Books Blog : reviews, books

Ancient Gonzo Widsom: Interviews with Hunter S. Thompson

Bufkinite@evpl — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 21:56:00 GMT

I've been a Hunter S. Thompson fan since I read Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas back in college in 1973. The completely drug-soaked, high speed narration of a trip to Las Vega in search of "the American Dream," was a breakthrough, a new style of writing that I found entertaining and entralling.

Thompson's fame grew as he began applying his unique style to his correspondant reportage, beoming in the process the "Father of Gonzo Journalism," a style of journalism which is written subjectively, often including the reporter as part of the story via a manic first-person narrative. His first book of such reportage was Feath and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail 1972, his take on the Nixon/McGovern race for the White House.

He kept at it for years, as political and sports correspondent to Rolling Stone magazine, and published a raft of books compiling these articles periodically, usually to coincide with a particular presidential term in office. He must of sensed at a very early age that his writings would be sought-after, for he kept most of his correspondence, and began, with Pround Highway: Saga of a Desperate Southern Gentleman, 1955-67, to put most of these early letters between hard covers.

In the same vein Ancient Gozo Wisdom, compiled and edited by his widow, Anita Thompson, is a compilation of interviews, arranged chronologically from 1967 through May of 2005. The interviews range widely from the obscure (a 1972 interview on WBZ 1030 AM Radio in Boston) to the very well-known (an All Things Considered interview on NPR in 1997), and a host of magazine, radio, and television interviews in between. Topics covered include the publication of most of his books, correspondence he had with everyone from presidents to pop stars, his failed bid for sheriff of Woody Creek, Colorado, and his ruthlessly iconoclastic tendancies.

Anyone familiar with Thompson's life and writing will enjoy the reviews compiled here. Onward!

Recent Chick Lit Reads

KickinLibrarian@evpl — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 21:33:00 GMT

In the past few weeks since my last blog post, I have been on a chick-lit rampage. I have been speed-reading through recent releases like I don't have a hundred other things to do. Laundry piled up, kitchen didn't get cleaned, and packing for my move didn't happen. These three books are part of the reason that I have been slacking.

Prospect Park West by Amy Sohn takes place in Brooklyn's prosperous Park Slope neighborhood. The lives of four women intersect as they deal with husbands, children, and playground politics. Not earth-shattering reading, but worth a chance if you have the time.

Mercury in Retrograde by Paula Froelich has a cover strikingly similar to Prospect Park West. Froelich's novel takes place across the bridge in Manhattan where three women who are down on their luck join forces to get their lives back in order. The ending is pretty predictable, but it is an enjoyable read.

Going across the pond to England, Sophie Kinsella's latest book, Twenties Girl, introduces us to Sadie, a wild flapper from the 1920s and her great-niece, Lara, living in present-day London. Sadie has passed away alone in a retirement home, but her spirit remains on Earth pushing Lara to find who stole Sadie's prized possession. True to Kinsella form, this book is laugh out loud funny and highly recommended.

Happy Reading!

The Library: An Illustrated History by Stuart A. P. Murray

Bufkinite@evpl — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 23:01:00 GMT

This very readable and lavishly illustrated book is a survey of libraries, from the earliest gatherings of clay tablets in the library at Nineveh to the present grandeur of the Library of Congress. It is full of the characters of library history as well: from King Assurbanipal in 700 BCE, Mansa Musa, the sultan of Mali in Timbuktu in the 1300s, and the Mughal emperors Akbar in the late 1500s, to Thomas Bodley, Melvil Dewey, and Andrew Carnegie. All of themhave anecdotes attached to them which help to illustrate and flesh out the development and evolution of those institutions we call libraries today.

The Library: An Illustrated History tends to focus on Europe and the United States, but spends a chapter discussing Asia and Islam and their influence on the history of the book and libraries, and another, called "People of the Book," discussing the interplay between Judaism, Christianity, and Islam in the history of library development.

