Manhood for Amateurs: the Pleasures and Regrets of a Husband, Father, and Son by Michael Chabon

Last week, in reviewing the audiobook Truth and Beauty by Ann Patchett, I mentioned that I enjoyed Michael Chabon reading his own book, too. The book to which I referred is Manhood for Amateurs: the Pleasures and Regrets of a Husband, Father, and Son, which I had missed when it was first published, just as I had missed Patchett's book. I found these books while looking desperately for nonfiction audiobook downloads that both interested me and were unread by me.

I have never read a Michael Chabon novel, but I was willing to try his essays. There are a slew of novelists that I have not read as novelists, enjoying their essays instead, including Jonathan Franzen, Joan Didion, and Julian Barnes. Similarly, I enjoyed Barbara Kingsolver's essays more than her fiction. So I thought Manhhood for Amateurs might be worth trying, and it was.

Having a downloadable audiobook without the credit pages that I would have found in the paper book, I do not know the period over which he wrote the essays, but I guess from what he says in them that he began in the late 1980s. I sense different time-specific perspectives as he recounts the ages of his life so far. I discovered that he is older than I imagined - just about young as you can be and still be considered a baby boomer - and that I identified with many of his topics - collecting baseball cards, being a nerd, fatherhood, and aging parents. What he wrote about that was foreign to my experience I still found interesting and worth contemplating.

Manhood for Amateurs is not just addressed to men. Women can read it, too. Being both sensitive and slightly nerdy, he is very likable.

Chabon, Michael. Manhood for Amateurs: the Pleasures and Regrets of a Husband, Father, and Son. Harper, 2009. 306p. ISBN 9780061490187.

7 compact discs. HaperAudio, 2009. ISBN 9780061842375.

Noisy Bird Sing-Along by John Himmelman

I find much to like in Noisy Bird Sing-Along by John Himmelman. The bright, colorful bird illustrations are nicely detailed, making the species identifiable. All the birds seem to be in motion; none are stiff. I can imagine young readers absorbing the images and becoming junior ornithologists.

Adult readers should have lots of fun performing the bird sounds under the author's directions, and young readers will want to repeat them.

I appreciate that Himmelman chose some less obvious species, including three night birds. In the appendix, the author provides fun facts about all twelve species, as well as advice for young bird watchers.

I did not know that the white belly of a nuthatch reflects light onto bark, helping it find insects. Great book.

Himmelman, John. Noisy Bird Sing-Along. Dawn Publications, 2015. ISBN 9781584695134.

A Dog Walks into a Nursing Home: Lessons in the Good Life from an Unlikely Teacher by Sue Halpern

A Dog Walks into a Nursing Home: Lessons in the Good Life from an Unlikely Teacher by Sue Halpern is a book that should interest just about everyone. If you do not currently have a relative in a nursing home, you may be wondering if living in a care facility is in your own future. The news that we hear about nursing homes is often bad: underfunded centers with insufficient staff, over-medicated patients, fire hazards, and patient abuse. It is a relief to read about a well-run facility with a caring professional staff that has a friendly dog visiting every Tuesday morning.

Pransky was a bit on the older side herself when Halpern began training her for certification as a therapy dog. Having never introduced Pransky to a leash, the author was uncertain her Labradoodle would pass the exam that would let them visit residents of a local nursing home. The story of how she passed is just the beginning of a string of sweet and sometimes sad stories. One of my favorites features Fran, a nursing home resident who starts a current events reading club (membership of one) who takes to Pransky but not the pesky preacher who wants to save her.

Even the best nursing homes are challenged keep the peace as much as meet the needs of all of its residents. Residents kept together are as bound to repel as to attract. The prospects of death are always lingering, as are loneliness and boredom. Visits by Pransky or other therapy animals gives some residents something for which to look forward. It is just one step to improving the lives of people unable to live on their own.

We are discusssing A Dog Walks into a Nursing Home at our church book group this week. I expect a lively discussion.

Halpern, Sue. A Dog Walks into a Nursing Home: Lessons in the Good Life from an Unlikely Teacher. Riverhead Books, 2013. 312p. ISBN 9781594487200.

