Book Review Podcasts

I have been listening to several book review podcasts for a couple of months now. Each week I connect my iPod to my computer on Saturday, and iTunes loads episodes of The Washington Post Book World (Friday), The New York Times Book Review (Friday), and NPR Books (Thursday). I then usually listen to them while I cook one of the weekend meals. As I prepare dinner, I keep a pencil and pad nearby to jot down titles and authors. I later check whether my library owns the books and place reserves for the titles that interest me.

My favorite of the three programs is The Washington Post Book World with Rachel Hartigan Shea, which usually begins with some book news, is followed by two author interviews and a poetry reading, and then ends with a litany of author events in the D.C. area for the coming week. This week the news included a brief recap of the Amazon sales rankings controversy and quick announcements of literary prizes. The first interview featured Warren St. John discussing his new book Outcasts United, an investigative report about a soccer team composed of foreign refugees living outside Atlanta, Georgia. St. John recounts how the players and their coach came to be living in the American South after fleeing their homelands. The second author interviewed was with Barbara Moran, who wrote the forthcoming book The Day We Lost the H-Bomb. She described a mid-air collision between a B2 bomber and a fueling tanker in 1966 that resulted in the U. S. Air Force losing a hydrogen bomb in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Spain. The entire program was about twenty-six minutes.

The weekly podcasts with Sam Tanenhaus for The New York Times Book Review also feature two author interviews along with book news and a report on the weekend's NYT bestseller lists. With only fifteen minutes and more emphasis on the other features, the interviews are briefer than those in The Washington Post Book World. This week's NYTBR report on Amazon's troubles was more detailed than that in the WPBW. Tanenhaus draws reports from several of his paper's editors each week. The program is a pleasant companion while I chop vegetables and stir the soup.

NPR Books varies greatly from week to week. Unlike NPR Science, this podcast has no hosts introducing the stories and reviews. This week the podcast had three stories, including an interview with Romi Lassally of True Mom Confessions: Real Moms Get Real, each taken from All Things Considered or other NPR broadcast programs. The podcast lasted about fourteen minutes. Some weeks the podcast lasts nearly thirty minutes. Any type of book may be featured. NPR is more likely to have an obscure book than WPBW or NYTBR.

All of the podcasts refer listeners back to their websites for more information on books and publishing. Readers who enjoy getting background on how books are written and hearing about book trends will appreciate these lively programs.

The Inside Scoop: A Guide to Nonfiction Investigative Writing and Exposés by Sarah Stadz Cords

I am not unbiased in the reviewing of this book. I know Sarah Statz Cords. More importantly, my upcoming book about biography is the second in the Real Stories series. Sarah's book, The Inside Scoop: A Guide to Nonfiction Investigative Writing and Exposés, is the first.

The Real Stories series edited by Robert Burgin will be a group of books to help readers and librarians find nonfiction books to read. Volumes about autobiographies and memoirs, women's nonfiction, true adventure, travel, environmental writing, true crime, and sports books are being written or planned. The series will be a sort of Genreflecting for nonfiction.

It is fitting that Sarah's book start the series, as her previous book, The Real Story: A Guide to Nonfiction Reading Interests (Libraries Unlimited, 2006), is the model from which the other books are drawn. In that book, you learn of her interest in investigative writing, a genre based more on a style of writing than on a common theme. She expands a chapter in that book into six chapters in The Inside Scoop: In-Depth Reporting, Exposés, Immersion Journalism, Character Profiles, Political Reporting, and Business Reporting. Within these chapters are short reviews of hundreds of books collected in sub-sections, such as "Government Exposés," "Science Reporting," and "Hot-Button Issues."

