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.

Imperfect: An Improbable Life by Jim Abbott and Tim Brown

Former major league pitcher Jim Abbott has inspired many fans just by being on the field. The odds against a player with only one hand making it through all of the levels of baseball to the top are incalculable. How could he both catch and throw? Through sheer willpower, he found a way to be able to rise from Little League to pro ball. He tells his story in Imperfect: An Improbable Life. 

Being a role model for physically challenged children and adults, however, was never Abbott's intent, but he decided it was his responcibility. The difficulty was that he grew weary of pity very early in his life. His plan was to refer to his missing hand as little as possible. Of course, his missing hand was what journalists noticed first and predictably asked about. He had to outlast the notariety and prove he was an effective pitcher to ever get a story that did not label him as the player with one hand. He also knew in his heart that he had to respond to every child who sent him a letter, sign as many autographs as possible, and meet families who made special trips hoping to meet him. He was a nice guy. Too nice according to his agent and sports psychologist.

Like Sandy Koufax: A Lefty's Legacy by Jane Leavy, Abbott's book alternates the story of a pitcher's best game with the story of his regrettably short career. Readers come to admire both men. Imperfect will be most liked by sports fans and people with physical challenges of their own.

Abbott, Jim and Tim Brown. Imperfect: An Improbable Life. Ballantine Books, 2012. 283p. ISBN 9780345523259.

I'm taking this week off. I hope to have more book and movie reviews sometime next week. See you later, alligator.

The Booklover's Guide to the Midwest: A Literary Tour by Greg Holden

While in Prairie Lights Bookstore in Iowa City over Labor Day Weekend, Bonnie and I found The Booklover's Guide to the Midwest: A Literary Tour by Greg Holden, just our kind of book. While we do not take as many long weekend trips as we would like, we still enjoy dreaming of them. Holden's 2010 book was already on the sale table, so we bought it.

Definitions of the Midwest differ. When Joyce Saricks asked me, "What's it say about Kansas?", I had to tell her that the state was not included. Holden holds the Midwest to be Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, Missouri, Iowa, and Minnesota, all of which he has toured extensively. In his book, he suggests tours that run along major roads or rivers, but the town entries are not always in a logical order. Readers have to plot their own routes on maps that they will have to buy separately.

I found while reading that I needed to make two lists - places to go and books to read. While I have already stood outside houses of Sinclair Lewis and F. Scott Fitzgerald, there are many places I still want to visit, including the Carl Sandburg birthplace in Galesburg, Illinois, and the Robert Ridgewood Memorial Arboretum and Bird Sanctuary in Olney, Illinois. In Iowa, I'd like to visit the Mark Twain Center in the Keokuk Public Library in Keokuk and the Japanese Garden on the grounds of the Muscatine Art Center in, of course, Muscatine.

Many of the authors and books highlighted by Holden are unfamiliar to me, especially many from the 19th and early 20th centuries. I think I might especially like to read Iowa Interiors by Ruth Suckow from this group. I was also reminded that I have never gotten around to You Know Me Al by Ring Lardner. Holden also recommends the novels of Jane Hamilton from Rochester, Minnesota.

Time to get out the road atlas.

Holden, Greg. The Booklover's Guide to the Midwest: A Literary Tour. Clerisy Press, 2010. 308p. ISBN 9781578603145.

The Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant

In my studies of biography, including autobiography, I have often noticed praise for The Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant. The reluctant-to-write former general and president wrote this autobiography late in life to get his family out of debt. It had been on the edge of my mind to read it for years before I finally checked it out this summer. Even then, I renewed it twice before I read a word. Its size is intimidating. Noticing that it is split into two volumes, I resolved to read just volume one before the looming deadline to return it to the library.

Thankfully, I discovered that Grant was as good an author as promised. His style was unadorned by any grand statements or flowery language, unlike some nineteenth century texts. He had a good story of importance to American readers and told it well. He did go into a bit more detail than I wanted in describing some battles, but this is precisely what will interest some other readers. I most enjoyed reading about the every day lives of soldiers in both the U.S.-Mexican War and the Civil War.

Grant's account of the War with Mexico is particularly interesting because he served alongside many men who would later be leaders of the Confederate forces. He even went mountain climbing with them during the quiet spells during the campaign to take Mexico City. Most of them had been at West Point together. His account referenced events of the next war, as he assessed the leadership qualities of these comrades.

I enjoy reading about places, and Grant granted me a view of early Texas which I enjoyed, my being a student who enjoyed a year of Texas history in junior high school. I also found descriptions of pre-Civil War Missouri very interesting - I visited some of the places when I worked in Columbia.

Volume one of the memoirs reports his military life through the conquest of Vicksburg in 1863. Volume two tells his story through the end of the Civil War. He does not write about his presidency in his memoirs. I read from The Library of America volume Grant: Memoirs and Selected Letters, which also adds a Grant chronology and the text of notes that Grant wrote to the doctor who nursed him through his final illness.

Grant, Ulysses S. Grant: Memoirs and Selected Letters. Library of America, 1990. 1199p. ISBN 0940450585.

Sandy Koufax: A Lefty's Legacy

I remember 1964 baseball cards. The cards for National League's 1963 leaders in wins, strikeouts, and earned run average all showed Sandy Koufax at the top. He had had a great season and was in his prime. He would dominate opposing batters for three more years and then retire. He was baseball's highest paid player at $150,000 per year, but he said that his health was more important than money and walked away. He was only 31 years old and had nothing left to prove on the field.

Retiring early was only one of the unusual acts of Koufax's short career, according to Jane Leavy in her tribute Sandy Koufax: A Lefty's Legacy. By declining to start Game 1 of the 1965 World Series because it was Yom Kippur, he put his religious practice before his sports and solidified his reputation within the American Jewish community. He refused to make alcohol and tobacco ads, though he both drank and smoked. His dual strike for higher pay with Don Drysdale in spring training 1966 was the seed of the players' union movement, according to Leavy.

Perhaps the great game Koufax ever pitched was his September 9, 1965 perfect game against the Chicago Cubs. The fans at Dodger Stadium also witnessed a one-hitter pitched by the Cub Hendley. Leavy uses the game as a plot device, alternating innings of that game with chapters of Koufax's life. It is a common way to write a sports biography and in this case very effective. Sandy Koufax: A Lefty's Legacy is a biography that no baseball fan should miss. With the playoffs coming soon, this is a great time to pick it up.

Leavy, Jane. Sandy Koufax: A Lefty's Legacy. HarperCollins, 2002. 282p. ISBN 0060195339.

