How Not to Die: Surprising Lessons on Living Longer, Safer, and Healthier from America's Favorite Medical Examiner by Jan Garavaglia

I have not seen Dr. G: Medical Examiner because we do not get Discovery Health in our cable television package, but it sounds like an interesting program. Autopsies are always attention getting in drama series. Reenactments by a real medical examiner must be riveting. Jan Garavaglia describes some of what she does on the show in How Not to Die: Surprising Lessons on Living Longer, Safer, and Healthier from America's Favorite Medical Examiner. Mostly, however, she tells stories with a recurring theme - the dead who landed in her morgue often did not have to die prematurely. Sensible living and a little care could have saved many of them. Of course, many people will never live sensibly - especially men. She has an entire chapter devoted to how men die younger due to a combination of genes, hormones, and stupidity.

Every chapter starts with a mysterious death that Garavaglia needs to solve so the police will know if there is a crime and/or the family (if there is one) can understand why their loved one died. After the story, the medical examiner puts the story into a cultural context and tells why the death was preventable.

The message strikes home with me. As I grew up in a small West Texas town, there were frequent deaths from road and oil field accidents. I graduated small high school in a class of 56. Of those 56, five men had died by their mid-40s: one auto accident with speed and alcohol involved, two deaths from AIDS, one from a rare leukemia, and one from an epileptic seizure. Garavaglia would score at least three of those as preventable.

Garavagia's book is somewhat like the driver's ed films that show bloody automobile crashes, but it is more entertaining. It does have some shock value, as she describes handling the decaying tissues of people who lived miserable lives. Perhaps that is what is needed. I think maybe I'll get that medical exam I've been putting off.

Garavaglia, Jan. How Not to Die: Surprising Lessons on Living Longer, Safer, and Healthier from America's Favorite Medical Examiner. Crown Publishers, 2008.

Week in Review

Elephant Eyes
Originally uploaded by ricklibrarian.

Several significant things happened this week.

1. I learned that my book is now officially in production. I will still have to proof from the galleys and complete the index. The release date is not yet set.

2. My friend Aaron Schmidt has a new job. He tells about the new position on his blog Walking Paper.

3. Thomas Ford had an in service day on Friday, at which we visited the La Grange Public Library's new building which is so much nicer than its old building. The elephant is a detail from its children's story hour room. I was impressed by the room for the teens and the attractive way back issues of magazines are displayed.

1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die

If you let it, 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die can leave you very depressed. There are so many books that look good, and it reminds you that the clock is ticking. You only have so long left to read until you'll no longer be able to lift a book and turn a page. While the dust jacket suggests the pleasure of reading on vacation, the illustration across from the title page is of a skeleton. Tick, tick, tick.

Could I have a casket with a perpetual audiobook player?

Flipping through the pages, looking at the author photos and illustrations of original dust jackets, I see lots of books that I have read already. Crime and Punishment, The Great Gatsby, Gulliver's Travels, 1984, Babbitt, Catcher in the Rye, The Hours, White Teeth, ... I have even read the two final books in the list, Saturday by Ian McEwan and Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro. So I have a head start. But maybe I'd like to reread some of those.

If I read 20 books per year (allowing plenty of time to read something else), I'd need to live to be 104, which would be alright with me. If I only worked at these 1001 book, maybe I could finish in 8 to 10 years. But I do not want to give up reading and writing about nonfiction. Why is there no nonfiction in this book? Hmmm, someone want to write 1001 Nonfiction Books to Read While You're Still Living?

At Thomas Ford, we have been rearranging our public spaces and creating more displays. At some point we will have an area for coffee and conversation. I'd like to see a prominent shelf of popular readers' advisory books in that area. 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die would go well there.

