Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet by Bill McKibben

I am a bit late. Here it is 2014 and I am just now reading Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet by Bill McKibben. Being late, ironically, is what the first half of McKibben's book on the state of our planet is about. For several decades political and environmental leaders have been talking about actions to take to halt or at least slow the effects of global warming. Then in 2008, unprecedented amounts of polar ice melted, decades ahead of direst predictions. According to McKibben, that was the nail in the coffin of the old planet that we knew before 1970.

What's wrong? Lots! The amount of carbon in the air will not be as low again as it was on the old stable Earth and will keep rising for the foreseeable future on the new Eaarth. Worse still, the planetary systems cycle that has begun will release large amounts of methane. Ocean levels will rise, tropical zones will expand, and food production will drop as the planet grows hotter. It will get even worse if we continue our current energy consumption. We will have to find new ways to live.

The second part of McKibben's book is about making the best of a bad situation. While this sounds dreary, it is not. While we would love to turn back the clock, we can not, he insists, but we can make a livable world if we are smart. The difficulty will be ending our current consumer society and adjusting to an economy of no growth in manufacturing and consumption. The way is heralded by slow and local economies. Our food, sustainable energy production, and work need to be local. We also have to become good neighbors.

Of course, McKibben's ideas are too many to explain in a paragraph. The upshot is that McKibben thinks that we can (and have to) form more equitable and stable communities to survive. As individuals, we can be happier, if we reform before time runs out.

McKibben's book would be a great choice for book discussion groups.

McKibben, Bill. Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet. Times Books, 2010. 253p. ISBN 9780805090567.

Bark: Stories

"A maternal vertigo beset her, the room circled, and the cutting scars on her son's arms sometimes seemed to spell out Pete's name in the thin lines there, the loss of fathers etched primitively in the algebra of skin."

Author Lorrie Moore is noted for her eloquent writing. In the sentence above from the third page of the short story "Referential," she sums up what she has described in the first two pages of the story. A widow's son has become self-destructive and been institutionalized. In her mourning for all that is lost, she had denied herself what she still has.

Leaving the facility, the mother and her fading boyfriend are caught in a surprising springtime snowstorms. The wipers struggle to clear the glass. How can they see a way ahead.

In her recent collection Bark: Stories, Moore portrays many people finding reasons to be unhappy. Some of them are good reasons, most of which seem to radiate from making bad relationship choices. What these characters seem to lack are abilities to extract themselves. It is almost painful to read, but Moore draws us in, tapping out interest that precedes our willingness to help. But these are only characters in a book, so we can only observe. Maybe we can help those who are really around us.

Moore, Lorrie. Bark: Stories. Alfred A. Knopf, 2014. 192p. ISBN 9780307594136.

The Elephant Whisperer: My Life with the Herd in the African Wild by Lawrence Anthony

South African conservationist Lawrence Anthony is a model for the modern version of the rugged man. He is unconcerned about comfort, brave in the face of danger, smart when he needs to be, and dedicated to a better planet. He is one part pragmatist and another part dreamer. He is all of this as the owner and principal manager of the Thula Thula game reserve in Zululand. He is also a splendid writer, as he demonstrates in his memoir The Elephant Whisperer: My Life with the Herd in the African Wild. 

While the threads of story are many in The Elephant Whisperer, the central action revolves around Anthony's agreeing to accept a "rogue herd" of elephants into his preserve. These elephants had continually escaped from their previous preserve, causing much damage in surrounding villages and farms. Anthony knew that they would prove difficult to manage, but he also knew that they would be killed if he did not adopt them. He had always dreamed of reintroducing elephants to his part of Zululand, an area that had been without them for 100 years. On the first night in Anthony's care, they tipped over an ancient tree to break out of a high voltage enclosure, verifying that his task would be challenging.

Read by Simon Vance, The Elephant Whisperer is a very entertaining audiobook. Told at a lively pace, the book includes comedy, tragedy, romance, suspense and action, as well as many memorable characters, many of them pachyderms. It joins other splendid recent books about conservation work in Africa, including Life, Love, and Elephants by Dame Daphne Sheldrick and Cathedral of the Wild by Boyd Varty.

