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).

May I Come In?

May I Come In?
Originally uploaded by ricklibrarian.

We are in West Texas this week where the weather is warm and the animals are friendly. This is a photo from my mom's ranch, where we fed the livestock on Monday. We go out there again today. They desperately need some rain out here, so there can be less feeding the cattle and horses.

My daughter Laura and I are in the Reagan County Library today to use the Internet, which is fast and free. There often seems to be laughter in the background here. It's a friendly place, as libraries should be.

There are a few more photos on Flickr. Click the horse to find them.

In 1995 at the peak of his career and only forty-one years old, book editor and writer Robert McCrum woke to find that he could not rise out of bed. He had no feeling on the left side of his body. Through great effort, he fell out of bed and crawled down the stairs of his house to call for help. It took him most of the day to reach the one phone that was low enough for him to reach. He called his parents and tried to speak, getting out just enough words to be understood. They called emergency services, and McCrum was soon in a hospital. He had suffered a stroke.

In My Year Off: Recovering Life After a Stroke, Robert McCrum recounts the ordeal of his brain injury, recovery, and rehabilitation. In his case, it took about a year to be able to feel comfortable with his speech, physical limitations, and fatigue. In this time, he experienced many emotions, despite all the professional help and the support of family and friends. Admitting that he could no longer maintain the hectic pace of life before his stroke may have been his most difficult concession.

In his book, McCrum includes what he has learned about stroke and its often unrecognized tendency to debilitate young as well as old. Using his diary, which he wrote with his good right hand, and the diary his new wife started after the stroke, he tells a story that will interest not only other stroke victims and their families but also readers who enjoy well-written memoirs. It should still be in many public libraries.

Thanks to Citizen Reader for the recommendation. I read most of it during one day of flying.

McCrum, Robert. My Year Off: Recovering Life After a Stroke. W. W. Norton, 1998. ISBN 0393046567

African Air by George Steinmetz

When a photographer has a perceptive eye, there is really not a need for many words. In African Air, a beautiful new volume of aerial photographs from across Africa, National Geographic and GEO photographer George Steinmetz quietly shows us much about the grand and struggling continent. Images of natural wonders butt up against scenes of human poverty and environmental degradation. After viewing these 119 photographs, readers maywant both to go to Africa as a tourist and to send aid.

How stunning are the photographs? They compare well with many of the images from the popular television series Planet Earth. As in the nature documentary, Steinmetz took many of his pictures from a motorized paraglider, the motor strapped to his back. In the paraglider he could hover quietly one hundred feet above a herd or rise thousands of feet over a valley or lake to get unusual views. The resulting photographs are both eye-popping and informative.

Steinmetz has been photographing Africa since 1979 when he took some time off from college. In the introduction, he recounts his many adventures, some of which seem ill-advised. Parents will not want their children following his lead. Still, it makes awfully good reading, so don't just look at the pictures. Steinmetz also includes several short personal essays among photos.

Many of the photographs date from his National Geographic assignment to supplement the journal's report about the African transect by Mike Fey in 1999. The most magical images often seem to comes from the Sahara. I particularly liked his photos of camels in caravans.

Not many libraries have this attractive book yet. I recommend it.

Steinmetz, George. African Air. Abrams, 2008. ISBN 9780810984035

Reading and Book Buying News

Here are several fast things that I have been intending to write about:

Marianne Goss has put together a really nice web page listing literary novels that are NOT depressing. Look for her recommendations at Positively Good Reads.

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The new Nolo Press catalog shows the publisher is changing direction to respond to the economic downturn. Several of the new titles should resonate with public library clients:

• Selling Your House in a Tough Market
• How to Save Your Small Business: Crucial Strategies to Survive Hard Times
• Saving the Family Cottage
• Estate Planning for Blended Families
• The New Bankruptcy (3rd ed)
• Credit Repair (9th ed)

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My article comparing biographies of 1909 and 2009 has been expanded and published at Readers' Advisory News. You will find articles about online book discussions by Tom Peters, the history of reading by Christine Pawley, and the lack of critical bite in book reviews by Sarah Statz Cords. That's good company. Take a look at their articles.

Book Alert: A Man of Salt and Trees: The Life of Joy Morton

Chicago area libraries should be interested acquiring in A Man of Salt and Trees: The Life of Joy Morton by James Ballowe, which publishes in April. Joy Morton was the founder of both the Morton Salt Company and the Morton Arboretum in Lisle, Illinois. His father was Julius Sterling Morton, President Grover Cleveland's Secretary of Agriculture and founder of Arbor Day. The family motto was "Plant Trees."

James Ballowe will be signing his book at the Arboretum Bookstore on April 25 between 11 and 3 - the same day members pick up their advanced orders of trees, shrubs, and perennials. The author will also speak about the book and the life of Morton at the Arboretum on May 16.

