Birds of Paradise: Revealing the World's Most Extraordinary Birds by Tim Laman and Edwin Scholes

Using baseball lingo, I feel like I've hit for the cycle. I have seen all four of the National Geographic Society's presentations about the bird of paradise research conducted in New Guinea and Australia by Tim Laman and Edwin Scholes.

The single - Distributed in the December issue of National Geographic, the article "Birds of Paradise" introduces readers to the decade-long effort to site and photograph all 39 species of birds of paradise. The article has maps and diagrams that  appear in every telling of the story. The photos are exquisite. This quickly-read article is how the greatest number of readers will learn the story.

The double - We saw a DVD of the National Geographic Society's television program Winged Seduction: Birds of Paradise. Viewers learn through location shots exactly how difficult it was for Scholes and Laman to find and photograph the birds and their behaviors. Many people able to get the National Geographic Channel on cable television saw this incredible program, and it will be available through libraries on DVD for years to come.

The triple - The triple is always the hardest hit to get. We saw Scholes and Laman's National Geographic Live multimedia presentation at the Goodman Theater in Chicago. The exciting program only visits a limited number of cities. We were so lucky.

The home run - With their book Birds of Paradise: Revealing the World's Most Extraordinary Birds, Laman and Scholes touch all the bases and bring home the deepest, most complete telling of their story. The photos are beautiful. In the back is a species atlas with portraits and maps for all 39 birds of paradise. One of the most beautiful books I've ever seen.

Laman, Tim and Edwin Scholes. Birds of Paradise: Revealing the World's Most Extraordinary Birds. National Geographic/The Cornell Lab of Ornithology, 2012. 227p. ISBN 9781426209581.

The Importance of Being Seven by Alexander McCall Smith

Many people admire Downton Abbey for its great cast of characters. To these people, who enjoy the continuing shifting of focus from one compelling character to another, who like a cast whose relationships are evolving with the changing times, I recommend the 44 Scotland Street novels by Alexander McCall Smith. They may lack the grand house and estate of the hit BBC television series, but they have the high and low streets of Edinburgh and all of Scotland. There is also a good dose of humor.

Foremost in the cast is Bertie. In The Importance of Being Seven, he is six years old, as he has being since the stories began. McCall Smith admits in his introduction to the book that this is not chronologically possible, but he says that at six Bertie is a perfect character bound to win the sympathy of readers. He just wants to be a boy, but his mother Irene wants him to be a genius. While his struggle to be free of his mother's demands is humorous, he speaks for all of us who are still children well into middle age.

Like Downton Abbey, The Importance of Being Seven has its young married couple concerned about whether they can take over and maintain an old house. The series cast also includes an older woman ready to express her strong opinions. Then there is Bruce, a vain young man who just when you think he is reforming cruelly deceives others as a means of his own advancement. Sound familiar?

No one dies in this novel but continuing readers won't mind. They hope everyone will return in the next 44 Scotland Street novel.

McCall Smith, Alexander. The Importance of Being Seven. Anchor Books, 2012. 311p. ISBN 9780307739360

Vivian Maier: Out of the Shadows by Richard Cahan and Michael Williams

Every time I read a book, there is someone to thank. The author obviously and whoever helped get the book published. Right now, however, I am thinking about librarians, and in this case, Matthew at my library. He added an outstanding book, Vivian Maier: Out of the Shadows to our photography collection. Before I saw the book on display, I had never heard of Maier, but the jacket caught my eye. The book went home with me to sit on a shelf for a couple of weeks before I finally opened it. Then I devoted much of a day off to reading and examining the photographs.

Hardly anyone had heard of Vivian Maier when she died in 2009, but the wheels of fame had started to roll in 2007 when her abandoned prints, negatives, and over 1,000 rolls of undeveloped film were auctioned in Chicago. She spent over fifty years as a nanny, housekeeper, and caregiver for the infirm, mostly in the northern Chicago suburbs, at every opportunity taking black and white photographs with her old Rolleiflex camera. Her early images focused on children and suburban life, but she began to catch commuter trains and wander the city. She documented downtown Chicago, Maxwell Street, and Skid Row through several decades, and even captured the protesters in Grant Park before the riots at the 1968 Democratic National Convention.