If you are having trouble imaging the titles included, here are some that you may know:

• The Soul of the New Machine by Tracy Kidder
• Uncommon Carriers by John A. McPhee
• The Outlaw Sea: A World of Freedom, Chaos, and Crime by William Langewiesche
• The Great Deluge: Katrina, New Orleans, and the Mississippi Gulf Coast by Douglas Brinkley
• The Lemon Tree: An Arab, a Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East by Sandy Tolan
• Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach
• Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream by H. G. Bissinger
• The Good Rat: A True Story by Jimmy Breslin
• The Long Road Home: A Story of War and Family by Martha Radatz

These titles are all in the first section, In-Depth Reporting. Most are from the last few years, though there are some older works, such as Working by Studs Terkel. The other five chapters are also filled with well-known and waiting-to-be-rediscovered books.

The idea behind The Inside Scoop and the other titles in the series is that a reader or librarian look up a known title to find other titles to read. Each review includes four to eight recommendations for what to read next. For example, if you look up The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World by Alan Greenspan, Sarah suggests memoirs by Donald Trump and Bill Clinton, biographies of Ronald Reagan, Richard Nixon, and Henry Kissinger, books on economics by Thomas Friedman and Tim Hartford, and even the novels The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand.

Sarah thinks beyond just books in The Inside Scoop, including lists of documentary films and magazines of investigative writing in the appendices. I believe libraries wanting to build their nonfiction readers' advisory service will want this smart new guide.


Cords, Sarah Statz. The Inside Scoop: A Guide to Nonfiction Investigative Writing and Exposés. Libraries Unlimited, 2009. 449p. ISBN 9781591586500

The Shawnees and the War for America by Colin G. Calloway

In the litany of American wars, the Indian Wars are often overlooked. They are not celebrated and memorialized with the American Revolution, the War of 1812, the Civil War, and the world wars of the twentieth century. Americans several generations removed from the events forget that there even were wars between European settlers and Native Americans in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Violence on the frontier is just remembered as "trouble." "There was trouble with some Indians." Rarely is it admitted that whites fought a war to eliminate (exterminate) Native Americans.

Perhaps these wars are forgotten because we are unable to reconcile our Constitutional commitment to justice with the apparent crimes of our ancestors. We would rather forget.

It is difficult now to imagine a time when the spread of Europeans across the continent of North America was not seen as inevitable. We now wonder why the Shawnees and other tribes would have bothered to fight.

As Colin G. Calloway makes clear in The Shawnees and the War for America, there were wars. The Shawnees and other tribes thought that they could win. Some whites feared the Indians might prevail. In response, the U.S. government sent military forces to the frontier repeatedly over the course of 100 years. Sometimes there were battles, but at other times there were peace settlements. The Indians actually won some of the battles, but they always lost the peace, as the whites repeatedly violated the treaties.

Calloway's concise history of the Shawnees, whose lands ranged from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico, is on the surface a calm, respectful story, but I sense underneath a rage at the atrocities committed by both whites and Indians. But, perhaps, that feeling comes from me, the reader.

The Shawnees and the War for America is the second volume of The Penguin Library of American Indian History. The Cherokee Nation and the Trail of Tears by Theda Perdue and Michael D. Green was the first. Public libraries should get them all.

Calloway, Colin G. The Shawnees and the War for America. Viking, 2007. ISBN 9780670038626

I Read You, You Read Me: A Poem

I have noticed many jabs at social networking lately in cartoons, columns, and editorials. Some of the jokes are funny, many are exaggerated, some are unfair. It is an irresistible target. Here's my shot in verse for National Poetry Month.


I read you,
You read me,
We both read endlessly.
Our Facebook pages suit us most.
Please wait a moment,
I have something to post.

*****

Nosy people want to know
Just where it was you planned to go.
Why did we see you on THAT street?
Just who was it you planned to meet?
We noticed you were so neatly dressed,
You tie was tied and your pants were pressed.
Your hat was tipped on your head so low.
Just where was it that you planned to go.
Nosy people want to know.

*****

So now where were we?
Is it time to read?
I'm going to log off now
And check my Twitter feed.

*****
___________________________________________________41
If I turn into chocolate and melt in your hand, will you remember my sweetness and say I was grand?

