On the High Line: Exploring America's Most Original Urban Park by Annik La Farge

When Bonnie and I visited Manhattan in May of 2013, the first place that my college roommate Robert took us was the High Line, an urban park created atop an abandoned elevated rail line on the west side of the island, running from Gansevoort Street north to 34th Street, over 20 blocks long. We climbed up the stairs at 20th Street to discover a wide walk surrounded by masses of flowers, shrubs, and trees. At some points along the popular walk, I noticed old steel rails and imagined they carried commuter trains, like the elevated lines of Chicago. But I misunderstood.

Annik La Farge tells the full story in On the High Line: Exploring America's Most Original Urban Park. The High Line opened in 1934 to get freight trains off the busy streets of the industrial west side. These trains delivered produce, raw materials, and manufactured goods from docks on the Hudson River to factories and warehouses, many with elevated rails running right into their buildings. The line was abandoned in 1980, and a debate about what to do with the property began. In the 1990s, naturalists noticed how abundantly wildflowers were growing all along the tracks and the effort to make a park began. Parts of it opened in 2003.

History is just a part of La Farge's book. Almost every page is filled with beautiful color photos of the park as it is today, and the author reports on ongoing projects on and around the High Line, which has proved to be a spark to urban renewal. Readers see that its great variety of spaces provide community gathering spots, places for quiet relaxation, great views of the Manhattan skyline, and a handy path for many New Yorkers going to work or out for the evening.

On the High Line is just what New York needs to combat the image of the city as gray and dreary place. It can go into either landscaping, travel, or history collections.

La Farge, Annik. On the High Line: Exploring America's Most Original Urban Park. Thames & Hudson, 2014. 226p. ISBN 9780500291412

One More Thing: Stories and More Stories by B. J. Novak

B. J. Novak is a contemporary comedian who has been seen on television and in the movies. With his recent book One More Thing: Stories and More Stories, he shows us that comedians are storytellers. They spin stories to make listeners laugh. Novak likes to make us laugh, but in tradition of George Carlin and Dick Gregory, he challenges us to consider subjects that make us uncomfortable.

Novak is bound to offend some readers. I winced several times as I listened to the audiobook as Novak and a cast of actors and actresses read his mostly comic stories. I started to write that he is of the Say Anything School, but I do not believe that is true. Novak sounds spontaneous, but his words are very well chosen.

A part of me thinks Novak's vulgarity is unnecessary in some stories, but another part believes that he depicts a segment of contemporary society as it is. With offensive words, he creates an atmosphere in which his stories seem to have more authority than if he used sanitized language. At least, I imagine it is that way for some readers.

Uncertain whether you want to read One More Thing? Try the first story "The Rematch" which is about the hare wanting the tortoise to give him another chance to race. It is a clever piece that points out that stories never really end, that there is always something next. Novak shows a bit of what he will dish out in heavier doses in later stories.

Novak, B. J. One More Thing: Stories and More Stories. Knopf, 2014. 276p. ISBN 9780385351836.

The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History by Elizabeth Kolbert

Throughout most of Earth's history, the rate of species extinction has been very slow. For mammals, it has been calculated as one species disappears once every 700 years. This is such a slow process that no human could notice. In extraordinary times, many species die off rapidly. Our planet's fossil records suggest that this has happened five times in the distant past, most recently when an asteroid slammed into the Yucatan Peninsula sixty-six million years ago, killing off the dinosaurs. According to science journalist Elizabeth Kolbert, we are again in an extraordinary time, as many species are disappearing. She explains in The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History.

The idea of extinction is historically new, first proposed by French naturalist Georges Cuvier two hundred years ago to explain fossils that resembled no living animals. Up to that point, scientists and people in general had assumed that all life was current, abundant, and inexhaustible. (Some people still believe this despite the many cases of specific extinctions that have been proven.) Once the extinction idea was accepted, scientist identified five mass extinctions, but the explanations for these were not clear. Some appeared to have resulted from quick and catastrophic environmental events, such as monstrous volcanoes or asteroids. Our current extinction seems to be caused by environmental changes brought on by the actions of humans.

In each chapter of The Sixth Extinction, Kolbert recounts the disappearance of a species or genus or even a family of animals or plants. She describes her visits all over the planet with scientists in the field who are documenting the disappearance of frogs, mastodons, ammonites, giant auks and other flightless birds, Neanderthals, and coral reefs. Some of the missing were hunted to extinction. Non-native species or diseases introduced by humans did in others. Fossil-fuel-created global warming is the newest threat.