Truth and Beauty: A Friendship by Ann Patchett

I have often heard that most authors are not good audiobook readers. I wonder if memoirists are an exception. In the last year, I have listened to Dick Van Dyke, and Michael Chabon read about their lives and enjoyed their storytelling. In each case, I felt the memoirist was talking with me. I enjoyed the same feeling with Truth and Beauty: A Friendship written and read by Ann Patchett. Having been to two of Patchett's library conferences programs, I expected her reading to be entertaining. Having listened, "entertaining" is not a word I now want to use because the book is so sad. I'd rather say that her reading is mesmerizing.

I did not know the subject of Truth and Beauty when I downloaded it to my old iTouch. I saw it was an older title that I had overlooked. The various library audiobook services to which I have access all seem to have a scarcity of good nonfiction titles to interest me, so I sometimes try books I might otherwise decline. Within minutes of beginning Truth and Beauty, I knew the subject, for I read Lucy Grealy's Autobiography of a Face in 2012. I did not recall that she was Patchett's friend, but friendship was not a focus of that memoir. It was more about alienation, loneliness, and the hardships of cancer and cancer treatment. Patchett's account works as a welcomed continuation of the story.

It has taken me over a week to start writing this review. I am still not exactly sure how I feel about Patchett's role in the story. How can she have been so accommodating to her troubled friend over so many years? Could I have been so generous if a friend continued on a self-destructive path? Did her kindness delay Grealy's ultimate end? Patchett tells the story with little if any analysis. She has left judging for readers, and for that reason, I think her title is a great book for discussions.

Starting the story at a date when Grealy and Patchett shared the same dream as well as the same apartment in Iowa City where they attended the Iowa Writer's Workshop sets us up to compare their fates, much in the way we make similar comparisons in reading The Other Wes Moore. What factors made the differences? I suggest looking at the mothers in both books. What else do you see?

Patchett, Ann. Truth and Beauty: A Friendship. Harper Audio, 2004. 7 compact discs. ISBN 0060755997.

Gloomy Terrors and Hidden Fires: The Mystery of John Colter and Yellowstone by Ronald M. Anglin and Larry E. Morris

Who was John Colter? He was a companion of Lewis and Clark on their trek across the continent from 1803 to 1806 and is often credited with discovering what later became Yellowstone National Park (as if no native Americans had ever set foot in the volcanic region). He ventured alone into the valleys of the Bighorn, Yellowstone, and Snake Rivers to trap beaver, always failing to make a profit to cover expenses. He led a large group of trappers into the same area, and they also failed to bring many pelts back; some even lost their lives. He was the subject of many popular frontier legends of the early 19th century, especially the story of his run to escape being killed by Blackfoot warriors. He was a key witness to the exploration of the American West, but he left no accounts of his own. Only a sort of figure eight drawn on a map by William Clark remains, and even what that means is disputed. In short, according to Ronald M. Anglin and Larry E. Morris in Gloomy Terrors and Hidden Fires: The Mystery of John Colter and Yellowstone, Colter is a mystery.

I was drawn to this book because I have been to Yellowstone, where Colter's name is mentioned on history boards at many of the visitor's centers and in the books found in their bookshops. I could not help wonder what it would be like to explore such a wild and unforgiving place alone. The authors of this book did not tell me because Colter did not tell anybody. The authors did, however, lure me into contemplating the mystery of a man for whom there are no records prior to the Lewis and Clark journals and payroll.

If you chose to read this book about first encounters between native tribes and frontiersmen, get a good map of Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho for reference. Then get lost in a story of a time now so hard to imagine. Then read either Mrs. Dred Scott: A Life on Slavery's Frontier by Lea VanderVelde for another life of a person more imagined than known or Before Lewis and Clark: The Story of the Chouteaus, the French Dynasty That Ruled the American Frontier by Shirley Christian to learn more about the frontier into which Lewis, Clark, and Colter ventured.

Anglin, Ronald M. and Larry E. Morris. Gloomy Terrors and Hidden Fires: The Mystery of John Colter and Yellowstone. Rowman and Littlefield, 2014. 243 p. ISBN 9781442226005.

