Search results matching tags 'reviews' and 'nonfiction'

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.

Remarkable Story of an Owl and His Girl

wag.mado@evpl — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 18:13:00 GMT

Yes, that's the subtitle of the book I just finished. Wesley the Owl is a must for anyone who has ever been in love with an animal. The story is written by Stacey O'Brien, who was a lab assistant at Cal Tech when she adopted a 4-day-old barn owl after he suffered permanent nerve damage and could not survive in the wild.

The story, which spans close to 20 years, is filled with fascinating anecdotes of the relationship that developed between these two sentient beings. O'Brien's education as a biologist helps the reader understand many interesting facts about barn owls, but that does not keep her from falling deeply in love with Wesley. The story has a deeper meaning which is about unconditional love and commitment and is referred to many times in the book as "the way of the owl."

I found this memoir humorous, heartwarming, educational, compassionate, and I had a hard time putting it down. I'll never think of barn owls the same again.

A day after finishing the book, I tuned in to Oprah where she featured a man whose best friend is a Grizzly Bear. That segment was followed by a friendship between an elephant and a dog at the Elephant Sanctuary in Hohenwald Tennessee -- the same place where Evansville's beloved "Bunny" lived out her last few years. Must have been my week for animal relationship stories!

My Land is Dying, by Harry Caudill

Bufkinite@evpl — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 01:38:00 GMT

Why review a 38 year old book? When I spotted this book, I remembered the name Harry Caudill because of his book Night Comes to the Cumberlands. I read that book after reading a chapter about Harry Caudill in a book of essays by Wendell Berry called What Are People For?

Now, I've been an admirer of Wendell Berry for years, and enjoy his writing - and his thoughts - immensely. Like Berry, Caudill (1922-1990) was a person who willingly tied his life to a place - the Kentucky Cumberlands - and he spent his life living and working in that place, and protecting what he found valuable in it. What he found valuable, it turns out, was the landscape, the people, and the culture that the two - put together - formed.

Published in 1971, My Land is Dying is a detailing of the history the exploitation of the Cumberlands' resources - first the virgin forest that blanketed the region, later the coal, and always the people. He details how the collusion of state government with business interests first disenfranchised, then impoverished, and finally drove from the land the vast majority of the inhabitants of the land. Caudill knows what he's talking about; he was a lawyer, and a good one. But he defended the defenseless, and saw time & again how victories at the local level would be reversed by higher level courts in the capital of Frankfort. His narrative of this slow, inexorable death is accompanied by pictures that show the devastation, and he spends time talking about people. Not in the abstract, but real folks with real names, like the widow Ollie Combs, who was arrested on her own land when she delayed miners by laying down in front of bulldozers.

Written 38 years ago, this book's message should be read more urgently today, both because the stakes are higher, and the truths that it speaks are undiminished: "No nation was ever more abundantly endowed with natural beauty than ours. Yet it is clear from this continuing record that no nation has been more heedless of its legacy. And no chapter of that record is uglier or more threatening than the chapter that continues to be written by the mining interests, whether below or on the surface of the land."

This book may be old, but it deserves to be widely read.

"Zen and Now: on the Trail of Robert Pirsig and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" by Mark Richardson

MediaPhile@evpl — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 03:23:00 GMT

No, you aren't seeing double. The cover of this biographical travelogue features an out-of-focus motorcyle.

I was in grad school in 1974 when "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" was published. I never read it or its British precursor, "Zen in the Art of Archery" -- I wasn't a big fan of either Zen OR motorcycle maintenance. Starting small, sales of the book grew by word of mouth, eventually totalling in the millions, with translation into 27 languages. It became a sort of cult classic with philosophers as well as the counter-culture.

Fast forward 30+ years, and a motorcyle enthusiast and sports writer named Mark Richardson has reproduced Robert Pirsig's 17-day motorcycle trip from Minneapolis to San Francisco. Pirsig, travelling with his young son Chris and a married couple, had roughed it -- camping every evening. Richardson, armed with GPS and a laptop, did the trip alone and stayed in cheap motels.

Richardson cleverly intersperses his narrative of his own trip with biographical information about Pirsig. Pirsig, who claimed an IQ of 170, had degrees and both science and philosophy. He taught at several colleges, but constantly rankled adminstrators with his refusal to follow the institutional rules. He was eventually diagnosed as a schizophrenic and endured a series of shock treatments, which he later claimed destroyed a large chunk of his personality.

Pirsig returned to his wife and two sons and took a job as a writer of technical manuals. He had earlier flown small planes, but now become a motorcyclist. He found he loved not only the open road, but also the connectedness that resulted from maintaining his own bike. Hence his cross-country trip and the book of philosophical ruminations that resulted. Publication brought financial independence, including an ocean-going yacht, but not peace. Both sons had their own problems, as did his marriage. And his second book, "Lila," was a relative flop.