America's Other Audubon by Joy M. Kiser

When Joy M. Kiser began her new position as assistant librarian at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History in 1995, volume one of Illustrations of the Nests and Eggs of Birds of Ohio was on display in a case near the stairs. She had never heard of the Jones family of Circleville, Ohio. Through research she discovered that they were amateur ornithologists who in the nineteenth century recognized that there was not a good reference book about bird eggs and nests. Encourage by multi-talented daughter Genevieve, the entire family began to work on the collecting and illustrating of nests and eggs from their area. Genevieve soon fell ill and died, but the family increased efforts in her memory and produced an acclaimed work of which fewer than 100 copies were ever made. Kiser tells the story and reproduces the plates and commentary in America's Other Audubon.

Like James John Audubon decades earlier, the Jones family sought to sell their illustrations through subscriptions to collectors. Luckily for us, several of the major museums signed up, and Kiser was able to produce this beautiful book with the help of the Smithsonian Institution Libraries. The work is a testament to the bounty of bird life of the time, when even the passenger pigeon thrived.

Readers of the beautiful and oversized America's Other Audubon may be inspired to take binoculars or maybe even watercolors to the woods. I am sure identifying birds by nests and eggs will still be far more difficult than by plumage or song, but maybe we will at least know now where to look.

Kiser, Joy M. America's Other Audubon. Princeton Architectural Press, 2012. 191p. ISBN 9781616890599.

Wish Lists for Reading

Yesterday, our consortium of libraries rolled out a new look for our shared library catalog, and it is a great improvement. Along with the sprucing up, SWAN added some new features. My favorite is My Wish Lists. Since I was reading book reviews when I learned of the upgrade coming online, I started a list that I call Histories and Biographies to Read. I filled it with books that will come out in the next couple of months. The list looks like this when printed:

What I like is that there is a handy link for each title to place a request. I could have gone ahead and requested the books yesterday, but several of them might suddenly arrived at the same time. I already have a stack of books and I am working on some projects, so I will save borrowing the books for later when the brand-new-books demand for them has faded. I might then request them and get them right away. I might even see copies on the shelf at my library and not have to use the request service. They should be just as good in six months or a year or even five as they are the day they are published.

I manage my audiobook downloads in a similar way. Media on Demand, which is my library's Overdrive download service, has a single wish list into which I add titles to download later. With six to ten titles in the wish list, there is a good chance one will be available when I desire another audiobook on my iPod. I can see from the wish list which titles are ready for checkout. Just a couple of clicks and it is mine (for two weeks).

How do you keep track of the books you want to read? I think more people are keeping lists and making requests now. I hardly ever see people browsing the stacks, and the reserve shelves behind the checkout desk are always full. I'd enjoy knowing what you are seeing.

The Horizontal World: Growing Up Wild in the Middle of Nowhere by Debra Marquart

"As I get older, I become infinitely interested in everything older than I am - old people, old letters, photographs, and papers, ship manifests, yellowed newspapers, crispy deeds, buried archives." Debra Marquart

One reason that we enjoy memoirs is that we identify with authors. In their experiences and thoughts, we see a bit of ourselves. I found this true with The Horizontal World: Growing Up Wild in the Middle of Nowhere by Debra Marquart. As I read of her spending an afternoon watching the nearby highway out her brother's window, counting the cars going in each direction, I recalled slow hot summer afternoons looking out my grandmother's front window with my sister. Would the next car be red or green? What a delight it was when we were right.

There is a good mix of similarities and differences in Marquart's life and mine to keep her story fascinating and unpredictable. Many of the circumstances were the same but her actions were far different from mine, but I can understand why she rebelled. I was not faced with the prospects of being expected to become a farmer's wife. I never had daily farm chores that kept me from friends. My life was much easier, and I was given my ticket for escape. Marquart traveled a hard road out.

Yet, in middle age, we are in similar places. Both of us are book people now living in communities of little interest to our families. We pass through time portals when we revisit our origins. We have reconciled with and care for our aging parents. Our dreams often take us back to houses we will never reenter.

Marquart is a fine storyteller with an eye for detail and sense of place. She'll string you along, and you'll gladly follow. By the way, turn your head 90 degrees to look at the book cover.

Marquart, Debra. The Horizontal World: Growing Up Wild in the Middle of Nowhere. 2006. 270p. ISBN 9781582433455.

Die Jahreszeiten (The Seasons) by Joseph Haydn

Each summer, Bonnie and I try to attend at least one of the evening concert at Grant Park in Chicago. This year we made a Saturday evening performance by the Grant Park Orchestra and Chorus under the direction of Carlos Kalmar of the epic oratorio The Seasons by Joseph Haydn. It is epic in that a full performance takes two hours to perform. I do not remember previously hearing even parts, but with three strong soloists and a huge chorus, it was glorious.

If you have ever heard a Christmas performance of The Messiah by George Frideric Handel, imagine that kind of music but longer. (The Messiah is much longer, too, when played in full.) There are orchestral parts, recitatives with voice and harpsichord, arias, and big choral blockbusters. Everything was impression, except the lyrics sung in English. "Come, sweet maidens, let us wander o'er the glowing fields" is a representative line. Haydn himself complained about the lyrics that he was commissioned to set to music. He preferred his previous oratorio The Creation. (I want to hear it, too.) Most of the time, I could not actually understand the lyrics, so I was not distracted from the music.

The next week I borrowed Die Jahreszeiten (The Seasons) by Joseph Haydn performed by the London Symphony Chorus and London Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Sir Colin Davis. The oratorio is sung in German! It is fabulous in German. I listened to the two CDs three times through in the next several weeks, mostly while driving or cooking. I hoped to memorize some of the melodies, but I failed. I can not hum any part now, but I did enjoy imagining myself like Inspector Morse driving around in a hot red sports car with the opera cranked up. (For the record, we have a modest green car.) 

Here is a sample from "Winter" so you can see if you might also enjoy Haydn's The Seasons.

The Day the Revolution Ended: 19 October 1781 by William H. Hallahan

After reading The Day the Revolution Ended: 19 October 1781 by William H. Hallahan, I am left with the impression that the American colonists were always a long shot to win their revolution. With strong leadership, the British military should have mopped up the remnants of the hastily formed rebellion on several occasions. The rebels were short of funds, clothing, and ammunition. Their ranks were reduced by disease and the annual needs of soldier farmers to get back to sow and harvest crops. Why did the British not finish them off?

Historian and novelist Hallahan tells in great detail how many British officers and soldiers profited from their occupation of cities and campaigns through the various states. Why rush the war? While in New York, many officers under General Clinton took over great houses in the city, living lavishly in some and renting out others as barracks for their own men, pocketing the rent. These same officers shipped furniture and books taken from these homes back to their estates in Britain. Some also skimmed from the payrolls of their own troops. During campaigns chasing rebel forces, they loaded wagons full of goods to sell or keep. After defecting the colonial cause, General Benedict Arnold was openly joyous about the profit he would make marching through the rich plantations of Virginia.

