In the Sanctuary of Outcasts: A Memoir by Neil White

On May 3, 1993, Neil W. White, III entered a minimum security prison on a narrow peninsula on the Mississippi River in Carville, Louisiana. Soon after being praised by several national business journals as a model for entrepreneurs, White had been caught kiting checks to support his growing magazine empire, which included New Orleans Magazine, Louisiana Life, and Coast Magazine. The story of his quick fall from a life of luxury, professional acclaim, and a happy family to bankruptcy, societal disdain, and divorce is one element in his unusual account of a year in prison, In the Sanctuary of Outcasts: A Memoir.

On that fateful day, White had no idea where he was. Due to a shortage of federal prison space, some inmates not considered dangerous were being sent to the Federal Medical Center at Carville, formerly called the National Leprosarium, a residential, long-term hospital for leprosy patients. Though the population of patients had shrunk dramatically over decades, there were still more than 100 in residence. Some had been there over half a century. On his way to his assigned room (which could not be called a cell because it had no door), he noticed people missing legs, fingers, and parts of their faces. Not knowing where he was and with whom he was sharing space, he was troubled. What was about to happen to him?

What happened was that White was immersed in a community of inmates and patients, both unhappy about the "marriage of convenience" forced by the federal prison system. Distrust was high for good reason, and White thought that he could write a sensational book about the situation to sell as soon as his eighteen-month sentence ended, helping him regain his status and wealth. What he learned instead, after breaking rules to interview patients, led him to question his whole way of life. His gentler, more reflective book took fifteen years to write.

In the Sanctuary of Outcasts: A Memoir is a highly entertaining book. White includes a fascinating cast of characters - most with names changed. His short chapters recount daily encounters with patients and inmates, visits from his family, and a battle with the prison system that the patients eventually win. Most public libraries should get this forthcoming book, which according to the publicity, will be heavily promoted across the South.

Readers may be interested in learning more about leprosy. A good starting spot is the World Health Organization wesite, which discusses the disease, its treatments, and its incidence around the world.

White, Neil W., III. In the Sanctuary of Outcasts: A Memoir. William Morrow, June 2009. ISBN 9780061351600

The Prince of Frogtown by Rick Bragg

Until now, I have not read Rick Bragg's books about his kin in Alabama. There are so many other books to read, and I was not sure I wanted to get involved in another dysfunctional family story. With elements of alcohol, poverty, hunting, fishing, fighting, fast cars, heartache, and living a macho life in a rural setting from which some people can not escape, his books sounded too much like life where I grew up. Hitting too close to home. But I wanted an audiobook as I left the library Monday and The Prince of Frogtown was sitting in the library's new items display, so I took it. By the next afternoon when I went back to work, I had already listened to four of seven discs.

In The Prince of Frogtown, Bragg tells a classic tale well - that of a man who will not control his vices - Bragg's father. The author can not excuse Charles Bragg of his many sins, for he is still too hurt himself, but he looks deeply into all the elements that formed his father. There was the father's father and brothers who all spent their weekends in drunkenness. There was the mill town where everyone breathed the cotton dust. There were friends who were just as trapped by their early marriages and big families. What lifts the story is Bragg's graceful, eloquent storytelling and his determination to find something good to say about a lousy father. In this, he succeeds.

Between his chapters about his father, Bragg inserts little stories about his relationship with his stepson. In these, he struggles to find the proper way to be a father, a difficult task for someone who had such a bad example. The extent to which he succeeds is debatable, but he seems to be loved even in ineptitude.

The Prince of Frogtown should interest many readers and would be a great choice for discussion groups. I now want to go back to Bragg's previous writings.

Bragg, Rick. The Prince of Frogtown. Books on Tape, 2008. ISBN 9781415953990

What You Might See at the Brookfield Zoo

A superhero getting a foot massage

Smiling faces in unlikely places

Cookie is out only on weekends now.

A cardinal flying by

Awful Library Books

Ulotrichous twitted. Librarian.net noticed. I am re-blogging.