Ten Million Aliens: A Journey Through the Entire Animal Kingdom by Simon Barnes

Did I ever tell you how I read and outlined each chapter of my biology textbook twice and then reviewed the outlines before 50-question multiple choice tests in high school? In acing those tests, I memorized much about zoological taxonomies of everything from bacteria to mammals. That was many years ago before DNA mapping revealed species relationships that zoologists never guessed. Many animals have been moved into different genera, families, and orders since that time, so this was for me a good time to read and learn from Ten Million Aliens: A Journey Through the Entire Animal Kingdom by Simon Barnes.

Barnes is a writer of many interests, publishing books in fiction, sports, and natural history. I read and was entertained by How to Be a Bad Bird Watcher several years ago. In the fall, Booklist sent me his latest book, which published in Britain in 2013. The advanced proof jacket has an endorsement from actor Stephen Fry, a clue that it is not a dry scientific text. I was eager to read it. I enjoyed it and wrote a positive review for Booklist, which published in February 2015.

Though full of humorous bits, Ten Million Aliens is a serious book about the diversity of the animal kingdom, and the author has points to make. Among them, Darwin was right to spend years in study of the minuscule to gain understanding of universal principles. Animals evolve over time to survive and propagate, not to improve. There was no inevitable movement to create humans as the pinnacle of evolution. "Lower" forms of life are just as vital and capable as more complex organisms. In a mass extinction, insects are more likely to survive than mammals.

By injecting the funny bits and by alternating invertebrate chapters with chapters about more familiar vertebrate species, Barnes keeps the text lively. Many historical and literary references also keep the story entertaining for non-scientific minds. Ten Million Aliens is a good refresher course on the diversity of life with which we share the earth.

Barnes, Simon. Ten Million Aliens: A Journey Through the Entire Animal Kingdom. Atria Books/Marble Arch Press, 2015. 480p. ISBN 9781476730356.

Michelangelo: A Life in Six Masterpieces by Miles J. Unger

When taking a big trip abroad, I read some in preparation and read more after the journey. Portions vary. To know what to see and its significance requires some prior study. I never do as much of this as I could, so I am fortunate that Bonnie is thoroughly prepared. She gets us to the right places at the right times and answers my immediate questions. I often read after the trip seeking more understanding of what I saw. Having already seen places, buildings and works of art, I connect with their descriptions and stories more readily. The big drawback is that I do not have the upcoming opportunity to look again on these places, buildings, and works of art in person.

Before our trip to Florence and Rome, I perused several guidebooks and magazine articles, as well as every photocopy Bonnie passed to me. About a week before our departure, I started Michelangelo: A Life in Six Masterpieces by Miles J. Unger with the intent of finishing before packing. It is a moderately heavy book that I did not want to carry. By trip time, however, I had read only the introduction and the chapters about The Pieta found in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome and David now at the Accademia in Florence. After the trip, I read chapters about Michelangelo's work on the Sistine Chapel, the Medici Chapel in the church of San Lorenzo, The Last Judgment, and the dome of St. Peter's Basilica.

The experience of reading is shaped by both the author and the reader. With Michelangelo: A Life in Six Masterpieces, the author contributes a well-written story balancing the details of the sculptor's life* with accounts of his masterpieces and his times. This is quite enough to insure a good reading experience for anyone with a general knowledge of history and art. Still, in the wake of the trip, my experiences helped the story jump higher from the page.

Don't be fooled by the subtitle into thinking Michelangelo: A Life in Six Masterpieces is a narrowly focused biography. Unger addresses many aspects of Michelangelo's personality and the events of his times, and because he is a central character in the story in the Italian Renaissance, having worked in both Florence and Rome, having served and survived many popes as well as his Medici sponsors, his sculptor's story is a good introduction to the period. It is easy to find in public libraries.

*Michelangelo always insisted that he was a sculptor not a painter or architect, though he is now famous for a wide range of work. He even wrote poetry.

Unger, Miles J. Michelangelo: A Life in Six Masterpieces. Simon and Schuster, 2014. 432p. ISBN 9781451678741.

The Chapel of the Magi in Palazzo Medici by Franco Cardini

Bonnie and I bought several books on our trip to Florence and Rome. Of the three about specific historical sites, the most narrative is The Chapel of the Magi in Palazzo Medici by Franco Cardini. Unlike most books for tourists which include primarily photographs with captions, this book features detailed and illustrated essays on the history of the beautiful private chapel in what was once the palace of the Medici family in Florence.