Bellowe, James. A Man of Salt and Trees: The Life of Joy Morton. Northern Illinois University Press, April 2009. ISBN 9780875803982

Being Caribou: Five Month on Foot with an Arctic Herd by Karsten Heuer

Being Caribou by Karsten Heuer is travel adventure with scientific and political purpose. In 2003, Heuer and his bride Leanne Allison spent their honeymoon with the Porcupine Caribou Herd, migrating with the animals from the herd's wintering grounds in the Summit Lake region of the Yukon across the border into the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska. They began on skis in the snow and completed the journey on foot five months later. Saying that the path was difficult is understatement. With cracking ice, frigid rivers to ford, bogs, and steep cliffs, as well as wolves and grizzlies to avoid, it was brutal. Let's not even mention the weather and the mosquitoes. Readers will understand why it is difficult to keep up with the made-for-tundra caribou and how trained scientists can lose track of thousands of large furry animals.

Heuer had worked in the Yukon as a ranger prior to 2003 and had become fascinated by the unpredictable caribou migration. Naturalists have found the caribou routes vary greatly from year to year. Heuer thought if he could travel with them, he might discover why. He surmised that with a lot of good planning, it could be done. With grants to support the research, a plan to follow, and telecommunication to call for food deliveries, he and Allison set out to document the migration. They were in for many surprises.

Readers who dream of great treks will enjoy this riveting story of hardship and dedicated science. Activists wanting evidence for the protection of nature preserves will find inspiration.

Heuer, Karsten. Being Caribou: Five Month on Foot with an Arctic Herd. Mountaineers Books, 2005. ISBN 1594850100

The Illinois Landscape After the Rains

Bonnie and I drove to Iowa City on Tuesday. In places the fog prevented us from seeing the landscape, especially west of the Mississippi. Before we got to the river, however, we saw that some farmland was under water. This reflection in a pond was about ten or fifteen miles east of the river.

Our sunny drive back on Wednesday revealed how heavy the rains of the past week have been. We saw flooded fields across the whole state.

Babar's Museum of Art (Closed Mondays) by Laurent de Brunhoff

In Celesteville, the capital of Babar's kingdom, life is as it should be. Fun is the king's chief pursuit, and everyone is treated kindly. Sometimes the children disobey, which never fails to backfire on them, but they are never shamed for their transgressions. They learn lessons and are warmly guided toward better behavior by caring adults. It is a place that I enjoy revisiting in Babar's many books, including Babar's Museum of Art (Closed Mondays) by Laurent de Brunhoff.

In this 2003 publication, Celeste notices that the train station is no longer being used for trains and proposes it be transformed into an art museum. Everyone else agrees, of course, and they get right to work with refurbishing the grand building. Babar and Celeste's large collection of art is given to the museum and the public is invited for an opening celebration. As the elephant family and friends explore the galleries, readers get to see great elephant art.

Babar's Museum of Art (Closed Mondays) has little plot, but the gentle parodies of great art are lots of fun. I particularly like de Brunhoff's take on Jan van Eyck's Portrait of Giovanni Arnolfini and His Wife Giovanna Cenami and John Singer Sargent's Madame Pierre Gautreau. Munch's Scream and Manet's Luncheon on the Grass are also quite funny. The book works for any age. Children will like funny pictures with elephants, and adults will think the pictures funny because of the elephants. Adults may like them more.

Brunhoff, Laurent de. Babar's Museum of Art (Closed Mondays). Abrams Books for Young Readers, 2003. ISBN 0810945975

Mini Golf at the Downers Grove Public Library

It isn't often that we see brightly colored golf balls rolling through the mysteries, past the investment table, and down the stairs at a library, but that is just what we saw on Sunday at the Downers Grove Public Library. Bonnie and I were among the people who played an unusual and quite challenging mini golf coarse to support the Downers Grove Library Foundation. I shot a six on four of the holes, but I never had to take a seven. Once my ball bounced onto a shelf (in the 000s), and it left the course on several other occasions. I did, however, get a hole-in-one going down the stairs to regain a few strokes. We hope to get another chance at the course.

We should get that chance, as the Foundation purchased the easy-to-store course, planning to do it again. I have few recommendations for the next tournament:

• Heavier blocks need to secure the sideboards so the curves don't come loose and direct balls off course. Books work well.
  
• Plastic noodles should not be used on sharp curves. The balls roll right over and away they go.
• Carpet around the cups be pressed to eliminate high lips.

I don't want the course, however, to be made too perfect. Having something unusual to talk about later is half the fun. We remember when our balls go astray.

Having now played a library course, I think it is probably a better event for larger libraries. I can hardly imagine getting eighteen holes into my smaller library. We might do nine, but that might not be enough. Most mini golf players expect eighteen.

Beautiful Jim Key: The Lost History of a Horse and a Man Who Changed the World by Mim Eichler Rivas

Because my "to read" list is long, I do not often read books found serendipitously. That's too bad in a way, as there are many wonderful books ready to be found by wandering the library aisles. I was recently scanning the horse books at the Downers Grove Public Library, looking for a natural history of horses, when I found Beautiful Jim Key: The Lost History of a Horse and a Man Who Changed the World by Mim Eichler Rivas. On the cover is an old photograph of an elderly African-American holding the reins of a horse with a bandage on its right hind leg. To the right is a dog sitting in a wooden folding chair. They stand before a tidy farmhouse with a triangular peaked roof. The cover spoke to me, promising a good story.