One of the themes running through this book is how the libraries of the victors are enlarged and enriched throughout history by the pillaging of the libraries of the vanquished. The Bibliotheque nationale de France, the Vatican Library, and the British Library have all broadened their substantial collections in this fashion. Another theme mentioned frequently was how war influenced which ideas were given currency in a given culture and time: "It was usually the sword that decided whose teachings would be supreme in any given land."

In this regard, this book compliments the message in Matthew Battles's book Library: An Unquiet History, but that book is only marginally illustrated, and does not bring the reader the wonderful survey of world libraries with which Murray's book ends. Anyone wanting a good overview of library history would find their time well spent reading this book.

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

KickinLibrarian@evpl — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 14:04:00 GMT

When I went home a little while back, I saw a copy of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn in my little sister's room. Feeling a bit nostalgic, I went home and started reading the battered copy on my bookshelf. I don't know how many times I have read this book (almost as many as Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird), but I always come away feeling like I have just read it for the first time.

Betty Smith published A Tree Grows in Brooklyn in 1943 and it was an immediate success. The story focuses around Francie Nolan, a young girl growing up in the early twentieth century with a fun-loving, but alcoholic father, realistic mother, and younger brother. Struggling against poverty and isolation from her peers, Francie finds solace in the library where she plans to read every book in the collection. The story continues over the next five years of Francie's life. Her struggle to gain her mother's love, her desire to better her own life, and finding love are all issues that Francie encounters growing up in Brooklyn.

I don't want to give away too much of the story for those of you that haven't read it because A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is a book that I believe everyone should read at least once. Francie and her family have struggles that many people can relate to, and you can't help but wish to be the friend Francie so desperately needed. If you are wandering around the library one day searching for something to read, remember to grab a copy of this book.

Lost Boy by Brent W. Jeffs

Bufkinite@evpl — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 22:08:00 GMT

Anyone familiar with John Krakauer's book Under the Banner of Heaven will be familiar with the polygamous, Fundamentalist Church of the Latter Day Saints (FLDS). In that book Krakauer recounts how religious polygamy was often used as a cover for pedophilia, and how anyone who questioned the motives of the church leaders often paid in "blood atonement."

The last name of the author of Lost Boy, Jeffs, may be familiar to anyone who has followed the saga of the FLDS, which has been in the news a lot in the past five years. Warren Jeffs, the "prophet" of this splinter cult off of the mainstream Mormon church, is the uncle of the author. The author's grandfather, Rulon Jeffs, was the "prophet" before him, and this book recounts the power struggles that took place within the FLDS, as well as the power struggles that went on within his own family - his father had three wives and 12 children, a small family by FLDS standards.

In a church like the FLDS, where men are guaranteed a "seat in the Kingdom" when they achieve "a quorum," or three wives, young men tend to be seen as "in the way" by older men in looking to complete their quorum with younger - often much younger - women.

The book is divided into four sections called "Before," "During," "After," and "Fighting Back." Brent Jeffs recounts how, as a very young child - just a boy of six or seven - he was forcibly and brutally raped by Warren Jeffs, as were at least two of his brothers. He recounts how young men were singled out for "discipline" for the slightest infractions, and made to feel like they didn't and couldn't belong to the church because of their unsanctified ways.

He recounts how, upon assuming the mantle of leadership of the FLDS, Warren Jeffs began to transform it from a faith - a fringe faith, yes, but a faith - into a cult. Outlawing such small things as pet dogs, the color red, any sort of clothing that was "worldly," and a host of other everyday things like videos of popular television shows like The Simpsons, or name brand clothing or running shoes.

He recounts how his own father was expelled from the the church by his brother, and the life they led trying to keep at least part of their family together. (Warren Jeffs had the authority to "reassign" the wives of expelled church members, and broke up hundreds of families this way in his struggle to maintain power.) He details his and his brothers slide into alcoholism and drug addiction, as they became marginalized from the only community they'd ever known.

