Buddy: How a Rooster Made Me a Family Man by Brian McGrory

Thanks to Kathy Strange for suggesting this book.

If you are middle aged and falling in love again after a long time on your own, there is a good chance that your new love will have a former spouse, children, and maybe some pets. What you do not expect is to add a rooster to your household, but that is what happened to journalist Brian McGrory. He describes his difficult relationship with the demanding bird in Buddy: How a Rooster Made Me a Family Man.

I listened to this mostly humorous memoir read by Johnny Heller, whose lively reading portrays the Boston Globe columnist as a man who, with some reluctance, gives up his urban bachelorhood for a suburban family life. Another reader told me that she relished the first part of the book in which McGrory recounts ten years with his wonderful dog Harry. Buddy is everything that Harry is not - loud, unfriendly to McGrory, and dangerous - maybe even evil. His new love and her two daughters, however, love Buddy, who is a sweetheart to them. Whether McGrory can adjust to his new life and protect his shins is the dramatic question.

Buddy is well-told and a good alternative to readers who have tired of dog and cat stories - if that is actually possible.

McGrory, Brian. Buddy: How a Rooster Made Me a  Family Man. Crown Publishers, 2012. 328p. ISBN 9780307953063. Tantor Audio, 2012. 7 compact discs. ISBN 9781452639215.

The End of Your Life Book Club by William Schwalbe

As they sat in waiting rooms, early for medical appointments, William Schwabe and his mother Mary Anne Schwalbe more often than not found themselves discussing books. His mother, a former school teacher and once head of admissions to Harvard University, had raised William with books, and he had become an editor with a major book publisher. He sometimes got advance review copies for his mother, who had been diagnosed to have pancreatic cancer. At some point they realized that thanks to the many medical appointments, they had formed a small book club, thus the title of William's book, The End of Your Life Book Club.

The list of books that the mother and son club read is quite inspiring for someone with a like mind to read. According to Listopia in GoodReads, there are 107 titles at least mentioned. Some of these are used as chapter title's in William's book. There are fiction classics, literary novels, history, memoirs, and spiritual meditations. In view of Mary Ann's condition and religious faith, books like The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion and Traveling Mercies by Anne Lamott are to be expected. A few, however, are titles that I would never consider reading with my mom, including Continental Drift by Russell Banks and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson.

As you read, you realize that Mary Anne was a most impressive humanitarian. After retiring from school administration, she devoted her life to refugees, spending years in places like Bosnia, Darfur, and Afghanistan. Her passion was aid, protection, and civil rights for women and children.

Besides the book discussions, what I love about The End of Your Life Book Club is William's recounting a very warm and respectful family relationship. So many families in recent memoirs are dysfunctional. Mother and son disagree about religion, but they allow each his or her own opinion. I also like that William did not initiate the memoir on day one of his mother's diagnosis. He tells an honest every day story, not one set up in advance for the sake of writing a book. He says that he only had the idea for this book after many of the events had passed.

I think I have much to learn from The End of Your Life Book Club. I intend to read it again.

Schwalbe, William. The End of Your Life Book Club. Alfred A. Knopf, 2012. 336 p. ISBN 9780307594037.

The Poisoned Chocolates Case by Anthony Berkeley

I am having much fun reading classic mysteries that Matthew has added to our library collection. The latest that I read is a reissue of the 1929 mystery The Poisoned Chocolates Case by Anthony Berkeley. In it, a box of poisoned chocolates is sent to Sir Eustace Pennefather, a member of a men's club, the Rainbow, off Piccadilly Circle in London. Though almost everyone agrees that Sir Eustace is a man who probably deserves killing, he escapes this fate by donating the chocolates to a man who has lost a wager with his wife. Curiously, the wife bet for a box of chocolates. She will never want any again.

Chief Inspector Moresby of Scotland Yard and his police team are struggling to find a suspect for the murder. Amateur detective Roger Sheringham offers the services of his newly formed Crime Circle to help. The chief inspector briefs Sheringham and the club's five other members, and they set off individually to solve the case. Then, in a series of late night meetings, they each propose a different solution. Who is right?

Readers who enjoy Agatha Christie's Miss Marple books will discover similarities in The Poisoned Chocolate Case. At only 221 quick-reading pages, it is a great weekend or vacation read.

Berkeley, Anthony. The Poisoned Chocolates Case. Felony and Mayhem Press, 2010, 1929. 221p. ISBN 9781934609446.

The Invention of Air: A Story of Science, Faith, Revolution, and the Birth of America by Steven Johnson

Fame fades. Two centuries ago, readers in America, Great Britain, and on the European continent knew Joseph Priestley well. Now his name sounds familiar, but many find him hard to place. Was Priestley a scientist, theologian, or political philosopher? Actually, he was all three. He conducted import experiments in electricity and chemistry, wrote extensively on religious topics, and upset many of his fellow Englishmen with his political support of the American and French revolutions. His fleeing England for America in 1791 made him our country's first celebrity scientist-exile, long before Albert Einstein.

