The Reference Equation: What I Really Want

I had a dream a few nights ago that a decorating committee from the board of trustees got rid of the reference collection without consulting me. The reason given was they did not "look so good anymore." All the bookshelves were taken away. Big potted plants were put around the open room, and a few plasma screens were mounted on the walls. The screens were touch activated and had no "unsightly" keyboards. To get to them, clients had to get around the plants. The dream still haunts me.

In reality, I am the one who has gotten rid of bunches of reference books that are no longer being used. Not wanting what remains to follow quickly, I have been urging the other reference librarians and public to remember and use them.

At the same time, I am very excited about our joining a consortium of libraries to acquire dozens of databases in a big group purchase. To make this really good deal really good, I am urging all the reference librarians to remember them and use them. Click here to see what we now have. It is an impressive list.

It occurred to me that there is some an unstated desire behind my urgings, which might be seen as contradictory. How can you use both the books and the databases more. It becomes clearer when I put it in an equation.

More use of reference books + more use of database = more reference questions answered.

The problem with this equation is that "more reference questions" is stated as the result. This is actually backwards.

More reference questions asked = more use of reference books + more use of databases.

That's what I really want. I want the whole community to rise up because they know how good we are at what we do and ask us more questions. I want us to be in place, at the desk and around the collections and on the phone and on the web, available and eager to answer the many questions coming our way. And I want us to enjoy the pleasures of opening those great reference books and searching those powerful databases.

Oh, am I still dreaming? Maybe. Don't wake me.

Now the Drum of War: Walt Whitman and His Brothers in the Civil War by Robert Roper

As the American Civil War began, Walt Whitman was known by literate society of New York, New England, and Washington, D.C., but he could still walk the streets and woods mostly unrecognized, despite his height and great beard. Some of those walks would have been with or to see his male lovers, but he seems to have sought solitude often. He had published three editions of Leaves of Grass, written and edited for several newspapers, including one in New Orleans, met Emerson and Thoreau, and made a little money building houses in Brooklyn. In his early forties as the war began, he had his family much on his mind, according to Robert Roper in his book Now the Drum of War: Walt Whitman and His Brothers in the Civil War.

Walt Whitman was the second of six brothers. He also had two sisters, one still at home in the early 1860s. His older brother Jesse was said to be the brightest, but he hit his head falling from a mast as a sailor; he suffered years of mental illness, sometimes in a hospital, but often kept in the Whitman home. During the war, Whitman's mother cared for this sometimes violent man, as well as his brother Andrew, dying from some uncertain disease (syphilis?) that mustered him out of the Union army, and his brother Edward, who was born with physical and mental disabilities. Also in the home were brother Jeff, who was struggling to find steady work as an engineer, Jeff's wife and two young daughters, and a family of unhappy renters, who had control of the only faucet. By 1863, the mood in the house was sometimes explosive.

In Now the Drum of War, Roper tells how the steady presence of Mother Whitman and the letters and money from the two brothers away from home supported the family. Brother George was with the New York 51st, a regiment that fought in many of the bloodiest battles of the war. News of his injury at an early stage of the conflict is what got Walt out of Brooklyn. Finding that his brother was hardly hurt, Walt returned from the front by way of Washington and discovered the many hospitals filled with war casualties could use a poet willing to sit with dying men. He remained there through most of the war, though he did take several important trips back to Brooklyn.

As you might guess, Now the Drum of War is not a standard birth-to-death biography. It fits in the more contemporary trend of slice-of-life or defining-moment biography. Because enough of the text is about the many Whitmans, especially George and Mother Whitman, it might also be shelved with family biographies, if a library has such as shelf. Still, Walt Whitman and his many-faceted personality is the central focus of this enjoyable book. Don't be surprised if reading it gives you the urge to write your mother.

Roper, Robert. Now the Drum of War: Walt Whitman and His Brothers in the Civil War. Walker & Company, 2008. ISBN 9780802715531

Woodstock: Peace, Music & Memories by Brad Littleproud and Joanne Hague

Tomorrow is the 40th anniversary of the first day of the Woodstock Music and Art Fair, also known as the Aquarian Exposition in White Lake, New York. Because attendees began arriving a day early, as you learn in Woodstock: Peace, Music & Memories by Brad Littleproud and Joanne Hague, you could argue that today's the day. No matter what day you choose, the event is worth remembering for its music, mud, mishaps, and myths.