1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die. Universe, 2006. ISBN 9780789313706

Giants: The Parallel Lives of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln by John Stauffer

I complain sometimes about how many biographies there about high-interest historical and cultural figures. Upon finding starred reviews of new books about John F. Kennedy, Franklin Roosevelt, Elvis Presley, Princess Diana, or Marilyn Monroe, I often sigh with exasperation as I think of the crowded shelves and the dollars that I could use to get books about somebody else. Sometimes I do pass initially on buying new books about these market-dominating lives, knowing that we already have plenty of books about them, hoping the reading public will not notice, but I then get title requests and have to buy the books anyway. You would think that I would learn.

Every season seems to bring out several more books about Abraham Lincoln, and with the bicentennial of his birth in 2009, the flow of books is even higher than normal. With our budget and obligation to build a balanced collection meeting the needs of a diversity of readers, I can not buy them all. So, again, I mutter my annoyance.

The irony is that I actually enjoy reading about Abraham Lincoln. His life can be (and is) interpreted so many ways. To one author he is a hero and to another a tyrant or perhaps only a victim of circumstance. There never seems to be an end to the possible ways of looking at Lincoln. In this light, I have found Giants: The Parallel Lives of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln by John Stauffer to be worth a bit of my book budget as well as my time.

In the title, Stauffer does indicate his subject - the comparison of Douglass and Lincoln. Douglass and Lincoln were both self-made and self-educated men, born in poverty, denied schooling, large men forced to work from early ages, who somehow became eloquent speakers and leading voices of conscience at a time when America was bent on the accumulation of wealth and land. The first chapter highlights their similarities, but then the book progresses to show how the two men developed and eventually crossed paths.

Stauffer meets his obligation as an author to portray the light and dark sides of the two leaders. At points I thought Douglass was being touted as the greater man and then I thought the portrayals reversed. In the end, Stauffer seems to judge them both favorably, noting that they succeeded together in ending slavery and failed together at really improving the lives of blacks in North or South. They were helpless in swaying the racist attitudes that kept blacks poor and disenfranchised for another 100 years after the Civil War.

Stauffer is a good story teller who weaves the lives together well. Among the many Lincoln books on the market, Giants is a good selection for libraries.

Stauffer, John. Giants: The Parallel Lives of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln. Twelve, 2008. ISBN9780446580090

Panic in Level 4: Cannibals, Killer Viruses, and Other Journeys to the Edge of Science by Richard Preston

Science journalist Richard Preston practices "on the spot" reporting. When told that a person does not have to get into the boiling soup pot to understand the soup, he disagrees. He believes that experiencing danger replaces speculation with insight. In one of his stories in Panic in Level 4: Cannibals, Killer Viruses, and Other Journeys to the Edge of Science, he tells how he risked his life to get close to a deadly virus. He took the precautions of wearing a pressurized space-age suit and working with training medical professionals, but he did look straight into the petri dishes filled with viruses capable of killing him quickly and violently. It is riveting reading.

The cover illustration, title, and description of Panic in Level 4 will probably scare away some readers. A glance at the cover leads one to think the book is totally gruesome. This is unfortunate, as there are six of Preston's New Yorker articles collected in this book, not all dealing with disturbing topics. He describes Russian mathematicians seeking to find the exact number Pi, the work to save American trees from Asian parasites, the competition to discover all the gene sequences in human DNA, and work to restore the Unicorn tapestries at the Cloisters in New York. He then ends the book with a story about Lesch-Nyhan syndrome, a genetic disorder that causes young men and boys to mutilate themselves.

I listened to Panic in Level 4 read by James Lurie, who is great at voices. I could hardly stop listening and finished the 8 hours in only 3 days.

Librarians recommending Panic in Level 4 might advise readers that stories 1 and 6 include some graphic descriptions of human bodies experiencing trauma. Preston's words are as effective as photographs in medical textbooks. Some readers may abandon these stories, which is unfortunate, as the stories are fascinating. This book should be in most public libraries.