Comments about The Sixth Extinction from our church book club were mostly positive. Many agreed that the subject is ultimately depressing but the book is fair and very readable. It will surely be on many of the best books lists that should proliferate soon.

Kolbert, Elizabeth. The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History. Henry Holt and Company, 2014. 319p. ISBN 9780805092998.

Lives in Ruins: Archaeologists and the Seductive Lure of Human Rubble by Marilyn Johnson

Having enjoyed The Dead Beat and This Book is Overdue, books about obituary writers and librarians, I am a Marilyn Johnson fan. She is making her mark investigating professions that attract people more interested in discovery of facts than in their salaries. Her third book is Lives in Ruins: Archaeologists and the Seductive Lure of Human Rubble. Many have dreamed of careers in archaeology. Johnson's new book reveals the lives that they might have led.

Thanks to real archaeologists such as Howard Carter and Louis Leakey and fictional characters Amelia Peabody and Indiana Jones, many people think of archaeology as an exciting career. It can be, but the dramatic action rarely requires jumping from a horse onto a speeding train. Instead, the allure of archaeology comes from discovering revealing fragments of past cultures in the forms of pieces of pottery, buttons, old coins, building foundations, and human bones. In the field, archaeologists spend much of their time on the ground with a trowel and brushes, gently removing items from the soil, recording every possible fact about their locations.

If you had become an archaeologist, you might have traveled all over the world to collect artifacts, or you might have become involved in emergency investigations of real estate properties before building construction. In either case, you would have been sporadically employed, unless you were one of the lucky few to land academic positions. Many of the people Johnson profiles have had to hold second jobs or create their own foundations to investigate neglected historical sites. They are a fascinating group.

Armchair travelers will enjoy Lives in Ruins, as Johnson takes readers around the world, often to almost secret locations. They will also experience uncomfortable working conditions (not recommended for the claustrophobic) and attend professional conferences. It is as close as many of us will get to living the dream.

Johnson, Marilyn. Lives in Ruins: Archaeologists and the Seductive Lure of Human Rubble. Harper, 2014. 274p. ISBN 9780062127181.

Bowling for Christmas and Other Tales from the Road by Mark Dvorak

Here's more about folksinger Mark Dvorak, who plays at many venues in the Chicago area, including libraries. He also writes poetry and essays. When he played at the Thomas Ford Memorial Library in September, he brought along copies of Bowling for Christmas and Other Tales from the Road. He sold them along with his CDs after the concert.

I got my copy weeks later by mail, when I had several other books to finish. When I caught up, I settled in and read the entertaining personal essays and poems over several days. They are much like Dvorak between songs in concert - pleasantly conversational. He speaks thoughtfully and with humor. He also tells good stories that illustrate the life of a full time folksinger who will go wherever he is hired. Most of the stories took place close to home, but he also made trips to Nebraska, West Virginia, and Finland.

Because a listener expressed interest in Dvorak's rendition of Lead Belly's "The Bourgeois Blues," Dvorak sent us a personally burned copies of his special tribute concert to the folk legend. The text from that concert is also in Bowling for Christmas and is called "Chasing the Great Lead Belly."

The essay that lends its title to the collection is the next to the last piece. In it, Dvorak tells about the people he met at a holiday concert in a nursing home. It bears rereading during the upcoming holidays.

Dvorak, Mark. Bowling for Christmas and Other Tales from the Road. Denim Press, 2013. 120p. ISBN 9781619276819.

My Wild Life: A Memoir of Adventures within America's National Parks by Roland H. Wauer

Readers with a taste for books about national parks and wildlife will know Roland H. Wauer for his 25 books and many articles published in journals, such as Southwestern Naturalist, Condor, and Summit Magazine. His titles are often very specifically focused on wildlife of a park or region. He has long had an interest in birds and recently has devoted much time and writing to butterflies. When I read The American Robin four years ago, I learned that he had been a ranger with the National Park Service, but I never realized how varied and important his work for the service had been. He recounts his career in My Wild Life: A Memoir of Adventures within America's National Parks.

For most of his career, Wauer had a job that most of us can only dream about. He spent many of his days hiking park lands, sighting, identifying, counting, and recording the birds and other wildlife along paths that he would retrace in another two weeks or a month. He also presented countless ranger talks and led park visitors along trails in some of America's most beautiful places. He also got to meet and work with leading naturalists to learn how to protect those places and their natural inhabitants. He must have suffered hot, cold, wet, sunburn, mosquito-bites, and soreness, but he does not complain about the physical hardships.