No one really knows how many people attended Woodstock. According to the authors of Woodstock: Peace, Music & Memories, no one ever took the tickets. Because the festival was moved at a late date out of Wallkill, New York, where a half-finished stage sat for years, construction at Yasgur's Farm was never completed. No one ever built the ticket booths. It would not have mattered, as the fences were not finished either and there were far too many people to send through narrow gates. It is estimated that only one third of the attendees had tickets, which they kept and now sell on eBay.

Several new books about Woodstock have been published. What I like about Woodstock: Peace, Music & Memories is that it features the young fans who came much more than the musicians who played. The book is filled with their snapshots and memories, giving readers a good sense of what it was like to be out in the field at the festival. Despite the rain, mud, lack of food, and distribution of bad drugs, most had a wonderful time. The bands played super long sets through the day and even the night, since no one could actually leave and come back as originally planned. People did start to leave on Sunday. By the time Jimi Hendrix played his famous final set on Monday morning (long past the planned closing time), only 40,000 people remained.

Readers wanting more about the performers should try Back to the Garden: The Story of Woodstock by Pete Fornatale. Most of the chapters in this history focus on the rock stars, telling how they got to Woodstock, how and when they performed, and what being at Woodstock meant to their careers. Many played poorly, which is not surprising with the rain, technical problems, long delays, hunger, and drugs. Others rose to the occasion and are still remembered for peak performances. Fornatale's book can be read to see who won and lost at Woodstock.

Littleproud, Brad, and Hague, Joanne. Woodstock: Peace, Music & Memories. Krause, 2009. ISBN 9780896898332

Fornatale, Pete. Back to the Garden: The Story of Woodstock. Touchstone, 2009. ISBN 9781416591191

Joyce Sarick's Fiction Genre First Sentence Quiz

I was skeptical. Joyce Saricks said that I would get a perfect score on her fiction genre quiz, but I was very sure I would disappoint her. How could I tell what genre to assign a book by reading the first two sentences? With certainty that I would fail, I started the quiz, which is on page 27 of the August 2009 issue of Booklist.

I read the twelve quotes and thought "This is impossible. I know nothing." Then I read them again and decided that I could get at least two of them, the mystery and the western. Actually, the legal thriller jumped out, too. I decided that another quote read like a gentle read and fifth like suspense. Two quotes seemed to reflect the past, so I assigned them as historical romance and historical fiction. Eventually, I had classified each two-sentence quote and was ready to turn the page upside down to see how badly I had done.

Joyce was right! Though I read very little fiction these days, I got them all right.

You try, too.

***

Also look at page 101. There is the first ad that I have seen for my book Real Lives Revealed!

Biography Beat, August 2009

As summer winds down, the fall book season approaches.

Library Buying Alert

Included in this fall's books with large print runs, as reported in the June 29 issue of Publishers Weekly, are some memoirs and biographies.

On September 29, Hyperion will be releasing two million copies of Have a Little Faith by Mitch Albom, in which he recounts his friendships with a dying rabbi and a minister working among the poor in Detroit.

On October 6, a publisher called Twelve will issue 1.5 million copies of True Compass: A Memoir by Senator Edward Kennedy.

On November 9, Knopf is releasing 750,000 copies of Open: An Autobiography by Andre Agassi.

Doubleday is printing 600,000 copies of Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman by Jon Krakauer for release September 15. At this point in time, it is beating the three other books in advanced orders on Amazon.

Here are other large print run titles:

• On the Line by tennis star Serena Williams (300,000)
• Barack and Michelle by Christopher Andersen (200,000)
• Manhood for Amateurs: The Pleasures and Regrets of a Husband, Father, and Son by Michael Chabon (200,000)
• How to Be a Movie Star: Elizabeth Taylor in Hollywood by William J. Mann (100,000)
• The Queen Mother by William Shawcross (200,000)

More Celebrity Books Coming

It is said that hard economic times support escapist reading and a focus on celebrities. Maybe.

