Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher: The Epic Life and Immortal Photographs of Edward Curtis by Timothy Egan

You have probably seen the photographs - The Snake Priest, Chief Joseph, Vanishing Race - Navaho, and Geronimo. Edward Curtis took thousands of such photographs using his heavy cameras with glass plates that he carried to tribal reservations across the United States and Canada in the years between 1900 and 1929. He was a man with a very impractical, very expensive dream. He wanted to photograph every tribe to document a way of life that he admired. The goal was to publish 20 high quality volumes that would that he would sell by subscription to libraries, museums, and wealthy individuals. The dream cost him his marriage and his fortune. Timothy Egan tells the story in Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher: The Epic Life and Immortal Photographs of Edward Curtis.

At the time Curtis began his quest, the Indian Wars were over, and many American actually thought "the best Indian is a dead Indian." Native Americans had no rights. They were not even citizens. Getting people interested in his project was an almost impossible task. The early volumes did, however, win praise from important newspapers and magazines. He was for a time the most famous photographer in the country, which introduced him to powerful men, including President Theodore Roosevelt and financier J. P. Morgan.

Like photographer Mathew Brady and painter George Catlin before him, Edward Curtis died a poor and mostly forgotten man after a career dedicated to visually documenting American life. Like Brady, he was the country's most sought photographer for a time, and like Catlin, he spent his years among Native Americans. According to Egan, the nation owes a great debt to the three for the body of their work which now informs us what our forefathers disregarded.

In Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher, Egan takes us back to a time when travel and communications were difficult. Among his stories are two in which the national press reported incorrectly that Curtis had died, once at sea and once in Alaska. Mark Twain died only one premature death in the press. When Curtis really died, few noticed.

Readers interested in true adventure, the history of photography, and the story of Native Americans will enjoy Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher.

Egan, Timothy. Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher: The Epic Life and Immortal Photographs of Edward Curtis. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2012. 370p. ISBN 9780618969029.

Autobiography of a Face by Lucy Grealy

There was a huge dose of tragedy in the life of Lucy Grealy, enough to destroy a person without a strong will to survive. At age nine she was diagnosed to have Ewing's sarcoma on her jaw. After surgery and five years of cancer treatments, she spent fifteen years submitting to surgeries to reconstruct her face. With the hope that she would some day be beautiful like other girls, she agreed to thirty surgeries, each to be a step toward her goal. She recounted her story in Autobiography of a Face.

Grealy wrote vividly of her ordeal. After reading her book, I am certain that I never want chemotherapy or to have my skin or bones used to build new tissues in another part of my body. What Grealy endured is almost unimaginable to anyone who has lived a relatively healthy life, but she was not alone in suffering. She warmly describes other cancer patients that she met during her numerous hospital stays. Her story may be extreme in tenure but representative in its insults to patients. As a child, she was often not told what to expect from her surgeries and cancer treaments.

Ironically, Grealy insistented that the medical part of her life was the easier part of having cancer and subsequent deformity. What distressed her more was the way she was treated by peers, their parents, and even teachers. Pity, revulsion, avoidance, and malicious teasing were daily encounters for her. She came to welcome long stays in hospitals where she felt a great sense of tolerance and belonging.

"… a splendid debut" is how one advance reviewer described this book from the Iowa Writer's Workshop graduate. Sadly, Grealy had only one more book before she died at 39. Autobiography of a Face, however, survives for teens and adults interested in the impact of physical image on girls and women.

Grealy, Lucy. Autobiography of a Face. Houghton Mifflin, 1994. 223p. ISBN 0385657806.

Visiting Tom: A Man, A Highway, and the Road to Roughneck Grace by Michael Perry

Michael Perry is to Tom Hartwig, his octogerian neighbor, as we are to Michael Perry, the author and our guide to life in rural Wisconsin.

Perry observes Hartwig's life as readers observe Perry's life.

What Perry gains from his friendship is like what we gain from reading Visiting Tom. What the author deduces about Tom may not always be what Tom thinks or feels. Likewise, every reader will interpret the Perry's book in his or her own way.