Restrained by her finances, Maier rarely wasted a shot. Experts now praise her work both for its artistry and for its documenting decades of city experience. Seen as a body of work, it could be called her diary, but she rarely photographed herself. In her younger days, she traveled the world, but much of this book reflects life in Chicago.

As a nanny who would take children on adventures into poor parts of the city, Vivian Maier is compared with Mary Poppins. As a very private soul whose prolific work has only been revealed after her death, she is compared with Emily Dickinson. Much about her is still not really known. This excellent collection introduces her and leaves us wanting more.

Cahan, Richard and Michael Williams. Vivian Maier: Out of the Shadows. Cityfiles Press, 2012. 287p. ISBN 9780978545093.

Blandings Castle by P. G. Wodehouse

Blandings Castle is a wonderful place. With fresh air, quiet, and gardens full of beautiful flowers, it is just the place to be alone. If only the ninth Earl of Emsworth could be alone to raise his prize pumpkins and pigs in peace. There always seem to be young people moping about, however, each wanting to fall in love with an unsuitable other young person. Take his son Freddie wanting to marry a young American woman who happens to be some relation of his gardener. Who ever heard of such a thing? Freddie would have to move to America. Hey, what! There's a thought. It would get him out of the old ancestor's hair. 

Blandings Castle is the setting for a series of books by P. G. Wodehouse. While I have read numerous Wodehouse books featuring the ever resource Jeeves, man servant of Bertie Wooster, I had not entered the world of Lord Emsworth until I read a collection of five stories called simply Blandings Castle tucked inside an anthology A Bounty of Blandings.

Being Wodehouse stories, each is filled with silly people facing small problems blown out of proportion. They respond with actions that escalate their problems. Perhaps this is so funny because in a sense it is what many of us actually do. What I particularly like about the five stories in this collection is that what Lord Emsworth at first dreads is exactly what he comes to want in the end.

There are many Blandings books and stories. I may never lack something fun to read.

Wodehouse, P. G. A Bounty of Blandings. W. W. Norton, 2011. 656p. ISBN 9780393341270.

The Further Tale of Peter Rabbit by Emma Thompson

There is always a danger of disappointment when old characters are resurrected for new tales, especially by authors generations after the originals. Will stories be carelessly modernized? Will character traits change? So, it was daring of the publisher Frederick Warne to invite actress Emma Thompson to write a new tale for Beatrix Potter's Peter Rabbit. Thompson is unquestionably talented, but would she get it right?

Having now read The Further Tale of Peter Rabbit, I think Thompson and her illustrator Eleanor Taylor got it right. Peter is still the irresponsible innocent who sees anything edible as his own. As in the original stories, he gets into trouble, what you might call a pickle if it weren't a radish. Mr. McGregor and Benjamin Bunny play roles in the comedy. And the setting is still the slow-paced 19th century British countryside, filled with verdant forests and ever-watching wildlife.

So, if you had doubts about the new tale, be reassured. You can never have too much Peter Rabbit. 

Thompson, Emma. The Further Tale of Peter Rabbit. Frederick Warne, 2012. 63p. ISBN 9780723269106.

Horton Foote: America's Storyteller by Wilborn Hampton

When Horton Foote left Wharton, Texas for Pasadena, California in 1933, he thought he was gone for good. According to Wilborn Hampton in Horton Foote: America's Storyteller, rather than work in his father's clothing store, Foote planned to be a stage actor, a dream that he nurtured annually when seeing the traveling Dude Arthur Comedians in his home town. Despite his thick Texas drawl, the seventeen-year-old succeeded in getting into acting school at the Pasadena Playhouse and then win small roles in plays in New York, the epicenter of American theater. In 1938 or 1939, after seeing Foote improvise scenes in acting exercises, choreographer Agnes de Mille suggested the struggling actor try writing. Of what should he write? Of what he knew. What he knew best was life in and about Wharton, Texas. His family history and childhood would be sources for his stories for nearly seventy years.

Though he won a Pulitzer Prize for a play and two Oscars for screenplays, Foote never became a household name like his contemporaries Tennessee Williams or Arthur Miller. Though many proposals were made, few of his plays ever made Broadway. He turned to film and television initially just to support his family and later to find venues for his stories. He is considered one of the pioneers of television drama. For each success in Hollywood, however, there were several failures. Foote excelled at finding producers who praised his works and then demanded he change plots and characters drastically. Happily for viewers, he prevailed with his screenplays for To Kill a Mockingbird (based on the novel by Harper Lee), Tender Mercies (original), and The Trip to Bountiful (based on his own play).