• Moon River and Me by Andy Williams (Viking, October)
• My Life Outside the Ring by Hulk Hogan (St. Martin's, October)
• I Am the New Black by Tracy Morgan (Spiegel & Grau, October)
• Robert Redford: The Biography by Michael Feeney Callan (Knopf, November)
• American on Purpose by Craig Ferguson (Harper, September)
• American Rebel by Marc Eliot (Harmony, September) About Clint Eastwood
• High Society by Donald Spoto (Harmony, Novemeber) About Grace Kelly
• Finding It: And Satisfying My Hunger for Life Without Opening the Fridge by Valerie Bertinelli (Free Press, November)
• Does the Noise in My Head Bother You? by Steven Tyler (Ecco, November)
• House of Versace by Deborah Ball (Crown, December)

Einstein Again

What more can there be? Walter Isaacson's 2007 biography Einstein: His Life and Universe is a big book that seems to cover the physicist's life in great detail. But there must be more, as Isaacson has written another book Einstein: The Life of a Genius to be published in November by CollinsDesign.


What I Want to Read

My tastes usually shy away from blockbusters. Here are the books that interest me:

• The Lady Queen: The Notorious Reign of Joanna I, Queen of Naples, Jerusalem, and Sicily by Nancy Goldstone (Walker & Company, November)
• Molly Ivins by Bill Minutaglio and W. Michael Smith (Public Affairs, November)
• A Mighty Long Way: My Journey to Justice at Little Rock Central High School by Carlotta Walls LaNier (September)
• Two Coots in a Canoe: A Story of Friendship by David E. Morine (GPP, September)
• David Crockett in Congress: The Rise and Fall of the Poor Man's Friend by James R. Boylston and Allen J. Wiener (Bright Sky Press, October)
• Jumping Through Fires by David Nasser (Baker Books, October)

Start buying books.

Reference in the Small Affluent Library: Outsourcing

Today's Points of Reference post is called Reports from the Front. In it, Mary Ellen Quinn quotes reference librarian Michaela Haberkern about what is happening in reference at the Hinsdale Public Library, my library's next door neighbor. Like Western Springs, Hinsdale is an affluent community with well educated clients with high expectations/low expectations. High in that they want a lot but low in that they suppose sometimes that their small libraries will be insufficient. I was struck by her comment that her clients outsource much of what they do in life: "investing, law, genealogy, cooking." I would add auto repair to that and maybe even child care. If the community is keen on outsourcing, as people are in another neighboring affluent community, Oak Brook, you can see why the idea for outsourcing the library comes up, as it did in Oak Brook. CEOs who have sent millions of jobs overseas live in these communities.

Michaela says that her clients are self-reliant, keeping the reference statistics down. This influences reference budgets, keeping them low. Then with a small collection, you get even fewer questions. This spirals down.

Luckily, we do still have people who love us in our small libraries. Perhaps they can sustain us while we reinvent what we do.

What the Heck Are You Up To, Mr. President? Jimmy Carter, America's "Malaise," and the Speech That Should Have Changed the Country by Kevin Mattson

I remember 1979 well. I was in the first year of my first job as a librarian. Though my salary was low enough that I would have qualified for public housing, I was quite optimistic about the future. Double-digit inflation and OPAC prices for oil did not worry me. I agreed with President Carter that it was time to conserve, develop alternative energy sources, and reassess our consumer expectations. I did not want lots of stuff or a big house to put it in. I was even hoping to get rid of my car. I thought it was a great time to be alive, to be at the beginning of a social and political transformation. In What the Heck Are You Up To, Mr. President? Jimmy Carter, America's "Malaise," and the Speech That Should Have Changed the Country, author Kevin Mattson describes that turbulent year and why an opportunities for change were lost.

In reading a book like What the Heck Are You Up To, Mr. President?, I have to confront how my value system is so different from that of many other Americans. Many people want big houses, big cars, and lots of stuff. And they want it all at discount prices. Jimmy Carter was as out of the mainstream as I was (and am). He was also not in control of his staff and cabinet, who were sabotaging his message frequently. His popularity ratings had fallen below that of Richard Nixon during the Watergate scandal. People were fighting in long lines to get scarce gasoline for their cars and talking about invading the Middle East. The stage was well set for Ronald Reagan to promise the world on a platter to every one who would vote for him.