Anthony, Lawrence. The Elephant Whisperer: My Life with the Herd in the African Wild. Thomas Dunne Books, 2009. 368p. ISBN 9780312565787.

audiobook. Tantor Audio, 2012. 9 compact discs. ISBN 9781452610894.

Ten Billion by Stephen Emmott

We have an emergency and are doing little about it, according to computational scientist Stephen Emmott in his book Ten Billion. Everyone talks about global warming, but our troubles are much greater than climate change. As the world population grows, demand for food and water grows, but our resources are limited. Serious planning for the future needs to be done now, but Emmott believes little has been accomplished so far and there are few signs of any action in the near future. By the time enough people notice our situation, it may be too late to avoid catastrophe.

Take the subject of food production. The reason there are so many of us is that humans have succeeded in greatly increasing agricultural production three times in the history. We seem to assume that we can do it again, but Emmott says that it will not be so easy. Most of the land good for agriculture is already being used, and some of it is in bad shape because of soil depletion and erosion. The Green Revolution of the 1960s and 1970s is not a good model for the future as it required great amounts of water (a declining resource) and steady use of artificial fertilizers, herbicides, and pesticides, which have polluted water.

Next take water. Many aquifers are being rapidly depleted. People who believe we can invent our way out of every problem say there is plenty of ocean water to desalinate. The problem is that it takes a lot of energy to remove salt out of water to produce quantities needed by large communities or for agriculture. Desalination produces waste and pollution, and ways to delivery great quantities of water inland has not been planned.

With more people, there will be more demand for many consumer items, increasing the demand for water, energy, and metals for manufacturing. Every aspect of life on earth will be stressed. What can we do? Emmott thinks we either have to 1) technologize our way out of the situation (possible but unlikely) or 2) radically change our behaviors of consumption and procreation (again possible but unlikely). Seeing that there will soon be ten billion of us, he thinks that there are bad days ahead.

Ten Billion is a very scary book. As a rule, people do not like to read very scary books without zombies. In Emmott's book, we are the zombies. Passionate and eloquent throughout, the author tries to wake us from our sleep. Ten Billion is a slim volume with much to report and would be a great book discussion choice.

Emmott, Stephen. Ten Billion. Vintage Books, 2013. 216p. ISBN 9780345806475.

The Shape of the Reference Desk, a Panel Discussion

So much is changing at libraries, and the reference desk is part of the evolution to more client friendly service. Libraries are ripping out old desks to replace them with designer service stations to help staff help their clients. Thinking it was a good time to assess the change and spot some trends, 43 librarians attended our July 9 The Shape of the Reference Desk program, sponsored by the Adult Reference Librarians Network and held at the Thomas Ford Memorial Library.

Our three panelists - Blaise Dierks of the River Forest Public Library, Nancy Kim Phillips of the Arlington Heights Public Library, and Nicole Wilhelms of the Downers Grove Public Library - have all participated in the redesign of their libraries' desks. Coming from three different communities, each showed and explained how their new desks are designed to improve their public services. I added a brief report on our local survey of librarians' thoughts about their reference desks. (See the pie chart summary by clicking here. There is also a link to all the individual comments.)

Reference desk trends that I noticed from the presentation:

• Many new desks are removing the barriers between the librarian and the client. A new goal is to get the two side by side for the interview. This might be both standing or both sitting, and often a computer is involved. Having librarian and client side by side can let the librarian bring the client into the search. The client might notice something the librarian has not and redirect the request. The client might also learn self-help skills as a by-product. 
• New reference desks are getting closer to where clients enter the building and closer to the checkout desks. Having reference desks in the back in no longer ideal. Clients will ask other staff before ever getting back to a remote reference desk. 
• Reference desks are getting smaller. 
• Several reference managers vowed to get clutter off of their reference desks, to make them more inviting and not give the impression that the librarians are too busy to help. It was noted that sometimes too many signs and handouts around a desk seem to suggest "Do it yourself" when what a librarian really wants is to offer assistance. 
• Reference departments, especially those with call centers, are taking some tasks more usually performed by circulation clerks or receptionists. Reference and readers' advisory departments are merging. Libraries are reorganizing to have fewer departments. 
• Reference desks go by many names, including Information, Questions, Answers, Ask Us, and many variations including the word "service." A slight majority are still known as Reference according to our survey.

