Second Reading of Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea by Barbara Demick

If you had asked, I would have said I read Nothing to Envy by Barbara Demick last year, maybe two years ago. I see from my March 2011 review, I'm losing track of time. I also thought I remembered the book very well. In rereading I recalled a few stories, but many I did not. Almost a new reader, I read again with concern about the lives of six people who escaped the poverty of the totalitarian regime of North Korea.

The reason for the second reading was a book club commitment. I was happy the title was chosen because I remembered it being quite moving. I was gratified that the book group had such an engaging discussion. Several people had also made an effort to research the current affairs in North Korea, not something that usually happens for the discussion.

I was surprised on rereading that the escape stories came very late in the book and were a smaller part of the story than I recalled. I think I had mentally injected part of another book, the novel The Ginseng Hunter by Jeff Talarigo into Demick's account. The focus of Nothing to Envy is really the hard life in North Korea and the difficulties of adjusting to life in South Korea.

The phrase "nothing to envy" comes from a North Korean propaganda song.

I recommend the title to other book groups.

Demick, Barbara. Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea. Spiegel and Grau, 2010. ISBN 9780385523905.

The Disneyland Book of Lists: Unofficial, Unauthorized, and Unprecedented! by Chris Strodder

I have never been to Disneyland in California but I have been to Walt Disney World in Florida several times. After examining The Disneyland Book of Lists: Unofficial, Unauthorized, and Unprecedented! by Chris Strodder, I see that much about the parks is similar. Pirates of the Caribbean, the Haunted Mansion, It's a Small World, Star Tours, and lots of costumed characters can be found in both states. The difference is that Disneyland, the original Disney theme park, packs what it has into a much smaller space.

Strodder's book falls somewhere between a historical reference and a travel guide. Arranged into thirteen chapters are lists about the park's origins, its attractions, the shops and restaurants, the business, its guests, its cast (people who work at Disneyland), and its impact on popular culture. Some of the lists provide practical advice for visiting, but most lists are offered as entertaining observations by either the author or by Disney fans or employees whom he has interviewed. There are many lists. Strodder has obviously researched his topics energetically.

I most enjoyed lists about the popular culture impact of Disney parks and about the origins of the attractions, most of which were built first in California and them duplicated in Florida. There is, however, a list of attractions that debuted in Florida as well.

Someone going to Disneyland for the first time will probably just get lost in this book, but the frequent guests (there are a lot of them) will find much to like in The Disneyland Book of Lists. Any library that needs to stock a variety of books on Disneyland will benefit by having this title, too.

Strodder, Chris. Disneyland Book of Lists: Unofficial, Unauthorized, and Unprecedented! Santa Monica Press, 2015. 360p. ISBN 9781595800817.

Birdology: 30 Activities and Observations for Exploring the World of Birds by Monica Russo

In both of the first two libraries in which I worked as a librarian with my MLS, the adult and juvenile nonfiction was shelved together. The reasoning was that adults and children could benefit from many of the same books and they could be found all in one place. Birdology: 30 Activities and Observations for Exploring the World of Birds by Monica Russo is just the kind of book that supports that philosophy. It is aimed at young readers but offers much to readers of any age.

Inside the brightly illustrated cover of Birdology are lessons on birding, basic ornithology, do-it-yourself experiments, and many beautiful photographs of birds. Though I am about 50 years beyond the target audience, I read with interest, gaining understanding of some aspects of bird life that I had not realized reading more scholarly works. That birds who eat only insects in flight must migrate in winter is probably in the books I've previously read but it never registered with me. Woodpeckers who pick insect eggs and larvae from bark can winter over in many climates. I saw woodpeckers all winter long because of this.

I read with the interest the section on attracting birds to your yard with plants. We are expanding our flowerbed and replacing shrubs in the next few weeks. I will keep the birds in mind.

Birdology is a good addition to any public library.

Russo, Monica. Birdology: 30 Activities and Observations for Exploring the World of Birds. Chicago Review Press, 2015. 108p. ISBN 9781613749494.

Beneath the Surface: Killer Whales, SeaWorld, and the Truth Beyond Blackfish by John Hargrove

On a family trip to Orlando in 1980, John Hargrove saw a killer whale show at SeaWorld and immediately knew his vocation. He wanted to be a trainer and ride the orcas into the air. To get his wish, he focused on learning everything about the whales and convinced his family to take vacations that included the Florida theme park. He asked trainers questions at the park and wrote letters to them from home. Finally in 1993, his dream came true when he was hired as apprentice trainer at SeaWorld in San Antonio.