The Medici were the most powerful of the families in the city state of Florence during the Renaissance, a time when there was a community obsession with the story of the magi bringing gifts to the baby Jesus. Annual Florentine Epiphany parades were elaborate, and leading financiers and merchants vied to lead them. Also, competition among the elite families as sponsors of art was fierce, and the painting of frescos in the Medici family chapel was as much about community standing as about personal pleasure in owning great art. After Gentile de Fabriano painted a renowned gilded alterpiece Adoration of the Magi for the Strozzi family, Cosimo de Medici had to have an even grander depiction of the Magi. Oddly, it is one without the Holy Family - just the Magi and their many attendants.

The small chapel with its grand frescos is one of our favorite places in Florence. Getting a book about its origins, the story in the frescos, and how the chapel has been preserved is just what a couple of librarians would do.

Cardini, Franco. The Chapel of the Magi in Palazzo Medici. Mandragora, 2001. 93p. ISBN 8885957641.

See the frescos here. The colors are richer that the website shows.

A Room with a View by E. M. Forster

Several weeks before our trip to Florence and Rome, I was in Anderson's Bookstore in Downers Grove to look at the travel books. Walking past the fiction shelves, I spotted an inexpensive edition of A Room with a View by E. M. Forster. It was light and would take little room in my backpack. I bought it to read in Florence where the story opens and ends.

I read the novel in 2004 and have seen the faithfully adapted film by Ismail Merchant and James Ivory several times, so I knew it would be a quick read. It still took me most of a week as we were busy visiting museums, churches, and historical sites all day and going out to eat at night. In the hotel, I wrote up the daily journal while Bonnie double checked all of the next day's touring. It was late by the time I settled into bed with the book, occasionally giving Bonnie updates, such as "They are looking at the Giottos," "Miss Honeychurch just witnessed the fight by the Loggia," or "The boys are running naked in the woods."

As I read, I saw scenes from the film in my head. Helena Bonham Carter, Maggie Smith, Daniel Day-Lewis, and Simon Callow were the characters. Much was familiar and a pleasure to read again. I was struck on this reading how big a role is played by the Reverend Mr. Beebe. He always seems to be present at key points, providing advice or observations. He is a mixture of sage and buffoon tilted toward the sage end of the scale.

We were in Rome by the time I finished the book, but a piece of Florence had come along. Now Florence can be found on our bookshelves in A Room with a View and the books we brought home from Italy. More about them next week.

Forster, E. M. A Room with a View. Bantam Classic, 2007. ISBN 9780553213232.

Rebel Souls: Walt Whitman and America's First Bohemians by Justin Martin

Ever heard of Pfaff's Restaurant and Lager Beer Saloon? I had not before reading Rebel Souls: Walt Whitman and America's First Bohemians by Justin Martin. When we visited manhattan, we may have passed right by the historic saloon's basement location on Broadway without knowing. Pfaff's (with a silent P) is where a literary circle met nightly in the late 1850s and early 1860s. Most of the authors, actors, and painters who hung out at Pfaff's have been forgotten, but they epitomize figures of tragic starving artists. Most died young with only one or two moments of fame, but they were joined by poet Walt Whitman, who became a primary character in the story of American literature.

Roughly half of Rebel Souls is about the time the circle met in the basement around a big table ruled by Henry Clapp, Jr., the King of Bohemia, a former temperance advocate turned whisky drinker and literary magazine editor. About a quarter to a third of the book focuses on Whitman. The second half of the book recounts the lives of circle after they ventured away, some participating in the Civil War.

Among those forgotten soon after their deaths:

• Fitz Hugh Ludlow, who wrote The Hasheesh Eater, which detailed his college experiments with drugs, and who later accompanied painter Albert Bierstadt on a western painting expedition. (Bierstadt stole Ludlow's wife.)
• Ada Clare, an actress and unwed mother who also wrote poetry and essays for Clapp's Saturday Press magazine.
• Fitz-James O'Brien, a journalist and cartoonist who died a lingering death after a battle injury as a Union soldier.
• Adah Isacs Menken, another actress, who seems to have foreshadowed Marilyn Monroe by a century.