Mostly Mike enjoys hanging out with Tom. I know I enjoy my time with the author and his observations.

Like Tom, Mike is a storyteller who enjoys the telling.

While Visiting Tom is partly about Hartwig and partly about Perry and his family, the reading is also partly about us. How do we live our lives?

Enough said, except that I have to try to spot a certain farm next time I drive the Interstate near Eau Claire.

Perry, Michael. Visiting Tom: A Man, A Highway, and the Road to Roughneck Grace. Harper, 2012. 310p. ISBN 9780061894442.

The Man in the Rockefeller Suit: The Astonishing Rise and Spectacular Fall of a Serial Impostor by Mark Seal

I knew that our St. Luke's book discussion of The Man in the Rockefeller Suit: The Astonishing Rise and Spectacular Fall of a Serial Impostor by Mark Seal would be good. The protagonist is a disturbingly fascinating character despite (or perhaps because) his being so unknowable. That left us plenty of room to speculate on just what drove him to constantly reinvent himself. What pleasure did he gain from his deceptions? Did he choose to do what he did or was he always out of control?

Reading Seal's book also leads one to question the safeguards of our financial networks. In his persona of Christopher Crowe, the shape-shifter was able to get high level positions in investment firms with absolutely no qualifications. He was able just to charm his way into jobs by offering managers what they wanted to see. He eventually lost one job because the boss saw that he never actually did anything profitable, but no one ever did a check for his degrees or certifications. How many other impostors are out there moving big money around?

As Clark Rockefeller, the former Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter from Germany played his greatest roll. He not only convinced many people that he was a member the fabulously wealthy family, gaining entry to exclusive clubs and high society, he was able to keep his identity secret from his wife, a powerful investment manager, for fifteen years. Why did she give her husband complete control of their finances? How could she have never discover inconsistencies in his story? Also, why did no genuine Rockefeller ever raise a voice of warning? The impostor seemed to be out in the open in their stomping grounds.

We thought the author did a generally good job with The Man in the Rockefeller Suit, but all wanted to know more about Clark Roosevelt's collection of modern art, which he used numerous times to convince people that he was a Rockefeller. Where did it come from? Where did it go? Is there another unknown crime?

Seal's book may be just the first about Gerhartsreiter for the story is continuing. As Christopher Chichester XIII, the protagonist will be on trial for murder in California this winter. Will he be convicted? Stay tuned.

Seal, Mark. The Man in the Rockefeller Suit: The Astonishing Rise and Spectacular Fall of a Serial Impostor. Viking, 2011. 323p. ISBN 9780670022748.

Earth Flight: Breathtaking Photographs from a Bird's-eye View of the World by John Downer

The beauty of birds inspires many nature photographers, spawning lots of gorgeous books, making bird study as popular indoors as out. The latest big bird book Bonnie brought home is Earth Flight: Breathtaking Photographs from a Bird's-eye View of the World by John Downer, a director and producer for BBC Earth. He spent five years producing a series called Earth Flight, which used birds imprinted on nature photographers to get spectacular videos of birds over landscapes. Earth Flight (the book) is collection of photos taken during the project.

How was this done? Downer and his crew acquired clutches of eggs from cooperative species, such as cranes and geese, and managed to have a nature photographer present at each hatching. The photographer would than be a primary caregiver raising the birds. As the birds matured, they accepted their surrogate parent flying beside them in an ultralite aircraft. The result is a body of eye-popping images from all the continents except Antarctica.

For birds not susceptible to imprinting, the BBC team created robotic birds to fly along with wild birds. According to Downer, these non-manned flying machines opened up great opportunities for the filmmakers, but also drew the unwanted attention of many wary security forces in Middle Eastern countries. The producers also mounted miniature cameras on some birds, including bald eagles in the Grand Canyon, capturing great over the shoulder pictures.

Though it is easy just to look at the pictures, read the notes in the back of the book. After the natural history pieces, there are some incredible production stories.

Downer, John. Earth Flight: Breathtaking Photographs from a Bird's-eye View of the World. Firefly Books, 2012. 239p. ISBN 9781770850392.

