Wildlife Watching in America's National Parks: A Seasonal Guide by Gary W. Vequist and Daniel S. Licht

My travel list gets longer. I have just finished reading Wildlife Watching in America's National Parks: A Seasonal Guide by Gary W. Vequist and Daniel S. Licht, another fine nature book from Texas A and M University Press. I already knew before reading that I wanted to go to the Everglades, though I am more interested in the birds than the alligators. I now know about the Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota for viewing bison. I also now know that if I am ever in Minneapolis-St. Paul in February (which is likely) that I should bundle up and go look for bald eagles and waterfowl along 75 miles of the Mississippi River which administered as a National River and Recreation Area.

The authors selected 12 national parks to highlight in separate chapters, one for each month. For each park, they selected a key species to feature, such as gray wolves in Yellowstone and prairie dogs in the Badlands. They describe the parks, point out key viewing spots, and identify species behaviors. They then list other national parks at which visitors may see the featured species.

I read Wildlife Watching in America's National Parks as an ebook downloaded from eRead Illinois on my MacBook Air using Adobe Digital Editions. I discovered it while preparing to teach an ebook class at the library. I see that no libraries in my library's consortium have added the title in print, but it can be found through our catalog which now includes our ebook holdings. I enjoyed reading it on my MacBook as all the illustrations were in full color and I got to choose my own comfortable font size. It is probably even better on a tablet, as I did tap the down key a lot.

Vequist, Gary W. and Daniel S. Licht. Wildlife Watching in America's National Parks: A Seasonal Guide. Texas A and M University Press, 2013. 246p.

The Life of the Skies: Birding at the End of Nature by Jonathan Rosen

"Some days, of course, there's nothing but starlings." Jonathan Rosen 

Sometimes I come upon books without seeking, just finding them, similar to Gene Spandling spotting an ivory-billed woodpecker (he thinks) when he was just enjoying a outing in a cypress swamp. I came across a positive reference to The Life of the Skies: Birding at the End of Nature and borrowed it. For some reason, I expected the book to be more scientific, detailing what can be found in the atmosphere. Instead, I found it to be a literary history of birdwatching infused with Rosen's own story of becoming a birdwatcher (a term he seems to like better than birder).

The Life of the Skies is also a travel memoir. Rosen describes outings in the swamps of Louisiana, the woods of Central Park, and the valleys in Israel, all places with important environmental stories. Often in the company of local experts, he sought birds of note. His essays about these outings explain how global geopolitics and individual efforts for conservation have determined what birds birdwatchers see. He also populates his book with stories about famous birdwatchers, including John James Audubon, Henry David Thoreau, Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, Alfred Russell Wallace, Theodore Roosevelt, Robert Frost, Roger Tory Peterson, and E. O Wilson. He also quotes songwriters Lucinda Williams, Chris Hillerman, and Gram Parsons.

Rosen is an essayist for the New Yorker and the New York Times and has written other books that examine current life in philosophical, religious, and ethical terms. This book continues his diverse scholarly interests. In it I found many quotable passages, like one above.

In the world of books, The Life of the Skies is not common like a starling. It is also not an ivory-billed woodpecker of a book, for you will successfully find it in some libraries, if you look. I will call it an indigo bunting, an uncommon and delightful find.

Rosen, Jonathan. The Life of the Skies: Birding at the End of Nature. Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2008. ISBN 9780374186302.

Dear Committee Members by Julie Schumacher

Upon hearing an interview with Julie Schumacher on an NPR Books podcast, I knew that I wanted to read Dear Committee Members. I like offbeat academic satires, such as Moo by Jane Smiley and Portuguese Irregular Verbs by Alexander McCall Smith. I was not disappointed. Schumacher is an inventive and witty storyteller.

Dear Committee Members is not your common comic narrative. Schumacher has instead written a long series of letters of recommendation from unpredictable English professor Jay Fitger of Payne University. Many are written for students of his creative writing classes who are seeking employment to either pay for their educations or to get their first full time jobs. Some are aimed at getting grants or scholarships. Not all are for the benefit of students, as he writes LORs for his colleagues trying to escape the underfunded and disrespected English Department. What makes these letters funny is Fitger's total lack of tact and over-sharing.