Many historians have called Priestly a renaissance man, according to Steven Johnson, author of The Invention of Air: A Story of Science, Faith, Revolution, and the Birth of America. Some, however, claim that Priestley made his greatest discoveries by accident amid many ill-conceived experiments. Johnson defends the scientist's reputation, praising Priestley for his ability to befriend thinkers from many disciplines and facilitating scholarly debates about many import issues. He was a key member of both the Honest Whigs and the Lunar Society (scholarly societies) and was a frequent corespondent with Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson. That he was later proved wrong on many counts is now thought inconsequential by the author. He was a great and brave man.

The Invention of Air is not a traditional biography, as Johnson's story line sometimes shifts to Priestley's friends or even his rivals, but every story thread eventually links back to Priestley. In the process scientific and philosophical principles are introduced without becoming so technical as to lose lay readers. It serves well as a popular history of the Age of Reason and is a good choice for either a history or science book club.  I enjoyed it as an audiobook read by Mark Deakins.

Johnson, Steven. The Invention of Air: A Story of Science, Faith, Revolution, and the Birth of America. Riverhead Books, 2009. 254p. ISBN 9781594488528.

Books on Tape, 2008. 5 compact discs. ISBN 9781415959329.

Owls by Marianne Taylor

I can recall only one sighting of an owl in nature, not at a zoo. My story is typical, according to Marianne Taylor in her beautiful book Owls. Since owls are nocturnal and are masters of camouflage, many people never see owls and are unaware of the species in their area. You must be skilled to see owls, unless you are lucky enough to have a barn owl in your barn.

You can start honing your owl spotting skills with Taylor's book, which is filled with incredible photos showing the birds in their natural habitats. Most are composed so you see the owls right away, but there were a few that I had to study a bit to see the owls, even when they were big and right in the center of the image. Their feathers mimic bark very effectively.

While almost every page has a photo or two and some of them are full page photos, Owls is more of a reference book than photo book. In the first half, Taylor describes the avian families that can be defined as owls, telling how they live, hunt, court, nest, and grow. She details threats to owl survival and recounts owls from legends and literature. In the second half, she profiles 41 species that can be found in Europe or North America. Some of these species only skirt the eastern edge of Europe and live mainly in Asia or Africa, so the Himalayan wood owl, Ural owl, and Asian barred owl are included.

My favorite photo in Owls might be the Northern saw-whet owl (page 202), though I really like the snowy owl (page 128), too. What is your?

Taylor, Marianne. Owls. Cornell University Press, 2012. 224p. ISBN 9780801451812.

Jungleland: A Mysterious Lost City, a WWII Spy, and a True Story of Deadly Adventure by Christopher S. Stewart

In readers' advisory services in public libraries, we often seek read-alikes for our clients who have enjoyed books. We hope to find books with similar reading qualities that our clients will appreciate just as much as the titles that they report enjoying. With that in mind, I wonder how good a read-alike is Jungleland: A Mysterious Lost City, a WWII Spy, and a True Story of Deadly Adventure by Christopher S. Stewart for pleased readers of The Lost City of Z by David Grann. 

In both books, a journalist recounts historic South American explorations while trying to retrace the steps of famed explorers. The authors describe exotic locations, face dangers themselves, and sort out the fact and the fiction of legends. Published four years apart, Jungleland may just in time for readers who want to relive the experience of reading The Lost City of Z. 

If the reader, however, says "Been there, done that," the librarian and the reader have to look elsewhere. 

Even if the reader wants to try Jungleland, there is room for disappointment. Though Stewart's account is engaging and entertaining, it is shorter and less intense than the The Lost City of Z. Some may think Stewart acts rather foolishly in visiting Honduras during a military takeover. He is in grave danger at one point with no way to call for help, but somehow, the story has less drama than the book to which it is obviously compared. 

The Lost City of Z may be a better follow-up to Jungleland. Some readers may be more willing to try the shorter book, get hooked, and then be ready for more and even greater adventure. 

Stewart, Christopher S. Jungleland: A Mysterious Lost City, a WWII Spy, and a True Story of Deadly Adventure. Harper, 2013. 263p. ISBN 9780061802546.

42 and The Baseball Encyclopedia, 8th ed.

When Bonnie and I got home from seeing 42, the recent movie about Jackie Robinson's breaking the color line of major league baseball, I went straight to one of our bookcases for The Baseball Encyclopedia. We had questions to answer, and since our 8th edition of the BE has comprehensive statistics and facts through the 1989 season, we could verify details from the movie.

My first question came from the opening sequence of the movie. The 42 moviemakers included Stan Musial as one of the star players who missed playing time due to World War II. I thought that he had played for the Cardinals without interruption through the war, but I was wrong. He missed the 1945 season. BE verifies the gap in his career.