Finally though, we are told about his long struggle to return to sanity, and even to filing a Civil suit in 2004 accusing Jeffs of abusing him.

Ultimately, this book is an uplifting look at how people can find happiness and meaning in life, even those who have had truly horrific and demeaning experiences.

Link to the segment of NPR's "Fresh Air" where Terry Gross interviews Brent Jeffs.

The Ripest Moments by Norbert Krapf

Bufkinite@evpl — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 19:00:00 GMT

The Ripest Moments is a simple pleasure to read. While reading this memoir of growing up in the 40s and 50s in Jasper and rural Dubois County, Indiana, I found myself reminded over and over again of my own childhood in northern Indiana, and the cousins, aunts, and uncles we'd often visit in Ohio and West Virginia.

While this is primarily a book about place, and family, it's also a book about community, and the work ethic that built communities like Jasper - and like Evansville, for that matter - with materials and stock that, in the author's words, were "one generation removed from the farm, two or three generations removed from Germany, and a hundred years beyond the wilderness."

As the title suggests, there's quite a bit remembered about the importance of gardens, orchards, and farms in this book. Family garden plots were central to the survival of pre-suburban, working families. "Summers on the Farm," "The Rye Field," and "The Garden and the Strawberry Patch" are just a few of the more mouth-watering chapters.

If you were born & raised in southern Indiana, you'll find something familiar, and likely something warm, in this book. But even if you're a transplant, this book may speak to you. Quoting the author's preface: "I have always believed that any story set deeply in one time and place, if told well, speaks for other times, places, and people. To put it another way, a sense of time and place travels well. A life lived deeply anywhere resonates beyond the context of its specifics."

This one resonated with me.

The author's website.

Torture: Does It Make Us Safer? Is It Ever OK?: A Human Rights Perspective

Bufkinite@evpl — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 21:41:00 GMT

While I find it appalling on so many levels that we even need a such a book as this in the 21st Century US, I'm glad that I had the chance to read this. Torture is divided into two sections, the first being about international torture - it's history, putative usefulness, the exporting of torture from one country to another, the long-term effects of torture on its victims and perpetrators, and negotiating with torturers - and the second being about torture in the United States - including essays on practices banned by the State Department (but nevertheless recently authorized by the Department of Defense), command responsibility for torture, and torture in US prisons.

A particularly moving chapter, for me, was the one on the need to respect the Geneva Conventions (dismissed by former Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld as "quaint") written by Senator John McCain, himself a victim of torture during the Vietnam War.

While not easy to read, the book clearly answers both rhetorical questions in the title with a resounding "NO!" and provides factual information and ammunition to those wanting to reclaim for the United States the moral high ground in the treatment of dissidents, prisoners of war, and other "enemies of the state."

Commencement

KickinLibrarian@evpl — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 17:47:00 GMT

It is sometimes hard to believe that I graduated from USI over five years ago. That may seem like no time at all for some people, but sometimes I still feel like I am 21 again. Sometimes I forget that I am a "grown-up" with a "grown-up" job and bills, house payments, etc. Many of my favorite memories involved my roommates and friends from college walking to class, throwing a frisbee outside the apartments, and staying up late to talk about the future.

When I read the premise behind Commencement by J. Courtney Sullivan, I knew I had to read it. After waiting a few weeks because of all the holds (I wish librarians got priority sometime!), I stayed up late in the night reading this book. I connected with the characters created by Sullivan because I could see a bit of myself, and my friends, in each of the four main characters.

Set in the late 1990s at Smith College, Celia, Sally, Bree, and April are put together as hall-mates. On first glance, the four seem to have nothing in common and have no desire to befriend one another. As they go through the early days of college, however, they learn to rely on one another and form a bond that lasts through their college years. The differences come to head in their early twenties as the four split off to separate lives.

At Sally's wedding a few years later, an argument occurs that leaves a rift between the four best friends. Gradually, they all begin to realize that life isn't as easy without each other and when one of the four goes missing, they come together to search for their missing link.