Wauer's biggest troubles were bureaucratic and political. He mentions them slightly without brooding in his mostly chronological account of his career, which began at Crater Lake National Park in 1957 and lasted until 1989 after he worked for three years in the Virgin Islands. Most of the time in between was spent in parks, like Death Valley, Zion, Big Bend, and the Great Smoky Mountains. For about five years during the Carter and Reagan administrations, he worked at park headquarters in Washington, DC, from which he was sent to many international conferences.

You know a book is effective when it moves you to action. Since having finished reading My Wild Life, I have read more of Wauer's books, worked on my bird lists, and pledged to visit more national parks, especially Big Bend. I read from an uncorrected proof. I look forward to seeing the finished book with Wauer's color photos.

Wauer, Roland H. My Wild Life: A Memoir of Adventures within America's National Parks. Texas Tech University Press, 2014. 288p. ISBN 9780896728851.

Mr. Putter & Tabby Turn the Page by Cynthia Rylant and illustrated by Arthur Howard

It is so nice to see Mr. Putter and his cat Tabby. I had not seen them for years, and it is all my fault. They have been enjoying their calm, sweet day-to-day lives for decades now, and they are just the same as they have ever been. When Bonnie brought home Mr. Putter and Tabby Turn the Page by Cynthia Rylant and illustrated by Arthur Howard, I realized what I have been missing.

I think Mr. Putter and I are becoming more alike every year. He loves gardening and seeing friends and knows that there is nothing better than sitting in a comfortable chair with a cat in your lap. Tabby is such a sweet and tolerant cat. Our cat Caramel would never agree to go to story time at the library and let children pet her, but Tabby is remarkable. She even likes books about dogs!

It is Mrs. Teaberry's dog Zeke who causes a bit of trouble at the library, but it all turned out well. You should read about it in Mr. Putter and Tabby Turn the Page.

Ryland, Cynthia and Arthur Howard. Mr. Putter and Tabby Turn the Page. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2014. ISBN 9780152060633.

The Forgotten Founding Father: Noah Webster's Obsession and the Creation of an American Culture by Joshua Kendall

Noah Webster was a know-it-all who was always certain that he was right. He was also awkward in social situations. It is not surprising that he had very few real friends. Even time has been cruel to him. Most modern readers think that his more famous cousin Daniel Webster wrote the renowned An American Dictionary of the English Language. Biographer Joshua Kendall address this misconception and the misunderstood character of a polymath in The Forgotten Founding Father: Noah Webster's Obsession and the Creation of an American Culture.

Ironically, Webster was most popular when he was little known or even anonymous. Though Kendall labels him a founding father, he was only involved in one military campaign during the American Revolution and spent most of the war as a student, sometimes in a school displaced by enemy occupation. He was unsuccessful in landing diplomatic assignments upon graduation. He did, however, impress both George Washington and Benjamin Franklin with his ideas for forming an American culture by rejected elements of British language. He was chosen soon by Washington to edit the Federalist newspaper American Minerva. In the political realm, Webster made his strongest mark as the writer of patriotic and persuasive essays published in newspapers of New England and New York. In keeping with the time, he signed many with pseudonyms, such as Honorius.

The idea for writing a dictionary came late to Webster, after his early success in writing spelling and grammar books for schools and then his many failed efforts in literature, business, and public service. Few scholars supported his dictionary, arguing that Samuel Johnson's old dictionary was all that was needed, but Webster worked for over twenty years compiling a dictionary anyway. His family suffered more than he did from the want of stable finances.

In The Forgotten Founding Father, Kendall entertainingly reveals the world of the early United States and a character who should be remembered. If you enjoy this book, you should also try the author's biography of another polymath, The Man Who Made Lists: Love, Death, Madness, and the Creation of Roget's Thesarus.

Kendall, Joshua. The Forgotten Founding Father: Noah Webster's Obsession and the Creation of an American Culture. G. P. Putnam's Sons, 2010. 355p. ISBN 9780399156991.

Charles and Emma: The Darwin's Leap of Faith by Deborah Heiligman

Emma Wedgewood knew the situation when she married Charles Darwin. She was a Christian who believed in God, Jesus, and the afterlife. He was a skeptic who preferred being called an agnostic to an atheist. Charles said that he had an open mind. Emma counted on it. In fact, she insisted on it. They married and maintained respect for each others views. He sometimes attended church with her, while she read and commented on all his scientific papers, even those that explained evolution of species though natural selection. How they remained happily married until Charles' death (43 years) is the story told by Deborah Heiligman in Charles and Emma: The Darwin's Leap of Faith.