*****

I read you,
You read me,
We both read electronically.
Our digital footprints are spread so wide.
Listen folks, we have nothing to hide.

A History of Reading by Alberto Manguel

If it were not for the desire to read other books, I might never have finished A History of Reading by Alberto Manguel. As it was, I read a little at a time over about five weeks. I had to renew the book once. I could have renewed it again, as no one is waiting for it. The title is sort of drab and not promising of thrills, but once I got into the book, I thoroughly enjoyed all the arcane details about people, places, and eras that I know so little about.

For instance, on page 55, I read that Petrarch carried a pocket-sized edition of the Confessions of St. Augustine wherever he went. Petrarch lived in the 13th century and predated Gutenberg. I was surprised to learn there were pocket-editions of books even then.

On page 226, Manguel tells us about women of 1st century Greece who spent their time reading romance novels. Greek men thought that would keep them servile and out of mischief. Little did the men know that the women found ways to broaden their learning and gender communications through the supposedly safe literature. You can't keep readers down.

"The Silent Readers" is a particularly interesting chapter. In ancient times, reading was expected to be aloud. Reading quietly was thought of as sinister and diabolical. Only someone with evil purposes would not share with others their interaction with text.

Perhaps Manguel should have called the book A History of Readers as every chapter tells about individual persons and their experiences reading. Some are names that you will recognize, such as Franz Kafka, Colette, Gutenberg, or Charles II, King of England. In some ways, the book is autobiographical, as we learn about Manguel's education, work, and travels. In some other ways, it is about all of us and our habits of reading.

A History of Reading, with its nice type and many illustrations, is definitely a book for serious book lovers. Are you one? There are lots of copies on library shelves just waiting for you.

Thanks to Christine Pawley for recommending A History of Reading in her article on Readers' Advisor News.

Manguel, Alberto. A History of Reading. Viking, 1996. ISBN 0670843024

Thames: The Biography

Thanks to Bonnie and Citizen Reader, I read Thames: The Biography by Peter Ackroyd. It had been on my big list of many titles that I would like to read someday, but with their recommendations, I moved it to the front of the queue. Because it is a big book and I was busy with my other projects, I spent a month reading it, which may have been a blessing. It is a great book to read slowly, a little at a time.

If you have not seen it, Thames: The Biography has 441 pages of actual narrative divided into many chapter, some as small as six pages. Each of the 45 chapters is an essay about some aspect of the history of the great English River around which many of the most important events in British history have occurred. Ackroyd must love the river immensely to put so much effort and thought into this fascinating book. Reading it makes me want to return to England badly.

Thames: The Biography is truly mostly about the river and its life. Ackroyd seems to have thought of every topic historical, cultural, religious, environmental, political, and literary. Readers who have narrower interests could well chose only the chapters that appeal to them and still enjoy a full reading experience. The book is almost an encyclopedia, but do not guess that it is dry and academic. I can imagine Ackroyd telling me about his river in the comfort of a den with a blazing fire and hours to spend in good conversation.

I loved some of the place names, especially Horseferry Place, Long Wittenham, Little Wittenham, Bablock Hythe, Iffley, Twwickenham, and Isle of Dogs.

While reading, I often visualized scenes that I have seen in movies, in BBC programs, or in my own travels. When Little Dorret went to the riverside in the recent Masterpiece Theater production by the same name, I noticed everything I could about the sand, the tide marks, and who was doing what by the water. Thames: The Biography is a book that will wake you up to the world around you. And you will wish it was the Thames.

Ackroyd, Peter. Thames: The Biography. Doubleday, 2007. ISBN 9780385526234

Steve Justman at Friday at the Ford

Singer/guitarist Steve Justman's roots are folk music. You might guess so from his play list at the April 10 performance at Friday at the Ford at the Thomas Ford Memorial Library. He began with a lively rendition of Tom Paxton's classic "I Can't Help But Wonder Where I'm Bound." After a less-known song by Jo Mapes, he also showed his love for old country music, singing "Someone I Used to Know" by Nashville's Porter Wagonner. Add Hank Williams, the Kingston Trio, the Weavers, Dean Martin, Steve Goodman, Johnny Cash, and more Tom Paxton. Steve took us on an entertaining tour of the musical world of the 1950s and 1960s that had members of the audience tapping their feet.