A Prairie Home Companion in Chicago

The News from Lake Wobegone was reported from the shore of Lake Michigan on November 10 as A Prairie Home Companion broadcast from the stage of Chicago's Auditorium Theatre. Bonnie and I joined our friends Nancy and Glenn in the beautiful old building which, according to host Garrison Keillor, was designed by architect Louis Sullivan to have perfect acoustics. I know we heard the performers very well, except when many people were laughing or applauding, which was fairly often.

I was the sole newbie having never attended A Prairie Home Companion before. I had seen some televised broadcasts before, but it was fascinating to watch the preparations for each segment coming together as previous songs and skits ended. It reminded me of being at the Grand Ole Opry, which I would also like to see again.

I thought the music was the strongest portion of this show, as the Guy's All-Star Shoe Band supplemented with Chicago musicians was tremendous. The most brilliant piece was a jazz-rendition of music from Mozart's Don Giovanni. I also was greatly impressed by the rich voice of baritone Nathan Gunn.

The skits certainly had their funny moments and I loved how The Lives of the Cowboys was set in Western Springs, right where I work. I suppose they grazed their cattle on the Village Green. I will have to keep an eye out for gunslingers in the middle of the downtown streets and see if I can find the Last Chance Saloon so I can charge my cellphone while trying a little rotgut whiskey.

As I started to say, the skits earned a few laughs, but they lasted too long and didn't have very satisfying endings that night. PHC has done better. I wish they had shortened them and gotten in the promised spot for Bertha's Kitty Boutique. I'd like Keillor to bring back Raw Bits, Fearmonger Shop, or Cafe Boeuf skits.

The funniest song came before the broadcast began, but it was probably not deemed proper for the airwaves. The most surprising guest was Illinois Governor Pat Quinn, who was seeking Guy Noir's help to suppress a video of the governor putting ketchup on a Chicago hot dog. Quinn did a good job with his lines, as did Wait Wait … Don't Tell Me host Peter Sagal, who let us know that real Chicagoans do not eat deep dish pizza. A Prairie Home Companion was a wonderful early evening entertainment, which I would do again. Maybe we can visit St. Paul.

Petra van Nuis at Friday at the Ford

I've said it before. Being host of the Friday at the Ford concerts at the Thomas Ford Memorial Library is one of the unexpected pleasures of my job. In the process of hiring acts for the five-times-a-year music series, I meet a lot of nice people. I also get to hear a lot of great music. Such was the case on November 2, when we featured jazz singer Petra van Nuis (pronounced Paytra van Nouse - which rhymes with mouse) with guitar accompaniment by Andy Brown. Petra, as she is called by most of her publicity, specializes in the American songbook and Brazilian bossa nova, genres that really pleased our crowd of 60 at the library.

Petra began with Cole Porter's "Is It an Earthquake" followed by "Dreamer" by Antonio Carlos Jobin. I recognized these but few others in the first half of the concert. Then she sang "I Won't Dance" by Jerome Kern and "Mediation, " another song by Jobin, starting a series of familiar-to-me standards. I especially liked how she finished the evening, letting the audience recommend songs for a medley that she and Brown pulled off splendidly. With her smooth voice, she both calmed and captivated. 

The singer met some of her listeners before the show and discovered the first other Petra she had ever met, other than her Dutch grandmother. After the show, Petra answered questions and signed cd's.

Petra obviously knows and loves her songs and the era from which they came, and she connects warmly with the audience, who enjoyed her many tempos and moods. After the last notes of "You Make Me Feel So Young" ended, many went home with a little more bounce in their steps.

Here's a sample of Petra's music - Old Black Magic

Farther Away by Jonathan Franzen

I have not read the novels of Jonathan Franzen and probably won't, but I have tried his essays. I enjoyed the mostly autobiographical collection The Discomfort Zone: A Personal History a couple of years ago. Now I have just listened to Farther Away as a downloadable audiobook. Franzen sets the tone by reading the first two essays "Pain Won't Kill You" and "Farther Away," and actor Scott Shepherd continues with nineteen more. All have a certain storytelling hook that will appeal to listeners of National Public Radio. Franzen discusses his writing, recounts life with family and friends, reports on birding issues, and profiles his favorite authors.