One of the best things about this book was that most of us can relate to an argument between friends. I just happened to get this book when one of my closest friends and I seemed to be constantly at odds. After reading Commencement, I realized that life without her wouldn't be the same and emailed her an apology. Growing up and getting older isn't simple, but it is easier to manage with great friends.

Love As Always, Kurt: Vonnegut As I Knew Him, by Loree Rackstraw

Bufkinite@evpl — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 06:21:00 GMT

In September of 1965 Lorree Rackstraw was a graduate student in her second year at the Iowa Writer's Workshop, apprehensive about her new teacher, a relatively unknown writer named Kurt Vonnegut. Vonnegut had published just three books: The Sirens of Titan, Mother Night, and Cat's Cradle. He'd also finished writing God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater the previous spring, and was struggling to get onto paper what he referred to as his "Dresden Book."

Love As Always, Kurt, recounts the friendship that began that summer, and lasted over 40 years, until Kurt Vonnegut died in April of 2007. To call it a friendship cheapens the care that this memoir makes clear they shared with one another. Rackstraw is now Professor Emeritus and the University of Northern Iowa & former editor of The North American Review.

This memoir of Rackstraw's forty-year relationship with Kurt Vonnegut is a very personal and deep look into both the human and the writer behind the name Kurt Vonnegut. We see clearly how, as a writer, he labors in draft after draft of everything he wrote from Slaughterhouse Five to Man Without a Country, and down to the speeches he gave at countless colleges, universities, graduations, and memorial services. We see, just as clearly, how he champions common humanity, and simultaneously enjoys the company of the famous and relatively well-to-do. We see how, despite periods of darkness and cynicism, this relationship buoyed Vonnegut, and provided Rackstraw with an escape from the pressures of her academic career as well.

We see, most plainly, a deep and abiding friendship that transcends all normal definitions. Was it love? Definitely. What it friendship? In the most useful meaning of the word, yes. But it was more: it was a collegial relationship - Vonnegut sent her page proofs of everything from Slaughterhouse Five forward; it was an intimate relationship, certainly: "Kurt and I toured the town of Key West, hand in hand like kids, and took photographs of each other beside somebody else's catch of a huge fish... Later, we danced barefoot under moonlight on that beach, to ragtime music from the piano bar;" and ultimately, it was a lifelong relationship, that saw a parting of the ways only in the death of one.

Being a long-time Vonnegut fan, I loved this book. It represents a first-hand account of four decades of his life by someone who he consistently loved, and who loved him in return. A tender portrait.

"The Angel's Game" by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

MediaPhile@evpl — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 04:13:00 GMT

If you read and enjoyed Ruiz's international bestseller "Shadow of the Wind," you should probably read his newest (and related) novel "The Angel's Game." This is the second in a series of novels that will all link back to the fictional Cemetery of Forgotten Books featured in "Shadow."

"Angel's Game," set in gothic 1920s Barcelona, centers around an impoverished pulp fiction writer, David Martin, who unwittingly sells his soul to the devil. He finds, of course, that he has made a terrible bargain and must pay a price.

The plot is labyrinthian. Either read this one really carefully the first time, or plan on reading it twice in order to grasp all the threads. I read it twice, and am glad I did.

The author's website is full of intriguing tidbits, including downloadable Barcelona wallpaper and original soundtrack music composed by the author.

The Wedding Girl

KickinLibrarian@evpl — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 14:54:00 GMT

Are you a fan of the Shopaholic Series by Sophie Kinsella? If so, let me introduce you to Kinsella's alter ego, Madeleine Wickham. Both personas write about English women who have found themselves in a predicament. Whether it be money (Shopaholic series), quitting a job and winding up in the country (Undomestic Goddess), or having a marriage from ten years ago come back and haunt her (Wickham's newest novel), women in all of the novels have an obstacle to overcome. The difference, however, is the slapstick humor that can be found in Kinsella's books. When she writes under the alter ego of Wickham, Sophie Kinsella approaches subjects more seriously and tackles some difficult issues.

