Best Biographies and Memoirs of 2012

2012 was another banner year for biographies and memoirs. As in past years, many review journals, newspapers, and book sellers have posted their best books lists, and within those lists their have been many biographical and autobiographical books. This is my fifth extraction from those lists to highlight best biographies and memoirs.

I have drawn from nine lists this year. What I like is that a comparison of any two lists will show little agreement on the top titles (try the New York Times and the Washington Post to see the greatest differences), but if you look at all nine, you find some titles repeated, including Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher: The Epic Life and Immortal Photographs of Edward Curtis by Timothy Egan, Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power by Jon Meacham, Mortality by Christopher Hitchens, and Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed.

Each list has titles not mentioned in any other. As a result, there should be ideas here for both book discussion groups and very particular readers.

As you may see from reading the list, I define biography rather broadly. If there is a strong biographical component to a book some others might describe as a history, I figure a reader inclined to biography will be interested.


Amazon Best Books of the Year: Top 100 Picks for 2012

Biography

The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo by Tom Reiss

The Passage of Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson, vol. 4 by Robert A. Caro

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

Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power by Jon Meacham

Untouchable: The Strange Life and Tragic Death of Michael Jackson by Randall Sullivan

Memoirs

Eat and Run: My Unlikely Journey to Ultramarathom Greatness by Steve Friedman

The End of Your Life Book Club by Will Schwalbe

Joseph Anton by Salman Rushdie

The Long Walk: A Story of War and the Life That Follows by Brian Castner

Mortality by Christopher Hitchens

My Heart Is an Idiot: Essays by Davy Rothbart

My Mother Was Nuts: A Memoir by Penny Marshall

No Easy Day: The Firsthand Account of the Mission That Killed Osama Bin Laden by Mark Owen

Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? by Jeanette Winterson

Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed

Additional Amazon Editors’ Picks:
To the Last Breath: A Memoir of Going to Extremes by Francis Slakey and Winter Journal by Paul Auster


Booklist's Editor's Choice Adult Books 2012

Biography

American Tapestry: The Story of the Black, White, and Multiracial Ancestors of Michelle Obama by Rachel L. Swarns

And Bid Him Sing: A Biography of Countée Cullen by Charles Molesworth

Barack Obama: The Story by David Maraniss

The Fish That Ate the Whale: The Life and Times of America’s Banana King by Rich Cohen

I’m Your Man: The Life of Leonard Cohen by Sylvie Simmons

James Joyce: A New Biography by Gordon Bowker

The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill; Defender of the Realm, 1940–1965 by William Manchester and Paul Reid

Leonardo and the Last Supper by Ross King

Love Song: The Lives of Kurt Weill and Lotte Lenya by Ethan Mordden

The Passage of Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson by Robert A. Caro

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

Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power by Jon Meacham

Thornton Wilder by Penelope Niven

Memoirs

Joseph Anton by Salman Rushdie

Prague Winter: A Personal Story of Remembrance and War, 1937–1948 by Madeleine Albright and Bill Woodward


Christian Science Monitor 15 best books of 2012 – nonfiction

Biographies

Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America by Gilbert King

Eisenhower in War and Peace by Jean Edward Smith

Escape from Camp 14: One Man’s Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West by Blaine Harden

The Lady in Gold: The Extraordinary Tale of Gustav Klimt’s Masterpiece, Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer by Anne-Marie O’Connor

The Passage of Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson, Vol. 4 by Robert A. Caro

Reagan and Thatcher: The Difficult Relationship by Richard Aldous

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

Memoirs

The Distance Between Us: A Memoir by Reyna Grande

Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed


Kirkus Reviews: Best Nonfiction of 2012

Biography

Cronkite by Douglas Brinkley

Dearie: The Remarkable Life of Julia Child by Bob Spitz

Ernie K-Doe: The R&B Emperor of New Orleans by Ben Sandmel

Every Love Story Is a Ghost Story: A Life of David Foster Wallace by D. T. Max

Hello Gorgeous: Becoming Barbara Streisand by William J. Mann

The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill; Defender of the Realm, 1940–1965 by William Manchester and Paul Reid

The Last Viking: The Life of Roald Amundsen by Stephen R. Bown

Leonardo and the Last Supper by Ross King

Mao: The Real Story by Alexander V. Pantsov

On a Farther Shore: The Life and Legacy of Rachel Carson by William Souder

The Passage of Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson, Vol. 4 by Robert A. Caro