According to Rivas, Beautiful Jim Key was once the most famous horse living in America. Now, few people remember the name, but Jim was second only to the fictional Black Beauty in importance to the animal rights movement of the 1890s and 1900s. At that time, many horses suffered as livery animals for unkind masters. Many were beaten, starved, and worked to death in cities and towns across the country. The incredible Beautiful Jim Key who could spell words, do math, give change, flirt with the ladies, and star in his own stage play became an effective symbol for organizations promoting humane treatment of animals. He made people question the self-awareness and emotions of animals and the ethics of abusing conscious beings.

I enjoyed how the author included social history in the narrative. Race relations, the humane treatment of animals, and the development of the entertainment industry are interwoven effortlessly into a story with characters that will appeal to many readers.

Like Seabiscuit: An American Legend by Laura Hillenbrand, Beautiful Jim Key brings together a down-on-his-luck animal with several unlikely humans. The most important is Doctor William Keys, a former slave from Tennessee who becomes a well-known veterinarian, manufacturer of patent medicines for animals, and showman. His story during the Civil War could make another good book. He is always surprisingly industrious, even as the property of another man, and finds ways to live civilly and prosperously during the hardest times. He is the horse's constant companion throughout this charming book, which librarians should recommend to readers who like good animal stories.

Rivas, Mim Eichler. Beautiful Jim Key: The Lost History of a Horse and a Man Who Changed the World. William Morrow, 2005. ISBN 0060567031

The Singing Revolution Film Discussion at Thomas Ford

After the Thomas Ford showing of The Singing Revolution, a documentary film about the role of national song in the liberation of Estonia, people clapped. That does not normally happen at our film discussions.

Twenty-three people attended, and most stayed for the discussion, including two sisters who escaped Lithuania during World War II. One of them was only three months old at the time. Their observations contributed invaluably to our lively discussion, which centered more on history and human experience than on the art of the film.

There was certainly a lot to discuss after see the film:

• Roosevelt and Churchill's acquiescence to Stalin's plans for the Baltic States
• the Soviet policy of Russification
• the silence of neighbors and friends when anyone could work for the KGB
• the splitting of families by war and repressive governments
• risking one's life for free speech
• the intentions of Mikhail Gorbachev
• the nurturing of hope in oppressed people

Usually, we have one big discussion after a film, but everyone had too much to say, so it quickly broke into smaller groups, some staying over half an hour.

The big question posed to me after the film was "Can the library schedule more films that have not been in theaters?" The woman who asked said that she'd like to see more films like The Singing Revolution.

Libraries can get their own copies of The Singing Revolution from its website, which also has further background material.

The Old Man Mad About Drawing: A Tale of Hokusai by Francois Place

What attracts me to Japanese art is getting a bird's-eye-view of everyday life in a foreign time and place. I enjoy scenes showing royal courts, artisan workshops, marketplaces, and travelers. Often there are distinctive pets, birds, trees, and mountains in the background. As I scan the scenes to see what each figure is doing, I often want to enter the picture myself. I find the same joy in The Old Man Mad About Drawing: A Tale of Hokusai by Francois Place.

Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849) is one of the best remembered artists and print makers of the Edo Period of Japaneses art. I recognize several of the illustrations that are inserted among beautiful original drawings by William Rodarmor. Most famous is The Great Wave Off Kanagawa, one of Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji. Francois Place portrays Hokusai as an easily irritated old artist in The Old Man Mad About Drawing. Only a young and curious rice cake vendor named Tojiro is able to crack the old man's hard shell. Hokusai adopts Tojiro as an apprentice and shows him the ways of a master painter.

Every page of this book is nicely illustrated. It is good reading for young and old.

Place, Francois. The Old Man Mad About Drawing: A Tale of Hokusai. David R. Godine, 2004. ISBN 1567922600

Silence of the Songbirds by Bridget Stutchbury

The annual spring bird migration is coming soon. Songbirds who have been wintering in Latin and South America will be returning to their breeding grounds in the United States and Canada. Their paths are dangerous, and every year fewer survive to raise their young. Since the 1960s, songbird populations have fallen by about half. In Silence of the Songbirds, ecologist Bridget Stutchbury explains the dire situation and why everyone (not only bird lovers) should care.

Silence of the Songbirds could be a very depressing book, but it is not. Stutchbury communicates her love of the birds and their lives throughout this report. She also suggests practical action that can be taken on an individual and societal level. and she tells good stories. Her account of songbird infidelity is quite entertaining. For birds, it makes sense to cheat.

Songbirds face dangers wherever they go. Habitat destruction is escalating in the tropics, where there is also an increase in the use of pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers, many of which are banned in the U.S. In the U.S. more areas are being turned back into woodland, but the areas are often too small to host viable populations. Work needs to be done on both ends and not just for the sake of the birds. Songbirds are needed to control insects in the forests of North America. Once the birds are gone, many species of trees will follow. The quality of life for humans will also decrease.

Read this book to prepare for the birding season. Silence of the Songbirds should go on display with field guides and bird behavior books.