I listened to Charles and Emma on an audio download read by Rosalyn Landor never guessing that the book is considered juvenile literature and shelved in the youth or teen sections in libraries. The content is for mature readers, as the author includes detailed scientific and theological content. I never found it simplified. I was instead charmed by the story that was both serious and sometimes sweet.

Throughout the story I admired the patience and care shown by two people with profound differences. I wish the rest of us could learn this lesson.

Heiligman, Deborah. Charles and Emma: The Darwin's Leap of Faith. Henry Holt, 2009. 268p. ISBN 9780805087215.

Audiobook: Random House/Listening Library, 2009. 6 compact discs. ISBN 9780739380499.

Libraries in the Ancient World by Lionel Casson

The origins of libraries are as vague as the evolution of living species. Just when did a room full of clay tablets transform from an accounting office into a library? We will never really know because the evidence is lost. Whoever first kept a collection of documents other than sales receipts, perhaps a collection of letters, epitaphs, or royal proclamations, would not have foreseen the implications of his action. In Libraries in the Ancient World, Lionel Casson reports the first known library was in Nippur in southern Mesopotamia where archeologists have found a group of clay tablets dating from the third millennium BCE that served as a sort of reference collection; they listed geographical places and names of the gods, identified professions, offered exercises for improving writing skills, and recorded lyrics of hymns.

In the majority of chapters of Libraries in the Ancient World, Casson focuses on libraries from ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome, providing cities and dates, describing buildings, and reporting on collections. He also comments on what is known about the librarians and their staffs and what services were provided for readers. There was often a library catalogue, though it might be more of a chronological accession list on a tablet or scroll. Zenodotus at the library of Alexandria appears to have invented alphabetization. Some libraries inscribed the titles they held into the stone walls.

Through much of the ancient times, books were collections of papyrus or parchment scrolls that were either stacked on nooks or kept in buckets. Library staff usually brought groups of scrolls to the reader. No self-service. When codices (flat books made of papyrus or parchment between covers of wood or ivory) began to be used, librarians had to reorganize to shelve them. Libraries had to keep both scrolls and codices were centuries as the adaptation to the new technology was very slow. (Imagine that we still needed to keep 8 mm films and 8-track tapes in our public libraries.)

Where libraries got their books is a major topic in Casson's book. Remember that their was no printing press in the ancient world. Everything was handwritten. Usually authors wrote single copies for whatever purpose they had, and they would let others make copies. Of course, scholars did not have time to transcribe, so they assigned the work to their slaves. Libraries might acquire titles as gifts from authors or the scholars who had copies made, or the libraries assigned their own slaves to make copies. Libraries benefited greatly when local generals sacked other cities and brought back the books. In later periods there were bookstores, but copies of books made for profit were known to have more transcription errors. Libraries did not want hastily-made bookstore copies if there was any other choice.

Collecting books, cataloguing them, loaning them to readers, and adapting to changes in technology. We are still doing what we have always done. Check it out.

Casson, Lionel. Libraries in the Ancient World. Yale University Press, 2001. 177p. ISBN 9780300097214.

Last Chain on Billie: How One Extraordinary Elephant Escaped the Big Top by Carol Bradley

The campaign to educate the public about the ethical treatment of animals has been long and difficult. Humankind has not been kind to the rest of the animal world. Many people believed that people had the assignment from God to dominate and use animals however they chose. Anyone who argued against this position was belittled as either soft or radical. Still, a growing concern for the treatment of animals has grown over time. In this light, journalist Carol Bradley recounts the relationship of humans and elephants in her recent book Last Chain on Billie: How One Extraordinary Elephant Escaped the Big Top.

Like Topsy, Last Chain on Billie is a book that will challenge many readers to rethink their love of circuses. Our American society has uncritically celebrated the fun of attending traveling animal shows since the early 19th century. From the beginning their have been dissenters who have reported on the harsh treatment of elephants and other animals by circus trainers. Topsy tells how the reports were ignored. Last Chain on Billie recounts some of the that story and brings us to the present, a time at which the reform cause has advanced but has still not stopped the abuse of elephants.

What is shocking in this book? First, the stories of training elephants as young as six weeks old to do tricks that endanger their health. Second, how hardhearted circus owners and employees, such as John Cuneo, can be; many insist that elephants enjoy their lives in chains. It sounds much like the argument for 19th century slavery. Third, how often the U.S. Department of Agriculture has failed to act when it has much clear evidence of violations of animal protection laws.