I enjoyed Steve's banter between songs almost as much as the songs themselves. I know it is tough for some performers to play alone, as he does, and keep the listeners engaged. He seems a natural.

Steve reports that he enjoys playing libraries, where he says he is always warmly received. It is a logical market for him, as his wife is head of technical services at a library in the north Chicago suburbs. To find more about Steve and his programs, visit his website, where he has audio files for several of the songs that he played at Thomas Ford.

Update on Real Lives Revealed

Having worked six days last week, I had today off. So, I spent almost the entire day proofing Real Lives Revealed: A Guide to Reading Interests in Biography, which is due to publish June 30, 2009. It's looking really good. I found only a couple of dozen corrections to make.

• Some Zs with accent marks disappeared.
• One editing command printed on the text.
• A couple of singular/plural problems.
• See references to books that I had dropped from the text.

The biggest help in spotting problems was completing and sorting the spreadsheets for the indexes. I identified several misspellings when I saw how variations appeared in the spreadsheets. I am particularly glad now that I indexed the book myself. If I do another book, I am going to have my spreadsheets active from the beginning.

Real Lives Revealed is now listed both on Amazon and on Baker and Taylor. Amazon says that it is 348 pages. The book actually is 491 pages without the chronological, author/title, and subject indexes. I can hardly wait to see how many pages it will have in the end. I do like the statement about the book on Amazon, which urges you to ask the publisher to put out a Kindle version. For a roving readers' adviser, it might be nice on a Kindle.

The book is not listed on Barnes in Noble yet. If you search my name, the first result is the anniversary DVD of the Ten Commandments. Search my title and you find A-Rod: The Many Lives of Alex Rodriguez.

I am very excited by the prospect of actually holding the book soon. I am also very indebted to the team of people who have helped. There is a full page of thank yous in the book. You'll find them in the front, before the 491 pages.

"Why I'm Happy" by Will Manley

I had to smile at Will Manley's "Why I'm Happy" essay for his column "The Manley Arts" in the April 1, 2009 issue of Booklist. He is enjoying retirement, and a big part of that is his time with his grandchildren Connor (three) and Sophia (one). Physical play has gotten him "in the best shape of my life." For his mind there is going to the library, where he is reading children's books, especially biographies. He has been pleasantly surprised by the wide variety of subjects on the shelves of the children's library.

I can relate. I had a great time for six years as a stay-at-home dad. I still enjoy reading books froom my favorite children's authors. I would, however, caution him against going down enclosed slides. They are not made for adults. The sliding is not the problem. Getting out of them sometimes is. Don't hurt your back, Will.

How the Proofs Compare with an Elephant

How the Proofs Compare with an Elephant
Originally uploaded by ricklibrarian.

I have not blogged for a few days because I received the proofs for my book, Real Lives Revealed. You can see just how big the package was in the photo. I have been reading them and creating the index. It is going to be another couple of weeks worth of work to complete the tasks.

Without the index, the book is 491pages. There is also an introduction of some 30 pages with Roman numerals. There are about 600 biographies described with recommendations for further reading in the main section. I also identify leading biographers and biographical series, as well as biography awards. I can hardly wait to see the book in print. It will be soon.

I promise to resurface later this month. Enjoy poetry month.

Biography Beat, April 2009

Here is another roundup of biography news.

Biographies of Authors Dominate Recent New York Times Book Review Podcasts

The producers of the New York Times Book Review Podcasts with Sam Tanenhaus have repeated chosen to interview biographers with new books about American authors to lead their programs lately. In the past month, the podcast has featured Donald Barthelme, Flannery O'Connor, and John Cheever biographies. These fifteen minute podcasts can be found on the New York Times website or at the Apple Store.