My second burning question was the identity of the pitcher that the Dodgers traded to the Pirates early in the 1947 season after he had led a petition effort to get Robinson off the team. (I had trouble keeping track of character names during 42.) I was able to triangulate the answer by checking three sections - "The Teams and Their Players," "Trades," and "Pitcher Register." I learned that K. Higbe was a starting pitcher for the Dodgers in 1946 and for the Pirates in 1947. "Trades" showed that Kirby Higbe was traded by the Dodgers on May 3, 1947 to the Pirates with four other players. I checked the "Pitcher Register" just to see how many games Higbe played before the 1947 trade. The answer was four. He had been the Dodgers' winningest pitcher in 1946, so the trade sent a strong message to the rest of the team.

Bonnie wanted to know about the Pirate pitcher who beaned Robinson in one of the games between the teams. His name was Fritz Ostermueller. Though he was called "a mad dutchman" or something to that effect, he was born in Quincy, Illinois. Not every objecting player was from the South.

I had read about Dodger manager Leo Durocher being suspended for a year but had not remembered that it was 1947. The "Manager Register" in BE showed that it was and that he was back at the helm in 1948. The 42 writers did not rearrange events for dramatic effect in this regard.

Of course, the manager that we most wanted to verify was Ben Chapman, the Phillies skipper, who heckled Robinson with racial slurs mercilessly each time the Dodger came to bat. During the credits at the end of the film, the filmmakers indicate that Chapman's managing career ended the next season. That was true, as Chapman managed 79 games into 1948 and was fired by his 7th place team. His lack of success, not his racism, probably sealed his fate. Bonnie and I discussed why the umpires did not stop what was obvious racist behavior. The umpires and the league that paid them may not have wanted Robinson in uniform either. Besides, umpires mostly eject players or manager for disputing or insulting umpires.

42 shows Robinson, the 1947 Rookie of the Year, stealing bases almost at will whenever he reached first base. He led the National League in the category that year, but I was surprised to see he did so with only 29 stolen bases. Perhaps, being intentionally spiked by a rival player mid-season took a toll on his speed. Two years later, when he was the National League Most Valuable Player, he would again lead the league with 37 steals. He played 10 years in the major leagues, all with the Dodgers in Brooklyn, and was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1962.

At first, I thought Harrison Ford's portrayal of Branch Rickey oddly comic, especially his low voice, but I got used to it. He has many of the best lines in the movie. However, I was always aware that it was Harrison Ford on the screen. The rest of the cast seemed real to me. The movie was a bit too pretty, as movies often are. Perhaps it should have been in black and white. Still, it achieved its goal of telling the story and I would like to see it again.

The Baseball Encyclopedia. 8th ed. MacMillan Publishing, 1990. 2781p. ISBN 0025790404.

Overbooked: The Exploding Business of Travel and Tourism by Elizabeth Becker

I recently reviewed Overbooked: The Exploding Business of Travel and Tourism by Elizabeth Becker for Booklist. Here are several thoughts that I could not fit into the 175 word review. 

I don't think I will ever want to take a cruise. At least not on a gigantic cruise ship, which is more like a combination shopping mall and resort hotel than a ship of the sea. Most cruises are designed to keep you on board spending money most of the time. Being licensed by remote third world nations, they often do not adhere to any responsible environmental or labor laws. According to journalist Elizabeth Becker in Overbooked, her book on the travel and tourism industry, waiters and other service staff, mostly hired from poor nations, work 12 hours a day, 7 days a week for about $50 per month. They are instructed by the cruise operators to lobby guests for generous tips. That is exploitation. Vacationers almost always spend more than they expect and see very little of whatever ports they pass. You might as well be at the Mall of America. What fun is that?

Travel journalism does not adhere to the ethics of responsible news reporting. Hotels, resorts, ships, airlines, etc. often give travel writers free tickets and special attention. As a result, most travel literature is uncritical.

According to Becker, the tourist industry in Florida has so much power that it has fought off legislation to increase the days required in Florida public schools. Hotel owners, resort operators, and other business want the cheap labor of students for as much of the year as they can get.

Becker's book does have reports of tourism done right, too. Still, I remember the horror stories and want to be careful how I spend my tourist dollars.

Becker, Elizabeth. Overbooked: The Exploding Business of Travel and Tourism. Simon and Schuster, 2013. 432p. ISBN 9781439160992.

Tenth of December by George Saunders

Earlier this year, listening to episodes of the New York Times Book Review Podcast, I kept hearing that short stories were back in vogue. New collections, such as Astray by Emma Donoghue, were getting excellent reviews, and Tenth of December by George Saunders was at the top of the fiction hardcover bestseller list. It was good news for short story readers.

Analysts speculate that digital reading is supporting a short story renaissance. Novellas are doing well, too, as some digital readers buy short forms for their readers. Of course, short stories never actually went away. I find they have more inventive plots, quirky ideas, and quick, intense characterizations. I always seem to read 5 or 6 collections a year, as well as my usual fare of nonfiction.