Last Chain on Billie is a surprisingly positive book in spite of the history of elephant abuse. The author recounts the increasing effective efforts of individuals and nonprofit organizations to expose cruelty to animals. Through the stories of individual circus and zoo elephants, Bradley shows how intelligent and loyal these animals are and tells how they can recover. Her book is definitely one with a mission.

Bradley, Carol. Last Chain on Billie: How One Extraordinary Elephant Escaped the Big Top. St. Martin's Press, 2014. 320p. ISBN 9781250025692.

Gus & Me: The Story of My Granddad and My First Guitar by Keith Richards and Illustrated by Theodora Richards

Sweet is not an adjective that many people would apply to Rolling Stones founding member Keith Richards. They might reconsider after reading Gus and Me: The Story of My Granddad and My First Guitar by Richards and his daughter illustrator Theodora, a children's book about a boy and his grandfather.

As a Baby Boomer who has listened to my share of Rolling Stones songs, I was charmed by this story that tells how Richards became a musician. His musical interest was inspired by his warm and attentive grandfather Gus, who introduced the boy to many instruments and musical genre. When Keith was able to play "Malaguena" on guitar, Gus told him "I think you're getting the hang of it." A career was launched.

I like the book's illustrations which blend bands of color into pen and ink drawings. They move from page to page, carrying the narrative forward. I also like how I had to turn the book 90 degrees for one two-page spread. Gus and Me is fun to read.

Gus and Me comes with a compact disc of Richards happily reading the book with a little of his own guitar accompaniment. Be sure to listen.

Richards, Keith. Gus and Me: The Story of My Granddad and My First Guitar. Megan Tingly Books, 2014. ISBN 9780316320658.

The Sapphires, a film by Wayne Blair

Bonnie and I have been watching the British comedy Moone Boy on our local PBS station. One of the standout characters is Martin Moone's imaginary friend Sean Murphy, played by Chris O'Dowd. O'Dowd is also creator of the program. If you have also been watching and would like to see more of O'Dowd, try the 2012 Australian film The Sapphires, an entertaining musical look back at the 1960s.

The story line is that four talented aboriginal girls from a small town outside Melbourne form a singing group hoping for fame and fortune. O'Dowd is Dave Lovelace, the promoter who discovers them and suggests that they switch from singing country songs to Motown soul so they can tour American military bases in Vietnam in 1968. The premise may sound a little far-fetched, but the story is inspired by a true story. Of course, the film producers do not actually tell the true story, changing many of the most important details, but they do capture the sound and look of the time. (Disregard the 1970s Tupperware that appears at a sales party.)

The Sapphires is promoted as a comedy, but it has some serious content. The group is in danger in a war zone, of course, but more critical to the story are scenes in the Australian outback, where they are put down by whites as sub-human. We even see government officials taking away light-skinned children to raise as whites. Comedy and romance, however, dominate. The funniest scenes are those in which the girls learn to sing with soul under O'Dowd's direction.

My library showed The Sapphires in its film discussion series. Attendance was small but we had a great discussion. Everyone said that they were glad they came.

On the Wing by David Elliott with Illustrations by Becca Stadtlander

There are several ways that one may read On the Wing by David Elliott.

As an adult who reads everything at hand, one can zip right through this thin book of poetry for children in ten minutes or less.

As an adult who appreciates clever poetry and beautiful illustrations, one can pleasantly linger and absorb.

As a birdwatcher, one can study the shapes and colorful markings of the birds.

As an adult reading aloud to children, there can be the joy of sharing well-chosen words with eager listeners, committing poems to memory, and looking at the artful illustrations with younger eyes. I can imagine On the Wing becoming a favorite for naptime or bedtime.

Elliott, David. On the Wing. Candlewick Press, 2014. ISBN 9780763653248.

The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin

I tend to be like A. J. Fikry. I often dismiss many new books as just something somebody made up, and I avoid bestsellers. There are just so many redundant romances, zombie stories, suspense novels, depressing memoirs, and such. So, you would not expect that I would try and like the bestseller The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry: A Novel, but I did and do. It is witty, unpredictable, and speaks to me about what I have seen in the world of books from my role as a librarian. Plus, Fikry is a lovable character behind an antisocial mask.

I am better-behaved and less eccentric than Fikry. If you know me, you might say I nothing like the bookseller. But I identify with him anyway. And I can imagine being just as cranky if publishers' sales reps dropped in to promote all their new books. Like most people I know, I dislike telephone calls from anyone trying to sell to me, and I am not the model of hospitality when salespeople show up uninvited.