The University Press of Mississippi Features Country Singers in Its American Made Music Series

In May, the University Press of Mississippi is publishing Eddy Arnold: Pioneer of the Nashville Sound by Michael Streissguth. Arnold was the top-selling country performer of the 1940s and 1950s, but his career faded with the emergence of rock-and-roll in the 1960s. Streissguth has also written books about Jim Reeves and Johnny Cash.

The new title joins Hank Williams, So Lonesome by Bill Koon and Jimmie Rodgers: The Life and Times of America's Blue Yodeler by Nolan Porterfield in the publishers American Made Music Series. While the appeal of these books may be limited nationally, they will be appreciated by older audiences in regions where country music is popular.


Midwest Memoirs Hot at Thomas Ford

During the month of March, we featured memoirs from Midwestern authors in one of our display bins at the Thomas Ford Memorial Library. They went out well, and we had to keep restocking. Here are some of the titles we displayed:

• Dewey by Vicki Myron
• Little Heathens by Mildred Armstrong Kalish
• Man Killed by Pheasant by John Price
• Population 485 by Michael Perry
• Truck by Michael Perry*
• Summer of Ordinary Ways by Nicole Lea Helgut
• Books and Islands in Objiwe Country by Louise Erdrich
• Barefoot Heart by Elva Trevino Hart

*Michael Perry has a new book coming out in May! Coop: A Year of Poultry, Pigs, and Parenting. ISBN 9780061240430. We could have used it for the display.


Comic Book Biographies of American Women

On March 11, Bluewater Productions issued two comic book biographies that sold better than expected, according to its publisher Darren G. Davis. The subjects were women from opposite ends of the political spectrum - Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin. The 32-page graphic novels selling for $3.99 are the first titles in the publisher's Female Force series. Michelle Obama and Caroline Kennedy are soon to come.


Manga Biographies

Here is a similar story about more illustrated biographies for grade school readers. A Korean publisher named Dasan Books is releasing The Obama Story: The Boy with the Biggest Dreams in April as the first of fifty manga-style biographies aimed at eight to twelve year old readers. Publishers Weekly has the story.

Spontaneous Smiley Face by Ruth Kaiser

Ruth Kaiser is a woman of vision. Perhaps it is a rare form of narrowed vision that seeks out smiles. Not just any smiles, grant you, but spontaneous smiles from inanimate objects. I read about her yesterday in the Chicago Tribune on page 3. The article is accompanied by ten clever photos and recommends seeing more online, including Flickr. Look at Flickr and you'll find Toy Truck Smiley (to the right), which I mistook for a child's toilet seat. You'll also find Dinner Roll Smiley, Backpack Smiley, Door Thingy Smiley, Built-in Closet Smiley, and fifty others. She sees smiles everywhere. Look, it's a lot of fun.

Kaiser also has a website Spontaneous Smiley Face, which tells more about what she is doing. Among the pages is a call to submit your own smiley photos. The web site also tells us something that the Tribune did not - there is a book. Kaiser has self-published Spontaneous Smiley Face and her website lets you see the first fifteen pages.

I looked at the SWAN catalog (our local consortium) and at WorldCat. No library appears to own this book. I'm going to order it. I can imagine it will bring lots of chuckles to our readers.

ALA Elections and This I Believe

As I prepare to vote for officers and council members of the American Library Association, I dread the process. Many of the candidates' statements of concern are so repetitive and dry. As I read through them, I often resort to looking for key words and phrases, such "intellectual freedom" and "public service." I rarely feel that I get a real sense of the person writing. If I do, however, that librarian often get a vote for good writing. I reason that if the candidate writes well, she or he probably communicates well and may make a good representative.