Late on the scene were Artemus Ward, who essentially became America's first stand-up comic, and Edwin Booth, the Shakespearean actor whose brother assassinated the president.

Rebel Souls is rich with biographical profiles and historical incidents and will please readers interested in 19th century America. It may also connect with people who lived through the 1960s.

Martin, Justin. Rebel Souls: Walt Whitman and America's First Bohemians. Da Capo Press, 2014. 339p. ISBN 9780306822261.

The Latehomecomer: An Hmong Family Memoir by Kai Kalia Yang

I love when Laura introduces me to a good book. We have had books as a part of our relationship for as long as she has had eyes and ears. We started with my reading to her from The Real Mother Goose just days after she was born. Pat the Bunny, Goodnight Moon, and Meet Peter Rabbit followed. Advance the time machine 26 years, and she texts to me that I would enjoy The Latehomecomer: An Hmong Family Memoir by Kai Kalia Yang. She is right, of course. She knows her dad.

Laura probably came upon the story because she lives in Minneapolis, and there are many of the Hmong in the Twin Cities area. Among them are the Yangs who came, as did many other Hmong, via refugee camps in Thailand in the 1980s. The author was born in one of those camps, Ban Vinai, and was only six years when the family was transferred first to an orientation camp and then flew to Minnesota. Fear of the journey and new places, as well as the wonder of modern America, impressed themselves on her.

The Latehomecomer is as much about Yang's paternal grandmother, parents, and sister Dawb as about Yang herself and is truly a family memoir, as she tells what she has been able to learn about her maternal grandparents whom she never met. In the closing chapters, which recount her grandmother's final months and three-day funeral, she is even attentive to the reactions of her uncles and aunts. It is a remarkably close family thanks to the grandmother who held them together through the Vietnam War, the subsequent genocide, refugee camps, and the move to America (which she initially resisted.)

Published by a small nonprofit press with grant monies, The Latehomecomer has succeeded in getting into nearly 800 libraries. Even if your library does not have a copy, it should be able to get one easily. A few libraries even have it as an audiobook. I am pleased for the first time author who works with immigrants needing writing and translating. She has also made a film about Hmong Americans. I hope we hear more from her.

Yang, Kao Kalia. The Latehomecomer: An Hmong Family Memoir. Coffee House Press, 2008. 277p. ISBN 9781566892087.

Hummingbirds: My Winter Guests by Arnette Heidcamp

I have been at the Thomas Ford Memorial Library for over twenty years and weeded/inventoried the nature books several times. So I must have held Hummingbirds: My Winter Guests by Arnette Heidcamp several times before I plucked it from the shelf early in February. I did not recognize it. I wondered why I had not read it yet. I checked it out.

Over the years, I have read several bird rescue books, including The Bluebird Effect by Julie Zickefoose and Corvus: A Life with Birds by Esther Woolfson. I am always charmed and fascinated by stories in which caring people nurse injured birds back to health, whether for returning to the wild or for adoption into a human households when release is not possible. These stories usually have everything you want in good stories: tragedy, comedy, and unforgettable character (usually of the avian kind).

In her third hummingbird book, Heidcamp is the bird rescuer. She is known in her New York community and into New England for her unique calling and recalls that various members of the local police had started calls to her asking if she were "Hummingbird 911." In Hummingbirds: My Winter Guests, she takes four hummers (two ruby-throats and two rufous) into her sunroom for the duration of a winter. The little birds may be cute, but they do not get along.

Heidcamp's book is nearly 20 years old at this point, and few libraries still have it, but it does not seem dated. The color photos are remarkable, freezing the energetic birds hovering over flowers and feeders, showing their brilliant feathers, and documenting their previously unobserved interactions. It is just the kind of book a bird watcher loves.

Heidcamp, Arnette. Hummingbirds: My Winter Guests. Crown Publishers, 1997. 204p. ISBN 0517708841.