About five letters into the book, I was not sure if I was going to like it much. There were many characters, and I had not yet seen who mattered. I am happy that I continued because several story lines became clear and I became very interested in Fitger, who is a very complicated man.

After reading Dear Committee Members, you may wonder whether anyone will ever again ask the author Schumacher, who teaches at the University of Minnesota, for a letter of recommendation. She told NPR that her students know about the book but they still ask for letters
.

Schumacher, Julie. Dear Committee Members. Doubleday, 2014. 180p. ISBN 9780385538138.

Dear Wandering Wildebeest and Other Poems from the Water Hole by Irene Latham

When you go to Africa for camera safari, (which you should - don't let the fear of malaria, yellow fever, or ebola stop you) visit water holes. Almost all animals have to drink water at some point in the day or night, and water holes are where they find water in the drier seasons. These low pools are gathering spots for many species. Watching the wildlife traffic is entertaining and exciting, as Irene Latham attests in Dear Wandering Wildebeest and Other Poems from the Water Hole. This bright children's book is illustrated by Anna Wadham.

If you have been to savannah lands in Africa, you can vouch for Latham's descriptions of the animals and their behaviors. Impala do literally spring high into the air when frightened, as Latham says in "Impala Explosion"; it is quite a sight to see. Vultures, storks, jackals, and hyenas do squawk and snarl around the remains of dead animals, as she describes in "Calling Carcass Control." Drinking from a water hole is a risky necessity for giraffe, as she explains in "Triptych for a Thirsty Giraffe."

I thought "Oxpecker Cleaning Service" was the funniest poem. I'd enjoy reading it to a child.

An explanatory paragraph accompanies each poem. Latham includes a glossary of words that may be new to young readers in the back of her book. There was even a word that I didn't know (volplane), proving that this is a book that will benefit young and old.

Latham, Irene. Dear Wandering Wildebeest and Other Poems from the Water Hole. Millbrook Press, 2014. 33p. ISBN 9781467712323.

Yoko Finds Her Way by Rosemary Wells

I am about to take a flight on an airplane. It is good that I have read Yoko Finds Her Way by Rosemary Wells. Yoko teaches readers young and old how to watch for directional signs that help them get to the airport, through checkin and customs, and to the gate for their flights. With good signs, it might be easy to navigate through the big airport, but Yoko goes through one wrong door. Getting back to her mother is a little adventure.

We have been reading Rosemary Wells books in our house since my daughter was little. Our daughter has graduated from college and is living her own life in another state now, but Bonnie and I still like to bring home the author's brightly illustrated books. I particularly enjoy the oriental touches in Yoko Finds Her Way.

It is also good to know that there will be food at the airport.

Wells, Rosemary. Yoko Finds Her Way. Disney Hyperion Books, 2014. ISBN 9781423165125.

The Age of Vikings by Anders Winroth

Crime did pay. That seems to be one of the messages of The Age of the Vikings by Anders Winroth, a new history of the Norse warriors from Princeton University Press. Being from an academic press, the book is academic in tone, as you might expect, but there are interesting ideas and stories within its ten chapters. One is that the acquisition of booty from raiding coastal towns of Britain and continental Europe helped transform violent people of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden into mainstream European Christians. Winroth focuses on the 8th through 11th centuries during which the Scandinavians joined the European community.

Winroth describes Viking warfare, exploration, shipbuilding, trade, monarchies, religion, arts, and literature. There is sometimes not really as much detail as I would have liked, but there are many gaps in Viking story. Its warlords had skalds (poets), but they were
not concerned with written accounts, and the writers of rune stones were deliberately misleading. Scholars are still scratching their heads trying to sort out the truth about the Vikings.

Some readers will enjoy The Age of the Vikings because there are still some mysteries, such as just how did they make it to North America and why are there so many Arab coins found in Scandinavian digs? There is still something about which to wonder.