This corruption in the British military contributed to its eventual demise, as the officers and soldiers stole from loyalists as wantonly as from rebels. As the war progressed, the British found it more and more difficult to enlist more loyalists into their ranks. Of course, rebel violence against loyalists had reduced their numbers, too. Hallahan is also very critical of most colonial political leaders, especially the Continental Congress, which he claims usually did nothing other than debate issues, leaving the army underfunded. He especially rebukes Virginia Governor Thomas Jefferson for doing little to prepare his state for invasion and Boston's Samuel Adams for opposing any measure to strengthen the national government. The only heroes in the narrative are Generals Washington, Lafayette, and Greene.

A better title for the book would have been The Year the Revolution Ended, as Hallahan chronicles how the American, British, and French forces all arrived at the Yorktown battlefield, a long process that seemed to develop in slow motion. It is a good story that Hallahan tells well from his point of view. We should be eternally grateful to the French, who were really there to oppose the British.

I like the Afterward which reports what happened to each of the principal characters after the war.

Hallahan, William H. The Day the Revolution Ended: 19 October 1781. John Wiley & Sons, 2004. 292p. ISBN 0471262404.

60 Ways to Use Your Library Card

September is National Library Card Month. Here are 60 reasons to get a library card.


               


 Visit your local library to see what it can do for you.

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

Just a week ago, I wrote about The Mighty Ted. This week, it is the mighty Spirit and the mighty Opportunity, NASA's Mars surface rovers that far exceeded the expectations of scientists and engineers in 2004. Both went about taking pictures and soil samples and then relaying data back to Earth beyond their three month missions. In fact, Opportunity in still chugging away. Science writer Elizabeth Rusch tells their stories in The Mighty Mars Rovers: The Incredible Adventures of Spirit and Opportunity. 

The narrative begins on Earth with the dreams of science kid Steven Squyres, who got his first telescope at eight and tried to build a robot when he was nine. Of course, he grew up to be a NASA scientist whose proposal for Mars rovers was commissioned in the year 2000. Rusch tells how in less than four years Steve and a team of engineers, scientists, and contractors built the two rovers sent to opposite sides of the our sister planet. The story continues with the nail-biting landing and difficult explorations across the rock-strewn and sometimes sandy Martian surface.

Though aimed at late elementary or middle school readers, this book is perfect for an adult wanting to revisit the years of rover activity. It is a slim but substantial book. I spent about three hours reading and studying the many photos and maps of Mars. With the recent landing of Curiosity on Mars, this is a great time to put The Mighty Mars Rovers on display in libraries and bookstores.

Rusch, Elizabeth. The Mighty Mars Rovers: The Incredible Adventures of Spirit and Opportunity. Houghton Mifflin Books for Children, 2012. 79p. ISBN 9780547478814.

Why Spencer Perceval Had to Die: The Assassination of a British Prime Minister by Andro Linklater

It has been 200 years since an event of which I had never heard - an event that author Andro Linklater claims changed the course of history. On May 11, 1812, British Prime Minister Spencer Perceval was shot and killed upon entering the lobby of Parliament on his way to a hearing in the House of Commons. With many witnesses, there was no doubt that John Bellingham, a businessman from Liverpool, was the assassin. Linklater recounts how paths of the prime minister and businessman crossed in Why Spencer Perceval Had to Die: The Assassination of a British Prime Minister.

The author thinks that it is curious that such a dramatic and important incident has been mostly forgotten. It seems that British authorities wanted it that way. Bellingham was tried and hung within a week of the crime. Little effort was made to investigate why the businessman wanted to kill the prime minister, and the story was soon out of the newspapers. Many people were actually pleased to have the very powerful Perceval dead, Linklater claims. The people of London poured into the streets to celebrate upon hearing the news of the assassination.

In a way, Linklater's research was cold case investigation. Readers learn from his book much about the people who benefited from the crime and its impact on the ongoing war with France, the new war with the former American colonies, and the British Navy's efforts to enforce the Abolition Act of 1807 which aimed to stop the international slave trade. British bankers and shipowners of Liverpool had a lot of money invested in the slave trade. Fans of both American and British history will enjoy Why Spencer Perceval Had to Die.

Linklater, Andro. Why Spencer Perceval Had to Die: The Assassination of a British Prime Minister. Walker & Company, 2012. 296p. ISBN 9780802779984.

Troilus and Cressida by William Shakespeare

Recently, I heard voices telling me "Read Troilus and Cressida by William Shakespeare." First, it was Lorenzo speaking with Jessica in Act V Scene I of The Merchant of Venice, which we saw under the stars in July.

   "Troilus methinks mounted the Troyan walls
   And sigh'd his soul toward the Grecian tents,
   Where Cressid lay that night."

Then it was a group of actors in Oxford in an episode of PBS Masterpiece Mystery's Inspector Lewis. They were recording Troilus and Cressida for a professor. The young woman playing Cressida became a murder victim, and her boyfriend who read Troilus was a suspect.

Finally, we replaced a bunch of old Shakespeare volumes in our library's play collection with fresh copies. Among the additions was an edition of Troilus and Cressida from the Folger Shakespeare Library. It was definitely time to read this play of which I was unfamiliar.

Despite the clues in the brief encounters above, I was totally surprised to learn that Troilus and Cressida tells a story from the siege of Troy by the Greeks wanting the return of Helen, Queen of Sparta, who had been kidnapped by the besotted Paris. Having once read The Iliad, I was able to figure out some of what was going on. The story, however, seems a bit different from what I remember of the battle between Achilles and Hector. It is certainly different than the battle in the movie Troy.

According to the introduction in the Folger Shakespeare Library edition, the playwright drew from Homer and from Troilus and Criseyde, a play by Chaucer. Shakespeare's play was published in 1609, but there is no evidence of its being performed during his lifetime. The Riverside Shakespeare says the first known performance was in 1898. To help modern readers, the Folger edition has text on the right hand page with extensive footnotes on the left hand page.

Troilus and Cressida is a hard play to categorize. There is comic banter that reminds me of Much Ado About Nothing and a forbidden steamy romance much like Romeo and Juliet. In the fourth act, most of the Greeks and Trojans enjoy a friendly banquet together to prepare for the next day's battle. The main characters (if you use the title as a clue) hardly appear in the final act and then not doing much of final importance. The Riverside Shakespeare groups it with the comedies but calls it historical.

Troilus and Cressida is not among Shakespeare's masterpieces, but it is interesting for those wanting more after having repeatedly seen or read the major plays.