There was much interest in the public service point at the Arlington Heights Public Library, which Nancy Kim Phillips said is hard to call a desk. Librarians stand in the area of the structure to offer help and bring clients to open positions on the counter if necessary. Staff rove and use tablets in many of the reference interviews. One of the Arlington Heights librarians said that she has gotten in healthier shape working the reference shifts of her library. When off the floor, the librarian may be working the call center.

What I did NOT hear at this program was the idea that reference librarians should be pulled from public service desks because their time is too valuable to be assigned walk-up clients with easy questions. I heard this expressed by a manager of a small college library at the ALA Conference in Chicago in 2013. This group still seemed to be committed to reference librarians being on the front lines.

The Adult Reference Librarians Network's next meeting will be held on October 8 at the Indian Prairie Public Library.

This is Dali by Catherine Ingram

A graphic novel treatment is a most appropriate approach to the life of the surrealist artist Salvador Dali. He is remembered for wildly strange art, much of which had elements of humor. Most was oil on canvas, but he also strove to express his own brand of art with his clothing and the design and furnishing of his home. Using a mixture of the most famous Dali images and comic drawings from illustrator Andrew Rae, author Catherine Ingram recounts Dali's strange life in her concise biography This is Dali.

"Outrageous" might be the most appropriate one word to describe Dali. He seems to have enjoyed shocking the public and have no true purpose in life other than self-promotion. About the kindest thing Ingram has to say about Dali, other than he was an artistic genius, was that he was lonely. She points to poor parenting as one reason for his seeming lack of care for others.

Whosoever understands Dali, the author suggests can also understand his art. In This is Dali, she explains the joke behind the melting clocks and suggests that Dali influenced many artists to come, including Alfred Hitchcock and Andy Warhol. I would add that John Pasche probably knew Dali's lips logo when he made a tongue and lips logo for the Rolling Stones. Maybe you'll recognize other ways Dali shaped our world if you give this odd little book a try.

Ingram, Catherine and illustrations by Andrew Rae. This is Dali. Laurence King Publishing, 2014. 80p. ISBN 9781780671093.

The Light in High Places: A Naturalist Looks at Wyoming Wildness, Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep, Cowboys, and Other Rare Species by Joe Hutto

Add Joe Hutto to my list of favorite authors. After finishing Touching the Wild: Living with the Mule Deer of Deadman's Gulch, I had to read his previous book The Light in High Places: A Naturalist Looks at Wyoming Wildness, Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep, Cowboys, and Other Rare Species. The subtitle well describes the wide-ranging subject matter, except it does not indicate how autobiographical a book it is. Anyone who has been charmed by Hutto in Touching the Wild or his early book Illumination in the Flatwoods: A Season with the Wild Turkey will want to read what Hutto tells about himself. He is a most interesting character.

Reading The Light in High Places reminds me how great it was that Bonnie and I went to Wyoming last year and makes me want to go again. Hutto probably does not want the place overrun with tourists, but he sees that well-run, eco-friendly tourism can help with the protection of the places and wildlife that he loves. A reader will see that as a hunter Hutto also sees a place for hunting, but he is greatly troubled by the idea of hunting as sport and big business. The aims of traditional rural life and wildlife conservation are not served by such sport, which caters to people who pay to kill threatened species.

Hutto does not consider himself a cowboy, coming from Florida and trained as a naturalist, but he is very respectful of men and women who grew up with traditional cowboy skills. He has learned many of those skills and managed ranches, but he still seeks advice and assistance from the experts. He sees himself as a dedicated scientist and enjoys spending months alone in species studies on the tops of mountains. He tells us how hard such studies are, but I bet many of us would like to join him for a day or two. Imagine the vistas!

If Worldcat is to be trusted, there are just about 150 copies of The Light in High Places in U.S. libraries, only about three per state. Illinois has eight. I think there should be more copies available. I am afraid Hutto and his eloquent books are among the rare species in need of attention. They should not be allowed to disappear unnoticed.

Hutto, Joe. The Light in High Places: A Naturalist Looks at Wyoming Wildness, Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep, Cowboys, and Other Rare Species. Skyhorse Publishing, 2009. 281p. ISBN 9781602397033.