Winroth, Anders. The Age of the Vikings. Princeton University Press, 2014. 320p. ISBN 9780691149851.

Beatles vs. Stones by John McMillian

How could I not read Beatles vs. Stones by John McMillian? I was in fourth grade when I first heard the Beatles singing "She Loves You" and "I Saw Her Standing There." In fifth grade I saw A Hard Days Night. I have had Beatles recordings in my possession ever since.

I did not pay much attention to the Rolling Stones until their single "Ruby Tuesday." I considered them as just part of the wave of British bands that included Herman's Hermits, the Animals, the Dave Clark Five, the Who, and the Hollies. Just a music fan, not a critic, I did not rank them in any way. I also liked the Stones' "Get Off of My Cloud" and "Jumpin' Jack Flash," but I never bought another of their records until middle age.

Growing up in the middle of nowhere, not reading rock magazines, I was never aware of a rivalry between the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. Even as an adult reader, not seeking gossipy publications, I rarely found stories of a conflict, so a whole book on the topic caught me by surprise. Its cover suggests a boxing match or sporting event, which in the end seems an appropriate suggestion. The story of Beatles vs. Stones is that of competitors, not enemies.

In the beginning, the Beatles helped the Rolling Stones with advice, contacts, publicity, and songs. There might never have been much conflict if it were not for journalists asking leading questions. Young men with inflated egos and desiring attention often then responded to sensational negative reporting with trash talk. Friendships between members of the bands warmed and cooled throughout the active phases of their careers. The disputes were relatively juvenile until Mick Jagger recommended a crooked manager to John Lennon.

Beatles vs. Stones is an interesting and entertaining account of the bands and their times that will appeal to Baby Boomers and their children who have heard so much about the good old days. It does not take long to read and may nudge some readers to get out the old albums.

MacMillian, John. Beatles vs. Stones. Simon and Schuster, 2013. 303p. ISBN 9781439159699.

The Politics of Washing: Real Life in Venice by Polly Coles

I have often heard that travel is insufficient for experiencing other places. To truly know a place, a person needs to live there. British author Polly Coles had been to Venice numerous times as a child and adult before she moved there with her Venetian husband and four children. She recounts a somewhat difficult but rewarding year in which she became well acquainted with the city's backstreets in The Politics of Washing: Real Life in Venice.

Not as many people actually live in Venice as you might suppose in a historic city. Only 60,000, according to Coles. Many Venetians from long-established families have vacated the city, as landlords have turned their apartments into more profitable tourist accommodations. Many of the city's workers have to commute every day, walking across the canal bridges or riding the train or water buses. They also have to wear their Wellingtons to wade through the frequently flooded streets. As a result, many Venetians resent tourists and outsiders who settle in the city which they themselves can no longer afford.

Coles strives to befriend Venetians and succeeds with most of her daily contacts, but everyday is a challenge. She pays frequent visits to teachers and school officials with requests concerning the education of her children. She also has to think quickly to get proper service from appliance delivery men. Up and down four flights of stairs, sometimes with children who have sprained tendons or broken ankles, life is not easy in Venice.

Readers who enjoy Donna Leon's Commissario Brunetti Mysteries will recognize the Venetian weather and some of the places that Coles describes in The Politics of Washing. They will also recognize Italian words, such as carabinieri, imbarcadero, and pasticceria. Coles provides a helpful glossary of such terms at the beginning of the book. Few libraries have this recent British memoir, but it is worth seeking out.

Coles, Polly. The Politics of Washing: Real Life in Venice. Robert Hales, 2013. 206p. ISBN 9780719808784.

Elephant Company: The Inspiring Story of an Unlikely Hero and the Animals Who Helped Him Save Lives in World War II by Vicki Constantine Croke

No one should be surprised that I read Elephant Company: The Inspiring Story of an Unlikely Hero and the Animals Who Helped Him Save Lives in World War II by Vicki Constantine Croke. On this blog I have reviewed at least six elephant books, including The Elephant Scientist and The Elephant Whisperer recently. Also, I have featured news about the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, which operates elephant preserves in Kenya. Elephants, pandas, and birds are high on the scale of our interests in our household and at this book review.