The Patriarch: The Remarkable Life and Turbulent Times of Joseph P. Kennedy by David Nasaw

Portrait of a Novel: Henry James and the Making of an American Masterpiece by Michael Gorra

Rise to Greatness: Abraham Lincoln and America’s Most Perilous Year by David Von Drehle

Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power by Jon Meacham

The Voice Is All: The Lonely Victory of Jack Kerouac by Joyce Johnson

Memoirs

Aftermath: On Marriage and Separation by Rachel Cusk

Are You My Mother: A Comic Drama by Alison Bechdel

Full Body Burden: Growing Up in the Nuclear Shadow of Rocky Flats by Kristen Iversen

God’s Hotel: A Doctor, a Hospital, and a Pilgrimage to the Heart of Medicine by Victoria Sweet

House of Stone: A Memoir of Home, Family, and a Lost Middle East by Anthony Shadid

How to Be a Woman by Caitlin Moran

I’m Your Man: The Life of Leonard Cohen by Sylvie Simmons

Joseph Anton by Salman Rushdie

Kurt Vonnegut: Letters by Kurt Vonnegut

Life After Death by Damiem Echols

Marbles: Mania, Depression, Michelangelo, and Me: A Graphic Memoir by Ellen Forney

Mortality by Christopher Hitchens

The Patagonian Hare: A Memoir by Claude Lanzmann

The Tender Hours of Twilight: Paris in the ‘50s, New York in the ‘60s: A Memoir of Publishing’s Golden Age by Richard Seaver

The Voyeurs by Gabrielle Bell

Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed

Winter Journal by Paul Auster


Library Journal Best Books 2012: Biography and History

Biographies

Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America by Gilbert King

Let the People In: The Life and Times of Ann Richards by Jan Reid

Mark Twain and the Colonel: Samuel L. Clemens, Theodore Roosevelt, and the Arrival of a New Century by Philip McFarland

Thomas Jefferson and American Nationhood by Brian D. Steele

Memoirs

Prague Winter: A Personal Story of Remembrance and War, 1937-1948 by Madeleine Albright with Bill Woodward


Library Journal Best Books 2012: Memoirs

Dust to Dust by Benjamin Busch

Aftermath: On Marriage and Separation by Rachel Cusk

La Petite by Michele Halberstadt

The Scientists: A Family Romance by Marco Roth

Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? by Jeanette Winterson


Library Journal Best Books 2012: Top 10

Biography

The Lady in Gold: The Extraordinary Tale of Gustav Klimt’s Masterpiece, Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer by Anne-Marie O’Connor

Memoirs

By the Iowa Sea: A Memoir of Disaster and Love by Joe Blair


Library Journal Best Books 2012: More of the Best

Memoirs

In the House of the Interpreter by Ngugi wa Thiongo

Let’s Pretend This Never Happened by Jenny Lawson


New York Times: 100 Notable Books of 2012

Biography

All We Know: Three Lives by Lisa Cohen

American Tapestry: The Story of the Black, White, and Multiracial Ancestors of Michelle Obama by Rachel L. Swarms

American Triumvirate: Sam Sneed, Byron Nelson, Ben Hogan, and the Modern Age of Golf by James Dodson

Barack Obama: The Story by David Maraniss

Belzoni: The Giant Archaeologists Love to Hate by Ivor Noel Hume

The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo by Tom Reiss

A Disposition to Be Rich by Geoffrey C. Ward

The Obamas by Jodi Kantor

On a Farther Shore: The Life and Legacy of Rachel Carson by William Souder

The One: The Life and Music of James Brown by RJ Smith

The Passage of Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson, Vol. 4 by Robert A. Caro

The Patriarch: The Remarkable Life and Turbulent Times of Joseph P. Kennedy by David Nasaw

Saul Steinberg: A Biography by Deirdre Bair

Shooting Victoria: Madness, Mayhem, and the Rebirth of the British Monarchy by Paul Thomas Murphy

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

Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power by Jon Meacham

Memoirs

Are You My Mother: A Comic Drama by Alison Bechdel

Memoir of a Debulked Woman: Enduring Ovarian Cancer by Susan Gubar

Oddly Normal: One Family’s Struggle to Help Their Teenage Son Come to Terms with His Sexuality by John Schwartz