Readers will learn Foote's role in the growth of regional theater, public broadcasting, and independent film making. They may also enjoy learning of his work with Lillian Gish, Harper Lee, Gregory Peck, Robert Duvall, Geraldine Page, Matthew Broderick, and many other writers and actors.

Hampton's book about Foote recounts the life of a writer devoted to honest storytelling, an author often labeled as non-commercial by the producers in New York and Hollywood. Readers will admire his persistence, decency, loyalty to lifelong friends, and devotion to family. This biography is a rare uplifting book to offer to readers tired of sordid tales.

Hampton, Wilborn. Horton Foote: America's Storyteller. Free Press, 2009. 292p. ISBN 9781416566403.

The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore by William Joyce

Bonnie brought home another great children's book. She does that a lot.

Everyone has a story. Because he loved books, Morris Lessmore wrote his story into his book every day. He was very content doing just this, but then a storm destroyed his home and scattered his library. Even the words from his book blew away. It was a blessing in disguise. In The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore by William Joyce, Morris then sees the lady with the flying books. She loans him one that takes him to a home for flying books.

As you may guess, The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore is a book that children, parents, and librarians will love. Illustrated by Joyce with Joe Bluhm, it is beautiful, sweet, and right in line with everything that I believe. I hope that I can live my life so gracefully as Morris, i.e. be a little more understanding when all the books get out of order.

Read the author bio on the jacket to learn more about the origin and meaning of this fantastic book.

A short film inspired by Morris's story won an Academy Award. Take 15 minutes to watch. Enjoy.

Joyce, William. The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore. Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2012. ISBN 9781442457027.

On Assignment with National Geographic: The Inside Story of Legendary Explorers, Photographers, and Adventurers by Mark Collins Jenkins

2013 is the 125th anniversary of the National Geographic Society. In celebration, the society has publishing several books, including On Assignment with National Geographic: The Inside Story of Legendary Explorers, Photographers, and Adventurers by Mark Collins Jenkins. With such a big title, you might imagine a jumbo coffee table book, but in this case, the volume is compact. (National Geographic 125 Years is a much bigger book.) While the size of On Assignment with National Geographic is small, the anniversary publication is still packed with stories about the history of the society, its monthly magazine, and many of its most famous naturalists, scientists, explorers, and editors.

Readers will readily recognize many names, including its second president Alexander Graham Bell, arctic explorer Richard Byrd, oceanographer Jacques Cousteau, primatologist Jane Goodall, and paleontologist Paul Sereno. Many now mostly forgotten scientists, such as adventurer William Beebe and balloonist William Kepner are also featured. As I read, I recognized many photos and magazine covers that I have seen over the last fifty plus years. I also realized how National Geographic has documented the mapping of the planet, the disappearance of traditional societies, the evolution of scientific knowledge, and the development of technologies that could not have been imagined at the society's founding. Look at a National Geographic from 100 years ago and you see a radically different world.

Finally, On Assignment with National Geographic lets readers see into the processes of grant funding and publishing the big stories. This quick reading history will interest many of the society's members and fans.

Jenkins, Mark Collins. On Assignment with National Geographic: The Inside Story of Legendary Explorers, Photographers, and Adventurers. National Geographic Society, 2013. 134p. ISBN 9781426210136.

Astray by Emma Donoghue

I do not read much fiction, but I listened to an intriguing interview with Emma Donoghue on an NPR Books podcast recently. She spoke about her latest book, a collection of short stories titled Astray. I was charmed by the idea that Donoghue combs through archived documents, historical incidents, and even statistics to find subjects for her stories. Finding the recent book at my library, I brought it home and was rewarded with several mornings and evenings of good reading.

Being mostly a biographical and historical reader (though I also like science), I found Donoghue's short stories appealing. They dramatize times about which I have read, focusing on rare events, giving me new insights into the movements of people across oceans and continents. For example, I had not thought much about the range of emotions within families split by the Atlantic, when a husband preceded the family in immigrating to Canada. Loneliness was a given, but other factors, such as envy, insult, despair, and surrender, shaped the handwritten letters that passed slowly back and forth across the ocean. Having now read "Counting the Days," I now also wonder how many wives and children were not met at the wharves in the New World and what became of them.