Shakespeare, William. Troilus and Cressida. Simon and Schuster, 2007. 343p. ISBN 9780743273312.

The Mighty Ted: An Unexpected Journey, Written and Performed by Ted Waltmire

Ted Waltmire just wants to be "An Average Guy" again, as he tells us in song in his short musical comedy The Mighty Ted: An Unexpected Journey, performed each Saturday night this September at Donny's Skybox Theater in Pipers Alley in Chicago. He's getting there, as we learn in his funny look at his recovery efforts from the stroke that nearly killed him in 2009.

Ted has been the musical director for community and college theaters in the Chicago area for several decades, as well as being the computer guy at the Downers Grove Public Library. Bonnie and I have attended numerous musicals (Into the Woods, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Godspell, 1776, and more) where he would direct the pit orchestra (often including his wife Michelle) from the piano. Of course, some of the pits were under the stage and hardly visible, but we would always see him at intermission or after the performance. So he was a natural to turn his own experiences into a performance. After the stroke, his colleague and friend Dale Galiniak (who is in the cast) suggested that they take an improv class at Second City. Ted eventually also took a writing class and from that came the script, which was accepted for performance.

For the debut performance, there were many of Ted's family and friends as well as his nurses and therapists in the audience watching him graduate from wheelchair to walker to cane. There was even a song about his many canes. Some got to see themselves comically portrayed. Of course, comedy can include anger, and in this case most was directed at Social Security and impatient people unwilling to give stroke victims time to do the things they are relearning to do. It was an emotion-filled performance with lots of laughs and lively tunes.

Of the remaining four shows, one is already sold out. Go to the Second City website to get tickets. If you decide to go, the best parking deal is at the Treasure Island supermarket across the street.

The Mansion of Happiness: A History of Life and Death by Jill Lepore

I remember playing Milton Bradley's The Game of Life as a kid. There was not really much to it besides spinning the wheel and moving the little plastic cars filled with pale blue and pink pegs around the board. Going to college to get the higher salaries seemed the only important decision to make. Luck of the spin seemed the primary influence on winning and losing. Still, my friends and I played over and over. It was so seductive to contemplate what might happen to us for real.

Historian Jill Lepore refers to the game and its predecessors throughout her book The Mansion of Happiness: A History of Life and Death, as she explores several centuries of thought about the stages of human life: conception, infancy, childhood, adolescence, marriage, parenthood, adulthood, middle age, old age, and afterlife. Each stage gets a chapter in which the author reports on changes through the ages. In the chapter "Baby Food," she chronicles the many movements for and against breastfeeding. In "The Children's Room," she tells how the magazine Life shocked many in 1938 with what would now be considered very tame photos of a human birth; later revealed to have been staged, no private parts were actually shown in the tiny grainy thumbnail shots. In "Mr. Marriage," she reports on the eugenics movement of the early 20th century which supported state laws for forced stylization of "the feeble, the insane, and the criminal"; over 20,000 people of low regard where sterilized in California alone.

I see libraries are putting The Mansion of Happiness in their American history sections. That is okay as the book does focus on U.S. event. It could just as easily go in collections of philosophy and ethics or with books of sociology. Whatever, it is an entertaining and enlightening work from a historian with a growing shelf of titles, including one novel.

Lepore, Jill. The Mansion of Happiness: A History of Life and Death. Alfred A. Knopf, 2012. 282p. ISBN 9780307592996.

Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson

Perhaps it is a sign of my age, but I can not think of a book that is more romantic than Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson, which was published in 2010, which I have just read. It was on my possibilities list for some time, but its being the choice for an upcoming book discussion moved me to actually read it. It is jolly good to be in a book club, as I am now very glad to have read it.

Major Ernest Pettigrew is a retired British soldier of traditional values who lives in the quiet village of St. Mary, England. As the story begins, his brother has died, and he learns that reuniting the very valuable family hunting rifles (called "Churchills") was not specified in the brother's will as the major has been led to believe. Both his mercenary banker son and his ambitious niece want the guns sold so they can fund their projects, but the major just wants to have them to use at annual duck hunts. The major sense that neither of the young people nor his sister-in-law have any sense of tradition.

The major explains all of this to Mrs. Jasmina Ali, the Pakistani widow who runs a little shop in the village. As they walk along the beachfront and drink tea, he discovers that the attractive widow shares his love of Kipling and a sense of what is proper behavior. He is enamored, but how does Mrs. Ali feel?

Being a fan of many British books and television, Major Pettigrew's Last Stand was ready made for me, and I do not think I am alone. It is no longer on bestseller lists, but there are many copies in public libraries. If you are similarly inclined, put it on the top of your list.

Simonson, Helen. Major Pettigrew's Last Stand. Random House, 2010. 358p. ISBN 9781400068937.

Anyway: A Story about Me with 138 Footnotes, 27 Exaggerations, and 1 Plate of Spaghetti by Arthur Salm

Most of my memories of junior high are pleasant, but not all, and I am very happy that I do not have to live through the age again. Usually good kid Max, who is between seventh and eighth grade, often hears that his mishaps will be funny someday, but he is ready to get past the tween stage and never return. He tell all about his rocky summer in Anyway: A Story about Me with 138 Footnotes, 27 Exaggerations, and 1 Plate of Spaghetti by Arthur Salm.

Max is not a storyteller who can stay on subject, which is why he includes 138 footnotes. Don't skip them for they reveal much about Max's character and that of his alter ego Mad Max. They also alert you to the 27 exaggerations.

Max would not want me to reveal too much about his story, but let me just say that he has one set of friends (and an enemy) from his school and makes another set when he goes to summer camp with his family. Action takes place at a shopping mall, in Max's backyard, at camp, and at a big birthday party where girls and boys play musical chairs. Can you guess where the spaghetti comes into the story? See if you are right by reading Anyway.

Salm, Arthur. Anyway: A Story about Me with 138 Footnotes, 27 Exaggerations, and 1 Plate of Spaghetti. Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2012. 138p. ISBN 9781442429307.

My Reading Life by Pat Conroy

While My Reading Life by Pat Conroy is obviously about books and reading, it is very much a book about people who introduced Conroy to the joy of reading and books that have shaped his life. His mother, an English teacher, a high school librarian, a bookseller, and publisher's representative populate the story along with influential books, including Gone with the Wind, Catcher in the Rye, Deliverance, War and Peace, A Christmas Carol, and Look Homeward, Angel.

It won't surprise the readers of Conroy's novels that he portrays his benefactors warts and all. Each chapter focuses on either one of these people or an influential author. Being unsparing does not mean being ungrateful. The mentors all seem better people for overcoming obstacles, such as prejudice or cowardice, and readers sense Conroy's love for all of them.

