Best Biographies and Memoirs of 2012

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

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

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

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


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

Biography

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

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

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

Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power by Jon Meacham

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

Memoirs

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

The End of Your Life Book Club by Will Schwalbe

Joseph Anton by Salman Rushdie

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

Mortality by Christopher Hitchens

My Heart Is an Idiot: Essays by Davy Rothbart

My Mother Was Nuts: A Memoir by Penny Marshall

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

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

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

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


Booklist's Editor's Choice Adult Books 2012

Biography

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

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

Barack Obama: The Story by David Maraniss

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

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

James Joyce: A New Biography by Gordon Bowker

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

Leonardo and the Last Supper by Ross King

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

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

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

Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power by Jon Meacham

Thornton Wilder by Penelope Niven

Memoirs

Joseph Anton by Salman Rushdie

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


Christian Science Monitor 15 best books of 2012 – nonfiction

Biographies

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

Eisenhower in War and Peace by Jean Edward Smith

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

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

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

Reagan and Thatcher: The Difficult Relationship by Richard Aldous

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

Memoirs

The Distance Between Us: A Memoir by Reyna Grande

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


Kirkus Reviews: Best Nonfiction of 2012

Biography

Cronkite by Douglas Brinkley

Dearie: The Remarkable Life of Julia Child by Bob Spitz

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

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

Hello Gorgeous: Becoming Barbara Streisand by William J. Mann

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

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

Leonardo and the Last Supper by Ross King

Mao: The Real Story by Alexander V. Pantsov

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

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

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

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

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

Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power by Jon Meacham

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

Memoirs

Aftermath: On Marriage and Separation by Rachel Cusk

Are You My Mother: A Comic Drama by Alison Bechdel

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

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

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

How to Be a Woman by Caitlin Moran

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

Joseph Anton by Salman Rushdie

Kurt Vonnegut: Letters by Kurt Vonnegut

Life After Death by Damiem Echols

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

Mortality by Christopher Hitchens

The Patagonian Hare: A Memoir by Claude Lanzmann

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

The Voyeurs by Gabrielle Bell

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

Winter Journal by Paul Auster


Library Journal Best Books 2012: Biography and History

Biographies

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

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

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

Thomas Jefferson and American Nationhood by Brian D. Steele

Memoirs

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


Library Journal Best Books 2012: Memoirs

Dust to Dust by Benjamin Busch

Aftermath: On Marriage and Separation by Rachel Cusk

La Petite by Michele Halberstadt

The Scientists: A Family Romance by Marco Roth

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


Library Journal Best Books 2012: Top 10

Biography

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

Memoirs

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


Library Journal Best Books 2012: More of the Best

Memoirs

In the House of the Interpreter by Ngugi wa Thiongo

Let’s Pretend This Never Happened by Jenny Lawson


New York Times: 100 Notable Books of 2012

Biography

All We Know: Three Lives by Lisa Cohen

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

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

Barack Obama: The Story by David Maraniss

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

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

A Disposition to Be Rich by Geoffrey C. Ward

The Obamas by Jodi Kantor

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

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

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

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

Saul Steinberg: A Biography by Deirdre Bair

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

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

Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power by Jon Meacham

Memoirs

Are You My Mother: A Comic Drama by Alison Bechdel

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

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

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

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

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


Publishers Weekly Best Books 2012: Nonfiction

Biography

All We Know: Three Lives by Lisa Cohen

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

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

Titian: A Life by Sheila Hale

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

Memoirs

Joseph Roth: A Life in Letters by Joseph Roth

Louise: Amended by Louise Krug

Mortality by Christopher Hitchens

My Cross to Bear by Gregg Allman

The Patagonian Hare: A Memoir by Claude Lanzmann

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


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

Biography

Cronkite by Douglas Brinkley

Dearie: The Remarkable Life of Julia Child by Bob Spitz

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

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

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

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

Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power by Jon Meacham

Memoirs

The Boy Kings of Texas: A Memoir by Domingo Martinez

Elsewhere: A Memoir by Richard Russo

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

Immortal Bird: A Family Memoir by Doron Weber

Interventions: A Life in War and Peace by Kofi Annan

The Little Red Guard: A Family Memoir by Wenguang Huang

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

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

Winter Journal by Paul Auster

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Books That Mattered in 2012 and Year in Review

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

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

Have a Happy New Year.



Recent Nonfiction 

Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo

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

Burying the Typewriter: A Memoir by Carmen Bugan

Life Itself: A Memoir by Roger Ebert

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

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

The Swerve: How the World Became Modern by Stephen Greenblatt

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

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


Recent Fiction 

Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson


Train Dreams by Denis Johnson

You Know When the Men Are Gone by Siobhan Fallon


Great Older Books 

Autobiography of a Face by Lucy Grealy

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

A Noble Radiance by Donna Leon

Children's Books 

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

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

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

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


Audiobooks 

The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach

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

Wife of the Gods by Kwei Quartey


Films and Television 

Bill Cunningham New York, a film by Richard Press

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

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

Skin, a film directed by Anthony Fabian

Terry Jones' Barbarians


 Music 

Ac•Rock at the Library

Die Jahreszeiten (The Seasons) by Joseph Haydn

Eaglebone Whistle

Million Dollar Quartet

Summer Side of Life by Gordon Lightfoot


Readers' Advisory 

On Writing Book Reviews for Booklist

Read On ... Audiobooks by Joyce Saricks

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

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

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

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

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

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

50 Great Cookbooks at Thomas Ford Complete

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

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

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

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

I think it is now time for a party.

A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursala K. Le Guin

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

XIMINEZ: Nobody expects the Spanish Inquistion.

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

Zooborns: The Next Generation by Andrew Bleiman and Chris Eastland

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

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

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

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

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

Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Million Dollar Quartet, Chicago Cast

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

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

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

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

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

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

"See you later, alligator."

Mama Leone by Miljenko Jergovic

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Autobiography of a Face by Lucy Grealy

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A Prairie Home Companion in Chicago

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

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

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

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

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

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

Petra van Nuis at Friday at the Ford

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

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

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

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

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

Farther Away by Jonathan Franzen

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Eaglebone Whistle, Fretless 152

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Titanic: Voices from the Disaster by Deborah Hopkinson

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Just Kids by Patti Smith

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.