Trying to reverse the slide of his presidency into stagnation, Jimmy Carter spent ten days at Camp David, meeting many advisers, experts, and regular citizens. With the comments he gathered, he shaped a speech to the American public calling for a new vision and resolve to build an efficient and just country. According to Mattson, the speech was initially praised, but neoconservatives quickly began attacking it. Soon, many people remembered Carter saying things that he hadn't actually said, including the word "malaise." Carter then insured the failure of his initiatives by firing his entire cabinet.

At the end of his book, Mattson reprints the speech that Carter delivered on July 15, 1979. I was struck by how well it describes 2009. We still are relying heavily on foreign oil, using up the earth's resources, and wasting our incomes on self-indulgent consumer goods. There is an even larger gulf between white collar and blue collar incomes. The rich are richer, and the poor are poorer. Perhaps, as Mattson suggests, the American people have made many terrible political and personal choices in last thirty years, but as he points out in his very readable history, blaming the people never helps.

Mattson, Kevin. What the Heck Are You Up To, Mr. President? Jimmy Carter, America's "Malaise," and the Speech That Should Have Changed the Country. Bloomsbury, 2009. ISBN 9781596915213

My Favorite Photo from the Weekend

Bonnie With Our Game Souvenir
Originally uploaded by ricklibrarian.

Some times you have to put down the books and have some fun. Bonnie and I went to a Kane County Cougar Game on Saturday night and sat just above third base. Between innings, the Cougars have lots of crowd pleasing promotions. I actually caught one of the softballs that were thrown into the stands. Bonnie has the proof.

The Thing Around Your Neck by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

The plight of women in contemporary Nigeria is the central concern in twelve stories in The Thing Around Your Neck, a new book from Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. The situation for many is bleak, as they are restricted by tribal and religious strictures that say whether they can marry for love, choose their friends, have careers, or control their own fertility. One woman's birth name means "father's wealth," referring to the payment he will receive when he "sells" her to a husband. As Adichie shows, it is dangerous to challenge the rules of husbands, boyfriends, fathers, and even grandmothers. Yet, they do and some succeed at great cost.

In The Thing Around Your Neck, Nigeria is a corrupt and violent place, a once-promising country spoiled by military strongmen and bad bankers. In a nod to modernity, many women are allowed educations, but then they are expected to accept subservient roles. In "Jumping Monkey Hill," a promising Nigerian author attending a writers' workshop reads her story about after getting her degree being given a bank job that expected her to sleep with bank clients. In "Tomorrow is Too Far," a grandmother always favors the grandson over a grandaughter, ignoring the latter's talent. In "The Arrangers of Marriage," an orphan is forced to marry a hapless Nigerian medical student doing his residency in the United States. In this and some other stories, Nigerians immigrate to America, but they always take a good bit of the fatherland with them.

These stories could simply be depressing, but Adichie's narration compels readers to continue past every injustice to see which women succeed and which fail. And not every father and husband in these quick reading stories is an enemy. The Thing Around Your Neck will appeal to readers of literary fiction who appreciate psychological insight and advocacy for social reform.

Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi. The Thing Around Your Neck. Knopf, 2009. ISBN 9780307271075

The Earth Moves: Galileo and the Roman Inquisition by Dan Hofstadter

In many accounts of the 1632 papal proceedings against Galileo Galilei, the astronomer/mathematician/philosopher is cast as a defender of science and truth, and Pope Urban VIII is vilified as a backward church father, unwilling to face modernity. Galileo insists the sun is the center of our part of the universe, while the pope retains the belief in the earth as the center of creation. In The Earth Moves: Galileo and the Roman Inquisition, however, Dan Hofstadter shows the case was a bit more complicated than it has often presented to be.