My Reading Life is also filled with great statements about writing and reading and life. I could have chosen many to post on social media.

• "Books contained powerful amulets that could lead to paths of certain wisdom." 
• "I grew ups word-haunted boy. I felt words inside me and store them wondrous as pearls." 
• "The veneration of books carries its own rewards." 
• "On that first day, not one kid said hello to me. By chance, I stumbled onto the library and I felt the deep pull of a homecoming as I walked into its silences." 
• "Books are living things and their task lies in their vows of silence. You touch them as they quiver with a divine pleasure." 
• "In every great story, I encounter a head-on collision with self and imagination." 

By the end, readers sense Conroy's philosophy of literature. I enjoyed listening to the author read the book himself. It was eight hours well spent.

Conroy, Pat. My Reading Life. Nan A. Talese/Doubleday, 2010. 337p. ISBN 9780385533577.

7 compact discs. Books on Tape, 2010. ISBN 9780307749222.

Zoobiquity: What Animals Can Teach Us About Health and the Science of Healing by Barbara Natterson-Horowitz and Kathryn Bowers

One of the benefits of listening to NPR Science Podcasts is learning about interesting science books. From NPR recently I learned about Zoobiquity: What Animals Can Teach Us About Health and the Science of Healing by Barbara Natterson-Horowitz and Kathryn Bowers. The pair coined the term "zoobiquity" to name interspecies medical studies, which they think go deeper than simple comparative anatomy. Physician Natterson-Horowitz particularly believes that her medical colleagues are slower than veterinarians in recognizing the convergence of their disciplines. She does not go so far as to suggest that animals get better care, but she does say that vets are far ahead in some fields of treatment. 

Of course, animal studies have long been conducted for the benefit of human medicine, but they have usually been limited to laboratory animals in sterile environments. The authors argue there is much also to be learned from the treatment of pets and from the lives of animals in the wild. They show how similarly animals and humans faint at times of danger, suffer from cancer, pursue sexual partners, abuse drugs, self-mutilate, and surrender to obesity. Almost any human trouble seems to have a corollary in the animal world that might provide insight.

Thanks to Bowers being a mainstream journalist, the text is kept from being too technical. Anyone with a pet will experience a few revelations. I recommend reading a chapter a date to not overdose on the fascinating detail. It will be in many public libraries.

Natterson-Horowitz, Barbara and Kathryn Bowers. Zoobiquity: What Animals Can Teach Us About Health and the Science of Healing. Alfred A. Knopf, 2012. 308p. ISBN 9780307593481.

Whose Body by Dorothy L. Sayers

When I recently read a blog piece about the British Queens of Crime (Christie, Allingham, Sayers, and Marsh), I remembered that I had not read Dorothy L. Sayers in a long time. Even then, I had only read two or three of the books, which I had liked immensely. Feeling it was time for another, I downloaded the audiobook read by Roe Kendall of Whose Body?, first of Sayer's published mysteries.

Upon listening, I was immediately struck by how much of the story is told through conversations between the investigators, witnesses, and suspects. I suspect I would have noticed this in print, but in performance with the reader lending so many voices, it was theater. The quick pace made putting down my iPod difficult. I kept wanting to hear just a little more before stopping.

Of course, the main sleuth is the gentleman Lord Peter Wimsey, who loves nothing better than a puzzle to solve. He has survived World War I, but he needs diversion to keep from thinking about the horror. With the clever help of his valet Mervyn Bunter, who was his sergeant on the Western Front, Wimsey assists Inspector Parker of Scotland Yard who has been charged with discovering why financier Reuben Levy has disappeared. The odd body that has appeared in architect Alfred Thipps's bathtub in a nearby flat is most certainly not Levy - but is there a connection?

I am happy to have reacquainted myself with Wimsey and will start working my way through the series. Thanks to whoever wrote the blog piece that I have now misplaced.

By the way, the cover image used for the audiobook has absolutely no relevance to the story.

Sayers, Dorothy L. Whose Body? Harper, 1923.

Audiobook from Tantor Media, 2005. 6 compact discs.

Burying the Typewriter: A Memoir by Carmen Bugan

Librarians like to classify, and I am struggling to label Burying the Typewriter: A Memoir by Carmen Bugan. Obviously it is a memoir, and it is easy to identify it as a childhood memoir and somewhat of a coming of age memoir. I think it is more than either of these. It is similar to a Holocaust memoir, in that Bugan tells about how her family survived a time of great danger, but it is not set during the Holocaust. Instead, she tells of life during the waining years of communism in Romania. Iron Curtain memoir doesn't sound bad - better than totalitarian state memoir.

I know I would group it with First They Killed My Father by Loung Ung and Egg on Mao by Denise Chong, but neither of these were behind the Iron Curtain and second is not even a memoir. How about a description instead? Burying the Typewriter is an intimate account of surviving in an unjust society while actively trying to reform it. The effort to inspire the people to rise up against the oppression is a big part of the story. Bugan's father spends much of his life in Romania in prison for distributing anti-regime newsletters and openly protesting, thinking that his example would encourage others. Instead, they disowned him as friend and helped the secret police spy on Bugan's family.

Of course, it was Bugan's parents, not Bugan, who were demonstrating and conspiring against the Ceasescue regime. She hoped her father would behave himself so they would be left alone and could live a normal life. She prayed the typewriter would not be found. Bugan was, however, the member of the family who dashed past Romania police to enter the American Embassy to apply for asylum. Bugan recounts the time of her childhood with passion and understanding.

Burying the Typewriter is a great addition to a literary genre that I am having trouble naming.

Bugan, Carmen. Burying the Typewriter: A Memoir. Graywolf Press, 2012. ISBN 9781555976170.

Into the Western Winds: Pioneer Boys Traveling the Overland Trails by Mary Barmeyer O'Brien

No self-respecting boy of the nineteenth century could pass up the opportunity for adventure. What could be better than crossing the American West in a wagon train? There were horses to ride, wild animals to hunt, rivers to cross, mountains to climb, and lots of other boys to befriend. There would be no school and little bathing. How hard could it be? In Into the Western Winds: Pioneer Boys Traveling the Overland Trails, author Mary Barmeyer O'Brien lets us know how hard.

In her compact book, author O'Brien tells us stories of eight boys who joined their families in crossing the continent between the 1840s and 1860s, before there were railroads to speed their journeys. Each of them either kept a journal or wrote a memoir about his experience. O'Brien identifies the resources and retells some of the best stories from each.