Donoghue's reading must be wide ranging. Her stories in Astray go back to Cape Cod in1639 and up to Newmarket, Ontario in 1967. Locations include the goldfields in Alaska, Louisiana slave plantations, and row houses in London. After each she reveals the documents and books that gave her characters and settings. In the back of the collection, she includes an essay that further explains her interests and methods.

Looking at her bio, I see Donoghue's books are wide-ranging, too. I suspect they will be popular in libraries for many years.

Donoghue, Emma. Astray. Little Brown and Company, 2012. 274p. ISBN 9780316206297.

My Invented Country: A Nostalgic Journey Through Chile by Isabel Allende

"A country, like a husband, is always open to improvement." 

If you were a librarian, where would you shelve My Invented Country: A Nostalgic Journey Through Chile by Isabel Allende? Various libraries in my area have it in the Dewey 800s because it reflects on her fiction, 900s because it is about her country of birth, and biography because she tells how grew up in and left Chile after 1973 military coup d'etat. I would choose the 900s because much of the text is about Chile and the title seems to say that the country is the focus of the book. Someone might counter that the title also says that it is the Chile of Allende's imagination, much like William Faulkner's fictional Yoknapatawpha County, Mississippi, and thus should be an 800. It may also be argued that My Invented Country is a memoir, though one that is only lightly self-revealing. Our book group may have tended toward calling the book a country description, but we were in by no means unified.

Is it fair to say the book is only lightly personally revealing? Allende tells numerous short stories about her life and admits to many faults, but it seems to me that Chile is really her main focus. Does all this matter? Readers mostly want good reading and do not worry about classification. We were not agreed whether My Invented Country passed that test. Several members of the club who had read Allende's novels were unsatisfied. They thought her voice was very different, somewhat arrogant, not engaging. Others enjoyed her alternately witty and serious assessment of her country and life.

I enjoyed what might just be called "encyclopedia facts," the sections in which Allende describes the country. She is, of course, more entertaining than most encyclopedias. I'd now like to travel through the country, something that none of us had done.

My Invented Country is an imperfect book in that its perceived message clearly is not the same to every reader. Ironically, that makes it a good candidate for book discussions. Discussion leaders should also prepare to discuss what has changed in the ten years since it was published.

Allende, Isabel. My Invented Country: A Nostalgic Journey Through Chile. Harper Collins, 2003. ISBN 006054564X.

National Geographic Live: Birds of Paradise

Over the course of ten years, Cornell ornithologist Edwin Scholes and biologist/photographer Tim Laman trekked through the least accessible forests of New Guinea 18 times in search of all 39 species of birds of paradise. After spending thousands of hours in blinds, they have over 39,000 photographs documenting the resplendent colors and courting behaviors of the earth's most strikingly unusual birds. Bonnie and I saw some of the shots and a few amazing videos at their National Geographic Live presentation at the Goodman Theater in Chicago this week.

You may also see these birds in their article in the December 2012 issue of National Geographic, starting with an impressive greater bird of paradise on page 70. You will then want to get their new book Birds of Paradise: Revealing the World's Most Extraordinary Birds. I await the book to learn more than Laman and Scholes were able to say and show in a short hour and 45 minutes. I suspect Bonnie and I will have dueling bookmarks when we get it.

The Goodman was a wonderful place to attend National Geographic Live. The seats were really comfortable and a brilliant screen mostly hid the set of a current play. We were close - no need for binoculars. I also enjoyed eavesdropping on conversations before the lecture. We were among an interesting crowd full of world travelers. I suspect keepers from both of Chicago's zoos and members of the Chicago Geographical Society were there. It did not look like the opera crowd.

I enjoyed the question period at the end also. Someone asked if there might be more than 39 species of birds of paradise. Scholes said there might be and explained how museum collections had been studied to arrive at the current number. He and Laman hope to return to New Guinea to seek out any proposed candidates.

National Geographic Live appears in over a dozen American cities, including Austin, Phoenix, and Seattle. Check the NG website for its events.

Minnesota Beatle Project

Since the early days of Beatlemania, other performers have recorded songs written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney or George Harrison. It was common practice before the emphasis on the singer/songwriter for many performers to record "covers" of hit songs. The Beatles did it themselves on their initial albums, covering songs by Chuck Berry, Carl Perkins, and several Motown composers. The Beatles helped shape a new attitude when they resolved to record only original material.