I was intrigued enough by this book to attempt to read "Zen and the Art of Motocycle Maintenance," but I must admit that I only made it through about the first 75 pages. I guess I find Pirsig's story more interesting than his thoughts.

"Hoosiers in Hollywood" by David L. Smith

MediaPhile@evpl — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 01:08:00 GMT

David Smith, professor emeritus of telecommunications at Ball State University, wrote this coffee-table tome about Hoosiers who found fame in Hollywood. Here are some you may or may not know about:

Alice Terry (born on a farm near Vincennes, she was a silent film star)
Clifton Webb (born in Indianapolis, he made his opera debut in Tosca at the Boston Opera House at age 17)
Red Skelton (grew up in a poor section of Vincennes called "Oklahoma," in the north end of town)
William Marshall (born in Gary, he starred in the movie Blacula)
Steve McQueen (born in Beech Grove as "an unwanted child who was virtually abandoned by his teen mother")
James Dean (born in Marion and given the first name of his attending physician)
Fred Williamson (born in Gary, he graduated from Northwestern in architecture, was drafted by the NFL, and played in Super Bowl 1 - he later directed or starred in 40 films)
Greg Kinnear (born in Logansport and lived there until he was nine)
Marilyn Miller (born in Evansville in 1898, she became the "Queen of Musical Comedy")
Louise Dresser (born in Evansville in 1878, Dresser lived here until her teens and went on to star in both Vaudeville and silent films)
Carole Lombard (born in Fort Wayne, her family moved to San Francisco when she was six)
Marjorie Main (born near the small town of Acton in 1890, her most famous role was "Ma Kettle")
Anne Baxter (born in Michigan City, she was the granddaughter of Frank Lloyd Wright)
Betsy Palmer (lived in Hammond and East Chicago, then attended secretarial school, followed by the IU extension in Gary before becoming a theatre major at DePaul U in Chicago)
Florence Henderson (the youngest of 10 children born to a poor farming family in Dale)
Shelley Long (born and raised in Fort Wayne; both parents were school teachers)
Vivica Fox (born in Indianapolis, she graduated from Arlington High School and later found fame as an actress and singer)
Richard, Barbara, Constance, Joan Bennett (Richard, who grew up in Bennett's Switch, near Logansport, became an actor and producer and father to three actresses)
Jackson Five (born and raised in Gary)
Elmo Lincoln (born in Rochester and the first Tarzan -- in the 1918 Tarzan of the Apes)
Buck Jones (born in Vincennes, he grew up in Indianapolis and later became a leading movie cowboy)
Roberta Wise (born and raised in Connorsville, he later directed Citizen Kane and many other movies)
Sydney Pollack (born in Lafayette, he moved to South Bend while in elementary school)

Many many more Hoosiers are covered in this heavily illustrated compendium.

Is it "Hot" in here, or is it just me?

myzticrhythmz@evpl — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 16:25:00 GMT

Back in the late 1970s and early 1980s, when gasoline prices rose from under eighty cents to the staggering price of $1.40 a gallon, the United States government implemented measures to reduce oil imports and improve energy efficiency.

Flash forward twenty-plus years. Larger vehicles are again the norm, gas prices top $4.00 a gallon, and development and consumption across the world are rampant. The environment is more at risk than ever. What to do?

Enter New York Times columnist and Pulitzer-Prize-winning author Thomas Friedman, and his latest book, Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution, and How It Can Renew America.

Hot, flat & crowded are concepts that are, individually, not new. "Hot" refers to global warming, an issue that has become increasingly, well, hot, recently, especially during the last election. "Flat" is an idea presented by Mr. Friedman in his previous bestseller, The World is Flat, and represents the level economic playing field and globalization. "Crowded" indicates humanity's continued growth & expansion, and its negative effects on biodiversity and the world's limited resources.

Friedman's solution to "hot" & "crowded" is to utilize the U.S. (& potentially global) markets. He suggests a competition, largely enforced by government regulation and taxing, to stimulate the U.S. to become more green than China. The goals here are two-fold: to reduce dependence on foreign oil, thereby depriving "petrodictators" and potential terrorists a livelihood; and to help preserve Earth's ecosystems and resources and, thereby, ourselves.

I listened to the abridged audio version of this book and would probably recommend reading Hot, Flat, and Crowded instead. With so many concepts and so much information, you'll want to take your time with it.

And let us know what you think!

Obama in photos

MediaPhile@evpl — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 05:06:00 GMT

Two brand new collections of Obama photos were released to coincide with the election.

"The Rise of Barack Obama" is a memorable collection of black and white photos taken by an Award winning photographer who covered Obama for the "Chicago Tribune." Souza's photos start with Obama's U.S. Senate election and run through the heated 2008 primary election.

Some of the most touching photos include the President-elect at Nelson Mandela's former prison cell in South Africa; sharing a laugh with fellow senators John Kerry, Chris Dodd, Joe Biden, and Bill Nelson; examining dismantled weapons with Dick Lugar in Russia; and getting a hug from Ethel Kennedy.