Like many of us, Fikry is much nicer once you get to know him. In fact, he is incredibly generous to the people who fill his life. That's what the book is about. I bet we can identify some A. J. Fikrys in our own neighborhoods if we try.

Zevin, Gabrielle. The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry: A Novel. Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2014. 260p. ISBN 9781616203214.

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.

Humans of New York by Brandon Stanton

I did not plan this. Bonnie brought home Eye to Eye: Photographs by Vivian Maier (see previous review) just about the time I brought home Humans of New York by Brandon Stanton. I did not see a connection at first. They were just two books on a bookshelf. Then the obvious struck me: they are both books of street photography!

The photographers and their books have some obvious differences, of course. Maier was born in New York and moved to Chicago where she took black-and-white photographs in the 1950s to 1970s. Stanton was born in Chicago and moved to New York where he took color photographs starting in 2010. Maier was secretive, never showing her work. Stanton posts his on his Humans of New York website and his Facebook page. They would be like night and day, except for their ability to get expressive photographs of people.

Readers find more stories in Stanton's Humans of New York. He seems to have talked with many of his subjects and add quotes on or to the side of the photographs. Because the images are colorful and often humorous or beautiful, readers may be more inclined to want to visit 21st century New York than time travel to mid-20th century Chicago. I enjoyed recognizing Central Park, Times Square, the Met, and other New York locations in some photos. The majority, however, are in the neighborhoods of the city.

The HONY website was unavailable a few days ago but is now back featuring Stanton's photos of the Ukraine and India and other countries on his World Tour. I hope another book results. I like that many of the best photos from his archives have been collected in the Humans of New York book. I hope it lasts in libraries for a long time.

Stanton, Brandon. Humans of New York. St. Martins Press, 2013. ISBN 9781250038821.

Eye to Eye: Photographs by Vivian Maier

Two sides of Vivian Maier are on display in Eye to Eye: Photographs by Vivian Maier, the third collection of the photographer's work to be published since her death in 2009. The first is the Maier who seems to have asked permission to photograph people along city streets or in parks in Chicago, New York, or on vacations abroad. The second Maier is the woman who was bound to get photographs of people who interested her with or without permission. No matter which Maier was working at the time, the result was sharp images of people looking into her camera.

Not all of the subjects look pleased, of course. The girl getting out of the car in Wilmette (page 153) looks like she was starting to yell at Maier. I imagine the woman in on the street in Lake Forest (page 201) was thinking "Why won't this person leave me alone?" But there are just as many smiles. The young woman waiting for a train in Chicago (page 167) looks jolly and the older woman in Sandwich, Illinois, (page 203) seems about to laugh.

The subjects were not all women. There were blue collar workers, homeless men, children, and families. From France, Italy, and Malaysia, there were farmers, shopkeepers, mothers with children, and even what I assume were holy men. Not having Maier here to tell us who the people were, we are free to imagine their lives and stations.

The photos were taken between the 1950s and the 1970s, and all are in black-and-white. All have labels saying simply a city or country and an approximate year. In a few the background is indistinct, but many have identifiable settings as well as people. Chicago area residents may be able to pinpoint exactly where Maier stood when she took her photos. The images help us remember or imagine times past, depending on our ages.

It would be so cool to discover someone you knew in Eye to Eye or other books by Maier. Unless, of course, they looked very unhappy in the photos.

Maier, Vivian. Eye to Eye: Photographs by Vivian Maier. CityFiles Press, 2014. 207p. ISBN 9780991541805.

In a Rocket Made of Ice: Among the Children of Wat Opot by Gail Gutradt

My daughter Laura and her husband Luke just went to Cambodia as part of their honeymoon tour of Southeast Asia. Both are very interested in places and people far and near, and I await to hear what they saw. In the meantime, I read In a Rocket Made of Ice: Among the Children of Wat Opot by Gail Gutradt, the author's observations as a volunteer in a what started as an AIDS hospital but evolved into a home for children orphaned by AIDS. Set between 2005 and 2012, Gutradt saw numerous young Cambodians grow and leave the safety of Wat Opot to join in the effort to rebuild their country. She also saw many children die from AIDS.

Much of the book is about the children who receive shelter, educations, and (if necessary) antiretroviral drugs at Wat Opot. Gutradt tells their various stories from the viewpoint of a caregiver. Readers can not help but feel close to their plights.

Gutradt worked alongside a Wat Opot founder, Wayne Dale Matthysse, who as a medic in the Vietnam War witnessed many atrocities. His work among the poor of Cambodia is in some sense an act of contrition as well as a bold experiment in charity. He is a sort of laid-back Mother Theresa who has thrown off religious proselytizing. Jesus and Buddha get equal billing at the center. Gutradt writes lovingly of Matthysse's work without minimizing the difficult ethical decisions he makes daily.