The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson

The epic history The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson sat on my want-to-read list for a long time. Its size was daunting. Because our church book group chose it for discussion, I finally borrowed it as an audiobook and dove in. Finding the stories compelling and having much early summer gardening to do (time good for listening), I finished its 19 discs (23 hours) in a little over a week.

In her afterward, Wilkerson tells how she researched the migration of blacks from the South to the North, Midwest, and West between 1900 and 1970. Her interest began with her mother's escape from the South. She took that story as inspiration and identified many other migration stories, but in the end, she chose just three stories to tell in detail. Three is the magic number in this book. The stories have three origins: Mississippi, Florida, and Louisiana. These migrations took place in the 1930s, the 1940s, and the 1950s, each with a different quality. The cities to which the migrants moved were Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles.

Though the journeys began and ended in different places, the people about whom Wilkerson wrote had many similar stories to tell. Jim Crow laws made their lives in the South intolerable and dangerous. Leaving on short notice or without alerting whites who would want to stop them presented a challenge. They all found their new lives better but still subject to acts of discrimination.

Having read numerous books about race relations in American history, I did not expect to be surprised by the cruelty described in this book, but Wilkerson's research unearthed injustices I had not imagined. I felt anger rising as I read about the theft, torture, and murder allowed under Jim Crow laws. Others in our book group reported similar reactions.

We filled our evening with questions, memories, and observations, as The Warmth of Other Suns proved a worthy discussion book as well as a good read.

Wilkerson, Isabel. The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration. Random House, 2010. 622p. ISBN 9780679444329.

Audiobook. Brilliance Audio, 2011. 19 compact discs. ISBN 9781455814237.

The Night Bookmobile by Audrey Niffenegger

I must return the The Night Bookmobile by Audrey Niffenegger today - right away. I checked it out a week ago but just now read it. If I had known how magical and moving it is, I would have read it right away so I could get it back on the graphics novel display quickly. I want others to have a chance to read it.

The act of reading and discovering your books is what The Night Bookmobile is all about. Its central character is Alexandra, a young woman whose difficult relationship with a young man sometimes compels her to walk the streets of Chicago after midnight. On one such evening she discovers a bookmobile in a Winnebago. The wise librarian invites her in, and she stays until dawn longingly scanning a collection that she has already read.

Though I want to get The Night Bookmobile back onto the graphic "novel" display, it is really a short story. Niffenegger first published it in 2004 in the journal Zoetrope All Story, she illustrated it for The Guardian in 2008 and Abrams Comicarts put into book form in 2010. While it creates a dream-like mood and is a bit sad, its existence is a happy fact for my library, which is promoting graphic novels in its adult summer reading program and short stories as this year's feature genre on its reading blog Thommy Ford Reads.

People who enjoy this book by Niffegegger, might also enjoy books by Neil Gaiman. He wrote the promotional paragraph on the back cover for The Night Bookmobile.

Niffenegger, Audrey. The Night Bookmobile. Abrams, 2010. ISBN 9780810996175.

Sally Ride: America's First Woman in Space by Lynn Sherr

Astronaut Sally Ride was a very private person, a tough position to keep for someone so famous, an icon for the women's movement and hero of many children. Being the first American woman in space in 1983 put her in the national spotlight and subjected her to media attention for several years. Offered publishing contracts, she resisted writing anything more than a few magazine articles and a children's book about herself, and those writings can be described as more inspirational than personally revealing. She kept her affairs private. So, it was a surprise to the public when her obituary revealed that she enjoyed a long same-sex relationship.

Two years after her death, Ride is the subject of a biography by one of the journalists who closely followed her career from her early days at NASA. Lynn Sherr also counted herself as one of Ride's friends, having often had dinner with her over the course of nearly 30 years. In Sally Ride: America's First Woman in Space, Sherr admits that even she knew nothing about her friend's secret relationship.

While Ride's sexual orientation may now be the topic that may bring many readers to Sherr's book, it is not the overriding focus of the biography. Even Ride's initial trip into space is just an episode (though a very important episode) right at the halfway point in the book. Sherr takes a look at all of Ride's life, showing how her subject identified herself more as an athlete, physicist, and educator than astronaut, not exactly the person the media portrayed.