Closer inspection of the three titles above reveals that the books are also about people who study, protect, and work with elephants. In Elephant Company, the subject is Billy Williams, who went to Burma in 1920 to work with Bombay Burmah Trading Corporation, a British company that harvested teak logs from rain forests. Williams had always loved and worked with animals in his native England and quickly developed the skills of an elephant veterinarian. Working closely with the mahouts who road the elephants as they hauled logs, Williams introduced more humane treatment of elephants, lengthening their lives and saving the company having to capture more wild elephants - dangerous work that often involved injury and death of elephants and humans.

Elephant Company compares well with the other elephant books that I have read. The author tells a story that seems new to contemporary readers but would have been known to many newspaper readers in the 1930s and 1940s. She vividly describes life in a remote region of the waning British Empire and recounts a horrific period of Japanese occupation of Southeast Asia. She also celebrates the relationship between Williams and an elephant known as Bandoola. I enjoyed several happy days of reading.

Croke, Vicki Constantine. Elephant Company: The Inspiring Story of an Unlikely Hero and the Animals Who Helped Him Save Lives in World War II. Random House, 2014. 343p. ISBN 9781400069330.

JFK's Last Hundred Days: The Transformation of a Man and the Emergence of a Great President by Thurston Clarke

Over time, stories of decades often are reduced to key events. The assassination of President John F. Kennedy is certainly one of those events. It tops the list of pivotal moments in the 1960s, a decade of great promise and disappointment. In JFK's Last Hundred Days: The Transformation of a Man and the Emergence of a Great President, author Thurston Clarke expands the story of the early 1960s, reminding older readers of the complex national and international politics of the Kennedy White House.

Like many history books focusing on specific time frames, JFK's Last Hundred Days includes many stories from outside its focus. Clarke includes accounts of John F. Kennedy's childhood, youth, service in World War II, early political career, marriage, and first two years as president. These accounts are inserted as flashbacks as Clarke counts down the days to Kennedy's visit to Dallas in November 1963. In doing thus, Clarke makes almost every day rich and lively. Deep in details, though I certainly knew the outcome of the story and noticed foreshadowing, the assassination still seemed to spring on me as a reader.

Clarke's attitude toward his subject is apparent from the title. What might not be expected by readers is how thoroughly the author describes Kennedy's faults, such as vanity, recklessness toward personal safety, and adultery. Whether the reader leaves the book with a positive, negative, or mixed attitude may depend more on the reader than the author's story. Clarke seems to tell us everything.

Like all good history, JFK's Last Hundred Days is still relevant. Readers may rethink whether today's politics is really meaner than ever before. They may also question whether promises to keep American soldiers out of combat zones will be kept. The audiobook is a good option for busy readers.

Clarke, Thurston. JFK's Last Hundred Days: The Transformation of a Man and the Emergence of a Great President. Penguin Press, 2013. 432p. ISBN 9781594204258.

Audiobook. Penguin Audio, 2013. 12 compact discs. ISBN 9781611761719.

Songbird Journeys: Four Seasons in the Lives of Migratory Birds by Miyoko Chu

The fall migration of birds is in full swing now. Not wanting to miss any of it, I am eager to leave the house with our binoculars and camera to see what I can see and photograph. But I do want to stop for a moment to say I just read a great book on bird migration, Songbird Journeys: Four Seasons in the Lives of Migratory Birds by Miyoko Chu. The author tells fascinating stories about little birds who take incredible journeys and about some of the people who follow them. She also identifies some of the best locations for witnessing the glories of the migrations. More places go on my travel list.

.......................

Later. I am back from the Morton Arboretum. I saw lots of birds today, but they were mostly resident birds instead of migrants. Many of the birds who need to go south have already started doing so. In Songbird Journeys, the author tells how dates and routes of migrations can vary from year to year, but the result is often the same - birds arriving in the same locations, maybe even the same nests. This may be a year for early cold. Birds can sense this, but their decision-making as to when to migrate is not perfect. Sometimes great numbers of birds die in storms.