The name that comes up continually throughout is the novelist David Foster Wallace. Franzen says in an essay about his always-fragile friend that Wallace was trying to mature and wean himself off antidepresants before the final depression that led to his suicide. Readers will sense Franzen's feelings of loss and resolve to honor his colleauge.

I especially appreciate Franzen's reporting on the welfare of birds. He has traveled around the world to see endangered species and meet with both people who poach and protect the birds. He tries to be understanding of all viewpoints but regrets being so polite to hosts as to eat songbirds in Cyprus.

Several essays at the end of the book profile novelists and their books. I found myself placing requests for even more books. Thanks, Mr. Franzen.

Franzen, Jonathan. Farther Away. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2012. 321p. ISBN 9780374153571.

Macmillan Audio, 2012. 7 discs (8.5 hrs). ISBN 9781427221483.

The Queen of Katwe: A Story of Life, Chess, and One Extraordinary Girl's Dream of Becoming a Grandmaster by Tim Crothers

I am so impressionable. I have just read a book about the world of chess and am now thinking that I should start playing again. Maybe there is an ap I could get for my computer or smartphone. I know there are instructional books in our library. Of course, the hero of the book that I have just read had none of these advantages. In fact, she barely had clothes and food. The promise of a daily meal was one of the reasons that she took up chess.

The book is The Queen of Katwe: A Story of Life, Chess, and One Extraordinary Girl's Dream of Becoming a Grandmaster by sports writer Tim Crothers. The hero is Phiona Mutesi, a street girl from Kampala, Uganda, who at age 14 represented her country at the 2010 Chess Olympiad in Siberia. It is such an unlikely story as there were several times when her mother and siblings literally had no home other than under a tree. With her mother working at the local street market, the kids often had to fend for themselves. One day Phiona followed her brother to a center for poor children where Robert Katende started a chess program with the idea that the discipline of the game would teach boys skills to rise above the slum. Phiona asked to play, too.

What sets The Queen of Katwe aside from feel-good third world achievement books is that the author tells the story but does not suggest for a moment that Phiona has escaped her origins. Several times she has returned from winning chess tournaments in other countries and had to beg for food the next day. Uganda has no safety net.

What can we do about a world that puts girls and women in such peril? This book will break your heart. It might also strengthen your resolve.

Crothers, Tim. The Queen of Katwe: A Story of Life, Chess, and One Extraordinary Girl's Dream of Becoming a Grandmaster. Scribner, 2012. 232p. ISBN 9781451657814.

Eaglebone Whistle, Fretless 152

If you ever feel lonesome
You're down in San Antone
Beg, steal or borrow two nickles or a dime
And call me on the phone
We'll meet at Alamo Mission
We can say our prayers
The Holy Ghost and Virgin Mother
Will lead us as we kneel there … 

So begins "Midnight Moonlight," a lively bluegrass tune written by Peter Rowan, which is the first track on the 1981 album Eaglebone Whistle by a quintet of the same name. I heard Eaglebone Whistle in Austin, Texas with friends in a pub sometime in the late 1970s. I was not a pub person, but someone said that there was a great bluegrass band that we had to hear. She was right. The band was great - three men and two women playing a mixture of bluegrass, folk, blues, and western swing.

When I moved to Chicago a few years later, I discover Rose Records under the elevated tracks on Wabash Avenue. I entered to find three stories of vinyl records from all over the world. It was heaven. If only I hadn't been scraping by at the time (full time reference librarian job with annual salary of  about $12,000), I could have bought hundreds of albums that I really wanted. The main floor had prime space for hot selling popular records, but most of the space was devoted to displays of classical music. The next floor up was all classical as well. On the third floor was jazz, blues, country, international, spoken word, and folk. I found Eaglebone Whistle in a display of albums recommended by the hosts of WFMT's The Midnight Special. I bought it immediately.