Because Sherr says so much about America from the 1950s to the present, the biography Sally Ride serves as a portrait of all of us, showing the way we reacted to Ride's fame and now to her death. Sympathetic to Ride, never sensational, this new biography may help us understand the way we treat science, celebrity, and controversy.

Sherr, Lynn. Sally Ride: America's First Woman in Space. Simon and Schuster, 2014. 320p. ISBN 9781476725765.

My Brief History by Stephen Hawking

Only this book is brief. Stephen Hawking's life, as he describes in My Brief History, has been relatively long compared to his prospects after being diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis in his senior year at Oxford in 1963. He has been under the cloud of short expectations ever since, just carrying on as best he can. That's 51 years in which he has had a family and three children, written numerous hefty books, travelled the world, and become nearly as famous as Albert Einstein as a theoretical physicist. The threat of death encouraged him to make the best of his time.

His mobility and dexterity declined steadily after diagnosis, and in 1985 he required an emergency tracheotomy which stole his ability to speak. He now communicates through a wheel-chair-mounted computer linked to movements of his cheek bones. His ability to stay positive and involved in life is remarkable.

What I like about My Brief History is that Hawking is a natural story teller, concise and humorous. I almost wanted to both laugh and cry when the first doctor he consulted about his growing awkwardness told him to lay off the beer. I also enjoyed reading about the childhood bet of a bag of sweets that he would never amount to anything. That wager foreshadowed bets with other physicists made throughout his career.

I also like that Hawking included some serious science with challenging questions in this short memoir. My favorite question may be (paraphrased): if all time is current and everlasting, why don't we remember the future like we remember the past? Hawking says time travel is theoretically possible but impractical, as massive numbers of infinitesimally small particles would have to be controlled and sent at the speed of light. At least, that the way I understand what he said.

My Brief History is a slim book and only a little over two hours as an audiobook. I enjoyed listening to the audiobook twice.

Hawking, Stephen. My Brief History. Bantam Books, 2013. 127p. ISBN 9780345535283.

also, 2 compact discs. Books on Tape/Random House, 2013. ISBN 9780804164306.

Elizabeth, Queen of the Seas by Lynne Cox and illustrated by Brian Floca

Floating in the Avon River through the center of beautiful Christchurch, New Zealand is not typical elephant seal behavior. Elephant seals usually prefer beaches by the ocean farther from humans. There are exceptions. While traveling in New Zealand years ago, author Lynne Cox heard an unusual story about a lone female seal who made Christchurch's lazy river her home and won the love of its citizens by her refusal live anywhere else. With illustrations by Brian Floca, Cox now tells the story in her children's picture book Elizabeth, Queen of the Seas.

The people of Christchurch named the seal Elizabeth because they thought her regal in demeanor, like their queen. Not everyone, however, agreed that the Avon River was a good place for an elephant seal, especially a seal who would climb out and take naps in a busy street. For the safety of all, well-meaning officials resolved to remove her from the city, but Elizabeth refused to relocate.

Elizabeth, Queen of the Seas is a charming story that is even more touching to those who know of the city's recent earthquakes. Floca's watercolor illustrations depict a happy time, including in the background buildings that have since been destroyed. The book has a happy ending, and I wish the same for the city.

Cox, Lynne. Elizabeth, Queen of the Seas. Schwartz and Wade Books, 2014. ISBN 9780375958885.

Touching the Wild: Living with the Mule Deer of Deadman Gulch by Joe Hutto

If you are a Baby Boomer like me, you were probably told as a child that animals other than humans had no self-awareness and did not think. The prevalent scientific holding of the 1950s and 1960s was that animals instinctively knew how to act. They were merely on the earth to serve human needs. Primatologist Jane Goodall showed us that this is not true, and many other scientists have followed her path, including naturalist Joe Hutto. For anyone who still doubts that animals think and feel, Hutto's new book Touching the Wild: Living with the Mule Deer of Deadman Gulch is going to be a challenge.

Hutto is a very interesting man who invests himself in multi-year studies of animal species. Before spending seven years with the mule deer of Wyoming, he spent years in daily observation of wood ducks, wild turkeys, and bighorn sheep. Two of his books, including Touching the Wild, are associated with episodes of PBS Nature. He also tells us in his book that he has been a collector of venomous snakes and a life long hunter.