I enjoyed Chu's stories about bird researchers. In 1965, Richard Graber from the Illinois Natural History Survey tried to follow a gray-cheeked thrush on which he had tied a tiny radio transmitter. Small birds need tiny transmitters to keep from weighing them down. At dusk when the bird rose for its nighttime journey, Graber took off from the Urbana, Illinois airport to follow. Little did he know that he'd get as far as Lake Superior before losing the bird a little before dawn. The bird burned a couple of ounces of body fat. Graber had to land once and refuel his plane.

Another story involved a researcher who banded a warbler near Lake Erie in late summer. When he travelled to the Dominican Republic to study warbler, the first bird he caught in his net was the same bird.

Chu emphasizes how much there is still to learn about bird migrations. Where some of the birds spend winters has not yet been discovered, which worries conservationists. The loss of habitats in both North and South America is the major threat to the survival of songbirds.

I am glad to have read Songbird Journeys. It would be great winter reading for many North American birders.

Chu, Miyoko. Songbird Journeys: Four Seasons in the Lives of Migratory Birds. Walker & Company, 2006. 312p. ISBN 9780802714688.

The Writer's Garden: How Gardens Inspired Our Best-Loved Authors by Jackie Bennett, Photography by Richard Hanson

My where-I-want-to-go travel list is already very long, but I am adding to it. I have just finished reading The Writer's Garden: How Gardens Inspired Our Best-Loved Authors by Jackie Bennett with photographs by Richard Hanson. Bennett recounts how nineteen British authors tended to, wandered around, and settled in gardens to write some of their best-known books. Many had little huts among the flowers and trees. All had windows overlooking the gardens. Through his colorful photos, Hanson shows those gardens today. Most are open for the public to visit.

Among the authors included are Jane Austen, Virginia Woolf, and Rudyard Kipling. I recognized all of the names except John Clare, who was a gardener first and then became a poet. Some readers might be surprised by the inclusion of Winston Churchill, known mostly for being British prime minister; he also wrote a series of large history books about his country. Some might argue that Henry James is an American author, but he spent most of his writing life in Great Britain.

I think I'd most want to see the gardens of Beatrice Potter, Thomas Hardy, and Walter Scott. I'd get a good dose of rural England and Scotland from them. Not wanting to limit myself, I would also see all of the estates, many with grand houses as well. Seeing beautiful gardens and learning more about great authors. What could be better? A summer trip to Great Britain goes on my list.

The Writer's Garden is a British publication that will be released in the U.S. in November. I am happy I got one early. The perks of being a book reviewer.

Bennett, Jackie. The Writer's Garden: How Gardens Inspired Our Best-Loved Authors. Frances Lincoln Limited, 2014. 176p. ISBN 9780711234949.

Mark Dvorak at Friday at the Ford

Friday night of September 19 was a joyous occasion as singer-songwriter Mark Dvorak returned to my library to perform original songs and beloved folk classics. I had been looking forward to the concert for months, and over 50 people came to hear Dvorak, who grew up in the western suburbs and now teaches at Chicago's Old Town School of Folk Music. No one was disappointed.

Mark began with "Every Step of the Way," a sort of folk anthem that also starts his CD of the same title. He followed with other songs of his own writing, "God Bless the Open Road and You" and "The Middle Years." He also played an old blues piece that he learned from an old musician in a senior center in Dallas, but I did not catch the name.

Five songs into the set, Mark asked the audience to sing along with the chorus of the humorous 19th century real estate promotional song "El-a-noy," They did joyously and continued singing along with most songs through the concert, including his encore "The Glory of Love." We were practically a choir singing Pete Seeger's "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?" I heard from many people afterwards about how much fun they had. That's exactly why we have our concerts.