Red Brick, Black Mountain, White Clay: Reflections on Art, Family, and Survival by Christopher Benfey

Sometimes There Is a Void: Memoirs of an Outsider by Zakes Mda

Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? by Jeanette Winterson


Publishers Weekly Best Books 2012: Nonfiction

Biography

All We Know: Three Lives by Lisa Cohen

The Ice Balloon: S. A. Andree and the Heroic Age of Arctic Exploration by Alec Wilkinson

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

Titian: A Life by Sheila Hale

The Voice Is All: The Lonely Victory of Jack Kerouac by Joyce Johnson

Memoirs

Joseph Roth: A Life in Letters by Joseph Roth

Louise: Amended by Louise Krug

Mortality by Christopher Hitchens

My Cross to Bear by Gregg Allman

The Patagonian Hare: A Memoir by Claude Lanzmann

Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed


Washington Post: Best of 2012: 50 Notable Works of Nonfiction

Biography

Cronkite by Douglas Brinkley

Dearie: The Remarkable Life of Julia Child by Bob Spitz

The Last Pre-Raphaelite: Edward Burne-Jones and the Victorian Imagination by Fiona MacCarthy

The Man Who Changed the Way We Eat: Craig Claiborne and the American Food Renaissance by Thomas McNamee

The Passage of Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson, Vol. 4 by Robert A. Caro

Patriot of Persia: Muhammad Mossadegh and a Tragic Anglo-American Coup by Christopher de Bellaigue

Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power by Jon Meacham

Memoirs

The Boy Kings of Texas: A Memoir by Domingo Martinez

Elsewhere: A Memoir by Richard Russo

House of Stone: A Memoir of Home, Family, and a Lost Middle East by Anthony Shadid

Immortal Bird: A Family Memoir by Doron Weber

Interventions: A Life in War and Peace by Kofi Annan

The Little Red Guard: A Family Memoir by Wenguang Huang

Running for My Life: One Lost Boy’s Journey from the Killing Fields of Sudan to the Olympic Games by Lopez Lomong

The Tender Hours of Twilight: Paris in the ‘50s, New York in the ‘60s: A Memoir of Publishing’s Golden Age by Richard Seaver

Winter Journal by Paul Auster

Black Fire: The True Story of the Original Tom Sawyer - And of the Mysterious Fires That Baptized Gold Rush-Era San Francisco by Robert Graysmith

The title is not quite right. I suspect that a marketing editor stepped in and composed the title for Black Fire: The True Story of the Original Tom Sawyer - And of the Mysterious Fires That Baptized Gold Rush-Era San Francisco. Tom Sawyer is in the book, but he is not the focus as the title suggests. He is more like string used to tie several things together loosely. Those things would include the fires of San Francisco in the 1850s and the California experiences of Samuel Clemens, not yet Mark Twain, in the 1860s.

The true central character of the story is the city of San Francisco, which was a horrible place to live in the 1850s. When it was not raining, winds were spreading fire across the city. Volunteer fire fighters could easily get stuck in the mud trying to reach a fire. Filled with fortune seekers crazy for gold, few residents of the city would waste time on building fireproof structures. Whole forests were wasted rebuilding San Francisco after six destructive fires in less than three years.

To fight the fires, men formed volunteer fire companies and acquired fire engines that required teams of men to pull them through the rough streets. What may baffle modern readers is how competitive these companies were. Usually formed from ethnic groups or East Coast gangs, they raced to be first to a fire. If several companies arrived together, they fought for the right to put out the fire. Some structures burned while men bludgeoned each other for the right to save them. Author Robert Graysmith devotes over half of the book to these companies, their formation, and the fires they fought.

The other issue addressed is whether the worst fires were natural or the work of an arsonist.

Black Fire is an interesting book and worth reading if you enjoy 19th century American history.

Graysmith, Robert. Black Fire: The True Story of the Original Tom Sawyer - And of the Mysterious Fires That Baptized Gold Rush-Era San Francisco. Crown Publishers, 2012. 268p. ISBN 9780307720566.