Readers will quickly realize how important the boys turned out to be to the success of their families' fortunes. They herded livestock, hunted, drove wagons, gathered firewood, and went for help in emergencies. Some were even left in the wild to guard family possessions when they were dropped to lighten wagon loads. Moses Schallenberger survived a winter alone in the high Sierras two years before the Donner Party was stuck there! All eight lived to become import men in their frontier communities.

At 107 pages, many readers can finish Into the Western Winds in a night or two. I enjoyed looking at the trail maps and old photographs. A trip out west to see western migration historic sites could be a lot of fun.

O'Brien, Mary Barmeyer. Into the Western Winds: Pioneer Boys Traveling the Overland Trails. Twodot, 2003. 107p. ISBN 0762710209.

The Hemingway Book Club of Kosovo by Paula Huntley

Kosovo is not on our minds much. It is not surprising that The Hemingway Book Club of Kosovo by Paula Huntley has not been borrowed from my library recently. But I found it, took it home, and enjoyed reading about a woman's year teaching English in Prishtina, Kosovo.


Though we have pretty much forgotten the former parts of Yugoslavia, the Kosovo Albanians think of us often. They have little trust for the governments of Europe but consider the United States the force of justice on the planet. With NATO and UN forces, we saved them from the Serbian Army which was trying to remove all Albanians from Kosovo in the late 1990s. Naturally, many think of us as friends and hope we will continue to support them with investments and education. Many Kosovar Albanian students dream of learning English, attending college in the United States, and returning to Kosovo to rebuild their country.


Huntley learns all of this first hand from her students, most of whom attend high school. To help them further their language skills, she starts a book club to read in English. Their first book is The Old Man and the Sea, which turns out to speak directly to the plight of down-on-their-luck Kosovars. 


Of course, The Hemingway Book Club of Kosovo speaks directly to us. Huntley wonders what role we intend to play in a world in which there seems to be another crisis every week. What will ultimately happen when we seem to never help enough in one country after another?

Huntley, Paula. The Hemingway Book Club of Kosovo. Jeremy P. Tarcher/Putnam, 2003. 236p. ISBN 1585422118.

The Return of History and the End of Dreams by Robert Kagan

I am again reading books that no one else has read. In inventorying the collection, I found my library had owned The Return of History and the End of Dreams by Robert Kagan for four years, but no one had checked it out, despite its being only 115 pages, which some of our readers could handle in a night. Perhaps "the end of dreams" idea is something no one wanted to face.

In this case, the dream that seems to have faded away is that a new and better world will form now that the Cold War has ended. The author tells how many people in and out of Western governments around the world thought that democracy and capitalism would sweep the planet soon after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the breakup of the Soviet Union. According to Kagan, evidence to the contrary began to appear quickly in Tiananmen Square, the Balkan states, Africa, and across the Middle East.

In his book-length essay, Kagan takes us on a tour of problematic countries, showing us how they have changed. India is far different, but most other states have settled into positions similar to those before the fall of the wall. The U.S. is the primary superpower, and the autocratic states of Russia and China are the main competitors (if not enemies). In Kagan's view, the U.S. and the rest of the West are greatly distracted by the troubles in the Mideast and not addressing their own long term interests.

While four years have passed since publication, a time in which world economies have faltered and much has happened in the Islamic world, the overall picture is much the same today. The Return of History and the End of Dreams is still a worthwhile book for readers interested in geopolitics.

Kagan, Robert. The Return of History and the End of Dreams. Alfred A. Knopf, 2008. 115p. ISBN 9780307269232.

The Pyramid: and Four Other Kurt Wallander Stories by Henning Mankell

After writing Brandvägg in 1998, translated to Firewall in English, Swedish novelist Henning Mankell indicated that he was no longer intending to write about police inspector Kurt Wallander. Then almost immediately, he put together five stories (not particularly short) into a book to recount Wallander's early years as a policeman and investigator. Published in Sweden in 1999, American readers finally got The Pyramid: and Four Other Kurt Wallander Mysteries in 2008. The fifth story ends with an early morning phone call telling the groggy inspector to go to a murder scene which any devoted reader will recognize as the start of Faceless Killers, the first Wallander novel.

Though I have read several of the books and seen the Wallander television series with Kenneth Branagh, I made several connections in Wallander's character that I had not before. It helped to witness his relationship with his wife Mona instead of just hearing of it after the separation. The marriage seemed a mistake from the beginning and he could not see it - very much like real life. I also think that his domineering father primed him for involvement with an unsuitable partner. I also found, as in all Wallander books, his lack of personal discipline maddening at times but now see that it is the same unwillingness to adhere to the smart and logical that lets him disregard rules to make important discoveries.

"Wallander's First Case" is particularly interesting to anyone who has read Before the Frost, Mankell's novel about Kurt's daughter Linda. Father and daughter both get drawn into investigations before official police job appointments. Both foolishly put their lives at risk. Unlike all other Wallander stories, "The Man with the Mask" takes place in a single day. In "The Pyramid," Wallander juggles care for his  elderly father with official duties. All are as well crafted as the full-length novels.

Because the Wallander chronicle now starts with The Pyramid: and Four Other Kurt Wallander Stories, it would be a good introduction to the inspector. Readers can try out a story without as much of a time investment as the longer works and might even have a little more insight into the world that Mankell has created.

Mankell, Henning. The Pyramid: and Four Other Kurt Wallander Stories. New Press, 2008. 392p. ISBN 9781565849945.

Death and the Penguin by Andrey Kurkov

Life in 1990s Kiev is hard. The winter is brutal, jobs are scarce, and the government is corrupt. Viktor Alekseyevich Zolotaryov is very lucky to have been hired to write obituaries for the Capital News, though it does seem odd that none of his subjects are dead - yet. He even interviews a few of them. But he can not be choosy about work. He has a penguin to feed.

It is now 2012 and only a year since American readers have gotten an English translation of Death and the Penguin by Andrey Kurkov, a darkly comic tale published in Russian in 1996. Melville House has added it to its growing Melville International Crime Series, paperbacks that give us affordable literary fiction.

Back to Victor and the penguin, whose name is Misha. Both are lonely guys. The impoverished Kiev Zoo gave away most of its animals to anyone who would take them, so Victor took Misha to his apartment where they are lonely together until four-year-old Sonya joins them while her father goes underground. They become an odd sort of family, decorating a Christmas tree and hiding from the gangsters that Victor has unwittingly crossed.

Death and the Penguin is a great read for anyone who enjoys offbeat humor and a totally unfamiliar menacing setting.

Kurkov, Andrey. Death and the Penguin. Melville House, 2011. 228p. ISBN 9781935554554.