Good Ol' Freda, a documentary by Ryan White

As Freda Kelly says near the beginning of the documentary Good Ol' Freda, she has a good secretarial job in Liverpool now, but it is not as exciting as the one she had from 1962-1972. She was personal secretary to the Beatles, starting at age 17, chosen by Brian Epstein from the scores of young working women who frequented lunchtime concerts at the Cavern. She accepted without consulting her dad, who definitely did not approve of the motley lads, but she won him over to her side. She had a knack for cross-generational communications, becoming part of the glue between the Fab Four and many of their own parents. Everyone seemed to love Freda.

Kelly took her job in the months just before the Beatles became famous. Pete Best was still the drummer and the band had only a local following. She helped with the fan club and took over when its founder lost interest. Unknowing of what was about to occur, she changed the fan club address to that of her home. A few months later all of the postmen knew her house.

Kelly was interviewed often as the Beatles secretary and her letters in the fan newsletter were widely read. It was once rumored that she had married Paul McCartney, but she was mostly forgotten by the public after the Beatles split. She kept out of the limelight, especially by staying in Liverpool when the Beatles incorporated moved to London. When she disassembled the Beatles Liverpool office, she gave away many of its artifacts to fans, keeping little herself.

Viewers at our film discussion seemed charmed by her down-to-earth manner. Talk after the film veered to personal memories of Beatles days. It was fun to hear three people remember when they attended Beatles concerts at the Chicago Amphitheatre or at Comisky Park. Everyone seemed glad to have come to our program.

A Fort of Nine Towers: An Afghan Family Story by Qais Akbar Omar

In the U.S., we have seen much of what has happened in Afghanistan since 2001. Even before that Afghanistan was often front page news, but our attention was sporadic. Our country boycotted the 1980 Summer Olympics after the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in late 1979. We noted when the warlords of the Mujahedin pushed the Soviets out and were later themselves displaced by the Taliban. We decried human rights abuses and mourned the Taliban's destruction of the ancient Buddha statues in Banyan. But worrying about whether all our computers would crash on January 1, 2000 and about the value of our tech stocks, we lost track of Afghani news until we invaded the country in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 hijackings of American commercial aircraft by Al-Qaeda terrorists.

Qais Akbar Omar and his family never for a moment forgot what was happening in Afghanistan as they had to live every dangerous day. Omar recounts their experiences from 1991 to 2001 in A Fort of Nine Towers: An Afghan Family Story.

Omar was only nine years old in 1991 when the Mujahedin no longer had a common Soviet enemy to unify its ranks. Various warlords representing different ethnic groups began carving up the country and its capital Kabul, and factions began firing rockets in support of street fighting. Omar's moderately well-to-do family was forced out of the house that his grandfather had built on a hill and accept the hospitality of his father's carpet business partner in another neighborhood. Front lines of battle shifted around the city day by day for years. Omar and his father listened the BBC news in the morning to plan their daily errands.

A Fort of Nine Towers is a memoir filled with great characters, dangerous encounters, and success stories. I think it could make a riveting television mini-series. If done right, American and European viewers might get a better understanding of what happens in many countries when people are pawns to militarized governments that rule without their permission. Of course, reading will always more fulfilling than viewing a TV mini-series.

A Fort of Nine Towers has disturbing details that might turn away sensitive readers, but it is their loss if they can not overcome their reluctance to face reality. In the end, Omar's story offers both hope and caution for the future.

Omar, Qais Akbar. A Fort of Nine Towers: An Afghan Family Story. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2013. 396p. ISBN 9780374157647.

The Iridescence of Birds: A Book about Henri Matisse by Patricia MacLachlan, pictures by Hadley Hooper

In the spring of 2014, we visited the Minneapolis Institute of Arts and saw an exhibit of drawings and paper cuttings by Henri Matisse. At the end of the exhibit were couches, comfy chairs, and a collection of resource materials, including children's books about Matisse. I liked seeing how the illustrators of the children's books incorporated many of Matisse's designs. Now Bonnie has brought home a new children's book about Matisse with the wonderful title The Iridescence of Birds: A Book about Henri Matisse by Patricia MacLachlan, pictures by Hadley Hooper.

The Iridescence of Birds tells the story of Matisse growing up in a dreary, gray mill town in northern France. The first two-page spread of the book shows a boy walking across a street with warm yellow in two windows being the only relief from the drab blue-gray. As readers turn the pages, the illustrator introduces more and more color, and readers learn about Matisse's mother encouraging him to paint and notice color in fruits, flowers, and locally woven fabrics. The boy also begins to raise pigeons and notices how their colors change in the sunlight.