Stutchbury, Bridget. Silence of the Songbirds. Walker, 2007. ISBN 9780802716095

The Art Insitute of Chicago for Librarians

Librarians heading to Chicago this summer for the American Library Association annual conference should plan to set aside some time to visit the Art Institute of Chicago. It is downtown where most of the visiting librarians will be staying. By that time, it will have opened its new modern wing, a huge addition which will increase the size of the museum about thirty percent. This benefits everyone who enjoys art. As the modern art heads into the new wing, the museum has more room in its existing galleries for art from earlier periods. Many of these galleries have already been re-installed. Bonnie and I were there Saturday to see how much better the arrangement is. Visitors can now find the beginnings of European art and follow its progression more easily. The French Impressionists now have larger rooms. More importantly, the Art Institute has brought many paintings out of storage now that there is more space. We saw dozens that we had never seen before.

We went to the museum last Saturday to see several exhibits - Becoming Edvard Munch and Yousef Karsh: Regarding Heroes. Neither will be there this summer, but if you can visit by mid-April, they are worthwhile. My favorite paintings in the Munch exhibit were by his friends, not by Munch himself. I enjoyed the Yousef Karsh more. There were many striking photographs of leaders in art and literature. The museum website, however, does not show them.

We always visit the museum shop. I noticed several children's books that I will be reviewing soon. The shop is currently being remodelled, but I suspect it will be completed before the summer.

The museum will not really have any big exhibits this summer, as it will be celebrating the new wing and showing more of what it has had stored away for decades. There will still be plenty to see. Librarians should stop by the museum library, which usually has an interesting exhibit of art books. Also, the restaurant in the courtyard will be open. Lunch at the Art Institute is an indulgence worth every calorie.

The Lion in Winter Book Discussion at La Petite Sweet

On last Thursday evening, while the rain lashed at the windows of La Petite Sweet, members of the St. Luke Presbyterian Church book group discussed The Lion in Winter, a play by James Goldman. It was the first time that we had met at the bakery/dessert shop in Westmont, Illinois. The owners set us up with a couch, comfy chairs, and handy tables, and we selected coffees, teas, and cocoa. With a platter of assorted cookies, we sat for nearly two-and-a-half hours discussing the lives of twelfth-century monarchs and a contemporary comic drama about them.

We spent more time discussing history than the play itself. Several people in our group have read British history extensively and visited sites related to Henry II, Eleanor of Aquitaine, and their sons Richard, Geoffrey, and John. I used my library's Gale Virtual Reference to find articles from a variety of encyclopedias about all but Geoffrey, about whom less is written - probably because he did not become king like his two brothers. I also used the library's color copier to print an 11 x 17 map showing how much of France was under Henry II's control, thanks to his marriage to the beautiful and powerful Eleanor. One group member brought a book about Eleanor, and another a pocket-sized guide to British monarchs. Armed with these reference sources, we recounted stories about these ruthless monarchs who are still remembered after 800 years.

James Goldman wrote a variety of plays, screenplays, and novels, but The Lion in Winter was his major success. It was reviewed poorly on Broadway in 1966, but the 1968 movie with Peter O'Toole and Kathryn Hepburn was highly acclaimed. It has been revived frequently on professional and amateur stages. With simple settings and a limited number of characters, it is easy to stage, and it has numerous memorable lines. Still, several of us thought it was unsatisfying as reading. Goldman weaves 1960s pop psychology into dialogue. I doubt that the characters were so self-aware and full of historical perspective in 1183.

As light entertainment The Lion in Winter serves well, and it can introduce many topics. It made a great discussion choice.

By the way, La Petite Sweet cookies are excellent. I also recommend the cakes and cheesecakes.

Goldman, James. The Lion in Winter. Random House, 1966. No ISBN.

The Ten Most Beautiful Experiments by George Johnson

In his prologue to The Ten Most Beautiful Experiments, George Johnson says that he is not identifying the ten most important discoveries of science. Rather, he is interested in creativity and simplicity. Still, the book features some very important theories formed from observations of very economic tests. It includes work by Galileo, Newton, and Lavoisier.

An interesting observation is that the best scientists often discover something other than what they seek. According to Johnson, this is what makes their work effective - their willingness to be open to new ideas. The malleable and relenting mind can accomplish more than the mind that is set. Disproving the existence of phlogiston, caloric, and luminiferous aether may have been just as important as the discovery of photons and electrons.

Johnson longs for a simpler time when an educated thinker could set up his or her own experiments without the support of universities and research institutes. These short stories present their heroes as independent thinkers, people who make personal sacrifices to find scientific truth. The implication is that there are not many of these scientists around.

There is a good library story about Ivan Pavlov found on page 128:

"Under the reign of Czar Alexander II, a penumbra of enlightenment was crossing the Russian steppes. Books and journals that would have been banned under his father, Nicholas I, were arriving at the library, where a crowd gathered at the doors waiting for them to open, pushing and shoving to get in. To beat the rush Pavlov would sometimes arrange for a worker to leave a window open."

The Ten Most Beautiful Experiments is a quick read for fans of science history.