Having seen the now available papal transcripts of the inquisition, not really a "trial" by modern standards, Hofstadter revises the story. The real charge was disobedience, not heresy. The pope was most upset that Galileo used deception to get a imprimatur on a book about a forbidden topic. The irony is that in a previous decade, when still a cardinal, the pope urged Galileo to write a book about the Copernican view of the universe. Scientific evidence to support or disprove Galileo's vision of the universe was never presented in the inquiry. In the end the pope was almost willing to just forgive the old astronomer after the latter confessed, but behind the scene papal politics intervened. Galileo lived the rest of his life on parole.

Hofstadter's story may actually be more disturbing than the often-told tale. Urban VIII understood the science and knew that Galileo was right, but the church was filled with people who could be described as "biblical neoconservatives." Galileo's theories threatened not only the belief in Bible infallibility but also the belief in astrology. If the planets were moved, seers had no basis for their astrological readings. The pope understood these constituents and ruled according to their prejudices in ruling against science and Galileo. Hofstadler also suggests that family and city-state rivalries and envy were really behind the charges. The Galileo affair was a skirmish in a much larger cold war. The author proposes that someone else should research and write a longer book about this assertion.

With its sections about Galileo's upbringing and education and about his work with telescopes, The Earth Moves serves as a quick reading profile of the astronomer. I enjoyed reading about how Galileo described his experiments in pre-Newtonian language. His descriptors for motion were "inclination," "repugnance," "indifference," and "violence." Because algebra had not yet been invented, his calculations of planetary orbits are particularly amazing.

Readers who enjoy human drama may get a little bogged down in the middle section of the book, which includes technical details about telescopes and various theories about the arrangements of planets, stars, and comets. The first and final sections have faster flowing narratives that should please many history readers.

Hofstadter, Dan. The Earth Moves: Galileo and the Roman Inquisition. W.W. Norton, 2009. ISBN 9780393066500

The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún by J.R.R. Tolkien

J.R.R. Tolkien has another new book, The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún. His son Christopher continues to find writings that interest his father's devoted fans. This new volume includes some early Tolkien translations and commentaries of Norse legends concerning the Völsungs, descendants of Sigmund. Tolkien in verse retells the Elder Edda, the oldest of the collections of the myths, which are also retold in the Icelandic Völsung Saga, the Middle High German Nibelungenleid, and Richard Wagner's series of operas, Ring of the Nibelungs.

I skipped the introduction to see if I could understand the legends without first being told what I was reading. I did fairly well. Tolkien describes a world of forests and highlands where kings travel by swift horses. These kings and queens produce offspring who become future kings and queens, if they live. A serpent is slain with a well-forged sword to capture the creature's treasure of gold. A king lusts to possess a powerful ring. Sins of fathers pass on to their sons. Many people die to satisfy the greed of a few. It's just what you expect from mythology.

My favorite line: "Wives oft are wooed by worthless men."

There are lots of names to keep straight: Gudrún, Gunnar, Grimhild, Gjúki, Sigmund, Sigrlinn, Siggeir, Signý, and Sigurd are just a few of the characters. Readers may want to create scorecards to keep the players straight. Names that disappear for dozens of pages appear again when old crimes are remembered. Keeping alliances straight is difficult, partly because of the betrayal of allies. It does not end well for anyone.

Thus glory endeth,
And gold fadeth,
On noise and clamours
The night falleth.
Lift up your hearts,
Lords and maidens
For the song of sorrow
That was sung of old.

Read The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún if you want to know Tolkien's sources and enjoy ancient mythology.

Tolkien, J.R.R. The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2009. ISBN 9780547273426

The Times of My Life and My Life with the Times by Max Frankel

I have never been a regular reader of the New York Times, though I might consider it now that the Chicago Tribune has mostly given up the news business to entertain. Being a Midwesterner who keeps up with news fairly well, I did not recognize the name Max Frankel, a reporter and editor for the NYT. So, I had no idea what I would hear on the audiobook version of The Times of My Life and My Life with the Times by Frankel. With a shortage of good nonfiction audiobooks, I often just take what I can find. I was mostly pleased.

On the first of six discs, read by the author, the author tells about his childhood in Germany as a "Polish Jew" and his escape to America at the beginning of World War II. The story of his family being exiled to Poland and his mother's dangerously venturing back into Germany to obtain their visas from U.S. officials is engrossing. Many problems arose with the transactions, and he and his mother got out just in time. His father, however, spent the war in the Soviet Union, including a stint in Siberia. I had to keep listening well into disc two before I could stop.