There are no weak pieces on Eaglebone Whistle (Fretless 152). Both sides have four vocal pieces and two instrumentals. In addition to your expected guitars, fiddles, banjos, and basses, Greg Raskin played hammered dulcimer and John Hagen played cello. The male and female voices blended sweetly. Whenever I have made time to listen to albums on the turntable, Eaglebone Whistle has been one of my first-in-line choices.

Sadly, though the album looks fine, it now plays as though it is warped. Happily, back in the 1990s, my friend Glenn burned a CD for me using his special turntable. This is especially fortuitous as the collective memory of Eaglebone Whistle seems to have almost disappeared. There is little to find on the Internet. I found that eBay had a disc for sale and that radio KTRU played "Until This Feeling's Gone" back in November 2009 and twice since. Member Jane Gillman has a website with a bio and music for sale, but no Eaglebone Whistle CDs. WorldCat shows 8 libraries owning the album. Nothing at Amazon, iTunes, Pandora, or YouTube.

As I drove in the car Wednesday morning, I wondered if I was the only person on earth currently listening to Eaglebone Whistle. I hope not.

Minette's Feast: The Delicious Story of Julia Child and Her Cat by Susanna Reich

"Like any self-respecting French cat, Minette wouldn't dream of eating food out of a can."

Luckily for Minette, she had Julia Child to cook for her. Even so, Child had to practice and improve her cooking to satisfy the discriminating taste buds of Minette. Lessons with Chef Bugnard at Le Cordon Bleu were essential. After months of study and testing, Child finally cooked a dish that was perfect for le poussiequette. "Ooh-la-la! Magnifique!"

With lovely illustrations by Amy Bates, Susanna Reich tells the story of a French cat wanting only the best and an American woman wanting to be a French chef in Minette's Feast: The Delicious Story of Julia Child and Her Cat. Of course, most children will not realize that Child was a famous author and television celebrity, but I imagine a few will be delighted years from now when they make the link. In the meantime, young readers can enjoy a sweet story about a demanding cat served by a faithful human.

Reich, Susanna. Minette's Feast: The Delicious Story of Julia Child and Her Cat. Abrams Books for Young Readers, 2012. ISBN 9781419701771.

The Shakespeare Guide to Italy: Retracing the Bard's Unknown Travels by the late Richard Paul Roe

William Shakespeare is one the people about whom I keep reading. Ironically, not much is known about the playwright, who is often called the Bard. His whereabouts for some years are unknown. Perhaps that is exactly why he is so fascinating. He's a mystery. The latest title that I read is The Shakespeare Guide to Italy: Retracing the Bard's Unknown Travels by the late Richard Paul Roe.

In the past, many literary scholars have ridiculed the Shakespeare plays set in Italy for their many geographical inaccuracies. The standard line was that Shakespeare never went to Italy and that he just looked at some books and talked to some travelers to learn some place names and brief descriptions and then he creatively elaborated. Roe suspected that the scholars themselves did not know much, so he set out to stand where the playwright stood, supposing that he did go to Italy.

What Roe discovered was the descriptions were very exact in detail far beyond any of the sources the playwright could have used. He also located many of the "lost" sites simply by looking around and talking to local historians. His conclusion was that the playwright had to have traveled in Italy.

What Roe would not say is whether the playwright was William Shakespeare. The author said he was unqualified to speculate whether Shakespeare fronted for some well-traveled writer. Through most of the book, Roe just refers to "the playwright."

Regardless of who wrote the plays, Roe provided not only evidence of real places matching those in the plays, but he also commented on 16th century Italian commercial, social, religious, legal, and military affairs. I enjoyed reading about discrimination against the Jewish community in Venice, safe travel on the canal system across the peninsula, and the troubled politics of the Holy Roman Empire.

Roe's book does become slow going when there is a lot of visual detail to verify, but that detail will become important to you when you take his book to Italy to see for yourself. I also found chapters about plays I know well were easier to read than others. I was particularly interested in the Much Ado About Nothing chapter which revealed a lot of political backstory. A great book for Bard fanatics.