The Penguin Book of Witches edited by Katherine Howe

Novelist Katherine Howe's interest in editing The Penguin Book of Witches is similar to my interest in reading it. Her short bio in the book states that she is descended from three of the accused Salem witches. It does not say which three. I am descended from Susannah Martin who denied her guilt and tried to defend herself by ridiculing the proceedings. Being dismissive of her charges on the witness stand while teenage girls in the courtroom moaned and claimed to see a shadowy figure whispering in Martin's ear did not succeed. She was hung as a witch.

Documents relating to the Salem Witch Trials make up the central part of The Penguin Book of Witches. In this section of the book, most of the documents are transcripts from the trials. Howe provides an introduction to each, telling how the prosecution has again and again expanded its mandate to rid the area around Salem of witches. My ancestor gets slightly more than three pages.

The first 121 pages of the book set the stage for the Salem trials by recounting the development of laws and court procedures for convicting and executing witches. Howe introduces important British and colonial documents, some of which are legal depositions and others essays from important authors, including King James I and Reverend Samuel Willard. Readers learn how the severity of punishment increased over time, peaking in Salem in 1692. Some of the early documents are pretty dense reading, unlike the dramatic documents in the Salem section. Thankfully, Howe's explanatory paragraphs highlight key points.

The final section of documents illustrates how the fear and belief in witches declined dramatically within several decades after the Salem Trials, from which many New Englanders quickly tried to distance themselves.

Since it is the season for students coming to the library with American history assignments, this is a good time to add this updated title to public library collections.

Howe, Katherine, ed. The Penguin Book of Witches. Penguin Books, 2014. 294p. ISBN 9780143106180.

Gone Feral: Tracking My Dad Through the Wild by Novella Carpenter

In Farm City, Novella Carpenter showed us her life as a counter-culture innovator farming without permission on a vacant lot in Oakland, California. She cleared broken glass and other rubble, built beds, and improved the soil. Not satisfied to raise only crops, she acquired small varieties of livestock, such as turkeys, goats, rabbits, and pigs. Of course, pigs don't stay small, and because of her limited capital, she resorted to dumpster diving to help feed the pigs. In her new memoir Gone Feral: Tracking My Dad Through the Wild, Carpenter tells a very personal story about trying to find and reconnect with her sometimes-missing father, a story which also partly explains how she became an urban farmer.

Like mother like daughter or like father like daughter? Carpenter reports how she spent several years trying to determine from whom she got her values and why she acts the way she does. She wanted to sit down and talk heart-to-heart with her backwoods-wandering dad, who is not the sitting or talking type. She recounts several difficult trips to Idaho reel him in.

Besides Carpenter and her father, the other major characters in the story are:

• her mother, who left her father in the 1970s and has an extensive garden and orchard
• her sister, who shared many wild backwoods adventures as well as juvenile shoplifting with the author
• her boyfriend, her partner in dumpster diving, a mechanic who embraces the garden and barter economy as much as the author

Gone Feral is quirky story about independent people trying to be family. While it is quite entertaining, it both questions and reaffirms family values, though some readers may not see this. I also enjoyed the quick scenes in the public library in Orofino, Idaho and liked this passage in the Epilogue:

"When Riana hasn't heard from Dad in awhile, she starts to worry. Then she calls the library in Orofino. The librarians there are exceedingly kind, and happy to give her the Dad report."

With offbeat memoirs so popular, Gone Feral should have a large and happy audience.

Carpenter, Novella. Gone Feral: Tracking My Dad Through the Wild. Penguin Press, 2014. 212p. ISBN 9781594204432.

The Elephant Scientist by Caitlin O'Connell and Donna M. Jackson

Elephants continue to surprise us. In her field studies in Namibia, zoologist Caitlin O'Connell noticed that when elephants warily stop to assess the safety of a situation, the matriarch holds a front foot bent so that the front toes firmly contact the earth. She had seen similar behavior in insects and recognized it as hearing vibrations through feet (signals sent from toes to ear). In her book for young readers The Elephant Scientist, she recounts research and field experiments that she and a team of naturalists conducted to verify her observation.