Preston, Richard. Panic in Level 4. Books on Tape, 2008. ISBN 9781415949672

American Home Front 1941-1942 by Alistair Cooke

A few weeks ago, Bonnie and I saw The Unseen Alistair Cooke on PBS Masterpiece. The program highlighted recently discovered 8mm films that Cooke made while traveling around America by car and train in the 1930s and 1040s. In both black and white and later in color, he captured the look of the country before the great transformation brought about by World War II and post-war prosperity. It was great program describing the life of the longtime journalist and television host of Masterpiece Theater. It should be on DVD but does not yet seem to be.

Wanting to know more, I checked our library catalog to see what we had. I found several books, including The American Home Front 1941-1942, which Cooke wrote during the war but never published. In the foreward to the book, Harold Evans reports that the manuscript was rediscovered in 2004, just months before Cooke died.

Unlike Alexis de Tocqueville, Charles Dickens, and Oscar Wilde, Alistair Cooke traveled around America quietly, not intentionally drawing attention to himself. Unlike these European observers, he was not really an outsider, having by the time of his 1941-1942 trip become an American citizen. Still he had an unusual perspective, having grown up in World War I Britain. People did, of course, recognize that he was not "from around these parts." Still, he had a talent for easing people from any station in life into conversation.

Cooke has always been praised for his ability to describe scenes vividly. He also seemed to have had the good fortune to be on the spot for many historic events. He began his trip around America in Washington, D.C., arriving there on December 6, 1941, positioning himself perfectly to witness the governmental response to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor the next day. Cooke even got into the Capitol to report on Franklin Roosevelt's speech to Congress.

War time shortages and restrictions began right away. Getting a car for his trip was not difficult but getting tires for it were. Cooke spent days searching before finding some old tires that he then had retread. As he drove around the country, he was often alone on the road, often going long distances without meeting any other cars. When he arrived in towns and cities, he found local people who told him how the war was impacting the community. Within months after the declaration of war, there were communities without labor to plant crops or run local businesses. Likewise, there were boom towns building factories for war manufacturing where people were sleeping in tents.

According to Harold Evans in the Foreword, Cooke felt after the war that there was no longer a reason to publish the book, which was not published during the war because of shortages and restrictions. We are lucky that it was available to be rediscovered, as it thoroughly depicts a time that is almost forgotten. It makes a great addition to the viewing of Ken Burns' The War. More public libraries should add this fascinating book.

Cooke, Alistair. The American Home Front 1941-1942. Atlantic Monthly Press, 2006. ISBN 9780871139399

Chop Shop, a Film by Ramin Bahrani

The turnout was small on the evening after Thanksgiving, but our discussion was lively after our library's showing of Chop Shop, an independent film by director Ramin Bahrani. Even our local critic who usually pans every film (often to get a reaction) praised the film.

Chop Shop is set in the Willet's Point corner of Queens, across the expressway from Shea Stadium*, which provides a bright, prosperous contrast to the rusty, dilapidated auto-body shops in which most of the story takes place. Along the broken, flooded street, cars idle bumper to bumper, while drivers negotiate cheap repairs. Twelve-year-old Ale is one of a number of boys waving drivers into shops.
Chop Shop is a film that has a very strong documentary feel, though it is obviously fiction. It just starts and just ends. Viewers never learn how Ale and his sisters came to be orphans living in a rough neighborhood where every kindness is really a calculated act of self-interest. The setting seems like it could not possibly be a movie set. The actors seem like they must be playing themselves.

The film seems so simple, but it drew a strong, mostly sympathetic reaction. While the audience discussed the plight of children, crime, corruption, the economy, and other topics suggested by the film, they mostly wanted to fill in the human story. Some of our viewers were convinced that Ale would soon land in prison, while others thought he would survive and thrive. We spent half an hour in contemplation of what the director intended. Everyone was thankful that they did not live in Willet's Point.

I recommend Chop Shop for library collections and film discussions.

*Of course, Shea Stadium is itself a rundown ballpark, but it seems to glow from afar.