Touching the Wild is a physically beautiful book with easy to read type and filled with color photographs of mule deer in dramatic Wyoming landscapes (as well as in Hutto's yard). It is divided into three parts, the first of which is a very personal account of the mule deer he has known. The second part tells about mule deer life and behavior, and the third explains why the survival of the mule deer in our Western States is in jeopardy.

In the third section, as a hunter, Hutto is very critical of many of the other hunters. He reminds me of Native Americans who ask the spirit of an animal for forgiveness when killing. Hutto believes hunters should be fully aware of who they shoot, but he instead sees modern hunters with high powered rifles and high tech devices shooting individual of his study from great distances, never even having to stalk their prey. He decries hunting in this form of casual money sport. He is particularly upset at the state of Wyoming for allowing the bow hunting of does and fawns when mule deer populations are crashing.

I hope Hutto's excellent book is purchased by more libraries than his previous titles Illumination in the Flatwoods and The Light in High Places. He tells a touching and often sad story that should resonate with readers in love with nature.

Hutto, Joe. Touching the Wild: Living with the Mule Deer of Deadman Gulch. Skyhorse Publishing, 2014. 306p. ISBN 9781626362130.

For the Love of Baseball: A Celebration of the Game That Connects Us All edited by Lee Gutkind and Andrew Blauner

Baseball has a great literary tradition, and with the histories, biographies, memoirs, and novels that I have read, I have just barely sampled what is available. Every summer I try to read a couple of baseball books. (I also read a few in winter to rekindle memories of summer.) I started this June with a book sent to me by a book publicist, For the Love of Baseball: A Celebration of the Game That Connects Us All edited by Lee Gutkind and Andrew Blauner.

For the Love of Baseball is an updated collection of baseball-related stories and essays previously titled Anatomy of Baseball and Great Baseball Stories. Many are somewhat autobiographical and are as much about their authors as about actual games. In some, stars of the game play supporting roles for fans who are the real subjects. Contributors include a few familiar names, such as George Plimpton, Gay Talese, Frank Deford, and Roger Angell, but most names were new to me.

As you might expect with a diverse collection, not every piece fit my taste, but I found many entertaining and thought-provoking. I particularly liked "My Brilliant Career" in which Susan Perabo tells about her difficulty retiring from her pretend career as a major leaguer. She has mostly succeeded. I'm not sure I am there yet. I laughed while reading "My First Day with the Yankees" in which Matthew McGough describes his initiation as a batboy surrounded by well-known players and coaches. I was moved by the story of Art Williams, second black umpire in the major leagues, told in "Overhustle" by Lee Gutkind. The most surprising story was "Pesapallo: Playing at the Edge of the World" by teacher Caitlin Horrocks who describes baseball's evolution in school yard Finland.

For the Love of Baseball is a book you can read a little at a time if you like, savoring each story. You might even understand your own role in the culture of baseball by the time you finish.

For the Love of Baseball: A Celebration of the Game That Connects Us All. Skyhorse Publishing, 2014. 237p. ISBN 9781629142470.

Women Heroes of World War I: 16 Remarkable Resisters, Soldiers, Spies, and Medics by Kathryn J. Atwood

The first global war of the twentieth century was a sad yet in some ways exciting time for women. Their brothers, husbands, and sons rushed off to battle for personal glory or the honor of their "king and country," leaving them to take up men's work. Those in Belgium, Serbia, and other invaded countries were in harm's way. In the shadow of a war that proved to be long and bloody, some strong women felt compelled to take up causes or even join the men in battle. Kathryn J. Atwood has written about them in Women Heroes of World War I: 16 Remarkable Resisters, Soldiers, Spies, and Medics. 

Atwood's new book is a logical and useful prequel to her book Women Heroes of World War II. In both books she sets the historical stage and profiles women who acted bravely for causes in which they believed. A few of the women, such as mystery writer Mary Roberts Rinehart, were famous in their time, and others, such as Emilienne Moreau, became national heroines, but most are names current readers will not recognize. Atwood thinks they should.