I wish all of the ALA candidates would be required to read or listen to This I Believe: The Personal Philosophies of Remarkable Men and Women. This I Believe was a short daily radio program began in the early 1950s by a group of broadcasters associated with Edward R. Murrow. Prominent citizens told listeners in about four minutes what shaped their personal beliefs and how they applied their philosophies to their lives. Helen Keller, Martha Graham, Leonard Bernstein, Carl Sandberg, and Wallace Stegner were among the early guests on the program. The program was phenomenally successful but criticized for having only the thoughts of social elites. Murrow and his friends then opened the program to people from all walks of life. It lost its sponsorship in the mid-1950s and was mostly forgotten until Jay Allison revived it for National Public Radio in 2005.

I listened to This I Believe on five compact discs, including statements from both the original and revived series. I enjoyed how most of the essays started with a clear statement of belief and then told how the person came to believe. Many of the guests told personal stories of hardships overcome, events witnessed, and lessons learned. Some were humorous. Series guidelines insist that speakers tell what they believe, not what they don't believe, keeping the statements positive and constructive. I do not agree with the philosophies of all the speakers, including William F. Buckley, Jr. and Newt Gingrich, but I think I may better understand why they believe as they do. I most enjoyed many of the statements from everyday people. After a week of listening, I felt inspired and armed with a few good ideas.

This I Believe has its own website with thousands of statements. Most importantly for ALA candidates, there are guidelines about how to write a statement. Wouldn't it be grand to have interesting, informative ALA candidate statements recorded well in advance and available online? We could listen to the voices of the people who want to serve us. Make them podcasts and we could listen on out iPods. Maybe librarians would take more time to vote.

This I Believe: The Personal Philosophies of Remarkable Men and Women. Audio Renaissance, 2006. 5 compact discs. ISBN 1593979789

Curtis and Loretta Played Friday at the Ford

Fifty-three people came to Friday at the Ford at the Thomas Ford Memorial Library to hear Curtis & Loretta play a mixture of folk and original songs. About of half of them were fans who had previously heard the duo at the library or at other Chicago area locations. Though they hail from St. Paul, Minnesota, the duo plays the area two or three times a year. Before each trip they send postcards and emails to their fan list. I surveyed people as they arrived for the concert. Nearly a third of the attendees mentioned C&L's effective concert announcements.

Though it was a cold night, the crowd was warm and receptive. And Curtis and Loretta entertained them with lively stories and song. The couple often begin their concerts with Irish music, but they turned to a sing-along Yiddish folksong "Tum Balalaika" Friday in memory of Luba Tryszynska-Frederick who died in Miami on Wednesday. Luba, who saved the lives of fifty-two children in a Jewish concentration camp during World War II, was the subject of their song "Angel of Bergen-Belsen," which they sang next. Loretta completed the tribute with a song that Luba taught her "Tell Me Where Can I Go?"

Then C&L turned to the Irish song "A Health to the Company." Most of the songs that followed are found on their compact disc Just My Heart for You. Several times they invited people to sing along, too. In the course of the evening, they brought out an Irish harp, guitars, a mandocello, steel ukulele, banjo, and kazoo. They finished their set with Curtis's humorous "Ain't No Bugs on Me."

After the concert they chatted with the audience and sold a good number of CDs, which is not a given at our concerts. People only buy CDs at free admission concerts if they really liked the music a lot. Our Friday at the Ford concerts are funded by the Western Springs Library Friends.

If you get a chance to hear Curtis & Loretta, take it.

Menage at Citizen Reader

Citizen Reader will hold another dual book discussion on Monday, March 30. The books involved this time are The Braindead Megaphone by George Saunders and Dangerous Laughter by Steven Millhauser. The first is essays and the second is stories. You can join in the discussion through commenting to the blog post.

I have finished The Braindead Megaphone. While I thought some of the essays were useless, others were brilliant and even moving. I am glad I stuck with the book. I will try to read the other book by Monday.

Citizen Reader often has pretty tough assessments of popular books. It will be interesting to see how this discussion goes.