In Beneath the Surface: Killer Whales, SeaWorld, and the Truth Beyond Blackfish, he recounts how after many years as a dedicated SeaWorld employee he slowly realized how his love for being with the killer whales had blinded him to the ethics of using them in popular entertainment. He saw they were stressed by the demands of performing unnatural behaviors up to seven times a day and then bored in the confinement in small pools when not in training or performing. He was also appalled by the discomfort and danger to whales required for artificial insemination and by SeaWorld's policy of separating mothers and offspring, who would be together for life in the ocean. He began to sense the truth in the animal rights movement criticism of trained animal entertainment.

Changing sides was still difficult because it meant leaving his employment, closest friends, and the whales he loved. Agreeing to speak out in the documentary Blackfish was his declaration of his new conscience.

While at first glance Beneath the Surface might seem a book that would appeal to a narrow audience, for Hargrove is hardly a national celebrity or killer whales a frequent front page news story (except when a trainer is accidentally killed), but his situation is universal. Many of us have matters of conscience that trouble us upon which we do not act because we would sacrifice so much. Combine that with subjects of animal rights, wildlife conservation, government regulation, and corporate responsibility and the title deserves a wider audience. Nonfiction book discussion groups should consider Beneath the Surface.

Hargrove, John. Beneath the Surface: Killer Whales, SeaWorld, and the Truth Beyond Blackfish. Palgrave Macmillan, 2015. 272p. ISBN 9781137280107.

The Art of Migration: Birds, Insects, and the Changing Seasons in Chicagoland by Peggy Macnamara

The spring migration of birds has just begun. While there are many books, articles, and websites that tell birders what species to expect when and where, a particularly interesting title to me is painter Peggy Macnamara's The Art of Migration: Birds, Insects, and the Changing Seasons in Chicagoland. With text by John Bates and James H. Boone, she alerts readers to the birds and insects that will come up the Mississippi flyway through the counties surrounding Chicago.

Macnamara's watercolor illustrations are not by any means photographic, but they reproduce the effects of sunlight and shade on birds and insects as observed outdoors. Their intentional impressionism prepares spotters to natural conditions that are not ideal for seeing everything that the best photographers have been able to present in their bird and insect guides.

Working often with the scientists at the Field Museum of Chicago, Macnamara has access to the museum's specimens of birds and insects collected for over a century. Of particular interest to her are the birds who died during migration when they crashed into buildings in downtown Chicago or along the lakefront. These birds were gathered and brought to the museum every day for about 30 years. A census of them shows trends in the migrations passing through the area. Current numbers are way down thankfully because building managers have reduced lights and architects have designed friendlier buildings, but there are still plenty of bird corpses to gather.

Macnamara's book will interest artists as well as birders, as she often describes how she uses her brush to apply colors and shading. As a professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and illustrator-in-residence at the Field Museum, she has much experience. The Art of Migration could as easily be shelved in the art section as the zoology area.

Since Macnamara and her co-authors tell so much about the birds and where to see them in the Chicago area, we shelve it with other helpful birding guides.

Macnamara, Peggy. The Art of Migration: Birds, Insects, and the Changing Seasons in Chicagoland. University of Chicago Press, 2013. 202p. ISBN 9780226046297.

The Italians by John Hooper

On a recent trip to Italy, we met many friendly people. I have fond memories of the desk clerks, waiters in restaurants, tour guides, and salespeople I met. Of course, they were all in a monetary relationship with me, but they seemed genuinely pleasant and thoughtful people, just like many of the people journalist John Hooper met during his long tenure as a correspondent in southern Europe. He tells about them in his new book The Italians.

Hooper's aim in The Italians is to define the essential character of the people of Italy and what factors shaped them. The problem with this is that there is not one type of Italian and the task is about as easy as defining a typical American. Like most of the countries in Europe, Italy is increasing diverse as it accepts immigrants from Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, often doing the jobs that Italians will not do. That sound familiar? Hooper says that Italian children are urged to be independent but often live safely, not challenging social conventions. Many are living with their parents long into adulthood, too. Hooper sometimes compares the Italians to the Spanish, which is to be expected since he wrote The Spaniards and The New Spaniards.

Despite the need to generalize, Hooper has written a book I find fascinating. He starts with a bit of history to explain differences in northern and southern Italian upbringing and the general lack of faith in the nation to protect itself from outside forces. The peninsula has been invaded many times from various directions. The periods of glory for the natives have been few since the fall of the Roman empire - though it can be argued that through the spread of the Roman Catholic Church, Italy has conquered much of the world.