Of course, many musical acts were not up to the challenge of songwriting, and they continued singing Beatle songs on their pieced-together albums. "Yesterday" is sometimes said to be the most recorded song of the 1960s. I remember watching an Ed Sullivan show in tribute to the Fab Four with all sorts of singers covering Beatle songs. I thought it was awful and eagerly awaited the finale which was a new song performed by the Beatles via a film shipped from London directly Sullivan in New York.

With so many fans like me knowing Beatles' recordings so well, it is risky for any performer to cover what are almost sacred sounds. Only the best can pull it off, usually by not sounding like the originals or by recording lesser known songs. Even Frank Sinatra and Elton John stumbled with Beatle covers. I know there are some good covers out there, but I can not think of any off hand. Maybe Joe Cocker's "She Came in Through the Bathroom Window."

There are a lot of brave performers in Minnesota. To raise funds for music education in the state, Minnesota-born musicians and immigrants to the state have joined the Minnesota Beatle Project, which has to date released four music CDs. Surprised I have enjoyed listening to volume 4, which my daughter Laura gave me at Christmas. Of the 13 tracks, I am skipping only "For the Benefit of Being Mr. Kite." To be fair, this circus song was already very strange and Van Stee upped the ante in a very John-Lennon-like way. Hearing it once is enough.

What I really like are the modest, low-key covers of "Baby's in Black" by Trampled by Turtles and "Misery" by Halloween Alaska. These are lesser known songs at this point in time, and the results are positive. Almost contrary to my tendencies, I also love the Bloomington Jefferson High School Band's joyful instrumental performance of "She Loves You." I might be happy all day after hearing this brassy bouncy song. 

You can read more about the Minnesota Beatle Project and the good it does at the Vega Productions website. You can even order the recordings - some in vinyl!

Chris Vallillo at Friday at the Ford

Good timing is essential. Thomas Ford could have invited Illinois folk musician Chris Vallillo to play Friday at the Ford earlier, but this past Friday night really seemed a perfect time. We have established a faithful following for our concerts and can almost guarantee a full audience for a folk artist like Vallillo. And Chris has just released a new CD The Last Days of Winter, from which he played six pieces, three vocal and three instrumental.

Chris is an archaeologist of Midwestern song, having been a song catcher in the 1980s when he interviewed and recorded old musicians who started before there was radio. The work shaped his career and his Friday night concert. With his original compositions, he performed for us 19th century songs, such as "Old Joe Clark," "Burglar Man," and "Shawneetown." He had the audience keep the beat with clapping for the latter two of those old songs. He also had us sing with him on another collected piece, "The Sinking of the Titanic."

From the old musicians, Chris also developed a love of old instruments. He started the night playing on his resonator guitar (seen in photo above) and later turned to his 130 year old hammer dulcimer, which he restored himself after finding it in a "working" barn. He also told us about his 9-string guitar, which was unfortunately in the luthier's shop for a tuneup.

I am now enjoying having my own copy of The Last Days of Winter. The song "The River Road" is urging me to take a driving trip downstate this spring. I'm also liking "Tequila," "The Water is Wide," and the title cut.

Chris is an Illinois Arts Council performer and is especially known for his program Abraham Lincoln in Song. His schedule of concerts can be found on his website. Several of the audience last night will attest that hearing Chris live was worth their long drive.

Update on The Complete Ripping Yarns by Michael Palin and Terry Jones

I am happy to report that I have now seen the nine episodes of The Complete Ripping Yarns, a late 1970s BBC television series written by Michael Palin and Terry Jones. Many of the stories make better viewing than reading. I was a little let down by Escape from Stalag Luft 112B, probably because I already knew all the plot twists from reading the script. On the plus side, Tomkinson's Schooldays and Roger of the Raj were much funnier than I expected. I still think Murder at Moorstone Manor is the best of the lot.

What I may have liked even more was the amusing little documentary Comic Roots: Michael Palin, which is included in special features on the second DVD. Palin visits with his mom and neighbors in his old home town and then revisits his boarding school and college, meeting up with old friends, including Terry Jones. Produced in 1983 when the comic was only 40, it is a joyful piece that every Palin fan should see.

The Complete Ripping Yarns. Acorn Media, 2005. 2 DVDs.