You do not have to be a child to read The Iridescence of Birds. It is a colorful, joy-filled tribute to a man who retained his youthful wonder of nature. Enjoy the art and the story.

MacLachlan, Patricia. The Iridescence of Birds: A Book about Henri Matisse. Roaring Brook Press, 2014. ISBN 9781596439481.

The Keeper's Companion by John Mock

The Keeper's Companion sounds like the title of a book, either a novel or a collection of poetry. Instead, it is the name of the second album by musician and composer John Mock, who plays guitar, mandolin, concertina, and tin whistle in various songs on the album. While all pieces are instrumental, they are not without literary connections. In the insert to the compact disc, Mock tells a story for each of the twelve compositions. Many of the titles evoke coastal life, including "The New Chatham Hornpipe," "For Those Lost at Sea," and "The Sailor at the Fair." At just a glance, I was charmed.

I discovered that The Keeper's Companion is great music for driving. It's Celtic-like melodies are mood-altering, a positive prescription for leaving a hard day at work. Mock has a small group of players accompanying him on most of the pieces. At times, I think of the Chieftains' Irish tunes and at other times John Williams' movie music. There is also a nostalgic sound that reminds me of Ken Burns' historical documentaries.

I received the CD from Artists of Note, which books concerts, a suggestion that Mock is available for hire. I looked on Mock's website to see if he has played in our area, and I only see an appearance at the Old Town School of Folk Music in Illinois. There were a few libraries in other states (mostly to the east), and most of his venues sound small (lighthouses, cafes, and museums), but he has also played with the Nashville Philharmonic Orchestra. I am sure many communities would love to hear his beautiful music.

Welcome to Subirdia: Sharing Our Neighborhoods with Wrens, Robins, Woodpeckers, and Other Wildlife by John M. Marzluff

As soon as I saw a review of Welcome to Subirdia: Sharing Our Neighborhoods with Wrens, Robins, Woodpeckers, and Other Wildlife by John M. Marzluff in the Chicago Tribune in November, I knew I wanted to read it. I had noticed in the past couple of years, as I became more dedicated to bird watching, that we have a great number of bird species in our neighborhoods and parks. I saw goldfinches and cedar waxwings in our yard for the first time in 2014. It probably helps that Bonnie and I are adding bird-friendly plants to our yard annually. Still, I assumed that birds are more populous in the woods, prairies, and other environments that are more natural than the suburbs.

According to the author, many birds actually do quite well in Subirdia, as there is a wealth of food and shelter to be found. While plants that provide seeds, berries, and nectar draw some birds, others come to feast at bird feeders and water features. The diversity of plants also attract insects on which birds feed. If species can find safe nesting locations, the breeding is great for some, but not all birds in Subirdia.

There are concerns. As cities and their suburbs become more alike, they support the same species and some diversity is lost. Marzluff points out five birds that are found in abundance in many metropolitan area worldwide: rock pigeons, house sparrows, European starlings, mallards, and Canada geese. They may displace some native species, but the consequences are not always that simple.

The latter part of Welcome to Subirdia is about what individuals and communities can do to promote bird and other wildlife diversity. I am thinking of replacing even more of the lawn with tall grasses, thistles, and shrubs. I am also eager for the spring migration to see what other birds might come through our suburb.

Marzluff, John M. Welcome to Subirdia: Sharing Our Neighborhoods with Wrens, Robins, Woodpeckers, and Other Wildlife. Yale University Press, 2014. 303p. ISBN 9780300197075.

Animal ABC by Susi Martin

There are many beautiful ABC books for children. A new title that I like is Animal ABC by Susi Martin. Every letter, except X, and Y, features at least two animals, and most have three or more. Among these are lots of birds. Many are birds you might expect, such as duck, eagle, and flamingo. Ibis and umbrella bird might not have been predicted. "Q is for quetzal, quelea, quail" is all birds for the less-common letter.

Animal ABC has a good variety species from across the animal kingdom. Besides the many mammals, the iguana and viper represent reptiles, frogs and salamander for amphibians, mantas and grasshopper for the insects, and piranha and tuna for fish. Can you guess what a zander is?