I particularly liked the section of the book showing O'Connell and others building and inhabiting a scaffold-like four-story observation station. The station overlooks a water hole that attracts elephants, giraffe, and zebras. And an occasional lion, of course. Wrapped in boma cloth, the electrified perimeter fencing keeps the team safe from the wildlife and let them observe elephant behaviors without disturbing the elephants. The boy in me that always longed for a tree house thinks it would be really cool to live and work in an observation tower in Namibia.

As a title in the Scientists in the Field Series from Houghton Mifflin Books for Children, The Elephant Scientist, which was a Robert F. Siebert Honor Book, is filled with photos of the wildlife and the scientists at work. The chapters are concise and fairly quick reading, and the authors include a glossary and reading list in the back of the book. The Elephant Scientist is an attractive book for elephant lovers of any age. Thanks to Bonnie for bring it home.

Connell, Caitlin and Donna M. Jackson. The Elephant Scientist. Houghton Mifflin Books for Children, 2011. 72p. ISBN 9780547053448.

The Fight of Their Lives: How Juan Marichal and John Roseboro Turned Baseball's Ugliest Brawl into a Story of Forgiveness and Redemption by John Rosengren

I remember a newspaper picture of the fight. San Francisco Giants pitcher Juan Marichal hit Los Angeles Dodgers catcher John Roseboro with his bat when they tussled near home plate in an August 1965. Sandy Koufax ran into the scene. I read that Roseboro required stitches for his head wound. I was shocked that a player would hit another player with a bat, but being an eleven-year-old boy in rural Texas, I then thought nothing more of it. I continued thinking of Marichal and Roseboro as stars in my baseball card collection.

I have seen photos and an occasional reference to the incident since, but I never realized that the memory of the fight dominated Marichal and Roseboro's lives for decades. In his new book The Fight of Their Lives: How Juan Marichal and John Roseboro Turned Baseball's Ugliest Brawl into a Story of Forgiveness and Redemption, sports writer John Rosengren tells how the players tried to put the incident behind them, but friends, fans, and journalists continued to ask about it. Only public acts of contrition and reconciliation years later finally eased the stress. Marichal and Roseboro even became friends.

The Fight of Their Lives illustrates a point made at an Adult Reading Round Table meeting focusing on sports books. Sports books are usually about something other than games. This dual biography recounts how two men rose from poverty thanks to their athletic ability but how little of their wealth came from their paychecks. Baseball salaries except for star players were pretty blue collar in the 1960s. Rosengren also examines race and ethnic relations in 1960s baseball. You do not have to be a baseball fan to enjoy his book.

Rosengren, John. The Fight of Their Lives: How Juan Marichal and John Roseboro Turned Baseball's Ugliest Brawl into a Story of Forgiveness and Redemption. Lyons Press, 2014. 277p. ISBN 9780762787128.

This Land That I Love: Irving Berlin, Woody Guthrie, and the Story of Two American Anthems by John Shaw

2014 is the 200th anniversary of "The Star Spangled Banner," the official national anthem of the United States. It is not, however, the only song used to evoke love of country. "America the Beautiful," "My Country 'Tis of Thee," and "Stars and Stripes Forever" are also often played or sung at public ceremonies. Most anthems are really old, but there are two songs from the 20th century in their class, "God Bless America" written by Irving Berlin and "This Land is Your Land" by Woody Guthrie. Author John Shaw explains the evolution of the two songs in This Land That I Love: Irving Berlin, Woody Guthrie, and the Story of Two American Anthems.

While these two newer songs differ much in tone, and their authors held very different political positions, Shaw shows that they have over time converged in many ways. "God Bless America" began as a strident war march, and "This Land is Your Land" began as a labor rights anthem. There was little love in either. Verses were added and dropped, and performers also reinterpreted the songs in ways unplanned by the composers. As their composers softened and added more spiritual lyrics for their songs, they became more like we know them today.