With interesting sidebars explaining important details in the stories, such as the use of poison gases in warfare or the popularity of the song "Over There," and with a generous use of photographs, Women Heroes of World War I is a good introduction to the war that started 100 years ago for readers of any age. It is also a helpful addition to the literature of women's studies. Look for it to be popular in school and public libraries.

Atwood, Kathryn J. Women Heroes of World War I: 16 Remarkable Resisters, Soldiers, Spies, and Medics. Chicago Review Press, June 2014. 246p. ISBN 9781613746868.

The Boy on the Wooden Box: How the Impossible Became Possible ... on Schindler's List: A Memoir by Leon Leyson

Many baby boomers grew up with fathers who never talked about their World War II experiences until late in their lives. Leon Leyson was like them, but instead of being a soldier, he was a Jewish boy in Poland in and out of work camps run by the Nazis throughout the war. In post-war America, he wanted to live in the present and raise his children as average citizens of no particular origin. Only with the release of Stephen Spielberg's epic movie Schindler's List did Leyson begin to tell his incredible story, one bound to interest listeners for it included his working for Oskar Schindler, who saved his family from certain death. He told the story in his posthumously published The Boy on the Wooden Box: How the Impossible Became Possible ... on Schindler's List: A Memoir.

Throughout World War II, Leyson was malnourished and small, not a good candidate for factory work. In the camps, he had to endure through heavy manual labor and show no sign of failing to keep from being executed, as so many children and older adults were. Luckily for Leyson, his father was a skill worker who was able to get the sympathetic Schindler to employ Leon. When Nazi inspectors came through Schindler's factory, he would stand on a box behind equipment to appear larger and capable of the work.

There have been many Holocaust stories written in the last half century, and The Boy on the Wooden Box fares well among them. Leyson told a compelling story with a great cast of characters about one of the most dramatic periods in our recent history. I listened to it read by five-time Tony Award nominated actor Danny Burstein. My interest never wavered.

Leyson, Leon. The Boy on the Wooden Box: How the Impossible Became Possible ... on Schindler's List: A Memoir. Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2013. 231p. ISBN 9781442497818.

audiobook. Recorded Books, 2013. 4 compact discs. ISBN 9781740369439.

The Vinyl Dialogues: Stories Behind Memorable Albums of the 1970s as Told by the Artists by Mike Morsch

I am nearly the perfect reader for The Vinyl Dialogues: Stories Behind Memorable Albums of the 1970s as Told by the Artists by Mike Morsch. First, I listened to a lot of rock music in the 1960s and 1970s. Second, I enjoy behind-the-scenes stories about rock music. Third, I owned (or still own) several of the recordings profiled in this book. My shortcoming as a reader of this book is I stopped listening to pop music radio and buying rock records around 1976 when I went through a classical music phase. As a result, I had not heard of some of the artists interviewed by Morsch for the stories in The Vinyl Dialogues.

The author compensates for my deficiency by including hooks in every story. Even when I did not know the artist or album, the stories were good and I recognized someone involved in the plot. The group Head East toured with Jethro Tull and was essentially fired by its leader Ian Anderson. Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes were given songs by Bruce Springsteen. Player reminded listeners of the Hall and Oates, Steely Dan, and the Doobie Brothers.

My favorite story may have been the one about the album recorded by Dave Mason and Cass Ellliot, which was called Dave Mason and Cass Elliot. I recently read about two in Graham Nash's book, Wild Tales. In the story about Joe Walsh and Barnstorm, I was struck by a statement by Joe Vitale that albums of the 1960s and 1970s were "variety shows." I think that is a great description for Beatle albums. I also read with special interest stories about the Guess Who, Three Dog Night, and America.

Including Morsch's introduction and Epilogue, there are 33 chapters in Vinyl Diaglogues, none over 10 pages. Reading one and then searching the web for some relevant videos once a day would give a younger reader a good sense of the variety of the 1970s music scene. Older readers will already many of the songs. More about the project can be found on the Facebook page Vinyl Dialogues.

Morsch, Mike. The Vinyl Dialogues: Stories Behind Memorable Albums of the 1970s as Told by the Artists. Biblio Publishing, 2014. 265p. ISBN 9781622492077.