Mary Kelly and Holly Hibner, two librarians from Michigan, have a crusade to get public libraries in their state to weed. They have a blog Awful Library Books, which shows books that should have been removed from collections long ago. They are kind and do not reveal the libraries at which they find these "gems." Take a look. You may both laugh and cringe.

Knucklehead: Tall Tales & Mostly True Stories about Growing Up Scieszka by Jon Scieszka

One good thing leads to another. Dana, a children's librarian at the Thomas Ford, noticed that I had read some juvenile biographies and offered me another, Knucklehead: Tall Tales & Mostly True Stories about Growing Up Scieszka by Jon Scieszka. Thanks, Dana. It was a very funny book.

Scieszka, who has written The Stinky Cheese Man and other books with Lane Smith and who is a champion of reading for boys, grew up the second of six sons in Flint, Michigan. Knucklehead is a memoir of that rough, crazy time, when he and his brothers would try about anything that sounded dangerous. It is a wonder they did not die or, at least, burn the house down. The book includes a couple of Knucklehead "Do not try" Warnings after stories. It hardly seems necessary, except if there were Knuckleheads in the 1950s and 1960s, there may still be Knuckleheads now. It also helped that his mother was a nurse.

As a contemporary of Scieszka agewise, I enjoyed recalling cub scouts, baseball cards, model planes, Halloween costumes, Dick and Jane, tiny toy soldiers, etc. The black and white family photos with the period furniture, wallpaper, and clothes evoke my own memories. I suspect many of my old friends might enjoy this book just as much or more than young readers. Dana had the right idea. Offer it to older readers.

Scieszka, Jon. Knucklehead: Tall Tales & Mostly True Stories About Growing Up Scieszka. Viking, 2008. ISBN 9780670011063

Mrs. Dred Scott: A Life on Slavery's Frontier by Lea VanderVelde

Who was Mrs. Dred Scott, wife of the slave whose claim for freedom was denied by the U. S. Supreme Court in 1857? According to Lea Vandervelde in her new book Mrs. Dred Scott: A Life on Slavery's Frontier, Harriet Robinson was a black woman born in Virginia around 1818 and taken to the Northwest Territory in 1835, where she met and married Etheldred Scott, a slave at Fort Snelling. Not much verifiable personal information about Harriet is really known. As a woman, a servant, and the member of an enslaved race, she was unnoticed by diarists and journalists of her time and historians subsequently. VanderVelde, however, has found enough documentary evidence (tax, census, and court records) to place Harriet at the scene of many momentous events both in territorial Minnesota and later in St. Louis. Most importantly, she was a party to the famous case that further divided an already fractured nation.

What many readers may not know before reading this history is that many slaves had successfully sued for freedom before the Dred and Harriet Scott case. These slaves had been taken into and resided in free states and territries north of the Mason-Dixon Line. Juries had consistently ruled in favor to release them for having been in states where slavery was illegal. Why the Scotts did not gain their freedom is a "one-thing-after-another" story worthy of satirical novels. In their eleven year legal quest, they went through six lawyers of varying talent, two of which died on them. They were at one point denied freedom because they could not prove who owned them. In the end, the dirt poor couple were opposed by some of the richest people in the country.

As a detailed history, Mrs. Dred Scott will please committed history readers. Most pleasure readers will not make the effort. There is, however, a lot of potential for a novelist to come along and rework the content into historical fiction. With so little really known about Harriet herself, the novelist would have a fairly clean slate. The supporting cast is great. The characters include her husband and two daughters, Indian agent Lawrence Taliaferro, the explorer Joseph Nicollet, the painter George Catlin, many Indian chiefs, John C. Fremont and many other military figures from the War with Mexico, the powerful Chouteau family of St. Louis, U. S. Grant, millionaire John F. A. Sanford, and, of course, Roger Taney and the rest of the U. S. Supreme Court. VanderVelde includes a handy gallery of photos in the book to help the reader keep them straight. The book could also be the basis of a great television mini-series.

I spent weeks reading this big book and feel rewarded for the effort. I certainly know a lot more about the plight of Sioux and Chippewa Indians, the widespread use of slaves in the "free" territories, the corruption of the U. S. government by the American Fur Company, the renting of slaves in St. Louis, and the racism of the 1857 U. S. Supreme Court. Mrs. Dred Scott should be in most public libraries.