Bookforum, Dec/Jan 2009, Volume 15, Issue 4

When I was in Iowa City a couple of weekends ago to pick up my daughter Laura for Thanksgiving break, we visited Prairie Lights Bookstore. After looking at books and drinking hot chocolate, as we started to leave, I noticed a tall stack of the December/January 2009 issues of Bookforum. I think I might have heard of the publication before, but I am not sure - there are so many "Book Something" publications. Whatever, it looked interesting, so I bought a copy.

Nine days late, I can report that I have enjoyed Bookforum and its reviews, featuring a lot of books for readers who like something a bit more challenging and deeper than bestsellers. Of particular interest to me was a full page (large page) article reviewing Hitler's Private Library by Timothy W. Rybeck. The review writer Trevor Butterworth quotes Rybeck's depiction of of Hitler as an insecure man who defended his positions with books and used his vast knowledge of books to intimidate. Rybeck asserts, however, that while Hitler remembered much of what he read, he was unable to think critically and distinguish truth from lies. Hitler was an admirer of American automaker Henry Ford and required all his staff to read Ford's books.

Allen Barra wrote a two-page review of The World Is What It Is: The Authorized Biography of V. S. Naipaul by Patrick French. "Authorized" is the interesting word here, as French was given free access to all of Naipaul's papers and is very critical of the novelist. According to the agreement, Naipaul could have required changes to the text but did not. The reviewer tries to make sense of a man full of jealousies and contradictions who would so easily agree to such a portrayal.

In "Grave Doubts: Reckoning with Mass Mortality after the Civil War," T. J. Jackson Lears discusses two books about the extreme amount of violence and death during the American Civil War. He asserts that most accounts of the war gloss over the horror, hiding it behind stories of gallantry and honorable purpose. He thinks the rhetoric of the glory of war that arose as a coping defense has made us too willing to fight in subsequent wars.

In the short reviews, the book that look most interesting to me is Fifty Miles from Tomorrow: A Memoir of Alaska and the Real People by William L. Iggiagruk Hensley. Hensley tells about growing up in the far north and his career as an advocate for his native people.

Throughout the book review are ads for art books, which seems odd until you discover that the review is a sister publication of Artforum.

Bookforum will appeal to readers who enjoy The New York Review of Books. Larger public libraries and those with literary readers should consider adding a subscription.

Best American Science Writing 2008

In her book Canon: The Whirligig Tour of the Beautiful Basics of Science, Natalie Angier tells how many people say they do not like science but are actually fascinated by many things scientific. When the elements of classrooms instruction and dry factual texts are removed, people enjoy learning about their world, their bodies, technology, and the unknown. Just do not call it "science" and people will respond. In this light, it seems it would have been better to call Best American Science Writing 2008 something like Best American Investigative Reporting Concerning Things Natural and Technological. No one really needs to know that in this book there are science stories. Their topics should interest many people, who want to know about the diseases that catch, the drugs they take, the water they drink, and the decisions that we as a society have to make. Best American Science Writing 2008 is really about ethics, politics, and the quality of life.

"Facing Life with a Lethal Gene" by Amy Harmon, the initial story, sets the tone for the entire collection. Harmon tells about a young woman who wants to know whether she carries the gene for Huntington's disease, an almost certain indication that she will develop the debilitating condition. Knowing that she has the gene makes her face many choices, including whether to marry, have children, and tell her family. Telling her family is particularly difficult because her news will inform her mother that the latter also has the disease, something the mother has said repeatedly that she does not want to know. Handling the news proves much harder than the young woman ever imagined.

Several articles discuss the treatment of childhood mental diseases with drugs. "Psychiatrists, Children, and Drug Industry's Role" from a trio of New York Times writers describes how many children were mistakenly diagnosed with bipolar disease and treated with drugs that many of the doctors were being paid to talk about at conferences. Two articles follow that go into more depth about the payoffs some doctors get when they cooperate with pharmaceutical firms.