Which President Killed a Man? : Tantalizing Trivia and Fun Facts About Our Chief Executives and First Ladies by James Humes

I am weeding books again. As I always do, I find some books whose inactivity surprises me. This time I found Which President Killed a Man? : Tantalizing Trivia and Fun Facts About Our Chief Executives and First Ladies by James Humes. According to our records, we have had it eight years, and no one ever borrowed it. Since I was probably the librarian who bought it, I checked it out and brought it home. I had a great time reading it from cover to cover - though Bonnie may not have appreciated all my "Did you know?" questions.

As you might guess, Which President Killed a Man? is an extensive collection of questions with answers grouped in thematic chapters. The author suggests readers could use it to play trivia games at parties or family get-togethers. That sounds like a nerdy thing to do, but I actually think it would be lots of fun. You have to have the right kinds of friends. (Pete Midkiff, Jack Oliver, Don Richmond, Robert Goehring, or Glenn Kersten might do.)

The book does not look pristine, so I wonder if the circulations stats are to be trusted. Maybe browsers at the library thumbed through it to learn the following:

• Which general was a winner when he faced four other generals in an election?
• Who was the only president to be granted a patent for an invention?
• Who was the only president to be elected to an office of the Confederacy?
• Who was the first president to be born west of the Mississippi River?

James Garfield, Abraham Lincoln, John Tyler, and Herbert Hoover are your answers. Humes tells stories in revealing the answers to these and several hundred other questions. There are two or three questions per page. Much can be learned painlessly.

The author does not seem to have updated the work, but I think there are only a couple of answers that need revising. Check it out if you can find it.

Humes, James. Which President Killed a Man? : Tantalizing Trivia and Fun Facts About Our Chief Executives and First Ladies. Contemporary Books, 2003. 242p. ISBN 0071402233.

Bird Cloud: A Memoir by Annie Proulx

Memoirs revolving around house construction are many. Anthony Shadid told about restoring his great grandfather's house in Marjayoun, Lebanon in House of Stone: A Memoir of Home, Family, and a Lost Middle East. Similarly, Tahir Shah recounted how in Casablanca he turned a ruin into a family home in The Caliph's House. Novelist Annie Proulx describes new construction in rural Wyoming in Bird Cloud: A Memoir.

While Proulx's book will seem less exotic than either of the other books, many of the same themes run through her account. Choosing trusted contractors, buying hard to find materials, and dealing with delays and budgets. All of the authors deal with disappointments and have to make compromises to get their houses built. And what they want is more than a house, as each seems to be dealing with the past, present, and the future.

As a reader, I found Proulx a bit contradictory, as we all are. She says that architects often want unpractical features just for the look. She claims to have more modest wants, but when she is unhappy with a cement floor, she pays a second floor man twice as much to fix the problem. When the floor is still not to her liking, she finds rare tile to cover it. No wonder the house takes so long to build. Still, having dealt with a few house repairs myself, I know the feeling of wanting things right.

After Proulx gets her house built, she turns to the land, a section of prairie and wetland below cliffs along the North Platte River that she seeks to protect for wildlife. The constant wind and severe winters prove too much for year round living, but she makes a necessary compromise. Her wonderful nature descriptions throughout remind readers why she makes the great effort to build.

Proulx, Annie. Bird Cloud: A Memoir. Scribner, 2011. 234p. ISBN 9780743288804.

The Iron Way: Railroads, the Civil War, and the Making of Modern America by William G. Thomas

The course of every war is influenced by the technology of its age. In America's Civil War of 1861-1865, rapid developments in communication and transportation fostered the broadening of the battlefield over greater area, as the telegraph allowed the sending of intelligence and commands and rail travel allowed quick movement of troops. Historian William G. Thomas examines the role of the railroad particularly on the war in The Iron Way: Railroads, the Civil War, and the Making of Modern America.

Thomas starts his history with a look at the state of railroads in the South before the war began. He states that it is a common misconception to portray Souther rails as far behind those of the North. While it is true that many gauges had been used by the many rail lines, the same was actually true in the North. Also, while there were fewer miles of track, there was more track per capita. Southerns were confident in their modern system of transportation, as were important European investors. The advantage for the North was not obvious.

Thomas also describes in detail the state of slavery before the war. The common image is of slaves working on cotton and tobacco plantations. Few readers realize that Southern railroads were quickly becoming a major employer of slaves to lay track, build rail stock, and operate lines. Rail companies had driven the price of slaves higher by buying ande leasing them. Many slave owners were making record profits. Rail lines also used their slave holdings as collateral for loans, when not getting generous grants from the states. Slavery was not going away.

Thomas's account of the use of rails by the military, civilians, and slaves during the war is fascinating. Many campaigns moved along the rail lines, and held lines and stations became obvious targets for guerrilla attacks. The author recounts how efforts to protect rails led to the destruction of many farms and forests along them. The lines also became symbolic of the ties that held the states together.When the Union truly controlled the rails, the South was defeated. The author also explains how the rail lines that had been destroyed and rebuilt many times actually came out of the war expanded and modernized.  


Though not a long book, The Iron Way does require some devotion to read as every page has a wealth of details and stories. Serious Civil War history buffs will enjoy sinking their teeth into this account. 


Thomas, William G. The Iron Way: Railroads, the Civil War, and the Making of Modern America. Yale University Press, 2011. 281p. ISBN 9780300141078.

Guest of Honor: Booker T. Washington, Theodore Roosevelt, and the White House Dinner That Shocked the Nation by Deborah Davis

The Civil Rights Movement was successful. While there is still prejudice and racism, and while there are still improvements to make, the nation is a more civil place now than before. If you need evidence, please read Guest of Honor: Booker T. Washington, Theodore Roosevelt, and the White House Dinner That Shocked the Nation by Deborah Davis.

On October 16, 1901, President Theodore Roosevelt (who never liked being called Teddy) welcomed African American educator Booker T. Washington to his dinner table in the White House. It was an unpublicized meeting to discussion federal judicial appointments in the South. Though it was Sunday evening with most White House offices closed, one newspaper reporter noticed Washington come and go. In Monday papers, the visit was simply noted, but by Tuesday there was an uproar of disgust across the nation. Columnists and editors in cities both North and South decried the dinner using many racial slurs that would be unimaginable today.

In Guest of Honor, biographer Deborah Davis recounts how Roosevelt and Washington had lived remarkably similar lives up to the evening of their dinner, despite their differences in race and wealth. Then she tells how the dinner and the outcry effected both leaders and their working relationship. It is a good example of focused biography that is informative, entertaining, and quick to read. With Roosevelt being an ever popular subject, it can be found in many public libraries. I enjoyed the book greatly and think it would be an excellent selection for discussion groups.

Davis, Deborah. Guest of Honor: Booker T. Washington, Theodore Roosevelt, and the White House Dinner That Shocked the Nation. Atria Books, 2012. 308p. ISBN 9781439169810.