Setting is very important in this story. The author spends much time on the lives of the composers and political and economic history of the country during the periods in which the composers lived. Shaw also tells abbreviated stories of other American anthems that have risen and fallen in popularity. Readers who enjoy dual biographies or micro-histories may enjoy This Land That I Love.

Shaw, John. This Land That I Love: Irving Berlin, Woody Guthrie, and the Story of Two American Anthems. Public Affairs, 2013. 274p. ISBN 9781610392235.

Audiobook. Audio Go, 2013. 6 compact discs. ISBN 8671482931853.

Making Toast: A Family Story by Roger Rosenblatt

In contrast to the previous book that I reviewed, I kept Making Toast: A Family Story by Roger Rosenblatt on my to-read list for several years before I finally borrowed it as an audiobook. I had forgotten its topic, and several minutes into the book, I was mildly surprised to discover it is a book about grief. I have listened to numerous books by authors telling about their grief in recent years. I would say the books are preparing me for future events, but I can tell that each person responds differently to deaths in families. None are really ready for the deaths of parents, spouses, or children.

Like Blue Nights by Joan Didion, Making Toast is about the death of a daughter. Unlike Didion, however, Rosenblatt's story focuses on the new roles that he and his wife assumed as live-in grandparents for their daughter's three children and on the lives of those children and the widowed husband. Drawing from his talents as a novelist, he shaped the story much like a play. I can imagine Rosenblatt as the character that sometimes steps out of the action to narrate and then steps right back into the scenes.

Making Toast is a lighter variety of grief than that found in Levels of Life by Julian Barnes. That is not to say there are not tears and pain, but Rosenblatt and his family pull together to cope. His book will be of comfort to many people, but not all, as he is not religious. Like all the books on grief that I have read, it is relatively short and quick reading. It can be found in many public libraries in print and audio downloads.

Rosenblatt, Roger. Making Toast: A Family Story. Ecco, 2010. 166p. ISBN 9780061825934.

Audiobook. Blackstone Audio, 2010. 3 compact discs. ISBN 9781441721365.

Walking the Amazon: 860 Days, One Step at a Time by Ed Stafford

I missed learning about Walking the Amazon: 860 Days, One Step at a Time by Ed Stafford when it was first published in the U.S. in 2012. It only came out in paperback, and I am guessing that it did not get much publicity. I have already forgotten how I learned of it. I think a Chicago Tribune travel writer mentioned the book last month. I placed a reserve on the book immediately instead of putting in on my to-read list. I had to know how anyone could walk the the length of the Amazon River.

The idea of walking the Amazon is totally crazy. That is actually why some of his sponsors supported Stafford and his original partner. It had never been done before. One sponsor hinted that failure was acceptable, even probable, but the effort was worth financing. Stafford himself often seemed to question why he was pursuing such a strenuous, dangerous, miserable task. He had started with some lofty ideals, such as bring attention to the plight of the Amazon rainforest and its people, but he was also hoping for some personal glory. On an average day hacking his way through dense brush or wading chest deep in flood water for hours, he spent more time just hoping to find a comfortable place for the night and something to eat.

Like Bill Bryson in A Walk in the Woods, Stafford was not really prepared or even in proper physical shape when he started. Unlike Bryson, he never left the trail completely to come back significantly later to do more. He sometimes took a boat trip ahead to choose where to walk or diverted to a city to the north or south to get supplies, but he always soon returned to the spot he marked to continue his trek.

The author was rarely alone, though his cast of companions changed through the trek. A Peruvian named Cho made most of the trip with him. Thanks to Stafford's blog and other publicity, a collection of friends, sponsors, and news reporters joined him for sections of the trip.

Stafford would not have succeeded without help from many of the poorest people in South America, who gave him shelter, food, and guidance. Though he tried to compensate some, he was at times flat broke. This raises the question of how ethical was his at times illegal quest. I would love to hear a book group debate Stafford's goals, thinking, and behaviors. Was the quest worthwhile?

Stafford, Ed. Walking the Amazon: 860 Days, One Step at a Time. Plume Books, 2012. 319p. ISBN 9780452298262.