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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Importance of Being Seven by Alexander McCall Smith

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Blandings Castle by P. G. Wodehouse

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

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

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

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

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

The Further Tale of Peter Rabbit by Emma Thompson

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

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

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

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

Horton Foote: America's Storyteller by Wilborn Hampton

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Astray by Emma Donoghue

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

National Geographic Live: Birds of Paradise

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

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

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

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

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

Minnesota Beatle Project

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

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

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

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

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

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

Chris Vallillo at Friday at the Ford

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Amazing Harry Kellar: Great American Magician by Gail Jarrow

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

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

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

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

Saddened by Gun Appreciation Day

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

Memoirs That Will Last

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

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

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

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

The Grand Tour by Agatha Christie

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Unusual Uses for Olive Oil by Alexander McCall Smith

He's back. American readers first learned of Professor Dr Dr Moritz-Maria von Igelfeld, a learned philologist and author of the much-acclaimed and little-read 1200-page Portuguese Irregular Verbs, in 2005 when Alexander McCall Smith's 1997 comic novel Portuguese Irregular Verbs (only 128 pages) was published in America. Other books in the series, The Finer Points of Sausage Dogs and At the Villa of Reduced Circumstances reached America that same year. It appeared the books would remain a trilogy until 2011, when McCall Smith published Unusual Uses for Olive Oil in Great Britain. It is now available here, too.

Fans will remember the professor is very protective of his reputation and spars frequently with his academic rivalries over very obscure points of philology, manners, and department etiquette. He also gets to travel to conferences to present the same lecture over and over to the same group of academics. He often finds himself in ridiculous situations of his own making. He was, of course, especially hurt when he saw a copy of Portuguese Irregular Verbs that he had given to a potential love interest used as a foot stool.

In Unusual Uses for Olive Oil, life continues for the silly Dr Dr, but I sense a little more sympathy in his soul. Not enough for him to fall truly in love or put others first, but he does seem to learn to look more kindly on the department's talkative librarian Herr Huber.

If ever there is a man who really needed a valet, it is Professor von Igelfeld. Read Unusual Uses for Olive Oil and you'll see why. By the way, you will not learn about the olive oil until the final chapter.

McCall Smith, Alexander. Unusual Uses for Olive Oil. Anchor Books, 2012. 203p. ISBN 9780307279897.

The Complete Ripping Yarns by Michael Palin and Terry Jones

After Monty Python's Flying Circus left the air, not counting reruns and reunions, the members of the troupe unleashed numerous television and film projects. Among these was Ripping Yarns, a BBC collaboration between Michael Palin and Terry Jones. I have never seen the nine episodes, broadcast 1976 to 1979, which may be among the most neglected works in the post-Python portfolio. I was, however, able to secure an interlibrary loan of The Complete Ripping Yarns by Michael Palin and Terry Jones, a compilation of nine scripts published by Mandarin Paperbacks (London, 1991).

As you would expect, humor was still the intent of the Pythonites, but Palin and Jones put a bit more emphasis on story in Ripping Yarns than was evident in MPFC. Episodes develop plots, much like the famous MPFC episode "The Cycling Tour," which we call often "Bicycling Through North Cornwall." The endings may be sudden, but they are endings. Central to all of the funny business was Palin who played the central figure in each of the stories. You can see this from the numerous production stills accompanying the scripts and from reading the credits at the back of the book. Jones appears in only the first episode. The only other Python credit is for a cameo by John Cleese in "Golden Gordon."

The first yarns are "Tomkinson's School Days" and "Across the Andes by Frog," both of which are mostly just good silly fun. Genius kicks in with "Murder at Moorstones Manor," a plot-twisting spoof of British murder mysteries. My favorite story of the bunch is "Escape from Stalag Luft 112B," which is set in World War I, not a later war as you might expect. Palin plays Major Phipps, an inept British officer who spends all of his time devising ways to escape from a very comfortable prisoner of war camp. The story is a classic that everyone should know.

2013 is the 37th anniversary of the start of Ripping Yarns. I think it is a ripe time for a revival.

Palin, Michael and Terry Jones. The Complete Ripping Yarns. Mandarin Paperbacks, 1991. 278p. ISBN 074931222x.

ricklibrarian 2013: What to Expect

It is a new year and I am not sure just what to do with it yet. I have a general feeling that it is time to shake things up a bit on the blog. I am inclined to post more about websites, movies, and music than I have in the past year or two, and I also want to get back to discussing reference librarianship topics.

Biography and memoirs will continue to be strong interests in support of my books and their readers, my upcoming article in Library Journal, and my upcoming speaking engagement. I hope to post a supplement to the Top Biographers list in Real Lives Revealed this spring.

A particular interest I have is charities. At the library we are asked about the legitimacy and accountability of charities. We use several charity reporting websites to answer these questions. I have also noticed at home in the last year or two a great increase in the mailings I have received from charities. Checking some of the websites, I find most have good or excellent ratings for proper use of their funds. Still, I wonder about the profusion of mailings. I have started a spreadsheet to see just how many wasteful and repetitive solicitations I am getting. I plan to report periodically.

Of course, I will not quit reading books and hope my reviews will help you find some good titles to read. Let me know if I succeed.

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.