Books That Mattered in 2012 and Year in Review

Merry Christmas. Maybe you will use the time between now and New Years Day thinking about reading, listening, and viewing for 2013. Here are books, music, and movies I liked best in 2012 and recommend to you. Because I mostly read nonfiction and hardly any fiction, there is little in the fiction category this year, but what there is is very good.

I look forward to more reading, viewing, and listening in 2013. I have a new wish list attached to my library's library catalog as well as one for audiobooks on our downloadables catalog. I also have an old wish list database at Zoho. How will I ever find enough time?

Have a Happy New Year.



Recent Nonfiction 

Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo

The Bluebird Effect: Uncommon Bonds with Common Birds by Julie Zickefoose

Burying the Typewriter: A Memoir by Carmen Bugan

Life Itself: A Memoir by Roger Ebert

Love, Life, and Elephants: An African Love Story by Dame Daphne Sheldrick

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

The Swerve: How the World Became Modern by Stephen Greenblatt

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

The Wrecking Crew: The Inside Story of Rock and Rolls' Best-Kept Secret by Kent Hartman


Recent Fiction 

Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson


Train Dreams by Denis Johnson

You Know When the Men Are Gone by Siobhan Fallon


Great Older Books 

Autobiography of a Face by Lucy Grealy

An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination by Elizabeth McCracken

A Noble Radiance by Donna Leon

Children's Books 

The Chronicles of Harris Burdick: Fourteen Amazing Authors Tell the Tales

Grandfather's Journey [and] Tree of Cranes by Allan Say

The Mighty Mars Rovers: The Incredible Adventures of Spirit and Opportunity by Elizabeth Rusch

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


Audiobooks 

The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach

Rin Tin Tin: The Life and the Legend by Susan Orlean

Wife of the Gods by Kwei Quartey


Films and Television 

Bill Cunningham New York, a film by Richard Press

Karen Cries on the Bus, a film by Gabriel Rojas Vera

The Man from U.N.C.L.E. Season One

Skin, a film directed by Anthony Fabian

Terry Jones' Barbarians


 Music 

Ac•Rock at the Library

Die Jahreszeiten (The Seasons) by Joseph Haydn

Eaglebone Whistle

Million Dollar Quartet

Summer Side of Life by Gordon Lightfoot


Readers' Advisory 

On Writing Book Reviews for Booklist

Read On ... Audiobooks by Joyce Saricks

Good Rockin' Tonight: Sun Records and the Birth of Rock 'n' Roll by Colin Escott with Martin Hawkins

When there is more to a story, librarians want to know. Thus, having attended the musical The Million Dollar Quartet a few weeks ago, I set my sights on reading the book from which it was drawn, Good Rockin' Tonight: Sun Records and the Birth of Rock 'n' Roll by Colin Escott, one of the creators of the above mentioned musical.

The reader of Good Rockin' Tonight quickly encounters two viewpoints of the author. First, Escott believes that the lack of academic musical training was a plus for record producer Sam Phillips, owner of Memphis Recording Service and Sun Records. He was a radio technician with a love of good, honest music with emotion. He was also a risk taker. He did not have an unerring sense of what the public would buy, but he discovered a few great artists with whom people could identify. Second, the author believes that the best work by Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, and Jerry Lee Lewis was with Sun Records. (Some fans might argue that Presley at RCA and Cash at Columbia had very successful careers.)

Of course, there is much more to the story of the recording company. Phillips spent his initial years recording local blues artists, including B.B. King, Howlin' Wolf, and Junior Parker. Record sales for singles by the stable of blues artists were always modest. Royalty checks rarely totalled more than twenty dollars, even for local hits. Everyone had to keep day jobs or flee to Nashville or Chicago. After the rockabilly period, Phillips recorded more country singers with minor success. Escott also admits that Phillips failed to find the right sound for Roy Orbison.

Escott takes us through the whole history of Sun Records in mostly chronological chapters that usually focus on a particular genre or artist. We learn about many musicians who never struck it rich and the perils of trying to running a small recording business. I enjoyed the well-guided trip back in time. 

Escott, Colin with Martin Hawkins. Good Rockin' Tonight: Sun Records and the Birth of Rock 'n' Roll. St. Martin's Press, 1991. 276p. ISBN 0312054394.