Johnson, George. The Ten Most Beautiful Experiments. Alfred A. Knopf, 2008. ISBN 9781400041015

The Oxford Project, photographs by Peter Feldstein, text by Stephen G. Bloom

Before my daughter began attending the University of Iowa in Iowa City (in Iowa, of course), I had a vague notion of Iowa. I had driven though twice and noticed the pretty farmland. I thought of it as a comfortable, mostly untroubled place with good schools. Perhaps those schools have succeeded in teaching lots of people to write. I now keep reading books about how hard life in Iowa can be.

Add to the list* The Oxford Project with photographs by Peter Feldstein and text by Stephen G. Bloom. Feldstein began the project back in 1984 when he asked everyone in the town of Oxford to pose in front of his camera for a portrait. He promised to take only a few minutes of their time and that he would display some of the pictures in downtown Oxford. He also told them in his introductory letter that the project was partly funded by the Iowa Arts Council. That seemed reasonable, as he was an art professor at the University of Iowa, about a fifteen minute drive from the town. Also, though he was a recent resident and not really considered "one of them," he had spruced up several of the abandoned storefronts. He eventual photographed 670 of the 676 townspeople.

A little over twenty years later, he got the idea of repeating the process, adding journalist Stephen G. Bloom to interview the subjects about their lives. Though some of the residents had died and other had moved away, he succeeded in getting many to agree to a second photograph. The result of several additional years of work is this impressive and strange local history of Oxford, telling the community story through the lives of the individuals.

What readers will notice right off is that there is nothing homogeneous about people of Oxford. City and suburban dwellers may not realize what anyone from a small town could tell them: small towns are filled with free-thinking individuals. Oxford has its rich and poor, liberal and conservative, etc., but the differences and similarities have nothing to do with these shallow labels. Each person seems to have a unique approach to life that may or may not have contributed to his or her well-being.

There are some themes, of course, including disappointment, alcoholism, longing for a new start, mental anguish, pride, and importance of family. Some of the stories are heartbreaking, while other affirming. Bloom, however, warns readers not to believe everything the subjects say. They are human after all, wanting to please or shock or elicit sympathy. Also, remember that Bloom has only given us several sentences from each person. How they felt on the day of the photograph may color their profiles.

The Oxford Project would be a great title for a book discussion. Its drawbacks are that it is large and expensive. No library will have lots of copies. A book group would have to make a concerted effort to quickly circulate whatever copies were available its members. It does not take long to read. Give each person a couple of days and move it to the next member. With a couple of copies, it could work. Have the person with the best pie crust host the discussion.

Feldstein, Peter. The Oxford Project. Welcome Books, 2008. ISBN 9781599620480

* Other Iowa books: Dewey: The Small-Town Cat Who Touched the World by Vicki Myron, Man Killed by Pheasant and Other Kinships by John T. Price, Little Heathens: Hard Times and High Spirits on an Iowa Farm During the Great Depression by Mildred Armstrong Kalish, and The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid by Bill Bryson (which I never got around to reviewing).

The Unified List of Best Books for 2008 by Neil Hollands

Earlier in the year I listed biographies and memoirs from best books lists for 2008. I just found that Neil Hollands did something similar at Book Group Buzz, except that he did it for more categories and used more lists. I looked at seven lists. He looked at 80. We had the same two books come to the top of the biography list - The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family by Annette Gordon-Read and The Bin Ladens: An Arabian Family in an American Century by Steve Coll - both family biographies.

Neil's purpose in analyzing all of these lists was to find which books would be good for discussion groups. I had not thought of that. Take a look. He even offers a spreadsheet to download.

Mendelssohn Bicentennial Links

The composer Felix Mendelssohn was born on February 3, 1809, nine days before Charles Darwin and Abraham Lincoln. The celebration of his two hundredth birthday has not been as widespread as that for the other two men, but some people remember, especially in the world of music.

NPR Music has a page full of Mendelssohn links. This includes an 8 minute interview with violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter (it can be downloaded as a podcast from iTunes) discussing the life and work of the Romantic German musician who is commonly remembered for his Scottish Symphony, Italian Symphony, and music to Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, especially the "Wedding March." Though he only lived to be 38, he was a prolific composer, who reached opus number 121. NPR includes for listening selections from Mutter's Mendelssohn recordings.

For readers, a good introduction to the composer is The Life of Mendelssohn by Peter Mercer-Taylor (2000). Mendelssohn was a model nineteenth century musical gentleman. The son of a wealthy banker from Berlin, he received early training in violin and composition and had written several polished pieces by age ten. In his adolescence, he performed with his sister Fanny for audiences across Europe, wrote music criticism, and championed the forgotten works of Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven. In this admiring biography, Mercer-Taylor reveals that the composer's seemingly idyllic life was complicated by fears of anti-Semitism, the demands of royal patrons, and the ill-health that shortened his life. R. Larry Todd goes into greater depth in Mendelssohn: A Life in Music (2003). No major biographies are being published to celebrate his bicentennial.

Mendelssohn had good reason to be fearful of religious hatred. Ironically, he may have suffered more after his death than during, as Richard Wagner maligned him for being of Jewish (though his parents converted the family to Christianity), and the Nazi regime in Germany banned the playing of his music. His popularity has never fully recovered. He does have his champions. The Mendelssohn Project seeks to recover his lost works and increase the frequency that his music is performed. Its website profiles the composer, his sister Fanny, and their family, and includes information on how to help the Mendelssohn cause.