Roe, Richard Paul. The Shakespeare Guide to Italy: Retracing the Bard's Unknown Travels. Harper Perennial, 2011. 309p. ISBN 9780062074263.

Titanic: Voices from the Disaster by Deborah Hopkinson

Often, the best way to present historic events that involve many is to focus on a few of the people involved, turn them into reporters. Deborah Hopkinson did this with her offering for the 100th anniversary of the Titanic sinking. In Titanic: Voices from the Disaster, she weaves eyewitness accounts and recollections throughout her text. Most are from survivors, though she does also work in a few letters and telegraphic messages from those who died. Together they tell a story that is horrific and heroic.

It is only as I write this review that I realize the work was intended for folks younger than me. I listened to the audiobook edition which I did notice was unabridged. What I did not notice on the back of the case was the banner "Recommended for Listeners Ages 8 to 12." I am sure I would have known if I had held the paper book, laid out for juvenile readers with illustrations. I never noticed listening. There is no talking down to or simplifying for younger readers. I enjoyed the account thoroughly.

Perhaps the fact that the audiobook was only five hours should have said "juvenile" to me. So many of the audiobooks for adults are much longer. But five hours is a good length for listening in a couple of days and moving on to somethinge else. I think I know other adults who would agree.

Hopkinson, Deborah. Titanic: Voices from the Disaster. Scholastic Press, 2012. 289p. ISBN 9780545116749.

4 compact discs. Listening Library, 2012. ISBN 9780449015056.

The Shooting Salvationist: J. Frank Norris and the Murder Trial That Captivated America by David R. Stokes

I learned about this book in Sarah Statz Cords article "Prior Misconduct: Historical True Crime Collection Development" in the September 2012 issue of Library Journal. 

There are two central characters in The Shooting Salvationist: J. Frank Norris and the Murder Trial That Captivated America by David R. Stokes. Of course, one is identified in the title, the Baptist minister J. Frank Norris, who was once thought to be the heir to the title of "leading fundamentalist in America" after the death of William Jennings Bryan in 1925. The other is the city of Fort Worth, Texas, a former cowtown that was becoming a first class metropolis when Norris led the First Baptist Church, the largest congregation in the nation at the time.

Initially, Ft. Worth was the more interesting of the characters. I enjoyed learning about the city's transformation and aspirations. I have been there and am impressed with its parks, zoo, museums, and central city. The author recounts how the city developed during the first three decades of the twentieth century in setting the scene for a crime that pitted Norris against the Ft.Worth establishment.

Norris felt quite confident in his many campaigns to shape Ft. Worth. He had not only a devoted congregation in the city but also reached conservative Christians in many states through his weekly newspaper, radio station, and high-profile evangelical crusades to cities across the country. He showed no fear in taking on strong enemies, but he risked losing everything when he fatally shot an unarmed opponent who had come to his church office to argue about Norris's threats to the mayor.

In the last part of the book, the author dramatically recounts the media circus and trial following the killing. Would Norris be sent to the electric chair? I won't tell.

Stokes, David R. The Shooting Salvationist: J. Frank Norris and the Murder Trial That Captivated America. Steerforth Press, 2011. 350p. ISBN 9781586421861.

Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson

I knew the people in our book club would have plenty to say about Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson. It is a much longer book than we normally read, but it was democratically chosen, and I think almost everyone finished the book. Of course, you would not have had to read the book at all to join in the conversation. Everyone was familiar with Jobs and Apple. We even had Apple devices in the room.

One of the discussion points was whether Isaacson's book was really a biography of Jobs or a history of Apple with a heavy emphasis on Jobs. A few wished that there had been much less about the technology and more about Jobs and his relationships. Others thought that Apple was the most important part of Jobs and the mix was right. One of the younger members who remembers her parents getting an Apple II remarked that the book was a history of her times. Not being one of the youngest, I could say that it is a sort of history of technology concurrent to my professional times. From my position as a librarian, I saw the introductions of many of the computers and devices mentioned.