50 Great Cookbooks at Thomas Ford Complete

It took all year! With a review of Jacques Pepin Celebrates, the staff of the Thomas Ford Memorial Library has posted reviews of 50 of the library's most interesting and useful cookbooks. These reviews may be found on the library's Thommy Ford Reads blog and their book jackets may be seen as a group on our 50 Great Cookbooks Pinterest board.

50 is a lot of reviews. We chose the number after seeing what National Public Radio was doing with some of its continuing reports, such as 50 Great Voices, which profiled incredible singers. Like NPR, we called upon staff from various departments of our organization to select and review candidates. Since we have many good cooks on the staff, it seemed a project tailor-made for us. We did not have a committee to vote on the books nor did we make anyone write a specified number of reviews. Still, we got the reviews written and in the process highlighted a great variety of titles from both our adult and children's collections.

Two of our objectives were to 1) draw more people to our review blog by diversifying the content and 2) increase the use of the cookbook collection. Whether we succeeded here is not really yet known. Visitors to the blog are up 48 percent in 2012 over 2011, but it is only the second year of the blog; that increase might have happened anyway. The second most read post ever on our blog is our review of Dining with the Washingtons: Historic Recipes, Entertaining, and Hospitality from Mount Vernon at 247 views. Only two other cookbook reviews have cracked the top 25 all time posts so far. Stats on our cookbook circulation have not yet been tallied.

There are other benefits of the project. We have tested some new methods of marketing, introduced some of the staff to review writing, and all learned more about what to expect from a cookbook. From the books I reviewed, I have some new recipes, improved my vocabulary, and learned about numerous helpful kitchen gadgets. Having cookbooks on the reference desk through much of the year, helped us initiate readers' advisory conversations with some clients.

I think it is now time for a party.

A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursala K. Le Guin

Over thirty years have passed since I last read A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursala K. Le Guin. My memory of the classic fantasy tale was only slight before I downloaded the audiobook performed very dramatically by speculative fiction author Harlan Ellison. I remembered that there were dragons and wizards living on islands. Nothing more. So I returned to a place that I hardly knew and verified that my long ago enthusiasm was well founded.

Le Guin was masterful in her writing of this story which is often found in library collections for youth and teens. The story is fast-paced and full of action and is not the least bit preachy, though it does have a clearly thought out set of ethical rules to offer. Violation of the rules by Sparrowhawk, a student at the School for Wizards on Roke Island, unleashes a powerful shadow that threatens his future and the balance of powers in the archipeligo. Running from the evil is impossible. He must face the peril.

Once the beginning of a trilogy, A Wizard of Earthsea is now the initial book of a cycle including five novels and numerous short stories. They are widely available in libraries. I will be borrowing more.

Le Guin, Ursala K. A Wizard of Earthsea. Fantastic Audio, 2001. 5 compact discs. ISBN 1574535587.

Monty Python's Flying Circus: Complete and Annotated: All the Bits.

PRALINE: It's not pining, it's passed on. This parrot is no more. It has ceased to be. It's expired and gone to meet it's maker. This is a late parrot. It's a stiff. Bereft of life, it rests in peace. If you hadn't nailed it to the perch, it would be pushing up the daisies. It's rung down the curtain and joined the choir invisible. This is an ex-parrot! 

This is one of the most famous of all Python rants. Found in episode 8, many fans have it memorized. If you don't and would like help getting it right, Monty Python's Flying Circus: Complete and Annotated is the book for you. At 880 colorful illustrated pages, it is a brick of a book in weight and in its great utility to Python fans. There is no excuse for misunderstanding a silly accent now. This book tells you exactly what the Pythons said and when they said it.

What's also fun is that the annotations clue readers in on the back-stories of some pieces. "The Dead Parrot Sketch" came from the pens of John Cleese and Graham Chapman after hearing about Michael Palin's auto mechanic, who would never admit anything was wrong with his car. In Cleese and Chapman's first draft, the verbose Cleese was to return a toaster. Luckily for us, the Pythons had the idea of using the Norwegian Blue.

Python fans should set aside a nice long winter's night (or several) for looking up their favorite episodes.

XIMINEZ: Nobody expects the Spanish Inquistion.

Monty Python's Flying Circus: Complete and Annotated: All the Bits. Black Dog and Leventhal, 2012. 880p. ISBN 9781579129132.

