in the basement of the Old State Capitol. We then found the room in the Prairie Lights Bookstore. It is now a coffee shop and deli, which is somewhat in keeping with the history of the room that was visited by the likes of Robert Frost, Carl Sandburg, Langston Hughes, and e. e. cummings, as well as artists like Thomas Hart Benton and Grant Wood. The room is a historically inspiring place to read.

The Prairie Lights Bookstore has racks full of famous author postcards for sale. I have not seen them anywhere else.

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?