His account of becoming a student and trying to lead a very American life while his parents tried to preserve old ways follows. He barely made it through school until a teacher involved him in journalism. The only problem that I have with his story of his becoming a reporter and editor of the newspaper at Columbia University and getting a job as a reporter at the New York Times is that it all sounded too easy.

My favorite part of the book is his memories from his time as a foreign correspondent in Moscow and Cuba and as a Washington press corps member during the Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon years. His comparison of Nikita Khrushchev and Lyndon Johnson is thought provoking, as is his explanation of how well kept the secret of John Kennedy's infirmities and affairs were. He also claims that Kennedy never really considered the loss of military and civilian lives as he dealt with the Cuban missile crisis and Vietnam. The Cold War was just a thrilling game for the young president. Frankel's account of how The Pentagon Papers were published in his newspaper is good listening.

The final discs tell about Frankel's time as editor of the New York Times. While the description of daily meetings to choose stories for page one was interesting, I did not find the account of office politics and newspaper business compelling. If I had a time machine, I'd go back and stop early on disc five, but I have no regrets. I enjoyed revisiting the middle years of the 20th century in this reportorial memoir.

Frankel, Max. The Times of My Life and My Life with the Times. Airplay, 2000. ISBN 1885608233

Newton and the Counterfeiter: The Unknown Detective Career of the World's Greatest Scientist by Thomas Levenson

A surprising benefit of listening to science podcasts is finding lots of books to read. Listening to Science Friday from NPR a few weeks ago, I heard an engaging interview with Thomas Levenson, author of Newton and the Counterfeiter: The Unknown Detective Career of the World's Greatest Scientist. Levenson told how he stumbled upon information about Sir Isaac Newton, sometimes heralded as the first real scientist for his adherence to the scientific method, pursuing criminals in his capacity as Warden of the Royal Mint.

Throughout history, little was expected of the Warden of the Royal Mint, except the drawing of a large salary. The position was usually a political reward to a supporter of the king or queen. Due to a monetary crisis caused by the silver in British coins being of far greater value than denomination value of those coins, the coins were regularly and illegally being shaved or melted down. With a shortage of currency, counterfeiters had an opening to reap high profits. With no police force in London and the establishment of Scotland Yard still more than a century away, the job of enforcing the king's currency laws fell to Newton, who was at first unwilling to carry out his duty. According to Levenson, however, when the mathematician-physicist-philosopher took on the task, he pursued counterfeiters with determination. He was especially keen to bring to trial and convict the brash metal smith William Chaloner. Levenson credits Newton with establishing criminal investigative methods.

In the first half of the book, Levenson relates how both Newton and Chaloner became middle-aged enemies. The historical details slow the story a bit in the middle, but the later part of the book in which the warden and the criminal seek to destroy each other is compelling reading. Throughout the story, readers learn much about the world of scientific gentlemen and London crime figures. Near the end, the descriptions of the hanging and evisceration of criminals is a bit horrifying.

Most libraries have put this book in their science sections, but I think it fits better in crime or history sections. It also works fairly well as a biographical sketch of Newton.

Levenson, Thomas. Newton and the Counterfeiter: The Unknown Detective Career of the World's Greatest Scientist. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2009. ISBN 9780151012787

The Veermer Interviews: Conversations with Seven Works of Art by Bob Raczka

There are some children's books that I think please adults more than children. One of those may be The Veermer Interviews: Conversations with Seven Works of Art by Bob Raczka. I can not imagine many children really caring about this book unless an enthusiastic adult draws them in by sharing it with them. I, however, like it very much.

The premise is that the author interviewed the models in seven of Jan Veermer's paintings to learn how the artist came to paint them and the methods that he employed. The woman in "Woman in Blue Reading a Letter" reveals who sent her a letter. The woman in "Young Woman with a Water Pitcher" explains why there is a map on the wall. The couple in "The Music Lesson" tell us about their relationship. In all of the interviews, we learn about perspective, light, and shadows. Though I have seen these painting many times in books, the interviews directed my eyes to details I had never noticed.