VanderVelde, Lea. Mrs. Dred Scott: A Life on Slavery's Frontier. Oxford University Press, 2009. ISBN 9780195366563

George Catlin: Painter of Indian Life by Richard Worth

I am currently reading Mrs. Dred Scott: A Life on Slavery's Frontier by Lea VanderVelde. In this book, the author tells about a young slave named Harriet in the employ of the Indian agent at Fort Snelling in the territory that later became Minnesota. The time is the 1830s. It is remarkable that many people whose names are remembered in history passed through the remote outpost in the few years that Harriet was there. In addition to many Indian chiefs and warriors, military officers, and agents of the American Fur Company, there were the explorer Joseph Nicollet and the painter George Catlin. Because the settlement was small and her master entertained most of the important visitors, Harriet saw and probably cooked for most of them. It was there that she met and married Dred Scott, whose name is also remembered.

The figure that most interests me is George Catlin. Bonnie and I saw a collection of his paintings at the Smithsonian's American Art Museum when we were in Washington for the American Library Association Conference in 2007. When I saw George Catlin: Painter of Indian Life by Richard Worth on our children's new book display, I had to borrow it.

I am impressed by how much more honest children's biographies are now than when I was a child in the 1960s. Then the purpose of most juvenile biographies was to present glowing examples of good people for young minds to absorb. Rarely was anything disagreeable ever mentioned. In George Catlin: Painter of Indian Life, Richard Worth does still make a case for the painter having lived a significant life, but he includes evidence of Catlin's darker side - selfishness, unreasonable behavior, and neglect of his family. Readers realize that Catlin never really enjoyed his success, wanting something more in life that never materialized. We usually did not learn such things when I was a kid.

Though only eighty pages, George Catlin: Painter of Indian Life includes a good representation of Catlin's paintings, a map of his expeditions, a timeline of his life, and an account of the painter's life that has enough detail to satisfy an adult reader. This book aimed at grades 6-9 is part of the Show Me America series, which also includes books about John Turnball, Mathew Brady, Lewis Hine, and Corothea Lange, all painters or photographers.

Worth, Richard. George Catlin: Painter of Indian Life. Sharpe Focus, 2008. ISBN 9780765681522

The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon by David Grann

Here are some travel tips. When exploring deep in the Amazon rain forest, expect misadventure. Learn to tolerate vicious insect. Don't be surprised when you find maggots in your wounds. Don't break any of your limbs, for your companions will abandon you. When canoeing, don't drag your hands in the water! Plan for the moment when staying alive becomes more important than finding Eldorado. Also, read The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon by David Grann before you go. You may change your mind.

In his book Grann mixes an account of the famous 1925 Amazon expedition of British explorer Percy Harrison Fawcett with the story of his own investigation into Fawcett's fate. Fawcett was a celebrated member of the Royal Geographical Society at the time that he led a son, his son's friend, and a small party of guides and pack animals into the forest. The Englishman was convinced that a great ancient city was to be found within the white spaces on his maps. Shunning all the latest technology, such as two-way radio and light aircraft, he set off to move fast through the forest. After sending back the last guides from deep in the Mato Grosso region of Brazil, he was never heard from again.

Grann reports that around 100 people died trying to rescue Fawcett in the ensuing years. Not all of the expeditions were well documented. Many people simply disappeared in the rain forest. Some were known to have been killed by the secretive tribes who lived in the forest and were sometimes discribed as cannibals. What could Grann possibly find 80 years later?

I do not want to spoil the story, so I will let you read about Grann's discoveries yourself.

Grann, David. The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon. Doubleday, 2009. ISBN 9780385513531

Dakota: A Spiritual Geography by Kathleen Norris

Eleven people from our church came to our house last week for a discussion of Dakota: A Spiritual Geography by Kathleen Norris. The book is a collection of very personal essays by Norris about her returning to live in her grandparents house in South Dakota after living in New York City. She had planned to reside in the rural community for only a couple of years as her family decided what to do about the house and furnishings, but she and her husband stayed. In addition to rediscovering rural life, Norris also visited Benedictine monasteries to practice a more contemplative life. Dakota is the first of a series of books Norris has written about her spiritual journey.