The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton

How do you feel about Lily Bart, the central character in The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton? What kind of person do you think she was? I use the past tense in referring to her (spoiler alert!) as she dies at the end of The House of Mirth. What did Wharton intend by having Lily die? Our book group found much to discuss when we tackled the novel last week. I felt it was one of our more focused discussions.

While Wharton's second novel, the one that earned her initial fame, can be called a classic, it is not guaranteed to be liked by readers. At least two of our group thought Lily was irredeemable. Most of us thought that there were very few characters to like in the book. Readers have to look hard to find good points for many of the men and women in this society novel, but I think they are there, especially for Lily. I think her failure to carry through on some of her schemes to land a wealthy husband were subconsciously conscience-driven. Sadly, she never achieved anything good for herself.

While reading I realized that The House of Mirth can be cast as a prequel to The Great Gatsby. There were more self-made millionaires invading society by the time of Gatsby, and Wharton heralded their coming twenty years earlier. By the time of Gatsby and the Jazz Age, the refined cover over the emptiness and cruelty of high society had been removed.

The characters, the story, the historical setting, and the life of the author all led to a lively discussions. Keep The House of Mirth in mind for the classic fiction slot in your book club's schedule. If you do choose it, suggest your members keep their own scorecard of characters. There are many of them. 

Wharton, Edith. The House of Mirth. Charles Scribner's Sons, 1905.

Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital by Sheri Fink

I think Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital by Sheri Fink is one of the most disturbing books that I have read in a long time. While there are no totally evil people on which to blame what may have been unnecessary Hurricane Katrina-related deaths at Memorial Hospital in New Orleans in 2005, many seemingly good people behaved in ways inconsistent with their training and ideals. The doctors and nurses at Memorial were obviously in a crisis and not helped by the shockingly inadequate response of the corporation that owned the hospital, but they let their fears blind them to other courses of action than those that they took. Tragically, they had more resources within easy reach than they realized. Lack of planning and poor communications inside and outside the hospital led to confusion. Patients could have been treated for their diseases and kept more comfortable throughout the crisis. Some might have been saved. Fink tells the story in much fascinating and dramatic detail.

There are many lessons to be learned from Hurricane Katrina stories, but, as the author tells in the later chapters and the appendix to Five Days at Memorial, people are not learning them. Our society does not as a whole have a will to make the sacrifices and do the work necessary to prevent future tragedies. Fink tells how a hospital in New York performed much better in Hurricane Sandy, showing that preparation and clearer thinking can make a difference, but she also reports on many cases in which medical personnel and community emergency workers make the same mistakes made in New Orleans.

Five Days at Memorial is too large a book for many book discussion groups, which is unfortunate as there are so many topics to discuss. Groups that focus on public policy or meet quarterly (giving members more time to read) can tackle it. Five Days at Memorial is a great read for someone willing to make the effort.

Fink, Sheri. Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital. Crown Publishers, 2013. 558p. ISBN 9780307718969.

Unabridged audiobook: Random House Audio, 2013. 14 compact discs. ISBN 9780804128094.

Relish: My Life in the Kitchen by Lucy Knisley

It is Memorial Day, so summer reading is upon us. At the Thomas Ford Library this summer, we will be featuring graphic novels in our adult summer reading program Picture This: Exploring Graphic Novels. Along with the reading of books to earn prizes, we will have some graphic novel events, including an author talk by Lucy Knisley, whose graphic novel memoir Relish: My Life in the Kitchen came out in 2013.

Liking to read authors who come to our library, I borrowed Relish and found it very entertaining. Knisley recounts her admittedly still young life with charm and humor through full-color drawings and well-chosen words. In each chapter, she tells about a period or particular aspect of her life. I kept reading wanting to know more about her mom the chef, her dad the gourmet, and the kitchens in which Knisley has cooked.

Like all food memoirs, Relish includes recipes. Unlike many memoirs, these instructions are heavily illustrated. I particularly like the exploded view of the huevos rancheros and the action-packed telling of how to make pickles.

As you can see, graphic novels are not all super hero tales. With Relish, Knisley has shown that everyday life is a great subject for the genre. It is not alone. Check for graphic novels at your library.

Knisley, Lucy. Relish: My Life in the Kitchen. First Second, 2013. 173p. ISBN 9781596436237.