Zooborns: The Next Generation by Andrew Bleiman and Chris Eastland

The authors of the blog ZooBorns have recently released their fifth book, ZooBorns: The Next Generation. As before, the small volume features baby animals from zoos around the planet and is packed with fascinating species facts and some the cutest photos you'll ever see. And as before, sales help support the mission of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums Conservation Endowment Fund.

Every time I look at one of the ZooBorns books, I discover an animal that I did not know. In this installment, I found the Somali wild ass which have sketchy narrow stripes on its legs. Very chic. Like the stripes in chocolate ripple ice cream. Two photos from Zoo Basel in Switzerland show a lively foal named Habaka. See an image from the ZooBorn article below.

I especially like the photos of a little cheetah named Kasi at Busch Gardens in Tampa Bay, Florida. An only baby whose mother was unable to care for him, Kasi was paired with a Labrador retriever puppy named Mtani. Anyone who enjoys cute animals will love the photo of the two together.

With several dozen profiles in this volume, there is bound to be a baby that appeals to near every reader. This book would be a great Christmas gift.

Bleiman, Andrew and Chris Eastland. Zooborns: The Next Generation. Simon & Schuster, 2012. 148p. ISBN 9781451661613.

Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo

How are Americans, mostly protected by a safety net of government and private programs to provide economic aid should they suffer misfortune, able to comprehend Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo? The conditions in the Annawadi slum outside the international airport in Mumbai, India are appalling. The people crowded into pieced-together shacks around industrial waste and sewage, without running water, are so poor. It is a setting unlike what we see in the U.S.

Boo has been living in India off and on with her Indian-husband for ten years. In Behind the Beautiful Forevers, she recounts slightly over three years in the lives of the sons and daughters of Muslim day laborers, garbage pickers, teachers, and housewives mired in a slum. The central character in the huge cast is Abdul, an industrious scavenger with a strict moral conscience, who is falsely accused of contributing to the suicide of an irritating neighbor. Though there really is no evidence and most of the community vouches for innocence of Abdul, the corrupt local police see an opportunity for extortion. Abdul, his father, and his sister are beaten and imprisoned to await a distant trial.

The author states that not all of India is like the Annawadi slum, but it is also not unique. Boo describes corruption at many levels of India's government affecting the slum. Elected officials help constituents just before elections (and only then), and the police are always shaking down anyone with a spare rupee. Particularly appalling are the schools that only exist on inspection days, reaping government grants and international aid for their crooked directors.

Some readers may give up quickly on Behind the Beautiful Forevers with its many characters and seemingly hopeless situation. If they stick out the introductory chapters, they will find a universal drama tied closer to the U.S. economy than one might think. A promising book for discussion groups.

Boo, Katherine. Behind the Beautiful Forevers. Random House, 2012. 256p. ISBN 9781400067558.

Mozart at the Gateway to His Fortune: Serving the Emperor, 1788-1791 by Christoph Wolff

Author Christoph Wolff, a professor at Harvard and known for his studies of Bach and Mozart, thinks that many scholars view Mozart's final four years incorrectly. They write as though Mozart were thoughtfully wrapping up his career as performer, conductor, and composer. They present evidence drawn both from the composer's works and his life. His music had reached a pinnacle and daily living was becoming unbearable. Death was predestined and unavoidable. Not so, says Wolff in Mozart at the Gateway to His Fortune: Serving the Emperor, 1788-1791.

Wolff looks first at Mozart's life, which was admittedly always chaotic and a bit nomadic. The composer's finances were a mess as he always lived beyond his means. Mozart was not worried, for he could usually make more money. The economic crash brought about by the Holy Roman Empire's war against the Ottoman Empire, however, closed theaters and reduced royal support for the arts. Mozart adjusted some to the times, writing Cosi Fan Tutte for only six singers as an economic measure. Still, he believed he was bound to be fabulously wealthy in time and was proved right, for royalties from his music made his wife and sons rich. Why sacrifice style and comfort when he could easily pay in the future? Wolff says Mozart was not despairing.

Wolff also examines Mozart's later symphonies, operas, sacred music, and unfinished works to see if he could find any signs that the composer was contemplating the end. He found no such signs and argues that Mozart had numerous unwritten works already composed in his head. The composer had plans for what would have been more glorious music.