The most beautiful page is probably the collection of butterflies for the letter B. The most active illustration is the platypus which appears about to eat a frog.

Who to credit for the illustrations is not clear. Even the writer's name is missing from the cover and title page and found only in the CIP statement. Is the author also the illustrator? It probably will not matter to a child, but as a librarian, I'd like to know.

I can well imagine sitting with a child learning her ABCs with Animal ABC, which will fit well in public or home library.

Martin, Susi. Animal ABC. Firefly Books, 2014. 32p. ISBN 9781770854567.

Ten Strings at Friday at the Ford

Violinist Sherri Deroche and guitarist Jason Deroche, a duo who call themselves Ten Strings, drew an overflow crowd on Friday to our Friday at the Ford concert at the Thomas Ford Memorial Library. Hailing from La Grange, Illinois (a neighboring suburb), they attracted family and friends, fans of classical music, and many of our concert series regulars, who remember when Jason played solo guitar for us in November 2011. He amazed us then. He and Sherri equaled our high expectations in 2015.

Ten Strings played from many periods and tradition in their approximately 80 minute concert. They started with "Spanish Dance, no. 5" by Enrique Granados and "Melodie from Orfeo ed Euridice" by Christoph Willibald Gluck. If you know much about classical music, you will realize that neither of those pieces were scored for violin and guitar. According to Jason, there is relatively little original music for the two instruments together, so they make their own arrangements.

After beautiful duo pieces based on music by Bach, Jason played solos of "Cordoba" by Isaac Albeniz and "Recuerdos de la Alhambra" by Francisco Tarrega. Sherri rejoined Jason then for a Latin grouping featuring pieces by South American composers.

I was then pleased by their lovely interpretation of "Here, There, and Everywhere" by John Lennon and Paul McCartney. A surprise to me was that some Baby Boomers in the audience did not recognize the song's origin. I guess it is a lesser known Beatles song.

They played "Cantilena,"a piece originally written for guitar and flute by Tom Febonio. The composer is living, unlike most of the night's composers, and Jason has spoken with him.

Ten Strings finished the evening with music by Niccolo Pagannini that was actually written for violin and guitar. These were probably my favorites of the night, for the the interplay between instruments was exciting. I heard many compliments as the audience left and received numerous thanks for booking the duo to play at the library.

Our next concert is Friday, March 13 when folksingers/songwriters Dana and Susan Robinson return to our library. The concerts are free thanks to the generous support of the Western Springs Library Friends.

Ghost Walls: The Story of a 17th Century Colonial Homestead by Sally M. Walker

Having enjoyed Written in Bone: Buried Lives of Jamestown and Colonial Maryland by Sally M. Walker in summer, I was excited in fall when I found a review of a forthcoming book by the author in Booklist. Seeing that her new book would also be about a site that some of my ancestors called home, I resolved to read Ghost Walls: The Story of a 17th Century Colonial Homestead. I made a copy of the review and kept it on my desk until the title appeared in our library system catalog.

Walker's first book on Colonial America dealt with forensic archeology and recounted stories that the bones of colonists told about how they lived and died. Her attention to stories remains the same in Ghost Walls, in which she describes a decades-long archaeological investigation focused on an important colonial building, the house built by John Lewger outside St. Mary's City in 1637. Instead of bones, the archaeologists seek architectural clues in the colors of dirt, as well as in artifacts and pollen counts.

Being the provincial secretary of the St. Mary's colony, Lewger built its largest home on a property he named St. John's. Its parlor served not only as his family's living area and bedroom, but also as the assembly room and courtroom for the colony. Before the 17th century ended, the house was sold several times and remodeled. It was finally an inn before being abandoned around 1695. Walker tells stories about each owner and family.

Walker also tells a contemporary story along with the history, recounting the effort from 1962 to 2008 to preserve the site and build a museum. Aimed at late elementary and middle school readers, Ghost Walls is a compact and informative tribute that will interest any one who enjoys good period history.

Walker, Sally M. Ghost Walls: The Story of a 17th Century Colonial Homestead. Carolrhoda Books, 2014. 136p. ISBN 9780761354086.