Flotsametrics and the Floating World: How One Man's Obsession with Runaway Sneakers and Rubber Ducks Revolutionized Ocean Science by Curtis Ebbesmeyer

Thanks to Heather for bringing this review copy back from ALA in Denver.

The word "flotsametrics" is not in standard dictionaries, but readers of Curtis Ebbesmeyer and Eric Scigliano's Flotsametrics and the Floating World will quickly understand what it means. For clarity's sake, Ebbesmeyer has a glossary in the back of his book. Coined by his coworker Jim Ingraham in 2001, "flotsametrics" is simply "the quantitative study of flotsam."

People have been fascinated by flotsam since the dawn of human settlements along coastal waters. Ebbesmeyer even suggests that the availability of flotsam helped tribal peoples site their villages. In Hawaii, for example, communities formed along beaches upon which timber from North America's northwest woods washed up after circling the Pacific on the Turtle Gyre. Wood was precious and the sea provided. In the nineteenth century, there was great interest in water-borne bottles containing messages. Edgar Allan Poe wrote about them and people worldwide began throwing bottles into the sea. More recently, great ships crossing the oceans have been accidentally dropping huge containers of manufactured goods. Rubber bath toys and athletic shoes are among the many items washing ashore up and down the continents.

In Flotsametrics and the Floating World, Ebbesmeyer recounts the history of flotsam. He also tells a very personal story of his own fascination with the oceans and his travels around the world. It is a tale that brings in lots of fellow scientists, as well as his mom and dad. On occasion, he sticks in calculations of currents with the variables of wind and shape of floating items, but he mostly tells stories that any non-scientist can understand and enjoy. He may even convince some to plan beach combing vacations and to subscribe to his Beachcombers' Alert.

Of course, not everything that washes up on beaches is nice to collect. There is a whole chapter about human remains, intact and in pieces, which are deposited by the tides. Ebbesmeyer also discusses oil spills, unexploded mines, and the depositing of scrap plastics, mercury, DDT, PCBs, and other unpleasant chemicals on sand and rocks.

Six U.S. libraries have already cataloged this entertaining book, according to WorldCat. I'm sure there will be many more.

Ebbesmeyer, Curtis and Scigliano, Eric. Flotsametrics and the Floating World: How One Man's Obsession with Runaway Sneakers and Rubber Ducks Revolutionized Ocean Science. Smithsonian Books, April 2009. ISBN 9780061558412

White Heat: The Friendship of Emily Dickinson and Thomas Wentworth Higginson by Brenda Wineapple

I have become interested in dual biographies lately. I find that they have a similar appeal to novels that weave two story lines. Authors often alternate chapters, bringing one subject up to a milestone or turning point and then switching gears to tell about the other subject. I find that I read a bit more intently, wanting to bring the story lines together. These books naturally give the reader benchmarks with which to measure the qualities of the characters. Readers have to compare Person A and Person B. Such is the case in Giants: The Parallel Lives of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln by John Stauffer. It is now also true in White Heat: The Friendship of Emily Dickinson and Thomas Wentworth Higginson by Brenda Wineapple.

The alternating of chapters is a bit subtle in White Heat. It almost feels at times that the book is really a biography of Higginson with a bit of Dickinson thrown in, but the poetess from Amherst is always in the background when not on the stage. Between the chapters about the very public Higginson are the chapters about his long correspondence and infrequent visits to see Dickinson. If you are like me, you are less familiar with Higginson, who did very many things in his long life. As a young man he idolized the Transcendentalists, especially Emerson and Thoreau, with whom he wrote letters. He graduated from Harvard and tried being a minister, but he was too radically liberal for his congregations, who did not really want someone urging them to completely remake the world every Sunday. His main causes were abolition and women's rights. In his early career as a writer, he often turned to these topics in the articles that he wrote for Atlantic Monthly and other magazines and newspapers.

Dickinson wrote to Higginson out of the blue because she sensed that he was a compassionate man with a willing ear. According to Wineapple, Higginson truly was that, but he never completely understood Dickinson nor what she wanted. In the book, he does not actually visit her until page 179, about a decade after they started writing. He had at this point already led black Union troops in the Civil War and turned to writing more about literature and nature. He even tried his hand at poetry. Their meeting exhausted him, as Dickinson had so much to say. He did not return for years.

When Dickinson died, he was enlisted in the effort to publish her poetry in a manner that the public would accept. With limitless tact, he mostly stayed above the fight among Dickinson's sister, sister-in-law, and brother's mistress over which poems to include and who to credit with editing. He was regrettably responsible for putting titles on some of the poems and replacing original words and punctuation. Later editions of Dickinson's poetry have restored the works to their manuscript versions.

In White Heat, Wineapple takes readers to a time of Victorian sensibilities when Dickinson's poetry was quite shocking. She depicts Higginson as a man who is very forward thinking but still weighed down by the conventions of his time. This dual biography should be enjoyed by many public library readers.