Readers learn much about the country that seems very safe for tourists despite (or because of) the power of the mafia. Hooper examines people in the media, schools, the government, police forces, and the church. Having lived among the Italians for about a couple of decades, the author knows many good stories to tell. I recommend the book to anyone wanting to travel to Italy.

Hooper, John. The Italians. Viking, 2015. 316p. ISBN 9780525428077.

The Roman Guide to Slave Management : A Treatise by the Nobleman Marcus Sidonius Falx by Jerry Toner

While in Rome, I had access to wifi in our hotel. At all times a librarian, I decided to see what books I could download from my work library's digital collection to my phone while in a foreign country. Of course, I could download anything I could in Illinois, but just doing it on foreign soil would give me more creed with the clients who ask about digital books for their travels. Looking through the history offerings on eRead Illinois, I found The Roman Guide to Slave Management : A Treatise by the Nobleman Marcus Sidonius Falx by Jerry Toner. Being in the historic city, it seemed an appropriate choice. I clicked "borrow" and had the book on my phone in less than a minute.

I started the book while in Rome but set it aside until I returned home. I got the hardback edition of the title last week and finally got back to reading. I still prefer a print edition when available.

Marcus Sidonius Falx is not a name you are going to find in your search of Roman history, but someone just like him must have existed. He would have been a nobleman with slaves both in Rome and in the country. His wealthy family would have had slaves for generations. He would have seen that a slight profit could be made from selling some scrolls with his his advice to new slaveholders.

That Toner was able to mysterious interview the nearly two thousand year old nobleman is a fact we should just accept and read Falx's advice, which seems strange and cruel to us now. Falx is an almost likable character who has some entertaining stories to tell. At the end of his chapters, Toner steps in to provide academic references that document the historical details and attitudes to which Falx refers.

The Roman Guide to Slave Management is an easy read and can be used to make history more interesting to students. It also suggests questions to discuss about twenty-first century slavery and near-slavery. It is worth reading from a scroll, bound book, or digital tablet. It should be in more libraries than it currently is.

Toner, Jerry. The Roman Guide to Slave Management : A Treatise by the Nobleman Marcus Sidonius Falx. Overlook Press, 2014. 216p. ISBN 9781468309379.

Bird Books Old and New

I have been devoting much of my free time to birding this spring, lessening the time I have spent writing this blog. I haven't stopped reading, though I may be reading a little less, and my focus lately has been books about birds or Italy.

I live in the Chicago suburbs and visit various DuPage County Forest Preserves to see what I might see. My reading, however, is geographically unbound. Through the pages of The World of the Shorebirds by Harry Thurston, I have been able to travel by armchair all over North and South America, learning about the behaviors and migrations of plovers, sandpipers, oystercatchers, jacanas, stilts, avocets, and thick-knees. This Sierra Club Book is nearly twenty years old, so readers need to look up more recent statistics about bird populations and what is happening in critical flyways. The photos are still beautiful, and the author inspires love of birds.

I am traveling around the planet in Woodpeckers of the World by Gerard Gorman. Woodpeckers can be found on every continent except Australia and Antarctica. South America has the most, some of which have very small ranges. Many do not migrate, so they won't be coming up my way this spring or ever. Gorman explains that little is known about some of the more remote species and that there is disagreement about which ones should be certified as species. He profiles 239 woodpeckers, identifying ranges, habitats, behaviors, and population status; the photos he includes are gorgeous. This recent guide is hefty. The author put many years into its making.

Sweep Up the Sun by Helen Frost and Rick Lieder is a children's book that brings me home. I have seen every bird in this book already this year, either in our yard or at one of the nearby preserves. The text is a poem about flying by Frost set into amazing photos by Lieder, each showing a familiar bird in flight. Sweep Up the Sun is a great addition to any young ornithologist's collection.

I also just read a book about hummingbird rescue for Booklist. Watch there for a review.

Thurston, Harry. The World of Shorebirds. Sierra Club Books, 1996. 117p. ISBN 0871569019.

Gorman, Gerard. Woodpeckers of the World: A Photographic Guide. Firefly Books, 2014. 528p. ISBN 9781770853096.

Frost, Helen and Rick Lieder. Sweep Up the Sun. Candlewick Press, 2015. ISBN 9780763669041.

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.