So, I was primed for Tenth of December when my request was filled. Knowing others are still waiting, I moved it to the head of the list and enjoyed several days with stories that reminds me of works by Ray Bradbury, Margaret Atwood, and Kazuo Ishiguro.

If there is a running theme in Tenth of December, it is the issue of control and lack of control. "Victory Lap" and "Sticks" have parents whose rule of the household is obsessive. Mood and behavior altering drugs are involved in controlling convicts and employees in "Escape from Spiderhead" and "My Chivalric Fiasco." In "Home" the central character and his parents seem to lack self-control.

I think the strangest of the lot is"The Semplica Girl Diaries." It would be a great choice for a short story discussion group. I'd love to hear whether readers believe it a fair criticism of our consumer culture living without regard to ethics. Maybe that is not what it is about it. I don't want to spoil the mystery of the story by saying too much.

I would also like to learn what readers think of the title story, the last piece in the collection. It seems totally different from the rest of the book, more of a straight drama and less about ideas. Still, it is a compelling piece of a collection that as a whole is a good omen for future reading. We should never worry about the habit of reading when there are books like Tenth of December.

Saunders, George. Tenth of December: Stories. Random House, 2013. 251p. ISBN 9780812993806.

Have You Forgotten These Hollywood Stars?

I have recently reviewed two biographies for Booklist: Hopper by Tom Folsom and Flip: The Inside Story of TVs First Black Superstar by Kevin Cook. I knew very little about actor Dennis Hopper or comedian Flip Wilson before the books arrived in the mail. I saw only a few of Hopper's movies, and I vaguely remember watching The Flip Wilson Show. I had read little about either man, having never subscribed to People or The National Enquirer. I would not have suspected that they shared so many traits.

Ambition. Of course, most entertainers are ambitious, desiring the limelight, but both Hopper and Wilson were extreme. Hopper was going to be the most artistic, most revolutionary actor ever, the one who would change the industry. Likewise, Wilson was going to be America's funniest man and was not happy if his television show did not get the highest Neilsen rating every week. Both were very jealous when rivals got attention. Wilson got closer to the top than Hopper, but the moment was brief. 

Eras. Both peaked in the early 1970s and then disappeared from the public eye in the mid-1970s. Both then had revivals after that, but without anyone ever considering them key players again. Surprisingly, Hopper, who had vowed to be a revolutionary artist of film, lasted longer in the lowly art of television than Wilson.

Drugs. Both were totally stoned for years. Marijuana, cocaine, heroin. Hopper befriended Timothy Leary and LSD.

Women. Both were involved with many of them. Hopper married five times. Wilson often promised marriage.

Money. Both wanted lots of it, especially Wilson, who was a pretty shrewd investor. Hopper put much of his money into contemporary art.

Neither of these books is really surprising, for many entertainers live lives of excess and self-absorption. I had more sympathy for Wilson who seemed to want to help the civil rights movement and really seemed to care for his children. Hopper as portrayed by Folsom seems mostly sinister. Reading about their lives let me travel back to my youth and see things I missed because I was too young to understand. Both book should interest other Baby Boomers.

Folsom, Tom. Hopper. !t, 2013. 320p. ISBN 9780062206947.

Cook, Kevin. Flip: The Inside Story of TVs First Black Superstar. Viking, 2013. 230p. ISBN 9780670025701.

Mortality by Christopher Hitchens

Christopher Hitchens never sought to comfort his readers or listeners. Instead, he believed in writing whatever was on his mind uncensored and without platitudes, and thus he made many uncomfortable. But he did have a certain charm admitted by the very people with whom he sparred in debates. Love the man and hate his ideas was the stance of many. When he was diagnosed with esophageal cancer, they prayed for him despite his disparaging of prayer.

In Mortality, a small collection of essays that he wrote before his death in 2011, Hitchens discussed his illness and the reaction of his friends and acquaintances. He included and responded to a few letter-writers who claimed that Hitchens deserved a painful death. His descriptions of pain, medical procedures, and frustrations can be appreciated by readers who also have to face their own demise, but few will love this book.

Hitchens intended to write more, and this book definitely has an unfinished feel. Still, it can be a portal for discussion and contemplation. It is already in many public libraries.

Hitchens, Christopher. Mortality. Twelve, 2012. 104p. ISBN 9781455502752.

The Bird: The Life and Legacy of Mark Fidrych by Doug Wilson

Detroit Tigers pitcher Mark Fidrych was not a flake. On the pitcher's mound, he talked to himself, not the ball, trying to stay focused as he prepared to pitch to the batter. The reason he seemed hyperactive on the field was that he actually was hyperactive. While he would have liked to have slowed down as often advised by coaches and teammates, but he just could not. That was the way he was, according to Doug Wilson in his new book The Bird: The Life and Legacy of Mark Fidrych.