Organized Crime in Chicago: Beyond the Mafia by Robert M. Lombardo

I reviewed this book in the November 1, 2012 issue of Booklist. Here are some further thoughts.

Reading the history Organized Crime in Chicago: Beyond the Mafia by Robert M. Lombardo, I am particularly struck by how the author explains the role of organized crime in city life. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, many citizens were employed for low wages in factory jobs and had little joy in their lives beyond petty vices. Cheap drinks helped them forget the monotony and weariness. Gambling let them dream of escaping. Both were under the control of corrupt aldermen and ward bosses - not Italian gangs that might be called the Mafia, the Syndicate, or the Outfit. The Italians came later and did not unseat the politicians as crime lords until Prohibition.

Throughout the decades, organized crime was able to flourish in Chicago because it had much support in the neighborhoods. Corrupt aldermen might demand political donations from shop owners but then fixed streets, provided jobs, or even paid for funerals. Members of criminal gangs might spread their wealth among family and friends. Youths aspired to grow up to be in gangs for the prestige.

The violence during Prohibition scared many but did not alter community reliance on criminals. Even as late as 1971, the Illinois Law Enforcement Commission reported the following:

• Organized crime persisted because it catered to the public desire for illicit goods and services.
• A large Majority of the population wanted and used the services offered by organized crime.
• 86 percent of the survey population wished that something could be done to stamp out organized crime in Illinois.

Statement three seems incongruous after statements one and two. Obviously, people did not see that they held the key to reducing organized crime by their own consumer habits. Habits, of course, are hard to break.

In his history, Lombardo chronicles many decades of criminal activity and identifies many of the neighborhoods in which conditions supported the formation of gangs. While he mentions contemporary African-American gangs and Mexican cartels, the bulk of the text concerns pre-Italian and Italian crime. The introductory chapters and the conclusion address theoretical models of how criminal organizations work. The middle part of the book is straight history and will be of interest to many general readers.

Lombardo, Robert M. Organized Crime in Chicago: Beyond the Mafia. University of Illinois Press, 2013. 288p. ISBN 9780252078781.

The Amazing Harry Kellar: Great American Magician by Gail Jarrow

Can you imagine a time long before movies, radio, television, and the Internet? Public entertainment was found in gas-lit lecture halls and opera houses. Colorful posters glued to buildings and fences announced the shows. Young and old thrilled to learn a magician was coming to town. That was the world of Harry Kellar (1849-1922), once America's most famous magician. His story is told in the well-illustrated biography The Amazing Harry Kellar: Great American Magician by Gail Jarrow.

In the 19th and early 20th centuries, many of the most famous magicians touring the United States came from Europe. Kellar (born Heinrich Keller) was an exception. Born in Erie, Pennsylvania, he had to tour other continents with his magic show for over a decade before he could compete in his native land. During that time he honed his skills, learning amazing tricks and illusions, including how to levitate Princess Karnac. Eventually he became the leading American magician.

Aimed at upper elementary or middle school readers, The Amazing Harry Kellar is an attractive book filled with reproductions of original Kellar lithographic posters and photographs of the time. Its quick-reading text describes the career of a now-forgotten entertainer who paved the way for later magicians, including Harry Houdini. Good for biography reports or pleasure reading.

Jarrow, Gail. The Amazing Harry Kellar: Great American Magician. Calkins Creek, 2012. 96p. ISBN 9781590788653.

Saddened by Gun Appreciation Day

I am saddened to read that yesterday was proclaimed by some to be Gun Appreciation Day. I was not celebrating. Regardless of whose hands a gun is in, it indicates the failure of our society to provide well-being. We live in a culture of violence in which guns plays a key role, perpetuating more violence. Guns are pathogens infecting our population with feelings of fear and the urge for revenge. Nothing constructive comes from guns, only bullets which destroy, tearing through flesh, spilling blood. Even used it self-defense, guns facilitate pain and suffering. We can measure human inhumanity by the number of guns manufactured, sold, owned, brandished, and used in violent acts. I find no reason to like a gun. I do not celebrate guns.

Memoirs That Will Last

My article has been published! In the January issue of Library Journal starting on page 42, you will find "Memoirs That Will Last." It is an installment in the monthly LJ Collection Development Series. In this four page article, I attempt to identify memoirs that will be of interest to readers for years to come and deserve to be in most public libraries, as well as some school and college libraries. Thanks to the editors' encouragement to expand the original draft of the article, I identify 27 books. At the end of the piece, I also name six movies based on memoirs that libraries will want to offer their clients.