Mozart at the Gateway to His Fortune is a short but not a quick read. Wolff uses some musical terms that casual readers will not recognize, and the book may seem a bit dry at times. Skimming over some of the technical paragraphs, I was able to get the gist. Wolff's introductions and summations, however, were compelling, and I enjoyed the effort. The book is a challenge worth taking for classical music fans.

Wolff, Christoph. Mozart at the Gateway to His Fortune: Serving the Emperor, 1788-1791. Norton, 2012. 244p. ISBN 9780393050707.

Million Dollar Quartet, Chicago Cast

"It was one for the money, two for the show, three to get ready and go, cat, go..."

It was a Tuesday afternoon in 1956 at Sun Records Studio in Memphis, just an old garage remodeled, and Carl Perkins was scheduled to record a few songs, but he was late. His brother Jay plucked the upright bass, and Fluke Holland sat behind the drums. Owner Sam Phillips stood outside the control booth talking to new session pianist Jerry Lee Lewis, when in walked Elvis Presley and his latest girl, visiting his old haunt. Perkins soon appeared, followed by Johnny Cash. Three chart-topping recording stars and one promising new talent were assembled, and Phillips had plenty of recording tape. It would be a recording session to remember.

More than fifty years later, the only assembly of four legendary performers inspired a musical The Million Dollar Quartet, which is currently playing in Chicago. We saw the musical in the compact Apollo Theater. There is not a bad seat in the house. We were in the fourth row - very close and practically part of the production. We could see and hear everything, especially 21songs delivered with great energy by four actors/musicians channeling the pioneers of rock and roll. 

The looks and the sounds were pretty convincing. I was most impressed by Lance Lipinsky playing the role of Jerry Lee Lewis. How could someone learn Lewis's crazy acrobatic moves and still play piano? I was also impressed by the ringing electric guitar of Shaun Whitley as Carl Perkins, which seemed to highlight in many of the songs. We knew most of those songs very well, "Blue Suede Shoes" to "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On."

Between the songs, Tim Decker as Sam Phillips narrates/directs a story about the discovery of four singers and the rise and fall of Sun Records. Some liberties are taken with Perkins brother Clayton dropped from the story, the name of Elvis's girlfriend changed, and time compacted into one dramatic day/night, but the general spirit is in line with Good Rockin' Tonight: Sun Records and the Birth of Rock and Roll by Colin Escott, one of the authors of the script for the musical.

Of course, many baby boomers will love this show, but there were gen-Xers in the crowd as well. It was an electrifying show that has sparked my interest in doing some research on the characters. What more could I ask?

"See you later, alligator."

Mama Leone by Miljenko Jergovic

Displacement of people by conflict is a thread running through Mama Leone, a collection of stories written in the 1990s by Miljenko Jergovic, newly translated from Croatian by David Williams. The conflicts vary but they almost always result in what characters hope to be a temporary change of address. Some of them move to other cities in the states of the former Yugoslavia as they break apart. Others even flee to Spain, Israel, Canada, and the United States.

In the case of twenty-one related stories grouped under the title "When I Was Born a Dog Started Barking in the Hall of the Maternity Ward," a family separates and neither the mother or father feels capable of raising their son. He spends most of his time with his maternal grandparents in Sarajevo with annual trips to summer homes. He is also sent to live with uncles and aunts on some occasions. When his mother joins whatever household he is in, she seems as much a child as he does. He is a precocious child who claims to remember everything, including his birth, a great gift for a narrating character. Like the grandmother, most readers will find him a source of troubling amusement.

The remaining unrelated stories are grouped under the title "That Day a Childhood Story Ended."  In most of these short pieces, characters are uprooted by the Balkan Wars. As rival forces attack new cities, family move in with relatives in other regions and draft age men hide or immigrate. Survival in new places often requires taking unfair advantage of others. Some even pledge love for the sake of refuge and a stake in a new place.

I enjoyed how Jerovic told these unfamiliar (to me) stories, balancing hope with despair, sympathy with revulsion, while giving me a peak into a culture different from my own. Mama Leone belongs in libraries with a demand for foreign or literary fiction.

Jergovic, Miljenko. Mama Leone. Archipelago Books, 1999, 2012. 351p. ISBN 9781935744320.

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.