Cambodia is still struggling to recover from the mass murder of the Pol Pot regime and the worldwide AIDS epidemic. Though antiretroviral drugs have slowed the epidemic and let many Cambodians live somewhat normal lives, the disease is still a grave concern. Cambodia relies on foreign aid to provide AIDS care, but funding is shrinking in the wake of economic recession and greater military spending. Growing resistance to the drug treatments also threatens the current stability.

In a Rocket Made of Ice gives us a thoughtful glance at lives far different from ours with equal doses of hope and concern. It would be an excellent choice for issues-driven book clubs.

Gutradt, Gail. In a Rocket Made of Ice: Among the Children of Wat Opot. Alfred A.Knopf, 2014. 322p. ISBN 9780385353472.

A Curious Man: The Strange and Brilliant Life of Robert "Believe It or Not" Ripley by Neal Thompson

I have never subscribed to a newspaper running Ripley's Believe It or Not strips on its comic page. I thought the strip had probably ceased and was surprised to learn that it is still being published. According to the Ripley Entertainment Inc., the strip begun in the 1920s is still in hundreds of newspapers in over forty countries. You may also see daily strips on the website. There are also Ripley books, videos, podcasts, museums, and aquariums. All of this is the legacy of a strange, mostly forgotten man who died in 1949.

In his book A Curious Man: The Strange and Brilliant Life of Robert "Believe It or Not" Ripley, Neal Thompson tells about Robert Leroy Ripley, who was born in 1890 in Santa Rosa, California, home city of the church built from one tree (which was featured in an early Believe It or Not strip). He was know as Leroy or Roy as a child and was very impressed by sports heroes. Never very studious at school, he spent much of his time drawing; one teacher took pity on him, letting him substitute drawings for essays as long as they were on the assigned topics. This illustration work prepared him to be a sports cartoonist. Thompson tells how Ripley landed cartooning jobs at newspapers in San Francisco and New York. While overseas covering Olympic games and other international sports events, he collected odd facts and occasionally drew them into his cartoons. A strong response to these special strips led to his changing the focus of his work, eventually emphasizing bizarre stories and facts. As his popularity rose, he was asked to lecture, which led to vaudeville, which led to radio, which led to films, which led to television. Like Bob Hope or Will Rogers, he became a celebrity in many mediums.

Though the rags-to-riches story is admirable, Thompson's description of Ripley is not very attractive. The cartoonist stuttered, had buck teeth, dressed in flashy clothes, and was always very compulsive. Most importantly, he seemed to have had many habits and prejudices that look especially bad in hindsight. Even in his day, he was criticized for the sensational quality of his cartoons and radio broadcast, but he was very popular with the general public. I can see why modern defenders of broadcast media and entertainment might want us to forget the real Mr. Ripley, but newspapers and broadcast networks prospered featuring his low entertainment for decades.

I listened to A Curious Man read by veteran audiobook narrator Marc Cashman. The celebrity story never bogs down in the telling, as the text keeps introducing new phases of Ripley's varied life. It is a bit sad at the end, but many biographies are.

Thompson, Neal. A Curious Man: The Strange and Brilliant Life of Robert "Believe It or Not" Ripley. Crown Publishers, 2013.

Audiobook. Books on Tape, 2013. 10 compact discs. ISBN 9780385366373.

Naturalist's Big Bend: An Introduction to the Trees and Shrubs, Wildflowers, Cacti, Mammals, Birds, Reptiles and Amphibians, Fish, and Insects by Roland H. Wauer

The title pretty much says it all. Naturalist's Big Bend: An Introduction to the Trees and Shrubs, Wildflowers, Cacti, Mammals, Birds, Reptiles and Amphibians, Fish, and Insects by Roland H. Wauer is a great model of the kind of book you will find in National Park Service bookstores. It provides a history of Big Bend National Park and identifies many of the plants and animals in the park - with hints where to find them. It will be very helpful to have read when I finally make it to the park.

The surprise here is that I grew up in West Texas and never went to Big Bend. The distances in that region are vast, but that really is not a good excuse. I should have made an effort as an adult to go before now. I still don't have a plan to get there, but I am thinking of it more and more. There is so much there to see, as the author tells us.

In the chapter on fish, there is a great story about the saving of the only population of Big Bend Gambusia on the planet. I have heard the story before about how the fish were all captured and moved into a safe pool until their own pond could be cleared of invading species. I was happy to read Wauer's account, which included a bit about his role.