After being asked by Library Journal in July, I had about four months to research, contemplate, and write the article. I scanned Read On … Life Stories by Rosalind Reisner and Life Stories: A Guide to Reading Interests in Memoirs, Autobiographies, and Diaries by Maureen O'Connor to create an initial list of titles to consider and then looked through the SWAN catalog of suburban Chicago libraries. I trimmed the list knowing that not all librarians would fully agree, especially with the 21st century choices. It will be interesting to see if the article gets comments once it is available on the LJ website. 

One thing I would change now that I see the article is the subheading "Twenty-First Century Stories." The books were published after 2000, but the stories go back before. I think I may confuse a few readers with that subtitle.

I'd enjoy hearing what memoirs you believe will continue to merit reading for the next couple of decades. Feel free to comment.

The Grand Tour by Agatha Christie

Dame Agatha Christie, the Queen of Crime, may have died in 1976, but she still has books coming out. I am not referring to reprints. The Grand Tour is a new title, nonfiction instead of fiction this time. How is this possible? In this case, her grandson Mathew Prichard has taken a bit of her autobiography, added letters that she wrote home from a trip around the world, and illustrated the volume with her photographs. The result is an illustrated travel journal that will interest historians and Christie fans.

As a travel memoir, The Grand Tour is not particularly exciting, as Christie had no grand adventures. No one dies. She was often seasick, danced late into the night, learned to surf, and met many Commonwealth industrialists interested in placing exhibits in the British Empire Exhibition of 1924. The Exhibition was the purpose of the 10-month trip. It was 1922, Christie was 32 years old, and she accompanied her husband Archie who was a member of the Exhibition mission to the colonies. Slated as a tag-along, the budding mystery writer with three mildly successful books to her credit helped the mission greatly with social functions.

Why did she go when she had a two-and-a-half year old daughter? Her mother intimated that it was unwise for a young wife to let a young husband travel alone. Christie also loved travel and the mission presented a great opportunity for her to learn about foreign places that she used as settings in future novels. Several of the letter are addressed to her daughter.

The historic setting is the strength of The Grand Tour. Historians get some insight into how Commonwealth business of the 1920s worked. Readers learn about the comforts and hardships of travel when it took weeks to get from London to South Africa and months to Australia and New Zealand. Fans get a rare peek into Christie's mostly very private life. 

Christie, Agatha. The Grand Tour. Harper, 2012. 376p. ISBN 9780062191229.

The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher: A Shocking Murder and the Undoing of a Great Victorian Detective by Kate Summerscale

Detective Inspector Jonathan "Jack" Whicher of Scotland Yard was somewhat of a celebrity in 1850s London. One of Great Britain's initial batch of trained detectives, he had been praised frequently in newspaper accounts for solving many cases of theft and murder. Authors Wilkie Collins and Charles Dickens followed his career closely and reshaped bits of it into their highly popular tales. Whicher was, of course, the professional to call when the rural Wiltshire police could not solve the mystery behind the murder of three-year-old Saville Kent in 1860.

According to Kate Summerscale in her The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher: A Shocking Murder and the Undoing of a Great Victorian Detective, the case known as the Road Hill Murder proved more difficult than any other for the great Victorian Era detective. Neither the local constabulary nor the family of the victim welcomed his involvement in the case. As days went by, all described by Summerscale in detail, the family and its staff became primary suspects, as every possibility of outside involvement was disproved. While Whicher asked members of the household many uncomfortable questions, the public demanded for a solution. When Whicher finally arrested a daughter of the house but she was released because no firm evidence could be found, he was vilified widely as careless and "lower class." Good public opinion of the detective never recovered and he was forgotten.

Though a confession was later made, the case is still far from truly solved. Was the confession false or partly false? What were the true motives? Were there accomplices  Summerscale recounts how thinking about the case has evolved over time. She also profiles the lives of the key players in the mystery up to their deaths and tells how Wilkie Collins spun the tale into one of his own.

Biographical but really better classified as history, The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher is a great read for anyone who studies or greatly enjoys the literature of crime fiction.

Summerscale, Kate. The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher: A Shocking Murder and the Undoing of a Great Victorian Detective. Walker and Company, 2008. 360p. ISBN 9780802715357.