The Veermer Interviews might be a good book to use with art instruction. Otherwise, it is good to just have lying around for discovery by a child or adult with an unplanned afternoon.

Raczka, Bob. The Veermer Interviews: Conversations with Seven Works of Art. Millbrook Press, 2009. ISBN 9780822594024

Washington Schlepped Here: Walking in the National's Capital by Christopher Buckley

Right off the bat Christopher Buckley tells his readers that he is not a historian, but he promises that as a high level bureaucrat he knows how to steal good material for his book Washington Schlepped Here: Walking in the National's Capital. With just a tiny bit of right wing banter, he delivers an entertaining tour of many of the major sites of central Washington, D.C.

In his commentary, Buckley aims for laughs when he can, sometimes at the expense of the Founding Fathers, eminent politicians, and even himself. As a former member of the elder Bush administration, he has some inside stories to tell about Washington affairs. These mix well with the scoops that he gets from tour guides (the human kind) and guide books, showing that controversy has been a resident of the capital from its beginning.

Having spent a week in Washington two years ago when we attended the American Library Association conference, I recognized many of the places about which Buckley speaks. As he makes his way around the Mall, he reveals that there were political fights over the erection of nearly every building and statue. He does not mention the Botanic Garden and the National Museum of the American Indian, the latter having opened after he wrote the book. After crisscrossing the Mall from the Capitol to the Lincoln Memorial, he also walks Lafayette Square and Arlington National Cemetery.

I listened to Washington Schlepped Here read ably by Grover Gardner, which I suggest for readers who are contemplating a trip or simply looking for lighthearted history.

Buckley, Christopher. Washington Schlepped Here: Walking in the National's Capital. Books on Tape, 2003.

Just One Reference Book from Gale

I was just reading the new Points of Reference blog from Booklist in which Mary Ellen Quinn tells about the upcoming Fall Reference Preview. Her piece is a preview of the preview. In the first paragraph she states that Gale Publishing submitted information on only one reference title for the preview.

I am now trying to remember ten days ago in Chicago. Were there any books at all at the Gale exhibit at the American Library Association Annual Conference? I remember lots of monitors and keyboards and Gale staff ready to sell databases. I don't remember seeing any bookshelves. Had I forgotten that even Gale sells books? Were they around some corner I did not turn?

At the Booklist program Rethinking Reference Collections, panelists mused that the days of mostly digital reference sources are coming. Maybe they are already here. Our reference dollars will all go to big companies that can afford to build towers above the exhibit floor.

The Girl from Foreign: A Search for Shipwrecked Ancestors, Forgotten Histories, and A Sense of Home by Sadia Shepard

Where truly is your home? Where do you belong physically and spiritually? Is it in the place of your ancestors? In The Girl from Foreign: A Search for Shipwrecked Ancestors, Forgotten Histories, and A Sense of Home, Sadia Shepard spends a year in India. Her Fulbright Scholarship specifies that she is documenting the history and remains of the Bene Israel community, a little-known enclave of Jews in India established two thousand years ago, but she is really there to discover her grandmother's spiritual roots.

Shepard is a truly multicultural person, the descendant of many cultures. Her grandmother was Jewish raised in India, her mother Muslim raised in Pakistan, and her father Christian raised outside Boston. Because her grandmother lived with her family outside Boston, Shepard receive equal amounts of instruction in the three religions as a child. Luckily for her, the household was filled with tolerance and respect, but now that she is an adult, people are urging her to choose one path, something she is reluctant to do.

The Girl from Foreign: A Search for Shipwrecked Ancestors, Forgotten Histories, and A Sense of Home is just my kind of book, a memoir from an American who traveled abroad, full of observations about other countries and their cultures. I especially like that she shows why people love their homelands, even the places that the media so often depicts as dangerous places. I suspect many readers will identify with Shepard's sense of being an outsider wanting to be let in. Don't we all want this?