The story of Fidrych's 1976 rookie season is wonderful. He caught other players and baseball fans off guard, and they were charmed. Usually rookies who could win scarce jobs were not warmly treated by established players, but Fidrych was so joyous that even old veterans embraced him. His flamboyant goofiness and blue collar origins really struck a cord with Detroit fans. They filled the stands every time he pitched. He always performed well, finishing 24 of 29 starts, including three 11-inning games and one 12-inning game. He was elected American League Rookie of the Year and fans looked forward to many great years from him.

Fidrych was injured the next spring, however, and after several years of trying to regain his form, he had to retire.

The rest of the story could have been sad, but it was not, as Fidrych returned to his hometown in Massachusetts and proved that all that he had told reporters in his rookie season was true. He really did not care much about money. He really did want to be a farmer and own a truck. He felt so fortunate to have been a major league player and wanted to spread his luck by helping others.

As I read the latter part of The Bird, I was reminded of the books by Michael Perry with compassionate descriptions of small town life in Wisconsin. Wilson's story about Fidrych only hints at everything Perry describes fully, but you know Fidrych lived in that kind of world. The Bird also serves as another entry in the parade of books about Detroit. This book deserves to be in more public libraries along side them.

Wilson, Doug. The Bird: The Life and Legacy of Mark Fidrych. Thomas Dunne Books, 2013. 306p. ISBN 9781250004925.

True Stories into the Hands of Readers

Today I am speaking at Reaching Forward Conference in Rosement, Illinois. I'll talk with library staff about helping readers find books with true stories in their library collections.

Click to view my slideshow: True Stories into the Hands of Readers

Click to view some of my true story suggestions arranged by appeal factors: The Appeal of Reading True Stories

Here are some notes to go along with and explain some of what I will be saying with some of the slides:

2. Our focus today is reading true stories for pleasure. I define pleasure broadly, so that does include reading for knowledge. Wanting to learn about a person, time, or place and satisfying that want  can be as good as spending time with well-written stories populated with compelling characters in settings that interests readers.

In doing readers' advisory, Joyce Saricks advises that you suggest books instead of recommend them. That lets the client decline more gracefully, gives the client more control of the transaction. You are working with the reader to pick books. You also have less to lose if the reader then dislikes the books she or he takes home.

3. Readers have long had a choose to read fiction or true stories. Both of these books deal with the Battle of Gettysburg. Killer Angels on the left is a story told by soldiers. Stars in Their Courses is an intimate account of the battle incorporating letters, diaries, and other accounts of the time. Shelby Foote also wrote fiction. Neither his fiction nor history disappoints.

4. Both are emotional stories about women suddenly widowed by well-known authors. I was mesmerized by Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking and how she moves around and around her topic. I could hardly put it down.

5. The Natural was first a short story based on a true incident about a former Chicago Cub being shot by a young fanatical woman. Eight Men Out is the true story of the 1919 Chicago Black Sox Scandal. Both stories have complicated baseball players navigating through difficult situations. Both should be required reading for anyone interested in Chicago - no love of baseball necessary.

6. The advantages for true stories are information and authority. Truth should be informative and verifiable. Of course, these qualities may also be in fiction based on truth, but it may be hard to know where authors take their liberties for the sake of story.

7. I am using the appeal categories emphasized in the Read On … series of readers' advisory books. A good story is the most common quality wanted in books by readers. History that appeals broadly is focused. It takes a certain event or follows a certain theme. It validates the story in history.

8. Readers often say that they want books with sympathetic characters. Some like villains. Of course, biographies and memoirs give us plenty of both.

9. Setting has always been a big appeal to me. I particularly like to learn about places far different from my own environs. Stories in Asia, Africa, or South America appeal to me. Place can be presented almost like characters by talented writers.

10. By language, we refer to the type and quality of the writing. Some readers say that they will read anything that is written well. Personal essays are the true stories equivalent of fictional short stories. Sometimes every word and sentence has been crafted.

11. By mood, we mean books that have a certain atmosphere. Like mystery novels, true crime stories have a particular gritty toughness necessary to recount horrible events. Like romance novels, true romance recounts amorous relationships that may succeed or fail.

12. In the past, history and biography tended to be academic in tone, filled with lots of facts with an emphasis on scholarship and less concern for storytelling.

13. The trend now is to write a slice of biography or a slice of history, well-crafted works that use an especially noteworthy bit of the story to evoke the whole story. There is more celebration of true story writing. More reporting and more awards. Colleges and universities offer courses in creative nonfiction, including the Iowa Writer's Workshop. Readers keep books like Seabiscuit and Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand on best seller lists for months and years. Bill O'Reilly is reeling in profits with Killing Lincoln, Killing Kennedy, and in Setember Killing Jesus.

Of course, there are a lot more slides. I'll try to add more after the conference.

You Don't Have to Be Wrong for Me to Be Right: Finding Faith Without Fanaticism by Brad Hirschfield

You Don't Have to Be Wrong for Me to Be Right: Finding Faith Without Fanaticism by Brad Hirschfield is an obvious title choice for a church book group. Hirschfield is a rabbi with a somewhat fanatical past who is now an advocate of open dialogue among adherents of any religion. His book about his own faith journey is filled with ideas and quotes that merit discussion by spiritually minded readers. Some of my favorites follow below.