Wineapple, Brenda. White Heat: The Friendship of Emily Dickinson and Thomas Wentworth Higginson. Alfred A. Knopf, 2008. ISBN 9781400044016

Program "How to Manage Your iPod" Big Hit at Thomas Ford

Last night seventeen people attended my presentation "How to Manage Your iPod," which we held in our community room at the Thomas Ford Memorial Library. I had asked attendees to bring their iPods and most did. One gentleman also brought his laptop and repeated for himself everything that I demonstrated about iTunes software. The discussion was lively and and, because of questions, we spent nearly two hours connecting iPods to laptops, downloading podcasts, making playlists, and discussing the merits and limitations of various iPod models.

Most of the people who came had Nanos. There were a couple of Shuffle owners and one man had a second generation Classic working on the original battery. One woman opened her iPod for the first time at the program. I believe that she had gotten it as an incentive from a bank. Several had gotten iPods as Christmas gifts. A few had iPod hand-me-downs from their children who had upgraded to newer or big models. A couple of the attendees may have been in their forties. Everyone else was fifty or older. Two or three were thinking of getting an iPod. The level of experience varied but tended toward little. Everyone was quite interested, and almost everyone contributed to the discussion. Half the group were people I did not recognize as regular library users.

I had several surprises:

• I expected audiobooks to be a primary interest with the group because we promote iPod books that we circulate from the reference desk. Music, however, was the primary interest of this group. Only a couple had borrowed our iPods for the audiobooks. Several did express interest in the audiobooks once they had heard of them.
• No one had listened to a podcast. Most had seen the folder on the iTunes software but did not know what it meant. The group was surprised to learn that podcasts are free to download.
• I had a slideshow to use as an introduction but I hardly used it, as questions and discussions started right away. We spent most of the time actively involved with iPods and iTunes.

Everyone reported that they learned something, whether it be why they should use the lock on their iPod or how to load an audiobook from CDs so that the files stay in order. Because we had queries from people who could not attend this evening, we will probably run the program again next fall or next year. I recommend the topic for other libraries to try as a community program. You might be surprised by the strong interest.

The Monster of Florence: A True Story by Douglas Preston and mario Spezi

For long I have wanted to go to Florence, but I have never considered camping outside the city in the Tuscan countryside. Of course, the hills and fields are beautiful, as anyone who has seen Merchant Ivory's Room with a View will remember. When the sun sets, however, it is a dark and dangerous place, with many people who hide in the woods. Between 1974 and 1985, it was the setting for seven brutal double murders by a serial killer dubbed "The Monster of Florence." On Saturday nights of a full moon, he attacked couples involved in sexual intercourse, shooting them and taking body parts, perhaps for ritual ceremonies. His weapon has never been found and he has never been caught.

In The Monster of Florence: A True Story, Douglas Preston and Mario Spezi recount how several men have been arrested and charged as the serial murderer, but all were eventually released - many because the Monster would strike again while they were awaiting trial. Italian investigators have followed many leads. As the years have passed, they have turned to unreliable sources in desperation. As Preston and Spezi show, Italian police officials have used the case for their political advancement with little regard for truth and justice.

I listened to The Monster of Florence read by Dennis Boutsikaris, who had many distinct voices for the characters. The book has two distinct halves. In the first, the authors describe the cases up to the point at which the murders stop. In the second, they tell about their efforts to write this book, which annoys Italian officials so much that they are on several occasions arrested (without any evidence) for obstructing criminal investigations. Spezi is even charged as either being the Monster or his accomplice. In view of the conflict, readers cannot expect dispassionate reporting in this book. The authors vividly depict some Italian investigators and prosecutors are corrupt and moronic.

The case of the Monster of Florence is equal to those of the Boston Strangler and Jack the Ripper in gory fascination. This book should enjoy a long shelf life.

Preston, Douglas and Spezi, Mario. The Monster of Florence: A True Story. Hachette Audio, 2008. ISBN 9781600242090

On My Reading Database and Four Years of ricklibrarian

It was four years ago today that I posted my first book review on ricklibrarian, a brief introduction and a paragraph about Hannah Coulter: A Novel by Wendell Berry, still one of my favorite books. Not sure whether I could sustain a blog, I put in a lot of early effort and posted for forty-something days in a row. I did keep it going, though not at that pace, and it is still here. I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoy writing.

On this fourth anniversary, my thought are traveling back twenty years to another anniversary. In February 1989 I left my job as a reference librarian at the Suburban Library System's Reference Service to be a stay-at-home dad. Between taking photos of my daughter Laura and changing her diapers, mostly when she was napping, I found time to read. We soon got our first home computer so I could work from home as subcontractor to an information broker. Using an acoustic coupler and a phone, I dialed up Dialog, BRS, VuText, DataTimes, and Lexis databases for business information. I also used WordPerfect on the computer to start a reading list.

That reading list later became a database, and I now have the titles of everythingthat I have read for nearly twenty years. Yesterday, I entered all the titles from 2008 and 2009. They had been in the reading notebook that I got as a summer reading prize from the Downers Grove Public Library in 1995. Being caught up, I decided to sort the title and see what I might learn.