There are many birds and wildflowers, as well as cacti, reptiles, and insects in Big Bend. Wauer's observations make the litanies of plant and animal species enjoyable.

You may notice if you read this blog that I have been highlighting books from the University of Texas Press recently. This book is from the rival Texas A & M University Press. It appears they both have a tradition of publishing useful natural history titles. I need to retire so I can read more of them and travel to some of the great parks described.

Wauer, Roland H. Naturalist's Big Bend: An Introduction to the Trees and Shrubs, Wildflowers, Cacti, Mammals, Birds, Reptiles and Amphibians, Fish, and Insects. Texas A & M University Press, 1980, 1973. 149p. ISBN 0890960704.

Return of the Whooping Crane by Robin W. Doughty

I am very glad I borrowed and read Return of the Whooping Crane by Robin W. Doughty. While the book is at this point 25 years old and there must be more of the whooping crane story to tell, I was totally absorbed by the details of the story from which I come to two conclusions

The first is that whooping cranes in the wild are not really saved yet. There is stability in that the flock that migrates between the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge in Texas and Wood Buffalo National Park in Alberta and the Northwest Territories has in recent decades constantly grown. It was up to 278 cranes in 2011 (International Crane Foundation) There were at the same time 321 whooping cranes in other locations, including preserves, zoos, and a recent East Coast migratory flock. But the Florida non-migratory flock is shrinking, and the Rocky Mountain flock has already failed.

The second point is that it is really difficult to reintroduce cranes to the wild. Doughty documents years of trying to get sandhill cranes to foster whoopers to start that Rocky Mountain flock. The sandhill parents usually did well-enough to hatch and raise the whooping crane chicks, but mature whooping cranes never seemed to mate even when they found each other. Also, many birds raised in captivity and released into the wild died in bad weather, in accidents with electric lines, or in predation by wolves, coyotes, foxes, cougars, and eagles. At least for whooping cranes through 1989, reintroductions resulted in more dead cranes than survivors.

Despite these difficulties, Return of the Whooping Crane is a hopeful book. It tells how laws were passed just in time to stop the feather trade and how low the world's population fell. It recounts extreme efforts by conservationists in the U.S. and Canada over many decades to save the species. It also tells much about crane biology and behavior and includes many beautiful color photographs of whooping cranes. This beautiful book is dated but succeeds still in instilling appreciation and devotion for the cranes.

Doughty, Robin W. Return of the Whooping Crane. University of Texas Press, 1989. 182p. ISBN 0292790414.

The Opium War: Drugs, Dreams, and the Making of Modern China by Julia Lovell

In 1839, the British Empire was ruled by a monarch from a German family while China was ruled by Manchurians who invaded the empire several centuries before. From their palaces with little true appreciation for what they asked, both rulers directed diplomats and generals to secure territory and wealth. A trip by sea from London to China took about six months, and there was no faster means of communication. Because diplomats were bound to their monarchs' bidding, even when the tasks were unwise and next to impossible, respectful negotiations were improbable. Mix in the greed of British and Chinese merchants, and readers discover the plot of the Opium Wars for 1839-1842 and 1856-1860.

Most modern readers from Europe or America know very little about these wars, according to historian Julia Lovell in her new book, The Opium War: Drugs, Dreams, and the Making of Modern China. Few readers studied these nineteenth century conflicts in their schools. Many are truly shocked to learn that the British Empire insisted that the China buy its opium from India, and when the Chinese emperor said no - the official Chinese position was to discourage the use of the narcotic drug - the British sent its navy to level coastal cities and slaughter many Chinese soldiers and citizens.

Nearly every Chinese citizen alive after the Communist takeover of the late 1940s, on the other hand, has heard the Party's very slanted story about this unjust Western imperial violation of the Chinese nation. The example of the Opium Wars is at the foundation of Communist Party thinking about Western capitalism and is still very relevant today. The Party even used the Opium Wars to mask its own actions in 1989 in the aftermath of its killings at Tiananmen Square.

Some readers may find The Opium War challenging to read because of its many unfamiliar place and personal names. The author includes a roster of principle characters in the appendix, which I recommend to anyone wanting to distinguish Yan Fu from Yang Fang and Yijing from Yishan. I also commend the book to anyone wanting to learn about nineteenth century history for the sake of understanding the present.

Lovell, Julia. The Opium War: Drugs, Dreams, and the Making of Modern China. Overlook Presss, 2014. 480p. ISBN 9781468308952.