When faith simplifies things that need to remain complex, instead of giving us strength to live with complexity, when it gives answers where none exists, instead of helping us appreciate the sacredness of living with questions, when it offers certainty when there needs to be doubt, and when it tells us we have arrived when we should still be searching - then there is a problem with that faith. (page 9)

… I always try to accept, deep inside myself, that no matter how passionately I feel about the position I'm taking, I may be completely wrong. (page 56)

In a more just and forgiving world we would realize that the people who hurt us have often been hurt themselves. We would remember that those against whom we struggle are actually "us," not some wholly other "them." It's not that we would never have to fight against certain people and specific things. We would. But how would those fights be different, how much more slowly would they be entered into and how much more quickly resolved if all those involved acknowledged that their intended victims were their own relatives, and they were actually fighting against themselves. (page 67-68)

It is so easy to forget that the system that is right for you, even one that you believe God wants for you, may not be right for everyone. After all, how could the will of an infinite God ever be made so small as to fit into one finite system? Ironically, when it comes to our spiritual lives, we should be making the most room for one another, but it seems that instead we make the least. (page 112)

When the existence of the members becomes more important than their experience of membership, something is wrong. (page 113)

There are more quotable passages throughout. Still, our church discussion group was not totally satisfied with the book. Some members thought it was all rather easily said and predictable. Some thought Hirschfield told too many stories about himself for the book to be taken seriously. Someone else thought his stories were the best part of the book. In any case, it is a fairly short book and quickly read, which is important for many discussion groups. I also believe that imperfect books open up more discussion and think it is worthy of consideration for groups that have not already read it.

Hirschfield, Brad. You Don't Have to Be Wrong for Me to Be Right: Finding Faith Without Fanaticism. Harmony Books, 2007. 271p. ISBN 9780307382979.

State Street: One Brick at a Time by Robert P. Ledermann

I always think of Michigan Avenue as the great street in Chicago. Downtown you find beautiful buildings on one side of the street and green Grant Park with the Art Institute of Chicago on the other. Follow it north over the Chicago River and you pass the Tribune Tower and the Wrigley Building into high end shopping. For author Robert P. Ledermann, however, State Street has always been the heart of the city, the street for Christmas parades and shopping in department stores. He recounts the past, some of which he has witnessed, in State Street: One Brick at a Time.

If your first thought about State Street is Marshall Field's Department Store, then you are in Mr. Ledermann's camp. Slightly over half of the book is about this famous department store which covered an entire Chicago city block. The author fully describes the building and recounts many stories about the introduction of new customer services by the innovative retailer. He includes an entire chapter on Christmas at Marshall Field's. In doing so, he carefully never says anything against Macy's, the New York company that killed the Marshall Field's name, but as a reader you can sense that he'd like to turn back the hands on the famous clocks. I'd help him.

After all the attention that the author gives Marshall Field's, I expected a bit more detail on the other well-known department stores that once lined the street - Carson Pire Scott & Company gets a chapter and all the others are lumped into one chapter. A consistent theme throughout these two chapters is that most of the store owners learned their trade working for Marshall Field and that their stores sat on land owned by Marshall Field.

State Street: One Brick at a Time is an entertaining read - you learn why not to decorate a Christmas tree with candy - but it is just an introduction to a street with much history told in other books. Still, all Chicago area public libraries should have it for its great collection of photographs.

Ledermann, Robert P. State Street: One Brick at a Time. History Press, 2011. 157p. ISBN 9781609492946.

38 Nooses: Lincoln, Little Crow, and the Beginning of the Frontier's End by Scott W. Berg

With a growing interest in the history of the state of Minnesota and continuing interest in Abraham Lincoln, I chose naturally to read 38 Nooses: Lincoln, Little Crow, and the Beginning of the Frontier's End by Scott W. Berg, which tells the story of the Dakota Uprising of 1862. The events are known by a variety of names including Sioux Uprising, Dakota Conflict, and Little Crow's War. Little Crow was an aging chief in August 1862 when warriors of the Dakota nation killed several hundred white settlers in communities strung along the Minnesota river southwest of St. Paul, the capital the new state. Little Crow was reported to have argued against the uprising but stepped up to lead it once some younger men started the conflict. He became a central figure in a tragedy that seemed at the time inevitable.

The Dakota were living in western Minnesota after a series of treaties with the United States moved them off their traditional lands. Though the treaties promised them annual payments in gold for their sale of lands, the tribes had discovered by 1862 than much of each payment disappeared into the hands merchants, Indian agents, and government officials every year. In late summer 1862 the payments were already long overdue and many Dakota were near starving. There was also a report that the U.S. had no gold to deliver, thanks to the cost of the Civil War, and was bringing paper money instead. With whites constantly encroaching on their territory, some of the Dakota were ready to rise, hoping they could chase the whites out of Minnesota.