Melrose Park Librarians Write Book for Good Cause

Members of the staff from the Melrose Park Public Library have written a book on the history of their community. It will be published by Arcadia Publishing Company in June and is already listed for sale at Baker & Taylor and Amazon. All proceeds will be used to help restore a Depression-era mural that was discovered in the library. The story behind the mural is on the MPPL website.

Thomas Ford has ordered a copy.

Edward R. Murrow and the Birth of Broadcast Journalism by Bob Edwards

I can not imagine the quick-reading biography Edward R. Murrow and the Birth of Broadcast Journalism by Bob Edwards not being available as an audiobook. Its author is one of the most familiar voices from National Public Radio, and its subject was one of the most influential voices of radio journalism of the 1940s and 1950s.

As you might hope, the compact disc version of the book includes Murrow recordings. As a listener, you hear the CBS newsman report from Berlin before World War II began and from London as German bombs drop on the city. You also hear him take on Senator Joseph McCarthy and his campaign to eradicate anyone "soft on communism" just at the moment the legislator seems to have Congress and much of the Eisenhower administration under his thumb. Edwards explains the significance of the broadcasts and the legacy of a man whose career was cut short by cancer. The best part is Edwards telling behind-the-scene stories gathered from Murrow's contemporaries.

As a tribute to a pioneer who made the author's career possible, Edward R. Murrow and the Birth of Broadcast Journalism is mostly laudatory. It can be enjoyed by commuters and students alike.

Edwards, Bob. Edward R. Murrow and the Birth of Broadcast Journalism. Tantor media, 2004. 4 compact discs. ISBN 1400101360

The Life You Can Save: Acting Now to End World Poverty by Peter Singer

When we returned from our trip Texas on Friday, I found appeals from CARE and Feeding America (formerly America's Second Harvest) on my nightstand. It was fitting for I had just finished reading The Life You Can Save: Acting Now to End World Poverty by Peter Singer on the flight from Dallas to Chicago. The subject of charitable giving was already on my mind.

Should I even mention that we give to charitable causes? Isn't that boasting? Not at the level we give. Even if we did give until it hurt, Singer argues that we should tell the world, encouraging others to join us. Many people need reassurance that it is right and just to give to counter proclamations from naysayers who hold that people who are poor deserve to be poor.

Singer goes to great lengths to argue that we owe help to world's poor. He holds that highly-industrialized nations have caused much of today's world's suffering. He is most direct in this paragraph from page 31:

"In their dealings with corrupt dictators in developing countries, international corporations are akin to people who knowingly buy stolen goods, with the difference that the international legal and political order recognizes the corporations not as criminals in possession of stolen goods but as the legal owners of the goods they have bought. This situation is, of course, profitable for corporations that do deals with dictators, and for us, since we use the oil, minerals, and other raw materials we need to maintain our prosperity. But for resource-rich developing countries, it is a disaster. The problem is not only the loss of immense wealth that, used wisely, could build the prosperity of the nation. Paradoxically, developing nations with rich deposits of oil or minerals are often worse off than otherwise comparable nations without those resources. One reason is that the revenue from the sale of the resources provides a huge financial incentive for anyone tempted to overthrow the government and seize power. Successful rebels know that if they succeed, they will be rewarded with immense personal wealth. They can also reward those who backed their coup, and they can buy enough arms to keep themselves in power no matter how badly they rule. ... If we use goods made from the raw materials obtained by these unethical dealings from resource-rich but money-poor nations, we are harming those who live in these countries."

Singer's assessment of the current political and economic situation is pretty harsh, but he does not dwell on this beyond the introductory section. Most of the book examines the ethics and philosophy of giving, emphasizing accountability and results. Microfinance and delivering aid straight to villages, not to governments is emphasized. The final sections lay out several models for giving.

In the end, Singer is quite realistic, admitting that few people will rise to a call to turn every dollar that they might spend on luxuries into aid for the poor. He also points out how fair shares from every fortunate wage-earner will not be sufficient. He seeks middle ground, encouraging people of all faiths and no faith to tithe.