In the newest book by Wickham, The Wedding Girl, Milly Havill is just four days from marrying the man of her dreams. It seems, however, that Milly has a secret that she has been hiding for ten years and the secret is threatened to be revealed by her wedding photographer. When she was 18, Milly married an American student to allow him to stay in England with his partner. Thinking no one would ever find out, Milly continues to live her life for the next ten years. A few days before her wedding, however, the photographer shows up to take her picture, and Milly discovers it is the same young man that snapped a shot of her first wedding on the courthouse steps.

Milly's story is just one of the storylines in The Wedding Girl. Each character has issues that he or she is struggling to resolve. While there are multiple storylines occurring in this novel, Wickham manages to keep the reader invested in all the characters. It isn't her strongest, or funniest, but for fans of Kinsella or Wickham, it will be another good read.

Bobby and Jackie: A Love Story

KickinLibrarian@evpl — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 20:01:00 GMT

I can't remember a time when I wasn't fascinated with the story of America's Camelot. My bookshelves are lined with books about the Kennedys- biographies, essays, coffee table books, even old newspaper articles my grandma has given me. What is it about this family that intrigues so many people?

While JFK is a unique person to read about, I always enjoyed reading more about his younger brother, Robert Kennedy. I have the impression of a younger, smaller brother always running to catch up with his older siblings, but Robert Kennedy was an intelligent man that many Americans looked towards to change the U.S. in the 1968 election.

C. David Heymann has written many biographies about the Kennedy family, and his newest book looks into the relationship Bobby Kennedy had with his famous sister-in-law, Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy. With research to back up his theories, Heymann writes about how the relationship between the two grew to a more intimate one after the assassination of JFK. The affair only ended when Bobby began to run in the presidential election.

It is stated that the relationship between Bobby and Jackie was well-known through the family and friends of the Kennedys, and it was definitely new to this amateur Kennedy researcher. The information and documentation backing up Heymann's claim is hard to ignore, and once again the Kennedys managed to shock me with another affair!

Who Is Mark Twain? by Mark Twain

Bufkinite@evpl — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 19:59:00 GMT

When he died in 1910, Samuel Langhorne Clemens - better known by the nom de plume Mark Twain - left behind the largest trove of literary papers of any nineteenth-century American author. Included were letters diaries, travelogues, a huge autobiography, notebooks, literary manuscripts, "easily half a million pages."

Drawn from this cornucopia of material, Who Is Mark Twain? is a new collection of 24 previously unpublished pieces. It contains some materials which end without resolution, and others which give the appearance (in reading) of being early drafts. Nevertheless, the collection on the whole is vintage Twain: funny, irreverent, caustic, and acerbic. Acerbic, that is, to the point where Twain believed that they could not be published while he himself lived. Take, as an example, extended excerpts from the first paragraph of the chapter entitled "The Privilege of the Grave:"

"Its occupant has one privilege which is not exercised by any living person: free speech. The living man is not really without this privilege - strictly speaking - but as he possesses it merely as an empty formality, and knows better than to make use of it, it cannot be seriously regarded as an actual possession. As an active privilege, it ranks with the privilege of committing murder: we may exercise it if we are willing to take the consequences. Murder is forbidden both in form and in fact; free speech is granted in form but forbidden in fact... Murder is sometimes punished, free speech always - when committed. Which is seldom... An unpopular opinion concerning politics or religion lies concealed in the *** of every man... There is not one individual - including the reader and myself - who is not the possessor of dear and cherished unpopular convictions which common wisdom forbids him to utter."

Anyone who has read "Letters From the Earth" (also published posthumously) will recognize the same writer in the chapter "Conversations With Satan," and "The Missionary in World Politics." Those who know that Twain was a newspaperman at one time in his life (writing for a Keokuk, Iowa newspaper under the name Thomas Jefferson Snodgrass) will enjoy the irony of "The Force of 'Suggestion.'" There is something here for everyone, always entertaining, very well written, and backed by forceful (if not always endearing) thought.