I first sorted by year and found that I did not really read much in 1989. From the date I began the list (not remembered) until the end of the year, I finished 19 books. Most were light fiction or baseball books, including Summer of '49 by David Halberstam and The Best Short Stories of Ring Lardner. I also read some funny books, including PreHistory of The Far Side by Gary Larson and The Minnesota Book of Days by Howard Mohr, the latter famous for saying "You bet!" and "Whatever" on the Prairie Home Companion. I also read with interest Microcomputers and the Reference Librarian by the late Patrick Dewey, an pioneering SLS librarian who helped many of us begin to use computers.

Next I sorted by author. I was surprised to find that I have read much more fiction than I would have claimed, most of it classics, mysteries, Southern writers, or Third World authors. In addition to Charles Dickens and George Eliot, there are mysteries by Margery Allingham, Charlotte MacLeod, Ellis Peters, and Alexander McCall Smith (often reading them right after Bonnie). The long list of P.G. Wodehouse titles shows that I have dipped into the silly world of Bertie and Jeeves quite often. In a more serious vein, I have tried many books by Doris Lessing, Muriel Spark, William Faulkner, Eudora Welty, and Wendell Berry. I have also read five books by Kenyan author Ngugi wa Thiong'o, as well as several Latin American authors.

I found that I have read twice as many memoirs as biographies. I was a little disturbed to learn that I read The Life and Times of the Last Kid Picked by David Benjamin twice, in 2002 and 2007. How could I have not remembered that book five years later? Maybe it is a data error. I recently thought it might be interesting to read Days of Grace: A Memoir by Arthur Ashe. Oops! I already did back in 1993. Maybe I will again.

My memory is not totally shot. In fact, reading over the lists, I have many visions of where I was when reading the books. I remember reading The Moviegoer by Walker Percy outside a tent in a camp in the Serengeti in Tanzania, The Coalwood Way by Homer Hickam outside a cabin in the Badlands in South Dakota, and Sibley's Birding Basics by David Allen Sibley in the LITA Forum hotel in Houston. I also remember friends and family recommending titles. Among many titles, Bonnie gave me The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith. Joyce Saricks gave me The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro. My blogging friends (listed to the right on this page) have recommended many others. Even that little girl in the picture above is now suggesting titles to me. These are lots of good memories.

The reading notebook, the database, and this blog all help me remember the titles of the many books that I have read. They also help me share. That's what this is all about.

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The photos that you see today are from the Brookfield Zoo and the Garfield Park Conservatory. Aaron Schmidt also has one of these on his blog Walking Paper.

Egg & Nest by Rosamund Purcell, Lennea S. Hall, and Rene Corado

"Stunning" is the best word I can muster for the photographs of eggs, nests, and specimens in the big photo book Egg & Nest by Rosamund Purcell, Lennea S. Hall, and Rene Corado. I never realized how varied and colorful eggs could be and the diversity of nest architecture. Nor did I know how much can be gleaned from the study of these items by oologists (ō-ä-lə-jists) and nidologists (nī-dol-lə-jists).

Rosamund Purcell is the photographer. She was given access to the extensive collection of the Western Foundation of Vertebrate Zoology in Camarilllo, California, a museum with an interesting story itself. The WFVZ was begun as a private collection and kept expanding as its founder Ed Harrison bought up collections of eggs and nests from amateur naturalists and institutions that wanted to distance themselves from the now regulated hobby of field collection.

My favorite photo might be the tinamou eggs on page 140. They look like green, blue, and purple polished stones. I also like the emu eggs on page 139, which look like glittery Easter eggs. In fact, I am smitten with most of the egg photos. The saddest photos may be all of the extinct birds.

You almost need to sit at a table to browse through the beautiful photographs in Egg & Nest as the book is a little heavy. Take time to gaze at the weaving of sticks and straw in the nests and the speckled patterns on the eggs. You may be inspired to look a little more carefully when you take your next walk in the woods.

Purcell, Rosamund. Egg & Nest. The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2008. ISBN 9780674031722

The Biography Podcast

The Biography Podcast debuted yesterday with a lively conversation between host Chris Gondek and the author of Shopping, Seduction & Mr. Selfridge, Lindy Woodhead. While the subject was certainly interesting, I was at first a bit surprised that the first offering was a discussion of a book published in Great Britain. Toward the end of the conversation, Gondek did explain that an American edition is coming in March, which I then verified on Baker & Taylor.

Harry Gordon Selfridge sounds like an interesting character. The founder of the famous London department store was actually an American, born in Ripon, Wisconson, and an employee of Marshall Fields in Chicago for twenty-five years. He is credited with the phrase "____ shopping days 'til Christmas." He is also credited with introducing women sales clerks to the British shopping public, who up to that point (around 1904) had been served only by men in London's finest stores. Later, when the suffragettes broke windows in their campaign for the vote, they spared Selfridges. After his wife died, he became enamored with the scandalous Dolly Sisters, vaudeville dancers who had a knack gambling.

Gondek says that the podcast, which will distribute twice a month, will focus on both the books and the art of writing biography. If the first episode is an indication, it should be an entertaining series that will turn more people to biography.