"Obama: the Historic Campaign in Photos" is a collection of both color and black and white photos, connected with an ongoing narrative of the campaign.

Both would make worthwhile collector's items. If you buy them on Amazon.com using the Public Library Friends referral link, you can also help out the Library Friends. Follow these links:

"Against Medical Advice" by James Patterson

MediaPhile@evpl — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 20:09:00 GMT

Having published over 50 novels -- with sales worldwide of more than 140 million copies, James Patterson has just released his second non-fiction title, "Against Medical Advice: One Family's Struggle with an Agonizing Medical Condidtion." His first non-fiction work, "The Day America Told the Truth," was published in 1991.

His co-writer is good friend and former advertising colleague Hal Friedman, whose 4-year-old son woke up one morning with symptoms of Tourette's Syndrome.

Read the USA Today review. Or go to the Tourette Syndrome Association website for more information on this insidious illness whose treatment can be worse than the disease itself.

"sTORI Telling" by Tori Spelling

librarianinheels@evpl — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 14:41:00 GMT

Tori Spelling is the daughter of Aaron Spelling - the famous, super-rich producer of classic cheeseball TV hits like Charlie's Angels, Fantasy Island, The Love Boat, Dynasty, and Melrose Place, to name a few. In 2006, Spelling died, and his daughter Tori learned of her father's death via text message. Tabloids reported that Tori, who had recently divorced her husband of less than two years and married another man about six months later, had been virtually cut out of her father's $500 million dollar estate - her mother, Candy, received the bulk of it, while Tori and her brother Randy each received just $800,000.

In the last two years, Tori Spelling has married the love of her life, given birth to two children, co-written a book about her life, and starred in a reality show with her husband, Dean McDermott, entitled "Tori and Dean: Inn Love". One might say that Tori's making a concerted effort to continue living in the style to which she is accustomed. For that, she deserves at least some kudos...she's nothing if not resourceful.

Still, it's kind of hard for me to believe that Tori Spelling, of all people, has spent her whole life just longing to be "normal" - which is what she asserts in her recent autobiography, sTORI Telling. Even though she was given hand-delivered white Christmases in her Beverly Hills backyard, received a champagne-colored BMV convertible for her 16th birthday (when all she really wanted was a VW convertible) and was thrown a $1 million wedding - all Tori Spelling has ever wanted is to just be "normal". Finding some kind of "normal" seems to be the theme of the book. By the end, Tori seems to come to terms with her own version of "normal" and it's just difficult to not like her for that.

This book was an easy, somewhat juicy, but ultimately unsatisfying read. Tori briefly delves into the interworkings of the troubled cast relationships on 'Beverly Hills, 90210' ~ the show that made her famous ~ but not with enough detail for me. She spends a lot of time discussing her many dysfunctional personal relationships, most notably the one with her mother - who, if you believe all that Tori lays out, must be a real piece of work. sTORI Telling is OK - but I'm sure the tell-all that comes out in 30 or 40 more years will be much more interesting. Tori just hasn't lived long enough or, simply, enough to do much storytelling....YET.

There's not much else to say about sTORI Telling - it is just what you would expect it to be - fluffly, lacking substance, but it still keeps your attention - if only so you can find out what kind of weird thing Tori's mother will do next. (Spoiler alert: they make up, but Tori still doesn't get any more money from her dad's estate.) If you're looking for a quick, entertaining read, pick up sTORI Telling.

"Fugitive Denim": Casual Day from a Global Perspective

Bufkinite@evpl — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 20:27:00 GMT

A world-renowned fashion designer starts out to make a "green" line of denim wear, using organic cotton, paying living wages to the growers, cutters, and seamstresses who all have a hand in bringing the product to market. Can it be done?

To answer that question author Rachel Louise Snyder travels everywhere from Azerbaijan to Guatemala and many places between examining the history and current state of the place of cotton in world culture.

While her writing isn't as incisive as John McPhee's, the style of the book reminds me of McPhee's because she approaches her subject most successfully by introducing us to the people whose lives are wrapped up in it. There's Rogan Gregory, the fashion designer with the dream of greening a very dirty and exploitative industry; Mehman Husseinov, the Azerbaijani cotton grader who can tell by feel what kind of quality cotton he's holding; and a host of others all made fully human through Snyder's deft narrative.

The facts about cotton - well footnoted, incidentally - never cease to inform and surprise. For instance, did you know that a foot of cotton thread may contain cotton fibers from as many as seven or eight different countries? No, neither did I.

You'll never think the same way about buying and wearing blue jeans again, and will come away with a new appreciation of the dumbfounding complexity of the global economy.

Click here to open a new window allowing you to purchase this title from Amazon to benefit the Public Library Friends.
Click here to see the catalog record for this book - also in a new window.