Editor Sylvia Nasar says in her introduction that each volume of the series seems to feature a theme, and genetics and medical practice is the 2008 focus. Only toward the end of the book does the subject turn from the selling of kidneys, the use of narcotics for pain, and the genetics of cancer to environmental topics. In "Beneath Booming Cities, China's Future is Drying Up," Jim Hartley tells how China has a severe shortage of clean water that is never considered when forecasters discuss the country's economic future. John Seabrook's "Sowing for Apocalypse," an article about the importance of seed banks in a world that in which agricultural corporations are creating monocultures and many crop species are being lost, completes the book.

None of this is dry science. None of it requires the understanding much physics, chemistry, or math. Politics, human emotions, and greed are central in many of these stories. This book and its series should be in many public libraries.

Best American Science Stories 2008. Harper Perennial, 2008. ISBN 9780061340413

Caramel with the Thanksgiving Day Flowers

Caramel with the Thanksgiving Day Flowers
Originally uploaded by ricklibrarian.

While we wait for company for our Thanksgiving Day meal, Caramel checks out the flowers that Bonnie bought. I am making a new potato recipe, while Bonnie has made an apple crisp that we have not tried before. The turkey is on the grill in a buttered paper bag. It should be good.

Warm Thanksgiving Day wishes to everyone. Enjoy a day with family and friends, and if you get a chance later, stretch out with a book.

The Planets by Dava Sobel

When we were in Washington, D.C. for the American Library Association Conference in 2007, we spent a good bit of our spare time along the Mall around the national museums. One of the displays that captured my attention was a set of signs along the street demonstrating the distances between the sun and its planets.While Mercury, Venus and Earth were within a few blocks of the initial sign, the other planets were farther and farther away. I do not think we actually made it out to Pluto, which was still being displayed by the Smithsonian as a planet, despite its recent expulsion from the club by the International Astronomical Union.

The Planets by Dava Sobel was written for someone just like me, a bit of a knowledge hound, always eager to learn new facts. Her discussion of the history of Pluto makes the downgrading seem quite reasonable. I had not remembered that Pluto was only discovered in 1930 and that with almost every refined study, its estimated size had gotten smaller. When I was a baby in the mid-1950s, Pluto was thought to be roughly the size of earth. Now that I am an adult, it is estimated that Pluto is less than 1 percent of the mass of earth. Things always seem smaller when you get older! It is now called a Trans-Neptunian Object.

Sobel tells us about all of the planets, starting with Mercury which is closest to the sun and often hidden in our daytime sky by the brightness of sunlight. Galileo tracked it as a spot across the surface of the sun to calculate its orbit. With a small orbit but slowly spinning on its axis, it has short years and exceeding long days.

I listened to Lorna Raver's unabridged reading of The Planets mostly while I was driving or cooking. I lost interest every now and then, but then something would pull me back. I think the history bits went much better than the mythology bits. I also enjoyed when Sobel brought in a little of her own story. Nerdy people like me will enjoy this audiobook.

Sobel, Dava. The Planets. Viking, 2005. ISBN 0670034460. Audiobook, 5 discs, 0739322869

That Book Woman by Heather Henson with Pictures by David Small

Last week in the Chicago Tribune book section, which has gotten smaller with the redesign, I noticed a children's book that I had not seen called That Book Woman. Always enjoying a good librarian story, I borrowed a copy of the nicely illustrated book have read it a couple of times.

Through the voice of a boy who helps his father on their dirt poor, rocky, and steep Appalachian farm, Heather Henson tells about the surprise of getting books delivered by a librarian on a horse. Aimed at five to eight year olds, this picture book depicts the true story of the Pack Horse Librarians who delivered books to remote corners of Kentucky during the Great Depression. A note at the end of the book tells that these dedicated librarians were men and women who would ride through nearly any weather to get books into the hands of readers. You have to like a story like that!

More libraries should get this sweet book.