I was fascinated by Silicon Valley culture undercurrent in the book. All of the key players at Apple, Microsoft, Google, Hewlett Packard, Sun Microsystems, Adobe, etc. all seemed to know each other and even dined out with spouses. (When dining with Jobs, you had to make allowances for his radical diet.) At the same time, they were fiercely competing with each other to win acclaim and sales for their products. The need for industry standards and software that bridged platforms required a certain civility that the competitors kept at most times. Civility still allows for much foul language.

Job's Pixar years seem to be a sort of sweet side story. They make me more inclined to like Jobs who is a very difficult person to like through much of the book. We all agreed that he was a poor parent and wonder how his children will develop as adults. No one wanted him as a boss.

At 571 pages of text, Steve Jobs is a book that requires some committment from a book club, but the effort may be rewarded.

Isaacson, Walter. Steve Jobs. Simon & Schuster, 2011. 630p. ISBN 9781451648539.

Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mount Everest Disaster by Jon Krakauer

Should you be traveling and wish to encourage conversation with your fellow travelers, carry and read from Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mount Everest Disaster by Jon Krakauer. I was reading it as I flew from West Texas back to Chicago a few weeks ago. Several people just nodded toward the book and said "Great book." The longest encounter I had was with a man who appeared to be one of the Southwest Airlines pilots. Seeing me reading near a gate in Midland International Airport, he asked me how I was liking the book and recommended that I also read Under the Banner of Heaven. As he walked away, I observed his being blond, tan, and athletic, just the kind of guy who could be a climber.

By this time, fifteen years after publication, I imagine a lot of people have already read Into Thin Air. I know librarians have been recommending it for years. I know that I have handed it to scores of readers. Yet I had not read it. The whole idea of enduring hardship and altitude sickness to put one's life at risk just to test one's determination seemed rather self-indulgent and irresponsible. It still does. But the book is exciting. Krakauer is a good storyteller.

Though you know the outcome at the beginning, he is able to introduce characters and reveal critical moments at a pace that never lets the reader lose interest. With his vivid descriptions, I feel I know what it is like at the top of Everest, and I am certain that I am not going there. I think I'll stay under 8000 feet,  thank you, except for a few airplane flights.

I was reading Into Thin Air to see if it fit in an article that I am writing about memoirs to keep for decades in library collections. I decided it is not enough about Krakauer to be a memoir, but it is definitely a book to keep.

Krakauer, Jon. Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mount Everest Disaster. Villard, 1997. 297p. ISBN 0679457526.

A Wedding in Haiti: The Story of a Friendship by Julia Alvarez

Cruel dictators, violent gangs, disasterous earthquakes, poverty, and disease are the prevailing topics in most discussions of Haiti. Novelist Julia Alvarez has witnessed all of this from her coffee farm in the neighboring Dominican Republic, but she has seen reason for hope in the Haitian people. She recounts two driving trips in a pickup truck into Haiti with her warm-hearted husband and some of her Haitian workers in A Wedding in Haiti: The Story of a Friendship.

Central to the story is Piti, a Haitian that Alvarez has seen grow from a boy into a man. When he was just a boy, she made the casual remark that someday she would attend his wedding. In August 2009, Piti called her on short notice to remind her of her pledge. She cancelled all her appointments and flew from her Vermont home back to the island of Hispanola to take a trip across the border. The first trip is a mostly entertaining look at rural Haiti. The second taken after the 2010 earthquake that destroyed much of Port-Au-Prince is a short report of the state of the Haitian people in and away from the epicenter of the capital city.

Throughout both, Alvarez saw resilience amid the despair and devotion to family. Readers who enjoy peeks into other cultures will like this quick-reading book.

Alvarez, Julia. A Wedding in Haiti: The Story of a Friendship. Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2012. 287p. ISBN 9781616201302.

Just Kids by Patti Smith

I was initially not inclined to read Just Kids by artist, poet, and rock star Patti Smith. However, I read good reviews and having not read the book was beginning to seem like a gap in my personal reading journal. Having started the book to get a taste of the writing and plot, I was quickly enamored. Smith's memoir of her romance/friendship with and devotion to the artist Robert Mapplethorpe is remarkably charming for a book about sex, drugs, and rock and roll.