In 38 Nooses, Berg recounts the events leading up to and after the mass execution in Mankato, Minnesota of 38 participants in the uprising. I was a little surprised that the description of this central event itself is fairly brief. The cast of characters in the narrative is large, but certain names recur frequently, including Sarah Wakefield, a woman who was held hostage by the Dakota, and Episcopal minister Henry Benjamin Whipple who lobbied with President Lincoln for reform of the corrupt Bureau of Indian Affairs. Lincoln's role was that of ultimate judge, reducing the number of executions from over 300 to what was still the largest mass execution on U.S. soil.

Because 1862 represents a turning in the affairs of North American Indians, 38 Nooses is an valuable title for students of 19th century America.

Berg, Scott W. 38 Nooses: Lincoln, Little Crow, and the Beginning of the Frontier's End. Pantheon Books, 2012. 364p. ISBN 9780307377241.

The Appeal of Reading True Stories

I will be talking about nonfiction readers' advisory next week at the 2013 Reaching Forward Conference. One of the points that I want to make is that true stories have as much appeal as fiction, and like fiction, certain subgenres of true stories have different primary appeals. Story, character, setting, language , and mood are the categories identified by books in the Read On ... Series of books from Libraries Unlimited.

For the attendees of Reaching Forward and for readers who find their way to this page, here are some book suggestions according to appeal categories.

Story

Historical episode

City of Scoundrels: The Twelve Days of Disaster That Gave Birth to Modern Chicago by Gary Krist
Guest of Honor: Booker T. Washington, Theodore Roosevelt, and the White House Dinner That Shocked the Nation by Deborah Davis
The Last Campaign: Robert F. Kennedy and the 82 Days That Inspired America by Thurston Clarke
The Last Innocent Year: America in 1964 by Jon Margolis
The Day the Revolution Ended: 19 October 1781 by William H. Hallahan

Microhistory

The Wrecking Crew: The Inside Story Of Rock and Roll's Best-Kept Secret by Kent Hartman
The Big Roads: The Untold Story of the Engineers, Visionaries, and Trailblazers Who Created the American Superhighways by Earl Swift
Uranium: War, Energy, and the Rock That Shaped the World by Tom Zoellner
Atlantic: Great Sea Battles, Heroic Discoveries, Titanic Storms, and a Vast Ocean of a Million Stories by Simon Winchester

Character

Biography

The President is a Sick Man by Matthew Algeo
Branch Rickey by Jimmy Breslin
The Queen of Katwe: A Story of Life, Chess, and One Extraordinary Girl's Dream of Becoming a Grandmaster by Tim Crothers
The Dressmaker of Khair Khana: Five Sisters, One Remarkable Family, and the Woman Who Risked Everything to Keep Them Safe by Gayle Tzemach Lemmon

Memoirs

The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates by Wes Moore
The Grace of Silence: A Memoir by Michele Norris
Life Itself: A Memoir by Roger Ebert
Just Kids by Patti Smith
The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind by William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer

Setting

Foreign adventure

A Wedding in Haiti: The Story of a Friendship by Julia Alvarez
Never the Hope Itself: Love and Ghosts in Latin America and Haiti by Gerry Hadden
Instant City by Steve Inskeep
Burma Chronicles by Guy DeLisle
End of the Earth: Voyages to Antarctica by Peter Matthiessen

Language

Nature discovery

The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating by Elisabeth Tova Bailey
The Bluebird Effect: Uncommon Bonds with Common Birds by Julie Zickefoose
Settled in the Wild: Notes from the Edge of Town by Susan Hand Shetterly
Love, Life, and Elephants: An African Love Story by Dame Daphne Sheldrick

Personal essays

Farther Away by Jonathan Franzen
Off Main Street: Barnstormers, Prophets, & Gatemouth's Gator by Michael Perry
Havanas in Camelot: Personal Essays by William Styron
At Large and At Small: Familiar Essays by Anne Fadiman

Mood

True crime

The Man in the Rockefeller Suit: The Astonishing Rise and Spectacular Fall of a Serial Impostor by Mark Seal
The Girls of Murder City: Fame, Lust, and the Beautiful Killers Who Inspired Chicago by Douglas Perry
A Death in Belmont by Sebastian Junger
The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher: A Shocking Murder and the Undoing of a Great Victorian Detective by Kate Summerscale

I have built a preview slideshow for the Reaching Forward Presentation. It shows a lot of true story books that I like.

Works Cited: An Alphabetical Odyssey of Mayhem and Misbehavior by Brandon Schrand

I reviewed this title for Booklist. Here are further thoughts.

Many of us think about writing memoirs these days, regardless of whether there has been any drama in our lives. It may be that the talent of the writer and the life of the mind are more important than events, but many of us do not have the goods to deliver to a wide audience. One who does is Brandon R. Schrand, who has found a very clever way to present his unlikely life in Works Cited: An Alphabetical Odyssey of Mayhem and Misbehavior.