I loved it!

Other books by Mark Twain in the EVPL collections

Purchase this book at Amazon.com benefitting the Friends of EVPL

The Book of William: How Shakespeare's First Folio Conquered the World

Bufkinite@evpl — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 21:34:00 GMT

Paul Collins writes in a convivial and breezy style, and is the kind of natural storyteller who brings history to life. Nevertheless, in The Book of William, his scholarship and authority are undeniable, and make this book an important entry point for those interested in learning more about Shakespeare.

This telling of the "life story" of what became known as the First Folio of Shakespeare (though the book's title, according to commonly accepted cataloging rules would be Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies) is, quite simply wonderfully done.

Written in five "Acts" subdivided into scenes, it takes the reader from the day in 1617 or 1618 that John Heminge and Henry Condell - two aging men who had actually worked with Shakespeare - approached the printer William Jaggard with the idea of publishing all the known works of the Bard, to 2006 in Meisei University in Tokyo, home of the largest university collection of First Folios in the world; 12 of them, "more than the British Library and the New York Public Library combined."

In between we are introduced to such well-known characters as Alexander Pope and Dr. Samuel Johnson, and a host of lesser-known but nevertheless interesting characters as: Dr. Anthony James West, who conducted a recent worldwide census of First Folios (locating a record 230 copies); Henry Clay Folger, collector extraordinaire and founder of the Folger Shakespeare Library (which owns an astounding 79 copies of the First Folio); Charlton Hinman, inventor of the Hinman collator; and Mitsuo Kodama, past president of Meisei University, and the only reason why Meisei University has so many First Folios.

Spanning three continents and nearly four centuries, this book is a delightful look at the one book that routinely sells for fifty-five times its weight in gold.

Link to the Shakespeare Folio Electronic Library at Meisei University.
Purchase a facsimile of the First Folio from Amazon, and benefit the Public Library Friends.

Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict

KickinLibrarian@evpl — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 16:07:00 GMT

I am a bit of a Jane Austen fan. Sometimes I just need to pull Pride and Prejudice off my shelf and curl up with Mr. Darcy. It seems that I am not the only person with a fondness for Jane Austen and her fabulous stories. In the past few years there has been an influx of spin-offs, remakes, and sequels. The latest has been the introduction of zombies to Pemberley. I am not quite sure how Ms. Austen would feel about that...

Some of my favorite additions to the number of Austen fanfics being written are by Laurie Viera Rigler. Her first in the series, Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict, was published in 2007 and features modern-day Courtney Stone who wakes up in nineteenth-century England. Courtney has left behind her L.A. life of a broken engagement and lost friendship to inhabit the body and life of Jane Mansfield. Courtney has little time to figure out how she ended up two hundred years in the past before she is swept away in an Austen-like land full of dinners, balls, and beaus. One man in particular, Charles Edgeworth, seems to have interest in Jane Mansfield, but Courtney doesn’t know what the means to her. Courtney struggles has her two lives mesh together and she wonders if she will ever go back to her own life. Jane Austen even has a cameo in this addition to Austen-lit.

Rigler's latest novel, Rude Awakenings of a Jane Austen Addict, introduces us to the real Jane Mansfield from the previous novel. It seems when Courtney took over Jane's life in 1800s England, Jane had been thrown into modern-day L.A. Jane awakens one morning to a pounding headache and someone at the door. It seems Courtney (whose body Jane now inhabits) has had a bit of a rough time lately, and her friends are worried about her. Jane struggles to adapt to the 21st century while figuring out who the strangers are that keep jetting her around in fast-moving carriages, why men and women are allowed to dine together in outdoor bistros, and how the music keeps coming out of the tiny picture frame with buttons.

In both novels, Rigler takes us to the world of Jane Austen while maintaining a firm foothold in the present-day. We get to experience the daily things we take for granted while Jane humorously tries them for the first time. Both books are highly recommended.