While the group seemed generally supportive of the book, there were a few dissenters. A question that came up is why Norris felt the need to take retreats when she seemed so alone most of the time any way? Also, why Norris said so little about her husband in this book was asked. Of course, several of the group had read subsequent books and were able to fill in gaps in our knowledge.

This bring up the subject of just how self-revealing are memoirs and do authors get better at it? I am reminded of Rocket Boys by Homer Hickam. Hickam held back some of details and stories from the book, which he later revealed in Sky of Stone and Coalwood Way. Like Hickam, Norris had a certain objective with her first book and only so much would fit into the text. Also, she may have just not been ready to tackle her husband's depression when she wrote Dakota.

As a person who grew up in a small town in a remote area, I felt Norris was fair and enlightened in her assessments of rural life. I especially enjoyed her descriptions of the western part of the Dakotas, which I thought starkly beautiful the one time that I saw it. I liked that at night she could see lights from over twenty miles away. I sometimes think that that is my kind of place. I would enjoy reading more.

Norris, Kathleen. Dakota: A Spiritual Geography. Ticknor & Fields, 1993. ISBN 0395633206

Top Biographers

From today it is two months until publishing day! June 30, 2009 is the date my book Real Lives Revealed will be officially unveiled. You may now find it for pre-orders on Amazon, Baker & Taylor, and Barnes & Noble. I look forward to seeing it on display at the Libraries Unlimited exhibit at the American Library Association Annual Conference in Chicago, July 11-14.

In the meantime, I plan to post several pieces about and around the subject of biography. I'll start by identifying some top biographers. As with any literary genre, there are men and women who repeated write biographies. I identify dozens of them in the second appendix in my book. Here are three samples.


Fraser, Antonia (1932) – Popular mystery writer who also writes novel-like biographies of British and French monarchs.
· Mary, Queen of Scotts (1969)
· Cromwell: The Lord Protector (1973)
· King James VI of Scotland, I of England (1975)
· Royal Charles: Charles II and the Restoration (1979)
· Warrior Queens (1989)
· Wives of Henry VIII (1992)
· Marie Antoinette: The Journey (2001)
· Love and Louis XIV : The Women in the Life of the Sun King (2006)
Authors to try: Stephen Coote, Benita Eisler, Robery K. Massie, Nigel Saul, Claire Tomalin, Alison Weir, Derek Wilson


Macintyre, Ben (1963- ) – Journalist who writes about flamboyant historical characters.
· Forgotten Fatherland: The Search for Elisabeth Nietzsche (1992)
· The Napoleon of Crime: The Life and Times of Adam Worth, Master Thief (1997)
· The Englishman's Daughter: A True Story of Love and Betrayal in World War I (2002)
· The Man Who Would Be King: The First American in Afghanistan (2004)
· Agent Zigzag: A True Story of Nazi Espionage, Love, and Betrayal (2007)
Authors to try: Andrew Cook, Laurence Bergreen, Mary S. Lovell, Charles Nicholl, Jack Repcheck, David S. Reynolds, Kenneth Silverman


Spoto, David (1941- ) – Celebrity biographer interested in film directors who has recently also begun to write about religious figures.
· Stanley Kramer, Film Maker (1978)
· The Dark Side of Genius: The Life of Alfred Hitchcock (1983)
· The Kindness of Strangers: The Life of Tennessee Williams (1985)
· Falling in Love Again: Marlene Dietrich (1985)
· Lenya: A Life (1989).
· Madcap: The Life of Preston Sturges (1990)
· Blue Angel: The Life of Marlene Dietrich (1992)
· Laurence Olivier: A Biography (1992)
· Marilyn Monroe: The Biography (1993)
· A Passion for Life: The Biography of Elizabeth Taylor (1995)
· Rebel: The Life and Legend of James Dean (1996)
· Notorious: The Life of Ingrid Bergman (1997)
· Diana: The Last Year (1997)
· The Hidden Jesus: A New Life (1998)
· Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis: A Life (2000)
· Reluctant Saint: The Life of Francis of Assisi (2002)
· Enchantment: The Life of Audrey Hepburn (2006)
· Joan: The Mysterious Life of the Heretic Who Became a Saint (2007)
· Spellbound by Beauty: Alfred Hitchcock and His Leading Ladies (2008)
Authors to try: Charlotte Chandler, Anne Edwards, Fred Lawrence Guiles, C. David Heymann, Charles Higham, Kitty Kelley, Andrew Morton, Sally Bedell Smith, Tom Santopietro, J. Randy Taraborelli