Smith starts with the story of her arrival in New York. With only a few dollars, she slept in a park or, when able, hid all night in a back room of the book store where she got her first job. Then she met Robert Mapplethorpe with whom she then lived during her evolution as artist and poet. It was Mapplethorpe who later urged her to sing. After a few years they moved into the Chelsea Hotel, where artists could sometimes pay with art, and they met many artists, writers, and musicians, names readers will recognize, like Andy Warhol and Janis Joplin. Just Kids works well as a history of the 1960s and 1970s New York art community.

Just Kids is not a good choice for sensitive readers, as the behavior of Smith, Mapplethorpe, and their friends was meant to be provocative. Nevertheless, many readers will enjoy a classic story of starving artists finding recognition, respect, and love.

Smith, Patti. Just Kids. Ecco, 2010. 278p. ISBN 9780066211312.

An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination: A Memoir by Elizabeth McCracken

"… you need everyone you know after a disaster, because there is not one right response. It's what paralyzes people around the grief-stricken, of course, the idea that there are right things to say and wrong things and its better to say nothing than something clumsy."

As the mother of a still-born child, Elizabeth McCracken knows about awkwardness surrounding the grieving, and in her An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination: A Memoir, she identifies silence as the worst response to a friend's or stranger's tragedy.

The grieving need words of solace, acknowledgement, hugs and tears. She knows now why some cultures hire professional mourners. Silence condemns. Sympathy unrestrained eases pain.

Though a well-read adult (she is a novelist) who knows the world is full of hardship, McCracken was ill-prepared for her own tragedy. (Few of us are.) She did not know how to handle the innocent questions from acquaintances, such as grocers or neighbors, "How's the baby?" She could not lie or run away. The reminders of tragedy were as plentiful as the children and pregnant women seen every time she left her house.

In An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination, McCracken tells her story skillfully,  gradually revealing the problems she faced, saving the most important scenes for the end. Unusual details, such as being in France at the time of her delivery and the difficulty of getting her British husband into the U.S., add to the appeal of her tale. Few readers will be untouched. We will all be better off for considering what McCracken says.

McCracken, Elizabeth. An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination: A Memoir. Little, Brown and Company, 2008. 184p. ISBN 9780316027670.

The Last Campaign: Robert F. Kennedy and the 82 Days That Inspired America by Thurston Clarke

I remember the 1968 presidential campaign of Robert Kennedy. I was only fourteen and quite naive, very sure that we were on the verge of a much better world. We were going to end poverty, discrimination, and war. It seems quite hard to imagine that dream now, but Thurston Clarke in The Last Campaign: Robert F. Kennedy and the 82 Days That Inspired America confirms that I was not the only person who felt so optomistic. Many people, especially young people and minorities, believed Bobby Kennedy could lead the country to joyous and just prosperity.

Of course, many people hated Kennedy, too. Labor unions disliked that as attorney general he had brought criminal charges against many of their Mafia-influenced leaders. Southern Democrats disliked his support of civil rights legislation. Even college students were not united in support; he had told them that he wanted to end the Vietnam War quickly, which they like, but he also proposed the end of student deferments in the meantime, which they did not.

In The Last Campaign, Clarke chronicles the three months of Kennedy's run for president, which also happened to be the last months of his life. Using media accounts and interviews, the author takes readers onto the buses, planes, and whistle stop trains and into campaign headquarters to hear the conversations between Kennedy and his campaign staff. In doing so, he paints a mostly positive picture of the younger brother of an assassinated president. But not all was well. Kennedy was very intense and sometimes sarcastic character. He was very sure someone would try to kill him but believed he would be cowardly to avoid the crowds.

Reading The Last Campaign is a trip back into an era when few states had binding primaries, nothing was certain before presidential conventions, and candidates were just starting to design their campaigns for maximum media attention. It will interest readers of history and politics.

Clarke, Thurston. The Last Campaign: Robert F. Kennedy and the 82 Days That Inspired America. Henry Holt, 2008. 321p. ISBN 9780805077926.