Henson, Heather. That Book Woman. Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2008. ISBN 9781416908128

What Obama is Reading

Please excuse this bragging. EarlyWord has a note telling that the New York Times reports that President-elect Barack Obama is reading two books about Franklin Roosevelt, The Defining Moment by Jonathan Alter and FDR by Jean Edward Smith. I am happy to report that both of the books are included in my guide to biography readers' advisory, Real Lives Revealed, which should be out sometime in 2009.

It would be great for libraries if the next president continues to reveal his reading. We could make displays and print reading lists. Perhaps Oprah could get him to appear occasionally on her book programs.

It will be great to have a reader in the White House.

Complete Poems of Carl Sandburg

When I read The Complete Poems of Robert Frost, I read about ten pages a day over the course of two months. In a similar manner, I spent two months reading Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman. It worked well. In both cases I enjoyed taking the books slowly, having time to digest what the poets said. Sometimes, I had to do a little research to discover the events to which they referred. In the end, I felt I learned much about their lives and times. I should be treating The Complete Poems of Carl Sandburg the same, but I am not. With less than two weeks before a book discussion, I began the book and quickly found it overwhelming. With two days left, I am far from finishing the book and have turned to sampling. It is not nearly so satisfying as the slow treatment that I used before. Still, I have learned much.

Sandburg's poetry from the end of his life seems far different from his Chicago Poems that were published in 1916. The early works seem quickly written while the later works seem more refined. His concern for the lower classes and the worker is consistent, but the early work is more drama, while the later is philosophy. The world changed greatly from 1916 to 1967. Still, according to the essays I have read, it is the early work that is most often anthologized.

While reading Sandburg can be a bit of an historical exercise, especially when much of our factory work has been sent overseas, it still has moments of contemporary relevance. With the current economic crisis growing, "Buyers and Sellers" from his book Honey and Salt (1963) asks what white or blue collar workers could ask.

What is a man worth?
What can he do?
What is his value?
On the one hand those who buy labor,
On the other hand those who have nothing to sell but their labor.
And when the buyers of labor tell the sellers, "Nothing doing today, not a chance!" - then what?

For a new look at Sandburg, turn to YouTube. There is a slideshow about a meeting between Marilyn Monroe with Sandburg and an animation of a Sandburg still photo reading from "The People, Yes."

I'd like to start all over now and take the book slowly.

Sandburg, Carl. The Complete Poems of Carl Sandburg. Harcourt, 1969. ISBN 0151009961

Henri Cartier-Bresson: A Biography by Pierre Assouline

Bonnie and I went to the Art Institute of Chicago this weekend to see a fantastic exhibit of European tapestries that the museum has been restoring for nearly two decades. While we were there, we went down to the photography galleries to see an exhibit of Henri Cartier-Bresson photographs. It was actually a little disappointing, as there were only a few photos there. One of those was of a bicyclist going past a spiral staircase, which made me think of Aaron Schmidt and his love of bicycles.

In the gift shop, we found stacks of books to go with all the exhibits, including Henri Cartier-Bresson: A Biography by Pierre Assouline, a book that is included in my forthcoming guide to biography Real Lives Revealed. Assouline recounts the Cartier-Bresson's development from a painter to a photographer who made very composed, artist images and then to a photojournalist who was dedicated to showing the world as it really was. During the middle part of the twentieth century, at a time when photography was not so easy to share as it is today, he was often a witness with a camera, showing newspaper and magazine readers what was happening in distant corners of the globe. The book has been out a few years, but is still a good acquisition if your library has readers interested in photography, art, or twentieth century events.

Assouline, Pierre. Henri Cartier-Bresson: A Biography. Thames & Hudson, 2005. 280p. ISBN 9780500512234.

Progress Report on Real Lives Revealed

I can relax a little bit now, as I have submitted all the content of Real Lives Revealed except the indexes, which I finish after I see galleys with page numbers. I created the subject index without the page numbers over the last five days. It was an interesting exercise that uncovered some inconsistencies that I corrected. For instance, I had called Jane Goodall a "primatologist" while calling Diane Fossey a "zoologist." I had used both "clergy" and "clergymen." I had used "England" where I should have used "Great Britain" and vise versa. I had applied "Civil Rights" where I really meant "Racial Discrimination." I corrected the chapters and resubmitted them. It is all much tighter now.