These and the other top biographers entries may be used to develop readalike lists.

The Poe Shadow: A Novel by Matthew Pearl

Sometimes I feel as though I have let Edgar Allan Poe down. Though a big fan as a youth, I have not returned to his writings, though they are still on my to-read-sometime list. Also, I have failed him as a tourist. When visiting Richmond, Virginia back in 2002, I arrived at the Edgar Allan Poe Museum just as it was closing and failed to get in. That same year I went to Baltimore where I uncharacteristically got lost and never found the Edgar Allan Poe House and Museum. If I am ever invited to read at a poetry program, I plan to perform "The Raven" in the manner of Vincent Price, but it has never happened.

In The Poe Shadow: A Novel by Matthew Pearl, Quentin Clark of Baltimore was determined that he would not fail the poet, whom he had never actually met. Clark had sent Poe several letters expressing his appreciation of the author's poems and short stories. Poe had ignored most of these but just before his death had responded with a suggestion that he would like Clark to be his attorney for an upcoming publishing venture. Clark was honored and eagerly waited for the day that never came. Poe mysteriously died and was quietly buried in Baltimore in October 1849.

When muckraking newspapers began to speculate about Poe's movements during his last week and why he had died, Clark began his own investigation. His law partner and great aunt immediately tried to stop him, which, of course, egged him on. As the newspaper accounts became more lurid and contradictory, Clark became more determined and began neglecting his practice, fiancee, and home. He then went to Paris to contact the French detective whom he was certain was Poe's model for C. Auguste Dupin in The Murders in the Rouge Morgue. If anyone could solve the mystery, it was Auguste Duponte.

The Poe Shadow is just the kind of fiction that appeals to me, for I most like to learn about other times and places. Pearl has cleverly used a true mystery as a basis for this literary novel. As he explains in the "Historical Notes" in the back of the book, nearly every character, except for Clark, his partner, his aunt, his fiancee, and two Frenchmen who pose as the true Dupin, was an associate of the real Edgar Allan Poe. Pearl explains the details of the case that he utilizes. He even claims to have made a few significant discoveries of his own during his Poe research.

I chose to read Pearl's book after hearing about his new title The Last Dickens: A Novel. He has also written a novel about Dante. All of these books should be in most public libraries.

Pearl, Matthew. The Poe Shadow: A Novel. Random House, 2006. ISBN 1400061032

Juvenile Biographies for All Ages

At the bottom of the back stairs, around the corner, on an A-frame shelving unit in the Youth Services room in the Thomas Ford Memorial Library, you will find new children's books, audiobooks, and DVDs on display. Whenever I visit that area, I glance at the offerings. Thinking about how Will Manly said in a recent column in Booklist that he enjoys juvenile biographies, I took three and read them this past week.

The first biography that I borrowed had just a woman's face on the front cover. Upon seeing it, I thought I recognized her, but I wasn't quite sure. She looked younger than in the standard depictions of a very famous person. Turning to the title page, I was affirmed; it was Eleanor Roosevelt. Eleanor, Quiet No More: The Life of Eleanor Roosevelt written by Doreen Rappaport and illustrated by Gary Kelley is a handsome picture book about a woman who is remembered as a pioneer for women's rights and an activist for world peace. With a minimum of words, Rappaport describes Roosevelt's long life filled with both privledge and sacrifice. The author recounts the major events of the First Lady's life, even telling about her struggles with her mother-in-law and the hurt that she suffered when people described her as ugly. I enjoyed Kelley's soft, muted colors, which evoke the black-and-white world of the Depression and World War II eras. I think the page with Marian Anderson singing before the Lincoln Memorial would make a great poster.