Schrand is a reader, though he came to serious literary books rather late compared with many others now in literary professions. He wanted to be a rock musician and neglected most of his studies in public school. With very suspect grades, he enrolled in college to avoid working in the mines of Idaho and because college was a place to find women, booze, and drugs. That he would end up an English professor and writer is an unlikely end.

I did not spoil the ending of Works Cited just now, for Schrand himself lets you know the outcome early in the process. Nothing about his book is chronological. Instead, he has written 27 essays about books that have altered the course of his life, and as the title states, the essays are placed in alphabetical order by author. So readers jump back and forth in time learning about Schrand as he remembers reading Edward Abbey, Ralph Waldo Emerson, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Nick Hornby, Jim Morrison of the Doors, Hunter S. Thompson, and others. Each essay provides some of the pieces to the puzzle that is Schrand, and all pieces are necessary.

It is amazing how much forgiveness Schrand has needed and received. Some readers may become exasperated, but others may see a bit of themselves or people they know. This is why we read as well as think about writing memoirs.

Schrand, Brandon. Works Cited: An Alphabetical Odyssey of Mayhem and Misbehavior. University of Nebraska Press, 2013. 240p. ISBN 9780803243378.

The Red House Mystery by A. A. Milne

Matthew at Thomas Ford has been restocking our genre collections with classics and rare finds. Among the latter is a book by A. A. Milne. Who now would guess that Milne was a great mystery fan? Most of us associate the once famous humorist with Christopher Robin and Winnie the Pooh. But Milne wasn't thinking of writing children's stories all the time. According to his introduction, he was reading mysteries, which he compared to beers. He rarely found one he did not like, and he wanted one with his own signature. So he wrote The Red House Mystery in 1922.

Milne did not try to reinvent the genre on his first try. Instead, he introduced Antony Gillingham, a bright young man who in The Red House Mystery happens upon a crime and thinks that solving it before the police would be smashing fun. Of course, the murder occurs at a country estate where Bill Beverly, one of Antony's close friends, has been a guest. They begin calling each other Holmes and Watson and start looking for clues. It is all great fun.

There are lots of classic mystery elements: a missing suspect, a case that seems open-and-shut to the police, maids to interview, a secret passage, missing keys, disguises, and pretty girls to impress. Milne introduces these pretty girls but then keeps them off-stage, perhaps available for sequels that did not follow. With insight and a bit of luck, Antony and Bill solve the crime and suggest they will be setting up shop to solve further mysteries. Alas, for the reader, they never did. The Red House Mystery is treat that leaves you wishing for more.

Milne, A. A. The Red House Mystery. Vintage Books, 2009. 211p. ISBN 9780099521273.

The Year Without Summer: 1816 and the Volcano That Darkened the World and Changed History by William K. Klingman and Nicholas P. Klingman

Snow in July in New Hampshire. Hard frost in Virginia every month of the year. Constant rain and flooding all summer in Switzerland. 1816 was a very strange year, and no one knew why at the time. Amateur astronomers noticed unusual sunspot activity early in the year, but it did not persist. With no global communication technology other than letters carried by sailing ships, no one in North America or Europe knew about a massive volcanic eruption in Indonesia that scientists now agree was responsible for crop failures and famine worldwide. Instead, some evangelists claimed that it was the beginnings of the apocalypse.

The story of 1816 is hard to tell even now, as there are no documents from official weather bureaus or professional meteorologists to consult. In order to write The Year Without Summer: 1816 and the Volcano That Darkened the World and Changed History, authors William K. Klingman and Nicholas P. Klingman had to piece together archived newspaper accounts with comments from letters and diaries of people as diverse as authors Jane Austen and Mary Shelley, farmer David Thomas of western Pennsylvania, and diplomat John Quincy Adams. They also used the gardening records of Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. The result is a story woven from many threads, perhaps too many for some readers tastes.

With few accounts available from outside North America and Europe, The Year Without Summer is geographically unbalanced. Readers learn about terrible suffering in the U.S., Great Britain, France, Germany, and Switzerland, but very little about India, China, or Japan. Still, a dedicated history reader will glean historical nuggets from the story, especially regarding human migrations. Many people left New England for the Midwest or the South as their crops failed and they sold off their properties to buy food at highly inflated prices. Irish peasants left for North America, and desperate Germans headed for southern Russia. Lawmakers tried to prevent the exporting of grains from hard-hit regions, but that hardly constituted assistance for the poor. Readers may notice how many nineteenth century officials in America and Europe agreed that charity was not the role of government.

Shelved with science books in many libraries, The Year Without Summer, is a bit light on science and stronger on history. I think the authors might have more fully developed their conclusions. As it is, the story seems unfinished. I want to know more.

Klingman, William K. and Nicholas P. Klingman. The Year Without Summer: 1816 and the Volcano That Darkened the World and Changed History. St. Martin's Press, 2013. 338p. ISBN 9780312676452.