With the subject index in a spreadsheet done for now, my next project is merging the titles, the authors, and the "now try" titles into a massive author/title index.

In the meantime, I hope to blog a bit more, including some biography alerts.

Who Will Be the Next Generation of Biographers?

As I have continued to work on my book about biography readers' advisory, I have become increasingly aware that the community of professional biographers is quickly aging. Many of them are in their sixties, seventies, and even older. I can identify only a few authors with three or more books that can be considered biographical who are under fifty years old.

I surmised that biography was a profession for later in life, which it is for some authors. Perhaps reflecting on someone else's life is comforting as one foresees the end of one's own life only a few decades away. The evidence does not, however, bear this out.

Peter Ackroyd was 32 when he wrote his first biography.

Stephen Ambrose was 26.

A. Scott Berg was 29.

David Herbert Donald was 28.

Joseph J. Ellis was 30.

Antonia Fraser was 37.

Doris Kearnes Goodwin was 33.

J. Randy Taraborrelli was 29.

I could go on. Most had three biographies by the time they reached fifty.

I only see Douglas Brinkley, Ross King, and Ben Macintyre in the under fifty crowd with three or more books that could be considered as biographies.

So, who will write biographies in the future? There may be some openings. Know how to write?

Happy Days Are Here Again: The Book is Submitted

Today is a great day for many reasons. First, the nation is celebrating an historic election. Second, the Thomas Ford Memorial Library is open again with a new teen area and a better placement of the reference desk. Third, I have submitted my book Real Lives Revealed to Libraries Unlimited.

About the book submission. I really felt a sense of wonder when I composed the table of contents on Monday night. Even though it was still a collection of electronic files, the book suddenly seemed solid and complete.

None of the achievements is really complete. President-elect Barack Obama has many challenges ahead. My library still has a number of furniture, collection, and policy decisions to make after our remodeling. I have more work on the book.

I will be spending the next couple of weeks finishing appendices. There will certainly be some rewrites, and, at some point when I have a galley, I will have the task of completing the index. Still, it seems a great and momentous day.

Celebration

Yellow Leaves
Originally uploaded by ricklibrarian.

Today
I drive through a shower of bright leaves
Falling
Swirling
Like a rain of confetti
A celebration

Brave Companions: Portraits in History by David McCullough

When you think about David McCullough, you think first about big, addictive biographies of American presidents. It was not always this way. Before the presidents, he wrote about big engineering feats, like the Brooklyn Bridge and the Panama Canal, and short pieces for journals, such as American Heritage, Audubon, and Smithsonian. Brave Companions: Portraits in History collects twenty years of magazine articles and essays, starting with short biographical pieces on naturalists Alexander von Humboldt and Louis Agassiz. Most of the pieces are biographical until near the end of the collection, where in essays McCullough tells about his love for Washington, D.C. and recommends that graduating seniors from Middlebury College travel the world to see historic places.

I read the collection a little at a time, enjoying a totally new subject every couple of days. My favorite pieces may have been the first two about the two naturalists about whom I really knew nothing but their names, or the piece about his day with photographer David Plowden taking pictures of small towns and cornfields, or the profile of scientist Miriam Rothschild, who studies anything and everything that interests her. The most moving piece may be "The Lonely War of a Good Angry Man" about Harry Monroe Caudill, who fought the coal companies over strip mining in Kentucky. The cast of characters that McCullough includes in this book is fascinating.

I suspect McCullough would be a great dinner guest, as he has been so many places and knows so many things. He's probably not available, so check out this book instead.

McCullough, David. Brave Companions: Portraits in History. Prentice Hall Press, 1992. ISBN 0131401041