The Many Rides of Paul Revere by James Cross Giblin was the second juvenile biography that I borrowed. I would not describe Giblin's book as a picture book, for there is quite a bit of text and even an index. Clearly it is aimed at students with assignments as much as pleasure readers. The primary message of this book is that Paul Revere did much more for the Revolutionary cause than one midnight ride. He was sent out by the Sons of Liberty on several occasions, traveling as far as Philadelphia to deliver messages. He was also a silversmith of renown, an early industrialist, and an articulate and respected member of his community. While looking at the many drawings and photographs, I enjoyed thinking about my family's past visits to Boston, including a visit to the Revere House, which is right off the Freedom Trail. Giblin's book is a substantial introduction to Revere for any age reader.

The third biography that I read was Seven Miles to Freedom: The Robert Smalls Story by Janet Halfmann and illustrated by Duane Smith. In this book, Halfmann tells about a slave who in late 1863 spirited several African-American families across the Civil War battlefront by stealing a Confederate paddle boat. Posing as a white captain in the early morning light, he calmly guided the boat past several Confederate forts to the Union blockade of the Charleston, South Carolina harbor. In the afterward, the author tells how Smalls served five terms in the U.S. Congress. I liked Smith's broad brush illustrations dramatizing the bold escape.

I see now why Will Manly is enjoying juvenile biographies, which he has been reading with his grandchildren. The books are attractive, stories are compelling, and the research is substantial. More adults should notice these books with something to offer to all ages.

Rappaport, Doreen. Eleanor, Quiet No More: The Life of Eleanor Roosevelt. Disney Hyperion Books, 2009. ISBN 9780786851416

Giblin, James Cross. The Many Rides of Paul Revere. Scholastic Press, 2007. ISBN 9780439572903

Halfmann, Janet. Seven Miles to Freedom: The Robert Smalls Story. Lee & Low Books, 2008. ISBN 9781600602320

Do I Dare Disturb the Universe?: From the Projects to Prep School by Charlise Lyles

One of the benefits of having a book review blog is getting an occasional free book. I look at each one that shows up in my mailbox, but, being under no obligation, I do not read and review every one. With plenty to read already, an unsolicited book has to somehow "speak to me" to get my attention. Do I Dare Disturb the Universe?: From the Projects to Prep School by Charlise Lyles succeeded. I enjoy coming-of-age memoirs and am very interested in civil rights stories.

Lyles new book is actually an old book rewritten. She published a first edition in 1994. In it she told about growing up in a dangerous public housing project in Cleveland, her up-and-down experiences in public school, and her search for her errant father. In the new edition she revised the story of her early experiences and added a section about her three years in Hawken School, an exclusive prep school in the Cleveland suburbs. I can hardly imagine the book without the final section, which completes her adolescence story and shows why she successfully left poverty behind her.

I like how Lyles begins the book at the point when her life is about to change dramatically. She has won a scholarship to attend Hawken School. She is not totally sure that she should accept because she will leave the known dangers of the African-American projects for the unknown dangers of the highly competitive and mostly white prep school. She seeks to find her missing father 1) to show him that she has done quite well without him, 2) to see if he is really as bad as her mother and older sister contend, and 3) to get a sign from him that she is doing the right thing. She finds him amid his piles of books in a dark and dreary apartment.

Lyles then goes back in time to describe her elementary and middle school years, showing how unlikely a candidate for prep school she was. She had even repeated the third grade. Readers also learn why she felt compelled to leave her Black Power stronghold and accept the scholarship. The final section recounts the difficulties and success of her Hawken School years.

Do I Dare Disturb the Universe? arrived at just the right time. My Library is featuring coming-of-age stories in our adult summer reading program. Lyles memoir of Cleveland in the 1960s and 1970s will be an appealing title to add to the display and booklist. I recommend it to other public libraries.


Lyles, Charlise. Do I Dare Disturb the Universe?: From the Projects to Prep School. Gray & Company, 2008. ISBN 9781598510416

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).

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.

******

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.