Shepard, Sadia. The Girl from Foreign: A Search for Shipwrecked Ancestors, Forgotten Histories, and A Sense of Home. Penguin Press, 2008. ISBN 9781594201516

Place Names of Illinois by Edward Callary

As a reference librarian, I like reference books, even ones that seem fairly plain, such as a simple subject dictionary. So, I am inclined to like Place Names of Illinois by Edward Callary. It may indicate my bookishness, but I find fun browsing the brief entries about the names of rivers, lakes, towns, cities, counties, and other populated places. Most tell when names were first used, origins, the names replaced, and when post offices were established.

What have I learned from the book?

Africa was a settlement of freed slaves. Alhambra was named by Washington Irving readers. There was a grain elevator in Cereal. Custer was probably named for General George Armstrong Custer. Maud was named for a county judge's daughter. Minooka means "good land" in Algonquin. Roaches was formerly Roach Town and Roachville. There are two Vermilion Rivers. Zif might be named for the eighth month of the Hebrew calendar.

Some of my favorite names:

• Burden Creek
• Dog Hollow
• Drowning Fork
• Henpeck
• Illiopolis
• Joy
• Jubilee
• Limerick
• Little America
• Paradise
• Pharaohs Garden
• Polecat Creek
• Wonder Lake
• Young America

Place Names of Illinois does the job it sets out to do and should be in most Illinois libraries. We have put our copy into circulation so anyone can take it home and enjoy browsing through the curious names.

Callary, Edward. Place Names of Illinois. University of Illinois Press, 2009. ISBN 9780252033568

Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson

I have been thinking about pirates since we visited Real Pirates: The Untold Story of the Whydah, From Slave Ship to Pirate Ship at the Field Museum in Chicago. Also, I have been thinking about Robert Louis Stevenson recently because I listened to the audiobook version of Sailing Alone Around the World by Joshua Slocum, in which the world traveler describes meeting Stevenson's widow. So it seemed a good time to listen to Treasure Island, Stevenson's classic and often adapted novel.

Listening to Treasure Island, I found I remembered most of the character names - Jim Hawkins, Captain Smollett, Squire Trelawney, and Long John Silver - but I at first recalled them as the cast of Muppet Treasure Island. Kermit the Frog was the Captain, Fozzie Bear was the squire, Tim Curry was Long John, and Miss Piggy was someone Stevenson never imaged, the Captain's old girlfriend. Listening I was surprised how the early part of the book and the movie really run parallel. Jim works for his family in an inn. Captain Bill Bones shows up with a chest and gets the black spot. Pirates wreck the inn looking for the map. The squire lets Long John choose the crew. Jim even heard Long John's mutinous scheme from inside an apple barrel.

Once the Hispanola reaches Treasure Island, late in the movie and early in the book, the plots diverge. I still imagined Tim Curry as the embodiment of Long John, while the rest of the characters became more realistic in my vision. That is not to say that Long John remained a cartoon. Quite the opposite. Stevenson's depiction of the one legged pirate is complex and puzzling. Critics can argue the pirate's pros and cons without true resolution. He is rightfully one of the great characters of literature.

One of the traditions of summer is picking appropriate reading for the beach. What could be better than a pirate book?

Stevenson, Robert Louis. Treasure Island. 1883.

We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball by Kadir Nelson

I noticed We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball by Kadir Nelson in the June issue of American Libraries. It had won two different children's books awards. Being a big fan of both baseball and books, I had to see it. Luckily for me, when I sought the book, it had just been returned to the library and had not made it back to the new book display. Surely it would have gone back out right away.

I was impressed. Nelson is multitalented, both at storytelling and at illustration. He tells the story in the voice of an unnamed black ballplayer, often using the pronoun "we," making the story seem very personal. Within 88 pages, he tells the major stories of the league and describes the daily life of the players. There are dozens of arresting reproductions of Nelson's oil paintings depicting the ballplayers, including Josh Gibson, Satchel Page, and Cool Papa Bell. I can imagine this book doubles as both a children's storybook (older readers) and a museum catalog. The pictures would look good on a set of baseball cards.

Now I need to return it and let someone else enjoy this fine book. It would be a nice item to actually own, especially if you have young athletes in your home.

Nelson, Kadir. We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball. Jump at the Sun, 2008. ISBN 9780786808328