With the world economic crisis spreading, philanthropic spending is expected to fall at the same time that the need is greatest. The Life You Can Save: Acting Now to End World Poverty is highly-readable candidate for issues-based book discussions. Libraries should add this book.

Singer, Peter. The Life You Can Save: Acting Now to End World Poverty. Random House, 2009. ISBN 9781400067107

The Lives of the Kings & Queens of England

In many old-fashioned one-room classrooms, pictures of the America presidents hang above the chalkboards. They hang in a line from Washington to whatever president was in office during the historical period being recreated in the classroom. Washington, Adams, Jefferson, ...

I imagine visiting a historic recreation classroom in England. Would I find a lineup of prime ministers? Probably not. In England, people measure history with their kings and queens. William the Conqueror, William II, Henry I, ...

Living in a nation that spun off from Great Britain, we retain a high interest in that nation's past, study its history, and watch countless programs from the BBC. We are fascinated by the lives of the ancient and modern monarchs and enjoy stories that take us back hundreds of years. For those of us who get all the Henrys, Edwards, and Georges confused, Antonia Fraser brought together profiles of the monarchs in The Lives of the Kings and Queens of England.

I listened to Lives on audiobook - 10 compact discs that on average cover 100 years per disc - entertainingly read by Wanda McCaddon with her Scottish accent. This does not really allow for great depth on all the monarchs, but I did get a good general sense about role of the monarch in the business of the British nation. Fraser's team of authors also included many details about the personal lives of the kings and queens. The tone is generally sympathetic despite all the revelations of avarice, lust, paranoia, and murder.

I listened to the book over a two-week period, letting each reign sink in to my brain slowly. I discovered that I knew much more about the Tudors than any other royal family. The other sections included many stories that were new to me. NowI want to read about the Georges about whom I know so little.


The Lives of the Kings & Queens of England. Audio Partner, 1999, 2004. 10 compact discs. ISBN 1572704330

Jane Boleyn: The True Story of the Infamous Lady Rochford by Julia Fox

If I write a second edition of my upcoming book Real Lives Revealed: A Guide to Biography Reading Interests, I will add this review.

Fox, Julia.
Jane Boleyn: The True Story of the Infamous Lady Rochford. Ballantine Books, 2007. 379p. ISBN 9780345485410. Audiobook available.

Sometimes the story of momentous affairs can be vividly told from the perspective of a fringe character. Such is the case for Jane Boleyn, the sister-in-law to Anne Boleyn, the second wife of Henry VIII of England. Jane saw both her husband and Anne executed, yet she survived. She even found enough favor to become lady-in-waiting to Henry's next three wives. Tudor historian Julia Fox recounts Jane's suspicious career at court in Jane Boleyn: The True Story of the Infamous Lady Rochford. A particularly colorful section of illustrations is included.

Subjects: Boleyn, Jane, Viscountess Rochford; Great Britain; Henry VIII, King of England; Ladies-in-Waiting; Queens.

Now try: Phillippa Gregory, whose The Other Boleyn Girl: A Novel has been made into a movie, tells Jane Boleyn's story in fiction in The Boleyn Inheritance. The story of Henry’s six wives is the ultimate soap opera, with elements of romance, intrigue, horror, and tragedy. David Starkey recounts long years of courtly tragedy in Six Wives: The Queens of Henry VIII by (see Historical Biography). The lives of women at court were also dangerous during the reign of Elizabeth I. According to historian John Guy (Julia Fox's husband), Mary Queen of Scots was an astute politician and powerful woman, a person to be admired, not the helpless pawn she is sometimes portrayed to be. He recounts her tragic life in Queen of Scots: The True Life of Mary Stuart (see Historical Biography). Elizabeth Shrewsbury was put in a difficult position as the warden of Mary Stuart for her many years of quarantine. Shrewsbury, however, succeeded to be both a friend to her prisoner and a good subject of Queen Elizabeth I. Mary S. Lovell tells how prospered in Bess of Hardwick: Empire Builder (see Inspirational Biography).