What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank by Nathan Englander

It has been four years since I listened to Nathan Englander's excellent collection of short stories For the Relief of Unbearable Urges. Having greatly enjoyed that book, I was eager to get his new collection What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank. As you might guess from the title, Englander focuses once more on the Jewish experience.

In the title story, an American couple awkwardly entertains another couple who emigrated to Israel several decades earlier. The wives are old friends, but the husbands clash, verbally sparring about issues of politics, orthodoxy, and kosher laws. The Americans are surprised to find that the seemingly zealous Israelis like to smoke pot, and the American wife steals some from her teenage son. Under the influence of the pot, the four begin to question each other about what sabbath laws they would break in emergency situations to save the lives of friends and family. The revelations are uncomfortable for all. 

"Sister Hills" is the most historical of the stories. In it, two zealous families claim farms on adjacent hills in disputed territory intent on forming new settlements. While the region becomes a metropolis, one family thrives, but the other is reduced through war and misfortune to only the matriarch. In a desperate attempt to find solace, she demands the payment of a terrible debt, bringing heartache to all. Her struggle to get her way involves the invoking of Jewish laws.

There are six more stories, each read by a different reader on the unabridged audiobook. With each, Englander creates a different world, showing great range of setting, pacing, and mood. All revolve around the ways Jewish laws are interpreted and applied. Serious book discussion groups should consider this worthy collection.

Englander, Nathan. What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank. Knopf, 2012. 207p. ISBN 9780307958709.

6 compact discs. Books on Tape, 2012. ISBN 9780307989314.

Life Itself: A Memoir by Roger Ebert

Like many people my age, I discovered film critic Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times watching Sneak Previews, a PBS movie review program that paired him with Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune. I enjoyed their jolly and sometimes heated rivalry which framed an entertaining selection of clips from upcoming and recently released movies. They proved so popular that PBS could not keep them, and they started a syndicated program, which Bonnie and I watched on Saturdays right before Star Trek The Next Generation. The program later moved to Disney and ran until Siskel's death in 1999. Ebert tells much about his friendship with Siskel, their programs, and much, much more in Life Itself: A Memoir.

Ebert begins his collection of autobiographical essays with a description of his current life. Complications from thyroid cancer which has destroyed much of his jaw have left him unable to eat, drink, and speak since 2006. Still intent of reviewing films and commenting on life, he blogs and writes books. In this book, film fans will particularly enjoy his personal essays about actors and directors, including Robert Mitchum, Lee Marvin, Woody Allen, Russ Meyer, and Robert Altman. Ebert fans will enjoy the stories of his childhood and youth at the beginning and the later essays that deal with his current life and about finding love and a new family.

I listened to the memoir read brilliantly by Edward Herrmann, quickly forgetting that it was not Ebert's own voice recounting his life. Throughout Ebert is quite open about his family's problems, beating alcoholism, failed romances, and religious doubts, saying he has often been told that he "over-shares," but I found him refreshingly candid. I especially enjoyed hearing about his love of books and movies. 

Life Itself is highly entertaining, and many readers will identify with Ebert's family and school experiences (and wish they had his job). It can be found in many public libraries.

Ebert, Roger. Life Itself: A Memoir. Grand Central Pub., 2011. 436P. ISBN 9780446584975.

12 compact discs. AudioGO, 2011. ISBN 9781611137927.

Promised Land: Thirteen Books That Changed America by Jay Parini

For the holiday, here is a book about the evolution of our national character.

If you are like me, and you probably are, you have not read all of the historically important books. You may find lists of such books interesting and resolve to read them all. If so, you will appreciate Promised Land: Thirteen Books That Changed America by Jay Parini. Thirteen books is such a reasonable number to contemplate reading. Also, Parini's reports on the books may tell you all you want to know and relieve you from the self-imposed obligation to read them.

I found that I had read five of Parini's thirteen:

• The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
• Walden
• Uncle Tom's Cabin
• Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
• On the Road

It has been years since I read any of these, except Twain's book about Huck Finn. I enjoyed rediscovering the stories and learning what impact they have had on literature, politics, and society.

Of the other eight, I did not even know of The Promised Land by Mary Antin. According to Parini, this 1912 memoir was widely read at a time when many immigrants from Eastern Europe were struggling to fit into an American society that was not so accommodating as they had been led to believe it would be. Reading Parini's summary is enough for now. I learned much about the willpower that made many immigrants succeed.

I also will not plan to read How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie, The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care by Dr. Benjamin Spock, or The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan, for I think I have read plenty of the titles they spawned.

I have read portions of Of Plymouth Plantation by William Bradford, The Federalist Papers, and The Journals of Lewis and Clark. Reading only selections is recommended for all of these.

That leaves The Souls of Black Folk: Essays and Sketches by W.E.B. Du Bois. It sounds like it might be a very interesting read.

If you want more than thirteen books, Parini does add a list of 100 more in the appendix. Happy reading.

Parini, Jay. Promised Land: Thirteen Books That Changed America. Doubleday, 2008. 385p. ISBN 9780385522762.

Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life by Steve Martin

I was slow to warm to Steve Martin. I vaguely liked some of his goofy standup routines on television's The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour and other variety programs, but he seemed to repeat himself in various appearances. All the standup comedians did. Their routines were like pop songs that some people liked to hear again and again. A few years later, one of my college roommates was greatly impressed and liked to say "I'm a wild and crazy guy," but I did not pay that much attention. I was not won over until the movie version of Little Shop of Horrors - Martin was great as the dentist. Then there was the movie Roxanne, which I enjoyed thoroughly. Of course by then Martin had left standup far behind.

In Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life, Martin lovingly looks back on his childhood and his evolving comedy career. It is a great coming-up-from-the-bottom story, starting with young Steve doing magic tricks at Disneyland long before he was legally old enough to work. He honed his skills at Knott's Berry Farm mixing magic, banjo, and jokes, getting $2.00 a show. Money hardly mattered. Life was great on the stage. Life at home, however, was not so good. On one occasion his angry father reacted to a smart remark and beat Steve up.

I listened to Martin skillfully read his book and was greatly moved by his matter-of-fact honesty. He expresses some regrets, but he never dwells on the bad and moves on. He is also very funny at times. I especially laughed at a thing his ninety year old mother said from her bed in a nursing home. I won't spoil it for you by telling.

After listening Born Standing Up, I checked out the book to see its many pictures. I had forgotten that he ever had dark hair. The one with the beard will make you laugh.

Martin, Steve. Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life. Scribner, 2007. 207p. ISBN 9781416553649.


4 compact discs. Recorded Books, 2007. ISBN 9781428181052